Carla Power
An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran
In If the Oceans Were Ink, Carla Power sets out with Sheikh Mohammad Akram Nadwi on a yearlong journey through the Quran to help bridge one of the greatest divides shaping our world today. As a secular American journalist and a madrasa-trained sheikh, they know that their friendship is unlikely, yet they both recognise that the Quran preaches peace and not mass murder, respect for women and not oppression. And so they challenge their worldviews - and their friendship - as they debate and clarify controversial verses, discussing them in cafes, at family gatherings, and at packed Cambridge University lecture halls. Their quest takes them from London to Mecca and to India, and along the way they discover eye-opening perspectives, destroy long-held myths, and reveal startling connections between worlds that have seemed hopelessly divided for far too long.