Poison and Cure

XXIV - Speech

بسم الله
In the name of God
October 8th, 2004 10:48pm
Seol, South Korea, The Concert Hall of Information

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"Praise is to God, we seek His help and His forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allaah from the evil of our souls and from our sins. Whomsoever God guides will never be led astray, and whomsoever God leaves astray, no one can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity but God, the One, having no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

"Most of you may not understand the significance of this beginning, but I believe you may comprehend it by the end.

He glances down at his notes before looking backing up,

"My research of Hawthorne's blood disease was a long and arduous battle. Since 1999, I've been constantly trying to find a cure for this nearly overwhelming fatal ailment, to which there was no cure. At least, no cure that was found or widespread.

"As someone who believes in God, and His religion He sent, Islam, I believe that God has not made a disease except that which He has made a cure. With that motivation in mind, I looked for a cure not to make or create, but a cure to recognise. There were, obviously, many failures for several years of my life, and many flaws in my conclusions."

Oliver is looking around the room in an almost casual way, like he's practising a speech with a friend rather than conveying a speech to hundreds of high-end and ingenious strangers,

"Now, the most recent breakthrough that caused me to be here today was found for only three reasons; Old World medicine, God, and my closest companion.

"God and Old World medicine first. There is a single phrase from over a thousand years ago that has is believed by us Muslims to be from our God-prescribed Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, who said, 'Black seed is a cure for everything except death'. I believe in his statement, which led me to one question: how can I find this cure in one simple ingredient?

"In my journey to find the said cure, which I believed in before it existed, I had a close companion of mine. She was and is a great contributor. Whether wrong or right, she spurred great questions, and answers, and brought the completion and formula of the cure faster than I would have alone.

He's gripping the sides of the podium, leaning forward and close to the mic as he stares through his black eyelashes,

"We are all in the Concert Hall of Information. Of science. Of literature. Of religion. Of discovery and of cure. And of God, Who is granting you such a flawless cure to a devastating disease. You may think I'm talking of God too much in my explanation of it all. But I can tell you I can never do so enough, and to not credit God would be a crime.

"God has done more than any partner scientist. And by God, I swear, the second I cease my rightful devotion, is the time that my solutions or cures will all go to ruin."

He takes a deep, soundless breath,

"This is all I came here to say; to call people to God and to humility, when we as a society can understand that we all start from nothing; if we only admit that we know nothing except what He permits us, and the acceptance of our humanistic limitation, then, and only then, could us as a sinful, prideful society ever reach the heights that you praise me for.

"Thank you all for listening, and I hope that you benefitted even by only a sentence. I appreciate everyone that strives to be better and those that support complete truth, even if against himself. Thank you. Truly."

His creaky, echoing, and confident voice flows to a stop; I stare in awe at the flawed, excessively beautiful man.

People one by one begin to applaud; not a violent applause or anything excessive, but the genuine interest on their faces adds volumes to their polite applause. The expression some have is of people in awe, people of desire, people of curiosity, people of academic hunger; all of which I can see in the eyes of Oliver himself.