What if we're wrong?

Reflection Updated November 2026

Every tradition here has its own way of saying “we might be wrong”. Muslim scholars close their answers with Allāhu aʿlam, “God knows best”. The Qur'an says: “Over every possessor of knowledge is one more knowing” (12:76).

Doubt, in each tradition

Islam

A thousand years ago al-Ghazālī doubted everything, even his own reason, for about two months. Then, he wrote, a light entered his heart. Abraham (peace be upon him) asked God to show him how He gives life, “only that my heart may be satisfied” (2:260).

Judaism

The Talmud records the dissenting view next to the majority view. Rabbi Yannai said we cannot explain the ease of the wicked or the suffering of the righteous (Pirkei Avot 4:15).

Christianity

“Now we see in a mirror, dimly” (1 Corinthians 13:12, WEB). The fourteenth-century English Cloud of Unknowing says God is known by love, not thought.

And honest unbelief

Darwin wrote: “The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us.” T. H. Huxley coined “agnostic” for not claiming to know what one cannot know. A sceptic may say: if I'm wrong, I'd hope a merciful God would value honest doubt over pretended belief. Each faith has its own answer to that: God's mercy, God's knowledge of the heart, sincere seeking.

The founder's question

What if all of us are wrong about one thing: that we were meant to fight over God at all? Pascal wagered on belief. The Qur'an asks for something else: to look at the signs and reflect (41:53). We leave the question with you.

Places we love

“How full of awe is this place! this is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”Genesis 28:17 · JPS 1917

Every faith knows that feeling about a piece of ground. And every faith has fought over its holy places. Before the question, the places.

Jerusalem

Three loves on one hill

For Jews, the Foundation Stone, where the Temple stood. For Christians, the empty tomb. For Muslims, al-Aqṣā, the destination of the Night Journey (17:1), the first direction of Muslim prayer. Each scripture says God is greater than the place: “the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee” (1 Kings 8:27); “neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem… in spirit and truth” (John 4:21–23, WEB); “wherever you turn, there is the Face of God” (2:115).

Hebron

Two brothers at one grave

Isaac and Ishmael (peace be upon them) buried their father Abraham together (Genesis 25:9). A generation later, Jacob and Esau buried Isaac together (35:29). The town's Arabic name, al-Khalīl, “the Friend”, is the title the Qur'an gives Abraham (4:125).

Sinai

The humblest mountain

The Talmud says God chose Sinai because it was the lowliest mountain (Sotah 5a). “Take off your sandals”, Moses (peace be upon him) hears, in the Torah (Exodus 3:5) and in the Qur'an (20:12). Inside St Catherine's Monastery stands a mosque from 1106, its minaret beside the bell tower.

Mecca

A mother running between two hills

Hajar, left in the valley with her baby Ishmael, asked: “Has God ordered you to do this?” “Yes.” “Then He will not neglect us” (Bukhari 3364). She ran seven times between two hills looking for water; every pilgrim walks her path.

The keys. Every morning, a Muslim family brings the key and another unlocks the door of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, a custom historians trace at least to Ottoman times.

The honest record. Every faith has fought over these places. Every faith also has someone in its own story who refused to.

The question

One day, each of us may stand before our Creator. If He asks what we did with His Name and His holy places, what will we say? What if we are wrong, and spent our time fighting over the Name and the land, instead of over who could do the most good?

The answer each faith already gives itself

Hebrew Bible

“For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

Isaiah 56:7 · JPS 1917

New Testament

“The hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.”

John 4:23 · WEB

Qur'an

“To God you will all return, and He will tell you about the things you used to differ over. So race one another in doing good.”

5:48 · our rendering

The Qur'an protects “monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques, in which the name of God is much remembered” (22:40). Which of these places would you protect for someone else?