[No answer.]

"He doesn't, does he? My brother was a Muslim who
died of cancer even
though he
prayed to God to heal him. How is this God good?
Hmmm?
Can you answer that one?"

[No answer]
The elderly man is sympathetic. "No, you can't, can
you?"
He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to
give the student time to
relax. In philosophy, you have to go easy with the
new ones.
"Let's start again, young fella." "Is God good?"
"Er... Yes."
"Is Satan good?"
"No."
"Where does Satan come from?" The student falters.
"From... God..."
"That's right. God made Satan, didn't he?" The
elderly man runs his bony
fingers
through his thinning hair and turns to the smirking,
student audience.
"I think we're going to have a lot of fun this
semester, ladies and
gentlemen."
He turns back to the Muslim. "Tell me, son. Is there
evil in this world?"
"Yes, sir."
"Evil's everywhere, isn't it? Did God make
everything?"
"Yes."
"Who created evil?

[No answer]

"Is there sickness in this world? Immorality?
Hatred? Ugliness? All the
terrible things - do they exist in this world? "
The student squirms on his feet. "Yes."
"Who created them? "

[No answer]

The professor suddenly shouts at his student. "WHO
CREATED THEM? TELL ME,
PLEASE!
"The professor closes in for the kill and climbs
into the Muslim's face.
In a still small voice: "God created all evil,
didn't He, son?"

[No answer]

The student tries to hold the steady, experienced
gaze and fails.
Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace the front
of the classroom like an
aging panther.
The class is mesmerized.
"Tell me," he continues, "How is it that this God is
good if He created all
evil throughout time?"
The professor swishes his arms around to encompass
the wickedness of the
world.
"All the hatred, the brutality, all the pain, all
the torture, all the death
and ugliness and all the suffering created by this
good God is all over the
world, isn't it, young man?"

[No answer]

"Don't you see it all over the place? Huh?"
Pause.
"Don't you?" The professor leans into the student's
face again and
whispers, "Is God good?"

[No answer]

"Do you believe in God, son?"
The student's voice betrays him and cracks. "Yes,
professor. I do." The old
man shakes his head sadly. "Science says you have
five senses you use to
identify and observe the world around you. Have
you? "
"Yes, of course sir, I do have five senses".

Then, slowly raising his voice, the professor continues:
"Have you ever seen your God?"
"No, sir. I've never seen Him."
"Then tell us if you've ever heard your God?"
"No, sir. I have not."
"Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God or
smelt your God...
in fact, do you have any sensory perception of your God
whatsoever?"

[No answer]

"Answer me, please."
"No, sir, I'm afraid I haven't."
"You're AFRAID... you haven't?"
"No, sir."
"Yet you still believe in him?"
"...yes..."
"That takes FAITH!" The professor smiles sagely at
the underling.
"According to the rules of empirical, testable,
demonstrable protocol,
science says your God doesn't exist. What do you say
to that, son?
Where is your God now?"

[The student doesn't answer]

"Sit down, please."
The Muslim sits...Defeated.

Another Muslim raises his hand. "Professor, may I
address the class?"
The professor turns and smiles. "Ah, another Muslim
in the vanguard!
Come, come, young man. Speak some proper wisdom to
the gathering."
The
Muslim looks around the room. "Some interesting
points you are making, sir.
Now I've got a question for you. Is there such
thing as heat?"
"Yes," the professor replies. "There's
heat."
"Is there such a thing as cold?"
"Yes, son, there's cold too."
"No, sir, there isn't."
The professor's grin freezes. The room
suddenly goes very cold.
The second Muslim continues. "You can have lots of
heat, even more heat,
super-heat, mega-heat, white heat, a little heat or
no heat but we don't
have anything called 'cold'.

We can hit 458 degrees below zero, which is no
heat, but we can't go any further after that.
There is no such thing as
cold, otherwise we would be able to go colder than
458 - You see, sir, cold
is only a word we use to describe the absence of
heat. We cannot measure
cold. Heat we can measure in
thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not
the opposite of heat, sir,
just the absence of it."

Silence. A pin drops somewhere in the
classroom.

"Is there such a thing as darkness, professor?"
"That's a dumb question, son. What is night if
it isn't darkness?
What are you getting at...?"
"So you say there is such a thing as darkness?"
"Yes..."
"You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something,
it is the absence of
something. You can have low light, normal light,
bright light, flashing
light but if you have no light constantly you have
nothing and it's called
darkness, isn't it? That's the meaning we use to
define the word. In
reality, Darkness isn't. If it were, you would be
able to make darkness
darker and give me a jar of it. Can you...give me a
jar of darker
darkness, professor?"

Despite himself, the professor smiles at the young
effrontery before
him.
This will indeed be a good semester. "Would
you mind telling us what
your point is, young man?"

"Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical
premise is flawed to
start with and so your conclusion must be in
error...."
The professor goes toxic. "Flawed...? How dare
you...!""
"Sir, may I explain what I mean?" >

The class is all ears.
"Explain... oh, explain..." The professor
makes an admirable effort
to regain control. Suddenly he is affability
itself. He waves his
hand to silence the class, for the student to
continue.
"You are working on the premise of duality," the
Muslim explains. "That for
example there is life and then there's death; a good
God and a bad God.
You are viewing the concept of God as something
finite, something we can
measure.
Sir, science cannot even explain a thought. It uses
electricity and
magnetism but has never seen, much less fully
understood them. To view
death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of
the fact that death
cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not
the opposite of life,
merely the absence of it."

The young man holds up a newspaper he takes from the
desk of a neighbor who
has been reading it. "Here is one of the most
disgusting tabloids this
country hosts, professor. Is there such a thing as
immorality?"

"Of course there is, now look..."

"Wrong again, sir. You see, immorality is merely
the absence of
morality.
Is there such thing as injustice? No. Injustice is
the absence of justice.
Is there such a thing as evil?" The Muslim pauses.
"Isn't evil the absence
of good?"

The professor's face has turned an alarming color.
He is so angry
he is temporarily speechless.
The Muslim continues. "If there is evil in the
world, professor, and we all
agree there is, then God, if he exists, must be
accomplishing a work
through the agency of evil. What is that work, God
is accomplishing? The
Bible tells us it is to see if each one of us will,
of our own free will,
choose good over evil."

The professor bridles. "As a philosophical
scientist, I don't vie this
matter as having anything to do with any choice; as
a realist, I absolutely
do not recognize the concept of God or any other
theological factor as
being part of the world equation because God is not
observable."

"I would have thought that the absence of God's
moral code in this world is
probably one of the most observable phenomena
going," the Muslim replies.
"Newspapers make billions of dollars reporting it
every week! Tell me,
professor. Do you teach your students that they
evolved from a monkey?"

"If you are referring to the natural evolutionary
process, young man,
yes, of course I do."
"Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes,
sir?"

The professor makes a sucking sound with his teeth
and gives his student a
silent, stony stare.
"Professor. Since no-one has ever observed the
process of evolution at work
and cannot even prove that this process is an
on-going endeavor, are you
not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a
scientist, but a
priest?"
"I'll overlook your impudence in the light of our
philosophical discussion.
Now, have you quite finished?" the professor hisses.
"So you don't accept
God's moral code to do what is righteous?"
"I believe in what is - that's science!"
"Ahh! SCIENCE!" the student's face splits into a
grin.
"Sir, you rightly state that science is the study of
observed phenomena.
Science too is a premise which is flawed..."
"SCIENCE IS FLAWED..?" the
professor splutters.
The class is in uproar.

The Muslim remains standing until the commotion has
subsided.
"To continue the point you were making earlier to
the other student, may I
give you an example of what I mean?"

The professor wisely keeps silent.

The Muslim looks around the room. "Is there anyone
in the class who has
ever seen the professor's brain?". The class breaks
out in laughter.
The Muslim points towards his elderly,
crumbling tutor.
"Is there anyone here who has ever heard the
professor's brain...,
felt the professor's brain, touched or smelt the
professor's brain?".
No one appears to have done so.

The Muslim shakes his head sadly.
"It appears no-one here has had any sensory
perception of the professor's
brain whatsoever. Well, according to the rules of
empirical,
stable, demonstrable protocol, science, I DECLARE
that the professor has no brain."

The class is in chaos.

The Muslim sits... Because that is what a chair is for.

(Story provided by Mahomed, Feroz, )

SALAAMZ