The piece below was originally published on the blogsite, thingsfromsomewhere; republished with permission.
This morning, while having breakfast on the balcony, I heard the sound of someone reciting the Qur’an. I looked and saw that the garbage collector rummaging through the dumpster across the street was playing it on his phone. He was collecting garbage accompanied by a sacred voice. He was illuminated by the holy light of the heavens in the midst of the filth of the world.
He had a beard resembling that of ISIS militants. While I sipped my tea among the flowers on my balcony, he wiped his face with a pair of sweatpants that had come out of the trash and hurried quickly to the next garbage container.
At that moment, an older woman came out onto the balcony opposite and looked toward where the sound was coming from. After watching the man who made misery bearable through a passionate (but reactionary) faith for a while, she called out to me: “Look what we’ve come to because of these ignorant people. Just look at his beard. I swear, I shudder when I see him.”
