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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Bible and Christianity (an Islamic View) Author’s Foreword Knowledge in Islam Some of my friends who were the students in Baghdad University always used to take part in the discussions and debates concerning Islam. One day, a group of them from the medical college came to me and said that they had an American professor who had been appointed to teach in their college. Seemingly, he was a judicious man who seeks to find the truth.

He was inquiring much about Islam and was impressed by the Islamic way of life. When they requested me to meet and discuss (Islam) with him, they were not sure that he would be convinced about Islam after the discussion. I booked a date in my diary for them and said that by the grace of Allah he would be inspired by Him to embrace Islam. The college students smiled and wondered as to how would an American professor embrace Islam easily.

I asked them whether they thought that Islam was an acceptable religion, or that they were not sure of my competence to interpret Islam, or that the professor was too obstinate to accept the truth even after understanding it. The students remained silent. They could not say that their professor was an obstinate person as they had already praised him for his fairness.

They went on to work out how to persuade him in his capacity as their professor to come to Karbala (which is 100 km) from Baghdad despite the fact that the professor did not believe in visiting of holy places. I suggested to them to bring him to Karbala just for recreation. Incidentally, the date of our appointed fell on an Eid holiday. At the time of arrival of the professor, a group of people were already at my reception for the Eid greeting.

I welcomed him, and after formal courtesy talk, I asked him how he found Baghdad and its Muslim people. Having expressed his impression about Baghdad and Muslim people, I said to him that he had not seen anything of Islam and Muslims yet; otherwise he would have been surprised much more.

When he asked how, I told him “Islam, for example insists for its followers to acquire knowledge to the extent that Islam makes it compulsory for all men and all women to acquire knowledge.” I went on to explain to him some of the excellence of knowledge and wisdom as seen through the Islam and the reward prescribed for seeking knowledge.