yousuf youhana embraces islam ,subhan-Allah

[Zainub]

Have just hot hands on a copy of The News. They quote Yousuf as saying his wife converted 3 months ago, and that they both pray together. He also said that he is "praying" for his parents to embrace Islam. There is no evidence in his statements of him ever feeling the need to force his wife to convert (which is what you're mistaken in thinking Beny), I believe he tried to persuade / convince her, which is something he was perfectly entitled to do, and his wife was entitled to either reject or accept his advice, as we aware now, she has accepted, and she did so at her own consent. He also says he was facing no pressure or fear for his conversion to Islam, adding that it was his visits to Raiwind that changed his view about life and made him seriously consider becoming a Muslim. He said it was not correct to conceal embracing Islam anymore as he was practically following the teachings of the religion. "By the grace of God, I am now very much satisfied and feeling burden-less," he added.



ps: this is seriously off topic I admit, but I couldn't resist this. Beny, you say kids will believe anything you tell them. By putting forward a case for compulsory secular education you're affectively saying governments should brainwash their kids into being non-religious. That's just as dictatorial as mandatory religious education in my opinion.

[Colourful Chaddi]

If the reports are true i wish him and his family the best of luck embracing Islam. I am wondering how his parents reacted to this? But i am also wondering if he was forced into embracing Islam by his team-mates? Also why did he change his name? his name was already a muslim name.But anyways i wish him the best of luck in his new religion.

[Zainub]

There is no question of the reports not being true. They are true. Yousuf made a public announcment yesterday, him self. It was televised.

[Colourful Chaddi]

Originally Posted by Zainub

There is no question of the reports not being true. They are true. Yousuf made a public announcment yesterday, him self. It was televised.

thanks Zainub for telling me, but wyhy did he change his name? his name was already a muslim name and a very good one, it was a name of a messenger but Mohammed is also a very good name. Zainub do you know any news of how his family reacted to this, were they happy or angry, will they also embrace Islam?

[Zainub]

His family were not shown in the TV report I talked about earlier, although it is well documented that his wife and children (yes I was wrong earlier he does have children and not just a child) have converted. I believe his parents haven't converted but he wishes them to. I have no idea if they are happy sad or angry - I would think any remark on this by any one would be merely speculation (and injustified too because it is non of our concern). About the name, I guess even though he's added Mohammad to his name he'd still be reffered to as Yousuf since Mohammad is a very common first/second name and people who have it in their names are not reffered to by it. For instance Sami is always called Sami despite his name being Mohammad Sami.

I had the chance to speek to an American convert a couple of years ago who changed his name from Adam Richards to Abduallah Islam. He told me Imams adviced him to change his name, even though Adam too is a perfectly acceptable name for a Musliam (since it too is the name of a Prophet). Not that a name makes whole lot of difference to the way one practices, you could call your self Abduallah and do all sorts of sins, or call your self Adam and do none, but why have an old name reflecting the past when you've taken a new beginning everywhere else in your life. That's what he told me. I guess there could be a similar logic behind Yosuf's decesion. But I can only guess. I wouldn't know for certain.

And as M said, who cares what his name is as long as he can still be the good player that he is.

[Beny]

ps: this is seriously off topic I admit, but I couldn't resist this. Beny, you say kids will believe anything you tell them. By putting forward a case for compulsory secular education you're affectively saying governments should brainwash their kids into being non-religious. That's just as dictatorial as mandatory religious education in my opinion.

Not at all Zaunib,

I'm sure that everybody who goes to a secular school has their own oppinions about religion and they are welcome to those oppinions so long as they dont find their way into the curriculam. In Victoria just this week a revamp of our state school system was announced which allowed schools to teach 'comparative religion'. In other words a teacher can now actauly talk about religion so long as they are not teaching or preaching that religion. I'm happy for that sort of thing to happen, in fact it needs to because religion is such an integral part of how our sociaty works.

But if you have a group of 5-10 year olds in a classroom and start telling them that God created the world in seven days and that we should live our lives by way of a sacred text, then yes I do have a problem. The Idea of baptising our children only days after birth stems from the belif in original sin and high infant mortality rates... Nobody with any theological background would argue that if a baby is'nt baptised and they die, that that child will then go to Limbo.

I remember that when we started our Text's and Traditions class this year, we had one girl who was extreamly religious and attended bible study classes e.c.t By the end of first term she had quit the class because she could'nt handle the complexity of the stuff that she was being taught. For some people, that class has strengthend their faith and perhaps moved it to a new level of understanding. For others it has destroyed the imature notions that they had been taught as a child.
My point is that a child can rarely understand religion and so it should'nt be taught. Unless you think that a 9 year old can handle advanced history- understanding the sociocultural nature of where religion came from, they can understand how litiriture was constructed and percived 2000 years ago e.c.t then you agree with me.

Congrats to Yousuf for converting, however he should have let his children discover spirituality for themselves and then decide to convert.

[Paoli]

Not to sure how it works, but I'm pretty sure in Pakistan and certain other countries around that area you follow the decisions made by the man.

And Beny, I'm sure if you were a toddler, and you're parents became muslims, they'd convert you as well.

At first it seemed to me that Youhana was a little bit bullied into becoming a muslim, as he is of relatively high profile in a very relgious nation, although embracing another religion.

Yousuf Youhana isn't a muslim name. Yousuf is a direct translation to Joseph (Father of *****) in the arabic christian world. Not to sure about Youhana though.

[Captain]

Yousuf is a Christian and Muslim name, for clearification. I have got this to say on this:

Yousuf Youhanna was a devout Christian and and excellent ambasador for Christianity and i have no doubt he will be the same for Islam. I think he will be a model Muslim just as he was a Christian. Just because I have to say this: He will be a Muslim others can look up to, unlike the newest tennis star form India,(the muslim girl, don't remember her name nor do i care much for her.)

P.S. no offense meant to anybody here.

[Colourful Chaddi]

wow i have just read the article on the bbc confirming his convertion. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4260516.stm

He qoutes in the article "I cannot tell you what a great feeling it is,". This clearly shows that he was not bullied into converting to Islam.

I am at the moment very sad about his mothers reaction. She blamed the brother of a former Pakistan cricket player, Saeed Anwar, for "ruining my son's life," according to the Daily Times. Saeed Anwar and his brother have become Muslim preachers who preach from the platform of Tablighi Jamaat - Pakistan's largest non-political religious grouping. Yousuf confirmed that he was a regular at the preaching sessions held by the Tablighi Jamaat. But he told journalists that he had converted of his own free will and there was no pressure on him to do so.

Officials in the Pakistan cricket board say members of the Tablighi Jamaat have been visiting the board's offices and training camps regularly over the last several years. Most of the team members have become overtly religious over the last few years, the official said.

This is a very pleasing news to me to see a christain converting into a muslim of his free, which shows that terrirsm solves nothing and is not used by true muslims. I am also very pleased to read that the pakistani players have beome religious poeple.

P.S. Yousuf is a a muslim name.

[Zainub]

I'm not sure how much I trust The Daily Times to be honest with you - they aren't really a publication I rate my self. Either way I've had more then enough to say on Yousuf's conversion, I've decided now I'm going to shut up from now on. Strange that Cricinfo have not ran a story on this though. I know that perhaps this is a sensitive subject, but I’m still amazed they have chosen to ignore it given Yousuf is by no means a low profile player. And it's not like Cricinfo only report on the scholastic aspects of the sport, because they have routinely ran stories on things as un-academic as Shane Warne’s attempts to save his marriage, about whether or not his family were going to move to England and even something as trivial as the latest measure he under took to curb his baldness. Holly Flintoff’s birth was a big enough story for Cricinfo for Rachael and Andrew to have a picture of them published on their home page. Surely if they cover all that, one would have expected them to cover this story too. Strange, very strange indeed.