Bawa Asks Bawa Muhaiyaddeen

“[A] wickedly funny Philadelphia picaresque about a secular Muslim’s identity crisis in a country waging a never-ending war on terror.” —O, The Oprah Magazine Ali Eteraz’s much-anticipated debut novel is the story of M., a supportive husband, adventureless dandy, lapsed believer, and second-generation immigrant who wants nothing more than to host parties and bring children into the world as full-fledged Americans. As M.’s life gradually fragments around him—a wife with a chronic illness, a best friend stricken with grief, a boss jeopardizing a respectable career—M. spins out into the pulsating underbelly of Philadelphia, where he encounters others grappling with fallout from the war on terror. Among the pornographers and converts to Islam, punks and wrestlers, M. confronts his existential degradation and the life of a second-class citizen. Darkly comic, provocative, and insightful, Native Believer is a startling vision of the contemporary American experience and the human capacity to shape identity and belonging at all costs. “Native Believer stands as an important contribution to American literary culture: a book quite unlike any I’ve read in recent memory, which uses its characters to explore questions vital to our continuing national discourse around Islam.” —The New York Times Book Review “A page-turning contemporary fiction that addresses burning issues about the very essence of identity, and without question Ali Eteraz is a writer’s writer, one whose ear for the English language is just as acute as fellow naturalized Americans Vladimir Nabokov (born in Russia) or Viet Thanh Nguyen (Vietnam).” —Los Angeles Review of Books

What is Islam? Why do Muslims say Islam is peaceful? This book speaks not only to Muslims, but to all humankind as well, about the tragic situation in the world today. The remarkable words of Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.) address the endless conflicts in Jerusalem. His words show us what must be done to achieve true peace in Jerusalem, in the world, and in our hearts. “Everything is there, in Jerusalem. That is why everyone has fought over it. Those with faith have fought over it, and those without faith have fought over it. All they have found is destruction. No one who ruled there ever remained there. They ruled for just a few short days. Thus, we who are here now must think of this. Think of this, you who are here now. It can bring a great benefit. Everything can change.” – M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen “Jerusalem today demonstrates the proof of how places of worship to which everyone should be able to go in unity are turned into battlefields. All of us must understand the battlefield in which the proof has been revealed. All of us must understand this. We who have been born as human beings must realize the words of the prophets, the commandments of God, and their instructions of unity. No one who ruled in Jerusalem in the past is there anymore. Not one person who came to rule Egypt, Jerusalem, or the world is still there.” – M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen