The prologue from Resolution 786
Prologue: 2036 Anno Domini
She brought a gnarled, frail hand to her wasted mouth, lying in cadaverous repose on stiff white sheets draped over a small hospital bed that sat on top of a sterile frame of gray metal tubes. Bright plastic light filled the tiny, colorless room, ricocheting in impersonal waves off four vacant walls. Her being quivered, alone, in rushing pain as she struggled to feed her papery lungs with sharp little sips of air sucked between savagely broken lips, precious oxygen dragged across an acrid, twirling black tongue. Her skull twitched with each labored breath, patches of bare scalp reflecting a cold sheen of bleached white between wispy mounds of lifeless, brittle hair. Her fractured trunk languished in a sunken crush, no breasts, bony humps of sternum studded through the top of a loose hospital gown. A set of desolate, listless hands and feet lay destitute at the ends of her surrendered circulatory system, writing their armistice in blue ice.
The hospital intercom spoke in a booming, loudspeaker voice, prompting her eyes to open a moment, reflexively, bulging spheres ailing in forced effort. The unseeing, jaundiced glass balls rolled about in a film-soaked swirl, pupils finally becoming lost inside her forehead. Her mouth and eyelids fell in unison. The lids stopped unclosed, marking a set of thin, grotesque yellow-white lines where her eyes had been. Her open mouth, coal tongue still, became an aged hollow with stubs of broken, muddy rocks ringed around its entrance.
The world’s best medical specialists had not been able to diagnose the former presidential advisor’s ailment. It had started strangely, almost three decades back. At the time, Madam Advisor had been a national figure and a key proponent and architect of the first war of the twenty-first century, a war that she argued would be won easily, resulting in the quick emergence of a Jeffersonian democracy in the heart of the Middle East, a fully functioning egalitarian state that would provide the people of the region a stable and secure beacon of enlightened ideals, a new nation, conceived in liberty and perpetually beholden to the morally superior West. So she argued.
Instead, one decade into the twenty-first century, Madam Advisor’s war had given rise to an oil rich, nuclear powered fundamentalist theocracy that ruled from the former Soviet Union to the south of Turkey, one that oppressed its women, threatened its neighbors and had plausible designs for the conquest of southern Europe. The theocracy’s passionately fundamentalist leaders detested the Western powers that had funded and nursed it through its birth, the countries that had invested an enormous treasure of life, limb and gold to vanquish the region’s secular dictators and place them, the fundamentalists, into power.
And so, as the Islamic Federation of Greater Iran grew, so did Madam Advisor’s inexplicable ailments. The theocracy’s birth pangs had come in a tumultuous maelstrom of blood, tears, sorrows, and loss. As above, so below — the anguished turmoil crossed the gossamer curtain between Heaven and Earth. The angels, disturbed, drew lots to repay the turmoil to its mothers and fathers. And so it was Azrael who collected every drop of blood spilled in Madam Advisor’s war, collected them into a bottomless grail, which he then poured into Madam Advisor’s spleen. And it was Malik who collected every tear shed in Madam Advisor’s war, collected them into an ancient chalice that he then poured into Madam Advisor’s glands. And it was Mukar who cast a net of air over every sorrow born of Madam Advisor’s war and he cast that net, full and brimming, deep into Madam Advisor’s heart. And it was Nakir who tossed a canopy of still space over every loss suffered in Madam Advisor’s war and emptied that canopy one loss at a time into Madam Advisor’s dreams.
The blood, the tears, the sorrows, the loss — all rightfully hers, pressed themselves into her body in a complex of twisted sinews that wrapped and clung to her soul like a poisonous vine.
Thirty years ago, when her ailments had slowly begun to fester, she had busied herself in avoiding responsibility for the war, hiding behind clever and contrived rhetoric founded on the ambiguities of war, the wrongness of others, the inaccuracies of information. No matter the cunning of argument, no matter the volume of assertion, no matter the minions of sophists dispatched to every media outlet imaginable, the facts remained true. The war was long and bloody. Fundamentalism had grown exponentially as a result. The world was now a much worse and infinitely more dangerous place.
Childless, loveless, friendless, alone — she decayed in a maelstrom of exhaustion, uncontrolled crying, piercing headaches, recurring infections, hair loss, eczema, and auditory hallucinations.
Her lonely descent to death’s doorstep had lasted three bone-numbing decades. Tonight, she had reached the last rung. A thin, blonde nurse with a kind face gently stabbed an anesthetic needle into to the top of Madam Advisor’s wrinkled, wasted hand, a needle made from recycled metal, metal that contained two atoms of iron from the shell casing that fired a final bullet into Adolf Hitler’s temple in Berlin in 1945. Madam Advisor’s rotating glass eyes stilled. Her worn out mouth closed and she appeared to be thinking. Her breaths came further and further apart as her mind assembled her last full thought. It was a thought about the Lord, a Lord whom she adored, a Lord whom she looked forward to finally meeting. She spoke to him in her head in devoted and loving tones, reminding him of the dire sacrifices that she had made in his cause. “Dear Lord Jesus Christ, I did all I could to follow your hallowed teachings, up to and including giving my all to your Doctrine of Preemptive Strike. That’s in the Gospel, isn’t it? Yes, I know it is, for I have given myself to you. And thank you, Lord Jesus, for loving me so.”
Her mind lost words forever behind a drape of sounds and tastes and scents and colors and she heard an antique piano recital playing along side a mix of proud parental pronouncements, affirmations that seeded a limitless ambition into her child’s heart and then…a crimson moment of searing, ripping anguish swept through her Universe and she thought that she heard a distant Echo approach and speed over her like a screaming war plane…I never knew you...It said…and vanished. Her tired lungs nudged away air one last time. At that moment, a moment without Time and outside of Space, a dozen dutiful angels stood around Madam Advisor in a perfectly symmetrical ring. They cycled about her seven times as she gasped last. Not one angel fluttered even a feather to relieve a single pang of her mammoth agony.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Introduction
I've started posting the chapters of Resolution 786. I'll post each successive chapter roughly every 3 or 4 days. We'll start with the Introduction:
Introduction
I’ve walked the Stations of the Cross in Jerusalem’s Old City. I was baptized in the Jordan. A Presbyterian minister taught me the Lord’s Prayer on the Mt. of Olives one peaceful April evening, just the two of us sitting above the Kidron Valley in full view of the Temple Mount. I’ve sailed the sloshing eddies of the Ganges at dawn with a Brahmin. I’ve prayed in Sarnath alongside American-born Buddhist converts at the spot where Buddha gave his first sermon after enlightenment. I’ve knelt in Mecca shoulder to shoulder with Muslim pilgrims from all over the world, immediately before the Kaaba, so close that each time I leaned forward to place my forehead to the earth, my head touched the base of the large black cube. I’ve greeted the Lord at Israel’s Western Wall, praying together with orthodox Jews at the base of the temple wall that Herod built.
God has many faces, and I have had the enormous privilege of celebrating several of them.
But Resolution 786 is not at all about the Creator. It’s about us. It’s a story about our journey from Here to There and about the sometimes tender and the sometimes savage things that happen to us in between, the swirling, rushing currents of love and lust and loss that form into experiences that become the building blocks of our lives. And if the story sometimes seems a confused patchwork of discordant imagery — well, it was written by an American of Indian heritage who was born in Africa, raised a Muslim, turned into a refugee by another Muslim, given safety and sustenance by a Christian church, and who is now happily married to a Jewish woman.
I beg forgiveness if my introduction will in any way prejudice a reader’s individual interpretation of this novel. Interpretation of literature is not at all the province of the writer. It is wholly and solely the province of the reader.
God bless you, dear reader. God bless us all.
Mohamed Mughal
Baltimore, Maryland
September 11, 2007
Introduction
I’ve walked the Stations of the Cross in Jerusalem’s Old City. I was baptized in the Jordan. A Presbyterian minister taught me the Lord’s Prayer on the Mt. of Olives one peaceful April evening, just the two of us sitting above the Kidron Valley in full view of the Temple Mount. I’ve sailed the sloshing eddies of the Ganges at dawn with a Brahmin. I’ve prayed in Sarnath alongside American-born Buddhist converts at the spot where Buddha gave his first sermon after enlightenment. I’ve knelt in Mecca shoulder to shoulder with Muslim pilgrims from all over the world, immediately before the Kaaba, so close that each time I leaned forward to place my forehead to the earth, my head touched the base of the large black cube. I’ve greeted the Lord at Israel’s Western Wall, praying together with orthodox Jews at the base of the temple wall that Herod built.
God has many faces, and I have had the enormous privilege of celebrating several of them.
But Resolution 786 is not at all about the Creator. It’s about us. It’s a story about our journey from Here to There and about the sometimes tender and the sometimes savage things that happen to us in between, the swirling, rushing currents of love and lust and loss that form into experiences that become the building blocks of our lives. And if the story sometimes seems a confused patchwork of discordant imagery — well, it was written by an American of Indian heritage who was born in Africa, raised a Muslim, turned into a refugee by another Muslim, given safety and sustenance by a Christian church, and who is now happily married to a Jewish woman.
I beg forgiveness if my introduction will in any way prejudice a reader’s individual interpretation of this novel. Interpretation of literature is not at all the province of the writer. It is wholly and solely the province of the reader.
God bless you, dear reader. God bless us all.
Mohamed Mughal
Baltimore, Maryland
September 11, 2007
Monday, October 24, 2011
Our World
We live in a world where it's OK for every global media outlet to run multiple photos of a mutilated corpse, but a photo of a topless woman breastfeeding her child would be censured as obscene.
Presentation, Cedarhurst Unitarian Church, 23 Oct 2011
I gave a presentation at Cedarhurst Unitarian Church last Sunday. This was my fourth presentation at a Unitarian Church this year. Many people have asked me to post the text of the talk. I've provided it below. Remember, these are just my talking points. Each talk becomes a separate and unique exchange of ideas based on the interests and questions of the audience.
I think the that topics that I speak on are important and timely. I thoroughly enjoy the open-minded sharing of perspectives during the talks.
The Basic Beliefs and Practices of Islam and the Notion of the Good Guys vs. the Bad Guys
Good Morning. My name’s Mohamed and I want to thank you for inviting me to join you here today. I’m speaking on two topics this morning. The first is Islam, its basic beliefs and practices from an American Muslim’s perspective. Our second topic is the notion of good guys vs. bad guys, an exploration of who’s good and who’s bad. I’ll discuss these topics for about 20 minutes after which we’ll have an audience-driven Q&A session.
It’s difficult to synopsize any world religion in 10 minutes, but I’m going to try. I’ll start by discussing the five pillars or basic practices of Islam. After that, we’ll read from an English translation of the Quran, the scriptural basis for Islam.
The five pillars are:
1. Profession of Faith: There is no God but Allah and his prophet is Mohammed.
2. Prayer: Practicing the 5 daily prayers.
3. Fasting during Ramadan from sunup to sundown (not just food but any kind of bodily appetite).
4. The paying of alms.
5. Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca.
In doing a top-level summary of those pillars, we see that Islam is not that different from most other theological frameworks in that it places emphasis on prayer, fasting, alms and pilgrimage.
Now what about the Quran, a book that some churches in the U.S. believe ought to be burned? We’ve heard so much about this book in the last few years, but does anyone know much of its content? I’ve brought along my family copy of the Quran and I’ve tabbed some passages for reading.
Read passages on: Jesus, Garden of Eden, Moses, Noah, Lot
To recap what we’ve learned so far, we see that Muslims have 5 pillars of faith that range from prayer to fasting to alms to pilgrimage. Their sacred text is the Quran, a book of vignettes, lessons, prescriptions and warnings.
We’ve taken a sampling of readings from this Quran. Let’s use this sampling to begin discussion of our second topic, the notion of good guys vs. bad guys. We’ll start by trying to collectively answer, “Is the God of the Quran a good guy or a bad guy?” Let’s take inventory of what we’ve heard about him.
1. He killed a generation of babies because the Egyptians didn’t grant the Israelites freedom.
2. He massacred two entire cities because of their sexual orientation.
3. He killed every living creature on our planet because he was unhappy with the actions of a few humans.
Killing babies, genocide driven by homophobia, mass annihilation of all life – maybe he is a bad guy?
That’s a possible example of a bad God. Are there examples of a bad people?
- Read Matthew – ask audience, where from?
-Read Luther – ask audience, who wrote?
-Read Amin
We have a bad God, two groups of bad people. Do we know any bad individuals? Here’s a description. (Read from 1984); ask audience, who is this?
(note how closely the content of a work of fiction from 1948 mirrors what we’re experiencing today).
So What Do We Make of It All?
Human thinking tends to operate in dichotomies, black and white, yin and yang, good and bad so I think we trap ourselves into finding a bad guy because we need to fulfill this dichotomy.
In all this discussion of bad guys, there’s a side of the coin that’s missing. We didn’t discuss the good guys; who are the good guys? I’ve looked through scripture and literature and listened to theologians and commentators from many parts of the world. My conclusion is this: when you ask the question, “Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys?” the good guys are always the people you ask. If Adolf Hitler was sitting here with us this morning and we asked him who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, I can virtually guarantee that he wouldn’t designate himself the bad guy. The point: Invariably, the good guys is us, the bad guys is the others.
Conclusions
I want to read something from one of my favorite writers, Kurt Vonnegut, something that’ll move us towards a concluding thought about our discussion.
(Read the short piece by Kurt Vonnegut where he discusses a conversation he’d had with his father before his father passed away)
Vonnegut said that he didn’t believe in villains. In a universe void of absolutes, I tend to agree. Is this moral relativism, a philosophy that can leave people believing that there are no good guys and no bad guys, a type of intellectual cop-out? No, I don’t think it is. I think this perspective espouses the tenants of a philosopher who himself was branded and punished as a bad guy. That poor fellow also asked us to not brand bad guys when he told us “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”
We’ve covered a lot of material here in a very short amount of time. If anyone asks me, “Mohamed, out of all you shared with everyone this morning, what’s the one thing you’d want them to remember most?” It’d have to be that one sentence: “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”
I think the that topics that I speak on are important and timely. I thoroughly enjoy the open-minded sharing of perspectives during the talks.
The Basic Beliefs and Practices of Islam and the Notion of the Good Guys vs. the Bad Guys
Good Morning. My name’s Mohamed and I want to thank you for inviting me to join you here today. I’m speaking on two topics this morning. The first is Islam, its basic beliefs and practices from an American Muslim’s perspective. Our second topic is the notion of good guys vs. bad guys, an exploration of who’s good and who’s bad. I’ll discuss these topics for about 20 minutes after which we’ll have an audience-driven Q&A session.
It’s difficult to synopsize any world religion in 10 minutes, but I’m going to try. I’ll start by discussing the five pillars or basic practices of Islam. After that, we’ll read from an English translation of the Quran, the scriptural basis for Islam.
The five pillars are:
1. Profession of Faith: There is no God but Allah and his prophet is Mohammed.
2. Prayer: Practicing the 5 daily prayers.
3. Fasting during Ramadan from sunup to sundown (not just food but any kind of bodily appetite).
4. The paying of alms.
5. Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca.
In doing a top-level summary of those pillars, we see that Islam is not that different from most other theological frameworks in that it places emphasis on prayer, fasting, alms and pilgrimage.
Now what about the Quran, a book that some churches in the U.S. believe ought to be burned? We’ve heard so much about this book in the last few years, but does anyone know much of its content? I’ve brought along my family copy of the Quran and I’ve tabbed some passages for reading.
Read passages on: Jesus, Garden of Eden, Moses, Noah, Lot
To recap what we’ve learned so far, we see that Muslims have 5 pillars of faith that range from prayer to fasting to alms to pilgrimage. Their sacred text is the Quran, a book of vignettes, lessons, prescriptions and warnings.
We’ve taken a sampling of readings from this Quran. Let’s use this sampling to begin discussion of our second topic, the notion of good guys vs. bad guys. We’ll start by trying to collectively answer, “Is the God of the Quran a good guy or a bad guy?” Let’s take inventory of what we’ve heard about him.
1. He killed a generation of babies because the Egyptians didn’t grant the Israelites freedom.
2. He massacred two entire cities because of their sexual orientation.
3. He killed every living creature on our planet because he was unhappy with the actions of a few humans.
Killing babies, genocide driven by homophobia, mass annihilation of all life – maybe he is a bad guy?
That’s a possible example of a bad God. Are there examples of a bad people?
- Read Matthew – ask audience, where from?
-Read Luther – ask audience, who wrote?
-Read Amin
We have a bad God, two groups of bad people. Do we know any bad individuals? Here’s a description. (Read from 1984); ask audience, who is this?
(note how closely the content of a work of fiction from 1948 mirrors what we’re experiencing today).
So What Do We Make of It All?
Human thinking tends to operate in dichotomies, black and white, yin and yang, good and bad so I think we trap ourselves into finding a bad guy because we need to fulfill this dichotomy.
In all this discussion of bad guys, there’s a side of the coin that’s missing. We didn’t discuss the good guys; who are the good guys? I’ve looked through scripture and literature and listened to theologians and commentators from many parts of the world. My conclusion is this: when you ask the question, “Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys?” the good guys are always the people you ask. If Adolf Hitler was sitting here with us this morning and we asked him who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, I can virtually guarantee that he wouldn’t designate himself the bad guy. The point: Invariably, the good guys is us, the bad guys is the others.
Conclusions
I want to read something from one of my favorite writers, Kurt Vonnegut, something that’ll move us towards a concluding thought about our discussion.
(Read the short piece by Kurt Vonnegut where he discusses a conversation he’d had with his father before his father passed away)
Vonnegut said that he didn’t believe in villains. In a universe void of absolutes, I tend to agree. Is this moral relativism, a philosophy that can leave people believing that there are no good guys and no bad guys, a type of intellectual cop-out? No, I don’t think it is. I think this perspective espouses the tenants of a philosopher who himself was branded and punished as a bad guy. That poor fellow also asked us to not brand bad guys when he told us “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”
We’ve covered a lot of material here in a very short amount of time. If anyone asks me, “Mohamed, out of all you shared with everyone this morning, what’s the one thing you’d want them to remember most?” It’d have to be that one sentence: “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Putting out First Novel in Installments
I've decided to post my first novel, Resolution 786, to this blog in chapter installments beginning next week. I'll post additional chapters roughly every three days.
Now, to get moving on that elusive sophomore novel, Christmas in Mecca!
Now, to get moving on that elusive sophomore novel, Christmas in Mecca!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
A "Cube" of Writing from "Christmas in Mecca"
A Report on Life-forms on the Third Stone Orbiting Sol: The Closed Case of Rover
Background
....Our team from Igramafore examined a representative sample of the carbon-based life-forms who live within the oxygen-rich, toxic atmosphere of the third stone orbiting Sol. Sol is a medium-sized star that continually cascades through the ten dimensions within an outer arm of a medium-sized spiral galaxy which resides in a cluster of galaxies draped behind the Great Fold of Space.
The Sample Subject
The sample subject responded when called by the sonic construction: Rover. The subject moves about on four pods within a gravitational field that exerts 42 omboms per hua per hua. It ingests the following: its fellow life-forms; oxygen; and two hydrogen atoms bonded with one atom of oxygen. It excretes reduced combinations of these items in solid, liquid and gaseous forms. The subject displays the characteristics of one half of a male/female coupling. However, examination reveals that the reproductive organs have been removed. Subject’s bloodstream carries substances foreign to its own physiology, suggesting medical interventions such as surgery and/or inoculation. The subject’s psychology is rather simple: most behaviors have the objective of obtaining items for ingestion. However, subject also expends appreciable effort in obtaining social and interpersonal interactions for the sake of interaction, suggesting emotional and/or communal needs. Mind-scan reveals a matrix of chemically preserved memories confined to experiences within only three physical dimensions. The totality of memories suggests a deep loyalty to the recurring personas within the subject’s life experience. Life experiences are strung together and artificially sequenced within omnipresent time in a fashion that would give the beholder a sense of linear time, a contortion of the Cosmos where one series of experience no longer exists and another series of experience has yet to exist, perhaps giving rise to fallacious constructs such as a past and a future in lieu of the actuality of omnipresent existence.
Conclusions
The life-forms on the third stone orbiting Sol are wholly engrossed in fulfilling their physical and communal needs. They have rudimentary skills in medical science which they use towards sterilization and inoculation. They are uncomplicated, loyal creatures who experience only three of ten dimensions, a severely truncated experience base nested within a contorted sense of past and future. Our team from Igramafore concludes that these life-forms are incapable, both intellectually and emotionally, of determining a true sense of space-time; understanding the basic nature of matter, light and physical experience; creating meaningful or uniquely expressive art; or waging organized warfare.
Our Message to the Supreme Council of Beings
There is nothing of deep interest or of imminent danger in Quadrant X69. We recommend no further research in this quadrant.
A Report on Life-forms on the Third Stone Orbiting Sol: The Closed Case of Rover
Background
....Our team from Igramafore examined a representative sample of the carbon-based life-forms who live within the oxygen-rich, toxic atmosphere of the third stone orbiting Sol. Sol is a medium-sized star that continually cascades through the ten dimensions within an outer arm of a medium-sized spiral galaxy which resides in a cluster of galaxies draped behind the Great Fold of Space.
The Sample Subject
The sample subject responded when called by the sonic construction: Rover. The subject moves about on four pods within a gravitational field that exerts 42 omboms per hua per hua. It ingests the following: its fellow life-forms; oxygen; and two hydrogen atoms bonded with one atom of oxygen. It excretes reduced combinations of these items in solid, liquid and gaseous forms. The subject displays the characteristics of one half of a male/female coupling. However, examination reveals that the reproductive organs have been removed. Subject’s bloodstream carries substances foreign to its own physiology, suggesting medical interventions such as surgery and/or inoculation. The subject’s psychology is rather simple: most behaviors have the objective of obtaining items for ingestion. However, subject also expends appreciable effort in obtaining social and interpersonal interactions for the sake of interaction, suggesting emotional and/or communal needs. Mind-scan reveals a matrix of chemically preserved memories confined to experiences within only three physical dimensions. The totality of memories suggests a deep loyalty to the recurring personas within the subject’s life experience. Life experiences are strung together and artificially sequenced within omnipresent time in a fashion that would give the beholder a sense of linear time, a contortion of the Cosmos where one series of experience no longer exists and another series of experience has yet to exist, perhaps giving rise to fallacious constructs such as a past and a future in lieu of the actuality of omnipresent existence.
Conclusions
The life-forms on the third stone orbiting Sol are wholly engrossed in fulfilling their physical and communal needs. They have rudimentary skills in medical science which they use towards sterilization and inoculation. They are uncomplicated, loyal creatures who experience only three of ten dimensions, a severely truncated experience base nested within a contorted sense of past and future. Our team from Igramafore concludes that these life-forms are incapable, both intellectually and emotionally, of determining a true sense of space-time; understanding the basic nature of matter, light and physical experience; creating meaningful or uniquely expressive art; or waging organized warfare.
Our Message to the Supreme Council of Beings
There is nothing of deep interest or of imminent danger in Quadrant X69. We recommend no further research in this quadrant.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Death of a Character
4:17 a.m., the 10th of October. In a mix of moonlight, slumber, dusk and sleeping dogs, I came to a groggy conclusion: Allah Om Ilahi Elohim, the original (and fictional) author of Genesis, compelling as he is as a major character, does not fit into the tapestry of storyline in my second novel, Christmas in Mecca. Elohim is a diversion from what is evolving into the novel's central anchor, the plight (emotional, sexual and professional) of Dr. Harold Hawkins.
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