Dr. Hoffman : “Thanks to his Capacity

for Reflection and Using his Mind,

Man Boasts of being the Best Creature”

“Alcohol and pork are the main obstacles

to the spread of Islam in Germany”

The Islamic thinker Dr. Murad Hoffman, former German ambassador, tells in the story of his faith journey about the most important aspect of his conversion to Islam, namely his refusal to drink alcohol and the disappearance of the red wine bottle from the top of his dining table, in conformity with his new religion which forbids drinking alcohol. Hoffman says : “I thought at first that I would not be able to sleep well without a dose of alcohol in my blood, nay that I would suffer from sleeplessness right from the outset, but what happened was completely the opposite of what I expected. Because my body was no longer in need of getting rid of alcohol, my pulse was calmer than before, during my sleep. It is right that alcohol helps in digesting fats, cholesterol (…), but we have already completely discarded pork from our dining table for ever, nay, the smell of this (forbidden) harmful meat started to cause nausea to me.”

Islam has, thus, led Hoffman to give up drinking, in compliance with what Allah has forbidden him to do, and as an obedience through which he seeks the Almighty Allah’s satisfaction. We continue with him this faith journey which has led him to salvation in the other World.

Dr. Hoffman admits that he had been an expert in wine before embracing Islam, for he said : “During my personal Jahiliya (ignorance days) -or my “Dark period”- before converting to Islam, I had been a connoisseur of wines to the extent that I was able to identify the amazing types of red wine just by tasting them with the tip of my tongue. Distinguishing between “manly” wine types and the “feminine” ones was easier than distinguishing between the different types within the same category. For each case, the matter requires determining the ethereal oil that is specific to it through tasting. Diplomatic life, and especially the banquets organized at the end of NATO Foreign Ministers’ Meetings, gave me the opportunity to acquire this expertise. I tried hard to develop the knack of a wine taster, and while I was in Paris in 1967, I used, during weekends, to book a table in one star restaurant through the Michelin directory, and choose the wine by phone, asking that the bottle be opened immediately so that the wine could get appropriately oxidized and acquire its full ripeness and taste on my arrival at the restaurant. In the evening, I used to choose my food in accordance with the wine and not vice-versa.

When I was working as First Counsellor of the Embassy in Belgrade in 1977-78, I used to organize wine-testing and tasting parties to which I invited friends. I used to show my guests how one could, through one’s palate, identify the types of grapes, the soil, the harvesting methods, the fermentation methods, and the year, using different kinds of colourless white wine which I used to buy from specialised shops, and from various regions. I used to be like an instructor, showing different types of wine in a succession in which some wines had similar characteristics and some different ones. Actually, some of my guests’ capacities had developed to the extent that after a 7th taste-trial, they could distinguish between different types of wine, according to different standards.

However, I have found that the Qur’anic interdiction of wine and drugs is not a social need alone, for it is also in the personal interest of the individual, as this allows him to have a clear and alert mind all the time. Therefore, I have put an end to this period of my life once and for all, because a human being boasts of being the best creature thanks to his capacity for reflection and using his mind. We, as human beings, are able to contemplate the world around us and our conditions, as well as to behave wisely. These qualities, which raise us above, are the very ones which we systematically destroy by drinking alcohol and taking drugs ; we, thus, degrade ourselves, reduce our capacity within the universal system, and degenerate to a level lower than that of the animals, which never get inebriated. Addiction to alcohol and drugs is some kind of self-mental mutilation. My Serbian housekeeper in Belgrade was a warning example for me, for she always resorted to alcohol addiction, even after long-periods of desintoxication.

The appearance of alcohol addicts is a despicable one, which causes depression and arouses sympathy. More often than not these addicts commit suicide, knowing the reality of their state but unable to give up their habit, because alcohol has deprived them of their will and capacity to take a decision. It is very rare to find the number of young alcohol addicts in Turkish towns to be smaller than their counterparts in Germany. Starting from early afternoon, they hold a glass of Raki in one hand and a cigarette in the other, thus showing that they have lost self-control. From the religious point of view, they are practicing some kind of attributing associates to Allah, because wine and nicotine are far more important for them than anything else in the world, including their God Who created them. They believe that they can live without Him – but not without Raki.

The aim of the Holy Qur’an in totally prohibiting wine is to prevent people from starting to drink it, as it does not seem harmful when drinking only one glass. But one glass which seems to be harmless on the surface can become a lot of glasses one day. It is usual that the addict is not aware of being in danger.  All this time especially, addicts give numerous excuses and justifications to rationalize their addiction to smoking and drinking, among which are that they are happy or unhappy, suffering from job stress or on holiday, in groups or individually, sick or healthy, hungry or full.

I faced this problem as a superior when I warned one of my subordinates, even one day before he drank wine. I was accused of violating his right to express himself freely (for I had, as a result, a problem with the Human Resources Counsellor) ; however, the latter, himself, was sure the following day that the concerned employee had become an alcohol addict. From that time onwards, he was considered as an alcoholic.

When finding himself among drunkards, the person who does not drink, quickly realizes that he is in the wrong place, for he sees that the former are nice, creative and imaginative. But I was able to prove the opposite to myself when I played the same musical compositions on a brass instrument and recorded them three times. Between each two performances, I drank two glasses of my favourite Bourbon before my conversion to Islam. I expected that my performance would be better every time I drank Whiskey before, but the tape recorder revealed the terrible truth !

I was very embarrassed about the conduct of some of my compatriots on a Lufthansa plane on the way to Jeddah. As we were approaching Saudi Arabia, with its hot weather, their strong need for alcohol increased so much so that they asked the steward for four bottles all at once, as if they could swallow wine after that like a camel. Their appearance was contemptuous when they left the plane carrying Christmas trees wrapped in plastic, and staggering from drunkenness.

These incidents prove that the strongest obstacle to the spread of Islam in Germany is the Qur’anic prohibition of wine and pork ; for the German, in Bavaria and in Köln, cannot relinquish their favourite pork and alcohol.

You may come across a German who sings the beauty of Turkish girls and the man’s right to have more than one wife and his subsequent desire to be a Turk. However, he quickly changes his mind and cries out that he does not want to become a Turk, because Turks do not drink alcohol. It is useless, though, that he becomes a Turk, even if Turks drink alcohol today, because, in Turkey today, the law punishes polygamy but not drinking alcohol.

A Muslim, who drinks a glass of water or juice in the middle of people drinking wine, spoils their joy, since what he does involves some kind of moral punishment for them. After my conversion to Islam, my wife and I have rarely been invited to private parties or dancing parties, as if a person cannot feel joy except when drunk ; this is why we have become ostracized – “social outcasts”.

More often than not, the difference of environmental climate is used as a proof against prohibiting alcohol and pork in our society (the German one) on the pretext that this prohibition is not suitable for our climate. This proof is not logical at all, for alcohol’s harms are more numerous in the technological age than they were in the 7th century. Then, the worst that could happen to a drunken man was to fall off his horse, to beat his wife and children, or to cut the leg sinews of a camel (Note that an evil incident of this type was the occasion for the revelation of one the alcohol interdiction Verses in the Holy Qur’an).

Women and children are still beaten today under the influence of alcohol ; similarly, planes fall down today under the same influence. A drunken captain of a ship caused the worst environment disaster that has ever happened. In spite of the existence of statistics concerning road and industrial accidents, it is impossible to estimate the human casualties and material damage suffered by Western society as result of alcoholism and drug addiction. In some Turkish hospitals, addiction treatment wards are next to mental diseases treatment wards. This is a warning that, sooner or later, it may happen that the mind is destroyed before the liver stops performing its functions.

I was, myself, victim of a traffic accident which took place as a result of drunkenness. At the end of an academic year in the Union College in Schenectady in New York State, I made a hitchhiking tour of the US. During this tour, I had a bad accident near Holy Springs in Mississippi on July 28, 1951. As we were on the highway from Atlanta in Georgia to Memphis in Mississippi, there appeared before us a phantom near Guitana. I did not remember what happened after that ; however, I knew later that this phantom was merely the car which collided with ours. Its driver and his companion had drunk a lot of alcohol in Tennessee, which allowed drinking while driving ; before they travelled onto Mississippi which prohibits drinking while driving. The damage we incurred was much less than theirs, because we were riding a 1941 Chevrolet, which was built before the war; thus, it was more solid than the car they were riding, which was a 1943 Chevrolet, i.e. built during the War.

I realized, then, that my arm which is impaired today, and which I had been putting on the back seat headrest had saved me from what was worse. It was clear, too, that I would not have survived had my height been only 8 cm shorter since I would have fallen down on my nose and eyes at 160 km an hour speed; nonetheless, the damage I incurred was the loss of 19 teeth. Having finished stitching my chin and lower lip, the surgeon said to me, “It is possible to fix your face through aesthetic surgery after some years” ; adding : “Actually, nobody survives an accident like this, God has something special in store for you, my dear !”

I was thinking about this matter, while strolling in Holy Springs with my arm in a sling and a bandage around my stitched mouth and chin. I was wondering about what to do with myself on my twentieth birthday, but everything hurt me : eating or drinking, strolling or answering questions ; finally, I went for a hair-cut, as this at least was not hurting. I did not grasp the true significance of my survival till thirty years later when I announced my conversion to Islam.”