I have this probably annoying habit of exclaiming, “Praise be to Allah!” to signal relief. I do it in a variety of languages and at least once a day.
I need to bring some paperwork to campus but I’ve been leaving it at home for weeks. This neurotic game has been going on for at least two months, and today I arrived on campus and had a horrible suspicion that I had left the papers at home yet again. But then I reached into my handbag and discovered the paperwork there.
So I’m standing in the university parking lot, bellowing, “Praise be to Allah!” when a young man approaches me.
“Yes, me, too!” he exclaims. “Muslim! From Pakistan! Muslim! Nice to meet you!!!”
He looked like he had tears in his eyes, so I didn’t want to disappoint.
“Assalamu alaikum!” I said enthusiastically.
“Student?” the man asked.
“Professor,” I said with a quiet dignity that must have looked a bit preposterous in somebody who had recently been speaking loudly to herself in a parking lot and who can’t manage to bring a stupid piece of paper to campus for two months.
“Oh! Oh!” the young man exclaimed, beaming. “This is a GOOD university.”
“The best,” I responded with conviction.
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