Gesegnet seien die Fremden

In order to show that, in Islam, foreignness has a rather positive connotation,
the author refers to a prophetic tradition (h. ad¯ıth), according to which Islam
by itself ›In its beginning and its end‹ is strange and that is why strangers are
said to be blessed. Another tradition makes clear that, in Islam, the homeland
locates in heaven, whereas earth is regarded as a kind of exile. This sensation
of worldly strangeness points us back to God, just as suffering does in Christianity. Thus, feeling strange is by no means solely considered to be negative.
Notably, in Islamic mysticism for instance, the teachings of Suhraward¯ı or Ibn
al-֒Arab¯ı, offer a way out of a worldly sensation of foreignness by establishing
a connection between this world and the other world. The motif of exile as
›Conditio Humana‹ can also be found among contemporary poets who convey
the message that there can be a return, not a religious one, but a homecoming
to ourselves, as lightning or enlightenment. As we can see, an optimistic notion
of foreignness can reconciliate religiosity and atheism, and it can also help to
understand people in the current situation of strangeness, for example refugees
and immigrants.