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Youhana embraces Islam
abdullahcohn
09/17/05 at 14:35:55
Youhana embraces Islam

September 17, 2005 21:41 IST


Pakistan cricket star Yousuf Youhana, who was the only Christian in the team, has converted to Islam.

"The conversion took place with members of a 'tableegi jamaat' present with him in Mecca where he and his family said the Kalma and later performed Umra," a cricketer was quoted as saying by 'The News' on Saturday.

"Youhana and his family have also been issued certificates in the holy place confirming their Muslim status which allowed them to perform Umra," he said.

Youhana had started taking interest in Islamic teachings some years ago when he moved around with the Pakistan team and saw them praying and preaching.

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"The truth is Youhana had tried to take the decision to become a Muslim some years back but facing lot of opposition and emotional blackmail from his wife, parents and other relatives, he stalled the inevitable. He then convinced his wife and children of the need to become Muslims and some players had also played a key role in this process," the report said.

"It is also true that two players of the Pakistan team played a key role in helping him take the decision which was first opposed but then supported by his wife."

The source said Youhana had already enrolled his children in a school with Islamic leanings after discontinuing their education in a modern, private school
Re: Youhana embraces Islam
AbdulBasir
09/19/05 at 02:21:04
[slm]

Alhamdulillah, what good news, assuming these reports are correct. As an aside, notice the innuendo of even that short article? May Allah protect us. Anyhow, when Youhana used to score a century he would make the sign of the cross over his chest. Inshallah now we may see him make the sajda of shukr to Allah SWT :)

What pleases me most about this story is that it serves as an example to us as Muslims about the importance of our character in giving daw'ah.

The Pakistani cricket team used to be a bunch of immensely talented players who were very poor examples--many of them indulged in questionable or outright prohibited behavior, many were not externally observant Muslims apart from the cultural persona; when the 1996 World Cup was partially held during Ramadan, only one out of the entire team fasted. Some even said that observing Islamic practices made them score less. Allah guides whom He wills, but if Youhana had been with those players at that time exclusively (he was exposed and played with many of them in the early part of his career), in that atmosphere, I wonder if he would have become as inclined to Islam. Allahu A'lam.

Over the last few years, the character of the Pakistani team has changed, with many new young players who are practicing. Now they are by no means perfect and there are still a few real punks thrown in there, but on the whole they are better role models then their predecessors were in a country where they arguably wield more influence on young children than any shaykh could. And some of the older players who once would not even respond to your salaam (speaking from personal experience here) are now the most observant of them.  Indeed they all pray salah together, and everyone has to be there, and a source close to the team told me that they would invite the non-Muslims players to join and they would.

In this kind of environment, conducive to da'wah, where the Muslims are observant and they are not shy or timid in inviting people to Islam, what other outcome would be expected?

We should never lose sight of the fact that Allah changes the hearts, as He wills.  To see people who wanted the least to do with Islam become daees, callers to the faith, it reminds me to be hopeful that our ummah can change. It also shames me to realize how negligent I have been in participating in that process. The keys to success are in our hands, we just need to realize where they go and use them.

May Allah guide and and protect us all.
[slm]:)
09/19/05 at 03:17:08
AbdulBasir
Youhana embraces Islam
timbuktu
09/18/05 at 09:58:37
[slm]

Yusuf Youhana, the famous cricketer from Pakistan, has declared that he became a Muslim three years ago.


Youhana announces conversion to Islam

By Arshad Ansari

LAHORE: Pakistan cricket star Yousaf Youhana announced on Saturday that he had embraced Islam.

After offering Isha prayers at the house of Pakistan Hardware Merchants Association President Sheikh Imran Daud, Yousaf said he had embraced Islam three years back but he kept it secret due to unavoidable circumstances.

The top cricketer said there would be no non-Muslim in Pakistan provided the Muslims became true believers and start following in the footsteps of Hazrat Muhammad (SAW). "This will also tend to initiate a global wave about embracing Islam by the non-believers," he observed. "God willing, soon a day will come when Islam will be the sole supreme religion of the world," he observed.

He disclosed that his wife had also converted to Islam three months ago, and she offered prayers five times a day. "Especially, my wife and I offer Fajr prayers together," he said. Yousaf said he would bring up his children in Islamic environment and was also praying for his parents embrace Islam.

Replying to a question, he said he could not express his feeling about becoming a Muslim. He said his visits to Raiwind changed his view about life and he decided to become a Muslim. He said he was facing no pressure or fear as he believed in Almighty Allah.

He said it was not correct to conceal embracing Islam anymore as he was practically following the teachings of this divine religion. "By the grace of God, I am now very much satisfied and feeling burden-less," he added.

He said he offered daily prayers during foreign visits and also went to mosques in Dubai for saying prayers. He said nowadays he was reading translation of the Holy Qur’aan though he was facing difficulty in reading the holy book in Arabic. He hoped that he would be able to read the holy book in Arabic with ease in few months after learning it from a teacher.
Re: Youhana embraces Islam
abdullahcohn
09/22/05 at 10:09:39
Pakistani cricket star Yousuf Youhana says he has converted to Islam from Christianity after attending preaching sessions by a leading religious group.
Youhana, who now calls himself Mohammed Yousuf and was the only Christian in the team, says his wife also converted with him about three months ago.

But he says they did not make their decision public for family reasons.

Reports in Pakistan say his parents are furious while Yousuf says he wants the rest of his family to convert too.

"I don't want to give Yousuf my name after what he has done," his mother was quoted as saying by the Daily Times newspaper.

"We came to know about his decision when he offered Friday Prayers at a local mosque. It was a shock," his mother was reported as saying.

 I cannot tell you what a great feeling it is

Yousuf Youhana

He moved out of his parents' house when they came to know about his decision but has since moved back.

A Pakistani television channel showed him offering prayers along with other members of the Pakistan cricket team including skipper Inzamam ul Haq.

Life 'ruined'

Mohammed Yousuf's mother says she had been worried about her son's behaviour for a long time.

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.

"I cannot tell you what a great feeling it is," he told the BBC.

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.
Re: Youhana embraces Islam
AbdulBasir
12/01/05 at 12:30:26
[quote]
when Youhana used to score a century he would make the sign of the cross over his chest. Inshallah now we may see him make the sajda of shukr to Allah SWT[/quote]

Youhana scored his first century yesterday as Mohammad Yousuf. Check out his response:

[img]http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/56100/56117.jpg[/img]
12/01/05 at 17:35:58
AbdulBasir
Embracing Islam has changed my whole life
iowais
11/24/05 at 00:41:44
Pakistan's Yousuf begins new innings, as a Muslim
When Pakistan's Mohammad Yousuf returns to international cricket in the first Test against England this weekend, it will be with a new name and a new religion.

The cricketer formerly known as Yousuf Youhana converted from Christianity to Islam in August, joining prayers with team-mates including his captain Inzamam-ul Haq.

"For me it's a new start to life. Embracing Islam has changed my whole life," the 31-year-old said ahead of Pakistan's first Test against England in Multan.

Yousuf, previously the only Christian in the team, surprised many observers by his conversion, which left spinner Danish Kaneria, a Hindu, as the only non-Muslim in the team.

The switch also caused problems with his family, including his mother, who threatened to set herself on fire.

"Naturally it was big news for them and they were hurt. I hope things will improve," said Yousuf, who now lives separately from his family in the eastern city of Lahore.

But Yousuf said he had never faced any problems in the team or with the fans - either as a Christian in 97 per cent Muslim Pakistan -- or now as a Muslim.

"I never faced any problems before and hope things will continue to remain good for me. On the field I look for more runs and off it I want to be a good Muslim," he said.

The only issue now is how he will be listed in the international cricketing annals, where changes of name are all but unheard of.

"Our policy at Wisden is that the player's wishes should be paramount, but that we cannot go back and change a player's name in retrospect," said a spokesman for the Wisden Almanack.

"So for the upcoming Pakistan v England Tests, he'll be Mohammad Yousuf. But for all games played before his conversion, he'll remain Yousuf Youhana," said the spokesman.

Yousuf's change in name caps a dramatic rags to riches tale.

Brought up in a poor family which lived in a one-room house in Lahore's teeming old city, Yousuf almost started a career with a local tailor before destiny pointed him towards cricket.

He started playing in Bail Hatha, a Christian-dominated area and low-income settlement close to Lahore railway station, and was first spotted by former Test cricketer Azhar Khan.

"I first saw Yousuf play in a local match and realised that this was a boy who could go places. He has travelled a good distance in his career since then," said Khan.

Before making his presence felt at domestic level, Yousuf was picked to play a warm-up match against England in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates, in 1997.

His half century did not make any headlines but his technique and approach to batting caught the eyes of the selectors, who picked him for Pakistan's tour to South Africa and Zimbabwe a year later.

Ever since Yousuf has played 59 Tests for Pakistan scoring 4,272, besides accumulating 6761 runs in 202 one-day internationals and has become one of his team's most reliable batsmen.
Re: Embracing Islam has changed my whole life
jannah
11/30/05 at 14:08:02
slm,

How was his name Yousuf and he was Christian?? Veeirrrddddd
Re: Embracing Islam has changed my whole life
safa
12/01/05 at 11:43:53
[slm]
Non-muslims in pakistan tend to have muslim sounding names - possibly to blend in better with the muslims??
Re: Youhana embraces Islam
AbdulBasir
12/01/05 at 17:48:10
[slm]
Typically mixed articles below. People can never believe that a man willingly chooses Islam, or that there aren't ulterior motives involved. May Allah guide us all.

----------

Religion and the Pakistan team

Finding Faith

Osman Samiuddin

September 23, 2005

During India's tour to Pakistan last year, an Indian journalist asked an ex-player from the `80s with as much flippancy as seriousness why, in his time, Pakistan players didn't feel the urge to exhibit their faith as openly as current members did. Having been tickled by a stream of pre- and post-match comments littered with traditional Islamic salutations and on-field celebrations of landmarks with a sajda (kneeling down in Muslim prayer), the query was justified. Suitably, the reply was simultaneously glib and revealing: "Clearly we weren't good Muslims."

Certainly during his time and periods preceding it, public displays of religiosity at least (not its private practice) were absent. At one defining moment in its recent history, when Javed Miandad struck a leg-side full toss for six in Sharjah, Pakistan cricket had no overt religious commemoration of the event. Instead, Miandad and non-striker Tauseef Ahmed dashed off wildly, arms akimbo, as natural and impulsive a celebration as you could imagine.

Six years later, at arguably a greater epochal moment in Melbourne, a handful of players knelt in sajda and offered thanks for winning the World Cup. Today, if you talk to any cricketer, on or off the record, replies will begin with and be bookended by a bismillah ("In the name of Allah" - it is a traditional recitation at the start of any Muslim act) or inshallah ("God Willing"). And now, with Yousuf Youhana's conversion to Islam and a new identity - Mohammad Yousuf - the growing phenomenon of faith within the team finds its most intriguing example.

It is difficult to say with any certainty how or why this gradual change has come about. Superficially, we can pinpoint key actors and factors. Saeed Anwar, after the traumatic death of his young daughter, turned to religion and spirituality and took to the Tableeghi Jamaat (missionaries), who practise a stricter adherence to the codes of Islam than most. Anwar's influence spread among senior players such as Saqlain Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmed and Inzamam-ul-Haq and the group travel together regularly to Raiwind, a small town near Lahore, where the Tableeghis congregate for prayer and dialogue.

Yousuf's revelation that he had actually converted some time ago adds further credence to the theory that Anwar's role has been crucial. Three years ago, during the World Cup, there were persistent rumours that he had converted under Anwar's influence.

Maybe too, in the spectre of match-fixing, there lies a compulsion towards religion. Sharda Ugra, senior editor with India Today, suggested in an article on the subject last year during India's tour to Pakistan that "the post-match-fixing generation in Pakistan cricket is grappling with a `double burden'; as sportsmen not only are they under scrutiny for their professional conduct, they have also become characters in a public morality play, always vulnerable to being accused of match-fixing should they fail."

Tellingly, when Salim Malik was first accused by Rashid Latif and Basit Ali of match-fixing during the African jaunt of 1994-95, almost the first thing manager Intikhab Alam asked him to do was swear on the Quran that he wasn't guilty of any such deed.

But for younger or newer members of the team, who haven't played with Anwar, scouring for the roots of their religiosity is a more difficult proposition. To an extent, conformism and peer pressure play a part. But a broad, not infallible, argument can also be drawn: as the socioeconomic and geographic composition of the team has altered so too has the inclination of the team towards religion.

Where once the national team was sourced in large part of players from the metropolises of Karachi and Lahore, and where the leading figures were urbane and rounded personalities such as Asif Iqbal, Majid Khan and Imran Khan, this is no longer the case. In Pakistan's last Test match, against the West Indies, only four members of the team were born in Lahore or Karachi.

There will be some who will argue that in smaller towns, such as Sialkot and Sheikhupura, religion perhaps holds a greater significance in people's lives than it does in Karachi or Lahore. Levels of education are poorer, fewer people are literate and because awareness is generally low, religious beliefs, orthodox and otherwise, assume an enhanced importance. Abdul Razzaq's mysterious illness and dizzy spells during last year's Australia tour is an example: apparently he was on a spinach-only diet that a pir (spiritual leader) had advised would make him stronger.

But this assumption can be, and often is, countered by some Pakistani sociologists who rightly point to the higher incidence of sectarian-fuelled violence in cities like Karachi and Lahore that suggests the opposite to be true. This indicates, they say, that the importance of religion has grown in urban, rather than rural, Pakistan over the last decade or so.

Maybe the development isn't linked so much to changing demography as it is to changing times. Many Pakistanis will tell you that the country as a whole has increasingly come to identify itself in religious terms. When Pakistan came into being it wasn't, after all, officially known as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, as it is now. The gradual Islamisation of the country began towards the end of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's premiership in the mid-'70s. Bhutto declared Ahmadis non-Muslim, banned alcohol, shut down nightclubs and changed the weekly holiday from Sunday to Friday to appease the religious front.

The subsequent policies of General Zia-ul Haq - he brought in the Shariah law (the Islamic legal system) - and the pre-eminence of Islamic political parties such as the new religious alliance under the banner of the MMA have since enhanced the process. But even here, it can be argued with some justification that the right wing Jamaat-e-Islami party held sway over Karachi's politics through the '60s and '70s.

In recent months, two of the more heated domestic debates have been whether or not to retain a column that asks you to identify your faith in the Pakistani passport (after much debate, the column has been retained) and the impending implementation of a Hisba bill in the North-West Frontier Province. The bill essentially puts forth yet another parallel legal Islamic system, one which liberal circles decry as an act of Talibanisation, so strict are its moral codes.

Younger players in the current team are children of this era, unlike players such as Imran, Javed and even Akram. When Salman Butt says, as he did in a recent Wisden interview, "we are Muslims and we believe in Allah. We do whatever Islam says and we try to be what we are supposed to be. Religion is the complete code of life and we follow its guiding principles," it is but natural for someone born in 1984, at the peak of Zia's rule, to not just say it, but stress upon it.

Ultimately, of course, there isn't anything to suggest the trend really matters in terms of either performance or selection. It forms but an interesting aside in what is, intrinsically and traditionally, an interesting team.

Cynics have speculated that Yousuf's conversion was the derivative of the belief that being Christian would preclude his elevation to captaincy. Disregarding his credentials as captain, the more cynical would counter that having a Christian as captain of Pakistan, an Islamic country fighting a global war on terrorism and a domestic one on extremism, would in fact be an admirable international PR coup for the media-savvy President Musharraf, who also doubles as Patron-in-Chief of the PCB.

In any case, Yousuf has denied that his aspiration to captaincy had any link with his decision. In a matter as personal as this, we must go by his word and nothing else, not speculation, rumour or the displeasure expressed by his very vocal family on the subject.

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/pakveng/content/story/219991.html

Re: Youhana embraces Islam
AbdulBasir
12/01/05 at 17:49:15

Yousuf keeps faith
By Paresh Soni  


Just over two months ago, Mohammad Yousuf was publicly disowned by his mother and was forced to fend off questions about his decision to convert from Christianity to Islam.

A poor performance in the first Test against England betrayed the pressure he was under but returning home to Lahore this week for the series finale and a batsman-friendly pitch worked wonders.

Such was the surge in his confidence that he marked his century by performing a Sajda - kneeling down and touching the ground with his forehead - which, as Yousuf Youhana, he used to watch his Muslim team-mates do when celebrating.

Asked about his unbeaten 183 when day three ended, the 31-year-old's first words were an expression of gratitude to higher powers.

"I just try hard but everything is down to God - Allah gives us help."

A quiet man, Yousuf appeared to have rediscovered the stability he has often provided to Pakistan's middle order.

The son of a railway worker brought up in modest surroundings, he once pondered a career as a tailor before battling to make the grade in domestic cricket.

Unusually for a player on the subcontinent, he was made to wait until the age of 23 before breaking into the national team.

But the right-hander's patience and solid technique eventually paid off and led to a call-up for the tour of South Africa in 1998.

The second Test in Durban, with Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock as opponents, was never going to be the easiest of starts and his two debut innings lasted a mere 40 balls.

But while plenty of his contemporaries fell victim to the revolving door selection policy in Pakistan, Yousuf survived to become one of the most successful batsmen in the country's history.

His innings on Thursday took his total of Test runs to 4,574 at an average - 48.65 - which has only been bettered by two other Pakistanis, former captain Javed Miandad and current skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq.


Between 2000 and 2002 he accumulated almost half of those runs, with nine of his 14 hundreds coming in the process.

But life since then has not been as straightforward, with his average in the last two years around 38.

He was again overlooked for the captaincy last year, leaving his supporters to claim that religion was the deciding factor.

The man who got the job, Inzamam, puts the team's success in the past year down to religious bonding but says none of his players are compelled to take part.

And before his conversion, Yousuf and the team's English coach Bob Woolmer claimed they had been treated well by the rest of the squad, who marked Christmas on last winter's tour of Australia with a special dinner.

Nonetheless, the suspicion persists among sections of the Pakistani media and the country's minority Christian community that the number four batsman was pressured into changing faith.

Others have accused the team of overtly demonstrating their commitment to Islam as a means of avoiding heavy criticism when results go against them.

Yousuf says he embraced Muslim principles three years ago but only went public in September.

"I had money and fame but I was restless," he explained.

"At the end of the day I would wonder what kind of a life this was. It was too superficial."

Whatever his motivations, with his series-deciding knock in Lahore, Mohammad Yousuf has shown his countrymen and England he is a player of substance.


Story from BBC SPORT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport2/hi/cricket/england/4489338.stm

Published: 2005/12/01 15:19:56 GMT


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