In turn, Ahmad has his own conflicted reading of the world, the Quran, and the hadiths, which strives for certainty but which secretly craves the "get out clause" that will allow him to abort his mission and save himself from a martyrdom in which he only half believes. Instrumental in his ability to question are the lessons he receives from his imam, Shaikh Rashid. Rashid is usually read as a negative character, and in his final appearance, as Ahmad's qualms grow, he is described as looking "disagreeable" and "ugly" (266, 271). However, he is the one who inserts strategic questioning into the lessons he gives Ahmad, challenging literalist interpretations of the scriptures. He alerts his young charge to possible imperfections in the Quran, caused by human error and misunderstanding. The version of the Quran handed down to us is "in sore need of interpretation," he states, "and interpretations, in the course of fourteen centuries, differ" (105). Ahmad responds with concern: he feels a chasm opening under him. As Rashid takes him through the points of potential dispute, he is, in fact, offering Ahmad an important lesson in critical reading, a skill that effectively brings Ahmad to the point where he can, in the final pages, reject the path of martyrdom prepared for him by others.

DEFINE: Rashid's role illustrates 'critical reading' — questioning literalist, handed-down interpretations through attention to interpretive history and human fallibility.

Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, loc. 141