Bogdan Ataullah Kopanski

Polish, now American. Ph.D in History & Politics.Was imprisoned twice by the Polish Communist Regime (1968, 1981-82) Embraced Islam in 1974.

When I was 12 years old I rejected the illogical and contradictory faith of the Church. Two years later in 1962 I was fascinated by the victorious struggle of the Algerian Muslim Mujaahideen against French Colonialism. It was the first 'arrow' of islaam ...

In high school and in the earliest days of my University education I was a typical example of 'rebel generation' Reds... My way to the Truth of the Qur'aan was slow and unpaved...

In 1974 I visited Turkey, and wrote my M.A. dissertation about Sultan and Caliph Suleiman Kanuni's policy towards the Polish Kingdom. There I was hit by the most beautiful voice of mankind : ADHAAN, the call to prayer. My hair stood up. An unknown powerful force led me to an old masjid (mosque) in Istanbul. There, an old, smiling Turkish man taught me the WUDOO' , or ablution. I confessed to tears the SHAHAADAH (proclamation of faith) and I prayed my first SALAAT-UL-MAGHRIB ( the Evening Prayer)..

I swept out the rubbish ideologies...

For the first time in my life my mind was relaxed and I felt the pleasure of Allaah's love in my heart. I was a Muslim...