It was a surprise visit. Someone knocked and when I opened the door I saw two men with long beards wearing shalwar qamees standing outside. The tall man looked like a Pathan from Frontier Province in Pakistan and the short man appeared to be from Karachi. I had never seen them before.

“Assalamoalaikum!” they said.

“Walaikum assalam,” I responded.

“Are you Dr Sohail?” the short man asked.

“Yes, I am.”

“Can we talk to you for a few minutes?”

I invited them in not knowing who they were and or what their intentions might be. The tall man started communicating in broken Urdu and when I responded in Pushto he was pleasantly surprised. I told him that I had grown up with Pathans as I used to live in Kohat and Peshawar. His name was Afrasiab and the short man’s name was Fayyaz.

            Fayyaz shared that he was the ameer (leader) while Afrasiab was naib ameer (assistant) of Tableeghi Jamaat, a group that preaches door to door in Pakistan like the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Canada. They were visiting Canada from Pakistan for four months, seeking out Muslim families to spread the word of God and the message of Islam. They had started their spiritual journey in Ottawa and were moving from town to town. They had stayed in Ajax the night before and wanted to stay in Whitby this particular night and then move on to Oshawa. They travelled by foot.

“How can I help you?” I asked.

“Can we stay with you for a night? You are the only Muslim we have found in Whitby.”

I did not ask them who had given them my name and address and how they knew I was a Muslim other than my Muslim-sounding name.

“How many are in the group?”

“There are nine of us,” they responded.

I showed them my two guest rooms. One had a double and a single bed and the other had a single bed. I had never had nine unexpected guests before. They said they did not mind sleeping on the floor in the living room as they carried their sleeping bags with them.

“And what about food?”

“We have a van and driver who travels ahead of us and carries our luggage and all our pots and pans to the next destination.” I realized they were not only committed to their cause but also quite organized.

            I provided them with an extra key to my penthouse and gave them my blessing to live there and cook their meals and feel at home while I was working in the hospital. I told them they were more than welcome to stay overnight in my humble hut.

            The next day I stayed late at work and went for a long drive to put in time and when I came home at 7 p.m. they were all waiting for me. They received me as if they were the hosts and I the guest. I was shocked to see all the pictures and statues in my living room covered with bed sheets. It seemed as though they would have liked to whitewash my penthouse. Their faith seemed to be threatened by those innocent nude statues and colorful pictures.

            The ameer introduced me to all of the members. Most of them were middle-aged men with beards but there were two young clean-shaven men who appeared to be university graduates. They shared with me their tradition of waiting to eat dinner until the host arrived. Their cooking impressed me and I enjoyed a nice homemade dinner with lamb curry and rice. During dinner I told them a few jokes and kept the discussion lighthearted, as I did not want to get into a heavy religious debate.

            After dinner the ameer told me that he and his assistant wanted to talk to me in privacy. I took them to my bedroom. I asked them to be careful when they sat down as I had a waterbed. They had never heard of or seen a waterbed and were shocked that people put water in their beds. For them it was an absurd idea. I told them it was a romantic idea. Ameer said, “But you are a single man.” I smiled and said, “Single does not mean celibate”. He did not feel comfortable pursuing that theme so he changed the subject. As they climbed onto the bed they fell over and I could not help smiling. I suggested they sit first and then move over. It was obvious they were in virgin territory.

            After awkwardly sitting on my waterbed the assistant ameer gave me a long sermon about God and Islam and the blessings of being a good Muslim. I listened patiently for half an hour and then gently said, “I do not believe in Islam.”

“Then what is your religion?” He looked shocked.

“I do not have one,” I responded.

“ Are you a Christian?”

“No.”

“Are you a Jew?”

“No.”

“Are you a Sikh?”

“No.”

“Are you a Hindu?”

“No.”

“You must have a religion.”

“No, I do not.”

“I have never met a man who has no religion.” He looked bewildered.

“Now you are meeting one.”

“Do you believe in God”?

“No I do not.”

“So you are a kaffir, an atheist” He appeared appalled at the

idea.
         ”Yes, a proud atheist. ”

“Then why did you let us in and invite us to stay?”

“Because you knocked on my door and wanted to stay and I welcomed all of you as you belong to my homeland, my community and my country. You are my guests.”

“But you know we are Muslims spreading the word of God.”

“I am a humanist. For me you are human beings and religion is your private matter. I might disagree with you but still respect you.”

He was speechless.

At that point in the conversation the ameer took over and shared a Jewish story with the assistant to calm him down. He knew his assistant was in no man’s land, never having come face to face with a generous humanist. The ameer said, “Once when Moses was traveling in the desert, he stopped for the night and was about to have dinner when a stranger appeared. He told Moses he was hungry. Moses asked him to join him. As they sat down to eat Moses asked him to join him in offering thanks to God for the food. The guest said he did not believe in God. That made Moses very angry. He shouted at him and told him how ungrateful he was to his Creator. The guest remained quiet. Moses asked him to leave, as he was not going to dine with an atheist. The guest left.

            Then God spoke to Moses, asking him, “How old was the traveler?”

“Maybe fifty years old,” replied Moses.

God said, “He does not believe in me but I fed him for fifty years and you could not feed him for one meal. Go and apologize to him. All human beings are my children whether they believe in me or not.”

The ameer was trying to make me feel comfortable, and I was pleased by his attempt. Then we came back to the living room and I shared with all of them that I used to attend Thursday evening meetings of Tableeghi Jamaat as a teenager in Peshawar but then I left the group and finally left the religious tradition altogether. I told them I had written a book in Urdu titled Bhagwan, Eman, Insan (God, Faith, Human Being) sharing my philosophical journey, and that I was working on my next book in English, From Islam to Secular Humanism. The older people looked puzzled while the two young men were full of intelligent questions about my journey from believer to non-believer.

            They left the next day. But the day after, the two young men called me and told me that although they were not allowed to visit anyone without the permission of their ameer, they wanted to sneak away to visit me again as they were fascinated by my ideas. I invited them for a cup of tea and another discussion, and gave them my book as a gift. They gave me their phone number and address in Pakistan, so I could send them my next book From Islam to Secular Humanism. They told me honestly that the more they got involved in preaching the more disillusioned they had become with religious dogma. They said that they wished my ideas were available to young people in Pakistan so that they would not be brainwashed by blind faith. I wondered whether their ameer regretted visiting my home and exposing his students to the rational dialogues of a humanist.