š¹ Part 1: A Beginning That Was a Test
I was born in a place that was both distant and closeā
far from the noise of cities,
yet still deeply rooted in my heart.
A small village on the outskirts of Hafar Al-Batin, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
September, 1987.
Around Safar, 1408 in the Islamic calendar.
My birth was not just a beginningā¦
it was a test.
From the very first moments,
life chose to teach me a lesson.
My father would later tell me
that as soon as I came into this world,
my body burned with fever.
I was sick.
Severely sick.
There was no time to think.
No room for hesitation.
They carried me to a hospital
more than three hundred kilometers away.
Three hundred kilometersā¦
for a body that had not yet learned how to cry,
and for two heartsāmy parents'ā
learning fear for the very first time.