CHRISTIANITY

One day, while I was enjoying the awkward silence of a packed bus, I saw a student unplug his headset from a Nintendo DS and plug it into an iPod. He didn’t even take his headset off.

Then just before I started a collective jaywalking moment on Northeast Campus Parkway, I realized I was surrounded by students fiddling with their MP3 players. Ten minutes of silent walking was too much.

Some estimate that the average noise in the United States increases about one percent annually, according to The Seattle Times, and about 40 percent of Americans are exposed to noise levels high enough to cause permanent hearing loss, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Using noise-canceling headsets can help, even though headsets more often contribute to the problem, especially when exercising, but it’s more than that. We’re not really tuned in: we’re tuned out.

We’re not really a Generation X — whatever “X” means. We’re the iPod Generation. And it seems that we’re plugged into everything and hear nothing.

Although I don’t care much for picking favorites (even with ice cream), I think the prophet Elijah’s story carries a powerful message for our generation on the topic of silence.

A favorite experience of mine that Elijah began with God asking him why he’s hiding. Elijah responds, “For the people of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, thrown down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left” (1 Kings 19:10).

Elijah’s situation was pretty grim, and he was freaking out. So God told him to go up to a mountain and wait.

A strong wind tore into the mountain, breaking the rocks, but God wasn’t in the wind.

Then an earthquake shook the mount, but God wasn’t in the earthquake.

A fire consumed the mountain, but God wasn’t in the fire.

Then there was a quiet whisper. Some interpreters say the word can mean the absence of noise, or utter silence. It was in that silence that God chose to speak to Elijah.

Elijah was hiding from danger and chaos. So God began by demonstrating even greater, overwhelming destruction, making Elijah’s struggles look like a joke. God is bigger than our noise and chaos, but unlike Red Square preachers, he doesn’t try to out-scream our headsets.

God didn’t fix Elijah’s problem with destruction. Instead, God answered Elijah in the silence with a whisper. It’s a beautiful demonstration of God’s ability to destroy everything, yet his desire to show utter, undeserved compassion on a rebellious, evil people.

Maybe if we understood the silence, we’d better understand the noise and the general chaos in our lives. And maybe, just maybe, if we turned off our headsets, we wouldn’t be so deaf to our friends, to our community and to God.

I often see people baffled by the idea that Christians think that God speaks to them. It seems like a widespread case of schizophrenia.

I can’t help but think if we spent more time in silence, meditating on our hearts and on God’s heart, we’d learn to listen, and maybe we’d hear God in the silence.

[Reach columnist Celeste Flint at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.]

ISLAM

Islamic tradition has a long line of prophets — some say up to 124,000. In the Quran, about 25 prophets are mentioned explicitly by name. I say “about” because Islamic scholars differ on the characteristics and qualifications of prophet-hood.

Because I’m not a scholar of Islamic theology, I offer my limited knowledge of what it means to be a prophet. I apologize for any mistakes, all of which are my own. Any benefits are due to God’s grace.

The Quran often talks about prophets and messengers from God. We believe that all the nations and tribes of the past have had a prophet or a guide, based on verses from the Quran, such as:

“Verily We have sent thee in truth, as a bearer of glad tidings, and as a warner: and there never was a community, without a warner having lived among them (in the past)” (chapter 35, verse 24).

I mentioned that some scholars say that there have been 124,000 prophets in history. They derive their opinion from the hadith, or the collected saying of the prophet Muhammad, in which he mentions that number.

Most of the prophets in the Quran are mirrored among Christian and Jewish tradition; a few examples include Ibrahim (Abraham), Ishaq (Isaac), Musa (Moses), Daud (David) and Yahya (John), peace be upon them all.

There are some Biblical figures who Muslims think of as prophets, which, according to my understanding, Christian theologians do not. For example, Lot, or as we call him, Lut, is considered a prophet, and there are several verses narrating his story.

Despite the vast number of prophets in Islam, if you ask any Muslim who his or her favorite prophet is, he or she will immediately respond with the prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. He is a key figure, one of his titles being Khatim-an-Nabiyyin, or Seal of the Prophets. Essential to the Islamic faith is that he is the last prophet of God, restoring the same message that previous prophets taught. We have such respect for him that we strive to be better Muslims by emulating his character and actions.

We believe that one purpose that prophetic narratives serve is to act as reminders and lessons for us. So rephrasing the question as, “What’s your favorite prophet story?” would be more illuminating.

I find the story of Ayyub (known as Job in the Bible) provides an excellent moral. We believe that Ayyub, peace be upon him, was a prophet. Islamic traditions tell us that he was granted great wealth and a prosperous family. During this time he remained devout to God, but God chose to test his commitment.

Ayyub was stricken with various diseases, lost his sons and his wealth, and was ostracized by his community. He endured a rather nasty living situation that lasted for several years (most narrations say seven), but Ayyub remained just as devout as before. He supplicated God, and is quoted in the Quran:

“And (remember) Job, when he cried to his Lord, ‘Affliction has befallen me, but Thou art the Most Merciful of those that are merciful’” (chapter 21, verse 83).

Despite his situation, he still knew God was the All Merciful. God then healed him of all his afflictions, restoring everything to even greater amounts for his patience.

This story is comforting to me because I know that no matter how desperate my life gets, God is always the Most Merciful. It stresses the importance of turning to God and being thankful in my times of need, as well as in times of bounty. Finally, it reinforces the idea of patience, and that difficulties are temporary, as evidenced by this verse:

“And, behold, with every hardship comes ease” (chapter 94, verse 5).

[Reach columnist Zakariya Dehlawi at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.]

JUDAISM

In the entire Bible, there are 55 prophets recorded for posterity, but only seven of them are women. With the holiday of Purim just two months away, I think it’s appropriate to pay tribute to the prophetess Esther.

The story of Esther holds a special significance to me since it takes place in Persia, the land where my parents grew up. Esther’s life in a royal palace, away from her husband and her people, should serve as a model for Jewish girls growing up in a secular world. We should strive to stay close to our roots and not falter from our values in the same way that Esther shows in the Purim story.

After the destruction of the holy temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE, the Jews were in exile. In the 12th year of King Achashverosh’s reign, his most trusted adviser, Haman, set in motion a plan to annihilate all of the Jews. It was only through the bravery of the king’s new wife, Esther, that the Jews were saved.

In the search for a new bride, Achashverosh summoned all the young girls in the land so that he could choose the most beautiful one. The girls had one year to prepare for the king. Available to them were the most lavish cosmetics and perfumes prepared by the royal apothecary. Esther did not want to be queen and did not fall to this vanity. One of her virtues was undeniably her modesty and ability to see through this falsity, and yet she was chosen as queen.

For fear of her life, Esther did not let anyone in the palace know that she was Jewish. Still, she lived the life of an observant Jew, despite the difficulty of doing so in the palace. She requested vegetarian and uncooked food in order to keep a kosher diet. She also had seven maidservants, one for each day of the week, so that she could know which day to observe the Sabbath. It was because of this that G-d found her worthy of redeeming his people.

When Esther heard of Haman’s plan to destroy the Jews, she went to visit the king. Before doing so, however, she asked the Jews to fast for three days and pray for her. She again showed her modesty in the fact that she knew that G-d was ultimately going to save her and not her beauty or charm. After the three days of prayer, Esther entered the king’s chambers without being summoned. This was a brave act because it went against practice.

Esther showed great wisdom in the way she approached the matter of saving her people. She asked the king to come to dinner with her and invited Haman. She knew that this request would make the king jealous of Haman and make him wonder why the queen requested his presence. At the dinner party, Esther requested that the two of them return for a second dinner the following night so that she could request a favor from them. The king grew even more jealous and wondered why his adviser must accompany him to dinner with his wife, but he agreed nevertheless.

At the second dinner, the king asked Esther about the favor she needed from him. She told him she wanted her life and the lives of her people to be spared, because someone had plotted to obliterate them. The king responded by asking who would dare to do such a thing, and she told him it was Haman. The king, who was already angry with Haman for being invited to a party with him and his wife, called for Haman to be executed and the Jewish people to be saved.

Esther used her wisdom to save the Jewish people. She was brave but still humble, and that is why she is my favorite prophetess and a role model to us all.

[Reach columnist Natalie Sikavi at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.]