In this op-ed for “America, The Jesuit Review,” academic Jordan Denari Duffner writes about how she wanted to give her Catholic family the opportunity to visit a local mosque. Ms. Duffner, who is getting her doctorate in Catholic-Muslim relations, recounts how she took her family to the Diyanet Center of America in Lanham, Maryland:
“It was the first time my parents and brother, who were visiting from out of town, would enter a mosque… The dhuhr prayer, which happens in early afternoon, had just concluded the ceremony, but we learned it would be followed by recitation of the Qur’an by an imam world-renowned for his talent at vocalizing the word of God… With one hand cupped behind his ear and the other holding a microphone as he sat back on his feet, he invoked the One who is al-Rahman and al-Rahim, as Muslims begin every prayer…
… Far more than the meaning of the Arabic words, which my family could not comprehend and which I sometimes could not follow, it was the yearning in his voice that compelled us to lower our gaze. Like waves overcoming a rocky shore, the melody flowed over us but also seemed it would burst us open from the inside. It pushed tears out to the corners of my eyes.”
The author closes with, “That afternoon visit to the mosque, where Catholics sat bathed in Muslims’ prayers, was a reminder that truth and beauty can be found outside the walls of church, in a space that belongs to those who worship differently.”
