Once, there was a lioness named
Jahia. She lived on the African
savannah, with her baby cub named Jahendi.
She and Jahendi were all alone, without a pride family. She knew that the wet season was coming to
the savannah, and that the hunters would be coming soon. She had already seen the scouts driving
across the plains.
Every night she and Jahendi slept near the
bushes, and all day they walked the plains.
Since they had no pride family, they had to keep moving in order to stay
safe from hunters. As they lay at night
under the stars, Jahia would look at her cub and pray. She loved her cub very much, and she was
worried about how she would protect him without a pride.
One night as she lay with Jahendi, she heard
the roar of a motor…HUNTERS! She had
seen the men before, and she knew they had also seen her. She knew she had to move quickly, so that
she could keep Jahendi safe. She picked
him up by the scruff of his neck, and quietly began to slink away.
All of a sudden, bright lights were right in
her face! She picked up Jahendi by the
scruff of his neck, and began to run as fast as she could, all the while trying
to guard him from the hunters. As the
hunters were riding behind her, trying to catch up, she quickly found a thatch
of bushes and ran into them for cover.
The hunters drove on by, but she knew they would be back soon. She raised her eyes up to the sky and prayed
for guidance from The Maker:
“ I am so
scared and alone. You know every inch
of this savannah, and you know where we will be safe. Please guide me. I cannot
keep my cub safe by myself. Jahendi
needs a pride family. Please give me
the strength to do what I know needs to be done.”
She could hardly
believe it, but she was determined to what was best for him.
She now realized
she couldn’t keep the cub safe from the hunters all alone. Early that morning, she and Jahendi set
out. She kept a watchful eye, always
worried that the hunters were going to be waiting around every corner. They came to a thicket of trees and walked
through them. As they reached the edge, she found that they were on a cliff,
and she could see far and wide on the savannah. As she looked down onto the plains, she saw a pride of lions. She watched them for most of the day,
feeling safe in the thicket.
She saw lion pairs and cubs, and they all looked very happy. Then, a pair caught her eye. Their names were Abrah and Bakaari. They were happy, too, but they did not have
a lion cub. They watched the other
lions playing with their cubs, and smiled, hoping to have one of their own
someday.
“Oh,
Bakaari, look at them. They are so
sweet. That one over there is so
playful. He will grow to become a great
leader one day”, Abrah observed.
Bakaari looked at his mate and the longing in her eyes. She was a great huntress, but he knew that
she would be a greater mother. All the
other lionesses were caring for their cubs, and relying on her to hunt when
they could not. Abrah was happy to do
it, but he knew she longed for cubs of her own. He was royal blood. He
also wished he could have a son to watch grow into a pride leader. He decided to take a walk. While he was out on the savannah, he looked
to the sky, and spoke to The Maker.
“We
are so happy with our pride. We thank
you for this savannah and all that it holds for us. But, if You could see fit to give us our own cub, I would be so
grateful. You know that Abrah should be
a mother, and I want to raise a great leader that You will be proud of. ”
Dusk
was settling as Bakaari lowered his gaze and slowly walked back to his pride.
He could not have known that on the cliff above him, a lone lioness and her cub
were looking down at them.
Jahia watched as
the pride went about its evening activities.
She kept coming back to the pair that did not have their own cub. She watched the loving way that Abrah and
Bakaari interacted with one another, and how much they loved the other
cubs. She knew they were just the ones
to take care of Jahendi. She was very
sad, because she loved him very much, but she knew the only way to protect him
was to give him a family.
She looked down at her little cub, and though
her heart was breaking, she knew that he would be protected and loved, if he
had family like that. The Maker had
guided her here, and she knew that the hunters were not going to give up. She hoped that he would understand why she
had to do what she was about to do. She
prayed a prayer over him as he began to fall asleep. She lay next to him and waited as the pride below settled
in. Besides, she wanted to soak up all
the time she had left with her cub.
As night fell, she
looked at Jahendi, took a deep breath, and picked him up. She slowly slunk down the side of the
cliff. She approached the sleeping
pride, and stopped for a moment. She
sighed deeply, gave Jahendi a kiss and a tear dropped down on his head. Lifting him gently by the scruff of his
neck, she took him over to Bakaari and Abrah, and laid him next to them,
sleeping. She stood over them for a
moment, looking at the three of them.
She knew that despite her pain, this was the only chance she could give
her cub at a full life.
She quietly walked away, looking back only
once, her heart breaking. She had to
move quickly, and she knew he would be safe with his new pride family, so she
ran.
Abrah awoke
suddenly during the night, feeling the cub nuzzling next to her. She woke Bakaari and they looked around the
clearing, but saw nothing. Could it be
that The Maker had answered their prayers for a cub? Where had he come from?
The whole pride looked for days, but they were never able to find his
mother. It became clear to Abrah and
Bakaari that Jahendi needed a family and that The Maker had answered their
prayers for a cub. They loved him
immediately, and could not wait to make a life for him.
As the days went by, they became a strong
family. Their cub grew and learned and filled up their days with great
joy. But, Abrah always wondered about
the mother lion that had sacrificed so much to give Jahendi the best life possible. Day after day, her eyes would span the
horizon, because she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was someone watching
them.
Finally, one day, she saw her. Jahia was not
able to run before Abrah had seen her.
The two lionesses locked eyes, and each of them knew. They knew that they were bonded forever
because of Jahendi.
Through the years, as he grew into a strong
lion leader, Abrah thought about Jahia often.
She hoped that she knew how much her selfless gift had meant to Bakaari
and her, and how Jahendi’s life had been forever changed
…all because of the love of a mother, with
the heart of a lioness.
