The Story of Layla & Majnun
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Qays ibn al-Mulawwah was just a boy when he fell deeply in love with Layla al-A’amiriyyah. He was sure of this love on the very first day he laid his eyes upon her at the maktab , the traditional school. He soon began to write beautiful love poems about Layla, and he would read them out loud on street corners to anybody who would care to listen. Such passionate displays of love and devotion caused many to refer to the boy as majnun , madman. One day, Majnun found the courage to ask Layla’s father for his daughter’s hand in marriage, but her father refused the request. Such a marriage, the father reasoned, would only cause a scandal. It would not be proper for his daughter to marry a person whom everybody called a madman. Instead, Layla was promised to another – an older man from a neighbouring village. Majnun was overcome with grief and abandoned his home and family and disappeared...