Brod pope, tnx for giving time to post a muslim testimony.
though his identity is questionable for us, a certain Abdulsaleeb?
allow me to share you a christian testimony w/ complete identity.
Professor Abdul-Ahad Dawud, B.D....the former Reverend David Benjamin Keldani, B.D., a Roman Catholic priest of the Uniate-chaldean sect. When asked how he came to Islam he wrote:
"My conversion to Islam cannot be attributed to any cause other than the gracious direction of the Almighty Allah. without this divine guidance all learning, search and other efforts to find the Truth may even lead one astray.
The moment I believed in the absoulute Unity of God, His Holy Apostle Muhammad became the pattern of my conduct and behaviour".
A short biographical sketch of Prof. Abdulahad Dawud B.D.
He was born in 1867 at Urmia in Persia; educated from his early infancy in that town. From 1886-89 (three years) he was on the teaching staff of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Mission to the Assyrian(Nestorian) Christians at Urmia.
In 1892 he was sent by Cardinal Vaughan to Rome, where he underwent a course of philosophical and theological studies at the Propaganda Fide College, and 1895 was ordained priest. In 1892 Prof. Dawud contributed a series of articles to The Tablet on "Assyria, Rome and Canterbury"; and also to the Irish Record on the "Authenticity of the Pentateuch". He has several translations of the Ave Maria in different languages, published in the Illustrated Catholic Missions. While in Constantinople on his way to Persia in 1895, he contributed a long series of articles in English and French to the daily paper, published there under the name of The Levant Herald, on "Eastern Churches"
In 1895 he joined the French Lazarist Mission at Urmia, and published for the first time in the history of that Mission a periodical in the vernacular Syriac called "Qala La Shara", i.e. "The Voice of Truth"
In 1897 he was delegated by two Uniate-Chaldean Archbishops of Urmia and of Salmas to represent the Eastern Catholics at the Eucharistic Congress held at Paray-le-Monial in France under the presidency of Cardinal Perraud. This was of course, an official invitation.
In 1888, Father Benjamin (Prof Dawud) was back again in Persia. The next year he was sent by the Ecclesiastical authorities to take charge of the diocese of Salmas, where a sharp and scandalous conflict between the Unite Archbishops, Khudabash, and the Lazarist Fathers for a long time had been menacing a schism.
On the day of new year 1900, Father Benjamin(Prof. Dawud), preached his last and memorable sermon to a large congregation, including many non-Catholic Armenians and others in the Cathedral of St. George's Khorovabad, Salmas. The preachers subject was "New Century and New Men". He recalled the fact that the Nestorian Missionaries, before the appearance of Islam, had preached the Gospel in all Asia; that they have numerous establishments in India(especially at the Malabar Coast), In Tartary, China and Mongolia; and that they translated the Gospel to the Turkish Uighurs and in other languages; that the Catholic, American & Anglican Missions, in spite to the little good they had done to the Assyro-Chaldean nation in the way of preliminary education, had split the nation--already in handful--in Persia, Kurdistan, and Mesopotamia into numerous hostile sects; and that their efforts were destined to bring about the final collapse. Consequently he advised the natives to make some sacrifices inorder to stand upon their own legs like Men, and not to depend upon the foreign missions, etc. The preacher was perfectly right in principle; but his remarks were unfavourable to the interests of the Lord Missionaries.
A new Russian Mission had already been established in Urmia since 1899. The Nestorians were enthusiastically embracing the religion of the "holy" Tsar of All Russias!
Five big and ostentatious missions--Americans, Anglicans, French, Germans and Russians. But the Russians Mission soon outstripped to others, and it was this missionn which in 1915 pushed or forced the Assyrians of Persia, as well as the mountaineer tribes of Kurdistan, who had then immigrated into the plains of Salmas and Urmia, to take up arms against their respective Governments. The result was that half of his people perished in the war and the rest expelled from their native lands.
The great question which for a long time had been working its solution in the mind of this priest(Father Benjamin/Prof. Dawud)
was now approaching its climax.
"Was christianity, with all its multitudinous shapes and colours, and with its unauthentic, spurious and corrupted Scriptures, the TRUE Religion of God?"
In the summer of 1900, he retired to his small villa in the middle of vineyards near the celebrated fountain of Chali-Boulaghi in Digala, and there for a month spent his time in prayer and meditation, reading over and over the Scriptures in their ORIGINAL texts. The crisis ended in a formal resignation sent in to the Uniate Archbishop of Urmia, in which he frankly explained to Mar(Mngr.) Touma Audu the reasons for abandoning his sacerdotal functions. All attempts made by the ecclesiastical authorities to withdraw his decision were of no avail. There was no personal quarrel or dispute between Father Benjamin(Prof. Dawud) and his superiors; it was all question of conscience.
For several months Father Benjamin, or Mr. Dawud--as he was now called--was employed in Tabriz as Inspector in the Persian Service of Posts and Customs under the Belgian experts. Then he was taken into the service of the Crown Prince Muhammad Ali Mirza as teacher and translator.
It was in 1903 that he again visited England and there joined the Unitarian Community.
And in 1904 he was sent by the British and Foreign Unitarian Association to carry on an educational and enlightening work among his country people. On his way to Persia he visited Constantinople; and after several interviews with the Sheikhu'l-Islam Jemalu'd-Din Effendi and other Ulemas, HE EMBRACED THE HOLY RELIGION OF ISLAM.
Brod pope, tnx for giving time to post a muslim testimony.
though his identity is questionable for us, a certain Abdulsaleeb?
allow me to share you a christian testimony w/ complete identity.
Professor Abdul-Ahad Dawud, B.D....the former Reverend David Benjamin Keldani, B.D., a Roman Catholic priest of the Uniate-chaldean sect. When asked how he came to Islam he wrote:
"My conversion to Islam cannot be attributed to any cause other than the gracious direction of the Almighty Allah. without this divine guidance all learning, search and other efforts to find the Truth may even lead one astray.
The moment I believed in the absoulute Unity of God, His Holy Apostle Muhammad became the pattern of my conduct and behaviour".
A short biographical sketch of Prof. Abdulahad Dawud B.D.
He was born in 1867 at Urmia in Persia; educated from his early infancy in that town. From 1886-89 (three years) he was on the teaching staff of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Mission to the Assyrian(Nestorian) Christians at Urmia.
In 1892 he was sent by Cardinal Vaughan to Rome, where he underwent a course of philosophical and theological studies at the Propaganda Fide College, and 1895 was ordained priest. In 1892 Prof. Dawud contributed a series of articles to The Tablet on "Assyria, Rome and Canterbury"; and also to the Irish Record on the "Authenticity of the Pentateuch". He has several translations of the Ave Maria in different languages, published in the Illustrated Catholic Missions. While in Constantinople on his way to Persia in 1895, he contributed a long series of articles in English and French to the daily paper, published there under the name of The Levant Herald, on "Eastern Churches"
In 1895 he joined the French Lazarist Mission at Urmia, and published for the first time in the history of that Mission a periodical in the vernacular Syriac called "Qala La Shara", i.e. "The Voice of Truth"
In 1897 he was delegated by two Uniate-Chaldean Archbishops of Urmia and of Salmas to represent the Eastern Catholics at the Eucharistic Congress held at Paray-le-Monial in France under the presidency of Cardinal Perraud. This was of course, an official invitation.
In 1888, Father Benjamin (Prof Dawud) was back again in Persia. The next year he was sent by the Ecclesiastical authorities to take charge of the diocese of Salmas, where a sharp and scandalous conflict between the Unite Archbishops, Khudabash, and the Lazarist Fathers for a long time had been menacing a schism.
On the day of new year 1900, Father Benjamin(Prof. Dawud), preached his last and memorable sermon to a large congregation, including many non-Catholic Armenians and others in the Cathedral of St. George's Khorovabad, Salmas. The preachers subject was "New Century and New Men". He recalled the fact that the Nestorian Missionaries, before the appearance of Islam, had preached the Gospel in all Asia; that they have numerous establishments in India(especially at the Malabar Coast), In Tartary, China and Mongolia; and that they translated the Gospel to the Turkish Uighurs and in other languages; that the Catholic, American & Anglican Missions, in spite to the little good they had done to the Assyro-Chaldean nation in the way of preliminary education, had split the nation--already in handful--in Persia, Kurdistan, and Mesopotamia into numerous hostile sects; and that their efforts were destined to bring about the final collapse. Consequently he advised the natives to make some sacrifices inorder to stand upon their own legs like Men, and not to depend upon the foreign missions, etc. The preacher was perfectly right in principle; but his remarks were unfavourable to the interests of the Lord Missionaries.
A new Russian Mission had already been established in Urmia since 1899. The Nestorians were enthusiastically embracing the religion of the "holy" Tsar of All Russias!
Five big and ostentatious missions--Americans, Anglicans, French, Germans and Russians. But the Russians Mission soon outstripped to others, and it was this missionn which in 1915 pushed or forced the Assyrians of Persia, as well as the mountaineer tribes of Kurdistan, who had then immigrated into the plains of Salmas and Urmia, to take up arms against their respective Governments. The result was that half of his people perished in the war and the rest expelled from their native lands.
The great question which for a long time had been working its solution in the mind of this priest(Father Benjamin/Prof. Dawud)
was now approaching its climax.
"Was christianity, with all its multitudinous shapes and colours, and with its unauthentic, spurious and corrupted Scriptures, the TRUE Religion of God?"
In the summer of 1900, he retired to his small villa in the middle of vineyards near the celebrated fountain of Chali-Boulaghi in Digala, and there for a month spent his time in prayer and meditation, reading over and over the Scriptures in their ORIGINAL texts. The crisis ended in a formal resignation sent in to the Uniate Archbishop of Urmia, in which he frankly explained to Mar(Mngr.) Touma Audu the reasons for abandoning his sacerdotal functions. All attempts made by the ecclesiastical authorities to withdraw his decision were of no avail. There was no personal quarrel or dispute between Father Benjamin(Prof. Dawud) and his superiors; it was all question of conscience.
For several months Father Benjamin, or Mr. Dawud--as he was now called--was employed in Tabriz as Inspector in the Persian Service of Posts and Customs under the Belgian experts. Then he was taken into the service of the Crown Prince Muhammad Ali Mirza as teacher and translator.
It was in 1903 that he again visited England and there joined the Unitarian Community.
And in 1904 he was sent by the British and Foreign Unitarian Association to carry on an educational and enlightening work among his country people. On his way to Persia he visited Constantinople; and after several interviews with the Sheikhu'l-Islam Jemalu'd-Din Effendi and other Ulemas, HE EMBRACED THE HOLY RELIGION OF ISLAM.