ISHMAEL COULD have flung the tablets to the floor, he was that worked up. But MK and Nagvib were all over him, coaxing him with gentle words, goading the narcotics into his mouth. Five minutes later he excused himself, and went to toilet to throw up. Leaning over the clogged porcelain, invoking his stomach muscles in the Indian style, the hapless terrorist reviewed the night's incidents, from the least to most bizarre: jihadists swigging booze and popping amphetamines as if they were holy; the whole sloppy approach to the hijacking; now the Bacchanalian decadence and sodomy of this nightclub. Lurching what was left of his guts into the bowl, glad to be rid of the pills Ishmael heard thumping and looking into the next cubicle, saw Mohammed humping Ali from behind.
Allah does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear!
He was planning to tell MK he was pulling out when, back in the lounge, he discovered Hasan on stage with the band.
<<What's going on?>> he said. <<I might be recognized if you make a scene...>>
<<Hush!>> MK said. The music stopped, and Hasan began to recite, over synthesized Arab ululation:
God is One and alone, and none other existeth with Him; God is the One, the One Who hath made all things.
The music got funkier here, Herbie Hancock distorted through an Arabian prism. Hasan pranced around the stage like a rock singer, green laser beams bouncing off his shirt as he rapped:
God is father and mother, the father of fathers, and the mother of mothers. He begetteth, but was never begotten; She produceth, but was never produced, He beget Himself and produced Herself. He createth, but was never created; She is the maker of His own form, and the fashioner of Their own bodies.
The Devil! Ishmael thought.
God Itself is existence, It liveth in all things, and liveth upon all things. It endureth without increase or diminution, It multiplieth Itself millions of times, and It possesseth multitudes of forms and multitudes of members.
The scene looked so ridiculous, or maybe it was from the pills, that Ishmael burst out laughing, and had to hug MK to stay upright. God he thought Father and Mother! And thinking of that absurdity, all implied contradictions dissolved in his mind.
<<God!>> he said, laughing as he was enlightened.
!SHMAEL THE !NVINCIBLE and other characters copyright Robert Sullivan 1996-2000.
