Children of Dust by Ali Eteraz

Author:Ali Eteraz
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-04-02T21:00:00+00:00

The final element of preparation involved peer pressure. I wanted to demonstrate to Rita that some of the most important people not just in history—my first list—but in Western history, had actually secretly been Muslim.

There was, of course, Napoleon, the greatest Western military hero. He was a Muslim: he adopted the name Ali for himself and told the Egyptians that he was the mahdi, or messiah. He was also reported to have said, “I hope the time is not far off when I shall be able to unite all the wise and educated men of all the countries and establish a uniform regime based on the principles of the Quran which alone are true and which alone can lead men to happiness.” Then there was Goethe, the greatest German prose stylist. He was a Muslim, as his words in West-Eastern Divan revealed: “Whether the Quran is of eternity? I don’t question that! That it is the book of books I believe out of the Muslim’s duty.” Emerson, the greatest American essayist, must also have been a Muslim, because he quoted Muhammed at the beginning of one of his essays: “I was as a gem concealed; Me, my burning ray revealed.” Edgar Allan Poe, the great American short-story writer, must have also been a Muslim: he wrote a poem directly inspired by the Islamic angel Israfil. It opened: “In heaven a spirit doth dwell / ‘whose heart strings are a lute’ / None sing so wildly well / As the angel Israfel.” The quoted part was directly from the Quran, and given that the Quran was a miraculous book that had converted all the pagans who heard it, Poe must have converted to Islam upon hearing it too. Finally, there was Nietzsche, the greatest of modern Western philosophers. He wasn’t a Muslim, but he was certainly open to Islam; he said many positive things about it, showing a receptiveness to Islam that was a precursor to conversion.

I was very proud of my conversion dossier, but I didn’t get a chance to use it on Rita. She transferred to Rutgers.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.