Tag Archives: light

Why I Say ‘Allahu Akbar’: My article on Busted Halo

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

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The full moon which sparked this reflection

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.

Continue reading.

My article on Busted Halo's cover page.
My article on Busted Halo’s cover page.

The Garden (“Peeling Oranges” Series)

One cold morning, I wait for the American neighbors next door, who share a cab with me to school.

A smoky mist rises up from their host mother’s garden, the night’s frost melting and crystalizing again in the air.  It curls around laundry polls and hovers above the lemon trees, full of pocked yellow bulbs even in winter.  The sun slips over the back wall and into my eyes, blurring my vision until all I see is light.  The threads of mist, the fallen lemon half-buried in the soil, the bird’s feather that floats to the ground—all of it is light.

I wonder if this is what Adam saw when God walked in the Garden.