Do Intercessory Prayers Work?
the good men there would be virgins (a term whose meaning I was not too sure about), and for the naughty ones hell’s fire. Those were the days of General Ayub Khan, and with the dictator there had descended upon Karachi’s mosques hordes of unenlightened clerics. The prayers always ended with the congregation raising their cupped hands as the Imam entreated the Lord to release the Kashmiris from evil hands, free Palestine , bless our parents and elders, make everyone happy and prosperous, with hum of Ameen from the supplicants at the end of each request. There was always the chance during the whole ritual for everyone to ask God for a personal favor. That’s when I sneaked in a request for high marks in class exams, though much of the dua ritual seemed long-winded to me. Before long I realized from my report card that the Almighty had better things to attend to than listen to a lad in Karachi. This was about the time that science education, books and film documentaries had raised doubts
