Srinagar, May 3 -- The air on campus carried the scent of pine and earth, sharpened by late autumn. From where I stood, the buildings of the Islamic University of Science and Technology rose with clean lines, deliberate and modest. Behind them, the mountains stood ancient and aloof: tall, weathered, and disinterested in human architecture. I had thirty minutes before my next lecture, enough time to let a question settle in my chest: How do we find God?

A student had asked it that morning. "How do we know God exists?" she said, quietly but without hesitation. Not a rhetorical challenge. More like a hand reaching. I offered her what I had: names-Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Avicenna-and their arguments, arranged like chess moves. But she was...