Lesson 1 of 33 · Islamic books
The stories of animals in the Quran part 1
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You are listening to the book Animal Stories in the Quran
Authored by Ahmed Bahjat and narrated by Islam Adel
Dedicated to my mother, may Allah Almighty have mercy on her, as a grace and mercy from Him
The Introduction
The Holy Quran presents to us, in the stories of the prophets and the saints
A group of animals that played a role in history
The crow that Allah sent to the son of Adam to show him how to cover the corpse of his brother
The birds that Ibrahim slaughtered, distributed over the mountain tops, and which Allah resurrected from death
The cow of the Children of Israel which Moses commanded to be slaughtered to uncover a mysterious murder
The wolf that was falsely accused of devouring Joseph
Solomon's hoopoe that informed him of the news of Bilqis
The creature of the earth that ate Solomon's staff while he was dead on his throne
So he, peace be upon him, fell on his face
The donkey of Uzair, which Allah caused to die for a hundred years, then resurrected before the eyes of its owner
The whale that swallowed Jonah in its belly for a time
Then it cast him onto the land because he was among those who glorified Allah
The dog of the People of the Cave
Which slept with the companions of the cave for three hundred years and nine years
The ant of Solomon that called out to the ants to enter their dwellings
So that Solomon and his soldiers would not crush them without them realizing
The elephant of Abraha which was tasked with demolishing the Kaaba
Then fear of Allah Almighty nailed it to its place, so it did not advance
This group of animals has been mentioned in the Holy Quran
And with them was mentioned another group
Which in some of their apparent forms were birds, animals, or plants
But in their reality, they were a sign among the signs of Allah
Like the staff of Moses which turned into a clear serpent
And the bird of Jesus which he fashioned into the shape of a bird
Then he breathed into it and it became a bird by the permission of Allah
And like the Ababil birds that Allah Almighty sent upon the People of the Elephant
And it pelted them with stones of baked clay.
This group of animals has been mentioned in the Holy Quran.
There is an animal mentioned in the authentic Sunnah.
The spider of the cave, which wove its web at the door of the cave,
in which the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, hid.
We are before a group of members of the animal kingdom
that played their role in life,
and appeared on the stage of events for a period,
then the curtain was drawn over them.
The Holy Quran mentioned them just a mention, or told one or more situations from their life in quick flashes,
and their life itself remained steeped in mystery.
In my childhood, I loved this group of animals.
I used to read the stories of the prophets or listen to them, but I could not, due to my young age, grasp the peaks of their meanings.
So I would suffice myself with thinking about the animal that accompanied the Prophet or was in his service.
When I grew older, my love for animals took another dimension.
Every stray dog on the road is a dog I want to feed and pat on the head.
Who knows? Perhaps it is a distant descendant of the dog of the People of the Cave.
And every skinny donkey in the countryside is, to me, a friendly and beloved creature.
Why could it not be a distant son of Uzair's donkey, which went through the experience of death and resurrection?
I spent my whole youth searching for a hoopoe.
Then one of my friends gifted me a hoopoe he had managed to catch.
I took the hoopoe to my house, released it into the space of the room, and began to contemplate it.
The hoopoe was broken-spirited, if that expression is accurate.
Captivity and the loss of its freedom were about to gather as tears in its eyes.
This hoopoe died on the second day after refusing food and drink.
I remember my deep feeling of sadness as it was dying.
I did not know what to do for it as it was on the verge of death.
I brought out the Holy Quran and began reading to it the story of Solomon and the hoopoe.
I remember that the hoopoe raised its beautiful head and turned once or twice as it heard the verses,
then it rested its head and surrendered its soul.
It seemed to me that he died content.
He listens to the glories of his distant grandfather.
My love for animals has gotten me into many problems.
How many times I have returned from the road
Carrying a small dog or a mangy cat to my family
And the struggle begins between me and them.
My family refuses this strange new guest.
And I try in vain to convince them
That I would die if I gave him up.
I was an almost daily visitor to the zoo.
I used to stand in front of the animal cages
Trying to break the barrier of silence
With which these creatures are surrounded.
Trying to understand what it is they want to say
And which we are unable to grasp.
The author of these lines has grown old,
And a time came upon him when he believed that honesty
Is the greatest value in existence.
Honesty is found as a raw material in animals,
Just as we find diamonds raw in the earth, not yet polished.
An animal has a frank, straight, and steady gaze when it looks at you,
A look free from deception, lying, and pretense.
Even if the animal is a beast of the jungle and it looks at you,
You will find in its eyes the desire of its soul to devour you.
It does not deceive you or trick you.
It is the naked, savage honesty itself.
And that is a honesty that has no existence among humans.
And if the wildness of an animal is honest,
Then its pain is more honest and its weeping is of greater honesty.
Sometimes a human cries as part of a set plan.
As for the animal, when it cries,
that is the true pain,
that makes it impossible for the corners of the universe
not to be shaken by it with sympathy.
The writer of these lines has grown older,
and my love for the animal that lived during the time of the prophets began to grow in my heart day after day.
My love was without a body,
it was not possible for me to touch this animal,
and I replaced the body with the wings of the soul.
I read much about the nature and habits of animals.
It is amazing that the Holy Quran was revealed 14 centuries ago,
and it contains this quick reference to the stories of the animals that lived during the time of the prophets and saints.
And despite that, there is not one book that tells the stories of this group of animals.
Why? What secret lies behind this neglect?
The question disturbed me a lot, then I was guided to the secret.
Could the secret be that this group of animals served the prophets and saints?
The stories of the prophets and saints have been told in many books,
and it was not possible in serious and grave stories,
that are related to the salvation and afterlife of man,
for anyone to pay attention to these weak voices close to the ground,
the voices of animals,
or to follow the course of their thinking,
if their thinking had a course,
or to depict for us their amazement,
if it were possible for an animal to be amazed,
while they live with the prophets and witness these miracles, or are themselves part of the miracles.
Thus, this group of animals was wronged, and its own history was extinguished over the course of 14 centuries.
And if the intensity of appearance gives birth to concealment, the same thing happened here.
Just as it happens to the stars of the night when the sun appears in the morning,
it happened to this group of animals.
She did not leave her place
But her light dissolved into the stronger light
Dissolved into the suns of the prophets
And as an example
It is no longer important in the story of Uzair
Whom God caused to die for a hundred years along with his donkey
Then He resurrected him and resurrected the donkey before his very eyes
Nothing is important in the story anymore except for the Prophet Uzair
As for the donkey
Who would pay attention to it or think about the effect of the experience on it other than a donkey of its own kind
Likewise, it is no longer important in the story of Joseph, when his brothers cast the blame for his disappearance on the fangs of the wolf
Nothing is important in the story anymore except the sorrows of Jacob and his grief for his son
As for the wolf, who cares about its innocence or pays attention to its sorrows other than a wolf of its own kind
And what applies to the donkey and the wolf applies to the dog and the whale
And the rest of the animals that lived during the time of the prophets
Why did this group remain a silent secret
Searching for a tongue to express itself
And Solomon and David, peace be upon them, have died
And with their death, died the one who knew the logic of birds and the language of animals
And is able to communicate with them
I think I envied David and Solomon greatly
I did not envy Solomon for the gold with which he used to cover the walls of his palaces
For I know that when Solomon died, he did not take any of this gold with him
He was born naked, his fingers clutching at the air
And he returned to the earth with his fingers clutching at the air
And Solomon realized before any other human that gold is a servant to man
So he kept it in its place as a servant
And his feeling for it was less than his feeling for the lilies of the fields that emerge from the soil
I did not envy Solomon for having the jinn subjected to him
For I do not like for all the jinn of the earth to be under my command
I did not envy Solomon for his Islam.
For I received Islam from the sun of the prophets, the first of the Muslims, and the most perfect of them.
I only envied Solomon for one thing.
This ability to understand the language of birds and animals and to speak to them.
That a human should sit to converse with a hoopoe, command it and it obeys, discuss with it, and listen to it.
That a human should smile at the words of an ant warning the rest of the ants about him.
That is an ability that causes dizziness to the mind and heart together.
In any case?
If David and Solomon have died, then art remains until God inherits the earth and whoever is on it.
Let art be a tongue for expressing the life of the animal that lived alongside the prophets or was in their service.
There is no harm in art seeking help from science in the part that touches the nature, habits, and behavior of the animal.
There is no harm in art seeking help from imagination in the part that touches the life, feelings, and thoughts of the animal.
As for the part that connects to the stories of the prophets, those are facts that art must bow its head to and accept as they are.
Indeed, art here is not very honored when it becomes a servant calling to God in its own special way.
Who told us that animals have instincts that drive them and that they are without intellect?
Who told us that the animal is a mute creature that has no language?
Scholars in the past were divided into two groups regarding the perception and language of animals.
One group sees that the animal is devoid of consciousness or intellect of any kind.
The opinion of this group is not new, but rather stems from the view of Descartes.
Who considered animals as a whole to be merely self-moving machines.
As for the other group, it saw that the animal is endowed with all the mental characteristics of humans.
This view is known as the doctrine of anthropomorphism.
It is an old doctrine that did not begin with Darwin's theory of the evolution and origin of species.
But rather to much earlier than that.
Many famous scientists were influenced by this doctrine of anthropomorphism.
The famous German scientist Brehm, author of the great encyclopedia on animal life, wrote saying:
That mammals have memory, intelligence, and temperament.
And they often have distinct individual personalities.
Just as they can distinguish between things,
And perceive the differences in time, space, color, and tone.
It is also capable of recognizing things, judging them, and then reasoning.
It knows dangers.
It thinks about the ways to avoid them.
It shows love and hatred.
It loves those that are tame and the young.
It expresses gratitude and loyalty.
And respect and contempt.
And anger, tenderness, cunning, and skill.
And honesty and treachery.
The skilled animal calculates things before it takes any action.
And the sensitive, chivalrous animal risks its life and freedom voluntarily for the good of the group it lives in.
These are the words of a famous scientist who dedicated his life to the study of animals.
As for animal language, it has been scientifically proven conclusively.
With a difference between the human meaning of language and the animal meaning of language.
For example,
It has been proven that every group of animals has a style of communication and understanding.
Sometimes through sound, touch, dance, scent, or gesture.
The important thing is that there is a method of communication.
It is true that science has not resolved, fundamentally or finally, the vocabulary of this style.
However, it has been scientifically proven that there is an animal language that it uses in its life.
It is a language that does not resemble our human language.
This is what science proved after studies that took the effort of generations of scientists and researchers.
The Holy Quran proved it 14 centuries ago.
14 centuries ago, animals were considered something unclean.
Having no mind, no logic, no language, and no value.
Except for the value that humans derive from them.
Then the Quran came with explicit texts,
Proving that animals have their own language.
And even their own opinions.
Reflect on what the ant said to the rest of its kind.
And she is warning them of Solomon and his soldiers.
An ant said,
O ants, enter your dwellings,
Lest Solomon and his soldiers crush you,
While they do not realize.
The ant is unaware that Solomon understands her language,
And she is unaware that he hears her and senses her.
She assumes that Solomon's army and his soldiers will crush the ants while they do not realize.
The ant uses in her statement the word 'realize',
This is evidence that 'realization' is something the ants know.
Otherwise, how could it use in its language that which it does not know?
Then contemplate the speech of the hoopoe with Solomon.
The hoopoe says things to Solomon that not even the greatest wise human philosophers on Earth would say.
The hoopoe is not pleased that the people of the Queen of Sheba prostrate to the sun, and he mocks them.
And he asks Solomon in astonishment, how they do not prostrate to God who brings out what is hidden in the heavens and the earth.
This is what the Quran has proven for fourteen centuries, yet science is still trying to uncover a part of it.
It is a miracle that testifies for this Quran that it is the revelation of the Truth, Blessed and Exalted be He.
Just as it testifies to the early Muslims of the greatness of their faith and its depth.
For the prevailing trend in their era was that animals do not speak, do not feel, do not possess consciousness, and do not perceive.
Then the Quran told them the opposite of that.
So they believed without doubting, and they accepted without asking for proof or searching for it.
My soul was moved to write about the animals that lived alongside the prophets and were in their service.
I estimated fundamentally that the stories of this collection should be from the animal's perspective itself, and in the style of memoirs.
I said I would borrow their minds, instincts, dreams, and sorrows, and write their memoirs, guided by the words of the artist Van Gogh,
'When I paint a flower, I become the flower.'
The month of Ramadan was approaching, and I was asked to write something for the religion page in Al-Ahram.
And I decided that this collection of animals would be guests on the page.
The task was not easy or simple,
But it was enjoyable despite that.
Perhaps it was easy to transform into a dog or a wolf.
But how do I become a hoopoe?
How do I take the form of the massive white whale,
which swallowed Jonah?
The beginning puzzled me,
then the breezes of divine mercy blew,
so every difficulty became easy,
and every hardship became simple,
and the stones on the mountain peaks which Solomon's hoopoe crossed during its flight melted,
and it told me its story.
Just as the waves of my voice reflected the dog of the People of the Cave as deep nocturnal symbols that retell its tale,
and a seashell cast by the sea waters told me that it witnessed the solemn ceremony of glorification that Jonah held in the belly of the whale.
I fled from all of Cairo to the house of my friend Mahmoud Lutfi Abd al-Wahhab in Zagazig,
and there I devoted myself to reading and writing.
It was necessary to detach myself from my daily life in Cairo,
and to be completely alone for what I would write.
I relied on the stories of the Quran as a reference regarding the part of the story that relates to the prophets,
and I drew my information about the nature and habits of animals from the Encyclopedia of the Animal Kingdom,
which was authored by eight scientists from the Museum of Natural History at the University of Washington,
and apart from that, I gave free rein to the imagination without limits.
And as much as the period of research and reading was long and difficult,
writing was a river of ease and simplicity.
And it occurred to me while writing,
that many of the animals that lived during the time of the prophets,
were a deep symbol of God's power or God's mercy,
or a symbol of many other things.
The animal's body was a body for an animal,
and a sign for something more serious.
The month of Ramadan arrived while I was still writing,
and I began to publish in Al-Ahram newspaper, starting with Joseph's wolf.
The limited space was an obstacle to publishing the stories in full.
And so, I chose some stories and published them after a daily shortening.
It used to make me pull my hair and scream in the printing house.
I remember, for example, that it was said to me while I was writing about the dog of the People of the Cave: shorten it.
So I wrote at the end of the dog's story, saying:
It seemed to me that we were entering the door of the cave again to truly sleep this time.
It seemed to me that we were living there in that dark corner.
I will not tell what happened to us after that.
Perhaps I will tell that one day in a book.
They keep telling me: shorten it.
They have no words except: shorten it.
I chuckle angrily and want to tell stories,
but I shorten them.
Months passed,
and Mukhtar Al-Islami came to me asking to publish the collection in a book.
And I returned to my seclusion and devoted myself to completing the stories.
The book was published and printed twice,
and its stories were translated into the French language,
and Mrs. Nafisa Al-Baqli prepared them for the European program on Egyptian radio.
These episodes became part of the exchange production with French radio,
and it flew to Paris and was broadcast on French radio.
I realized the whole time that there was a work I had started that was not finished.
I had not yet written the rest of the animal stories,
and I was dreaming of completing them and publishing them in a color book with pictures.
Then it surprised me that Mickey Magazine saw the book's suitability for children,
so it published it with color illustrations by the artist Ihab Shaker.
Then the month of Ramadan came, and I finished the rest of the book.
And thus the book was published over the course of three years during the month of Ramadan.
And I preferred that it be published in its final edition at Dar Al-Shorouk,
after my friend Ibrahim Al-Moallem convinced me,
and I confess a small confession to the reader.
My pleasure in this book while I was writing it
was greater than my pleasure after I read it
And for the record, I never read it after I wrote it
but during its writing, I experienced the sweetest feeling a writer can experience
I felt the whole time that the page of this collection of animals and creatures had been turned long ago
but I was certain that nothing is lost
Neither the word, nor the feeling, nor the image, nor the situation
Everything remains hidden in the heart of the universe and its memory
All of this turns into secrets
And it is known that searching for secrets is difficult
But I confess that my journey to these secrets was enjoyable
I was writing with ease
There was someone inside me whispering all the secrets to me
that he had tired himself in searching for and gathering
A reader might ask
Is this a book on religion, art, or science?
I believe that this book is fundamentally a book of art
that the main fabric is art in the sense of invention, imagination, and creativity
However, this original fabric blends with two other fabrics, which are the religious fabric and the scientific fabric
The religious fabric appears in the story of the Prophet who had the animal in his service
And I took this part from the Quran, as I stated before
And in it, I sought the help of the commentators' interpretations of the Quran
Such as the interpretation of Ibn Kathir, The Stories of the Prophets, the interpretation of Al-Qurtubi, and Al-Manar for the Holy Quran
And I maintained commitment to the events of the original story as they appeared in the most authentic interpretations, and I did not deviate from them
The scientific fabric appears in the animal's traits and habits, which I drew from a scientific encyclopedia
And while writing, I was keen not to move freely within these two fabrics
As for the original fabric of the book, I moved within it with complete freedom
realizing that art grants imagination its freedom without limits
Thus, I mocked the injustice of man toward his animal brother as much as my mockery allowed me
And I invented names for this group of animals
And I imagined previous situations in her life before she joined the service of the Prophet, who she joined.
And I was not restricted in that except by the framework of art alone.
Ahmed Bahgat
The Crow of the Sons of Adam
Then God sent a crow searching in the ground to show him how to cover his brother's shame.
He said, 'Woe to me! Have I failed to be like this crow and cover the shame of my brother?'
So he became of the regretful.
Everything on earth grows gray except for the feathers of the crow.
Whoever saw what we saw and endured it, does not grow gray no matter what he sees after that.
As a creature, I was the only prosecution witness to the first murder crime committed on earth.
I witnessed the first human blood spilled treacherously.
And I knew that God, glory be to Him and Exalted be He, hears, sees, and witnesses.
It was a day deep-red with terror.
I know that Satan is the cause.
How strange are the actions of Satan.
And how easy is the submission of the sons of Adam to him.
People love God and disobey Him.
And they hate Satan and obey him.
So how strange is this species called human.
And how grave are his contradictions.
And how great is God's forbearance toward him and His mercy for him.
I am a little agitated, so leave me alone.
People say about the black days that pass them by,
They were days blacker than a crow's feather.
I know that the black color of the crow irritates people,
Even though the blackest feather on the crow's body,
Does not approach the blackness of the human heart when it is blackened.
I know that people make fun of the crow's walk,
It hops while it walks,
Like any madman walking on hot coals.
He jumps around, and his step is not steady.
We assume that our gait is strange.
Let it be that we leap and hop.
Is this not a natural matter after what we have seen of man's injustice to his fellow man?
We used to walk before the creation of man, sauntering on the earth like kings in our black color and our leaping gait.
Then we watched a brother kill his brother, so our gait was disturbed by the horror, and our descendants inherited our deformity, and the matter was settled.
People think that the crow's voice is extremely ugly, and no sooner does one of our kind cry out on a tree than people become pessimistic.
Our voice may be less beautiful than the nightingale's, but it has nothing to do with bad omens.
A bad omen is a human word that applies to the actions of the son of Adam.
Sometimes a human behaves in a terrible way, so if a crow cries on a tree there, the human forgets his behavior and remembers the crow's voice and becomes pessimistic.
An old trick the son of Adam resorts to, and there is no creature like the son of Adam who can deceive himself or misguide it.
The human race accuses the crow race of theft, kidnapping, and lack of filial piety toward parents and kin.
People say about us that we steal kohl from the eye and soap from house rooftops, even though we do not even know what this kohl is to begin with.
Also, we do not use soap when we bathe; we do not need it.
Our bodies and our thoughts are at the maximum level of contamination and do not need it.
Ah, I apologize for the tone of resentment.
Anyone who has seen what I have seen should lose their sanity.
I am a judge in the world of crows and a witness to the world of men.
A judge loses his justice and integrity when he loses his impartiality and nerves and becomes biased.
And I have played both roles together.
I was a judge among the crows.
I was fair and kept my nerves and my impartiality.
But when I descended to testify in the world of man,
The crown of judgment fell off me,
And I lost my composure and screamed.
Then God sent me to teach the son of Adam a lesson in mercy.
I said that day to Cain, mourning him with a sharp croak,
We know that you are a murderous monster.
Despite that, you are ignorant.
Even though you are a human who is supposed to have knowledge.
An ignorant person who does not know that he is ignorant
An ignorant person who does not know how to cover the shame of his brother
I am still agitated, excuse me
Sometimes we think about what happened calmly and alone like destiny
Indeed, aggression is part of the nature of creatures, this is true
Sometimes one of the crows attacks the group
At that moment, a court is held for him
It is known about crows that they have courts that adhere to the laws of fairness and justice
These trials take place when one of the crows usurps the nest of another crow
Or tries to usurp a female crow, or attacks the food of the young crows
And for every one of these crimes, there is its own special punishment
In the case of usurping the nest, we satisfy ourselves with demolishing the usurped nest and we shriek, reprimanding the thief, and we compel him to build a nest for the one from whom the nest was usurped
In the case of usurping a female crow, the group kills the aggressor by pecking him
In the case of usurping the food of the young, the group plucks the feathers of the aggressor until he becomes like the young ones without feathers
Sometimes, to the punishment of reprimand or feather plucking, the punishment of expulsion from the group is added
Crow courts usually convene in an open space or a wide field
And there, those who arrived first wait for the rest of their species who were late
The wait continues for days and nights until the number is complete
At that point, we set the aggressor aside and set guards over him, and his trial begins
The others begin to caw and scream in a group
And the accused responds, cawing and screaming
The witnesses resume cawing and clap their wings in anger and outrage
And the accused crow caws and claps his wings as well
Then the perpetrator lowers his wings, bows his head, and stops cawing
This is his admission of guilt
At that point, the judge's verdict is issued, then all the crows pounce on the guilty one and tear him apart with their beaks until he dies
Then the crows caw in succession and fly away
One of them carries the dead one to bury him and hide his corpse
The dead crow may be guilty, but death has sanctity, with which one must honor the body by burying it
That is how crows practice justice in both cases, in life and in death
Justice in the crow species is the strongest of its instincts.
The origin is that justice in the human world is acquired and relative.
While in the world of crows, it is instinctive and absolute.
There are basic rules that do not change, do not alter, and do not evolve among us.
Whoever deviates from them deviates from the group and deserves to be ostracized and killed.
These rules and laws are not created by the crows themselves.
Rather, it is a governance that God created within us, deposited in our nature, and compelled our disposition to follow.
We do not legislate laws for ourselves; we know that the soul leans towards desire and favors what serves its own interest.
And it sees the protruding log in its own eyes as a straw, and sees the straw in others' eyes as a tree.
The crow species has transcended all of this to the shore of safety, where it submitted to the Creator's legislation.
The functioning of the law necessitates detachment from desire.
And what creature is detached from desire other than the angels?
The angels remind me of the first days of creation.
The Earth was a great peace before the descent of man upon it.
The waves of the sea were virgin, no ship had plowed through them.
And pure winds that no human forehead had touched.
And the fields existing on Earth, all of them had not been trodden by human feet.
The world was still pure.
Not a single lie had polluted it.
Everything pulses with truth.
The mountains shine with white snow.
Under the refracted sun rays.
And the seas sigh, so their blue, foamy chest rises and falls.
And from the green fields.
A fragrant scent rises that makes the air exhilarated.
Everything is of ultimate beauty and enchantment.
Despite that, there was something desolate in the picture.
Something was missing from the scene.
For man to creep upon the Earth amidst this beauty.
And raise his hands upward, supplicating to God and asking.
At that moment, the true meaning behind the creation of abstract beauty emerges
Things acquire less beauty and greater meaning
When you know and make mistakes and beg
This is always the way of knowledge
It scratches innocence at the beginning
Then knowledge is born after that
God's angels enjoy innocence
As for man, his innocence was scratched in Paradise
Satan seized it for an eternal wisdom
It is the cultivation of the earth and inhabiting it
We used to know that man came from Paradise
In the beginning, there were tears
The weeping of Adam and Eve on earth was
A very moving scene
We knew from the sound of the tears the extent of the sin, the meaning of disobedience, and the sincerity of repentance
Adam was residing in repentance, if this expression is correct
Oh, for the majesty of his awe-inspiring face
In his eyes was the tenderness of fatherhood that sweeps away the indifference
And it does not stop at one child and not another
As for Eve, she was a mother to all women on earth
Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves
And if You do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we will surely be among the losers
This was their prayer together to God
Eve delivered her first pregnancy
Humans do not lay eggs like us birds
Rather, they give birth
Eve would give birth in a single pregnancy to a boy and a girl
And in the second pregnancy to a boy and a girl
And the son of the first pregnancy was permissible for the daughter of the second pregnancy
Eve gave birth to Cain and his sister Aclima
She gave birth to Abel and his sister Liudha
The brothers grew up together
Abel descended from the hill laughing
His face shimmering with the innocence of his eight years
And behind him, Cain rushed, holding a tree branch in his hand, trying to catch up with his brother
They play together as usual
You do not know why one of the two brothers seems delicate like the lilies of the field
And the second seems harsh like the thorns of the mountains
It always happens in play that Cain chooses the role of the hunter
And chooses for Abel the role of the prey, and the play heats up
And Cain's eyes gleam with hatred as he rains blows upon Abel with what is in his hand
At first, Abel was laughing, his laughter ringing between the hills and trees like a spring shining with clarity and joy
And Cain gritted his teeth and held the tree branch with both his hands instead of one hand
And Abel's face turned from joy to pain, and the ringing of his laughter ended with something like a scream
Adam rushes to them, finding Abel wounded and Cain continuing in his assault, and Adam shouts: Cain, what have you done to your brother Abel?
Cain replies: We are playing, and Abel chose the role of the prey
Adam shouts, rebuking Cain, and separates the two brothers
He blames Cain, wipes the wounds of his good son, and tells them that they are brothers who came from one mother
And they live on one land
And love should bring them together, not hatred
The greatest thing that surprised me
Was that Cain would close his harsh mouth and not defend himself
While Abel was defending his brother
Begging his father to forgive them both
At the age of twenty
Cain's hand rose and fell upon Abel's face
With a strong blow, while he shouted
This is my hut
The fingers of the brother on his own brother left clear red marks
Abel was taken by surprise by the insult
And anger intensified inside him
And quick, torturous tears gathered in his eyes
Abel said innocently
Look at my hands, they have become raw from building the hut
Cain said decisively
You will not sleep in the hut after the next sunset
Cain had spoken
His brother replied gently
Abel also wants to say a word
I love you, Cain
So why?
Cain did not hear anything, he had already left the place
I did not see Abel tell Adam what happened
I do not know why
Perhaps he felt that the father's heart was filled with sorrows stemming from Cain's actions
And he feared that he would increase the depth of his sorrows
And perhaps he told himself that Cain's threat was a word he did not mean
And when the next sunset came, Abel was surprised by his brother Cain bursting into his hut
And his hand's fingers were clenched on a pointed club
And before Abel could open his mouth with a word, the club was splitting his forehead and causing blood to burst from it
Cain carried him and threw him outside the hut, and Abel bandaged his wound with herbs and slept in his place
Adam was surprised to see his son sleeping outside his hut and was surprised by his dried blood on his forehead
Adam screamed his usual scream, even if it was drinking this time from deeper springs of sorrow
Cain, what have you done to your brother Abel?
Cain did not resemble Abel, and Iqlima, Cain's sister, did not resemble Liutha, Abel's sister
Cain was harsher than Abel
And Liutha was less beautiful than Iqlima
And it was supposed that Abel would marry Iqlima
And Cain would marry Liutha
And between me and myself
I used to prefer Abel over his brother
And I was at ease because he was going to marry the more beautiful one
Indeed Abel does not get angry when we eat from his food
He saw me one day standing in front of the chicken eggs he raises
So he reached out his hand and handed me an egg
I was pleased with his cooperation with a simple species like ours
This is a man who realizes the wisdom of cooperation between creatures
And realizes the meaning of mercy
He is a man who knows God, loves Him, and fears Him
I want to focus my mind to place my testimony on all the ruins and remnants
And tell it to the winds that whistle in the most desolate places
Cain shouted: No, I am better than him
The devil was standing behind the word
Iblis said it about Adam, and today he is teaching it to the son of Adam to say it about his brother
He stared at him to shout in front of his father
I will not marry Luthia; I will marry Iqlima
She was with me in the same womb; I am more entitled to her
Adam made his son understand that his sister is not lawful for him
Cain refused to budge from his position
His boldness astonished me
And I did not know how Adam would act
Adam said
Let each of you bring an offering to God
Whoever God accepts his offering from is in the right
Adam stepped aside from deciding between them
And left that to heaven
I did not know how God accepts the offering
And I did not know what an offering was in the first place
I waited for days in which the world of crows occupied me with its cases and problems
There was a fugitive, predator crow we were looking for to put on trial
And the day of offering sacrifices to God arrived
Abel came carrying the fattest of his rams, placed it on the mountain, and prayed to God Almighty to accept it
And Cain came with wheat that was still green in its stalks
He came with wheat that had not yet ripened
Cain was stingy and greedy to the extent that we, the crows, failed to taste his food
Cain presented his offering and went away
The two brothers stood far apart; I hoped in my heart, as an impartial judge, that God would accept from Abel
Fire descended from the sky and consumed Abel's sacrifice as a sign of acceptance
Abel cried out with a shout of praise and joy, while Cain cried out with the word of murder
Cain stood, having stretched out his palms before him, and began to fix his gaze on a point there on the horizon
Despite his absolute silence, a wave of hostility radiated from him that could almost be felt physically
It was a wonderful day among God's days; the sun was spreading its warmth in the air
And the pine trees extending along the horizon were bathing in the sunlight
And their trunks were taking on the color of amber thrown up by the seas
And from the nearby mountains, the winds were blowing
Carrying from the depths of the valleys and ravines covered
In the green velvet of the forests, the fragrance of the virgin forest and the divine flowers
Cain returned shouting, 'I will kill you'
Abel did not know the secret of Cain's anger toward him
Purity usually does not realize the motives of sin and its evils
God accepted from one of them and did not accept from the other
He said to his brother, 'Indeed, God accepts from the righteous'
Cain returned muttering, 'I will kill you'
Abel replied as he turned back to his hut and his flowers
'If you should raise your hand against me to kill me, I shall not raise my hand against you to kill you'
'Indeed, I fear God, Lord of the worlds'
'Indeed, I want you to bear my sin and your sin, so you will be among the companions of the Fire, and that is the recompense of the wrongdoers'
Abel left with his wife, Aqlima; they married and lived for days
When the symptoms of pregnancy appeared on her, Cain's soul had tempted him to kill his brother
We found the crow assigned to escape, and its trial began
Abel lay down on the ground after the hardship of a difficult day.
He had barely reached the middle of the lily field when he fell into a slumber.
The sun descended towards the west.
The trial of the sinful crow continued.
The sky was filled with the blood of twilight.
Cain crept forward, tightening his grip on a donkey jawbone he found in the forest.
A donkey died in the nearby forest.
Beasts ate its flesh and vultures ate what remained of it.
The earth drank its blood and its bony jaw remained lying on the ground.
Cain carried the first weapon on earth and began to walk, searching for his brother.
He found him asleep and moved towards him.
Something I do not know stirred in him at the noble, dreaming face.
Abel woke up and opened his eyes.
Cain's hand rose with the bony jaw and struck down quickly.
Blood gushed from Abel's face and filled Cain's chest.
The sinful hand returned, striking down again upon the good face.
And on the fifth blow, Cain's hand struck the mud of the field.
Abel's movement ceased completely.
Cain realized that his brother had died.
His hand ceased its rapid, harsh blows.
He sat stunned before his victim.
We have not yet finished with the trial of the sinful crow.
We postponed the trial until tomorrow.
We set a guard over the crow and left.
I stood on a tree above Cain's head and cawed loudly.
Cain? What have you done to your brother Abel?
Cain raised his head and looked at me.
His face was trembling.
The trial of the accused crow lasted for hours.
He was lying, denying the charges attributed to him, and arguing.
However, the progress of the trial was tightening the noose around his neck.
And throughout the time the trial took, Cain was carrying his brother on his back and walking with him.
He does not know what to do with his corpse, for the vultures are circling above them and the beasts are approaching due to the smell.
And Cain fears leaving his brother so the beasts would devour him, and therefore he carries him on his back and walks.
He does not know what to do with him, and he does not know how to handle him.
The crow's trial ended, and all the charges attributed to him were proven.
And the judges issued their verdict of death upon him.
The sentence was carried out on the guilty crow.
I carried the dead crow to bury it in a far-off place.
I was flying while carrying it in my beak.
When I felt a hidden power guiding my wings toward Cain.
I did not intend to pass by Cain.
I do not like Cain.
But my wings are heading toward him, against my will.
There is a majestic matter that rises above my understanding and guides my wings.
One of the noble angels commanded me,
O crow,
From Allah, Blessed and Exalted be He,
He sends you to show the son of Adam how to cover the shame of his brother.
I landed immediately with my burden in front of Cain.
I placed the dead crow in front of me and began to dig the ground.
I dug the ground with my claws and my beak.
I aligned the dead crow's wings beside him.
I pushed him with my beak and placed him in his grave.
I let out two short cries, then I shoveled the dirt over him.
Afterward, I looked at the son of Adam.
My look said, we killed him with justice.
And despite this, we know the right of his corpse to respect.
As for you,
I began to caw and croak in his face.
After that, I flew into the air, heading west.
As I flew away, I heard the cry of Cain.
Woe to me! Am I unable to be like this crow and hide the shame of my brother?
It seemed to me that the cry was burning with regret.
I did not know from what source his regret was springing.
Was he regretful because he carried him for all these hours while he did not know how to bury him?
Was he regretful because he killed him unjustly?
I do not know.
All I wanted to know was the condition of Abel's wife.
I was filled with peace when I knew that she was expecting to give birth.
I wanted to be reassured about the human race.
And to make sure that it descends from the loins of a noble man.
Who fears God.
I know that the descendants of Cain, the murderer, will fill the earth.
I know that the conflict will not stop between them and the descendants of the good martyr.
And perhaps the father's tragedy will be repeated with the children.
I know all of this.
And I am ignorant of the wisdom behind all of this.
My job is not to know.
I was a witness to the son of Adam and a teacher to him for a moment in time.
But my mission is not to know.
Perhaps the human knows.
The She-Camel of Salih.
This is the she-camel of God, a sign for you.
So let her eat on God's earth and do not touch her with harm.
Lest a painful punishment should seize you.
I am nothing but pure good that does not know evil.
This is innocence of innocence, that is me.
I did not harm anyone before I was born.
And I did not harm anyone after I was born.
And despite that, slaughter reached me without any sin I committed
Despite God's warning to those who do that
Despite this, I was slaughtered
The meaning of my slaughter was like the meaning of the slaughter of innocence on this earth
And perhaps my slaughter was the beginning of the law
That forces goodness to offer its blood on the altar of life
Yes, my life was amazing
I was born from the bosom of a towering mountain by a word from God
I was part of the rocks, realizing nothing other than that I was a rock
And the folds of the solid rock turned into soft flesh
And blood flowed in the veins
And the blood began to create milk
My breasts were filled with milk
I was carrying my newborn in my womb
And when I gave birth to him, I produced the milk that God blessed
And I gave thousands of the hungry and thirsty to drink from the milk
I would give them to drink one day and give my little newborn to drink another day
I did not know who I was giving the milk to
I did not know them, nor did I know their names
I was giving them to drink for free, without payment
Except that they praise God when they are quenched
And despite all of this, I was killed
The knife reached my neck one day
I am dying now
I have been dying for seconds
When I realized that I was dying, I looked for ink to write with
And I found nothing but a bleeding thread of my blood
And I wrote my story with it
So if it was not completed
It is no secret that I did not want to complete it
I am dying with a kind smile on my face
Does a she-camel smile?
Yes
If it is a she-camel and not a she-camel
If it is a picture of an animal and a symbol of a sign
When you are something and at the same time a symbol of something else
Then you do not die
Or you die with the smile of one who realizes that they are on their way to sleep
Knowing that you will wake up once again
Yes, how great are the tragedies that stem from people's feeling that they will die and not be resurrected
This was the tragedy of those who killed me
Salih's she-camel
This is my name in human history
And the she-camel of God
This is my name in the Book of God
And O my people, this is the she-camel of God as a sign for you
God Almighty attributed me to His name as an honor for me
And exalted my status
For I was a she-camel and I was not a she-camel
I was an image of a she-camel
While I am a sign of God's signs in essence
And everything in existence is an image and a sign
Where do I begin?
My birth was a surprise to me before it was a surprise to the people of Salih
I was surprised that I was born
The surprise of life after non-existence brought me a new feeling
Frankly, my feeling resembled alienation
I knew that I was wearing the skin of a she-camel
Even though I am not a she-camel
And I knew that I was a symbol of innocence in a world that hates innocence
I was pure love facing pure hatred.
My situation was extremely sensitive and complex.
I carried the bodies of camels, the nature of camels, and the behaviors of camels.
But at the same time, I contained within this shell an inner self that had nothing to do with the world of animal instinct.
My inner self contained a vast world beyond the world of God's signs.
And after I was born, I realized the story of my birth as a miracle.
I was born among the people of Thamud, and these are people with strong desires and weak minds.
Their tragedy increased with their wealth, so to the strength of their desires was added the ability to fulfill them.
These people used to worship idols.
Not the whole society was immersed in this terrible sin.
There were those who would contemplate the universe around them with their minds and return believing in God.
But the majority had been swept away into the worship of personal interests and gold.
And all the idols of the soul and its limitless desires.
Then God Almighty willed to send a prophet to Thamud.
He chose from among them the most monotheistic, pure, and righteous.
And sent him to his people.
His name carried the truth of his essence.
Salih.
This was his name.
Salih, peace be upon him, said to his people:
O my people, worship God; you have no god other than Him.
The same word that those before him said, Hud and Noah.
And all the prophets and messengers of God.
The same word that they said before him, he said after them.
The word does not change from one prophet to another.
The prophet's trust in its essence lies in nine words:
O my people, worship God; you have no god other than Him.
Worship seems easy, natural, self-evident, and true.
But in social reality, it acts as a revolution.
The meaning of applying it is to abandon all the worshipped gods and all the interests related to these gods that exist in the illusions of the creation.
This means changing society from its foundation
It means rebuilding its values and conceptions
It means rebuilding its morals and customs
It means demolishing institutions established on polytheism
This means that there are interests that will collapse
And so these interests defend themselves with the edge of the sword
The first weapon the people directed at Salih was their saying to him, 'Prove that you are a prophet'
Before the people of Salih demanded that their prophet prove he was a prophet
They spoke to him in a strange way
He had forbidden them from worshipping the idols their fathers had worshipped
And he had called them to the worship of God, the Creator, the Innovator, alone
They said to him, 'O Salih, you were among us a person of hope before this; do you forbid us to worship what our fathers worshipped? And we are indeed in confusing doubt about that to which you invite us'
Their point of view seems to me like a talisman or a puzzle
They had hope in him before he was sent with prophethood; his knowledge was a place of respect, his intellect a place of admiration, and his word a place of complete belief
And they were thinking of making him a leader over them or a sheikh of their tribe
Then he ruined everything with this new call
He calls them to the worship of God alone
What will they do about the gods of the grandfathers and ancestors?
How will they hide their shame before the mention of the fathers and grandfathers
If they neglect the worship of their gods?
Consider the reversed logic
Which my animalistic exterior and my luminous interior reject
This is a logic that, if a ram spoke it to one of the ewes, she would bleat in mockery of it
It was supposed, as long as Salih was a place of respect and belief, that his prophethood should be a place of respect and belief
But what happened was the opposite
After they believed in Salih, they began to doubt him, 'And we are indeed in confusing doubt about that to which you invite us'
Salih turned away from their reversed logic and asked them, 'How do you believe that I am a prophet from God?'
There they said to him, 'Prove that you are a prophet'
You claim that you are sent from God and we doubt your claim
Why do you not offer evidence for your claim?
Saleh asked, and his heart was still open to his people.
What do you want me to provide?
They said, "Provide a proof of your prophethood."
He asked them, "What do you want?"
They said, "Do not imagine that we are trying to disable you or pressure you."
But we want a supernatural matter that has not happened before.
We want a sign from Allah of your prophethood.
We want something that has not occurred before.
Saleh asked them, "What do you want?"
They said, "This nearby mountain, why doesn't it give birth to a she-camel?"
Why don't you pray to Allah to split the mountain so a she-camel comes out of it?
Saleh asked, "Will you believe that I am sent by Allah if I do so?"
They said, "Yes, then we will believe you, only then."
One of them said, "Not before that."
Saleh discussed with his people the kind of supernatural miracle they insisted on.
He said to them, "You are asking for a supernatural, material sign."
And these signs are a breach of the laws of nature.
It is not appropriate manners for servants to demand that their Lord breach the laws of nature in order for them to believe in Him.
They said to him while they were shouting,
"Admit that you cannot."
He said to them,
"You are acting like children now."
They want an impressive toy.
This is not part of perfect manners with Allah.
They said to him,
"O Saleh,"
"It is our right, since you claim that you are sent from Allah,"
"to present to us the evidence for your claim."
Saleh said,
"I fear that if I grant your request, you will disbelieve in this sign after a while."
I fear for you from the torment of God if you do that
We will not do it, we pledge to you that we will believe in this sign and we will not touch it with harm
Salih said, do you pledge that to me? They said, you have our pledge, all of us
When Salih realized that they were insistent on requesting the extraordinary miracle
He prayed to his Lord to answer the people's request, and God answered the people
And out of the mountain rocks came a she-camel, I am she
Thus I was born by a word from God from the mountain rocks
The people were surprised when they saw what they requested had been fulfilled
The miracle shone before their eyes, so it dazzled them and humbled them
They bowed their heads and admitted that Salih is sent from his Lord
They admitted that he is a prophet and they all promised to accept his call
Everyone left and left me alone
Salih said to them that God promises you a near torment if one of you touches the she-camel with harm
And they admitted to him that they would not touch it with harm
The people went on, and Salih went on, and everyone left me alone
And my feeling of strangeness began
I was neither rocks nor a she-camel
I became a sign upon which stands the sword of divine warning
And touching it means falling into the torment
I did not understand, as a sign and a she-camel together, who is it that thinks of harming me
I did not understand how the mind of a creature goes toward harming me
I did not hate any creature among them
On the contrary, I loved them all without exception
I walked a little in the streets of the city
From stone and rock were their houses
Their wealthy ones had palaces in the plains of the city
And they had houses carved in the mountains
I continued walking
When the people woke up after a day had passed since the miracle
The first thing they did was that they gathered in a circle around me
They were contemplating me with extreme astonishment and absolute fascination
There was something in my movement that provoked their fear
Whenever I moved my head or my tail
They jumped backward, shouting
As if I were doing something miraculous just by moving
That bothered me at the beginning
And it surrounded my freedom with a fence
I remained silent so as not to disturb them
Then the surveillance over me increased after that
And eyes kept following me wherever I went
Then people would gather around me
And begin a long, whispered conversation
I could not hear anything of it
Then a boy dared to come forward and approach me
And he placed his hand on my neck
He would place it then pull it back before it touched my neck
And I realized that he wanted to pat my head
I bowed my head and brought it closer to the boy
So he started patting my head
The boy's behavior broke the people's fears of me
So they approached and started placing their hands on my body and touching me
As if to verify my real existence
I welcomed this affection that the people of Thamud showed
And their love increased
Then my little one was born on the third day of my appearance in the land of Thamud
And my newborn attracted the people's attention just as I did
And perhaps even more
People were patting him and placing their hands upon him
As if to prove to themselves that he was real and not an illusion
And I began to nurse my newborn
The people of Thamud contemplated the milk, and their mouths watered for it.
They hurried to their prophet Salih.
They told him about the news of the camel that was born,
and the milk that was flowing from the she-camel's udders.
They said to him,
We want to benefit from the she-camel of Allah, for which you prayed to Allah.
Her calf will not drink all of her milk,
and perhaps this milk is blessed.
Salih told them that the she-camel's milk is permitted for them by the mercy of Allah,
but he divided the water between them and it.
He said to them,
You will leave the water for the she-camel to drink it,
and you will drink from her milk.
On the next day, you will drink the water,
and you will leave the she-camel's milk for her to feed her newborn.
The people agreed to their prophet's proposal and approved it.
And my existence began as an inexhaustible source of milk.
Allah Almighty had blessed the milk that I produced,
so it was enough for them and exceeded their needs,
and they would make cheese, cream, butter, and ghee from it.
My milk was rich in taste,
and whoever drank it would neither be thirsty nor hungry.
I was generous with them to the point that I would remove the udder from my little one's mouth
to give drink to a girl I did not know by name from the people of Thamud.
Days passed, and the whole community loved me because I was feeding and giving drink to all of them.
This is a utilitarian love that disappears when its source disappears,
and it has no value in the ultimate calculations of love.
I will not dwell on it.
The poor believers who followed Salih loved me.
They used to call me the she-camel of Allah.
While the leaders and rulers of the community were calling me the she-camel of Salih
And with time, I began to feel that a thorny curtain of hatred was surrounding and besieging me
Then a dialogue took place between those who believed in Salih and his sign, and those who disbelieved in him
And the influential ones who grew arrogant among his people said to those who were oppressed, to those who believed among them
Do you know that Salih is sent from his Lord?
They said, 'We are believers in what he has been sent with.'
Those who grew arrogant said, 'Indeed, we are disbelievers in that which you have believed in.'
The dialogue resulted in two specific positions
The position of the believers and the position of the arrogant
In the beginning, the arrogant asked a question of belittlement and scorn
Do you know that Salih is sent from his Lord?
The question was a trap
But the objectivity of the believers led them to the correct answer
They said, 'We are believers in what he has been sent with.'
The believers moved past the supernatural miracle
And they moved past the dazzling sign
And they stopped at the teachings of the Prophet
Which are summarized in worshipping God alone
The answer did not please the influential ones
They saw in it a calmness that stirred anger
And their response was, 'Indeed, we are disbelievers in that which you have believed in.'
This response includes disdain for the believers, belittlement of them, and an attack on their persons
Meaning they are saying to them, 'Your faith in him is the source of our doubt in him, and it is the secret of our disbelief in what you have believed in.'
The believers departed, and the influential ones returned to their palaces
Rage filled their hearts, and it was about to explode because of their actions
The chief of the influential ones sent for all the masters of Thamud and their leaders
They entered a spacious hall in his palace
And a historical meeting began
All those present did not believe in Salih
And they did not believe in the she-camel
They regarded them both as a conspiracy being plotted against the ruling regime
And aiming to remove it
The leader of the people said
Indeed, the presence of a she-camel grazing freely
Has stripped away all of our authority over the situation in the tribe
And those present agreed with his opinion
One of them returned, saying
The existence of the she-camel is a constant reminder to the people of the sign of God
And a permanent validation of the prophethood of Saleh
The question lay before them
What is the solution?
The harshest of them said
We must get rid of the she-camel
A hideous decision was reached in the famous historical meeting
Which the people of Thamud held
The decision was to slaughter it
In the beginning, those present were terrified by the idea of slaughtering it
They said that Saleh had warned against touching the she-camel with the intention of harming it
And warned against slaughtering it, and warned against any interference with it
And threatened whoever does that with a terrible punishment that would befall them after three days
And they went on thinking about trying to get rid of me
And they were exhausted by reaching a solution
The cups of wine were passed around them, and the drink became potent
They abandoned their fears, and their leader said
There is no solution other than slaughtering the she-camel
Its presence threatens the entire ruling regime
Including the elders of the tribe, leaders, and wealthy people who have interests
The entire society is threatened because of this she-camel
The people continued to revolve around this point
And the cups of wine continued to circulate among them
Their minds also began to spin
After hours of their discussion, the conference turned into a conspiracy
Everyone sitting there became involved in plotting this crime
After the question had been: What shall we do with the she-camel?
The question became: How shall we kill the she-camel?
Then it evolved into the following form
Who shall we task with killing the she-camel?
The planning began to weave itself from the deepest depths of human evil
I was feeling everything
I was not hearing what they were saying
But I was following their words
And I was understanding their rapid, decisive language
And despite that, I was feeling everything
As a symbol of innocence
I felt that they wanted to slaughter me and were plotting for it
And what surprised me most was that I did not understand the reason
Why?
What evil did I do to them to justify my slaughter?
What harm did I direct toward them?
What is the offense that reached them from me?
There was no answer to all these questions. I bowed my head and continued offering milk and affection
I felt that the decision to slaughter me had been issued, and nothing remained but its execution
And I felt sadness one night while my little son pressed against my chest
I felt sadness for the fate of innocence
Why do people slaughter innocence in this world?
The astonishment widened, and my understanding remained in its state of non-understanding
And I continued offering milk and affection
And two nights passed, and the third came
I felt that this was my last night among the people of Thamud
A clear feeling of the end overcame me
The matter ended and the agreement of the assembly was completed with nine of the greatest criminals in the city.
And nine were chosen from among them, the most ferocious and powerful of them.
And they entrusted them with the task of killing me.
I do not know any of the names of these nine.
But I know that they drank milk from me, and their children drank with them.
I was not stingy with anyone, nor did I ask for a reward from anyone.
God Almighty will mention them in the context and omit their names.
And there were nine in the city who spread corruption in the land and did not reform.
These were the tool of the crime.
As for the executor, he was a man referred to as their companion.
Indeed, We are sending the she-camel as a trial for them, so watch them and be patient.
And inform them that the water is to be shared between them; each portion of water has its turn.
So they called their companion, and he dared and hamstrung her.
How then were My punishment and My warnings?
This one who was referred to as their companion,
He was swaying from drunkenness where I was lying.
The sword in his hand was gleaming.
And his soul was darker than the depth of the night.
Before he reached me, one of the angels arrived.
And I understood from the angel's compassion that I would die.
I also understood thousands of other things.
I understood that I was a trial for an arrogant people.
I stood up when the killer entered.
He looked at me, barely able to see from how much he had drunk.
He raised his hand with the sword, so I hastened to protect my little one.
His sword reached my leg and severed it from my body.
And I fell to the ground prostrate.
A terrible torment gathered, separating us from it by three days.
I saw the cruelty of the torment.
And I felt pity for those who would be struck by such torment.
Did the sight of the blood bleeding from my feet agitate the mind of the killer?
So he raised his sword and brought it down upon my neck.
What did you feel?
I felt comfort, sweetness, and contentment.
The feeling was wonderful.
Moments of martyrdom are always wonderful.
I, along with my newborn, turned into a part of the mountain rocks.
And Al-Bara' remained with us, slaughtered on the ground.
As for the people of Salih,
they turned into a story briefly mentioned in the Book of Allah.
We sent upon them a single cry,
and they became like the crushed dry grass of a fold.
The birds of Abraham.
And when Abraham said, 'My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead.'
He said, 'Do you not believe?'
He said, 'Yes, but that my heart may be satisfied.'
He said, 'Take four birds, and train them to come to you.'
Then place a part of them on every mountain.
Then call them, they will come to you in haste.
And know that Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise.
We fly together in a wonderful formation in the sky.
Returning on our way to the homeland.
Our homeland is not the green house built by Abraham the Friend of Allah.
The homeland of the pigeons is usually divided and fragmented.
The pigeon carries half of its homeland in its heart,
and its second half in the heart of the one it loves.
I was leading the flock.
So I pulled back my wings, raised my beak upward, and took off.
The flock of pigeons followed me.
I flapped my wings and began to sway.
If the air were pure bliss, then I am swimming in pure bliss.
Praise be to God for creating me as a bird.
I do not know how creatures that creep on the earth endure their lives on the earth.
In flying, there are a thousand pleasures that do not reveal themselves except to those who ascend.
In the air, the green fields look vividly green.
And on the ground, the degree of greenness decreases.
And dust enters your eyes and forces you to cry.
I saw her for the first time in my life in a situation of crying.
Its cause was the dust.
Praise be to God that He created her for me.
A white dove.
She named herself Nasha.
She had another name before she fell in love.
Pigeons change their names when they fall in love.
The old name no longer suffices to indicate the new self.
Which is born after love.
We know that a new self is born after love.
We know all the secrets of love.
We love our Creator who brought us into existence from nothingness.
Three-quarters of our love we give to God.
And we love the air that carries us as it carries the melody.
Half of the remaining quarter is a gift to the air.
We love the human, so we feed him our flesh without pain.
A quarter of the remaining quarter is for the human.
And what remains of our love stays for the females.
There remains of our love for the females an amount the size of a grain of wheat.
The human belittles a grain of wheat and throws it on the ground.
While all the golden wheat fields that feed millions,
Were originally a single grain of wheat.
In the greatest love stories, there is no value to the weight of love, its mass, or its size.
The value lies in the ability to continue in it.
And we love until we die of love.
When my mother got sick and died,
My father realized something tragic, mysterious, and terrifying.
We were children seeing my father always jumping, full of fun and vitality.
When they carried her from before his eyes,
He hung his head to the ground and did not say anything.
The first day came and he was silent, neither flying, nor eating, nor drinking.
He was opening his beak and closing it as if he were saying something.
On the second day, he lay on his stomach and was silent.
He refused to eat, drink, fly, or open his beak.
On the third day, he lay on his side and sighed.
He looked as if he were carrying a mountain on his chest.
And at the dawn of the fourth day, he tucked his beak into his wing and died.
When they carried him from before our eyes,
His wing was wet as if he had cried after he died.
We were children who did not realize that love is an original fabric in the universe.
The entire universe was built upon love, loyalty, and peace.
One of the doves carried an olive branch from the earth to Noah's Ark,
When the flood ceased its flow and submitted to the word of God.
Since that day, the dove has become a symbol of deep peace.
People know about that,
However, they are ignorant that the dove is a symbol of loyalty, love, and resurrection,
The resurrection of the dead.
No one understands the resurrection of the dead except for one who knows love.
Love itself is a resurrection from the death of habit,
And the boredom of familiarity and the lack of meaning.
And when a creature's heart beats with love,
It resurrects what was dead within it.
How does a creature believe in the resurrection of the heart?
And he denies the resurrection of the body
Yes
In love there is a moment where the One summons His worshippers
And they rise from the dust of sleep
What power is this that can summon the dreams of history from its dusty cloak, other than the power of love?
Exalted is God, and holy is His name
I have not ceased flying through space, returning to her, to Nasha
In the beginning, I will dip my beak into the water that Ibrahim provides for us
I lower my wings at the mention of Ibrahim
The master of our home and the House of God
The one who is always traveling to God
The friend of God, how I love him
It is impossible for creatures to draw near to Ibrahim and not be moved
The first whose heart established the laws of the unification of love
He ignited his noble body like a candle to illuminate the creatures
His enemies threw him into the fire
And the fire of the earth was extinguished by the fire of heaven which burns in his heart
Fire does not burn a fire greater than itself
And there is nothing greater than the fire of love
Nashi
My heart beats when I remember her
She was white and slender
And her beak was ordinary
And there was nothing special about her body
I was more beautiful than her
And the male among doves is usually more beautiful than the female
Except that beauty here is nothing but a hidden weakness
It is, in the slenderness of the females and their misery, something irresistible
There is no creature that resembles another creature
And Nashi does not resemble any other dove on earth
Perhaps she was the least beautiful of the pigeons
Perhaps there was something in her walk that suggested confidence
Even if, in reality, it concealed a profound, delicate brokenness
A kind of mysterious sweetness whose secret is impossible to reveal
Ah, I remember the first meeting with her
She was crying
A speck of dust entered her eyes, so she began to cry
I unfolded one of my wings to protect her from the dust
She greeted me with a gentle greeting from the feathers of her tail
No conversation took place between us
I lifted my head with a quick movement, turned it, and looked at her
I began moving my head and walking
Around her I walk
Around her I circle
Around her I spread my wings
Around her I suddenly fly
I spin, I spin
My head is spinning, my heart is spinning, and she stands in her place, motionless, watching me
I was showing her my might, my strength, and my tenderness at the same time
I was flirting with her as people think
I was speaking to her in the language of silence that says more than words say
I do not know, perhaps I was doing all of this
And perhaps I was floundering around her without knowing
I say I do not know
And in love, this 'I do not know' is the majority
What the lover usually knows is the image that he draws in himself of the one he loves
As for the truth, it remains belonging to God alone
We talked a little
It seemed to me that the words were flowing from her beak like the song of a nightingale or the chirping of a stone curlew
The words acquired new meanings simply by coming from her
The ancient spring of peace, which one of my ancestors carried when he returned with an olive branch in his beak, began to move.
All the snow on the mountain peaks melted, and the clouds leaned over the spring flowers, beginning to stroke their heads and kiss them.
The spring season was born inside my heart.
Could this be love?
I asked her, what is your name?
She said, Nushka.
I said, your name will become old in a few moments.
She said, the wind carries your words away, so I do not hear them.
I did not speak.
I circle around her.
I spread my wings and fold them.
I fly high and swoop down suddenly.
I hover around her.
With a tender heart and a fluttering soul.
I tremble around her.
I flail.
I circle and rotate.
My confession ended, and I felt that I had lost my old self.
We used to meet often in the courtyard of Ibrahim's house.
It is the only house that used to scatter grain for the pigeons.
And scatter food for the ants.
And open the door to guests.
And slaughter its fattest calves when the angels visited it.
He would mistake them for human guests.
We were four birds who had taken refuge in his house.
She, I, and two others.
My old feather became plumage.
She came to me one day saying,
Tell me how you want me to be so that I may be.
And she tucked her beak into her neck.
And she whispered
I do not want anyone but you
I want you as you are
She said
But I am not beautiful
The rest of the pigeons do not love me
They do not feed me
I said
I feed you half of my heart
And the second half of it
You might get hungry a second time
She moved her neck with pride
We walked together on the ground
I pointed out a grain of wheat to her with my beak
She said with one of her wings that she was not hungry
We walked together on the trees
I pointed out a fruit to her, but she did not eat it
We walked together in the sky
We rose a little while we were walking or flying
I do not know
The air is light and soft
And there is a refreshing cold breeze blowing from the north
Our wings shuddered suddenly
She said
Could the air have passed over the snow before it came?
I said
The snow melted days ago
But I am shivering
Never leave me
Come, let us play
Come, let us push the air
We flew
We burned our wings and began to breathe in the air
Until warmth returned to it
We landed on a tree
The branch tilted a little until we stood upon it
I bowed my head and contemplated the earth
I was thinking about our shivering together
Could our love be hiding a fate of pain for us?
Will one of us die before the other?
Something cold squeezed my heart
She turned to me, whispering
I want you beside me while I die
I said, life has not begun yet
She said
Death was not sad before I knew you
The sun was on its way to setting
And the horizon began to be dyed with blood that resembles the blood of pigeons
And my mind raced to the slaughter
I do not want to be slaughtered now
I want to live a long time
I have not started my love yet, O Lord
I began to pray a long prayer to God
And you began to pray, you too
Then we turned back returning home
You slept, my heart
And I remained awake
Then drowsiness wrapped around me
I was asleep when I saw myself flying amidst a white sky and a blue earth
I was flying at a towering altitude
Greater than the soaring of eagles
Beneath a white cloud
The whole time
I saw my loved one sleeping above the cloud
I stared at her
She was not sleeping
I was surprised that she was torn of feathers
And wings and body
I wanted to scream at her
The cloud changed from the color white to the color red
The cloud drank her blood
And it began to rain
The rain descended as tears the size of red grape berries
I wanted to scream
Or cry
Or descend
I was surprised that the cloud was dissipating
And I saw torn, scattered remains on the mountain peaks
I saw myself torn beside her
On the mountain peaks
I was dreaming that I was flying
And I saw myself at the same time
Torn with her on the mountains
Half of my left side
Sticks to half of her right side
Each half of it
Completes the other half
I woke up terrified
And I found her breathing beside me
A beloved just as she is
safe as she is
the sound of her breathing
some of her feathers fly off at the neck
I kept tossing and turning for a while, then sleep took me
the morning breathed at last
I rose feeling weak after the strange dreams of yesterday
I flew a little, hoping to refresh myself
I flew without looking around me
my whole mind is occupied by one image
an image of us together, torn on the mountains
I ventured deep into the flight
hours passed
suddenly I saw myself having drifted very far from my homeland and my dwelling
I discovered that I was lost
I rose higher
I soared high in the space
and I began to fly in a circular direction
trying to pick out the distinguishing boundaries of the area
that I had come out of
I did not pick out anything
the area I was flying in was
a towering mountainous area
I rose more and more
I relied on my vision, but I did not pick out any of the landmarks I know
when I despaired of my sight, I began to try to determine the directions through hovering
trying during the flight to connect with the magnetic force lines that extend between the poles of the earth
when sight and the magnetic force lines failed me, I resorted to the sun to determine the direction
I wanted to know the angle between the direction of the sun and the north
if I knew the north, I would determine the rest of the directions
and I headed back to the east
Contemplating the sun took me over
At the moment I discovered the angle I was seeking
I discovered at the same time that I was flying amidst mountains
that eagles take as a home
I fell in fear into a large nest
which the father and mother had left
And they left behind in it an eagle child
The eagle child was one and a half times my size
But it was not able to fly yet
Perhaps it was born the day before yesterday
It felt my movement inside its nest
So it raised its bald head and its sharp beak
And looked at me with a hateful look
I said to it without speaking
Ease the hostility of your look, you little monster
The time has not yet come to devour pigeons
I had barely caught my breath until I threw myself into the space speeding
And I flew as if a thousand old eagles were in my pursuit
I flew quickly and increased my speed until I reached the outskirts of my land
I hurried toward Ibrahim's house and fell to the ground catching my breath
Nasha stood at my head and I said panting
I survived certain death
She said, 'Calm down now'
I calmed down
She moved her wings and the air waved around me, refreshing, mixed with the scent of her body
The fatigue left me and I felt thirsty
I realized what I wanted without speaking
And she hurried toward the water dish and filled her beak and returned to give me drink, her mouth to my mouth
Her wing touches my wing
My thirst for water went away, but my thirst for her ignited
I told her that, so she said marry me
I said I have married you
She said may heaven bless our marriage
I said and may the greatest heart on earth bless it
She said Abraham, the friend of God
I said we shall fly to him together
We left the courtyard of his house for his very house
We stood upon a low wall that he builds to pray behind
We alighted before his feet and kissed his feet
Our two hearts trembled with love
He extended his generous hands and patted our heads
My beloved startled and we flew off
My beloved startled a second time from me and we flew off
We celebrated our wedding in space
We invited the clouds and the stars hidden in the sunlight
And we invited the sun and the moon hidden in its light
We invited all of God's great creatures to the wedding celebration
Pure happiness is the air
Pure happiness
We were four doves considering Abraham's house our home
Then we became ten doves
Then we became twenty
Love was expressing itself in thousands of ways
So the number of the little ones increased
We learned much about the friend of God when we lived in the courtyard of his house
He used to pray a lot
And he used to invite people a lot
And he used to meditate a lot
And we could not, as simple birds in the end
Know the degree of his closeness to God
or the depth of his feelings toward the Creator
All we know is that he used to seclude himself often
And in one of his seclusions, he was absorbed in thought
Then he raised his hands, asking God
And when Abraham said, 'My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead'
He said, 'Do you not believe?'
He said, 'Yes, but that my heart may be reassured'
He said, 'Take four birds and incline them to yourself, then put on each hill a part of them'
Then call them; they will come to you in haste
And know that God is Exalted in Might, Wise
My wife was sleeping next to the little ones
And I was sitting outside our nest when the hand of our master Abraham reached out to me
I surrendered to the kind hand
In his other hand was a knife
The knife drew near to my neck
And I began to contemplate the reflection of the sun's rays on the blue blade
Thousands of suns travel to the blade and are born upon it
The blade drew closer to my neck, and my surrender increased
My wife let out a half-scream
I felt nothing
The knife blade plunged into my neck
The last sound I heard was the sound of her scream
Afterward, I heard Abraham calling us to him
In the next moment, I was flying, rushing toward Abraham with three other birds
We reached his embrace, and we threw ourselves panting, rushing, and answering the call
Abraham prostrated to God
I did not find her in the nest; I found our children hungry, and she was absent
I flew into a great rage and decided to discipline her
I know where to find her
A place by the river where we used to meet often
I flew toward the river
My wife stands on the branches, staring at the river water without moving
I stood on the branch next to her, but she did not turn around
What has afflicted her, my Lord? Could she be sick?
I said, 'Nasha, why are you standing here alone?'
She did not turn around, two large tears slid from her eyes and she said
My mind has begun to shake
I still hear his voice as he was when alive
Her answer astonished me
I raised my wing and struck her with it, a strong blow
So she turned toward me
She had barely seen me when she screamed in astonishment
Oh my God
How?
But you
She began to tremble
She gathered her strength and said suddenly
How did you return from the dead, my love?
Ibrahim slaughtered you
I remembered the knife suddenly
I wrapped my wing around her to calm her fear and asked her
Tell me everything
Ibrahim slaughtered you in front of me
He tore you into pieces along with three other birds
And distributed your parts on the mountains
I said to her, 'Ibrahim did not slaughter me'
He called me to him, so I came hastening
But he slaughtered you before my eyes, my love
But I am alive
I do not believe that you are alive
Oh my beloved
She collapsed upon my chest
My mind was suddenly lost by what happened
Nasha told me that Abraham slaughtered four birds
And tore our bodies apart and placed every part of us on a mountain peak
Then he returned to his home
Nasha accompanied him on his journey, then stood crying over half of my body
And the Friend of God, Abraham, left her and went away
She cried for a long time, then flew back to her place on the tree
Hours passed and I was surprised to find myself standing beside her
We remained for more than an hour talking
Our emotion was immense
Nasha was trembling and saying
He slaughtered you before my eyes
And I was shivering and saying
Rather, He called me to Him, and I hurried to answer
Until we agreed that I was slaughtered and rose from the dead
I wondered
How?
She lay down as if in front of us in the river water
Like a secret with no bottom
Nasha said suddenly
Did Abraham not say
My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead
Abraham left the mountain and left you slaughtered upon it, then he returned
He summoned you and you hurried to him
I said to her
Why?
She said
Perhaps the Friend of God wanted to see the hand of the Creative Power
And it is working
So he drew the curtain over the secret and saw only the result
Oh my God, but how?
I returned to how it ripples on the surface of the water
I said, if the Friend of God did not know how I returned from death, then how would I know?
I returned to wonder what power this is that can call death and they hasten?
Nasha said, Oh power of love, have you forgotten that Abraham is the Friend of God?
Before that, Abraham was about to slaughter the son most beloved to him
Whoever possesses the ability to slaughter his son out of love for God
Can call the torn bird from its death
So it hastens, healing and hurrying toward him
It is the power of love in both cases
I returned to say I have become more confused
What is the wisdom?
Nasha said
I have no answer, my heart
All I know, my beloved, is that God reassured Abraham's heart
And he was searching for reassurance
And God reassured your heart, the sacrificed one, with unity
And God reassured my heart with your return to me after I had lost you
God has returned you to me, returned me to you, and returned Abraham to himself
What more do you want than that?
I said, how much God loves Abraham
She said, how much He loves me and loves you
Joseph's wolf
That you take him, and I fear that the wolf will eat him while you are heedless of him
They said, if the wolf eats him while we are a group, then we would surely be losers
The life of wolves is not comfortable
I admit that
To be a wolf means that you have fangs and claws
And there is no one in the world who is devoid of fangs and claws.
All that there is, is that a smile may hide behind it sharp fangs and keen claws.
And so, people do not hold a grudge against it.
They hold a grudge against the explicit fangs.
I am like a wolf.
A target for continuous campaigns by humans.
A target for constant persecution.
Humans say about those who are worst in morals and most fawning to women,
He is a wolf.
And this is an insult to wolves.
We, as wolves, do not care about sex except for one month of the months of the year.
And you will find in us an emotional and marital stability,
Which thousands of other animal species envy us for.
I do not want to talk at length about myself as a wolf.
I am writing these papers while I am somewhat angry.
I am not angry, but I am a little annoyed.
I completely miss justice on this earth.
And I hate to find myself in a position of clear injustice,
In which a human exploits his sophistication and intelligence to wrong wolves.
An oppressed wolf am I.
The wolf of Joseph.
This is my name by which I became famous in history.
However, I swear that I have never seen this Joseph in my life at all.
I neither saw him, nor ate him, nor tore his clothes, nor approached him.
It is a tragedy from its beginning to its end.
The darkness of evening fell upon the desert.
The yellow color retreated with the retreat of the sun, and the land was covered in its encompassing gray color.
The people quieted down and their movement stilled.
And its exciting nocturnal life stirred in the desert.
The creatures that look for their food during the night moved.
And she began to strive
I went out to breathe the air in front of the cave door where I live
I filled my chest with the pure evening breeze
How wonderful it is for a person to be a wolf
Then to stand at the door of his cave and howl
It is impossible for the subjects of the animal kingdom
To forget the howl of a wolf
It is a long and deep cry that shakes your back and sends a chill through it as cold as snow
We call this howling among ourselves the evening song
We do not howl during the day
Our kingdom is the night
And we sing when the darkness of our great kingdom descends
We have six types of howling
Each one of them has its special meaning and its distinctive expression
This deep, long howl that begins with the fall of darkness is the evening song
In it, we praise and glorify our Creator
And this husky, short howl is an expression of loneliness and a call for a mate
And there is the terrifying, long, angry chase howl
And there is a howl that means that valuable prey has been caught
And the most beautiful thing about our howling is that it spreads through the air
So the victim does not know how many wolves are rushing toward it
It does not know the source of the danger from the spread of the howling around it
And any horse, ibex, or sheep that hears our howling
Must tremble and lose its ability to flee and be overcome by great confusion
At that moment, I pounce
My gray body takes off in the desert like a fist of lightning and I strike
It is one strike with the claws
After it, hot, quivering food in which the spirit still stirs pushes into the stomach
I once tried to eat food that its owners had cooked over a fire and let cool
And I found it, unfortunately, without taste
It astonished me that a human would be satisfied with this soft food that fire has ruined
I am talking about food because I am fasting
Five days ago, I ate half of a fat lamb
He was walking far away from the rest of the herd
We usually eat once every week
And we live on what we ate for a whole week
We fast for six days without feeling hunger
Then we start our search for food
I remained standing in front of the cave door for a while
Until night fell completely
And the friend of the wolves appeared
The moon appeared
This pale silver disc
By whose light we see the smallest mountain mice
The moon had barely appeared when I raised my head and offered it an evening greeting
I howled a long howl
It is a pleasure to howl in the moonlight
The moonlight reflects on my fangs
And the beam bounces toward the furthest prey
Trapping it with fear in its place
And nailing it with terror
After that, I took off after the beam
I lifted my muzzle and sniffed the air
I can distinguish between more than forty scents at one time
The scent of the earth differs from the scent of the grass
From the scent of the trees
From the scent of the ibexes
From the scent of the flowers
From the scent of the sands
From my own scent
What is this?
I can now distinguish the smell of sheep
The basic stupidity of sheep is that they cannot hide their scent
Sheep do not bathe well
And that is why they spread a distinct aroma in the air around them
For us wolves, this smell is like an invitation card to a delicious meal
My wife came out of the cave, sniffed the air, and was met with the same scent
Our eyes met, so I said to her: stay with the children and let me go alone
The she-wolf entered the cave and I hurried down the hill
I was not out on a hunting mission
We do not go out to hunt except in groups
Not fewer than five and not more than twelve wolves
I was out on a scouting mission
I lifted my head while I ran
And began to follow the particles of the scent
I can follow a scent during the night
With the same ease that a human follows
A riverbed during the day
The scent drew closer to my nose
So I slowed down
And began to move with caution
A few steps away stands a white tent
Ten men sit in front of it around a fire they have lit
And a few steps away from them sleep hundreds of sheep, ewes, and cattle
The cold was intense, so I warmed my mouth with my tail and began to watch
The men's ages were not equal
Among them were those who grew their beards
And among them were those who let their hair grow long
I surmised that they were friends or brothers
I felt from a quick glance I cast upon their faces
That they were plotting something
I pressed my chest to the ground and hid
I raised my ear and listened
One of the ten men said while warming his hands by the fire
We must get rid of Yusuf
The cold intensified and a wave of freezing north wind passed, so I shivered
I am not accustomed to this coldness
I was born in a temperate climate in Egypt
And I was raised there with a brother one year younger than me
I loved my brother with a great love
And I would not go out for hunting unless he was with me
Then one day my brother went out and did not return
In vain I tried searching for him in Egypt
I wandered through the wilderness of farms and deserts for many days
Without finding any trace of him
His scent had completely disappeared
And my heart broke after him, so I left Egypt
I crossed the desert and came to these cold lands
I found myself a stranger among wolves of a different kind
Their fur was slightly longer than my fur
I lived among them and married a female wolf who seemed to have been a spinster
And I imagine that the secret to their turning away from her was her short hair
She resembled me in that
I married her, and she rejoiced in me with the greatest joy
She said to me on our wedding day
Where did you come from?
Your hair is short
And you do not resemble the wolves of this region
I said I came from Egypt in search of my younger brother
Who went out and did not return
She said with sincere tenderness
I will be your wife and your younger sister
So do not be sad
Her words shook me to the core
And I remembered my younger brother
So I howled a long, sad, continuous howl
Then the troubles of married life occupied me
And it cast the dust of temporary forgetfulness over the memory of the missing brother
I got married in the spring
After two months and a half
My wife gave birth to six little wolves
Before she gave birth, we looked for a place for the coming family
I dug with her a deep cave in the ground
Then we decided against digging before completing it
And we went back to search for another place
Finally, we found our cave that we live in now
It is a remote cave that occupies the top of a rocky hill in the middle of the desert
The children grew up and the color of their eyes changed from deep blue to yellowish-gray
I realized that the children had grown up and I started teaching them hunting
And it seems my wife compensated for her deprivation before me by having many children
She barely carries, gives birth, raises, breastfeeds, and teaches hunting before returning to pregnancy and childbirth and having children
I became the head of a large family I provide for, and that exhausted me and made me constantly search for food
The smell of roast sneaked into my nose and along with it the smell of a live little lamb
He has not slept yet and is coughing from the cold
The men around the fire returned to the conversation and said
Joseph and his brother are dearer to our father than we, while we are a group
Indeed, our father is in clear error
Kill Joseph or cast him to a land, so that the face of your father will be free for you, and you will be after him a righteous people
I realized there was a plot to kill a human whose name was being repeated in the conversation
I was not as interested in their conversation as I was in knowing the place they would go to tomorrow
I wanted to know where the little awake lamb would go, the one whose scent I can distinguish amidst the sleeping flock.
One of them returned saying,
Do not kill Joseph, but throw him into the bottom of the well; some travelers will pick him up, if you are to do anything.
Their conversation still revolved around Joseph.
I was fed up with the conversation.
It amazed me that Joseph preoccupied them to this extent.
I went back to listening to their dialogue.
One of them said,
What shall we say to our father Jacob when he asks us about our brother Joseph?
I admit that I was shocked.
I discovered that Joseph is their younger brother.
How can they plot to kill him?
And I am the wolf who came out of Egypt searching for his younger brother,
who still lives with a distressed heart after losing him.
The exciting conversation drew me in.
I was astonished by the amount of hatred in their dialogue.
Their talk about their brother opened my wound and reminded me of my brother.
I witnessed the devil sitting with them while they did not see him.
My disgust for them increased.
I hated the scent of the little lamb.
I hated eating from their bowl.
I decided to leave.
I had barely turned around to go back when the conversation drew me to it again.
The scent of the conversation was exciting, like the scent of an entire flock
of ibexes and sheep.
One of them said,
We tell Jacob that Joseph got lost from us.
The second said,
This is an exposed trick.
How could he get lost from us when he is supposed to be with us?
The third one said
We say the wolf ate him
I strained my hearing
Here my mention came up in the dialogue
The people discussed after this unjust idea
Then they said
An interesting idea
We say the wolf ate him while we are oblivious to him
One of them said
Jacob will not let you take Joseph
The man loves him and cannot bear to part with him
They said we will try to convince his father
We will tell him the little boy does not get his fill of play
And he does not get enough of the sun
His face is pale so leave him to us
And let him go out with us to roam and play
The dialogue returned to revolve around itself
And circles around the fire
And carries to me an increasing feeling of astonishment and amazement
They were two teams, a team that wanted to kill Joseph and a team that suggested throwing him in a well
And despite the victory of the second team, the collective opinion settled on blaming the wolf
Which wolf? And they all went on talking about this wolf
What will they say to his father tomorrow? How will they describe to him the scene of Joseph after the wolf ate him?
How will they convince their father that the wolf actually ate him?
And one of them suggested that they take off Joseph's shirt and stain it with the blood of a sheep they would slaughter
Then they carry the shirt to their father and say to him
This is the shirt of your son whom the wolf ate while he was wearing it
I listened to their dialogue and understood why this creature called human has prevailed over the earth
I realized why the number of wolves on earth is decreasing and people are increasing
I understood that the fangs and claws of wolves look like brittle straw next to these civilized fangs and claws wrapped in a smile
The conversation returned between them while they were eating.
The oldest of them said,
Suppose that your father does not believe the story of the wolf.
The eldest of them said,
We will hunt a wolf and smear it with the blood of the sheep that we will smear Joseph's shirt with,
And we will go with the wolf to our father and tell him,
This is the sinful wolf that devoured Joseph.
Here is its blood, still stuck to its body and claws.
I trembled in my place from anger.
What audacity this type of human possesses?
The small lamb returned, moving amidst the sleeping flock.
I was completely repulsed by him.
Nothing concerned me anymore except to leave the place safely.
The smell of a dog approached me.
The dog left its place with the flock,
And approached them, perhaps someone would throw him a piece of meat or bones.
Dogs are not like us, eating raw, warm meat.
It seems the dog sniffed my scent,
So it began to growl and snarl,
And the hair on its body stood up in preparation for a fight.
I was not in a mental state that allowed me to engage with it and kill it.
Their conversation tore me apart from the inside,
And I despised getting into a conflict with their dogs,
And I preferred to move away from this atmosphere as quickly as possible.
I stood up from my place and howled.
I had barely begun the angry, desperate, shredded howl,
And finished it, when I was there at the other edge of the desert.
I ran like a wolf fleeing from a thousand humans.
I entered the cave to my wife, and she woke up immediately.
Her sleep is light.
She asked me, whispering
Your color is drained and your face is changed
I said while I was panting
Damn it
She said, did the smell of the sheep betray me
Damn it
I have not seen you this angry before
What happened?
Did someone try to hunt you?
Something even more cursed happened
I do not think there is anything more cursed than being hunted
Yes, there is
So be silent and let me think
Your youngest son asked about you
So I told him that Papa has gone out to look for prey
My wife knows that I am weak in front of my youngest son
No sooner had you mentioned him than I decided to wake him and play with him
I went to him and saw him sleeping on his back
With his legs raised upward
I stretched my mouth and pretended to bite his belly
So he woke up laughing
And he grabbed my mouth with his four feet
And he started biting me as well
He rolled onto his side so I went back to playing with him until his brothers woke up
And I saw that I must distribute the toys among them
So I started teasing them and playing with them
Until my wife made a sound with her mouth meaning it is time to sleep
My little wolves left me immediately
And the wolves hugged themselves
And warmed their souls by clinging together and surrendered to sleep
My wife exited the cave and stood at its door
I realized she wanted to be alone with me
I went out after her
She asked me in a soft voice
Why are you telling me about your trip
My anger had subsided
I said to her
It was a dark trip
I wish I had not gone out
She asked in astonishment
Why?
I went searching for prey
And I found them searching for me
For you specifically?
Yes
Why are they searching for you?
Because I ate Joseph
And who is Joseph?
A human I have never seen
His brothers want to throw him into the well and accuse me of eating him
You do not eat human flesh? How do they accuse you?
I said repeating my words, the tragedy is that Joseph is their brother
Strange, if not for my knowledge of your character, I would have said you ate a nutmeg tree and lost your mind
I am not unconscious, I am sad
I remembered my absent brother and my heart broke
Silence prevailed for a moment
And I saw myself saying
The wolf howled and I was comforted by the wolf when it howled
And the voice of a human, and I almost flew
What is this?
This is poetry.
I did not know that you write poetry.
I say what I say out of my burning pain.
When the cup has run over.
Your talents are many.
And your luck is little, my dear.
Tomorrow they will attribute these words to one of the poets of the children of man.
Praise be to God who created us as wolves.
Have the children eaten?
They have eaten, so do not worry.
I lowered my head and remembered my brother.
And a wave of sadness drowned me.
I was surprised that my she-wolf stretched out her face and placed it next to my neck.
She was kissing me.
She said with sincere tenderness:
I wish I had been lost instead of your brother.
My sadness is deep, so do not increase its depth.
I wish I had gone to sacrifice myself for him and for a moment of your sadness.
I said while kissing her, do not say that.
She cut me off with a second kiss.
And the moon centered its throne in the sky.
And the world became empty of sorrows, pains, and troubles.
There was no longer anyone here but her and me in the universe.
I buried my sorrows in her embrace and the night passed.
I returned to my normal life after that.
The family sleeps most of the day then wakes up in the late afternoon.
The she-wolf feeds our children from her breast milk as long as they are young.
If they grow a little, she feeds them the meat she eats after half-digesting it in her stomach.
If they grow more, they go out on hunting trips to learn the secrets of wolves and their profession.
If they reach their full strength, they set out in new groups for hunting.
After that, each one of them sets out to form a family and have children
Then all the families organize themselves and go out to hunt
The time for our departure to hunt has come
We agreed to meet at the door of my cave
Groups of wolves began to arrive
Our greeting is to shake our tails and raise them high
We organized ten mature wolves and two young wolves going out for the first time
The two young wolves stayed
They were greatly excited
They move in every direction
They dance, leap, and run here and there
I looked at them and remembered my childhood in Egypt
I used to play like this in the mountains and deserts of Egypt
With my younger brother
Every moment of a wolf's life fades from his memory
But the thrill of going out to hunt for the first time remains
It remains vivid and fresh in his memory
The wolf does not forget his first glow as he goes out to hunt and learns the howl of the chase
I remember the first time I went out with my brother that he whispered to me
I am a little scared
I asked him why, are you a dog to be afraid
He burst out laughing, jumped towards me, clamped his teeth on my neck, and asked
Would you like me to show you how scared I am
We laughed a lot that day and leaped like these two wolves
It was an unforgettable day
We were finally reunited
And the quick negotiations began
At the beginning of the hunt, we discuss potential targets
And we choose from among them the most difficult and challenging targets
One of us said
There is a group of ibexes grazing there on the horizon
Another wolf said
I found a colony of fat mice that no one is guarding
A third wolf said
In the direction of the west, a man is raising six horses
They are guarded by two dogs
The eyes looked at me, so I said
In the direction of the north, there is a tent
Ten men live in it, and they go out to graze
With them is a herd of sheep, ewes, and cows
They are guarded by six dogs
And the men are well-armed
The target that I identified was the most difficult of the targets
And the decision was settled on it
And we agreed to attack in the middle of the night
And we descended before evening towards the desert
I walked in the lead
Running beside me is my female wolf
And we followed the long caravan
Leaping at its end are two small wolves
The earth lost its yellow color
As we ran in the middle of green fields
The beginning of the evening is falling upon it
Then the earth returned to its gray color
As we were crossing a mountainous area
Then came the leaden color
And the scent of Joseph's brothers drew near
I stopped while running suddenly
So the whole caravan stopped
And it started to listen intently
My wife asked me in a whisper
Why did you stop?
I said in a whisper
I feel pessimistic
And I feel that I will not see you after tonight
Her eyes smiled a wide smile
Encouragingly
So I went back running toward the goal
We began our cautious crawl when we neared the tent
The ten brothers were sleeping in silence outside the tent
There were no dogs there
How did he leave the livestock without a guard then?
That astonished me and stirred my suspicion
I said to the wolves, pay close attention
For I think that these sleepers are not sleeping
My wife said, you are haunted by obsessions today, my love
I said, perhaps there were traps set up
I will not lose anything by being cautious
The two reckless little wolves had advanced more than they should have toward the livestock
And the livestock sensed the danger, so they woke up startled and began to moo and stir
I ran to fetch the two little wolves, so I did not maintain caution
I advised my people with it and forgot it
I did not go in a full circle, but I walked in a straight line
I had barely advanced a little when a strong trap snapped onto my back foot
I wept for my freedom in a long howl
And a spark of electricity spread from my mouth to the mouths of the wolves
And the air was torn by the sound of the wailing, screaming howl
And everything happened after that quickly
The men jumped from under their wool blankets
And they released their arrows at the wolves
She set off, moving away while howling.
The ten men approached me with sticks and ropes.
The sticks showered down upon my body.
The ropes were thrown over me.
They began to wrap around me until my movement stopped completely.
Finally, I fell into captivity.
An image of my absent brother flashed through my mind.
I realized how he was lost.
I am being lost like you, my brother, so do not grieve.
I howled a weak howl.
The matter includes my family moving away from the place and leaving me to my fate.
My wife replied to me with a torn, screaming, twisting howl.
She made me understand in her howl that she was coming to save me.
Let happen what may.
I howled back at her to leave and look after the children.
And I entrusted my youngest wolf to her with great care.
The desert swallowed the echoes of the howling.
Silence returned to the sands.
He found me lying on the ground, tied with ropes.
I raised my head and contemplated those who captured me.
They are the brothers of Joseph, without a doubt.
They felt reassured by my surrender.
They tied my feet to a strong branch of the tree branches.
They carried me hanging, head down, toward their village.
One of them said with joy,
We will tell Jacob this is the wolf that ate Joseph.
My groans rose, sad and complaining.
The men laughed and said,
As if the wolf understands what we are saying.
They stopped suddenly and said,
How do we prove to him that this is the killer wolf?
They consulted for a little while, then slaughtered one of the sheep and stained my claws with its blood.
Just as they stained my mouth with its blood.
My mouth was already wounded, so new blood was added to it to prove the farce.
We walked for a long time until we approached a small village surrounded by yellow sands and cultivated lands.
I felt thirsty as we walked beside the river of Palestine.
We entered a village illuminated by oil lamps.
I said to myself while inhaling the scent of the oil,
This is olive oil.
The road narrowed and wound.
And the smell of cooked food rose.
My feeling of misery increased.
Joseph's brothers shouted when they arrived at a white house,
surrounded by a wooded garden.
I memorized the road well during the tragic journey.
Who knows?
The brothers knocked on the door, and it opened to reveal three women.
The women screamed in terror when they saw me,
and rushed inside.
We entered the house.
A mysterious feeling of peace filled my heart.
Whose house is this, my Lord?
The brothers threw me onto the ground in front of a white-bearded sheikh,
of imposing features.
The ground struck me harshly,
so I went back to moaning.
One of the brothers said to the sheikh,
This is the wolf,
that attacks our sheep and devours them.
One of them said
And it is the same wolf that ate Yusuf
We hunted it today
He ate Yusuf from among us the day before yesterday
And it returned to us today
Said the voice of one of the women
Look
Yusuf's blood is on its claws and its mouth
Kill it now before it wakes from its faint
I was contemplating the eyes of the old man
And gazing into their clarity and glorifying God
So this is Yaqub
I realized that he is a prophet from among the prophets of God
A deep feeling of awe filled me
When the old man said to his sons
Leave the wolf to me and depart
Said one of the brothers while withdrawing
Beware of it, my father, for it is a treacherous wolf
The room was emptied of anyone but us
And we remained together, Yaqub and I
Yaqub approached me, untied my bindings, and set me free
I stood before him and bowed my head and raised my tail to greet him
Yaqub said while taking out a shirt stained with blood
This is the shirt of Yusuf, O wolf
The eyes of the old man overflowed as he threw Yusuf's shirt to me
They told me that you ate him and threw his blood-stained shirt to me
I smelled the shirt and examined its fabric and found it sound without a single scratch
I raised my eyes to the old man and my looks said
O noble prophet, all wolves are innocent of the blood of your son
The old man said, I know, O wolf, I know that
How could a wolf devour Yusuf while his shirt remains sound
It is my fault, O wolf.
I said when his brothers wanted to take him with them,
I fear that the wolf will eat him while you are heedless of him.
I put my fear of you above Allah's protection and care for him,
So what you see has befallen me.
Allah Almighty punished me.
And Joseph was lost from me, and you were brought instead of him.
I said with my eyes.
I do not understand, my master, what you are saying, this is heavy talk.
Jacob said,
Draw near to me, O wolf.
I drew near to him.
Jacob went back to bend down to pick up Joseph's shirt while saying,
Draw near to me, O wolf.
I went on drawing near to him until I pressed my cheek against his cheek,
And I wept just as he wept.
Jacob extended his hand and patted my head with it,
And all my wounds healed.
He asked me with his deep, sad voice,
Where did they go with Joseph?
And how did they find you?
I said to him,
I do not know what they did with Joseph.
I heard them talking about throwing him into a well,
But I swear to you, O Prophet,
That I am a strange wolf,
Who came from the regions of Egypt in search of a brother of mine,
Who went out and did not return.
Your sons hunted me, bound me, and brought me to you.
We do not eat human flesh, O Prophet.
The blood of prophets is forbidden to us as well
I wish I had not left Egypt in search of my brother
Jacob said as he pressed Joseph's shirt to his chest
The wolf went out looking for his brother
And sons lost their brother Joseph
I said, O noble prophet, set me free so that I may return to Egypt
I will not live in a land where the sons of prophets lie to humans and wolves
Who among us is the wolf now? Me, or your sons, O my noble master?
Jacob returned to pat my head with his hand
Then he stood up and opened the door of his room for me
His sons attacked me with arrows, spears, and dogs, shouting
Release our father, the monster
Jacob said, 'Rather, your souls have tempted you to something, so patience is beautiful, and Allah is the one sought for help against that which you describe.'
I jumped out of the house and took off running; I ran with half my strength and left the other half as spots of blood on the ground
I was struck by more than one fatal wound, but I am running away from the village; I do not want to die here
I went out into the vast desert and suddenly the earth began to spin
The earth spun until it came to rest with all its weight upon my head
And the spinning of the earth intensified
The whale of Jonah
Then the whale swallowed him while he was blame-worthy
And had it not been that he was one of those who exalt Allah
I turned around, drawing the letter Nun in the water
I arched my body and struck the ocean with my tail
The air shook, exploding like the roar of thunder
And a waterfall surged upward from the water after the tail strike
The natural state is for a waterfall to flow downward
Everything on earth flows downward
The breathing of creatures, the falling of fruits, and the collapse of a waterfall
And in the sea, the great whale breathes upward
And creates waterfalls upward from the water
The whale used its ancient fins to guide its front fountain
And the strokes of its rear tail
And every waterfall that bursts upward from the whale
Is a watery hand extending to the Creator of the waters in praise
I struck the water with my tail a second strike
And I began to listen for the sound of the second explosion
And the wind carries it to dissolve with the sound of the first explosion on the horizon
I know that my slapping of the water is heard for miles
And strikes thousands of sea animals and fish with terror
However, this is the way of power
When it trembles in awe before the Creator of power
I marvel at the pipefish in the sea
And I am weaker than spilled water before God
I know that I am the beast of the waters crowned upon the waves
I made my crown from the foam of white honesty and the herbs of green truth
And there is no power like honesty and truth when we talk about power
My ability to fold myself into the heart of the blue dimensions that have no heart crowned me over the waters
And this ability granted me a power whose essence I do not know, even if my being prostrates to it
I moved my tail and set off
All the waters of the oceans and seas are my private room
And my blue color extends under papers in which I write my story
There is no sign like writing on water or walking upon it
No one walks on water except the prophets
No one walks on water except the truth
As for the land, how many earthy lies crawl upon it
Also, writing on stone remains scars visible to everyone who looks
As for writing on water, the water heals over it and the secret dives into the sea without removing its masks
Thus, the secret keeps its share of its name in the waters
Here lies the greatness of the borrowed waters
I said the greatness of the borrowed waters
All the great creatures of the universe beg from the splendor of eternal greatness
The great creatures of the universe realize in the depths of their souls
That they are destined for death
All of them, except for man
He alone is the one who forgets
He alone is the one who plays god
He alone is the one whose head spins with the delusion of immortality
If there were a monster that could laugh mockingly
I would do so
I do not laugh
I know nothing but a frowning, grim forehead
I do not like man
And all whales do not like man
An old enmity that has a story that will come in its proper place
It boils
My blood when I remember man
So I plunge into the waters to the deepest depths
Then I strike the ocean with my tail
And I surge outwards
There is the surface of the sea
I jump from the surface
Upward toward the sky
A mighty leap like me
This is the prostration of the whales
People fall in prostration
Towards the earth, and the whales fall
In prostration towards the sky
Is not our earth the sky of the galaxy?
I swim in the northern seas where
The eye of the sun does not blink and does not set
I see the sun from my place
as a yellow disk
that fell into the green waters
This brilliant nakedness of the extinguished sun
in the waters
suggests solitude
and there is no companion for the great like solitude
and there is no one in the greatness of the sperm whale
and among all the sperm whales swimming in the waters
the choice of the Creator's power fell
on my person
to swallow Jonah
I did not know
I learned after swallowing him that he is a prophet
it was the ultimate experience in my long aquatic life
I admit that
there is no whale on whose forehead beads of sweat gather
there is no whale that cries out of tenderness and love
sweat gathered on my forehead and I cried
I was careful that a monster of the oceans would not see me while I was crying
my prestige in the waters is an ancient throne that has not been scratched
and I would not let it be scratched
my body which exceeds the length of a medium-sized island
and my weight which reaches a hundred thousand rocks
and my lunges into the depths of the waters after that
all of this is enough to make the most dangerous savage sharks
rush away fleeing until they shatter their bodies against the rocks in fear and terror
and despite that, I cried
I do not want to jump to the end
what happened shook me to the point of agitation, and I fell ill
My intestines began to produce ambergris
Whales do not produce ambergris unless they fall ill and are on the verge of death
My head spins and my tail moves a half-turn and I propel myself
On the water I write
The waters close over the secret, so I write
Here, the sea was a child whose forehead had not been wrinkled by millions of years
And the waves were our ancestors living on land
Somewhere in my vast body
In a hidden point of my mind
In a point hiding behind a throne of oil
And it lies between flesh, blood, and nerves
An old image lies
A gray, foggy land
Purple steam rises from the volcanoes within it
Mixing with the yellow color
The feet of dinosaurs and the feet of our ancestors creep upon the soil
Our ancestors were monsters greater in size than the dinosaurs
And the dinosaur had begun to go extinct from the earth
Its size was vast, its mind was small, and its desires were many
It was unable to adapt amidst the earth's changing conditions
Our ancestors were suffering from the same tragedy
The earth was being prepared to receive a new species called humans
This species was unknown to us precisely
We used to hear mysterious, exciting words about it
And the angels were talking about it with astonishment and love
And the approach of this species' arrival on earth
Carried a warning of a strange horror for the wild creatures of the earth
No one knows what befell the monsters of the earth
Until they erupted with immense anger
And rushed to fight and shed blood
Nothing remained of the extinct monsters
Except for the genus of whale fathers and mothers
We were the greatest monsters in size, so we won the battle
The earth was filled with blood and ruins
And our ancestors rushed to the sea in groups after groups
They looked at the earth and realized that their life on it was no longer possible
The earth was emptied of rival monsters
It was emptied of food
And our ancestors began to jump into the waters
We had no choice but one of two
To stay on land and perish from hunger, or jump into the water and survive
Thousands of our ancestors jumped into the waters
We had hands, feet, heads, and noses
People imagine that the whale is a fish
There is no greater insult to the whale species than this saying
Fish blood is cold and our blood is warm
We are mammals
We lived on land in prehistoric times
Then we took refuge in the sea to leave the earth for humans
Excuse me
My blood boils whenever humans are mentioned
I dive into the sea, angry and impulsive
It was said to my ancestors as they were jumping into the seas
Blessings upon you, oh great creatures
You will become kings of the sea
With no one to dispute it with you except humans
He chases you, alive and dead
After your death, you become perfume for your enemy
And oil for his lamps and food for his children
And medicine for his illnesses
The Creator of the universe has subjected you to mankind.
Our descent into the sea was not a descent of humiliation.
On the contrary, it was a descent of dignity, just like man's descent to Earth.
The volume of water is four times greater than the volume of land.
Our opportunity for growth is four times greater than our opportunity on land.
Our food is four times more abundant, yet we descend into the sea.
And the savage struggle against man was rooted in our depths.
And a sense of wonder at the same time.
This was millions upon millions of years ago.
During which we no longer had any need for our hands.
And our feet, heads, and noses evolved.
The ancient monsters of the land have become the whales of the sea now.
A cell in my mother's body told me all these secrets before I was born.
I do not remember where I was born.
I remember my father's face.
He was terrifying with his white face, his high hump, and his mighty tail.
His length is ninety and a half meters.
My mother is his third wife.
Her length does not exceed twenty-five meters.
A graceful beauty.
Her color leans toward light gray.
She was an ideal mother.
I never saw my mother smile.
I never saw my father laugh.
I asked,
Why do whales not smile?
My father said,
Shut up.
How can the mightiest monsters of the sea smile?
My father looked at my mother with an angry glare from the corner of his eye and said
Your son has come to be sensitive like you.
Anger overcomes you.
My mother took me to the sea, away from my father, and whispered to me:
You are a monster, my love, so do not let Mama and Papa down.
My childhood would have been happy, were it not for my father's looks and his savage comments.
When I was born, my length was a little over ten and a half meters.
My father circled around me inspecting, and said to my mother:
Ah, his length is fine.
I like his white color.
I hope he takes after his father's temperament.
He said his comments and went off to dive into the waters.
My father's temperament was known in all the oceans.
He was famous for his brutality, strength, and speed.
And they are three traits.
That must be present in the monsters of the sea and its masters.
I realized when I grew up that my father
Was a master over all the seas.
After sixteen months I spent in my mother's womb,
I breastfed for six months,
In which I did not see my father except twice.
And I admit that I loved my mother throughout the months of breastfeeding more than I loved my father.
She was affectionate and gentle.
I never saw her angry except once.
When a school of small sharks attacked me.
I imagined at first that they had come to play with me,
Then I discovered that they were attacking me and biting me.
I was a small child ten meters long.
I screamed calling for my mother,
So the ocean split open to reveal her,
And her tail had turned into a powerful propeller.
It strikes silent, blind blows in every direction
And it astonished me that the blows of its tail
Were tearing apart the bodies of the sharks, making them flee
None of them could get anything from me except a piece of the tail's flesh
Which later became a distinctive mark
And my hatred for sharks erupted deeply
And I became famous when I grew up for being fond of devouring dozens of them
As repayment for their old debt
I gave the sharks in exchange for the only moment of fear in my childhood
Nights of black, tangled terror and years of constant fear
The white sperm whale with the deformed tail arrived
That is how the animals of the sea would announce my arrival
The hour when the fish and monsters flee
So I move on a path cleared by fear itself
I finished the nursing period and my father came
He asked my mother, pointing at me with his tail
What happened to his tail?
She said proudly
The whale is the secret of his father
I left him alone and a school of sharks attacked him
My father said
Great
How did the little monster act?
My mother said
While looking toward me fearfully
The little monster acted like any little monster
My father said as he struck the water with his tail
Praise be to God, praise be to God
Follow me, little monster
Your childhood has ended, and tomorrow your lessons begin
It astonished me that my father believed that I acted like a monster
What if he knew that I screamed crying for my mother's help?
How great is the guile of females and their scheming
My mother used to protect me with her word from my father's brutality
And later she told me that if he had known what happened, he would have beaten me to death with his tail
He had previously killed three weak whales that his other wives had borne for him
While saying it is better for monsters to die hidden than to live in disappointment
I said that I loved my mother more than my father
The period of love lasted six months, which is the nursing period
After that I loved my father for two years, which is the schooling period
After that my love for my mother sank to the bottom of the ocean
And my love for my father fell into the foam of death
And I became a real monster when I stopped loving
After that there was no one left who could stand up to me
Or swim in front of me or hear about me without trembling
I considered anyone who saw me and did not thrash about in terror a creature being insolent toward me, and that crime requires swift punishment
Thus my speed outpaces me toward the challenger, so I confront him, my tail moves toward him, so I shatter him, and my mouth opens before him, so he vanishes into my belly
Three fast musical movements that are completed before the victim realizes what happened
And sometimes I open my mouth and dash
After I pass, the waters close over the prey
My belly becomes a graveyard for the challenger before he dies
I devour him alive so he dies slowly in my stomach
After that I leap out of the water high up
Thanking the blessings of God
Trembling from his fear, seeking his satisfaction
It was natural that training on using the tail would be
The first lesson we received from my father at school
Our school was located in the distant northern seas
Where the floating icebergs stand as witnesses to us all the time with their mocking, challenging silence
Our class included six male whales
My father was the stern teacher whose tail moves towards the one who makes a mistake,
and hits him with a light slap whose effect lasts for long nights,
as if it were a mountain of rocks crouching over your side, or your belly, or your head,
depending on where the blow lands.
In the first days of school, I remembered with sorrow the sweet days of breastfeeding.
My mother used to lie on her side while looking at me peacefully,
while I was curled up, clinging to her side, with her breast in my mouth,
not staring at her, but staring quietly and steadily far away from the breast,
as if I were living two lives at the same time.
It overcomes the whale when he sucks the milk from the breast,
a feeling that he is enjoying non-aquatic memories,
memories that come from the world of the soul,
where a wonderful peace and great security prevail.
The matter ended and the old peace dissipated in the first days of study.
I was afraid of my father, I do not deny it,
and I felt longing for my mother, I do not deny it.
And it was as if the stern teacher realized what was going through all our minds,
so he said,
When the whale leaves its mother,
it leaves its smaller prison.
And if it leaves its father, it leaves its larger prison.
After that, it sets off as a monster in the oceans,
nothing stops it.
My father said his words, then jumped out of the wave a mighty jump,
the water poured down around him,
as if a thousand islands were jumping in the air.
When he landed back in the water,
he struck the water with his tail a blow,
at which our poor child bones rattled.
The teacher said.
This is the simplest of tail strikes
I want the distant horizon to shake with the sounds of the explosion while you strike the water
We begin with the most savage among you
He pointed with his tail toward me
I asked
Should I jump or strike the water first?
Jump first, you fool
I jumped upward
He shouted, urging me to burst my veins while I jumped
He shouted that I jump like miserable sharks
Then he changed his mind
And said it was a jump that resembles the ridiculous jumps of seals
This one is screaming, demanding a royal jump
A real jump upward
I want your heads to reach the sun
Once more, upward
Strike now with your tail
I imagined, from the excess of force I put into the strike
That the spray of my strike would extinguish the sun
My father said, shouting
I heard nothing but the sigh of a sick fish
He went back to striking his tail in the water, his agitation more intense than the agitation of the sea
And we went back to striking behind him
The training lasted a full day
It seemed to me at the end of it that the icebergs were about to melt from the excess of our continuous effort
When the sun fell at the end of the ocean as a red disk
Our teacher said while turning and walking away
You will sleep here until morning
None of us thought of his mother
The period of the past six months melted into the toil of a single day
The days of our first paradise were lost to us
Here we are falling into the seas of misery without knowing what sin we have earned
I slept in my place from extreme exhaustion
And I opened my eyes the next day to the second lesson on using the tail
We were awakened by a loud explosion, which was the sound of our teacher hitting the water with his tail
My father was moving himself with captivating grace that rippled through the tyranny of strength
Or perhaps its grace derived its beauty from its strength
And in everything beautiful and captivating in beauty, strength plays a magical role
My father said at the beginning of his second lesson without opening his jaw
He said in a practical way
Specialize in the whale's tail with five major movements
The first is that it is used as a fin that helps in movement and progress
And the second is when it takes it as a shield for attack or defense
And the third is when it sweeps and clears the water with it
The fourth is in relaxation on the water during prayer
The fifth is when it raises the two lobes in a vertical direction to the water during praise
And even if the five movements seem easy to the water readers to the onlookers
They are in the water a crumbling effort
And since the whale's tail is horizontal in its position
It moves in a way that differs from the tails of all other marine animals
And it never bends
For bending in humans and fish is a sign of deficiency
And the whale is innocent of deficiency
And its tail is its only means of propulsion
And since it wraps like a wave in front of it under the body
Then it jumps quickly to the back
It is what enables the whale to have its unique jumping launch movement when it swims with violence and agitation
As for the side fins, they help with the course, nothing more
Did the lessons make us understand that when a sperm whale fights another sperm whale
It uses its mighty head and jaws
So if the matter shifts to a struggle with a human, the whale must use its tail only.
The matter does not involve underestimating or belittling the human.
All it is, is that using force that exceeds the limit against a creature that is below the limit,
is nothing but a shameful effort without bounds.
The head and jaw are then for the struggle of monsters and whales,
and the tail alone is for the struggle with humans and ships.
The whale's tail possesses a delicate sensitivity.
Sometimes a water bird lands on the tail of a swimming whale,
and the whale immediately senses the type of bird from its weight.
It knows which bird this is and from which islands it came.
In the moments when the sun rises,
and when its disc is red in color,
unaffected by the yellowing of old age,
thousands of whales line up and begin their glorification of God.
They all raise their two tail lobes, held upright in the void,
perpendicular to the sea, directed toward the sky.
From the bottom of the depths that have no end, the massive tail appears as if it is trying to cling, convulsively, to the seventh heaven, and there is nothing greater in the living nature than this sight.
My heart is filled with awe when I remember it, and I remember how the bodies of the whales and their tails sway, perpendicular to the sea, pleading to God with the morning glorification,
at the hour when the sea bears witness to us that whales are its most pious creatures and the most devout of them.
In the second year of my study, I showed brilliance that distinguished me from my whale companions,
and it was a herald of the glory that awaited me later.
My tail, which had been disfigured by the fangs of a shark, was a spot of fire blazing in the water and igniting me to excel.
Sharks were not our main food.
The octopus was a rich meal.
However, I preferred to make sharks my main food along with the octopus.
I would dash into the middle of their schools with my head wide open,
moving my tail at the same time with its deadly movement,
and I would clear the sea of them in a few seconds,
and I would leave the herd after washing my mouth of its blood in the water.
The waves passed, and the period of study ended.
There was only one year left for us to spend studying ocean currents
After which we would go out to meet humans
I remember the first time I went out to see him
My father led the herd heading towards the warm southern seas
We saw wooden toys made from a plant on land they call trees
Upon these wooden toys were strange creatures walking on their feet
Moving their hands and blowing smoke from their mouths
Our gray leader said
These are the ships and these are the sons of man
I raised my head and contemplated these worms that ride upon sticks
And astonishment filled me
This is our dangerous old enemy
Its size is no larger than a small scar on the tail of the deformed one
How can the creature be this tiny size
And yet the giants among us account for it so much
I said to my father as we were returning
Is this the human?
I think you despise his size
Yes
And you see yourself as stronger than him
Yes
Do you think you can break his ships and devour them along with him?
Definitely?
You are most certainly mistaken
This creature that you saw from afar like a spot or a scar
Is our most dangerous enemy of all
Where does his danger lie?
Did you notice his head?
His head is covered in black hair
I saw that, so where is the wonder in that?
The secret of his strength lies in his covered head.
His entire head is the size of the tip of my smallest ivory tooth.
Your teeth are prominent and his head is covered.
The difference between you two is no more than that.
You are strong and do not hide your strength, and he is weak and hides his strength.
You will never know from where a human's blow will come to you.
You will never know how to prevent it in advance.
He does not announce his thoughts to you.
You approach him in amazement to contemplate this floating wooden whale that carries upon it creatures that smoke.
And suddenly your heart is torn apart, you thrash in your blood, and you perish.
You do not know from where the blow came to you, nor how it came to you.
You see the human standing in his place as if he were moving his hand with something.
You strike with your body when you strike.
As for the human, he does not use his body.
He uses things we are completely ignorant of.
He did not tell us, any killed whale, how they brought it down.
Or with what tool they pulled it toward them.
Nor how they tore his body into small pieces.
All we know is that when sperm whales fall into the captivity of humans,
the light in their ships increases.
So much so that the ship travels during the night like a flame of light.
The matter became more mysterious after my father's talk.
Certainty filled me that the human possesses powers that whales do not possess.
I tried in vain to think about these powers,
and I did not reach anything.
I soon forgot the human.
The amazement regarding him remained drowned in my depths.
And my question about the secrets of his strength remained without an answer.
I turned away temporarily to my affairs.
I had to assert myself in the seas of the North, South, East, and West.
And I had to struggle against other kinds of whales until they crowned me over them
Then I would move from struggling with them to struggling with the rest of the monster species
Then I would move from them to terrorizing the ocean with its creatures until they crowned me over them
After that, I would begin my struggle with the crowned sperm whale
If I triumphed over it, I would become the master of the waters
The struggle with the rest of the species took ten years
During which my father had grown old and his movement had become heavy
And fat had increased around his body
And he began to move like a floating island that puffs
And as is the custom of whales
The waves retired my father
And the strongest of the sperm whales became the master of the sea
The whale that took my father's place
Was a mighty whale, black with a white tail
My father would watch its slow, confident progress in a silence close to contemplation
He never spoke to me about his old hopes of me ascending the throne of the ocean
And I also did not speak to him about that
We both treated each other with cautious reserve and profound respect
My love for him was lost, but the respect remained
I would ask him whenever I saw him
How is the old whale?
And he would answer with the heaviness of his bones
And his mouth began to find the taste of ambergris
And what does that mean, you old whale?
Death has begun to invade your father
So when will you ride the crests of the waves
So that your father's bones may settle on the ocean floor?
Soon, old one, soon
Perhaps you will witness, before your death, the crown of the waters passing to your son
The passing of the crown required a savage battle with the crowned whale
And this whale was the owner of a great jaw and a mighty tail
I was of equal strength to him
And despite my confidence that I could defeat him
I postponed the fight with him for a little while
I did not want this disgraceful victory
In which the winner wins
Because he endured more or struck more
Or exhausted himself more
I wanted an overwhelming superiority
That does not allow me more than a moment of struggle in which I tear him apart
This required me to delay the struggle for some time
During which I was training for something that whales had never trained for before
Something that a fierce wave once inspired in me
I witnessed a wave shattering a rock from the beach rocks
I know that the wave is softer than the rock and weaker
How does the weaker shatter the stronger?
My thinking turned to the human whom my father warned me about
I said to myself
Perhaps his secret is revealed with the secret of this wave
I began to study the wave for consecutive days and months
Finally, I found the secret
I discovered that the wave never ceases its aggressive movement
It does not grow weary of striking the rocks
The wave trains every day
This is the secret of its strength
My memory jumped to the days of early study
I remembered how whales cease daily training after finishing their studies and are content with practical life
I decided to deviate from my species and train in secret
Thus I became accustomed to secrecy every day for half a day in the same place as our old school
The place was abandoned; no one trained there anymore
The snow mountains that had long witnessed our punishment as children
remained standing tall and calm as they were
and an inexplicable desire flared within me to destroy one of these mountains
Are they not the only witness to the weakness of childhood days?
The largest of these witnesses must vanish so that the rest of the mountains may fear
I chose the mightiest of the mountains and decided to start with it
I was wagging my tail and pouncing on the snow mountain with my head and jaw
The first time, the blow made me dizzy
and the mountain remained as it was, without a single scratch
I tried again gently, then with more force, and then with violence at the end of the day
There was an opening in the mountain that looked like a cave
My head was aching a little, although I felt it becoming harder
The length of my head was over thirty meters
And the mountain was immense, not wanting to budge
I said to myself as I turned away from it
Training will achieve everything
Tomorrow the mountain will vanish
I remained for three years hitting the mountain every day with thousands of blows with my head
Then the decisive moment finally came, and the mountain shattered
It split into two halves, making a huge sound
that made me swim away from it
Then I stood up, raising my head out of the water
contemplating this massive block leaning on its side in the water
Only a savage pride shook me
I did not blow up the mountain, nor did I move it from its place
But I broke it into two halves
I made a long crack in it
I turned it into two small mountains
The matter was finished
And the survival of the black whale became
The one with the white tail on the throne of the waters
A matter that has been settled
During the period of harsh training
During which my veins burst from the effort
And my mind from the hardship
The crowned king of the whales of the waters spent his time in the warm seas, enjoying his new females
Just like a fat and lazy mullet fish
The monster of the depths and the terror of the waves ended up becoming a master of love and flirtation
And internal conditions in the world of whales were disturbed
Weak females and sick whales were being killed by the dozens every day
And the ocean was stained with our warm, flowing blood
It became clear that the sea was no longer the possession of the whale kin. Humans attacked the land, and now they are extending their influence to the sea
A problem like this could not bear hesitation; the king of the whales must be removed from his throne
This old man who is obsessed with females does not deserve the crown of green weeds that wraps around his head when he comes out of the depths
I did not understand this inclination towards females and the obsession with them
I have not touched a female whale since I was born
I have not known the touch of a female's body other than that of my mother who nursed me
After that, I believed in my father's opinion of females
I believed that the whale who lives long with females
Acquires many of their habits
And cannot remain in his savagery
I knew that whales gather every year in the mating season in the warm seas
And there, one whale leads them
It is the right of any other whale to fight him if he wants to ascend his throne
And the struggle is usually over the females
It was still too early for our annual gathering
I was not prepared to wait all winter
My father was heading towards his end rapidly
And I would not fail him before he died
And a day came when the entire herd went out
It was led by the black whale with the white tail
A fishing boat chased us
Three boats were launched from it
And they started swimming behind us
I was able to turn around and smash the boats
However, I chose to wait a little
To see how the leader responsible for the pod would act
The leader of the pod struck the water with his tail in successive blows
But he remained far from the ship
I could smell a hidden scent of fear from his blows
In one of the times we dived, I saw something rushing towards my father
After that, the sigh of the old whale was released, I ran to my father asking him
What happened, old one?
Something tore my body, I do not know its essence
I saw myself turning into light for lamps
I saw myself hanging on land, dangling from the roofs of houses
You will live, so do not worry
I came out of the water and turned, rushing toward the ship
It was approaching at full speed towards me
And the leader of the pod shouted at me, warning me of the collision
I did not heed his cry
And the closing of my jaw increased
And the movement of my tail increased
And my momentum increased
The sound of the collision was enormous
The ship split from its bow into two halves
And the whales shouted
The forehead of the white whale with the deformed tail was shattered
I turned after the collision and used my tail in every direction
The ship was not stronger than the mountain
And I was trained on the mountain
And after moments the ship with its boats and its people
Had disappeared under the surface of the water
And the blue color closed over it
My father was wounded
And the black whale approached him trying to discover his ailment
But I screamed at him from my position in front of all the whales
To remain in his place
For he is a weak fish and not a whale
The whale stopped and turned toward me
My father struck his tail in the water and began to blow
I realized that he understood what I meant
My father was dying
And I wanted him to see me as a master of the sea before he died
And my struggle with the whale did not take long
I rushed toward him before he could rush toward me
And I clamped my jaws onto his head
My powerful ivory fangs sank into his head
I crushed his head just as I crush fish eggs when I rest my body on the ocean floor
My strength lay in my head
And his strength lay in his tail
And I had crushed his head before he could use his tail
The two whales fell into the water
My father's body and the body of the master of the seas after him
I raised my tail vertically above the water and blew
The whales then raised their tails vertically above the water and blew
They offered their submission to me as a crowned king over the waters
Then we offered together our submission to God as the Lord of death and life
And waves and waves passed by
There is no longer in the four oceans a whale like me
The beasts of the sea submitted to me in obedience
And the waves submitted to me in submission
And the secret of the ocean currents was revealed to me
But the secret of man remained closed to my mind
And I swore that no human would pass through waves that witnessed the death of my father
And I ascended upon them to my throne
And I swore to destroy every ship that passes through these waters
Indeed, man came from the land, so we brought him out of it
And here he is beginning his invasion of the sea, so he must be confronted and returned to the land
I set my brow upon that
And I remained faithful to my oath for years
For years, no ship would pass through the sea and be able to survive
No human dared to descend into the sea's waters and return safely
Even if he settled in the belly of a shark, he would not be able to enjoy his settlement
We would carry the shark itself into our own bellies
And despite the continued conflict with man, and despite man's defeat in it and the victory of the whales
The secret of man remained a talisman that no one knew how to solve
How does a human survive from the belly of the whale?
The question tortured me for a long time
Then the day came
I was lying in the deepest part of the ocean
I rested my bones upon the bones of the floor and slept
My chest filled with air sufficient for me until dawn
Then I was surprised to find myself awake and with heightened senses
I did not know the reason for what happened
I saw myself ascending to the surface of the sea without a fathomable reason
It appeared to me that the hand of fate that moves the smallest waves was moving my tail
I reached the surface of the sea; it was rough and foaming
Could the storm have started?
I exhaled a little and decided to return to the bottom
The part I chose at the bottom was quiet compared to the surface
Suddenly a question flashed in my mind like lightning
How can the surface be stormy and the bottom be quiet?
I know from the water currents when the storm is coming
I know that before it comes
Could the laws of the waves have changed during my short nap?
I stood before the question confused
I was surprised by a ship swaying there
I rushed toward it with excitement and violence
I said I would help it dive with a strike
When I almost reached it, I was surprised
That I had forgotten what I came for
I saw myself swimming behind the ship
As if I had gone out for a sea excursion
I do not know what happened to me
The darkness was thick and oppressive, so I said
Perhaps I have not woken up yet
I watched something fall from the surface of the ship
I advanced toward this thing
And I saw myself in front of my old enemy
A human struggling in the belly of the wild turbulence
I moved toward him and opened my jaw
A strong wave pushed him inside the jaw
I closed my ivory fangs on him and swallowed him
A strong tremor shook me while I heard a voice and saw no one
The voice was coming from everywhere and was not coming from a specific place
The voice belonged to one of God's angels
The voice was saying
We did not make him a provision for you, but we made you a sanctuary and a dwelling for him
Take him and do not break any of his bones, and do not scratch any of his flesh
At the beginning, I did not understand the intention of the words.
I took a deep breath and dove into the depths of the sea.
I kept diving until I reached the bottom.
I rested my bones and drifted off to sleep.
I did not feel that I was me.
I admit that it is a word that arouses astonishment.
But it expresses my true feeling at that time.
Before I slept, I thought about the strange things I had witnessed.
I wondered how the surface can be turbulent and stormy,
while the bottom is calm and stagnant.
I wondered why I woke up?
And what happened to me when I saw the ship, yet I did not destroy it?
Who is the person who fell from it?
Did he throw himself, or did someone throw him?
Why did he throw himself?
What did he do?
Why did I swallow him?
What is the meaning of the words that warned me against harming him?
How can I swallow him without scratching his body?
The questions swirled in my head and the weight of the secret grew heavy on me, so I surrendered to sleep.
I woke up when the amount of air in my lungs ran out.
I went out to the surface.
It was calm and clear without a single wave.
I went on breathing out.
I remembered what happened last night.
And it seemed to me that I had been dreaming.
It was time for my breakfast, so I rushed toward a bay where octopuses abound.
I reached the bay and tried to open my mouth to have my breakfast meal,
but I did not feel any desire for food inside me.
What is this? Could I be sick without knowing?
A ferocious shark swam past me
It used to be my habit to swallow them alive and digest them slowly in my belly
I tried to open my mouth to swallow it, but I could not
I did not find inside me enough desire to enable me to open my mouth
I realized that the strange things I witnessed last night
were not a dream as I had thought
They were a reality, and its effects were still continuing
My clamped jaw and my abstinent belly are proof of a change I do not know
I leapt prostrating towards the sky, asking for an interpretation of what happened
I felt his presence without seeing him
I prostrated my body in greeting to the King and said, O noble King, the white whale with the deformed tail is sick and sees dreams
Last night a terrible incident happened to me, a miracle happened last night
Does my master the King, who commands in the sea, allow me to speak about whom I swallowed last night?
He said, You swallowed Dhu al-Nun
I wondered, Excuse my ignorance, who is Dhu al-Nun?
He said, A gentle prophet and a noble soul
I said, He threw himself off the back of the ship
He said, He drew lots and was among the cast out
I said, I swallowed him without knowing he was a prophet
I did not know that swallowing him would call for your presence or the presence of any king of the angels
He said, Because God makes him a provision for you
But he ended up in my belly and became a provision for me
He is not in your belly, but he is not a provision for you
Why did you swallow him then?
You are a sanctuary and a dwelling for him
How can a monster be a sanctuary and a dwelling for a prophet who is gentleness itself?
O whale, contemplate the human body, it is greater than you in ferocity
Contemplate the human self or their soul
Is it not purity and gentleness?
Contemplate how the two live together
The body is a garment for the soul
And the soul is the core of the body
And the body is the beast
And the soul is the gentleness
I said
How does the soul escape from the body?
Just as gentleness escapes from the beast
And how does gentleness escape from the beast?
Like how Jonah escapes from your belly
How does Jonah escape from my belly?
You will know everything
Just remember that you are an image of a whale
You are truly a beast
But you are no greater in ferocity than the human body
The body closed upon the soul
Let us see how the soul escapes
The king left and left me alone
Swimming upon a mysterious blue surface
I began to doubt its blueness
His words added mystery to the matter in my mind
He says that I am an image of a whale
Does this mean that I am not a real whale?
Could what is happening to me now be dreams not happening to me?
Could my beastly being be a body for a miracle without knowing?
Or could it be a symbol for something I have no relation to?
The sun ascended its throne in the heart of the sky
I was still swimming and spouting
I grew tired of swimming
So I said I will rest a little in the depths of the sea
I bent my mighty tail and dived
I dive into black waters, pondering
What is Dhul-Nun doing in my gut now?
And how can gentleness survive the monster?
For the only time in my life
I felt that I pitied him
The word pity is not known in the dictionary of monsters
It is a fossilized, extinct word
No one among the monsters uses it
Unless he falls ill and the face of death appears to him
Do you see me as sick?
Waiting for death
Do you see me as no longer the monster I once was?
But all along my way to the depths
I was witnessing the creatures of the seabed fleeing before me
Flailing in terror
Crashing against the rocks and escaping
A monster, I am still as I was
So where does this tenderness come from?
Could this be what I swallowed yesterday
Is it responsible for the weakness that has befallen me?
Is he not a prophet?
Is he not a blessed soul?
Is he not gentle?
There is no doubt he is responsible for the gentleness and misery that has befallen me
And there is no greater misery for monsters than their sickness with gentleness
I wanted to hate him but I could not
I wanted to forget him but I was unable
The prophet occupied my gut and my mind together
I praised God that I did not swallow a savage shark in the morning
If I had swallowed it, the fish would have eaten him
I forgot that we were expelled from the land because of humans
I forgot all the ancient enmity between our species and his
My thinking focused on one thing
What is the prophet doing in my belly now?
I thought of the black waters that I dive into
And my belly which is closing upon it
And I felt the weight of his tragedy
I hit the bottom, stopped the movement of my tail, and stopped
Thousands of marine animals and monsters passed by me
They were saluting in a hurry of fear and confusion
I saw them walking, luminous, their light emitting from them in the far depths of the sea
The laws of the sun break and the sun itself dies after the first third of the sea
After that, the kingdom of darkness begins
The light of the swimming monsters reminded me of the darkness of my belly, and I wondered how the prophet sits in the middle of these darknesses
There is no god but You, glory be to You, I have been one of the wrongdoers
The voice was unknown to me
I know the sounds of monsters, animals, and fish
This is definitely not the voice of one of them
I moved my tail around me to see who is hiding in the depths of the darkness
But I found no one
There is no god but You, glory be to You
I have been one of the wrongdoers
The voice was still echoing
Without stopping, it echoes
It does not cease, does not tire, does not settle, and does not grow weary
Word after word
The sentence barely ends before it starts again as it began
A cycle like the cycle of the sun or the cycle of the moon
I squeezed my mind thinking to know where this voice comes from
Then it flashed in my mind suddenly that the voice was coming from me
I saw something like light coming out of my body with every glorification.
I realized that the prophet imprisoned inside me is glorifying.
A tremor struck me that encompassed my entire body.
I felt that sweat was forming on my pale forehead.
Beads like pearls.
I moved my tail and stood it vertically on the seabed.
I said I will follow Dhu al-Nun as long as no one else has followed him.
There is no god but You, glory be to You.
I was indeed among the wrongdoers.
The words tremble with a love that illuminates the darkness of the seabed.
And the waters glow with a tenderness I did not think the water contained.
The spark inside me connected with the atoms of the water and the fossilized seabed plants.
And its ancient rocks and its muddy sands.
The seabed woke up and listened to the glorification of Dhu al-Nun.
There is no god but You, glory be to You, I was indeed among the wrongdoers.
The prophet singles out his Lord in divinity and sanctifies Him with submission.
And he throws himself at the same time into wrongdoing.
I began to think about the meaning of wrongdoing.
What does the word mean?
How was Dhu al-Nun among the wrongdoers?
What did he do?
I felt that the questions were closing in on my mind.
And almost crushing it.
So I rushed out.
I jumped from the water, ascending upwards.
And I wondered.
What did the prophet I carry inside me do, O Lord?
No sound other than the sound of the waves.
No one answered me.
Could my question be a transgression of my rank in creation?
I filled my lungs with sea air and began to exhale.
The sun is setting over there and the prophet inside me does not cease from glorifying God.
I contemplated the sunset.
My heart is heavy and my chest is tight.
As if I were thrown out of the water.
I am sad for his sake.
Like the unknown blow of a man that strikes the whale, so it falls, thrashing in its blood.
A blow of sudden sadness struck me.
So I fell, thrashing in the seas of sadness.
Could it be that the sadness of the imprisoned prophet is passing to me?
I remembered suddenly that my stomach is working.
Its digestive juices are working.
Perhaps it has digested my companion who dwells inside my belly.
I say my companion and I feel the truth of what I say.
I wanted to stop the stomach juices, but I could not.
Can the creature be a monster?
And despite this, he cannot control his stomach juices?
What savagery remains for him?
If a part of his body does not obey him?
I exerted a desperate effort trying to control my stomach.
But I did not succeed.
I decided to fast.
I said to myself, perhaps fasting will save him.
I began to open my jaws and fill my lungs with air.
Perhaps some air will save him.
It will sneak in to him so he does not suffocate.
What if he suffocates or it digests him?
What will I say to the king who ordered me to protect him?
Fear shook me.
So I began to strike my tail against the water in powerful, terrifying blows.
And I am shouting
I want him to live, oh Lord
I want him to survive
A mysterious panic struck me
I went plunging and rushing out of the water for no reason
The whales thought I was sick and hurried toward me
A whale wondered
What has afflicted the white whale with the deformed tail
I said to myself, a secret
I cannot disclose it, so go away
The whales went away and I remained completely alone
The wave rises and falls
And the glorification rises and rises
It never falls
And it does not stop, nor calm down
And it does not rest, nor cease
The sun fell completely into the sea
The night wore its last black garments
And my heart wore the last garments of sorrow
I filled my chest with air and moved my tail
And I plunged toward the bottom
I anchored my bones onto the bones of the bottom and became still
I try to think
I tried to contact him
So I whispered in the depth of the night, the depth of the sea, and the depth of fear
Oh noble Prophet
What can I do for your sake?
Dhu al-Nun said
There is no god but You, glory be to You
Indeed, I have been among the wrongdoers
O noble Prophet
How can I help you be saved?
There is no god but You, glory be to You
Indeed, I have been among the wrongdoers
I realized that he was not listening to me, he was too busy with his glorification to notice me
I closed my heart to silence and stopped asking questions
I raised my tail vertically on the bottom and began to glorify in my own way
A festival of creatures was held on the sea floor
The sands raised their heads and glorified
The fish gathered and began to glorify
The whales and monsters came, and each began to glorify in the style that God taught it
I was continuing in glorification, feeling at the same time a tremendous fear
I was a monstrous body, but I was trembling
Does the body fear the soul when it begins to glorify?
All I know is that I was ready to do anything to save Yunus
The air I had saved ran out, so I returned quickly to the surface
I began to swim while puffing
I passed next to a ship that I did not pay any attention to
Hungry to the point of exhaustion
I haven't eaten anything for two days
And my daily food intake is supposed to be no less than a thousand kilos of fish
I decided to continue fasting
My stomach began to contract
And my intestines began to produce ambergris
I cannot risk swallowing any food
After I swallowed Yunus
If my stomach moves, I will kill him
For the stomach to remain calm without movement
Or only with the movement of painful contractions, without the movement of digestion
There is no god but You, glory be to You
Indeed, I was among the wrongdoers
The Prophet's exaltation continued incessantly
I realized that I was killing myself with fasting
But I realized at the same time
That Yunus would not escape from my belly unless I killed myself
Yunus had become a second self to me
And my entity had become a second body for Yunus
The soul does not survive except at the expense of the body
The third day arrived
Fasting for the third day
The blood of strength is withdrawing from my body
And the sound of the soul's exaltation rises
In the far depth of my spirit
A light shines that is beyond description
My intestines are filled with ambergris
My stomach contractions increase
And the sound of his exaltation echoes
There is no god but You, glory be to You
Indeed, I was among the wrongdoers
I roam all the cold and warm seas before I depart
I cast a final look of farewell at the bays, rocks, islands, whales, fish, algae, foam, and salt
I stop at an island, my stomach contractions are tearing my stomach
I hear a voice coming from everywhere
It does not come from a specific place
Had he not been of those who exalt
He would have remained in his belly until the Day they are resurrected
I opened my jaws
And my ivory fangs parted from the pain
And I began to empty what was in my belly
I released the prisoner from my belly onto the island
I knew the secret before I died
How cruel knowledge is
On the water I write
With fragrant amber I write
The words melt in the sea
And the blue page folds over the secret
So I write, dreaming that I am oil suspended in lanterns that sway with the wind, swaying like the swaying of waves, swaying, swaying
The Cow of the Children of Israel
And when Moses said to his people: 'Indeed, Allah commands you to slaughter a cow'
They said: 'Do you take us in mockery?'
He said: 'I seek refuge in Allah from being among the ignorant'
My submissive, tranquil gaze in my wide eyes
Does not change at all
Food is sufficient or insufficient
The pasture is available or scarce
Work is little or much
Circumstances and conditions differ
And dealings and sayings change
Yet, the submissive, tranquil gaze in my eyes remains as it is
It does not change and does not alter
I notice that people's eyes change according to their mood
Does the fixity of my eyes mean that I do not feel?
Perhaps we do feel
However, it is a restrained feeling under a condition
And it has only one state
When a heavy fly lands on my back, I feel it
I shake my tail forward, trying to chase the fly away
If it remains clinging to its place on my back
I stop shaking the tail and submit and resign
Resignation is a pleasure in the end
If this is my state with flies
then there is no doubt that you understand my position with humans
I never get agitated with him
I am afraid sometimes when he hits me
however, I surrender to my fear of him
A wonderful life
A cow and I am content with my life entirely
Yes, I am, but for others
I do not know when I will be slaughtered
I know that thousands of cows are slaughtered
and it seems that we feel a kind of mysterious happiness when we are slaughtered
This means that we are fulfilling ourselves
we turn into pleasant food that enters the human stomach
just as we turn into footwear that the sons of Adam wear
we feed him, we clothe him, and we serve him
It is a noble thing for giving to be the sole nature of a creature
We know that humans take everything from us, we cows
Even what he gives us, he gives it with the intention of retrieving it later
If he gives beans and barley, he wants to take fatty meat in the future
There is nothing for the sake of God
The matter is calculated, estimated, and known
And despite this, we do not get agitated
Agitation, by our standards, is not permitted
Our highest ideal is to say: Let us eat beans and live
As for our motto in life, it is submission; submission is the path to life
Thus we learned, thus we knew, and thus we inherited
The devil told us one day, if cows rebelled, a revolution would occur in the world of humans
Indeed, humans exploit your efforts in the fields
And they make cheese, cream, ghee, and honey from your milk
And finally, they slaughter you and eat you
Oh cows, our enemy and your enemy is one, it is humans.
If you continue in your surrender to him, you will never evolve.
You were born as cows, and you will live as cows, and you will die as cows.
Revolt, move, do something.
We listened to the devil's speech.
One of the cows said, speaking to a companion of hers:
You were talking, oh sister, about the beans you ate from the new field.
Did their taste differ from the beans of the old field?
The devil said.
Move.
Stop talking about food and revolt.
The cow said.
The taste of both was the same, oh sister.
This bean and that bean.
The devil left in despair.
While he was mumbling words we could not make out about cows and humans.
After the devil went away, one of the cows asked:
Who was this?
A companion said.
Someone I do not know.
A cow said.
Was he talking?
Another said.
He was agitated.
He said something that did not stick in my head.
Nothing sticks in the heads of cows.
You hear the words from the right ear, and they exit from the left.
Our head is big, it does not carry worries, nor problems, nor troubles.
And for this reason, cows live a long time.
We consider the human's day as a whole year.
Of joy, happiness, beans, and contentment
I live among the Children of Israel
A cow owned by an orphan
I was not an ordinary cow, in truth
I was beautiful among the cows
My color is a bright yellow
Pleasing to the beholders
There was not in my entire body any trace of another color
I was not big and I was not small
I was medium-sized
And a kindness that is rare to find the like of among humans
I want to talk a little about the Children of Israel
People who provoke the astonishment of cows
You hear their words and you are pleased
And you see their actions and you are amazed
Their speech to each other's faces is sweet
But if their backs turn, the sweet turns into bitter
I hear, of course, about our master Moses
This is their noble prophet and the interlocutor of God
I have never seen him, but I have heard about him
And the talk about him was contradictory and strange
The number of those who love him among the Children of Israel is much less than the number of those who hate him
And this is natural, in my opinion
Moses brought the truth
And how heavy is the truth upon unjust souls
I do not get emotional or raise my voice with it
I say it with contentment
What have I to do with them
They are free in themselves
I live in my own state
And whoever lives as he is, is slaughtered in the end.
And the greatness of a cow is that it is slaughtered in the end.
The day was sunny and warm.
I hear this expression all the time.
I can understand the meaning of warmth.
I can know the meaning of cleanliness.
Cows are not like buffaloes that drink from murky, polluted water.
Or sleep on wet or unclean bedding.
We adore cleanliness and reject anything other than it.
The thing that I do not understand is the sun.
I hear people talk a lot about a sunny day, hot sun, a sun that rises, and a sun that sets.
But I have never seen the sun in my life even once.
Sometimes I feel that there is something hot permeating my whole body and making me sweat.
So is this the sun?
I do not know.
They say that the sun is in the sky, and this complicates the matter more.
So where is the sky?
It is known that cows can look in front, behind, to the right, or to the left.
But cows never look up.
Animals do not look up.
There is no cow that looks up and contemplates the sun.
If it were true that there is a sun.
At any rate, if the existence of the sun is uncertain, then the certain thing is the existence of fava beans.
I ate a great amount of fava beans in the morning.
I swallowed the fava beans with half-chewing to save time and effort and to ensure consuming the largest possible quantity.
After that, I lie on my stomach on the ground, chewing what I ate in the morning.
The sound of my mouth while it is chewing.
Chewing is a pleasure, and swallowing is more pleasurable, and the ground is clean, the soil is moist, the shadow is stretched, and the silence is of perfect tranquility.
The scream erupted suddenly. I turned my head slowly; cows do not shake and do not panic.
The scream returned, clashing with a second scream, then the whole village ignited with screaming.
Eliael, the richest of the Children of Israel, was killed.
I do not know if his name was Eliael, Benjamin, or Shaura'am.
His name is difficult, so I did not keep it in my head.
The matter does not concern us and is not related to us, so why should we care?
We could not sleep tonight because of the excessive noise of the people.
The family of the murdered man disputed, and his killer was not known.
It seems that this murdered man was a man who had his status among the Children of Israel.
It seems that the obscurity of his killer was a cause for something resembling sedition.
The people decided to turn to the Prophet of God, Moses.
One of the cows asked me,
Did the village go to Moses?
Yes.
We remained silent about that for two days.
Then she asked me on the third day,
What did Moses say?
I do not know.
We said we would ask.
We asked a cow we met in a field,
What did Moses say?
She said,
I ask you.
We remained silent about that for two days.
Then we encountered the cow and asked her what Moses said, and she said I forgot to ask.
We forgot the whole subject, then we were surprised that the people were talking about it, so we learned from the people that Moses said to his people,
Indeed, God commands you to slaughter a cow.
The subject concerns us, then; this is something that arouses interest, and interest is one thing, and being agitated is another thing.
Interest, in our custom, is permissible, but being agitated is not permissible.
We asked which cow they slaughtered.
We were surprised that they did not slaughter a cow.
We asked how?
Did Moses not inform them that God commands them to slaughter a cow?
We were surprised a second time that the Children of Israel said to Moses
Do you take us in mockery?
He said I seek refuge in God from being among the ignorant
Audacity without limit toward the Prophet of God Moses
He had commanded them to slaughter a cow
It was supposed that the people would slaughter the first cow they encountered
However, they began their negotiations with stubbornness
They accused Moses of mocking them and taking them as a joke
Cattle do not behave in this manner if they were in their place
Moses sought refuge in God from being among the ignorant and mocking them
He made them understand that the solution to the issue lies in slaughtering a cow
The matter here is a matter of a miracle
It has no relation to the familiar in life or the customary among people
There is no connection between slaughtering the cow and knowing the killer in the mysterious crime that occurred
So let the Children of Israel strike the dead person with a part of the slaughtered cow
A person killed who died and a cow that was slaughtered
If the Children of Israel were to strike two dead things against each other
He would know the killer
The dead person will awaken from his death and reveal the name of his killer
What is strange about this?
A miracle? Yes, a miracle
It is neither logical nor customary
But when have logical reasons
Been the ones that govern the life of the Children of Israel?
Supernatural miracles are the prevailing law in their lives
Moses struck the sea with his staff
And the sea split into two halves
And the Children of Israel crossed, and Pharaoh and his soldiers drowned
Are people surprised after this miracle by a second miracle?
If cows were in their place, they would not have acted in this manner.
I am on the verge of losing my temper.
Were it not that losing one's temper is not permissible.
The continuity of miracles in the incident of the cow is not,
A matter that inspires wonder or provokes astonishment.
But the Children of Israel are the Children of Israel.
Merely dealing with them is futile.
And merely negotiating with them is exhausting.
They wearied the heart of their prophet, may God weary their hearts.
I say it with emotion; cows do not get emotional.
He observes what he observes without emotion.
The negotiation continued.
The Children of Israel return to Moses.
They said, 'Call upon your Lord for us to clarify to us what she is.'
Once again they talk about the cow.
Once again Moses asks his Lord, and their Lord, and the Lord of the worlds.
And he returns to them with the answer.
He said, 'Indeed, He says it is a cow, neither aged nor virgin,'
A middle ground between that, so do what you are commanded.
The speech is very clear.
The cow is not young and not old.
It is a middle ground between that.
It was supposed that they slaughter any medium cow.
But what can you do with the Children of Israel?
They do not obey the command.
They went to Moses to solve the case and know the killer.
And here they are delaying the knowledge with their persistence and extremism.
They said, 'Call upon your Lord for us to clarify to us what its color is.'
Strange.
Is this appropriate, oh cows?
We will not say, 'Oh people.'
Is this permissible?
What is the value that lies behind the color of the cow?
Truly, all cows do not notice their color,
nor do they pay attention to it, nor do they care about it.
What is the serious matter that requires Moses to go to God Almighty
to ask Him about the color of the cow?
Then notice how they say to him, 'Call upon your Lord for us, call upon your Lord for us,'
as if He is his Lord alone, as if He is not their Lord, as if they are disavowing their servitude to God.
We do not think that after this pedantry there is any more pedantry.
Despite that, Moses, the forbearing and noble, did what they asked him.
Knowing that Moses is a man quick to anger.
He had erupted before that when he returned from his Lord's appointment
and found his people worshipping a calf, and he cast the tablets of the Torah from his hand.
Casting the tablets of the Torah to the ground is a serious action.
The man had lost his forbearance.
What he saw made the forbearing man lose his forbearance and his calmness.
Truly, cows do not worship a calf,
so how does a human descend from his level to below the level of the cow?
They worship a calf.
They worship our own kind, we cows.
Despite everything, Moses went to his Lord to ask Him about the color of the cow.
He said, 'He says it is a yellow cow, bright in its color, pleasing to the beholders.'
I thought the matter had finished.
The subject of the cow has been exhausted through research, study, pedantry, stubbornness, procrastination, delay, bad manners, and recklessness.
The subject was thoroughly exhausted.
And despite that, the Children of Israel still had more stubbornness and pedantry.
They said, 'Call upon your Lord for us to make clear to us what it is.'
After everything that happened, it has not become clear what it is.
After all the previous descriptions, they still do not understand.
Amazing
My sides are about to split, my stomach is about to burst, and my liver is about to tear
Despite that, they returned to say to Moses
Indeed, the cows look alike to us
And indeed, if Allah wills, we will be guided
Moses, the one who spoke to God, returned to ask his Lord
And he returned to say to them
They said: He says it is a cow that is not yoked to till the earth
And does not irrigate the field, sound, with no blemish in it
The descriptions applied to me
What do you think the Children of Israel said?
They said: Now you have brought the truth
As if he had not been playing with them before that
As if he had not been bringing the truth from the first word to the last word
I am about to lose my nature and my self and become agitated
When the cow negotiations ended
I was the intended cow
I am about to burst from all my sides
My soul is in my nose from the excess of distress
Dead before my death from the stubbornness of the Children of Israel and their fastidiousness
I am walking toward my fate and my destiny
I am walking toward the knife, shaking my tail in contentment
Every time I pictured them at the negotiation tables with their prophet Moses
Every time I remembered their stubbornness and their fastidiousness
I asked myself
If this was their image at the negotiation table with their prophet who spoke to God, Moses
Then how would their image be at the negotiation tables with others?
Next videos
32 to go
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3:22:52
02The stories of animals in the Quran Part 2
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03Stories of the prophets - for children
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04Islam is a religion of ease
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05I love your my Lord
4:20:35
06What is Islam
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07Preoccupations
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08The history of Khalid Ibn Waleed R.A
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09Thoughts and reflections by Sheikh Ali Tantawi
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10The New Qur'anic Psychology
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11What Surah al-Baqarah Taught Me
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12Keys to Contemplating the Qur'an
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13The Concept of Worship in Islam
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14The Admonitions of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal
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15The Admonitions of Imam Zayn al-'Abidin
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16The Admonitions of Imam al-Junayd
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17The Admonitions of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah
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18Islam in the Trenches Dr. Mustafa Mahmoud
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19The Seeker of Truth - Muhammad Abd al-Halim Abdullah
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20The Quran is a Living Being - Mustafa Mahmoud
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21A Dialogue with al-Sha'rawi - Mahmoud Fawzi
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22A Practical and Tested Plan for Memorizing the Noble Quran with Ease and Mastery - Dr. Raghib al-Sirjani
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23The Genius of Umar - Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad
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24Reflections on God's World - Dr. Mustafa Mahmoud
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25I Missed a Prayer - Islam Gamal
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26Because You Are Allah - Ali Jaber al-Fifi
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27Because You Are Allah, Part Two - Ali Jaber al-Fifi
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28My Journey from Doubt to Faith - Mustafa Mahmoud
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29The Genius of al-Siddiq - Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad
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30The Genius of Muhammad - Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad
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31How to Make Ramadan a Turning Point in Your Life - Adnan Salman al-Duraywish
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32Why Did Allah Forbid Certain Things? - Muhammad Mutawalli al-Sha'rawi
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33Why Do We Fear Death? - Mustafa Mahmoud
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