Faith as a Means of Survival

This flow traces how prayer, scripture, and religious exchange become sources of endurance, identity, and conflict in detention.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

The Crisis Prayer

Prayer Under Restraint Fear During Rendition While being stripped and shackled for transfer, Slahi could remember only the short crisis prayer “Ya hayyu! Ya kayyum!” He repeated it as he faced an unknown destination. A Private Refuge The prayer gave shape to fear when he had no control over the journey, his body, or his future. Religious memory became a form of continuity amid deliberate disorientation. A Recurring Practice He later returned to the same prayer during detention and interrogation. Its repetition connects moments of terror across countries and years.

Scripture and Conversation

Shared Religious Stories Reading in Captivity In Bagram, Slahi had previously read the Bible in Arabic and could recognize parallels between Biblical and Qur’anic stories. A Christian guard read passages aloud during their conversations. Common Ground They agreed that religious scriptures could share a source, despite differences in belief and knowledge. Slahi valued the opportunity to speak with another person more than winning an argument. Conversation as Relief The exchange did not remove the guard’s authority or Slahi’s confinement. It showed how curiosity could briefly soften an environment otherwise organized around control.

Prayer Forbidden

Faith Made a Target A Ban in Isolation During the special interrogation, Slahi was often prevented from praying, reading the Qur’an, or fasting. Interrogators mocked his religious practice and used its prohibition as part of the pressure. Prayer in the Heart When formal prayer was unsafe, he tried to pray silently. He describes maintaining faith even when he could not orient himself toward Mecca or know whether it was day or night. Coercion and Identity The restrictions made religious practice an explicit site of conflict. His effort to preserve it became an act of inward resistance rather than a public confrontation.

A Qur’an from the Laundry

A Quiet Return An Unexpected Discovery Slahi found a Qur’an in his laundry and took it to his cell. He wondered whether he had effectively stolen it because its presence had not been formally authorized. Testing the Boundaries He had been prohibited from religious practice, and he did not openly ask permission to keep the book. As time passed, he tested whether guards would stop him from praying. A Small Change By the end of July 2004, he prayed under surveillance without being challenged. The change was limited, but it marked a shift from outright prohibition toward a fragile tolerance.

Religious Dialogue

Argument Without Hatred Conversations Across Belief Slahi and an American interrogator discussed Christianity, Islam, salvation, marriage, and the Trinity. They sometimes disagreed sharply but returned to conversation rather than ending the relationship. Mutual Vulnerability Slahi asked questions sincerely and defended his own beliefs without treating the other person’s faith as an enemy. The discussions exposed both the possibilities and limits of understanding across religious traditions. Faith as Human Recognition These exchanges complicate the memoir’s account of conflict: the same detention system that suppressed religious practice also contained individuals willing to discuss belief. Faith becomes both private consolation and a language for encountering another person.

July 2002

August 2002

Summer–fall 2003

July 2004

2004–2005