Hasan

Hasan was orphaned young. He can’t remember when. He only knows he slept on the streets, in corners, and how the street rules meant that if he didn’t stick with the older boys, he would end up alone at night, and the rats and dogs were frightening.

Hasan learned to pick trash. The older boys slapped his hands when he was young. They were kind enough to slap his hands if he tried to put something in his mouth that might hurt him. He was a quick learner. He knew better than to try and take something from an animal. They bite. He knew to always look where he stepped. Sharp things cut.

But then, one day, everything changed. A new priest came to the mosque. On Fridays the boys would sometimes beg there, because good Muslims who care if they go to paradise must give alms. So there were chances of food. This new priest walked very fast and seemed very busy. He was so busy that he started a school for boys from the street. Everyone in the mosque thought this was a good thing, a kindness which would get him a better chance of paradise. And so Hasan found himself on a mat, with a Quran in front of him, memorizing it. The teacher read it and the boys learned it sing song. Hasan didn’t actually learn to read, just to copy. It was quieter in here, and cleaner, and when it rained or was hot, he was safe from the weather. But the teacher beat them with a long rod if they didn’t learn everything. It was like a whip, strong and fierce, appearing out of nowhere. Hasan wasn’t sure he didn’t prefer the freedom of the streets, but when he wanted to leave he quickly learned he was not allowed to. This was his place now.

It made him catch his breath and sit near the window, distracted. He hadn’t know they couldn’t get out! And so he learned by rote, but his mind was outside. Once a week they were allowed to go to market and kick a ball in the city square, where the dirt pile was. Hasan lived for these days. In between he was rather naughty. He had no wish to stay and no way to leave. He didn’t like the snake like way the whip hit him and his friends. His sense of justice was aroused, but he had to stuff it inside. Yet he knew he was himself a wicked child, at least according to the teacher.

The teacher also had them practice military exercises every day. He said that they were being trained for jihad. Jihad was holy war for God, he said, and they could earn their way into paradise by either killing infidels one by one or wearing a suicide bomb to kill many. In this way they would become famous men, and if Allah willed it, become rich and be able to take many wives, like the Prophet. He had them practice marksmanship, stabbing, and strapping on bombs. These infidels must be very terrible people for them to need to work so hard! He heard that infidels were people who believed that Jesus was God.

One week, when they were outside kicking the ball they noticed a group forming. Someone was setting up a screen to show a movie on an outside screen. They stayed to watch. This was something new! The generator hummed and as night fell the movie started. It was about Jesus. It showed how he was born. Hasan remembered hearing about that from the Quran. But then the story went on. This Jesus healed people, He cast demons out, He was kind to people, even to women! That was different! He even raised someone from the dead. But then he was caught by the soldiers and killed. Hasan found his cheeks wet, his stomach hurting, and when Jesus looked up from the screen, Hasan felt that He looked right into Hasan’s heart. “I am indeed a very bad boy,” he felt. He remembered times that he had been mean to younger boys, times when he had ganged up on weaker boys to join a beating, just like these soldiers were doing to Jesus. He hung his head.

But then Jesus rose from the dead! Hasan was stunned. He heard his friends around him catching their breaths as well. This was impossible! It was a miracle! And then the men showing the movie explained that Jesus rose from the dead because He was God, and had come as God to earth to take the sins of the world upon Himself, to the cross, and suffer the punishment each of us deserved, so that He could offer to each of us the eternal life that we can’t get on our own. One of them explained that no number of good deeds could earn the way to paradise, because God is completely holy, and only holiness can be in heaven, but that the people who repented of their sins and asked Jesus to wash them, and chose to follow Jesus - these people would be made holy by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

Hasan knew right away that he wanted to follow this Jesus. There was no question. He had seen Jesus look right into his heart, and he, Hasan, knew that he knew that Jesus IS God. He couldn’t explain it. He knew that the people who were showing this film were the very people his teacher had called infidels, and that he had been being trained to kill them. Suddenly he felt the weight of how sinful he was. When the speaker invited them forward, he was at the front of the group. He was on his knees at the front before he realized that his friends were around him. They all felt the same way? He was stunned … and overjoyed. Together they gave their lives to Christ.

Then they had to explain to these strangers that they were bad boys, and had been learning how to kill infidels, and they were sorry. The men quickly understood that these boys needed a safe place to get to. They asked them if they wanted to return to the jihad school, but the boys were adamantly eager to leave.

Hasan and his friends are now in a group home. They have been given mothers, which is such a new experience, and such a delight. There is good food. They often have fun together, and he is learning things he is interested in, like math and sciences and how to read. He hopes to grow up and become a teacher. Already he has found that he is old enough to go along when the movie is being shown and reach out to boys in the crowds, and invite them to choose Jesus.