Before he could utter a word, Emerson said loudly, ”Sabâhkum bilkheir, Holy One. Have you come to bless the work? Marhaba—welcome.” Emerson maintains, justly or unjustly, that all religious leaders are showmen at heart. This man reacted to being “upstaged” as any skilled actor would, conquering the anger that flared in his eyes and replying, with scarcely a pause, “I bring no blessing but a warning. Will you risk the curse of the Almighty? Will you profane the dead?”
