Page 102 - Seekers Guide Book

Islam and the Quran
persuasion. By no means should any form of violence or
boycotting be used against them.

22 Why do most Muslims have
a tendency to try to convert people

to their religion?

slam does not subscribe to the concept of conversion. It
Ibelieves that religion is a matter of individual choice. The
search for the truth should be every person’s individual
effort and the decisions one then takes in the matter of
religion is completely personal.

The concept of religious conversion is alien to the Quran.
It has no basis in the Quran. The Quran speaks of marefat,
which means God-realization or the discovery of God.
So, the truth is your own discovery, your own realization.
It is a personal choice. If you want to know what the
purpose of life is, what life and death are about, and so
on, you have to study, reflect and discuss with learned
people. And after that, you may reach some conclusion.
And that is your religion. So, your religion is your own
discovery.

In religious ‘conversion’, there are two parties: the
converter and the converted. But this is not the concept
in Islam. In Islam, there is only one party—and that is
you. If you want to find the truth, you have to reflect and
study on your own. And when you discover something as
the truth, you opt for it.

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