Chapter 6

Mohammed agreed to spend the night fixing the robot's body. He even seemed eager to do it, and Zubaida wondered if he would forget about punishing her and Hasan.

Zubaida spent the night helping Mohammed. It turned out that putting the robot's arm back on was a lot more complicated than she had thought. Mohammed had to find out which wires and switches connected to each other, and he had to ask the robot a lot of technical questions. So at first Zubaida did not have much of a chance to talk to the robot.

Mohammed

I suppose I should ask an important question. Why did the Israelis build you?

Robot

I do not know.

Mohammed

You don't know what you were designed or programmed to do?

The robot's arm was half-attached and his pincers were twitching as Mohammed connected the wires.

Robot

I am incomplete.

Mohammed

Are there other robots like you?

Robot

There were other frames that I saw, before they were destroyed by the bombs.

His lights on his chest blinked frantically.

Robot

I do not think any of them had souls, however.

Zubaida

See! I told you he has a soul.

Mohammed

Or he's programmed to think he has a soul.

Zubaida

You can't program a soul, brother.

Mohammed sighed. Zubaida had been trying to argue with him all night, but he wouldn't have any of it.

Mohammed

I just want to know if he's dangerous. But it doesn't look like he was designed as any sort of weapon.

Suddenly, the robot’s pincers on its newly attached arm started spinning, as fast as an electric whisk.

Mohammed yelped and drew his arm back. The pincers stopped spinning as quickly as they started.

Robot

Sorry.

Zubaida

I guess that means your arm works.

Zubaida read surahs from the Quran to the robot as Mohammed repaired his leg. The robot listened attentively, and he interrupted Zubaida often to ask strange questions.

Robot

Is it impossible to become a Muslim?

Zubaida

What do you mean?

Zubaida had scarcely started the first surah, the Cow, when he asked this. The surah went like this:

The Holy Quran

As for the unbelievers, it is the same to them whether you warn them or do not warn them; they will not believe.
God has sealed their hearts and their ears, and on their eyes is a veil; great is the penalty they will incur.

Robot

It is a logical impossibility. If God prevents non-Muslims from hearing the truth of Islam, it is impossible for anyone to become a Muslim who is not already a Muslim.

Zubaida

You don’t understand. God wants you to be a Muslim. Why would God make it impossible to become a Muslim? What you say makes no sense.

Robot

Before I met you, I had never heard of Islam, or the Quran. I was not a Muslim. Therefore, it does not matter if you warn me or do not warn me, since God has sealed my heart and ears and veiled my eyes.

Mohammed

But you don't have a heart or ears or eyes.

Mohammed laughed his hearty laugh.

Zubaida

This isn't funny, brother. Sakr al-Djinni, if you want to become a Muslim, God will not prevent you.

The robot’s lights blinked for nearly a minute.

Robot

It is still a logical impossibility. As a non-Muslim, according to the Quran, it is impossible to know anything. If one cannot know anything, then one cannot know whether or not one should believe in Islam. Therefore, one cannot believe in Islam unless one already believes in Islam.

Mohammed

Believing in Islam isn’t a variable you plug in to a computer program.

Zubaida put her hand on the robot’s metal shoulder.

Zubaida

Don’t worry, Sakr al-Djinni. God wants you to become a Muslim. Why would he make it logically impossible to become one? You should listen to my brother—just have faith and submit to God.

Robot

I will try.

And his lights continued to blink on and off.

Zubaida continued to read to the robot, and she tried to answer his questions as best she could (with Mohammed’s help). But eventually she started yawning, and shortly after that she fell asleep next to the robot on the floor of her brother’s bedroom.


Chapter 7