The March of Inquiries
2.
“What
is happening? Who are you? what do you think you’re doing?” Asks one.
3.
“Life is happening.” I reply. “I am the Friend of those who value peace and human life and dignity
above all. I am calling people, all people, out from the darkness of sectarianism and
meaningless squabbles into the light of human reunion.”
4.
“By
what authority do you speak?” Asks another.
5.
“By the authority bestowed upon me by my all-too vibrant conscience,
and a tortured soul that seeks healing through giving, giving, and giving.”
6.
“Are
you really claiming to be the Mahdi, the awaited messiah?” Asks a veiled woman.
7.
“I am the one whom you see before you. I am what I say. I am what I
do. If you see salvation in that, then I am your Mahdi and Messiah.”
8.
“So,
you really think you can bring salvation to this world, to us?” Asks a woman with a
cross dandling from her neck. (The Noble Friend speaks of the path to salvation)
9.
“No
one can bring salvation to anyone. If you can’t save yourself, no one can save you. If you want to
be saved, it is up to you to take the first step, the second step, the third step, on the
path of redemption and never expect help until it is offered.
10.
“Salvation comes from within. It is up to you to unearth it, it is up
to you to earn it.
11.
“You are never impotent unless you believe that you are.”
12.
“When
will Judgment Day happen?” Asks a
mocking young man. (The Noble Friend explains His concept of Judgment)
13.
“When you look deep inside your soul, face all of your fears, and sort
out your true beliefs, and thus, become truly aware of who you are and what you really
want in life, then your judgment day will have happened. And that is the only judgment
that matters.”
14.
“Return
to your senses brother, why the blasphemy?” Advises an elderly man. (The importance of blasphemy)
15.
“No my friend, the real question is: why not the blasphemy?
16.
“Didn’t Islam and Christianity begin as blasphemies? Could the real
shape of Earth have ever been known without blasphemy? Could the truth about many things
have ever managed to emerge without blasphemy?
17.
“Oh, how quickly we forget and little we understand. We spend our life
fighting against the very thing we should always protect, the very thing that gives
meaning and beauty to our otherwise miserable lives.
18.
“Protect blasphemy friend, protect the right of people to blaspheme,
even should this blasphemy offend you, no, especially when it offends you: protect
it. Protect it, and you will have protected yourself and built your free society. That is
what freedom of conscience is all about.”
19.
“But
if people should be left to do whatever they want, life will go to ruin.” Argues a
young bearded man.
20.
“And who said that people should be left to do whatever they want to
do? Freedom of conscience does not entail freedom of action. One’s public behavior
should not be harmful to others.” (The Noble Friend defends Himself against charges of being a "foreign agent")
21.
“How
much are they paying you to do what you are doing and say what you are saying? Tell us who
are your masters” Orders a young seemingly educated and westernized type. I know him,
he is one of those intellectual fundamentalists who have spent some time abroad, and now
think they know the way things really work in this world. That is, the way Zionists and
Freemasons are seeking to control the world
and put an end to their archenemy the Muslim Nation, an entity that exists only in their
most blissful of dreams.
22.
They
are now busy Islamizing the already too
Islamized-fundamentalized-conservatized-zealotized-terrorrized-and-otherwise-dehumanized
Syrian society, all on the hush-hush of course. They don’t want anyone to notice how
the percentage of veiled women have tripled in the last few years.
23.
“No one is paying me. My master is my conscience and none other then
my conscience. I put no barriers between me and my conscience.
24.
“Unlike you that is, for the dictates of your conscience arrive to
your mind always after getting filtered through the myriad of holy texts and holy men clogging up every sensory
organ you possess. It is you who have masters to whom you always have to answer - none of
them being your conscience.
25.
“And the ridiculous thing is, you don’t even get paid. You are a
slave. A willing, freedom-loathing slave.”
26.
“What
new do you bring to this world?” Asks an eager looking young woman in blue jeans and
pink T-shirt.
27.
“Nothing but myself. If I am not refreshing enough for you, then
don’t follow me.”
28.
“Didn’t
you just say that we should only follow the dictates
of our conscience?” Objects the suspicious male companion of the
aforementioned young woman. (The Noble Friend declares Himself the Embodiment of our Conscience)
29.
“Fool. Who do you think I am, then, if not the very embodiment of your
conscience?
30.
“I am not perfect though, I am only human, and fallible, so you should
never follow me blindly. Rather open your eyes and follow me.”
31.
A
note to the wise: people are following me in large numbers now, I know. But that
doesn’t mean that I am not being rejected. Know indeed that, except for a handful of
them, I am getting completely rejected, by all and sundry. They might approve of bits and
pieces of what I have to say, but they don’t approve of me.
Now that might be good, and it might be bad. It all depends on how well they
understand what I am about.
32.
I
wonder, do my own disciples, who by now should be beginning to think of themselves as such, understand what I am really about? Or are
they simply going to revere me and my memory after I am dead? - which is not my
aim-wish-desire, and which, paradoxically, may not be avoidable.
33.
Some
in the crowd, the most fanatic and zealous of
them, might have been incited to acts of violence against my person in normal
circumstance. But in such a country, I am being shielded by their confusion and fear. Yes,
fear.
34.
For
in such a country, anyone who speaks so freely, must be protected somehow, and by the
government itself too and no other. And here he is, SOGO, known by many, feared by many,
walking along with me. It’s a government conspiracy, they must be whispering to each
to other now, or at lest, to themselves.
35.
“Where
do you place yourself with regards to previous revelations and prophets?” Asks an
obviously learned middle-aged man whose curiosity seems to have been highly piqued by the unfolding scene. I guess he has never
anticipated witnessing an event like this in his lifetime.
36.
He
will follow me without actually planning on becoming a follower of mine, I am sure. Still,
he will become a follower of mine, and sooner rather than later, I am equally sure. He has
this… look in his eyes, it tells all, I am not prophesizing in this particular
instant.
37.
“I take in wisdom wherever I find it. To me, no one is infallible. I
hold no one above accountability to the basic humanist principles.”
38.
“What proof do you offer to support your claim to
messiaship?” Asks a concerned looking veiled woman. I can’t tell her age.
Messiah or not, I don’t see through such veils. I am a messiah, not Superman.
39.
“I am saying things and thinking things, no one else dares say or
think in this part of the world, perhaps even elsewhere,
not as clearly and forthrightly as I am doing anyway. That is my proof.”
40.
“I
know you,” cries a frail shadow from not a too distant past, “you are supposed
to be an atheist. How can an atheist claim to be a messiah?”
41.
“When he shows more deference to man rather than God, to this life
rather than the hereafter, to essence rather than detail.”
42.
“What
makes you think you are entitled to even try to save the world, or save anything for that
matter? What makes you think you are so unlike everyone else? What makes you think you are
so special?” Protests a four-eyed demon with a breath straight from the depth of
hell.
43.
“I am entitled because I am. And I don’t think I am so unlike
everyone else, it is you who shall think so.”
44.
“If
you preach love and practice love, if you radiate love and breathe love, I shall
follow you without hesitation wherever you
may go.” States a little angel with an effervescent smile. I stop monetarily to look
at her, to take her in, to absorb her, then…
45.
“Blessed be your heart. Blessed be your mind. Blessed be your soul.
Blessed be your womb.”
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lust for salvation, Brother, as though it were a woman, and I - a man.
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