(Hijri 1417 - Year 1996)

Non-Fiction

? 2000-2001 htttp://www.arttoday.com

It was in a winter night, so chilling! The roads were split under the shining snow, sparkling like stars. Here the street was almost deserted by sounds except for crutches ripping all the cold. Suddenly, the voice of a man, like the voice of a child telling a story rose softly in the dry freezing night. The sound of the crutches stopped and, over there, under a street lamp a man and a girl were talking. It was not properly the voice of a woman I heard but a muffled, broken sound. I stopped to listen to it. The man was now warming up the youngster’s hands, asking her in a cheering accent to take care of herself and to go home quickly. His face was welcoming. Under very long lashes his eyes were shimmering and strong white teeth were gleaming enlightening every smile. The youngster was from Japan, handicapped. When I dared not look and smile at her by mere shyness Ibrâhim, without any hesitation, approached and sheltered her. His words were very hearty like those of a father towards his daughter. But I knew instinctively that he wished not to accompany her for fear of frightening her, and I took this advantage to speak with him who was now smiling at me.

“Do you know her?”

“I met her several times. This girl is very brave,” and this idea seemed to make him happy. I noticed after having known him for a while that Ibrâhim was always happy, that he was "born happy" as he used to say:

“In my culture, nobody experiences mental dejection,” he declared one day, “it is an illusion from the Occident. In my culture, we do not know the word despair. To even utter the word despair is like turning your back on God.”

Ibrâhim lives in a home where he likes to watch the squirrels following each other in bunches of two or three. He likes to observe them sharing their meals and playing with the birds. He also spends time looking at the wild flowers blossoming at the top of his garage. If his landlord feels discouraged and dislikes that, Ibrâhim on the contrary finds it beautiful! He never fails to throw a piece of his dinner at the little animals who gather on the roof, since in his religion, to feed living creatures is charity, and even the peasant is supposed to leave a percentage of the harvesting to the dwellers of nature. Scarecrows are forbidden as well because they spoil birds of their daily meals. Ibrâhim lives close to nature; actually he feels he is a part of it, a part of the natural equilibrium. And he believes God -- Allâh has created every living soul so that they can worship Him. In the morning, when he wakes up, just before the sunbeams come striking the lace of the window curtains, he tries to answer the singing of the birds. After that, he prays. He prays five times a day, sometimes more when he chooses to. He informs me that even the tiniest creatures pray like him, "only," he says, "we do not know how they pray; we do not understand the