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By Root 804 0

were the scientists and thinkers: al-Khwarizmi, the eighth-century inventor of algebra and quadratic equations; al-Hay-tham, the tenth-century optician who devised a version of the scientific method; Ibn Sina, the eleventh-century physician; Ibn Tufayl, the twelfth-century philosopher who anticipated the moral questions later evaluated by Defoe and Rousseau; Ibn Rushd, the twelfth-century jurist who gave Aristotle to Europe; Ibn Khaldun, the fifteenth-century Algerian who was the father of sociology; Iqbal, the early-twentieth-century thinker who said that the theory of relativity was wrong because it overlooked the spiritual power in the universe.

If the above information failed to sway Rita, I planned to pull out my trump card. Various da’wa references had taught me that a Frenchman named Maurice Bucaille had written a book called The Bible, The Quran, and Science, which had conclusively demonstrated that most of the advances of modern science had been mentioned in various verses of the Quran. I got hold of the book and it was indeed a gold mine of facts. Bucaille showed that everything from molecular biology, to astrophysics, to hydrology was discussed within Quranic verses. The book strengthened my faith, which convinced me that it would wow Rita too.

The final element of preparation involved peer pressure. I wanted to demonstrate to Rita that some of the most important people not just in history—my first list—but in Western history, had actually secretly been Muslim.

There was, of course, Napoleon, the greatest Western military hero. He was a Muslim: he adopted the name Ali for himself and told the Egyptians that he was the mahdi, or messiah. He was also reported to have said, “I hope the time is not far off when I shall be able to unite all the wise and educated men of all the countries and establish a uniform regime based on the principles of the Quran which alone are true and which alone can lead men to happiness.” Then there was Goethe, the greatest German prose stylist. He was a Muslim, as his words in West-Eastern Divan revealed: “Whether the Quran is of eternity? I don’t question that! That it is the book of books I believe out of the Muslim’s duty.” Emerson, the greatest American essayist, must also have been a Muslim, because he quoted Muhammed at the beginning of one of his essays: “I was as a gem concealed; Me, my burning ray revealed.” Edgar Allan Poe, the great American short-story writer, must have also been a Muslim: he wrote a poem directly inspired by the Islamic angel Israfil. It opened: “In heaven a spirit doth dwell / ‘whose heart strings are a lute’ / None sing so wildly well / As the angel Israfel.” The quoted part was directly from the Quran, and given that the Quran was a miraculous book that had converted all the pagans who heard it, Poe must have converted to Islam upon hearing it too. Finally, there was Nietzsche, the greatest of modern Western philosophers. He wasn’t a Muslim, but he was certainly open to Islam; he said many positive things about it, showing a receptiveness to Islam that was a precursor to conversion.

I was very proud of my conversion dossier, but I didn’t get a chance to use it on Rita. She transferred to Rutgers.

4

Abu Bakr Siddiq, the first Caliph, became the second most important figure in Islam, because after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, he fought the false prophets Musaylima the Liar and Tulayha son of Khwaylid. Siddiq’s jihad against those pretenders assured Islam’s permanence.

Abu Bakr Ramaq, the successor, the great-grandson many times over, also had a pair of false prophets he had to fight. One of them was usurping the role of the messiah from within Islam, and the other was inviting believers to secularism.

Their names were Osama and Salman.

My first encounter with the ideas of Osama bin Laden was in the form of a news story from 1998 entitled “Muslim Fury: ‘War of Future’ Claims First Victims.”* It discussed the views of bin Laden and his supporters in the aftermath of Clinton’s Tomahawk missile strikes at various training camps in eastern