Ummatul Iman: Nation of Faith

Sha’ban 4th, 1663

“How much longer until we get there?” Rayhaan Ibn Khamisi questioned. “This humid jungle air is making me itchy.” Following under the Captain Dhul-Kifl Hisham, Rayhaan along with Adam El-Sherif, his adoptive brother, Tariq Ibn Sulayman, their cousin, and Ali ibn Nadeem, had been sent out to the southeastern jungle regions of what was once Venezuela. After a long journey at sea and a day of marching, Rayhaan had begun to grow impatient. The thick, humid air was difficult to breathe and the combined heat was an added annoyance. Insects buzzed about in the men’s faces and the chirps of various birds echoed around the green jungle scene. Still, the warriors marched on.

“Shall we take another break?” Dhul-Kifl offered in a soft voice. “If you are fatigued then I see no reason we cannot rest.”

“We’re fine,” Tariq interjected. “Rayhaan is just complaining without reason. If we don’t keep going it’ll be dark before we reach our destination.”

“Of course,” Dhul-Kifl smiled. “Let us continue marching.” Slashing away at the large protruding leaves that blocked the path with his machete, Dhul-Kifl led the way through the jungle.

"I never imagined that a place like this could exist," Adam spoke, marveling at the various plant species. "So much life, so green, so amazing."

"Yes," Tariq replied. As an intermediate botanist on his island home, Tariq acquired vast knowledge of plant study. In fact, it was his knowledge of plant life that got him assigned to the jungle mission with Captain Dhul-Kifl, who was himself an herbal medic. "These types of lands are far and few, but I've read that in the past there were many of these jungles throughout various parts of the world. Everything changed during the Great Wars, when the environment was damaged, chemicals polluted the lands and killed off many species of life. They also mutated and transformed certain plant life which strived to adapt to the environment. One such plant type is the Pereskia grandifolia maiqwa: the adaptive cousin of the rose cactus, which we are here to obtain."

"Why is this plant so important again?" Ali queried.

"It’s important because its thorns and rose petals can be used to brew a unique kind of tea with special healing properties. The Prophet (pbuh) was reported to have said that Allah (God) has placed on earth a cure for every disease and illness except death. And the Amir, whom I remind you is terribly ill, needs this cure for his sickness.”

“Ah yes,” Ali remembered. “Can’t have our only leader getting sick and dying on us.”

“No, we certainly can’t. In these times of war and increasing struggle, the Muslims need a leader to guide them and take care of them. There are already small disputes here and there, with some sects arguing against his legitimacy as leader. But even so, they haven’t completely abandoned the Muslim unity, because he’s proven himself capable of leading us to greatness under Islam. If he passes, it may be near impossible to find a suitable replacement.”

“And that’s why we cannot fail,” Rayhaan impatiently cut in. “We get it, we get it; politics. Now can we please hurry up?”

With that the conversation ended and the men marched on in silence. Trekking through the dense jungle, they soon came to a muddy path that slowed their march. Stepping on through, they soon discovered the path was riddled with deep puddles of mud that appeared shallow at first glance. After Adam got stuck in one of the mud traps, Dhul-Kifl decided that it’d be best to find another route.

Tariq and Ali had just managed to pull Adam free from the mud pool when suddenly they heard a strange howl echoing from the trees. “That’s no animal I know of,” Ali said gripping his sword. A wooden arrow darted right over his arm as he jumped to the ground. “Looks like we’ve got company!” he shouted warning the others. Tariq lifted Adam to his feet and then reached for his sword.

A volley of arrows came piercing through the thick forestry. “This is bad,” Adam shouted taking cover behind a tree. “Where are these guys even shooting from?”

“Show yourselves you cowards,” Rayhaan shouted looking around for the enemy that attacked. He, Tariq, and Ali backed into a circle to face all sides. They listened to the rustling of the leaves just before another set of arrows came speeding through. One of the arrows zipped past Rayhaan’s shoulder and startled him. “That’s it!” He charged off into the brush and pounced behind where he perceived the attack to have come from.

Finding no one there, Rayhaan stood in anger. Adam, still hiding behind the tree thought up the idea to climb the tree to survey the area for the enemy. He gripped the mossy branches of the tree and began carefully ascending to the top. Before long, he had reached 30ft and was able to make out a few shadowy figures hidden in the brush. “Captain Dhul-Kifl!” Adam called out to his comrade. “I have a visual of the enemy, about 20 paces to your right there is one preparing his bow!”

Dhul-Kifl heeded Adam’s warning and rushed to the location of the enemy. When he reached the supposed location, there was no one there. He saw only a bone with red paint at the tip resting there. “Where has he headed?” Dhul-Kifl called to Adam.

Adam climbed up higher in the tree and peered out over the distance to spot another enemy. This time he noticed one with his bow aimed at Rayhaan. Adam immediately pulled his knife from its scabbard and threw it at the man. The knife was deflected by another man standing guard with a shield. “Rayhaan look out!” Adam shouted.

Rayhaan turned his back and saw the arrow speeding his way. He ducked to the ground and the arrow skimmed over his back, leaving a light flesh wound. Tariq charged to Rayhaan’s defense while Ali joined Dhul-Kifl. Adam pulled another knife out and began descending the tree in a hurry. When he reached the lowest branch he jumped to the ground and rolled over before running to join his brother and cousin. Ducking and hopping, Adam dodged the arrows and made his way to his brother. “Are you alright?” Adam asked as he and Tariq stood over him facing the enemy.

Rayhaan got back to his feet and placed a hand on Adam’s shoulder. “Yeah, thanks for that, you saved my life. Now, tell me, how many of these punks are there?”

“I wasn’t up there too long, but I was only to make out 5 men. Two of them are hiding just ahead.”

“Well I call dibs on these two cowards then,” Rayhaan said gripping his sword. “Cover me; I’m taking these guys down!” He charged after the two men dashing side to side to avoid being hit by an arrow. Tariq and Adam followed and the three made their way to the men’s location. Just before clearing through the final bit of bushes Rayhaan hopped onto a branch and swung his way to another tree beside the men’s shooting spot. He leapt from the tree with his sword ready to slash but when he landed there was no one there.

“This is becoming a real nuisance,” Tariq muttered as he picked up a bone with yellow paint on it. As he studied the bone, there was a shrill shrieking sound that echoed through the jungle. “Whoever these people are, they-”

“Shhh,” Dhul-Kifl hushed. He closed his eyes and listened intently to his environment. The chirping and calls of the birds had ceased. There were no footsteps, as everyone was standing in place. Far off in the distance he could faintly hear the rustling of leaves up in the trees. The sounds grew weaker and weaker until there was almost complete silence. “They are gone.”

“Good riddance,” Adam spoke as he sat on the ground.

“Well then,” Rayhaan said putting his sword away. “How can you be so lax about this Adam? After all this time training at home, we finally get sent as soldiers on a real mission and you’re pleased that our enemy got away before we could fight?”

“Our mission is not to fight,” Dhul-Kifl interrupted. “We are here to obtain the healing herb and return home. These people here are not our enemy, they are likely jungle natives hiding to escape from the Kwaadi lands nearby and unwilling to go over to the Christian lands. This is unclaimed lands, so no nation may be put to blame for anything. They are only defending their small home.”

“Fine, can we get going then? I want to get this over with already.”

“Actually,” Tariq cut in. “I think we should break and pray now; we can combine Zhuhr* and Asr* since we’re travelling and thus we’ll save time and have the worry free from our minds in case something else should happen.”

“I agree,” Ali spoke up as he unfurled a map he was carrying. “Since we’ve already stopped marching, here seems like a good enough place to rest a bit. The mountains you say this cactus grows on should be only a few miles south from here, according to the map. So we should be up there searching within an hour or so, giving us plenty of time to search before sunset.”

“Good, good,” Dhul-Kifl agreed, stroking his beard. “Adam, give the adhan and we’ll pray.” Adam obeyed and stood up to call the adhan. As Adam made the call to prayer, the others all prepared themselves for prayer, performing ablution and preparing spaces to prostrate.

The adhan and iqama were called and the salat was prayed. After two rakats for Zhuhr, the iqama was called again and the soldiers all prayed Asr salat. After prayer they all sat in their prayer places quietly. The silence was broken by the scurrying of a small lizard across the prayer mat of Rayhaan, who quickly jumped up unsheathing his sword.

“Sheesh man,” Ali laughed. “It’s just a lizard, put the sword away and sit down.”

“Sword yes, sit no,” Tariq said leaning on his hands to stand up. “We need to get back to walking.”

"Yes," Dhul-Kifl spoke to the others. "Back to marching men." The group cleared up their belongings and got back to walking. Dhul-Kifl took the map and led the way through the thick brush. The thick leaves of various plants protruding in the path held numerous tiny life forms. Rayhaan swatted away at the leaves as he passed by, trying to keep the bugs away. Adam just looked back at him and shook his head.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An hour later the group was ascending the vertical heights of one of several mountains. Having left the shade of the trees in the jungle, the men could feel the sweltering sun on their skin. With sweat beading down their faces and aching arms, the men climbed the rocky path up the mountain. They could hear the rumbling and scraping of pebbles that fell below their feet as the ground below grew more and more distant, seeming like a fading reality under the blazing heat. The dusty dry cliff had an aroma of dried sage leaves and other plants growing along the cliffside.

Out from a small crack crawled a tiny spotted lizard just as Adam placed his hand there to pull himself up. The lizard flicked its tongue as it crept closer to his fingers. As soon as Adam began to step up and caught sight of the lizard his initial reaction was to pull his hand away, causing himself to slip a little on the edge. Tariq immediately caught his arm before he could fall.

"I'm climbing here," Ali shouted from below as pebbles flew past him.

"Yeah Adam," Rayhaan cut in from up above. "Watch it man, you're always getting into some kind of trouble. First the mud pit and now this?"

Tariq singlehandedly pulled Adam up onto the ledge where he stood beside him. "You really should be more careful," he told his cousin. "If I knew I'd be having to save you over and over I would have objected to your coming in the first place."

"I didn't need your saving," Adam said brushing himself off from the dust. "I still had a hand on the ledge; I could've pulled myself up."

"But you wouldn't have, you were too scared."

"I wasn't scared of the stupid little lizard, it just surprised me. And I don't know what plants and animals are poisonous here. We can't all be experts on nature."

"Just keep climbing."

It wasn't long before the men had gotten past the vertical heights of the mountain and had made it to walkable terrain. There was still no clear path, but the map showed that the plants were within the area. The tawny rocks and dust soon became a mixture of green patches with grass and other small plants growing from the ground. Tariq bent down to analyze one of the plants close up. "Interesting," he said as he carefully observed the flowery species. There was a bundle of red and black flowers with a dark yellowish center and a reddish stem. "These are dragon eyes, growing way out here, imagine that."

"Dragon whats?" Ali asked.

"Dragon eyes, another of the mutant species. These ones are like the anti-version of the cactus rose we're looking for. These are a poisonous plant that cause an excruciating sickness, not unlike the illness the Amir suffers from."

"And how is that interesting?" Rayhaan queried.

"These might come in handy. I'm going to collect a sample to study at home, this is a rare finding." Tariq pulled out a small sack from a belt around his waist and used it to grab some of the flowers before tightly sealing it. "Now, the interesting part is that these and the cactus rose have a unique relationship. If they are planted near each other, they will often dominate each other until one of them completely perishes, or they will end up growing in an almost fused manner. It's a very bizarre relationship."

"Wait, if they grow side by side or not at all," Adam said as he scratched his beardless chin. "Then you're saying there's a chance the cactus rose might not even be here?"

"Yes. But the way these ones grew, it seems like they should be fused with the cactus rose."

"So wait, I'm confused. You mean they are fused here, but then they're not?"

"It's complicated. I'd need a further analysis. Perhaps if we could locate a few more of them, that would give me a definitive answer."

"You need more flowers?" Dhul-Kifl asked. "We will find more. Everyone, spread out, search for any other dragon eyes." Following orders, the group searched in different directions for another patch of dragon eyes. Some walked further up the mountain, some checked around large boulders, some within small caves and crevices along the mountain side.

"Uh guys," Adam called out from one of the higher points of the mountains. "You might wanna have a look at this." The others all hastened to his side and turned to face the direction he pointed them in. Their eyes widened as small gasps escaped their mouths.

"This is unbelievable," Tariq said.

"You think maybe this is why those men attacked us earlier?" Ali asked. "Were they trying to keep us away from here?"

"We must send word to the Amir," Dhul-Kifl said in astonishment. All the others nodded in agreement. They could barely blink as they stared in amazement, their hearts swelling in joy and surprise. "This could bring a big change to the war with Kwaade."

"No doubt about it," Tariq spoke. "This is gonna be a game changer."

-------------------------

GLOSARY/TRANSLATIONS

Zuhr: the 2nd of the five obligatory daily prayers for Muslims. The timing for this is around noon.

Asr: the 3rd of the five obligatory daily prayers for Muslims. The timing for this is in the later half of the afternoon. According to authentic ahadith (recordings of the Prophet’s sayings, actions, approvals, etc), it is permissible for a traveler to combine the timing for Zuhr and Asr during their journey. This combining of prayers isn’t done as one single prayer but rather is just allows for either prayer to be prayed at the time of the other along with it.