FEW MOMENTS WITH GOD

You won’t be able to guess that he is an atheist when you meet Mr. Solaiman. He is a nature lover, persistent worker, a man so ethical that it seems that ‘disbelief’ is the only trick the Devil could play on him. He has no enemy, and even if there were any, they wouldn’t be able to claim that Mr. Solaiman intentionally harmed anyone in his life. The Devil may or may not know other tricks but certainly he failed to apply those on Mr. Solaiman. Mr. Solaiman is a professor. He uses thick glasses, he is middle-aged but he looks younger. He is smart and confident, has every attributes a popular professor needs. But surprisingly this silver-tongued professor is famous and infamous at the same time, infamous because he is an atheist. Many may use to think that “atheist” is a negative word but Mr. Solaiman is proud to be an atheist. Swearing, threats, annoying preaching of God’s Lovers have been a part of his life since he left his belief and he doesn’t bother these at all. Sometimes he feels disappointed seeing this stupidity and that’s all. 

 

This is our Mr.Solaiman; I can write pages after pages about him without repeating a word. Still to begin the story I had to cut it short, I managed to confine ten pages in one paragraph, so I didn’t do a bad job I guess.

It was a sunny day. Mr. Solaiman was having an argument with some creationists. As usual he almost cornered the creationists but suddenly a part of crowd burst out and thrown questions after questions of questions

: Is death the end of everything? Is there no life after it? No heaven, no hell? (How can they accept there is heaven full of wine and girls after death?)

: You proved there is no God by logic, so what? What if there is any God? (Seems like God’s place is outside logic)

: You are blind, you are not seeing. Someday you’ll see the truth but it’ll be too late. (Oh, how much they care about him!)

: Denying the creator means denying father and mother! (Is this their best logic?!)

In the end, Mr. Solaiman lost patience and said “I can’t say anything that is beyond world of logic, I can argue about science and logic and that’s all.”

Moving out of the room he felt comfortable and also felt a bit ashamed for losing patience. “Logic crumbles but belief doesn’t move! How strong the power of belief is!” he was thinking. People are afraid of God, they are slave of their belief, they are afraid of their thoughts, they want to take chances, and they are scared of Hell. They can’t even imagine the nothingness after death! He was too deep in his thinking as he was crossing the road. All on a sudden he saw a car rushing towards him and before he could move the car ran over him! Before being ashamed for his unmindful situation while crossing the road, before investigating the reason why the car was rushing in this lonely street of university campus- he fell into deep dark all around him.

When Mr. Solaiman opened his eyes, he found himself in a closed chamber. He could remember that he died in an accident. His nerve was not weak and soon he removed his trance and recovered full consciousness. “Where am I?” he wanted to concentrate on thoughts but it was not to be, two stubborn angels appeared from nowhere. They wanted to ask some questions and they won’t go without the answer. Mr. Solaiman glanced at them with annoyance, they seemed like 3rd class robot to him. “Ok, tell me what you need to know” Mr. Solaiman said.

Angels: Who is your God?

Mr. Solaiman: Strange! What you mean by God?

Angels: God is your creator, your controller, your master.

Mr. Solaiman: Master? I don’t have any master, I am no slave. Age of slavery is past, now it’s the age of democracy, in this age no one is slave and no one is master. Sometimes Industrialists try to enslave the workers. But when this happens, the workers protest and eventually they can win. I don’t have master-slave relation with my Students. I am master of myself, though I am not negating influence of society, culture on me. Now tell me is there any need of a Master or Controller? Do you have any Master?

Angels: Yes I do have a master and everyone has a master. It’s the same master that created all of us. Don’t you know him?

Mr. Solaiman: I am afraid you are wrong. I don’t have a master. No one orders me to do anything. I am not bound to obey anyone. May be you are the servant of someone, but I am not. May be he is your controller but are you sure that he is your creator?

Angels: (Rubbing his head) Yeah, We are sure.

Mr. Solaiman: How?

Angels: He told us.

Mr. Solaiman: Stupid! This is called circular logic. Have you seen him to create you or anyone?

Angels: (staring at each other) No.. I mean…

Mr. Solaiman: Hmm, think deeply. You came here in order of your so-called master but can you say who my master is? Your master may control you but is he controlling me too? Why my controller would send you to question me? If I have the freedom to answer your question, can I have any controller?

The angels seemed confused. They were sent to ask some questions. They would report to God hearing the answer. Always it used to happen normally. Some used to give correct answers, some wrong but everyone used to do answer. But not this time! This strange man is doing the opposite; instead of answering he is questioning the angels! Sometimes it seems like the man answered the 1st question, but again the man wanted to know something, he want to discuss so he didn’t finish the question. Then how can they move to next question? Will they go to God without the answers?! They stood like fool and stared at each other. In the end the God rescued them. He told to bring Mr. Solaiman to his palace. He never to do this but in this case he couldn’t keep faith on angels. So Mr. Solaiman must face the God now!

When Mr. Solaiman was brought to 7th heaven, two questions flashed in his mind. How he traveled so fast and how is floating steadily in empty space? But he didn’t get chance to think, from a corner The God appeared before him. A brilliant white light flooded the room. The God looked a bit arrogant but also intelligent. It’s always nice to talk with someone intelligent, so Mr. Solaiman felt interested. The God said in loud voice “Hey Solaiman”. Mr. Solaiman couldn’t help but disliked it, “doesn’t he know courtesy?” he thought, and he retorted “I don’t think we met before. Who are you?”

The God: I am the Master

Mr. Solaiman: (Looking towards the angels) Their Master? Their intelligence hasn’t flourished much.

The God: (Loudly, in a angry voice) I am everyone’s master, everything is my creation

Mr. Solaiman was perplexed hearing the roaring voice, he couldn’t figure out why the man in white was shouting so loudly to talk with a person standing so near. Is the problem in vocal cord or in brain? The second possibility is more logical he guessed. Seeing no response again the God roared “are you believing now? I am the God, can you deny it?”

Mr. Solaiman: Don’t mind, I am an atheist, I don’t believe in God

The God: What? Still you do not believe in God? You are standing in front of God, you are talking with him! How you are still denying him? What’s your logic?

Mr. Solaiman: Lack of proof. You are still to prove that you are God.

The God: (Roaring) Proof? Do you know I can do what I wish with you?

Mr. Solaiman felt bit anxious. He had read about Hitler-Mussolini, they did whatever they wished with human. In modern world President Bush did what he wanted. Is this person is another cruel monarch? Why powerful men are often so cruel?

Mr. Solaiman: I know. Somehow I am your captive at this moment, you can do anything. But why would you something cruel? God is supposed to be kind, isn’t it? We can do anything with our pets, but do we torture them? Are we God of our pets? Slavery was common in world a century ago, owner could do just about anything with the slaves, did it make the owners the God of their slaves?

The God: I created you, why don’t you understand?

Mr. Solaiman: Where, when? Show me proof.

The God: If I didn’t create you then who did?

Mr. Solaiman: Sperm came from my father, mother have eggs. When sperm and egg met….

The God: Ok, ok, you don’t need to tell the process. Tell me how the process was done?

Mr. Solaiman: Naturally.

The God: Naturally? Still you won’t confess my power?

Mr. Solaiman: Nature have some definite rules, everything obey those. Science try to find the rules, it don’t acknowledge a God who don’t obey the rules. To create a baby God must go through the process of sperm and eggs, he can make a baby from a stone no matter how hard he tries. Now if someone call these natural laws “God”, I don’t have any problem, but I feel more comfortable to use the term “natural law” because known definitions of “God” have no similarities with it.

The God: No point in arguing. I gave you life in your mother’s womb, you got to believe it.

Mr. Solaiman: How? I told how human is born, science proved it. I didn’t see you in time of birth.

The God: No one have memory of that time!

Mr. Solaiman: So talking about that time is futile. I don’t have memory of that time and you are saying ‘I did this, I did that’ on that time, how ridiculous is this? Am I bound to believe these?

The God: Then you won’t get proof of my power ever.

Mr. Solaiman: I don’t think that it’s necessary.

The God: Everything has a beginning, everything need to be created. So isn’t obvious that there is creator?

Mr. Solaiman: No, it’s not like that. Everything is created in natural process. According to your logic, everything must be created. Then who created the God, who created the creator of creator? May be you also lost of memory in time of birth too so you don’t know about your creator!

The God: What? You are so arrogant. I will burn you in hell.

(to angels) Take him to the hottest fire in hell, I will burn him there. But first take him to heaven. Show him what he is missing!

So the angles took him to heaven. Gentle wind, soft music, sweet fragrance…..

Mr. Solaiman felt good when he entered the heaven. The heaven looked like a peaceful garden, more beautiful than the greatest pictures. Mr. Solaiman likes it, because in a place like this he would get plenty of time to think and research peacefully. But as he walked deeper into the heaven, his thought changed. The heaven duelers were surrounded with young girls and plenty of wine. Suddenly heaven began to seem utterly obscene to him. He closed his eyes, though about his loving wife. “Impossible, I can never live here” he thought. There are lots of brothels, sex-shops in earth; he never felt any need to go there. He felt disgusted. After a while he saw some duelers are looking very lackluster and dreary. Young girls are trying their best to excite them, but they don’t seem to notice. Mr. Solaiman asked the angels “what’s the matter?” The angles replied “we don’t know, these guys are the oldest duelers of heaven”. Suddenly everything gets clear to him. There can be nothing called eternal happiness, in fact happiness is relative. Poet said darkness made the light so noble. Same thing has been applied here. Mr. Solaiman felt sympathy for these people, he returned to God with the angels.

It’s true that he was afraid of going to hell but after this experience he doesn’t want to see heaven ever again. Life of earth seemed the greatest of all to him after this. His loving wife, two kids, laboratory, classroom, friends, river and hills everything seemed so nice. Roar of the God disrupted his thoughts “Solaiman, are you ready for the hell?”

Mr. Solaiman: Ready or not, does it really matter?

The God: Don’t you want to go to heaven? Confess that I am the God, you still may get a chance.

Mr. Solaiman: Is it righteous to force someone by showing fear? I am afraid of both heaven and hell!

The God: Ha ha .. You must be punished for your deeds.

Mr. Solaiman: Punishment? What have I done?

The God: You disbelieved the God.

Mr. Solaiman: That can’t be a crime. I didn’t have enough proof to believe in God.

The God: Didn’t a send the noble Book?

Mr. Solaiman: I saw men to write those books, saw the book to be published in man-made printers, didn’t saw the book to be written by something divine, or didn’t see it to fall from the sky. How can I believe the book to be written by God?

The God: This disbelieve is your crime, you must be punished for this.

Mr. Solaiman: But I did many good works in earth.

The God: So?

Mr. Solaiman: I helped the poor; I opened a hospital for them.

The God: So?

Mr. Solaiman: I planted lots of trees to save the climate.

The God: So?

Mr. Solaiman: I took care of wild-animals too.

The God: So?

Mr. Solaiman: Can’t I be rewarded for any of these?

The God: As you denied my existence, all these are valueless.

Mr. Solaiman: It’s not fare. Now I understand God is immoral, justice has no place here.

The God: What? I will send to you to hell right now, you are criticizing me in front of me!

Mr. Solaiman: I have the courage to stand against injustice. I am human, we always stand against injustice.

The God: Human, a tiny creation me, tell me where are you now? Whom you are talking to? Can your science explain it? Hahaha…

Mr. Solaiman: Don’t laugh. At first, I was a bit confused. But now I figured it out, now I know what is happening.

The God: What?

Mr. Solaiman: Everything is my imagination. Before accident I was thinking about these, so it can be called a bad dream, a nightmare.

The God: You are too audacious. I am throwing you to hell now…

Mr. Solaiman: Huh, and I’ll make you disappeared with just a clap.

And as The God was about to throw Mr. Solaiman in hell and Mr. Solaiman was about to clap, everything was dark again…..

When Mr. Solaiman opened his eyes, he found himself in the hospital with oxygen mask in his face, pipes in his nose and some other medical equipment connected with his body. He felt comfortable seeing his wife beside him. He wasn’t told but he knew his kids are anxiously waiting outside the door. Both Heaven and hell after death are actually hell, earth is the real paradise, he thought. He need some rest now. He fell asleep in peace.

Type: Short Story

Original link of Bengali story: http://blog.mukto-mona.com/2009/12/28/4214/