Sonntag, Mai 02, 2004
heyo... received this in my email.. have a read.. ;o)
Hi,
Something to share; this is an interesting site -
http://answering-islam.org.uk/Testimonies/
Rogayyah's Testimony
My name is Rogayyah, a Malay woman from Malaysia. My
Primary School days were in the mornings and I
attended Islamic Studies at the Religious School in
the afternoons. I was taught to read, memorise and to
understand Quranic verses. I attended the religious
school until I achieved the qualification of Ustazah,
i.e. I qualified as a female Islamic religious
teacher.
During religious classes, we were taught that prayer
is the only way to bring us closer to God, and in our
daily prayers, we always had to recite Surah
Al-Fatihah, the first chapter of the Quran. Verse 6 of
this chapter states: 'Show us the Straight Path'. For
years on end, I have been reciteing this verse over
and over but I never found the so-called Straight Way!
On questioning my religious teacher, Ustaz, his
response was always to accept what is taught and to
never question. Whereas in the Morning School, where
everything was taught in English, I always had the
habit of asking from my teachers, whenever I was in
doubt. There was also another verse that each Muslim
should recite at the end of every prayer. That is to
ask Allah to save Muhammad. I had believed and
understood Muhammad to be an Apostle of God, a
messenger of His message and a man of God etc. So, he
should have been saved at least by his faithfulness as
an apostle/prophet of God. So this also I inquired of
my Ustaz, who became angry with me and branded me a
'kafir' (unbeliever). In fact, this ustaz disliked me
for asking him 'too many questions' with regard to the
Quranic verses, and he likewise failed to give me
specific and satisfactory answers ! This made me quite
unhappy and to look for my answers elsewhere.
My anscestors were 'bomohs' or shamans and I inherited
their abilities. I had the ability to heal people who
were sick through evil spirits or who suffered from
fits. I was able to do this by the 'spirits' (orang
halus) handed down to me from my grandmother's side.
To my amazement, I came across verses from the Qu'ran
that could be used to attract the opposite sex, and
also to cause harm to others. This created more doubts
in my mind on the good virtues of Islam. This
initially led me to follow a Hindu classmate to the
temple, but, when I saw there lots of
unnatural-looking idols holding spears, I was put off.
Moreover the language spoken was Tamil, which I did
not understand!
Later, I followed some Christian friends to church
services on Sunday. There, I saw no idols, and the
language was English which I understood. I continued
to attend prayer meetings at one of my English school
teacher's home, and was treated with love and respect
that was never experienced in my own home. One Sunday
afternoon, I had returned home with a picture of Jesus
Christ and this was found out. I was given a belting.
Being fearful of more beatings, getting chased out of
the house and possibly having my schooling stopped, I
decided to continue following my religious duties as a
Muslim just to please my parents.
As I continued to study the Quran, I discovered in
Surah al-Zukhruf verse 61, which said: "And (Jesus)
shall be a sign for the coming of the Hour of
Judgement. Therefore, have no doubt about the Hour,
but follow ye, Me (Jesus), and this is the Staright
Path." Verse 62 says: "Let not the evil one hinder
you; for he is to you an avowed enemy. Verse 63: "When
Jesus came with clear signs, he said: 'To you with
wisdom, and in order to make clear to you some of the
points on which ye dispute; therefore fear God, and
obey me.'" When I questioned my ustaz about this
verse, he said that at the end of life's journey, we
would meet Muhammad. But he had actually deviated from
my question! On and off, I would make visits to church
on Sundays by myself. This included a Catholic church.
It was there that I eventually met Richard, who became
my husband.
Richard was initially a Roman Catholic, always had a
rosary in his pocket and also wore a Buddhist charm on
his arm for 'strength'. I followed him to Sunday
church services whenever he attended them. I found the
Catholic services similar to the Islamic ones that I
attended—formal and ritualistic. There were times I
reminded Richard that it was like idol-worship but he
never argued with me about that. So, I would join him
when I liked it, and on Catholic Feast Days, I would
always follow him to church. This went on for some
years until he fell quite ill and had to be warded
into Hospital. Even after his discharge from the
Hospital, he had to be on medication. The medicine,
however, never made him better and he became thin and
weak. Then I tried treating him by reciting certain
Quranic verses over a cup of water, which I gave him
to drink. Even that treatment failed! This fact
disturbed me, as I was a bomoh (Muslim faith healer)
and our neighbours in the area where we lived also
recognised me as one!
Eventually, a friend of my husband introduced a
Christian Pastor to us. The pastor showed us from the
Bible how Jesus had healed sick people in His day, and
how He still heals sick people freely, today! If only
we would believe in Him and ask for the healing by
faith. That was the first time we, as a couple, held
the Bible, read it and prayed fervently together. And
within weeks of prayer, I began to see changes in my
husband's health! Hallelujah!
After having understood the true message of the Gospel
and what salvation actually is all about, both Richard
and I decided to accept this free gift of salvation
from God, given through His Chosen One, the Messiah
Jesus Christ. We also decided to attend church to
learn more from God's Word the Bible. My husband and I
enjoyed the refreshing services and sang the songs of
worship and attentively listened to the sermons
expounded by men of God.
There was a particular meeting, when at the end, the
pastor invited people with problems and other needs to
step forward to be prayed for. The Pastor also
specifically called for my husband, Richard to come
forward, and he did. When it came to Richard's turn to
be prayed for, he fell prostrate on the ground after
he was prayed for! Being a little sceptical about
that, I questioned him later on about why he also fell
down like the others after they had prayed for him. He
replied that, he did not imitate the others who were
there, but that he actually saw a bright light during
the prayer, and he fell down spontaneously in awe of
it! Personally, I found that hard to believe. So I
challenged Richard that the following week, I too will
go forward during the altar call to be prayed for.
But, instead of falling to the ground, I would still
be standing up!
So came the following week and we attended the church
service. True enough, Pastor made an altar call and I
went forward to be prayed for. When it came to my
turn, I stood as stiff as possible and would not be
moved. Suddenly, a bright light appeared before me, in
the shape of a Cross and I did not know what happened
next! It all happened all so fast. The next moment I
was there lying on the floor of the church and people
were praying over me! I was overjoyed! All the way
home I was speechless with the joy of the Lord. This
was an experience of a lifetime which cannot be erased
from my memory.
As we continued with our Bible studies, to my
amazement I discovered that the verse in the Bible
where Jesus Christ said : "I am the Way, and the Truth
and the Life, no man can come to the Father (i.e.
God), but BY ME," (John 14 verse 6) is the very verse
that was described centuries later in Surah al-Zukhruf
verses 61-63 as well as in Surah 1 verse 6 i.e. 'Show
us the straight path...' From that point onwards, I
was assured that my salvation only comes through
believing in Jesus Christ, who is now both my Saviour
and my Lord!
Just one year later, God blessed us with a baby boy!
Two weeks after his birth, when we had already
registered his birth certificate, we had a group of
'uninvited guests'. At about 11.00 pm one night, a
group of people from the Jabatan Agama or Religious
Department, came by, they were both men and women, in
police uniform as well as plain-clothed. They wanted
to know why I had become a Christian. That gave me an
opportunity to share with them from the Quran that
'Isa or Jesus is the al-Masih or Messiah, and He will
also return as the coming Judge, deciding the
destinies of men and women for all eternity. Whereas
Muhammad was only a messenger, who is himself at the
mercy of God on the Day of Judgement. I also reminded
them from Surah 35 (Fatir), that my 'conversion' was
my sole responsibility, that I alone will answer to
God Almighty on judgement day and nobody else can do
that on my behalf. I feel that sometimes the Muslim
religious authorities over-reach themselves in in
trying to determine other Muslim people's destinies.
That's probably why they even threaten ex-Muslims with
death for leaving Islam. After hearing my explanation,
the people from the religious department left. As for
me, I thank God for the boldness and clear mind that
He gave me to face them.
-------------------------------------------------------
Cheers & GOD Bless
9:15:00 PM`
