Editor’s Note
This English edition is published at the request of Professor Jeffrey Lang. After his wife read the Arabic article to him, he expressed his wish to read the complete series in English.
Commenting on the series, Professor Jeffrey Lang said:
“The author understands me. Most people don’t realize that the books are a continuation, but the author does. Smart lady.”
This translation is published in appreciation of Professor Jeffrey Lang’s remarkable intellectual journey and his enduring contribution to the dialogue between reason, faith, and the search for truth.
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Struggling to Surrender… Why Does the Real Battle Begin After One Finds Faith?
By Dr. Magda Mahmoud
Media Scholar • Author • Strategic Communication Expert
Many people believe that the most difficult step in life is finding the path to God, and that the journey of searching ends the moment the heart is filled with faith. Yet Jeffrey Lang, in his profound book Struggling to Surrender, reveals a very different truth. Reaching faith is not the end of the road—it is only the beginning. For once a person comes to know God, another battle begins: quieter, deeper, more enduring, and perhaps more difficult than any before it—the battle with the self.
The surrender Lang speaks of is not weakness, nor does it mean abandoning reason or free will. Rather, it is the willingness to entrust one’s heart to the wisdom of God after becoming convinced of it. It is a transition from resisting destiny to accepting it, from depending on what people possess to trusting what God provides, and from grieving over what has been lost to being grateful for what remains.
Lang believes that every human being carries within two voices engaged in constant dialogue. One calls toward tranquility, honesty, compassion, and closeness to God. The other pulls toward fear, pride, selfishness, desire, and the need to control. Between these two voices unfolds the true battle—a battle that may last an entire lifetime.
After embracing Islam, Lang discovered that knowledge alone is never enough. It is relatively easy for the mind to accept the truth; what is difficult is for the soul to live by it every single day. A person may know that patience is virtuous, yet lose control at the first trial. One may believe that sustenance comes from God alone, yet still be consumed with anxiety about tomorrow. One may read about forgiveness, yet struggle to forgive those who have caused pain. It was then that Lang realized faith is not merely an idea to be understood—it is a character to be lived, a way of life continually renewed, and a lifelong struggle with the self.
One of the book’s deepest insights is that victory over the self is never achieved once and for all. Every stage of life reveals another weakness that needs refinement. The moment one imagines having reached perfection, another flaw emerges, reminding us that humility is not simply a virtue—it is a necessity, for it keeps us aware that we are always still on the journey.
Lang also reflects profoundly on the meaning of worship. He sees it as a school for educating the heart before it becomes an outward performance of rituals. Prayer is not merely a few minutes spent standing before God before returning unchanged; it is daily training in discipline, serenity, and self-examination. Fasting is not simply abstaining from food, but strengthening the will and liberating the soul from the tyranny of desire. Charity is not a reduction of wealth, but the liberation of the heart from attachment to worldly possessions.
He further emphasizes that the greatest obstacle on the journey toward God is not weak faith but heedlessness. A person may recognize the truth, yet become distracted from it. One may hear words of guidance, yet postpone change until days become years, believing there will always be another opportunity. Worship, therefore, serves to awaken the heart each day, preventing it from drifting away while imagining it still remains close to its Creator.
Perhaps one of the book’s most beautiful qualities is the hope it offers. Lang never portrays believers as people who never fall into error, nor does he present mistakes as evidence of failure. Instead, he reminds us that God does not measure us by the number of times we fall, but by the sincerity with which we rise after every fall. The path to God is not always straight, yet it always remains open to those who sincerely seek to return.
Thus, the word surrender is transformed in Lang’s understanding from what many perceive as a sign of weakness into one of the highest expressions of strength. When a person surrenders to God alone, he becomes free from fear of people, from slavery to wealth, from the pursuit of status, and from anxiety about the future. He discovers that true freedom does not begin when one can do whatever one desires, but when one is liberated from everything that enslaves him except his Creator.
The book ultimately leaves the reader with one profound message: our greatest battle is not against circumstances, nor against other people, but against ourselves. Whoever conquers selfishness, anger, pride, and fear has already won the greatest battle life can offer.
Jeffrey Lang did not write this book merely to recount the story of a man who embraced Islam. He wrote it to remind us that Islam is not a single moment of declaring faith; it is the journey of a lifetime. It begins with knowing God and continues through the daily effort to draw nearer to Him until one meets the Creator with a purer heart and a more peaceful soul.
Jeffrey Lang completed his search for God, only to begin a far more demanding search—the search for himself. Perhaps this is the enduring message he leaves every reader: faith is not a destination at which we arrive, but a path we continue to walk for as long as life endures.
In our next article, we will turn to Jeffrey Lang’s book Losing My Religion, where he explores the spiritual crisis of modern humanity, why so many people feel empty despite possessing everything, and how faith can restore to life the meaning it has lost amid the noise of the modern world.
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