Washington National Cathedral

Deryl Davis: This morning, as you know, we are hosting a day of Christian-Muslim dialog starting with the Sunday Forum and with our Forum guest, Imam Yahya Hendi. Imam Hendi is the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University. He is also the imam at the Islamic Society at Fredrick, Maryland, and the Muslim chaplain at the National Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. He is also a member of the Islamic Jurisprudence Council of North America, which is the highest Islamic law–interpreting body in North America.

Imam Hendi speaks and writes very widely nationally about Islam and interfaith relations. You may have had an opportunity to hear him at other occasions, and he was one of the American Muslim leaders who met regularly with President George Bush after the events of September 11th. Imam Hendi, thank you very much for joining us today.

Imam Hendi: Thank you very much for having me, and peace be with you.

Davis: Peace be with you. We are taking of course primarily about Christian-Muslim relations this morning. We can more broadly speak about Muslim–non-Muslim relations in America, and there was a Pew Forum poll or survey last month, and some of you may have seen that survey. And one of the major findings of it was that Muslims, particularly in America, felt that they were one of the most, if not the most, discriminated against religious group in America. That kind of begs the question, have we come very far since 9/11 in terms of understanding Muslim and Muslim identity in America?

Hendi: You know, to start with, I wanted to thank you for inviting me to be with you, to engage one another. I actually believe that we are better off when we engage one another as brothers, as sisters, as fellow citizens.

And for me, it is an honor as a Muslim to be in a church on Sunday morning, and it would be an honor for Muslims to have Christians and Jews in their mosques on Fridays. After all, the more we know about each other, the more we know we need to know more. And the more we know that we actually have much more in common than we have differences: that we are brothers, we are sisters, and we need to engage one another.

As to the question that you raised, I believe in the spirit of America. I believe in what makes America.

No matter what, America can always overcome the uncertainties, the difficult moments in its history. Yes, there were cases of discrimination after September 11th, and many of them. Many Muslims did feel alienated, rejected, overlooked, not catered for, after September 11th. Sometimes, fired from their jobs only because his name is Mohammed or her name is Aisha. And there were many cases like that.

However, I dare to say that, as a nation, we overcame that in many ways, shades, and forms. I do believe that there are more Americans now who know about Islam than before September 11th, and in a positive way. I myself lectured at literally hundreds of churches around the country and synagogues and schools to spread the true message of Islam, a message of love, compassion and peace.

There are still uncertainties in some areas where that education was not available. Actually, I believe that ignorance is our worst enemy and that our best friend is education, knowledge, and information. And I do believe that to win hearts we need to engage with people’s minds and souls.

Not only in the battlefield can we win hearts. Hate cannot get rid of hate; only love can do that. Hate cannot get rid of hate. Only when we sit around the table and engage one another intellectually and spiritually, only then can we change hearts.

And I believe a lot of that has happened in America after September 11th ; however, I always believe that there will always be room to change, to improve, to grow. There’s nothing, quote, ‘I have done with this, let’s go home.” The more you do, the more you discover you need to do more. Yes, we have been able to succeed in many ways, shapes and forms.

We have been able to overcome these uncertainties, but listen: the work of God never ends. Our work with God never ends. And we need to do more to overcome those uncertainties.

Davis: I fully agree with you. At the same time, though, as we have these uncertainties and misconceptions and wrong stereotypes, there are events like last week I believe it was a man in Massachusetts was arrested for association with an extremist overseas Islamic group. That often times plants the wrong seed in the minds of some people in America who make this exact correlation that Islam is a religion of violence. How do we address that and answer that in the right way?

Hendi: I would say that Muslims too have bad oranges and apples in their box. We also have blood on our hands. And not only Muslims, I am sure you know, we all know, that we all have blood on our hands. Jews do, Christians do, Muslims do, seculars do, everyone has that blood on their hands.

The idea, I believe, is not to give in to those that speak that language in our own communities. Actually, I always say that the people that make it difficult for Muslims to be Muslims are Muslims, and the people that make it difficult for Christians to be Christians are Christians. And we have to be able to speak to our own communities, our own co-religionists if you will, first, before we speak to others. So, yes, we do have those types of people.

My hope is that people do not understand American Muslims in light of those cases that are magnified on TV as if that is what Islam is in America. And it is not! There are almost seven million American Muslims, almost 17,000 American Muslims who serve in the armed forces—in the Navy, in the Army, in the Air Force. Our Muslims are serving in Iraq, are serving in Afghanistan, are serving everywhere. Muslims in the FBI, in the CIA, Muslims everywhere. We are contributing like everyone else to the economy and the society.

I always make a joke that when someone says, “Imam, I have never met a Muslim.” My answer is, “Obviously, you have never been sick.” If you know what I mean: there are Muslim doctors everywhere. There are almost 5,000 Muslim doctors in Michigan, in the Dearborn area. So, if you are in Dearborn and you have been sick, you have to have come across a Muslim nurse or a Muslim doctor. I live in Fredrick, Maryland, a very small town compared to Washington, DC, and in my own small community there are 51 Muslim doctors. Imagine if those doctors leave Frederick tomorrow, what could happen to the whole health and medical services in my own little town, Frederick, Maryland?

So Muslims are contributing to America and unfortunately that story is untold. So I urge my fellow Christians to please get to know Islam from within and not from without, and do not believe everything you see on the news because that is for what I call sensational narratives. Sensational narratives don’t tell you the truth about anything.

Davis: As you are pointing out, Muslims are one of the fastest growing demographic groups in America, as in Western Europe. Are we seeing a particular kind of American Muslim being created? And what does it look like in terms of Muslims assimilating into America? Should we expect habits and customs to change, or should we not?

Hendi: By the way, back in 1995, I did see that article that came out in I believe in the Times about Islam being the fastest growing religion in America.

I doubted it then and I doubt it now. I don’t believe there is any scientific study done to prove that Islam is the fastest growing religion in America. I believe these are speculations and sometimes for all kinds of agendas. There is nothing really to prove that.

Yes, there are in America almost 2,500 mosques, 447 Islamic schools. But does that mean it is the fastest growing religion? Where do we place evangelical right-wing fundamentalist churches in America? What about Buddhists in America? I believe Buddhism is growing fast in America. I really don’t know what that study is.

I want people to understand that Muslims are part of the fabric of America, as President Bush well articulated after September 11th, as President Obama recently articulated. I was at the White House celebrating Iftar, the break of the fast meal, with President Obama in August and he articulated it very well that Muslims are a part of the fabric of American and will continue to be part of the fabric of American.

Actually, let me give you a piece of history, many people think Islam is a new comer to America. It is not. Actually, you will be surprised to know that there are traces of Islam in North America back to 1320.

In 1320, Muslim sailors sailed from west Africa, came to America led by the son of King Mohammed II of Mali and ended up in the Gulf of Mexico and travelled through the land and ended up in Arizona, and some of them ended up in North Carolina. We do have that.

We also know of Columbus, who used a map that was done with Arabic notes of the world. He could not use that map as it was in Arabic. So he hired Muslim Arabic geographers to help him interpret that map to come to North America. Muslims have been a part of America. We have in Georgetown area a tomb of an African Muslim that is traced back to the 16th century in North America, history that is really not as well known.

Davis: How is American culture influencing Islamic practices in North America and vice versa?

Hendi: Overall, every culture, every religious community tries to adapt its own culture in a way that fits that culture. However, I believe overall that American Muslims are not really different from Arab Muslims or Pakistani Muslims in many ways.

If there are differences, I would say in America we do have freedom as scholars, as imams, to be free: to say what we believe in our hearts and souls. That freedom may not exist in some Muslim nations, in some Arab countries. So, if there is any difference, I would say the fact that America is the country of the free, that gives us the freedom to interpret things more openly, more inclusively, in a way that does not frighten us.

We can say whatever we want to say, and I am not going to be worried about what the king would do to me or what the president would do to me, or what the secret service in that country would do to me. If there is a difference, I would say that.

Davis: You’ve jumped to one of my later questions, but let’s go there. In the Washington Post today, one of the lead stories was about Indonesia, and was asking the question we heard so many times over the last eight years: is Islamic culture compatible with democracy? You must hear that question many times a week.

Hendi: All the time, yes. I wish there was more time. This is only a fifty-minute Forum. You can never interpret the New Testament in two hours, let alone in a fifty-minute Forum. I do say as someone who is an expert in Islamic jurisprudence but also knows what democracy is, I dare to say that Islam is 100% compatible with democracy.

Islam is a system that empowers what is called in Arabic the concept of shura, the concept of consultation, that people are empowered to speak up their mind, and all people’s voice have to be included in any project, whether political, economic, social, or anything else.

So the idea of a representative government is very Islamic. The idea of a government “by the people, for the people” is very Islamic as well. So Islam is compatible with democracy.

Davis: A lot of us work with stereotypes, erroneous or not, of the role of women Islam, of individual rights within Islam. Can you address that?

Hendi: This is my passion because I love to talk about the issue of women, because I believe that I am what I have become, an Imam, because of my mother. Women I actually believe are the real makers of history, and I give women the credit of that. In regards to women and Islamic history, a few things.

Number one, the story of the creation. In the Koran, it goes as this: that God took a handful of dust and said “be,” and it became Adam and Eve at the same time. So for Islam, women or Eve did not come out of the rib of Adam. Both were created from the same essence, from the same dust, from the same soil. Both emerged at the same time, with the same command—at the first command. So men and women are absolutely equal in terms of the first creation.

Number two: after the creation of Adam and Eve, God spoke to both Adam and Eve using the pronoun in Arabic referring to both of you and not only to one of you. So God did not speak to Adam and said “Go and tell Eve.” God spoke directly to Eve.

Number three: It is Adam and Eve—both—who broke the law, if you will. Both ate from the tree from which they were prohibited. So women should not be blamed for what men do, as historically happened because of that narrative of creation. In Islam, Even went on her own and broke the law and Adam went on his own and broke the law. So men and women are equal in the eyes of God, equal participants in the law, and each has their own good and bad, if you will.

Number [four]: Mohammed spoke about men and women in the following way, he said women are the partners of men. In the Koran, the Arabic word for wife and husband is the same—zawaj—which means a partner. So the Arabic word for marriage is partnership, because marriage is a partnership between a man and a woman.

Okay. What about if we go back to 839—the year? A university with the name Al-Karaouine still exists in Morocco as we speak, and was founded by a woman who became the president of that university in 839. Al-Azhar university on Cairo, Egypt, still exists and is the largest university in the world in terms of number of students, was founded by a woman in 1069, and she became the first president of that university one thousand years ago. One thousand years ago.

Women in Islam are able to marry on their own, choose their own husbands, and are able to release themselves from any marital relationship, called in Arabic talaq. So women have also the right to marry themselves, and divorce themselves.

Let me shock you. In America we talk about equal pay. In the ninth century in Islam, Islamic jurisprudence introduced the idea of equal pay between men and women. In the ninth century. It existed in Islam up to the nineteenth century. Unfortunately, Muslims did not practice it after that. It is because of Islam that women have been able to have equal pay with men. In America we are struggling with that.

In Muslim countries, we still have our own failures unfortunately. Not because of Islam. Actually, despite Islam, has the Islamic world become what it has become. The Taliban and women not allowed to go to schools or colleges or universities, is that because of Islam? I just gave you some examples.

Actually, the first theologian of Islam is a lady with the name of Aisha, who also was the wife of the prophet. Mohammed the prophet appointed someone to be in charge of the market that he established, and that person happened to be called ash-Shifa bint Abullah ibn. In modern American terminology, she was the first secretary of commerce in the history of the universe. It was a woman leading that.

Again, please put that in the context of Arabia, Bedouin male-dominant society in every shape and form. And here women became theologians, politicians, physicians, soldiers, nurses, doctors, and leading universities within a few hundred years. So what we hear about the issue of women in Islam is not true when it comes to the faith itself.

However, I am honest. I am not going to lie to you. There are again bad apples and oranges in our boxes. There are people, there are men who would want to feel that we are in control of our women for their own interest.

But is that really what Islam teaches? Absolutely not. Should women be circumcised? Of course not. Where does that practice come from? It has existed and it did exist in the Muslim world prior to Islam. Actually Islamists spoke against it. Some societies did not get rid of that practice.

We should not blame Islam for the bad practices of some Muslims. As we speak, in Pakistan, a country I have so many criticisms of, 33 percent of the Parliament in Pakistan, as we speak, are females. Benazir Bhutto was the prime minister of Pakistan for many years—a female. The prime minister of Turkey was a female for many years. Bangladesh as we speak is a country led by a female, and the head of the opposition party is also a female.

In many Muslim nations, according to the study of the OIC, the Organization of Islamic Conference, in colleges, 52 to 58 percent of college students in Muslim countries are females as we speak. Those are numbers that people don’t know about.

Davis: We are talking about dealing with some of these misperceptions that many of us in the West have about Islam, just not knowing enough about the religion itself. And I’ll give one example. I was speaking last night with some friends of mine, one of whom works in a technology company. There is a Muslim gentleman who works in that company and his tradition is that he chooses not to shake a woman’s hand, but will acknowledge her and greet her in other ways. That unfamiliarity with that tradition has caused a lot of unease within that company. What is it that we non-Muslims essentially need to know about Islam to begin overcoming some of these differences?

Hendi: Let me start with this handshake thing. If you are familiar with orthodox Judaism, it is the same way. In orthodox Judaism, men and women who are not related do not shake hands. Number two, in a traditional Arab society, women and men who were not related did not shake hands, prior to Islam. Now, you met my wife Illya, who is in the audience, and you shook her hand, she shook your hand. So, it depends on the cultural interpretation of what you do and what you do not do. You go to the Arab world and I’m telling you, the majority of Arabs and Muslims, men and women will shake hands, will listen to music and enjoy the life that we enjoy.

Now what things would I want my Christian brothers and sisters to know about Islam that will help us overcome the misconceptions? I would say many things. Number one, not every Arab is a Muslim and not every Muslim is an Arab. There are 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide. Actually, 83 percent of them are non-Arabs. So only seventeen percent of Muslims are Arabs. Only seventeen percent. Imagine.

Davis: Most of them are in Asia.

Hendi: Most are in Asia, Africa, Europe, and everywhere else. Most people don’t know this but you can be a Christian Arab, a Jewish Arab. Actually, the ambassador of the state of Bahrain to the United States is a Jew. A country with 99.9 percent Muslim, but the ambassador to Washington is a Jew with the name of Houda Ezra Ebrahim. So that is something I want you to keep in mind.

Number two, Muslims worship God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the creator of us all.

The Arabic word Allah is nothing more than the Arabic word for God. If you happen to be worshipping in a Christian service in the Arab world in Arabic, that is what you would hear in a church—Allah—coming from the mouth of a priest, or a minister, or a pastor.

So Arabic “Allah” is the Arabic word for God. In Hebrew, eloheinu, A-L-H. Allah, A-L-L-A-H. So if we are talking about Hebrew, even in Hebrew is the Allah: eloheinu. Allah, [illahona], our God.

So Muslims worship the God of Jews and the God of the Christians one hundred percent.

We refer to God with what is known in Islam as the attributes of God: God the merciful, God the compassionate, God the rahman, the rahim, the al-wadoud, the loving. God es-salaam, the source of peace. El-wahed, el-ahad, the unique, the only God.

So we refer to God in the very same way Christians would refer to God. That does not mean that Islam and Christianity are similar in everything. No. But we have much more in common that we have differences in every way shape and form. So that’s number two.

Number three, Muslims believe that there is life after death, and God will hold us accountable for what we do and how we behave on Earth. We call that day the Day of Resurrection, the Day of Redemption, and the Day of Accountability: that God will hold us responsible for how we behaved on Earth.

Our faith is important for redemption, the grace of God is also important for redemption, but also our deeds are important for our redemption. So in Islam, the faith, the grace of God and deeds. It is not enough to say I believe in God. You need to translate your faith into action for redemption.

But all those things are not different from what Christianity would also teach about redemption.

Davis: Faith without works is dead.

Hendi: Absolutely. Faith and deeds. You know, Jesus Christ spoke for, that he came to deliver the captive. Jesus spoke about feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. To be faithful, to be one with Jesus, you need to translate your faith into action. That is what we teach in Islam.

Something else: Islam believes that Jews, Muslims and Christians are Ahl al-Qitab: People of Revelation, that God revealed God’s wisdom to us in different forms. In Christianity, it is Jesus that is that revelation. In Islam, we believe that God revealed the Torah to Moses, the Injil, the Good News, to Jesus; and the Koran to Mohammed. Therefore, the Good News to Jesus is important to us. You can never be a Muslim if you don’t believe in Jesus. Actually, Jesus is the Messiah of Islam.

Yes, we believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ the son of Mary. We believe that the end of time will never come, or the Day of Resurrection with never happen, if Jesus does not come back. And Muslims anticipate the return of Jesus in order to establish the Kingdom of Justice and Peace on Earth.

Jesus is mentioned in the Koran more than two hundred times. Mohammed is mentioned in the Koran only five times. There are five chapters in the Koran that are attributed to Jesus Christ. There is only one chapter attributed to Mohammed—meaning that talks about Mohammed—only one, and five talk about Jesus. Mary mother of Jesus is mentioned in the Bible seventeen times, and mentioned in the Koran 34 times. Mary the mother of Jesus is mentioned twice as many times in the Koran as she is in the Bible.

Not only that, Mary the mother of Jesus is the only sinless prophet who happened to be female that history has ever known. So Mary, for us, is not only the mother of Jesus. She was also a sinless, perfect human being.

Something else. We believe that Muslims have to live ethical life, and the foundations of those ethics and morals come from the Koran but also come from Biblical [sources]. The Ten Commandments, known in the Bible, known to Jews and Christians, are also the Ten Commandments of Islam, word by word. If there was time, I would show you that, how the Ten Commandments of Islam are also identical to the Ten Commandments of the Bible.

Something else that I would want my Christian brothers and sisters to know is that we Muslims do believe in the concept of jihad. I am not going to run away from that. But jihad does not mean what you are told that it means. Jihad means to strive, to become one with the will of God. Taking care of your neighbor is a form of jihad. Feeding your cat is a form of jihad—you’re happy now, huh? Taking care of your dog is a form of jihad. Taking care of your spouse is a form of jihad. Going to the bathroom is a form of jihad, to clean up yourself. Picking trash up from the street is a form of jihad. What I am doing now is a form of jihad—education. What you are doing now is a form of jihad, listening to me, a strange guy with a heavy accent. God help you. That’s jihad. But why are you doing it? For a good cause, to please God, but to learn something good to you in your life.

Labor, a woman’s pregnancy is a form of jihad. Her labor is a form of jihad. So jihad is this inclusive term that means to do your best, for your will to become one with the will of God. And to do this you have to become an ethical person who, in order to serve God, you have to be in service to humanity.

Davis: We are going to go to our time for audience questions in just a moment. While we gather those. […] I have another question or two as we move forward. Would you also define for us the word Islam itself? I think there is sometimes some confusion about that.

Hendi: The word Islam comes from the Arabic word salaama, which means peace, like in the Hebrew world shalom. Shalom, salaam, Islam. The word Islam means to have peace with God, when your will becomes one with the will of God. Some Muslims use the word submission, that you submit your will to the will of God. You allow your will to unite with the will of God, that is to say that you do what God wants you to do.

That is the word Islam. So it has the connotation of peace, but it also has the connotation of your will becoming one with the will of God. In our prayers, when we pray, at the end of the prayer, we look to the right and say Es-salaam Alalaikum, “peace be with you” and we look to the left and say “peace be with you”. God has 99 attributes in Islam, one of which is al-salaam, the source of peace. Heaven has a nickname in Islam, dar-es-salaam, the abode of peace, the house of peace that will be granted to those who work for peace on earth. That is what the word Islam really means.

And by the way, recently I produced a few DVDs that in detail speak of this. I have six DVDs called “Islam from Within” and every one addresses one of those questions: like women and gender, meaning of Islam, history, prophet Mohammed, Islam and other religions. And for those of you who are interested, you can maybe go to the website or call and order.

Davis: We’ll get some of this information to those who are interested and we would highly recommend them as an educational resource about Islam for all of us. I want to move us… A last question here, moving us abroad, we got some unhappy news this morning from the West Bank and Palestine of a clash between some Palestinians Israelis, and Israeli police in the area that some of us my know of as the Temple Mount, to Muslims the Noble Sanctuary, and it reminds us of this ongoing conflict there between Israelis and Palestinians. Do you see any specific hope for having a resolution for that conflict? And does having a different presidential administration here, how does that affect us?

Hendi: You know, I am a man of faith. I have to have faith. I have to believe that the day will come when Jews, Christians, Israelis and Palestinians do respond to the voice of God, the God of peace, to make peace in the City of Peace, the city where the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, lived. I do have that faith. I do have hope.

What you are referring to, as to what happened this morning, to me is quite sad, when you have almost five hundred soldiers walking into a mosque with their dirty shoes, machine guns, pointing at people while in service, and arresting people. And the last number I heard was 25 injured, mainly young boys and girls. And people are still held in the mosque, not allowed to go out and or to get food or water in. To me, this is sad and must not happen and shall not happen in a church, or in a synagogue or a mosque. The places of worship are where we go to worship God, to regain peace in our hearts and minds and souls.

Now, I do believe that there are honest Israelis who are also calling for peace. I do believe that. I do believe that on the Israeli side there are people that want that peace to happen. But I also believe that on the Palestinian side there are also people who want peace and are calling for peace. Both the Christians and the Muslims.

And by the way, when people speak about the Arab-Israeli conflict, they speak about Jews and Muslims and overlook the fact that 17 percent of the Palestinians in 1948 were Christians, now down to 1.5 percent. And Jerusalem and Palestine is the birthplace of Jesus.

So Christians are a part of that reality and have to be involved to bring about peace to that land. So we do have Palestinians who want that peace, we do have Israelis who want that peace.

Sometimes I say children dying, mothers crying, politicians lying. And we need people who are able to stand up and speak for God once and again, for peace, between both sides.

I believe that you can never be pro-Palestine if you are not pro-Israel. And you can never be pro-Israel unless you are pro-Palestine.

So we need to be pro-each other. I do believe that the time will come when both sides, the Israelis and the Palestinians, the three communities—the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims—will be able to enjoy that land together, but only when we give in to that voice of peace, love and compassion. And that land is the promise to the three communities; that that land belongs not only to the Jews, not only to the Christians, not only to the Muslims. It belongs to all of us.

Davis: That is a vision that many of us pray for. We have time for very few questions, maybe five minutes. The first question asks, what can America do to improve the attitudes of Muslims in other countries towards us, towards America? And I am sure this is relating to many recent surveys that show, in a large part of the Muslim world, more negative attitudes toward America, many of which we have created.

Hendi: You know, before I blame America I like to blame myself—the Muslims. Muslims must not blame America for all of their disasters. So, Muslims have to do what I call soul searching, to rediscover their own truths, to reclaim the beautiful voice of Islam as a religion of peace and compassion.

On the American side—and I speak as an American. Yes, I do have an accent, but I am an American. And by the way, I have an accent only because I learned English in Texas, [laughter] and they don’t speak English there. [laughter] And I married my wife in Texas, so you need to[…]

America has to deal with the Muslim world as an equal partner around the table. And back to the question of the president, the new administration, I believe the Cairo speech delivered by President Obama is a milestone in the history of the relationship between the East and the West, and between America and the Muslim world. However, it must not end there. American diplomats need to become part of the solution. American clergy need to become part of the solution. American businessmen and women need to become part of the solution.

Number two, I would say that America needs to change or modify the way it does politics in the Muslim world. America is seen as a country that supports dictatorships in the Arab and Muslim world. That’s how America is seen. America is seen to be the country behind Saddam Hussein back in the Seventies and the Eighties, believe that America is backing the regime of Hosni Mubarak and other dictatorships in the Arab and Muslim world. And America has to be seen as a country that cares for democracy, all forms of democracy, in the Arab and Muslim world.

Number three, America has to modify the way it does politics when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict. It cannot continue to speak only for the interests of the Israelis [at] the expense of the interest of the Palestinians. I am not saying that America should give up on its interest [in] Israel. I also care about Israel, too. But can America speak for both, Palestine and Israel with the same terms, with the same terminology, with the same policies, with the same interests? That is quite important.

Davis: We are getting close to the end of our time, so I may throw a couple of audience questions to you at once. Part one is asking what books or resources do you recommend that are best for beginners, as it were, to learn about Islam?

Hendi: Well, if I want to be a little bit selfish, I do recommend my DVDs [laughter], and you can buy them on theheartofslam.com or call the 800 number 1-888-499-4044.

Davis: we’ll work on getting our bookstore to carry those. They are hot off the presses).

Hendi: There are books I would recommend. One is called The Vision of Islam by William Chittick. The other book is called The Heart of Islam by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, who teaches at George Washington University. These are two wonderful and good books about Islam. Another documentary I would want you to buy is called [“Three Faiths, One God: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.”] You will find it on a website called [3faiths1god.com], produced by a very well-known TV producer called Gerald Krell, who also lives in the area. These are two books that I recommend for you.

Davis: I believe that last film was widely shown on PBS a few years ago. Another question, if we have time, is, in Islam, how does a person go about discerning God’s will within the context of Islamic theology?

Hendi: In one minute? [laughter] Well, I would welcome the idea of coming back to the National Cathedral maybe in a class format with two, three hours to discuss all those questions that are really important. [applause] One’s will becomes one with the will of God when one lives love and compassion; when one demonstrates love and compassion in the way one deals with one’s own neighbor and with one’s own fellow brother and sister. This is for me how one will become one with the will of God.

However, I have a message since we are concluding. My brothers and my sisters, my message to you as an imam, as a Muslim as a fellow brother…

People ask me often where I am from and I say, “I am from dust.” And people say “dust”? I never heard of such a country. And I say in the Bible it says and in the Koran it says, from dust to dust, ashes to ashes. So my citizenship is dustianship and I am proud to be dustian and a fellow dustian.

In other words, we are brothers and sisters. We come from the same origin and we have the same destiny: dust.

What we need to do is to ensure that the medium between the origin and the destiny is the same: that we are brothers and sisters, that we act as such. For me our humanity is like a ship, and the ship might sink.

However, we need to work together to make sure it does not sink. For that to happen, we need to act as shipmates, as brothers and sisters. It does not matter where you worship on Sunday or Friday. It does not matter what kind of revelation or book you read.

What matters is how we respond to the voice of God that echoes in our hearts and souls. What matters is how we can come together to save our humanity, to save our mother earth, to save all of us.

Why? Because united we shine, and united we stand, and united we will make it. At the end of the day, my brothers and sisters, I love you.

I love you on behalf of Islam. I love you on behalf of Muslims. And I apologize if Muslims hurt you in any way, shape [or] form. I am here to offer my apology.

But I am hear also to extend my hand, to open my soul and my heart to you, to say for God’s sake, for the sake of justice and peace in the world let us come together to live three principles that are very Islamic: politics of justice, economics of equity, and covenant of community. Politics of justice, economics of equity, and covenant of community. So I ask God to keep that covenant alive, a covenant that will keep our hearts together for the glory of God. Thank you. [applause]

Davis: Thank you.