Jackson Free Press

Numan Rasheed Abdul-Ali, 37, grew up surrounded by the Baptist faith of his family, but never felt it was right for him. "We tend to adopt the religion of our parents without thinking about it. Say, if your parent is Baptist, then you are a Baptist. That's like saying if my father is a doctor, then that makes me a doctor," he explains.

When a friend introduced Abdul-Ali to the Qur'an in 1992, he became interested in Islam. "It pulled me in, started answering my questions," he says. "Islam teaches that God speaks to your soul through nature and the environment."

Abdul-Ali contacted his local mosque in Monroe, La., and made his declaration of faith to Islam in 1994. The man once known as Edward James Reese III became Numan Rasheed Abdul-Ali, which literally translates to "blessed and intelligent, rightly guided servant of the most high."

Abdul-Ali and his family moved to Jackson from Monroe in April 2005 for his job as a commercial cleaner for local movie theaters. He also works as a ramp agent for UPS at Jackson International Airport. He and his wife, Willie Mae Reese, have been married for almost two years after a long engagement and have four children.

Abdul-Ali has served as chairman of the board at the Masjid Muhammad Islamic Complex of Jackson. His duties include coordinating fundraisers and arranging keynote speakers and workshops for the mosque. Prayer fives times a day is mandatory in Islam, and group prayer services are held every Sunday, at specific times as stated by the Qur'an: morning, afternoon, early evening, immediately after sunset and late evening after no light remains in the sky. Between 60 and 65 members attend the mosque each week.

Abdul-Ali says the differences between Islam and Christianity are distinct. "God, or Allah, is the creator of everything, and everything else comes second to him. He is all-aware, and did not rest on the seventh day. The Qur'an is separate from the Bible and was revealed to Muhammad over a period of 23 years. Muhammad was sent to bring people back to God after Jesus when they started straying again."

Abdul-Ali says the mosque members would like to see more services for the Muslim community in Jackson such as Islamic schools for children and retail stores that provide Islamic-conscious products.

He says that anyone considering becoming Muslim should "search inside for your purpose, and really research Islam. It has to be a willing transition; no one can force someone to be Muslim, or else you loose the whole idea of Islam."