INT / HIRAA' CAVE / NIGHT
A man is alone in a cave doing what appears to be an attempt to light a fire. He regularly goes to this cave to escape, being a person who truly treasures his privacy. It is in this cave that he is able to contemplate his relevance and being; what he was, is and will be. He comes from a family of scholars and sages; men who spend all their waking hours pondering the workings of life and the universe. Alas, it is by the stroke of good fortune he is now married to a wealthy tradeswoman named Khadeeja - for he was once almost certain to have to spend all of his existence being a shepherd - that he can afford to expend hours upon hours dedicated to brooding alone. It is thought by some that during that stint, where his days was spent being alone, counting one goat after another, was where the seeds that made him become the man he will be ultimately known to history were planted.
The night was especially cold, even in the comforts of the interior and under lavish clothing afforded to him by his new-found wealth. He stoops over the fire to fuel it with more tinder and as the fire grew more intense, unbeknownst to him the plumes of smoke began to accumulate within the interior of the poorly ventilated cave. As he starts to breathe the smoggy air into his lungs, little by little his body is being slowly poisoned by inhaling carbon monoxide. Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning may include dizziness, followed by delirium and even hallucination. By sheer luck, he was able to survive by avoiding prolonged exposure to the fumes - the fire must have died out - or changing air pressure ventilated the smoke out of the cave.
Prior to that fateful night, he had been brooding over his supposed place within his clan. His lineage was acknowledged by other clans in his tribe as being learned and scholarly; trusted with managing the ritualistic goings-on at the Temple of Abraham. Although illiterate, he is famous among his clan as being - among other things - truthful and trustworthy. Al-Amin and As-Siddiq as he was affectionately known - and it was affection that was given to him in spades by some of the more important and powerful members of his clan - namely his influential uncles. Being of such virtue, it was inevitable that he was given the task of managing over his clans' goat herd; where in those times, the goats are assets that needs to be managed and secured. It was also inevitable that he would draw parallels between himself and another shepherd from Bethlehem whose story is told in the gospels and written down in the holy book of Injil. Surely it was obvious that he saw himself as more than just a goat herder and aspired to be something greater. He is after all, a culmination of good genes and of being a product of his enviroment.
Upon composing himself coming out of unconsciousness, he thought of the significance of what he had just went through. He was truly overwhelmed and taken over by the experience; and he could have also been aware of how close he came to his end. Being presented with one's mortality almost always changes a person completely. He picks himself up - his body still under the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning - and laboured towards his home; and once there - greeted by his wife who instantly assessed the gravity of her husband's condition - asks frantically for a blanket to be wrapped around him. After a while, he naturally recollects his experience to his wife and sets the precedent to the greatest theological and philosophical divergence in the history of Man.
-to be continued-
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