The Wanderings of Marouf

In a distant village lived a very poor family. The husband was an axcman and sold kindling, and the wife kept a simple household…
One day, in a dream, an angel appeared to her in the form of an elderly man. The unfortunate woman decided that it was time for her to die. But the Almighty let her know that a dear guest had appeared in their home. The husband and wife thought and wondered who it could be that would come to them.
And on the tenth day—praise be to Allah—the woman felt a baby under her heart. At the appointed time, in the family of the woodcutter, the cry of a newborn child was heard. The midwife looked into his face and flung up her hands: such unheard-of beauty! The mother decided to name her son after the saint Maruf. He drank his mother’s milk for two years. Then he was weaned, and began to grow stronger and sturdier in the mountain sun and the forest air.
And when the boy reached the age of seven, they performed the circumcision and held a celebration for the whole village. They also invited a respected oracle. He looked into the boy’s clear eyes and read sorrow in them: the sorrow of parting.