Moving the Mosque

One day King Aarong spoke in front of his people. "After having Friday prayer tomorrow afternoon, you should not go home. I will make a very important announcement."

"The place around our mosque is very noisy. So, I would like to move our mosque to another location. Anybody who can move the mosque will get a lot of prizes."

Nobody took the offer. The king repeated the announcement many times. Still, nobody spoke. The king looked at the people one by one. His eyes tried to find Abunawas. When he saw him, he asked, "Abu, what about you?"

Abunawas was surprised. But, finally he said, "I'll move the mosque, but I have a condition, Your Majesty," said he.

"What is it?" asked the king.

"I'll move the mosque the following Friday, if you hold a feast for us," said the smart man.

Nobody spoke. They looked at Abunawas unbelievably. They thought that the task was impossible. They could not imagine how a man could lift up and carry a big mosque.

The following Friday, a lot of people were gathering in front of the mosque. They just finished doing the Friday prayer. They joined a big feast there. Everybody was happy.

"Abunawas, this is the time you do your job," said the king. He continued speaking to the people, "You all are here to witness an extraordinary thing today. Abunawas will move the mosque to its new place there."

Abunawas cleared his throat and said, "Brother, King Aaron gave me an order to move the mosque to the orther side of the palace square."

The crowd mad some noise expressing their disbelief on what they just heard. One of them shouted, "How will you lift it up, Abu?"

Abunawas looked at the man. He smiled and said, "I will carry it on my shoulder."

"Okay, Abu. Do it now," shouted King Aaron over the noise.

The crowd was silent. Nobody dared to speak loudly.

Abunawas stepped forward to the people. He stood with his legs apart. He bowed to pull his trousers up. He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. Then he walked to the mosque. Hundreds of people, including the king and the ministers followed him.

When Abunawas came to the side of the mosque, he stopped and murmured something inaudible. Many people took a deep breath.

Abunawas turned to the people and said, "Brother, usually when I bring something heavy, I ask for a help to somebody to put it on my shoulder. The mosque is very heavy. Please help me. Lift it up and put in on my shoulder!"

Everybody was surprised. They just looked at each other.

"Gentlemen, there are around two hundreds of you here. You've just had a big feast! You must be very strong. Please help me!" said Abunawas again.

Suddenly one of the ministers said, "Abu, are you crazy? We will not be able to lift it up!"

"Yes, we won't" said another one.

More and more people shouted the same thing.

Abunawas said to the king, "It's not my fault not to move the mosque, Your Majesty. The people don't want to help me!"

The king smiled bitterly as he heard Abunawas' words.