A Year Like Habib's

A few years ago the rains came late to Umm al-Fahoum. The locals feared that they would lose the crop that they had sown. The drought was nearly upon them.

In fact the rains came late and the crops shriveled wherever they were sown. In the village lived a Christian merchant named Habib, renowned for his honesty and fairness. One day he approached the farmers toiling in their fields and said intuitively, "Come, take more seed and replant. If it rains and the season turns out to be good you can repay me with the amount of seeds that you replanted, and if the rains fail to come and the planting ruined I will forego what you owe me."

All the farmers resowed their fields because by their reasoning they had nothing to lose. They set to replanting and plowing their fields.As the villagers finished with their plowing Allah caused the rain to fall, such a rain as was never seen in previous years!

The crops grew tall, the harvest bountiful, the farmers blessed by their bounty! The farmers reaped and  threshed their greatest crop ever. Remembering their deal with Habib, they returned to him the amount of seeds that they had taken from him and thanked him. From that day onward that year was known for its bounty and blessing and being the banner year, all seasons were fondly recalled with "a year like Habib's".

told by Sa'id Mustafa Aghabaria

translated and adapted from the Arabic by Barry Steinberg Dec 25, 2004  

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