Meeting Issa

August 2025

Peter’s son Moses (center) joins the weekly cleanup in front of the hospital.

PHOTO BY THE AUTHOR

After two years in Chad, I was confronted by an angry stranger who told me to leave his country. He’d assumed we were French, but did not back off when he learned we weren’t.

I was left shaken. What do you do when the peace you hope is possible seems suddenly so far away? When Christians and Muslims, on top of the religious separation we experience, are caught up in global political and cultural struggles? Is despair inevitable?

I decided to turn to an unlikely person: my local imam.

THE CHAIN OF CONTACT

I’d crossed paths with many of the men who live and work in front of the hospital at one point or another. But I had yet to meet the imam of the largest mosque in the neighborhood. I decided that this would be an important relationship to establish, so on a Friday morning I breathed a prayer and stepped out to try to make contact.

The first people I saw were some shopkeepers whom I greet regularly. I said to them, “I’d like to meet the imam. How can I do this?”

The shopkeepers pointed me down the street to a man doing laundry. His name was Toom (“Twin”). Toom referred me to a nearby group of men on motorbikes.

The moto-taxi drivers called over to a boy named Abdullahi. “Take him to see Sheikh Mussa,” they told him.

I followed Abdullahi through the neighborhood to a small prayer room beside the large mosque. There, a young man named Mussa looked up from his copy of the Qur’an. When I heard his name, I told him I was also Abu Mussa (Mussa’s father).

“Are you the imam here?” I asked. “Yes,” he replied, “but not the big imam.”

Mussa called out to an older gentleman who was passing by. His name was Osman, and he told me to wait under a tree. Osman stepped into a house nearby and soon emerged with a bearded man who introduced himself as Sheikh Issa.

“Salaam aleikum” (peace be upon you), I said to Imam Issa. “I am your neighbor, and also a man of faith. I thought that we should meet.”

A SURPRISING AGENDA

Issa invited me inside, where we sat on a carpet beside a small stack of Qur’ans. I said, “We both worship God, and I think God wants us to know each other.”

Issa heartily agreed and immediately began describing what the Qur’an says about Jesus (Issa). For ten minutes, he talked about how Jesus had no earthly biological father, and how he declared himself blessed on the day of his birth, the day of his death, and the day of his resurrection (Surah Maryam 19:33). We were briefly interrupted by his wife bringing us biscuits and water.

Imam Issa described his activities of teaching children, leading prayers, and other responsibilities in the neighborhood. He invited me back anytime. I returned for visits, first with my oldest son Mussa, then with my youngest son Felix.

The only information Issa had on me was that I was a Christian who lived at the nearby hospital, who liked and respected Muslims. This was enough for him to focus positively on the person of Jesus and to open up his home to me.

THREE TAKEAWAYS

As I reflected on the experience, three takeaways came to mind.

The first is that asking for help, even with something as simple as finding someone’s home, opens doors that are otherwise shut.

The second is that relationships rarely form through direct contact, but happen in chains and networks. It’s not what you know, but who you know — and who you know can be surprisingly dynamic if we reach out.

The third takeaway is that the chain of people who led me to Imam Issa was as impactful as my new friendship with him. Several days later, I again encountered Osman on the street, who greeted me with an enthusiastic, “It’s been a while! Where have you been?” Groups of shopkeepers and motorcyclists knew that I was seeking out Imam Issa. Now, when I walk in the neighborhood, sometimes people will ask, “So, are you going to visit Imam Issa?”

“Inshaallah” (God willing), I reply.

Imam Issa (left) and Peter (right).

Peter* serves with EMM and Mennonite Mission Network in Chad, where he lives with his spouse Christy and their three children Moses, Celeste, and Felix. Peter is a member of EMM’s Christian-Muslim Relations Team.