The Seafaring
Beggar
As Reviewed by
The Message
Magazine
By Sr. Tasleem K. Griffin
"Stories, Poems and Writings..." What an enchanting cast of tales, and characters, of people and places - and truths - has been assembled here by the talented young writer, Yahiya Emerick!
One would be tempted to add to this panorama a further brushstroke - the fundamental one, really; the one the author sets drifting softly across the breeze that breathes through each of these exquisite vignettes and musings he has fashioned: what a shimmering spectrum of lessons of life and lessons in living.
But Br. Emerick's pen, and the world he has conjured, is so deft and so light, that t he weighty word "lesson" clangs and clatters, quite out of place in his delicate tapestry. The lessons are there. But they too fly on the sweet wind he blows our way. It's a whispering, enveloping wind. It's a warm and cozy wind.
It's a casual, down-to-earth, witty and wise sort of wind It's capable of engendering both the most serious, pondered reflection, and capturing in a blinking (and starkly clear-eyed!) flash the most commonplace of everyday experiences. Author Emerick manages all this with two additional graces: pervading poetry and humanity.
Now, let's be clear: this is, nominally, a book for children and young people. Muslims, of course. Of course? No. Correction: a book for children, young people, born anyplace and to whatever environment. And it is a book for every adult who retains the wondrous thread of imagination and memory from childhood's glowing eyes. We all know who that is: every adult, born under any sky, in whatever environment.
The book is in and of Islam; Islam in life, in here-and-now anecdote, in long-ago/far-away dream, in parable, in hadith, in philosophy: the poems, you will find, are deep and striking. But also short and concise: the hardest kind to shape, the most powerful kind to linger. The people are in and of Islam. They are Muslims, strong and straight in conduct, or they are Muslims on the way to becoming, or even re-becoming, Muslims.
There's Rashid, on his way to the Masjid, who notices a n old woman dragging a heavy package. Assalamu 'Alaykum sister; can I help you? Rashid is being led further and further away from the Mosque, it's getting late, late, he'll miss Salah... Read it and see.
Amirah is a college student. "She was proud of being a Muslim and tried her best to live according to Islamic teachings..." Amirah, one day, notices a large crowd gathered across the campus yard. "Two men moving about in a highly energized state... 'I'm saved by the blood! You need the blood of Jesus!' bellowed one of the men." On and on, foaming evangelizing.
Amirah listened and instinctively blurted out, "Only God decides our fate." "All eyes turned to the fragile young woman with the scarf on her head. 'Life is a continuous struggle and we are its active participants'..."
The crowd dispersed. "Later that evening, the people attended a meeting. But the church was empty - while the mosque was full. Allahu Akbar!"
Go from ancient China to Black Eagle, native American; a sketch of a briefcase walking a man to work (watch that ending twist coming! ), a wait for a morning train or a lyrical night, Makkah or the Himalayas. Poems on Islam that whisper or chant. And every tale's moral woven in to the colors of this magic carpet ride, so that when you get to it (and sometimes, the suspense is so excellently devised that even old tale-masters won't have figured out the twist till the author is ready), it hits you, bam! And your eyes crinkle up and your mouth smiles. Because this here (take any page, it applies equally) has been one cleverly-wrought piece of writing... There are even some of Br.
Emerick's own experiences in and of Islam. And a silly car thief who misses the "loot" kept in the ash tray of the non-smoking Muslim driver! So the tales and reflections and poems of this master storyteller roll and blend and shine to form a smooth and bright pattern that also tinkles like pure crystal bells.
This is the world as an Islamic wonderland, if you will, where the good teach others and the others learn, where the right thinkers always somehow find their way, while the merely-clever inevitably bump their heads, or worse. Some straight Islamic education is here too: There is the Ramadan Song, and the points on what we do and why we do it in Ramadan; it is told like a gathering of family round the hearth, and at the end: 'Eid Mubarak!!!!
Hadith stories are strongly chosen: The Straight Path - "There is an organ in the body that if it is reformed, the whole body is good, but if tainted the whole body is tainted. That organ is the heart." These are also beautiful pages. Yahiya Emerick has enhanced the text with stunning black and white drawings, some finely humorous, others elegant and gorgeous.
Each reader will have his or her favorites, among the tales, the poems, the reflections, hadith and illustrations. This reviewer, age irrelevant, was thoroughly entranced by the title tale, with a definite soft spot for the not-quite-heroic "hero": Mr. Ma Liang's high adventure, sailor and seafaring beggar. Suspense and drama and the life-sustaining lesson, however, illuminate every corner of this book, which spreads the radiance of Islam generously through the darknesses. A glowing review? It sure is: for a genuinely glowing book.
ORDER THIS BOOK FROM: Astrolabe
