Mr Faizee's letter gets a response about his use of the word 'revert'.
SubmissionMr Faizee's letter ("Revert, not convert",
Gulf News, Online, October 28) needs clarification. In the Quran, specific references to someone being a Muslim in earliest times is of Ebrahim, and prophets after him.
Sura 39:11 commands Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) to say, "And I am commanded to be the first of those who bow to Allah in Islam."
Other references to the acceptance of Islam by the Prophet are in
Sura 6:14, 6:161. The word "revert" is nowhere mentioned in the Quran to denote acceptance of Islam.
Even for the Prophet, it is "bow in submission to the will of Allah" is used indicating acceptance. So it is neither convert nor revert, but submission.
From Mr I. Mohammad
Kochi, Kerala, IndiaSo, Abraham was a Muslim, and therefore, all of us, including Christians, are Muslims. There is no conversion or metanoia as the ancient Greeks called it, apparently. But how does one accept? I went through the prayers as a young lad on a kind of a lark. I wonder if that is acceptable, or is it merely acceptance
eo ipso? I was in West Africa and I met a Senegalese hotel clerk who guided me through the prayers and taught me the greeting of his Islamic sect, the Moueeds, "Serigne Touba ben rekla."