Why Should I Go to the Mosque?
Why should I go to the Mosque?
“The mullahs are all killers, brainwashing the people and lying to them for their own benefit. The Quran says liars are not of us, so why should I go to the mosque?” Sirbaz said to the horror of the others gathered around.
It was quite the lively conversation. After our exams, I was sitting in the lawn with some of my classmates and seniors. In one of our previous meetings, from a conversation sparked by the houras (the 72 virgins given to good Muslims in heaven) in which I was insisted it was a lie because Jesus said there is no marriage in heaven, of them had asked me for the Injeel so I brought it for him. Being 1:00 on a Friday, it was time to go to the mosque so they up and left. The one who received the Injeel, “Sirbaz”, said he wouldn’t go. So the others instructed him to stay me with me and discuss the Injeel until they all came back. I asked him why he wouldn’t go to the mosque and he began to talk of the mullahs as killers and liars, and said he could pray in his own room but he couldn’t stand with those hypocrites whose violence had destroyed his village. He talked of his village being aerial bombed when he was little, taking his sister with him and running away without knowing what happened to his parents, and accredited it to the politics, hatred, and war bred and born in the mosques. Upon the others’ return, the group launched into a lively debate about the subject. One guy defended the mullahs as being sinless. Another argued that there was no universal truth but each man could decide for himself what was good or bad; his example being that he is a professional singer and thinks it’s good yet the mullahs say music is forbidden. The first guy argued that while Islam is the right way, we should listen to God and not the mullahs and therefore he would not go to the mosque. The main point in contention being: who decides what is true? God alone, religious leaders, or everyone in their own mind? In their tension each pulled out a cigarette and puffed away the gravity of the conversation. I pulled out a piece of candy instead, much to the amusement of the others. It was interesting to see firsthand how even in the Muslim circles the wide variety of beliefs from the universal humanists to the blindly devout appeared. They had all heard the gospel from me and gleefully inspected the Holy Books I have with me, some of them asking me to give them their own copy. Yet I marveled as to how anyone comes to faith with each being so set in their own mind- whether it be strict Islam or universalism with only a cultural assent to Islam. Yet Jesus said with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Pray for God to do the impossible.
Praise God my visa arrived! One more year legally, though my couple of weeks without a visa did not bother the authorities anyways. Pray for my next year here and all God is preparing. Pray a community of believers would form here.
And praise God for the language skills now to have conversations like the one above and also start translating worship songs into Pashto. Pray I continue to absorb and remember the language.
Thank you for praying!
to become a monthly financial Ministry partner with me click on the following link:
It was quite the lively conversation. After our exams, I was sitting in the lawn with some of my classmates and seniors. In one of our previous meetings, from a conversation sparked by the houras (the 72 virgins given to good Muslims in heaven) in which I was insisted it was a lie because Jesus said there is no marriage in heaven, of them had asked me for the Injeel so I brought it for him. Being 1:00 on a Friday, it was time to go to the mosque so they up and left. The one who received the Injeel, “Sirbaz”, said he wouldn’t go. So the others instructed him to stay me with me and discuss the Injeel until they all came back. I asked him why he wouldn’t go to the mosque and he began to talk of the mullahs as killers and liars, and said he could pray in his own room but he couldn’t stand with those hypocrites whose violence had destroyed his village. He talked of his village being aerial bombed when he was little, taking his sister with him and running away without knowing what happened to his parents, and accredited it to the politics, hatred, and war bred and born in the mosques. Upon the others’ return, the group launched into a lively debate about the subject. One guy defended the mullahs as being sinless. Another argued that there was no universal truth but each man could decide for himself what was good or bad; his example being that he is a professional singer and thinks it’s good yet the mullahs say music is forbidden. The first guy argued that while Islam is the right way, we should listen to God and not the mullahs and therefore he would not go to the mosque. The main point in contention being: who decides what is true? God alone, religious leaders, or everyone in their own mind? In their tension each pulled out a cigarette and puffed away the gravity of the conversation. I pulled out a piece of candy instead, much to the amusement of the others. It was interesting to see firsthand how even in the Muslim circles the wide variety of beliefs from the universal humanists to the blindly devout appeared. They had all heard the gospel from me and gleefully inspected the Holy Books I have with me, some of them asking me to give them their own copy. Yet I marveled as to how anyone comes to faith with each being so set in their own mind- whether it be strict Islam or universalism with only a cultural assent to Islam. Yet Jesus said with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Pray for God to do the impossible.
Praise God my visa arrived! One more year legally, though my couple of weeks without a visa did not bother the authorities anyways. Pray for my next year here and all God is preparing. Pray a community of believers would form here.
And praise God for the language skills now to have conversations like the one above and also start translating worship songs into Pashto. Pray I continue to absorb and remember the language.
Thank you for praying!
to become a monthly financial Ministry partner with me click on the following link:
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