|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Heaven and I
| Article
# : |
18922 |
|
|
Section : |
BOOK WORLD
|
| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1991 |
1,573 Words |
| Author
: |
Ihsan Abd al-Quddus
|
My name is Yahya Shakir. I am a Copt. When I introduce myself to anyone I always give my name and then my religion, Coptic. I do this so that there's no confusion about my name and no one thinks I am Muslim. As you see, my name could well be Christian or Muslim.
This hasn't always been the way I've introduced myself. Why, up to five years ago my name had never caused me a single problem and in fact, I never cared a bit about the differences between Copts and Muslims. More than that, even; I didn't have any particular consciousness that I was a Copt and not a Muslim. Religion had never been a problem in my life.
I've never been religiously inclined, neither has my father. That doesn't mean that either of us is atheist or even agnostic. It's just that we don't care much for religious rituals and have no place for them on our daily program. My mother is the only one of us who goes to church and observes the religious feasts. And even her church going never struck me as having any particular religious significance. When she went off to church I felt she was going to see her friends, just going out visiting and that's all. I never had any particular consciousness of her celebrating the church feasts, either. All I was interested in was getting the cakes and sweets that came with them.
Nevertheless, nowadays I...
I suppose I'd better tell you the story from the beginning.
When I met Suad for the first time I was nineteen years old. One day I was standing in line at the box-office of the Metro theater, moving step by step towards the window, and with only one person more in front of me, when Suad came over. Giving me a shy, sweet smile, she asked:
"Could you buy my ticket, too?"
I looked into her smiling eyes, saw the prettiness of her fine-complexioned face and her long tresses of night-black hair hanging down to her shoulders and said at once how delighted I'd be to buy her a ticket. But she really wanted three; she had two friends with her.
Naturally I bought their tickets and one for myself next to them. It was the three o'clock performance in the
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
