So this one time on the ferry...
I started that day surprisingly awake. Not just in reference to the early hour I was able to rise, but rather a deeper sense of spiritual inspiration. I had an Islamic Center picnic to attend, but other than that, I was eagerly anticipating a carefree day dedicated to personal reflection. I grabbed my notebook, a pen, a book close to my heart, packed my bag, and wrapped a hijab around my head, ready for the day.
The picnic brought not much more than beautiful weather, pleasant casual company (I didn't exchange too many words, I just enjoyed watching the movements of their lives), and a chance to sit under the trees and relax. Kiran wasn't able to make it to the picnic, so I figured I would bring the picnic to her. I grabbed some of the left over food they were trying to get rid of at the end, called her up, and decided to make the 2 hour journey to her home in the island.
I had been carrying around a Rumi poem in my notebook all day, pondering over its meaning and potential significance in my life...
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing
There is a field, I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
The world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase 'each other'
Doesn't make any sense."
I tore out a sheet from my notebook, scribbled down the poem, and left it on a bench for a passerby to find. Perhaps it would make them think for a moment, enjoy the beauty of life for that instant, be inspired, or if nothing else, bring about a smile stemming from a secret of life passed along between strangers.
The trek took longer than anticipated, with weekend route changes, subway lines closed, unexpected transfers and a packed shuttle bus service driven by a half sober crazy driver, not to mention the wait for the ferry. I wasn't too fazed by it though. Life is "about the journey", a wise (cough cough) man said to me recently. :) Sometimes the patience and wisdom displayed in the most trying of situations is more rewarding and important than the outcome itself. So I remembered Allah and thanked Him for the beautiful day and the chance to see my friend and I couldn't help but to smile, even when pushed and crammed into the overpacked shuttle bus.
I sat waiting for the ferry and watched the birds inside the waiting area fly around, walk alongside the men and women, accustomed to the asphalt and marble and glass... perhaps that's how we are- natural creatures so accustomed to our new urban societal scenery that we have lost a bit of our natural instincts, and even more so, our natural humanity. Living in this city, one has to struggle so hard to find and maintain a balanced outlook, surrounded by a city fervently promoting indulgence, extravagance, and lust. It's no wonder that most of these inhabitants no longer believe in the necessity of God or selfless aspirations. There are exceptions of course. And then there are the self righteous extremists.
Case and point: Ferry Bible Lady. This was my first encounter with this wonder of a woman, although I’m assuming by the general apathetic reactions from the other people, she (or other fanatical characters like her) are frequent commuters on the ferry.
This lady held firmly to her beliefs to a point of denying the rest of the world to a right to their own. She circled around the multiple levels of the boat, screaming out the “word of the Lord”, reading out scriptures of the Bible and warning that we would all go to Hell if we didn’t accept Jesus Christ as our personal savior right then and there and that the way this world is going is straight to Hell because we deny ourselves of the salvation of the Lord. She didn’t like the minorities (Arab and Indian looking ones especially), and gazed at them with a certain level of fear of the unknown in her eyes. She had a daughter walking beside her, and a baby in a carriage to her other side. She barely paid attention to her children though, just dragged them around with her, too busy focusing on condemning the masses of “unbelievers” and reciting random parables and encounters which didn’t really support her cause or claim at all. You would wonder why she didn’t prepare a better routine or at the very least, a coherent message if the campaign to “save the heathens” was so dear to her. I imagine God would have rather preferred her to teach good morals and virtues onto her daughters and take care of the gifts of life that He entrusted to her, rather than neglecting them like she seemed to be so used to doing. Her older daughter was about 10 or 11 years old, she seemed very frail and delicate, with confused, sad eyes. I wondered what the world must be like for her.
I saw that she was staring back at me, and embarrassed, I turned away. There was a Jewish man sitting next to me, with a big shiny star of David proudly embellishing his chest. I lowered my gaze as I noticed he was staring at me curiously, almost suspiciously, focused on the scarf around my head.
Just then, Bible Lady pointed straight at me and yelled out, “YOUR religion only promotes evil! YOUR religion won’t save you! Know that now! Only JESUS can save you!” I noticed her daughters sparkling brown eyes, looking at me, not fully understanding who I was or why I was evil but she seemed more sad than scared. She must be carrying around so much apprehension about life, others, herself, faith, the world. I looked at her empathetically and then turned to the Jewish man, hoping for a similar degree of compassion, hoping to share a moment of understanding, for surely he too must have faced religious persecution at some point in his life. He looked away and pretended not to see me. I sighed and prayed silently for Allah to guide us and infuse our hearts with love and mercy for one another.
posted by Muniba at Wednesday, May 03, 2006
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