I was also drawn to explore Sufism and found it relates a lot the 12 Steps actually.. it’s a path of submission or surrendering the ego in a regular and committed way. As a way of life, it simply works.
You say, "deconstruction thrives where the self is treated as the final authority" and about Islam "submission rather than self-expression as the organizing principle". And also "Deconstruction often flourishes where formation was never strong enough to begin with." So would you say that the Christian west emphasizes self-expression too much? How about treating the self as the final authority? I'm not sure how to not treat myself as the final authority. By that I don't mean everything I think is always right. Far from it - I'm not totally sure about, well, maybe everything. But I don't see how I can just ignore feelings of doubt when I experience them by assuming someone else is an authority and submitting to them.
I’m not asking you to ignore doubt or outsource your mind. I’m saying doubt looks very different once you’ve put your forehead on the floor 1,000 times.
If all engagement stays at the armchair level, the self has to remain the final authority. There’s nothing else doing the forming.
I have often wondered if the western practices have too many intermediaries. Western practices often curate God. Seems Islam just says go pray, experience and love.
Brilliant breakdown of how embodied practice shapes theological resilience. The distinction between formation through daily ritual versus belief-as-identity really captures why some traditions fragment under pressure and others dont. I remember trying to maintain a consitent meditation routine and realizing how quickly intellectual understanding evaporates without the anchor of physical repetition.
Brother Aleks, this is really one of your best essays ever! I agree with your resistance to the fusion of religion & coercive power. It’s amazing & inspirational that you’re participating in your Muslim community.☪️
🙏Subhana rabbiyal a’la.
PS Your AI picture is handsome in his new robes!🕉️
Before AI we would take hundreds of photos of models to draw from, doing that put sketch artists out of business. Then smart cameras came along and put photographers out of business, essentially allowing Artists to shoot those shots themselves, putting more photographers out of business. Now Artist will use DALLE3 to throw up some ideas then go from that. The original model for VMB was done in DALE3, then Sister R brought it into photoshop to make all the adjustments. The robe version will need that same level of attention, though I was very surprised DALE could add the robe as well as it did. Even more surprised when I had it add the Shahada in Arabic script!!!
I see where you are coming from VMB and it is consistent with everything that you have written; Christianity as the religion was founded on error. The error of course was to follow Peter at the expense of Magdelene and partner with the Roman Empire. Islam is different and with a different history and in its ideal form is a route towards God.
Islam is also used by the unscrupulous, ambitious and empire builders much the same as any religion, huge swathes of Europe were taken over by powerful people who professed a faith in Islam and provoked a clash of empires disguised as a clash of religions. This is the history that the current empire tries to size and use against Islam in a sleight of hand that may be clumsy but is believable by those who don't know the truth. The truth is not everyone who says 'Lord, Lord' is actually submissive to God, whatever their religion.
Also just to say Islam as a religion does have divisions, not a myriad of denominations but at least 3 different sects of which I have personal knowledge and some of these differences have been used to wage war.
Stephen, you’re right to say Islam has divisions and that power and empire have shaped every major religion, including Islam.
And your instinct about practice vs identity is exactly the crux of what I was trying to point at in that piece.
Islam doesn’t lack sects. You’re right — Sunni, Shia, Sufis and others have real theological and historical differences. And indeed, some of those divisions have been ridden into war and politics. But that structural fragmentation isn’t the same thing as the fragmentation we see in modern Christianity.
Islam is an embodied tradition: daily prayers, fasting, pilgrimage, zakāt — these aren’t optional spiritual “extras.” They are fixed, public, embodied practices that orient the body and community toward God again and again. You can wander in belief or question everything, but you still show up for ṣalāt, facing Mecca, the same way you would anywhere in the world. You enter into that rhythm first, and the mind’s commentary follows behind you, not leading the way. That’s why the faith doesn’t collapse the moment an idea gets tested.
When you show up at a mosque in Cairo, Dakar, Jakarta, or London — you recognize the cadence of the prayers, the posture, the communal rhythm. That recognition isn
’t just cultural — it’s structural. It’s a practice that binds the community into submission before it ever becomes a theological debate. That’s not true in the same way across Christianity, where rites, liturgies, and even concepts of worship vary so widely that two people claiming the same name for their faith often don’t recognize each other’s practices.
So yes, both Islam and Christianity have been entangled with empire and political power, and both traditions have been used by unscrupulous actors. But the internal grammar of Islam — the way it forms the body before it forms the beliefs — changes the shape of how struggle looks inside the tradition. Doubt, crisis, wrestling — they happen in both worlds — but in Islam they tend to be lived through prayer mats and community structures, not broadcast as content on podcasts and social feeds.
That distinction isn’t theological snobbery; it’s structural. And it’s why your observation about divisions is important — but it doesn’t erase the real difference in how practice holds or fragments a tradition.
And I want to be clear about where I’m speaking from. I’m writing only from my own experience of having submitted myself to the Eastern Orthodox rule of prayer, and of having submitted myself to the daily ṣalāt of Islam. I’m comparing what it forms in the body, not what it claims on paper.
So I’m genuinely curious, and I mean that respectfully: where is your experience here coming from? Practice, observation, study, or something else?
That distinction matters, because this isn’t an abstract debate for me. It’s something I’ve lived on the mat and in the rule.
Thank you for your reply, we are in agreement I think. My experience comes from, living in a Muslim majority neighbourhood, working alongside Muslim colleagues, being the Headteacher of a Church of England school with 85% Muslim children, working closely with the teacher in the school with a Muslim heritage who supported children's religious and ethnic heritages and I had a genuine curiosity about Islam so I read a lot and asked lots of questions as well as being the recipient of unsolicited advice. My respect for Islam is huge. Some of the people who I met and worked with who had rejected Islam had a variety of reasons, choosing material culture was one reason another was, I think, a rejection of the idea of God that was given in their tradition. A large majority of the people I knew with a Muslim heritage confirmed their belief with daily practice.
I hear you, Steve, and I respect the closeness of that experience. But it still remains observation from the outside.
That was exactly my position for years. I first prayed in the same space as Muslims in 2005, while I was still Orthodox. I remember wanting to learn the prayer then, but sensing that I wasn’t permitted to cross that line. I later mentioned the experience to an Orthodox monk. He quietly said, “Don’t tell anyone, but they have more in common with us than Western Christians do.” He wasn’t talking about Christology. He meant practice. Discipline. Submission.
Looking back, that distinction now feels decisive.
My current conclusion is that if Rome had not annexed Christianity, it would not have survived at all. Fewer than ten percent of the population accepted it in its early centuries. Without imperial machinery, it likely would have faded as Rome itself collapsed. Ironically, one of the best things that ever happened to the West was the rise of Islam. The Islamic Golden Age didn’t merely advance science and culture. It preserved them. It carried forward memory, method, and discipline at a moment when the West was structurally incapable of doing so itself.
What struck me later was how closely this preservation maps to something much older and much quieter.
In the Gospel of Mary, the soul is liberated not by conquering the seven powers, but by passing through them. Each power claims authority over identity. Each insists, “I define you.” Freedom comes when those claims are no longer believed. Once the soul sees that these powers were never sovereign, it moves beyond them without resistance.
The same interior movement is enacted in Islamic and Sufi practice through the repetition of La ilaha illa Allah. “There is no god except God.” This isn’t a slogan. It’s a daily act of interior reordering. “There is no god” withdraws allegiance from every false center the self has built around fear, desire, image, or control. “Except God” returns authority to what is unconditioned and real.
What dissolves is not the self. It is the mistaken ruler that quietly took the throne.
That is not something one fully understands from proximity alone. It has to be practiced. And once practiced, it becomes clear why Islam didn’t just endure history. It carried others through it.
Have you ever attended the prayers with the interior understanding of what is being said and enacted at each stage? Standing, bowing, prostrating, sitting. It begins with praise, deliberately displacing the ego and drawing attention away from the self and back toward God, ultimate reality, the single source of all that is. From there the body follows. It’s not symbolic theater. It’s a rigorously structured monotheistic yoga. A spiritual body science that trains humility, attention, and surrender through posture and breath, five times a day. What still stuns me is that an illiterate man from the desert not only discovered this through direct encounter, but embodied it so completely that he could transmit it intact to others. That alone should stop the modern West in its tracks.
And that’s the contrast that’s hard to ignore. Nearly two billion people submitting their bodies to the same daily discipline, oriented the same way, moving through the same postures, day after day. Meanwhile Christianity in the West keeps splintering over aesthetics. Which hymn. Which wafer. Which branding of worship best fits the mood.
I agree. What you are saying is close to my understanding of Islam and its relationship with Christianity.
I also agree that participation gives an insight and understanding beyond observation. I would, ever so gently and not in a sense of disagreeing with you, suggest that living in community with Muslims and working alongside them is, in one sense, participating in their lived religion. No it isn't the same as participation in prayers or ritual but to encounter lived values, share daily life, celebrations and festivals as well as troubles and difficulties is deeper than academic study or observation from outside of the community.
Anyway, we do have a shared understanding and appreciation of Islam, yours is much deeper and I thank you for taking the time to respond so comprehensively to me, I really appreciate it.
I was also drawn to explore Sufism and found it relates a lot the 12 Steps actually.. it’s a path of submission or surrendering the ego in a regular and committed way. As a way of life, it simply works.
Thank you for this thoughtful piece, VMB.
It resonates more powerfully than you could ever know.
You say, "deconstruction thrives where the self is treated as the final authority" and about Islam "submission rather than self-expression as the organizing principle". And also "Deconstruction often flourishes where formation was never strong enough to begin with." So would you say that the Christian west emphasizes self-expression too much? How about treating the self as the final authority? I'm not sure how to not treat myself as the final authority. By that I don't mean everything I think is always right. Far from it - I'm not totally sure about, well, maybe everything. But I don't see how I can just ignore feelings of doubt when I experience them by assuming someone else is an authority and submitting to them.
I’m not asking you to ignore doubt or outsource your mind. I’m saying doubt looks very different once you’ve put your forehead on the floor 1,000 times.
If all engagement stays at the armchair level, the self has to remain the final authority. There’s nothing else doing the forming.
So maybe suspending judgment and trying out one or more forms of submission would be a way to experiment.
Thank you for the beautiful blessing you offer at the end. I’ve taken a snapshot to have it handy so I can remind myself of its wisdom. 🙏🏻
Sufis are so cool. I think a 5x daily humbling observance will be something I work on bringing into my life.
I have often wondered if the western practices have too many intermediaries. Western practices often curate God. Seems Islam just says go pray, experience and love.
Brilliant breakdown of how embodied practice shapes theological resilience. The distinction between formation through daily ritual versus belief-as-identity really captures why some traditions fragment under pressure and others dont. I remember trying to maintain a consitent meditation routine and realizing how quickly intellectual understanding evaporates without the anchor of physical repetition.
Brother Aleks, this is really one of your best essays ever! I agree with your resistance to the fusion of religion & coercive power. It’s amazing & inspirational that you’re participating in your Muslim community.☪️
🙏Subhana rabbiyal a’la.
PS Your AI picture is handsome in his new robes!🕉️
Before AI we would take hundreds of photos of models to draw from, doing that put sketch artists out of business. Then smart cameras came along and put photographers out of business, essentially allowing Artists to shoot those shots themselves, putting more photographers out of business. Now Artist will use DALLE3 to throw up some ideas then go from that. The original model for VMB was done in DALE3, then Sister R brought it into photoshop to make all the adjustments. The robe version will need that same level of attention, though I was very surprised DALE could add the robe as well as it did. Even more surprised when I had it add the Shahada in Arabic script!!!
Alhamdulillah!☪️
What is the little symbol to the right of his face?
looks like some stupid AI thing that Sister R will remove in photoshop. 😂
May the good Sister always take care of Virgin Monk Boy, especially during Ramadan. Alhamdulillah.
🙏😌♥️
I see where you are coming from VMB and it is consistent with everything that you have written; Christianity as the religion was founded on error. The error of course was to follow Peter at the expense of Magdelene and partner with the Roman Empire. Islam is different and with a different history and in its ideal form is a route towards God.
Islam is also used by the unscrupulous, ambitious and empire builders much the same as any religion, huge swathes of Europe were taken over by powerful people who professed a faith in Islam and provoked a clash of empires disguised as a clash of religions. This is the history that the current empire tries to size and use against Islam in a sleight of hand that may be clumsy but is believable by those who don't know the truth. The truth is not everyone who says 'Lord, Lord' is actually submissive to God, whatever their religion.
Also just to say Islam as a religion does have divisions, not a myriad of denominations but at least 3 different sects of which I have personal knowledge and some of these differences have been used to wage war.
Stephen, you’re right to say Islam has divisions and that power and empire have shaped every major religion, including Islam.
And your instinct about practice vs identity is exactly the crux of what I was trying to point at in that piece.
Islam doesn’t lack sects. You’re right — Sunni, Shia, Sufis and others have real theological and historical differences. And indeed, some of those divisions have been ridden into war and politics. But that structural fragmentation isn’t the same thing as the fragmentation we see in modern Christianity.
Islam is an embodied tradition: daily prayers, fasting, pilgrimage, zakāt — these aren’t optional spiritual “extras.” They are fixed, public, embodied practices that orient the body and community toward God again and again. You can wander in belief or question everything, but you still show up for ṣalāt, facing Mecca, the same way you would anywhere in the world. You enter into that rhythm first, and the mind’s commentary follows behind you, not leading the way. That’s why the faith doesn’t collapse the moment an idea gets tested.
When you show up at a mosque in Cairo, Dakar, Jakarta, or London — you recognize the cadence of the prayers, the posture, the communal rhythm. That recognition isn
’t just cultural — it’s structural. It’s a practice that binds the community into submission before it ever becomes a theological debate. That’s not true in the same way across Christianity, where rites, liturgies, and even concepts of worship vary so widely that two people claiming the same name for their faith often don’t recognize each other’s practices.
So yes, both Islam and Christianity have been entangled with empire and political power, and both traditions have been used by unscrupulous actors. But the internal grammar of Islam — the way it forms the body before it forms the beliefs — changes the shape of how struggle looks inside the tradition. Doubt, crisis, wrestling — they happen in both worlds — but in Islam they tend to be lived through prayer mats and community structures, not broadcast as content on podcasts and social feeds.
That distinction isn’t theological snobbery; it’s structural. And it’s why your observation about divisions is important — but it doesn’t erase the real difference in how practice holds or fragments a tradition.
And I want to be clear about where I’m speaking from. I’m writing only from my own experience of having submitted myself to the Eastern Orthodox rule of prayer, and of having submitted myself to the daily ṣalāt of Islam. I’m comparing what it forms in the body, not what it claims on paper.
So I’m genuinely curious, and I mean that respectfully: where is your experience here coming from? Practice, observation, study, or something else?
That distinction matters, because this isn’t an abstract debate for me. It’s something I’ve lived on the mat and in the rule.
Thank you for your reply, we are in agreement I think. My experience comes from, living in a Muslim majority neighbourhood, working alongside Muslim colleagues, being the Headteacher of a Church of England school with 85% Muslim children, working closely with the teacher in the school with a Muslim heritage who supported children's religious and ethnic heritages and I had a genuine curiosity about Islam so I read a lot and asked lots of questions as well as being the recipient of unsolicited advice. My respect for Islam is huge. Some of the people who I met and worked with who had rejected Islam had a variety of reasons, choosing material culture was one reason another was, I think, a rejection of the idea of God that was given in their tradition. A large majority of the people I knew with a Muslim heritage confirmed their belief with daily practice.
I hear you, Steve, and I respect the closeness of that experience. But it still remains observation from the outside.
That was exactly my position for years. I first prayed in the same space as Muslims in 2005, while I was still Orthodox. I remember wanting to learn the prayer then, but sensing that I wasn’t permitted to cross that line. I later mentioned the experience to an Orthodox monk. He quietly said, “Don’t tell anyone, but they have more in common with us than Western Christians do.” He wasn’t talking about Christology. He meant practice. Discipline. Submission.
Looking back, that distinction now feels decisive.
My current conclusion is that if Rome had not annexed Christianity, it would not have survived at all. Fewer than ten percent of the population accepted it in its early centuries. Without imperial machinery, it likely would have faded as Rome itself collapsed. Ironically, one of the best things that ever happened to the West was the rise of Islam. The Islamic Golden Age didn’t merely advance science and culture. It preserved them. It carried forward memory, method, and discipline at a moment when the West was structurally incapable of doing so itself.
What struck me later was how closely this preservation maps to something much older and much quieter.
In the Gospel of Mary, the soul is liberated not by conquering the seven powers, but by passing through them. Each power claims authority over identity. Each insists, “I define you.” Freedom comes when those claims are no longer believed. Once the soul sees that these powers were never sovereign, it moves beyond them without resistance.
The same interior movement is enacted in Islamic and Sufi practice through the repetition of La ilaha illa Allah. “There is no god except God.” This isn’t a slogan. It’s a daily act of interior reordering. “There is no god” withdraws allegiance from every false center the self has built around fear, desire, image, or control. “Except God” returns authority to what is unconditioned and real.
What dissolves is not the self. It is the mistaken ruler that quietly took the throne.
That is not something one fully understands from proximity alone. It has to be practiced. And once practiced, it becomes clear why Islam didn’t just endure history. It carried others through it.
Have you ever attended the prayers with the interior understanding of what is being said and enacted at each stage? Standing, bowing, prostrating, sitting. It begins with praise, deliberately displacing the ego and drawing attention away from the self and back toward God, ultimate reality, the single source of all that is. From there the body follows. It’s not symbolic theater. It’s a rigorously structured monotheistic yoga. A spiritual body science that trains humility, attention, and surrender through posture and breath, five times a day. What still stuns me is that an illiterate man from the desert not only discovered this through direct encounter, but embodied it so completely that he could transmit it intact to others. That alone should stop the modern West in its tracks.
And that’s the contrast that’s hard to ignore. Nearly two billion people submitting their bodies to the same daily discipline, oriented the same way, moving through the same postures, day after day. Meanwhile Christianity in the West keeps splintering over aesthetics. Which hymn. Which wafer. Which branding of worship best fits the mood.
I agree. What you are saying is close to my understanding of Islam and its relationship with Christianity.
I also agree that participation gives an insight and understanding beyond observation. I would, ever so gently and not in a sense of disagreeing with you, suggest that living in community with Muslims and working alongside them is, in one sense, participating in their lived religion. No it isn't the same as participation in prayers or ritual but to encounter lived values, share daily life, celebrations and festivals as well as troubles and difficulties is deeper than academic study or observation from outside of the community.
Anyway, we do have a shared understanding and appreciation of Islam, yours is much deeper and I thank you for taking the time to respond so comprehensively to me, I really appreciate it.