Perspectives: Meet Kiah Glenn
Part of practicing midrash is taking time to understand the many ways Scripture can be held and interpreted, and practicing the posture of listening. In our Perspectives program, we invite BIPOC* teachers, faith leaders, and scholars to teach us Scripture through the lens of their faith tradition.
Kiah Glenn grew up as a Christian and embraced Islam at 18 years old. Her Islam is influenced by several different aspects of the Black global diaspora of what it means to worship and practice. Her spiritual knowledge and search for knowledge are constantly informed by those who are pushed to the farthest margins in society but are at the forefront of understanding the relationship with the divine.
UPDATE: Due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to cancel our March Perspectives event with Kiah Glenn. We are excited to announce that this event has been rescheduled for June 23. You can register and learn more about her here.
We sent Kiah this question:
Narratives of the human experience invite us to find ourselves somewhere in the story. When thinking about Scripture, where are you in the story right now?
Here’s how she responded:
This question is interesting because I think that I am often in this place in regards to my relationship with AL-Mutakabir ( the Majestic). Muslims have one source of Scripture, the Quran, but also utilize the Hadiths (sayings of the Prophet). In this instead of looking at the scripture I want to reflect on a Hadith of the Prophet (pbuh),
"Allah says, 'I am just as My slave thinks I am, and I am with him if He remembers Me. If he remembers Me in himself, I too, remember him in Myself; and if he remembers Me in a group of people, I remember him in a group that is better than them; and if he comes one span nearer to Me, I go one cubit nearer to him; and if he comes one cubit nearer to Me, I go a distance of two outstretched arms nearer to him; and if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running. If he comes to me with sins that will fill the world without associating partners with Me, I will welcome him with pardoning as big as that.’"
[Bukhari, Tawhid 16, 35; Muslim, Dhikr 2, (2675), Tawba 1, (2675)]
Growing up I felt that the articulation of God in some spaces, didn’t meet the God I knew in my private life. How often I heard of God being unyielding and angry, did not match with the stories and messages of love and kindness. This dichotomy often made me feel like my mistakes meant that I was alone; that there was no salvation for me past a point.
This Hadith is one I turn to often because it reminds me that my humanity, that is, my failures are to be expected. That those sins that make me feel I can never approach my Lord, are never big enough to destroy that relationship. The thought of one step by me is a leap from God, balances me, especially in these tough and dark times.
It is easy in this COVID world to feel so lost. Home is now work, work is now harder, relationships are ever strained under this ever-present weight. Often my faith is tested and put on the back burner as I try to get from day to day. But this Hadith reminds me that in my reminder, in the small steps, As-Salaam ( the Peace giver) is always waiting with open arms. So I return to this as I return often to that relationship knowing, that in a time of uncertainty and chaos, at least one of my relationships will always remain.
Want to hear more from Kiah?
Join us for our Perspectives Listening Session on Wednesday, June 23. Then, be sure to come back the following week for an evening Scripture Circle on the same passage Kiah will teach us—so we can wrestle together through the ways we’ve been expanded.
We can’t wait to see what new perspectives we discover together.
*(Black, Indigenous, and People of Color)