“I have good news for you,” said my friend on the phone. His voice, it was clear, was filled with joy. “America’s days are numbered and soon it will cease to exist as a country.” I thought my friend was just saying this to open a topic for discussion as he often does, but this time he was serious. He stressed that he was repeating what was true and that what he had said was no baseless hypothesis. Time would prove him right, he added. Realizing my surprise at his remarks, he insisted that a great many others shared his idea that America had reached the zenith of its power and glory and the countdown for its collapse had already begun. It was only then that I realized my friend was yet another dreamer, one of many among us who hold their own private mental pictures of a future that they alone can see. These dreamers are fellow human beings who eat as we do, dress as we do and even talk as we do but who envisage a future that exists only in their imaginations.
The art of divination and fortune-telling has become so appealing and wide-spread in our society that satellite TV channels have found themselves forced to join in and satisfy viewers ready to pay whatever is asked for expensive phone calls to someone who will interpret a dream. The response from the public has made this particular business the only one in which Saudization has reached one hundred percent — given the fact that almost all the callers are Saudis. Its only competition now comes from two other very popular and much-consulted professions: incantation and voodooism, in which all three of life’s temptations — money, power and women — come together. Visions and dreams are of course a part of human life and references to them are found in the Holy Qur’an and the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The problem is the way the visions and dreams are being used and manipulated today. Things have gone so far that many people tend to link every move or event to a dream or vision. As to the fall of America, it is a fact that when empires reach their zenith of power and glory, they begin to weaken and eventually fall and America is no exception. Only Almighty God knows the fate awaiting all nations and all people on earth. My suggestion to the dreamers is that they come up with something that would make a real dream come true: the fall of Israel and a united Arab nation. The deadline should not be more than a week at most.
Arab News From the Local Press 19 April 2003
