Ramadan Reflection: A Lesson from an Interfaith Friendship

Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, Ph.D.

One of the justifications for interfaith dialog is that in contemplating the religion of others one gets insights into one’s own. At the funeral of a dear Christian friend last month I had an insight so profound that both Christians and Muslims with whom I have shared it have insisted that I must write it up. Before I share it with you, let me explain how it was revealed to me.

When I first met Bill Hurst at the Grand Opening of the libertarian bookstore Avenue Victor Hugo in Boston in 1975, he was an agnostic. He had been raised as a Catholic, but in his early twenties found the conflict between reason and the dogmas of his church challenged his faith until he could not honestly profess a belief in God. It was not that he was without faith in anything, however, for he maintained throughout his life a commitment to truth and justice. This included a passionate commitment to the cause of the Palestinians, which, because of my Palestinian origins, added a special dimension to our common belief in the general cause of liberty, as did my sympathy for the “troubles” of Bill’s Irish heritage. When, years later, the disinformation campaign against Islam displaced the vilification of Palestinians, Bill’s sympathies embraced that and his friendship with me immunized many of his friends and relatives against the poison spreading through our society.

When Bill and his wife Rebecca adopted their daughter Amy, a Jewish social worker urged them to take her to church so that she could have the benefits of feeling part of a spiritual community.  Rebecca urged Bill to have Amy baptized at six months, and she took her to church every Sunday thereafter.  At first Bill only joined them on special occasions, but when Amy joined the choir at age seven, Bill began attending every Sunday in order to support her.  When parishioners would ask if his attendance signaled a return to faith, he told them no, he was still among the unconvinced.

Then, God tested him with a severe illness. Bill’s lungs began to fail him until he had to carry around an oxygen tank, at first a small one hung from his belt and eventually a large one on a cart. As his illness got progressively worse, Bill was sustained not only by his loving family, but the loving church community. When I attended the wedding of his elder daughter’s wedding last year he joyfully informed me that his faith had returned. It was God’s love he told me that sustained him as he suffered hardships that people without his spiritual awareness would count as a cause to lose one’s faith rather than restore it.  I doubt he ever lost his faith. Can anyone with his uncompromising trust in justice and truth really have no faith? I believe his knowledge of the divine Truth was only hidden from his conscious mind by the obstacles dogma can put between the sincere mind and the pure heart of religion.

Listening to his daughters speak at the funeral, my mind suddenly put into words the explanation of why an intelligent person might fail to realize the reality of the miraculous truth underlying the power of faith:

REASON CANNOT SEE WHAT IS NOT THERE. LOVE CAN NOT ONLY SEE WHAT IS NOT THERE, IT HAS THE POWER TO BRING IT INTO BEING.

Can you see liberty of Muslims in the East and the West? Can you see the harmony between the Muslim world and the West? Our material eyes cannot see these things, but our love for them can bring them into being, if our love is strong enough to move us to action.

I pray this month of Ramadan opens up the hearts of Muslims everywhere to the truth of this insight so that they can love all the oppressed as my friend’s little Christian community loved him. As the Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said, “Who does not want for his brother what he wants for himself is not a believer.” Ramadan Mubarak!

Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, Ph.D.
Minaret of Freedom Institute

Please visit Dr. Ahmed’s excellent site http://www.minaret.org where you can read many more excellent articles.