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

by Carla Power

Akram pointed out that the line “to You we turn for help” is an indication of Islam’s central tenet of submission. “It shows mankind asking how to worship,” he noted. “It is saying, ‘We are helpless people. We need more of your favor. We need to know how to worship You.’” Here again was the surrender that Islam—derived from the same Arabic root word as “peace,” but literally meaning “submission”—demands of a Muslim. “When you see the word ‘worship,’ or ibada in Arabic, this is the sort of extreme humiliation that is only allowed in the case of God,” observed Akram. “That’s why we have to bow in prayer. Before him, we require an extreme humbleness.” While Christianity and Judaism drew their names from people, the word “Islam” refers to a relationship rather than a single figure—that between every believer and God.