Searching for Allah . . .

Thanks to the events of 9/11, a horrific event for our country has been transformed into a positive experience for me as my spiritual growth has been enriched through study of Islam.

First, I obtained a copy of the Qur'an and began reading, enrolled in a course on Islam at WVU, re-engaged with Sunday School class at the Spruce Street Methodist Church where I'm a member for classes on Paul and Religions of the World.

Thus far, I've found found that the Christian teachings with which I've become familiar thoughout my life have more in common with Islam than I expected.

And I've been impressed that Muslims seem to take their religion more seriously than I have or many Christians I know do.  For example, Muslims memorize the entire Qur'an in a language that is foreign to most, Arabic.   To me, that's comparable to Christians memorizing the Bible in the original languages, Greek and Aramaic.

Also, Muslims pause for prayer at least five times daily.

Here in Morgantown we are fortunate to have an active educational resources from the Muslim community and Mosque and Muslim Student Association at WVU.  For information about these, check the Links section on this blog.

It's become clear to me there are alot of misunderstandings between Christians and Muslims despite their common heritage as Abrahamic religions which they share with Judaism, too.

Of course, all religions are more diverse than they seem at first glance.  All have their conservative or fundamentalist and liberal wings and many schools of thought.  For example, very strict Imams seem to have more in common with hellfire and brimstone Baptist preachers than one might expect.  And both religions have members who interpret their scripture less literally, taking the context of the time it was written.

With these commonalities in mind, I'm led to wonder what's all this fighting about between followers of these religions?

More to follow later.