Love Thy Neighbour

My faith journey to Christianity from Islam began largely through Catholicism.  I like to underline this fact because it does not appear to be a well-trodden route.  As a Muslim I lived for a few months among practising Catholics (in a convent with nuns & in a Jesuit house of studies), and was able to experience first-hand how Catholics might react towards an ‘unsaved’ soul in their midst.

Interestingly, those nuns and priests are among the most tolerant Christians I ever met, and I got to know them very well. Although they were aware that I was then in the personal throes of questioning my faith, they never attempted to convert or influence me away from Islam. Their prayer was always that God’s will be done, and if it meant I remained a Muslim, then so be it, for it is God alone who directs our souls.

Catholics are not pushy evangelists, theirs is generally a quiet, unwavering devotion to God, and a striving to imitate their exemplar, Christ. The abiding memory of those months I spent in their midst of is one of Christ-like kindness. It certainly shed a favourable light on the Roman Catholicism so often criticised by my staunchly evangelical friends.