Getting Religion

Mirza Saeed Akhtar put his palms against a wall of his wife's bedroom and pressed his forehead against the plaster. After a long pause he said: 'If it is a question of performing umra then for God's sake let's go to town and catch a plane. We can be in Mecca within a couple of days.'
Mishal answered, 'We are commanded to walk.'
Saeed lost control fo himself. 'Mishal? Mishal?' he shrieked. 'Commanded? Archangels? Mishu? Gibreel? God with a long beard and angels with wings?' [...] He began to cry, and fell on to his knees, with his forehead still pressed against the wall. His dying wife came up and embraced him from behind. 'Go with the pilgrimage, then,' he said dully. 'But at least take the Mercedes station wagon. It's got air-conditioning and you can take the icebox full of Cokes.'

Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (London: Vintage, 1998 [1988]), 239.