The policemen ran away when the Taliban came with their guns to Iqbal’s village. So they took control easily. Two days later they told the video man to closed the video shop. Because videos are sinful. And they told the barbers to never shave another customer. Because men should grow beards.
A week later, a young talib came to Iqbal’s shop.
He said, “Come with me! Our Commander wants to talk to you.” Iqbal said, “Talk about what?” But the talib said nothing and walked ahead of him to the old police station.
The commander was writing something. He was tall and heavy, with a dark grey turban and a long black beard.
He looked up. “Ah!” He said. “So YOU are the Ignorant Muslim.” Iqbal felt his stomach tighten. And go cold. The commander put down his pen andleaned forward. He said, “Ignorant … what do you do in your mosque when a copy of the Holy Koran becomes old and worn and can’t be used any more?”
The tightness in Iqbal’s stomach jerked even tighter. His knees started to tremble slightly. But he managed to keep his voice normal. And he said, “Khan Sahib, our fathers gave us a tradition. When the Holy Koran becomes worn and too old to use I carefully carry it up the hill. High up there is special place. It’s marked with a carved post. And I gently put the book there and leave it. Out in the open. The sun and the rain and the wind, they gently break down the pages. It slowly disintegrates. Disappears. No-one goes up there. It’s a safe place. This is our father’s tradition.”
The commander suddenly sat bolt upright. His face twisted. He banged his big fist on the desk. He said, “This is the Holy Koran, Ignorant! How dare you do that!” Then very quietly he said, “We teach the proper way to take care of the Holy Koran, and I am going to give you one chance to follow our teaching. Tomorrow, take my personal assistant up the hill and show him that place and that carvef marker post. If there are any pages of the bolt Korean there, remove them the way you should. My assistant will climb up there in the future and check. If you keep your fathers’ tradition …”
Iqbal stumbled outside. He went to the home of the wise m as n and banged on the door. The wise man listened and then said, “Iqbal, son, these Taliban are foolish. We can continue our tradition. Tonight, in the dark, climb the hill and pull up the carved marker post. Then go lower down and put it in a different place. Tomorrow show the new place to the assistant. Tell him it’s our old traditional place. He’ll believe you, because he’s as stupid as his commander. He’ll think we are as frightened of the fat man as he is!”
The wise man was truly wise. The next time Iqbal passed the commander walking in the bazaar, and greeted him with a salute, the fat man gave him a big, big smile. And Iqbal smiled back.
After the story
Did you like that? Was it interesting? Was there something particular that was interesting? Do you know of situations like that? What do you notice in the story that is true about people? Some stories will show us something about who God is or how He interacts with us; did you see anything in this story like that?