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The story of an associate
professor and later author of three books’ journey to Islam.
Dr. Jeffrey Lang is an
Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Kansas, one of the
biggest universities in the United States. He started his religious journey on Jan 30, 1954, when
he was born in a Roman Catholic family in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The first 18 years of his life were
spent in Catholic schools, which left him with many unanswered questions
about God and the Christian religion, Lang said, as he narrated his story
of Islam. “Like most kids back
in the late 60s and early 70s, I started questioning all the values that we
had at those times, political, social and religious,” Lang said. “I rebelled against all the
institutions that society held sacred, including the Catholic Church,” he
said.
By the time he reached the
age of 18, Lang had become a full-fledged atheist. “If there is a God, and He is all merciful
and all loving, then why is there suffering on this earth? Why does not He
just take us to heaven? Why create all these people to suffer?” Such were
the questions that came up in his mind in those days.
As a young lecturer in
mathematics at San Francisco University, Lang found his religion where God
is finally a reality. That was
shown to him by a few of the Muslim friends he had met at the
university. “We talked about
religion. I asked them my
questions, and I was really surprised by how carefully they had thought out
their answers,” Lang said.
Dr. Lang met Mahmoud
Qandeel, a regal looking Saudi student who attracted the attention of the
entire class the moment he walked in.
When Lang asked a question about medical research, Qandeel answered
the question in perfect English and with great self assurance. Everyone knew Qandeel – the mayor, the police chief and the
common people. Together the
professor and the student went to all the glittering places where “there
was no joy or happiness, only laughter.” Yet at the end, Qandeel
surprisingly gave him a copy of the Quran and some books on Islam. Lang read the Quran on his own,
found his way to the student-run prayer hall at the university, and basically
surrendered without much struggle.
He was conquered by the Quran.
The first two chapters are an account of that encounter and it is a
fascinating one.
“Painters can make the eyes of a portrait appear to be
following you from one place to another, but which author can write a
scripture that anticipates your daily vicissitudes?... Each night I would formulate
questions and objections and somehow discover the answer the next day. It seemed that the author was
reading my ideas and writing in the appropriate lines in time for my next
reading. I have met myself in
its pages...”
Lang performs the daily
five-time prayers regularly and finds much spiritual satisfaction. He finds the Fajr (pre-dawn) prayer
as one of the most beautiful and moving rituals in Islam.
To the question how he
finds it so captivating when the recitation of the Quran is in Arabic,
which is totally foreign to him, he responds; “Why is a baby comforted by
his mother’s voice?” He said
reading the Quran gave him a great deal of comfort and strength in
difficult times. From there on,
faith was a matter of practice for Lang’s spiritual growth.
On the other hand, Lang
pursued a career in mathematics.
He received his master’s and doctoral degrees from Purdue
University. Lang said that he
had always been fascinated by mathematics. “Math is logical.
It consists of using facts and figures to find concrete answers,”
Lang said. “That is the way my
mind works, and it is frustrating when I deal with things that do not have
concrete answerers.” Having a
mind that accepts ideas on their factual merit makes believing in a
religion difficult because most religions require acceptance by faith, he
said. Islam appeals to man’s
reasoning, he said.
As faculty advisor for the
Muslim Student Association, Lang said he viewed himself as the liaison
between the students and their universities. He gets approval from university authorities to hold
Islamic lectures. “The object
of being their faculty advisor is to help them get their needs met as far
as adjusting to the American culture and to procedures of the
university. They appreciate
the opportunity to have misconceptions corrected,” he said.
Lang married a Saudi Muslim
woman, Raika, 12 years ago.
Lang has written several Islamic books which are best sellers among
the Muslim community in the US.
One of his important books is “Even Angels ask; A Journey to Islam
in America”. In this book, Dr.
Lang shares with his readers the many insights that have unfolded for him
through his self discovery and progress within the religion of Islam.
By
Ammar Bakkar
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