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began to call it 'a gate to Eden' -- "Jannah" in Arabic. He often
dreamed that one day he would walk right through that gate.
Grandpa
2000-2001 http://www.arttoday.com
For the moment, he liked Egypt with its scorching sun and its
rainy season, its dryness and its floods, its luxuriance along the water
banks in contrast with the desert a few miles away. Here, the green
fields looked like a precious stone, a jade stone emerging from the
sand. He liked the idea that water and plants were life itself. He
liked to see people struggling for them, fighting against the desert.
People here loved everything that came from the earth.
Among all the people in his family, Waali's grandpa was the one who
respected nature the most. He would never use chemicals in the
earth and would never kill an insect or an animal feeding on his
trees. Waali's grandpa often replied to criticisms:
"There is charity in planting a grove and there is charity in
animals and humans profiting from it."
His grandpa had planted many trees in his life; he was also a good
horticulturist. He grew grapes, not for the fabrication of wine --
wine spoiled Muslims' prayers -- but for the fruits. Each afternoon,
Waali would bring fruits outside the habitation. This moment came
when the sun would begin its descent from the sky and the air would
be much cooler. Near the porch, Waali and the old gardener would
speak for hours. The aging man would narrate stories to the boy, or
tell about his past life, or talk about the wisdom of Faith.
Bunches of fruits would hang low as if in compliance to their
conversations, and the cushions would glisten with lining of brocade.
Waali would happily contemplate the man whose eyes were
pensively withdrawn. All seemed in a position of security, enclosed
among the product of a few generations of work by their family.
Waali felt his heart as a single man with the storyteller.
But now his grandpa had passed out. The elder had been a
scholar; he had been one of the last poets that were also scientists in
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the Islamic tradition. Waali felt proud of having known this
honorable man. He wished he had inherited some of the man's traits.
The opportunity
Although Waali was now sitting alone across the vines, he
was still obsessed by the souvenirs of this long friendship with the
old scholar. He would still, like this second father to him, recite
deep and long takbirs -- praises to God -- on his rosary at all times of
the day and night.
The words the grandfather had said to him many years before
lingered in his mind; he could not get rid of them. He would often
repeat these words to himself, letting them run free inside his head:
"Waali, when the man is a child, he spends his time on
the playground with other children. When the man is young,
he is careless because of the worldly pastimes. When he is
old, he becomes weak. So make preparation, lay hands on
the opportunity of five things before five: on your youth
before you become decrepit; on your health before you
become sick; on your leisure before you become busily
occupied; on your wealth before you become poor; and on
your life before you die." (A Haadith)
Waali understood the words but he never really grasped their
significance. He was not old, so he could not yet know what old
people were losing in life. However, he did not know what it felt
like to be able to walk freely without being short of breath or
stumbling against the rocks on his path, so he did not know what
health was. He just knew it was good. He had been very sick, but he
was wealthy. He had never been poor, and he had never seen any
ghetto, so he could not guess how it was like to be poor. He just
knew it was bad. But what puzzled him most was why was it so
important to be careful of what he did with his life, careful of what?
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