Priests, pastors and religious Scholars Who Embraced Islam
When I began collecting stories of priests and religious figures who had converted to Islam in 2006, I could list more than 20 cases of conversion. However, the documentation was weak, and I had trouble finding visual attestations.
Today, access to information is more manageable, and I’ve been able to find an infinite number of stories, so I’ve collected a few on this page, taking care to choose those that are best documented (video, identities, etc.) on the list is by no means exhaustive.
What these priests, monks, deacons, rabbis, and religious figures have in common is that their conversion always comes after long reflection and in-depth study of the Bible. Because of their knowledge, many of them become Muslim preachers, calling people to Islam.
What also struck me about these stories is what these people were able to sacrifice for Islam. It’s not easy to leave a high status to join a new community, and the extent of the problems encountered depends on the community in which one lives.
By reading these stories, you will notice that the most dramatic stories take place among the Christians of the East because contrary to the Steam of the media, which makes believe that the Christians are oppressed in the ground of Islam, the actual oppression is lived by the Christians who decide to become Moslem, they see themselves rejected by their community, by their families, and sometimes undergo attempts of assassination and sometimes without any assistance of their Muslim fellow-citizens. This has not turned them away from the religion of Allah, and we pray that they may be among those of whom God says:
David Benjamin Keldani: Chaldean Catholic priest ( 1867-1940 )
David Benjamin, Chaldean or Dawud Benyamin Keldani (1867 – c.1940) was a Chaldean Catholic priest who converted to Islam and adopted the name Abd ul-Aḥad Dāwūd (Arabic: عبد الأحد داود).
He was born and raised in Orumieh, Persia, in 1867. Between 1886 and 1889, he was a teaching staff member of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s mission to the Assyrian Christians of Orumieh. In 1892, Cardinal Vaughan sent him to Rome, where he studied philosophy and theology at Propaganda Fide College and was ordained priest in 1895.
His conversion to Islam occurred after a long journey and exploration of the scriptures. His readings led him from Catholicism to the Unitarian faith and finally to embrace Islam.
In the summer of 1900, he retired to his modest villa amid vineyards near the Chali-Boulaghi fountain in Digala, where he spent a month in prayer and meditation, reading and re-reading the Scriptures in their original versions. Eventually, he tendered his resignation from the priesthood. In 1903, he visited England and joined the Unitarian community. Then, in 1904, he was sent by the British and Foreign Unitarian Association to preach and educate among his people. En route to Persia, he visited Constantinople, and after several meetings with Sheikoul-islam Jemalouddine Effendi and other scholars, he embraced Islam.
He wrote a book entitled “Muhammed(ﷺ) in the Bible” in which he demonstrated that the Bible foretold the coming of the Prophet Muhammed(ﷺ):
“From the day God revealed Himself to Abraham in Ur of Chaldea until the Creed and Acts of the Council of Nicaea were proclaimed and enforced by an imperial edict of Constantine amidst the horror and protests of three-quarters of true believers in 325 AD, never has the Oneness of God been so officially and openly profaned by those who claimed to be His people as it was with Constantine and his band of unbelieving ecclesiastics!
Muhammad in World Scriptures (Volume II): The Bible (1928), p. 58
He also said:
I must remind the Christians that unless they believe in the absolute unity of God, and renounce the belief in the three persons, they are certainly unbelievers in the true God … The Old Testament and the Qur’an condemn the doctrine of three persons in God; the New Testament does not expressly hold or defend it, but even if it contains hints and traces concerning the Trinity, it is no authority at all, because it was neither seen nor written by Christ himself, nor in the language he spoke, nor did it exist in its present form and contents for – at least – the first two centuries after him.
To read the full story of his conversion
Gould David: Australian Orthodox Christian Priest
Gould’s journey to Islam started when He traveled to Perth to attend his brother-in-law’s funeral. When he booked a hotel, he noticed it was 150 yards from the city’s main mosque.
Walking past the mosque, he felt a call to go and visit it, where he met the imam, who gifted him a copy of the Quran
He said :
For years, I’ve had a Quran on my bookshelf. I barely touched it, but this time, I went back to my hotel, and you know, I prostrated and asked God, you know, show me the absolute Truth, show me whether Islam is true or false, whether Christianity is right or wrong, whether Orthodox Christianity is right or wrong and I prayed for some time on my knees
Returning to Tasmania, he wrote a letter to his Bishop announcing that he had accepted Islam and pronounced the shahada.
“I declared shahada in that letter to the bishop that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad (PBUH) is his last messenger, that this is the final message, and that I had no choice but to obey it,” he said.
“So, alhamdulillah, I contacted the Imam in Perth uh and took Shahara over the telephone uh, and then that was on a Wednesday, and then on the Friday, I went to Jumuah at the masjid in Hobart and so took shahada in front of the community.”
“I could not ignore the Quran; I could not ignore the truth that God is not three, God is one, that God has no son, and that his final message was the message that all of us all Christians everyone needs to hear that I needed to pray as Jesus prayed to pray as the prophets that were honored prayed and I’ve been at peace with this decision,”
He added :
“There a major comfort to a Christian becoming Muslim and knowing that you are not abandoning Jesus, you’re not abandoning Mary. You’re placing them in the correct relationship with Allah.”
Gould David telling his story on The Deen Show :
Samuel Abu Naṣr ibn Abbas (Ibn Yahyā al-Maghribī al-Samaw’al)(1130 – c. 1180)
Al-Samawʾal ibn Yaḥyā al-Maghribī (Arabic: al-Samau’al ibn Yahya al-Maghribī, Hebrew: שלמה בן יחיא אלמוגרבי; c. 1130 – c. 1180), commonly known as Samau’al al-Maghribi, was a mathematician, astronomer and physician.
He is best known for his work in polynomial algebra and for his treatise al-Bahir fi’l-jabr (Flamboyant Book of Algebra), in which he develops operating techniques on polynomials, extracts square roots, and presents one of the first forms of reasoning by recurrence. He also established the formula for the sum of squares of the first integers .
He was born in Fez in 1130 into a Moroccan Jewish family. His father was a Rabbi. He studied philosophy, mathematics, and medicine, and for study purposes, he traveled to Iraq, Syria, Azerbaijan, and Kohistan.
We know from his writings that he was in Maragheh in Azerbaijan on November 8, 1163, on which date he embraced Islam, taking the name Samau’al Yaḥya al-Maghrabi.
This decision was not taken without much thought on al-Samawal’s part. He went to great lengths to test the validity of the claims of the major religions. He then wrote his famous book : Badhl al-majhūd fī ifḥām al-Yahūd, In this work, al-Samawal details the reasons for his conversion and questions Jewish beliefs. He asserts that the Jews of his time possessed the Torah of Ezra, not that of Moses, and that too many laws had been added by the sages of the Mishnah and Gemara.
He wrote another book, “Answer to Jews and Christians” (غاية المقصود في الرد على النصارى واليهود), in which he discusses Jewish and Christian beliefs.
Adam Neuser,Pasteur protestant Allemand ( 1530-1576)
Adam Neuser (c.1530 – October 12, 1576) was a Protestant pastor from Heidelberg.
Adam Neuser became a member of an anti-Trinitarian cell that included Johann Sylvan, Matthias Vehe-Glirius, Jakob Suter, and Johann Hasler. In 1570, John Sylvan wrote an anti-Trinitarian manifesto entitled “True Christian Confession of the Ancient Faith in the One True God and Messiah Jesus the True Christ, against the idol of Trinity and the false two-natured divinity of the Antichrist.”
Neuser was accused of denying the divinity of Jesus Christ and was consequently imprisoned. His associate, Johann Sylvan, was tortured and beheaded. Neuser confessed but managed to escape from prison. He later converted to Islam and traveled to Istanbul, where he served the Ottoman Sultan.
In his perpetual search for the Truth, he realized Islam was the only religion in line with divine oneness. So, he became a Muslim and tried to reach the lands of Islam. The Heidelberg archives preserve the letter he wrote to the Ottoman Sultan:
I, Adam Neuser, a German-born Christian with the title of preacher to the people of Heidelberg, home to the most educated people in Germany to date, fly to Your Majesty’s refuge with deep submission, begging you for the love of God and your Prophet, may the Peace of God be upon Him, to receive me among your subjects and your people who believe in God. For by the grace of the Omnipotent God, I see, I know and I believe with all my heart that your doctrines and your religion are pure, clear and acceptable to God. […] There is only one God, who has no sons.
Treatises Concerning the Mohametons, A. Reland, pp.215-223
As a Muslim, he died on October 12, 1576, in Istanbul, the Ottoman capital. Read more about Adam Neuser:
Joseph Edward Estes , American missionary and preacher ( 1944- )
Yusuf Estes (born 1944 A.D.) was an American missionary and church preacher until he converted to Islam. His name before his conversion was Joseph Edward Estes or Joseph Estes (in English: Joseph Estes). He was born in the USA and grew up in a Protestant Christian family. He became a preacher and obtained a Master of Arts in 1974 and a Doctorate in Theology.
Yusuf Estes converted to Islam in 1991 after meeting an Egyptian named Mohammed Abderrahman, a business associate of his father. He was seduced by Islam while trying to convert Mohammed to Christianity.
After a series of coincidences, Mohammed and a person named Pete Jacob, a stranger Yusuf Estes had taken in from a homeless shelter, found themselves living with Yusuf Estes for several months. This resulted in daily dinners discussing religion, which lasted for months and eventually led to the conversion of Yusuf Estes’ wife and Pete to Islam.
This turn of events, together with his new-found knowledge of Islam, prompted Yusuf Estes to reconsider and weigh his beliefs about Christianity, particularly the concept of the Trinity, which he considered incoherent and too similar to certain pagan religions. He converted to Islam.
Yusuf Estes said in his conversion story that he, too, had been a victim of misinformation about Islam:
“To be honest, I was a completely devout Christian, and a good little guy from Texas. We hated everything and anything! Especially the “Mozlems”, just like you Westerners are supposed to do here. We were taught that the Mozlems didn’t believe in God, that they worshipped a black box in the desert, that they kissed the ground five times a day. Mozlems? They’re Terrorists! Yes, Terrorists! Kidnappers! Pagans! I hated them ALL!… “
Yusuf Estes
He also said:
I suggest that those seeking the truth follow the nine steps of mind purification:
1.) Free their minds, hearts and souls in good ways.
2.) Free yourself from all prejudices and value judgments.
3.) Read a good translation of the meaning of the Holy Quran in a language they can understand.
4.) Take a little time
5.) Read and reflect.
6.) Think and pray.
7.) Ask the One who created you in the first place to direct you to the truth.
8.) Keep this attitude for a few months. Remain regular in this practice.
9.) And above all, do not let other people who are poisoned in their thinking influence you while you are in the state of “rebirth of the soul. “
Yusuf Estes
Here is Yusuf Estes’ website : https://www.islamtomorrow.com/
French Abbé Jean-Marie Duchemin (1908-1988)(abdulmajid)
Abbé Jean-Marie Duchemin was born in 1908 into a profoundly Catholic, devoutly religious family and was ordained to the priesthood in 1933. He was an outstanding priest in the Sarthe diocese.
During the Second World War, his reputation extended beyond the parish of Bernay-en-Champagne, where he refrained from placing a cross on the graves of two Algerian prisoners shot by the Germans.
The whole diocese heard about the reception he organized in the presence of Cardinal Grente and the Prefect of Sarthe in honor of a parishioner who had just had his twelfth child. The Cardinal, Bishop of Le Mans and academician, had him in mind when the Duchesse des Cars asked him for an “intelligent, cultured priest.”
Shortly before he decided to go public with his conversion to Islam – which was known only to a handful of confidants – he wrote down the reasons that led him to make this choice in a text written in the third person.
Father Abdelmagid Jean-Marie Duchemin died on September 6, 1988, in Casablanca, where he had moved the previous autumn. He is buried in the Sidi Othman cemetery, in the old quarry district on the outskirts of Morocco’s economic capital.
The whole story of his conversion ( in French)
Dr. Wadie Solomon Pierre ( Wadie Ahmed )( 1952 -2018 ) Egyptian Orthodox deacon and physician
Dr. Wadie was an Egyptian doctor and preacher of the Orthodox Church, born in 1952. He became a Muslim in 1992 despite the great difficulties of converting to Islam in the Egyptian Coptic community. He affirms:
“My gratitude to Allah is endless, and that is for the most precious gift he has given me, that of Islam . In today’s world no one worships God in a manner worthy of His grace except Muslims, and I am privileged to be one of them. The journey I took to reach this great destiny was long and weary. I spent 40 years of my life misdirected until I was able to place my foot on the straight path. This is what happened. “
Wadie Ahmed
He has written several books on Christianity and Islam in Arabic:
- Why am I a Muslim?! لماذا أنا مسلم؟!
- What I didn’t know before my Islam from Christian books. مالم أعرفه قبل إسلامي من كتب النصارى
- Speech to call the People of the Book to the religion of God. فصل الخطاب في دعوة أهل الكتاب إلى دين رب
He took part in several television shows and conferences, and a YouTube channel was created to collect his videos after his death in December 2018: https://www.youtube.com/@wadeeahmed
Leif Skjetne, Swedish Pastor
Originally from Oslo, Norway, Leif Skjetne has served the Church of Sweden for over 30 years, including 15 years as pastor at Åkers Church in Skillingaryd in the country’s south. Leif’s destiny changed in 2016.
Ahmed Skjetne says he has been in contact with refugees for most of his life. In 2016, he hosted a young Moroccan migrant in his home, who had refused to be housed in an apartment where other refugees resided. “He was a devout Muslim who prayed five times daily and read the Quran, which inspired me. In 2016, I even did Ramadan.”
In December 2017, when he decided to embrace Islam, Leif became Ahmed. His story was the subject of a documentary, “The Confession,” broadcast on Swedish channel SVT 1 on September 8, 2020. Two journalists, Tomas Blideman and Alex Bolevin, went to meet him in northern Morocco near Tetouan, where he has been living for many years now:
Paul Dennett ( Idris Tawfiq ), English Catholic priest ( 1957-2016)
A Catholic priest who converted to Islam talks about his reasons for changing faith.
Idris Tawfiq was a guest speaker at the University of Cambridge’s annual Experience Islam Week, which aims to raise awareness and promote tolerance. Mr. Tawfiq said :
“It’s not that I came looking for Islam. Islam came looking for me. I loved my old life and work, but now I’ve found a peace I’ve never known before.”
Mr. Tawfiq explained that he decided to leave the priesthood when he realized how lonely he was. “I quit my job, but not the Catholic religion,” he declared. “I had no intention of changing my faith. It wasn’t part of the plan at all; I went and sat in the back and started crying, crying… I asked myself, “Just who are you trying to fool?” After prayer, I went to see Yusuf Islam and asked him to teach me the words that would make me a Muslim.
“After explaining the meaning in English, he had me recite after him in Arabic: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His messenger,” says Idris Tawfiq, holding back tears.
And so his life took a different path. Idris Tawfiq now lives in Egypt and is the author of a book on the principles of the Islamic faith.
Explaining why he entitled his book “Gardens of Delight: a Simple Introduction to Islam,” he points out that everyone repeats that Islam is neither a religion of terrorists nor a religion of hate, but no one takes the trouble to explain precisely what Islam is.
Detailed account of his conversion: https://www.islamreligion.com/fr/articles/586/idris-tawfiq-ex-pretre-catholique-royaume-uni/
At 59 years old, Idris Tawfiq died in 2016. May Allah bless him and grant him Paradise. A Facebook Account in his loving memory
Anselm Turmeda, Catholic priest of Majorca ( 1355-1423 )
Anselm Turmeda (Catalan pronunciation: [ənˈsɛlm tuɾˈmɛðə]), later known as Abd-Allah at-Tarjuman (Arabic: عبد الله الترجمان; 1355-1423), was a Christian priest from Mallorca who converted to Islam and settled in Tunis. He was among the first writers to write in Arabic and Latin (Catalan). He became a vizier under the Hafsite dynasty of Tunis, where he died in 1423 under the reign of Abu Faris Abd al-Aziz II.
He is the author of several books, such as :
- Disputa de l’ase: a medieval novel in Catalan. It’s about a monk and a donkey who debate human superiority over other animals. After a long debate, and entirely by surprise, the donkey wins, so human supremacy cannot be proven.
- Llibre dels bons amonestaments: It consists of 428 poems arranged in three rhyming stanzas followed by one unrhymed stanza. Its preface states it was “composed in Tunis by the monk Anselm Turmeda, also known as Abdalà.” The work was very popular in Catalonia, being called Franselm
He also wrote a work Intended for Christians and partly autobiographical: Tuhfat al-Arib fi al-Radd’ ala ahl al-Salib [English: The Gift to the Intelligent for Refuting the Arguments of the Christians] Arabic: تحفة الأريب في الرد على أهل الصليب
In it, he explains his conversion and questions certain fundamental beliefs of Christianity, such as the Trinity, the writing of the gospels, and Jesus Christ’s divinity.
In his book, he explains that his conversion to Islam was initiated by a discussion he had with his superior:
I said, “In that case, sir, what do you say about the religion of the Christians?” He says: “My son, if these Christians still followed the religion originally handed down by Jesus, then they would be following the religion of God; for the religion of Jesus and all the other prophets is the true religion of God. But they changed it and became disbelievers.” I asked him, “But then, sir, how do we get out of this?” He said to me, “O my son, embrace Islam!”. I asked him, “Will he who embraces Islam be saved?” He said, “Yes: in this world and in the hereafter.”
Anselm Turmeda Tuḥfat al-’adīb fī ar-radd ‘ala ’ahl aṣ-Ṣalīb
American Catholic Priest Hilarion Heagy
In early 2023, social media platforms were shaking to the news of the conversion to Islam of the catholic American priest Hilarion Heagy; Hilarian decided to change his name to Said Abdul Latif.
In this Video about Blogging theology, he tells the story of his conversion :
Samuel Earle Shropshire, pastor turned Muslim preacher
Born in 1948, the founder of MVPR (Muslim Voice for Peace and Reconciliation) is an American citizen, Samuel Earle Shropshire. Former pastor. He holds the equivalent of a doctorate in theology. He has spent his entire life working for non-profit causes. He has worked in human rights and peacemaking, lobbying the US, Canadian and British governments and the United Nations for 35 years. He has relationships with many pastors, priests, monks, congressmen, members of parliament, and other government leaders.
In a video about his conversion, Shropshire said he “had so many questions” and was looking for answers while working on translating the Quran. He was impressed by how the Islamic holy book highly esteems Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. He added that while living in Jeddah, he had been moved by the calls to prayer and the sight of the faithful in a nearby mosque.
“My heart yearned to be in that mosque. I felt compelled by God to go,” he said. Months later, he mustered up the courage to visit the mosque, where he “felt God’s presence,” and gradually learned more about the religion.
He converted to Islam shortly afterward and has been a dedicated Muslim preacher.
Vyacheslav Polosin, Russian Orthodox priest, converted to Islam.
Ali Vyacheslav Polosin (Russian: Али Вячеслав Полосин) is a Russian Muslim academic who converted to Islam in 1999. He is a former priest of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Born in 1956 in Moscow, Russia. Studied philosophy at Moscow State University. Between 1983 and 1999, he served as a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church and was a member of the Russian Parliament between 1990 and 1993.
In 1999, Polosin made a surprising announcement. He and his wife had returned to monotheism and Islam. He branded A significant decision with the Islamic “Ali” in front of his name.
Today, Ali Polosin is an Islamic scholar and expert on interfaith dialogue and Muslim-Christian relations and is currently Director of the Moscow-based Al Wasatiya Center for Interfaith Dialogue.
Mohammad Fouad Al Hachimi, Preacher Of The Orthodox Church Of Egypt
He was born to Christian parents in Egypt, who instilled in him a love for Christianity so that he could engage with other Christians, but he began to think and argue, and he had doubts that ignited the fire of anguish within him. This prompted him to seek Truth and sound religion.
He describes what he saw in the Islamic religion: “I found for every question a satisfactory answer, which could not be obtained by any previous religion, whether from the divine religions or from any of the philosophical principles. I found that what they claimed in Islam were defects are merits, and what they thought were contradictions are wisdom and rules and laws for those who reflect… and that what they blamed on Islam was a remedy for humanity, which had long lived in darkness until Islam brought it out of darkness into light.
After that, Muhammad Fu’ad Al-Hashemi declared his conversion to Islam.
After his conversion, Muhammad Fu’ad al-Hashemi did many things to serve Islam; he wrote several books, including :
- Religions on the scales الأديان في كفة الميزان
- The secret of my conversion. Why did I choose Islam as my religion?n » سر إسلامي.. لماذا اخترت الإسلام دينًا
- A prophet, No lie. « النبي لا كذب« ،
- Dialogue between a Christian and a Muslim « حوار بين مسيحي ومسلم«.
Isaac Hilal Messie ( Pretre Othodox Egyptien )
Pastor of the Church of Christian Example and Honorary President of the Egyptian Associations for the Salvation of Souls in Africa and West Asia. Born: 5/5/1953 – Minya – Arab Republic of Egypt. He was born in the village of Al-Bayadiyah, in the governorate of Minya, to Orthodox Christian parents who – when we were young – cultivated in us a hatred of Islam and Muslims. He tells the story of his conversion by saying:
“When I began to study the lives of the prophets, the intellectual struggle began within me, and my questions were causing problems among the students, which prompted the Pope (Shenouda III), who took office after the death of Pope (Kyrillos VI ), to take the decision to appoint me a priest two years before the date of taking office – to seduce me into silence because They sensed my support for Islam – Taking office as a priest should normally only take place 9 years after the start of theological study.
Then I was appointed president of the Church of Christian Example in Sohag and honorary president of the Egyptian Associations of Soul Makers (a very strong missionary association with roots in many Arab countries, especially the Gulf states) and the Pope was paying me money not to come back and discuss such ideas.
I began my relationship with Muslims in secret, and began to study and read about Islam. I was asked to prepare a master’s thesis on the comparison of religions, and the thesis was supervised by the Bishop of Scientific Research in Egypt in 1975, and it took four years to prepare, and the supervisor objected to what was stated in my these about the veracity of the prophethood of the prophet Mohammed (ﷺ), his illiteracy and Christ’s preaching of his coming.
Finally, the message was discussed in the Anglican Church in Cairo. The discussion lasted nine hours and focused on the question of prophethood and the prophet (ﷺ), noting that the signs were clear about his prophethood and that he is the bucket of prophets .
Finally, the Pope decided to take the letter away from me and not recognize it. I began to think deeply about the question of Islam so that my guidance would be with certainty , but I couldn’t get any Islamic books, so the Pope tightened his guard on me and my private library.”
Before his conversion to Islam, and after having a discussion about forgiveness with a priest, he was locked up in a monastery (Mary Mina) in Wadi Al-Natrun, where he was tortured and deprived of his minimal rights. He met a monk hiding his conversion to Islam there, which only encouraged his decision. But what happened with the monk and his recent experiences only served to awaken his spirit even more, and he ended up converting to Islam.
After his conversion to Islam, Isaac suffered martyrdom at the hands of his former comrades and his own family; he says:
“After that, the Church almost disliked me and wasted my blood.So I was subjected to three assassination attempts by my brother and cousins, so they shot me in Cairo and hit me in the left kidney, which was removed on January 7, 1987 at Qasr al-Aini Hospital, and the incident was recorded in report No. 1762/1986 in the department of Qasr al-Nil, district. Cairo Security on 11/11/1986 AD. “
Issac Hilal tells the story of his conversion ( in Arabic ) :
Reverend Armando Barcelon, Reverend of the Pentecostal Church of the Philippines
He was formerly known as Reverend Armando Barcelon of the Philippines-based Pentecostal Church. He is Ustadz Ahmad Barcelon (Muslim name), a famous Muslim debater in the Philippines.
The story of his conversion to Islam is inspiring and worth remembering. And I wouldn’t pass this moment without telling you how this reverend became a humble servant of Allah. He became a Muslim 13 years ago in Saudi Arabia.
He went to Saudi Arabia on a clandestine mission to reunite scattered church members. To hide the mission, he was employed as a waiter in disguise. Attached to his mission was an impossible dream of Christianizing the Muslims there. But he was faced with the dilemma of how to make them Christians since Muslims believe the Bible is falsified.
He began scouring the pages of the Holy Quran and the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in the hope of finding contradictions in some form. He was a sincere seeker of error, but Allah woke him up one morning with the Truth wide open before his eyes.
He continued to read the Quran but couldn’t find the contradictions he sought. Desperate, he bought a volume of Sahih Al-Bukhari, where the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad are compiled to quench his thirst for proof.
When he came across this hadith, he said to himself that he had found what he was looking for:
How could a sane man plunge a fly into a vessel with water and drink it? Ahmad thought Muhammad was crazy to give such an order. Surprisingly, he came across an article written by a NASA (National Aeronautics And Space Administration) scientist on fly research.
Flies carry pathogenic germs (which can potentially trigger disease) on their wings. Immersed in a liquid, cellular parasites in the fly’s stomach explode due to the change in osmotic pressure. They then release the antidote against other pathogenic microbes on the fly’s body. Plunging the fly is medical advice that dates back to the 7th century B.C. and is now scientifically justified by recent microbiological knowledge.
Example of research on the subject of the antibacterial ability of flies
The hadith he considered to be his argument against Islam became the reason for his conversion to Islam.
Ahmad Barcelon is currently an active advocate for Islam. With the help of Allah, he has successfully guided his family, friends, and many others to embrace Islam. He has organized and led conferences, symposiums, and seminars across the country. Additionally, he has appeared on television and hosted various Islamic radio programs on multiple stations. Notably, he has also engaged in public debates, where he has challenged leaders of other Christian denominations directly.
The complete story of his conversion :
Anthony Swamy, Malaysian priest of the Roman Catholic Church
The former priest, known as Reverend Anthony Swamy from East Malaysia, served as a priest for 12 years before converting to Islam. From a young age, Anthony, now Ayub Abdul Rahman, was taken to church by his parents. He always aspired to become a priest to help the poor and those who were suffering.
After completing his studies, he decided to pursue a path as a Roman Catholic monk.He traveled to various countries to study Christianity and received a scholarship from the German government to further his theological studies. After completing his studies, he felt drawn to a hospital in Germany, where he became a chaplain.
To convert Muslims, he decided to read the Quran and was astonished by the story of Mary within it, which led him to doubt the Bible and his beliefs.
He started sharing his ideas with his superiors, who threatened him and sent him to a psychiatric asylum in Switzerland, where he stayed for three months before eventually converting to Islam.
Ayub Abdul Rahman is now a full-time caller to Islam. Many people have accepted Islam through his preaching, including residents from over 20 villages in Malaysia.
Pishoy Malik( Moumin Ibrahim ), Priest of the Coptic Orthodox Church
Bishoy Malik was a priest of the Orthodox Church of Egypt, graduating from seminary in 1982 and formalizing his appointment to the priesthood.
He was distinguished for making tapes that provoked significant reactions throughout the Christian community, such as “You Are My Father, and I Am Your Father,” “The Three Messes,” and “Visible Rituals.” This last tape led him to delve deeper into the question of the body and blood, which is the first reflection linked to his entry into Islam.
He decided to become a Muslim in 2003 but was obliged to keep it a secret until 2008 when he declared his conversion to Islam. Today, he is a Muslim preacher and works in the field of da3wa; among his most famous statements:
The Christian problem is that they don’t read their holy book! And anyone who reads this book with neutrality, impartiality and a desire to know the truth, will know that the religion of Christianity is false … I am amazed at those who worship a creature that emerged from a created woman, then argue with allegations and lies about Islam , the religion of monotheism and reject it with distrust!
I am astonished at those who say that their god is dead and who preach his death and who are not ashamed! I’m amazed at those who say the Jews crucified him and aren’t ashamed of themselves for worshipping him. If he’s a god, how can he be crucified?
I’m amazed at those who refuse to believe that an elephant can enter a bottle and don’t care, but on the other hand believe that the Great God enters the womb of a weak woman! This woman gives birth to a person whom she makes god and worships with God!
I feel all strange when I remember when we were celebrating the birth of Jesus, so why didn’t I think back then that we were celebrating the birth of a god and not a person?!
I chose Islam because it is the only religion that allows you to worship God alone, and its creed is clear, and the monotheism of God in Islam means that God is one without partner and without twisted interpretations, unlike Christianity and its invention of the doctrine of Trinity which is contrary to monotheism
Pishoy Malik Ex priest of the Orthdox Church ( Moumin Ibrahim )
The Story of Moumin Ibrahim on YouTube:
Dr. Jerald F. Dirks, Doctor of Theology and Deacon of the Methodist Church
Jerald F. Dirks is a doctor of theology, a doctor of psychology, and a former deacon of the Methodist Church.
He was born into a Christian family, had a Christian upbringing, attended church and Sunday school every Sunday as a child, graduated from a prestigious seminary, and was an ordained minister in a major Protestant denomination. After graduating from Harvard College in 1971, Dr. Jerald F. Dirks enrolled at Harvard Divinity School, where he received his Master of Divinity degree in 1974, having previously been ordained a deacon of the United Methodist Church in 1972. He also holds a doctorate in psychology from the University of Denver (USA).
He has published over sixty articles in clinical psychology and over one hundred fifty articles on Arabian horses. His interest in Arabian horse research led him to travel to the Middle East and interact with Muslim communities in the United States. He eventually converted to Islam and remained extensively involved with These communities.
In March 1993, he became a Muslim. His wife, who was married to him for 33 years, also became a Muslim around the same time. Dorteur Jérald explains that the reasons for his conversion can be summarized as follows:
- His seminary education enabled him to see the lie of a Trinitarian divinity (i.e., he couldn’t stand polytheism).
- The existence of early Christian churches and movements that never accepted the concept of a Trinitarian divinity and never accepted the idea of the divinity of Jesus.
- He knew very well how the Bible had been corrupted.
- The “original” reading of various biblical texts, many of which are in stark contrast to what most Christians read when they pick up their Bibles.
- The non-religious considerations underlying many Christian beliefs and doctrines
- Some seminary graduates who fill pulpits preach what they know to be false.
- He was deeply impressed by the examples of behavior he witnessed in the Muslim community.
- He took the initiative to learn Islam from translations of the Holy Quran and other books on Islam.
He wrote a book entitled The Cross & The Crescent. in which he envisioned:
In writing this book, I would like to touch the lives of those Christians who have not been given the knowledge that I have gained both about Islam, from my direct contact with Muslims, and about Christianity from my seminary education.
I want to share with those Christians, who are willing to listen, what is so often known by their clergy and church leaders, but seldom finds its way into their knowledge of their own religion.
Likewise, I would like to reach out to the Muslims, in order to help them understand the religious commonality that they share with Christians
The Cross and the Crescent
Dr Derek Guest on the deen Show, where he tells his story ( English ) :
