Darkness…………….. all I saw was darkness. They locked me up in that filthy kennel. They had beaten me till I was broken. They tortured me till I fainted. They took my everything but they were not satisfied. They were trying to take my faith but I will not submit to them. My soul is not that cheap that I will sell it for my life.

“Come on you scum,” like every day, the guard shouted.

Like every day, I did not listen to him.

Like every day, he grabbed my hair and brought me out of my cell and said, “Prisoner, like every day, the Holy God asked you again to accept his offer. Submit your will to the Holy God, kneel in front of him and accept his godliness. In return, you shall be bathed by gold and your kingdom shall be returned to you. Every wish of yours, just or unjust, shall be granted in the blink of your eyes. If you reject the Holy God’s divine offer, your imprisonment shall be continued. Tell me your choice prisoner.”

Like every day, I said, “In the name of the God who gave me life, go tell your false god that I will never surrender to him and he too is made from a piece of clay like me. Tell him to fear the almighty who permits your False God’s heart to pump and without whose mercy your false god’s body is but a carcass.”

“Prisoner, you insulted the Holy God, now you shall know his wrath. No part of your body shall remain untouched by my whip now. No portion of your skin shall be there which shall not know pain. In the name of the Holy God, you shall die.”

Like every day, he then started to beat me until I fainted.
I opened my eyes and saw the small crack on the wall from which sunlight was sieved inside the cell. It indicated that the new day has begun.

If someone asks me what hope is, I will tell him that it must be the crack on the wall. The crack was so small that it did no good in lighting up the cell; I could not even see my own fingers in its light. It was just a tiny white shape amidst of infinite blackness, but that crack was the gift of the almighty, it gave me the hope to live like some kind of life energy is peeking through that crack. This small little white crack was my only friend in my world of pain and silence.

I never knew how the walls of my cell look like or what color they are of. The only thing I knew, by the help of the crack, was that the old sun has awakened and started his duties tirelessly. I used to pray to the God and stare at the crack till its light was blown out, then they used to come and give me a lump of something they called food. Like every other thing in the cell, for me, it was just a piece of solid darkness. Then they used to come and give me the same offer of submission to their fake god and I used to reject it………….every day.
One day, the guard entered my cell while the crack was still glowing and shouted, “Prisoner, mercy is showered upon you today, the Holy God, on whose mercy we live, wanted to meet you personally. He wants you to meet him in his chamber of divinity. O prisoner, go to the paradise on earth, the chamber of divinity at once before the Holy God changes his mind.”

“O servant of the false god, tell him I’m not interested in any conversation with him. If he wants to talk, he may come here.”
“Undoubtedly, the Holy God is all-knowing. The Holy God already knew you shall reject his kind offer, so he ordered me to bring you to him.”

He then, like every day, grabbed my hair and pulled me out of the cell and tossed me in a cart and took me somewhere. For the first time in a long time, I was out of my cell, there were lights and colors and sounds and smells everywhere. I could hardly open my eyes, the amount of light and colors were overpowering. My eyes were only accustomed to see black.

After sometimes, I reached a place; it was a palace or something. I had no idea what it was like, I forgot the definition of beauty. All I knew was that the guard was dragging me and my eyes were closed.
He took me inside a room where the false god was standing; the guard closed the door and stood behind me.

“Greetings, former king,” the false god said, “One year, former king. One year ago, you used to be the king of your kingdom, with money beyond the capacity of a mortal to count, you used to be the most handsome man in your kingdom, you swordsmanship was no one to compare with, your country used to be one of the most prosperous one, but you and your countrymen rejected to accept me as their God and lost everything of their life. Now look at you, now do you have any skill? splendor? money? No. What you got by praying your god? Nothing. Has he ever helped you to free yourself from my fist? Never. Your god doesn’t exist, former king. But I’m a kind God. Whoever kneels to me, success kneels to him. I’ll give you a last chance, former king, bow to me and no wish of yours will remain fantasy. You will not be able to distinguish between your dreams and the reality.”

“Listen O false god, you are but a human like me, you have no power to possess. Be ashamed of your deeds and fear the God who created.”
“Why you don’t understand, former king? I am the supreme authority, no one questions me, and every one begs me. Why you insist to follow your unseen god? What he has that I don’t?”

“You have nothing, false god; you are blinded by your power and authority. This world is just an exam for us humans to measure our faith. Do you have any idea what is faith, false god? God ordered us humans to follow him and pray him but he also gave us the power to reject his fellowship. The true meaning of life is to not divert from the straight path of god, though there are millions of reasons to do so. In every time, in every age there are good and evil, right and wrong, acceptors and deniers but the one like you whose heart is sealed and shielded from the true call of God will always remain in darkness.”

I continued, “O false god, you threw me in a cell made of darkness. You made me yearn to see colors. For one whole year, anything I saw, smelled, touched, heard and tasted was but darkness. For one whole year I was surrounded by this darkness and nothing else. So tell me, false god, do I make this darkness my God? No. In reality, the light of faith is always with me but your whole empire is engineered upon the darkness of your ego. Faith is not a thing to be seen or heard, false god; it’s something which generates in you when you will be able to see the line between right and wrong clearly.”

I was not satisfied; I wanted to end it, once and for all. I continued, “The almighty created the land for you to stand, water for you to drink, he gave you delicious fruits and meat to eat, still you never thank him? Have you never wondered how he uplifted the mountains and filled the seas with salty water and ordered the Sun to enchant humanity with its light? You claim yourself to be God? Then do these things yourself. What do you want false god? You will submit to the almighty when he, with all his power, shows himself to world? Do you think there will be any doubt in any persons mind then? The true test of faith is to believe in God without seeing him, if he shows himself then, undoubtedly, everyone will bow to him. Then what will be the criteria of good and evil? There will be no exam of faith at all. There is still time for you, false god, in heart you too know that you are not God. You will never be. You can’t do the majestic feats I mentioned. Your ego will do no good, false god, throw it away and submit to the real God.”

False god was puzzled by my words. His heart knew I was telling the truth but his ego was more important for him than truth. He shouted, “Enough former king, you have chosen the path of death by yourself but I’m not merciless like your god, I’m a kind God, I will let you live. Guard, take him back to his cell.”

The guard held me hand and brought me out of the palace. I wondered why he grabbed my hand instead of my hair. He said, “O prisoner, what you said to the holy god seems true to me. Your logic is sound. Tell me more about your God; I shall bring faith on him.”

Four years later, my countrymen, I’m here in front of you, as your king again. You all never left the path of God. In return, God blessed us with his mercy and not only returned our kingdom back but he gave the entire false god’s territory to reign. We successfully showed the false god’s followers the right path and so they all helped us to take him down. We defeated the false god not with our swords and spears and bows but only with our strong faith. Then come, O my countrymen, let us take an oath that whatever calamity strikes us, no matter how much we have to strive, we will never abandon our faith for the cost of our life.