Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity

by Nabeel Qureshi

They believe that authority in early Islam passed through Muhammad’s bloodline, so that when Muhammad died, his male next of kin ought to have borne the mantle of Islamic leadership.

when Muhammad died, there was no appointed successor. The Muslims elected Abu Bakr as the first khalifa. For the most part, those that recognize Abu Bakr’s caliphate follow one of the four schools of Sunni Islam, ...

Kafir: Infidel, non-Muslim

astaghfirullah!”

Seeking the forgiveness of Allah

the founder of our sect, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad,

Ahmadi Muslims have been murdered in countries like Pakistan and Indonesia at the hands of orthodox Muslims.

Ahmadiyyat.

A gathering of Those who are followers of Ahmad Is the best I can Is the best I can decipher from the definition I found

the issue of orthodoxy and heresy is multifaceted and complicated.

there is much division in Islam. The best determination of whether a man is Muslim is if he exclusively declares that Allah is God and Muhammad is Allah’s messenger. Beyond this point, there is great diversity in Islam.

WHEN IT COMES to sharia, the diversity in Islam can lead to widely disparate views. Sharia is not a field that the average Muslim knows well.

ijtema,

most Muslims.

have options.

Muftis from different schools of thought have different precedents and therefore provide different fatwas.

“fatwa shopping” is discouraged by Sunni scholars,

each denomination differs on what hadith they consider accurate.

Many of the differences between the ways Sunnis and Shias practice Islam are over this very matter.

The Cold War was ending,

Ramadhan is the Muslim holy month. For thirty days, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, not allowing any food or water to pass through their lips.

This practice is obligatory for all able-bodied Muslims, which is why it is the fourth pillar of Islam. At the end of the thirty days, Muslims celebrate one of their two main holidays, Eid al-Fitr.

As important as fasting is, it would be an unfortunate misunderstanding to think only about fasting when considering Ramadhan. To Muslims, the holy month means much more.

The Islamic calendar is lunar, and it is difficult to predict exactly when Ramadhan will start.

The meal before sunrise was called sehri,

it served the dual purposes of giving us energy for the day and starting our day in fellowship.

You can only eat so much at 1 time. Certainly not enough to keep you fueled and energized for the rest of the day until sunset. And being desert dwelling peoples you think they would know how important it is to stay hydrated.

Throughout the sehri, we had our eyes on the clock. We placed on the refrigerator a Ramadhan calendar that had the exact times for sunrise, so we knew when to stop eating. Just before it was time for the sun to rise, I would go to the prayer rugs and call out the adhan. Our family would continue eating and drinking until the adhan was finished.

During the course of the day, Baji and I would be in school, and if Ammi had even the slightest concern that the fast would interfere with our schooling, she didn’t allow us to keep it.

In the evening, our family would often go to iftar dinners at the homes of people from our mosque. Iftar is the breaking of the fast, and this is the time when the whole community gathers and celebrates.

After opening the fast with just a date, the community prays the maghrib prayer before eating the full meal in communion together.

After some time for socializing, the adhan is then called again for isha prayer, and after isha, there is often a series of optional prayers that people pray during Ramadhan called taraweeh.

Iftars at the local mosque usually have as the imam a hafiz, a man who has the...

these prayer sessions can sometimes last an hour or two per night.

When taraweeh is over, everyone goes home, planning to wake again in just a few hours.

The irony of Ramadhan is that, after binging on buffets every morning and every evening, people usually gain weight during the month of fasting.

We left Scotland in 1990 for a submarine base in Groton, Connecticut. There was no community mosque in Groton, and it never felt like home for me. I didn’t make any good friends, and the most noteworthy occurrence was the tragedy of losing my Scottish accent. Scotland was where I learned all about being Muslim and where I had fallen in love with my Islamic faith.

We moved again three years later, this time back to Virginia.

Virginia Beach is where I made lasting friendships, where I came of age, and where I decided the direction of my future. It is where I first felt the sting of my Islamic culture clashing with my American environment. It was where I ultimately decided to leave Islam and everything I knew.

SEVENTH GRADE,

Always remember this: no matter where you are or what you are doing, you are an ambassador for Islam. You will always be an ambassador for Islam.”

In the West, Islam is foreign to people, and many of them are opposed to it. They will always see you first and foremost as a Muslim. That is your identity, and you must embrace it.”

Whatever you do, be the most respectful, honest, and dignified one doing it, so that people will praise Islam.

they will know that Islam has made you the good person you are.”

But things were changing.

Adolescent years are difficult for everyone.

We were left straddling a chasm, with our feet firmly planted in neither culture.

As I came into my teenage years, my parents, aunts, and uncles expected me to act like a good Pakistani teenager,

I didn’t know what one acted like.

I lacked some of the finesse required to walk the line between witty and rude in Pakistani culture.

I asked far too many questions for my relatives’ tastes.

Questions are often seen as a challenge to authority.

our teachers taught us critical thinking and that it was good to question everything.