Religion Aids

Religion aids us to convey our principles from one generation to another, and controls our behavior related to our usual surroundings. It educates us how to understand ourselves in the light of the truth and gives our life a goal and a meaning (Eva, 2010). Even though there are many religions, differing from each other by their principles and believes; but they all lead us to the same purpose. They all answer the questions that humans ask and find that answering them is above their knowledge; why are we here? What happens when I die? How shall I live my life? (Brown, 2006)

According to the books covers we can conclude that religion plays a major role in sequencing the events of the two novels. In "Beirut I Love you: a memoir "written by Zena El Khalil we remark the presence of the cross, mosque, and the stars symbolizing the three essential religion in our society: Christianity, Islam, and Druze. Also in Tayeb Saleh's novel:" Season of migration to the north" the presence of the mosque indicates that religion has a great value in the author's life.

After all the readings we did, it is now time to ask the question: should people live their life blindly attached to the religious values or they should harmonize between their daily life and their religious concepts?

Religion and Sexuality

While reading the story Season of Migration to the North, Mustafa Saaed has the idea of liberating his country Sudan from the British colonization government by his penis. He traveled to England and continued his education there. Mustafa was a good looking man, he attracted the British women and slept with what he could get; and at the end he killed one of his girlfriends (Eva, 2010). The idea of seeking pleasure by making sex, dumping them, and killing is a sin according to the Bible and Koran. This is unacceptable in all the religions of the world. Besides, Binit Majzoub continues having sex even when she used to hear the sound of the prayers coming from the mosque. Many events in the story of Tayeb Salih indicate that the characters of the novel didn't respect the religious values by practicing their sexual life. The two concepts contradict with each other. The above examples, as well as many others, show the denial of religion.

In Beirut, I love You, Zena targets the religious issue from different corners. First of all, Zena as Binit Majzoub didn't cares about the prayers while doing sex. When we met her in her exhibition in Gevenore, El-Hamra; one of my colleagues asked her about this thought, she responded in a humor way, that: "I will not stop and put my cloth on until the prayer finishes." Secondly, in a part of her life, she showed feelings towards a woman called Maya which she used to consider her more than a best friend what made many people think that she is a bisexual but she wasn't, "Please don't tell me you're gay too... I love you too" (El-Khalil, p: 98). This thinking is undesirable in any religion.

Concept of Reincarnation

Reincarnation forms the basic belief of faith in some religion such as Druze .The Druze believe that the days of one's life is fixed, not to be increased or decreased by a single day. Since a Druze considers: "his body a simple robe for the soul, he does not fear death because it is only a tearing of the robe." (Anne, 2006). The Druze believes that reincarnation occurs among all humans at all places and times, and that some may remember previous lives but the majority does not (Anne, 2006). The Druze trusts that as soon as one dies, his soul is directly reincarnated into another body. As an example, if somebody was bad in his previous life, then, his soul returns in the body of a dog. Reincarnation ends when one's soul reaches purification and combines with the Holy One. Hell is the destiny of the soul if it fails to reach this level.

Zena in her book relates that she had two previous lives that she can remember before the one she is experiencing now. In the first life, she was Hussein, a man that lived in Lebanon and traveled to his great love New York and witnessed the Titanic sinking. In the second life, Zena was Asmahan, a singer who tried her best to be famous, but she faced a big oppression from her parents and husband what pushed her to the bad road "the pressure of my conservative family to keep me of the stage"."I began to drink...I began to lie" (El-Khalil,