First Grain of Sand — Page 53
TRANSFER TO TASHKENT 37 my turn to walk, people's eyes would be fixated on me as they wondered who I was. The point that had such an impact on the Russian female prisoners, as well as the guards, was that while every prisoner taking a walk would invariably stare at the female prisoners, they noticed that I would never look their way. The women remarked at how my eyes would always be cast downward while walking. Since my master, may my parents be sacrificed for him, had taught that one should keep their eyes downward as if they may be closed, so I would always look down while walking, despite becoming the reason for everyone's curiosity. When other prisoners would come out from their cells, they acted much differently. They would stand outside the window of fellow prisoners to talk. They would bother or irritate the guards. They would get into loud quarrels with each other. Often, prison- ers would argue when the guards instructed them to return inside as their time outside the cell had ended or to wait to go to the restroom. In contrast, when the guards would come to my cell, I would greet them respectfully with Assalaamu alaikum,' and I would only go to the restroom when they said it was my time. And gen- erally, I would do as they said. Whenever something nice came for me from outside, I would get up from where I was sitting to respectfully and lovingly offer some to the guard delivering it to me. This left a lasting impression on them. Once I was summoned to give a statement to the command- ing officer in the evening, which took all night, and I finally was sent back to my cell at dawn. After the commanding officer 1. Traditional Islamic greeting, meaning, 'Peace be upon you. [Publisher]