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'My journey to Islam started by the blessing of Allah, at the early age of nine. It was in 1949, that my parents, who were practicing protestant Christians, decided to send me to a Catholic private school in England which was administered by the nuns of the Sisters of Mercy Order. My parents sent me to that school for several reasons: first and foremost was that I would receive a better education. Secondly, that I would learn the good manners and code of ethics from the Sisters of Mercy. In fact our school motto was “Manners maketh man”!
From the moment I entered the school I was captivated by all the statues I saw; they were like brightly painted dolls. I didn’t have many dolls at home as the Second World War had not long ended and they weren’t available in the shops. Each classroom had a table with a statue, some I was told were of Jesus, some of Mary and the others were of saints - that is Christian Awlia - and around these statues students placed flowers they brought from their gardens at home to adorn them. It was very attractive to me since I was only a nine year old. There were only a few protestant children in my class and when it came to the daily religious instruction we were separated from the Catholics by sitting in the back row of the class, but of course we listened in. In the meantime, my parents made sure I attended my own church’s Sunday School not far from our family home every week.
I was around ten or eleven, when Allah caused me to start thinking about religion. I had noticed that each day around eleven o’clock the school bell would ring and everyone would stand and say the Angelis. The Angelis is a prayer praising Mary said on a rosary (a rosary is similar to Muslim prayer beads).'