kabbos
By : Ayad Attar
We were the only one in the streets that cold evening. We were four friends gathered around a small stove fire, its fuel was made of leaves and palm fronds. We were under a large shelf overlooking the street. The atmosphere was heavy, saturated with moisture and thick black clouds with from time to time, short rain showers accompanied by lightning and thunder .
What were we doing on the street at that hour? .. I do not know ? .. Cranky and bored youth .. .. and a desire to smoke a cigarette away from the eyes of parents .
At that time , more than two decades ago , there were no varied entertainment options as these days , there was no computer or mobile or satellite TV ! .. The street is the most popular distraction for most children and young people.
Among all the nights that we spent on the pavement of that street ,that night still in my mind until this day. Not only because it was cold and bleak and scary .. but also because of the nature of our conversation. We talked about the jinn and haunted houses.
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– “Most of the bathrooms are haunted by Jinn ” whispered my friend Yasser while watching right and left as if someone was inspecting him.
– ” Why the bathoom? ! ” I said surprised. I did not undersdtand why the Jinn would choose especially the bathroom from the rest of the comfortable rooms and sections of the house.
– ” Because God’s name would not mentioned in the bathroom .. That’s what my grandmother said ,” Yasser replied lowering his voice and showing a cowardly unmistakable face. I was very much impressed him particularly. He was the one most ardent to tell such Jinn stories and the most of us who fears and panics of those stories ! .. He would be shake from horror when he tells us his grandmother’s horror tales.
– “Yes, that’s right .. ” .. Muhannad said, confirming the words of Yasser . He said in confidence ” in all bathrooms, there are Jinns .. .. some of them are good and others are evils ” .
– “I do not believe it .. Do you have proof of what you say? ” .. I precisely said. Iwas very disturbed by that talk, which often causes me terrifying nightmares and makes me afraid to sleep alone in my room . I wished I could change conversation but I didn’t want to look coward in front of my friends.
– ” Yes .. I have proof ” .. answered Muhannad with a tone tinged something of a challenge then continued, saying .. ” I am going for a story I witnessed it .. it happened years ago , on a cold winter. My mother woke up early for the dawn prayer as usual. My mother is a religious woman and eager to perform assignments in the timing since the earliest age . She often made sure all is clean in our house. That morning, when she went for her ritual washing, she heard water purring in the bathroom. She thought one of my brothers would forgot to close the tap. She came in the bathroom to check and as soon as she switched the light on she got stuck by seeing an old woman having white hair, wearing a long white dress, and holding a broom in her hand, and was busy washing the bathroom with great care! .. And because my mother has strong faith being only afraid of God, she cried out that old woman and asked her about the reason for her presence in our bathroom? .and as soon as the old woman lifted her head and gazed at my mother, my mother felt cold. Although, her face was reassuring, her eyes were very frightening, like cats’ eyes, they were lightening and moving strangely.
Muhannad stopped telling the story to see its effect on us. I won’t lie to you. All of us were frightened especially that was in a silent night. We had our mouths bridles to the point that if you throw a needle between us, you would clearly heard the sound of it hitting the ground!.
This pleased Muhanned and he stood there in silence as if he like our torment until finally Yasser yelled swallowing his saliva with difficulty : ” And what happened after that .. Tell us ? ” .
Muhannad shook himself slightly as if he was preparing to deliver a speech showing great pleasure at our fear and continued, saying: “The old woman told my mom to defend us to urinate in the bathroom ..She said: I have been living here for many years and I’m comfortable with you because you’re a good pure woman.. but your children urinating in the bathroom hurts me, pushing me to leave .. And once completed her saying, the light turned off and the old woman disappeared! When my mother turned the lights on, she found nobody…the old woman just disappeared !! Later that day mom asked us if one of us may have urinated in the bathroom; my younger brother confessed that the water cycle was busy he was forced to urinate in the bathroom .. and since then my mom was keen to ensure the purity and cleanliness of the bathroom so as not to hurt its inhabitants. “
– “This is a really strange story!” .. I said confused.
– “This is not that strange. The old woman is a good Jinn and her presence in our home is a good thing .. There are a lot more stranger stories” Zaki said. Then, he said plaintively : “As such what happened to my poor uncle and his family” .
– ” What is the story of your uncle ? ” .. Yasser ask curiously .
Zaki said : ” Several years ago .. My uncle rent an old house in downtown and he moved with his family to live there. The house was in bad condition , it was deserted for a long time .. It had a large courtyard in the middle of it, surrounded by rooms on all sided and you would climb stairs to get to the second floor. It had a common bathroom and toilet down right under the stairs.
– “This is a big mistake .. you should not place the toilets into the bathroom ” .. Muhannad interrupted.
– ” What ‘s wrong with that? ” .. I wondered .
– ” Because the water cycle is a place of impurities .. and the bathroom is a place where people take off their clothes .. and meeting impurity and nudity attracts demons and may cause satanic harm ” .
– ” Nonsense ” .. I said we have both the toilets and bath in the same room and nothing happened to us. Why swelling things ? ! ” .
– ” I did not say that it definitely will happen .. I said that it may cause harm . That means that such thing may happen when you have toilets and baths in a common room” .. Muhannad answered annoyed. Then, there was a heavy silence andfinally Yasser said : “Keep us from this .. Please, Zaki .. carry on with your uncles’s story . “
Zaki, tried to remember events and then continued, saying : ” Few days after they moved to the house, strange things happened .. My uncle, his wife and his children were sleeping in a large room at the ground floor and suddenly my uncle woke up in panic at the sound of the room’s door which opens of its own. He took steps in the courtyard .. rushed out , thinking that a thief may come in home to steal .. but he was surprised by finding nothing ! He searched the whole house , there was nothing! . . it was strange . The strangest thing is happened each night in the following nights .. ..lights would turn on by itself, TV would work without being touched. Many times, they heard the sound of people talking and laughing in a whisper .. the sound came from the bathroom and the toilets.This often occured in the late hours of the night .. . “
– ” I seek refuge in God . I hate old houses ,” Yasser said with tremblingvoice and pale face.
Then, Zaki said: ” The strangest thing is that the younger daughter of my uncle who was three and half years old was telling her mother innocently for her vision of a stranger entering and going out of the bathroom down stairs.. She said that his body was naked and his feet resemble goats feet.My uncle did not believe the statements of a little girl’s thoughts full of imagination.
– “Oh my god!” .. Shouted Yasser terrified and his body shacked at the sound of ofsudden thunder. We would laugh at this as we usually do when it occurs but at that time nobody would, we all were terrified and panicked.
Then Zaki realizing how his story changed us and with artificial reluctance, said : “Do you want me to complete the story or not? .. I warn you .. it is more terrifying .”
I wished he shut up and have mercy on us from this horror , but Muhannad quickly , said : ” Please complete the story Zaki” .
Zakicontinued saying: ” After a while something happened unexpected .. My uncle began to return to the house every day at noon . This was not not of his habits, he wouldn’t leave work and return to the house at that hour of the day. Then again, he was leaving the house seconds before his children get back from school. His wife also noticed a change in his behavior. He was nicer and caring. And one day, a quarrel occurred between them. She was a beautiful woman. She told him in anger: who sees you in the evening, would not believe that you are the same person who comes at noon! .. He got surprised and he said he didn’t come at noon. She swear that he were there at noon hour and that he get back work before children come back from school and asked her little girl to witness. The little girl said: Yes Daddy. Then she added naively : But when daddy comes at noon, he has feet similar to the goats ! ! . “
– “Oh my God ,” shouted Yasser again. He was talking on behalf of all of us. Then a long silence again and finallyZaki said:
– ” His wife almost lost her mind and my uncle was so scared that he decided to leave the house. They gathered their clothes and left the house in a hurry with their children, they no longer get back to it unless to collect the rest of their furniture and purposes . “
– ” What a story ” .. Muhannad said then He added: “I think that the Jinn was impressed by the beauty of your uncle’s wife, as you said she was a pretty woman. And thanks to their little daughter, they discovered him. Children can see what we do not see .. because they are innocent and pure . “
– ” Jinn loves humans! .. This does not make sense ,” I said .. I am amazed .
– “Yes, that happens a lot .. men of the jinn may admire women of mankind and the jinn women have adored men of mankind ,” Muhannad said. He was supported by Yasser saying :
– “That’s right. Some story like that happened to one of our relatives young woman .. One time, she was taking a shower in the bathroom , and she was standing under water shower when suddenly she felt strange and bad feeling and when she opened her eyes , she found in front of her a dwarf ugly with a huge head , he was dark and had scary face, and his eyes were red like fire. She was chocked and fell unconscious and when regained consciousness, the dwarf had disappeared .. and since then, people began to see some changes in her behavior. She took distance and did not talk much. A Sheikh directed his reading of Qaran against Jinn and saved her.
– ” Such things happen , a lot of women and men .. and those similar to the story of what happened to one of my relatives ,” Zaki said .. He was ready to tell the facts of a new story .. but I said :
– “Enough is enough …. We do not want to hear more ” .. I said that nervously then I left my friends without even saying good bye to them. I went back to my house; I was scared and shacked. I could not sleep easily that night; I was haunted with fear for several nights. I could not stand the stay alone in my room.I could not go to the bathroom until my family insisted I would take a shower as I smelled bad. I was forced under the shower but I kept my eyes open even though my eyes were stinging with soap. After the stories I heard, who knows what was hidden in my bathroom? ! .
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* Note from the author: I did not see Jinn in my life .. and I have no desire to see one of them .. I do not know with certainty if these stories are true or not, they were told to me by my friends who do believe they were real. I leave up to you, my dear reader, to believe in them or not.
** Jinn in Islamic beliefs are invisible entities which is similar in nature to Demons in Christian beliefs, but they are not souls of dead’s and not necessarily evil, there is good and evil jinn.
