Losing My Religion: A Call for Help | Understanding Faith, Doubt & Islamic Identity

Losing My Religion: A Call for Help | Understanding Faith, Doubt & Islamic Identity

Losing My Religion: A Call for Help is a thought-provoking Islamic book that explores the challenges Muslims can experience when struggling with faith, religious identity, and spiritual uncertainty. It addresses questions and concerns that may arise when a person's connection with Islam becomes weaker and encourages readers to approach these struggles with knowledge, reflection, and sincere guidance. The book offers an opportunity to examine the factors that can influence faith and provides reminders about the importance of strengthening one's relationship with Allah and seeking authentic Islamic knowledge. Written for readers facing questions about their religious commitment, it can also help parents, educators, and community members better understand the spiritual challenges affecting Muslims today. This book is a useful resource for personal reflection, Islamic learning, and anyone seeking renewed understanding and connection with their faith.

From Author:

Prof. Jeffrey Lang , author of the two best sellers, Even Angels Ask and Struggling to Surrender presents in this book an engaging dialog with the queries of young American Muslims and converts. The author addresses the alienation from the Mosque of the great majority of America’s homegrown Muslims.

Content:

Understanding Muslim Youth

The book focuses particularly on the growing alienation that some American-born Muslims experience from the mosque and wider Muslim community. It encourages communities to listen carefully to young Muslims rather than dismissing their doubts or concerns.

Open & Honest Dialogue

Dr. Lang argues for candid, objective, and open discussion of controversial subjects. The book emphasizes that avoiding difficult questions can further distance people who are already struggling with their faith.

Exploring Challenging Issues

The discussion touches on topics including theodicy, the authenticity of Hadith, Qur’anic commandments, Islamic practices, conversion, and the relationship between faith and modern American life.

Real Questions & Personal Experiences

The book includes numerous testimonials, inquiries, and real questions that make its discussion relatable to readers facing uncertainty about Islam or seeking to understand the concerns of others.

A Call to the Muslim Community

Ultimately, Losing My Religion: A Call for Help is a call for greater understanding, listening, intellectual honesty, and meaningful engagement with Muslims—especially young people—who are questioning their faith.

Amana Publications

• Jeffrey Lang

نقوم بشحن الطلبات مباشرة من مستودعاتنا في المملكة المتحدة والولايات المتحدة الأمريكية، ونقدم خيارات شحن متعددة لتناسب احتياجاتك. نحن نشحن بفخر إلى جميع أنحاء العالم.

عمليات التسليم في المملكة المتحدة (من مستودع المملكة المتحدة):

يصل الشحن القياسي عادةً في غضون 3-4 أيام عمل. يستغرق التسليم السريع 2-3 أيام عمل. نهدف إلى شحن الطلبات في نفس اليوم أو يوم العمل التالي، مع توفر خيارات التوصيل في اليوم التالي حيثما ينطبق ذلك.

عمليات التسليم في الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية (من مستودع الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية):

تصل الطلبات عادةً في غضون 4-7 أيام عمل.

أوروبا (يتم الشحن من المملكة المتحدة):

يستغرق التسليم القياسي حوالي 6-10 أيام عمل، مع توفر خدمات الشحن السريع في غضون 3-5 أيام عمل.

كندا:

الوقت المقدر للتسليم هو 5-10 أيام عمل.

الشحن في جميع أنحاء العالم:

تصل الطلبات الدولية بشكل عام في غضون 5-20 يوم عمل، اعتمادًا على الوجهة وطريقة الشحن المختارة.

للحصول على جداول زمنية دقيقة للتسليم بناءً على موقعك، يرجى الاتصال بنا عبر البريد الإلكتروني وسيقدم فريقنا معلومات مفصلة ومخصصة لعنوانك.

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LOSING MY RELIGION
A CALL FOR HELP
JEFFREY LANG
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CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapter One
Losing My Religion
Chapter Two
A Call for Help
Chapter Three
Where have all the children gone?
Parting Remarks
To the Homegrown American Sisters and Brothers
Index
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Losing My Religion: A Call for Help 55
stated above, language is grounded in human experience, but since the Qur'an often speaks of realities that transcend this experience, all human language, including Arabic, is limited in its capacity to convey them to us. Thus, no matter how sophisticated our systems of communication and philosophies become, there will always be questions beyond our reach. This, I believe, is one of the implications of the following verse:
If all the trees on earth were pens and the ocean were ink, with seven more oceans to support it, the words of God could not be exhausted. God is the Mighty, the Wise (31:27).
Question 4 (from a Canadian professional, one of atheists who wrote me with questions):
many Western
I have no recollection of ever believing in God or even having a vague sense of my own spirituality. However, recently I have fallen in love with a Muslim woman who has also fallen in love with me. She feels strongly that the prospects of (our) having a future together would be greatly enhanced if I shared her faith, but she does not want me to convert except out of sincere conviction. I have read your book, "Even Angels Ask", and I am currently reading the Qur'an. I have some questions I would like to ask you, but let me start with something rather straightforward: the Qur'an's commandments. I find some of the Qur'an's laws to be outdated and some of its punishments too severe. Concerning the latter, could not God have foreseen the coming of a kinder, gentler time? I was wondering if the Qur'an's laws were at all a stumbling block toward your conversion?
The Qur'an's commandments did not figure into my decision to become a Muslim. Curiosity prompted me to start reading the Qur'an, but that quickly transformed into a compulsion to find the meaning it ascribes to human life. I recall skimming over the legisla- tive verses rather quickly, since I thought that they did not directly bear upon this question.
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JEFFREY LANG
Dr. Lang is Professor of Mathematics at The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. He is the author of two best selling works: Struggling to Surrender and Even Angels Ask: A Journey to Islam in America. Both books have been translated into other languages.
"Crucial to the vitality of any religious community is its ability to attract and engage descendants and converts. By this measure, notwithstanding the proliferation of mosques and Islamic organizations, the Muslim community in America is not doing at all well." This rather sober assessment motivates Dr. Lang to address, in this book, the alienation from the Mosque of the great majority of America's homegrown Muslims.
In Losing My Religion: A Call For Help, the author comes to terms with many of the queries put to him by Americans of Muslim parentage and converts to Islam since the publication of his book Even Angels Ask in 1977. Lang asserts that to effectively respond to the general malaise of American-born Muslims, the Islamic establishment in America needs to be willing to listen to the doubts and complaints of the disaffected. This entails engaging in open discussions on issues with which many in the Muslim community will be uncomfortable, but Lang avers that such open dialogue will be of more benefit to young American Muslims struggling with their faiths than the covert and uniformed discussions that often take place or no discussion at all. For this reason, Lang feels it is important and beneficial "to be candid and objective and not evade controversy, for to inadequately state the case for or against a specific position, especially when it challenges convention, only serves to further alienate the sceptical." In addition to examining questions of theodicy, hadith authenticity, and moot practices within the American Muslim community, the author includes many testimonials and inquiries that make this book informative.
amana publications