Ali, The Muslim

29Sep2007 54 Comments Categories:Ali the Muslim, Donny Pauling, God, Grace, Islam, Love

Awaiting my return flight to Sacramento at Orange County Airport in Southern California, I decided to eat at the Oasis Grill and Sky Lounge. My waiter was a man named Ali. I sat longer than normal, and as I prepared to leave Ali and I began to communicate.

“I have 3 hours until my flight departs,” I told him.

“I’m sure that passes the time,” he replied. As he made a hand gesture toward my laptop.

He asked where I was headed and where I was from, then let me know he is also a Northern California native. At one time he owned an Italian Restaurant, which he’d sold at his wife’s urging in order to move closer to their daughter who is a college student.

Then his eyes began to tear up as he told me that he’d lost his wife to cancer barely a week ago. I was surprised he was working, serving food to me as I awaited my flight.

“I have to keep my mind occupied. I want to stay away from home as much as I can. The house now has no soul,” he explained in his thick accent.

A few moments later and we were discussing God. Ali and his late wife are of Muslim faith. Muslim’s serve the God of Abraham , which happens to be the same God those of Christian faith serve as well, even though Muslim’s call him “Allah” (edit to add: read the comments to this article, as this sentence has prompted a bit of discussion). During a conversation about the departure of Ali’s wife of many many years, it was not the time to discuss theological differences.

“Can I share something with you?” I asked.

When he agreed I passed along some very simple, yet profound information I’d received from Wendy when I was in extreme emotional pain.

“Don’t be afraid of the grief, Ali. It is a beautiful part of human healing. Don’t let anyone tell you how you should or shouldn’t feel about the loss of someone you loved so deeply. Let the pain last as long as it needs to last, but don’t be afraid of it. Simply thinking of the fact that emotional pain is nothing to fear… well that really changed my perspective when I was hurting. I hope it does the same for you. Pain like this is beautifully human. You loved her.”

A visible change occurred in Ali’s face. He smiled a warm, genuine smile and took my hand in a firm-grip handshake. My eyes were now glistening with moisture just as his were. I have never lost a spouse to cancer, but I felt like I really loved this man who recently had.

And so does the God I serve.

“Thank you for those beautiful words, my friend,” he told me. And his eyes followed me until I disappeared around the corner, leaving the restaurant. I know, because I looked back at him as well.

There was no need to tell Ali that I’d be praying for him. I’m just going to do so. I spoke with him for a brief instant, but the human emotions he is experiencing are something each of us feel at times, and I felt a very strong empathy and love for that hurting soul.

My God, please comfort my new friend.

http://www.covenantcommchurch.org/ supermannino

Thanks for the response, Donny.

I’ve abandoned all attempts to apply logic to this argument and instead tell you that I think that there seem to be two things at war here, things that I wish didn’t ever have to be at war.

Theology vs. People

Yeah…I don’t know why there’s some kind of trigger that goes off in my mind when something seems “off” theologically. It’s weird. It does. But, my heart resonates at your story about Ali. Sometimes I feel at war with my own theological thoughts and my desire to model Christ’s love to the world. Bottom line: you showed God’s love to a man who is hurting. Awesome. I’m just a random kid on a blog trying to analyze an act of love. Pretty dumb, I know. The theology of your statement about God and Allah might have rubbed me a weird way, but I don’t want to be THAT GUY who always seems to miss the forest for the trees when it comes to acts of love. Those guys were Pharisees. And, I don’t want to be like them. Keep loving. Keep looking for common ground. That’s the way to reach the world.

God blessed Abraham so that “the nations will be blessed.” I don’t think God meant that they could only be blessed through conversion. And, if that’s the case, then that means that we do serve a God who wants to bless people who call Him by a different name. So…let’s do that…
http://www.covenantcommchurch.org supermannino

Thanks for the response, Donny.

I’ve abandoned all attempts to apply logic to this argument and instead tell you that I think that there seem to be two things at war here, things that I wish didn’t ever have to be at war.

Theology vs. People

Yeah…I don’t know why there’s some kind of trigger that goes off in my mind when something seems “off” theologically. It’s weird. It does. But, my heart resonates at your story about Ali. Sometimes I feel at war with my own theological thoughts and my desire to model Christ’s love to the world. Bottom line: you showed God’s love to a man who is hurting. Awesome. I’m just a random kid on a blog trying to analyze an act of love. Pretty dumb, I know. The theology of your statement about God and Allah might have rubbed me a weird way, but I don’t want to be THAT GUY who always seems to miss the forest for the trees when it comes to acts of love. Those guys were Pharisees. And, I don’t want to be like them. Keep loving. Keep looking for common ground. That’s the way to reach the world.

God blessed Abraham so that “the nations will be blessed.” I don’t think God meant that they could only be blessed through conversion. And, if that’s the case, then that means that we do serve a God who wants to bless people who call Him by a different name. So…let’s do that…
Kevin

Some key points to “salve your wounds”
Point 1 Donny is right in seeing the simple common ground before the “fork in the road” in the lines coming from Abraham.
Point 2 Abraham (the Father of many nations) was neither Jew nor Muslim, and certainly not Christian.
Point 3 There are many differences in how each group perceives God, but from a Christian standpoint, there are more denominations among Protestants (of which I am one) than there are Abraham religions, and there has to be points that some of us are still missing.
Point 4 No one had any exposure to the true nature of God until the time of the Transfiguration when Jesus was standing in the river Jordan and the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove and God spoke down from the heavens, “This is my beloved Son, and I am truly pleased with him.”(Matthew 3-16, NLT) And you know that know one understood what they were seeing then, as we only see it with the blessing of 20/20 hindsight afforded us by the Holy Bible.
Point 5 Christianity is about relationships. As a salesman by trade, it is important for me in my work to establish familiarity very quickly as a sale is on the line. The same thing applies to witnessing, when the time is right, as there is nothing more “on the line” than someone’s soul who has not received Christ (but I am in whole-hearted agreement with Donny’s spiritual wisdom at the moment with Ali).
BIBLICAL EXAMPLE: When Paul preached in Athens, (Acts, Chapter 17) he was distressed by all of the idols he saw there. He debated with Jews, God-fearing Gentiles, and Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. And when he got to the part of Jesus’ death and resurrection, they took him to the Council of Philosophers, where he really BROKE IT DOWN, or as we say in the south, “Shelled down the corn.” He starts with the COMMON GROUND in verse 22, again from the NLT:
22 So Paul, standing before the council,[a] addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, 23 for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about.
24 “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, 25 and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. 26 From one man[b] he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.
27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your[c] own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29 And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone.
30 “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. 31 For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”
Point 6 It can be very intimidating for anyone who hasn’t received Christ for us to come up to them with “all of the tiny nuances that we have learned in our own Christian walks”, or our “studies of other religions in an attempt to spice up our witnessing”, when mainly what we really need to impart to the world is God’s majesty and sovereignty over our lives, recognition of our sinful nature and the undeserved favor of God through Christ Jesus, which is grace.
All of the rhetoric that we get in the habit of, while it is enjoyable, only serves our own spiritual growth and understanding, and I fear that sometimes we spend too much time in the classroom when we should be “out there” loving one another as Jesus commanded. May God bless you and keep you as you continue to walk in his will.
I have enjoyed myself here and feel blessed to call you Brothers in Christ.
In Christ’s Love, Grace, and Peace,
Kevin
Kevin

Some key points to “salve your wounds”
Point 1 Donny is right in seeing the simple common ground before the “fork in the road” in the lines coming from Abraham.
Point 2 Abraham (the Father of many nations) was neither Jew nor Muslim, and certainly not Christian.
Point 3 There are many differences in how each group perceives God, but from a Christian standpoint, there are more denominations among Protestants (of which I am one) than there are Abraham religions, and there has to be points that some of us are still missing.
Point 4 No one had any exposure to the true nature of God until the time of the Transfiguration when Jesus was standing in the river Jordan and the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove and God spoke down from the heavens, “This is my beloved Son, and I am truly pleased with him.”(Matthew 3-16, NLT) And you know that know one understood what they were seeing then, as we only see it with the blessing of 20/20 hindsight afforded us by the Holy Bible.
Point 5 Christianity is about relationships. As a salesman by trade, it is important for me in my work to establish familiarity very quickly as a sale is on the line. The same thing applies to witnessing, when the time is right, as there is nothing more “on the line” than someone’s soul who has not received Christ (but I am in whole-hearted agreement with Donny’s spiritual wisdom at the moment with Ali).
BIBLICAL EXAMPLE: When Paul preached in Athens, (Acts, Chapter 17) he was distressed by all of the idols he saw there. He debated with Jews, God-fearing Gentiles, and Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. And when he got to the part of Jesus’ death and resurrection, they took him to the Council of Philosophers, where he really BROKE IT DOWN, or as we say in the south, “Shelled down the corn.” He starts with the COMMON GROUND in verse 22, again from the NLT:
22 So Paul, standing before the council,[a] addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, 23 for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about.
24 “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, 25 and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. 26 From one man[b] he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.
27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your[c] own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29 And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone.
30 “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. 31 For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”
Point 6 It can be very intimidating for anyone who hasn’t received Christ for us to come up to them with “all of the tiny nuances that we have learned in our own Christian walks”, or our “studies of other religions in an attempt to spice up our witnessing”, when mainly what we really need to impart to the world is God’s majesty and sovereignty over our lives, recognition of our sinful nature and the undeserved favor of God through Christ Jesus, which is grace.
All of the rhetoric that we get in the habit of, while it is enjoyable, only serves our own spiritual growth and understanding, and I fear that sometimes we spend too much time in the classroom when we should be “out there” loving one another as Jesus commanded. May God bless you and keep you as you continue to walk in his will.
I have enjoyed myself here and feel blessed to call you Brothers in Christ.
In Christ’s Love, Grace, and Peace,
Kevin

Ali, The Muslim

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