"He directed Himself to the heaven… and He knows all things.” [Qur'an 2:29]

I saw something reborn today. Turning away from the smoldering remains of religion and knowledge, I regarded the monolith. Neglecting the faithful and the ignorant, the giant protector had allowed the unthinkable to occur. Thirteen floors high, the only defense from eternal damnation had abandoned its city, and its reasons were clear to no one but me:

The tower itself had been abandoned.

Not by the human filth who inhabited it, defiling the walls with grime and its beds with copulation. No, they remained, and would remain until eviction by their own demise. This crumbling fortress now lacked its Lord. Exiled or executed, He was gone and there would be no second coming.

I approached the edifice.

Throwing open the flimsy doors, I stepped into the empty lobby, pushing through the gathering crowd floating towards the exit. When the doors to my chariot slid open, I entered and pressed the button for the very top. With the ringing of a bell, I began my ascent.

In that moment I realized who I was not anymore.

I was not the dying man afraid of the sky. Not the guilty offender who gets out early for good behavior. I was not an insignificant looking for someone to come to my rescue. I did not need to be rescued. I was not confined to the sidewalks.

In that moment I realized who I am now.

I am the King in the Tower, the beekeeper. I grant unto the sun. I drive the bus. I am the fallible judge whose every word is law. I burned the seat of the one I followed, and now I am more than Him. I am the watcher, the instigator who remains far off. I am the almighty blinding light, the Almighty.

I am God.

From the penthouse apartment, I gaze down upon my kingdom: frozen, just as I had left it. To thaw it, I have begun a third fire. In the early morning, my followers on the ground are gathering around the smoldering building, waiting. I can see the paramedics pulling a lifeless woman from the rubble.

As the ambulance pulls away silently, cars resume their travel. The world spins again.

“Most surely your Lord is watching.” [Surah-al-Fajr : 14]

I watched something end today. The mosque, my mosque, aflame. Lightning will only strike the highest feature of an area, but this bolt had a mind of its own. Thrown by an angry God, who was its target? The imam ran from the building, his robes burning. I watched. Was it him? What had he done? I’m certain of one thing.

The tower won’t be saving us anymore.

The smoke poured into the sky but no blaring sirens were coming to stop it. I watched as the violent clouds swallowed up the vaporized remains of the structure. They crashed together, deafeningly, but emitted no further light. All encompassing, the blackness of my spirit enveloped the world.

It was grinding to a halt.

Why wasn’t I afraid? My God’s only tiny bubble in this melting pot of beliefs was ablaze now and I didn’t feel even the slightest sorrow. Not the slightest sympathy. God wasn’t stopping it, he started it. God wasn’t inside, burning with his followers.

God was outside, watching it happen.

Turning my eyes away from the chaos that was the mosque, I gazed upon a second blaze, this one from a human source. Enflamed by an unseen light, the lost boys of this city spun around the burning carcasses of books, piled high. Their empty hymns carried the flames through the air, the heat reaching both sides of the street.

The air was so clear here at the tower.

The whores with their keeper, the drunks and their drink, and the heathens with their devil gathered to the earthly pyre. Singing? Dancing? Screaming? They were celebrating, each in their own way. The cars screeched to a halt and traffic stopped. The scene was immobilized with the festivities of Armageddon.

All I did was watch.

My eyes, unobstructed by smoke, tears, or blind faith, took in this final day and didn’t blink. There would be no saving, no stopping; all God did was watch. Now without fear of the beyond, and without a burning desire to stay in my new Hell, I was content with this outcome.

I watched as the world stopped turning. I had stopped it.