A graduate from two Ivy League universities, Cornell and Brown University Medical School, Dr. Laurence Brown specialized in ophthalmology at George Washington University. He was living the American dream; an ophthalmic surgeon in the US Air Force, and the medical director and chief ophthalmologist of a major eye center. Married, with a daughter and a second child on the way, he had a beautiful country home, two cars, and a dog. Recalling his own story, on the Peace TV show, Interfaith Issues, Brown said, “Before 1990, I was the typical American. I subscribed to the philosophy that the person who dies with the most toys wins. I had spent my life accumulating different things; that was the only objective I knew in life.” It was the birth of his second daughter, Hannah, in 1990, that drastically changed his life forever. This experience set him off on a quest searching for guidance; it opened his eyes to larger and greater meanings in life, made him ask deep questions, and eventually led him to God. When Hannah was born, happiness quickly turned into fear and panic as the doctors and nurses agitatedly took her to the neonatal intensive care unit. Brown was a doctor working at the hospital, George Washington University Hospital, and he went to the NICU to see his child. She was blue, dark blue, from her chest downwards. A cardiac ultrasound showed a coarctation of the aorta; a critical narrowing of the major artery from the heart. He felt shattered. “I am a medical doctor and I knew exactly what the diagnosis meant. Her body was suffocating because her tissues were not receiving enough blood carrying oxygen. Her only chances of survival would be emergency cardio-thoracic surgery. The surgeon would cup open her chest, and replace the faulty blood vessel with a graft,” said Brown. “These children in general did not do very well. She would need surgery again a few years later to replace the graft as she grew and eventually the graft would fail, and she would die,” said Brown. Although he was a doctor, he was also a worried father with a sick child and his emotions were interfering with the medical staff's ability to help his daughter, so he left the ICU. Not knowing what else to do, he walked down the hall and found a prayer room. He was unaccustomed to and unprepared for being in such a helpless situation; all of his life he knew what he wanted and how to get it. Although he was an atheist at the time who had denied the existence of God, something powerful drew him to the prayer room. “I walked into that room, and prayed for the first time in my life; with true sincerity. Immediately I felt that it was the right place to be; it was just a prayer room with no crosses, crucifixes, statues, or any religious symbols,” recalled Brown. Not knowing how else to pray or what to say, Brown said, “Oh God, if you are there, I need help.” In that desperate moment, Brown made a promise to God. He said, “I promised that if God saved my daughter and if He guided me to the religion that was most pleasing to Him, I would follow.” Brown was away from his daughter's room for only 15 minutes and when he returned, he found the doctors huddled around her and they said, in a state of amazement, that she was going to be fine. “They didn't understand it. They tried to explain it away with science and medical terms, but I didn't buy that explanation. I had prayed with sincerity for the first time in my life, and I could only believe that her miraculous recovery was from her Creator,” said Brown. The ultrasound afterwards showed that her heart was suddenly completely normal, she did not need surgery or any medicine. She grew up as a healthy child and is now in college. The moment Brown found out that his daughter was perfectly healthy he remembered his promise to God. The journey began; his search for the religion that would lead him to God who had saved his child. “I read scriptures of almost every religion. I studied Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity, but with each religion that I encountered I came to the conclusion that it wasn't the one,” Brown said. “I read the Bible and analyzed it. In the Bible, Jesus Christ refers to himself as the son of mankind, so why do Christians call him the son of God? Jesus taught the belief in one God, goodness, devotion, and that we will be held accountable for our actions. I couldn't believe that men and women carried a taint of original sin, or that Jesus was God or the son of God, or that we needed an intercessor to pray to God. No priest could explain to me the difference between what Jesus taught (the worship of one God) and the Trinitarian theology. I studied with countless priests but I found no answers to my questions,” said Brown. The internal struggle and the search for God eventually led Brown to Islam. “It wasn't until I learned about Islam that everything made sense. Everything fell into place. I read the Old Testament and it mentions three prophets: John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. So, who is the third prophet? I believe it is the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad,” said Brown. In Islam he found consistency, continuity, and answers to his questions. God is one, there are no intermediaries, and the Prophets were men who conveyed God's message. Men and women should worship the Creator not the creation. “This is my reason for embracing Islam. I found the answers to my questions, my search, and I found Islam to be the conclusion in the chain of revelations,” said Brown. Pursuing his search, Brown earned a PhD in religion and is the author of several books on comparative religion.
