QBLOG#7, Adhan

Subject: Q-BLOG #7, Adhan

Several times a day, in the not so far distance, I can hear the adhan being broadcast throughout the camp. Adhan is the Muslim call for prayer. My understanding is, as part of the call to prayer, the shahada is uttered. It is a beautiful sound and the words are almost sung, “La ilah illa Allah wa Muhammad rasul Allah” which translates to, “There is no God but the one God and Muhammad is His prophet.” The times I usually hear this, are just before sunrise, around noon and then again when the sun has travelled its full course for the day. There are two other times that adhan takes place; mid-afternoon and just before mid-night. Nothing, it seems, gets in the way of the adhan.

I’m at the DFAC and I’ve just finished my meal. I’m eating alone tonight because I wanted some time to sit here and write. I am in the back part of the facility where few people gather. As I am looking around at troops coming and going. I see a soldier walking towards the area I am sitting. He is alone. He is focused on a place that is two tables away from me. His back is to the throngs of soldiers I am looking at. He places his tray down, removes the rifle hanging from his shoulders, places it on the floor and sits down facing me. His pistol is visible from the holster just underneath his left arm. He looks tired and hungry. He is plain looking, thin face, dark tousled hair that has seen lots of dirt today. He keeps his black fleece jacket on; the holster pressing down the fleece around his shoulders and back. His hands are washed, but the grime of war remains on them and on his face. I picture him as a gunner positioned on the top of a Humvee or Striker vehicle. Finally, he sits down, adjusts his chair and bows his head. It remains in that position for quite some time. This is not your typical, “bless us oh lord of these thy gifts...” prayer. This is “let me tell you about my day” kind of prayer. You can almost feel the wall of silence he created in the space around him, like a shield of glass suddenly enveloping him and shutting all the noise around him out. Slowly his head rises. You can almost see the shield of silence coming down around him. He looks at the plate before him, and dives into the food. His hunger did not distract him from his adhan.

I have always loved music, and enjoy many different types of music. I was introduced to Vincenzo through my friends Alberto and Troy. Vincenzo is a classical pianist. He is much more than this, as each of us are much more than our jobs or the gifts we were born with. Alberto, Troy and I were visiting Amsterdam and Vincenzo and his partner Roel had invited us to stay at their flat in the city. In appreciation, we wanted to take them to dinner. Vincenzo would not hear of it. After all, we were already at his studio, which was outside of the city, and there were no ‘good’ places to eat. He proceeded to cook dinner. We enjoyed the meal and had a wonderful conversation. I had not yet heard Vincenzo play and I desperately wanted to. But Vincenzo had just finished rehearsing and he did not want the evening to be about him playing. Instead, he wanted us to continue our conversation. We did finally convince him to at least let us hear a tape from one of his rehearsals. It was not a very good tape he stated, but he would let us hear it. We gathered around the hand held tape player and listened to Vincenzo’s home made recording. The sound was a bit scratchy, but there was this spirit in his music that touched me. If this was just a rehearsal tape, I thought, what is he like live? I felt this incredible power over come me. This prayer of music filled my heart and my soul and the only way I could express my joy was through my tears. Since that time, I have had the opportunity to attend a few of Vincenzo's live performances and am moved to joy every time I hear his music. The synergy and spirit of his music created a connection between us that I call prayer. It is our adhan.

The first time I experienced the true power of the Divine with another person, was with my first love. His name is Scott and he is deaf. The only reason I mention his being deaf is, because it is through his deafness that I was to experience the positive power of silence. Scott does speak and reads lips, but it is through his signing that I best understood Scott’s feelings and passion for life. We were in Washington DC where Scott was attending Galludet University. It was the evening after a very busy day and I would be returning to Dallas in a day or so. Scott took me to a chair and sat me down. He told me how much he loved me and wanted to express this love, our love, in a way that would involve God, because God was such a big part of our lives. We invited God into everything we did. Scott asked me to close my eyes. I sat there in my underwear, almost giggling because I never knew what to expect from Scott. He returned and I could feel him kneel beside me. I heard water splash. Scott took my feet and proceeded to wash them. This was, he signed to me, how he wanted our relationship to be, one of service to each other and to God. This was our adhan.


Ironing is not my idea of fun. It might be my brother’s idea of fun, but not mine. Here at Camp Liberty, I did not have much of a choice if I wanted my uniform pressed. There I was standing in my room, ironing my uniform. I was not really thinking about ironing. I wasn’t really thinking. I was just doing. Suddenly I felt myself go into a trans like state, and found myself in prayer. Not, “Oh God, please help me” or “Lord, I want to thank you” prayer, but, conversation. Yes, conversation…two way. It hit me like a brick! Suddenly these images of my mother hanging clothes outside (she still does), my father working with wood, the women in Turkey creating carpets on a loom, popped into my thoughts. Maybe, I thought, the reason they performed these tasks is because this is a form of meditation, or prayer! Before I knew it, I was ironing my sheets, my underwear and my tee shirts! I understood for the first time, the power a simple task can have in creating a space for meditation, a conversation with the Divine. It is another form of adhan!

My friend Billy Miller is an artist (http://www.whimdesigns.com/). One form of his art is to manipulate digital photographs into something of meaning for him. I’ve attached one of his latest pieces. He titles it “Navajo Solitude”. I call it Prayer Shadow. I name it that because the original digital was a picture of a shadow of Jim Frederick closing the curtains while he was nursing Billy back to health from a badly sprained ankle. The final design reminds me of my native Santa Fe and of a Navajo design found in much of the art in the Southwest. The connection between the shadow of a friend taking care of another friend, the spirit of the Navajo design and the care of interpreting this into art and sharing it with others, there is no greater form of adhan.

Our jobs and our work today do not allow us time for silence. We toil to confusion, going in every direction, leaving little if any opportunity for our soul to seep through and converse with us, allowing us to connect with the Divine. The modern world is filled with every convenience to make our lives, they say, simpler, easier…faster. We are running so fast to nowhere. Time is money and we’ve spent it. We’ve traded our silent time for convenience and lost ourselves along the way. We have little time for our children, spouses, extended family or friends. We have little time for ourselves. Can you hear your internal adhan? How will you answer it? By the bowing of your head before a meal? Or the washing of the feet of your spouse or friend? Maybe listening to a piece of music that provides bliss? Maybe by hanging or ironing your own clothes instead of taking them to the cleaners? Carving a piece of wood or creating a carpet on a loom? A piece of art or a good book? What ever you choose, choose to find a time to answer your adhan.

I close with this poem I wrote on a weekend vacation to Fire Island with my friend Tim Palmer.

Waves crashing in all around me
Slamming against the shores of my destiny
Powerful waves made from the silent sea
Forces unseen pulling me back…pushing me forward.

Storms above me…surround me.
Stillness in my soul.
Steady my shores with dikes and dunes
Calm the storms with whispers to my heart.

Silence the head of waves and storm,
Let stillness in my life be calmness in my soul.
Hear my prayer oh God!
It is not in my work, not in my deeds…not even when I am on bent knee…

It is in my silence, which is so rare,
That my soul must speak.
T.V. and talk shows, and work and play,
Money and fame to make my name

These seem to be the only things
For which I pray when I am awake…
And there in the silence of the night,
My other prayer is phrased,

The words are just right…
To ask for forgiveness, and strength and peace…
It is all I really want,
And probably more than I need.

The prayer is whispered…
At the end of the night, the beginning of sleep..
The words are spoken
Into the Light….

“Calm me and take me…
Mold me and make me…into the man that I am meant to be…
Not a President, an actor, or even a King…
Make me only…into the perfect me…you created me to be.”

Robert Quintana, 24 Sep 03, Fire Island, NY

May you find silence in your day, and peace along the way…

Robert