A Tale of Two Slaves

By Abul Anwaar

"The fanatics claims that their System, which was revealed centuries ago, suits our modern life. They forget, or ignore, the fact that the system failed to call for freedom for all. This fictional work is based on the author's imagination that the System was infallible, but another force defeated its infallibility. The teacher was faithful in delivering the message, but the other force was so powerful; it handcuffed him."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 28, 2008
• ISBN: 9781469120768

Book preview

Contents

1 The Teacher’s Death

2 The Stranger

3 The Lady

4 The System’s Fault

5 The Two Slaves

6 Ten Years Later

7 Memories

8 The Fertile Lands

9 The Conspirators

10 The Temptation

11 The Illicit Love

12 Untrustworthy

13 The Punishment

14 A Secret at the Cave

15 Truth Strangled

16 The Deal

17 One More Victory over the Teacher

18 All Written

1

The Teacher’s Death

I cannot make out much of what the Teacher has said, Hafez thought loudly.

The evening service has just finished. All congregants had left the place for their homes. It was dark and cold as the winter wind blew fiercely. Another person came out of his hiding place in a corner and approached the first man. Apparently, he was listening to what Hafez was saying.

The second man sneakily came closer and asked, What was the Teacher saying?

His voice was so weak. Hafez looked confused as he answered. But I could make out a word which sounded like ‘abeed’ or something similar to that.

You can ask him tomorrow when he gets better. In the meantime, I am inviting you to my house tonight, the second man offered.

Still confused and feeling guilty, Hafez answered, But my wife does not expect me to go any place this evening.

To encourage him, the second man quickly replied, I will send one of my men to let her know. Putting his arm on Hafez’s shoulder in a manner that seemed friendly, the second man smilingly directed him toward his house.

* * *

Two days later, it was late in the afternoon and the weather was still cold. In spite of the strong wind, the Town’s residents were running toward the place of worship. It was not time for service, but the people seemed in a hurry for some other reason. Hafez, exhausted, frightened, and desperate, emerged from the host’s house in which he had spent the last two nights.

You are doomed, Hafez, he thought loudly. Losing interest in life, his feet could not support him. Cold sweat dripped from his body; his limbs trembled. An overwhelming desire to vomit squeezed his stomach. Unable to keep walking, he stopped, leaned against a wall, then sat on the ground.

Weeping men, women, and children were hurrying toward the Teacher’s house. From the other direction and against the crowd appeared a man pulling a camel behind him. The stranger tried to stop someone to ask for directions, but no one cared to pay attention to him. He looked around and saw Hafez sitting on the ground, a depressed and sad look on his face. The stranger approached him.

Would you tell me what is happening? the stranger inquired.

The Teacher is dead! Hafez answered faintly.

Teacher? What Teacher? Oh, the stranger, understanding what the sitting man meant, said with a look of disappointment on his face. I arrived late. I missed meeting him.

Hafez, his voice still faint, said, You are not the only one to be late. You are not the only one to miss.

The stranger suffered from a feeling of loss. He had hoped to meet the Man face-to-face. Leaving Hafez sitting on the ground, the stranger walked along the streets of the Town, amazed with what he was seeing.

A passerby exclaimed, How could such a man die. He is not an ordinary person like any one of us! Another voice interrupted, Let us not forget the revelation that warned us not to go astray in case the Teacher dies! The people were divided between believers and nonbelievers of the Man’s death. Although the Teacher had been ill for some time and the end seemed imminent, death is not an easy phenomenon to comprehend for the human mind, especially if the dead person was not a man of this world.

2

The Stranger

The stranger’s features and clothes looked different. The Town’s residents were mainly of a single race, with a few exceptions. The Teacher fought his own people to impose on them his new System. The other systems existed in his lands before were purged and forced to leave the whole area. The stranger lived in the Town during the first few weeks in wonderment. He came to these lands for one single reason, to explore an idea put in his head by a relative of his. If he got convinced by what he would be told, he would settle down in these lands and adopt the new System. A month after the Teacher’s death, the stranger met with one of the disciples at the congregation.

I came to these great people to convert to your great System, the stranger confessed to the disciple at the congregation.

How did you know about us? the disciple questioned.

Let me introduce myself, the stranger replied. My name is Bahira. This name probably sounds familiar to you.

Over fifty years ago, our Teacher encountered a distinguished person with this name.

Where was that? Bahira asked.

In the north of us in the great Fertile Lands, the disciple explained.

This is my country, Bahira said. I grew up there. The person you mention is my uncle.

Is he a monk? the disciple asked.

He was, Bahira corrected. He died a short time ago. Before his death, he summoned me and gave me his copy of the Scripture. He showed me the sentence where it talks about a great Teacher who would appear in your lands at this exact time.

The disciple’s eyes welled with tears as the memory of the recently dead Teacher crossed his mind. When the Teacher reached forty, he explained, he began to preach his new System. At the beginning, some of us could not believe him. The older ones reminded us of a prophecy told by the monk thirty years earlier. This prophecy was a tool the Teacher used to convince the unbelieving followers of his mission.

This same prophecy, Bahira said, drove me to come to this land of yours. I read the Scripture. It talks about an exemplary society which the Teacher will put on earth. This society will fit anyplace, anytime, until the Day of Judgment.

The disciple said with assurances, Go around the Town and see for yourself.

Bahira asked, What brought the Teacher in his childhood to the Fertile Lands?

The disciple explained, As you see, our lands are arid. Our only profession to sustain us is to transfer the goods from the seaports in the south to your lands in the north. These caravans travel twice a year. Once in the winter going south and the other to the north in the summer. The Teacher, in his childhood, accompanied his grandfather during one of those trips.

My uncle, Bahira said, told me about this trip. He said that he saw a caravan approaching his hermitage from a distance. He noticed that a lonely cloud was moving in the sky slowly, in a way that it cast its shadow all the time on the caravan. Once the caravan halted under a tree, the cloud stopped and did not move. Moreover, the tree lowered its branches to add to the shadow. My uncle asked everyone in the caravan to join him for dinner. He did not see anything unusual in any of them to warrant such a miracle. When he asked if there was anyone missing in the meeting, he was told that a young boy of ten was left to guard the goods. The monk told them to bring the boy over. Reverence bewildered my uncle the moment he cast his sight on the boy. Asking him to reveal his shoulder, my uncle spotted the seal of such great men clearly visible. Worrying about the future of the boy, my uncle told the boy’s relative to keep an eye on him as he would have a serious mission waiting for him in his manhood.

The disciple nodded in approval and said to Bahira, You are welcome here.

I want to pronounce my conversion to your System, the stranger said.

All what you do, the disciple replied, is to declare that no one but the One and that the Teacher is His representative on earth.

This is simple, Bahira said in admiration. Isn’t there any rituals to perform?

Our System is so easy to understand and easy to follow from the time the Teacher brought it on earth to the end of life, the disciple explained.

Bahira opened up his heart to the disciple and said, I want to settle down in your lands. Is there a good place to accommodate me? Is there a good woman to marry?

The disciple answered, There is a place for rent. Its owner is a woman. She is good. Now since the Teacher is dead, you can marry her.

I don’t understand, Bahira inquired. What does this mean?

Ask her and you will know everything for yourself, the disciple replied.

3

The Lady

Since you have agreed to let me rent your house, Bahira said, I would like to add more information about myself.

I know who you are, the woman interrupted. You are known around the Town as the Proof.

That is interesting, Bahira replied in astonishment. Proof of what? he asked.

The woman explained, Proof of the Teacher’s mission.

Are the people here still in doubt of their belief? Bahira wondered. Their Book in itself is sufficient as a proof.

You don’t know them like I do, the woman said in assurance.

By the way, why do the people here call you the No Lady? Bahira questioned.

Because I spoke my mind, the woman said.

Is it a stigma to speak one’s mind? Bahira was surprised.

The Town’s people think and speak in the same way, the woman explained. No one dares to think or speak otherwise, even if the matter is unimportant and has nothing to do with what the Book ordains.

What is your real name? Bahira asked.

My name is Omayma. I was born and raised in the desert. This is why I have an independent mind, the woman said.

And what is the background of that name you became known for? Bahira asked.

I said No to the Teacher while any other woman in my place would say Yes, Omayma proudly said.

What did he ask you to do? Bahira questioned.

I was visiting his wives, Omayma explained. When he saw my beauty, he admired me. All what he said to me was, ‘Omayma, would you give yourself to me?’ I was taken by surprise. For an instance, I was not sure whether he wanted me as a wife to be added to his many wives or just one of his abeeds.

Abeed? Did he have abeeds? the disbelieving Bahira questioned.

You did not know that? Omayma asked.

I thought that he was going to be different from the other two Teachers before him, said Bahira.

The more you stay with us, Omayma added, the more you will get to know the System.

What was your answer to the Teacher? Bahira asked.

As a woman from the desert, Omayma explained, I have pride in myself. The Teacher was from a tribe in the Holy City. Although the tribe was the holy place’s keepers, they were considered by us, the Garab people, lower in ancestry. Without thinking, my tongue uttered these words, ‘Would a queen condescend to marry a commoner?’

What was his reaction? Bahira asked in curiosity.

Omayma added after a pause, He could not believe what he had heard. He must have thought, ‘Who is she among all these women to reject me?’ He raised his arm, wanting to hit me on my face.

Was he going to lose his temper like any other ordinary man? Bahira wondered.

Omayma affirmed, This shows that the Teacher was none but an ordinary human being.

Bahira questioned, This means that you did not believe in him as the chosen Man?

Omayma explained, I make a difference between the mission and the missionary. While I believe deep in my heart in the new System, I look to the missionary as an ordinary person with whom I don’t have to deal differently. I don’t consider him as a holy man. In addition, I have some reservations about his life.

This conversation aroused more curiosity in Bahira. He asked, What are these reservations?

The woman, feeling a little liking to the stranger, said frankly, I don’t approve the way he married some of his wives.

Like what? Bahira, feeling the same comfort toward the woman, asked.

She said, "One of them was only a child when the Teacher married her. I realize that it is a habit in the Garab Land. Even the Book allowed that. But I did not like that from a man