Download the Book - Islam and Science Fiction

To those I have wronged the most, the faithful followers of the
Path whose name my band of assassins stole, I offer my unworthy
apology for the grief I have brought upon you. You have done the
correct thing by spurning that faker. He was poison to the Faith. He
divided you against yourselves and against the rest of the world for
his own ends, not God's. Surely you can recognize, in God's own
words, his kind in the passage "had'st thou been harsh and hard of
heart, they would have scattered from about thee." Had he been a
Messenger of the Word, surely he would have taken this advice.
This "Mahdi" has now banished himself. Now that his plans have
failed, expect him to cry foul, to say that he is persecuted and exiled.
He will call for a holy war to reinstate him. Pay him no heed, but
send him away as far as you can. Perhaps it is important that he live
for now, so that he has time to understand that God will be there as
well. "We know we cannot escape on earth from God, nor can we
elude His grasp by flight."
The rest of you people of Earth, know us, so that you can defend
yourselves from our kind, for surely you will never cease to light upon
some act of treachery on our part. Know that your best defense
against us is to understand our goals and motives, and see to it that
you cause the outcome of our actions to be exactly the opposite of
what we intend. Above all, do not let us cause you to persecute those
whose name we have taken. Do not exile them or conspire against
them, for such actions the Koran teaches them are cause for Jihad.
Better yet, heed the warnings of the Prophet. Surely we cannot
prevail against those God has promised to uphold. Your reward will
be paid in the next world, and it will be grand beyond your
imagination. Fail to heed, and you will surely roast a scant level
above me in Gehenna.
There, I have done about all the good possible considering the
irreparable harm I have done. Go on about your business, then, but
consider my warnings.
And do with me what you must.
* * * * *
The Back-Story
“For a Little Price” is the previously unpublished part of a trilogy. The
first story in the set is “The Devil and the Deep Black Void”, published by
Analog Science Fiction and Fact in January of 1986. That was followed by
“The Gardener” in Analog in November of 1993. Both of “Devil” and
“Gardener” are placed on the planet Mazra’ih, a very special planet
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