“HIV SAVED MY LIFE ONCE”

Allah Guides in different ways…here is the story of a man who found the solution to life [Islam} after being diagnosed as HIV positive

When 33-year-old Abdul Rasheed Timm underwent tests to find out what was causing a throat infection to recur, little did he expect that he would be diagnosed as being HIV positive.

In fact, he had only suggested that he be tested for the virus, as a joke.

“We were doing a normal test to see what was causing the throat infection to come back again and again,” he says. “It was only due to a joke I made that we included the HIV test. I said, ‘Well it’s on the form and I don’t have to pay any extra so lets take that one as well.’”

At that time, neither he, nor his doctor suspected that he would test positively for the virus. In fact, he awaited the results rather calmly.

But for some reason, on the morning that he was due to return to his doctor for the results, he became nervous and apprehensive, and thought back to two incidents in his life: he had previously been a victim of a rape crime, and had also once received a blood transfusion in a third world country.

“I did not want to go and see the doctor, but when I phoned there, they were not allowed to give me the results over the phone.”

Abdul Rasheed cannot really describe how or what he felt, when he was told that he had tested HIV+, he says.

“There was a giggle, and the thought that this is something you don’t hear everyday,” he says. “I am someone people would call a ‘survivor.’ I am not someone who gives up when hearing bad news.”

Instead of giving up, he tries to see what to do next and how do go about doing it, he says.

In this case, as a Christian, since he now knew that he was infected with a potentially fatal virus, one which could give rise to AIDS at any time, he felt that the next step was to make certain that he became the sort of person that “God Wanted him to be.”

At the time he was in the middle of training which would qualify him as a pastor.

“I had already given speeches in different churches in Holland, Germany, England and Kenya.”

In fact he had received an offer to take over a church in Kenya, shortly before testing HIV+.

Being a devoted Christian, he now felt a need to investigate the way in which he believed. “In a way to check if I was still on the right track,” he says.

In order to improve himself, and to strengthen his conviction in his beliefs, he began to spend more time, preaching Christianity to the masses.

“Not surprisingly, I came into contact with many Muslims who always rejected Christianity.”

He therefore felt that he needed to brush up on and improve his skills in propagating his religion, and one way of doing this was to learn more about the way Muslims think.

So he made a decision to read about Islam, he says, as part of his quest to become closer to God.

“It was not my plan to become a Muslim,” he admits. “I only wanted to know how to talk about religion and God when I met a Muslim.”

He went out and purchased a copy of the Qur’aan, and later, a book on hadeeth.

One day he began to compare the Qur’aan to the Bible, he says. “I discovered some important facts.”

He mentions for example, how the Bible outlines the permissible and the forbidden to its readers in the first five books of the Old Testament, telling them that once God makes a rule, that rule is permanent, and will never change.

“But almost every Christian says that with the coming of Christ, these rules fell away, and are no longer important,” he says. “And they don’t even base this on something Christ said, they base it on a dream of someone called Paul.”

The status given to women by the Qur’aan also impressed him, he says. “The role of women is something which is no longer important to Christians - a woman can go to church exposing her body, wearing short and revealing clothes.”

“It sometimes turns into a competition to see who is the best-dressed," he admits. “Sometimes it felt as if I was in a meat-market, as opposed to a place of worship.”

The more he read the Qur’aan, he says, the more he realized how astray he had been from the Will of God. “It was almost like a check-list you go through, to check and find any errors, so that you can correct or repair your mistakes.”

The more he changed his ways, the more he began to ‘think as a Muslim thinks.’

“My preaching changed, and this upset many Christians,” he says.

Soon he stopped going to church. “I guess I needed more time to read and draw my own conclusions about what was right and wrong.”

He felt that he should not allow anyone to take him through his quest for the truth. “This was something I had to do on my own, not with the help of a Muslim or a Christian.”

He started to pray to God, he says, asking Him to show him the true and only way of worship. “This time I did not pray in the name of Jesus Christ,” he adds.

One day the thought just hit him, he says, that God could not and did not have a son.

“So there I was, a Christian, trying to apply Islamic rules to his life, and asking others to do the same,” he says. “And now starting to believe that there was nothing to support the idea of the existence of the son of God - could I still call myself a Christian?”

The answer only came to him when a member of the church, visited him, to enquire about his absence from church meetings. “To my own amazement I told him I was becoming a Muslim.” They discussed it, and the man was unable to answer ‘simple questions,’ he explains.

After the man had left, Abdul Rasheed realized that he had to take the shahaadah. “I went to a mosque on that same day, and did just that.”

Shortly afterwards, he started an organization called ‘The Muslim HIV and AIDS Support Service,’ in the UK, where he presently lives.

The organization is devoted to helping Muslims who have been diagnosed as HIV+ to deal with this, as well as to guiding family members and friends towards lending support to people who are HIV+ and to AIDS sufferers.

It also aims to give the general public a better understanding of HIV and AIDS.

He is sure there are many Muslims who are HIV+ but who are too afraid to admit this, out of fear of having stigmas and labels thrown at them. “Perhaps some have already died in isolation.”

“Thinking that one can only become infected with this virus, through sexual contact or drug use, is not justifiable,” he says.

This is a common misconception which his organization aims to remove from the minds of people.

“Not so long ago, blood was not tested for the virus before being used in transfusions,” he says. “In many countries this is still the case.” He adds that he is not trying to scare anyone, but at the same time he wants people to understand that they should not shun people who are HIV+ or who suffer from AIDS.
Every Muslim has a role to play in Islam he says, regardless of whether they carry the HIV virus or not. “We should not deny them a place in society just because they have one illness which we do not understand,” he says.

Even if people did contract the virus through putting themselves at risk by committing immoral and sinful acts, he says, they should still not be judged.

“Is it not wonderful to know that Allah in His Mercy can Forgive all of us, for all the sins we have committed in the past?”

He adds that since Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, one can expect people from all walks of life to accept it, be they prostitutes or drug users, or people who were sexually promiscuous. “Surely we cannot tell them that they cannot become Muslims and close the doors of our mosques to them?” he asks.

What about his own future? “Well I see my future as any other Muslim does,” he says. “I don’t know when and how I will die.”

“I have been HIV+ for 10 to 11 years, and I have not yet been diagnosed with AIDS,” he says. “I might never die of AIDS.”

The fact that all things happen for a reason in the life of a Muslim, gives him the feeling that he is safe under the Protection of Allah, he says.

“I believe that, it was through being diagnosed with the virus, that I started to look closely at the things Allah Wants me to do,” he says.

There is a purpose for all things, he says, and perhaps this virus reached him, because there was no support out there for Muslims who are in the same position as him.

“What I am trying to say is that if Allah Gives you something He will not Harm you as long as you do the right thing with it.”

His condition does not make him feel despondent. “HIV saved my life once,” he says, explaining that if he had not been diagnosed with the virus, he might never have accepted Islam.

He lives each day as if it will be his last. “But then again that is how it should be for all Muslims.”ª


The Muslim HIV and AIDS Service may be contacted at the following e-mail address:

artyguy@skynow.net