Don't You Remember Her?
death!
People claim that angels dwell only in heaven; as for me, I assure you that on earth, too, there are angels!
A mother's love is ever the same, unchanging. Eve's love for Cain was as her love for Abel; the difference lies in the sons, not in the mothers. Just as the earth nourishes the thorn and the bramble with the same measure of nourishment it offers the lily, the iris, and the violet, so the mother gives her children all that she has — and how gladly she gives her life for their sake, content and willing! She loved you without price; her love is stripped of every ulterior aim and differs plainly from the love others bear you, for when she loves you she has loved the part of herself she prefers. In her love for you she gives and does not take, sacrifices and does not reproach, bestows and does not ask. Yes — the mother is a sacred pledge from the Creator to us; she is the shadow of heaven upon earth, and the love of mothers is a portion of the love of the Eternal, Everlasting One, which has no end and no bounds!
Every time a mother gives humanity a child, she bestows a portion of her body, of her heart, and of her soul. Would that her sacrifice stopped at this limit! For she sacrifices much of her rest for his sake before he is born, and more than much after he is born; and she goes on sheltering him and caring for him as long as life shelters and sustains her — lowering herself that he may rise, spending her strength that he may grow strong; and the stronger he grows and the weaker she becomes, the greater grow her delight and her pride. How strange this sacred emotion is, and how great!
— I had prepared myself, as I said, to receive news of Anwar with the calm such news deserves in circumstances like these. Yet when the shock actually fell, it had the effect of a thunderbolt, and perhaps the immediate cause of the weakness I showed at first was that I did not believe the messenger when he said Anwar was wounded, and thought he was only trying to break the news of his martyrdom to me by degrees.
I went to the hospital at Nablus and found Anwar in a state nearer to death than to life — but God, glorified and exalted be He, was gracious to us, and his health began to improve, until one day he said to me: "A condition that was almost fundamental to the contract we signed has lapsed. Do you wish to annul it?" "And what contract and what condition do you mean?"
"The marriage contract, naturally." As for the condition, it is that you contracted to marry a man complete in all his limbs — and now, as you see...
I looked at him a long while, until I was sure that he was joking as is his habit; then we both laughed — and I thought how proud I am of Anwar, because he did not content himself with propounding theories — and he had many theories. Then I looked toward the door of the room and saw the throngs of the wounded moving through the corridors of the hospital — and I said to myself: Praise be to God who created me an Arab woman — praise be to God who sent us the plague of Zionism ("and it may be that you hate a thing though it is good for you"), for it has rubbed our metal upon the touchstone and proved it to be pure gold. How proud I am of you, O fighters — and how proud I am of you, O noble Arab people!
had become a young man strong of arm, full of health and manliness, and Ghada had become a young woman in the fullness of womanhood, the fairy came a second time, greeted the two noble royal children, and said to them: 'Now you must return to your father's kingdom, for the king has died and there is no heir to his broad throne. And I have charged an army of your friends the jinn, who have served you and kept you company these twenty years, to go with you, to fight the enemy and win back the lost kingdom!'
Alaa rejoiced at this news, for he was brave and did not fear war, and he had been longing to return to his beautiful country... And so he took the field with an army of valiant jinn, and they all set out on their way. And they crossed long, long distances before they reached their kingdom...
At the borders of their kingdom they launched fierce raids upon the enemy, and after some days this little army succeeded in seizing the usurped throne, and Alaa ascended, by merit and by right, the throne of his father the late king... and his people cheered him: 'Long live the king!'
As for Ghada, a prince saw her and was captivated by her charm and beauty, and asked for her hand; and not many months had passed after her marriage when his father died and he was proclaimed king! And thus the two wandering royal children, Alaa and Ghada, became a king and a queen, beloved among their two peoples!