AN INTELLECTUAL TRANSFORMATION

AN INTELLECTUAL TRANSFORMATION Rational Outlook W HEN an individual belonging to one religious group joins another religious group after converting to that religion, in religious terminology that is called proselytism. But this is a limited concept of conversion, which needs to be viewed in a broader perspective. The religious view of conversion relates only to religious tradition. In this respect it is relatively limited in its spectrum. The rational outlook, on the contrary, is much broader in scope, being based on the eternal principles of nature itself. Although it would be proper to say that, in the religious context, conversion for human beings is a matter of choice, in the rational sense, this is not so. It is an eternal principle of life, in exactly the same way as the laws of nature have the status of being immutable. We are compelled to accept the principle of conversion, just as we are compelled to accept the morning following the evening, or one season coming after another. ISLAM AND CONVERSION Conversion in Islamic thought is not synonymous with proselytism in the formal sense. It is an event, which takes place in a person’s life as a result of an intellectual revolution or spiritual transformation. It is not simply leaving one religious tradition for another. The Islamic ideal of conversion is for the individual to discover the truth after an exhaustive search for it and then by his own choice, abandon one religion for another. The study of the Quran invites its readers towards transformation in thinking, and not a change of religion in the simple sense. In the first phase of Islam, some Arab bedouins had accepted Islam just by reciting the kalima, the creed of Islam, while they had not undergone any change in character at a deeper level. The Quran admonished them in strong terms: “The Arabs of the desert say ‘We believe.’ Say, ‘You have not believed yet’; but rather say, ‘We have accepted Islam’, for the true faith has not yet entered into your hearts.”(49: 14). From this we learn that conversion according to Islam means a thorough transformation of the person and not just a change of religion in the everyday sense.