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In his book El Libro del Fantasma,
Alejandro Dolina associates the story of sand to one of the creation
legends of the Arab people.
He writes that, as soon as they had
finished building the world, one of the angels pointed out to the
Almighty that they had forgotten to put sand on Earth; a serious
mistake, considering that humans would be forever deprived of walking
alongside the seas, massaging their tired feet and enjoying the
feel of the ground.
Apart from that, the river beds would
always be jagged and rocky, and architects could not use this vital
material, the footsteps of lovers would be invisible; in order to
remedy the situation, God sent the Archangel Gabriel with a great
bag, in order to pour sand in all the places necessary.
Gabriel made the beaches, the river
beds, and when he returned to heaven carrying what was left over,
the Enemy - always alert, always ready to ruin the work of the Almighty
- managed to bore a hole in the bag, which split, spilling its entire
contents. This happened in the place we now call Arabia, and almost
the entire region became a vast desert.
Gabriel was distressed and went to
apologize to the Lord, for having allowed the Enemy to come near
him unnoticed. And God, in His infinite wisdom, decided to compensate
the Arab people for His messenger's involuntary error.
He made them a sky filled with stars,
like no other in the whole world, so that they should always look
up.
He created the turban, which - under
the desert sun - is worth more than a crown.
He created the tent, allowing people
to move from one place to another, and continually be surrounded
by new landscapes, and without the annoying obligations of maintaining
palaces.
He taught the people to forge the
best steel for making swords. He made the camel. He formed the finest
race of horses.
And he gave them something even more
precious than all the other things together: the word, the true
gold of all Arabs. While other peoples shaped metal and stone, the
people of Arabia learned to shape the word.
There, the poet became the high priest,
the judge, doctor, chief of the Bedouins. His verses are powerful:
they can bring joy, sadness, health. They can unfurl acts of revenge
and war, unite lovers and reproduce the songs of birds.
Alejandro Dolina concludes:
"The errors of God, like those
of great artists, or of true lovers, bring forth so many joyful
rewards, that at times it is worth wishing for them."
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