GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN | ARAB NEWS STAFF
Monday 25 February 2013
Many people may ask how a Christian preacher or priest can ever praise Islam and commend Qur’anic verses, especially considering all the negative things that they hear about Islam and Muslims. But this is a true story told by an American Christian priest herself, who told Arab News in an interview, “Qur’an has made me a better Christian.” She is none other than the Rev. Jamie Hamilton, associate dean of Students who oversees student health and welfare and past chair of the Religion Department at Phillips Exeter Academy (PEA) in Exeter, New Hampshire, United States. Hamilton, a scholar of comparative religion, who among her courses, teaches Introduction to Islam to 10th graders, recently visited Saudi Arabia and met with several men of letters and Saudi officials including Prince Faisal Bin Abdullah, minister of education.
In the interview, Hamilton said that the holy book Qur’an has a lot to offer to the people in the sense that it gives them structure and guidelines, and purpose, instead of just being focused on material things. Hamilton is writing a book about Islam that will hopefully be published within a year. She also acknowledged candidly: “It has been over 10 years now that studying Islam and reading the Qur’an has made me a better person, a better Christian and a better priest.”
Hamilton’s retrospection of Sept. 11 terror attacks vis-à-vis Islam changed her very perception about Muslims. This American priest and teacher, who urged people irrespective of their faith to read about different religions, substantiated her statement saying that the first revelation of Qur’an was — “Read in the name of Allah.”
She advised people to read the Qur’an. “So many people have their own baseless judgments about Qur’an and Islam and they criticize the religion, but they have never read the Qur’an,” she noted. “It absolutely surprises me how people make judgments on something they have not read,” she added.
Hamilton, who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Central Washington University and a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary, said, “as I started to read and study Islam, I could see that Christians and Muslims shared many similar ideas and approaches to our faith. Once I realized that Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) was preaching to all people of the Book, I realized that I, too, was part of his community,” said the American scholar, while quoting extensively from the Qur’an and the sayings of the prophet (hadiths).
Categories: Americas, United States
All this make me recall that Islam and its teachings are exactly tuned to the very nature of mankind and it is the last revealed religion of God Almighty perfected for mankind for all the time. Islam is rightly called Deen-e-Fitrat'(describing the natural way of life for whole mankind),As such the American Christian Priest,the Rev.Jamie Hamilton of New Hampshire,USA, a student of the comparative study of religion, who teaches Islam to his students of 10th graders, so he had all religions and this job assignment he performed in its true dedicated spirit, which ultimately led her to say the the Study of the Holy Quran has made her a better human being, a better Christian…..God is the Greatest and the only Creator of the whole Universe.Jazakallah for speaking the ultimate truth…. Wassalm.of dedicationedto study