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Allah has not made any remedy against it. I am lucky to have lived it
all, and I lived so long already. I had time to understand things."
He sighed. His words came up uttered more naturally. Despite the
frightening words, he seemed better like he would still live a little
longer.
An impression maybe, or an intuition, I really could not tell. He
coughed, then wiped the blood from his mouth. It was at that time I
noticed the dagger had disappeared from his wrist.
I questioned: "Did you fight the shark?"
His chest heaved. His eyelashes fluttered lightly under a drop of
water that nestled now in the corner of his eyes.
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"No, I hid. When I saw that it was not in the mood to go away,
I threw the knife in a hole. The silvery blade attracted its attention.
It worked this time."
"So the shark did not hurt you," I said almost relieved.
"No, brother. The fish did not; the sea did not either. My body
hurts me the most and has for a long time."
"Why do you still dive when your health is in jeopardy?"
"This, brother, is my story. Long ago, I asked Allah if He would
restore my health if I could collect enough money to pay for an
operation. Sometimes Allah answers, sometimes He is smarter; He
lets me decide for myself. So I continued diving for the money.
When I became aware that I could never collect enough money, I
still continued diving, this time not for money, but for health. If I am
careful, I can dive half a day. That's enough to keep me fit. I did it
because of faith; I believed Allah would help me as He protected
me from the shark. Allah has granted me more years of life than
expected, many more years as a gift of faith."
I looked intensely into his eyes, holding him against my thigh. The
swash of the sea rumbled louder, threatening to suck us back into
the water.
I shifted uneasily, half facing the veils of the waves crisscrossing
each other. The day was dragging away, pulling the long veil of
night with it. Ibis glided around us, then gracefully dived into the sea
like a spark of dying life. I never saw it reappear. From where I
kneeled, the dunes seemed to sink into the coral reef, the reddish
sand highlighting the surface of the lames' crests.
"Listen," whispered Djaliil, "somebody is reciting the Qur'an."
"[Allah] sends down water (rain) from the sky, and the valleys flow
according to their measure, but the flood bears away the foam
that mounts up to the surface -- and [also] from that (ore) which
they heat in the fire in order to make ornaments or utensils, rises a
foam like unto it, thus does Allah (by parables) show forth truth and
falsehood." (Qur'an 13:17)
The voice echoed from the sea, feeble but clear in the evening
breeze, probably a man praying aloud as it was the custom at dusk.
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