There is a verse in the Bible that says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13 NIV) It also says that, “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:39 NIV). I raise these verses because I think they are relevant for the times we live in.
I know loving our neighbor is a huge call. And moreso, answering the question of who our neighbor is, is not merely a function of locality. Rather, all humankind are our neighbors.
When Jesus walked the earth, he once told a parable of the Good Samaritan. A parable being an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. In the parable, a man is overtaken by robbers and beaten and left on the side of the road to die. Jesus shared the parable in talking in the context of loving our neighbor. To highlight the point, he talks about a priest, then a Levite, both “religious” men passing by without stopping to offer assistance. But then a Samaritan, one that was viewed as less than by the Jews comes along, stops and renders aid. (Luke 10: 25-37 NIV)
The inference being that everyone is our neighbor and we ought to have concern for one another. Never has this been more important than in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In “The Blind Man’s Garden”, Naheed Aslam uses a multitude of characters to show the depth of love that men and women can and should have for each other. Set in the months following 9/11, the terrorist attacks on American soil, the destruction of the Twin Towers and the attack on the Pentagon. In the novel, Aslam reveals a fictional account of the impact the Afghan war has on one family’s lives.
Published in 2013, “The Blind Man’s Garden” is set between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Aslam’s narrative traverses the depths of humankind’s heart in the novel weaving a beautiful and poignant account of what the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan felt towards the war in Afghanistan, thoughts about the U.S. and the impact the war had on the lives of men and women. Through the account we get not only a war story but a story of love, loss and grief. More importantly we see how concern for the lives of our neighbors, family and friends can influence every choice we make.
I think we see the same thing in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic here in the U.S. For example, mask wearing. Since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued its mask wearing recommendation for the U.S. public in instances where you can not maintain six feet distance between you and any person outside of your household, we have seen a division among U.S. citizens. There are those who follow the CDC recommendation even donning two masks, while others refuse to adhere to the recommendation.
Without warning, something as simple as wearing a mask became a political issue. Something to be fought over. We’ve been asked to do it for our neighbor, if we can’t do it for ourselves.
Yet early on, we have had political figures who refuse to set an example for the U.S. public by consistently following the CDC’s recommendation for mask wearing. This rises to the highest level of the political spectrum with the Trump administration shunning and discounting medical experts and their opinions. There is a trickle down effect that we have to be concerned about.
However, in “The Blind Man’s Garden”, we see a difference. As an example, Jeo, the son of Rohan, the novel’s title character. His mother died when he was a child. Jeo is a young newly married medical student. While Aslam never really highlights Jeo’s political or religious leanings, he does reveal that Jeo is a loving and caring soul. A young man concerned with the sanctity of human life. He is a young man with everything to lose and nothing to gain. Rather than shirk from the possibility of death, Jeo volunteers to go to Afghanistan to help take care of wounded Afghan civilians. Jeo’s journey to Afghanistan was not for himself, but for his neighbor. He saw a need and took steps to do what he knew he could do to assist.
We also see a concern for not only a neighbor but for one’s chosen family in Mikal in “The Blind Man’s Garden”. Mikal was an “almost-brother” to Jeo. Aslam describes the relationship as “This blood-love in everything but name. Mikal was ten years old when he and his older brother came to live at Jeo’s house.” Raised together by Rohan, Jeo and Mikal had been inseparable from childhood with complete trust in one another. Mikal’s father had been a communist who was arrested and presumed dead and his mother had died when Mikal was 10. Rohan took the Mikal and his older brother Bassie in and raised them as his own.
As young men, Mikal and Jeo loved the same woman unbeknownst to Jeo. Jeo doesn’t learn of his wife Naheed’s prior relationship with Mikal until he and Mikal make a fateful trip into Afghanistan. Jeo volunteered to serve his neighbors even though he had only been married 12 months. When Jeo discovers Mikal's stash of love letters from Naheed, his world is shattered on multiple levels.
Still, even the fact that Jeo had married the woman he [Mikal] loved, nothing could stop the commitment that Mikal had for Jeo. Mikal showed himself to be the kind of man who would give his life for his brother but more importantly, he proved to be the type of man that would give his life for his “neighbor”.
As we follow Mikal’s story, we see even after being sold to American’s as a supposed member of the Taliban, Mikal’s duty to Jeo is not broken. While under interrogation time after time Mikal asks after Jeo’s health, seeking the good of his brother.
Further, when asked what he thought of the destruction of the Twin Towers by his interrogator, he says, “It was a disgusting crime.”
Although Mikal ends up killing two American soldiers in fear of his life, we see the love for one’s neighbor when he risks his life to save a wounded American soldier he has found wounded in the desert. Although they are captured by a tribal warlord and Mikal is ultimately released, he goes back to rescue the American soldier.
With their pursuers hot on their tail, Mikal and the wounded soldier are forced to board themselves up in a mosque to call for help. Mikal has seen American soldiers in the area and knows if the soldier can speak over the mosque’s call to worship public address system, that the soldiers will come rescue the American. When the public address system fails to work, Mikal sacrifices a trinket that his love Naheed had given him to remember her by to make the electric connection the system needed to work.
One final example of showing love for one’s neighbor is found in Rohan. A bird pardoner had unscrupulously and dishonestly placed snares to catch birds in Rohan’s beautiful garden without Rohan's permission. A garden that Rohan found great comfort in because it reminded him of his late wife. When the bird pardoner fails to return to take down the snares he had set to capture birds at the appointed time, neighbor boys help to remove the snares. Birds had been suffering and dying for days caught in the snares.
When the bird pardoner finally does return for his snares, he shares that his son has been captured by an Afghan warlord who is demanding ransom for his release. Without the means to pay, the man and his wife are distraught. Rohan, says that he will go with the man to get his boy back. It’s important to note that Rohan is an elderly man, beyond fighting age and is going blind. However, he and the bird pardoner embark on a journey to bring the young man home. The son’s name just happens to be Jeo, the same as Rohan's son whom he loved.
Rohan takes a valuable red ruby that has Koran verses inscribed on it, a jewel that had belonged to his late wife Sofia. Jeo had taken the jewel after his mom’s death and swallowed it. A jeweler appraises the gem at 50,000 rupees, more than enough to pay the 20,000 rupees demanded as ransom for the bird pardoner's son Jeo.
Despite the value the gem held for his family, Rohan plans to use the gem as payment for the boy's ransom. In spite of the risk to his own life, Rohan goes with the bird pardoner into the face of danger to rescue a boy he has never met. All he knows is that the boy is being tortured and he happens to share the same name as his son.
When Rohan sees the number of boys held captive by the Afghan warlord, knowing that he, the bird pardoner and the son have barely made it out of the warlord's compound alive, Rohan with no regard for himself, steps in front of an American tank to try and get a group of American soldiers driving by the warlord's compound to intercede on the other prisoners' behalf.
This is being a neighbor. This is being willing to lay down one’s life for another. This is standing up for justice for what is right. This is what thinking about others looks like.
“The Blind Man’s Garden” really should cause us to examine the ideals that we hold dear. What are we willing to do to help others? What are we willing to do to serve our neighbor? I remember in the days, weeks and months after the Twin Towers the sense of unity Americans had. The sense of looking out for one another even as we fought the War on Terrorism.
What would happen to the death toll of this pandemic if we took on that same unified stance that we had against terrorism in the early days after 9/11 and tackled this pandemic together, as neighbors?
I close with a line from the book that says, “History is the third parent.” If history has taught us nothing, it ought to have taught us that caring for our neighbor is what sustains a society, therefore, we ought to go about doing that if we are to overcome this pandemic.
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