Mouhanad Khorchide

Find the seven lost pearls and you will understand what is missing in Islam today. What does a young man do when he is dissatisfied with his teachers' explanations? He asks insightful questions and researches on his own. Just like Rayyan, who hears in school and at the mosque that Islam was once a high culture and that Muslims were leaders in science and research. Yet the current news paints a different picture, marked by poverty, oppression, and backwardness. Rayyan embarks on a quest. A dream leads him to Mecca, where he meets the mysterious Sheikh Hasan, who gifts him a Muslim prayer bead. But what is the significance of the seven lost pearls? Poetic, empathetic, and eye-opening: a journey to the roots of Islamic culture. Sincerity, humility, responsibility: what values does the Quran convey? The future of faith: what could an enlightened Islamic religion look like? For readers of Jorge Bucay and "Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Quran." Another Islam is possible - this narrative shows how that can be achieved. Mouhanad Khorchide is a professor of Islamic Religious Education and head of the Center for Islamic Theology in Münster. His compellingly told book presents the world religion in a very different light than it is often perceived and conveyed. At the center is the question of what is specifically needed to overcome a restrictive image of God characterized by intolerance, violence, and a lack of human rights. With his critique of Islam, he opposes a political Islam that abuses the Quran and Sharia as means of oppression. "Rayyan's Journey" is an invitation to discover Islam as a religion of mercy and love for humanity.