Martyr!

Content Warning: This section mentions alcoholism and suicidal ideation.

During the Iran-Iraq War, Cyrus’s uncle Arash enlists in the army and is trained to ride across battlefields filled with dying men dressed as an angel. This job is meant to prevent the dying men from killing themselves, drawing from a hadith in the Quran that relates the story of a soldier who was turned away from heaven for killing himself while he lay dying on the battlefield. As Arash relates it,

The amongness, to be among with an angel means you were right all along, all your wincing and kneeling, your fasting, your scowling, that amongness might send you to Jannah, an angel to send you to Jannah and Riswan with conviction in your heart and not fear of pain, suffering, nothingness, conviction, yes, of seeing an angel in black riding the wind, riding the night, conviction to remain as long as suffering demanded, to not end it, not kill yourself (170).

The religious power of Arash’s mission is undercut, however, by his distinctly haphazard attire. A flashlight is used to make his face glow, and the sword he has been provided with does not accurately match the Quranic descriptions of the angel Gabriel.