Dedicated to Naguib Mahfouz (1912–2006)

I asked for a sign from heaven.
He found me in a coffee shop

Coffee with the Prophet
A 21st Century Encounter with Muhammad


By Mark A. Gabriel
Former Lecturer of Islamic History at Al-Azhar University




Dedicated to Naguib Mahfouz (1912–2006)
Winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature

Dr. Mahfouz, I miss your joyful, intellectual meetings at the Rish
Coffee Shop in the center of Cairo. The words you said one night are
still ringing in my ears. You encouraged us:


Write! Don’t fear the religious taboos, which are the reason for
our nation’s backward living. Our nation has used the past to
create a giant prison, and we are the prisoners locked in it. Be
like birds; turn your pens into wings and fly with our people
into the sky of religious freedom.


Dr. Mahfouz, I cannot have coffee with you anymore, but I think
that Coffee with the Prophet would make you proud. I am answering
your challenge to turn my pen into a wing, and I am flying into the
sky of religious freedom. I am praying not just for my people but for
the whole world to fly with me.
Your student in literature,
Mark A. Gabriel


Author Biography:

A former lecturer at Al-Azhar University, Mark A. Gabriel is a widely-sourced expert on Islamic teaching and the Middle East. He is the author of several best-selling books about Islam including Islam and Terrorism. For the protection of his relatives, Dr. Gabriel changed his Muslim name to a Western name.


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