麻豆社

From writer Abdul-Rehman Malik:

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The knack of flying, mused the late Douglas Adams, is learning how to throw yourself at the ground - and miss. I wish someone had told me that when I was learning how to fly.

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I was six years old and my mother had sown me a Superman costume. It was the real deal: a red velvet cape with matching shorts, a long-sleeved top embossed with the iconic "S" and blue leggings. Ready to battle crime, I would bounce around the house and nearby woods fending off imaginary monsters and stopping runaway trains. But more than anything, I wanted to fly.

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I knew superheroes weren't real, but it didn't make their tales any less mesmerising - or meaningful. My young faith told me that anything was possible through prayer, so that's what I did, pray for angels to come and lift me off my feet and carry me, faster than a speeding bullet, through the air. I reasoned with God, that if I was given superpowers, I'd be able help so many people.

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I am sure there was good reason God didn't want me to fly, but I never lost hope in superheroes. Over the years, Superman was replaced by others, women and men whose lives were more remarkable than anything ever conjured up in a comic book.

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"The people most beloved to God," said the Prophet Muhammad, "are those who are of greatest benefit to others."

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This week mark's 49 years since the assasination of American civil rights leader Malcolm X.听 On Friday I will be in New York City to pay my respects. As I kneel by his grave to say a prayer, I will remember a man born into violence and tragedy, who overcame poverty, criminality and hatred to become an enduring voice for justice. Malcolm was often called a radical. His ideas made people uncomfortable, and to some he was, and still is, quite controversial, and although I know he wasn't perfect I like to think he was militant in his pursuit of freedom.

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My son now jumps around in a Superman t-shirt. He too pretends he can fly. I hope he never loses that sense of imagination and possibility. In time I hope he too will look up to people like Malcolm X. He'll realise like me that real supermen soar, even as their feet are firmly planted on the ground.