Book Review: The Faith Club

Preface: Meet the Faith Club. We’re three mothers from three faiths — Islam, Christianity, and Judaism — who got together to write a picture book for our children that would highlight the connections between our religions. But no sooner had we started talking about our beliefs and how to explain them to our children than our differences led to misunderstandings. Our project nearly fell apart.

We realized that before we could talk about what united us we had to confront what divided us in matters of faith, God, and religion. We had to reveal our own worst fears, prejudices, and stereotypes.

So we made a commitment to meet regularly. We talked in our living rooms over cups of jasmine tea and bars of dark chocolate. No question was deemed inappropriate, no matter how rude or politically incorrect. We taped our conversations and kept journals as we discussed everything from jihad to Jesus, heaven to holy texts. Somewhere along the way, our moments of conflict, frustration, and anger gave way to new understanding and great respect.

Now we invite you into our Faith Club to eavesdrop on our conversations. Come into our living rooms and share our life-altering experience. Perhaps when you’re finished, you will want to have a faith club of your own.  Amazon Link

I bought this book with great excitement and really looked forward to reading it. I had seen reviews and welcomed the chance to read an interfaith dialogue between a Christian, Jew and Muslim. I’m finding it difficult to read though. So far I’m half way through the book and I started it a couple of weeks ago… it doesn’t usually take me more than a maximum of 2 or 3 days to read a book of this size.

In general it’s a good book; the sensitive subjects they deal with, the pain, the hurt, the embarrassment, the confusion and self searching, the arguments – it’s all a great insight into what can happen when you bring together three women with quite different backgrounds and religious convictions on open a platform for unrestricted dialogue. Until now I feel most empathy with the Christian member of the group, Suzanne. She deals with her part of the discussions in a very dedicated way i.e. dedicated to the whole purpose of the faith club, she says what she feels – sometimes with difficulty, she doesn’t try to dress up her religion (except for one incident where she offended the Jewish member of the group), she seems to sincerely want to know about the other faiths in order to redress her misconceptions and considers the aspects of each members beliefs quite fairly and equally in my opinion.

Then we come to Priscilla, the Jewish member of the group. Up to the point I have read in the book she comes across as the most petulant, whining member of the group who has the others tiptoeing around her and hesitant to express their views. Still unsure of whether she even believes in God, her dialogue has mostly dealt with the injustices dealt to Jewish people since the holocaust, their feelings of inferiority, their precarious status in the world and the politics right or wrong of the Israel-Palestine conflict. I hoped for more than this. I’ve never had the chance to really know a Jewish person and my only contact has been with the orthodox Jews living in England albeit a very external contact based on observation and then what I see on TV… their frequent stereotypes of themselves as viewed via Hollywood. I hope my perception of Priscilla will change as I read further in the book.

Finally we have Ranya, the Muslim member of the group. I think this member in conjunction with Priscilla is who is making me find it difficult to enjoy the book. I do empathise with Ranya in part, she’s struggling to find her identity as a Palestinian Muslim living in America after the tragedy of 9/11 and this can’t be easy for anyone, but I’m disappointed in the way she interprets Islam to suit her own lifestyle and need to integrate into American society. I accept there are many people who interpret Islam to suit their own needs from the most fundamental and extremist to the most weak and moderate but I’m a firm believer in the fact that even if you don’t like something, fact is fact. You might not want to follow it, but it’s wrong to try and change it to suit your own needs. Instead it’s preferable to accept that it may be something you need to ask Allah for guidance with and work on or just leave it.

One such point is prayer. She doesn’t feel she needs to pray in the way prescribed by the Sunnah and she justifies this by saying Allah is a forgiving God and will not condemn her for missing prayers! It’s one of the five pillar’s Ranya, one of the foundations that Islam is built on. You can’t build a house and say you’ll put the windows in “one day”. Your house will be open and unsecure, prey to the elements bad and worse. Prayer is one of the things which strengthens your iman and brings you closer to God. Prayer is not in the same league as eating with the right hand and which side to sleep on. In my opinion it’s not something you can take or leave.

Second point is Alcohol, Ranya tells of how her husband and Mother challenged her belief that she could be Muslim and drink alcohol. She states that she searched Quran to find justification and was vindicated by the fact that it only mentions not approaching prayer while under the influence of alcohol. As far as I know and from what is widely believed, alcohol was prohibited over three stages:

4:43. O ye who believe! Approach not prayers with a mind befogged, until ye can understand all that ye say,-

2:219. They ask thee concerning wine and gambling. Say: “In them is great sin, and some profit, for men; but the sin is greater than the profit.”

5:90-91. O ye who believe! Intoxicants and gambling, (dedication of) stones, and (divination by) arrows, are an abomination,- of Satan’s handwork: eschew such (abomination), that ye may prosper. Satan’s plan is (but) to excite enmity and hatred between you, with intoxicants and gambling, and hinder you from the remembrance of Allah, and from prayer: will ye not then abstain?

And Allah knows best.

Until now I can see many places where she has missed the chance to show Islam in a more positive light based on the facts of the religion. Yes the other women are starting to see Islam is not really as they originally thought, but they’re not seeing this based on some of the most positive and powerful aspects of Islam.

I don’t want to go through and pick holes in all of the arguments presented by Ranya since this is largely a book about each member’s personal journey to discover their own faiths and that of the others. Some might even argue that what makes me think my interpretation of Islam is the right one. I don’t think that, but there are some things which are clear as day and will not change no matter how many bells and whistles you put on it. I was mostly disappointed from the Muslim member because I expected it to be someone much stronger in faith and able to adequately represent Islam without diluting the truth. I’m also disappointed that so far in the book there isn’t more insight into Judaism and the rituals and beliefs of this religion. Until now I haven’t read much about Judaism so I had hoped for an introduction which would give me a desire to read more.

It’s mentioned a few times in the book that since Suzanne is from a majority culture and religion in the USA she is much more comfortable and confident in her beliefs whereas for the Jew and the Muslim they are both in the minority. This may be true and certainly shows in the struggles which each one is going through to define who they are and what they believe in. The book in general seems to be more about cultural and identity crisis than interfaith dialogue, which while interesting isn’t the reason why I bought the book. I hope it will get better towards the end.

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What’s in a name?

Xeper in response to my post about  predestination asked a couple of questions. To paraphrase;

• Why the usage of the name Allah for non native Arabic speakers instead of God?
• Why the usage of the name Rabb which is fairly uncommon amongst Muslims outside of Egypt let alone a British Muslim convert?

In my post I interchanged between the names Allah and God for two reasons. When I mentioned my life and beliefs as a Muslim now, I used Allah and when I referred to my pre-Islam days I used God. This is because this is what He was known to me as then. God.  It was I guess, a way of highlighting my relationship with Him in my past.

He wasn’t much for me back then. My main knowledge of Him was as the creator and the cause of any distress I was in and any success when I deemed to remember Him; usually as an offhand “Thank God”. People were sometimes fanatical in His name and on occasion others would writhe around on the floor speaking in a strange “tongue” which even they didn’t understand; because they felt His spirit. I was frequently accosted in the street by the bashers of his holy book, urging me to “seek salvation”; I preferred to seek ….. other pleasures and be “true to myself”.  

My mum used to reel off many other names for Him in her spiritually induced lectures (read “ramblings” as I considered them), my Dad called Him Jah and my aunt called Him Jehovah. Other family members and friends sometimes called Him on a Sunday. But still to me He was just God. I didn’t know Him as they seemed to.

Jesus loves you. God is good. God will make you pay for your sins. The only way to God is through Jesus. Jesus is Salvation. Follow Jesus. God works in mysterious ways. God is the Judge. To God we will return. Jesus loves you. Oh yes he does. STOP! Who is He?!!?

In the year or so preceding my reversion to Islam, He became a bit more to me. He was still a mystery, but one I wanted to solve. I saw him manifest in various ways and He started to become the source of my guilt. I was doing the wrong things. How did I know? I could just feel it. He was going to punish me. How did I know? I could feel it. But still to me He was just God. I didn’t know any other way to view Him.

Then I found Islam. Or did it find me? I’m not sure, but reading the Quran (translation) gave me an insight into who He is in a way I could understand. Now as a Muslim He means so much more to me than He ever did before. He is my life and reason for living. For Him I wake in the morning, I eat, I work, I think, I dream, I hope, I succeed, I strive, I laugh, I cry, I am happy and I am sad. He is my life. He is The One. He is Allah.

He didn’t change; He didn’t become a new god; He was and always will be the same. But I feel that “Allah” says everything about Him without having to explain. When I speak to another person who also calls Him “Allah” it’s like an unspoken understanding…. Even if that perception is all in my head!

Can it create confrontation? Yes it can. When I first reverted to Islam, my Mum would refer to Him as “Your Allah” in a condescending way and I would have to explain He wasn’t mine, He’s the same God that she prays to. By time, I found it made more sense when discussing Him with non Muslims, to use a neutral name. God for my Mum and most others; the creator for my Dad and any other person with uncommon beliefs. This way I create a platform where we can both stand on common ground and discuss the similarities and differences in our beliefs. Any other way I find causes the discussions to be conducted as if we are two people standing on opposing enemy lines.

Why do I use Rabb? This one is much simpler.  Partly, as I explained in my reply, it’s something I picked up from living in Egypt. The other reason is that I read once that Lord is a poor translation of Rabb which has a deeper meaning. I’ve also picked up the habit of using Arabic words mixed with my English when I feel it suits the meaning better Ya3ni…. J Maybe it’s because you can say more with less words in Arabic.

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