"Fear and Trembling" is a meditation on Genesis 22 - the Binding of Issac. "And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." An old man hears God telling him he wants him to sacrifice his only son simply because God wants it. I found the story creepy then and no less creepy today. But today I understand how profoundly this story plays out today.
Isaac was not Abraham's only son. Abraham had sex with his wife Sarah's mistress Hagar and she gave birth to Ishmael (Genesis 16). Sarah tolerated the relationship until she gave birth to Isaac at which point "all Hell broke loose" and Abraham decided to get rid of his problem (on the advice of God) and took Hagar and Ishmael into the Arabian desert with a few days food, built a small shack and left them to fend for themselves. Legend has it that Hagar ran back and forth in despair. Ishmael stomped his foot upon the ground and water gushed forth. That spring was to be named the Zamzam well. The site of Issac's aborted sacrifice is the Temple Mount. The site of Hagar's exile became Mecca. The Shack became the Kaaba - the site of the Hajj.
16 years ago this day by the Islamic calendar, I was in Dhaka. I was trying to persist in spite of a nasty intestinal infection. My colleague and I gathered a small fund to help the staff at our guest house return home for the celebration. Tens of thousands of live animals had been driven into the city. My closest Bangladeshi friend had just returned from the Hajj and looked at me with a glare that shouted "Infidel!" At the appointed time, every one of the animals was slaughtered. Time to go home.
Religion is at its worst when it divides us. I say to my Muslim friends - Eid Mubarak - عيد مبارك
