See the bruises his staff left on my brow.’
As soon as Ali had come away from the door he gave her kick. ‘Shut up woman! Embarrassing me, like that! May God shame you before His servants!’
The Brothers were unforgiving, ready to oppose any new invention they did not understand. Heresy, they called it — it must be repudiated! — a work of magic and the dark arts that had no place in the House of Islam. To stay silent on the matter would anger God.
From Abdallah Bin Hassan to His Excellency, the Respected and Foremost of Imams, Abdel Rahman Aal Faisal, may God relieve him of all woe and burdens and deliver him from those who seek to deceive him, Amen.
The Peace and Mercy of God and His blessings be always upon you, and with all inquiries after your good health and all due celebration and respect, and hoping that our news may bring you joy in every respect, for which we thank God, we beg leave to inform your Majesty that on the nineteenth day of Shawwal we arrived at Buraida and finding all well by the grace of God, we looked into the meeting between the Brothers and al-Ibn Abdel Aziz on the occasion of his arrival in Buraida. This meeting, however, was postponed on account of matters that the Brothers raised, seeking the response of al-Ibn. To wit: the matter of the telegraph and the cablegram and the matter of the customs offices, all of which they ask be removed after the pilgrimage.
Sheikh Abdullah and Sheikh Omar Aal Saleem sent word to them, explaining that neither they nor the other sheikhs considered these things forbidden. At this the Brothers came to them and spoke frankly, refusing to accept their judgment and stating that either these things are destroyed or the Brothers would take to the Hejaz during the pilgrimage and render it impassable. Fearful of harm befalling Islam, Muslims and the customs houses, al-Ibn, may God grant him peace, responded to their demands and asked them to defer action until the end of Ashoura, when he would decide whether to destroy the customs houses himself or license them to do so in his stead and provide them with assistance.
He then set out conditions which he asked them to pledge to uphold, including that they would not rob any man nor carry out any act in the name of religion or injurious to the sovereign without consulting the sheikhs and their leaders, nor would they take up arms against any of the king’s subjects, Bedouin or townsfolk, without the knowledge and express command of the sovereign. Whosoever disobeyed these conditions would have his case brought before the king, who would take responsibility for disciplining him. Furthermore, they would use neither God’s Book nor the Prophet’s example as justification for their actions until they have consulted the sheikhs and obtained a fatwa. Abdel Aziz Bin Musaaid was sent to them and they pledged to observe these conditions.
Shawwal 28, 1346 A.H
The appearance of the telegraph in the land of the Muslims back in 1928 was a blow to the True Faith and stirred up the Brothers in defence of their religion. The customs houses and guard posts erected along the borders with Iraq sent them flying on their horses, white thaubs and turbans flapping, swords bared, racing the wind that roughly flipped green pennants emblazoned with There is no god but God and Mohammed is His Prophet. They fasted for days and nights, their only sustenance a dried date wetted in parched throats and an unwavering zeal for the religion of God. If necessary they held up peaceful caravans, the passengers’ godlessness beyond dispute.
Concerning the telegraph, this is an innovation of recent times and we know nothing of its true nature. Having seen no pronouncement from the scholars on the subject we withhold judgment, for no man may speak in the name of God or His Prophet without knowledge and to declare something sinful and forbidden requires its true nature to first be understood.
Concerning the mosques of Hamza and Abu Rasheed, the Imam, may God grant him success, has advised us to destroy them immediately.
Concerning secular law, we have noted that it is practiced here and there in the Hejaz and it must cease forthwith, for there shall be no judgment save the rulings of divine law.
Concerning the entry of the Egyptian pilgrims on to God’s sacred soil with arms and military force, the Imam advised us to repel them by force of arms and prevent their displays of polytheism and other abominations.
Concerning the convoy, the Imam advised us to prevent it entering the Grand Mosque and ensure that no man might touch it or kiss it.
‘These people never died,’ a heavily moustachioed Rashed had once said to Saeed in Musafir Café. ‘They’ve just evolved and changed their outer appearance. The man who once wrapped a white turban around his head and accused anyone who wore the aqqal of godlessness is the same fellow who these days wears the thaub that stops midway down his calf and accuses those who wear the long thaub of wantonness, godlessness and hypocrisy!’
Saeed gave a small smile. ‘It’s not that bad,’ he objected. ‘They don’t call someone who lets his thaub down an infidel, they just advise him.’
‘Believe me Saeed, they’re the ones that pull the rope and loosen it. Give them an inch they pull even harder. Can you believe that they cut King Abdul Aziz’s thaub because he let it hang down?’
Saeed gave a loud laugh and said sarcastically, ‘You shouldn’t be so hard on them. They’re brave fellows.’
‘But don’t you believe that times repeat themselves, that things repeat themselves, even if the names might change? Just think, Saeed. They were fighting the infidel in Iraq, then they got involved with the British at the start of the last century and now they’re doing it all over again. Fighting in Iraq against the Americans and their “dogs” as they call them.’
Saeed shook his head as he attempted to light a cigarette. ‘No, Rashed, you’re mixing things up. There’s a difference between terrorism and jihad. I think the Brotherhood were mujahideen and their intentions were pure.’
Rashed closed the conversation. ‘You’re calling what’s happening in Iraq terrorism, but there are some that call it jihad and others that think of it as resistance and self-defence: the defence of one’s honour and religion!’
A few scant hairs atop his head, Rashed perched on a bar-stool drawing on the shisha’s tube, exhaling rising columns of smoke into the air and directing an unceasing flow of insults against everything around him. Saeed never argued with him, except when he wished to increase his own fund of knowledge. Life here was unbearable, he told his friend. Nothing had changed for a hundred years. Life spun in place. The grandsons of the ones who outlawed the telegraph and the radio had surfaced ten years ago to ban satellite dishes and receivers, and now they themselves were hopping back and forth between the very channels they had denounced: a mufti here, a dream interpreter there, a scholar of the hadith, a scholar of the Qur’an, a preacher, an expert in Islamic women’s issues, and, and, and …
Part 8. Dear Lorca, I stole no olives
The olive tree does not weep and does not laugh.
— 57 —
IN RAJEHI MOSQUE ON the Eastern Ring Road, in the room where the corpses are washed, Fahd’s mother slept on the slab, eyes closed like Sleeping Beauty. Sleeping before being readied for her final rest. Is anyone ready for death? Don’t they always say that death comes suddenly? Why can’t the angel come gently, alighting in the room, sitting opposite the creature and, before asking if he might pluck out its soul, talk to him a little about his dreams and what he wants from the world, give him space to get his papers in good order, to wash the dishes and clean the tea cup, taking out the sodden mint leaf and throwing it in the bin, to fold his underwear and tidy up his things, to burn his secret diaries, write a will, pen a note setting out his feelings in the moment before his passing, describing the taste of death, sour or bitter, the faces of the those who will read the shahada over him, the eyes of the man who will wrap his face in a flimsy white cocoon?