I’m a spiritual person, she said. “I believe in Allah, you know, though I don’t always call It ‘Allah’ and I pray the way I want to pray. Sometimes I just look out at the...

If you ask Muslim women why they cover up, ninety-nine percent of them will say it’s to avoid arousing men. Fuck that, where’s your self-accountability?

The jamaat was an almost silly mish-mash of people: Rude Dawud’s pork-pie hat poking up here, a jalab-and-turban there, Jehangir’s big Mohawk rising from a sea of kufis, Amazing Ayyub still with no shirt, girls...

They were Muslims, man, but not your uncles. They need a deen that’s not your uncle’s deen. Iman, think about it like that, iman! It’s supposed to be all about having no fear of death,...

The earth isn’t spinning because you told it to do so. Your intestines aren’t digesting by your command. You’re made up of a trillion cells who don’t ask your permission before offering their rakats. And...

If Islam was to be saved, it would be saved by the crazy ones.

Religion is like an art gallery. One painting will speak to you more than another, and there’s no need to explain or defend your taste.

They need a deen that’s not your uncle’s deen.

During his hajj, Malcolm [Malcolm X] fell into a new Islam with the same blind faith that he had given to Elijah. Since he lived just a year after his hajj, Mecca became the neatly...

If Allah wants to send me a message,he’ll do so on the faces of my brothers and sisters.

I remembered the malangs of Shah Jamal, the dirty, shirtless renouncers with ratty beards and dreads and bare chests covered in necklaces of prayer beads, throwing around their arms in Charlie Manson dances and whipping...

People say that America has no religion, but it’s the opposite: America has every religion, all the old ones, and produces more new ones than anywhere else on earth. America;’s religious life is like the...

Radicals have value, at least; they can move the center. On a scale of 1 to 5, 3 is moderate, 1 and 5 the hardliners. But if a good radical takes it up to 9,...

I passed by General Zia’s tomb and knew that I never would have become Muslim if I was raised in this country [Pakistan]. As a rebellious American adolescent, I had chosen Islam because it was...

Islam’s all about knowledge, right? Muslims know everything. We seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave. We seek knowledge even if it be in China, Yusef, EVEN IN CHINA! And we’ve reduced our religion...

A Muslim just follows Allah. Sunni-Shiah? That’s farga, the groups—Allah discourages this in the Quran, you know, never ever form the groups.

it’s only Muslims who use the term ‘innovation’ to mean something bad.

If a woman enjoyed sex, or expressed her sexuality outwardly she was automatically a slut with no respect for herself. Sex was a favor you allowed your husband so angels wouldn’t curse you until morning.