Friendship. I have heard it said that a true friend is the rarest person on
earth. I may be inclined to agree with that. In the Malay language, the word
for friend is “Kawan“. This past month I have spent a good amount of my time
interacting with locals at a place called “Kawan“, which is a drop-in center for
anyone who wants a meal, a conversation, a shower, or a place to wash their
clothes. It has been very rewarding to sit down with men from different
backgrounds and hear their stories.
Malaysia is a cultural melting-pot of sorts. There are the Malay people, some of whom are indigenous tribal people. Then you have your people of Chinese descent, or Indian descent. There are also African students. In addition to that, there are many Americans, Europeans and Middle Eastern people in the city.
…
On one occasion, our team had spent the day at a local beach called Batu Ferringhi. We ate
dinner and walked around the night market there. As we were waiting for the
bus, an interesting man walked up to the bus stop. He was smoking and wearing a
sleeveless shirt and short athletic shorts. He looked like he might have come
from the gym or just gotten out of bed. He started asking me in broken English
if the bus would take him to “Penang Central.” I wasn’t sure what he meant, but
I managed to tell him that it was a 45 minute bus ride to the center of the
city. That seemed acceptable to him.
He sat down next to me and asked me where I was from. I told him America and
asked him the same. He said he was from Iran. Then he said, “Our governments
do not get along.” I had to agree. Then he asked me if Americans really drive
on the right side of the road. We ended up talking for a little while. I asked
him if he spoke Farsi and he said, “Yes, do you?” I said no, then he asked if I
spoke Arabic. So, I shared with him the one phrase I knew, “Salaam alaikum.”
He nodded and repeated a phrase in Arabic, which I didn’t catch. I asked his
name and he said, “Mohammed.” I tried to imagine what it was like for him in
middle school with that name.
We eventually parted ways, but that conversation got me thinking. Can I be
friends with a Muslim from Iran? It is easy in American culture nowadays to be
anti-Iranian. It’s also easy to be anti-Muslim. In fact, it seems that if
you’re American you have to be anti-something. Can I embrace an Iranian Muslim
as a friend? Can I have a positive, constructive relationship with someone that
I am ideologically opposed to? The answer is
absolutely YES.
The heart of my faith is a message that says a Distinctly Holy, Perfect,
Incomprehensibly Infinite God wanted a friendship with me. So he bridged the
gap of heaven and earth and did everything necessary for that relationship to
exist. The good news of Jesus Christ is that God turns his enemies into his
friends. Therefore there is no such thing as an enemy, only potential friends.
During my time here in Malaysia, I am learning to embrace the paradoxical aspect
of the faith, extending an open hand of friendship to those that the world says
should be your enemies and then saying to them, “Salaam aleikum“, “Peace to
you.”
