Adeel Malik
His name is Graham Lawrence.
The New Zealander was born into a Christian household but then he turned to being an Agnostic person due to his doubt of the Christian teaching.
What he learnt about the Ten Commandments failed his faith in Christianity as he saw in his church there’s so many people not really practicing the religion.
Western lifestyle also brought him away from religious way of life, yet he still believed about the existence of “The Creator”.
He is been staying in Indonesia for past 20 years and he experienced a peaceful life with fellow Muslims, until eventually a group of Muslim Daees (callers to Islam) met him last week and had a good talk about Tawheed (Belief and worship the Oneness of Allah). Here is what he said to the different questions posed to him.
1. What made him certain that Islam is the truth?
The Qur’an. He said when he read Surah al-Fatihah, Surah al Baraqah verses 2-10 and Surah al-Imran verses 42-54.
He mumbled:
“…What powerful stuff is all of this.”
Then he started to say that most of his life he had never really been thinking of the truth. He only believed in the notion that if someone does good he’ll harvest goodness. If bad things are done, it will bring other bad things to come forth.
So, undoubtedly the Book of Allah, Al-Quran is the true guidance which brought him into a better understanding and belief.
2. What doubts did he have about the Christian faith?
He did not ‘really’ believe in the Christian faith since he knew the fact that the Bible has kept changing and there’s no original non-tampered Godly text there.
Also, he somehow had this innate belief that Jesus (peace be upon him) couldn’t have been God or a divine being or God in Flesh. God the Creator is One and Only who only sent His Messengers among humans.
Therefore he had already believed that Jesus (peace be upon him) is a messenger of God.
3. What’s his plans for the future since becoming a Muslim?
He is willing to learn more, understand more and practice Islam as his way of life upon the straight path.
He feels a better understanding would bring a stronger belief and his level of faith would be strengthened. Graham said:
“This strong belief would surely drive a person to practice Islam willingly.”
