I am a Muslim. ‘Wal Hamdu Lillah’

One of my partners in Kuwait was Syrian. His name was Jawad. And as is the custom in Lebanon, we first ask about a new acquaintance's religion. This is important because it shapes the conversation that follows, whether political, religious, or even social. Knowing the religion of the individual facing you, or even the village or neighbourhood you are crossing, is a sort of tranquillizer. His first name, ‘Jawad,’ and his family name puzzled me. Both could belong to Muslims as well as to Christians, especially as many Christians lived in Syria before its recent unravelling. After a few days of working together, I could not help but ask him:

"Your name confuses me. May I ask you to which faith you belong?"

"I am a Muslim. ‘Wal Hamdu Lillah."’ He answered proudly.

Hiba is a Muslim Lebanese living in Toronto. When her mother passed away, my wife discovered from her name, Mary, that she was a Christian. When she sent her condolences on Facebook, Hiba replied: "God blessed my mother Mary for having guided her to become a Muslim. She was blind, and Islam helped her become wise. This is from the grace of my Lord." My wife was dismayed.

This religious pride and its connoted air of superiority conflicted in my mind with the utter misery of the Muslim masses. I could not reconcile it with the ignorance and illiteracy that reign supreme in most of the Muslim world.

When I shared the reaction of Jawad and Hiba with French Mr. Chastain, he commented, "What they are trying to communicate without saying it is 'I am Muslim, you are not. I possess the truth. You don't. I'll end up in Paradise. You will not.' That's religious vanity. It happened in Europe during the Middle Ages. Then the Renaissance came and changed everything."

After a pause, he went on: "If religion convinces you that it represents everything from A to Z, you don't need to do anything except pray."

Marwan confirmed this by mentioning a hadith which, for Muslims, is set in stone: ‘Islam is above, and nothing is above it.’

Egyptian secular writer and thinker, Sayyid Al-Qemany, said on TV, following the eviction of President Mubarak:

"We had to rid ourselves of a big calamity. That God chose Muslims out of all people as the world's teachers, to conquer, spread and teach Islam. When Napoleon invaded Egypt and brought the printing press, the imams in Al Azhar said it was made by 'Shaytan' (Satan). The caliphate in Istanbul then accepted it. I mean, they used the ‘Shaytan’ thing. We got it in Egypt 100 years later. You have to imagine that Egyptians were without reading and knowledge for 100 years because of fatwas that have no religious basis.

"Haj Abu Sifat Mahmoud brought on another catastrophe when he swept all scientific books under the table, stopped learning, and told people to read sacred books only.

"Allah knows everything (…). We must stop believing that we are better than others and that we possess the absolute truth. Believing this means you don't need to learn anything new. If you think that the two most essential books for Islam and the ultimate knowledge for humanity are the Quran and Bukhari's writings, why then do we need to study physics and chemistry?"