The Imam of the Cave by J Randall

Author:J Randall
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-06-22T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 34: THE SECRET

THEY ARRIVED IN TAYMA a little after nine on Monday. Nasif dropped Omed off at a small market block that had grown from open stalls selling goats and the occasional donkey to covered shops that offered a variety of handicrafts.

“Omed, I want you to visit the porcelain dealers and see if they have anything you think looks interesting. I want to visit an old friend who has retired. I’ll return in an hour.”

Nasif left and drove toward the older section of the city where his friend, a tribal cousin, lived.

Passing through small alleys on the way, he became absorbed in the sounds and smells of his youth. It had changed very little since 1948, when as a young man he had lived with his older cousin’s family.

Nasif found the house and parked. He stood for a moment before the door that he remembered so well, then rang the bell.

Nasif was surprised at the appearance of the man who opened the door. The robust cousin he remembered from the last visit years earlier now displayed a head of thinning gray hair peppered with the black that hadn’t turned yet and a round face crisscrossed with wrinkles.

When Medhat saw his cousin standing at the door, he exclaimed, “Nasif, my young cousin! How long has it been?”

The men embraced tightly.

“Medhat, my dear cousin, time and Allah have treated you well.”

“Come in, come in—it has been too long, Nasif. I’ll have tea steeped and we can talk.”

Medhat asked a servant to bring refreshments.

“Are you alone? I understood that you didn’t go far from your shop and your sons did all of the buying these days.”

“No, cousin, my youngest son, Omed, has accompanied me.”

Medhat looked out into the street.

“He’s at the market seeing what wares they have for sale.”

“Are you making your last trip, Nasif?”

The ‘last trip’ was something the young said of the elderly. When a man became weary of travel, he would make one more trip on the routes of his youth. He would visit the people and places he had encountered as a young man, before secluding himself near family and friends.

“I truly wish it were so, cousin…Have you heard the news of the cave found outside Mecca?”

“I’m no longer active in the antiquity market and new discoveries don’t interest me. Is it an important cave?”

“I don’t know,” said Nasif, “but it’s rumored that it’s the cave where Muhammad received his revelations.”

“You didn’t come all of the way here to tell me that—or have the years been kinder to your body than to your mind?”

“Yes, it would be wondrous, but that’s not the reason for my visit. There’s another rumor. About a cleric out of Iraq. They say he has a relic that once belonged to Muhammad. They say he found it in a cave where it had been buried for centuries.”

The two old friends sat in the room drinking tea, speculating about what the cleric’s journey into Saudi Arabia might signify. Neither man could decide on a course

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.