Desert Wind 1

Arabian Tales

Challanging the Desert Forces

The east wind cut across the desert sands. At first it rippled the surface, picking here and there as if a capricious child played to annoy. It swirled and settled, it turned back upon itself, and then with a gust swept all before it, then stopped as if to draw breath for the next game.

Muhammad watched from hooded eyes and drew his cloak tighter around him. He knew its games from old and was suspicious of its playful dance, it could be nothing or it could presage a gathering storm. He was far from his desert camp and he knew the dangers only too well. He looked up at the sun, past its noonday peak but still burning pitilessly, and saw the halo that meant that desert heat was rising fast into the sky, which in turn would draw in the cooler winds from the east, and feeding on each other, could form a rolling sand storm.

Muhammad was not aware of these meteorological niceties, but he knew the desert law and spurred on his camel towards his encampment. Allah would provide and guide, he knew without knowing, but man was his servant and must make every effort to serve him, and in that he must remain alive.

The dunes seemed higher than he remembered, they stretched away before him in animal like repose, and as he mounted one after the other there seemed no end to their undulations. He swore that they had moved, Was this a trick of the eye? The desert could play funny tricks on the unwary, but he was a Prince, a master of all he surveyed, he was not to be fooled, and yet he looked back with suspicion as he heard the wind move from its simple song to a mournful key.

A shudder went through his frame and the pit of his stomach sank at what he saw, or what he thought he saw. The heated air was rising faster, the playful sand of a minute ago was now writhing higher and stretched out so that it seemed to take on a spirit form, first, a maiden’s outline, then an old hag, then a Warrior, and then the spirit he feared most, a serpent! And rolling behind he could see the billowing form of a sand storm.

He steeled himself, he was a Prince, a Lord of the desert, it held no fears for him, this was all a childish nightmare, his own children would laugh at him for such foolishness, and yet he spurred on even faster as if a beast was snapping at his ankles. Indeed it was a beast, formed from the natural elements of the heat and the sand it could break a man's nerve and overwhelm his physical being; sense of direction was lost, the dry heat baked the skin and addled the brain, the unrelenting sand found its way into every orifice until the weak cried for deathly relief. That Allah would not forgive and would not receive you into his hallowed halls.

The song of the sand moved higher from the minor to a major key that shrieked, and in that shrieking drew upon ancient fears of long forgotten stories of his ancestors who had roamed these deserts since time immemorial. They told of storms that had screamed across the deserts as if it were the devil himself, of ancient horsemen a 100 feet high that rode across the desert plains sweeping all before them, plucking children from their beds and riding of with them in their saddle bags. Of maidens crying out as the serpent wind plucked at their sherbas and unwound them to gloat upon their form that was reserved only for their Lord and Master.

At the thought of this Mohammed rose above these primeval fears and decided not to run, he turned and faced the devil wind and cursed it in the name of his ancient spirits, and his immortal soul, and challenged it to do its worse.

In that moment Allah turned from his mighty works and saw the plight of his Chosen one and laid his cloak around him and saved him from himself.

Mohammed rode into his camp, with his head held high but humility in his heart. His children ran out to meet him and he swung down, and to their surprise, held them close. His concubines peered from the silken drapes that encircled his tent, and prepared to welcome home their Lord and Master, and were surprised at his gentleness.

As the desert sun went down he stared across the wilderness and thought he saw the shadow on an ancient being staring down on him and he knew that he had challenged the gods and they had seen fit to save him. Praise be to Allah.