The Leader

Where I live, but at some point, unknowingly to me, I will once have to depart, lives a Sheikh and his tribe. It's a generally strong territory, and although many people would like to invade it, most are too afraid, and only attempt to do so once or twice a year. Sometimes one rival Sheikh shoots at the territory with guns, or throws rocks from outside; another Sheikh approaches face-to-face, and delivers blows to the area's people. One of the more dangerous Sheikhs sends in diplomacy teams, and attempts to scare the people of the area with mental games, using techniques such as lying and twisting of words. Alhamdulilah, the people of the small area were too smart for that, and even physically assaulted those who tried the last type of attack. Our Sheikh is known for his keen mind and quick decision making, which is why we love him more than anyone else on earth.

Unfortunately, there is one other attacker, who once or twice a year holds us captive for a day or two, sometimes even a week. No one fears this attacker except the old, since they are no longer equipped to deal with him, and every time he visits some of our old pass away. The young are only slightly wounded by the enemy, and at the most spend some time healing their minor wounds. Most of us, except for our Sheikh, do not understand how we defeat this enemy, although we always do.

Our leader sometimes knows more about us than we do ourselves. He explains the components of our bodies, and how each of these components interact; it could be that he is not human at all – we don't know about his origins, but all we know is that he has never lied to us. He is not God however. Every time the attacker I spoke of earlier approaches, our Sheikh visits another tribe. Some people say this tribe descends from jinns, not humans, and have even criticized our Sheikh for interacting with them. Some rival tribes, who are merely jealous, claim our Sheikh is a weak man, only protected by devils, and that if it weren't for his alliance with the other tribe, we would be nothing. We know this is not true, and our Sheikh only seeks assistance when necessary. Being a very independent person, our Sheikh hates to seek the help of others unless there is desperate need.

Our tribe is one of the oldest, because of our survival techniques, and to no reason other than our integrity, those who even hate us and our Sheikh are forced into believing we are kings. Thus, many have secretly coined us "the natural rulers of the world," having too much pride to admit this to our face. Our Sheikh told us not to hang onto this title, because we will lose it one day; so we have educated our young early on not to boast, and be earnest when dealing with other tribes. Even after our defeat we will be great; however, we will be under the control of a stronger tribe, so we must be remembered as honest and good people, so that their wrath is not upon us.

So after ninety years of service, our Sheikh has died. And slowly, as days pass on, people cannot deal with the pain of losing a leader. In fact, there is some kind of attachment to our leader and his people. No one in our community commits suicide, however every day after the Sheikh's death, two of our tribesman die. Those such as myself, who have not died, are stuck in their beds, immobilized.

After a month, everyone in my tribe has died, and I am left here as a sole representative of my people. On this day, I was sucked up into the threads of the universe, where I was questioned about my peoples' deeds. The answers were correct, and we were admitted to a second life, where all of the tribes people were united into one superpower, with all imperfections erased from them. So each man became his own Sheikh, and each had the happiness and love he found for his leader, in himself everyday. The wisdom of our leader twisted itself through the fibers of time and existence, so that none of us ever died. And although we were still controlled by a stronger tribe, we still felt no pain in being submissive, and held no hatred in being called slaves of God – for it had made us into the kings you see now.