I’ve always been a bit concerned about how my religious views or lack thereof would be received by my Moroccan classmates. Nuri Omar, the Arabic and chemistry instructor at ISU, advised me to keep my opinions to myself and, if someone pried, to claim some uninteresting variety of Christianity. In the new student orientation, the administrators warned incoming students that a lack of religion would be a considerable defect in the eyes of the locals.

I never brought up my feelings on such matters in front of any Moroccans. However, yesterday at dinner, one Moroccan brought up the subject of religion and I did not feel inclined to claim some religion I didn’t feel a part of. I just shrugged my shoulders and continued eating the very weird variety of fried chicken in front of me.

“You mean you don’t believe in God?” he said, clearly aghast.

“Pretty much.”

He said, “If there is no God, than who created the universe?”

The implicit assumption being that someone must have created the universe. No one else seems to have the know-how so therefore God must be the one. I could have hassled him by asking him who created God, but instead I just answered that such things were beyond human knowledge.  

My Moroccan friend, whose name is Ahmed, was not angry with me, but seemed to pity me for being deprived of The Truth. Fortunately, he had it in his heart to help me rectify this tremendous shortcoming.

“Promise me you will read the Qu’ran.” He said. “I SWEAR to you it is the truth. If you read it, you will believe.”

I told him that I have heard many people make impassioned but unsubstantiated claims on “The Truth” on behalf of many different sects.

“In other religions you will find contradictions, but not in the true Islam,” he said. It was clear this response didn’t satisfy me and so he added, “I bet you anything in the world, even my own life, that you will not find one contradiction in the Qu’ran. In the Hadith maybe, but in the true Qu’ran you will not find one.”

I promised Ahmed that I would read the Qu’ran and when I was finished I would produce a sizable list of contradictions. “Only please don’t kill yourself.”  

As soon as I finished my dinner I went straight to the library and found a copy of the Qu’ran. It was a very thick text, over two thousand pages, but much of this was indexing and commentary. The actual Qu’ran itself is not so long, as there are only a few lines on each page. On one side was the text of the Qu’ran in beautiful Arabic calligraphy and on the other side was the English translation. I was not allowed to check it out because it belonged in the reference section, so I would have to make time at the library to study.

The first few pages were full of typical holy babble. God is great, holy, merciful and whatnot; those who ignore his words will be punished, those who obey him will be rewarded in the next life. However I was impressed by the philosophical density of the passages. One verse in particular impressed me, I think it is Sura 2 verse 11-12 but I’m not sure I understand the chapter verse system in the Qu’ran yet:

11. “When it is said to them: “Make not mischief on earth,” they say: “we are only the ones who put things right.”

12. Of a surety, they are the ones who make mischief but realize (it) not.”

How true this is! Though I doubt I will ever be convinced that the Qu’ran came from the mouth of God, I expect to find more such gems of wisdom in it.

To be continued....