She was a famous and
popular singer of France. Every song of hers was a great hit. She was very much
busy in her work. Her fame resonated even outside France, in other countries of
Europe. But three years ago she suddenly secluded herself from public life, and
speculations of sorts were being made. Then in the first week of October she
suddenly appeared on TF1, a TV channel in France, in a completely changed
posture so much so that it was difficult for the French viewers to recognize
her at the first glance. She was in Hijab, and no French citizen had any doubt
that it was Islamic Hijab, because due to serious opposition to Hijab or scarf in
France Hijab has been greatly introduced there; everyone there knows what an
Islamic Hijab or scarf is. Then she stunned the viewers with her revelation
that she had reverted to Islam, and that too after deep understanding and close
reading of the Qur’ān. This singer is Melanie Georgiades, known as Diam’s.
Alarabiya.net published this story of Diam’s in great detail on October 2;
parts of this story were also published in some Urdu newspapers on October 3.
And her entire inner self got
changed
Diam’s narrates the voice of her conscience that during the last days
of her life as a singer she was suffering from depression and took help of
drugs to overcome it; she was torn of life; meanwhile when one day she was
talking to a Muslim acquaintance in Paris, she suddenly told her that it was time
for Salat for her and that she was going to the centre to say the prayers.
Diam’s insisted that she too would go there and see what a Salat is and how it
is performed. She says that when she prostrated along with her Muslim friend
she felt change in her inner self and enjoyed comfort and serenity, the type of
which she had never experience earlier. Thereafter she went to Mauritius, where
she studied the Qur’ān and Islamic literature and after having been fully
convinced reverted to Islam. She said good-bye to her past; now she is a new
person and Muslimah. As for purdah she says that it is enjoined by Shari’ah and
every Muslim woman should abide by it. She takes the opposition to Islamic
norms in France as violation of the tradition of tolerance in France.
Various causes and reasons
And this feeling of
Diam’s is the feeling of every woman in the west who experiences the Islamic
faith and puts it into practice. Reports of reversion to Islam surface on the
internet and most of them are those of women. Every such woman narrates her
experience. Causes and reasons are different. Some are attracted by monotheism
in Islam; some others by the way Salat is offered; yet some others by Islamic
concepts of trustworthiness, modesty and forgiveness. Some women are attracted
by the Qur’ānic statement of Prophet Isa (Jesus), and after reversion to Islam
declare that they became Christians then in the real sense. Many say that they
have not changed their religion, rather realized their religion in its true
sense and that they have reverted to their religion. But most of the women
reverting to Islam in the west are those who realize the rights and status Islam
gives to women and the respect and dignity they get in the Islamic society –
and this is the real cause of fear and worry of anti-Islam forces. Their concerted
efforts are that women in the west do not get introduced to the realities of
Islam.
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