Ahmad Nazri Abdullah on how it all began:

"I didn't have that many adventures I had some adventures in Australia in 1962 I was a beach bum Tahiti, New Caledonia, Fiji, all those places, it was fun.

I got in touch with a few advertising agencies in HK after I left school. I came out with a diploma in Fine Arts. Didn't fancy being an art teacher, so I sent out letters to agencies, places that needed an artist.

After a year or so being an illustrator at a department store, I found a job in Hong Kong and then I left Australia. Spent five years in HK oh I had a good time, I was in charge of regional affairs, so I was a high-flying advertising executive.

Let's dance

Then in 1966, ICIO opened up a company specialising in fertilisers for the estates and they were looking for agencies. And we got the account so I came here, did my job, set things up and thought ok, I'm off back to HK. I had plans to opening a nightclub with a friend and it was going to be called A Clockwork Orange ! We had done the designs, we were all set to go, so I rushed back to Hong Kong, I had a disco to open! But it didn't happen because ICIO called the HK office and said if I didn't come back, they'd take the account away from Grants! Grants no longer exists by the way.

So I came down to Malaysia thinking it was a three year contract and then I'd leave and one reason why I came down was because I had resigned in HK, to open my disco! But the directors refused to accept my resignation, they told me to go to Malaysia as the manager in Singapore had committed suicide and they had no one to spare. I had creative and management experience. Off I went.

In mid-1966 I ended up in KL. The tallest building was 12 floors high, and I had just come from HK when the highest building was 50 storeys high! There were discos everywhere in HK. The parties ended at 2am, but there were also 24-hour nightclubs, so I'd go, dance go home, bathe and go to work!

When I came to KL there was nothing. I went exploring and discovered BB Park, and there was the only place I could go. I found a nice Italian restaurant just near the Shell station that still exists in BB. It was the only decent place to eat. I could walk naked down BB at 9.30pm and no one would say anything as it was completely deserted! I could have gone to Petaling Street, but the only food they served was Chinese, and you couldn't be eating Chinese food all the time. It was only when they had stalls at the Benteng then it was good.

Spent a year in KL and then I got sent to Singapore. I was offered an apartment in Singapore but I wanted a house with a garden. I figured, well right next door was land lush with gardens and clean air, and I was about sick of apartments by then. So I moved to JB and commuted to work in Singapore.

My other lives

By then I was burning out. Whenever I wanted to take leave, the company would double my pay just so I'd work. I was young then so I thought, ok. But it was killing me. I quit, did some freelance work. I had Malay friends in JB and Muar. I bumped into Arshad Ayub who was a Director at ITM one day. He asked me, why don't you come and work for us? So I went off for a meeting with ITM and next thing I knew my friend announced that I was going to work for ITM the very next day!

I enjoyed my teaching years. I had students like Ahmad Zakii Anwar. I went to Taksu recently and I only remember them as young students, not like how they look now! But Ahmad Zakii came up and said hello. I keep bumping into my students!

After three years I left ITM. I was living in Klang at that time. At that time, I was looking for a home so a friend said, oh the Sultan of Selangor has a house renting cheap. I went and thought oh my God. It needed a lot of work. It was rundown. It was called Istana Tunku Ampuan Jemaah. Prior to my moving in, the Sultan's sister had stayed there for three months but she kept getting sick! Apparently no one could stay there long. All these funny noises, smells but I never had any problem! By then I had married, I was married to a Malay woman, and my in-laws would come over and everyone hated the place. I enjoyed living there. It was beautiful.

It was from living there that I began my career. I didn't set out to paint portraits of royalties; I painted in the back room and I think the PA of the Sultan saw me painting and told the Sultan. One day I'm painting and I hear the sound of an exotic sports car, and out popped the Sultan. And that was how my career as a portraitist came about.

Visits

But yes. How I became a Muslim. This happened before I got married to my wife. I was living in JB then, as I told you earlier. Actually I had an experience. Now you know us Mat Sallehs, we don't believe in the paranormal you know. But I knew this: it couldn't be a dream. I had this foreign experience; these sort of visitations. A person standing by my bed, leading me somewhere, and showing me these scrolls of a huge book. At that time I knew nothing of Islam. All I heard of it was when we studied about the Crusades in school.

When I woke up, I thought, it can't be a dream. Now I'm reasonably tidy and I'd always have my clothes put away in the laundry basket or in the cupboard at the end of the day. But one day, I woke up to find clothes I had not worn the day before, folded by my bed. I got quite worried, so I went to a church to explain my predicament, the Anglican Cathedral in Singapore. And they told me they could not help me, but asked me to go to the mosque in Arab Street and see the imam.

The imam said I'll bring you to the Kadi Besar in JB. We met and he gave me some books and the Quran, but it was all casual. Now, I was brought up in a mildly religious home and I was with the Church of England. The church had odd policies like giving it 10% of our salary. I didn't agree with it where was it in the Bible to do such things? Of course they couldn't show me anything. What really turned me off was that the church had this board with all members on it and if you didn't pay, there'd be a black space! Everyone knew then when you had 'sinned'.

I always believed in One God but I had this question about Christianity. If God's so great, why did I have to pray through an intermediary, Jesus Christ? Why can't we talk to God directly?

So when I got to know Islam, I was happy with the direct link to Allah. It fitted in very well with my concept. But I wasn't a Muslim yet . I was just learning about the religion.

Tiger, tiger

After that visitation I had a series of dreams. On one night I dreamed of visiting this huge house on the side of a hill, there was this big huge door, it was like a meeting house, adjacent of it was this grove of palm oil trees. And the men were sitting upstairs, reading the Quran. It looked like a tahlil. I was just this observer. And then someone came up to me and said can you take this lady and her children back to her house in the village.

I did and I came back to the house and hear this huge booming voice reading Quranic verses and saw this huge furry tiger wearing a sarong, carrying a torch. I just stared. The women and the children were unpertubed but I thought ohhhh there's a tiger! And it's standing upright like a man, and reading the Quran! That was the end of the dream.

The next morning, I went straight to the Kadhi, and he told me not to be alarmed. He had a meeting with other ustazs, and when he came back he asked me to draw what I dreamed. I didn't hear from him for three weeks.

He then told me that they were amazed as the map I had drawn showed a village that (still) existed but it was outside Mecca. It used to have a grove of date palms. 'We believe you saw Saiyiddina Ali, the Lion of Allah. You had put all this in a Malay context, which was why you saw him as tiger. Ali would go to house to house with a torch. So now it's a matter of when you'll convert. Something will happen and then you'll convert.'

About a year later, my mother died. I was due to go attend a party and about 6 pm, I felt really depressed. I got back to the hotel and there was a letter for me. I phoned my father and so I went to the mosque. Devastated. I told the Kadhi, I was ready to become a Muslim. I ran around Johor to get witnesses and on June 2 1972, I was a Muslim and on a plane to attend to my mother's funeral.

Funny how life works out. But I have no regrets. No regrets at all."

If you wish to have portraits commissioned, please contact Ahmad Nazri Abdullah at 019-3496903/012-3480593.

DINA ZAMAN writes about Muslim life. She lives in KL, and spends her free time being a slug at home. Contact her at dina@malaysiakini.com .