My friend Sajid
fasted with more humility
daily during Ramadan
than I could ever muster
during any Thirty-Hour Famine.
What irony that I've seen more jihad
in the charismatic church of my youth
than in Sajid--
or even in the Islamic meeting place
one lot over from the Arby's where I worked.
What irony that those Muslims only ever claimed
customer-only parking every Friday,
but that the church claimed my humility--
and taught me contempt for pure devotion
(albeit to a foreign god)
and pride in my self-righteousness
as I cheapened my own.
What irony
(what Gospel!)
that at the end of day
(or thirty hours)
should Jesus strike upon
our famished souls--
Sajid's by the integrity of a virtuous pagan
and mine by the Simony of self-gratification--
He would follow home the Muslim for his dinner.
