Campbell resident Youssef Ismail gave his photograph, "Another Time," a depiction of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, to Levada as a gift.

The gift was a thank-you from the Muslim community and an acknowledgement for the time Levada devoted to several Muslim organizations through his interfaith work.

The director of the Islamic Networks Group, Maha Elgenaidi, approached Ismail with a request for an appropriate photograph. The archbishop was leaving the post he held in San Francisco to become prefect of the Vatican congregation for the doctrine of the faith, a post left vacant when Cardinal John Ratzinger was elevated to Pope Benedict XVI.

"He's been a friend of the Muslim community on all different levels," says the Rev. Gerry O'Rourke, director emeritus of the ecumenical and inter-religious office of the San Francisco archdiocese. "The Muslim community wanted to say goodbye to him."

Ismail readily agreed to participate, and a selection committee narrowed the photographs down from six to one.

Its final choice was, "A New Day," which depicts dawn on Russian Ridge overlooking the San Francisco Bay Area.

But Ismail's wife, Lori, thought a different photograph would be more appropriate for the archbishop, who is a California native. The committee agreed after a lengthy discussion and gave Levada the picture, "Another Time," an image that depicts El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. It turned out that Lori's instincts were right.

When the photograph was presented to Levada on Aug. 4, O'Rourke says the archbishop was "delighted."

"He's California-born," O'Rourke says. "He was raised in southern California and was with us here for the last 10 years. He visited Yosemite whenever he had a chance."

Levada told the Muslim community he would hang the photograph in his office at the Vatican, according to Youssef.

Ismail doesn't see this confluence of events as coincidental. He believes his work has a spiritual purpose, saying his career in photography began with a spiritual question.

New direction

As a Stanford engineering student in 1993, he and several other Muslim students were in the midst of fasting for Ramadan, a period that begins in the ninth month when the new crescent moon is sighted in the sky, and ends when it returns, 30 days later.

Discussion centered on how to determine where and when the new moon arrived. Some students wanted to use astrophysical calculations, but Ismail thought it should be easy to find the moon with the naked eye.

It wasn't as easy as he thought it would be. It took him three months to finally find the tiny sliver of moon. When he told the other students, no one believed him, because he had no proof.

"So I went back with my point-and-shoot camera and took a whole bunch of pictures," he says, "but they all came out in a big blur, with no clear shot of the moon."

A determined Ismail then purchased a second-hand camera, with a 55-mm lens and 70-210 mm zoom lens, for $50.

"I experimented for a couple of months before I figured it out, and got the picture of the moon. A man from Saudi Arabia said it was impossible, and then I showed him the photos."

His wife urged him to do something with the clutter or get rid of it. So he kept 70 negatives and printed six of the photographs.

At his first art show in San Francisco, he asked one of the judges for an opinion and was told, "the work is nice, but don't quit your day job. You'll need it to propel this forward," he says.

He took that advice and earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and began working for Space Systems/ Loral in December 1996. In October 2002 he made a move to the Stanford Linear Accelerator. During this time he began focusing more on his photography.

"It was in 1999 and I did a few other shows, but began wondering. There are millions of photographers out there," he says. "I needed a reason to do this."

He found it at the Zaytuna Institute, an Islamic academy in Hayward.

While working as a volunteer to get the academy off the ground, he was inspired by a talk given by Dr. Umar Abdulla, who heads the Nawawi foundation in Chicago. Abdulla encouraged Muslims living in the West to "engage society at every level."

Ismail asked himself what he could do to engage the community in a way that would help develop a better understanding between Muslims and non-Muslim.

The answers came to him during a trip to Big Sur.

"I had a wonderful afternoon with great light, and in the evening, I did my prayers. It was so dark. I saw all these stars--the Milky Way was showing really well."

Suddenly he felt a sense of anxiety as he found himself alone on a deserted, dark beach, listening to a barking sea lion out in the water, and the waves crashing on to the shore.

It was at that moment that Ismail says, "I realized that everything out there was doing what it was supposed to do. And that's when it clicked. It was a big lesson for me. To do what I'm supposed to do and be who I am."

Of course the epiphany came with a lesson as well. He'd left his lights on in the car and when he returned the car wouldn't start. His cell phone wouldn't work either. After pondering the options, he finally flagged down a car, after numerous vehicles passed him by, and was able to get a ride to town and get assistance for his vehicle. He eventually made it home to a very pregnant wife. He told her that he'd made a new friend that day--Garrapata Beach.

"It was at that beach where my vision became 20/20; I knew what I was going to do," Ismail says.

He likens life to what happens on the beach. "Tribulations are going to come," he says, "and if you're patient and ride out the waves, you'll be fine. If you're not, if you get caught up in the undertow, you're going to get hurt."

For Ismail that tide continues to carry him forward.

His goal is now to spread the word that Muslims are like any other people of faith, and that their beliefs are more in tune with other religions than people realize.

Ismail has gotten good reaction to his photographs, and believes that he is making a small difference, one person at a time.

"The reflections that I couple with my photos give some insight into what the beliefs of Muslims are," he says. "My reflections are very spiritual in nature and I try to get people to think and use their God-given intellect to understand that Islam, as a religion, does teach and encourage a peaceful way of life."

He calls his work "organic light photography," because he sees light as a living thing.

He discovered that dynamic while taking moon photographs. Ismail would arrive at a location several hours before sunset and, while taking the photographs, was struck by the way the light changed an object's appearance.

Others are also affected by his work.

He says an older couple who wandered around his booth at the Campbell Farmers Market, looked at his work, and then left without saying a word. Later the woman came back and thanked him, saying she had never been so spiritually moved in her life.

"I didn't know what to say to that. It really gives you incentive to continue," he says. "It's like a bridge being built. I'm happy that my work is part of that bridge."

For more information about Youssef Ismail and his work, visit www.organiclightphoto.com or call 408.871.0386. Ismail also has a booth at the Campbell Farmers Market, which takes place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays.