Layla, Me & Our Epic Love
I
am Qays, Qays
ibn al-Mulawwah. I fell in love with Layla, the very
first day I saw her at Maktab and soon began composing poems about my love for
her, mentioning her name often. Locals began calling me Majunun (madman) looking
at my unselfconscious efforts to woo Layla. But Layla understood my love and we
fell in love with each others. One day I finally made myself little courageous
and asked Layla’s father for her hand in marriage, he refused because it would
be scandal for Layla to marry someone considered mentally unbalanced. Soon
after this, Layla and me fled from our homes. But we were caught by her father
before we escaped him. They began to beat me and hit me. Layla begged everyone
not to hit me. Finally she said that she would do anything to forgive me. Thus she
was made to promise that she would never meet me and she will marry the guy her
father says.
Soon
after, she was married to a noble and rich merchant belonging to the ‘Thaqif’ tribe
in Ta'if,
whose name was ‘Ward Althaqafi’. When I heard of her marriage, I fled the
tribal camp and began wandering the surrounding desert. My family eventually
gave up hope for my return and left food for me in the wilderness. I would
sometimes recite poetry to myself or write in the sand with a stick. I became
Layla’s Majunu.
Layla
moved to a place in Northern Arabia with her husband. My parents died several
years later. She was very much devoted to my parents and knew my devotion for
them. She was very much concerned of passing me the message. One day Layla came
across a traveler who saw me in the desert and pleaded him to pass me on the
message.
One
day the old man saw me and passed me the message. I was heartbroken and decided
to live in the desert till my death. Years passed by and Layla’s husband died.
Layla decided to join me for rest of our life but it did not happen. Tradition
demanded that Layla remain in her home alone to grieve for her dead husband for
two whole years without seeing another soul. The thought of not being
with me for two more years was more than Layla could bear. We had been
separated for a lifetime and two more years of solitude, two more years without
seeing me, was enough to cause Layla to give up on life. Layla died of a
broken heart, alone in her home without ever seeing me again.
I
got the news of her death and reached her grave in the wilderness. I stayed
near her grave till my death. I had only one last wish, if we are born again
and our love succeeds. I died in 688 AD. I carved verses of poetry on a rock
near her grave, which are the last verses I felt for her before my death. And I
wrote…
I pass by these walls, the walls of Layla,
And I kiss this wall and that wall
It’s not Love of the walls that has enraptured my heart
But of the One who dwells within them.
And I kiss this wall and that wall
It’s not Love of the walls that has enraptured my heart
But of the One who dwells within them.
