Senator-Elect El-Sayed Says He Will Take the Senate Oath on the Quran, and Is Considering Jefferson's Copy
Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed told National Public Radio in an interview on November 12 that he will take his oath of office on a Quran when he is sworn in next January. El-Sayed is the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate, and, if he follows through, would be the first U.S. senator to swear on the Quran.
El-Sayed defeated Republican Mike Rogers in the November 3 midterm election for Michigan's Senate seat. He told NPR host Leila Fadel that he would likely swear on a Quran, but had not decided which one. He named two possibilities: the Quran once owned by President Thomas Jefferson, the same copy Representative Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the House, used when he was sworn in to Congress in 2007; and a Quran held by the University of Michigan, which he described as the first Quran in the state of Michigan and very old.
Jefferson's copy is George Sale's 1764 English translation, now held by the Library of Congress. Ellison used it in his ceremonial swearing-in with then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2007. The University of Michigan library holds early Quranic manuscripts.
The new Congress is scheduled to be sworn in at noon on January 3, 2027, with Vice President JD Vance expected to administer the Senate oath. The U.S. Constitution bars any religious test for federal office, and the official oath does not require a religious text; the choice of book is a ceremonial matter. El-Sayed said being sworn in as the first Muslim senator mattered less to him personally than it did for America.
Related: Michigan Senate Election: AP Calls Race for El-Sayed, Set to Become First Muslim U.S. Senator
(Source: NPR)
Source: NPR
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：Abdul El-Sayed 在密歇根州一场选民见面会上（资料图）。Conlan Houston 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Abdul El-Sayed at a meet-and-greet in Michigan (file photo). By Conlan Houston, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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- 2026-11-12Senator-Elect El-Sayed Says He Will Take the Senate Oath on the Quran, and Is Considering Jefferson's CopyThis story
