I cannot go to the desert alone. I am unfit for it. The desert requires a jeep. It requires a hat and sunglasses and plastic liters of warm water it is no pleasure to drink. It requires a guide. It requires a cell phone.
-Darling: A Spiritual Autobiography, Richard Rodriguez
Wrong, wrong, wrong. It doesn’t even require a guide. If you have a camel and a goatskin and a headwrap, if you can squint your eyes and don’t mind being out of touch for forty days, all you need is a Khabīr al-Tarīq, an Expert of the Way. KhairAllah was one. In those days there were others too, but fewer now, and most today carry phones.