By Cozette Calderon
“Reciting the Holy Book”
By Mo H. Saidi
Mother recited the Koran every night.
None of us knew what those words meant.
She persuaded us to pray every day.
She would frighten us,
“You’ll go to Hell otherwise.”
Near the mosque I was born.
Reciting aloud the muezzin kept us
awake all night. Mother said, this was
God’s call, and we would suffer
forever if we didn’t respond.
She paid us to recite the Holy
Book, “So you’ll go to Heaven,”
she’d cry out. When she saw
that we ran away instead
she prayed for us every night.
She brought a mullah who called
us pagans because we read Hugo
and Hemingway, played chess and listened
to Mozart. We kicked a ball
and played soccer in the courtyard.
Our father dismissed the bigot quietly
told us, “That is an ignorant fool:
go to school and read Hedayat and Ferdowsi.”
That mullah is now the Grand Ayatollah
who resides in the Shah’s palace.
At first glance, Saidi’s poem “Reading the Holy Book” is focused heavily on religion, discussing Muslim officials and parental influence in rearing children with religion. Though religion is clearly a theme that informs the structure of the poem, there are deeper and relatable concepts that one can harvest from Saidi’s words without having a religious background. Saidi uses his personal narrative about his mother guiding his religious path to tie such an experience to a broader idea of parental control over children’s lives. Through the use of comparing and contrasting his parents, Saidi sets up the main idea that parents can impede on children’s freewill, only harming their futures. Such concepts are what this analysis will focus on in an attempt to connect multiple groups of people to poetry, deconstructing the idea that poetry is for a select few to relate to and enjoy.
Saidi starts the poem with constructing the image of his mother forcing religion upon him and his siblings (which we assume he has from his use of ‘us’ we see throughout the poem instead of just ‘I’ or ‘me’). Saidi states that his mother “persuaded us to pray every day,” and he continues on to further amplify the harsh image of his mother by saying that her persuasion technique was sparking fear into the young kids by telling her they would end in Hell if they did not pray.
If one merely glances over the poem, the mother appears as somewhat cruel. However, when one analyzes her motivation behind using such tactics, one may find that her exigence for persuading her children is pure, even if her actions don’t match such a description. Saidi’s mother doesn’t want her children to go to Hell or to suffer, so she resorts to methods of bribery or sparking fear in them to persuade them to pray, which is what the mother believes is necessary to help them avoid Hell. This dimensional image of the mother is the segue that helps us understand Saidi’s first point: A parent may have good intentions but impede on children’s freewill as a means of dragging the kid to the end goal. Saidi’s mother does not spark fear in the children for the sadistic reason of doing so but rather to try and help her children reach the “end goal” that she believes is Heaven. However, regardless of how fantastic the outcome of a parent’s forcefulness is, children are their own individuals and should be reared with their freewill in mind.
Children eventually grow to become adults and must be able to stand on their own and be able to navigate the world. If a parent constantly has to bribe their child to do the correct thing, the child is merely learning they get rewarded for poor behavior. However, if parents teach their kids that force will be used if they do not follow someone else’s wants, parent’s are only teaching their children to be doormats.
In the final stanza, Saidi juxtaposes his mother and his father. After Saidi’s mother has a mullah (a Muslim official who leads a mosque or a Muslim who is skilled in Islamic theology and sacred law) meet with Saidi and his siblings to examine their lives, the mullah calls the kids ‘pagans’ because of their interests in soccer, chess, and literature. Saidi’s father rejects this title, encouraging his children to pursue their interest in literature, but even then the father encourages an addition to the kid’s hobbies by not only suggesting western authors—like Hugo or Hemingway but authors like Hedayat and Ferdowsi who are Iranian and Persian authors, respectively. A twist comes in the last two lines when Saidi tells us that the mullah had gone on to become the “Grand Ayatollah who resides in the Shah’s palace.” The Grand Ayatollah is a religious leader who is greatly revered, often who is a part of the clergy (Momen, Moojan (1985), An Introduction to Shiʻi Islam: The History and Doctrines of Twelver Shiʻism, Yale University Press). The Shah’s palace is a famous structure in Iran. What this reveal shows is that the “bigot,” according to Saidi’s dad, has now become a greatly revered person in Iran. Still, regardless of how great the mullah was or how great he became, the father chooses to support his children, which is in contrast to the mother who—at least in the poem—is silent about her children being called “pagans” for simply having hobbies. Saidi’s mother ignores her children’s wishes, simply pushing her dream future for them onto them, instead of being like the father who tries to expand on his children’s dreams by offering different authors for them to pursue studying, helping to broaden their future.
The majority of parents want the best for their children, but the way to help children is to guide them—not bribe them. Saidi’s poem, while relatable to those who have been raised in a religious household, still has a larger purpose of reminding parents that loving and wanting the best for your child means guiding and not just leading them. Further, Saidi reminds children that when parents are impeding on their freewill, it is often not out of cruelty but a belief that they have the answers. With this poem, Saidi helps children walk beside their parents to allow a companionship instead of a disconnected dictator and peasant relationship to continue.
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