Divine intervention...

In all the hoop-la surrounding the World Cup final, when the game was tied after a hundred dramatic overs, I missed an after-match interview with England’s captain, Eoin Morgan. Apparently Adil Rashid had reassured his captain, during the match, that “Allah was with us”. I wasn’t aware that God had opted to take sides in a cricketing contest and had helped England to get over the line in one of the tightest finishes that cricket has ever seen. At least I assume this is what is meant by the assertion that “Allah is with us”: giving one team a helping hand in a supernatural way, rather than just being an interested spectator, yelling “C’mon England” and waving a flag of St George.

Morgan went on to ascribe England’s unlikely win as being due to the “rub of the green”. England, he suggested, had the lucky breaks as they chased down the New Zealand total, which seemed to scotch the conviction of Rashid, a Muslim, that there had been any kind of divine intervention. Morgan also went on to say that “to actually find humour in the situation we were in at the time is pretty cool”. Whoah! Rashid didn’t mention Allah in order to make his captain laugh. He presumably believed exactly what he said: that the maker of heaven and earth took more than a passing interest in what was happening at Lords, and had decided to support England rather than New Zealand.

For those who believe - really believe - in the primacy of God’s laws, this is no laughing matter. It may have some of the elements of a joke - an unlikely scenario, stretching credibility, etc - except that it isn’t funny, and there’s no punchline. We often hear that God has intervened in the lives of humankind, which suggests merely that the creator of the universe shares our petty concerns. More to the point, what has he got against the Kiwis?

Drax Power Station, close up...