Ali Vyacheslav Polosin: When a Long Question Led to Tawhid
Vyacheslav Polosin's path did not begin with a passing quarrel with his former faith. It grew from a question he carried for years: how could belief in one all-knowing, all-powerful God be reconciled with intermediaries and rituals for which he found no satisfying explanation? Trained in philosophy and later ordained an Orthodox priest, he had first encountered Islam through a seminary course designed mainly to defend Orthodoxy against other teachings.
While serving in Central Asia from 1983 to 1985, he came to know Muslims directly. He later recalled a Tajik shaykh telling him that he would become Muslim; this remains his remembered episode, not a universal sign or proof. The deeper movement, in his own written account, came through prolonged study of Christian history, worship and doctrine, tested against the monotheism he already regarded as central.
He wrote that by 1995 he had stopped participating in church services even as an inactive priest, yet still did not know where uncompromising monotheism was expressed clearly. A television program in 1996 explained Islamic monotheism in language he understood. One Russian Quran translation left him confused, but about a year later he read Iman Valeria Porokhova's translation and studied the Islamic understanding of Jesus.
After reading the Quran translation and learning about the Islamic understanding of Jesus, Polosin wrote that he no longer doubted accepting Islam. His account links 1998 to his decision with his wife to profess monotheism, first privately before two witnesses and then publicly. He dated the public declaration to spring 1999; the book’s biographical note specifies May 1999. [P1]
He added Ali to his name, wrote books explaining his reasoning and joined public Muslim educational work. His writings also prompted substantial controversy. This account therefore does not present every historical or theological claim he made as settled fact; it presents those arguments as the reasons he said shaped his choice.
His story shows the value of meeting a faith through its own sources and allowing a difficult question time to mature. It does not make one person's experience proof by itself, nor turn the shaykh's words into evidence. What the record firmly supports is a long study, a clearly stated decisive factor and a public declaration in May 1999—no more than the sources establish.
Sources
- Ali Vyacheslav Polosin / Islamland mirror — Почему я стал мусульманином (Why I Became Muslim), book-length first-person account, PDF edition dated 2009 / 1430 AH
- Индекс / Досье на цензуру — Почему я стал мусульманином, 2000, issue 11
- БИЗНЕС Online — Тайный шейх сказал мне: У тебя мусульманские глаза…, 2016-09-12
- IslamNews / Radio Russia report — Али Вячеслав Полосин: Прямой путь к Богу на Радио России, 2006-04-16