Setting: Two friends, Faisal (the superstitious one) and Ziyad (the rational thinker), are lounging in the courtyard of Faisal’s house in Riyadh on a Friday afternoon. They’ve just finished their lunch and are sipping Arabic coffee.
Faisal: (suddenly gasps and points)
Ziyad! Wallah, your slipper is upside-down! Turn it over before something bad happens!
Ziyad: (laughs and lazily stretches his legs)
Bro, it’s a slipper, not a cursed relic from an ancient tomb. What’s it going to do, summon jinns?
Faisal: Don’t joke! My grandmother always said an upside-down slipper invites problems into the house. It’s disrespectful, especially to God — the sole pointing to the sky? Astaghfirullah.
Ziyad: Faisal, I respect your grandma, but come on. You think Allah is up there looking at shoes and saying, “This one’s upside-down. Time to ruin someone’s day!”
Faisal: It’s not about that literally, ya akhi. It’s symbolic. It’s about cleanliness, respect, order. Bad things start small — like a slipper flipped the wrong way. Next thing you know, your car won’t start, your boss yells at you, and you forget your wedding anniversary.
Ziyad: That just sounds like a normal Tuesday for you, not the wrath of the slipper gods.
Faisal: (grinning)
Wallah, last week my cousin Hamad left his sandals upside-down outside the mosque. That same night, a stray cat scratched his leg and he missed his job interview the next morning!
Ziyad: Maybe the cat didn’t like his cologne, not his sandals. Faisal, if we blame slippers for every inconvenience, we’ll never progress. Where’s the science in this?
Faisal: Science doesn’t explain everything. There are things beyond logic. Evil eye, bad luck, strange vibes… Have you ever walked into a room and felt something was off?
Ziyad: Sure. Usually because someone forgot to take the trash out. But feelings aren’t facts. You know I work with data. If upside-down shoes actually brought misfortune, someone would’ve done a study by now. “Correlation Between Misplaced Footwear and Unemployment Rates in Riyadh,” you know?
Faisal: (chuckles)
That would be a bestseller here, believe me.
Ziyad: Look, growing up, my mom used to panic if I whistled at night. Said it invited jinns. Guess what? I whistled, no jinns. Just my dad yelling at me to go to bed.
Faisal: But don’t you feel better when your shoes are neatly aligned? Doesn’t that feel… right?
Ziyad: Sure, because I like order, not because I’m scared of divine punishment via footwear. It’s the same reason I like clean code — readable, logical, no bugs. Not because I think JavaScript will curse me otherwise.
Faisal: I get that, but some habits give people comfort. You have your logic, I have my beliefs. Isn’t that fair?
Ziyad: It is. I’m not telling you to stop being yourself. I just want you to question why you believe certain things. If something only survives because we’re afraid of not following it, maybe it needs rethinking.
Faisal: Hmm. So you’re saying if I stop flipping slippers, and nothing bad happens, I might unlearn this?
Ziyad: Exactly! A personal experiment. Flip it over today… or leave it be. Watch. I’ll even double-down. [He flips both slippers upside-down] See? I’m still breathing. No earthquakes, no flying plates.
Faisal: (eyes the slippers suspiciously)
Ya Allah… If I stub my toe tonight, I’m blaming you.
Ziyad: Deal. And if not, you buy me shawarma next weekend.
Faisal: Fine. But if my Wi-Fi stops working, I’m flipping your whole shoe rack.
Ziyad: Fair warning — I wear sneakers now. Upside-down, they look rebellious.
Faisal: You’re impossible, wallah.
Ziyad: And you’re adorable with your superstitions. But hey — balance, right?
[They both laugh. Faisal cautiously flips his own slipper upright again when Ziyad isn’t looking. Just in case.]
Science Vs Superstition 
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