A Muslim wrote a letter to the editor of the Jammat newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to Mosque every Friday.
"I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me I can't remember a single one of them. So I think I'm wasting my time . . . and the Imaam they are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."
This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the dismay of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:
"I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But for the life of me, I cannot recall what the menu was for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: they all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me those meals, I would be dead today."
No comments were made on the sermon contents anymore.
"The lips of the righteous nourish many . . ."