2-«How is it that I find myself suspended over the desert? The sun beats down without respite. I'm parched with thirst and stifled by my clothes.., and yet there is no shade. If I cannot descend, I'll surely faint, exhausted from the heat, or die...

But what is that ahead? Green trees, and grass, and water. How delicious is the sea!... But, could it be? Why, it's the town in which I used to live...»

«It's paradise, no more, no less».

«May I come closer, so that I might see?»

«That is why I brought you here, that you might have another chance...»

«They're swimming as I used to do, contented, joyful...»

«Go ye down, and be among them».

«How the heat consumes me... but I have pledged».

«See them happy in the sea, not a worry, not a care... Go ye down, and be among them».

«How lovely it is! How great is my longing. And what if I did? No one would see me. I'm nearing exhaustion... but yet, I have pledged...»

«What have you pledged? It's here, before you. You've only to enter. Put trial behind you...»

«Alright then, I shall. But if I'm among them, must I be like them? Discard the truth God has put before me?»

«Surely, for you shall be with them».

«Then surely you lie, and you've tried to deceive me. You're none but the evil one, out to mislead me. I'll never turm back, and you never shall tempt me. That's what I've pledged to my Lord...»

«Um Mohammad, wake up! It's nearly time for the dawn prayer. Let us hurry to the Sacred Mosque...»

We stepped out then into a new day. Circling the

Kaaba(4) we asked that God might bring us to His favor

as He had brought us to this sacred place. Standing in congregation with brothers from every land, we bowed down in the morning prayer. We bowed as one, to God, and God alone.

The light of dawn appeared and then the sun. Returning to the Sacred Mosque once more, it was as if I had come back at last, to another world I knew in early childhood, in distant memories (or was it in a dream?), a world of peace and harmony. The empty years seemed very far away... a dim reflection ever fading...

If only I might stay like this forever, yet I must start anew. And peace is not a stipulation of this world, nor is contentment. There is a life to live, a test to pass: shall we be true?

[ 0 mankind! The messenger has come to you with the truth from your Lord, so believe, it is better for you. But if you disbelieve, to God belongs everything in the heavens and the earth, and God is All Knowing, Wise ].

(Nisaa' IV: 170)

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(4)This is the center toward which Muslims everywhere in the world face during prayer. the Sacred Mosque having been built around It.

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