[Inspiration]: "...and Allah zapped his heart.."

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim..Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh..

"Everybody needs inspiration". That is not just a Miley Cyrus' lyrics, it is a universal fact. If you fall, you need someone to get you up. If you are too high in the sky like Icarus who burnt his waxed shoes, you need someone to remind you about the ground. Everybody needs an inspiration, and the best comes from Allah subhanahu wataala.

I was in the cold University of Malaya library, engrossed in an autobiography of a great figure who I adored, Ahmed Deedat. The book "Ahmed Deedat: The Man and His Mission" elaborated every moment of Shaykh's ups and downs with vivid and precise detail. Made me smile with the Syeikh's humor and made me frown too, from his obstinate and fortitude character. I reached the final pages of the remarkable book, when Masya-Allah, I came across a chapter titled "More Persuasion". Without any further delay, I read the chapter with great interest and I was moved.

The chapter was exclusive to recall back the stories of reverts who reverted back to Allah directly under Deedat's help.

I was stunned.
I was moved.
I was touched.
And, I cried.

I cried for the beauty of their stories.
I cried for the remarkable course of life Allah set upon them.
I cried because "Why I can't be like them?".

Their perseverance.
Their adventure.
Their imaaan.

Yet, they are new reverts and here I am, 17 and 18 years in Islam with no close experience with Allah.

What is my problem? What is OUR problem?

This is the story of Yakub Cunningham..

Jamaluddin, which translates roughly into "The Beauty of Faith", was born Yakub Cunningham in northern England in 1942 to a Roman Catholic father, John and a Jewish mother, Kathrina. As a child, Yakub attended Yeshiva classes at the local synagogue (Jewish place of worship), but, when he dropped off there, he would invariably visit the Roman Catholic Church on the opposite side of the road. There was "something about the church that fascinated me..the kindness of nuns and priests especially". When Yakub was eleven, his twin brother Raymond died of leukaemia. A few months later, Yakub converted to Roman Catholicism. His father, joh Cunningham, was a diplomat in the Foreign Service and served in such India, Egypt, Venezuela, and Zanzibar. Yakub and his siblings would visit their parents during school vacations. A gifted student, Yakub matriculated at 14, and although a bright future lay ahead of him in the secular field, he opted "to work in the vineyard of Christ".

Yakub applied to join the Dominican Order of Catholic priests, but as a tertiery degree was a prerequisite for their rigorous training, his father suggested that he study law in case he priesthood di not "agree" with him. he completed a degree at Cambridge University at the age of 17 but he was below the legal age to be awarded the degree and had to wait a year to graduate. He then enrolled at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, which is one of the major pontifical universities in Rome. His six--year training for the priesthood culminated in his ordiination in 1969. Shortly thereafter he was sent to South Africa by Pope Paul VI to select a black priest to lead the Roman Catholic Church in South Africa. Yakub interviewed prospective priests and settled on the three names, one fo whom, Wilfred Napier, eventually became a cardinal and head of the Catholic Church in south Africa.

While studying in Rome, Yakub had made friends with a student who was studying to be a priest at the seminary in Cedara, near Oietermaritzburg. He had informed his friend of his impending arrival in South Africa, and was surprised when the friend did not meet him at the airport. He  visited Cedara and discovered that the student had left the church. Yakub went to the man's house but he refused to meet Yakub. Spoken through the window, the man said;

"We cannot be friends. I am not a Catholic any longer"
"What are you? An Anglican?Methodist?What?Tellme."
"A believer. A Muslim"
"Good God. A heathen. Why?"
"Ahmed Deedat"

Yakub then visited Archbbishop Denis Harley and asked, "Who is this Ahmed Deedat?". There was a deadly silence. You can hear even a pin dropped to the floor. "Do not meet him", the Archbishop instructed. Yakub met Ahmed Deedat and debated. Yakub described the debate as "devastating. You had to be made of iron to survive him".

Yakub then had to learn Arabic and Islam so he could use this knowledge to convert Muslim to Christianity. The more he learned Islam, the more Yakub losing his faith in Catholicism "until, finally, you might say..I got zapped by Allah..I couldn;t eat, sleep, stand, think. It was a horrific time".

In November 1970, Yakub had to return to Rome. But before he left for Rome, he accepted Deedat's offer to visit him at the as-Salaam Institute. Deedat used this oppurtinity very wisely. They reached As-Salaam just nice when the adhan for the Zuhur were given, and Deedat asked him whether he had take wudhu' or not.

Yakub said, "What for? I am Catholic."
"Do you love Jesus?," Deedat asked.
"Yes".

"Then, how come you do not make wudhu like Jesus?". Deedat then reminded him that the Bible stated that Jesus fell on his feed and prayed to God.

Jamaluddin said, "in the sujud, I began to cry uncontrollably. I knew that that was how I wanted to pray all this long.."

Deedat did not say any word."he dropped me off at the Archbishop's house and went home". I waited until he reached home and called him.

"How one become a Muslim?", I asked.
"Are you interested?," he asked.
"No, just curious," I said.

That evening, Yakub offered a prayer without knowimng where the qiblat wa, what to read, or how many rakaats he had to pray;

"I had no idea what was I saying but I loved it"

Before Yakub went back to Rome he met Deedat.

"I want to be a Muslim".
An angry Deedat raused his voice, "I told you to return to Rome and write to me.".

Yakub said, "Fine. I will do that, but what if I die today? Wil I die as a Muslim of Christian?'.

At this. Deedat's expression changed. He took Yakub's hands, bought him some clothes from a Mawlana store and Yakub attended his first solat jumaat. After the prayer, Deedat asked him,

"Where you want to go?'
"Lunch."
"You can't. You are fasting".
 "Do Muslims fast on Friday?"
"No, but it is Ramadhan" (the Syakh was joking)

Yakub informed the Archbishop about his reversion to Islam, and the Archbishop wrote to the newspaper, stating him as "a blasphemer" while his sister, whom he knew as a very devout Catholic appealed to the Church to ban him, her own brother.

"It is sad..the heavy price reverts have to pay in terms of their family. I lost mine".

Yet, his father accepted the syahadah just before his death. Then, he felt empty.

Yakub soon changed his name to Jamaludin and settled in Vancouver. His story of marriage is remarkable. For a few weeks he saw a women on the train and fell in love with her. One day, on a whim, he followed her home and rang the doorbell.

"What do you want?", she asked.
"To marry you," Jamaludin replied.
"But you don't know me'
" I have a lifetime to do that".

He went inside and found out that they were Jewish. He said,"No problem".  The mother was very impressed and asked him to return the following day. Jamaludin rushed off to the mosque and asked Imam Abdul Rahman to perform the nikah after jum'a. The Imam asked, "What is the name of your bride?" He replied,

"I don't know. I'll tell you tomorrow".

He learnt that her name was Peta Lonberg. She had an MBA degree, was a lecturer in business administration, and a national skier. Tragically fo Jamaluddin, Peta, his five-year-oled daughter natasha and his brother-in-law were killed in a car accident.

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Learning and reading about their stories really moved many hearts. They persevered in many tribulation and yet cling to Imaan. The big question is, we who were born in Islam, can we stand such trials in life? The grotesque pattern now is the East raced to murtad but the West, they are rushing to buy their tickets of salvation by Islam!..