Page 176 - Neglected Arabia Vol 2

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•i NlitiUHTHP A K Alii A \ ♦
Kiinin. Tliin, uf enum\ wan In prove Inlum'n belief In Uirinl uiul tlt«:
prophet*. l;reiin that he turned to the subject of the superiority uf Arabic
over Knglish for it was the language used in heaven and tile language in
which God wrote the Koran. Then followed a long dissertation on the
certainty that the Koran was the word of God where no one could be
sure that the Gospel was. All this time 1 kept looking at the man and
wondering what was coming next. I realized that the man was taking
advantage of the opportunity of downing the Christian in argument before
t he­ crowd, if argument it could he called, for the thought of replying to
him disappeared when 1 saw that no good could come through answering,
Hut the man had evidently made up his mind that there should lie no
answer for he continued on talking at a tremendous rate of speed and left
llo opportunity to me for even a word. But my greatest surprise came
when he finally said. “1 must say. however, that you Christians have been
doing many good things here. You have brought your medicines and
your schools and you are always willing to help the people.” I thanked
him for his kind words and took leave, feeling that this was a very oppor­
tune time for me to withdraw gracefully. No good could come through
a continuation of this talk.
Shortly after this exjierience l met an old friend and since we were i
near a coffee shop he asked me to have a cup of tea with him. I accepted
gladly, but said to him, “Are you sure the proprietor of this shop will not
take offence at me, a Christian, coining into his place of business?” 1 ;
remembered only too well an experience of a few weeks before where I. \
had been served in one of these shops only when the friends who had in- *
vited me into the shop had threatened that they would never again
patronize the man unless he served me. "< )h, no. I his man was not tlut J
lype and lhu.se who patronized him were ul.su liberals in that regard." So *5
we went in. where another friend joined us. The conversation turned on ]
the fanaticism that used to hold sway and that only obtained in certain J
quarters at this time. •«
“Sahib, I can remember when men after selling their pearls to Hindu* *
and receiving the money from them would immediately wash their hand*
because they had been contaminated by the touch of the money which had
once been in the possession of the Hindus. But that is not done any more. »
Why, in these days, providing the Hindu would agree, the Moslems would
sit down and eat from the same tray with the Hindu.”
Then the other man broke in. “Sahib, years ago, if a Christian, Hindu
or Jew touched any food in the bazaar, he would be forced to buy h
That was stopped some years ago when a certain Jew refused to pay f<J
some oranges which he had touched in his inspection of the fruit. He had *
suffered a beating at the hands of the irate shopkeeper and had finally •
been dragged before the sheikh. Here he had pled that he had uu}y
touched the outer covering of the oranges, a part that was not eaten and' *1
therefore he should not be forced to pay for the oranges. This tcchuiad j
plea was upheld by the sheikh and the man went free and from that Uni* i
anyone could examine articles of food in the bazaar freely without \xAjZ '
forced to buy them.” ™ &

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