A Man Born Happy
2000-2001 htttp://www.arttoday.com
Written and Designed
By
Soumy Ana
(Hijri 1417 - Year 1996)
Non-Fiction
2
It was in a winter night, so chilling! The roads were split under the
shining snow, sparkling like stars. Here the street was almost deserted
by sounds except for crutches ripping all the cold. Suddenly, the voice
of a man, like the voice of a child telling a story rose softly in the dry
freezing night. The sound of the crutches stopped and, over there,
under a street lamp a man and a girl were talking. It was not properly
the voice of a woman I heard but a muffled, broken sound. I stopped
to listen to it. The man was now warming up the youngster’s hands,
asking her in a cheering accent to take care of herself and to go home
quickly. His face was welcoming. Under very long lashes his eyes
were shimmering and strong white teeth were gleaming enlightening
every smile. The youngster was from Japan, handicapped. When I
dared not look and smile at her by mere shyness Ibrâhim, without any
hesitation, approached and sheltered her. His words were very hearty
like those of a father towards his daughter. But I knew instinctively
that he wished not to accompany her for fear of frightening her, and I
took this advantage to speak with him who was now smiling at me.
“Do you know her?”
“I met her several times. This girl is very brave,” and this idea
seemed to make him happy.
I noticed after having known him for a while that Ibrâhim was always
happy, that he was "born happy" as he used to say:
“In my culture, nobody experiences mental dejection,” he declared
one day, “it is an illusion from the Occident. In my culture, we do not
know the word despair. To even utter the word despair is like turning
your back on God.”
Ibrâhim lives in a home where he likes to watch the squirrels
following each other in bunches of two or three. He likes to observe
them sharing their meals and playing with the birds. He also spends
time looking at the wild flowers blossoming at the top of his garage. If
his landlord feels discouraged and dislikes that, Ibrâhim on the
contrary finds it beautiful! He never fails to throw a piece of his
dinner at the little animals who gather on the roof, since in his religion,
to feed living creatures is charity, and even the peasant is supposed to
leave a percentage of the harvesting to the dwellers of nature.
Scarecrows are forbidden as well because they spoil birds of their
daily meals. Ibrâhim lives close to nature; actually he feels he is a part
of it, a part of the natural equilibrium. And he believes God -- Allâh
has created every living soul so that they can worship Him. In the
morning, when he wakes up, just before the sunbeams come striking
the lace of the window curtains, he tries to answer the singing of the
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