Why Islam is my choice — Page 122
122 American problem. W: So what is the identity that your name gives you, and the objective? R: Oh, my name depicts me as a merciful person. My name is Ra ḥ mat, which means mercy, and my last name is Jam ā l, which means beauty. Not physical beauty but mercy in a tribute to beauty. As a merciful person, in a sense, that attribute becomes a beautiful thing. And that gives me an objective in my life, that gives me a direction, to stop me from doing certain things because that’s not in accordance with my attribute, that’s not in accordance with my name, and if I do that I would be, so to speak, throwing mud on my name, if I commit certain acts that I can’t commit, with that objective in life. W: Before I come to dealing with that quote of Prof. Richard Turner, I want to deal with a couple of other questions which handle this theme that we have arrived at, which is, what happened after you accepted Isl ā m. What did you gain by accepting Isl ā m, apart from what you have already discussed on the subject of identity? R: I think the first thing you realize, you gain a sense of respect, you gain a sense of dignity, you gain a sense of security. Because you can not have either one of these things without the proper knowledge, and, Isl ā m provides you the proper knowledge to gain these things. W: What do you mean by proper knowledge? R: You have to know what God is, who He is, and what He does. You have to know what people are, why they were put here and how they’re supposed to treat each other. You have to know what religion is, and what was its purpose for being sent down to mankind. And, when these things are explained to you, you have a sense of security—you know what you have to do, you know what your responsibilities are and you