Poems from the Straight Path: A Book of Islamic Verse

by Joel Hayward

Poems from the Straight Path reflects, chronicles and tries to make sense of Joel Hayward's conversion to Islam after two decades as a fish-out-of-water Unitarian within trinitarian Christianity. The realization that the God to whom he prayed was one, not three, and that Islam was the way for him to worship the God of Abraham, Noah, Moses and Jesus. His conversion was a life-transforming journey that led Hayward, at almost forty, finally to bow his face to the ground before God for the first time. Despite being religious for twenty years he had never bowed as a man should; as low to the earth as the human spine will allow.

The process of learning Islam is more profoundly complex and confusing, yet stimulating and satisfying, than for those who were raised in Islamic families or communities can possibly imagine. Everything needs to be learned. But first everything needs to be unlearned. Hayward's journey of exploration, transformation and illumination forms the beating heart of this moving collection of poetry. Yet my poems deal not only with my own reversion and other spiritual experiences, but, more importantly, also with the everyday challenges and hopes of western Muslims who wrestle to understand their gone-astray society and its encroaching pressures. A timely and important work that reveals the struggle and profound insights of someone bridging cultures and faith traditions.

118 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Professor Joel Hayward, ZDaF, BA, MA Hons, PhD, is a New Zealand/British scholar and author who currently serves as Professor of Strategic Thought at the Rabdan Academy in the United Arab Emirates. The daily newspaper Al Khaleej called him “a world authority on international conflict and strategy”. The National newspaper called Hayward “eminent” and a “distinguished historian of warfare and military strategy”. Kirkus Reviews said that he “is undeniably one of academia’s most visible Islamic thinkers”. He is considered to be one of “the world’s five hundred most influential Muslims,” with his listing in the 2023 edition of The Muslim 500 noting that “he weaves together classical Islamic knowledge and methodologies and the source-critical Western historical method to make innovative yet carefully reasoned sense of complex historical issues that are still important in today’s world.” With the title of Shaykh, Hayward has earned ijazāt (teaching authorizations) in ʿAqīdah (Islamic theology) and Sīrah (the Prophet’s biography). He has held various academic leadership posts, including Director of the Institute for International and Civil Security at Khalifa University (UAE), Chair of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences (also at Khalifa University), Head of Air Power Studies at King’s College London, and Dean of the Royal Air Force College (both UK).

He is the author or editor of seventeen books and major monographs and dozens of peer-reviewed articles, mainly in the fields of strategic studies, military history, the Islamic ethics of war and conflict, and Islamic (esp. seventh-century) and western (esp. twentieth century) history. His best-selling books include a major analysis of German airpower during the Stalingrad campaign and a thematic investigation of Horatio Lord Nelson and his way of war. His recent books include Warfare in the Qurʾān (2012), War is Deceit: An Analysis of a Contentious Hadith on the Morality of Military Deception (2017), Civilian Immunity in Foundational Islamic Strategic Thought: A Historical Enquiry (2019), and The Leadership of Muhammad: A Historical Reconstruction. The latter won the prestigious prize of “Best International Non-Fiction Book” at the 2021 Sharjah International Book Awards. His newest book is The Warrior Prophet: Muhammad and War (2022).


Professor Hayward has given strategic advice to political and military leaders in several countries, has given policy advice to prominent sheikhs, and was tutor to His Royal Highness Prince William of Wales, Duke of Cambridge. In 2011 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and in 2012 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. In 2016 he was named as the “Best Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences” at the Middle East Education Leadership Awards. Professor Hayward is also active in the literary arts and has published three books of fiction and four collections of Islamic poetry.

Reviews

[Zafar A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Joel Hayward’s finest book of poems. Judging by his profession I would say it’s highly unlikely that he’s a Sufi. Yet his poems definitely remind me of Rumi in their ethereal and otherworldly tone. Hayward is a true wordsmith. His poems are beautifully written and his clever use of tempo is highly unusual and appealing.