I interrupted her, suggesting that she forgot marriage, economics, science, peace, truth, even Allah, as essential elements in the fabric of our humanity.

      She just grinned. "They are included," she said, "and it becomes your task to figure out how. In real life they are all intertwined, and many aspects have different meanings in different contexts. That makes our scientific self-development as human beings such a wonderful adventure."

      "That might also be the reason why the garden of the Taj Mahal is not a 'closed' garden," said Jamal. "The garden is made up of four groups of four squares, each with four different flowers. Thus, the factor of four is multiply interwoven and represented at different levels, one of which may represent the absolute that we don't know yet, but which we are in the process of discovering. If that stands behind the design of the Taj Mahal, the Taj Mahal is designed to enrich mankind in a scientific dimension, which is really a spiritual dimension, and it is that dimension which satisfies. That's the 'water' that love also protects."

      "Did you realize that the Taj Mahal was built during the brief Islamic period of India?" Astrid interjected. "It is therefore one of the many marvels of the forever ongoing Islamic Renaissance."

      "That is why it is still a focal point for the self-discovery of countless people," said Jamal. "They bring the riches of their love into it as they come from all the corners of the world to stand in awe before the splendor of the garden and the greatest temple to love ever built. The very shape of the Taj Mahal is the shape of love. It is a monument to beauty, care, and sublimity. It inspires love and represents it, and so it enriches our world. Perhaps it is meant to inspire us to reflect these qualities in all aspects, because without love, sex, joy, and beauty coming together in an ever-higher form as a rich presence in our hearts, our civilization is doomed to collapse and vanish. We seem to be told that these elements need to be cultured to come together as a 'sun' that brightens the universe of our humanity. And that, I think, is what civilization is. It is a brilliant human universe created out of the treasures of our humanity."

      "Without that 'sun' that we culture within, we cannot survive," interjected Astrid with a smile that was like a sun itself. "The forces that would unfold without it would destroy us as history has amply shown in the tragedies of the dark times when the sunshine is blotted out and the fire quenched."

      "What the Taj might have been built to represent might yet save us from further tragedies," said Mohja. Then she blushed and continued in a more hushed voice. "One participant in the workshop said during one of the many discussion periods that the shape of the dome of the Taj Mahal gives the structure an intensely feminine feel to it. The woman said that the gently swelling form of the great dome was not only unique in architecture, as it was probably difficult to built, but that it also affected her in a powerful sexual kind of way as if it were erotic by design. That woman's comment caused quite a few protests," said Mohja, "but she defended herself. She told the class that since the Taj is widely regarded as a timeless monument to the grace of Indian womanhood, why then shouldn't it reflect elements of feminine sexuality? And indeed, why shouldn't it for any reason? Sex is an element that unites us across status and wealth, across all cultures, religions and all nationalities. Sex was, and still is, valued by kings and beggars alike, by noblemen and slaves, by priests and congregations, and by people of all vocations and colors, on all the continents on Earth. It was evidently even valued by the great Shaw Jehan who had caused the Taj Mahal to be built for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, his most beloved, who has born him fourteen children and then died at childbirth. Sex was no doubt a factor in all of that, although evidently without the needed care and love that might have prevented her untimely death."

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Stories about War from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche