How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #1
It was on one such occasion, waking up in the middle of the night and lying still, listening for Nanny's breathing, that I saw my guardian angel, the angel that, Nanny had told me, was always there to protect me. It looked something like a moonbeam, standing still, touching the mosquito net by the foot of the bed. I did not dare put my head outside the mosquito net to get a better view, lest I drive it away. (51)
Ahmed shares several mystical experiences with us in this work. Most of them are encounters with the spirit world that are well outside the bounds of accepted religious beliefs (check out her experiment with "automatic writing"). But this time, she's having an encounter with a bona fide angel—or at least, so it seems to her. Nanny isn't a Muslim and is very careful not to evangelize Ahmed, yet guardian angels are common ground for both of them and a lovely, gentle way to share spirituality between them.
Quote #2
She was scrupulous about not inculcating us with Christianity, and she would say, too, that this was always something of importance to her, never to influence us in the slightest degree toward Christianity. And she always spoke of Islam with the same respect that she spoke of her faith. Moreover, though her Bible included pictures of Jesus and Mary, when she spoke of her beliefs she spoke only of God, Le Bon Dieu, and God was the same, she said, whatever religion you were, whether Muslim, Christian, or Jewish. (62-63)
Ahmed remembers how careful Nanny was to respect the religious differences between them. It's really remarkable how Nanny refrains from evangelizing her, especially in light of later experiences that Ahmed will have with other Christians in her life. This makes Nanny a stand-out character in a story full of colonial powers, oppressive religious beliefs, and intellectual secularists who are out to shame Ahmed for her beliefs. Nanny's understanding of a unified Bon Dieu is something that Ahmed comes to understand years later after meeting Veena and discussing Hinduism.
Quote #3
Nevertheless, this matter of different religions was not, for a child, entirely comprehensible and was capable of inducing considerable anxiety, particularly when I was confronted with the assertions the servants made on the subject of Christians. For if God was the same God for all of us, then why were we different, why weren't we all Christians or Muslims or Jews? (63)
Although Ahmed later comes to appreciate the multi-religious community of Cairo in her youth, she does suffer some serious confusion as a child. Her parents' responses to her questions are completely unsatisfactory, and the chatter of the servants (all non-Muslims are going to hell) terrifies her. It's a difficult situation for a young person trying to figure out the world around her.