On the night of a full moon,
A child with shining eyes,
Was walking up the hill
On the peaceful street of Faith.
While whispering stories
Of lights that once shined,
Of kindness and smiles,
He uttered few words
That had travelled for years
Across lands and seas:
‘Yeki Bood Yeki Nabood
Gheyr Az Khoda, Kasi Nabood’
As the child was passing by,
An old tree heard his footsteps,
And woke up from his sleep
While smiling at the boy.
The tree bowed down in reverence,
And waived at this innocent soul,
Whose curious eyes kept looking
At the tree’s swaying beard
‘Peace be upon you little one’
Said the tree to his new friend
‘I am sure such a blessed child,
Must have a blessed name’
The boy was shy but smiled
To the stranger he had just met,
And although he did know the tree
He remembered his mother’s words
Not to leave salutations of peace,
To ever remain unanswered.
So he stopped next the tree and said:
‘Peace be upon you too, Mr tree,
My blessed name is Mahdi
It is written the way it sounds,
With an ‘M’ like Mother.
My name is just like me,
It is from a distant land,
None of my friends know its meaning,
Nor the story behind it’
The aged tree smiled and with
Its branch took the child closer.
And while offering him
Few of its ripest berries,
He asked the boy tore count him
The story of his name.
The boy sat on the top
Of the tree’s curving lap.
And with the name of God
Started to share with the tree
The long story of his name:
‘Yeki Bood, Yeki Na bood,
Gheyr Az Khoda, Kassi Nabood’
‘Some were, and Some were not.
God was there, when others were not’
When the moon and the sun
Both were still resting
In the cradle of creation
Allah created ‘Noor’
And the light upon light
And from its finest rays
God molded five stars
And named them Muhammad and Ali
Fatimah, Hassan, and Hussain the last one
The boy continued the story
And said: ‘each light gave birth
To a new light, so that the world
Would always have two suns
One shining in the skies
And one walking on the earth’
Mahdi started counting
Looking at his fingers
And said to himself
While looking in the skies:
‘The brightest of all stars
Is resting in Madina
And so is his daughter
The queen of all lights,
Along four of her sons,
All buried in Baqi.
The Prince of the believers
Is shining in Najaf
Whereas the king of the hearts
Rests in peace in Karbala
Two of Zahra’s sons, together
Have bloomed in the city of Kadhmayn.
While two others are standing
Facing the winter of Samarrah
Another one of her progeny
Came as a stranger in Tus
Until he became, the King of Khorasan’
The boy continued and said
‘Al Mahdi is the name of
The last and the fourteenth
Of the Godly created lights
That is still shining on the earth
As other have all returned
To the light, which gave, them birth’
When Mahdi was done counting
The journey of his name,
A journey of lights
The tree remained silent
And looked at the child
While combing his beard
With a branch of wisdom.
He then asked the boy a question
About the story of his name:
‘If Mahdi is the name,
Of a star that enlightens
The earth and its people alike,
Shouldn’t the light of this star
Be known by every heart?
The boy started thinking
And did not know what to answer
If the Mahdi was the name
Of the walking sun on earth
Why was it so, that only few eyes
Were looking for his light?
When the tree realized
That the child was silent.
He brought the boy closer
And whispered in his ears:
‘We all benefit from his existence,
Like we benefit from the sun behind a cloud’
The boy remained silent
And suddenly smiled,
Realizing the truth
Behind the story of his name.
And while he embraced the tree,
Thanking him for his answer,
The boy became curious
And asked a question in return:
‘I thank you Mr. tree,
I thank you dearly,
But I have a question,
That remains unanswered:
I don’t understand how
You know about my name
Much more than I do,
That you know about Al Mahdi
Much more than I do?
The tree hugged the boy
Even more and said
‘Remember that Al Mahdi
Is a blessing for All,
For the progeny of Adam
As much as the progeny of jinn
He is a Blessing for trees,
and flowers alike
He is a blessing for
Every creation on earth
From the tiniest stone buried
In the palm of your hand
To the most majestic mountains
Neighboring the skies
And if you listen carefully
To the songs of the birds
While they unfurl their wings
To the sound of raindrops
Gently caressing the earth
To the whispers of roses
When sensing the coming spring
To the cracking of branches
When conversing with the wind
You will hear that each one of them
Has one name in their heart
The name, which you carried
From the day you were born
For tonight is the night
That splits Shaban in half
The night when in a distant land
The last of its kind was born’
The boy remembered the lesson
And bid farewell to the tree
Both parted with peace and blessing
On the light upon light
And their best reflections on earth
And while he was walking up the hill
Leading to the city of love
The boy stopped one last time
And said, looking at the tree
‘I have told you my name
But forgotten to ask yours.
How shall I call you from now?
Tell me your blessed name?
The tree smiled at the boy
And whispered in the wind
The name he had been
Concealing all along
The boy never forgot
The name of his new friend
And as the moon was shinning
Brighter and brighter in the sky
Little Mahdi had just met,
A tree called ‘Intedhar’*
*Intedhar means The Waiting