An Heirless Family

Fatima’s eyes were heavy with memories of her son. She would often open the family book for him, filled with values of asceticism and contentment with fate. These values were ingrained in her soul, nurtured by a cloud of love and contentment that enveloped both place and soul. With every cry of life and amidst the grains of mud, a green branch grew, bringing life anew.

Fatima shares with her son Majed, named after her father, the story of their family and the father who was once absent. Believed dead after years of no return, her father was discovered to be alive, having lost his memory after a fall from his camel. Rescued by a man who took him in, he married the man’s sister, and they had a son named Sa’eed, who became a doctor.

In a twist of fate, this doctor oversees Fatima’s IVF process, leading to the birth of a son who will grapple with the existential question of his identity and parentage.

Hashim Al-Sayed is a Qatari novelist, holding a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wales, U.K. He spent a decade-worth of his career working in finance and banking, accomplishing several affiliated studies and publications, among his most notable: Encyclopaedia of Islamic Banks, Encyclopaedia of Qatari Banks, Money Clusters, The Money Chaos, Shareholding Companies in Governance Balance, and more. He did, as well, dabble in literature, writing novels like A Summer’s Breeze, The End of a Road, A Window to Sadness, The Epic of Disloyalty, Humiliation No More, A Woman in an Age of Confinement, and The Auntie and the Matchmaker. His works have been adapted into plays and soap operas like The Epic of Disloyalty, Al-Dad’s Epic, and The Epic of a Stone.