Being born in a Muslim family and raised up in Bangladesh I just accepted that Islam was the only true religion.I had no doubt, no question about its validity.At the age of 18, I went to Australia for further education.There ,I found people's attitude towards religions were very different.Though traditionally they were Christians,most were actually atheists.Religion had very little role in people's lives.Most people's motto was 'I respect other people's religions but I dont like anybody preaching their religion to me.'

It was late 1970's and early '80s.The liberalism and sexual freedom was in full swing.Sex and drugs and rock n roll was the slogan. Most people believed in Darwin's theory of evolution and thought that mankind descended from apes rather than being created by God.

Then I came to live in England in the mid eighties.Here, things were not much different.Basic culture was very similar to that of Austarlia.On top of that there was constant bombardment of different TV documentaries 'presenting' evidence in support of Darwin's theory of evolution.There was this Oxford scholar Proffesor Richard Dawkins.Who in his lectures 'proved ' that mankind and other animals were not designed by anybody.It just appeared to be so. If we were designed, we would be perfect.But in reality we are not.We are 'designoid' things.Imperfect.Products of evolution.It made a lot of sense.

I also studied basic biochemistry.My tutor said,'you will find it like a revealation!It was ! All living things had genetic code.All the animals shared the basic codes and hence are related.It all fitted in like different pieces of a puzzle.I was relieved.No need to believe in much nonsense, no need to perform any act of worship etc.

Only one thing I was not comfortable with. Which was that I had to accept that when I die that would be the end of me.There's nothing afterwards.People I loved, when they died, that would be also their end.So my dead father was just that. End of him.My mother was also gone.So I would never see her again.And same for my brothers,sisters,wife,children and everybody else I knew.(Very much heartbreaking and hardest for me to accept but I had to accept it as that was the reality.Like it or not thats the fact.Thats how it is.)

But then quite late in the day (in 2004) I watched a few lectures by an Indian Doctor named Zakir Naik.Those lectures were fascinating.At the end of his lectures there was question and answer sessions and he was asked a lot of challenging questions.But he answered them nicely ! ( I thought he would get stuck but he did not.)He also exploded a lot of myths.I had a lot of my misconceptions removed.I found that lot of muslims even had wrong conceptions about Islam. For me the most convincing was a lecture probably titled'Is Quran The God's Word?'

Few of the facts : Quran been revealed 1400 years ago,says about the Geospherical shape of the Earth.(Exact Arabic word being Dahaha which means Ostrich's egg which is like Earth shape.)Remember in those days people used to think Earth was Flat. Everytime the Moon is mentioned in the Quran,its refered to as having borrowed light.(Only recently we have found out that to be true.Inthose days people believed Moon had its own light.)But the Sun has alwys been referred in the Quran as lamp or having its own light.

At school I learnt that the Sun was stationary while all the planets went round it.But recently it has been found out that Sun also rotates on its own axis.Quran mentions that rotation of the Sun.Nobody at the time of Quran revealation knew about it. Exact sequence of embryo's development,things about pain receptors in the skin etc are mentioned about which people of that time had no idea.

So the source of the revealation had to be the God. It could not be anyone else.Out of appx. 6000 verses in the Quran about 1000 talks about science.Not a single verse has been proved wrong yet.Infact 80% have been proved scientifically correct.Other 20%is beyond the scope of present day science.So that convinced me.

I am not saying this would convince everybody.Because people are different. They are convinced by different things. But what I urge everybody is to have an open mind.Please find out for yourself.Please check out Zakir Naik's website. Or Yusuf Estes's ( I think one of his site is called Islam alwys .com)or Dr. Bilal Philips's.

I believe I have found the truth.I love mankind (i.e my own species) I wish everybody only the very best.I can not convince everybody.But I can atleast invite you towards the truth.I am not perfect.But I dont think any of my fellow beings are either.If I did not invite you now,you would accuse me on the day of judgement that I did not do my duty.I know this is very feeble attempt.But I am weak and not a scholar.If you are genuine and open minded you will try to find out more,wont you?

There are so many resourses on the net and elsewhere.Allah please forgive me for my shortcomings and accept my little efforts.Allah also please guide all of us to the true path.

About the Author
Author is a freelance writer and student of comparative religion. He is also a hypnotherapist.Get free tips on different issues at his blog http://www.londonhypnotherapist.blogspot.com