From A Priest To An Islamic Herald

From a priest to an Islamic Herald

The pilgrim Rasheed Shai Maktoob, who is the first Muslim in Gryama tribe, is going to the Holy land (Mecca) to perform the fifth duty (pilgrimage) with help .of the African Muslims Committee

He used to be Christian who was raised up in Protestant Church till he became a priest in the God Church , a delegate and Guardian for it the Fitingine . province since 1938 till he became a Muslim in 1993 The pilgrim Rasheed was one of the most hostile against Muslim people before .he became a Muslim But Allah granted him with Islam to change his whole life from being a Christian priest into an Islamic Herald , Three hundred of the church followers had become Muslims the day he announced his conversion into Islam, then he . changed the muddy church he built on his own land into a masjid Then, Allah granted him again by giving him the chance to go in pilgrimage which changed his life style for the second time and increased his love to Islam and to the Calling to Allah. That’s why he devoted himself to the Calling to .Allah's way The goal was to redirect his own people to their original religion (Islam), so directly after his coming back home, he guided more than one hundred Christian people to the original religion which is Islam and we had this talk with .him in a celebration for the new people who entered into Islam

?O' pilgrim Rasheed, would you please tell me how did u get into Islam

I used to be a priest in the church in my region and a representative for it there, my name was George Shai Maktoob and I spent more than fifty years in this position, I acquainted with everything in the (new testament) including the stories, the verses and the suras about Jesus Christ and his followers, so I discovered that the Holy Book (as the Christians consider) was written after the alleged crucifixion during the one hundred years that followed his death by Paul and others. Then I discovered through the holy book that the Jesus Christ was only a prophet, he wasn’t Allah's son or even a god as they always .say

The Holy Book pointed that the Jesus Christ didn’t enter into a church at all, He didn’t even ordered to build it, and He was saying his prayers in the temples .which were similar to the masjids I read in the Holy Book that the circumcision isn't one of the Christian traditions and it isn't allowed for the circumcised person to enter into church but that was Paul's speech not Jesus Christ's, because Jesus Christ had ordered !!his people to do the circumcision and he was circumcised too Then I knew that Islam is the only religion which order people to do the circumcision, and one of our customs (as Gryama tribe) is to circumcise the boy .in his newly born From here I knew that our original religion was Islam , and our correct real place is the masjid, that’s why I announced my Islam in front of my people , 300 of them followed me in the same day then I changed church building which was . built on my own land into a masjid Of course , church didn’t leave me alone , first of all they tried to lure me with money to leave Islam, then they took all of my privileges including my salary , the gifts which were collected from church followers , and the car . But I was .still insisting on following the monotheistic belief How did you feel when you got the news of going to pilgrimage and how was ?your ex-image about that

when I was Christian, I read about prophet Ibrahim and his son Ismail, who built a building called Kaaba and I thought that this story is historical and not existed any more, but when I entered into Islam , I knew that going to . pilgrimage is a duty for any Muslim who could do it In spite of the fact that I hadn't even thought that I would have the chance to go to pilgrimage , that’s why it was a great surprise which I haven't expected in my .lifetime Some of my sons and relatives tried to prevent me from going there because they were afraid lest I should die or should not come back but I insisted on .doing it whatever it costed

By the way , Gryamas tribe people think that the one who goes to pilgrimage won't come back because he goes up to the sky directly, that’s why my partner who was chosen to go to pilgrimage with me didn’t go.My family was crying when I said farewell to it because no one expected me to come back home safe and sound.In fact, going to pilgrimage and coming back safely changed the .mistaken thought about going to pilgrimage in Gryama tribe ?(How did you conceive the Holy Land (Mecca In fact, I haven't even imagined being in that great crowded place Mecca. I haven't lived any faithful situations in my lifetime like those days I spent in .Mecca Mecca gathered different peoples and nationalities from the whole world, so I realized that Islam is a religion for the whole world not only for the Arabs like what a lot of people think..There, I perceived the meaning of (All praises be to .Allah, the Lord of the worlds ) which we repeat it more than ten times a day ?What was the change which the pilgrimage did to your life

since I became a Muslim I started to believe that Islam is the (religion of truth) . In the past , I used to use my free time to invite to Allah but after going to pilgrimage which brought me close to Allah , my belief was doubled, that’s why .my calling to Islam activities were doubled too I devoted myself to calling my tribe to come back to their original religion ( Islam ), I started this in my village from which one hundred people became Muslims directly after coming back from pilgrimage , so the church which they used to pray in was closed.Before the pilgrimage I was a kind of nurse who used to heal the wounds and scratches but now I am like a wise doctor who can do the completed surges.I changed from a simple limited herald to a herald who wants to get his tribe back to Islam ?How do you expect the future of calling to Islam here in the area

One hundred years ago, Christianity entered into the countries with help of the explorers and European slaves merchants under the cover of saving the human being from the slavery and bondage.But Islam reached to the region through the Arabic Muslim merchants who propagated Islam using their Islamic morals .hundreds of years ago The preachers built two churches (the free town) in Mambassa and (Mission Society) in Rabay or Dr. Craft as they call according to its establisher.The

preachers resided in two camps in the churches to establish a group of African Christians.Those events shared in wiping out the Islamic Identity for the Gryamic person , also people's escape into the inner woods to save their belief and their lives from the slavery and bondage which was practiced by the European explorers, in the last years church's activities increased very much while the Arab s religious activities were decreasing because they took care of the commerce inside the big cities, that’s why Islamic Identity for the new generations is wiped out, they were an easy prey for the preachers. Even though everything in the region is showing that Islam was here in the close past , our names are Islamic, our customs like circumcision, burial customs, not eating the . corpses ..etc are Islamic, and we still have the ability to come back to Islam If Arabs took care of this region and entered into woods , all of the people would come back to Islam in a very short time , here we only see one single organization who takes care of the calling to Allah which is African Muslims Committee with some single movement but the rest of the Islamic organization pay their interest to the cities.Please , let me take the chance to call all of the Islamic organizations to give more interest to our people and to send Moslem promoters inside the woods , I call them from here to build masjids and Islamic .schoolsto protect them from the retardations and illusions ?What is your wish

I hope to see the day when all of Gryama's people would come back to Islam , and I wish that I could fix what I ruined when I was Christian , and I wish that all of Gryama's people would have the chance to go to pilgrimage because it's .one of the main reasons of changing