A Parallel Universe of Belief

The experience of coming as a Christian guest to this Muslim country has been almost like being transported to a parallel universe of belief. Although the differences are many, the similarities are uncanny. Within each faith lie two distinct perspectives, each orbiting around a different center - either a book or a man. Each center is a source of authority and is determined to be infallible. For Christians, the infallible center is either the Bible and/or the Pope and for the Muslims, it seems to be either the Koran and/or the Imam. What side a person takes on these issues has a lot to do with how they handle the rest of life, because each choice comes with a very distinct identity. Protestant or Catholic, Sunni or Shi’a, the dividing line for each comes down to who or what is infallible and authoritative.


For the Muslims, this was an early split. Lines were drawn in the sand soon after Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law, was assassinated in 661 AD. This sparked a revolt by a group that later called themselves “Shi’a," which is short for “Shi atu Ali,” meaning "partisans of Ali.” Since Muhammad had no sons that made it to adulthood, the Shiites felt that his cousin Ali, who was married to his daughter Fatima, was his only rightful successor. According to the Shiites, this status granted Ali and his successors, not only political and religious authority, but also immunity from error and sin. In 880 AD the 12th imam disappeared, and much like the Christian anticipation of the second coming of Jesus, Shiites believe he will eventually return and bring justice to the earth.


The habit of unquestioned trust in religious leadership continues to this day among the Shi’a, as they believe that hidden levels of meaning of the Koran are only available to the imam and those he chose to reveal them to.

The Sunni represent roughly 85% of the Muslim world and have more of a "Protestant" view of religious authority. The Sunni get their name from the accumulation of words and actions of the Prophet Muhammad called the "Sunnah," now found primarily in the "Hadith" which supplements the Koran and is also treated as God's word. Immunity from error is attributed to the Koran and Hadith, and great effort is placed on finding the true meaning of their words. Without the guide of an infallible imam, Sunni theology has branched out into multiple "schools of thought," - just as early Protestantism did after the Martin Luther convinced many to question the ultimate authority of the pope. Sunni theology can now be broken down into four main schools that are almost region specific and have found a prominent place in government and civil law. Saudi Arabia is a prime example of this, as the court system is guided primarily by a branch of Shari'ah (Islamic law) known as "Hanbali." Like most prominent Protestant denominations do with the bible, "Hanbali" places utmost importance on the original intent of the Koran and Hadith and differs with other schools only in variation of emphasis on literal meaning or general guiding principle.

It seems that within each tradition lies a common thread - a rift between belief and practice. Every follower knows what he ought to do, but no one is completely faithful to do it. These differences vary as do the distances of planets from the sun, but most participants of any faith will readily admit the dichotomy. Perpetual guilt pervades the Middle East as well as America. It has been very intriguing to hear both a Muslim and a Christian say almost the same exact thing to me: "I am a believer, but I'm a bad one. Maybe one day I'll get my act together."

Most of us wander aimlessly in unfulfilled self-expectation, and the irony is our loneliness despite this commonality. Masks of spirituality isolate us from each other in either religion and skew our view of reality as we think we are alone in our struggle to be good. As a result the least religious among us can sometimes be the most honest.

Ramadan

The moon is almost full, which means that the month of Ramadan is almost half over. The Arabic calendar is based on the moon so each new moon starts a new month. This makes the Muslim year a bit shorter than ours and makes all holidays and special events slowly migrate year after year on our calendar which is solar. This also means that in the next few years, the holy month of Ramadan will slowly migrate closer and closer to the hottest part of the summer, and coincide with the longest days of the year. I mention this because the month of Ramadan is a collective fast of all food, water, tobacco and sexual intercourse from sunrise to sunset. With few exceptions, all Islamic people are expected to participate in this sacrifice. It is incredible to watch such solidarity and devotion of so many people especially when it’s 115 degrees outside with 80% humidity, and the days are 14 hours long. But I’ve come to learn that it is so much more than a collective fast. People really get excited about this time, and it has the meaningfulness that Christmas has to us, without the materialism. Everyone wishes each other “Ramadan Kareem” (which literally means “Have a generous Ramadan”). Work all but stops. People will typically shorten their work day to about 3 – 4 hours and take long naps. As soon as the sun sets, the “break-fast” becomes a huge celebration and everyone gathers together and eats with wild abandon. Then they stay up the rest of the night either in prayer, reading the Qur’an, or just enjoying each other’s company. Finally, a last big meal is consumed before sunrise (about 4 am in these parts) and if possible people go to bed for a few hours before going in for another short day of work.

“Credits” is the term my Arabic first officer used to explain why people spend so much more time in the mosque during Ramadan praying and reading the Qur’an. The closer to the end of Ramadan it is, the more credits one gets for religious activities (reading, praying, giving to the poor etc.) At first I was reluctant to ask, but I had to know, so I asked him what these “credits” were good for. I said, “Do you mean that people are able to get closer to God than they would otherwise at other times of the year?” He said, “no”. God is close to everyone no matter what they do. What these credits are good for is hierarchy in heaven. He said that there is heaven and hell, and if one goes to heaven, the religious activities they do on earth will determine their status in heaven in the afterlife. He said that some people spend incredible amounts of time in the mosque during Ramadan and are able to get lots of credits. Credits are also achieved throughout the rest of the year as people diligently comply with what is called “The Five Pillars of Islam”. They consist of a profession of faith, five daily prayers at specific times, giving to the poor, fasting during Ramadan, and at least one pilgrimage to Mecca.

Although most people gain a few pounds during Ramadan because of all the eating that happens at night, the fasting during the day has the purpose of not only helping people focus on God, but also helping them identify with the poor. Fasting is obligatory for all but the sick and those who are traveling. If a day of fasting is broken due to one of these reasons (which most of the Muslim pilots do if they are assigned a long day of flying) they are to make up the fast during the following month for the equivalent amount of days they broke fast during Ramadan. An exception is made for diabetics (of which there are many here). Safety is stressed by the company and little things are done to help people avoid making foolish mistakes when they are hungry. The most notable one is that free little boxes of food (dates, juice and yogurt) are passed out by volunteers at the compound entrance right at sundown so people won’t drive unsafely in their eagerness to get home or to any other feasting ground.

What amazes me about all this in how willing everyone is to fast. It seems to be more than an obligation. It is something they are proud of, something that helps define them and give them a sense of identity and purpose. It gives structure to their lives and a sense of moral superiority. All this is worth a little hunger and a little thirst.

What also is intriguing and a little puzzling is that I have been asked a few times if I am fasting, by people that are well aware that I’m not a Muslim. No one has asked me if I pray five times a day, or if I go to the mosque or on pilgrimages, but they have asked me if I fast. I am always honest in my answer, and say “no”, but I wonder how they feel about that. Why is this the only sacred pillar of Islam that I am being invited to participate in? Does it say something about my lack of respect toward their religion not to fast? I mean, I don’t eat or drink purposefully in front of them. Expats have been asked by the company to be discreet in their consumption. But why am I being asked if I fast? I wonder if I should? What would that say to them? There is so much more to learn here and I’m so eager to do it. I’ve been here now more than nine months, and my fascination with this place and it’s people, culture and religion continues to grow in intensity. The more I know, the more I want to know.

True Myth

I found myself recently in an interesting perspective shift. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve spent a lot of time lately trying to understand the mind of the unbeliever. Most of my attention has been on the atheist point of view. Much of what makes it hard for the atheist to believe in God and Christianity is the idea of the supernatural. To many atheists, science, over recent centuries has done a lot to answer questions that religion used to. A classic example would be epilepsy. Before it was better understood by science, they would say, religion attributed it to demon possession. Now that science has answered this and many of our other questions, religion has less of a functional role in our lives. Science, being more credible, has completely taken over the role of “God” for many of these guys. So when those of us who still hold on to a belief in the credibility of the bible try to have a discussion with these guys, they find it incredulous that we still believe in things like creation, Noah’s arc, and the virgin birth of Jesus, etc. They would say we can’t let go of the past. Although many important questions aren’t answered by the atheist, they still feel they are on more intellectually honest ground than we are, and no further discussion can happen until we let go of our “myths”.

I developed a bit more of an appreciation for this point of view the other day while flying with a Saudi first officer who was helping me understand some of the Muslim sentiment regarding the importance of their two most important cities: Mecca and Medina. He was telling me Medina is important because that is where the “holy prophet Muhammad” is buried as well as most of his successors. It is where Muhammad fled to when the people of Mecca didn’t like his insistence that there was only one God and they should give up all their pagan gods. Eventually Muhammad was able to come back to reclaim Mecca when he had finally developed a large following during his time in Medina. Mecca is significant to the Muslim, not only because it is the city where Muhammad was born, but also because the Kaaba is located there. The Kaaba is a cube shaped, one room stone structure that is traditionally believed to have been built by Abraham and Ishmael. Set on the outside of one corner of the structure is a black meteorite that is solemnly kissed by all pilgrims who can gain access to it. All Muslims are to visit the Kaaba at least once in their lifetime, a tradition that actually started well before Muhammad. All the prayers of Muslims are to face the Kaaba. Near this shrine are some large preserved “footprints” that are believed to be Abraham's. My first officer used his hands to show me these footprints are roughly two feet long, and he explained that in the early days people were much bigger than us and have gradually gotten smaller. He also told me that the Kaaba has been long held by Muslims to be the middle of the world, and science has recently been able to corroborate this. Another part of the Muslim pilgrimage in Mecca includes circling the Kaaba seven times, walking fast between two mounds near the sanctuary seven times, marching three miles to Mina, then proceeding six miles to Arafat, listening to a sermon, and then marching back to Mecca where a sacrifice is offered in memory of Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of his son, followed by one more circuit around the Kaaba. Somewhere in this journey is a spring of water that my first officer claimed was the water that God gave to Hagar when she was dying in the wilderness after being sent away with her son Ishmael. The water of this spring has become “holy water” for Muslims and is distributed all over the Muslim world. He said it has a distinct taste that he doesn’t particularly like, but is evidence that it is special and unique.

While he was telling me this I watched him intently looking for any hint of disbelief. There wasn’t any. He really believed everything he said about the footprints, the center of the world and the spring and all that. I couldn’t help but think of the Midwest American myth of Paul Bunyan when he was talking about the footprints, and both the holy water Catholics use in their ceremonies, and the Ganges River in India, when he was talking about the spring. I realized that this must be the feeling atheists have when Christians profess their belief in the miracles of the bible.

One of the concepts that helped C.S. Lewis convert back to Christianity from atheism was the idea of “true myth”. The bible has plenty of fantastic stories that are used to teach a lesson or bring home a point. The literalness of these stories is a bit challenging to believe, but to discount the literalness would be to undermine the bible’s overall authenticity. Jesus referred to Adam and Eve, and Jonah as real people. Sorting out what is true and what isn’t is a difficult task for those of us who believe in the supernatural, but I feel that an appreciation for the difficulty of belief is important if one is to have an open and honest conversation with an unbeliever.