Run Sheet
00/01/05
Today I was sitting in my office around noon. The day was going by uneventfully, which is a rare thing in the Fire Department.
Times like that never seem to last in my life, something always seems to pop up to make me think, or to make me take notice, or just make me laugh. Today it seemed that all three happened at once.
The receptionist came into my office looking very perplexed and concerned. She was glancing out the window nervously and was obviously agitated.
“Bryant, I think you should come out here. There’s a guy outside having some kind of mental breakdown or something”
It seems my friends always come to me if we need to deal a person having a mental or psychiatric problem, I don’t know why, I guess they figure the looniest guy on the crew should deal with the people with brain problems.
My grandfather suffered from dementia for the last fourteen years of his life, and I dealt with his ravings from a very young age. I guess people get me to help with those incidents because I’m not scared of them. I’m always a bit surprised just how many people hold a serious fear of people with mental problems.
I got up and came to look out the window at the guy. “He seems to be drinking from a rain puddle and beating his head on the ground,” said the receptionist.
I looked out the window and saw a man standing there with no shoes on. As I watched, he knelt down and placed his hands on the ground, then pressed his forehead to the ground in front of him, he stayed there a moment, then stood up again. He stood a moment and repeated the process.
I chuckled, and turned to the woman. “There’s nothing to worry about, he’s quite sane,” I said.
“What do you mean sane?” she said. “What the hell is he doing?”
“He’s praying”
“Praying?”
“Yes, he’s a Muslim, he’s saying his noon prayers”
Sure enough, he was kneeling on a little mat made from a towel, his eyes were closed, and he was quietly in prayer. A mud puddle was in front of him on the pavement. It looked to her like he was drinking out of it.
She looked kind of quizzically at me, like she didn’t fully believe me. She went back to her desk still wondering if I was pulling her leg. Shortly thereafter he rolled up his mat and put his shoes back on, and walked into the Firehall. He wanted to talk to one of the inspectors about his store.
As he walked into the foyer I smiled at him and said “Salaam Alleichoum”
He looked kind of surprised, but he quickly grinned hugely and said “Alleichoum Salaam” in reply. He shook my hand and asked, “Are you Muslim?”
“No, but Allah is great nonetheless” I said to him.
He laughed loud and long at that, “He is, truly, he is”
“Insh’ Allah” I said to him as I went back to work.
“Insh’ Allah” He replied with a smile.
Things went on from there.
I spent the rest of the day thinking about that whole thing. I have known and worked with many Muslims in my life, but that was the first time I ever witnessed one at his devotions. It was a truly wonderful thing to watch. I felt fortunate that here, in this country any person can worship his or her god in any way they choose. This is not so everywhere in the world I’m sorry to say.
Today it was my privilege to see someone talk to his god in a way I had never witnessed before, but in a way that could not have been more natural to him.
Every once in awhile I had to chuckle though,
about the “crazy guy beating his head on the ground”