As the night falls in, the orchestra of life starts
to play the most rhythmic tune ever heard by mankind. The owls start
to hoot, snakes are playing hiss, wind starts to swirl and the distant
chirp of birds is also audible in the background.
Moon
showers its spotlight on the Ailanthus Altissima (Tree of Heaven). Sitting
under the tree Elena kisses Hussain and says “isn't it the most beautiful
night of our life". “What can be more beautiful than a true love’s
kiss" Hussain thinks in his heart kissing her back. Moon gets excited after
reading the boy's thought and starts to shine brightly and soon notices that
its eternal love ( The Earth ) is gorgeous than ever.
Looking
at the young couple together a sudden jealousy erupts in the heart of the moon.
At this point it failed to realize that since the day of creation its soul is
bonded to earth and that a true love requires no medium. So close to heaven and
yet it failed to get the whole idea. It wasn't the fault of the
moon at all because to understand something you need not to be close or far.
How many of us understand why the earth nourishes a seed to grow it into a tree
of heaven. We could never comprehend the love of moon which creates tides in
the oceans and name it the gravitational pull. We never realized that why the
sun rays never needed the medium to warm the earth's soul. Our only answer to
all these visualizations of The Creator has been "Maktab".
It
had been days since this young couple had left their tribe. “Why they couldn't
accept us?" asks Elena. Innocence prevails in the air and the tree of
heaven gets curious to know their story.
They
belonged to Kata tribe of Bashgal valley located in Nuristan, Afghanistan. Kata
people were non-believers and called "Kafirs" until they were forced
to convert to Islam in the late 19th century. Major occupation of Kata people
is Farming. Husain and Elena were married according to Islamic ritual and yet
they were declared Kafirs as they did not consult their Chief for the wedding
and resented to break up their marriage. This young couple had no choice but to
flee their tribe and migrate to Pakistan which is having the largest population
of Afghan immigrants. They decided to follow the Bashgal River which would
eventually lead them to River Kunar that flows across the Pak-Afghan border.
The treacherous Hindu-Kush range never
seemed to be ending. Death was following them all the way across. They both
knew that the Chief Abdullah must have sent a search party to capture them or kill them but
it was a leap of faith that kept them going. They were among those who try to
make it to the other side of the ledge. “If God willing in two nights we will
get across Pakistan" Hussain told Elena. He added" we are the
children of farmers why don't they understand the meaning of love? How
could they have forgotten that the very first reason behind adopting this most
ancient skill was love for the family? Why couldn’t they ever witness the love
shared by the crops, the birds, the insects, the earth and the sun each of them
giving a life to the other? "
Now
suddenly the orchestra had stopped playing because the wind of Bashgal which is
called “dimi" was broadcasting the story of this brave couple in the whole
valley. The owls and the birds quietly began to assemble under the Tree of
Heaven. Snakes were afraid that they would startle the couple by their hissing
so they decided to stay in their pits and requested “dimi" to relay the
story to them.
Ironically,
creatures who have a mere purpose of creating a balance of life were trying to
understand the true purpose of the" Ashraful Makhluqat" (greatest of
all creations). Resting his back on the trunk of tree,
Hussain remembered that Abdullah always knew when to plant the seed
in the fields, when to irrigate them, when to harvest them, he always knew
which days would bring rain by merely looking at the sky and the wind
direction. Hussain also had heard his chief saying that when the wind is
blowing from the setting sun it will bring rain and snow. All of his life
Hussain had thought that farmers were the most intelligent people but now he
knew that their wisdom was so much limited.
Owls
overheard him and started hooting about the human weakness.
Elena was
quietly observing the river rapids and said "our elders are like a steady
stream, following the path that has been chosen for them and we are like these
river rapids, pushing across the stones, making our way through them even
though we get hurt".
Human
history has been absurdly violent, always crushing through the purpose
of their creation. Right from the story of Habeel and Qabeel,
love has been treated as a disease rather than cure. An old crow
started to tell the story to its clan in a hushed tone, it was afraid that
other birds might come to know that a crow was involved in the murder of LOVE.
There are three forms of human love. In childhood every
human receives love, youth is spent in finding love and old age
is spent in spreading the love they collected in their entire
life. Experience of love is more dangerous than experiencing a free fall
from a cliff, if we strike earth during our fall we die and our matter is sent
to God, but if love strikes us then we are on our own.
"Why
do we have to migrate to Pakistan? Is it so necessary? I am kind of
feeling lonely and the fear of the unknown is taking over my heart"
Elena asked almost sobbing with sadness. Hussain took her in his
arms and tried to comfort her" migration is not an evil ritual, even
Prophets had to leave their homelands, it doesn't mean that they were
not strong or Allah was weak to protect them, it’s because Almighty wanted
their followers to know that being weak and leaving a place of
cruelty doesn't mean that you are coward. Besides obligations to our
soul we also have an obligation to our body. We must protect it too even
though it’s not immortal. Migration has been embedded in human instincts just
like the birds from the North. In every winters we see them migrating to the
South."
“Look
Elena I cannot foresee the future, I am neither a gypsy nor a saint, I am a man
of mountains just like our fathers. We have never been accustomed to look for
the future, we climb the mountains daily to gather woods for our houses and
bring back only what will suffice for the day, if we were to cut down the trees
to store wood it would create imbalance in the nature and the
same mountains that provided us shade from the harsh winter winds would
fall down upon us."
Tree of
heaven could understand what this young boy was trying to tell his wife and it
wanted to shed down all its branches to provide them wood for warmth, the
mountain gripped the roots of Ailanthus Altissima more strongly, fruit
trees started to shake down their ripe fruit, as of this
moment they all could understand the laws of nature better than ever.
“My
present is with you and together we can accomplish what we have chosen in our
lives and that is to live beyond these mountains forever," He said.
Elena
looked towards him, her blue eyes were full of hope and faith, she said "
I have chosen you to be my husband and I have put my future in your
hands".
“My
mother used to tell me that someday you will marry a boy, bind your destiny to
him, be the harmony of his life and he will make you prosperous by giving you a
life within yourself, don’t try to stop him to pursue his dreams, men are like
wild horses, they are faithful but they don’t like to be tamed," She said.
The
search party included the best guides of the Bashgal valley, and the chief
Abdullah had promised to give 5 goats to each of the seven men if they captured
the defaulters. Aaban Ali, a guide and trekker among them, said “Hussain will
not chose a difficult path as a girl is along with him, look for the paths near
the river". Fatigue was setting in as the party was searching for
the couple fruitlessly for six days. Arguments were raised that what
difference would it make that someone had married without the consent of
the tribe chief, but the greed of reward kept them going.
All the
men of the Kata tribe are excellent guides as they learn to hike the mountains
to search for food, hunt and wood. They knew that life gives the presence of
other life forms, so they looked for slaughtered birds or small animals during
the day and listened to their voices during the night.
Elena
said “everything has gone so quiet suddenly".
Hussain
put out the small fire they had lit to keep themselves warm and said" we
have to move immediately".
He had
already been acquainted with this silence; it was the fear that the animals
felt when they sensed danger. But this time the danger was not for the animals,
they were trying to warn the couple who had taught them so much about
love, about life and about the purpose of their creation. The wind had
started to blow again and this time it was bringing them the echoes of the
search party so that they may know where to go to mislead them. The
old crow asked his clan to keep quiet and hide themselves in
their nests because he did not want his specie to be responsible for
another murder of love.
As they
started to walk, Hussain held Elena’s hand, she was trembling, he kissed her
hand and said" there is nothing wrong in fear; it is human instinct to
survive".
“I am not
afraid of death," she replied." If they capture us they will separate
us. I can understand that men have to leave to pursue their destiny and I will
cherish that longing along with other women, but this separation will be
different".
A tear
ran down her cheeks and was collected by the soil. It might be the very last
allegory of love and earth desired to preserve this tear forever.
Members
of the search party were getting furious by each passing minute due to
their desperation. Human rage is symbolical to the rivers, if it
finds a desired path like plains it dies down but if it doesn't it
transforms into rampage just like the ferocious currents of the Mountain
Rivers. Rage starts as a seed called passion, each human being plants this
seed in his mind, it’s then up to the environment provided to help
this seed grow. This rear seed has the mutant ability to transform itself
right from the start of its growth. If it is nourished with patience it grows
out to become success and satisfaction but if impatience takes over the
environment of human mind it becomes rage.
This
battle between search and escape was getting strenuous for the both
sides, it was time for the seed to shoot out and the result could be any
of the above.
Hussain
asked Elena to climb up the hill so that they could have a better idea of their
location and avoid search party as they would be looking for them
closer to the river banks.
Though this young couple seemed quite astute and brainy yet there are some situations in our lives when our knowledge is undertaken by the power of unknown and these kids were falling right into its nefarious trap. And it is but what God desires. Mankind is the supreme of all creations, Allah gave us endless knowledge and power but in His plans he also included the fear of unknown, it's not because that Allah has fear of rebellion rather it's His love for us to herd us back from the dark paths of life. And the biggest clarification to this fact is that He kept secrets from his Messengers and even from His most beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUM).
Whenever
we fall in love we tend to forget two very important things. Love is like a
ripe fruit besides its perks of being the sweetest
and transcending other feelings it has a disadvantage of not being
accepted by the ones around it, so either is falls down on earth, left alone to
rot or it becomes a mark for the birds of prey. Another problem with true love
is that it grows like a wild flower in the harsh deserts, defying the very laws
of nature it abides by and its obviousness becomes its own killer.
"I
think we should camp here for the night and start our search in the morning, we
are quite close to them" said one of the search members. Aaban Ali turned
towards this boy and said “the distance for the world might be measured in
terms of miles, yards or kilometers but for us it is in term of time and
keeping that in account we have few hours at a stretch". “We all are trekkers
and we can easily cover the distances, we must get rest and resume in the
morning" the young boy insisted.
"People
judge you on what you achieve in the end rather than on your capabilities, our
goal is to capture this couple and their aim is to flee this country and avoid
getting captured, this puts us on a disadvantage because their goal
is more valuable, its failure involves loss of life and desire" replied
Aaban Ali.
"Che soomra kholey hoomra khabarey (as many men as
many words)" he mumbled crossing over a small stream flowing towards the
river.
Upon reaching the hilltop Hussain gazed his eyes towards south and
he could see the distant blurry lights of the Kunar Valley. He wanted to fly
along the chilling Siberian winds and touch those
lights. Many a men lose their heart upon the sight of their destiny; some
of them are those who didn’t expect they will make it, many are those who are
let down by their expectations, there are very few who embrace it with their
heart and soul. Triumph of dream is itself another scuffle, at this point one
has to let go of the past and inherit his new destiny, letting go is one of the
biggest human weaknesses.
“Your
country is like an alluring witch, even if it scares you away, its memories
will haunt you for whole life" a sudden thought touched his heart.
Birthplaces
are like the first doll houses owned by the young girls. It doesn’t
matter if it is beautiful or raw, expensive or cheap its design is embossed
onto their minds and its color is imprinted onto their hearts. No matter how
many of them they own after that even though they might appear the same what if
they have identical bedrooms for their dolls the first one will always stays
with them. Birthplace helps us to nourish the feeling of attachment and we
become embodied by this feeling. We might be able to suppress it but we can
never free ourselves from its possession. Hindu-Kush range has identical
features throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan but for this couple it was the
case of accepting an identical doll house.
The
feeling of quiet was getting itchy and Elena broke the silence by saying” I
have always dreamed of going to places with you in my youth but those dreams
were so different and romantic”.
“Dreams
or daydreams of youth play a very important role in our lives; they create a
sphere of positive energy in us which diminishes the negative aura aroused by
the romantic frustrations of adolescence. Fragmentation of this aura is quite
necessary: because it is easily catalyzed by our social and moral pressures and
gives birth to diseases like prostitution.” Hussain said almost laughing so as
not to embarrass her.
“Youth
fantasies contain your personal legend and I am happy to be the one for you” he
added.
Earth
listening to this conversation engulfed itself into the veil of clouds and moon
started to glow more brightly and joyfully as it could understand why the earth
was trying to hide its shyness and who its personal legend was. Moon always
felt agitated by the appearance of clouds but tonight it praised them and
thanked them as they had revealed that its love was not one-sided anymore.
Feeling a
sensation of wariness in the atmosphere Elena tried to change the topic and
said “I wish we could be like these clouds.”
“Look at
that cloud patch moving across the horizon, how it has transformed itself, now
it will move across the earth observing its beauties from above and wherever
love happened it will come down with full fervor to embrace it and after
collecting its part of love it will flow down to its origin to be loved again”
she continued.
Resting
his back on a big metamorphic rock Hussain took Elena is his lap; her face was
glowing with an invisible light of pure love.
He said
to her, “transformation and seeking of true love is easier for the water than
us because it is helped by the universe at each point, firstly sun helps water
to transform into vapors and then atmosphere helps it to transform into clouds
through condensation, thereafter winds carries these clouds along to far
reaching places and sun again helps it to find love by directing it to the
warmth of its love.”
For us on
the other hand, whenever someone seeks out love he is diagnosed as mad,
sociopath or even disbeliever; like us and if such a person may ever find love
the last accusation put forth by the society is “Forbidden” or “Impossible”,
whatever seems right. This accusation has always been successful as it needed
no court or law house to hold a trial and its unannounced sentence has always
been exile or death.
In spite
of the cold winter night his throat was parched with thirst and as he put his
hand inside his satchel to reach for the water bottle he came to know that it
was empty and they were left with no more water. He could feel sweat running
down his forehead. Imagination of suffering does not produce stress it’s the
possibility of its realization that produces it.
Whenever we feel helpless
or are in a trouble help does always arrive from God, may it be in any form,
omens are always there for us to be seen and interpreted. The clarity of omens
depends upon the belief that there will be one for you when you need it. Even though
every love story may appear the same in the end but every single one of them
has its own soul and that soul is nurtured by the decisions taken during each
chapter of the book of life. This couple took a very strange decision which was
indiscernible. They took on the very fear that made them flee their tribe, the
fear of death.
Hussain collected some
woods from around the hill and set up a huge fire. He and Elena sat down beside
the fire. Aaban Ali saw rising flames and directed his men to climb up towards
the fire. Hussain and Elena prayed to Allah for forgiveness. Neither of them
uttered a word after that, they quietly kissed each other. In those moments
they both felt happy and satisfied as they had never felt before. They had
unveiled the curtain of death and had known the fact that they were traveling
from projection to reality, the life after death. They had made to the other
side of ledge.
