Why Islam is my choice — Page 6
6 Bash ī r Afzal How I Accepted Isl ā m Br. Bash ī r Afzal died on July 18, 1993. Inn ā Lill ā hi Wa Inn ā Ilaihi R ā ji‘ ū n. He was the President of the New York A ḥ madiyyah Muslim Jam ā ‘at for thirty years and Za‘ ī m, Majlis An ṣā rull ā h, North NJ for about ten years. I was born in 1902 in Randolph county, Alabama. My parents were devout Christians. They belonged to the Baptist Church. I was raised in a very religious environment at home and I used to attend the church regularly ever since my childhood. From the very early days of my childhood, I had started an immense liking for Jesus Christ without really having understood the truth about him. Contrary to the church’s belief, I somehow maintained the perception that Jesus Christ was living among us and that we had simply not found him yet. As I grew older, I became a missionary of the Baptist Church and my desire to find and meet Jesus Christ became ever stronger. When I was 21 years old, I moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I started working in a metal shop. Being a missionary of the Baptist Church, I was also very active in preaching my faith to all my friends. One day, a colleague at work with who I had been discussing religious matters, came to me and informed me of a new religious organization in town. He urged me to attend their meeting as he thought I was going to like it. Little did I know that this organization was actually the A ḥ madiyyah Movement in