It’s hard
to believe, but I’ve been here long enough that I’m now in the middle of my
second Ramadan. Like last year, I
decided that I would participate in the fast, at least for the parts where I’m
in the country, though since I got sick early on I haven’t been keeping it very
strictly, especially with regards to water.
This isn’t really cheating, you are not supposed to fast when you’re
sick, in fact you’re breaking the rules if you don’t eat while sick.
Last year I
found that Ramadan was a time when people wanted to talk about faith a lot, and
this year is the same. It has seemed to
me that for whatever reason a lot more people don’t like that I’m fasting
without being Muslim this year than last year.
While the vast majority of people I’ve talked to still like that I’m
participating in this part of their culture, a vocal minority never fails to
say that my fasting doesn’t count since I’m not praying. Another minority (sometimes the same people,
sometimes others) has been trying to get me to convert. This happens pretty much constantly through
the year, but during Ramadan even more would-be missionaries come out. I get asked a lot about why I’m a Christian,
why I don’t pray, and why I don’t believe.
A lot of times my responses, which are that Christianity is the faith I
grew up with, and that Christians do pray and believe, aren’t accepted, which
is unique to Ramadan. Thankfully
sometimes other people will jump in and tell the questioners to stop jumping
down my throat. To be honest, it can be
annoying but I don’t really mind, I know they’re asking and trying to convert
me because they care and want me to go to heaven.
One day
while I was on the way to break fast, one of the town’s old men called me over
to talk. I don’t know this man’s real
name; everyone just calls him El-Hajji,
an honorific for someone who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca. El-Hajji
has never actually made the pilgrimage.
He earned the honorific through his intense study of the Quran and Hadith,
and is one of the town’s Imams
(prayer leaders). El-Hajji wanted to teach me a little about Islam, and maybe convert
me. It was an interesting conversation,
even if he was only successful in teaching me.
He started
out by talking a little bit about how God keeps track of our actions. He said that each of us has two angels who
always travel with us, one to our right and the other to our left. The angel on the right writes down all our
good actions, the one to the left records the bad. On the Day of Judgment they will read both
lists back to us. Then he changed tacks
a bit and asked me if I knew what happened in Egypt. Surprised, I said of course I knew all about
the coup, but he said no, not that, and then started to tell me a story. It took me a minute to realize it was Moses
parting the sea. He followed this up
with a few other miracles. Then he told
me about all the unpleasant things that happen to someone in Hell, a fire and
brimstone sermon that would rattle John Edwards (not the one of recent
political fame). Then, after asking if I
was circumcised, he described the process of prayer and invited me to come to
the mosque for Friday prayer some week to learn more. It was quite the tour-de-force, though the
shock and awe approach to conversion wasn’t the right tack to convince me.
Otherwise
not too much is going on, but I wanted to post because in less than a week I’ll
be flying to London for my first out of country vacation since arriving last
March!
No comments:
Post a Comment