The thing we owe!
A month ago, I started a new round in my internship and in the first day we were getting introduced to the residents; and how diverse can life be!
One of our residents had a beard and spoke relentlessly about God, ethics and religion and by the latter he meant only Islam. he even doesn't recognize any other religion including the rest of Ibrahamic faiths saying that there is only one religion! Of course I had my disagreements with him but anyway he's nothing more than a colleague for two months. I sincerely don't care about his bullshit so much.
The other had a strange quality of understanding and some sort of peaceful nature. Perhaps we all thought so because he kind of kept to himself and only spoke about work stuff.
Three days after, the residents were making schedule for the week and they wanted to know my religion - actually they hoped that I would turn out to be Christian and hence spend the period of Muslim feasts in the hospital- I responded that I am Muslim.
The resident with a beard was so shocked, said that he thought I was Christian and insisted on questioning my belief. such a behavior really irritated me so I responded in a tone of finality ,"Religion's importance is over estimated only in backward societies"
Instead of closing the conversation, my conclusion started another long lecture from the resident and even more irritating questions about my religious interests, whether I am a Muslim or that I come from a Muslim family
Our conversation turned to argument and I started raising my voice. other residents noticed the turn the conversation took and stopped the bearded fellow from interrogating me. The other resident was one of them. From this moment on, I notice friendly gestures from him: he seemed to agree with me about almost everything.
Yesterday was his last day in our hospital - no he didn't finish his residency program, he's just getting recruited in the stupid army - and he asked to talk to me in private. I really was in confusion what he might have to say to me that he doesn't want other ears to hear!
Anyway, I went and had a drink with him - no, not the "date like" drinks- and he started explaining what he wanted to me. Obviously he had respected my mind but he disagrees with me on one single subject. My views of Religion.
I told him that what I said in the first week was my own opinion and that I do think religion is being used as a backward force hence its importance in conservative backward societies. but he had another point of view.
He told me that he believes that when Adam made his mistake, he was being tested by the lord. once he ate the apple, Adam was failing his exam and God's trust in him and so he was sent to earth to live.
While reading this symbolic story "As he names it", we do a big mistake thinking about the apple and the mistake and hence our interpretation had been wrong. We were wrong to think that Adam's descent here on earth was a punishment for his wrongness while it has never been like that!
God sent Adam to earth to repay his dept - and again that's not the apple nor even his failing - Adam was given the gift of cognition and that was the dept he had to repay: With our gifts comes our responsibilities and messages in life!
It had been Adam's responsibility to seek a new goal, a new cause to pursue on earth after failing the first one in Eden. We all have messages... That's exactly what religion is: it is the thing we owe!
Moses, Jesus and Mohamed had their messages as well, the three focused on ethics and mastered them. but these ethics- that we now call religion- has been their own messages. Ours are never to go on their footsteps. We owe god and ourselves to know what are our messages and achieve it.
This exactly was the same idea that Einstein, Edison and Newton had in mind - again quoting his words - while working for the goodness of human kind. They could be seen as men of science while they were men of their own religion. They were men with messages and have achieved them.
Then turning to me, he explained the reason why he had to share this idea with me. He said, "I think you are revolutionary. The first time we met I saw this rebellion in you and remembered myself when I was still a student in med school. I know you have a goal and you want to achieve it. so, when I heard you saying so about religion I thought I'd better present this point of view perhaps it could change your prospective!"
"You might now disagree with me but I tell you, the first time you achieve something, the first moment you hold you son's little hand and the first time you make a great discovery; I am sure that , only then, you will understand what I meant and feel what those great men once felt."
"You have a dream, you want to study Neuroscience and work in new researches about regenerative medicine; then seek your dream and never let anyone hold you back. Achieve your message! Only then will you be able to understand god, conciliate with your lost belief and find inner peace!"
And that was it.
I don't know if I agree with all what he said right then. I don't even know if I will conciliate with my belief again or even with my circumstance. But when I said the last good bye to him and walked the street to start my journey back home; when I was looking from the window at the chaotic streets of Cairo ready to rest at last under the veil of darkness, all I was thinking about was how much he surprised me by his wisdom and how much I respect him now for thinking on his own and having his own view.
I smiled to the invading cold air of Cairo's autumn invading the bus as it started moving fast and said, "Oh my God Egypt, you're really changing!"
One of our residents had a beard and spoke relentlessly about God, ethics and religion and by the latter he meant only Islam. he even doesn't recognize any other religion including the rest of Ibrahamic faiths saying that there is only one religion! Of course I had my disagreements with him but anyway he's nothing more than a colleague for two months. I sincerely don't care about his bullshit so much.
The other had a strange quality of understanding and some sort of peaceful nature. Perhaps we all thought so because he kind of kept to himself and only spoke about work stuff.
Three days after, the residents were making schedule for the week and they wanted to know my religion - actually they hoped that I would turn out to be Christian and hence spend the period of Muslim feasts in the hospital- I responded that I am Muslim.
The resident with a beard was so shocked, said that he thought I was Christian and insisted on questioning my belief. such a behavior really irritated me so I responded in a tone of finality ,"Religion's importance is over estimated only in backward societies"
Instead of closing the conversation, my conclusion started another long lecture from the resident and even more irritating questions about my religious interests, whether I am a Muslim or that I come from a Muslim family
Our conversation turned to argument and I started raising my voice. other residents noticed the turn the conversation took and stopped the bearded fellow from interrogating me. The other resident was one of them. From this moment on, I notice friendly gestures from him: he seemed to agree with me about almost everything.
Yesterday was his last day in our hospital - no he didn't finish his residency program, he's just getting recruited in the stupid army - and he asked to talk to me in private. I really was in confusion what he might have to say to me that he doesn't want other ears to hear!
Anyway, I went and had a drink with him - no, not the "date like" drinks- and he started explaining what he wanted to me. Obviously he had respected my mind but he disagrees with me on one single subject. My views of Religion.
I told him that what I said in the first week was my own opinion and that I do think religion is being used as a backward force hence its importance in conservative backward societies. but he had another point of view.
He told me that he believes that when Adam made his mistake, he was being tested by the lord. once he ate the apple, Adam was failing his exam and God's trust in him and so he was sent to earth to live.
While reading this symbolic story "As he names it", we do a big mistake thinking about the apple and the mistake and hence our interpretation had been wrong. We were wrong to think that Adam's descent here on earth was a punishment for his wrongness while it has never been like that!
God sent Adam to earth to repay his dept - and again that's not the apple nor even his failing - Adam was given the gift of cognition and that was the dept he had to repay: With our gifts comes our responsibilities and messages in life!
It had been Adam's responsibility to seek a new goal, a new cause to pursue on earth after failing the first one in Eden. We all have messages... That's exactly what religion is: it is the thing we owe!
Moses, Jesus and Mohamed had their messages as well, the three focused on ethics and mastered them. but these ethics- that we now call religion- has been their own messages. Ours are never to go on their footsteps. We owe god and ourselves to know what are our messages and achieve it.
This exactly was the same idea that Einstein, Edison and Newton had in mind - again quoting his words - while working for the goodness of human kind. They could be seen as men of science while they were men of their own religion. They were men with messages and have achieved them.
Then turning to me, he explained the reason why he had to share this idea with me. He said, "I think you are revolutionary. The first time we met I saw this rebellion in you and remembered myself when I was still a student in med school. I know you have a goal and you want to achieve it. so, when I heard you saying so about religion I thought I'd better present this point of view perhaps it could change your prospective!"
"You might now disagree with me but I tell you, the first time you achieve something, the first moment you hold you son's little hand and the first time you make a great discovery; I am sure that , only then, you will understand what I meant and feel what those great men once felt."
"You have a dream, you want to study Neuroscience and work in new researches about regenerative medicine; then seek your dream and never let anyone hold you back. Achieve your message! Only then will you be able to understand god, conciliate with your lost belief and find inner peace!"
And that was it.
I don't know if I agree with all what he said right then. I don't even know if I will conciliate with my belief again or even with my circumstance. But when I said the last good bye to him and walked the street to start my journey back home; when I was looking from the window at the chaotic streets of Cairo ready to rest at last under the veil of darkness, all I was thinking about was how much he surprised me by his wisdom and how much I respect him now for thinking on his own and having his own view.
I smiled to the invading cold air of Cairo's autumn invading the bus as it started moving fast and said, "Oh my God Egypt, you're really changing!"