This week I’ve been considering how I’m like a suicide bomber.
I should explain.
I’m editing a book on the Islamic hadith. The hadith is a massive collection of instructions given by the prophet Muhammad that forms the backbone of what most Muslims believe today. With the Qur’an, it is a Muslim’s handbook for living. Needless to say, I’ve learned a lot.
I spent last week on Shariah law. I get up early to work most mornings, and it’s a unique experience to read about Arab thieves having their hands chopped off and hung around their necks while I’m eating my Cheerios. This week was jihad—a term, in the author’s words, that sends chills down the spine of anyone who remembers 9/11. The book quotes a Time magazine interview with an Iraqi suicide-bomber-in-training. Among other startling statements, the young man says this: “The only person who matters is Allah, and the only question he will ask me is, ‘How many infidels did you kill?”
Like all good thought-provoking comments, this one got me thinking about what I believe. I’m sort of a believe-in-it-so-much-you’ll-die-for-it kind of person. If I don’t believe in my core values enough to put my life on the line for them, do they really matter? Do I even matter? Or am I just here to have a good time like so many other people?
I agree to some extent with the suicide bomber’s reasoning. I wouldn’t say God is the only one who matters—everyone matters—but He is the one who matters most. The bomber and I have reached the same conclusion about whose opinion most drives our decisions—our Creator.
And what will He ask me when I meet Him in heaven? I’m not sure He’ll ask me anything, or that I’ll even be able to speak if He does. We know from the Bible that we will all have to give an account of our lives before God (Romans 14:12), but I can’t begin to imagine—nor do I really want to—what that will look like. But if it came in the form of just one question, what might it be? Unlike the bomber, I’m willing to bet my life that it won’t be about how many infidels I have killed. Jesus died for all infidels, for sinners just like me. But what about, “How many people did you love?” Or, better yet, “How many people did you love when you didn’t feel like it? And did you do it well?”
Now if only there were a training camp for people willing to give their lives for that cause. Sign me up!
