**So, this is a story I wrote for my Islamic Visual Cultures class. I'll let you know next week if I passed. PS It is meant to be a children's story.
Amaar stood outside the large gleaming blue and gold building. He knew this place well, for he had been coming here since his childhood. The building was beautiful – Amaar had always thought that – yet it was so different from most other buildings he had seen. It was within the walls of this very building that Amaar had decided that he wanted to become and architect. When his mother asked him, “Why an architect?” he replied with, “I want to build buildings as beautiful and significant as the Dome of the Rock and the Taj Mahal!” Though, at the time, that answer seemed perfectly sound, now that he was standing so close to the beautiful building, he couldn’t figure out why it was shaped so differently. Amaar decided right then and there that he would solve this mystery and that when he did, he would be able to build buildings just like the Dome of the Rock and the Taj Mahal! With new resolve, Amaar began walking into the Dome of the Rock, hoping to find someone who could answer his questions.
~*~
Sophie roamed the halls of the Dome of the Rock almost as confused as when she first arrived nearly three hours ago. She had left her home in Burlington, New Jersey only two days before with the hopes of finding some sort of connection between the more common religions in America, such as Catholicism and Mormonism and that of the Muslims. She had figured that since the Dome of the Rock was the holiest place in Jerusalem, she would start there – however, it was not proving to be as helpful as she thought it would be. Finally, after deciding that she would try again tomorrow, Sophie left the cool comfort of the Dome of the Rock without even bothering to put all the books and papers she was carrying into her backpack. Squinting in the bright light of the sun, Sophie tried to hurry through the maze of people wandering outside the Dome of the Rock, wanting to get home as soon as possible. However, before she could get very far, she tripped! All the books and papers she had been carrying flew from her arms and scattered all around her. Embarrassed and slightly angry with herself, she began to pick up all of her belongings, only to notice a young boy helping her.
“Thank you for your help.” She said to the boy as she reached for the book he was holding. The boy however, did not hand her the book. Sophie then noticed that the book was flipped open to a page comparing a Mormon temple and a Catholic cathedral and that the boy was staring very intently at the two buildings
“They are beautiful buildings, aren’t they?” She said when she realized that the boy must be interested in them.
“Their shapes are very curious.” replied the boy.
“Yeah, most religious buildings in America are a bit different from other buildings – just like the Dome of the Rock. You don’t really see very many octagonal buildings, do you?” asked Sophie.
The young boy then told her that his name was Amaar and that he wanted to know why these buildings were shaped so differently. Sophie agreed to help Amaar, hoping that some of her own questions might get answered as well.
~*~
Amaar decided that the best place to start would be with one of his favorite teachers from school. Mr. Khalil had been teaching math at the local school for several years. He was particularly fond of Amaar, and agreed to help him and Sophie with their quest.
Mr. Khalil looked at the pictures of the LDS temples, Catholic Cathedrals, the Dome of the Rock, and the Taj Mahal trying to find some sort of reoccurring theme in all the oddly shaped buildings. For a long time he looked at the pictures of the buildings from the three different religions. Then, after what seemed like hours to Amaar and Sophie, Mr. Khalil finally looked up at the two of them, a huge smile adorning his face. The thing he did next slightly shocked the two students, for it was something neither of them would have even thought about doing. Mr. Khalil took a ruler and a black marker from one of the drawers in his desk and drew a thick black line down the middle of each of the buildings.
“Do you know what this means?” Mr. Khalil asked Amaar and Sophie.
“That I’m going to have to pay the library for these books?” asked Sophie, slightly worried.
“It means that all of these buildings are symmetrical!” replied Mr. Khalil. “See? Each building is exactly the same on each side of the black line!”
Mr. Khalil was clearly excited about this discovery, yet Amaar and Sophie were still very confused.
“I read this article a couple days ago,” Mr. Khalil said. “It explained that unity is the principle meaning behind symmetry.”
“That means that the architects of these buildings didn’t just come up with weird designs! They were using architecture to represent unity in their religions!” exclaimed Amaar.
“All three of these religions use geometry, symmetry, and unity in their architecture! I’ve found the connection I’ve been looking for!” rejoiced Sophie.
~*~
And so it was. Amaar went on to discover that the Dome of the Rock was built by Muslims on Temple Mount following the conquering of Jerusalem after a four hundred year Christian rule. It was built in the shape of an octagon to represent the power of unity in the Islamic religion. Amaar also learned that the Taj Mahal was built symmetrically to respect the Emperor Shah Jahan’s dead wife and to show the unity of the two lovers. He went on to become a very influential Islamic architect.
Sophie went back home to Burlington and was able to explain to all of her friends and family that the Islamic religion is not that different from the more common religions in America. She went on to become a professor of “Religions throughout the World” at a college close to her home. Oh, and she did end up paying for those library books.
