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

by Carla Power

“Religion comes with a body and a soul,” the Sheikh explained. “But after a few generations, etiquette and manners become more important in a religion, which means the spirit of the religion disappears.” Such was the situation among the Jewish people, he said, when Jesus began preaching: they had forgotten Abraham’s covenant with God. Over time, their religion had settled into a matter of habit. They began to treat Judaism as a matter of belonging to a people rather than believing in a God, he argued. Such was the case for many Muslims today: “When Jesus came, the Jews really wanted to be treated as believers without being believers,” he said. “We Muslims, at this moment, want to be treated as believers without being believers.” Modern Muslims often simply cling to the external signs of their faith: “People are busy worrying about their beards, or their headscarves,” he observed. “So the faith becomes like their identity. It happens like this in every culture, every faith. The outer aspects become more important, while the soul inside is forgotten.” He paused, shook his head, and gazed mournfully out at the crowd. “At the end of the day, people are carrying around a dead body, with no soul.”