Excerpt From Forthcoming Book
A Little Texas Two-step
My third book is nearly ready for print inshallah! It is an explanation of al-Marzuqi’s poem on theology, Aqidat al-Awam.
I divided the commentary into two volumes: a smaller edition for instruction in foundational beliefs, and a larger one on applied theology. This excerpt is from the larger volume (Winter 2026). As bigotry and racism amp up in Texas, I thought this excerpt timely.
"Back in 1981, in a hot, dusty desk in a third-grade Bible studies class at the Memorial Road Church of Christ, I sat traumatized. I was eight. My Sunday school teacher, Mrs. West, was going in: "Y’all know what the fastest growin’ religion in the whole wide world is? Betcha think it’s Christianity, don’tcha. Well, it ain’t. It’s them Mooslims; they worship Moohamad, and I tell you: one day, they’re gonna come knockin’ at ya front door, commandin’ you to denounce our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! You see dhem boys over there in Afghanistan? Honey, they are comin’ for you.”
As she went on, my clip-on tie cinched and my Johnny Carson blazer tightened. I could already see them: men in shalwar kameez knocking on my front door, saying: “Wilyam, bey ghayrata! Jeso pakhʃtana. Muḥammad (S) 'ibādat kawə." It was terrifying. And yet, here in 2026, not much has changed.
A common trope amplified by anti-Muslim bigots today, like Mrs. West, is that Islam spread by force; legions were told to accept Islam or die. Islam, they insist, is a political ideology coming for your life and your freedom.
When you are confronted with these charges, look beyond abstract theology and explore the full range of sources available to you. Islam is a civilization with a rich intellectual heritage, and using its civilizational tools is important; they illuminate the truth and force your antagonist to acknowledge it.
Two helpful sources are legal texts and historical records, since both engage the concrete rather than the theoretical, giving us a picture of how Islam was actually practiced and applied.
In his al-Dhakhira, Imam al-Qarafī cites a number of cases that illustrate just how genuine and uncoerced the acceptance of faith could be.
I cite three here:
Case One — The Christian Who Performs Islam Under Duress
Regarding the Christian who travels with a group and outwardly displays Islam, performing ablution, praying, and sometimes even leading them in prayer, but once he feels safe says: "I took shelter in Islam so that my daughters would not be taken captive" or something similar: if what he says is plausible given the circumstances, it is accepted from him. And they must repeat the prayers they performed behind him, both within the prayer time and after it. Mālik said this.
Sahnun said: If he was in a place where he genuinely feared for himself, and he was concealing his religion to protect himself and his property — nothing is held against him, but the group must repeat their prayers.
Case Two — The Monk Who Admitted Prior Islam
From al-Nawadir: A monk was asked: "You are an Arab who knew the virtue of Islam; what prevented you from embracing it?" He said: "I was a Muslim for a period of time, and I did not find it better than Christianity, so I returned to it." Then he said before the imam: "I was lying."
Ibn Wahb said: He is neither punished nor asked to repent — unless witnesses testify that they saw him pray, even if only a single rakʿa.
Case Three — Conversion out of Fear of Jizya or Injustice
Ibn al-Qasim said: If a man says "I embraced Islam out of fear of the jizya" or "because of an injustice being done to me" — this is accepted from him and he is not treated as an apostate. And if he had purchased a Muslim woman and was apprehended with her, then claimed "I am a Muslim," but later admitted he only said it because of her; nothing more than a light disciplinary measure is imposed on him, falling short of seventy lashes. This is Ibn al-Qāsim's ruling.
These opinions are not abstractions, nor aberrations. They are the outcomes of axioms that guide the application of revelation; its transfer from pages to life, from learning to living. Mrs. West would be astonished.”
Mrs. Gule was my Mrs. West, and in hindsight, I’ve had many since. Eight years a Muslim now, by Allah’s mercy, alhamdulillah, and most of what’s actually reshaped my family and friends’ perception of Islam has been akhlaq, not argument.
Which is perhaps why this excerpt unsettles me the way it does: the tradition it describes never treated faith as a public mask to be certified from outside. It read the heart under duress, weighed fear against conviction, and refused to pronounce upon what it could not truly see. That is theology at its best—not abstraction, but a discipline of moral perception severe enough to distinguish posture from soul. A civilisation capable of that preserved more than law; it preserved moral seriousness itself. Perhaps that is modernity’s deepest poverty: not ignorance of religion, but the loss of a soul still capable of being re-ordered by revelation.
Looking forward to the publication of this book of yours.
I am sure we will benefit from your knowledge and wisdom.
Will order as soon as published and available.
Jazak Allah