Open Letter to the Student Who Tried to Convert Me to Islam
I still have the copy of The Gracious Quran you gave me.
We never knew each other well. It is important for me to maintain some distance from my students, as close friendships can lead to compromises and troubling rumors. Whispers of favoritism. Intimacy. That would have been absurd in your case, but it wouldn’t have prevented people from whispering all the same.
You had two classes with me, Early English Literature and Shakespeare, at Governor’s State University, a commuter school south of Chicago. You wore a hijab, if I recall correctly. It may have been a Shayla. We did not spend much time together, but we could have been friends in a different life.
I think we recognized in each other a sincere wish to be helpful and kind to others, an understanding of the importance of humility, charity, gratitude, honesty, patience, and diligence, and a commitment to try to live by those virtues. Such people are, sadly, extraordinarily rare. We have to stick together.
When I told my wife you were trying to convert me, she was amused : “Huh. I didn’t know they did that,” she told me. It was the first time I had ever experienced it. I was fairly certain I was not interested in converting to Islam, but I heard you out, because I respected your…
