Somali Tales

Prologue to The Clearsighted Ruler.

This article has been published on my personal blog “Muna’s Miraj.”

Introduction

To better understand the story, one must understand what is a hadith.

In Islam, a Hadith is an orally transmitted message to further our understanding of the Qur’anic teaching and the Muslim faith. There are different sort of hadith, ranging from strong; which means that there were several bystanders who could attest the Prophet (peace be upon him) said those words. The line of transmission is strong, which means we can easily go back to the people who were present, who faithfully shared the message to others, who in turn faithfully transmitted them until they were properly written down. Other categories of hadiths are moderate to weak. This means there is a lack of evidence that he eventually said what is attributed to him, S.A.W.

When we mention a hadith to discuss a matter, we must signal which category it belongs to, and who had directly heard the words being said by the Prophet (PBUH) and how reliable the chain of transmission is.

This leads me to the origin of this short fiction:

Hadith at the origin of this ficiton

“It is reported that Ibn Masood, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “The Quran will vanish in one night. No verse in the scripture or in the heart of anyone will be left behind.””

Here are the potential sources:

Narrated by al-Daarimi with a saheeh isnaad, no. 3209

Narrated by al-Daarimi with a saheeh isnaad no. 3207

Other Hadiths mention a wind which will blow from Yemen, and offer many people a peaceful death.

This speculative story is a prologue to a novella I’m writing. It is an invitation to think about Islamic teachings in a creative way. Muslims, just like anyone else, hope to imagine their real lives and the future, taking hadiths and prophecies in mind. Obviously, we do not know how things will turn out and this is in no way a true depiction of what will happen. My aim is to think of the existence of violence with or without religion. This story will be accompanied by an article about René Girard theory on violence.

I hope you’ll enjoy the start to a long piece (many more parts to come).

A True Mission (part 1)

3629 Common Era, 3100 Hijri Calendar. 900 years after the disappearance of “revealed” religions, or pure monotheism.

In the city of Hades, region of Mehreen, anciently known as Iraq, Arshad and Fahima prepared a room for their future guest in their spacious and vibrant home.

The middle-aged men arranged a bouquet of red roses on the small brown desk, facing their beautiful domain. He chose the setting himself to offer the best view of his self-cultivated garden. Freshly cut the same morning, the flowers illuminated the already bright place. A splash of rubies in a sea of light pink walls. Roses on rose.

Fahima wanted to prepare the bed herself, and like a mechanical clock with precise movement, she did not take a second of rest. Unfolding, spreading and straightening the sheet out of the wrinkles the hot iron did not catch, her hands were as fast as her mind.

“Help me out, Arsh,” she said in a whisper, feeling a sting in her lumbar area.

“Did you hurt yourself again?” asked her husband, crossing the room in a half-run to get to her.

“No, it’s just so heavy,” said Fahima, bending her back and knees like the chiropractor taught her. She carried her end of the mattress to pass the cloth underneath it. Arshad picked up the other side, and they moved in rhythm, perfectly mirroring each other, like always.

“Be careful, Fahima, you know I cannot carry you again. After all, you gain some weight,” joked the man, receiving the tender and disapproving look of his wife.

“You said you liked it better, and the chiro also said I’m healthier, a few pounds heavier,” retorted Fahima. Weight did not scare her, unlike weakness and illness. It was all muscle, after all, and she felt better with it.

“Did we forget anything?” inquired Fahima.

“No, you left the bed for last, and I cleaned all the surfaces, arranged the towels, and filled the restroom with enough supplies. No, in fact, we did everything thoroughly, even better than usual.” After a moment, he added, “don’t worry too much, my dear, everything will be fine.” He felt her tension thickening the air and was trying to do his best to dissipate it.

“We have been so unlucky lately, Arsh… I cannot imagine what would happen if she was not a good fit. Are you sure she’s reliable or even trustworthy?” said the woman, addressing her feelings about the recruit, unspoken until then.

“Yes. She sent me all the documentation and has a good reputation on her website. In the end, she’s the one taking the most risks, I believe,” said Arsh.

“How so?” asked Fahima, surprised by his answer. Does he not realize how much trouble she could get them in?

“I just know we can get her in real trouble, Fahima. Trust me. And I’ll let her know soon enough if I picked on anything strange,” threatened Arshad.

“Don’t say or do anything you’ll regret, Arsh. It’s best to keep up a pretense than to expose ourselves. If she’s not right, we will let her go and not do anything foolish. Promise me.”

“I cannot promise anything. If she does her job, and stays out of our business, she will not have any problem,” insisted Arshad.

Fahima took a deep breath, like she recently learned to, and asked, “when will she arrive?” changing the subject.

“Soon enough. She must be on her way, now. Let’s get out of here.”

***

“How do you pronounce your name?”

“Rune. Rune Akhir.”

“Ruin?” asked the army-man, looking at her ID card.

“” Rune,” the “u” is Latin, and you must roll the “r””

“Ok. That is quite original, Rune, with a rolled R” said the soldier, giving her card back.

“It is of ancient origin, Sir.”

“Is It? I can tell you’re not from around here. Where are you going?”

“To the city of Hades, Sir,” answered the young woman.

“By yourself? And what are you going to do over there?”

“I have a work set up in a shop, where I will sell some oils, creams and crystals, Sir. Some tarot cards, and some board-games, too. I heard the people in Hades loved these things,” added Rune, trying to play it cool and chat them up.

“I do not know anything about that. Do you have the right papers to sell those products? Are they in order? The creams need to be prepared by a licensed pharmacist,” said the soldier, with a demanding tone.

“I prepared them myself. I’m a chemist. Here is a copy of my diploma,” said the girl, giving him all her diplomas and authorizations, as well as the ingredients’ list, for each product.

The soldier asked her to get out of the car, while the other soldier verified the merchandise in her trunk.

“Why do you carry a shovel?” asked the second soldier, after finding it in her trunk.

“To garden. I’m also into plants,” answered Rune.

She heard getting to Mehreen took time, and she complied with the process. She chose the best moment to travel; Tuesday morning, while everyone was at work and she had been surprised to not find any guards at the border, nor any cars. Only after driving for a few kilometers, she met these two soldiers, wearing the strict uniform from the army. The road was clear, and the men seemed friendly, so she kept her calm and hoped for the best. Everything was according to plan and in a few hours, her new mission could begin.

“Ok. It’s all in order. I advise you to avoid the highway and take the secondary roads, Rune. There is a parade later in the day, and the traffic to the region of Mehreen will be dense.”

Why was he telling her that? It did not seem like there will be any car on the secondary roads, nor the principal from the look of this empty town. But again, maybe they are already in Beta and Hades.

She had not been aware of any parades, but she followed their advice and change the setting of her “navigator,” as she called it. The great device showed her all the passages, even the secret ones, underground and above ground. She knew about every route, and how frequented they were, how many birds flew in the sky and how many sheep ran across a given pasture, and so forth.

It was only deficient with the count of the fishes of the sea, but with a couple of revision, it will probably tell on them too. Every single soul alive was captured by the device – a unique invention. Probably the only one on its kind and designed by her direct superior. Rune only had to assemble the piece once she had been deployed and sent to The Great Orient.

The parade was a small miss in her carefully crafted plan, and the army-men could make a mistake, but when she controlled the road again, the screen showed a concentration of life in the city of Beta, the greatest in Mehreen. The patrollers did not lie, and she will have to add around 6 hours to her plan, around the start of the evening. Fine. It will not cause too many issues.

“Everything is in order; you can go now. Have a nice stay,” said the man, giving her papers, while his colleague placed her products back in her car. Rune drove for a few hours before making a stop to fill the reservoir of her car and call her future employers to warn them of the delay.

Stay tuned for part 2 and the article explaining how the story will explore the theme of violence.