Within the Walls of Hell (2 page)

Sandi
: It's a pity you see things that way.

Messenger
: What happened to Penn Khan?

Sandi
: He was a very nice boy, I must say. His father was rich and we needed money to keep the spread of our ideology going. We resorted to kidnapping and the parents of any victim had to pay a ransom we asked for against the promise of seeing their loved one again. Penn Khan was really an unfortunate case because we lived in the same neighborhood and he knew me. If I released him after his parents paid the ransom, he would have revealed my identity and I did not want that to happen. I felt terrible killing a twelve year old boy but I did not have many options to choose from. I had to do it. If you were in my shoe, you would have done the same thing.

Messenger
: Really, you think? What was the last thing you did before coming here?

Sandi:
The infidels were becoming too many. It seemed that when we killed one, fifty others joined them. Some joined them out of sympathy. The worse thing was that they even converted people from my own religion. They even afforded themselves the luxury of building their own houses of prayer. The court even passed a law granting them the right of worship and protection. The culture and ways of life of the infidels in different countries where they were in the majority was not helping matters. Their women danced and walked in the streets naked. They even put on clothes which were meant for men which was intolerable. They put such attires on the internet and people of my religion especially youths copied them. The culture of the infidels was too invasive. My spiritual leader saw it as a threat to our religion. He advised us the soldiers of our creator to take action both at home and abroad. He made it clear to us that we were at war and any of us who died on the battle field would go straight to the house of our Creator because we were fighting a just course. The Creator would then crown us martyrs and give each of us many virgins. So, with those promises in mind, we went out for war. I strapped explosives round my waist and entered the house of prayer of the infidels and blew myself up. I'm sure none of the infidels went out of that house of prayer alive.

Messenger
: (
Seemingly curious
) what did your religion preach?

Sandi
: It preached love for the faith, its prophet, the creator and fellow brothers and sisters as well as tolerance.

Messenger
: Don't you think that your actions went against those fundamental principles which your religion stood for?

Sandi
: Not at all. All those who belonged to our religion were loved and tolerated. Those who did not belong to it were enemies and infidels. If they were infidels, they were enemies of our creator and had to be eliminated. We had to do the elimination in the name of our creator who spoke to our spiritual leader in a dream and gave him the command.

Messenger
: Can I say something? To me, religion proclaims first love for the Creator and then love for fellow human beings and tolerance for what they are. Isn't that correct?

Sandi:
That is a summary of what I have already told you but you have left out the fact that it has to be for people who practice the same religion.

Messenger
: I have the impression that our conversation will have no end. Let's leave that one aside for a while. What happened to Thomason Jose?

Sandi
: He was an infidel and wanted to get married to a woman who belongs to my religion. That was an abomination. It was not proper for holy people to be mixing with pagans and infidels. My spiritual leader vehemently condemned it and we made it known to Jose. He was given options to choose from. Option A was that if he wanted to marry the woman from my religion, he had to first of all convert to my religion. Option B was that if he did not want to convert, he had to give up his love for the woman and marry another woman who was a pagan or infidel as himself. He preferred option B but was not prepared to give up the woman who belonged to my religion. There were consequences and he knew them. We had to kill him to teach him a lesson and to deter others who had the intention of following his example.

Messenger
: Two grown up people fall in love and decide to get married. You and your spiritual leader take upon yourselves to decide whether they get married or not and you used religion as a separating tool. Who asked you to play such a role?

Sandi
: I have the impression that you forget so soon. I've earlier told you that my master received instructions from our creator in a dream. He had to prepare people for our creator's kingdom to come by doing away with pagans and infidels. If he had to allow holy people to hook up with pagans or infidels, how was he preparing people for such a kingdom then?

Messenger
: My master made man and woman and asked them to go and people the world. He was by that creating the institution of marriage and blessed it. If two people decide to marry, they should be allowed to do so because they are marrying for the glorification of my master and not for the glorification of your spiritual leader and you. Don't you think that religion was supposed to be a uniting instead of a divisive factor especially in the institution of marriage?

Sandi
: (
Remains silent staring at the messenger
)

Messenger
: Instead of using religion to unite people, you used it to bring separation among them calling some holy people and others pagans and infidels. As far as the institution of marriage is concerned, religion, social status, race, origin and financial conditions are not supposed to be an issue. My master blesses any marriage so long as there is love, honesty, sincerity, dedication and respect of the rule laid down by my master and not your spiritual leader.

Sandi
: You seem to be against all what my spiritual leader preached and stood for.

Messenger
: I'm not the one who is against it but my master. Now tell me, do you think our creator was pleased with your actions?

Sandi
: (
with a smile
) Of course and he is supposed to reward me by crowning me a martyr and surrounding me with many virgins for my pleasure. So, when are you taking me to Him? I'm itchy to get out of this place. It does not resemble one bit the one my spiritual leader talked about. He painted a picture of a golden city with our creator sitting on a throne with many servants around Him. I don't think the place is as hot as this one. Please take me there.

Messenger
: Have you forgotten so soon? Remember I told you that once you get in here, you never get out again. Well, I'm sorry to inform you that there will be neither a crown nor virgins for you.

Sandi
: (
smile dries up. looks very worried
) .Why do you say that? You are not the Creator, are you?

Messenger
: I'm not the creator. I am His messenger. He sent me here to point out your mistakes if you feel that you have no reason to be in here. If He preferred that you come here, it is because He did not approve of your actions down there. He wanted Everyman to do just ten things to make Him happy. His fifth command was that no man was allowed to take a life. By killing so many people and taking your own life, you went against that fifth command which made my master very unhappy. That is not all, by taking your own life; you deprived your son of a father and your wife of a husband. That child and wife were beautiful flowers in my master's garden and your job was to take care of them to grow. Instead of being a father and husband or the gardener, you abandoned it and were doing what you were not assigned to do. By breaking up marriages in the name of religion, you destroyed the foundation on which my master's holy family was to be built.

Sandi
: Please wait, wait, wait! Are you trying to make me understand that I sacrificed myself for nothing?

Messenger
: If you had died in the course of trying to save someone from armed robbers, a wild animal, a ruthless government system, a collapsing building, an oncoming vehicle, that would have been a worthy and noble sacrifice. Your kind of sacrifice was motivated by pride, revenge and the glorification you would get from men. You do not turn houses of prayer into blood baths and you call it a sacrifice. My master was not anywhere in that picture.

Sandi
: What are you telling me? Does it mean that my spiritual leader lied to me and many others?

Messenger
: I'm afraid he did not only lie to you but he equally misled you.

Sandi:
(
Unable to stand on his feet
) Iif my spiritual leader lied, he should be the one to be punished and not me, right? I was only following instructions.

Messenger
: Well, that is the reason why my master endowed each and Everyman with a brain. If you were mentally impaired, that would have been a different story. You had the choice either to use your head and spare the lives of your victims or not to use your head and follow blindly the instructions of your spiritual leader. You decided to follow his instructions to the latter. You called some of your comrades who took their own lives in a huge explosion alongside the lives of thousands of innocent people as martyrs. You sent congratulatory messages to encourage your other comrades who tried to kill thousands but were unfortunate to have been stopped. You called them heroes and used your tongue to motivate the young and gullible minds to join your ranks. That praise for carnage was very disheartening to my master. Converting people through the use of force was wrong. Using explosives to destroy the prayer houses was wrong. In many parts of the world even right now, some of your comrades are still burning houses of prayer belonging to their brothers whom they consider as enemies. They kill thousands in the process. Let me tell you that all those still indulging in such horrible acts would atone for their actions when they leave that world. Landing here is the outcome of your actions while you were down there.

Sandi
: So what is this place?

Messenger
: It is called the Land Of Eternal Discomfort. If you will excuse me, there is someone who would be knocking on that gate soon.

Sandi
: (
Stops the messenger as he tries to leave
) Please wait, I would want to give that spiritual leader the beatings of his life. You would direct him into this place when he comes, right?

Messenger
: I am not the one to direct him here. Where he goes from there depends on him. If towards the end of his days down there he regrets his actions and begs sincerely for forgiveness, our Creator can forgive and take him in. Our creator is very merciful when you ask for forgiveness from the bottom of your heart. But you must do that down there and not here. If you had made good use of the brain our creator endowed you with, maybe you wouldn't have been here.

Sandi:
(
surprise
) what!!! Our creator would take him in if he regrets his actions and begs for forgiveness sincerely? After all what he has done? I can't believe it.

Messenger
: Oh yes… that is what it is. To you and your brothers down there, once someone has been brandished a criminal, he ceases to be human. He becomes a subhuman or worse still, reduced to an animal stripped of every dignity. He is discriminated upon in all aspects. My master looks at things from a different angle. When He gives sunshine, its rays touch everybody. When He gives rain, it falls on the roof of each and everyone without exception, whether good or bad. That is to tell you that my master's ways are not the ways of man. He does not want any of his sheep to be lost.

Sandi:
(
Heart broken and full of regrets
) why was our Creator so dormant? I did all those things which I've now realized were terrible in his name and he just sat there watching. Why didn't he do something to stop me?

Messenger
: It is not true that he just sat there watching. He did indeed try to stop you.

Sandi:
How?

Messenger
: Through your son who kept running after you and crying not to go out each time you had to go and carry out your spiritual leader's orders…. Through your wife who cried most nights complaining of your neglect…. Through your friends and relatives who tried in vain to advice and to talk you out of what you were doing…. And even through your late mother who came to you in your dreams pleading with you to be her once good son again by doing what was right. That is how my master tried to stop you.

Sandi:
Can I have some water?

Messenger
: You saw already that the tap isn't flowing and I don't know when it will. You just have to be patient.

 

Exit messenger

 

Sandi
: (
jumps out of the hot room. Watches messenger as he walks towards the gate. Sees messenger go through the gate without opening it. Falls to the ground
).

 

Curtain