Reading Qur’an fine-tuned my faith

Raphael Narbaez, Jr. was a Los Angeles-based comic and lecturer. He attended his first Jehovah’s Witness meeting at age six. Raphael gave his first Bible sermon (soon after the age of thirteen), tended his own congregation at twenty, and was headed for a position of leadership among the 904,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in the United States. On Nov. 1, 1991, he embraced Islam. Here he narrates the second part of his story.

WE’RE working in a mall. It’s the holiday season, and they put these extra booths in the hallways. There was a girl at one, and we had to pass right in front of her. I’d say, “Good morning, how are you?” If she said anything, it was “Hi.” And that was it.
Finally, I said, “Miss, you never say anything. I just wanted to apologize if there was something I said wrong.”
She said, “No, you see, I’m a Muslim.”
“You’re what?”
“I’m a Muslim, and Muslim women, we don’t talk to men unless we have something specific to talk about; otherwise we don’t have anything to do with men.”
“Ohhhhh. Muslim.” She said, “Yes, we practice the religion of Islam.” “Islam — how do you spell that?”
“I-s-l-a-m.” At the time, I knew that Muslims were all terrorists. She doesn’t even have a beard. How could she possibly be Muslim? “How did this religion get started?”
“Well, there was a prophet.” “A prophet?” “Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him.”
I started some research. But I just came from one religion. I had no intention of becoming Muslim. The holidays are over. The booth moves. She’s gone. I continued to pray, and asked why my prayers weren’t being answered. In November of 1991, I was going to bring my uncle Rockie home from the hospital.
I started to empty his drawers to pack his stuff and there was a Gideon Bible. I said, God has answered my prayers. This Gideon Bible. (Of course, they put it in every hotel room.) This is a sign from God that He’s ready to teach me. So I stole the Bible. I went home and I started praying: O God, teach me to be a Christian. Don’t teach me the Jehovah’s Witness way.
Don’t teach me the Catholic way. Teach me Your way! You would not have made this Bible so hard that ordinary people sincere in prayer could not understand it. I got all the way through the New Testament. I started the Old Testament.
Well, eventually there’s a part in the Bible about the prophets. Bing! I said, Wait a minute, that Muslim lady said they had a prophet. How come he’s not in here?
I started thinking, Muslims — one billion in the world. Man, one out of every five people on the street theoretically could be a Muslim.
And I thought: One billion people! C’mon now, Satan is good. But he’s not that good.
So then I said, I’ll read their book, the Qur’an, and I’ll see what kind of pack of lies this thing is. It probably has an illustration on how to dissemble an AK-47.
So I went to an Arabic bookstore. They asked, “What can I help you with?”
“I’m looking for a Qur’an.”
“Okay, we have some over here.”
They had some very nice ones — thirty dollars, forty dollars.”
“Look, I just want to read it, I don’t want to become one, OK?”
“Okay, we have this little five-dollar paperback edition.”
I went home, and started reading my Qur’an from the beginning, with Al-Fatiha. And I could not get my eyes off of it.
Hey, look at this. It talks about a Noah in here. We have Noah in our Bible too. Hey, it talks about Lot and Abraham. I can’t believe it. I never knew Satan’s name was Iblees. Hey, how about that.
When you get that picture on your TV set and it’s got a little bit of static and you push that button (klop) — fine tune. That’s exactly what happened with the Qur’an.
I went through the whole thing. So I said, OK, I’ve done this, now what’s the next thing you got to do?
Well, you gotta go to their meeting place. I looked in the yellow pages, and I finally found it: Islamic Center of Southern California, on Vermont. I called and they said, “Come on Friday.”
Now I really start getting nervous, ‘cause now I know I’m going to have to confront Habib and his AK-47.
I want people to understand what it’s like for an American Christian coming into Islam.
I’m kidding about the AK-47, but I don’t know if these guys have daggers under their coats, you know. So I come up to the front, and sure enough, there’s this six-foot-three, 240-pound brother, beard and everything, and I’m just in awe.
I walked up and said, “Excuse me, sir.”
(Arabic accent:) “Go to the back!”
He thought I was already a brother.
I said, “Yessir, yessir” (meekly).
I didn’t know what I was going back for, but I went back anyway. They had the tent and the rugs were out. I’m standing there, kind of shy, and people are sitting down listening to the lecture. And people are saying, Go ahead, brother, sit down. And I’m going, No, thanks, no, thanks, I’m just visiting.

To be continued next week
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Courtesy: islamreligion.com