This World Is a Test: Islam, Immigration, and Raising the Next Generation
In the second half of his conversation with Dr. Tamim Saidi, host Arndt Braaten returns to the question at the center of Headwaters Journal: what do our oldest traditions have to say about health, hardship, and hope? Tamim, a pharmacist, chaplain, and Headwaters board member, shares what he carried out of Afghanistan and the scriptures that carried him. Along the way, the two men find that their traditions overlap more than many listeners might expect.
Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God?
Before Arndt can move to family photos, Tamim asks to address a question he hears often. When Muslims say “Allah,” he explains, they mean the one God, the Creator who made Adam and Eve, saved Noah, and spoke to Abraham and Moses. Arabic-speaking Christians use the same word, and Arabic translations of the Bible render “God” as “Allah.” Tamim also notes that Muslims honor Jesus as the Messiah, believe in his miracles, and await his second coming, a shared ground he hopes to explore in a future episode.
Growing Up in Kabul: An Afghan Refugee’s Memories of War and Home
Tamim has only a few childhood photos because he fled Afghanistan overnight wearing two sets of clothes and carrying very little money. The Soviet invasion began when he was five or six, so most of his memories are of shelling, soldiers, and shortages of food, fuel, and electricity, followed by a brutal civil war after the Soviets withdrew. In Pakistan he worked twelve-hour days in a pharmacy, paying most of his small wage to the relatives who housed him, and taught himself English by paging through a dictionary without knowing how the words sounded. Today, home returns to him through his mother’s palaw, a rice dish with tender lamb, carrots, and raisins, and through the shared evening meals of Ramadan and the two Eid celebrations.
What Is the Difference Between the Quran and the Hadith?
Tamim walks listeners through the two primary sources of Islam. The Quran, which Muslims believe was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad through the Angel Gabriel over 23 years, was memorized and recited before it was compiled into a book under Abu Bakr, making it an audiobook before it was a written one. The hadith, the sayings and traditions of the Prophet, were kept separate and compiled roughly a century or more later, so that nothing would ever mingle with what Muslims hold to be God’s exact words. In daily prayer, only the Quran is recited, while Friday sermons draw on both.
Quran Verses for Comfort and Healing: How a Muslim Chaplain Supports People in Hardship
As a chaplain, Tamim chooses passages based on what each person is carrying. He often turns to Al-Fatiha, the opening chapter traditionally associated with healing, and to Ayat al-Kursi, the Verse of the Throne, along with verses teaching that God answers prayer and is closer to us than our jugular vein. He frames suffering as a test rather than abandonment, describing life as a long episode of the TV show What Would You Do? and noting that the prophets themselves, from Abraham to Joseph to Muhammad, faced exile and hardship. Arndt hears echoes of Matthew 25 in a hadith where God tells the believer, “I was sick and you did not visit me,” a reminder that God is found beside those who suffer.
How Muslim Families Pass Down Faith to Their Children
Tamim and his wife made real sacrifices to send their four children to a private Islamic school, believing that the right environment shapes a child’s upbringing. At home, the family gathers for the daily prayers, with one of the sons leading, and Tamim has preached the same monthly sermon so often that his kids joke they could deliver it themselves. He also explains wudu, the ritual washing before prayer, as both spiritual preparation for an “appointment with God” and a practice with real physical benefits for hygiene and movement. Above all, he tries to advise rather than command, laying out the pros and cons he sees and then trusting his children to choose their own path.
Immigration, Empathy, and the American Experiment
Arndt acknowledges the genuine tension between a nation’s right to control its borders and the welcome symbolized by the Statue of Liberty. Tamim responds to recent public comments calling Minnesota’s Somali community “garbage,” urging listeners not to judge an entire people by a few, and to imagine what they would do if their own children were in danger. Arndt closes by reading from his grandmother’s memoir about her family’s five-day detention at Ellis Island around 1911, a story of fear, courage, and eventual arrival in Starbuck, Minnesota. Tamim also invites listeners to request a speaker from the Islamic Resource Group (IRG), which has reached more than 400,000 people over 25 years by building bridges between Muslims and their neighbors.
Standout Quotes
“Let me tell you which God I worship. Then you can tell me if you worship the same God or not.” (Tamim)
“The Quran was an audiobook before it was a written book.” (Tamim)
“God is closer to you than your jugular vein.” (Tamim)
“This world is like a long episode of What Would You Do?” (Tamim)
“If my life was a movie, it would be called: at every turn, God has my back.” (Tamim)
“Are you overestimating my chaplain skills, or underestimating my dad skills?” (Tamim)
“If I were to only know about Muslims from the news, I would be scared of them too.” (Tamim)
“It takes a strong back to stand up under good times.” (Arndt, sharing his grandmother’s Norwegian saying)
“What a disservice it is for people’s grandparents if their great-grandchildren do the same thing to other immigrants that was done to their grandparents.” (Tamim)
