PHILADELPHIA — The American troops shouted over the chaos of the crowds, Ahmad said, telling him to get inside the Kabul airport while he still could.
The air was panic, Western governments warning of imminent terrorist attacks.
“Come to us!” the soldiers yelled from a gate.
No, Ahmad called back — his father and mother. He begged the soldiers to leave their post and help pull his parents up the side of a drainage canal, so the family could evacuate Afghanistan.
The older man was too weak to climb, the mother hardly stronger.
“Go forward,” the father insisted to Ahmad, settling the matter. “Go, my son. We are fine. Just go forward.”
Their hands came apart. Ahmad hustled to the gate. Hours later a suicide bomber triggered his vest and an explosion ripped through the crowd, killing scores of civilians and 13 American troops.
The trauma of that Aug. 26 separation followed Ahmad — his surname is being withheld for his family’s safety — all the way to America, to temporary quarters on a military base in Indianapolis, and from there to a hotel room in Philadelphia, where he awaits resettlement with his wife and younger brother.
His faith followed him too.
In an interview at the Marriott Residence Inn in Center City, he was asked, having suffered dramatic upheaval, dislocation, and danger, after losing country, family, and friends, what does he say to God?
Is he furious? Grateful? Bitter?
It might seem an odd question in a country where 30 percent of Americans claim no religious affiliation.
But for Afghans — 99.7 percent are Muslim, praying five times a day — their relationship with Allah is of central importance, perhaps never more than now.
“I’m praying for God to help me,” said Ahmad, 26. “To take the problems out.”
He’s angry about the circumstances that split his family, that left his parents behind and, because of his father’s military ties, in danger of Taliban reprisals.
But “there is no anger for God,” he said. He’s thankful that despite decades of war and a perilous evacuation, “I’m still alive.”
The largest resettlement since the end of the Vietnam War continues to unspool across the United States, with the Philadelphia region playing a central role in welcoming Afghan evacuees — and government and military officials recognizing the importance of Muslim religious belief within that effort.
At Philadelphia International Airport, which has received more than 30,000 evacuees as the main national landing hub, a section of the reception area was specifically designated for prayer.
It’s the same at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in South Jersey, one of the military installations that’s providing temporary housing for evacuees awaiting resettlement. Two big tents were erected to serve as mosques for men and women in “Liberty Village,” which currently hosts 6,100 of the roughly 9,000 evacuees on the American bases.
Prayer rugs and Qurans continue to be regular requests on the wish lists of families and resettlement agencies.
“Afghans, their history of faith is strong,” said Mullah Mohammad Yunas Saleh, who long led prayers at Masjid Omar Al-Farook in East Frankford. “They never left their faith, no matter what’s happening in Afghanistan.”
Muslims believe Allah is the one true God, transcendent, omnipotent, and merciful, the creator of the world and everything in it. Allah is infinite, the Quran teaching that he has 99 names, each tied to a certain attribute and all making him more accessible.
When Muslims pray, facing the direction of Mecca, it’s the chance to praise and thank Allah, and also to offer du’a, a specific personal request for guidance, help, or protection, explained Zain Abdullah, an associate professor in the religion department at Temple University and an authority on Islamic studies.
“The idea of being blessed, of having your prayers answered, is not all about the material items you’re able to collect,” he said. “What’s important is the peace that you get, the internal peace.”
Most Afghans who made it to America arrived with only the clothes on their backs, and many endured harrowing escapes in which they easily could have been injured or killed.
Saharnaz Muniri and her family barely made it out.
In the days after the government fell, she said, Taliban gunmen roamed the streets outside their house. Some people were dragged from their homes. Others were killed.
