Thread: From "The PHILOSOPHER" by M.A. LAGOUADER

"Where shall we bury them?" said one voice.


"We'll settle that later in the day," said Muhammad, moving away towards his fustat.

* * *

And there in the fustat, Muhammad locked himself in and wept his eyes out. But then there was a tumult outside. So he wiped his eyes and walked out to see what was happening.


"We must send them back on foot!" one voice was saying.


"We must take their women and children away from them!" said another voice.


"What's the matter?" said Muhammad.


"We're talking about the prisoners, sir," said one Azlu man.


"What about the prisoners?" said Muhammad.


"We want to send them back on foot," said the first speaker. "They came to invade us. They came to take our houses and women and children and lands and all our belongings away from us. Now it's our right to take their horses and women and children and all their belongings away from them!"


"Where's Hassan?" said Muhammad.


"He's gone over to the women's camp, teacher!" said one student.


"So wait until he comes back!" said Muhammad.


And soon came Hassan, and with him Yetto.


"What are you doing here?" said Muhammad, looking askance at Yetto.


"I am a messenger," she said.


"Who sent you?" said Muhammad in surprise.


"The women!"


"What do they want?"


"They want you to take pity on the prisoners."


"If I take pity on them and let them go now, then they'll invade us again and they'll take you away from me!"


"Who told you I am yours?"


"They'll take you away from your family, then!"


"I wasn't sure I'd escape in the first place."


"Those are dangerous people!"


"Maybe. But they're poor people also. They fled starvation. Their lands were ravaged by locusts."


"So should we be starving in their place?"


"God helped you prevail over them, so now have mercy on them!"


"If you want me to have mercy on them, so stay here close to me!"


"I am a woman; I stay with the women."


"So why did you come? Go then!"


"Not before you have mercy on the prisoners!"


"Prisoners! Prisoners! Oh! What have you got to do with the prisoners? Do you love them?"


"I love peace."


Muhammad smiled.


"You love peace," he said. "And I love you. So I'll have mercy on them!"


"And what about us?" said one Azlu man. "What about our good men who died? What about our crops? What about our animals? What about our lands? What about our houses?"


"Answer him, Yetto!" said Muhammad, looking tenderly at her.


"My answer is this: take their money and their weapons and horses and leave the donkeys and the mules to their women and children. And give that money and the weapons and the horses to those who lost their loved ones, be they from Azlu or from anywhere else! That's my answer!"


Muhammad then turned to the men and said:


"What do you say to that, men?"


"I for one accept her ruling!" said one Azlu man.


Then suddenly all the students started chanting:


"God bless Yetto! God bless Yetto!"


And they raised their voices until nothing else could be heard. Even Hassan, who moved about with his arm in a sling, shouted himself hoarse. Only Yetto was standing aloof and listening in silence. Muhammad was all smiles.

* * *

An hour later, Muhammad summoned the lieutenants to his presence.


"The war is over," he said gravely, "but a lot of problems remain. To be honest with you, I can't face these problems. Yetto is driving me mad. I'm getting wild about her. I just can't concentrate on anything. I don't want to look silly in front of people. So please help me!"


"What should we do?" said Ismaïl with a frown.


"Well, there's the problem of the prisoners. There's the problem of the dead. There's the problem of the volunteers. There's the problem of the people of this land. There's the problem of the refugees. You see, there are a lot of problems."


"Don't worry, teacher!" said Ismaïl reassuringly. "We can handle all this."


"That's good of you!" said Muhammad. "And really I'm counting on both of you: you and Hassan. I want Hassan to deal with the problems on the south bank, and I want you, Ismaïl, to handle the situation on this side of the wadi. Mussa and H'mad will assist Hassan, and M'hamed and Addad will assist you, Ismaïl. Now, please, the first thing I expect you to do is to prepare the dead for burial."


"Alright, teacher!" said the lieutenants in unison.


"Now let's go out to pray!"

* * *

The dead were buried. The prisoners and their women and children were sent back home. The volunteers dispersed. The people of Azlu returned to their villages. And the whole village plunged into mourning.


And Muhammad started numbering the days and nights till the village came out of mourning.


And as he was waiting, an awful lot of people crowded round him one day.


"What's the matter?" he said, rolling his eyes.


"We want you to be our Sultan!" the crowd said.


"What!"


"Yes! We want you to rule over us!"


Astounded, Muhammad turned to Hassan, and said:


"Heard that? It fell to my lot to be acclaimed King! Oh, what a funny day!"


Then, he turned to the crowd, and said:


"O Men!


"I don't think I could fulfill your hopes. I can't be king or sultan. Your King is the one in the Capital. All I can do for you is plead with His Majesty to appoint two students of mine as governors of both banks of Igri. I would be glad to see my student Hassan Tikiwin running the affairs of the people of this side of Igri. I would be equally glad to see my student Ismaïl governing the affairs of the other bank. This is all I could do for you, gentlemen!"


"But we want to reward you for saving us from Ait Mimoon!" said one voice.


"That's very kind of you!" said Muhammad. "There's another way you


Could reward me. I want to marry, but I don't have a house. Could you build a


house for me, here in Azlu?"


"Oh, yes!" said the crowd.


"And I want a school," said Muhammad with a merry smile. "Could you build me a school?"


"Oh yes!" said the crowd.


"Then that would make me glad!" said Muhammad happily. "You can go now! May God bless you!"

* * *

The next day dozens of men set to work on Muhammad's house. Twenty-three days later, the house was the envy of everyone. And the students were happy with their new school and mosque.


But for Muhammad, the happy day had not yet come. The village was still in mourning.

* * *

Mohamed Ali LAGOUADER
Morocco
Copyright ©2006 by Mohammed Lagouader
Find more on my blog:

http://amgoon.alkablog.com/

Something you've already written, or are in the process of now writing?

Historical fiction, or fantasy/ancient fiction? Is it perhaps religious fiction? (Islamic)

Main problem is dialogue and the alignment. You simply must use a left-hand alignment, since this is an english-speaking and writing forum. The right-hand alignment is far too unweildy to read well.

Some of the dialogue breaks an extra line, so it's not clear if the same or different person is speaking. During the Muhammed / Yetto dialogue, some extra clarifying "he said / she said" would help avoid confusion as to who is talking.

It may be an issue with your Internet Browser, and the language your computer is set on, or the script/character-codes? You probably speak and type in another language, primarily? The language barrier is a problem in more ways than one, sadly. Best of luck to you

I thought this was a marvelous piece. Your writing style kept me engaged and the logical reasoning of Yetto was very amusing. It was unlike anything I've really read before and even the alignment (though a technical err) interested me! Great piece of work! Keep writing!