Dr. Return-of-the-dragon-from-hell is an excellent doctor. I'll give him credit for that. And he teaches really well. When he does decide to teach that is. Most of his sessions are spent in having discussions about why women are evil, how the world would be a better place without them, Islam, Pakistan, people who are evil and again, women who are the primal evil of all. Discussions are basically him talking and us pretending to listen.

For all the nonsense he usually does come up with, he said something a few days ago that hit home with me.

We were discussing the spirit of Ramzan. One thing led to another and he started telling us about this one time he was in Saudia Arabia during Ramzan. A friend of his introduced him to an Indian Doctor over there, who was a Hindu. Dr. Dragon's friend told him the oddest thing about the Indian doctor, that he held fasts in the whole month of Ramzan like muslims did, from dawn till dusk, observing every rule, short of offering Salat. The intrusive and in-everyones-face man that he is, Dr. D marched right up to the Hindu/Indian doctor and asked him why did he practice fasting when he wasn't even a muslim?

The Indian doctor replied (and I quote. not a precise quote though, just the gist of it) "Two reasons. One is, obviously, it is a great way to keep a check on your diet and stay healthy. The second and the more important reason is that I love this Muslim manner of showing your faith. To the world you might be fasting. You might not eat anything in front of your family, your friends, your colleagues. Hell, you can even sit dry-throat and empty-stomach all day, convincing yourself. But only you (the deep down you) and Allah know the truth of your status. So whether you actually fast or not, and how you fast is all truly observable only by Allah, the One you are actually fasting for. How are you going to lie to Him? If that isn't faith, what is?"

Wow was all I could say. SubhanAllah, a simple fact about our religion so easily understood by a non-muslim but something that eludes the majority of us who do claim to have faith.

(How fasting, as a non-muslim, is helping him along the lines of his faith is beyond me. Maybe it is one of Allah's grand designs, maybe it's a way of showing hidayat to someone, by attracting him to the way muslims practice their religion.)