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People flock in droves to see 9-year old boy with alleged supernatural powers
By KL | February 12, 2007
People from all over Maldives are rushing to seek various forms of medical treatment from a 9-year old boy from Baa atoll Thulhaadhoo, who is said to possess supernatural powers, the boy’s family has confirmed.
“It is true,” said Fathuhiyya, the mother of Farish Ahmed who studies in Grade 5 of Thulhaadhoo School, yesterday. “Lots of people from all over the country are coming to seek medical treatment from my boy. They come from the North and South atolls and even from Male. We don’t charge anything from them although we have had to start making appointments since the number of visitors have become too much to handle. We are doing this for the sake of doing a good thing and a lot of people have claimed that they their wishes have come true. Even now, there are some people from Ari atoll here to see him.”
She said that during the last year-end holidays so many people had visited Farish that they had eventually had to begin making appointments to handle the increasing number of visitors.
“Even now around 18 people visit him and he prescribes dhivehibeys (traditional medicine) and other sort of treatments for them two nights a week,” she continued. “There are still many appointments pending.”
Farish’s father, Ahmed Abdulla said that Farish’s grandmother, Khadheeja Ibrahim, was the one who knew the most about what Farish was doing as it was the mother and grandmother who were most involved in it. Khadheeja Ibrahim said that even she was amazed by the uncanny powers that the 9-year old boy seemed to possess.
“All this began around September last year,” she said. “One night as he was coming home from somewhere, he tripped over a small rock, fell down and fainted. When he didn’t regain consciousness we played the Holy Quran and took him to the Health Centre. We realized later that this was the doing of a jinni (genie). From then on we brought a man who practiced fanditha (black magic) to treat him.”
Khadheeja said that Farish had on occasion said and done things that were very unusual and unexplainable.
“Last Rajab month on the 27th, I asked him if he knew the significance of the night,” she said. The night of Rajab 27 is believed by some Islamic scholars to be the night that Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) Night Journey and Ascension had occurred. “Then he closed his eyes for a while and then began to relate to me in detail the significance and what had occurred that night. My eyes brimmed with tears when he spoke. How could a little boy like him know the events that had transpired on that night in so much detail?”
Farish’s mother also related another strange incident that had happened: “I believe that he is being helped by a jinni. One day Farish asked me if I would like to see the man who was helping him. But he told me that it could frighten me and it was possible that I could faint. He also told me that I might not regain consciousness if I fainted. So I told him that I would rather not.”
A man from Thulhaadhoo speaking to Haveeru reporters over the phone said that he believed that some people had been cured by the traditional medicine that the boy had made for them. However he said that he also believed that ‘it was a trick’ that the boy was doing. He refused to elaborate further.
Farish’s mother was of the opinion that it was impossible for a 9-year old boy to recognize and name the various different herbs used in the making of traditional medicine unless he was receiving help from another source.
“My boy does all his work at night,” she said. “When the visitors are relating their problems he will keep his eyes closed. Then he will speak and tell them what do to. We are not trying to make him stop as he has repeatedly told us that there was no risk or danger to him.”
Officials from Thulhaadhoo Island Office have refused to comment on the incidences, but said that they had received several complaints from residents saying that the boy was practicing traditional medicine without a license.
Religious scholar Sheikh Usmaan Abdulla said that he had also heard about the amazing exploits of the boy. When asked if he believed it was true, he said that he would not say that it could not happen.
“Some books have said that this kind of thing is possible,” he said. “So I cannot say that it can’t happen.”
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