An angelic old man gave his verdict, ‘The infant is born out of adultery, he should be stoned to death’
AFTER offering Eid prayers, the brothers in faith hugged each other and exchanged Eid greetings. They were obviously happy. Most of them had relished sumptuous Iftar-dinners for the entire 29 days of the holy month of Ramazan.
The pious, after hugging and greeting each other, began trickling out from the congregational ground. As they emerged from the Eidgah Maidan, they caught sight of an unattended infant crying faintly under the nearby huge banyan tree. A sizable crowd swelled around the infant. They gossiped and conversed in whispers. An angelic old man addressed the crowd and said, “No doubt, the infant is illegitimate.”
A puzzled boy asked his father, “What is meant by illegitimate?”
The father was taken aback. He leaned over his son and spoke in a whisper, and said, “The infant doesn’t have a father.”
The boy was flabbergasted. He asked, “Does the infant have a mother?”
“You are disappointingly idiot, my son,” the father scolded his son, and said, “No infant can take birth without a mother.”
Someone from the crowd inquired from the angelic old man, “What are we supposed to do with the illegitimate infant?”
The angelic old man thought for a while, and said, “The adulterer and the adulteress are stoned to death. It is written.”
A few persons spoke together, and repeatedly asked, “What are we supposed to do with the illegitimate infant?”
“The infant is born out of adultery,” the angelic old man gave his verdict, and announced, “The illegitimate infant should be stoned to death.”
Hush descended on the crowd of the faithful. The angelic old man impatiently waited in vain for prompt response from the stunned crowd. He angrily said, “He who knowingly doesn’t wipe out evil from the face of the earth shall land in Hell. It is preordained.”
With the short sermon, the old man succeeded in breaking the uneasy lull among the crowd. As he bent down to pick up a stone, a large number of the pious, too, picked up stones in their hands. He raised his arm to hurl the stone at the infant. The pious also lifted their arms to hurl the stones at the infant. But, by then, the infant had stopped crying. The tiny infant was on the verge of extinction.
A wrinkled man said, “The child is dying.”
“Evil remains evil whether dead or alive,” the angelic old man said. “The illegitimate infant must be stoned to show our aversion to evil.”
The angelic old man swung his arm. Before he could unleash the stone from his hand, a freakish man caught hold of him by his arm.
Suddenly, the crowd’s attention was diverted from the infant. They looked at the freakish man. The old man unsuccessfully endeavoured to get his arm freed from the grasp of the freakish man. “Who are you? And, why do you restrain us from stoning the evil,” he asked. “Are you Jesus Christ?”
“I am a sinner. My name is Nastik.” The freakish man let go old man’s arm, and asked, “What kind of potential harm do you fear from the infant that you intend to eliminate the harmless being?”
Without waiting for the reply, Nastik walked up to the banyan tree and picked up the infant in his arms. He then turned around and looked at the crowd, and said, “You can’t stone to death anyone already dead. The infant has died.”
Nastik took the dead infant to his house. He called on a God-fearing devout, and asked him to give the infant ghusul, the last bath before burial. The devout refused, and said, “It is against religion to give ghusul to an illegitimate infant.”
Nastik then vainly went from door to door looking for a devout who would willingly give ghusul to the infant for burial. Disappointed, Nastik gave the dead infant the last bath, ghusul, and wrapped the infant in a coarse cloth. By then, mystic affinity had developed between the deceased infant and Nastik. Before heading for the graveyard, Nastik tenderly hugged and kissed the infant.
Carrying the infant in his arms, Nastik reached the graveyard. The clerk in charge of the graveyard refused to give Nastik an inch of land for burial of the infant, and said, “Unless you divulge the name of the mother and father of the infant, and produce a death certificate from the office of the Nazim, no burial will take place.”
On his way to the office of the Nazim, Nastik bumped into an old friend who actually was desperately looking for him. He said, “If you do not get rid of the dead infant forthwith, you will run into trouble.”
“Well!” Nastik asked, “What should I do?”
The old friend said, “Drop the dead infant on a garbage dump.”
Nastik brushed aside his old friend, and headed for the office of the Nazim. On the way, he was picked up by the Police, and was subjected to questioning, “So, you say you are the infant’s father!”
Nastik kissed the infant, and said, “Yes, I am.”
An Inspector cunningly smiled, and said, “But, you are not married, Nastik!”
Nastik was badly trapped. He is in Police custody, and is being interrogated on two accounts — who is the mother of the infant and how did Nastik kill the infant!
