Lulwa Shalhoub, Arab News
Born in an Italian Catholic family, Maria initially wanted to become a Catholic nun. While studying at a theology college in Italy, she found contradictions in the new and old testaments. After studying for three years she quit and decided to travel to a country where she could find peace of mind.
She did not have enough money to travel and so applied for a job as a maid and went to Jordan to work for a Muslim family, who did not tell her anything about Islam. “I felt guilty and traitorous to the church. I was of the conviction that God shows the true path to those who seek to correct themselves and prayed for that,” she said.
Once I was cleaning the house, I found a book about monotheism and started reading it. “At that moment I realized that Allah Almighty has answered my prayer so quickly. Before that I didn’t know that monotheism was the basic creed of Islam. Nobody told me. So I kept reading and studying Islam,” she said.
She used to listen to the Qur’an although she did not understand it. She said she loved the sound of the words. After a few days, Maria told her employer that she wanted to convert to Islam. She said the Shahada and after finishing her contract applied for work in the Kingdom so she could visit the two holy mosques.
“I would like to advise every non-Muslim person to search for the truth themselves. They don’t need others to help them make up their minds, they can do this themselves through reading and learning,” she said.
Dania, a homecare assistant helping diabetic people, was born in a religious Catholic family in the Philippines. However, her family used to pray five times a day.
“My mother used to tell me that Jesus (peace be upon him) was only a prophet. He is neither God nor His son,” she said.
When she started working in Saudi Arabia in 1986, she found some correlation between her religious teachings and Islam. Her employers gave her books about Islam.
“I loved hearing the Azan, and I loved the Muslim way of praying. But still I needed time to know more,” she said.
In 1993 she returned to the Philippines as a non-Muslim. However, she had fallen in love with Islam.
One day, on the way to church Dania was involved in a motorbike accident and remained in hospital for three months.
After leaving hospital she was unable to walk for three months and had to do so with crutches. Her father was sick and her mother jobless.
She prayed that she would be cured fast so that she could support her family. Once she asked her Muslim neighbor to take her to the mosque, as she was planning to become a Muslim.
Just a few meters before she reached the mosque, Dania asked her neighbor to stop the car. She got out using her canes and prostrated. “My friend was very happy and said Allahu Akbar (God is Great),” she said.
Dania added that she came out of the mosque so elated that she was even able to walk without the crutches.
She came back to Saudi Arabia 1997 to work for a Saudi couple. The man was a scholar and would often give her books on Islam. In 2003, the sponsors went to Madinah and were hesitant to take her with them because she is non-Muslim. However, they finally took Dania with them. On reaching Madinah she told her sponsor’s wife that she wanted to become Muslim.
It was on a Friday when she said the Shahada and went to pray at the Holy Mosque in Madinah. On holiday to the Philippines, Dania was happy to tell her family and friends about her conversion.
Her mother was willing to listen and was actually thinking about Islam herself. Her friends were eager to find the true religion and she hopes that one day they will also become Muslim.
