Ashhadu an la ilaha illa Allah… (I bear witness there is no god but God…)

Baby Yunus slept through it all, the sound of eternity now living softly in his ears.

Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar… (God is the Greatest, God is the Greatest…)

When Yusuf reached the final Allahu Akbar , and then whispered the declaration of faith directly into the baby’s left ear ( La ilaha illa Allah ), the room was so still you could hear the soft thump-thump of the baby’s heart.

Emine finally exhaled, tears streaming down her face. She picked up her son and held him close. His head rested in the curve of her neck, and she could feel his warm breath, steady and calm.

A single tear rolled down Yusuf’s cheek and fell onto the baby’s forehead. It was not a tear of sadness. It was a tear of transference—of legacy, of silsila , the unbroken chain of believers stretching back fourteen hundred years to the Prophet himself, who had done the same for his grandsons Hassan and Hussein.