Summoned from the Margins: Loving Muslims
Photo by Zahra Tavakoli fard on Unsplash
Many of us might not go out of our way to purchase the last two book club selections: Raymond Lull: First missionary to the Moslems (1902) by Samuel Zwemer or Summoned from the Margin: Homecoming of an African (2012) by Lamin Sanneh. And yet, despite the rigor of reading and their separation by seven centuries, both Ramón Lull (anglicized to Raymond Lull) and Lamin Sanneh challenge us to a deeper knowledge of and love for Muslims.
Lull was born in 1232 to a wealthy family in Majorca. As a married father of two, he converted to Christ after receiving repeated visions from God while living a romanticized, immoral lifestyle. As he was writing a "bawdy" love song to a married woman, God convicted him of his sin. Lull confessed, repented, and committed his life to sharing his Savior with the least evangelized.
Lull prepared for nine years to win Muslim souls for Christ. He learned Arabic and traveled widely throughout Europe, reading classical literature to immerse himself in Islamic thinking to develop an apologetic for Christianity. He was 56 when he first went to North Africa. He "fought" the Crusades with spiritual weapons, longing to die a martyr's death, "O Lord, Thy servant and subject has very great fear of dying a natural death … for he would prefer his death to be the noblest, that is, namely death for Thy love."
He was brilliant. His philosophical and religious conceptualizations form the foundation of today's information sciences. Lull believed that all truth was based on first principles and endeavored to teach this through imagery and writing.
Lull fearlessly engaged Muslims in marketplace debate in Tunisia and Algeria; he didn't neglect doctrines like the incarnation or the Trinity, as we might be tempted to. He was beaten, imprisoned for six months, and expelled from both countries. At 80, he made his last journey to Algeria and was stoned for debating his faith publicly. God granted his passionate desire, and he died a martyr in 1315. His motto remains relevant today: "He who loves not, lives not; he who lives by The Life cannot die."
Lamin Sanneh was born in the Gambia in 1942, a Mandinka Muslim from a polygamous family--710 years after Lull. His rise to become an honored Christian scholar, educated on four continents, and gracious across immeasurable obstacles can only be credited to his brilliance and God's extraordinary enabling and leading. Sanneh's biography is a fascinating study of a Muslim family from the inside out.
Sanneh never lost his appreciation of Islam and was indeed an interfaith man. Because of his conversion, education, travel--and perhaps his marriage to a White woman--Sanneh experienced rejection and rebuttal and the sense of never quite fitting in. He was "unassimilatable." His humble pursuit of a mentor, of baptism and church membership, makes for painful reading. He was a man who loved books, was a true scholar, and made friends around the world.
Sanneh knew of Lull and was inspired by him. He wrote, "Ramon Lull challenged the church to embrace a different path. 'It is my belief, O Christ! That the conquest of the Holy Land should be attempted in no other way than as Thou and Thy apostles understood to accomplish it—by love and prayer, by the shedding of tears and blood.'" Pain, tears, and loneliness marked Sanneh's Christian journey, and he died in 2019.
Both Lull and Sanneh knew the importance of Arabic in understanding minds shaped by Qu'ranic reading, reciting, and memorizing. Both men understood the importance of mother tongue translation for heart understanding of the Word made flesh. Both knew that love was costly; they were willing to give their lives so that Jesus would be known among God's beloved Muslims. Both used their great intellects for God's glory and were not afraid to be called God's children--nor was God ashamed to be their God.
As a former missionary among a Manding people, it was extraordinary to read Sanneh's biography, to see Maninkakan written, and to hear stories about his experience as a Muslim-background believer. I realized again that God is all-powerful and will use all means to build His Church in Muslim Africa.
Here were some of the commitments that came from our reading:
I will pray consistently that the Lord will reveal Himself to Muslims
I will ask for renewed love for the Muslim world
I will seek to be culturally sensitive while not abandoning the call to share Jesus in and out of season with my Muslim friends.
I will ask the Holy Spirit to alert me to how my Muslim friends see things and how I can speak truth and show love to them.
About the Author: Lisa Sinclair and her husband served in Mali, West Africa for 10 years. She is a nurse practitioner, author of Restored Paths: Sexuality for Christian Leaders, and loves to read!
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