No Music Before Mosque

-Zebun-Nissa Hamidullah

"Why? Why? Why?" (Hamidullah 573) I asked myself the same question over and over again. I cannot bear it anymore. This story touched me so deeply.

I cannot resist the power of the story, and I surrender. I didn't understand what it means by saying "a story that resonates with me", and I thought it was like the wavelength and frequency equations that I learned from my physics classes. "If the frequency is just right that constructive interferences are made, that is called resonance." My physics professor used to say. Apart from the physics equations, now I finally understand the feeling that a person is resonated by a story.

The boy who died in the story, Ali, played flute while others mumbled prayers during religious rituals. I have been playing my flute for years, but I am hardly good at it. When I see the word "flute", I see a boy standing not very far from me, and I can hear familiar tunes coming out from his flute. Ever since I know Ali played flute, I have developed a close feeling upon Ali.

I remember when I was young, I liked to climb high hills, and I would bring my flute with me to the top of the hill where usually no one would come close. That was the place I play my flute whenever I feel sad or stressed. I remember that place was so high that I can touch some low clouds in the sky. It was like suddenly you don't see anything more than 2 or 3 meters away, because you are in the middle of a cloud. Then 1 or 2 minutes later, the cloud was blown to the other side, and you could see again. The birds were the only ones who came near me, and they were my only audiences.

What if my father didn't let me play flute? What would have happened to me? Even I topped the list of all the candidates in an exam?

"I'd rather pray to God this way, than mumble prayers that I do not understand." (Hamidullah 269) "Me too." I can't help responding to the story.

"Why? Why? Why?" (Hamidullah 573) I still don't understand the answer to the tragedy, maybe there never was one. Maybe this is just a story after all. The only thing I know is the reason Ali was hung on his favorite tall tree could be the reason that I get myself killed. What is more important? Religion? Or human life?

Maybe this is just a story, and nobody was actually hung.

- Chun Wai Hung

"No Music Before Mosque" is a story of a young boy, Ali, who chose to express his faith to his Allah by playing flute. "I'd rather pray to God this way, than mumble prayers that I do not understand." (Hamidullah 569) Ali was good at school and flute playing, and he topped the list of all successful candidates in an exam according to the matriculation results.

Ali's father, Ahmed, did not like Ali playing flute while others were praying. In fact, Ahmed was so mad at Ali playing flute during the religious ritual that Ahmed would "beat him (Ali) until he is black and blue and begs for mercy. And mercy he will get only when he swears never, never to play that cursed flute again." (Hamidullah 570)

As the story went, people found Ali's dead body hanging on Ali's favorite tall tree, dead. People all wondered why Ali hanged himself, but the story never gave any hints to the reason Ali commited suicide. The interesting part was Ali had just found out he scored highest in his exam. Could it be a murder?

The story ended too soon and too abruptly that it did sound too real. The story looked like more of a fiction than an event that had actually happened.