If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran

In her yearlong study under the guidance of renowned Islamic scholar Sheikh Mohammad Akram Nadwi, journalist Carla Power gained profound insight and clarity of the Qur’an’s humane message of peace and inclusiveness. Her memoir is a remarkably moving tribute to the great knowledge and compassion that echo forth from the true teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. Through her experiences, we can gain a deep appreciation for the beauty, complexity, and humanity of the Qur’anic verses. Power highlights how the Sheikh’s studies bear testament to the manifold contributions and significant influences women have made throughout the history of Islam. In fact, no religion has women playing so vital a role in its development than Islam. Too often over the centuries, it has been radicals and extremists who have polluted the true message of the Qur’an. In doing so, they have chosen to exploit laws and customs to carry out oppression, violence, and terror. Power learned from the Sheikh how to return to a close examination of the Prophet’s sage words and deeds, which reveal the inspiring faith and universal values of the Qur’an. In its essence, Islam advocates devotion to prayer, focus on charity, and closeness to God. Islam espouses equal rights and justice, and an empowering form of humanity can be found in the life of the Prophet’s wisdom and actions. To be a true Muslim one must show loyalty to the Prophet’s words and deeds, the hadith and sunna. Through the Prophet’s vision and message, one finds a call for moderation of actions, acceptance of others, equality of all people, and piety towards God. Muhammad’s community of Muslims was to spread peace, feed the hungry, and honor kinships. The Prophet preached never to force beliefs on anyone. His hopes were to bring learning and understanding. He knew his limits and he taught to avoid anger, power, and wealth. He also taught his followers to be generous and demonstrate a gentle character. These attributes will ultimately help people relate to the true message of Islam. In fact, nowhere in Islam do hierarchies or divisions exist. Nor does compulsion. Islam not only tolerates differences, it values them as part of God’s design. The Qur’an stresses how no singular group has exclusive salvation, and it questions any group that claims only a singular path exists to reaching paradise. So why is Islam viewed with suspicion and fear? The Sheikh explained to Power how obsessive rules and laws have too often devolved into punitive measures and acts of extremism, which directly defy what the Prophet taught and stood for. Sadly, abandonment of Islam’s true message occurred over centuries with the decline of the traditional madrasa system. The intellect and moderation of Islam slowly deteriorated into the harsh words and practices of radicals. Extremists now conduct misguided readings of the Qur’an and settle on reckless interpretations. The Sheikh explains how Islam is about justice and how all fighting and protesting should be redirected into time spent on prayer and honoring God. Extremists have made Islam about political struggle, when they should be focused on piety. By making political power the only goal of Islam, extremists abandon the way of the Prophet’s teachings. Their quest for radical law destroys their piety towards God. Real piety requires a commitment to one’s individual belief in honoring God and following the Prophet’s message of peace and understanding. State-endorsed Islam is nothing more than hypocrisy. Problems arise when Muslims chose identity politics over piety. Returning to a loyal reading of the Qur’an reveals a great humanity based on reason and tolerance. Islam began with a command to recite and read, so any call to arms is misguided because Islam demands its followers to think, pray, submit, and be patient in their quest to gain a closeness to God. This knowledge of returning to God is the cycle of life that the Prophet pursued. Carla Power learned through her studies with Sheikh Akram that the piety rooted at the heart of Islam calls for the defense of human rights and a devotion to individual consciousness over laws imposed by the state. Power’s memoir celebrates exactly what Islam teaches: that to practice true humanity, one must learn to see the whole of the world and learn to accept and understand others. If the Oceans Were Ink is an enlightening book that offers us knowledge and insight about the great humanity of Islam.

If the Oceans were Ink comes at a crucial moment. While Islam has been around for thousands of years, prejudice towards its religious practices, born of the actions of extremists, has never been greater. Carla Power draws attention to an important distinction between these extremists—those that you see and hear in the media—and the everyday civilians who practice their faith much like anybody else: peacefully, and without using religion as an excuse for violent action. Power does this by returning to the text that informs Islam, the Quran, and extracting from it truths that teach empathy, respect, and more. Because of the myths this book sets straight, and because of the time it dedicates to a religion and culture that many make assumptions about, If the Oceans were Ink is of humanitarian scope and importance. Through her work, Power encourages her readers to expand their minds in order to understand the complexity of a reality that has been repeatedly reduced to a “us versus them” narrative. In doing so, not only does she inform and educate, but she also gives her audience the tools with which to restructure their own, perhaps biased and otherwise unchallenged beliefs. If the Oceans were Ink is easy to follow regardless of one’s background or knowledge in Islam teachings. It is largely structured by means of an extended interview wih Sheikh Mohammad Akram Nadwi, who by his title of Sheikh is entitled to teach and guide others in Islamic faith. The Sheikh provides a range of views on various relevant issues, including child marriage, women’s rights, and other religions. Sheikh Akram is both progressive and conservative in different ways—making clear the fact that Western labels are inadequate for categorizing groups of people in the Middle East. Instead, political affiliations and views are more nuanced, requiring a specific understanding of individuals’ opinions. I particularly enjoyed this book for the fact that its writer, Power, was consistently aware of her own biases and privileges given her position in this journalistic project. While her dedication to this issue clearly exemplified her questionings of the media and search for the truth, Power still acknowledged that there were ways in which her perspective could be increasingly understanding, and she sought to pursue this personal, positive change. Her motivations for interviewing the Sheikh and developing more direct contact with Islam were quite noble in my eyes, and I believe she also used this opportunity to help others see beyond assumption. In this sense, I believe that Power has used her platform to create positive change and plant a seed through which greater empathy and consideration might be developed. I must add, furthermore, that going into this book I had my own biases, as most of what I knew of the religion of Islam was merely what I’d heard about from others in passing, or in the media. Largely, my knowledge composed of the prejudices and forms of oppression against Muslims that exist today, a great part of which comes from members of the United States. I was not an active participant in this prejudice but I did also disagree with many political differences existent in several Islamic countries, such as for example laws against women’s rights. If the Oceans were Ink sheds some light on the intricacies hidden behind these wide-sweeping laws, suggesting that there is much dissent within the culture itself, and that these elements are often separate entities from those of religion. Overall, this book encouraged me to question what I hear in the media and, in some cases, popular discourse, and to consider that what might be today construed as one truth is not what originally existed in the text, in the Quran.

I should get a commission for the number of times I have recommended this book. If you want a sane and sober view of Islam, without trying to convert you to how wonderful it is or how horrible, if you seriously want to understand a different point of view without feeling you are being attacked, this is it. Gently written, with great compassion and yet without losing a point of view, this book walks you through some of the major questions that most westerners have without being aggressive or dismissive. I I likened this book to my grandmother's fudge. My grandmother made fudge that was so rich, taking a bite would probably have put your system into terminal shock. You scraped little bits with your teeth, and let the richness melt in your mouth. This book, for me at least, was like that. I would read for a little, and then put the book aside to digest what I had read. It took me a while to get through, not because it was complex or difficult but because it was so rich, and provided so much stimulus for my own thought and reflection. I continue to recommend this book, and this will be a book I will re-read several more times, I know. I am grateful to the friend who recommended it to me, and I am confident in recommending it to others.

It arrived, it reads. (It's in excellent condition.)

It's a life changing book of understanding of the eternal messages of the Quran, how to live it's messages and the platonic consequences on individual lives.

Go for it

was easy to read and thought provoking

Fascinating