Roger DeBlanck's Blog - Posts Tagged "quran"
The Importance of Islam in My Life: A Christian’s Embrace of Muhammad
I.
I read the Qur’an for the first time shortly after September 11, 2001. Even before I started reading, I knew I would not find anything in its contents that would justify what the terrorists had done. I knew this because I had spent a good amount of time studying world religions a few years prior to 9/11, and during that time my studies led me to admire Islam’s message of peace and humanity and to embrace the sage and compassionate teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. And so as I read the Qur’an, not only did I find verses that entirely forbid the acts of the terrorists, I also discovered in its message an inspiring vision for how to live a purposeful and meaningful life. Indeed, reading the Qur’an only strengthened my reverence for Islam and my embrace of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.
What I discovered in experiencing the beauty and ingenuity of the Qur’an offered me both inspiration and guidance for how to fulfill many beliefs I cherish as vital to living a purpose-driven life:
• Show compassion towards those who are disadvantaged and underprivileged (2:177, 2:277, 90:12-16).
• Give generously to the less fortunate (2:177, 2:195, 2:215, 2:262, 2:270-271, 2:277, 3:92, 30:38-41, 57:7).
• Extend kindness equally towards kindred, neighbors, and strangers (2:82-83, 4:36-37, 17:26).
• Appreciate others with differing beliefs and ideas (2:62, 2:256, 60:7-8).
• Learn how to forgive those who have wronged us (3:132-135, 3:159, 41:34, 42:37-42).
• Work towards peace among different people and nations (5:32, 5:45-48, 23:52, 42:13, 49:9-11).
• Recognize the vitality of diversity (30:21-22, 35:27-28).
• Practice civility within and among communities (3:104, 3:159, 16:125-127, 21:92).
• Ensure justice for all people (2:228, 3:104, 5:8, 5:45-48, 16:90, 17:33, 42:15, 57:25).
• Strive for equality between men and women and among the diversity of races (2:228, 4:1, 4:7-8, 7:189, 15:29, 30:21-22, 39:6).
• Accept others regardless of background, belief, or faith (2:87, 2:256, 3:3-4, 5:69, 10:37, 12:111).
• Seek knowledge, learning, and reason as ways to improve our lives (8:22, 16:125, 20:114).
In addition to engaging with the Qur’an, my studying the spiritual journey of the Prophet Muhammad and how he embraced people of all races and faiths further inspired me on how to fulfill a purposeful and meaningful life. His ministry of compassion, nonviolence, and acceptance of everyone enabled him to establish a community, the ummah, as a state that honored religious freedom, human rights, and protection of all citizens under just laws. These freedoms, rights, and protections, moreover, did not depend upon one’s class or race, but rather on the piety, civility, and humanity everyone showed to others in the community. Through covenants, treaties, and through his own words and deeds, Muhammad assured Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others with diverse beliefs that they shared the same freedom and equality. With remarkably similar teachings to those of Jesus, Muhammad also taught the power of forgiveness, especially of our enemies, because Muhammad understood, just as Jesus understood before him, how revenge and vendettas have no place in our civil society. Indeed, Muhammad’s remarkable life inspired me with the example he set of devoting himself to teaching and leading his community on a path committed to kindness, compassion, and peace among all people.
After reading the Qur’an and studying the life of Muhammad, I felt that I could not remain silent whenever I encountered people voicing ignorance and intolerance about Muslims and Islam. Instead, I decided to speak up and attempt to educate people who claimed “Muslims hate America” or “Islam is a violent religion” or “Muhammad is the anti-Christ.” Many who voiced such falsehoods often claimed their allegiance to Christianity. My initial reaction was to feel shame and embarrassment for these narrow-minded individuals, but then my indignation grew at their ignorance, which I realized was usually based on either their misinformation, their total lack of knowledge, or their assumption of seeing themselves as more righteous than others. After my emotions settled down, I remembered how the Qur’an calls for us to restrain our anger, to practice patience, to trust in God, to spread words of good tidings, and to carry out good deeds (Qur’an 2:153, 3:134, 14:23-26, 16:127, 25:63). At that point, I sought to lend my knowledge about the truth of Islam with the hope that I may be able to open the hearts and expand the minds of people who did not know anything about Muslims and yet chose to pass harmful judgment against them.
I made clear to them how Islam does not teach hate, just as Christianity does not teach hate. I reminded them that those who harbor hatred of others under Christianity are not true Christians, just as those who hate others under Islam are not true Muslims. Those who hate and carry out violence against others cannot proclaim themselves Christians or Muslims because the teachings of our same loving, compassionate, and merciful God do not condone hatred and violence. Those who hate others are following their own misguided radicalism and extremism, and they are not acting in the name of God. In addition, I pointed out to those who maligned Islam how here in America we do not blame Christians in collective fashion for the crimes of those few individuals who carry out acts of hate, terror, and violence while claiming adherence to Christianity. Still, I ran into difficulty with opening the hearts and expanding the minds of some people intent on blaming and condemning Islam for the hatred and violence of a few wanton criminals. For years I wanted to write something that both addressed these misconceptions about Islam and also shone light on the humanity and inclusiveness of Islam’s teachings, but in the immediate years after 9/11, I had no story to guide me in undertaking such an endeavor.
II.
Allow me to go back to my youth. I have always been a reader and a writer. In fact, one of my mantras is to make my reading goals more important than my writing goals. With my daily commitment to reading, I strive to fulfill what my favorite writer Toni Morrison referred to in one of her speeches as “the dance of an open mind when it engages another equally open one.” Such a dance occurs when I commit to reading. Indeed, reading and studying are what first brought me to admire Islam and the Qur’an and to embrace the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. But I also dreamed of writing something someday as profound and impactful as my favorite book by Toni Morrison. You may be familiar with Morrison’s timeless novel Beloved about a former enslaved woman dealing with the trauma and anguish of her past.
I dreamed of creating a story like Beloved, which encompassed the pain, the suffering, and also the hope for freedom of every enslaved and persecuted person throughout America’s history. Morrison’s characters in her novel represented the struggles of all oppressed people to endure in their quest for liberty, racial equality, and a just society. I wanted someday to write something that confronted the wrongs of the past and gave voice to those who sacrificed and survived. I knew if I was ever fortunate enough to find a story that encapsulated such a grand vision, it had to address America’s greatest crime of human enslavement and its greatest sin—what I call the disease of racism. I wondered if I would ever find a story and a character to undertake such an endeavor.
However, I had plenty of other stories in my mind desiring for me to tell them, and so I undertook each project with determination and perseverance. My first novel The Ramos Brothers Trust Castro and Kennedy was based loosely on the hardships of my father and uncle who are Cuban and immigrated in their childhood to the United States in 1959. My second novel The Sky Buries All Sorrow was based loosely on the experiences of my grandfather, a World War II veteran who survived Pearl Harbor. My third book Empire of the Mind was a collection of my selected poems. And my fourth book The Destruction of Silence was another novel—its story about a young Native American man on a journey to overcome abuse and addiction and to discover secrets to his family’s history.
Yet even after I wrote those four books between 2001-2016, the story lingering most in my mind focused on American slavery and the disease of racism and bigotry continuing to plague our country. Then in 2017, I started rereading the Qur’an and I asked myself, “When did the first Muslims arrive in America?” The minute I began researching, I discovered how Muslims have always been a vital part of America’s history because many of them had been enslaved. I immediately knew I had to write about this largely untold and marginalized aspect of American history. After nearly a year of researching, I saw a story emerge with a main character named Isa Muhammad Rahman. Over the next three years, Isa’s voice spoke to me as a narrator while I worked to chronicle his journey in my novel Prayers from the Far Quarter.
Allow me to share with you a brief summary of Prayers from the Far Quarter: Isa’s journey begins in 1850 from the Bornu kingdom of sub-Saharan Africa. From his capture in his homeland, to his sojourn in Victorian England, to his enslavement on a cotton plantation in the antebellum South, to his work with the American Anti-Slavery Society in the North, and finally through his sacrifices as a Union soldier, Isa relies on the guidance of Islam to strengthen his humanity as he struggles for survival and freedom. During his efforts to gain inclusion for himself and his family as American citizens, Isa’s journey affords him remarkable opportunities to share Islam’s message of accepting people of all races and faiths. His quest for equality and a just society leads his life on a path where he meets and works alongside figures as majestic and revered as Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman.
With Isa’s voice guiding me, my novel Prayers from the Far Quarter took its course, and as I wrote Isa’s story, my love of Islam grew stronger. Indeed, writing the book became a life-changing experience for me, and so I’d like to share with you why Islam is important in my life and why I embrace the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad with the same love and admiration I have for Jesus, peace be upon them.
Islam is important in my life because it inspires me to understand how God’s love and caring for humankind compelled Him to deliver a final message through Gabriel to Muhammad so that Muhammad could teach and guide us back to following the earlier teachings of the all the prophets from Adam to Noah to Moses to Abraham to Isaac to Ishmael to Mary and, of course, to Jesus (Qur’an 2:87, 2:136, 16:43-44, 33:7).
Islam is important in my life because it reminds me how we are all children of Abraham and how Allah (the Arabic word for God) is our supreme Semitic God. He is the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. He is the All-Loving, All-Powerful, All-Compassionate, and All-Merciful God of the Jews, the Christians, and the Muslims, which makes us all a kindred community to one another, just like the original Muslim community, the ummah, which Muhammad established in the early 7th century where everyone was accepted and protected as equal (Qur’an 2:62, 2:163-164, 5:69, 42:13).
Islam is important in my life because it embraces Jesus as the Messiah on Earth, it recognizes Jesus’s ability to carry out miracles, and it sees Jesus as a prophet showing us the way to a righteous life. And it is Muhammad who reminded us of how we should embrace the teachings of Jesus, whose ministry of love, peace, nonviolence, forgiveness, and compassion among all diverse people reflects Muhammad’s own teachings (Qur’an 2:253, 3:45-49, 4:171, 5:75).
Islam is important in my life because it accepts the Torah and the Gospels and confirms and seals their divinity as a single, unified narrative from God that is finalized in the recitation of the blessed Qur’an, which Muhammad shared with us (Qur’an 3:3-4, 5:45-48, 6:92, 10:37, 12:111).
Islam is important in my life because the Qur’an acknowledges differences among religions and says that God intended these differences so that we would have to learn from each other in order to coexist as many nations in peace and understanding (Qur’an 5:45-48, 60:7-8).
Islam is important in my life because of its inclusiveness of all faiths and races and because its recognition of diversity becomes more profound when studying the life of the Prophet Muhammad, whose compassion and acceptance of all people place him among the world’s first antiracists and make him one of the world’s greatest teachers and leaders (Qur’an 2:62, 35:28).
Islam is important in my life because as someone who grew up as a Christian and as someone who follows the teachings of Jesus, I have also found great guidance and inspiration in the Qur’an and the Hadith, the historical record preserving the words and deeds of the remarkable life of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him (Qur’an 33:45-46, 53:5, 61:6).
Roger 8-)
I read the Qur’an for the first time shortly after September 11, 2001. Even before I started reading, I knew I would not find anything in its contents that would justify what the terrorists had done. I knew this because I had spent a good amount of time studying world religions a few years prior to 9/11, and during that time my studies led me to admire Islam’s message of peace and humanity and to embrace the sage and compassionate teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. And so as I read the Qur’an, not only did I find verses that entirely forbid the acts of the terrorists, I also discovered in its message an inspiring vision for how to live a purposeful and meaningful life. Indeed, reading the Qur’an only strengthened my reverence for Islam and my embrace of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.
What I discovered in experiencing the beauty and ingenuity of the Qur’an offered me both inspiration and guidance for how to fulfill many beliefs I cherish as vital to living a purpose-driven life:
• Show compassion towards those who are disadvantaged and underprivileged (2:177, 2:277, 90:12-16).
• Give generously to the less fortunate (2:177, 2:195, 2:215, 2:262, 2:270-271, 2:277, 3:92, 30:38-41, 57:7).
• Extend kindness equally towards kindred, neighbors, and strangers (2:82-83, 4:36-37, 17:26).
• Appreciate others with differing beliefs and ideas (2:62, 2:256, 60:7-8).
• Learn how to forgive those who have wronged us (3:132-135, 3:159, 41:34, 42:37-42).
• Work towards peace among different people and nations (5:32, 5:45-48, 23:52, 42:13, 49:9-11).
• Recognize the vitality of diversity (30:21-22, 35:27-28).
• Practice civility within and among communities (3:104, 3:159, 16:125-127, 21:92).
• Ensure justice for all people (2:228, 3:104, 5:8, 5:45-48, 16:90, 17:33, 42:15, 57:25).
• Strive for equality between men and women and among the diversity of races (2:228, 4:1, 4:7-8, 7:189, 15:29, 30:21-22, 39:6).
• Accept others regardless of background, belief, or faith (2:87, 2:256, 3:3-4, 5:69, 10:37, 12:111).
• Seek knowledge, learning, and reason as ways to improve our lives (8:22, 16:125, 20:114).
In addition to engaging with the Qur’an, my studying the spiritual journey of the Prophet Muhammad and how he embraced people of all races and faiths further inspired me on how to fulfill a purposeful and meaningful life. His ministry of compassion, nonviolence, and acceptance of everyone enabled him to establish a community, the ummah, as a state that honored religious freedom, human rights, and protection of all citizens under just laws. These freedoms, rights, and protections, moreover, did not depend upon one’s class or race, but rather on the piety, civility, and humanity everyone showed to others in the community. Through covenants, treaties, and through his own words and deeds, Muhammad assured Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others with diverse beliefs that they shared the same freedom and equality. With remarkably similar teachings to those of Jesus, Muhammad also taught the power of forgiveness, especially of our enemies, because Muhammad understood, just as Jesus understood before him, how revenge and vendettas have no place in our civil society. Indeed, Muhammad’s remarkable life inspired me with the example he set of devoting himself to teaching and leading his community on a path committed to kindness, compassion, and peace among all people.
After reading the Qur’an and studying the life of Muhammad, I felt that I could not remain silent whenever I encountered people voicing ignorance and intolerance about Muslims and Islam. Instead, I decided to speak up and attempt to educate people who claimed “Muslims hate America” or “Islam is a violent religion” or “Muhammad is the anti-Christ.” Many who voiced such falsehoods often claimed their allegiance to Christianity. My initial reaction was to feel shame and embarrassment for these narrow-minded individuals, but then my indignation grew at their ignorance, which I realized was usually based on either their misinformation, their total lack of knowledge, or their assumption of seeing themselves as more righteous than others. After my emotions settled down, I remembered how the Qur’an calls for us to restrain our anger, to practice patience, to trust in God, to spread words of good tidings, and to carry out good deeds (Qur’an 2:153, 3:134, 14:23-26, 16:127, 25:63). At that point, I sought to lend my knowledge about the truth of Islam with the hope that I may be able to open the hearts and expand the minds of people who did not know anything about Muslims and yet chose to pass harmful judgment against them.
I made clear to them how Islam does not teach hate, just as Christianity does not teach hate. I reminded them that those who harbor hatred of others under Christianity are not true Christians, just as those who hate others under Islam are not true Muslims. Those who hate and carry out violence against others cannot proclaim themselves Christians or Muslims because the teachings of our same loving, compassionate, and merciful God do not condone hatred and violence. Those who hate others are following their own misguided radicalism and extremism, and they are not acting in the name of God. In addition, I pointed out to those who maligned Islam how here in America we do not blame Christians in collective fashion for the crimes of those few individuals who carry out acts of hate, terror, and violence while claiming adherence to Christianity. Still, I ran into difficulty with opening the hearts and expanding the minds of some people intent on blaming and condemning Islam for the hatred and violence of a few wanton criminals. For years I wanted to write something that both addressed these misconceptions about Islam and also shone light on the humanity and inclusiveness of Islam’s teachings, but in the immediate years after 9/11, I had no story to guide me in undertaking such an endeavor.
II.
Allow me to go back to my youth. I have always been a reader and a writer. In fact, one of my mantras is to make my reading goals more important than my writing goals. With my daily commitment to reading, I strive to fulfill what my favorite writer Toni Morrison referred to in one of her speeches as “the dance of an open mind when it engages another equally open one.” Such a dance occurs when I commit to reading. Indeed, reading and studying are what first brought me to admire Islam and the Qur’an and to embrace the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. But I also dreamed of writing something someday as profound and impactful as my favorite book by Toni Morrison. You may be familiar with Morrison’s timeless novel Beloved about a former enslaved woman dealing with the trauma and anguish of her past.
I dreamed of creating a story like Beloved, which encompassed the pain, the suffering, and also the hope for freedom of every enslaved and persecuted person throughout America’s history. Morrison’s characters in her novel represented the struggles of all oppressed people to endure in their quest for liberty, racial equality, and a just society. I wanted someday to write something that confronted the wrongs of the past and gave voice to those who sacrificed and survived. I knew if I was ever fortunate enough to find a story that encapsulated such a grand vision, it had to address America’s greatest crime of human enslavement and its greatest sin—what I call the disease of racism. I wondered if I would ever find a story and a character to undertake such an endeavor.
However, I had plenty of other stories in my mind desiring for me to tell them, and so I undertook each project with determination and perseverance. My first novel The Ramos Brothers Trust Castro and Kennedy was based loosely on the hardships of my father and uncle who are Cuban and immigrated in their childhood to the United States in 1959. My second novel The Sky Buries All Sorrow was based loosely on the experiences of my grandfather, a World War II veteran who survived Pearl Harbor. My third book Empire of the Mind was a collection of my selected poems. And my fourth book The Destruction of Silence was another novel—its story about a young Native American man on a journey to overcome abuse and addiction and to discover secrets to his family’s history.
Yet even after I wrote those four books between 2001-2016, the story lingering most in my mind focused on American slavery and the disease of racism and bigotry continuing to plague our country. Then in 2017, I started rereading the Qur’an and I asked myself, “When did the first Muslims arrive in America?” The minute I began researching, I discovered how Muslims have always been a vital part of America’s history because many of them had been enslaved. I immediately knew I had to write about this largely untold and marginalized aspect of American history. After nearly a year of researching, I saw a story emerge with a main character named Isa Muhammad Rahman. Over the next three years, Isa’s voice spoke to me as a narrator while I worked to chronicle his journey in my novel Prayers from the Far Quarter.
Allow me to share with you a brief summary of Prayers from the Far Quarter: Isa’s journey begins in 1850 from the Bornu kingdom of sub-Saharan Africa. From his capture in his homeland, to his sojourn in Victorian England, to his enslavement on a cotton plantation in the antebellum South, to his work with the American Anti-Slavery Society in the North, and finally through his sacrifices as a Union soldier, Isa relies on the guidance of Islam to strengthen his humanity as he struggles for survival and freedom. During his efforts to gain inclusion for himself and his family as American citizens, Isa’s journey affords him remarkable opportunities to share Islam’s message of accepting people of all races and faiths. His quest for equality and a just society leads his life on a path where he meets and works alongside figures as majestic and revered as Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman.
With Isa’s voice guiding me, my novel Prayers from the Far Quarter took its course, and as I wrote Isa’s story, my love of Islam grew stronger. Indeed, writing the book became a life-changing experience for me, and so I’d like to share with you why Islam is important in my life and why I embrace the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad with the same love and admiration I have for Jesus, peace be upon them.
Islam is important in my life because it inspires me to understand how God’s love and caring for humankind compelled Him to deliver a final message through Gabriel to Muhammad so that Muhammad could teach and guide us back to following the earlier teachings of the all the prophets from Adam to Noah to Moses to Abraham to Isaac to Ishmael to Mary and, of course, to Jesus (Qur’an 2:87, 2:136, 16:43-44, 33:7).
Islam is important in my life because it reminds me how we are all children of Abraham and how Allah (the Arabic word for God) is our supreme Semitic God. He is the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. He is the All-Loving, All-Powerful, All-Compassionate, and All-Merciful God of the Jews, the Christians, and the Muslims, which makes us all a kindred community to one another, just like the original Muslim community, the ummah, which Muhammad established in the early 7th century where everyone was accepted and protected as equal (Qur’an 2:62, 2:163-164, 5:69, 42:13).
Islam is important in my life because it embraces Jesus as the Messiah on Earth, it recognizes Jesus’s ability to carry out miracles, and it sees Jesus as a prophet showing us the way to a righteous life. And it is Muhammad who reminded us of how we should embrace the teachings of Jesus, whose ministry of love, peace, nonviolence, forgiveness, and compassion among all diverse people reflects Muhammad’s own teachings (Qur’an 2:253, 3:45-49, 4:171, 5:75).
Islam is important in my life because it accepts the Torah and the Gospels and confirms and seals their divinity as a single, unified narrative from God that is finalized in the recitation of the blessed Qur’an, which Muhammad shared with us (Qur’an 3:3-4, 5:45-48, 6:92, 10:37, 12:111).
Islam is important in my life because the Qur’an acknowledges differences among religions and says that God intended these differences so that we would have to learn from each other in order to coexist as many nations in peace and understanding (Qur’an 5:45-48, 60:7-8).
Islam is important in my life because of its inclusiveness of all faiths and races and because its recognition of diversity becomes more profound when studying the life of the Prophet Muhammad, whose compassion and acceptance of all people place him among the world’s first antiracists and make him one of the world’s greatest teachers and leaders (Qur’an 2:62, 35:28).
Islam is important in my life because as someone who grew up as a Christian and as someone who follows the teachings of Jesus, I have also found great guidance and inspiration in the Qur’an and the Hadith, the historical record preserving the words and deeds of the remarkable life of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him (Qur’an 33:45-46, 53:5, 61:6).
Roger 8-)
Believing in the Prophethoods of Jesus and Muhammad: Strengthening My Christian Understanding of God through Islam
I.
I grew up in a family with a loving mother who has been devoted to Christianity her entire life and with a loving father who was baptized Catholic and attended Catholic schools. My parents married in a Catholic church, but neither of them has affiliated regularly with any particular Christian institution or religious organization. My mother was baptized Methodist, and my parents had me and my sister baptized in a Methodist church. I remember throughout my youth we attended Bible school sessions occasionally on Sunday mornings at various churches, but none of us in our family ever became committed churchgoers or adherents to any one specific church’s orthodoxy. At home, my mother versed me in following the Christian tradition of the Biblical stories and of trusting in Jesus as my savior. From an early age, I always strove to be kind, caring, and compassionate, and I grew up internalizing the teachings of Jesus—love your neighbors and forgive your enemies—and establishing a spiritual connection with God through prayer and practicing good behavior and through an acknowledgement of the tenets vital to Christianity: the annunciation, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension of Christ.
Throughout high school, I retained my Christian beliefs, as I prayed often and found strength and hope in abiding by the teachings of Jesus. As a teenager, I also loved sports along with my love of books and my growing interest in writing, especially poetry. Christ remained prevalent in my life, but my love of literature, which began with my fascination of Shakespeare as far back as middle school, continued to develop in high school when I became a devout pupil of Whitman, Emerson, and Thoreau. I used to have several of Shakespeare’s soliloquies memorized, along with lengthy stanzas from Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and any number of inspirational passages from Emerson’s essays and from Thoreau’s Walden. When my teammates put on their headphones to zone out and hype up for games, I silently recited Shakespeare or Thoreau to gain focus before taking the field, court, or mound. By the time I graduated, I began replacing my passion for sports with my other more lasting passion: a commitment to literature and writing. With the countless hours sports had demanded of me now turned entirely over to my next calling, I began to read so much that my heart and mind expanded at what felt like exponential speeds.
Throughout college, as an English major, my love of literature continued to grow with my immersion in the British and American canons. Some of my favorites in the British pantheon became Pope, Blake, Wordsworth, Yeats, and Wilde, along with my American literary heroes of Steinbeck, Hurston, Hemingway, Wright, Hughes, Sandburg, and my very favorite Toni Morrison. I also became fascinated with Dostoevsky, Camus, Borges, Hesse, and Gibran. My quest to read and learn more led me to seek out the immortals of philosophy and epistemology, and I loved the works of Plato, Aristotle, Rumi, Descartes, Kant, Nietzsche, and Foucault among others. Every one of these brilliant minds voiced what it meant to be alive and have purpose in the world. Their ideas and visions enlightened me and further drove my pursuit of discovering what the truth might be to human existence and why we are here on Earth. Eventually, my quest for knowledge and understanding cycled me back to religion where I arrived again at my faith in Christianity, which had been examined, stretched, and challenged by all the great writers and thinkers who had given me hope about how I could arrive at an answer to the mystery of what life is all about.
II.
The summer after I graduated from college with a degree in English, I decided to read the Bible from beginning to end for the first time in my life, and I became gripped with the narrative of human struggle and the message of humanity in the Gospels, much like I appreciated the examination of humanness I found in Morrison’s novels of realism, in Borges’s stories of metaphysics, in Camus’s works of existentialism, in Hesse’s exploration of mysticism, and in Gibran’s poetry of spiritualism. The Gospels felt to me like a beautiful novel about the great life of a great man, his struggles replete with supernatural miracles that make for an inspiring story. At that juncture in my life, I also sought to understand what other people and cultures believed and what their faiths attested to. This began my quest to study world religions, and I came away from that experience with an expansion of my Christian beliefs and with an appreciation for other faiths in helping me better understand God and how I might live a more purposeful life of peace, compassion, and forgiveness.
Allow me to share with you some of my favorite verses of Holy Scripture. Over the years, these sacred words have given me comfort, strength, hope, and inspiration:
The angels said to Mary, “God bids you to rejoice in a Word from Him. His name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary. He shall be noble in this world and in the world to come, and he shall be one of those who are favored. He shall preach to men from his cradle and in the prime of his adulthood, and he shall live a righteous life . . . God will instruct him in the Torah and in the Gospel and send him forth as a messenger to the Israelites. He will say, ‘I bring you signs from your Lord. From clay, I will make the likeness of a bird and breathe into it, and by God’s permission it shall become a living bird. And by God’s permission, I shall heal the blind man and the leper and raise the dead to life.’”
These beautiful narrative lines of Scripture comprise verses 45-49 from the third Surah in the Holy Qur’an.
I read the Qur’an for the first time shortly after September 11, 2001. I wanted to read it for multiple reasons. First, as I mentioned, I had studied world religions a few years before 9/11 and everything I learned at that time about the faith and message of Islam forbid what the terrorists had done. Second, during my studies of world religions, I saw how the teachings of Muhammad remarkably echoed those of Jesus. Third, I needed to discover for myself how Islam’s Holy Scripture confirmed what I had learned years earlier about Islam’s great message of peace and humanity.
Indeed, the same feelings of love and compassion I gained when reading the Gospels overcame me when I read the Qur’an. In addition, the same as I did when reading the Bible, I suspended concern with the miracles and just tried to focus on the ingenuity of what the Qur’an explained to me about life’s creation, its meaning, and its purpose, and about how to adopt what Muhammad, like Jesus, had to teach me so that I might apply his example of a righteous life to my own everyday words and deeds. My quest became how to become a more compassionate and generous person, and Islam offered me more guidance that coincided with my Christian beliefs. After reading the Qur’an, the lineage between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam became clear to me with how the three faiths share Abraham as their forefather. What especially inspired me is how Islam confirmed much of what I already loved and believed as a Christian. Therefore, it became natural for me to embrace Muhammad as having been just as touched and guided by the consciousness of God as Jesus had been.
III.
The Qur’an instructed Muhammad to remind the world about who he was by saying, “I [Muhammad] am not different from God’s other messengers” (46:9). What this means is that Muhammad was announcing to us how God had entrusted him to reveal His blessed message to humankind—a message that had no intent to refute or deny the divinity of the previous Holy Scriptures of the Jewish Torah and the Christian Gospels. Rather, Muhammad’s message from God sought to validate God’s previous revelations shared by each of the prophets who came before Muhammad, in particular the ministries of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. The way that I embrace Muhammad’s prophethood is to see how he exemplified the knowledge and guidance offered by a great leader, teacher, and reformer who united people with a message of common humanity that, indeed, helped change the world.
So in reading the Qur’an, anyone can learn how God revealed its blessed message to Muhammad who then recited the Qur’an to humankind as God’s last revelation. Therefore, the Qur’an means “the recitation,” and Islam means “submission or surrender to God,” which means a Muslim is “one who submits or surrenders to God’s Word.” It’s also key to note that the meaning of Islam derives from the Arabic word salam, which means peace. Muhammad, a mortal man of the most honorable character, received the Qur’an from God through the angel Gabriel and shared its message as both a blessing and a guide to the world. And so Muhammad, peace be upon him, served as a messenger of God.
Allow me to share with you a number of verses from the Qur’an that have become important in my life with helping me open my heart more fully and expand my mind more clearly. By doing so, I have strengthened my understanding of God and how I see God’s relationship with humankind.
1. Our Shared Lineage:
With the Judaic, Christian, and Islamic faiths sharing Abraham as our common ancestor, the Qur’an reminds us: “God gave Moses the Scriptures, and after him God sent other messengers. He gave Jesus, son of Mary, veritable signs and strengthened him with the Holy Spirit” (2:87). The Qur’an also reminds us: “We believe in God and what He revealed to us through Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Jesus, and the other prophets by the Lord. We make no distinction among any of them” (2:136). In addition, the Qur’an reveals to us: “God made a covenant with all the prophets, with you [Muhammad], with Noah and Abraham, and with Moses and Jesus, son of Mary. God made with them a solemn pledge” (33:7).
Islam, therefore, helps me understand how we are all children of Abraham, and each of the prophets has served as our guide for how to engage with God and follow His Word. Moreover, what Islam has inspired me to see is how God’s love and caring for humankind compelled Him to deliver a final message through Gabriel to Muhammad so that Muhammad could teach and guide us back to committing ourselves to the earlier teachings of all the prophets from Adam to Noah to Moses to Abraham to Isaac to Ishmael to Jacob to David to Mary and, of course, to Jesus.
2. Our Same God:
The Qur’an encompasses everyone: “Believers, Jews, Christians, Sabaeans, whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does what is right, their Lord will reward them. They have nothing to fear or to grieve” (2:62 and 5:69). The Qur’an also enlightens us: “Your God is one God. There is no god but Him. He is the Compassionate, the Merciful, and the creator of the heavens and the earth” (2:163-164). In addition, the Qur’an further unites us: “God enjoined Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, saying: ‘Observe the same Faith and do not divide yourselves into factions’” (42:13).
Islam, therefore, helps remind me how we, as descendants of Abraham, all share Allah (the Arabic word for God) as our supreme Semitic God. Our same God is the All-Loving, All-Powerful, All-Compassionate, and All-Merciful God of the Jews, the Christians, and the Muslims. This makes us all a kindred community to one another, just like the original Muslim community, the ummah, which Muhammad established in the early 7th century where everyone, regardless of differences in religion, was accepted and protected as equal.
3. Jesus United among Us:
In addition to the verses about Jesus from the third Surah (3:45-49) that I shared above, the Qur’an additionally says to us: “God gave Jesus, son of Mary, indisputable signs and strengthened him with the Holy Spirit” (2:253). The Qur’an also specifies for us: “The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was no more than God’s messenger, and God conveyed to Mary that Jesus would have God’s Spirit and share God’s Word. So believe in God and his messenger but do not say ‘Three.’ Forbear, and it shall be better for you. God is but one God” (4:171). Moreover, the Qur’an explains to us: “The Messiah, the son of Mary, was a messenger just like the other messengers who passed away before him. His mother was a saintly woman” (5:75).
So even though Islam does not embrace the concept of the Trinity, I am enlightened with how Muslims embrace Jesus as the Messiah. This means Islam recognizes both Jesus’s divine guidance from God and his ability to carry out miracles. Therefore, Muslims revere Jesus as a prophet showing humankind the way to a righteous life. What becomes most inspiring for me to understand is that Muhammad reminded us of how we should embrace the teachings of Jesus, whose ministry of love, peace, nonviolence, forgiveness, and compassion among all people similarly reflects Muhammad’s own teachings.
4. Our Single Narrative:
Regarding the blessed nature of the Qur’an, Surah three explains to us: “God revealed to us the Book with the Truth that confirmed the preceding Scriptures of the Torah and the Gospel, which in them are guidance for humankind in distinguishing right from wrong” (3:3-4). Surah six also says to us: “God has revealed the Qur’an as a blessed Book, confirming what came before it” (6:92). In addition, Surah ten reiterates for us: “The Qur’an confirms what was revealed before it and fully explains those Scriptures” (10:37). Furthermore, Surah twelve summarizes for us: “The Qur’an is no invented tale, but a confirmation of the previous Scriptures, an explanation of all things, a guide and a blessing for the true believers” (12:111).
Islam, therefore, has become important in my life because the Qur’an compels me to reinvest my engagement with the Torah and the Gospels. I am inspired by how God confirmed and sealed the divinity of the Old and New Testaments through the Qur’an, making the three Holy Scriptures part of a unified narrative that is finalized in the recitation of the Qur’an, which Muhammad shared with us.
5. Regarding Our Differences in Beliefs:
One of the most important and empowering messages revealed in the Qur’an, I believe, is found in the fifth Surah. It reminds us:
God may have decreed a life for a life, an eye for an eye . . . but if man resists from retaliation and instead chooses charity, his remission shall atone for him. Transgressors are those who do not judge according to God’s revelations. God sent forth Jesus, son of Mary, to confirm the Torah and give the Gospel as a guide and a light . . . God also revealed to you the Qur’an with its truth to confirm the other Scriptures and stand as a guardian over them . . . For each of you, God has ordained a law and assigned a path. If God had wanted He would have made you one nation and community, but He wished to test you by that which He bestowed upon you, and so vie and compete with each other in good works, for to God shall you all return and He will resolve differences for you (5:45-48).
In a shorter verse offering us similar guidance of how to handle and overcome any differences among us, the Qur’an reminds us: “God will bring goodwill between those of you at odds over your differences . . . God grants you to be kind and equitable with others. God loves the equitable” (60:7-8).
The Qur’an, therefore, has enlightened me with an understanding of how God acknowledges differences among our religions because it is God’s will and intelligence that intended these differences to exist. God did this so that we would have to learn from each other and live as many nations in peace and understanding. In the end, God will make known why He presented us with differences that enable us to have multiple paths to reaching peace and grace with Him.
6. The Diversity among Us:
As I mentioned earlier, the Qur’an unites us: “Believers, Jews, Christians, Sabaeans, whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does what is right, their Lord will reward them. They have nothing to fear or to grieve” (2:62 and 5:69). The Qur’an also celebrates us: “Among God’s other signs are the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your tongues and colors. Surely there are signs in this for all mankind” (30:21-22). With further explanation, the Qur’an encompasses everyone: “Did you not see how God sent down water from the sky with which He brought forth fruits of different hues? In the mountains there are streaks of various shades of white and red and jet-black rocks. Men and animals have their different colors too” (35:27-28).
The teachings and message of Islam, therefore, resonate with my beliefs that embrace the inclusiveness of people from all faiths, backgrounds, and races. Islam’s recognition of diversity becomes more profound when studying the inspiring life of the Prophet Muhammad, whose compassion for and his acceptance and respect of all people place him among the world’s first antiracists and make him one of the world’s greatest teachers and leaders.
7. My Embrace of Muhammad’s Prophethood:
The Qur’an reveals to us: “O Prophet [Muhammad], God sent you forth as a witness, a bearer of good tidings, a warner, and one who calls men to God and guides them to the light” (33:45-46). The Qur’an further reveals to us: “He [Muhammad] did not speak out of his own desire. He was inspired and was taught the revelation by the powerful and mighty [Gabriel]” (53:5).
Even for those like me who grew up embracing the Christian tradition and following the teachings of Jesus, I have found great guidance and inspiration in the Qur’an and also the Hadith, the historical record of “sayings” that preserve the words and deeds of the remarkable life of the Prophet Muhammad.
Allow me to share a few of my favorite teachings from the Hadith:
Muhammad said, “The best among you is the one who doesn’t harm others with his tongue and hands.”
Muhammad said, “A good man treats women with honor.”
Muhammad said, “Assist any person oppressed, whether Muslim or non-Muslim.”
Muhammad said, “Be kind, for whenever kindness becomes part of something, it beautifies it. Whenever it is taken from something, it leaves it tarnished.”
Muhammad said, “The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr.”
Muhammad said, “Do you know what is better than charity and fasting and prayer? It is keeping peace and good relations between people, as quarrels and bad feelings destroy mankind.”
Muhammad said, “Richness is not having many belongings, but richness is contentment of the soul.”
Muhammad said, “Kindness is a mark of faith and whoever is not kind has no faith.”
Muhammad said, “Make things easy for people and not difficult. Give people good news and bring them joy, and do not turn them away.”
Muhammad said, “Seek knowledge from cradle to the grave.”
And my very favorite words of guidance from Muhammad can be found in his Final Sermon from 632 CE:
All humankind is from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, and a non-Arab has no superiority over an Arab. Neither does a white person have superiority over a Black person, nor does a Black person have any superiority over a white person, except by piety and good action.
IV.
As someone who grew up with beliefs rooted in the Christian tradition, my quest to learn more about how God revealed His Word through other religions has led me to embrace and revere Muhammad because of his ministry of love and compassion and because of the way he accepted people from every race and faith. Studying the life of Muhammad reveals how his humanity enabled his prophethood to establish a community, the ummah, as a state that honored religious freedom, human rights, and protection of all citizens under just laws. These freedoms and rights, moreover, did not depend upon one’s class or race, but rather on the piety and civility everyone showed to others in the community. Through covenants and treaties and, of course, through his own words and deeds, Muhammad assured Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others with diverse beliefs that they shared the same freedom and equality. With remarkably similar teachings to those of Jesus, Muhammad also taught the power of nonviolence and forgiveness, especially of enemies, because Muhammad understood, just as Jesus understood, how revenge and vendettas have no place within a civil society. Indeed, Muhammad’s extraordinary life has inspired me with the example he set of devoting himself to teaching and leading his community on a path committed to kindness, compassion, and peace among people of diverse ethnicities and beliefs.
In reading the Qur’an and studying the life of Muhammad, I have connected what I have learned from Islam with my Christian background. Opening up my heart and expanding my mind has enabled me to make more sense of how God has intended for us to acknowledge a single, unified narrative of His revelations as part of a Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition.
At this point, someone may want to ask me, “What faith, then, do you follow? What do you actually believe in?” My answer may not satisfy anyone, nor will it probably satisfy many Christians or Muslims who may wonder why I cannot choose. That’s why I respond by saying, “I believe in the faith of compassion and forgiveness, and I believe in an intelligent, loving God who accepts all people who strive to be good and lead a life of good deeds in the name of fulfilling God’s Word as He shared it with each of the prophets from Adam, to Abraham, to Moses, to Mary, to Jesus, to Muhammad, and to all the other prophets among them.”
So, yes, I believe in the teachings of Jesus and each of the prophets in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition, which means I also embrace Muhammad as a prophet. The supernatural and miraculous events found in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are not as important to me as living a life of good action, which is what Jesus and Muhammad teach us to do. My understanding of faith may show weakness and failure in the eyes of some with how they live by the exclusiveness of only their Holy Scripture, which might mean an inability to branch out from the religious tradition most familiar to them. For me, in order for Scripture to be meaningful, it must be yearning and active in how I carry out my life, and so I believe the strength of guidance God intended for us can be gained from His different Words and from the different paths He offers us to connecting with Him. This diversity in finding God is more vital and valuable to me than mere belief in only one Word or one path as exclusive to all others. Constant engagement with the diverse Words of God—seeking out the active, ever-eternal meaning from the different Scriptures—is what inspires and guides me to search for what feels right, and what I’ve learned is an overwhelming need to embrace others in order to learn what they know that might help me become kinder and more compassionate. Merely using Scripture as a bold identifier for espousing superiority over other beliefs and different paths feels blind and limiting to me. Therefore, I fully embrace and actively engage with the message of humanity both Jesus and Muhammad preached, which helps me lead a better life of kindness and generosity, and I believe Allah (the Arabic word for God) is the God of all people, and His intention of giving us many paths serves each of our unique journeys as we seek divine guidance in our lives, whether we are Jews, Christians, Muslims, or another faith.
And so I do not believe in a God that would dismiss Jews and Christians who had questions about Muhammad, nor I do believe in a God who would dismiss Muslims because they do not embrace the concept of the Trinity. Rather, I believe in a God who is loving, compassionate, merciful, forgiving, and intelligent, and therefore I embrace how the lives of both Jesus and Muhammad are perfect examples for us to follow in our lifelong quest to connect with God and fulfill His Word on Earth.
What makes most sense to me is how God loves each of us the same, yet He has presented us with a challenge and mystery of why He wants differences to exist among our beliefs. Perhaps, as the Qur’an reminds us in verses 45-48 of the fifth Surah (which I cited above), God is testing our tolerances, and His intention is to see how we chose to learn from one another and how we chose to coexist and treat each other as sisters and brothers.
I have chosen to open my heart and expand my mind so that I am never absolute about anything to an extent where I start to see myself or my beliefs as more righteous than others. I have chosen never to declare certainty of any belief other than the truth God has given us of offering many paths to seeking and finding our peace and grace with Him. That is why I accept and need both Jesus and Muhammad, peace be upon them, to guide me with answers to the truth. That is why I have faith that God may reveal everything to us in the end. If so, that enables me to live without doubt, and instead with hope, of how we will have answers from God because we are all children of Abraham. Therefore, I accept everyone as my sisters and brothers, everyone as my kindred.
So if you ask me what I believe about Jesus, I will tell you I do not claim to know everything, and perhaps I do not even know much, but Jesus must have been guided by the love and intelligence of God, for how else could he have been able to achieve what he achieved?
And if you ask me what I believe about Muhammad, I will tell you I do not claim to know everything, and perhaps I do not even know much, but Muhammad must have been guided by the love and intelligence of God, for how else could he have been able to achieve what he achieved?
Although I grew up in the Christian tradition, I share with Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others of diverse faiths my life’s spiritual journey so far of seeking to understand what faith means to me and what God means to me. I also share with you how Islam has enabled me to understand and connect with God more fully and openly than I did when focusing only on Christianity. This does not infer I’m suggesting to anyone that you adopt my path or change how you feel or what you believe in that brings you comfort and strength. I share my journey and experiences as an example of my growth of understanding God and how I truly embrace the idea of many paths to discovering the same truth of salvation.
As someone who was raised as a Christian, my embracing the message and teachings of Islam has come naturally to me because Islam aligns with so much of what shapes and drives my purpose in life, which is to accept and respect all people with kindness and generosity. Both Jesus and Muhammad guide me to improve my acceptance and treatment of others. I have no reason to question another faith that trusts in God and asks us to do good by one another. Islam has guided me and strengthened my understanding of what I already believe. Islam has, indeed, helped me confirm what I believe in.
V.
Early in 2017 when I began researching for my novel Prayers for the Far Quarter about American slavery and the era of the Civil War, I learned many of those enslaved were Muslims. This marginalized and often unknown fact of America’s past led me back to study Islam for the first time in many years, and once again, as it did years earlier, rereading the Qur’an inspired me to re-engage with my understanding of God and to do so through a story about an enslaved African Muslim.
Allow me to share a brief overview of Prayers from the Far Quarter: The main character in the novel is named Isa Muhammad Rahman, and his journey honors the sacrifices and contributions of Muslims throughout American history. One of the central messages of the novel is to bring focus to the great peace and compassion at the heart of Islam. My hope is that Isa’s story will increase interfaith dialogue and promote more acceptance among the diversity of our religions and communities.
As someone who grew up in the Christian tradition, one of my passions has become wanting to share with everyone my admiration and reverence of other religions that have opened my heart, expanded my mind, and helped guide me towards becoming a more compassionate and receptive person. In particular, the enlightening message of Islam and the sage teachings of the Prophet Muhammad have inspired me to live a more compassionate and generous life. I am hopeful anyone who discovers this essay, or any of my books, will see how my works serve as platforms to break down barriers of falsehood and misinformation. My hope is to build lasting relations with others and establish lifelong friendships among people of all races, backgrounds, identities, and faiths.
Roger 8-)
I grew up in a family with a loving mother who has been devoted to Christianity her entire life and with a loving father who was baptized Catholic and attended Catholic schools. My parents married in a Catholic church, but neither of them has affiliated regularly with any particular Christian institution or religious organization. My mother was baptized Methodist, and my parents had me and my sister baptized in a Methodist church. I remember throughout my youth we attended Bible school sessions occasionally on Sunday mornings at various churches, but none of us in our family ever became committed churchgoers or adherents to any one specific church’s orthodoxy. At home, my mother versed me in following the Christian tradition of the Biblical stories and of trusting in Jesus as my savior. From an early age, I always strove to be kind, caring, and compassionate, and I grew up internalizing the teachings of Jesus—love your neighbors and forgive your enemies—and establishing a spiritual connection with God through prayer and practicing good behavior and through an acknowledgement of the tenets vital to Christianity: the annunciation, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension of Christ.
Throughout high school, I retained my Christian beliefs, as I prayed often and found strength and hope in abiding by the teachings of Jesus. As a teenager, I also loved sports along with my love of books and my growing interest in writing, especially poetry. Christ remained prevalent in my life, but my love of literature, which began with my fascination of Shakespeare as far back as middle school, continued to develop in high school when I became a devout pupil of Whitman, Emerson, and Thoreau. I used to have several of Shakespeare’s soliloquies memorized, along with lengthy stanzas from Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and any number of inspirational passages from Emerson’s essays and from Thoreau’s Walden. When my teammates put on their headphones to zone out and hype up for games, I silently recited Shakespeare or Thoreau to gain focus before taking the field, court, or mound. By the time I graduated, I began replacing my passion for sports with my other more lasting passion: a commitment to literature and writing. With the countless hours sports had demanded of me now turned entirely over to my next calling, I began to read so much that my heart and mind expanded at what felt like exponential speeds.
Throughout college, as an English major, my love of literature continued to grow with my immersion in the British and American canons. Some of my favorites in the British pantheon became Pope, Blake, Wordsworth, Yeats, and Wilde, along with my American literary heroes of Steinbeck, Hurston, Hemingway, Wright, Hughes, Sandburg, and my very favorite Toni Morrison. I also became fascinated with Dostoevsky, Camus, Borges, Hesse, and Gibran. My quest to read and learn more led me to seek out the immortals of philosophy and epistemology, and I loved the works of Plato, Aristotle, Rumi, Descartes, Kant, Nietzsche, and Foucault among others. Every one of these brilliant minds voiced what it meant to be alive and have purpose in the world. Their ideas and visions enlightened me and further drove my pursuit of discovering what the truth might be to human existence and why we are here on Earth. Eventually, my quest for knowledge and understanding cycled me back to religion where I arrived again at my faith in Christianity, which had been examined, stretched, and challenged by all the great writers and thinkers who had given me hope about how I could arrive at an answer to the mystery of what life is all about.
II.
The summer after I graduated from college with a degree in English, I decided to read the Bible from beginning to end for the first time in my life, and I became gripped with the narrative of human struggle and the message of humanity in the Gospels, much like I appreciated the examination of humanness I found in Morrison’s novels of realism, in Borges’s stories of metaphysics, in Camus’s works of existentialism, in Hesse’s exploration of mysticism, and in Gibran’s poetry of spiritualism. The Gospels felt to me like a beautiful novel about the great life of a great man, his struggles replete with supernatural miracles that make for an inspiring story. At that juncture in my life, I also sought to understand what other people and cultures believed and what their faiths attested to. This began my quest to study world religions, and I came away from that experience with an expansion of my Christian beliefs and with an appreciation for other faiths in helping me better understand God and how I might live a more purposeful life of peace, compassion, and forgiveness.
Allow me to share with you some of my favorite verses of Holy Scripture. Over the years, these sacred words have given me comfort, strength, hope, and inspiration:
The angels said to Mary, “God bids you to rejoice in a Word from Him. His name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary. He shall be noble in this world and in the world to come, and he shall be one of those who are favored. He shall preach to men from his cradle and in the prime of his adulthood, and he shall live a righteous life . . . God will instruct him in the Torah and in the Gospel and send him forth as a messenger to the Israelites. He will say, ‘I bring you signs from your Lord. From clay, I will make the likeness of a bird and breathe into it, and by God’s permission it shall become a living bird. And by God’s permission, I shall heal the blind man and the leper and raise the dead to life.’”
These beautiful narrative lines of Scripture comprise verses 45-49 from the third Surah in the Holy Qur’an.
I read the Qur’an for the first time shortly after September 11, 2001. I wanted to read it for multiple reasons. First, as I mentioned, I had studied world religions a few years before 9/11 and everything I learned at that time about the faith and message of Islam forbid what the terrorists had done. Second, during my studies of world religions, I saw how the teachings of Muhammad remarkably echoed those of Jesus. Third, I needed to discover for myself how Islam’s Holy Scripture confirmed what I had learned years earlier about Islam’s great message of peace and humanity.
Indeed, the same feelings of love and compassion I gained when reading the Gospels overcame me when I read the Qur’an. In addition, the same as I did when reading the Bible, I suspended concern with the miracles and just tried to focus on the ingenuity of what the Qur’an explained to me about life’s creation, its meaning, and its purpose, and about how to adopt what Muhammad, like Jesus, had to teach me so that I might apply his example of a righteous life to my own everyday words and deeds. My quest became how to become a more compassionate and generous person, and Islam offered me more guidance that coincided with my Christian beliefs. After reading the Qur’an, the lineage between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam became clear to me with how the three faiths share Abraham as their forefather. What especially inspired me is how Islam confirmed much of what I already loved and believed as a Christian. Therefore, it became natural for me to embrace Muhammad as having been just as touched and guided by the consciousness of God as Jesus had been.
III.
The Qur’an instructed Muhammad to remind the world about who he was by saying, “I [Muhammad] am not different from God’s other messengers” (46:9). What this means is that Muhammad was announcing to us how God had entrusted him to reveal His blessed message to humankind—a message that had no intent to refute or deny the divinity of the previous Holy Scriptures of the Jewish Torah and the Christian Gospels. Rather, Muhammad’s message from God sought to validate God’s previous revelations shared by each of the prophets who came before Muhammad, in particular the ministries of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. The way that I embrace Muhammad’s prophethood is to see how he exemplified the knowledge and guidance offered by a great leader, teacher, and reformer who united people with a message of common humanity that, indeed, helped change the world.
So in reading the Qur’an, anyone can learn how God revealed its blessed message to Muhammad who then recited the Qur’an to humankind as God’s last revelation. Therefore, the Qur’an means “the recitation,” and Islam means “submission or surrender to God,” which means a Muslim is “one who submits or surrenders to God’s Word.” It’s also key to note that the meaning of Islam derives from the Arabic word salam, which means peace. Muhammad, a mortal man of the most honorable character, received the Qur’an from God through the angel Gabriel and shared its message as both a blessing and a guide to the world. And so Muhammad, peace be upon him, served as a messenger of God.
Allow me to share with you a number of verses from the Qur’an that have become important in my life with helping me open my heart more fully and expand my mind more clearly. By doing so, I have strengthened my understanding of God and how I see God’s relationship with humankind.
1. Our Shared Lineage:
With the Judaic, Christian, and Islamic faiths sharing Abraham as our common ancestor, the Qur’an reminds us: “God gave Moses the Scriptures, and after him God sent other messengers. He gave Jesus, son of Mary, veritable signs and strengthened him with the Holy Spirit” (2:87). The Qur’an also reminds us: “We believe in God and what He revealed to us through Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Jesus, and the other prophets by the Lord. We make no distinction among any of them” (2:136). In addition, the Qur’an reveals to us: “God made a covenant with all the prophets, with you [Muhammad], with Noah and Abraham, and with Moses and Jesus, son of Mary. God made with them a solemn pledge” (33:7).
Islam, therefore, helps me understand how we are all children of Abraham, and each of the prophets has served as our guide for how to engage with God and follow His Word. Moreover, what Islam has inspired me to see is how God’s love and caring for humankind compelled Him to deliver a final message through Gabriel to Muhammad so that Muhammad could teach and guide us back to committing ourselves to the earlier teachings of all the prophets from Adam to Noah to Moses to Abraham to Isaac to Ishmael to Jacob to David to Mary and, of course, to Jesus.
2. Our Same God:
The Qur’an encompasses everyone: “Believers, Jews, Christians, Sabaeans, whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does what is right, their Lord will reward them. They have nothing to fear or to grieve” (2:62 and 5:69). The Qur’an also enlightens us: “Your God is one God. There is no god but Him. He is the Compassionate, the Merciful, and the creator of the heavens and the earth” (2:163-164). In addition, the Qur’an further unites us: “God enjoined Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, saying: ‘Observe the same Faith and do not divide yourselves into factions’” (42:13).
Islam, therefore, helps remind me how we, as descendants of Abraham, all share Allah (the Arabic word for God) as our supreme Semitic God. Our same God is the All-Loving, All-Powerful, All-Compassionate, and All-Merciful God of the Jews, the Christians, and the Muslims. This makes us all a kindred community to one another, just like the original Muslim community, the ummah, which Muhammad established in the early 7th century where everyone, regardless of differences in religion, was accepted and protected as equal.
3. Jesus United among Us:
In addition to the verses about Jesus from the third Surah (3:45-49) that I shared above, the Qur’an additionally says to us: “God gave Jesus, son of Mary, indisputable signs and strengthened him with the Holy Spirit” (2:253). The Qur’an also specifies for us: “The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was no more than God’s messenger, and God conveyed to Mary that Jesus would have God’s Spirit and share God’s Word. So believe in God and his messenger but do not say ‘Three.’ Forbear, and it shall be better for you. God is but one God” (4:171). Moreover, the Qur’an explains to us: “The Messiah, the son of Mary, was a messenger just like the other messengers who passed away before him. His mother was a saintly woman” (5:75).
So even though Islam does not embrace the concept of the Trinity, I am enlightened with how Muslims embrace Jesus as the Messiah. This means Islam recognizes both Jesus’s divine guidance from God and his ability to carry out miracles. Therefore, Muslims revere Jesus as a prophet showing humankind the way to a righteous life. What becomes most inspiring for me to understand is that Muhammad reminded us of how we should embrace the teachings of Jesus, whose ministry of love, peace, nonviolence, forgiveness, and compassion among all people similarly reflects Muhammad’s own teachings.
4. Our Single Narrative:
Regarding the blessed nature of the Qur’an, Surah three explains to us: “God revealed to us the Book with the Truth that confirmed the preceding Scriptures of the Torah and the Gospel, which in them are guidance for humankind in distinguishing right from wrong” (3:3-4). Surah six also says to us: “God has revealed the Qur’an as a blessed Book, confirming what came before it” (6:92). In addition, Surah ten reiterates for us: “The Qur’an confirms what was revealed before it and fully explains those Scriptures” (10:37). Furthermore, Surah twelve summarizes for us: “The Qur’an is no invented tale, but a confirmation of the previous Scriptures, an explanation of all things, a guide and a blessing for the true believers” (12:111).
Islam, therefore, has become important in my life because the Qur’an compels me to reinvest my engagement with the Torah and the Gospels. I am inspired by how God confirmed and sealed the divinity of the Old and New Testaments through the Qur’an, making the three Holy Scriptures part of a unified narrative that is finalized in the recitation of the Qur’an, which Muhammad shared with us.
5. Regarding Our Differences in Beliefs:
One of the most important and empowering messages revealed in the Qur’an, I believe, is found in the fifth Surah. It reminds us:
God may have decreed a life for a life, an eye for an eye . . . but if man resists from retaliation and instead chooses charity, his remission shall atone for him. Transgressors are those who do not judge according to God’s revelations. God sent forth Jesus, son of Mary, to confirm the Torah and give the Gospel as a guide and a light . . . God also revealed to you the Qur’an with its truth to confirm the other Scriptures and stand as a guardian over them . . . For each of you, God has ordained a law and assigned a path. If God had wanted He would have made you one nation and community, but He wished to test you by that which He bestowed upon you, and so vie and compete with each other in good works, for to God shall you all return and He will resolve differences for you (5:45-48).
In a shorter verse offering us similar guidance of how to handle and overcome any differences among us, the Qur’an reminds us: “God will bring goodwill between those of you at odds over your differences . . . God grants you to be kind and equitable with others. God loves the equitable” (60:7-8).
The Qur’an, therefore, has enlightened me with an understanding of how God acknowledges differences among our religions because it is God’s will and intelligence that intended these differences to exist. God did this so that we would have to learn from each other and live as many nations in peace and understanding. In the end, God will make known why He presented us with differences that enable us to have multiple paths to reaching peace and grace with Him.
6. The Diversity among Us:
As I mentioned earlier, the Qur’an unites us: “Believers, Jews, Christians, Sabaeans, whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does what is right, their Lord will reward them. They have nothing to fear or to grieve” (2:62 and 5:69). The Qur’an also celebrates us: “Among God’s other signs are the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your tongues and colors. Surely there are signs in this for all mankind” (30:21-22). With further explanation, the Qur’an encompasses everyone: “Did you not see how God sent down water from the sky with which He brought forth fruits of different hues? In the mountains there are streaks of various shades of white and red and jet-black rocks. Men and animals have their different colors too” (35:27-28).
The teachings and message of Islam, therefore, resonate with my beliefs that embrace the inclusiveness of people from all faiths, backgrounds, and races. Islam’s recognition of diversity becomes more profound when studying the inspiring life of the Prophet Muhammad, whose compassion for and his acceptance and respect of all people place him among the world’s first antiracists and make him one of the world’s greatest teachers and leaders.
7. My Embrace of Muhammad’s Prophethood:
The Qur’an reveals to us: “O Prophet [Muhammad], God sent you forth as a witness, a bearer of good tidings, a warner, and one who calls men to God and guides them to the light” (33:45-46). The Qur’an further reveals to us: “He [Muhammad] did not speak out of his own desire. He was inspired and was taught the revelation by the powerful and mighty [Gabriel]” (53:5).
Even for those like me who grew up embracing the Christian tradition and following the teachings of Jesus, I have found great guidance and inspiration in the Qur’an and also the Hadith, the historical record of “sayings” that preserve the words and deeds of the remarkable life of the Prophet Muhammad.
Allow me to share a few of my favorite teachings from the Hadith:
Muhammad said, “The best among you is the one who doesn’t harm others with his tongue and hands.”
Muhammad said, “A good man treats women with honor.”
Muhammad said, “Assist any person oppressed, whether Muslim or non-Muslim.”
Muhammad said, “Be kind, for whenever kindness becomes part of something, it beautifies it. Whenever it is taken from something, it leaves it tarnished.”
Muhammad said, “The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr.”
Muhammad said, “Do you know what is better than charity and fasting and prayer? It is keeping peace and good relations between people, as quarrels and bad feelings destroy mankind.”
Muhammad said, “Richness is not having many belongings, but richness is contentment of the soul.”
Muhammad said, “Kindness is a mark of faith and whoever is not kind has no faith.”
Muhammad said, “Make things easy for people and not difficult. Give people good news and bring them joy, and do not turn them away.”
Muhammad said, “Seek knowledge from cradle to the grave.”
And my very favorite words of guidance from Muhammad can be found in his Final Sermon from 632 CE:
All humankind is from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, and a non-Arab has no superiority over an Arab. Neither does a white person have superiority over a Black person, nor does a Black person have any superiority over a white person, except by piety and good action.
IV.
As someone who grew up with beliefs rooted in the Christian tradition, my quest to learn more about how God revealed His Word through other religions has led me to embrace and revere Muhammad because of his ministry of love and compassion and because of the way he accepted people from every race and faith. Studying the life of Muhammad reveals how his humanity enabled his prophethood to establish a community, the ummah, as a state that honored religious freedom, human rights, and protection of all citizens under just laws. These freedoms and rights, moreover, did not depend upon one’s class or race, but rather on the piety and civility everyone showed to others in the community. Through covenants and treaties and, of course, through his own words and deeds, Muhammad assured Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others with diverse beliefs that they shared the same freedom and equality. With remarkably similar teachings to those of Jesus, Muhammad also taught the power of nonviolence and forgiveness, especially of enemies, because Muhammad understood, just as Jesus understood, how revenge and vendettas have no place within a civil society. Indeed, Muhammad’s extraordinary life has inspired me with the example he set of devoting himself to teaching and leading his community on a path committed to kindness, compassion, and peace among people of diverse ethnicities and beliefs.
In reading the Qur’an and studying the life of Muhammad, I have connected what I have learned from Islam with my Christian background. Opening up my heart and expanding my mind has enabled me to make more sense of how God has intended for us to acknowledge a single, unified narrative of His revelations as part of a Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition.
At this point, someone may want to ask me, “What faith, then, do you follow? What do you actually believe in?” My answer may not satisfy anyone, nor will it probably satisfy many Christians or Muslims who may wonder why I cannot choose. That’s why I respond by saying, “I believe in the faith of compassion and forgiveness, and I believe in an intelligent, loving God who accepts all people who strive to be good and lead a life of good deeds in the name of fulfilling God’s Word as He shared it with each of the prophets from Adam, to Abraham, to Moses, to Mary, to Jesus, to Muhammad, and to all the other prophets among them.”
So, yes, I believe in the teachings of Jesus and each of the prophets in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition, which means I also embrace Muhammad as a prophet. The supernatural and miraculous events found in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are not as important to me as living a life of good action, which is what Jesus and Muhammad teach us to do. My understanding of faith may show weakness and failure in the eyes of some with how they live by the exclusiveness of only their Holy Scripture, which might mean an inability to branch out from the religious tradition most familiar to them. For me, in order for Scripture to be meaningful, it must be yearning and active in how I carry out my life, and so I believe the strength of guidance God intended for us can be gained from His different Words and from the different paths He offers us to connecting with Him. This diversity in finding God is more vital and valuable to me than mere belief in only one Word or one path as exclusive to all others. Constant engagement with the diverse Words of God—seeking out the active, ever-eternal meaning from the different Scriptures—is what inspires and guides me to search for what feels right, and what I’ve learned is an overwhelming need to embrace others in order to learn what they know that might help me become kinder and more compassionate. Merely using Scripture as a bold identifier for espousing superiority over other beliefs and different paths feels blind and limiting to me. Therefore, I fully embrace and actively engage with the message of humanity both Jesus and Muhammad preached, which helps me lead a better life of kindness and generosity, and I believe Allah (the Arabic word for God) is the God of all people, and His intention of giving us many paths serves each of our unique journeys as we seek divine guidance in our lives, whether we are Jews, Christians, Muslims, or another faith.
And so I do not believe in a God that would dismiss Jews and Christians who had questions about Muhammad, nor I do believe in a God who would dismiss Muslims because they do not embrace the concept of the Trinity. Rather, I believe in a God who is loving, compassionate, merciful, forgiving, and intelligent, and therefore I embrace how the lives of both Jesus and Muhammad are perfect examples for us to follow in our lifelong quest to connect with God and fulfill His Word on Earth.
What makes most sense to me is how God loves each of us the same, yet He has presented us with a challenge and mystery of why He wants differences to exist among our beliefs. Perhaps, as the Qur’an reminds us in verses 45-48 of the fifth Surah (which I cited above), God is testing our tolerances, and His intention is to see how we chose to learn from one another and how we chose to coexist and treat each other as sisters and brothers.
I have chosen to open my heart and expand my mind so that I am never absolute about anything to an extent where I start to see myself or my beliefs as more righteous than others. I have chosen never to declare certainty of any belief other than the truth God has given us of offering many paths to seeking and finding our peace and grace with Him. That is why I accept and need both Jesus and Muhammad, peace be upon them, to guide me with answers to the truth. That is why I have faith that God may reveal everything to us in the end. If so, that enables me to live without doubt, and instead with hope, of how we will have answers from God because we are all children of Abraham. Therefore, I accept everyone as my sisters and brothers, everyone as my kindred.
So if you ask me what I believe about Jesus, I will tell you I do not claim to know everything, and perhaps I do not even know much, but Jesus must have been guided by the love and intelligence of God, for how else could he have been able to achieve what he achieved?
And if you ask me what I believe about Muhammad, I will tell you I do not claim to know everything, and perhaps I do not even know much, but Muhammad must have been guided by the love and intelligence of God, for how else could he have been able to achieve what he achieved?
Although I grew up in the Christian tradition, I share with Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others of diverse faiths my life’s spiritual journey so far of seeking to understand what faith means to me and what God means to me. I also share with you how Islam has enabled me to understand and connect with God more fully and openly than I did when focusing only on Christianity. This does not infer I’m suggesting to anyone that you adopt my path or change how you feel or what you believe in that brings you comfort and strength. I share my journey and experiences as an example of my growth of understanding God and how I truly embrace the idea of many paths to discovering the same truth of salvation.
As someone who was raised as a Christian, my embracing the message and teachings of Islam has come naturally to me because Islam aligns with so much of what shapes and drives my purpose in life, which is to accept and respect all people with kindness and generosity. Both Jesus and Muhammad guide me to improve my acceptance and treatment of others. I have no reason to question another faith that trusts in God and asks us to do good by one another. Islam has guided me and strengthened my understanding of what I already believe. Islam has, indeed, helped me confirm what I believe in.
V.
Early in 2017 when I began researching for my novel Prayers for the Far Quarter about American slavery and the era of the Civil War, I learned many of those enslaved were Muslims. This marginalized and often unknown fact of America’s past led me back to study Islam for the first time in many years, and once again, as it did years earlier, rereading the Qur’an inspired me to re-engage with my understanding of God and to do so through a story about an enslaved African Muslim.
Allow me to share a brief overview of Prayers from the Far Quarter: The main character in the novel is named Isa Muhammad Rahman, and his journey honors the sacrifices and contributions of Muslims throughout American history. One of the central messages of the novel is to bring focus to the great peace and compassion at the heart of Islam. My hope is that Isa’s story will increase interfaith dialogue and promote more acceptance among the diversity of our religions and communities.
As someone who grew up in the Christian tradition, one of my passions has become wanting to share with everyone my admiration and reverence of other religions that have opened my heart, expanded my mind, and helped guide me towards becoming a more compassionate and receptive person. In particular, the enlightening message of Islam and the sage teachings of the Prophet Muhammad have inspired me to live a more compassionate and generous life. I am hopeful anyone who discovers this essay, or any of my books, will see how my works serve as platforms to break down barriers of falsehood and misinformation. My hope is to build lasting relations with others and establish lifelong friendships among people of all races, backgrounds, identities, and faiths.
Roger 8-)
