The Most Spiritual Day of My Life

Bahishti Maqbara at dawn, Qadian

Muslims pray... a lot. Among other things, this includes five daily prayers that are performed at various times throughout the day. Today was the first time, I think in my entire life, that I said all five daily prayers, at their proper times, and inside of a mosque. My day started around 4:45am for the morning prayer which happens before sunrise. I was surprised at how many people were at the mosque for prayers, though this is Qadian so I guess I really shouldn't be. After prayers, I met up with AC and his family who took me to Bahishti Maqbara, which translates to "Heavenly Graveyard," and is a cemetery where Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and many other important people in Ahmadiyyat are buried. I was surprised at how beautiful it was; definitely not your run-of-the-mill cemetery. We said some prayers there, then came back to the guest house for breakfast. AC and his family left after breakfast so I'm now officially on my own here again. I'm sad to see them go, but I'm so glad they were here. I feel a lot less on my own now, even though they aren't here anymore.

Main bazaar area, Qadian

I decided to go for a run through Qadian. I haven't gone on a run for a while because my ankle started hurting on my last run and I wanted to rest it up for a while before starting my trip, since... I kind of need it to be traversing through Asia. But it's been feeling great so I went for it. (Also, and this is an excuse more than anything, I don't have a lot of clothes, so logistically it's a little challenging from an "I have to wash stuff but it needs time to dry and I also have to wear stuff" perspective.) Going for a run is apparently not a thing people do in India. I got a LOT of curious stares from people, and not just because I blatantly looked like a tourist.

For as important a city as Qadian is, it's pretty amazing to see on my run how... ordinary it is. Like many other small towns here, it's relatively poor. There's a really happenin' bazaar with lots of shops and people selling fruits, street food, clothing, and other some other things. A lot of roads aren't paved or are in severe disrepair. I stopped to get some minutes added to my Indian phone and was chatting with the Hindu guy behind the counter. He was telling me that the city is ~25% Muslim, and the rest are Hindu, Sikh, a few Christians, and other Muslims (I've heard from multiple other people that there aren't any other Muslims left in Qadian, so I'm not sure about this one). In any case, he said that everyone gets along really well and that Qadian is an incredibly safe city, even to walk around at night (I've heard this from other people as well).

The guy in my dad's photos...
and now in mine!

My father had been to Qadian about 10 years ago and back them he took photos with someone who worked here. He miraculously saved those photos all these years and when he found out I was coming to Qadian, he printed out some copies of those photos and asked me to give them to the guy when I came. I was incredible skeptical for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that there would be absolutely no way that 10 years later I was going to know who to give these photos to. Nonetheless I humored him and took the photos with me. I had to take extra special care so make sure they didn't get wrinkled and I didn't have a hard folder in which to put them. I was shocked that when I got to Qadian the photos actually survived in pretty good shape, especially considering all of the travel they had to go through. Today I asked around and it turns out the guy in these photos still works here! He does security at the main entrance to the mosque now. I tracked him down, introduced myself, told him the story of these photos and gave them to him. And wouldn't you know, he was SO happy to receive these photos! He couldn't believe my dad had kept them all these years and that he thought to send them with me to Qadian! Seeing how excited he was to receive these photos made all of the effort to get them to Qadian in one piece totally worth it.

I came back for Jummah (Friday prayers) at 1pm. I met someone earlier in the day who was going to show me around a little more, but we got our wires crossed about timing so we ended up not meeting up after all. But when I came back a few hours later for the late afternoon prayer, I met a teacher from Jammiah who did a little impromptu tour for me right there. He was an awesome guy and he speaks great English (like everyone else from Jammiah), which was a huge plus for me. I stayed in the mosque for pretty much the rest of the day offering some extra prayers. Concurrently, there was a local youth convention called an Ijtema that was happening this weekend. Part of that are various religious competitions, including one for recitation of religious poems (they aren't writing them, just reciting one from a handful of ones that have already been written). After the last of the five daily prayers, I went to go listen the poem competition. At this point it was around 9pm and I was exhausted, so I went back to my room in the guest house. Just after I closed the door, someone came knocking and it was NK, the man in charge of external affairs for our sect in Qadian. He was the one I was in contact with to arrange the car to get me to Qadian and he arranged my stay here. We've communicated over phone and text, so it was wonderful to meet him in person. He had been traveling for several days, and the first thing he did when he got back was to come see me. Don't I feel special? This guy is kind of a big deal, so it was awesome that he was doing this. It turns out that since DRH is such a big deal here, and that I'm from his mosque, that they've been treating me even more extra special than how special they already treat anyone who visits Qadian. We talked for about 20 minutes and he even helped me plan out the next few days of my trip and made arrangements for someone to look into flight options for me for the next leg of my trip.

I finished off the day by reading a few chapters of the Holy Quran, the Muslim holy book. The Quran is supposed to be read aloud and in its original language of Arabic, which is what I do when I read it. I don't actually understand the words, which I wish I could, but it's good to at least be able to read it aloud.

Spending pretty much the entire day in supplication was a pretty unique experience. The longer I spent in prayer, the more meaningful this whole experience became and the more I began to realize how powerful being in this place is and how special it is to be here. I found myself praying for things I had never even thought to pray for before. I found myself want to stay and pray for even longer, which is a feeling I've really only ever had when there have been tragic events or difficult decisions to make. The longer I'm here, the more I feel the significance of this mosque and of Qadian. The history of this place is my history too. The events that transpired in this town set a course that ultimately shaped my upbringing and who I am today. Qadian itself is no longer just a concept to me anymore. I am here now. It is real.

My First Auto Ride

Driving in India is insane. But believe it or not, it's actually less insane than in Bangladesh, so it's actually been comparatively nicer here. Still, it's ridiculous. Today I took my first trip in an auto, which here isn't synonymous with car, but instead refers to these three-wheeled open-air taxis (in Bangladesh they called the baby taxis or CNGs because they run on Compressed Natural Gas). There are no seatbelts and with the crazy driving, you could fall out at any moment, so I was holding on for dear life, with my huge backpack between my legs.

I went to Jummah (Friday prayers) at my mosque in Delhi. At first, people were a little suspicious (which is to be expected, my sect is pretty highly persecuted in this part of the world, so safety is definitely a concern for them), but as soon as I showed them a picture I have of me with the leader of our sect, I was very warmly received by the people there. They showed me around and invited me to stay in the guest house there.

After Jummah, I had an awful, awful time trying to get to my hotel. First, someone from the mosque helped me get onto a bus. We literally had to walk through the streets, with the cars driving around us, and I had to hop onto a moving vehicle. Then I got to the train station, where I had to navigate an incredibly confusing train map that gave me no hint as to what stop I needed to get off at to get to my hotel. I finally figured it out, got to my destination station, and then had to take a cab. The first four cab drivers tried all quoted ridiculous fares, I finally settled on one driver who had the least inflated fare. Unfortunately, he didn't know where my hotel was (none of them really did, as far as I could tell), so he dropped me off somewhere near where I needed to be and then it took me another 20 minutes of searching to find the hotel.

My new hotel is in Gurgaon, where a lot of the multinational corporations have their presence in India, Google included. The whole reason I'm here is because my friend KB lives around here and I wanted to meet up with her and I still feel so badly that she came all that way without getting to see me because of the train delay. So tonight we finally go to meet up. She picked me up and took me to her uncle's house, where she is living. Her aunt and uncle are awesome. They're young, really friendly and super welcoming. They took us out tonight to a trendy spot in New Delhi. This is definitely a side of Delhi I haven't seen before. There's... wealth here. I had the second most expensive Coca-cola of my life at ~$4 (the first was in Spain and it was 6 euros, about $8). It was so nice to be with friends for a night.

American Dental Association Accepted

One of the most interesting things about being in a Muslim country is that... it's okay to be Muslim. That sounds like an odd thing to say, I know, but hear me out. Because pretty much everyone is Muslim, the standard greeting isn't hello, it's Assalam-o-alaikum, which is what Muslims say to each other when they meet. There are billboards that advertise for Eid specials, similar to the Christmas sales you would see in December. And one of the things that struck me the most is that you can hear the Adhan (call to prayer) being called, regardless of where you are, when it is time for prayers. Case in point: this morning, we heard the Adhan being called around 4:45am and my dad and I got up to say our morning prayers. There was something indescribably beautiful about the whole experience.

Today is Friday so we went to the mosque for Jummah this afternoon. Jummah is the weekly sermon and prayers that Muslims do, analogous to Sunday for Christians. Because Jummah is on a Friday, the weekend in Bangladesh is on Friday and Saturday.

We arrived at our mosque about an hour early. No one knew we were coming but we were immediately welcomed and shown to a place to sit while we waited. The mosque is huge, easily holding a few thousand people for prayers. After sitting for a few minutes, we were shown into the office of the private secretary for the Ameer, or country president, of our sect. He chatted with us a bit, and gave us some food and water, and a few minutes later, we were taken to sit with the Ameer himself. He was an incredibly warm and welcoming man. Very friendly and easy to talk to. I was surprised that he was able to receive us so close to Jummah; it was very nice of him. The Jummah sermon was all in Bangla, the national language of Bangladesh, so we couldn't understand a word of it. After Jummah, the Ameer wanted to talk with us some more, so we went back to his office. There, we were joined by a few others as well. They all talked business and religion for the better part of an hour before we left. I sat, nodded my head and smiled a lot.

After Jummah, we went to a supermarket to buy a few things. I had sort of expected this, but I was still a little surprised to see just how many things in this supermarket I would be able to find on the shelves of Safeway at home. Even the packaging is the same; I bought a pack of Trident that says "American Dental Association Accepted" on it.

I've only been here two days, but there is certainly some level of familiarity that I miss. There is a part of me that is dying to know every time I see a white person, "What are you doing here?! This is Bangladesh. I'm brown and even I wasn't sure I wanted to come here." I have to suppress my instinct to talk to every Caucasian person I see as if somehow we share some bond by being foreigners here.

Thus far I've only really seen Bangladesh from the inside of a car. I hope we get a chance to go outside and walk through the streets a little more before the end of the trip.