What’s the likelihood that someone else with exactly the same name as me should also be Muslim? More likely than you’d think, it turns out.
I thought I was unique. My surname is relatively uncommon; I’m not a Smith, Green or Brown. In England, about 1 in every 10,000 people have my surname, so there should only be about 6000 of us.
As for the exact name? Unknown. I found nine others with my full name on LinkedIn, 33 with its shortened form. I know there is a Christian Pastor with my name in the United States. Several directors and artists too. Still, it seems we’re a pretty rare species, overall.
But rarity, it turns out, need be no impediment to professions of faith. No, for there are two of us, and the other one lives in the same county as me. If at first I was inclined to think this a hoax or fraud, an investigation determined it was just an extraordinary coincidence.
So there we are. Though Muslims of the convert variety make up about 0.14% of the UK population and just 4% of the total number of Muslims, apparently there’s a Muslim chap living about 30 miles from me, with whom I share the exact same name.
May each of us strive to honour God, exactly as our names beseech us.
Last modified: 19 October 2023
