阿亞安·希爾西·阿里的謙卑信仰
2024 年仍然是充滿灵性驚喜的一年。世界各地的名人重新表達對基督教的讚賞甚至個人認同。最備受矚目的兩位知名人物拉塞爾·布蘭德（Russell Brand）和坎迪斯·歐文斯（Candace Owens） 成為了羅馬天主教信徒。
但我發現最奇妙的是阿亞安·希爾西·阿里 (Ayaan Hirsi Ali) 的皈依歷程。她從伊斯蘭教到無神論再到基督教的信仰之旅非同尋常。好萊塢幾乎肯定已將其搬上大銀幕，如果她的軌跡不是朝向基督本人及神蹟。
當她反宗教的前同事理查德·道金斯（Richard Dawkins）嘲諷基督教教義是“無稽之談”和“對罪糾纏不休”時，希爾西·阿里恭敬地回應說：
我很了解你，我們已經是老朋友了。事實上，我認為在某些方面你是我的導師。我想說的是，你看問題的出發點是「什麼都沒有」。而發生在我身上的是，我想我已經接受了「有什麼」存在。當承認某種存在，就會接受有一個強大的實體……對我來說，那就是翻轉我的上帝……我不再認為牧師所傳講的聽起來是一派胡言，而是言之有理。它意義重大，且匯集了數千年的智慧。
跟你一樣，我也曾嘲笑普遍意義上的信仰，可能特別是基督教。但我不再這樣做了，這是因為謙卑使然。在經歷那場轉變之後的2024年，我不再認為基督教毫無意義，也不再嘲笑它。我想我已經跪下陳說，也許那些一直相信的人擁有一些失信人所沒有的東西。
那些有信仰的人，比如那個勸說我的女人，「好吧，你擁有了一切，卻失去了希望，失去了信心。嘗試一下禱告。我認為，僅僅這個詞就有如此多的智慧……我正在受苦，正在掙扎，我只想說，基督教並不愚蠢。
希爾西·阿里解釋其信仰的的突出之處在於其理智上的誠實及其個人的虛懷若谷。她比大多數人更了解信仰需要付出的代價，以及缺乏信仰而遭受的痛苦。希爾西·阿里 (Hirsi Ali) 與丈夫尼爾·弗格森 (Niall Ferguson)居住在美國。因離開伊斯蘭教時受到的追殺令，她至今一直處於受保護狀態。現在看來，她昔日的無神論盟友也試圖向她發難。
希爾西·阿里成為基督徒的決定，在更廣泛的關於宗教及其運作方式的公民討論中成為轉折性的標誌。它表明信仰並未消亡，並且超越近年來輕蔑傲慢的態度，出現了多種討論信仰的方式。
希爾西·阿里的謙遜是我們所有人的榜樣。她語氣親切、措辭謹慎。讓我們聽聽她如何回應理查德·道金斯關於基督教糾纏於罪性的指控：
我發現其實基督教執著於愛。基督這個人物和他的教義，在我看來，再說一次，我是一個全新的基督徒——它與我作為穆斯林的成長經歷和伊斯蘭教的教義相反——我所得到的基督教信息是愛的信息，救贖的信息，是更新和重生的故事。
因此，耶穌為我死並復活是這個故事的象徵。在一個微不足道的程度上，我感覺自己也死過然後重生。實際上，我認為救贖和重生的故事使基督教成為人類景況和生存非常非常宏大的敘事。
基督教信仰所提供的東西具有令人難以置信和无与伦比的力量。那是关于寬恕和意義的承諾，最重要的是希望。正如使徒彼得所寫：「願頌讚歸於我們主耶穌基督的父神！祂本著大憐憫，藉著耶穌基督從死裡復活，賜給我們新生，使我們有活潑的盼望」（彼得前書 1:3）。
——馬克·鮑威爾
The Humble Faith of Ayaan Hirsi Ali
2024 continues to be a year of spiritual surprises. One by one by one, well-known voices from around the world are expressing a renewed appreciation—and even personal identification with—the Christian religion. Russell Brand and Candace Owens being two of the most high-profile ‘converts’ to Roman Catholicism.
But it is the conversion of Ayaan Hirsi Ali which I find to be the most intriguing. Her spiritual journey from Islam, to Atheism to Christianity is extraordinary. And if it weren’t for her trajectory being towards the person and work of Christ, Hollywood almost definitely would have produced a movie by now.
In responding to the taunts of her former anti-religious colleague, Richard Dawkins, that the teaching of Christianity was ‘nonsense’ and to ‘obsessed with sin’, Hirsi Ali respectfully said this:
I know you really well, we’ve been friends for a long time. In fact, in some ways I think of you as a mentor. I would say that you’re coming at this from a place of “There is nothing.” And what has happened to me is I think I have accepted that there is “something”. And when you accept that there is something there is a powerful entity…for me the God that turned me around…I think what the vicar is saying no longer sounds nonsensical, it makes a great deal of sense. And not only does it make a great deal of sense, it’s also layered with the wisdom of millennia.
So, like you, I did mock. Faith in general and probably Christianity in particular. But I don’t do that anymore and again that’s where the humility comes into it. It doesn’t seem in 2024 after I went through that experience, it doesn’t seem nonsensical to me and I don’t mock it. I think I’ve come down to my knees to say perhaps those people who have always had faith have something which people who have lost faith don’t have.
And people who have faith also, like the woman who told me, “Well, you’ve had everything. You’ve lost hope. You’ve lost faith. Try it, praying. I think, just in that one word there is so much wisdom…I’m suffering and I’m struggling and I’m just trying to say, it’s not stupid.
What stands out about Hirsi Ali’s explanation of her faith, is not only its intellectual honesty, but her personal humility. More than most, she knows what it means to suffer for decisions regarding her faith, or even lack thereof. To this day, Hirsi Ali lives in the United States with her husband Niall Ferguson, under constant protection due to a fatwa which was formerly issued against her when she left Islam. And now it seems that her former atheistic allies are also trying to take her to task.
Hirsi Ali’s decision to become a Christian though, signals a turning point in the wider civic discourse on religion and how it’s conducted. It shows that faith is not dead, and there are ways of discussing it which rise above the dismissive arrogance of recent years.
Hirsi Ali’s humility is an example for us all. Someone who is gracious in her tone and careful in her choice of words. Just observe how she responds to Richard Dawkins accusation that the Christian faith is obsessed with sin:
I find that Christianity is actually obsessed with love. And that the figure, the teachings of Christ as I see it, and again, I’m a brand new Christian, but what I’m finding out—which is the opposite to growing up as a Muslim and the message of Islam—but the message of Christianity I get is that it’s a message of love, it’s a message of redemption, and it’s a story of renewal and rebirth.
And so, Jesus dying and rising again for me symbolises that story. And in a small way I felt like I have died and I was re-born. And that story of redemption and re-birth I think makes Christianity actually a very, very powerful story for the human condition and human existence.
There is something the Christian faith offers which is not only incredibly powerful, but also unique. It’s the promise of forgiveness and meaning and, most all, hope. As the apostle Peter writes: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3).
– Mark Powell, Chinese translation by Sonia Liang
