We had been hopelessly labouring to plough waste lands; to make nationality grow in a place full of the certainty of God, that upas certainty which forbade all hope.
Good heavens, I've had it in the back of my mind to read T.E. Lawrence, but now I'm wondering if I'd get anything out of it. In the quote above, is he saying that the certainty of God is a poison against hope? Presumably, here, the hope of establishing nationality? Did he by any chance mean Allah? [wandering in the wilderness e]