The Imam's wife

Today I went to the Bosnian Mosque with a group from school. My one friend who works with Middle-Eastern Muslims says that the hoodie and jeans I was wearing would be fine, but Hollie -who went with us to this Mosque- said a long skirt and nice, long sleeved shirt would be better. SO I opted for the second choice and was GLAD I did!!! We also wore headscarves. Hollie had one from Iran that David her husband bought her when he was there, and I wore one of my Gypsy scarves. I felt very ethnic as we walked up to the church where we were meeting our guide in my flowing black skirt, nice shirt and headscarf. I really really wanted some bangly earings so that i would feel more Gypsy-ish, but wanted to see how jewlery was seen before I tried that.
Hollie and I were directed towards the front door where we slipped off our shoes and went to sit down. The Mosque was a small house that had been converted, and the front living room with a small fireplace was the women's section of the worship center.
Four women, a little three year old and a baby were already there, and in the next ten minutes four other women came in.
The three year old and I had fun making faces at each other, until the little girl realized her mother was at the bowing and kneeling part of the worship time. At that point the little girl ran up beside her mother and dove into the prayer rug they had spread for her and proceeded to try and murmer the prayers in Arabic.
The women were all dressed in colorful robes and headscarves that were not tied the ways Hollie and I had tied ours. She and I stayed back against the wall and didn't go up onto the prayer rugs they had spread for us during the prayer time. It was considerate, and I didn't even realize that they had done it until they were all up at the front of the room. But neither Hollie nor I felt the need to participate in prayers to Allah.
The did a message in what I believe was first Arabic, then translated into Bosnian, and then English. It was rather sureal.
It ended what seemed to me rather abruptly, and one woman began hugging the others and kissing them on both cheeks. Hollie and I smiled and the ladies smiled shyly back, but no one approached us. One woman gave us a huge smile each time she looked in our direction, but soon pulled a black veil over her face until only the slits of her eyes were showing and quickly slipped out the door.
The woman who began the hugging finally came up to Hollie and I and hugged us, kissing us on both cheeks, wishing us "Salaam Allekium" (I don't know how you spell it, sorry) and I murmured "salaam" in return. I know there is another traditional saying, but the meaning is "Peace of Allah" and "Allah's peace upon you", whereas "Salaam" is merely "peace." I'm fine with wishing someone peace, in fact that's what I"m committed to as a Christian, but the peace that comes from God, not Allah.
The woman was the Imam's wife. She asked where we were from and why we were there. I told her I had never been to a Mosque before, and was curious about what was there and who was there. She asked if we were American, if we were Christian, and what kind of Christian. I said yes, yes, and Baptist. She asked if I had alwas been Baptist. I answered no... only a year. (hehehe... how do you explain "non-denominational" to a Bosnian Muslim?) SO she asked if I understood my religion. I said yes.
"Are you SURE?"
"Yes."
"Are you SURE you are sure?" she insisted.
"Well obviously God is too big to fit inside my small head, but yes, I understand my religion. I am in school to learn more, and of course we are always learning."
"Hmm... you have to go?"
Hollie and I shook our heads no.
"Come and sit down. My English not so good, I study for six months now, though I have been in America fo six years. COme sit. Now. This is the problem with Christians: you do not understand who Jesus is. Muslims do not agree that he is GOd. He cannot be the son of God. God has no son, no wife, no beginning, no end. Jesus cannot be God."
She went on for a good ten minutes expounding on that fact. Hollie tried to interject that Jesus said in the Bible who He was, but the Imam's wife interupted.
"No, you see. The Bible, it is corrupted. Shatan has corrupted it." And went on to expound on that point for a good full five minutes.
"May I explain to you how we see Jesus?" I asked when I could get a word in edgewise. She nodded.
"God, who you call Allah, made the whole world. Yes? And so God made man, because He wanted man to be in fellowship with Him. He wanted to be friends with man. But Shatan came and said to Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, "you can be like God. Take this fruit from the tree God forbade you to eat from, and you will be like Him." Adam and Eve disobeyed God and took this fruit. But Shatan lied to them, this did not make them like God, it caused them to sin and they understood sin. And God cannot look on sin, because He is righteous. He is a righteous God who cannot sin and cannot look upon sin. So He said to Adam and Eve, 'Go out from the garden!'
Shatan said, "Aha! God cannot look upon sin, look, the man has sinned. Now he is mine!" But God said, "NO! I created them! I love them! They must still be mine!" So He sent the prophets, Abraham, Isaiah, and others, to tell mankind how to live righteously, so that they could have communion with God. But man said to the prophets, "Who are you to tell us this? You are man like us! You know nothing!" They didn't realize that God sent them. So they rejected the prophets.
God decided that He would go Himself to tell mankind how to live. He wanted us to understand so we could have communion with Him. But man cannot look upon GOd directly, because He is so wonderful and glorious. His majesty is too much for us to see; we will die if we look on Him. So He came in the form of a man. He had to come as a man so that mankind could see Him and have relationship with Him. And the man who was God was named Jesus."
She nodded and was listening intently, agreeing with all that I said, UNTIL I said "That man was named Jesus."
"NO! This cannot be. Jesus was a PROPHET! A good prophet. We love the prophet Isa. Isa is what we call Jesus. But a prophet! He and Mohammed were very close..."
And she continued for a long time after that about different stories from the Quaran about Jesus and Mary, and how it is written that Jesus said specifically that He never claimed to be God. I wanted to get into Pharisaical lies etc. but could barely get a word in edgewise.
"You see, man corrupts all good things, and man has corrupted the Bible. For example, you celebrate Christmas in December. But Jesus was very clearly born in springtime. Quaran says that Mary ate a date after Gabriel spoke to her. A fresh date. How can you eat a fresh date in winter?"
I explained why CHristians celebrate Christmas in winter, and emphasized that this was not something that was in the Bible, just a tradition.
'You see? Pagan influences corrupt."
"Yes, I agree. So Mohammed had a Christian wife and a Jewish wife. Since pagans corrupt, did not these pagan wives corrupt Mohammed? He had three wives not Islamic, no?"
"No! He had NINE wives. BUt princesses, so that their people would come to know Islam."
"They were pagan."
"But you see, man is a step ahead of woman. So man always leads."
"Yes, the man is the head, but isn't the woman the neck, turning the head whichever way she wants?" (I love 'My big fat Greek wedding.' Who knew it would help in theological debates).
All three of us laughed at that point.
"No! Man is a step ahead of woman."
"But if Mohammed had nine wives, that would be more women than man, so wouldn't that put the pagan wives at least a FEW steps ahead of the man?"
She didn't get that reasoning, and went on to talk about the fallibility of the Bible, and more Islamic stories about Shatan and Gabriel fighting over the Quaran.
David poked his head in and said we had to go, and the Imam's wife followed us out encouraging us to get a copy of the Quaran and start researching on the internet about Islam.
As I put on my shoes, she said,
"Pray to God to open your eyes to truth."
"I will pray to God to open my eyes to Truth. I pray also that He opens your eyes to Truth."
She smiled a, "I've got it covered, honey, thanks." look on her face.
"You DO realize," the missionary stated when Hollie and I retold this story, "that you just took on the most devout Muslim in the entire area."
"All I wanted was for us to plant ONE seed of doubt in her mind, so that her eyes could be opened to Truth." Hollie replied.
"Obviously we won't make a change today, we just met her. But its a start."
Hopefully, anyway. We are going to try and go back in two weeks. The Imam's wife has always wanted to be an Imam's wife, she waited until she found an Imam - who was 20 years older than her - to get married. "Islam is all that I am, all that I love." She told us.
Funny thing, I had been feeling nausious the entire day, and as soon as we started the conversation with the Imam's wife it went away and has stayed away all day. No, it was not nervousness. I'm pretty sure it was Spiritual Warfare. Another funny thing was that once the Imam's wife found out Hollie was married, she targeted me for most of the conversation and sort of blew off Hollie. HOllie attributed it to the fact that since she was married, she would follow whatever her husband believed, and so would be 'unconvertable' until he was converted.

Anywayz. So that was my first exposure and experience with Muslims and Bosnians.

Wow.

Now, the hysterical part of this is that when I was in Jr. High, I told God that He could call me to be whatever He wanted, but if He called me to be a Missionary, I would have to tell Him no, so just don't bother. My reasoning was that we got "Voice of the Martyrs' when I was younger and I was convinced that all missionaries were persecuted brutally and most were martyred. So when God called me to be a Missionary, or I at least responded to that call, I told Him, "Fine, but please please please don't call me to work with Muslims or Communists."
I thought Bosnians were Eastern Orthodox when I started researching them. Nope. The Bosniak Bosnians are all Muslim. At least in this area. I've been to an EX-communist country four times, but I'm curious to see if I go into a communist country one of these days. God DOES have a sense of humor, and He likes to remind us -or at least me, I don't know about you- that HE is the one who calls the shots. :-)
Anyhoo. IN other news, the head chef in the cafeteria started a food-fight with me when I started to sing, "Oh Suzanna" - which he hates, and I do just to irritate him. :-) I do not like working for other people, I would far rather have my own business and call the shots myself. But if I HAVE to work for someone, I'm glad its here, with fun people who love Jesus and are committed to keeping the workplace fun. God has blessed me a lot, with an amazing family, good friends, an awesome school, amazing opportunities to serve and witness for Him. Most importantly, He gave me a rich relationship with Him, which has permeated into every area of my life. Halelujah.

~Princess Ouch~