Author Archives: hamaty

Kose’s article for today’s class, Conversion to Islam, really caught my attention. The article, which gives information provided by 70 individuals who converted to Islam, caused me to draw some interesting sociological conclusions. It is clear that when a religion is embraced culturally, an individual may or may not individually practice that religion. For example,Continue reading “Fresh Eyes”

The Common Word document, and the Christian Response post in the Yale Divinity School site were both beautiful examples of finding common ground with one another. I particularly liked that authors included passages from both the Qur’an and the Bible. One thing I noticed, however, in these writings, was that they were particularly focused onContinue reading “Commonalities and (Key) Differences”

I found D’Costa’s article on interreligious prayer incredibly enlightening, as I frankly had never considered the difference between interreligious prayer and multireligious prayer. As a recap, interreligious prayer implies a unity “of heart and mind”, whereas multireligious prayer is prayer which occurs separately but simultaneously. Even if Catholics believe that Allah, worshipped in Islam, isContinue reading “Praying Together or Together, Praying?”

I enjoyed reading Cragg’s excerpt for tomorrow’s class, especially because I felt like it highlighted a tone in Islam that I felt we haven’t studied much of–love and mercy. Given that so much of Islam focuses on our human submission to the will of God, I feel that it can at times overshadow why peopleContinue reading “Revelation”

I enjoyed reading about Islamic prayer. It’s interesting that many non-Muslim people could describe what Muslim prayer typically looks like, perhaps from seeing it in a movie, on the news, or even in person; despite this, they likely could not tell you what was happening beyond the physical gestures. I was one of those peopleContinue reading “Submission & Rightly Ordered Relationship”

In reading through Volf’s chapter in Allah, I surprised to see some of the same polemical debates carried into current times–the same arguments and the same misunderstandings. One large benefit from the questions from Muslims towards Christians with respect to the Trinity is that, much like the Trinitarian controversies faced in the Early Church, ChristiansContinue reading “Mystery, Trinity, & Faith”

I think the Muslim-Christian Research Group did a wonderful job articulating the challenge of navigating truth in the Qur’an from a Christian perspective. However, I am left with a few questions that I still don’t know what to do with. First, the MCRG discusses the Qur’an as containing a Word of God but clearly stoppingContinue reading “The Challenge of The Scriptures”

I enjoyed reading Sayyid Qutb, “The America I Have Seen”, because of the perspective it offers. Frankly, I found most of it comical (especially the seemingly outraged and befuddled bit when he wonders why football is called football if you rarely use your feet–fair point), but parts I found rather sad. It was troubling toContinue reading “A Roast of America”

I thoroughly enjoyed today’s readings. I believe that their writing makes human that which is hard to understand at times, especially considering that they were written by individuals from a specific time and place vastly different than my own. It is one thing to read on the news or watch on TV about ISIS takingContinue reading “Literature as a Window”

I found today’s reading quite interesting for a number of reasons. First, I vaguely knew that Muslims held “people of the Book” in high esteem, but I didn’t know exactly how that respect played into the book itself. Also, having not studied the Qur’an extensively, I didn’t know that it references to the other scriptures.Continue reading “Holy Book Interpretations”