The twisted verses

The adhan had just ended when Azad went into hiding. From the roof he could see everything going on tens of meters below him. He loved heights, and he was good at reaching them. 

They were yet again after him but by his own fault. He stole in order to pay off his debt. He used immoral means to pay back his immoral mistakes. It was an addicting circle of bad behavior. 

To him, being a manual laborer did not seem worth the work, or the time.

But, he was not consistent with his classes at the university either. Therefore the third option was to steal, and gamble away whatever was stolen.

He would stop daydreaming whenever he would hear the shouting of the guards. 

Azad followed them with his gaze as their flaming torches changed the colors of the secluded alleys from dark blue to warm yellow. 

The noises silenced, and he was free yet again to go back into daydreaming. 

Suddenly, he heard a noise.

He crawled to his right and looked down. Having to squint his eyes to see better, he noticed two figures. Sort of. They were talking. From the torch that was hanging on the wall a few meters from them, he could see their silhouettes, but they obviously did not want to be seen. According to the play of their shadows, a fierce dispute was in progress. 

He was no intruder in private conversations, but there was something appealing about eavesdropping. 

One of the shadows was strangely shaped. As the gentle breeze makes the fire of the torch light up different angles, he realizes one of them is a cat. Was the cat talking as well? 

The cat was sitting calmly looking at the man who was talking to it. The man was obviously mad about something.

Do not only crazy people talk with animals, as if they are humans he thought to himself. 

From this height he could not hear a thing, therefore climbing down was a must. 

Azad was such a skilled climber, that he effortlessly adapted his body to any type of building. Meaning, he could as easily climb up against a wall that had nothing on it as up the one that had objects to grab onto, such as windows, niches, cracks, and poles meant for hanging banners, ropes, and even laundry.

He climbed down using cracks in the walls, that were cracked enough to grab onto with his fingers and hold his whole body weight. He tucked himself into the niche that was on his way.

The muttering and mumbling now converted into actual words and sentences. He was just a few meters above them. 

“Are you mad? How many times have you already changed? Someone will eventually notice or see you!

Just yesterday, I saw you changing in the middle of the square. If you comprise any of us, we will kill you. Talk to me!” He was enraged. So enraged that his voice seemed to change tone levels as if the rage was messing up his vocal cords. Interestingly, Azad could feel the wall behind him vibrating every time he would speak up. 

He stared the cat down in absolute fury. His eyeballs were ready to pop out. 

Suddenly Azad, his enraged friend, and the indifferent cat all hear the guards yelling. 

Azad moves further into the niche, and his friends move away from the revealing torch. 

When it is all silent again, he sees the cat strolling away from the enraged man.

“Come back this very moment!” The cat does not do so, and he goes after it. With both of his hands, he grabs it around the neck and slams it into the wall. He starts squeezing the cat’s neck. 

Azad loathed people who abused animals, but something was telling him that the cat was not innocent. 

“Answer me, or I will kill you this very moment!” 

In a few seconds, the body of the cat is replaced by a cloud of black smoke. 

The smoke starts gaining a human shape, with limbs, and a body, and then the smoke is whooshed away to reveal a man. He was of the same height as his enraged friend. His face was composed, and bearded. His robes were simple and ordinary.

“Dear God help me. Keep my mind from any harm” Azad thinks to himself and then mouths a few dhikrs, meditative words of divine remembrance. As he does so, his eyes are closed. He opens them back, to still see the two of his friends.

The man that came out of the black smoke pushes away his friend, whose attack did not seem to bother him. 

“I will do as I please,” He replies indifferently. 

“You cannot do as you please, you bastard! You are putting us all in danger! If they find out about you, they will go on to hunt the others down” 

The calm one did not even blink, and just stared at him. He repeats himself “I will do as I please”

“You idiot! There are already rumors about a foreigner seducing married women, or not even to mention careless public displays of eating a whole table of food and drinking barrels of wine. They are already suspecting” he makes a pause and looks to each side to make sure no one was listening. He continues silently “their suspicions are not far away from the truth” 

The calm one’s face acquires a smirk. 

“I did not know I was that famous” 

He slaps him across the face. The calm one smiles back at him.

From his pocket, he throws powder into his face and murmurs something. The powder is of dark purple color, which at first levitates, then sharply converts into ropes, which violently wrap themselves around the body of his enraged friend. They tie his hands and legs, finally squeezing his throat. 

The enraged one was battling to get out of it. The calm one empties his pockets, taking a few leather bags for himself. He crosses his hands over his back and walks around him. 

“This is what you will get for challenging my will” 

Stops behind his back, and skillfully snaps his neck. The enraged one’s body thuds to the ground. The dark purple ropes free the body from the pressure, and convert yet again into powder, lifting itself up into the air. The calm one, now the magician, continues murmuring. The powder flies back into his open palm, and he puts it back into his pocket. 

Then, he crosses his hands over his stomach, goes off into the direction where the alley ends, and enters the street.

In a matter of seconds, the body of the enraged one is swallowed by black smoke. The smoke whooshes away and then catapults itself into the skies. It disappears altogether. 

Azad can still see the magician. He jumps down, puts his hood up, and starts following him. At this point, he did not care about the guards, nor about anything else, and only about following the magician. 

The last obligatory prayer of the night ended, and now it was time for the lengthy one, Taraweeh, traditionally performed during the month of Ramadan. Large crowds of people were gathered around the mosque, and large crowds were heading toward it.

Azad was alarmed and he impolitely pushed himself through the crowds, desperately not wanting to lose sight of the magician. This type of behavior was not in the spirit of Ramadan, but this was larger than life. He was either hallucinating or witnessing unfathomable reality. 

He realizes the magician is heading into the mosque. God’s plans are truly mysterious. I would have never thought that event of magical nature would bring me back to His house. 

As they enter the mosque, he loses sight of him. Part of the crowds go to perform ablution, leaving the inside of the mosque half empty. In panicked steps, he looks around for him. He knows he entered the mosque, but currently, he was nowhere to be found.  

“Take your shoes off!” 

Azad turns around to find a judging look from an older man. The old man is pointing with his finger to Azad’s shoes. I have not been in here for a while, Azad thinks. 

He takes off his shoes and puts his hood down. He heads to inspect the mosque, only to hear the old man continue “If you are to pray, go and wash. It is shameful for such a young man as yourself to feel lazy to wash for God” Azad frustrated proceeds to the washrooms. 

The room, resembling a large bath, has a tranquilizing effect on anyone who enters it. The sounds of water running and being splashed, the silent dhikrs, and the inscriptions of the Qur’anic verses on the ceiling above, make one want to stay there. 

As he is washing his body, he feels out of place. Azad felt as if everyone had knowledge of his sins.

He kept his gaze down. 

A few times he hears joyful laughter. Laughter is such that it attracts attention.

Azad turns around to see the familiar face. The magician is talking to the old man who called out Azad about his behavior. They are laughing. The magician had a beautiful laugh, such that Azad was also tempted to laugh. At one point, the magician makes eye contact with Azad, and he nods to him. Azad does so as well. As the magician goes to the praying hall, Azad realizes he had never paid attention to how a man laughs, nor that a man’s laugh can be beautiful. He was utterly dumbfounded by him. As the magician left the room, Azad regained back his senses. Did he just cast a spell on me? 

In rush, he completes his ablution, while asking God to forgive him for it, and goes after the charming magician. 

The prayer hall is now filled with people. He looks to the left, to the right, to the front, to the back, the magician had disappeared into thin air. Disappointed, he sits down. A Qur’an is in front of him. He touches it.

“The book of the books, am I right?” Nervously, he turns to his left. The magician was crouching next to him. 

“I have not read it in a while” Azad replies, almost stuttering. His teeth were enviously white. 

“Oh, that is alright. I believe there is enough time for you to read one shorter chapter before the prayer starts” 

The magician, without having to search for it, immediately opens the Qur’an in the chapter titled The Jinn. 

“Here you go” 

Through Azad’s silent recital, the chapter tells of the magnificence of God, but when angels witness the jinns, they start bowing to them and dismiss God’s authority, making God for the first time unable to control His creation. Then, the jinns manage to steal free will from heavenly depositories, setting themselves free of the spiritual limitation by the name of destiny. As such, with an unbiased state of mind, they roam the world hedonistically and adventurously until the Day of Judgement. 

“Brilliant recital” Magician looks at him with genuine approval. The smile and the bliss in his eyes won’t go away. 

“Thank you. You see, I have not been here for a while” Azad completely opens up to him, finding it difficult to break away from the eye contact, from staring into the never blinking eyes of the magician. His tongue has never been this loose, and he almost feels the urge to cry. As he is talking to him, it feels as if time has stopped. 

“Do not worry about it. We all come here to recognize our mistakes” The magician kisses him on the head.

“You smell like heaven”

“That might be because I AM HEAVEN” The magician winks at him. As Azad stares at him, thinking about how it was reasonable to assume that he was of heavenly origin, he realizes that he, effortlessly, disappeared yet again.

He is tempted to read the chapter again, and he does so. Someone taps him on the shoulder. 

“Hey, what is it that you are reading?”

Azad turns around. The old man was there yet again.

“The Jinn” 

“Son, I am not sure it goes that way, read that again” 

“Yes it does, look—”

Taking a closer look at the text, now it tells a completely different story. It is not about glorifying the jinn, but about them being forbidden to eavesdrop on heavenly secrets, and upon hearing a recital of the Quran, some of them testify to the oneness of God and succumb to His authority.

Azad could swear the sentences were shaped differently, and that they told a different story.

The bastard. He disappeared easily, and he cast his spells easily. Azad now knows to keep away from the mesmerizing eye contact, as that seems to be his main tool. 

Everyone gathers in praying rows. 

The imam took his position. The mosque was dimmed. 

During the prayer, Azad keeps looking around to try to find him. His intuition was telling him that if he was near the magician, he would know.

The mesmerizing voice of the imam captivated everyone in the mosque. His voice echoes through the mosque, and it echoes in such a way that it sounds as if it came from the very treasuries of God. 

The face of the magician was still to be found in Azad’s mind, but its mental effect appeared to weaken under the divine verses. 

The interaction with an event that looks like something that came out of another realm might bring him back to God. That makes enough sense.

After the prayer, he sees everyone has encircled the imam. Through the few gaps that human bodies have created, he sees his smiling face. He is the imam! 

Everyone is shaking his hand, praising his recital skills. He is nodding, with a grateful smile. Through those very gaps, he finds Azad’s stunned gaze.

Look down! He hears an inner voice tell him. In a panic, and ashamed at the lack of self-control, he looks down. 

The loud appraisals directed toward the imam become louder. Azad keeps looking down.

The magician was powerful. The entirety of the mosque was enchanted by him. The women who were praying on the upper floor come down to also showcase their appreciation. 

From a few cheating gazes, he can see that the people are acting ludicrously. Touching him, smelling his clothes, kissing his feet, and hands. 

Suddenly, Azad hears a whooshing sound behind him, and then a piercing sound. He lifts his head up.

One of the worshippers was shot with an arrow, and the magician was hiding behind him. Azad turns around to see where the shot came from. In the women’s prayer section he sees an archer. He is dressed all in black, and his face, along with his eyes, is completely covered. 

Everything remains silent for a moment. When the archer starts shooting his arrows again, mayhem unravels.

Some encircle the magician to protect him, and some flee. Arrows rain down. Some miss magician’s face for an inch, and some scratch the face of an unlucky worshipper. 

Azad sees him running towards the exit, and taking out an arrow that got his leg. Azad goes after him. 

Exiting the mosque, he notices a cat limping away. 

Azad runs after it. In the same alley where he witnessed a magical murder, he grabs the cat and takes his scarf – which made Azad’s turban – and puts it around the cat’s eyes. 

A cloud of black smoke yet again unravels the body of the magician.

“Let me go!” His voice is no longer steady.

“I can’t see! Let me go!!!”

“I will not let you go until you promise to never come back. Promise me that you will not continue enchanting people, and pulling them away from the straight path” 

“Who do you think you are to tell me what to do?!” 

From his sleeve, Azad takes out his only weapon. A small, but a sharp dagger. Hesitantly, he gouges the eye of the magician.

The following scream terrorizes the city. It creates an effect of a lighter earthquake, shaking the ground, creating cracks in the buildings, and moving their pillars.

The magician falls to his knees. 

Azad is ready to take his other eye.

“Alright” He reaches for his eye, but Azad takes it before him. 

“If you keep your promise, you can come back, and I will return your eye back to you” 

His gouged-out eye was kept safe in a piece of cloth.

The magician starts crying, in a high-pitched voice. 

Whimpering, he says:

“I will go now, maybe spend some time trying to eavesdrop on the heavenly gossip” he laughs to himself. 

He turns into black smoke, and the smoke travels to the skies. 

Someone grabs Azad and puts him against the wall. 

“Did you let him go?!” 

It was the archer.  

Azad shows him the eye, which now turned into a green gem. Azad is shocked at this change, but the archer is not.

“Alright then” 

Looking at Azad's shocked face, the archer goes off to explain “That happens after a while. Do not worry, I have witnessed that many times ” Removing the cloth from his eyes, he winks at Azad.

“Have a wonderful Ramadan” He disappears. 

Azad wraps up the gem into a piece of cloth. 

***

The following week, for the first time in many years, Azad’s stomach is aching from hunger. He is fasting.  

As he tries to not think of food and water, the magician’s face comes up every few thoughts. 

He is enrolled back into university and lent money to pay back his debts. He is on his way to receive education in the field of magical creatures. The eye of the magician, emerald, is wrapped in a leather cloth, and he wears it around his neck.