W. B. Bashyr Pickard, the author of a number of books, including Layla and Majnun, The Adventures of Alcassim, and A New World, tells the story of his quest for Islam after suffering severe injuries in Worled War I.
At school and college, I was occupied, perhaps too intensely, with the affairs and demands of the passing moment. I do not consider my career of those days brilliant, but it was progressive.
Amid Christian surroundings, I was taught the good life, and the thought of God and of worship and of righteousness was pleasant to me.
If I admired anything in those days, it was nobility and courage. Coming down from Cambridge, I went to Central Africa, having obtained an appointment in the administration of the Uganda Protectorate.
There I had an interesting and exciting existence beyond what I had ever dreamt of, and was compelled by circumstances, to live among the black brotherhood of humanity, to whom I may say I became endearingly attached by reasons of their simple joyous outlook upon life.
The East had always attracted me. At Cambridge, I read the Arabian Nights. Alone in Africa, I read the Arabian Nights, and the wild roaming existence I passed in the Uganda Protectorate did not make the East less dear to me.
Then upon, my placid life broke in the WWI. I hastened homewards to Europe. My health broke down. Recovering, I applied for a commission in the army, but it was denied to me over health reasons.
I therefore cut losses and enlisted in the Yeomanry, managing somehow or other to pass the doctors and, to my relief, donned uniform as a trooper.
Serving then in France on the Western Front, I took part in the battle of the Somme in 1917, where I was wounded and made prisoner of war.
I traveled through Belgium to Germany where I was lodged in hospital. In Germany, I saw much of the sufferings of stricken humanity.
I came to the outskirts of starvation. My shattered right arm did not heal quickly and I was useless to the Germans. I was therefore sent to Switzerland for hospital treatment and operation.
I remember clearly how dear, even in those days, was the thought of the Holy Qur’an to me.
In Germany, I had written home for a copy of the Qur’an to be sent out to me.
In later years, I learned that it had been sent but it never reached me.
In Switzerland, after the operation of my arm and leg, my health recovered.
I was able to go out and about. I purchased a copy of the French translation of the Qur’an.
I was delighted to read it. I felt as if a ray of eternal truth shone down with blessedness upon me. My right hand still being useless, I practiced writing the Qur’an with my left hand.
My attachment to the Qur’an is further evidenced when I say that one of the most vivid and cherished recollections I had of the Arabian Nights was that of the youth disco
vered alive alone in “the city of the dead,” seated reading the Qur’an, oblivious to his surroundings.
After the signing of the Armistice, I returned to London in December 1918, and some two or three years later, in 1921, I took up a course of literary study at London University.
I regularly attended the Arabic lectures at the university. One day my Arabic teacher, the late Prof. Belshah of Iraq, in the course of my study of Arabic, mentioned the Qur’an. “Whether you believe in it or not,” he said, “you will find it a most interesting book and well worthy of study.”
I replied: “Oh, but I do believe in it.” This remark surprised and greatly interested my teacher, who after a little talk invited me to accompany him to the London Prayer House at Notting Hill Gate.
After that, I attended the Prayer House frequently and came to know more of the practice of Islam, until, on New Year’s day, 1922, I openly embraced Islam.
That happened decades ago and since then, I have lived a Muslim life in theory and practice to the extent of my ability.
The power, wisdom and mercy of God are boundless. The fields of knowledge stretch out ever before us beyond the horizon.
Throughout my life, I felt assured that the only befitting garment one can wear is submission to God, and upon is head the headgear of praise, and in his heart love of the One Supreme.
Alhamdulillah I am a Muslim. Praise be to God, the Lord of all the worlds.
— Islamreligion.com
How Holy Qur’an changed my life
