I’m grateful to Busted Halo, an online magazine for spiritual seekers, for publishing the following reflection. Inshallah, God willing, I will be contributing more to Busted Halo throughout the rest of the year. Start reading my article here, and continue reading on Busted Halo’s site.
Why I Say ‘Allahu Akbar’
October 22, 2013

This evening, as I left an Amman café after sharing a croissant with an old friend, I was greeted simultaneously by the echoes of the evening call to prayer and a bright full moon in the fading light.
“Allahu akbar!” called the muezzin, “God is greater!” The moon, perfectly round like a communion wafer, was suspended above the power lines and square, cement rooftops.
At the end of a day which included more joys than I can count, and a month of challenges, including moving, missing family and friends, and settling into life in a new city, I couldn’t help but notice this more-than-coincidental convergence of aural and visual. These two very ordinary events — the call to prayer and the emergence of a full moon — have, over the past few years, become particularly symbolic for me, and their convergence made their messages all the more clear.
