A Scottish Woman Embraces Islam and Studies

Arabic so as to Understand the Holy Qur’an

Debby Rogers : “I managed to persuade my mother

and father, as well as 30 people of my friends

and neighbours to embrace Islam”

Since her childhood, Debby Rogers had been searching for the truth of faith ; this is why she had given enough attention to religious matters since then. When she grew up, she started to wonder about difficult and deep questions, looking for logical and convincing answers for them in the Bible since she was a committed Christian. Her commitment to Christianity was not limited to going to Church on Sundays and on other religious occasions ; she was committed to following the teachings of her Christian religion and calling people to embrace it. Yet, she did not find in it what would satiate her thirst for answers to her questions when she was studying the Christian religion.

When she thought of studying Islam, Rogers armed herself with Arabic, for she studied this language to use it as a key to understanding the Holy Qur’an. At 17, Rogers had already finished the reading of the Holy Qur’an in Arabic. She found in Allah’s Book convincing answers for many of her difficult questions related to faith, life, Reckoning and the Last Day. Her heart was open to Islam as a result.

Then, her faith journey started to have a new turning point, so she changed her name from Debby Rogers to Aisha. Since Rogers was a committed Christian she did not confine herself to embracing Islam, for she was active in Da`wa to Allah. With Allah’s assistance she managed to make her parents embrace Islam; furthermore, she managed to persuade some of her acquaintances, friends and neighbours to convert to Allah’s religion. She considered herself as a woman with the mission of calling people to Allah.

Aisha was known among her acquaintances as having a sedate character, arguing with people in ways that are best and most gracious, and observing the teachings of her new religion. She lives in a modest flat in Glasgow. The flat’s walls are covered with extracts from the Holy Qur’an, with a big wall clock which reminds the family of the prayer times, and with posters of the sacred Holy Madina and Makkah. Aisha is a Scottish girl with sharp blue eyes and a Muslim woman filled with enthusiasm for her Islamic religion. She has the radiant smile of a woman who is committed to her religion. Her face has the expression of the faces of all strong Scottish girls who do not accept prattle, trivialities and nonsense. She carefully covers her face with Hijab.

It is common that when a committed Christian girl embraces Islam and thus gets married to a Muslim man, her acts are considered as being unusual in Western society. What is stranger is when this girl manages to convince her parents to embrace Islam. Even more than that, she sincerely struggles to make most of her family members and about 30 people from among her friends and neighbours convert to Islam. This is not only unusual but the strangest matter of all.

This is what Aisha did when she embraced Islam, for she seriously and assiduously embarked on calling people to Allah, starting with the nearest people to her.

Aisha’s family was a conservative Christian one. Her father attended regularly the Salvation Army meetings. Also, at a time when British adolescent girls kissed the pictures and posters of George Michael before going to bed, Rogers posted on the walls of her room the pictures of Jesus Christ (PBUH). Yet, she found that Christianity was not good enough -as a religion- to answer her questions, as there were many questions which she could not answer. Furthermore, she was not satisfied with her beliefs which seemed to her to be in need of being reconsidered and reshaped.

Aisha said : “I felt that I had to carry out more acts of obedience to God and not be satisfied with performing prayers whenever I felt that I needed that.”

Aisha got acquainted to her Muslim husband Muhammad Bahta for the first time when she was 10 years old, for she used to frequently go to the small shop, owned by his family, to buy some goods. She often saw him praying in the shop. Aisha said : “I noticed security and peace in what he was doing. When I asked him about his religion, he answered that he was a Muslim, so I asked him ‘what does Muslim mean ?’”

When she grew up, Rogers started to study Islam in depth, with the assistance of Bahta. When she was 17 years old, she finished the reading of the Holy Qur’an in Arabic which, she commented as follows : “Everything I read appeared reasonable to me.”

Rogers decided to embrace Islam when she was less than 17 years old. She said : “When I pronounced the “Shahadatain” I felt that the heavy burden I was carrying had been removed. I felt that I was born again.”

In spite her conversion to Islam, the parents of her husband were against their marriage, because they considered her as a Western woman who would drive their son astray, thus giving the family a bad reputation. Muhammad’s father considered her as the biggest enemy. However, Muhammad and Aisha got married in the mosque. Aisha wore a wedding dress woven by Muhammad’s mother and sisters who attended the wedding against the will of their father who refused to attend it.

The bridegroom’s grandmother helped paving the way for the completion of the wedding despite the opposition of his father, who refused to attend the wedding. His grandmother arrived from Pakistan where marriage with a non-Pakistani was more likely to be rejected, for it was almost forbidden. She requested to meet Aisha. In fact, the grandmother and Aisha had a meeting from which the former got a good impression when she learnt that the latter had studied the Holy Qur’an and the Punjabi language. Therefore, the grandmother started persuading the remaining family members to agree to this marriage. Aisha, who is now 35 years old, has become a member of the family.

Though Aisha’s parents, Michael and Marjorie Rogers, attended the wedding, they were more embarrassed by the clothes their daughter was wearing on her wedding day, namely the traditional Pakistani clothes (loose pants, a long shirt and a head scarf). What made them more embarrassed was their thinking about the comments of their neighbours on their daughter’s wedding dress. Six years after the wedding, Aisha started her mission of inviting her parents and relatives to embrace Islam.

Aisha said : “My husband and I tried to convince my parents of converting to Islam by talking to them about it. Moreover, they noticed the change I had undergone after my embracing of Islam.” In fact, her mother embraced Islam and followed in her daughter’s steps. She changed her name from Marjorie Rogers to Sumaya. She became faithful to her new religion. She wore the Hijab and started performing her prayers on time. Nothing was important to her except her relationship with Almighty Allah.

Aisha’s father confirmed the fact that mobilising him for Islam was more difficult for his daughter, which pushed her to call for the assistance of her mother, who had just embraced Islam, in working together with a view to persuading him to embrace the Islamic religion. Her mother died later of cancer.

Aisha said : “My mother and I used to talk to my father about Islam. One day, while we were sitting in the kitchen, my father unexpectedly asked : ‘What are the words that should be said so that a person becomes Muslim ?’ My mother and I happily jumped on his back as a result of his heart’s opening to Islam. Three years later my brother embraced Islam by telephone ; likewise, his wife and children as well as my nephew embraced Islam.

I did not stop calling people to Islam after the majority of my relatives converted to it, for I started calling my friends, acquaintances and neighbours to Islam. I organised a class every Monday for teaching the Qur’an and Islam to the desiring inhabitants of my district in Glasgow.”

Islam seems to be desired by the perplexed Scottish women who were in quest of  spiritual salvation and peace of mind away from life’s difficulties and troubles. Trudy, a lecturer at Glasgow University, attended Aisha’s lessons because she was assigned the task of carrying out research about the new Scottish Muslim women who attended Aisha’s religious lessons. After regularly attending these lessons for six months, Trudy announced her conversion to Islam.

The religious classes were widely attended by Muslim girls particularly, those who were attracted by the Western life style but wanted to lead their life in accordance with the Islamic way. They were in need of being taught how to combine the two styles in their life. Furthermore, they wanted a space where they could discuss their problems since they were deprived of such gatherings and clubs that are open for discussions in mosques. For, mosques are monopolised by men who do not give a chance to women to manage their affairs according to Islamic teachings.

 In these religious lessons, I urge girls to consider any questions they have on their minds so as to look for answers to them in Islam, for we do not expect people to believe in Islam without knowledge and awareness of this religion.”