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Now that same night, Mr. Khalil dramatically
concluded:
“I took my final decision. In the morning I
spoke with my wife from whom I have three sons and one daughter. But no sooner
than she felt that I was inclined to embrace Islam than she cried and asked for
help from the head of the mission. His name was Monsieur Shavits from Switzerland. He was a very cunning man. When he asked me about my true attitude, I told
him frankly what I really wanted and then he said: Regard yourself out of job
until we discover what has befallen you. Then I said: This is my resignation
from my job. He tried to convince me to postpone it, but I insisted. So he
made a rumor among the people that I became mad. Thus I suffered a very severe
test and oppression until I left Aswan for good and returned to Cairo.”
When he was asked about the circumstances to his
conversion he replied: “In Cairo, I was introduced to a respectable professor
who helped me overcome my severe trial, and this he did without knowing
anything about my story. He treated me as a Muslim, for I introduced myself to
him as such although until then I did not embrace Islam officially. That was
Dr. Muhammad Abdul Moneim Al Jamal, the then undersecretary of treasury. He
was highly interested in Islamic studies and wanted to make a translation of
the Holy Quran to be published in America. He asked me to help him because I
was fluent in English since I had got my M.A. from an American University. He also knew that I was preparing a comparative study of the Quran, the Torah and
the Bible. We cooperated in this comparative study and in the translation of
the Quran.
When Dr. Jamal knew that I had resigned from my
job in Aswan and that I was then unemployed, he helped me with a job in
Standard Stationery Company in Cairo. So I was well established after a short
while. I did not tell my wife about my intention to embrace Islam, thus she
thought that I had forgotten the whole affair, and that it was nothing but a
transitory crisis that no more existed. But I knew quite well that my official
conversion to Islam needs long complicated measures, and it was in fact a
battle which I preferred to postpone for some time until I became well off and
after I completed my comparative study.”
Then Mr. Khalil continued:
“In 1955 I did complete my study and my material
and living affairs became well established. I resigned from the company and
set up a training office for importing stationery and school articles. It was
a successful business from which I gained much more money than I needed. Thus
I decided to declare my official conversion to Islam. On the 25th of December
1959, I sent a telegram to Dr. Thompson, head of the American Mission in Egypt informing him that I had embraced Islam. When I told my true story to Dr. Jamal he
was completely astonished. When I declared my conversion to Islam, new
troubles began. Seven of my former colleagues in the mission had tried their
best to persuade me to cancel my declaration, but I refused. They threatened
to separate me from my wife and I said: She is free to do as she wishes. They
threatened to kill me. But when they found me to be stubborn they left me
alone and sent to me an old friend of mine who was also a colleague of mine in
the mission. He wept very much in front of me. So I recited before him the
following verses from the Quran:
“And when they listen to the revelation received by
the Messenger, thou wilt see their eyes overflowing with tears, for they
recognize the truth: They pray: ‘Our Lord! We believe, write us down among the
witnesses. What cause can we have not to believe in God and the truth which
has come to us, seeing that we long for our Lord to admit us to the company of
the righteous?’” (Quran 5:83-84)
I said to him:
“You should have wept in humiliation to God on
hearing the Quran and believe in the truth which you know but you refuse. He
stood up and left me as he saw no use. My official conversion to Islam was in
January 1960.”
Mr. Khalil was then asked about the attitude of
his wife and children and he answered:
“My wife left me at that time and took with her
all the furniture of our house. But all my children joined me and embraced
Islam. The most enthusiastic among them was my eldest son Isaac who changed
his name to Osman, then my second son Joseph and my son Samuel, whose name is
Jamal, and daughter Majida who is now called Najwa. Osman is now a doctor of
philosophy working as a professor in Sorbonne University in Paris teaching
oriental studies and psychology. He also writes in ‘Le Monde’ magazine. As in
regards to my wife, she left the house for six years and agreed to come back in
1966, provided that she keeps her religion. I accepted this, because in Islam
there is no compulsion in religion. I said to her: I do not want you to become
a Muslim for my sake but only after you are convinced. She feels now that she
believes in Islam but she cannot declare this for fear of her family, but we
treat her as a Muslim woman, and she fasts in Ramadan because all my children
pray and fast. My daughter Najwa is a student in the Faculty of Commerce,
Joseph is a doctor pharmacologist and Jamal is an engineer.
During this period, that is since 1961 until the
present time, I have been able to publish a number of books on Islam and the
methods of the missionaries and the orientalists against it. I am now
preparing a comparative study about women in the three Divine religions with
the object of highlighting the status of women in Islam. In 1973, I performed
Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) and I am doing activities preaching Islam. I hold
seminars in the universities and charitable societies. I received an
invitation from Sudan in 1974 where I held many seminars. My time is fully
used in the service of Islam.”
Finally Mr. Khalil was asked about the salient
features of Islam which have attracted his attention most. And he answered:
“My faith in Islam has been brought about
through reading the Holy Quran and the biography of Prophet Muhammad, may God
praise him. I no longer believed in the misconceptions against Islam, and I am
especially attracted by the concept of unity of God, which is the most
important feature of Islam. God is only One. Nothing is like Him. This
belief makes me the servant of God only and of no one else. Oneness of God
liberates man from servitude to any human being and that is true freedom.
I also like very much the rule of forgiveness in
Islam and the direct relationship between God and His servants.
“Say: O my servants who have transgressed
against their souls! despair not of the Mercy of God: for God forgives all
sins: for He is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful. Turn ye to your Lord (in
repentance) and submit to Him before the Chastisement comes on you: After that
ye shall not be helped.” (Quran 39:53-54)
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