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Sailboat
Painting courtesy of: http://community.webshots.com/user/sumiah
"The one who says Sub'an Allah, Bihamdi, Al
Hamdulillah a hundred times a day will see his/her sins
erased"
[A Haadith]
Written & Designed
By
Soumy Ana
Waqf Sunni Book
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I had never been superstitious, but when I dreamt about the
desert, I knew it was a sign.
That night I probably had a vision. Like the Arabs I also came
to believe that dreams are one-tenth of the prophecy. There is
sometimes much truth in them. Besides, even if dreaming is an
event that occurs every time we sleep, nobody can tell what it is
exactly, what it does to us. I secretly believe that night events are an
extension of our lives, that they complete it. So, that night, I had a
vision:
I dreamt of an immense space filled
with sand and water intermingling
and blurring each other Strangely
the sand dunes were fluid like water
The images in the dream switched
from on state to another as rapidly
as a foot print on a dune or a
handprint in a puddle is swept away
A voice began to resonate in my mind
like a litany "the desert is the sea
of sands," "the sea of sands."
In minutes all melted inside me and I woke up in need of this sea
of sands.
I searched everywhere for a guide fluent in Arabic and
native of the Middle East. He had to teach me the basics of the
languages as well as some cultural aspects of the Arabian peninsula.
It took us a year and a half to accomplish this first goal, but I did
not care how long it took. I had a vocation as an anthropologist, so
my life basically consisted of traveling abroad and patiently
recording what I found. My second goal was to reach the desert
since I had already studied everything I could find about desert life.
I felt it natural to get in touch as soon as possible with the Bedouins
still living in Saudi Arabia. I would stay for a while in Jidda, then I
would migrate further inland when the time would be right.
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