Day 17 - Madrassahs

 A clear high voice sustained the closing chorus, making the word anār (pomegranate) lilt and bubble over the packed audience with hypnotic effect. Thunderous applause drowned out the last notes. As usual, the tiny boy was ushered off the stage before the main preaching sessions began. 

 Anwar had known it as soon as he had heard the other boys in the Madrassah practice singing tranā - that he could do it better. His mother had taught him all the songs she knew, and it hadn’t taken long for the other boys to find out that the new refugee orphan boy from Afghanistan had a sweet voice. The Mullah soon had him performing the tranā to open all their functions. Dressed in immaculate turban and made up with dark eye-liner, Anwar became a sought after voice. The attention did something to numb the sadness of his loss, and yet he still longed to be held by his mother rather than paraded around like this by strange men. 

He was a teenager before the doubts had come. Was the Prophet really my friend? Only he knew that his songs were now sung without conviction. He longed to sing a new song, but who would show him? 

 

Pray that:  

• God will reveal himself to the estimated one and half million students at more than 10,000 Madrassahs, many of whom are orphans, who are being trained as the next generation of Mullahs.
• Students like Anwar to see through the shallowness of their indoctrination and burst forth into new song.
• There will be a joyous reception of the recently released trāna version of John’s Gospel.

 

John 8:32 You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.