The Trial of the Unborn Kingdom

In the absence of a sleeping kingdom, a tiger found a flame that was not Prometheus' flame, but rather a faint light that led him to a court that had not yet been built and a trial that no one had announced.

The jungle animal is by nature a social creature, but its social necessity does not involve chance or a cosmic process of living and reproducing, but rather stems from an inner authority. Whenever there is a group, there is a people, a land, and a social political law, the purpose of which is to guarantee the rights of the weak or the weak collective. There must be systems to govern it, represented by a ruler and a law to govern itself. Here, a transparent truth emerges: the group exists for one, or all for one. This in itself is a natural critique of gathering and meeting.

This scene gives rise to an authoritarian character without the imposition of force; the power of the group itself lies in how it controls its intellectual system. If the ideology is extremist, then it serves no purpose; extremism here is the individual's ability to produce and develop themselves.

Sometimes my instinct drives me to remain in a state of thought, perhaps because I have recently refrained from eating and hunting, or perhaps it is a matter of existential nature; since time immemorial, my animal lineage has carried the formulation of uniqueness as a predator. Despite my great strength, I have refrained from judging, perhaps as a curse, but strangely, I see it as a blessing. What is the purpose of judgment? Every judgment, whether dictatorial or systematic democratic, is nothing more than a worldly restriction. There are exceptions in the animal kingdom; as for the act of ruling, every self-governing entity does not need someone to rule it. Even if this rule is permissible, I believe that the act of ruling exists because creatures have, by nature, abandoned their own judgments. I am talking here about ethics and spirituality; when a creature loses control of its instincts, desires seep in and universal ethics are broken. Here I proposed the idea of society and governance, and produced authority. The idea here is that when each of us loses our self-control and listens to our worldly desires with emotion, we break our own equation.

I have been classified as one of the strongest animals in the kingdom, but some only see the destructive power I possess. For me, it is something different, something normal. I love freedom, so I hunt wherever and whenever I want. I shun society and have my own way of life: a philosophy of solitude and uniqueness. Hunting is not a means of survival, but an existential matter; survival even if I am alone. I do not like anyone else among the animals to think like me or take on my character; that is a bad omen.

Even within the jungle kingdom there are tribes. I had an aggressive friend who respected me: a fierce and wise wolf, but his wisdom was chaotic. His character is noble but tainted by his individual desire for power and authority. Although he is kind to his pack of wolves, the sheep see him as a criminal and a brutal killer who exterminates their race, while the Animal Security Organization sees him as a terrorist group and a brutal extremist who harms the kingdom. Therefore, he has no land and no river.

This is how the silkworm told me that I am a kind and compassionate person; she has always hated birds. I told her that birds like her fall. One day, I caught an eagle, not because I was hungry, but because I am a predator. By nature, I do not like predation of any kind, whether it is from someone who wanted to prey on me. This is where my authority in the kingdom lies.

After a few hours of reflection, I realized that I had been sitting in a state of unconsciousness. I imposed on myself a judgment that is atonement for sins by thinking about them. To be precise, it is not an easy thing: to be strict with yourself and force your nature to obey, even if it is a subjective process; it is a shocking imposition on the psychological and spiritual inner self and the morphological limits of the being itself. What can you say about obeying, whether out of coercion or love? It is a dark ritual; therefore, I did not see belonging in words, but in existence itself. I do not like the idea of assigning meaning to something; it is as if it loses its original meaning and becomes confused by a flashy word that contains a hidden wave of implicit obedience.

I closed my draft and moved away a little to sleep. It was next to a giant willow tree inhabited by a white owl. It always stared at me, and when I looked at it specifically, it turned its gaze in the opposite direction, as if a universe were hidden. Did it mean for me to look behind the kingdom or within it?

Even stray dogs have a pack. I always looked at them closely; there was little compassion in their group and many desperate attempts to survive, but their adherence to the idea of ethnicity is what allowed them to actually survive. When I apply this current to my ethnic ancestors, I find that the similarity does not exist. I have never been told that tigers, or even leopards, have family groups except as a necessity for the survival of the species. Even my cat grandchildren shy away from similarities and differences; they believe in themselves only as cats. I have never seen a cat become conceited and say, “My grandfather was a tiger.” Dogs, on the other hand, still bark and howl on full moon nights as if they were wolves. The strange thing is that society believes the barking of a stray dog.

One of the sultans of the kingdom was a lion who despised me, but with respect. One day, while smoking, he told me, "You must marry. Look at my harem of lionesses: they are wives and servants, they hunt, provide food, and protect themselves.“ I said to him, ”What did you add then?“ He replied, ”This is how my destiny was found: to rule.“ I said, ”How?" He replied hesitantly, “I was chosen.” I scoffed at him: “Who chose you?” He fell silent, then said: “God wanted me to rule.” I gave him five seconds to think, and my question was: “How? And where do you get the credibility for this statement?”

He said to me, “How can you doubt my credibility? It's as if you doubt the actions of God.” I snapped, “I don't worship God. God, if He exists, does not need imperfections to rule perfectly. His judgment of me alone is what matters to me.”

I did not mean myself by perfection; I have always been imperfect. Therefore, I did not put forward my idea to divide the features of the universe, but rather chose, almost consciously, a miserable path in life. My existence has always been linked to transience, so I preferred to live alone so that I could pass away alone. How can a transient being rule the earth? Is not the earth the meeting place of mortality? Why should I rule it? It is natural that judgment is transient. Must I scatter my judgment upon the rocks so that it remains firm? I am not a sculptor, I am a predator.

Idols of present glories are nothing but divine tools for a future generation. Strange are the ways of animals; either they are unaware, or their awareness has been stripped from the capacity and limitations of the mind.

Even the form of civilization does not give civilization its depth of existence; it is a foundation that exists as a period, not an extension of it, so that we may live out plans for it. Is that not so? When the mind devours your illusions, your soul is revealed to be barren and hybrid. Have you ever thought of sitting down and submitting to yourselves? Or do you prefer to remain subject to an unknown that cannot be grasped? I have never seen a god in my life, but I have always believed in his existence. How can you believe without understanding the current of your life, whether it is implicitly collective or individual? I woke up to the sound of drums. It was a vivid dream. Why did I wake up? A raven perched on the clouds told me that the time for judgment had come. What judgment? How can I be judged in a land where there is no judgment except that of its Creator? What are they doing? Has this flood of naivety not ended? Judgments, restrictions, and conditions... Where is life? And what comes after it?

Luccian Layth--

from the novella “The Empire of Jungle”