If the Oceans Were Ink
An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran
By Carla Power
American writer Carla Power and a madrasah-trained sheikh debated Islam’s holy book in search of interfaith understanding. She has written about the experience in her new book If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran. “People are going back to the basic texts, and they’re stripping away centuries of culture and tradition and looking for what they see at the heart of the religion,” she says.
Read an excerpt from If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran by Carla Power:
My year with my own sheikh and the Quran provided me with many moments of grace. I found comfort in how small I felt reading the text, as when I considered the images of the “lord if the heavens and the earth and everything in between, and Lord of all points of the sunrise.” Even as a nonbeliever, I still found myself taking refuge in the Quran classes as a clam inlet from daily life. The sheikh’s disregard for all the measurements of getting and spending was soothing. Yesterday’s close on Wall Street, the exam score or dress size, even happiness itself; all were nothing next to the fact that from God we com and to God we return. The constant reminders of one’s own puniness and powerlessness were strangely bracing. When my mother died, I remember thinking how sensible it was, the Muslim practice of saying “Inshallah,” or “God willing,” after every plan, every promise, no matter how minor, since only God can be sure whether next Wednesday’s lunch date will indeed be kept. It was a comfort, in a season of grief, to hang out with a community that honored this world’s certainties.
Quran in no way make one feel puni however it consistently get the reader to attempt to comprehend how great God is, as he is all mighty and all knowing. Quran demonstrates one’s end if they follow the righteous path or the astray path.
The Holy Quran is a book of God which teaches the complete way of life from the most minor to the most important things in our lives. The solution of every trial and grief is present in the Holy Quran and it’s recitation is a source of peace.
The Quran is not a very big book but the Quran has immense knowledge. It has an answer for every question. You just have to open the Quran and start reading. The Quran is our treasure chest.