No one in the gathering felt any need to question the authenticity of this living Hadith. It had no relation to the rulings of the Shariah or to Islamic theology. The Baraka, or pious blessings, of this smiling old shaykh inspired us and warmed the hearts of his guests. We all felt incorporated into an intimate bond with the Arabian prophet of fourteen centuries past. In time, we will feed dates and water to another generation and recount the chain of connection, brought into the present with our names added on at the end, in turn.
