Crossroads

A repost of my first article for UPI.

I suppose it's a manifesto.

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Caminante, no hay puentes, se hace puentes al andar.

'Voyager, there are no bridges, one builds them as one walks.' — Gloria Anzaldua

I am a Pakistani-American Muslim woman raised in the capital of Pureland and on the coasts of Freeland. I live and thrive in the intersections of East and West, "First" and "Third" worlds, local and global, and as both a minority and majority in faith, race, and gender depending on my location. I regularly fall between the stools of three languages in my attempt to articulate a thought.

Once I considered all this a weakness of never quite feeling fully one or the other. Then I realized the strength of being a part and yet apart, of rooted empathy - the strength of having an outside perspective, and of the possibilities embedded in living across the boundaries of communities, classes, and countries.

Each time I find a delicate balance at one intersection, a contentment with multiple labels, a new crossing appears. That crossing could be something as internationally catastrophic as 9/11 or as deeply personal as a debilitating illness, but the thread that holds everything together for me is a deep faith in God.

In Freeland, we all live at the center of a colorful, confusing, huge crossroads everyday. In a homogenous society it's easy to proclaim your version of the Truth as the only valid path; in a pluralistic society like ours, things get trickier.

I firmly believe that Islam is my true path but with all these other voices and faiths jostling up next to me I also have to come to some sort of understanding of the Other. That is the problem, or opportunity, inherent to our living at the crossroads.

Is it possible to go beyond political correctness and diplomacy to find a real respect for people of other traditions without compromising one's own religious integrity? Is it possible to take an individual as just that, instead of being representative of an entire race or religion? Have we finally come to a place and time where we can see beyond superficial differences and recognize our shared humanity, desires, and principles?

A verse in the Qur'an says, "Unto every one of you have We appointed a [different] law and way of life. And if God had so willed, He could surely have made you all one single people but [His plan is] to test you in what He has given you: Vie, then, with one another in doing good works! The goal of you all is to God; and then He will make you understand all that on which you differed" (5:48).

If we can accept that there is an inscrutable Divine reason for the differences between us, it frees us to focus on perfecting ourselves instead of obsessing about why they are wrong and we are right.

The simple truth is that the Divine is transcendent: one cannot exhaust the Divine reality in a single revelation, and must allow for legitimacy in others though their truths might not be obvious to us with our limited human perception.

One of the Prophet Muhammad's prayers (peace and blessings upon him) was, "O God, I call upon Thee with every name You have taught us and every name You have told privately to your servants, and those You have kept hidden." Idolatry is not bound only to graven images, but also to a feeling of owning God, of your name for God being the only name He answers to. To accept otherwise, as the Prophet did, opens up a world of possibilities that can deepen one's own faith, practice, and compassion for one's brothers and sisters in humanity.

As people of faith, we have an important role to play and must learn to meet each other truly and not just politely or condescendingly. Unity at this point has become a matter of survival for us in an increasingly materialistic and secular age. Thus, at the most basic level of solidarity, and by implementing ethical behavior to bolster human rights and responsibilities, people of faith have much to offer each other, and the world.

These are some of the ideas I hope to explore here each week in the Truth and Beauty column, along with the simple daily joys and rigors of holding onto and nourishing faith. The column's title is derived from three ideas: the Qur'anic verse, "To Him belong the most beautiful names" (17:110); the Prophet Muhammad's (peace and blessings upon him) statement, "God is Beautiful, and He loves beauty;" and John Keats' couplet, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty, — that is all/ ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

I am what is sometimes fearfully termed a "traditional" Muslim these days. To me, the core ideals of economic fairness, social justice, equal opportunity for all people, and good stewardship of nature are an integral part of Islam, deeply rooted in the Qur'an and Sunnah (practice of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings upon him). Although not ends in themselves as many secular humanists view them, they are a means to guide my worldly life and a vital part of the bridge to my hereafter.

As an American and a Muslim I feel obligated to ask questions and seek answers wherever I may find them. In a time when Muslims are pinioned in a suspicious spotlight, I welcome the opportunity to be a spiritual engineer - to help build the bridges of understanding between communities that need to be built and that are perhaps only possible because we live at this global crossroads and are confronted with one another everyday. And the only way to create those bridges, as Anzaldua points out, is through one conscious, conscientious step at a time.

I look forward to the journey, the many crossroads we will come across together, and to learning with you upon the winding road to our shared Ultimate goal and reality, when all the differences between us will be clarified.

"O Lord, You are peace. From You comes peace and to You returns peace. O Lord, let us live our lives in peace. Enter us into Your house of peace. Unto You be honor and glory. We hear and obey. Grant us Your forgiveness, O Lord, and unto You be our becoming."

— Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings upon him.