Chapter 6 - Mother Fatima.

When the three brothers arrived to Marco brother s house , a big gathering of people were waiting in the front gate of the house, when they got down a big applauding raised as a welcoming gesture to the three young men , surprise was clear on the three brothers faces, Marco hugged Salim hardly with a joy and murmured in his ear, mum insisted to receive you with an applause then he directed. Them inside the house while Francesca took the elbows of the two brothers and walked between them inside, Marco started to introduce his family to the guests , pointing to his brother , this is Omar , my brother and the house owner then he pointed to another man, this is Michelle my second brother and then he pointed to a third, this is amadeo my third brother, there were other two men he pointed to , the first , this is my brother in law , husband of my sister Lucia and then the second, this is my brother in law Paulo , husband of my sister Anna Maria , the woman and girls were gathered on another side , he pointed to Lucia and Anna Maria , his sisters then to Paola the mother of sandra saying : you met Paola before , an old woman was standing alone far with a big smile on her face watching the scene , Marco brought Salim from his hand , pointing to the old woman , at last , this is our star , your eldest sister and my lasting love , my mother Fatima , a big smile appeared on the old lady s face , she was in her late fifties , an oval tenderly face with a white veil on her hair , her face was a little tired , but a clear joy brightening in her eyes , Salim advanced with Marco to greet the old lady who hugged him tenderly then hugged Mohammad and at last she hugged Wehbe with a greater tender , she massaged the hair on Wehbe s head with clear tears shining in her eyes, after greetings all were invited to a table prepared in the honor of the three guests, meets and rice, chickens , lambs, fish, salads all were there on the table, they all waited when the old woman took her seat then Marco ushered his guest to their special seats near to his and his mother , empty plates with forks, spoons, knives were served in white handkerchief nice tied , Marco : this food is completely made by meats bought from Muslim shops and no alcohol or non halal could be found on this table , Salim and his brothers thanked Marco and the others for their nice welcome , then Marco asked his guest wether to like to start with soup or salad or rice , everyone selected his preference and Marco pointed to the maid to fill plates with their choices , the three brothers were astonished with the high generosity they were received with , they were three simple persons , but were received like princes or high life personalities, after dinner , the empty plates were removed and sweets , cakes, fruits , juices were served with a large tray covered with a white linen, Omar smiling removed the white lining and cried : surprise , to the three brothers surprised eyes , there was a tray of Kanafa, the famous Turkish and Syrian sweet , Salim surprised: do you make kanafa in Argentina? Marco smiling: no , but mum insisted to be made in your honor, the maker is a Syrian sweet maker my brothers know in Buenos Aires , then Omar brought honey and poured over the tray , after finishing and consuming most of kanafa tray that most of present recommended and liked , the caffe was served in Turkish mode too then Omar marked that the lady Fatima was little tired and she is willing to restore to her room asking the three brother to join her there upon her request , the three brothers, Michelle , Marco and their mother went all into the mother bedroom , the lady laid down on her bed asking Wehbe to sit beside her with Francesca too , Salim noticed a large painting held on the wall over the bed s head and inside were the verses of Ayat al Kursi, the chapter of the chair from the Koran , the three brothers looked with surprise with Marco too who murmured to Salim : you are right brother , my mum was a Muslim from the first beginning after her mother death or even before , Michelle said: mum lives very happy in this country , here in Argentina nobody is obliged to hide his religion or belief despite the bothering and the huge trials from the church and the cleric to impose Christianity, but the rulers refused to respond the demands, we have millions of free non Christian people , Muslims, Hebrews, Buddhist , Indians, any trial to Impose one religion or sect will rise rebellions or civil war , my mum has so many Muslim friends who visit us regularly and mum too pay them back their visits, Salim looked at the aged Muslim woman and approached her holding her hand and kissed her with tears in his eyes , he added : you are our mother too Allah accept your true belief and face , you brought up a splendid family, lady Fatima looked very long in Salim eyes then she moved her looks to his brothers and she noticed the same tears in their eyes then she covered her face to cover the tears that started to flew from her eyes saying : Allah bless you my sons , in your faces I see again after a long time the face and the spirit of my mother Aisha . She asked them to sit down and to listen to her story : when I was five years old , I started to understand what was going around me , in my mother private room , I used to see my mum always kneeling down to the ground on her knees, her head front on the floor , chatting or talking to herself or to someone i didn't see, she had a nice oriental carpet that she was kneeling over it , I was enjoying riding on her back thinking that was doing that on purpose to play with me , but she was not talking at all with me while kneeling down till she sits for a short time then she moves her face right and left and after that she starts playing and talking to me , hugging me hardly and tenderly, most of these times her tears were running down , during her moves or during her playing with me , but she trying to hide them from me , whenever I ask her why she was doing this and crying , she would smile among her hidden tears and tells me: this is Salha without any other words. When I grew up more I started to see how prayers were done , seeing my grandma, mother of my father praying by kneeling on the ground , but not her front too like my mother , she was praying with her rosary in her hand calling the name of Jesus Christ and holy Mary for help and forgiveness , I knew that this was called a prayer and later on my father and grandmother used to take me to the church with them till my grandma decided to baptize me , to my father and my grandma surprise , my mum refused to baptism, pretending that I should be bigger in age till I reach my womanhood that my baptism could be more significant and understood by me , I didn't know to that time that what my mother was doing alone in her private room was a prayer too , she told me it was salah and didn't understood was the word meant but I thought it was maybe some gymnastic my mum was exercising the way I used to see some girls are doing, when I was in my tenth of age my mum explained to me that hers was a prayer too , I was wondering between my self why mum wasn't doing her prayer in the way my grandma was doing and why no crosses or statues of Jesus or the holy mother , were present in her room , but I noticed the deep feelings my mum was practicing her prayers while my grandmother was not having that depth , I started to prefer my mum s prayer mode to that of grandma, so I asked my mum to teach me and she started to teach me and I started to share her her prayers not understanding that it was a Muslim prayer , she taught me to memorize al Fatiha and other verses of the Koran explaining their meaning adding that god was unique and one asking me to hide what she was teaching me saying my grandma or dad could be annoyed because we pray in a different way than their own , I was convinced that it was true and that was to be our secret , when I reached my first blood my mother was highly enjoyed and happy , she called me to her room , I was first annoyed and afraid of that blood , but mum was very happy informing me that I became a mature woman and that it is time to tel me a big secret , she told me that she is a Muslim and me in turn should follow her steps , she started from that day to explain to me what Islam is and what the difference with Christianity or other religions , from that day , me and my mother became a secret Muslims practicing our prayers five times a day , I kept going some times to the church only as a cover to hide my true faith , we daily spent secretly our time talking about Islam and some stories she memorized about our prophet life and history . My bigger sister rose Alba was five years bigger than me , I asked my mum why Rosalba was not sharing us our secret , but mum only smiled to me saying that her time was not due yet , Rosalba like me was loving her mum dearly and deeply , but her love to mum was so selfish , she didn't want any other girl to share her her mum s love, since I was born , my mum explained to me me that Rosalba became like a mad when her mum had given the birth to another girl , my mum was always afraid that one day she could hurt me , rosy didn't show me her diversion or jealousy, but when I was grown up I felt that jealousy burning inside her , her hate was not directed to me on the contrary so many times I felt just she loves me too much being her only sister and much smaller than her , but when the subject comes to mum a fire starts to burn inside her , she considered mum was created only for her as a girl , she was not caring for the boys love or attachments to mum , as a girl role she thought she only could play that part , mum was trying always to tel us that her children were equal to her and nobody of us has a first or second place in her heart , try always to convince Rosalba that I'm her little sister and that we are equals , but Rosalba was insisting that she is her only daughter and I was just a fault mum committed giving a birth to another girl , till mum could lose her patience to convince Rosalba then she stopped talking about me and her without showing any trace of bias towards me or her , then I started to feel that Rosalba started to change her behavior with mum , she started to go more outside with friends and sometimes sleep in grandma house for days , her sittings with mum became very rare and strange looks started to show on her face on seeing me or mum , there were looks of hate , in that time Omar started to share us our prayers too and mum told me that she offered Islam to all her children , but separately trying to make sure who accept and who refuse in that way she was sure that her secret could be saved uncovered, when I asked her about daddy , she said that he found late about her secret , but in spite his fanatic Christianity , he didn't say a word and didn't make any comment only saying : you know better honey . We all knew well our worshiping love daddy was bearing in his heart to mum , for him , she was the next holy Mary on earth , her words and wishes were orders nobody may mind or reject , he loved what she loved and hated what she hated except with religion he never ever discussed that matter with her . I was considering my self a Muslim , my my information about islam was so limited due to my mother limited information too , so when I got to my eighteenth, I fell in love with Paulo , who was a close friend to our family , my mum was informed about our good and close relationship, but we hided our love from her , when we decided to get married , my daddy was very happy and he blessed our love , but mum was firmly against that marriage in-spite her love to Paulo pretending that we are still young and other reasons she created , I didn't know that day that mum was willing to stop that marriage to stop repeating her story with father again , being a Muslim a he being a Christian in a illicit love according to Islam , we got married despite her refusal , daddy blessed my marriage, but mum never did , when the priest came to our house to bless the grooms , he talked to my father and mum was present listening to him then he started to talk about the Arabs and the Turks calling them the Antichrists , and insulting them , father tried to change the subject , but the man insisted and increased his damning and insulting the Muslims then daddy started to defend the Arabs looking from time to time to mum s face to see her reaction fearing that she could lose her temper and start defending Muslims , dad accused the church of committing atrocities and massacres against Muslims in Andalusia and in Italy during their short staying in Sicilia and the south of Italy that angered the priest who accused dad to be under mum authority and pressing saying that she didn't attend my marriage ceremony and never before attended the church since she came from Spain implying that mum could practice some magical practices, curing women and sicks without ever mentioning the name of Jesus Christ as he was told by people , the mere accusing mum being a witch dad lost his temper and he rose up and knocked down the priest and kicked him then throw him out of our house threatening him if he heard the name of mum mentioned on his lips again dad will kill him in the middle of Piazza Fontana without any notice or warning, from that day father stopped going to the church even when his mother died he refused to take her to the church or allowing a priest to pray on her , he himself made his own prayer . The lady Fatima took a pose before continuing her story, she said " when I had given birth to my first son, my mother insisted on me to call him Omar". And Paulo , my husband didn't object at all. My father in his turn , didn't say a word about the name. His main interest was that mom's word was done. And mom pretended that her opinion was that my son could bare the name of my brother Omar. Then after Omar, I gave a birth to Michelle, Paulo my husband had chosen the name saying that it was the name of his late father. And mom accepted the name with joy, saying that it was the name of great angel. Then, I gave birth to my first daughter "Anna Maria" and mom was happy saying that it was the name of the holy Mary. And that was in fact the name that dad used to call mom. The name of Amadeus was suggested by mom when she had known that it was the Italian name of Mohammad. Marco was the last boy born in the family, and dad insisted on calling him after his late father, and mom didn't mind just to make my father happy. When Lucia came to the world, mom understood that her name means light, that was one of God's name. During all this time, I wasn't yet sure about my belief, because so many things about Islam were not clear to me, hearing many stories about Muslims and their killing to Christians, and their atrocity, but mom's words and her personality were convincing me that this story tales weren't true. And I remained a long time in that cloudy situation, till the day my mother passed away, I felt that I had lost the most important person in all my life, and the closest to my soul. It was a shock for all, our family, our relatives, my sister, my brother, and daddy. I found myself crying like a small baby, asking mom how she did left without saying a goodbye to me. We were all shocked to death, and my father was silent like a statue without uttering a word, he was standing looking at nothing, frozen like a wall. Later on, my father told me that mum asked him to adopt Islam in his life, and she explained to him that in case she died as a Muslim and he later on dies as a Christian they will never meet again, but in case he surrendered his soul to Allah, the whole mighty and merciful, the unique and the one who didn't give birth and wasn't born, and nobody else could be equal to his majesty, he will become her husband and her partner in the day of judgement and in paradise. Mother Fatima : from that day , my daddy became always absent, all the time silent, never talk,nor more jobs as he was doing before,he stopped to go out of the house,he removed all crosses, all statues,all paintings of saints in the house,closing on himself long times in my mother room,he brought this painting of Koran and put it over mum bed, on the wall , he kept mum s bed clean and tidy, nobody slept on it after her departure, he sometimes would lay there silent and eyes looking at the ceilings , days before his death , I was surprised to see him praying in mum room on her carpet , the same way she was doing , holding in his hand her rosary, on his last day , he hugged me with my brother omar saying: I'm going today to my Aisha, my vergin Maria and he said: ash had an la ilaha illa Allah wa ash had Ana Muhammad rassoul Allah , I witness that no god except Allah and I witness that Mohammad is his prophet and messenger , not long after his words, papa past away , the whole presents were listening in intent and all wept when she mentioned that part. Mother Fatima : my sister rosalba was distracted too , but she didn't cry in front of us, she was looking like a mad, she left us one night without any notice and we were informed later that she married a man from Venezia and became a fanatic Christian, hating Muslims and everything related to Islam or Arabs , that surprised me too much . Mother Fatima : after my mother death I became very sure that I was Muslim like my mum, but I needed to know more about my mother faith, I met some Tunisians sailors who used to come to Napoli s port promising to pay them whatever they want if they bring me books about Islam , they did and one of my friends helped me to translate them to Italian , but I didn't declare my faith in public till I came to Argentina, my husband Paulo knew about intention , I stopped sleeping with him in the same room and I discussed with him my new clear faith , I could convince him of my point of view, but he was adamant to stay a Christian, the day of his death he called me and he told me that he wants to join my mother and my dad and he murmured in my ears his confessions that is willing to die as a Muslim , he repeated shahada after me and that late night just little before dawn in past away with a wide smile on his face. Mother Fatima: not a long time before Paulo death , Omar, Michelle and Amedeo traveled to Argentina, Lucia and Anna Maria were engaged and most of their time they were with their fiancé's , Marco was busy here and there and I was left alone , I started to spend my time reading books to know more and more about Islam , reading about prophet life , his wives, his daughters and their personal stories , most of time alone , praying to Allah blessings and mercy on my parents souls and praying to guide my children to the straight way and to my sister Rosalba too, few people were visiting me , some of relatives, others of my mother s admirers , I started to visit my mum and daddy graves on daily basis , clearing and cleaning their tombs planting roses and flowers there , reading verses of Koran til some people were attracted to listen to my readings and prayers , mum was buried in our garden in the way she had described exactly , her body purified and washed with water and roses perfume, her body folded with three white linens , we buried her body into the earth without a box as Christians used to do, her grave was too low to earth ,,no more than twenty centimeters,after her burial , I started to see here almost in my dreams smiling a broad and a shining smile I never saw before and after my daddy death , I've started to see them both laughing and hugging each others with a big tender and affection, they were always smiling to me with a great joy , I was loving to keep myself always sleeping to keep seeing them in my dreams , my mum face was always brightened with lights and that lasting sadness that was kept with her since I knew her face and her whole life ,disappeared that made my heart very light feeling comfort and a strange inner peace into my soul , these dreams brought to me the peace and serenity despite my loneliness ,then Lucia told me that she is willing to get married and her plans with her man to go to Argentina , after Lucia traveling I was left with Anna Maria , but as usual she was out most of time with her fiancé wile Marco always busy with his business outside Napoli or with friends , my relationships with my sister Rosalba were almost cut , she came just few times to Napoli and fewer times she came to visit me and to my surprise , never appreciated mum grave , I was praying always to Allah to guide her to his light and to remove those satanic thoughts from her head, my brother Omar was almost my daily visitors, we used to sit down together hugging each others, talking about mum and daddy s times and memories , reciting Koran together , exchanging ideas about our belief , talking about mum unknown family in Andalusia, guessing wether there is anybody of them still alive , we were crying all the time when me mentioned mum and daddy, praying always for their peace in their graves , dad was buried in the common cemetery first than Omar decided to remove him just three days to our garden, he was buried first in a wooden box, but Omar removed it and buried him the way mum was buried , Omar started to talk more about mum s family in Andalusia and finally he to told me that he decided to sell all his properties and belonging in Napoli and to travel to mum home town to find her family in Cordoba state in Spain , he left me with a lot of hugging and tears promising me to come back soon when he finds mum s family . More and more my solitude became harder with Omar departure, my prayers became more and my tears became further till a message came from Omar , my son and his brothers that all was made and ready for me to come to Argentina , I prayed making istikhara , " a special prayer Muslim makes when he or she decide to do something or not " , the istikhara came positive then I depended on Allah , telling Anna Maria to take care of my mum and daddy graves then I came here . Marco : after your leaving , I decided to stay a while in Napoli when I met my wife and we soon fell in love , I stayed with Anna Maria and our aunty Rosalba came to visit us , to my surprise , she cried almost to death when she was told of your departure, she stayed with us for almost a month, during her staying, a big sorrow was there in her daily tearing eyes that I never seen before , when she cries , she cries like children and I asked her so many times about that big secret of her unexpected sorrow and grief , but was not answering my requests till one night I found her siting in the garden near to my grandma and grandpa graves with her hands covering her face crying gravely and hard , Anna Maria came and she saw her too , we remained silent in the garden almost one hour watching her without approaching till she calmed down suddenly , she remained few minutes silent then she raised her face to us, her eyes were red , but strangely calm then she started to speak to us , she told us that she loved her mother in a mad way, she was obsessed with her mother love, she was feeling that her mother was created only for her , she was feeling jealous sometimes even of her father when he hug her mum, wishing to be the one who hug her , and when you were born and she noticed her mum care and big love to her new born daughter , her jealousy was burning inside her , she was willing her mum to love her only as a girl, to hug her only , to cuddle her only , but she failed , then a new feeling started to grow inside her, a feeling oh disappointment and betrayal, she thought that her mum betrayed her then she decided to keep far maybe could convince her mum to change her mind and to love her alone, but even that didn't work then she felt guilty for her going far from her mother , but her ego was very high , she decided to keep as she is , but inside her agony and love to her mum and to you too were burning her , when her mum died she walked in the streets in Venezia like a mad , her husband interfered trying to soothe her and to comfort her with his love and tender , but she was adamant, not willing to confess her guilt and wrong actions , so she stayed always far from you fearing that her nerves could fail her one day and she comes confessing love and deep regrets for her faults , when the news came about your leaving and traveling , her nerves broke down and she started to cry like a child and at last decided to come to Napoli to confess in front of her parents graves asking their forgiveness and pardon ، she was daily washing their graves , watering the roses and flowers that you planted and talking to them as if they were alive, she asked me to write to you , telling you about her remorse and pains. Mother Fatima was listening with big surprise and awe , her eyes were full of tears, it was the first time that heard about her sister and what news, very surprising news, she said to Marco : what didn't you tel me about that before? Even with one letter? Marco : I had written you so many letters and your responds came to me, but that message about my aunty story remained without your answer, I thought that you didn't want to hear about it and you never forgave her , so I stopped mentioning anything about her fearing that could bother you too much, and decided to wait til we meet face to face that I would be able to open that matter, the mother moved her face saying : I never received that message about her , Omar: did you meet your aunty again? Marco: yes , I had been visiting her regularly in Venezia and she was coming always to Napoli and she was asking always about mum , wether some letters came , wether mum forgiven her, I was always embarrassed with her trying always to avoid her looks who were searching my face to a good news or a confession, but I changed always that subject to other topics, when mum sent her message about her final decision to stay in Argentina and in that time my first born Mario was born and later Francesca came , I told her about mum final decision to stay in Argentina, she collapsed to the ground and started to weep and to cry loudly thinking that mum would never forgive her , but she didn't comment and I stopped talking about mum in front of her , but we kept our mutual visits , Michelle: you had to write again to mum, asking her for forgiveness , trying to play on her good heart and tender , mum was always suffering for that story between her and her sister , she was thinking always that aunty Rosalba was still as she is, hating and stubborn , if you did before that could enjoy the heart of mum for a lot , I didn't know that message didn't reach mum and I was hoping that mum would come back to Napoli then I could open that subject again, but days passed and the ailing of my son bothered me a lot and was always busy with doctors and pharmacists , the mother looked at Marco eyes and said: I cried a long time on Mario , that grandson I could not see or hug and the news of Francesca who was having my mother face , consoled my heart just a little waiting the day I could hug her and smell my mum perfume in her , Francesca was sitting there beside her grandmother and hearing her last words, she hugged her grandmother with tears and affection, she said to her grandmother: I always loved you more than my mum s mother although she was very tender and passionate with me , but I felt strangely that there was a special bond between me and you . Mother Fatima: as for me , nobody was telling me about you except these rare letters of your daddy,, but I had a great longing to see you and to hug you especially that your father was my youngest sons , only your aunty Lucia was smaller than him and they were , these two my cuddled younger babes , when your aunty Anna Maria came , she told a lot about you and your prettiness and likeness to me, Francesca : if I was looking like your Santa mum , off course I'll be looking like you and lady Fatima hugged her and kissed her passionately . Marco : by the way I forgot to tel you that I have several letters that my aunty had written to you , forgive me please , I'll bring them tomorrow . The lady Fatima looked keenly at the three brothers then she said: I'm very sooty my sons Ive bored you talking about my family forgetting to ask about you then she looked at Wehbe passionately and said: you should be Wehbe but your real name is Abdel wahab , Francesca dear friend, I'm very happy to have you in my son s house and very interested to be my son Marco s friends , hoping that your relationship could continue and your bond becomes stronger , Marco told me that you are very nice people , Salim: on the contrary mum, we are very happy and proud to be your friends and the story you told was very lovely and touching, I tell you that Marco told me before about his grandmother and I confess to you that I loved that woman heartily , I think that she is a very great Santa woman , her living alone in a foreign country away from her family , hiding her faith even from her family for a long time , being good and very kind to everyone around her and dying there alone , all that makes of her a martyr as our prophet mentioned. So many strange things happened in our life with mum, we were thinking first they were just strange coincidence til I came to Argentina and I narrated them to the Imam in the mosque , he informed me that these things can't be simple coincidences , he pointed that my mother was a great real saint woman and when I told him about her death and her funeral with her last will , he wept and cried a lot then he advised me to make me to remind him after Friday prayer to sallah for the absent dead on her soul while people are gathering , Marco : Salim and his brothers made the same for her on the ship board, Francesca: and we too shared them in our way then added, grandma: will you please tell us about some of these stories I beg you please . The mother Fatima: there were tens or more of these strange stories; my mother was taught by her father and mother how to use or make some medicines out of herbs , in Napoli she was using some of these medicines , when somebody was sick and the medicines could not cure , she was using her knowledge of these herbs, she was reading verses of Koran too during her treatment and especially, Ayat al korsi and al Fatiha mostly , we were knowing the meaning of some after her teaching us , one day , one of our neighbors. The poor woman was a wife of a poor farmer , she was cooking in her kitchen when a huge bowel of boiling soup fell down burning her legs totally , she was attended by several doctors, but her burns were getting worse every day , mum started to go everyday to the poor woman house, cooking , washing , cleaning, ironing, all the house work was done by mum, the poor small children were crying for their ailing mother and the poor husband was not knowing what to do, the situation started to become worse and worse and the doctors warned the woman that her legs could be cut both i the last medicine didn't work , the last prescribed medicine failed and the woman was waiting for her miserable fate , that day mum came home totally exhausted , she slept upon her arrival then woke up in the late evening very active that surprised us all , we expected that she would sleep til the next day after we saw her misery she came with , she took a warm bath then she went to her room , that night she spent all the night praying and weeping asking Allah to save that woman and to teach mum how to help her and cure her , she slept that a little bit then she woke early preparing some medicines she was keeping in her board and departed to the ailing woman house , after finishing her daily tasks in the house , mum started to use the medicines on the woman s legs , she washed the legs well with alcohol then she wiped them completely then she started to rub the ointment on the whole burnt legs reciting Koran and praying Allah for help and she left , the next day mum came again to find the woman just little bit better than before, it was the first time the woman gets better , mum repeated the same mission of the last day always with Koran and prayers with tears , the treatment took almost a week, to every body surprising eyes , the woman started to move her legs with feeling pains, another week passed , the woman was working in her kitchen again . Francesca: did you know what was that medicine? the lady Fatima smiled : when I asked mum about miraculous medicine, she smiled saying : it was just a traditional herbs to cure injuries then she murmured in my ears: the secret daughter is in the Koran not the medicine. Francesca: waw, it is incredible, what else grandma, another story, the lady Fatima said : my mother was very alert in her treatments and herbs usage , she was afraid to make her services secretly as possible , when was curing babies and children she was always to keep things between them pretending that people will rush to her house in groups if her practice was known to all saying that she use her medicines only to close friends, she was very selective in her choosing the herbs mostly using herbs that people didn't know pretending that she keep her secret to avoid false pretenders to cheat poor people , her big fear was from the church and the clergyman to discover her belief and using Koran in her practice, Marco: my grandma was really a saint as my grandpa was calling , mother Fatima : she was very much loving the lady Mariam and her story , she was angry ,but hiding her anger when people calls her the mother of god, she was calling her the queen of the paradise , her idol she told my once was too , the lady Asia , far-on s wife , she said to me : that great woman remind me of myself with a slight difference , I didn't understand then what she meant , but now I understand why Lady Asia was her idol , all looked at lady Fatima waiting for explanation , she proceeded , the lady Asia lived as a wife with non Muslim man , far-on, she was obliged to live in his bad and to hide her Islam that she accepted from the messenger Moussa and my mum was feeling that she was living with my father in sin , being not Muslim and being obliged to marry him , she was told by him upon coming to Italy that she has options, to run away and that was impossible for her , she was under secure eyes by my father , her second option was to commit suicide or kill dad and that was another impossible, the third option was to marry him , he didn't touch her until she accepted to marry him , for her the third option was having two options too , first to marry him in the church that she refused first , the second was to marry him according to Islamic practice, a Muslim man to make the contract with two witnesses and dad agreed on this , they made the ritual knowing inside that it was not valid because he wasn't a Muslim , but that was the maximum she could get , later he pretended to the local church that they made their Christian marriage in Spain , didn't accept to get married in the church under the cross or to kiss the statue as a god , my father brought three Tunisians who made the look like Islamic marriage , the whole present were surprised since it was the first time their mum mentioned her mother s secrets of her marriage and Marco said : that may explain really as Salim told me , why grandma was having that secret deep sorrow in her face and eyes, mother Fatima : yes , her feeling of living in sin with a non Muslim man , Marco , but did not she ever love grandad? Mother Fatima: she confessed to me that at first she hates him too much because he obliged her to marry him and to live with him in sin , but gradually she started to feel good about him and later she loved him praying always to Allah to guide him to his self salvation, Amedeo : how did she love him mum when she was sure of his action imposing on her a sinful marriage? Mother fatima : she was convinced later that dad did what was supposed to be true and right according to his tradition and faith , the same way Muslim men do with slaves Christians when they are married to and more she found out how loving and tender daddy was with her , she loved him , but never confessed that to him , but her looks and eyes failed her , dad was knowing she did even without her confession, Amedeo : now they are in paradise confessing to each other their lasting love, mother and all said amen , Marco : grandad was calling her always Santa Maria , mother Fatima: she was always stressing to call her Mariam and not Maria saying Maria is a Latin name and the original is Mariam , Amedeo: do you remember her funeral , Michelle: they said that Napoli never had seen a funeral like her , almost all Napoli was there even that priest that grandad had beaten had come and stayed silent a long time before he left although dad refused to make her funeral ceremonies in the church When the three brothers arrived to Marco brother s house , a big gathering of people were waiting in the front gate of the house, when they got down a big applauding raised as a welcoming gesture to the three young men , surprise was clear on the three brothers faces, Marco hugged Salim hardly with a joy and murmured in his ear, mum insisted to receive you with an applause then he directed. Them inside the house while Francesca took the elbows of the two brothers and walked between them inside, Marco started to introduce his family to the guests , pointing to his brother , this is Omar , my brother and the house owner then he pointed to another man, this is Michelle my second brother and then he pointed to a third, this is amadeo my third brother, there were other two men he pointed to , the first , this is my brother in law , husband of my sister Lucia and then the second, this is my brother in law Paulo , husband of my sister Anna Maria , the woman and girls were gathered on another side , he pointed to Lucia and Anna Maria , his sisters then to Paola the mother of sandra saying : you met Paola before , an old woman was standing alone far with a big smile on her face watching the scene , Marco brought Salim from his hand , pointing to the old woman , at last , this is our star , your eldest sister and my lasting love , my mother Fatima , a big smile appeared on the old lady s face , she was in her late fifties , an oval tenderly face with a white veil on her hair , her face was a little tired , but a clear joy brightening in her eyes , Salim advanced with Marco to greet the old lady who hugged him tenderly then hugged Mohammad and at last she hugged Wehbe with a greater tender , she massaged the hair on Wehbe s head with clear tears shining in her eyes, after greetings all were invited to a table prepared in the honor of the three guests, meets and rice, chickens , lambs, fish, salads all were there on the table, they all waited when the old woman took her seat then Marco ushered his guest to their special seats near to his and his mother , empty plates with forks, spoons, knives were served in white handkerchief nice tied , Marco : this food is completely made by meats bought from Muslim shops and no alcohol or non halal could be found on this table , Salim and his brothers thanked Marco and the others for their nice welcome , then Marco asked his guest wether to like to start with soup or salad or rice , everyone selected his preference and Marco pointed to the maid to fill plates with their choices , the three brothers were astonished with the high generosity they were received with , they were three simple persons , but were received like princes or high life personalities, after dinner , the empty plates were removed and sweets , cakes, fruits , juices were served with a large tray covered with a white linen, Omar smiling removed the white lining and cried : surprise , to the three brothers surprised eyes , there was a tray of Kanafa, the famous Turkish and Syrian sweet , Salim surprised: do you make kanafa in Argentina? Marco smiling: no , but mum insisted to be made in your honor, the maker is a Syrian sweet maker my brothers know in Buenos Aires , then Omar brought honey and poured over the tray , after finishing and consuming most of kanafa tray that most of present recommended and liked , the caffe was served in Turkish mode too then Omar marked that the lady Fatima was little tired and she is willing to restore to her room asking the three brother to join her there upon her request , the three brothers, Michelle , Marco and their mother went all into the mother bedroom , the lady laid down on her bed asking Wehbe to sit beside her with Francesca too , Salim noticed a large painting held on the wall over the bed s head and inside were the verses of Ayat al Kursi, the chapter of the chair from the Koran , the three brothers looked with surprise with Marco too who murmured to Salim : you are right brother , my mum was a Muslim from the first beginning after her mother death or even before , Michelle said: mum lives very happy in this country , here in Argentina nobody is obliged to hide his religion or belief despite the bothering and the huge trials from the church and the cleric to impose Christianity, but the rulers refused to respond the demands, we have millions of free non Christian people , Muslims, Hebrews, Buddhist , Indians, any trial to Impose one religion or sect will rise rebellions or civil war , my mum has so many Muslim friends who visit us regularly and mum too pay them back their visits, Salim looked at the aged Muslim woman and approached her holding her hand and kissed her with tears in his eyes , he added : you are our mother too Allah accept your true belief and face , you brought up a splendid family, lady Fatima looked very long in Salim eyes then she moved her looks to his brothers and she noticed the same tears in their eyes then she covered her face to cover the tears that started to flew from her eyes saying : Allah bless you my sons , in your faces I see again after a long time the face and the spirit of my mother Aisha . She asked them to sit down and to listen to her story : when I was five years old , I started to understand what was going around me , in my mother private room , I used to see my mum always kneeling down to the ground on her knees, her head front on the floor , chatting or talking to herself or to someone i didn't see, she had a nice oriental carpet that she was kneeling over it , I was enjoying riding on her back thinking that was doing that on purpose to play with me , but she was not talking at all with me while kneeling down till she sits for a short time then she moves her face right and left and after that she starts playing and talking to me , hugging me hardly and tenderly, most of these times her tears were running down , during her moves or during her playing with me , but she trying to hide them from me , whenever I ask her why she was doing this and crying , she would smile among her hidden tears and tells me: this is Salha without any other words. When I grew up more I started to see how prayers were done , seeing my grandma, mother of my father praying by kneeling on the ground , but not her front too like my mother , she was praying with her rosary in her hand calling the name of Jesus Christ and holy Mary for help and forgiveness , I knew that this was called a prayer and later on my father and grandmother used to take me to the church with them till my grandma decided to baptize me , to my father and my grandma surprise , my mum refused to baptism, pretending that I should be bigger in age till I reach my womanhood that my baptism could be more significant and understood by me , I didn't know to that time that what my mother was doing alone in her private room was a prayer too , she told me it was salah and didn't understood was the word meant but I thought it was maybe some gymnastic my mum was exercising the way I used to see some girls are doing, when I was in my tenth of age my mum explained to me that hers was a prayer too , I was wondering between my self why mum wasn't doing her prayer in the way my grandma was doing and why no crosses or statues of Jesus or the holy mother , were present in her room , but I noticed the deep feelings my mum was practicing her prayers while my grandmother was not having that depth , I started to prefer my mum s prayer mode to that of grandma, so I asked my mum to teach me and she started to teach me and I started to share her her prayers not understanding that it was a Muslim prayer , she taught me to memorize al Fatiha and other verses of the Koran explaining their meaning adding that god was unique and one asking me to hide what she was teaching me saying my grandma or dad could be annoyed because we pray in a different way than their own , I was convinced that it was true and that was to be our secret , when I reached my first blood my mother was highly enjoyed and happy , she called me to her room , I was first annoyed and afraid of that blood , but mum was very happy informing me that I became a mature woman and that it is time to tel me a big secret , she told me that she is a Muslim and me in turn should follow her steps , she started from that day to explain to me what Islam is and what the difference with Christianity or other religions , from that day , me and my mother became a secret Muslims practicing our prayers five times a day , I kept going some times to the church only as a cover to hide my true faith , we daily spent secretly our time talking about Islam and some stories she memorized about our prophet life and history . My bigger sister rose Alba was five years bigger than me , I asked my mum why Rosalba was not sharing us our secret , but mum only smiled to me saying that her time was not due yet , Rosalba like me was loving her mum dearly and deeply , but her love to mum was so selfish , she didn't want any other girl to share her her mum s love, since I was born , my mum explained to me me that Rosalba became like a mad when her mum had given the birth to another girl , my mum was always afraid that one day she could hurt me , rosy didn't show me her diversion or jealousy, but when I was grown up I felt that jealousy burning inside her , her hate was not directed to me on the contrary so many times I felt just she loves me too much being her only sister and much smaller than her , but when the subject comes to mum a fire starts to burn inside her , she considered mum was created only for her as a girl , she was not caring for the boys love or attachments to mum , as a girl role she thought she only could play that part , mum was trying always to tel us that her children were equal to her and nobody of us has a first or second place in her heart , try always to convince Rosalba that I'm her little sister and that we are equals , but Rosalba was insisting that she is her only daughter and I was just a fault mum committed giving a birth to another girl , till mum could lose her patience to convince Rosalba then she stopped talking about me and her without showing any trace of bias towards me or her , then I started to feel that Rosalba started to change her behavior with mum , she started to go more outside with friends and sometimes sleep in grandma house for days , her sittings with mum became very rare and strange looks started to show on her face on seeing me or mum , there were looks of hate , in that time Omar started to share us our prayers too and mum told me that she offered Islam to all her children , but separately trying to make sure who accept and who refuse in that way she was sure that her secret could be saved uncovered, when I asked her about daddy , she said that he found late about her secret , but in spite his fanatic Christianity , he didn't say a word and didn't make any comment only saying : you know better honey . We all knew well our worshiping love daddy was bearing in his heart to mum , for him , she was the next holy Mary on earth , her words and wishes were orders nobody may mind or reject , he loved what she loved and hated what she hated except with religion he never ever discussed that matter with her . I was considering my self a Muslim , my my information about islam was so limited due to my mother limited information too , so when I got to my eighteenth, I fell in love with Paulo , who was a close friend to our family , my mum was informed about our good and close relationship, but we hided our love from her , when we decided to get married , my daddy was very happy and he blessed our love , but mum was firmly against that marriage in-spite her love to Paulo pretending that we are still young and other reasons she created , I didn't know that day that mum was willing to stop that marriage to stop repeating her story with father again , being a Muslim a he being a Christian in a illicit love according to Islam , we got married despite her refusal , daddy blessed my marriage, but mum never did , when the priest came to our house to bless the grooms , he talked to my father and mum was present listening to him then he started to talk about the Arabs and the Turks calling them the Antichrists , and insulting them , father tried to change the subject , but the man insisted and increased his damning and insulting the Muslims then daddy started to defend the Arabs looking from time to time to mum s face to see her reaction fearing that she could lose her temper and start defending Muslims , dad accused the church of committing atrocities and massacres against Muslims in Andalusia and in Italy during their short staying in Sicilia and the south of Italy that angered the priest who accused dad to be under mum authority and pressing saying that she didn't attend my marriage ceremony and never before attended the church since she came from Spain implying that mum could practice some magical practices, curing women and sicks without ever mentioning the name of Jesus Christ as he was told by people , the mere accusing mum being a witch dad lost his temper and he rose up and knocked down the priest and kicked him then throw him out of our house threatening him if he heard the name of mum mentioned on his lips again dad will kill him in the middle of Piazza Fontana without any notice or warning, from that day father stopped going to the church even when his mother died he refused to take her to the church or allowing a priest to pray on her , he himself made his own prayer . The lady Fatima took a pose before continuing her story, she said " when I had given birth to my first son, my mother insisted on me to call him Omar". And Paulo , my husband didn't object at all. My father in his turn , didn't say a word about the name. His main interest was that mom's word was done. And mom pretended that her opinion was that my son could bare the name of my brother Omar. Then after Omar, I gave a birth to Michelle, Paulo my husband had chosen the name saying that it was the name of his late father. And mom accepted the name with joy, saying that it was the name of great angel. Then, I gave birth to my first daughter "Anna Maria" and mom was happy saying that it was the name of the holy Mary. And that was in fact the name that dad used to call mom. The name of Amadeus was suggested by mom when she had known that it was the Italian name of Mohammad. Marco was the last boy born in the family, and dad insisted on calling him after his late father, and mom didn't mind just to make my father happy. When Lucia came to the world, mom understood that her name means light, that was one of God's name. During all this time, I wasn't yet sure about my belief, because so many things about Islam were not clear to me, hearing many stories about Muslims and their killing to Christians, and their atrocity, but mom's words and her personality were convincing me that this story tales weren't true. And I remained a long time in that cloudy situation, till the day my mother passed away, I felt that I had lost the most important person in all my life, and the closest to my soul. It was a shock for all, our family, our relatives, my sister, my brother, and daddy. I found myself crying like a small baby, asking mom how she did left without saying a goodbye to me. We were all shocked to death, and my father was silent like a statue without uttering a word, he was standing looking at nothing, frozen like a wall. Later on, my father told me that mum asked him to adopt Islam in his life, and she explained to him that in case she died as a Muslim and he later on dies as a Christian they will never meet again, but in case he surrendered his soul to Allah, the whole mighty and merciful, the unique and the one who didn't give birth and wasn't born, and nobody else could be equal to his majesty, he will become her husband and her partner in the day of judgement and in paradise. Mother Fatima : from that day , my daddy became always absent, all the time silent, never talk,nor more jobs as he was doing before,he stopped to go out of the house,he removed all crosses, all statues,all paintings of saints in the house,closing on himself long times in my mother room,he brought this painting of Koran and put it over mum bed, on the wall , he kept mum s bed clean and tidy, nobody slept on it after her departure, he sometimes would lay there silent and eyes looking at the ceilings , days before his death , I was surprised to see him praying in mum room on her carpet , the same way she was doing , holding in his hand her rosary, on his last day , he hugged me with my brother omar saying: I'm going today to my Aisha, my vergin Maria and he said: ash had an la ilaha illa Allah wa ash had Ana Muhammad rassoul Allah , I witness that no god except Allah and I witness that Mohammad is his prophet and messenger , not long after his words, papa past away , the whole presents were listening in intent and all wept when she mentioned that part. Mother Fatima : my sister rosalba was distracted too , but she didn't cry in front of us, she was looking like a mad, she left us one night without any notice and we were informed later that she married a man from Venezia and became a fanatic Christian, hating Muslims and everything related to Islam or Arabs , that surprised me too much . Mother Fatima : after my mother death I became very sure that I was Muslim like my mum, but I needed to know more about my mother faith, I met some Tunisians sailors who used to come to Napoli s port promising to pay them whatever they want if they bring me books about Islam , they did and one of my friends helped me to translate them to Italian , but I didn't declare my faith in public till I came to Argentina, my husband Paulo knew about intention , I stopped sleeping with him in the same room and I discussed with him my new clear faith , I could convince him of my point of view, but he was adamant to stay a Christian, the day of his death he called me and he told me that he wants to join my mother and my dad and he murmured in my ears his confessions that is willing to die as a Muslim , he repeated shahada after me and that late night just little before dawn in past away with a wide smile on his face. Mother Fatima: not a long time before Paulo death , Omar, Michelle and Amedeo traveled to Argentina, Lucia and Anna Maria were engaged and most of their time they were with their fiancé's , Marco was busy here and there and I was left alone , I started to spend my time reading books to know more and more about Islam , reading about prophet life , his wives, his daughters and their personal stories , most of time alone , praying to Allah blessings and mercy on my parents souls and praying to guide my children to the straight way and to my sister Rosalba too, few people were visiting me , some of relatives, others of my mother s admirers , I started to visit my mum and daddy graves on daily basis , clearing and cleaning their tombs planting roses and flowers there , reading verses of Koran til some people were attracted to listen to my readings and prayers , mum was buried in our garden in the way she had described exactly , her body purified and washed with water and roses perfume, her body folded with three white linens , we buried her body into the earth without a box as Christians used to do, her grave was too low to earth ,,no more than twenty centimeters,after her burial , I started to see here almost in my dreams smiling a broad and a shining smile I never saw before and after my daddy death , I've started to see them both laughing and hugging each others with a big tender and affection, they were always smiling to me with a great joy , I was loving to keep myself always sleeping to keep seeing them in my dreams , my mum face was always brightened with lights and that lasting sadness that was kept with her since I knew her face and her whole life ,disappeared that made my heart very light feeling comfort and a strange inner peace into my soul , these dreams brought to me the peace and serenity despite my loneliness ,then Lucia told me that she is willing to get married and her plans with her man to go to Argentina , after Lucia traveling I was left with Anna Maria , but as usual she was out most of time with her fiancé wile Marco always busy with his business outside Napoli or with friends , my relationships with my sister Rosalba were almost cut , she came just few times to Napoli and fewer times she came to visit me and to my surprise , never appreciated mum grave , I was praying always to Allah to guide her to his light and to remove those satanic thoughts from her head, my brother Omar was almost my daily visitors, we used to sit down together hugging each others, talking about mum and daddy s times and memories , reciting Koran together , exchanging ideas about our belief , talking about mum unknown family in Andalusia, guessing wether there is anybody of them still alive , we were crying all the time when me mentioned mum and daddy, praying always for their peace in their graves , dad was buried in the common cemetery first than Omar decided to remove him just three days to our garden, he was buried first in a wooden box, but Omar removed it and buried him the way mum was buried , Omar started to talk more about mum s family in Andalusia and finally he to told me that he decided to sell all his properties and belonging in Napoli and to travel to mum home town to find her family in Cordoba state in Spain , he left me with a lot of hugging and tears promising me to come back soon when he finds mum s family . More and more my solitude became harder with Omar departure, my prayers became more and my tears became further till a message came from Omar , my son and his brothers that all was made and ready for me to come to Argentina , I prayed making istikhara , " a special prayer Muslim makes when he or she decide to do something or not " , the istikhara came positive then I depended on Allah , telling Anna Maria to take care of my mum and daddy graves then I came here . Marco : after your leaving , I decided to stay a while in Napoli when I met my wife and we soon fell in love , I stayed with Anna Maria and our aunty Rosalba came to visit us , to my surprise , she cried almost to death when she was told of your departure, she stayed with us for almost a month, during her staying, a big sorrow was there in her daily tearing eyes that I never seen before , when she cries , she cries like children and I asked her so many times about that big secret of her unexpected sorrow and grief , but was not answering my requests till one night I found her siting in the garden near to my grandma and grandpa graves with her hands covering her face crying gravely and hard , Anna Maria came and she saw her too , we remained silent in the garden almost one hour watching her without approaching till she calmed down suddenly , she remained few minutes silent then she raised her face to us, her eyes were red , but strangely calm then she started to speak to us , she told us that she loved her mother in a mad way, she was obsessed with her mother love, she was feeling that her mother was created only for her , she was feeling jealous sometimes even of her father when he hug her mum, wishing to be the one who hug her , and when you were born and she noticed her mum care and big love to her new born daughter , her jealousy was burning inside her , she was willing her mum to love her only as a girl, to hug her only , to cuddle her only , but she failed , then a new feeling started to grow inside her, a feeling oh disappointment and betrayal, she thought that her mum betrayed her then she decided to keep far maybe could convince her mum to change her mind and to love her alone, but even that didn't work then she felt guilty for her going far from her mother , but her ego was very high , she decided to keep as she is , but inside her agony and love to her mum and to you too were burning her , when her mum died she walked in the streets in Venezia like a mad , her husband interfered trying to soothe her and to comfort her with his love and tender , but she was adamant, not willing to confess her guilt and wrong actions , so she stayed always far from you fearing that her nerves could fail her one day and she comes confessing love and deep regrets for her faults , when the news came about your leaving and traveling , her nerves broke down and she started to cry like a child and at last decided to come to Napoli to confess in front of her parents graves asking their forgiveness and pardon ، she was daily washing their graves , watering the roses and flowers that you planted and talking to them as if they were alive, she asked me to write to you , telling you about her remorse and pains. Mother Fatima was listening with big surprise and awe , her eyes were full of tears, it was the first time that heard about her sister and what news, very surprising news, she said to Marco : what didn't you tel me about that before? Even with one letter? Marco : I had written you so many letters and your responds came to me, but that message about my aunty story remained without your answer, I thought that you didn't want to hear about it and you never forgave her , so I stopped mentioning anything about her fearing that could bother you too much, and decided to wait til we meet face to face that I would be able to open that matter, the mother moved her face saying : I never received that message about her , Omar: did you meet your aunty again? Marco: yes , I had been visiting her regularly in Venezia and she was coming always to Napoli and she was asking always about mum , wether some letters came , wether mum forgiven her, I was always embarrassed with her trying always to avoid her looks who were searching my face to a good news or a confession, but I changed always that subject to other topics, when mum sent her message about her final decision to stay in Argentina and in that time my first born Mario was born and later Francesca came , I told her about mum final decision to stay in Argentina, she collapsed to the ground and started to weep and to cry loudly thinking that mum would never forgive her , but she didn't comment and I stopped talking about mum in front of her , but we kept our mutual visits , Michelle: you had to write again to mum, asking her for forgiveness , trying to play on her good heart and tender , mum was always suffering for that story between her and her sister , she was thinking always that aunty Rosalba was still as she is, hating and stubborn , if you did before that could enjoy the heart of mum for a lot , I didn't know that message didn't reach mum and I was hoping that mum would come back to Napoli then I could open that subject again, but days passed and the ailing of my son bothered me a lot and was always busy with doctors and pharmacists , the mother looked at Marco eyes and said: I cried a long time on Mario , that grandson I could not see or hug and the news of Francesca who was having my mother face , consoled my heart just a little waiting the day I could hug her and smell my mum perfume in her , Francesca was sitting there beside her grandmother and hearing her last words, she hugged her grandmother with tears and affection, she said to her grandmother: I always loved you more than my mum s mother although she was very tender and passionate with me , but I felt strangely that there was a special bond between me and you . Mother Fatima: as for me , nobody was telling me about you except these rare letters of your daddy,, but I had a great longing to see you and to hug you especially that your father was my youngest sons , only your aunty Lucia was smaller than him and they were , these two my cuddled younger babes , when your aunty Anna Maria came , she told a lot about you and your prettiness and likeness to me, Francesca : if I was looking like your Santa mum , off course I'll be looking like you and lady Fatima hugged her and kissed her passionately . Marco : by the way I forgot to tel you that I have several letters that my aunty had written to you , forgive me please , I'll bring them tomorrow . The lady Fatima looked keenly at the three brothers then she said: I'm very sooty my sons Ive bored you talking about my family forgetting to ask about you then she looked at Wehbe passionately and said: you should be Wehbe but your real name is Abdel wahab , Francesca dear friend, I'm very happy to have you in my son s house and very interested to be my son Marco s friends , hoping that your relationship could continue and your bond becomes stronger , Marco told me that you are very nice people , Salim: on the contrary mum, we are very happy and proud to be your friends and the story you told was very lovely and touching, I tell you that Marco told me before about his grandmother and I confess to you that I loved that woman heartily , I think that she is a very great Santa woman , her living alone in a foreign country away from her family , hiding her faith even from her family for a long time , being good and very kind to everyone around her and dying there alone , all that makes of her a martyr as our prophet mentioned. So many strange things happened in our life with mum, we were thinking first they were just strange coincidence til I came to Argentina and I narrated them to the Imam in the mosque , he informed me that these things can't be simple coincidences , he pointed that my mother was a great real saint woman and when I told him about her death and her funeral with her last will , he wept and cried a lot then he advised me to make me to remind him after Friday prayer to sallah for the absent dead on her soul while people are gathering , Marco : Salim and his brothers made the same for her on the ship board, Francesca: and we too shared them in our way then added, grandma: will you please tell us about some of these stories I beg you please . The mother Fatima: there were tens or more of these strange stories; my mother was taught by her father and mother how to use or make some medicines out of herbs , in Napoli she was using some of these medicines , when somebody was sick and the medicines could not cure , she was using her knowledge of these herbs, she was reading verses of Koran too during her treatment and especially, Ayat al korsi and al Fatiha mostly , we were knowing the meaning of some after her teaching us , one day , one of our neighbors. The poor woman was a wife of a poor farmer , she was cooking in her kitchen when a huge bowel of boiling soup fell down burning her legs totally , she was attended by several doctors, but her burns were getting worse every day , mum started to go everyday to the poor woman house, cooking , washing , cleaning, ironing, all the house work was done by mum, the poor small children were crying for their ailing mother and the poor husband was not knowing what to do, the situation started to become worse and worse and the doctors warned the woman that her legs could be cut both i the last medicine didn't work , the last prescribed medicine failed and the woman was waiting for her miserable fate , that day mum came home totally exhausted , she slept upon her arrival then woke up in the late evening very active that surprised us all , we expected that she would sleep til the next day after we saw her misery she came with , she took a warm bath then she went to her room , that night she spent all the night praying and weeping asking Allah to save that woman and to teach mum how to help her and cure her , she slept that a little bit then she woke early preparing some medicines she was keeping in her board and departed to the ailing woman house , after finishing her daily tasks in the house , mum started to use the medicines on the woman s legs , she washed the legs well with alcohol then she wiped them completely then she started to rub the ointment on the whole burnt legs reciting Koran and praying Allah for help and she left , the next day mum came again to find the woman just little bit better than before, it was the first time the woman gets better , mum repeated the same mission of the last day always with Koran and prayers with tears , the treatment took almost a week, to every body surprising eyes , the woman started to move her legs with feeling pains, another week passed , the woman was working in her kitchen again . Francesca: did you know what was that medicine? the lady Fatima smiled : when I asked mum about miraculous medicine, she smiled saying : it was just a traditional herbs to cure injuries then she murmured in my ears: the secret daughter is in the Koran not the medicine. Francesca: waw, it is incredible, what else grandma, another story, the lady Fatima said : my mother was very alert in her treatments and herbs usage , she was afraid to make her services secretly as possible , when was curing babies and children she was always to keep things between them pretending that people will rush to her house in groups if her practice was known to all saying that she use her medicines only to close friends, she was very selective in her choosing the herbs mostly using herbs that people didn't know pretending that she keep her secret to avoid false pretenders to cheat poor people , her big fear was from the church and the clergyman to discover her belief and using Koran in her practice, Marco: my grandma was really a saint as my grandpa was calling , mother Fatima : she was very much loving the lady Mariam and her story , she was angry ,but hiding her anger when people calls her the mother of god, she was calling her the queen of the paradise , her idol she told my once was too , the lady Asia , far-on s wife , she said to me : that great woman remind me of myself with a slight difference , I didn't understand then what she meant , but now I understand why Lady Asia was her idol , all looked at lady Fatima waiting for explanation , she proceeded , the lady Asia lived as a wife with non Muslim man , far-on, she was obliged to live in his bad and to hide her Islam that she accepted from the messenger Moussa and my mum was feeling that she was living with my father in sin , being not Muslim and being obliged to marry him , she was told by him upon coming to Italy that she has options, to run away and that was impossible for her , she was under secure eyes by my father , her second option was to commit suicide or kill dad and that was another impossible, the third option was to marry him , he didn't touch her until she accepted to marry him , for her the third option was having two options too , first to marry him in the church that she refused first , the second was to marry him according to Islamic practice, a Muslim man to make the contract with two witnesses and dad agreed on this , they made the ritual knowing inside that it was not valid because he wasn't a Muslim , but that was the maximum she could get , later he pretended to the local church that they made their Christian marriage in Spain , didn't accept to get married in the church under the cross or to kiss the statue as a god , my father brought three Tunisians who made the look like Islamic marriage , the whole present were surprised since it was the first time their mum mentioned her mother s secrets of her marriage and Marco said : that may explain really as Salim told me , why grandma was having that secret deep sorrow in her face and eyes, mother Fatima : yes , her feeling of living in sin with a non Muslim man , Marco , but did not she ever love grandad? Mother Fatima: she confessed to me that at first she hates him too much because he obliged her to marry him and to live with him in sin , but gradually she started to feel good about him and later she loved him praying always to Allah to guide him to his self salvation, Amedeo : how did she love him mum when she was sure of his action imposing on her a sinful marriage? Mother fatima : she was convinced later that dad did what was supposed to be true and right according to his tradition and faith , the same way Muslim men do with slaves Christians when they are married to and more she found out how loving and tender daddy was with her , she loved him , but never confessed that to him , but her looks and eyes failed her , dad was knowing she did even without her confession, Amedeo : now they are in paradise confessing to each other their lasting love, mother and all said amen , Marco : grandad was calling her always Santa Maria , mother Fatima: she was always stressing to call her Mariam and not Maria saying Maria is a Latin name and the original is Mariam , Amedeo: do you remember her funeral , Michelle: they said that Napoli never had seen a funeral like her , almost all Napoli was there even that priest that grandad had beaten had come and stayed silent a long time before he left although dad refused to make her funeral ceremonies in the church ,amadeo: some of our neighbors swear that had seen white birds flying in the skies in the funeral and they were in big numbers never seen before , Michelle: most of the people who were near her coffin were trying secretly to touch her coffin away fro the clergymen curious eyes, Marco : but why the clergymen were holding such bad opinion about grandma? Mother Fatima: because she was not one of their blind followers and they could not get any profits out of her, besides for them she was an adversary who attracted love and respect away from their church , amadeo: I didn't see those white birds they mentioned, but regularly I was seeing white pigeons on her grave , I thought they were the usual birds we see in other places , mother Fatima , in her life so many women who used to come to visit mum for medicines or prayers for their ailing s were trying to touch mum and I saw some massage their faces and body after their touching even after her death , a woman came to consolation and when she sad down she intended to touch mum s chair and after touching her face when I looked at her wondering she was shy and said that she was trying to put the pillow in place , Marco : what about Lucia and Anna Maria mum , did they convert to Islam like you? mother Fatima: I think Lucia and her husband will soon declare their converting , I was securing their meeting with with Muslim scholars for many opportunities and they were discussing with them for long time and I think that the good news won't be late , they already started te avert themselves from the pagans rituals practiced in the church like kneeling to statues and praying directly to Christ and holly mariam , especially here in Argentina , the local Christians believe in so many myths of pagan s origin , Anna Maria on her part was hesitating too much although she met so many times with our Muslim friends and scholars, I think her husband is behind her reluctance, he is too much attached to his traditions and practices, he says he can't change easily because others do , Marco : what if she converts and he recuses mum ? Mother Fatima: she will automatically divorced from him and can't stay with him after that , Marco : a big problem really , Marco to Omar : what about your wife and your brother s too ? Omar: my wife already a practicing Muslim now aAl handy lilah , but Michelle s unfortunately no , Michelle suffered a lot with his wife , she was trying her best to stop him from declaring his Islam , I think they are about to divorce, Marco why: they may remain together if it is allowed in Islam so! Omar: the problem is that Lucia was very angry with Michelle after declaring openly his converting , they quarreled a lot , Michelle: I was about to beat her that idiot , mother Fatima: nobody in my house beats his woman , your grand father in all their troubling life never tried to beat mum or touch her sometimes he lose his tempers he was beating himself and punishing himself not her, I wished that she lived longer to see him praying in her room and on her carpet , a Muslim prayer , mother Fatima eyes were full of tears , Marco : I'll talk to Lucia , Michelle s wife , you know we were close friends since Napoli , Michelle: she is a fool , insulting our prophet and religion, Marco : be patient; both of you are nervous , let me try myself . Francesca hugged her grandma again and begged her to tel them more strange things or like miracles she witnessed with her mother, the lady Fatima smiled and said ok , I'll tel you three shorts accidents I witnessed . Mother Fatima: actually , I witnessed a lot of things , but were the strangest; one day we were together in a short trip to visit some friends , I mean my father, my mum ,Omar, Rosalba and me , we were moving in a cart , my father was leading , we stopped for just minutes in a nearby spring on the road to let the poor tired horses to drink water, upon our moving again one of the two horses jumped as if something had beaten him , the poor creature started to move frantically dragging the other one with him hysterically , my father was trying to take control of the moving cart, but in vain, we were on a mountain road and the valley was under our feet , the road was narrow and any small mistake could lead us all to the depth of the valley , my mum was worried , but she was silent moving her lips like reciting something, she approached the running horse from his back and started massaging his back with her lips still reciting silently, the horse started to slow down til the two horses stopped finally , my father descended from the cart to find one of wheels almost broken then he tried to touch the angry horse, but the poor beast was still agitated and jumped when dad touched him then mum descended too and she approached the beast , she put her hands on him reciting more while her head front was sweating in that cold weather , the horse was silent with her touch , she massaged him with tender and checked his body to find some trace of a bite and little blood on the spot, she told dad that it was a snake bite , she cleaned the injury with her hand spiting on her hand and like massaging over the bite spot , the horse calmed down completely looking at my mother in gratitude, I swear that I saw tears in his eyes while it was looking at mum , my mother kissed the horse with a smile of satisfaction on her face raising her hands to heaven and saying : alhamdu lilah , some passengers were passing , they helped father to fix the wheels and we continued our driving without any trouble , we were all silent with amusement while dad was like nowhere , my mum later explained that the human saliva may be anti poisonous bites sometimes, I didn't believe that and we all thought it was one of mum s secrets . Francesca: incredible really , ok what about the other stories , mother Fatima : let me take a break I'll tel you all later on . They went to the main guests room to chat leaving the aging woman takes a small nap . Marco to his brothers : Salim and his brothers are fully experts and talented in dealing with horses and cows , we tried them on the ship already and they proved their talents , can you find them a job in our farms? Omar Emily : off course , they are now our brothers, if they want to join us their jobs are waiting for them tomorrow, Salim was feeling shy of the big generosity these people treated them , he was feeling embarrassed to impose himself and his brothers on this kind family , he thanked their generosity and their help saying shyly: we had some commitments with some people of our country to find us something , I'm very grateful for your generosity and your trials to help , I promise to discuss your offer with my brothers and check our different options including your offer and I'll tel you about our final decision , Omar: our offer is not an offer of generosity, we really need you to be in our team more than you need us maybe, Salim : thanks again for your offer , I promise within two days everything will be settled , they moved out to take caffe in the garden and Francesca moved to Wehbe dragging him to a corner . Francesca: since we came to Argentina, I could not sit down alone with you, are you running away from me as Mohammad is doing with Sandra? Wehbe: why do you want to talk in private? Francesca: I have things to say has nothing to do with that business chatting, some times , I wish to hug you the way I used to hug Mario my brother, Wehbe: ok I'm like your brother , but I'm not your blood brother, remember we are two young , I fear that we get excited and commit something wrong, I don't want you nor me to take a wrong step , Francesca: are you afraid that we became serious couple , why not if we are both convinced? Wehbe: I'm not yet sure that I'll stay here for ever , may be one year or two I decide to go back home, Francesca: are you serous? Wehbe: I'm not yer sure about anything, Francesca: ok at least let's behave as real friends at least , sparing a little time to your close new friend, Wehbe smiling with affection : I promise you I will ,Salim was watching the two young conversation intently and Wehbe noticed his eldest looks , he said: ok let's move now to sit with them. After caffe one of the maid told them that their mother had awaken from her nap and that she called them to come in again . Mother Fatima to Salim : tel me about you and your family please , Salim started to talk about Syria and Tripoli , the life style, the people traditions and beliefs , their own family and house, mother Fatima : I had met a lot of people from your country , I always see in them traces of my mum , you know mum s origins are from Syria as she told me, both her parents who were cousins , come from their , Francesca : do cousins in your country Marry with each others, Salim: sure, Islam counted a number of close relatives who can't marry among themselves including sisters , mothers, aunties, sons , uncles and grandchildren or grandfathers or grandfathers, mother in law , sister of a wife if the wife is alive , the rest almost are all allowed . Francesca to grandma: please continue your other two stories, the mother smiled and said : later I will , but Omar and his brothers insisted too , willing to know more about their grandmother secret life , the mother agreed and started again. Mother Fatima : one day Napoli was invaded with a terrible flood , the water came into all the houses including our house and our garden , the water was almost one meter high in some other lower areas it reached to two meters , in our house the water covered all our room except one room remained saved , my mother private room was intact, no one drop of water went inside , we thought first that the door was closed tightly that s why the water didn't come in , but after checking we found that mother s door was not bolted better than the other rooms doors , mum was there inside praying , we went over the ceilings top , finding mum was not present with us , daddy called mum and responded after a time saying not to worry because her room was saved , the other accident was when we were taking our food in the evening together , a snaked sneaked into our room , Omar my brother noticed her and he stated yelling out of fear , he was frozen and we were all taken with her head rising up and mouth opening with a terrible scary voice , mum without delay rose up and came to the snake taking her politely within her hands and she moved out to the garden to throw her to the high grasses from where it came , when she did that she was reciting things in Arabic , to our surprise the snake didn't mind my mother holding her , it was calm in mum s hand like a baby , when mum came back daddy was too much worried and afraid that the snake may try to bite her , but mum came smiling saying : don't worry honey , we are used to deal with these snakes , the important thing that you keep calm and deal with them with care and kindness , she added that her dad taught her to deal with snake. Michelle-surprised: this is the first time I hear this story , mother Fatima : I told the imam of the mosque about it , he told me that these snakes could be genies as the prophet said : don't kill them , they might be your brothers, the genies, give them a warning to leave if they don't kill them then , Salim : that s true , some of our people knows how to deal with serpents and snakes . Mother Fatima: my mother confessed to me later that she never met before that incident with a true serpent , she added : I heard our prophet hadiss, but when I held that snake that night I was not aware of my moves til I saw it moves away . The three brothers left Omar s house with a lot of thanks and greetings to the whole family .

:Salim with his three met with some of their acquaintances in Buenos Aires and it's suburbs, they talked about Syria and life at home then talk came to their main topic , works, the man told Salim that the Syrian community people mainly work in trading in small or medium scale , some having stores , others are rooming traders selling their goods in carts moving among villages or small towns , when Salim asked him about plantations and farming business, the man informed him that few of them are working in that field , having tens or maximum hundreds of horses, vows and sheep , the man noticed the beautiful horses the three brothers were riding , Salim told him about mother Fatima and her family and told him too about the offer they were offered to work with them , the man surprised said : if you have these friends and this offer , don't waist your time with others , Salim: why you say that ? The man: mother Fatima family is one of the biggest farmer in Argentina, they have large cattle's of horses , mules, cows and sheep , besides their wages are much higher than any Syrian farmer may afford , advising the three brother not to waist their time with Syrians having that gelded chance and offer . Salim and his brothers returned to Marco house late that evening, Marco with his family were out some maids were only in the house , the head maid told them that mr Marco told them to prepare foods for the three brothers because he and his family were invited to dine outside , the three brothers took their supper then sat in the garden to take their caffe waiting for their host return , Mohammad: what will be your answer to Mr omar offer , we he interfered responding : after what we heard we don't have another option in hands , these people offered a ready job with best paid , we know them well now , the others even though they are Syrians , but we don't know them , besides as we heard their business is very huge compared with others who have small farms we don't know if they continue or stop one day, Salim to Mohammad: what is your point of view ? , Mohammad: I agree totally with what's Wehbe mentioned , Me omar said that he is with his brothers in our need and that his offer is not a gift or just a hand to help us , Salim : ok , I agree with you both , I liked the offer the moment I heard , but I said let see other options too besides I wanted you both to say your minds too , they agreed to accept omar a offer and tel Marco about their final stand when he comes . The three brothers slept early that night , the next morning they woke up early too , Marco was in his garden with his wife and daughter chatting , when hi saw the three brothers he called them to share him his morning caffe , they sat taking their caffe in relaxing mode when Salim said : yesterday we talked me and my brothers and we visited our acquaintances too , we decided to accept your brother Omar offer and start work with you , Marco was very happy , Francesca and her mother congratulated the three brothers to take the right decision , Marco after taking our breakfast we ll go directly to see my new farm that my brothers bought for me and will talk there . When they all arrived the farm was busy with people working in and out , some carpenters were working in the stables, others in the adjoining household , manual Workers were carrying grass to the cellars , the stables were four , one for mares , another for horses , the third for cows , the fourth for new born horses and calves , Wehbe: you are not going to grow sheep? Marco : sure but not now , we will start with these and later if things go smooth as I hope we'll see about sheep too , sheep business needs wide lands for grazing and dogs as guards , full time shepherds and these things need time to be guaranteed , the head Forman informed Marco that the first Cattle will start within two to come , they roomed the whole stables and the women went into the house to check in,the house was of two stories the first was with a big salon , one bid size sitting room , very large kitchen , three other rooms, two bathrooms,the second story was five rooms with two bathrooms and showers , Francesca was very delighted with the house , her mother too was satisfied telling her daughter ; we will do this her , that theretaur , the curtains , the linings etc.....

They spent several hours then Marco invited them to a restaurant he noticed the last day saying : they make Syrian foods . The group moved to the mentioned restaurant . In the house of Omar , they sat down in the garden taking their caffe after supper their chats were about farms and their problems and the market instability due to the war that started in Europe then Omar to Salim : my brother , did you make your mind? Marco smiling : don't push brother , let our new brothers take their time , Omar: I'm not pushing , I don't want them to waist their time , everything is ready for them , work , house, financial aid to prepare themselves , besides I know that we are offering the best wages in the marker, Marco smiling again : ok brother they agreed , the whole presents sheered with joy to have the three brothers in their team , Marco laughing: I wanted to make a surprise , in the garden there was another table where sandra and her parents with Anna Maria with her husband took their seats to take some alcoholic drinks , although that Omar was not using or offering alcohol in his house , he decided not to push with his cousin family or with his sister Anna Maria s .

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smiling to me