Islamic passage used as evidence in Lodi terror-related case may have deeper meaning

It was nothing more than a scrap of paper pressed into the billfold of an ordinary men's wallet. On it were a few words, scribbled in Arabic, a language reportedly familiar to the note's owner, 22-year-old Hamid Hayat.

"We put You at their throats," one part of it read. "We seek refuge with You from their evil."

Those words are historically thought to have come from the lips of the Islamic prophet Muhammad at a time when he was afraid of a group of people.

Now, more than 1,000 years later, those same words are a key piece of evidence in a federal trial against Hayat, who was arrested June 6 and later charged with lying to agents about his connections with a terrorist training camp in his native Pakistan.

Prosecutors consider that one piece of paper an important component of their case against the Lodi man.

The passage was translated as reading, "Let us be at their throats" -- which Hayat's attorney, Wazhma Mojaddidi, claims to be a misinterpretation of the sentiment behind the saying.

"It literally says, 'We put You (Allah) at their throats," Mojaddidi wrote in a July 15 filing. "The expression ... does not, in Arabic, have the blood-curdling connotation that it has to English speakers' ears."

In an interview Tuesday, Mojaddidi, who is herself Muslim, added that that one passage is usually carried by Muslims when they are afraid of someone or something. She said she, herself, once carried Islamic texts for good fortune, though she now puts more faith in recitation of prayers.

Most Islamic scholars, however, were not familiar with that particular text, but did attest to the practice of carrying religious words for good luck.

While Hayat's attorney could not speak for the her client's state of mind on the day of his arrest, she said he knew, when he woke up, that he would be interviewed by FBI agents.

Many Islamic scholars consulted on the cultural importance of the passage said they believed it likely would have come from the hadith, a voluminous collection of accounts on the life and sayings of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.

Baki Tezcan, a UC Davis professor of Islamic history, said did not know the specific hadith found in Hayat's wallet.

Tezcan added that the act of carrying supplications for specific circumstances is widely practiced in many Muslim communities.

People usually seek hand-written prayers from local holy men to carry with them for good health and luck in personal matters. Ordinarily, the paper is folded up many times into a triangle small enough to fit in a locket. Businesses also sometimes display religious texts as hopes for prosperity, Tezcan said.

"I used to carry something very small in my change purse," he said. "My mom gave it to me and told me I should carry it -- I don't know what it said."

Though more conservative Muslims frown on the practice as a kind of idolatry, most local Muslims believe in the positive power of carrying written passages.

Eide Alawan is an outreach coordinator for the Islamic Center of America in Detroit. Alawan said he was not familiar with the details of the Hayat case, but did say that the real reason Hayat was carrying the passage may not be something that makes sense to non-Muslims.

"He may understand it in a way that's not translatable into English," Alawan said.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, he added that Allah is commonly refereed to by Muslims as being closer to a person than his own jugular vein. While that may be a harsh image in English, it means that a person's God is closer and more vital to them than their own life blood -- something that is much more natural to Muslims, Alawan explained.

Malik Ahmad, a member of the Lodi Muslim Mosque, agreed that the paper in Hayat's wallet was not likely a veiled threat to another person, but a sentiment of protection between a man and his god.

Ahmad added that he carries, in his wallet, words of protection that he got from a friend for the same purpose.

"It has nothing to do with other people," Ahmad said. "It's like when you're scared and you say, 'Oh God, save me' -- it's just protects me from my enemies."

Like Alawan, Ahmad believes that the words of on the scarp of paper found in Hayat's wallet may have been turned against him by prosecutors or the media.

"He's just trying to get closer to the Lord," Ahmad added.

Contact reporter Sara Cardine at sarac@lodinews.com.