If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran

by Carla Power

submits,” or “one who surrenders.” But there’s a huge difference between Muslims with a capital M (a faith group) and lowercased-m muslims (monotheists who have submitted to God). Much depends on whether one reads it as a proper noun describing who someone is, or as a verb describing what they do. When I look up English translations of bin Laden’s 1996 declaration of jihad against American troops, the online translators render the opening sura he quotes thus: “O you who believe! Be careful of your duty to Allah with the proper care which is due to Him, and do not die unless you are Muslim.” But when I opened my copy of Thomas Cleary’s translation of the Quran, I found that the final phrase was translated, rather less stringently, as “do not die without your having surrendered to God.” When I point out that so much of the Quranic message seemed to be about lowercased-m muslims, or rather, anyone who has submitted to God, the Sheikh was delighted: “Yes! Exactly! So many times in the Quran, it is not describing a group called ‘the Muslims.’ The word is with a small m, describing those who submit to the Lord!”