Divine Punishment by Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed

                           Divine Punishment

                                     -- Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed

Once there was a young man who lived in a small village far away from the city. His name is Hussein.  He was nicknamed Stallion because of his physical appearance for he was giant of a man and was even more intimidating because of his taciturnity; he was not given to talking too much and avoided sitting and talking to anyone for too long.

      The village Hussein lived contained not too many people and everyone in the village knew Hussein as one who would never deliberately harm another unless provoked.

    One day, a very jealous and aggressive man called Kasim came to the village. He was surprised by Hussein's comportment.

      'Such a giant of a man, yet he seems to be very peaceful and disturbs none. I shall seek his trouble and know what he is really made of.'

      With these words, Kassim set about trying to upset Hussein. He tried several things and laid severe allegations against Hussein but no one was prepared to believe or even listen to him. They had known Hussein for too long to know he was not the kind to go about seeking trouble.

     Finally, Kassim came up with a devious plan. He knew where Hussein always took his camels to graze. He secretly took some of his marked camels to the same place and deliberately left them there to mix with that of Hussein. He then went back to the village to raise alarm that Hussein had stolen his camels.

     The people again doubted Kassim but they needed to confirm the veracity of his claim as stealing of camels was considered a serious crime, and such an allegation could not be treated with levity. So, the all followed the man to the pasture to ascertain the veracity of his allegation.

     When they arrived at the place, they discovered some of the man's camels among those of Hussein. They asked Hussein how the camels came to be found with his, and Hussein told them he knew not how that came to be. He was equally flummoxed by the event, but Kassim kept insisting he had stolen them from him.

      Hussein was angered by Kassim's allegation. He felt bittered, but did not know how to defend himself since he does not know how to talk for too long. So, he accepted the crime and pleaded for clemency.

     This made Kassim happy. Hearing Hussein plead for forgiveness made him feel like he had won a physical combat with the giant of a man.

      One week later, two hundred of the Kasim's camels died mysteriously one night after a heavy rainfall. No one in the village had ever seen or heard of such an occurrence and they immediately knew it must be divine punishment for the Kassim's atrocities.

      Kassim became very poor, and he had go seek Hussein to beg for forgiveness. Hussein forgave Kassim and even gave him twenty of his own camels.

      Hussein gesture made Kassim cry for joy and he begged Hussein to take his daughter's hand in marriage which Hussein accepted. From that day, the hostility between Kassim and Hussein ceased and everyone lived happily after.

                                   The End

                            Meet the Writer

Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed is a 15 year old Somalilander. He is a Functional English Course (FEC) student at Qalam Educational and Technical Centre, Hargeisa. He loves reading, seeing films, writing, and travelling.