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Maryam, who was born into a Christian family, has been religiously
inclined from a very young age.
ELVIRA Mariam Mathews, now Maryam Francis, has been teaching in an Omani girls school since 1998. In May 2004, Elvira and her husband Francis Mathews, now Yaqoob Francis, declared their faith in Islam. A small declaration “I testify that there is none worthy of worship except for Allah and I testify that Muhammad is His servant and messenger” brought about big changes in their lives.
Maryam, who was born into a Christian family, has been religiously inclined from a very young age. Comparative study of sacred scriptures always appealed to her. She resigned from the Church at the age of 14 and joined Bible and Tract Society, commonly known as Jehovah’s Witness. Yaqoob Francis, who resigned from the Church in the early 1990s, says “if you read the Bible, you will see that God has sons by the tonnes: “...Adam, which was the son of God.”(Luke 3:38).
“That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair... And when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bear children to them...” (Genesis 6: 2, 4). “...Israel is My son, even My firstborn:” (Exodus 4:22). “...for I (God) am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My first-born.” (Jeremiah 31:9). “...the Lord hath said unto me (David): ‘Thou art My son: this day have I begotten thee.” (Psalms 2:7). “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” (Romans 18:14).
The truth is that in the language of the Jews, every righteous person, who followed the Will of God, was a “Son of God”. It was a metaphorical descriptive term commonly used among the Jews. For more than 25 years, Elvira remained Jehovah’s Witness. She found them to be the “people who follow the Bible to the closest. In fact, a very thin line divides them from Islam. The reason is that they too do not believe in the concept of Trinity. They hold that Jesus Christ was sent by the Creator called Jehovah”.
“When I came to Oman in 1988, I held the view “we as Christians have the ancient of books; and our books like the Torah, the Psalms, and the Bible are much older than the Qur’an. So I used to reason in my mind that if we have something that is the root, why then go for something new like the Qur’an?”
But Maryam hastens to add “at that point, I didn’t have any clear understanding about Islam”. In those days, there used to be a very good Islamic programme on a Saudi TV channel, which she used to watch. In one of the episodes, she watched an Islamic quiz for children. “Every question that they asked I was able to answer because the quiz was about Joseph, Noha, Abraham, Jacob, Jonah and all other characters from the Bible and the Qur’an. I wondered whether I am listening to some Islamic lecture or it is a Christian quiz.
This really triggered an interest in me”. The programme also regularly aired a song which had the names of all the prophets from the Bible, including Jesus Christ. This is how Elvira hit upon the idea of exploring Islam. She looked for the Qur’an. “The more I read the Qur’an, the more I was convinced that what I had thought about Islam previously was not correct. By reading the glorious Qur’an, I started feeling what was really happening was that I was getting updated from the Torah to the Psalms, to the Bible and now something new and final testament of God-the Qur’an”.
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