Islam through a Poetic Lens
By Emily Manna
American University
Washington, DC
"I don't want to be bounded by others' definitions of Islam," stated Ambassador Akbar Ahmed at Busboys & Poets on April 6 th, "...my religion is between me and my god." Ahmed was used to speaking on the subject of religion; as one of the world's leading scholars of Islam and the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University, he has spoken on dozens of news media programs, advised US foreign policy agencies, written acclaimed books and made documentaries on the subject. This statement, however, came not from an academic lecture or political briefing, but something new for Ahmed and rare for Islam in America; a poetry reading.
"If you don't tell your story," Ahmed warned, "someone else will." With the launch of Suspended Somewhere Between, he added one important new voice to the conversation on Pakistan, America and Islam.
Suspended Somewhere Between is a collection of Ahmed's poems, the first written when he was just 21 years old. From boyhood memories and the violent realities of Pakistan to the present United States of America, the poems reveal the romantic, spiritual and contemplative behind Ahmed's life as a distinguished scholar and administrator. With an educational background both Pakistani and European, he was influenced as a young writer by Rumi and Keats, Ghalib and Whitman alike.
Stressing the importance of building bridges between cultures and religions, Ahmed discussed the need for Pakistanis and Muslims to share their perspectives with the world. In the book's first poem, which resonated especially strongly with the audience, he describes his earliest memory of the horrors of violent conflict between India and Pakistan during partition in 1947:
My first memory
shaped me,
continues to
inform me,
And I share it
with an entire
subcontinent
Indeed, more than merely a personal introspective, the event provided a forum for expression for several South Asians who found deep connections with Ahmed's work. Musician Omar Waqar provided an atmospheric sitar accompaniment, Indian scholar Moazzam Siddiqui translated and read aloud in Urdu three of the poems, and Pakistani Brigadier Nazir Butt read a poem about the final battle of Major Sabir Kamal who had commanded the Brigadier's own regiment.
One appreciative listener described Ahmed's work as giving a human face to Pakistani Muslims, and Busboys & Poets owner Andy Shallal and Ahmed led a discussion spanning Islam, Pakistan, Art and America with a lively audience including poets, students, religious leaders, Pakistanis, Indians, Americans and others.
For Shallal, poetry readings are familiar territory. However, Ahmed's reading from his new book, Suspended Somewhere Between, provided an unusual artistic perspective on a religion and culture that has been the object of so much controversy in the United States and the world.
Shallal, who also published the book through Busboys & Poets Press, called for more Muslim art, declaring that art is necessary to "help shape ideas, hearts and minds." Imam Talib Shareef, Imam at Washington, DC's Masjid Muhammad and retired US Air Force officer, closed the reading with a message on the power of love within Islam and the importance of Ahmed's poetry as a vehicle.
When asked about the purpose behind the timing of his book, Ahmed reiterated the necessity of a new Pakistani and a new Muslim narrative. As opposed to the violence and anger that is too often a main component, he urged the audience to continue to change the story through knowledge and creativity.
(Emily Manna, an American University student in Washington, DC, has studied in the Muslim World and currently works as an assistant for the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies)
