The Alfihani: Death By Poetry

Love is springs eternal and is universal. Famous love stories throughout history share similar themes in many instances; the theme of a social barrier or many social barriers standing in the way of true love is one of the most common. From Gone With The Wind to Love Story, social barriers often prevent true love relationships from enduring. In the Arabic tradition, there is the true story of the Kais Bin Molawah, a poet totally obsessed in his love for Layla, who loved him equally. However, Layla's parents refused to permit their daughter to marry Kais because of his love poems which they found offensive to Bedouin traditions. Kais Bin Molawah, in utter despair at this rejection, wonders the deserts reciting his love poems of Layla until he dies.

The world over similar love stories abound, from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to famous films of the 1960s and 1970s like The Graduate and Love Story. While parental resistance to true love exists still, socially it is not acceptable for parents to refuse to permit their child to marry who he or she loves. However, in some Arabic regions, such stringent requirements still exist, effecting true love relationships as significantly as in the past.

Among the most notorious of such stories is that of another Arab poet, Mohammad Abdul Wahab, of Qatar and the Gulf. Born in 1907 and dead by the age of 32, Abdul Wahab died from the agony of unfulfilled love. However, through his poe