Ayu Utami climbing mount Borobudur

In preparation for the Euroseas Conference in Lisbon, 4-6 July 2013, I read the 2d novel in the Bilangan Fu series by Ayu Utami. It is a composition of three very different sections. The first section with the colour Indigo as title (between the light blue of jeans and violet). It has as its centre the Jakarta student and mountain climber Sandi Yuda (friend of Marja who only appears for sexual pleasures, further in the background). Yuda is preparing a climbing trip for photographers and so he arrives in a photo galery, owned by a sterile, extremely beutiful lady Lalita, rich, multi-talented (art, writes telenovelas, penulis sinetron), with heavy make-up. She seduces Yuda who experiences a very special sexual sensation called axis mundi, the 'pivot of the world'.  At the presentation of photographs (of good old Kassian Cephas) also one Jisheng is present, a Chinese from Singapore.
Lalita is interpreted as Lilith, the femme fatale of nasty old boy Iblis. But also as Lalita Vistara, the classical text that was the story of the Buddha from his birth until the first sermon. But Lalita is also a chain ina circle of reincarnations that is told in four major stages on p. 49:  1. during the 5th century living in Sriwijaya (=Sumatra) and Nepal; 2. in the later 9th century in Central Java; 3. in the 15th century in Transsylvania where she was Dracula, sucking blood in order to continue life (Yuda experiences her sexual aggression also as sucking life and energy from him); 4. now again in Indonesia.
Lalita has a twin brother Janaka (or Jataka: an earlier incarnation of the Buddha; maybe also Arjuna). Both have grandparents who were Austrian Jews, living in Indonesia and members of the Theosophy. The grandfather, Anshel  Eibenschütz has written a special book: Buku Indigo and this is a special treasury for Lalita. She shows the book to Yuda and Jinseng. In the of this section she is in danger, taken hostage.

The second section is calles Hitam, Black. It is about Anshel Eibenschütz, growing up in Austria. He visits the brandnew Eiffel Tower in 1889. The family moves from Vienna to Transsylvania page 116: Vlad III, Dracula had two sons, the good one is a nice one and become a good Muslim, while the bad one is a warrior, fighting against Islam. (See the drawing above). He studies in 1907 in Vienna psychoanalysis with Simon Freud. He reads a paper on vampires as a crisis of identity. Freud is angry about his theory: the rational aspects must the irrational and not the inverse! But Carl Gustav Jung accepts this theory, that myth, the mysterious, archetypes and religious symbols can explain much of the human psyche.
Anshel comes to Java with his wife. They have children and grandchildren. He discovers the beauty of Borodbudur, as a mandala, an image of the human soul and writes or composes his Buku Indigo, with as the major theme:
Psikoanalisa Freud hanya mengajarkan manusia untuk menyadari alam nirsadarnya sendiri. Spiritualisme Buddhis mengadjarkan manusia untuk mencapai kesadaran diri dan semesta. Ya, tingkat 'kesadaran' Diri yang mempersatukan manusia dengan makrokosmos (p. 138)
The psychoanalysis of Freud only teaches that we must know that we have an unconscious level in our soul. Buddhist spirituality teaches people how to reach consciousness of oneself and of the whole world. Yes, the level of consciousness of one's Self (with a capital!) unites humans with the macrocosmos.
Page 152 has some remarks on the late Freud who started to understand this idea, through his work on Moses and monotheism, but then he died without really coming to the fulness ofthis idea.

 

In the third section we return to the world of section one: Parang Jati (with 2x6 fingers, son of the mystical leader of Central Java) is asked to bring back the stolen Buku Indigo, so also Yuda and others. Finally Jiseng has the book: he is a Chinese secret agent and the Chinese are interested in the history of Buddism in Sumatra and Java and want not have the book. He return the Buku Indigo, although he had already taken pictures to be sent to the government in China. There are many narrative complications about the main figures and some ideas, about Hinduism (can be understood, p. 184) and Buddhism (p. 191: we will never fully understand the truth of Buddhism. There is a theory of shadows, the negative part of the real world, but only in the complementarity (also in the image of the mirror) the truth can be found.

This section is called merah or red: in 2009 the Red Book (Das rote Buch) by Carl-Gustav Jung has been published, 38 years after he died. Also Yuda will one day publish the Buku Indigo: that is the last sentence on page 243. 

This is an quite complicated book with many themes that are not really elaborated. But the general symbolism in this book with elements of a detective, horror and the world of related events (à la Dan Brown) makes it fascinating reading.

After two 'Catholic novels' (Saman, Larung), Ayu has now written two anti-monotheist novels, Bilangan Fu and Lalita. Islam is only menioned in passing with the two sons of Vlad III who had to be given to the Ottoman Sultan. While reading the passage on bayangan or shadow I wondered why the Islamic images of Hamzah Fansuri are not mentioned: just one quote from Muntahi no 10, in the translation of Syed Muhammad Naguid al-Attas (The Mysticism of Hamzah Fansuri, 1970 p. 454);
Shaykh 'Aynu'l Qudat, worshipping a dog, says: Hadha rabbi! This is my Lord!, for he does not see the dog, it is only his Lord that he sees. It is just as a person looking into a mirror; only the face reflected therein is seen by him, the mirros vanishes from his sight, for the world to his sight is like a reflection, it possesses form, but has no reality. The attribute related of the Turh Most Exalted is not the attribute related of ourselves because we see him with a veiled seeing..
Catholic theologians usually do not read Qur'an, do not read Islamic mysticism. Even ultra-orthodox or Wahhabi Muslims will not accept this kind of reasoning. But these ideas are not only found in Hinduism and Buddhism, also among the best of the Islamic tradition in Indonesia as well.

Tinuk (and Philip) Yampolsky

In January this year we met the Yampolskis. They just returned from the end of the world: utmost northeast Timor Leste, where Philip (together with Tinuk) carried out research on traditional music/dance/festivities. Philip is now preparing his PhD: musicologist do not really write books, they do research, make recording, like the twenty CDs made about traditional or folklore music from Indonesia.
I had nice discussion through email with Philip about Pusat Musik Liturgi, PML, in Yogyakarta, where inculturation is the slogan with Karl Prier and the choir Vocalista Sonora, conducted by Paul Widyawan. They use element from traditional music, but it is put in 4-voices harmony and so 'tamed' or at least taken out of context and made useful for the Catholic liturgy.
 
But now I want also write about his wife Tinuk. She is an artist in her own style: a teacher of Indonesian but also a writer and she wrote a very fine, quite complicated novel, Candik Ala 1965. The title is explained as red light in the air, while the earth is already darkening. (p. 14) Something like a nice sunset. It is a book about the major events of 1965: the coup in Jakarta, the counter-coup by Soeharto and the killings that were ordered by the army. This is a book with the stories seen from the viewpoint of a little girl, only six years old at the time of this event. She has four older brothers. She is the little swan at home. Her parents are teachers, Catholic. That seems to help her from being accused of being a Communist.
Tinuk told me that her father was (one of the) first to use the wayang stories and symbols for expressing the Catholoc faith. P. 28 has such ´Catholic´ stories:  there are four boys and the parents hope that at least one will become a priest, dan berharap paling tidak seorang anaknya akan menerima panggilan menjadi seorang pastor. The parents are, ´of course´ members of the Partai Katolik, at that time very strong against PKI.
P. 38 the army is a tentara semangka green outside, but red inside.
P. 58 the book is not overtly Catholic, and often the call from the minaret is heard for prayers, but the mother prays the rosary.
People disappear, come back only ten years later; at once the mother of the girl who is the center of the story comes back home from work at school and brings a boy who will stay for a long time in the house. Only later it is suggested that his family was 'removed' or 'taken away' apparently by the anti-PKI coalition of army and those who were compelled to join them.

133: quite suddenly the style of writing changes. It is now early 1980s, the girls of six now writes from the I-viewpoint and style; grown up, has become more a personality?

There are some subtle jokes: Lennon= Lenin, Marxis= Markisa. 166: Pemuka Agama or religious leaders do not have any idea of art.

Page 140-1 has a quite difficult poem about Gethsemane:

Sebuah percintaan di taman Getsemani

Kutoreh segala belepot hidup
Ke sekujur tubuh hidupMu
Kucari segenap repot mimpi
Ke dalam kelam mimpiMu
Kutanam resah batinMu
Duh
Terlibat sangkawaMu
Gemetaran nestapaku

A love affair in the garden of Getsemane

I plough all the mud of my life
to the fulness of Thy body
I search the troubles of dreams
in the chaos of Thy dreams.
I plant the unrest of Thy soul
Oh,
involved in Thy doubt
the vibration of my misery.

From young age Tinuk must have been suffering with the uncertainty and the rumour, sometimes also clear information about the disaster that struck Central and East Java. The book is evoking this in a very sensitive way. Next month we will see the new movie: The Act of Killing.

Islamic Art in Paris

3-4 February I was in Paris for the evaluation of IISMM, the Institute for the Study of Modern Muslim Societies, a cooperation of French scholars. I took the opportunity to see also the new section of the Musée du Louvre, L'art de l'Islam. There was long row op people waiting at the entrance, but it was a quick procedure because the first Sunday of the month it is free.
The name is quite significant. There is in Paris already a nice collection of Islamic Art. But this is in the Institut du monde Arabe. That was the condition 25-30 years ago: not Muslim, but Arab. Since then politics, culture, discourse has changed and it is not Islamic Art that is important!

 

The exhibition is on two floor: the upper floor was until recently the last open square in the middle of the oldest part of the great palace. In fact it was the central square of the mediaeval castle. Now a basement has been made as an extra floor below the ground and above this ground floor a giant construction like a bedouin tent has been placed to cover this floor. 

The collection has seldom special Islamic flavour: it show the usual art pieces of the affluent: glass work, decoration, lions and birds, beautiful carpets. It is divided in periods and geographical region. But nothing about Indonesia or Southeast Asia in general. Even in the chronological division this region has been forgotten. Curious, but very French!

Above a Persian garden with ladies that very Chinese! Below the view from another section of the museum on this central square of the old castle with the tent covering the exhibition of Islamic art.

I found also the painting of the Triumph of Thomas Aquinas over the Arabs, where Ibn Rushd = Averroes is painted as having said: vere hic est lumen ecclesiae, He (= Aquinas) is  truly the light of the church.

Crossing the boundary of death: the persisting hope of Anton Houtepen

A few months ago we visited the grave of Anton Houtepen. It is an unconventional but very moving and meaningful monument: the black stone has a true heart in the middle, a stained glass piece of art with the symbol of the ecumenical movement, a sailing boat, the cross, the symbol ot the World Council of Churches. Like Jesus amidst storm in sea, hope and trust.

The text is quite simple, just Anton Houtepen,  April 1940 and 11-12-2010. Those present still remember the heavy snow, the wonderful walk through a park to the graveyard. Silence, white snow and this powerful Latin text of the glorious hymn Te Deum. It simply reads: In the Domine speravi, non confundar in eternum. It is taken from Psalm 30, also in the last verse of Psalm 70: Lord, in You is my hope; I will never be disappointed. .. It was quite difficult to make a good picture of this monument. The black marble is shining and in some picture I stand here at the grave, broken, as we were at his untimely death.

 

The day we visited  the grave, was again one occasion when Hans Küng was in the news again because of his protests against the lasting Vatican policy about or rather against debates on celibacy, the central position of Pope and Bishops in the Catholic community. Küng wanted that the Pope should be deposed because of 'Putinism' ruling like the Russian President Putin, as an absolute ruler. What should Anton Houtepen have said about the present state of the Catholic Church, in Rome and in Utrecht?

Also in the field of his first research, the papal infallibility, Küng was more radical than Houtepen. Anton wanted to give it a true and mild hermeneutic interpretation, as a side-step, only to be used in uncontrollable situations the pope should have full authority. But this was for very restricted occasions only. Küng was more radical: he found the whole Vatican I a mistake and the teaching of the infallibility as a wrong decision.

We also passed by other graves in this graveyard. Quite prominent is the memorial for Cardinal Bernard Alfrink. There is also a monument for the very conservative promoter of Latin Liturgy Father Winan Kotte who also had a text in Latin on his grave, ab eterno requisivi Dominum, I have sought God from eternity..

Anton, here in the cold ground of Barbara´s Graveyard waiting for the Great Festive Meal in the end of times? We are not so assured about all these future promises, but with Eelkje and all old friends of Anton we still enjoy the days of Lord here on our earth.

Muhammad according to Charlie Hebdo

The French weekly Charlie Hebdo has published a booklet of 62 pages, in fact a first volume in a series about the life of the Peophet Muhammad. It is a quite serious text, following the nice and lively stories of the sirat in various recensions.

  

Muhammad is a funny figure, not the great sage or wise man, not the great politican, but a little dry, with humour and good understanding. I suggested that the Dialogue Academy of the Gülen sympethizers of Rotterdam should seek a partner for a Dutch translation. But the Platform Ins as it has been remained since this year, is still hesitant. I suggested to Alper Alasag that he should try to convice the big newspaper De Volkskrant to publish it together. But there was a big smile. One bridge too far?

 The birth of Muhammad. He had a special sign on his shoulder that was shown to a Jew, who recognised it a the sign for the New Prophet and thereupon the Jews disappeared. 

Seeing the drawing, Muhammad was already circumcised at birth, as is the common Muslim story.

There were many miracles at Muhammad's  birth: the palace of the Persian ruler, Khusraw, collapsed.

Muhammad worked for Khadija and was asked by her for a formal marriage. Her father was a difficult man. He already had rejected marriage proposals by many rich citizens from Quraysh, the tribe of Muhammad and certainly would not agree that a poor orphan should marry her. Khadija and Muhammad left below in a complot: much strong drinks should be given to the father and when drunk, he would consent in the marriage that should then be immediately formally regulated.

The first revelation by Gabriel (with the wings, left) to Muhammad, who does not like the call and turns away.

Isn't it a nice combination: the serious story (even with some 90 endnotes) and the lighhearted drawings!

More Ayu Utami: Manjali dan Cakrabirawa

After the two books with stories of a engaged and loving priest Saman and Larung, Ayu Utami wrote Bilangan Fu as a literary pamphlet again Military, Monotheist religion and Modernity. Already in Larung the Javanese traditional religion played an important role. It is glorified in her third novel. The following novel was Manjali dan Cakrabirawa (2010). Marja, 19 years, student design and art in Bandung is more prominent as the key person. She has an official lover, Yuda, 24 years, also a student in Bandung, but more busy with mountain climbing, coaching and in this book he spends most of his time instructing military men in West Java. In the previous book Yuda was close to Judas as a traitor, still close to the true holy man. But here he may be also Yudistira, the gambling oldest of five Pandawa brothers who loses his fortune, the kingdom and even the wife to the five brothers, while Marja Manjali perhaps should not be identified with Mary Magdalene (lover of Jesus?), but with Draupadi, exactly, the wife of the five Pandawa brothers. Besides Yuda there is another young man, who becomes a more Platonic lover to Marja. This is Parang Jati (‘the perfect dagger/direction’), the man with six fingers on each hand and so the man with twelve fingers. The numbers twelve or hu is sometimes prominent in this book like the number fu in the previous one.

Central in the story is the archeological expedition to a Hindu-Javanese shrine on the border of Central and East Java, from the 11^th century when there were many more local Javanese elements in the Hindu tradition. A French architect/archaeologist Jacques Cherer (= Jacques Dumarçay?) is quite often present in the book, more or less as an outsider observer and commentator. The ‘old wise man’. The shrine is devoted to Shiwa as Bhairawa, a wild manifestation of this divinity. He is male, macho, violent. There is a 13^th century statue from Sumatra in the national Museum of Jakarta. Utami made her own sexually more explicit drawing.

The shrine Calwanarang is from the time of King Airlangga, a pluralist (accepting both Hinduism and several Buddhist sects, 100). In that time there was a couple Bahula (son of the wise man Barada, who kills the witch Calwanarang) and lady Manjali. The shrine tells their story.

Ayu Utami draws in a less solemn, wilder and more sexual aggressive way her Bhairawa. Below the statue in the National Museum of Jakarta.

This Cakrabirawa (the modern Javanese version of Bhairawa) is also the name for the special military division that had to protect President Soekarno. Its commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Untung was the central figure in a coup that killed seven major generals, but then was halted by General Soeharto. In the aftermath if this failed coup more than one million people were killed, accused of leftist or Communist sympathies and the PKI or Communist party was banned while the country was ruled for more than 30 years by a harsh military regime.

While working at the excavations of the shrine, Marja meets a lady who lives secretly in the forest, more or less like a hermit. She was married to a soldier who was a member of the Cakrabirawa brigade, was arrested and killed after the failed coup of 30 September 1965 (G30S). The lady, Murni (= Pure), was pregnant when her husband was arrested. She was also arrested and her child, a boy, was taken away from her. Marja for some time thinks that she is not a common human, but some kind of spirit, perhaps related to the witch Banaspati who is fond of menstruation blood. In reality, she has her period at this moment and some people accuse her that she is impure. Later she realizes that the Gerwani or Communist Women’s Organization was accused of drinking the blood of the generals they had killed at G30S. But Murni proves to be a true human being.

Durga as Banaspati as drawn by Ayu Utami on p. 177, here representing the spouse of the wild Bhairawa, but also spouse of Bahula. Manjali and even resembling Sinta.

While the excavations go on, Yuda is giving climbing lessons to soldiers in West Java. He wants to hide this fact for Parang Jati who hates the army and violence. One of his most industrious students of some Musa who invites him to join to a brothel in the evening. Yuda does not have sex with one of the ladies, but gives as an excuse that he is a traditional Javanese who in now in a 70 days period of fasting to gain power. He will lose this power when he has a sexual ejaculation. This episode (59-64) is a description of the hypocrisy of the soldiers and their brutal use of their power (also when Musa joins Yuda in a tour to his teachers at the university in order to obtain a postponement for his examinations). Musa is fond of all kind of magic and wants to find the powerful Cakrabirawa mantra and therefore comes to the place of the archaeological search.

Parang Jati and archaeologist Jacques decide that they will hand over the valuable finds of the excavations to a government official of the archaeological service. This is not successful because the official is attacked by Musa who steals the valuable golden remains. But in an attempt to find more, Musa falls in a very deep old pit and only through the climbing skill of Yuda he can be rescued, although he is initially still in coma. It turns out, that the pit near the shrine was dug for the burial of the husband of Murni. Musa has a special kind of snake around his neck and so is recognised by Murni as her son who was taken away from her some 30 years ago. This episode seems to be rather accidental and not really easy to believe. It reminded me of some episodes in the novels of Murakami who also has many mysterious powers steering human destiny.

Musa is recognised because he has a symbol of snake around his neck, with some other symbols. These are also drawn by Ayuu Utami.

The novel is announced as a roman misteri dan roman spiritualisme kritis.

It is clear from the quite fragmentary description above that much Javanese spirituality has been put in this nice book. Page 181 has even a deep sentiment about the wonderful atmosphere of peace and spirituality in the period of Airlangga (Betapa damai dan spiritual masa Airlangga). Sex and spirituality are here in many pages, sometimes in contrast like the hypocrisy of Musa the soldier, but often also reinforcing, when control of sex gives spiritual strength. There is a political position against the Soeharto government and its crude suppression of Communism.

            Marja, Yuda and Parang Jati are not particular religious. About the latter it is even explicitly said that he has respect for religious rituals but does not practice them himself. He calls himself a critical spiritualist, whatever it may mean. He does not pray, not the Muslim salat, Bali-Hindunese praisa, food offerings, meditation of some kind of yoga, or whatever ritual there is. (209: Ia menyebut dirinya seorang spiritualis kritis. Marja talk pernah melihat Parang Jati melakukan ritual. Apa pun yang bisa dianggap Marja sebagai ritual: berdoa, sembahyang, sholat, memuja, mempersembahkan sesajen, bermeditasi, sejenis yoga, atau apa saja. Yuda juga tidak. Tapi, berbeda dari Yuda, Parang jati tidak pernah mencemooh hal-hal yang tidak dia lakukan itu.)

            The only outspoken Catholic in this book is the French archaeologist, Jacques. He confesses that he believes in reincarnation, notwithstanding his Catholic faith. Marja says that reincarnation is a Hindu and Buddhist belief, not a Catholic one. ‘Indeed. No. But Catholics know a concept of “cleansing fire”. That is called the Purgatory. The souls of the deceased that are not yet holy must cross a  cleansing fire” before they can enter heaven. The length and intensity depends upon our sins. Well, now it is our duty to define further the character of this “cleansing fire”. Theologians and artists or earlier periods in the European Church have described it as some mild kind of hell that is not so brute. There is fire, and devils, but also angels who are waiting to carry our souls when the sins are already roasted away.’ Jacques laughs in a modest way. ‘But nowadays I like to think about it as some kind of reincarnation. We are born again, in a long series until our soul has been purified and we may attain heaven, that is nirwana like in the Eastern religions. The “cleansing fire” does not work in a realm of souls, but also in this world.’ (41). Marja is happy with this explanation and asks why the Church does not teach it this way. Jacques suggests that that more painful description is more effective to push morality harder. Le mystère.

            Another theological talk is between Jacques and Parang Jati who suggests that we all commit sins but also perform good acts. ‘Sin can be something that we commit. But it may also be something that gives birth to us, creates out weakness. Something at the origin. But human beings are able to choose. Man has a free will, after the original sin.’ ‘Oh, la la, that sounds as if we here Saint Augustin talking.’ (239)  These Catholic theological fragments are just short interludes among many other themes in this book. Some people complain about the complex structure of her books, the many themes that are only touched upon and not elaborated in full length. Other readers estimate that this is the strength and the richness of her work. It is never boring, always full of surprise, asks for an attentive and understanding reader. It always combined daily life in many aspects with spirituality, mysticism, some sense of the mysterious, often in a very unexpected and critical way. Truly roman misteri dan roman spiritualisme kritis as it is announced on the cover text.

A debate about Merry Christmas

During the last two weeks there was a debate among various people who sent me messages about Christmas Greetings. All my friends like to wish me peace, health and everything best at the occasion of Christmas. But there was some Muslim who did not like to receive Christmas greetings, because he was not a Christian himself. It would be odd or even improper to send good wishes at the occasion of Maulid, the celebration of the Birthday of the Prophet, to people are 'member' of another religion.

This is a complicated question. I made it quite simple and wrote as a comment about two personal anecdotes:

Above is a picture of myself, while living in the Pesantren of Gontor in early 1971

 

In 1987 I was working at the Islamic University of Yogyakarta (then still IAIN) as an international visiting professor. One morning I received a visit from an English young man, a musician who held a similar position at the Arts Academy of Yogyakarta. He told me that he was in love with a nice Sundanese, West-Javanese lady and wanted to marry her. One condition of the family (and his fiancée) was that he should embrace Islam first. He told me that he was born in a religiously indifferent British family, formally member of the Anglican Church. He had read some good books on Islam, learned how to pray and said that he wanted to accept Islam. To me, a non-Muslim specialist in Islamic Studies, he asked advice how to do this. And, when possible, within the time limit of one week!  I gave him advice to address the imam of the campus mosque, brought him in contact with this man and a few days later there was a conversion ceremony. I was invited and attended the ceremony. After a speech by the imam, this mosque leader invited this young man to renounce Christianity and repeat the Shahadat as a confession of his new faith. As usual there were some sambutan after the formal conversion. I had seen already in the beginning, that I was also on the list of sambutan.

When I was given the opportunity to give my talk, I first criticized the imam. According to the best of my knowledge, there is no need for someone who once had formally embraced Christianity, albeit in a modest and not really active way, to renounce Christianity as a whole. Christianity is accepted as a religion, sent by God to mankind, preached by Jesus, son of Mary. But, I still praised this young man for his step to take religion serious in his marriage and to become more active religiously. From a sleeping believer he had become a more practising faithful and so I could happily attend this ceremony.

A report of this ceremony was included in the magazine Suara Muhammadiyah and several priests of Kota Baru, the eminent Jesuit library, criticized me for having accepted the invitation to speak at this ‘Islamisation’, but I repeated my argument that I could be happy with someone becoming religious active, also in a Muslim tradition.

There is a nice story in the Gospel of Jesus about a shepherd who misses one sheep and leave 99 unattended to seek that one sheep. And it concluded with the saying: ‘there will be more rejoicing in heaven about one sinner who repents than over 99 who do not need to repent’ (Luke 15:7)

During a ceremony, probably an examination, at IAIN Sunan Yogyakarta, about 1987. Left of me is Dr. Simuh
 

The second anecdote I want to tell is about a much earlier period. As a Ph.D. student I applied for a stay of three months in the pesantren of Gontor, for participant observation of daily life in the school. I was accepted to live there and follow classes. Finally I asked that I also could join the prayers. I told them that I was a Catholic but did like the style of Muslim prayers. I was questioned about the most common rituals, washing and ablutions, the quick style of praying Al-Fatiha (also Catholics say the prayers in the rosary very fast, like Muslim say al-Fatiha at great speed). Then I was asked to read Surat al-Ikhlas and to comment on it. Allahu ahad .. Lam yalid wa lam yulad:  I could convince them that the Christian Creed starts with the confession that God is One and that there is no compromise to this statement. Then I was asked about the second sentence of al-Fatiha  (ashhadtu an la ilaha illah Allah). I had to confess that many Christians do not really feel love for Muhammad, known little about him and that he has a bad reputation sometimes, but that I personally love the Qur’an and feel in the Qur’an also the religious and social drive of Muhammad as a great inspirator for 1/5 of mankind. That I consider him a gift of God to mankind and therefore happily join the confession that he is a Servant and Prophet of God. Pak Zarkasji accepted my comments and allowed me to join the Muslim prayers. Although he later prayerd that I should become a ‘full Muslim’ and I said inshallah, may God turn me into a good Muslim in the sense of Muslim with a capital as explained by Nurcholis Madjid, as someone who surrenders to God.

So far, some comments about joy at religious festivals, over the boundaries.