Terry Forster
Hammad
This story is based on actual fact and I was seriously involved within the story.
Hammad was a 12 year old boy. He was born with his right leg shorter than his left leg by four inches yet he could walk, run and do most things his few friends could do. It never bothered him that he was different from other boys. He was a happy boy, he always had a smile upon his face, was polite and courteous especially to his elders. His father died when he was two years old and his mother depended on relatives to supply living accommodation and food for her and Hammad. She had been given a small garden by her cousin where she grew vegetables and then sold them at the Souk on Friday mornings. It was a hard life for her bringing up a child on her own and sometimes she had to go begging on the town streets for money to keep the boy in reasonable clothing. She had taught him to read to write in the small room they shared in the light from the lantern and told him stories about his father and how proud she was of him.
‘Your father was a proud man and very handsome’ she told her son. ‘He was admired by everyone; he was a carpenter and could make anything or repair anything. He hoped to teach you his trade and for you become a carpenter and work alongside him in his small shop’.
‘Then why did he leave us’ the boy asked.
‘His heart was not strong’ she told him. ‘It was very strong in his beliefs of right and wrong, in being honest and trustworthy and he loved you dearly.’
‘Then I will become a carpenter just like my father, I will have to find someone to teach me but I am only a boy and don’t know any carpenters so how will I learn to be one.’ He asked.
‘We will find someone. I will make some enquiries from friends and see if anyone knows a carpenter that will teach you to make things’ she replied.
Unknown to his mother, Hammad used to go and watch the rope maker at work most mornings and sometimes he did small jobs around the workshop and the rope maker gave him food in payment. He made all kinds of rope, some ropes were very thick and some very thin, some were long and some were short. He continually asked the rope maker questions and little by little he began to understand what rope making was all about. As the rope maker could neither read nor write he asked Hammad to write letters for him, make lists of people who asked to have ropes made and to keep an account of the money he spent and received.
One day the rope maker asked Hammed ‘How would you like to make yourself a braided rope.’ Hammad was overjoyed to be given the chance to make his own rope.
‘I would like that very much sir’ he eagerly replied.
The rope maker guided Hammad through the procedure, first by choosing the core size for a braided rope, then by choosing the outer strands and then attaching them to the rotating snare and applying the correct rope tension. The actual rotation of the snare was driven by an old singer sowing machine that had been modified for this specific use and required lots of continual foot and leg work to spin the snare.
Hammad set to work guided by the rope maker and soon he had the snare spinning rapidly and he could see the outer strand curling tightly around the core. Within a few hours the rope was completed, twelve metres long and as thick as his thumb.
‘That is a fine rope you have made Hammad, you can use it for many things, hang things on it, make a noose and tether a donkey, drop the bucket down the well to collect some water and use it as a skipping rope. Why don’t you ask your mother if you can come and work with me, I can only pay you a little but I will teach you the fine art of rope making, everyone needs a rope so there is always work for you?’ Hammad thanked to rope maker and ran all the way home to tell his mother the good news and show her the rope he had made himself.
His mother was very happy and at the same time a little sad.
‘I really wanted you to become a carpenter, to follow your father’s trade but there is no one to teach you so being a rope maker is a fine and honourable trade to follow and you have made the best rope I have ever seen.’
‘The salary will be small Mother but it will help us a lot and you wont have to go begging in the streets when I grow out of my clothes any more. The rope maker is an honest man and his heart is good and kind and I will study very hard with him for as long as it takes to learn the art. One day I will have my own business then I can look after you, we will have plenty of food and a fine house with a large garden to grow our vegetables in and I will be making ropes for everyone that needs them.’
Hammad spent eight years learning the rope making trade and he was now twenty years old with a well muscled body and a handsome face that all the girls admired. His short leg was the problem though as the girl’s parents had warned them not to get involved with someone with a defective leg, it could be passed on to his children and it wasn’t something they wanted to be burdened with. One young girl called Fayah was beautiful beyond belief to Hammad and they talked together during his out of work time, sometimes she would come and just sit watching him at work making ropes for the full day and she was deeply in love with Hammad, although she never dared to tell him so.
The rope making business was doing very well as the port had been developed to allow deep sea ships to enter and fill their holds with chemicals from the Petrochemical plants that had developed there over the past few years. Long thick braided Manila ropes were in great demand for anchoring the ships at sea and for tying up at the port complex. The rope maker had invested in some new machinery to accommodate the demand for his ropes and he invited Hammad to be his partner in the business.
Within the next five years Hammad and the rope maker were very rich. Hammad had built a grand house for his Mother with tiled floors and a large garden. He employed two housemaids to do the house cleaning and a gardener to make the most beautiful garden for his Mother. Everything was falling into place for him and he was now well respected within the community.
One day, while Fayah and he were talking together he told her he had loved her from the first day he had seen her beautiful face and he asked her to marry him. She was overjoyed with happiness and said she be honoured to be his wife.
‘You will have to ask my fathers permission first’ she told him. ‘He is an honourable man but he told me to have nothing to do with you because of your short leg. He is frightened that my children would be born with your ailment and has scolded me frequently when he found out I was friendly with you’.
‘Then I will do something about it’ he replied sternly. ‘A few weeks ago I was on board a British ship and the Engineer in charge of the docks was telling me that there is a hospital in London that can grow my leg and make it the same as my good leg. He was going back to the UK the following day on vacation and said he would make some inquiries and let me know details when he returned. When he returned he came to see me and gave me a telephone number to call in London so tomorrow I will contact the hospital and make arrangements to go there and have my leg repaired.’
It took three months before Hammad went to London to St Mary’s Hospital. They cut the bones in his leg, inserted rods through the bones and pulled them apart so new bone grew. It was, he was told, an idea that came from Russia. Every few days the surgeon pulled the bones apart to allow new bone to grow and after six months both legs were exactly the same length. Hammad returned to his home in Yanbu Al Sinaiyah and there were no signs of any limping at all. The same day he arrived home he contacted Fayah’s father and made an appointment to visit him.
‘I cannot allow you to marry my daughter, you have an ailment that will be passed on to the children and I will not agree to this marriage.’
‘Sir’ Hammad replied. ‘I have no ailment, I can walk as good as any man, I have spent six months in a London hospital and my leg has been repaired as good and strong as any man. I wish you to reconsider my request to marry your daughter Fayah as I love her with all my heart and wish her to be my wife. I am a very rich man and can take good care of her. I have a very large house as you well know and the ailment cannot be passed onto our children. I have documents from the hospital that I can give you stating this and you will be depriving your daughter of her happiness as she loves me as much as I love her.’
Fayah’s father consulted the Imam at the mosque. ‘There is nothing that I can advise in this matter’ the Imam told Fayah’s father. "It was the will of God he was born with an impediment and he should be thought of as Holy. God inflicts these maladies on humans to test them through out their lives and this man wanting to marry your daughter has overcome this malady and therefore deserves to be regarded as forthright and Holy as he overcame the malady God gave him."
Fayah’s father thought hard on what the Imam has told him and he decided that it was right for the marriage to take place.
The wedding took place on a Friday, the Holy day, in the late afternoon. There was an expensive dowry to be paid by Hammad as Fayah was the youngest daughter. Hammad also bought a gold belt, gold necklaces and ear rings, wrist bracelets and ankle bracelets for his new wife. It was three days after the marriage ceremony before they were actually together as man and wife but it had been worth the long wait.
Three years of marriage passed by and Hammad was the proud father of a boy child. His name was to be Khalil Ibn Hammad, meaning ‘Ruler of People and Power of the Tribe.’
Twenty seven years have passed since I first met Hammad on the docks in Yanbu Al- Sinaiyah Saudi Arabia and I still keep in contact with him and Fayah. We have been friends for many years and he and his family, including his mother, have visited me here in Fatfield many times over the years. Kalil is now married to Abla and they have a beautiful daughter named Yasmin, meaning ‘Jasmine.’ This name was taken from my Granddaughter Yasmin. His rope making business has spread all over Saudi Arabia to Jeddah, Tabuk and Al Jubail. He is still sad about the loss of the rope maker Jaleel, who was the man who taught him the art of rope making and made everything in his life possible.
Info-:
Ships are moored alongside a dock using rope as it is flexible where steel cables are not flexible.
Hammad
This story is based on actual fact and I was seriously involved within the story.
Hammad was a 12 year old boy. He was born with his right leg shorter than his left leg by four inches yet he could walk, run and do most things his few friends could do. It never bothered him that he was different from other boys. He was a happy boy, he always had a smile upon his face, was polite and courteous especially to his elders. His father died when he was two years old and his mother depended on relatives to supply living accommodation and food for her and Hammad. She had been given a small garden by her cousin where she grew vegetables and then sold them at the Souk on Friday mornings. It was a hard life for her bringing up a child on her own and sometimes she had to go begging on the town streets for money to keep the boy in reasonable clothing. She had taught him to read to write in the small room they shared in the light from the lantern and told him stories about his father and how proud she was of him.
‘Your father was a proud man and very handsome’ she told her son. ‘He was admired by everyone; he was a carpenter and could make anything or repair anything. He hoped to teach you his trade and for you become a carpenter and work alongside him in his small shop’.
‘Then why did he leave us’ the boy asked.
‘His heart was not strong’ she told him. ‘It was very strong in his beliefs of right and wrong, in being honest and trustworthy and he loved you dearly.’
‘Then I will become a carpenter just like my father, I will have to find someone to teach me but I am only a boy and don’t know any carpenters so how will I learn to be one.’ He asked.
‘We will find someone. I will make some enquiries from friends and see if anyone knows a carpenter that will teach you to make things’ she replied.
Unknown to his mother, Hammad used to go and watch the rope maker at work most mornings and sometimes he did small jobs around the workshop and the rope maker gave him food in payment. He made all kinds of rope, some ropes were very thick and some very thin, some were long and some were short. He continually asked the rope maker questions and little by little he began to understand what rope making was all about. As the rope maker could neither read nor write he asked Hammad to write letters for him, make lists of people who asked to have ropes made and to keep an account of the money he spent and received.
One day the rope maker asked Hammed ‘How would you like to make yourself a braided rope.’ Hammad was overjoyed to be given the chance to make his own rope.
‘I would like that very much sir’ he eagerly replied.
The rope maker guided Hammad through the procedure, first by choosing the core size for a braided rope, then by choosing the outer strands and then attaching them to the rotating snare and applying the correct rope tension. The actual rotation of the snare was driven by an old singer sowing machine that had been modified for this specific use and required lots of continual foot and leg work to spin the snare.
Hammad set to work guided by the rope maker and soon he had the snare spinning rapidly and he could see the outer strand curling tightly around the core. Within a few hours the rope was completed, twelve metres long and as thick as his thumb.
‘That is a fine rope you have made Hammad, you can use it for many things, hang things on it, make a noose and tether a donkey, drop the bucket down the well to collect some water and use it as a skipping rope. Why don’t you ask your mother if you can come and work with me, I can only pay you a little but I will teach you the fine art of rope making, everyone needs a rope so there is always work for you?’ Hammad thanked to rope maker and ran all the way home to tell his mother the good news and show her the rope he had made himself.
His mother was very happy and at the same time a little sad.
‘I really wanted you to become a carpenter, to follow your father’s trade but there is no one to teach you so being a rope maker is a fine and honourable trade to follow and you have made the best rope I have ever seen.’
‘The salary will be small Mother but it will help us a lot and you wont have to go begging in the streets when I grow out of my clothes any more. The rope maker is an honest man and his heart is good and kind and I will study very hard with him for as long as it takes to learn the art. One day I will have my own business then I can look after you, we will have plenty of food and a fine house with a large garden to grow our vegetables in and I will be making ropes for everyone that needs them.’
Hammad spent eight years learning the rope making trade and he was now twenty years old with a well muscled body and a handsome face that all the girls admired. His short leg was the problem though as the girl’s parents had warned them not to get involved with someone with a defective leg, it could be passed on to his children and it wasn’t something they wanted to be burdened with. One young girl called Fayah was beautiful beyond belief to Hammad and they talked together during his out of work time, sometimes she would come and just sit watching him at work making ropes for the full day and she was deeply in love with Hammad, although she never dared to tell him so.
The rope making business was doing very well as the port had been developed to allow deep sea ships to enter and fill their holds with chemicals from the Petrochemical plants that had developed there over the past few years. Long thick braided Manila ropes were in great demand for anchoring the ships at sea and for tying up at the port complex. The rope maker had invested in some new machinery to accommodate the demand for his ropes and he invited Hammad to be his partner in the business.
Within the next five years Hammad and the rope maker were very rich. Hammad had built a grand house for his Mother with tiled floors and a large garden. He employed two housemaids to do the house cleaning and a gardener to make the most beautiful garden for his Mother. Everything was falling into place for him and he was now well respected within the community.
One day, while Fayah and he were talking together he told her he had loved her from the first day he had seen her beautiful face and he asked her to marry him. She was overjoyed with happiness and said she be honoured to be his wife.
‘You will have to ask my fathers permission first’ she told him. ‘He is an honourable man but he told me to have nothing to do with you because of your short leg. He is frightened that my children would be born with your ailment and has scolded me frequently when he found out I was friendly with you’.
‘Then I will do something about it’ he replied sternly. ‘A few weeks ago I was on board a British ship and the Engineer in charge of the docks was telling me that there is a hospital in London that can grow my leg and make it the same as my good leg. He was going back to the UK the following day on vacation and said he would make some inquiries and let me know details when he returned. When he returned he came to see me and gave me a telephone number to call in London so tomorrow I will contact the hospital and make arrangements to go there and have my leg repaired.’
It took three months before Hammad went to London to St Mary’s Hospital. They cut the bones in his leg, inserted rods through the bones and pulled them apart so new bone grew. It was, he was told, an idea that came from Russia. Every few days the surgeon pulled the bones apart to allow new bone to grow and after six months both legs were exactly the same length. Hammad returned to his home in Yanbu Al Sinaiyah and there were no signs of any limping at all. The same day he arrived home he contacted Fayah’s father and made an appointment to visit him.
‘I cannot allow you to marry my daughter, you have an ailment that will be passed on to the children and I will not agree to this marriage.’
‘Sir’ Hammad replied. ‘I have no ailment, I can walk as good as any man, I have spent six months in a London hospital and my leg has been repaired as good and strong as any man. I wish you to reconsider my request to marry your daughter Fayah as I love her with all my heart and wish her to be my wife. I am a very rich man and can take good care of her. I have a very large house as you well know and the ailment cannot be passed onto our children. I have documents from the hospital that I can give you stating this and you will be depriving your daughter of her happiness as she loves me as much as I love her.’
Fayah’s father consulted the Imam at the mosque. ‘There is nothing that I can advise in this matter’ the Imam told Fayah’s father. "It was the will of God he was born with an impediment and he should be thought of as Holy. God inflicts these maladies on humans to test them through out their lives and this man wanting to marry your daughter has overcome this malady and therefore deserves to be regarded as forthright and Holy as he overcame the malady God gave him."
Fayah’s father thought hard on what the Imam has told him and he decided that it was right for the marriage to take place.
The wedding took place on a Friday, the Holy day, in the late afternoon. There was an expensive dowry to be paid by Hammad as Fayah was the youngest daughter. Hammad also bought a gold belt, gold necklaces and ear rings, wrist bracelets and ankle bracelets for his new wife. It was three days after the marriage ceremony before they were actually together as man and wife but it had been worth the long wait.
Three years of marriage passed by and Hammad was the proud father of a boy child. His name was to be Khalil Ibn Hammad, meaning ‘Ruler of People and Power of the Tribe.’
Twenty seven years have passed since I first met Hammad on the docks in Yanbu Al- Sinaiyah Saudi Arabia and I still keep in contact with him and Fayah. We have been friends for many years and he and his family, including his mother, have visited me here in Fatfield many times over the years. Kalil is now married to Abla and they have a beautiful daughter named Yasmin, meaning ‘Jasmine.’ This name was taken from my Granddaughter Yasmin. His rope making business has spread all over Saudi Arabia to Jeddah, Tabuk and Al Jubail. He is still sad about the loss of the rope maker Jaleel, who was the man who taught him the art of rope making and made everything in his life possible.
Info-:
Ships are moored alongside a dock using rope as it is flexible where steel cables are not flexible.