Among the Faithful by Dahris Martin

Author:Dahris Martin [Dahris Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780600055
Publisher: Eland Publishing
Published: 2012-09-11T04:00:00+00:00

July 20

Two months are gone and the hahj are returning. Welcoming crowds meet the trains with banners borrowed from the mosques, great glass lanterns borne upon heads and shoulders, tomtoms, tambours and pipes. We are told that we cannot expect Hahj Ali for another fortnight. Upon disembarkation, he joined a small party of zealots that proceeded to the Kaabeh on foot – a perilous journey over desert and mountain. They reached the Tomb eleven days after the others.

Kalipha came this morning to tell me that one of our hahj died on the voyage home. Kalipha knew him well, an elderly man who lived outside Kairouan in the gardens of Drat Tomar. The boat paused at a port only long enough for his son to take the body ashore and leave instructions for its burial. The womenfolk, who had received no word of his death, were among those at the station today. ‘Oh, how terrible for them!’ I cried.

Kalipha shook his head, ‘No, my little one, it is not “terrible”; it was this good man’s destiny. For a time the women will wail and scratch their faces, and we will pardon the weakness. But it is inestimable bliss to die while performing the pilgrimage. Would that it could be the lot of every Moslem!’

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