Omar looked at the boy. His boy.
He had to shake that thought since he couldn't keep referring to him as his boy anymore. Not with the decision was forced to make. There would need to be action now, the community demanded that Kabir's life be ended.
The boy was watching television, the dim glow lighting up his face, and he was enjoying the show. Omar smiled softly at him. Life shouldn't have to be this complicated, should it? When did society come to this, that termination of a life was required simply because one thing about a person displeased a few in the community? It was like walking on egg-shells these days, careful not to offend anyone in any way: don't forget to smile while holding the door open for the neighbor lady, be sure to tip 35% or risk whispers you're dissenting from societal norms, mail out your Christmas cards the day after Thanksgiving, don't forget to include a picture of the smiling family, with the dog's lips cleverly pulled back into a smile also, careful to use fishing line to help the dog grin, a trick that everyone knew at this point, but must be conformed to regardless of the fact that everyone was in on the joke. Keeping up with the Joneses', isn't that what it was called back when Omar was a kid? Now it was a suffocating, stiff, inflexible lifestyle required by society in order to maintain your home within the city. He supposed he could become a hermit, living in the woods like those who refused to conform, but he wasn't outdoorsy enough for that. He and his boy... No Stop that Omar -- you must stop saying that... you and
the boy would starve to death in the first few weeks if you could even track down water after the first few days.
Sigh.
I've got to take him to the woods, I suppose, and leave him there. He'll probably die, but maybe not. At least I'm not killing him outright, thought Omar as he continued mulling over his options. The sacrificial lamb, the one that is required by the higher-ups to appease the masses. Kabir, his boy... no Omar, remember:
the boy... had made a lot of people uncomfortable lately. Making people uncomfortable was no longer tolerated in today's society, and so finally the straw that had broken the camel's back had come: Kabir had sought out a guru.
A guru. "We're Muslims!" thought Omar loudly, clicking his tongue without even realizing he was doing it, so that Kabir turned from the television to look at him. Omar gave an uneasy smile, then a small shrug, and Kabir turned back to watching his show.
The trouble had started because we are Muslims, in fact, continued Omar in his own thoughts. When we found Kabir inside of an abandoned home in our neighborhood, days after we had gotten back from our honeymoon, we couldn't believe it. Who would leave a helpless little child in here? Omar's wife Noha couldn't stand the thought, and so they took him home. People had accused them of hiding a premarital pregnancy, but they didn't care. Noha had been radiant on her wedding day, and anyone that said that she could have been eight months pregnant was lying to themselves! But still, people accused them of having a baby too soon after marriage. Although it certainly started everything, the real problem came when they took the child to the mosque to seek a name for him, as was custom. The local imam consulted the holy texts, and then distraught, said he would get back to the couple. That was strange. After their imam had consulted a few other imams, mild discontent began to spread throughout their community. The name the holy texts kept presenting was Kabir, a name of God. "We can't name
this child such a sacred name of God, for a child to be called the Incomparably Great!" All of the imams together had told them. "Well, what are we supposed to name him? We're keeping him, so give us a name." retorted Noha and Omar. Everyone grumbled, but obligingly, they had let them name him Kabir.
Now, however, Kabir was twelve, and seeking religious instruction. Except, he wasn't seeking instruction from the imams in the religious classes, no, he was following around a guru in the early morning hours, repeating after him, "Hari Ram, Hari Ram, Hari Ram." Ram was definitely not one of the names for the God of Islam. Worse, Kabir was writing songs, and encouraging people that the god of Hinduism and the god of Islam were all the same thing. This kid had practically torn a rift through the community the size of the Thar desert in Rajasthan.
Omar had loaded Kabir up into their family Subaru and told him he wanted to show him a bit of nature's beauty: the moon was supposed to be really big tonight. They got to a secluded spot, parked the car, and walked a little ways into the forest. Kabir had complete trust in Omar, for Omar was his father who had raised him, and now no fear whatsoever was resonating through him. Omar told him to sit down, and wait, and then Omar began to walk away. But as he turned, essentially sacrificing his only son, his oldest, his cell phone began to ring. Bizarrre, there shouldn't be any reception out here.... Kabir cocked his head sideways, thinking the same thought as Omar. How is this possible? Omar answered the phone, out of habit, worried it was a work call. "Kabir is a child of God, and he is destined for greatness! Return with him to your home, continue to raise him as your own and all will be well for you and your family!" boomed the voice through the phone. Omar laughed at the voice, shocked at what he had just heard, but it confirmed his deep-seated belief that disrupting the current status quo of societal rigidity couldn't actually harm them too much, could it? No, he'd let Kabir rock the boat and see what would come. Omar would protect him, if he could. He told Kabir to get up, look at the moon, and then they calmly walked back to the car together.
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Author's Note: Kabir was an Indian mystic, poet and saint who lived around 1400 AD (speculations place him around 14th-15th Century). One of legends surrounding Kabir sugges that he was discovered as a child abandoned near a body of water by a couple that was returning home from their honeymoon (some say he was born of a lotus leaf). The couple risked a ruined reputation, knowing people would think they had conceived before marriage, but they didn't care: here was a perfect little child, abandoned and left to die, so they decided to raise him as their own, in the Muslim faith. The story about his name coming from the holy texts was controversial because it was one of the names of God from Islam: Immeasurably Great. The story suggests that this is an unacceptable name for a child, perhaps because he was 'born' into this middle-caste family. Kabir was renowned for seeking out a Hindu Guru (which is another legend that historians have doubts about), Swami Ramananda in Varanasi, and composing songs and poems urging his followers to follow God, which was the same God, whether you found him through Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism or any other form of religion. Some critics say that he encouraged his followers to abandon traditional religion and seek only the path of righteousness.
I was intrigued that he was found near a body of water, almost in a nest of reeds -- this seemed strikingly similar to the Christian imagery about Moses. However, Moses
(Musa) is the most frequently mentioned character in the Koran, and the stories do overlap between the two religions, so it's interesting that a more 'modern day' figure like Kabir would have a similar personal history likened to that of an Old Testament figure. Moses, like Kabir, is destined by God to become great. This also reminds me that Abraham is asked to sacrifice his first born son, Isaac, to God, as a test of his faith. Kabir's father was going to sacrifice Kabir, leaving him in the forest to die, when a voice "came out of the wilderness" telling him that Kabir was a child of god, and he was destined for greatness. Kabir's father decided to keep him and continued to raise Kabir, who did become a prolific religious teacher and leader through his holy songs, poems and bhajans. I wanted to modernize the tale, and hoped that I was able to do so, while still retaining some of the more mysterious historical events of Kabir's childhood.
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Kabir, memorialized on an Indian Postage Stamp, 1952
Image from Wikipedia |
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More Info on Kabir
- Kabir was famous for writing Kabir's Bijak, and Rabindranath Tagore of the 21st century translated 100 Poems of Kabir into English, which was published in 1915.
- My Reading Notes from the Amar Chitra Katha comic book about Kabir from the Visionary Series can be found here. The Volume on Kabir is vol # 623, and can be checked out from The Bizzel Library on OU's campus.
- A brief overview of Kabir's life can be found on Wikipedia.
