Flesh and Bones!

A ride you are going to be hanging on to till the very last word. Breathless, will you be, when it is all done.

Flesh and Bones!

As he strolled past the barren land, flashes of his memory raced past him. It was something he could not avert from. The more he tried to cogitate towards his mission, the more he thought of his life up till that moment. His look backs at life were not simple. were not the usual that you would expect from a 22-year old male adult. They were not about motherly love or someone from his family, his friends or being in love at all.They were the furthest from anything to do with love. He had lived a life of no regrets to him.

"You Fool! How many times have I told you not to eat with your left hand?"  bellowed the Cleric Abdullah with his glaring eyes. He still remembered how when he was just a little boy of 10. He was not allowed to bend the rules given. He had not forgotten how when he once wanted to eat something other than meat and yogurt when the cleric berated him till he lost the will. To such an extent, that since, he never argued again, on anything.

He had received no formal education. No school was he sent to. But he was highly knowledgeable in the teachings of Islam. His cleric taught him and 6 more young boys. They were elder than him but ever since the young,tender age of 12, he wanted to have a grasp on the religion that he held at such a high regard. It was his zeal and zest that set him apart. He was the brightest among them and the favorite of Cleric Abdullah who praised his hunger to learn and his yearning for knowledge.

The barren land had passed by as the train of images paused for a moment. He now gazed around the area he found himself in. It was jam-packed with people of all age groups and genders. There were shops everywhere. Groceries, pawn shops etcetra. He  was left astounded. He had never ever seen anything like this in his entire life! As he walked past a few shops, a television with a flashing news headline caught his attention. He saw his Cleric there. He frowned. He did not know what it was about. He froze as he stumbled to think. After a moment,he rushed towards the pawn shop. He stared at the television and heard what his cleric said.His eyes were wide-open as he did not even blink for a second. He hung by a cliff to every word spoken by his Cleric. Meanwhile,another man, dressed in a red casual t-shirt and baggy jeans came by. "It is because of trouble-makers like him that our country does not flourish and is in this chaos. It is because of him that our reputation as Muslims is now known as nothing more than no-good criminals and terrorists. I don't just want to kill people like him but I want to torture him for he is destroying our identity and our future by misguiding the naive children of our country." burst out the middle-aged man with such fiery eyes, a clenched fist ready to strike and gritted teeth. The young boy's eyes sparkled. Blood rushed in his vessels. Adrenalin was released as he could feel the urge to kill this person. The next moment he was strangling the poor man's throat whose only mistake was to express what he felt.  "I WILL KILL YOU! I WILL KILL YOU! I WILL KILL YOU!" he barked at the man who had just come by to purchase a pack of cigarettes and now found himself under the ferociousness of this wild man. This savage who had no passion except to do what was told. He had no emotions. He was a cold-blooded rock with no heart whatsoever. He could not stand someone threatening his Cleric though. It was too much to handle. Way too much. He could not have lived with himself if he let it past that day. Everyone in the vicinity of the shop and the shopkeeper rushed towards the scene to separate the two. Everyone looked at him with disdain. No one there was fond of the killings of innocent people who were claimed to be 'enemies' of the faith. 

At this moment, another flash-back rushed his brain. His Cleric always told him about the nature of everyone who was not one of them. He told him that people believed they were wrong because they were not equipped with the knowledge of the Book like he was."They are misguided people about which the Quran tells us to stay away from and stamps them as the people responsible for the crises to come within the Islamic Community", enunciated the cleric in his hoarse voice to him.

 "Are you out of your mind, freak? Why were you strangling this poor guy?" Questioned the people around him as he got brought back to the situation in hand. He was filled with rage but he held his nerves and walked away as the people hurled abuses at him. His conviction to kill grew stronger as he looked towards the bag he wore and a grin appeared on his face. 

Continuing to walk by,aromas of his favorite food tantalized him.He suddenly felt hunger pangs. He was ignorant towards them but eventually they became too much to control. It was after-noon and he had not had a meal since last night. He looked hither and thither. There was the dhaba that caught his attention because it looked just like the place he used to eat from at his home. He raced towards the dhaba as if a dog chased him, as if he was a man possessed. It was a moment of desperation for him. He was hungry like a lion looking to feast on a sumptuous zebra. He ordered a couple of dishes and five chapatis and ate with no care of the world. After he was done, he was asked to pay. But when he searched his pockets, he found nothing more than 10 rupees which he showed to the waiter. The waiter laughed him off. He was forced to wash his dishes and he was ridiculed out. The flame inside him grew. He had no signs of mercy in him. If he did think people were innocent and did not deserve to die before he came there, that was certainly not the case anymore. His interactions that day fuelled him like nothing before. It was surreal. It was indescribable what he felt at that very moment. His contempt towards everyone was palpable.

His vigor was stronger than ever. He vowed to give the people what they deserved. His faith in humanity, as little as it may have been, was blown away. He was lifeless, but a man on a mission at the same time. There could have been no one better for the mission but him. 

Walking towards his target,as the Azaan got announced, he looked up towards the sky. "Dying in the way of Allah is Jihad. Jihad means Paradise. If you people desire to see the gifts of Allah, go and do the missions assigned to you, for you will certainly be rewarded for killing the hypocrites in our religion" asserted the Cleric in his dictatorial voice. He felt the passion in him grow. He had always wished to enter Paradise and nothing more. That was his life's goal. His purpose to live and die. His sole reason to be. The feeling was vehement. It was real.

As he approached the cinema, a final pre-quel to his time there hit his brain. The last meeting with his Cleric. In which the Cleric reminded him of his aim and the reward of his actions for which he took this arduous journey. He told him that God was very happy with him and he was on the right way and not the path chosen by the people who were only 'fake' Muslims. 

This made him smile. He was glad to be there for this mission. He was elated to be there to kill those deceitful people who chose the path away from Allah. They were there at the cinema to enjoy movies when they should have been at mosques and worshiping Allah. They chose to entertain themselves through movies when they should've done it the halal way. They were sinful and iniquitous people who deserved to die, he thought to himself. Little did the people inside know, it was their last moment. Little did anyone but he and his Cleric know. Those hapless people would forever be taken from their families, their loved ones. How many of them would have dreams to conquer? How many would be full of life and people who kept themselves close to Allah, always? How many were people who cared to live? How many people just caught in there due to consistent persuasion? How many just there out of the stroke of luck? How many innocent people..

He leisured into the cinema and queued up in the long line to buy a ticket. It was the moment. Now all his life would be for a reason and he would die for Allah just like it was Allah who created him. As his turn approached , he ran past the security check. He knew he would be caught there and his mission would halt. He raced past into the cinema lobby as the security officers chased him. He ran as fast as his legs would carry him and outran the security officers due to his vigorous training when he was home which made him stronger than most. Just before he reached the cinema hall, he turned around and swapped his bag into the front. He opened the zipper of his black,glittery leather bag and approached the button as the security officers aimed at him with their Glock 19 guns. It was the moment of truth;- Die and achieve eternal life or submit to the law enforcement which was filled with unholy and dishonorable people.Without the blink of an eye, he recited the Kalima with an ear-to-ear smile on his face. He did not re-consider anything for a quarter of a second. He approached the button.The button to end the lives of hundreds of people was in his grasp. His mission a button-press away. Just a second more to achieving Paradise, in his mind."YOU DESERVE THIS!", he wailed with eyes raging with blood. 

BOOM! Everything turned to dust. The scene was chaotic at the very least.

Hundreds of people died. There were casualties everywhere. It was a havoc. Everything turned to rubble and there were body parts all around, wherever eyes looked. There could be no proper burial for the ill-fated people.

It is said, freedom has a way of destroying things. Such is the story of the young Ibrahim, who was no more than 22 years old and was taught nothing but to achieve Paradise by Jihad which is the murder of hundreds of innocent people to these people. Even though, this is what he had been preached all his life, he always had the choice to search for what is right and believe in it instead. His passion for learning could have got him great respect and he could have actually made Allah proud. The real Jihad would have been disagreeing with those Clerics who continue to misguide the young generation and then dying in that way would be dying in the way of Allah, truly. Such people deserve no mercy.  They deserve no life. They deserve Hell and what is worse. They do not even deserve death. Not this easy. Death is too easy. Death is too gentle. Death is too kind. Death is not what they have earned. To live, in agony, to live and beg for death, to live and yet not live, is what they actually are worth.They deserve pain. The pain of these people demands to be felt!

Author's Note

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