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

by Carla Power

the whiteboard next to him, the Sheikh drew a line. Next to it, he sketched a circle. The line represented your space, the environment in which you find yourself. The space could be anywhere—a well, a prison cell, a state ruled by a despot, or a foreign country. Next, he pointed to the circle. That symbolized the cycle of a Muslim’s life, the steady beat of night and day, ticking away, for as long as God chose to keep you on this earth. The space you found yourself in was not in your control, said Akram. The cycle was. Your circumstances were given to you by Allah; using the cycle of your days to practice taqwa, or love and awe of God, was your job. Tend to this cycle of faith, said Akram, rather than worrying about your circumstances: “Any condition, even the worst condition of life, will result in something better if you keep the cycle going on,” he intoned. “Whatever circumstance. You are in prison, you are a slave, you are a master, you have parents, you don’t have parents, you are married, you are not, you speak Urdu, you speak English. Whatever space you have been given by Allah, thank Him!” Consider Yusuf, he went on. “He was in the well. Did he complain? He was sold into slavery. And did he complain? He was sold as a slave in Egypt, then put in prison, what could be worse than that?” Yusuf taught us stoicism whatever happened.