First Grain of Sand — Page 75
SOVIET PRESSURE INTENSIFIES 75 would interrogate me attempted to twist my statements in order to find anything to incriminate me as a political spy. One day, dur- ing the interrogation he asked me whether my religion required me to obey the legally established ruling authority wherever I lived. I replied in the affirmative that indeed this is required. I knew the purpose of his question was to allege that if such obedience is necessary, then I must admit this is the reason I came to spy on the Soviets at the command of the British government. He would not reveal the real purpose of his question and would, instead, hide it. Therefore, he instructed me to put that same affirmative answer in writing. He wrote the question on a piece of paper and passed it to me to write my response and apply my signature. In my response, I wrote that according to my religion, obedi- ence is indeed required; however, if the ruling authority orders me to do something that is forbidden in the religion itself, I am exempt from obeying that order. So I am only obligated to obey orders that do not violate my religion's commandments. For example, if the ruler orders to stop praying, stop fasting, to drink alcohol, or to spy on anyone, I would not do that since these orders violate the Quran's teachings. The Quran has ordered to say Prayers and to fast, while also explicitly forbidding not only alcohol but also spying when it is written: لَا تَجَسَّسُوا ]Spy not] (Sūrah al-Hujurāt, 49:13). I wrote that no matter how forcefully the ruler or government commands, I would not follow such orders. When the prosecutor heard my written response from the interpreter, he became furi- ous and yelled angrily, questioning how I could disobey the ruler's orders to spy on another nation if God grants rulers their power