TEXT 2 is for no. 21-30THE STORY OF LAYLA AND MAJNUN
Qays ibn al-Mulawwah was just a boy when he fell deeply in love with Layla Al-Aamiriya. He was sure of
this love on the very first day he laid eyes upon her at school. He soon began to write beautiful love poems about
Layla and he would read them out loud on street corners to anybody who would care to listen. Such passionate
displays of love and devotion caused many to refer to the boy as Majnun, meaning madman.
One day, Majnun found the courage to ask Layla’s father for his daughter’s hand in marriage, but her
father refused the request. Such a marriage, the father reasoned, would only cause a scandal. It would not be
proper for his daughter to marry a person whom everybody called 'madman'. Instead, Layla was promised to
another.
Majnun was overcome with grief and abandoned his home and family and disappeared into the
wilderness. He lived a miserable life of solitude among the wild animals, spending his days composing poems to
his beloved Layla. Layla was forced to marry another man and, although she did not love him because her heart
still belonged to Majnun, she remained a faithful wife.
The news of this marriage was devastating to Majnun who continued to live a life of solitude, refusing to
return home to his mother and father in the city.
Majnun’s mother and father missed their son terribly and longed every day for his safe return home.
They would leave food for him at the bottom of the garden in the hopes that one day he would come back to
them out of the desert. But Majnun remained in the wilderness, writing his poetry in solitude, never speaking to
a single soul.
Majnun spent all of his time alone, surrounded only by the animals of the wilderness that gathered
around him and protected him during the long desert nights. He was often seen by travellers who would pass
him on their way towards the city. The travellers said that Majnun spent his days reciting poetry to himself and
writing in the sand with a long stick; they said that he truly was driven to madness with a broken heart.
Many years later, Majnun’s father and mother both passed away. Knowing of his devotion to his parents,
Layla was determined to send Majnun word of their passing. Eventually she found an old man who claimed to
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have seen Majnun in the desert. After much begging and pleading the old man agreed to pass on a message the
next time he set off on his travels.
One day, the old man crossed paths with Majnun in the desert. There he solemnly delivered the news
concerning the death of Majnun’s parents and was forced to witness what a terrible blow this was to the young
poet.
Overcome with regret and loss, Majnun cut himself off from the world entirely and vowed to live in the
desert until his own death.
Some years later, Layla’s husband died. The young woman hoped that finally she would be with her one
true love; that finally she and Majnun would be together forever. But sadly, this was not to be. Tradition
demanded that Layla remain in her home alone to grieve for her dead husband for two whole years without
seeing another soul. The thought of not being with Majnun for two more years was more than Layla could bear.
They had been separated for a lifetime and two more years of solitude, two more years without seeing her
beloved, was enough to cause the young woman to give up on life. Layla died of a broken heart, alone in her
home without ever seeing Majnun again.
News of Layla’s death reached Majnun in the wilderness. He immediately travelled to the place where
Layla had been buried and there he wept and wept until he too surrendered to the impossible grief and died at
the graveside of his one true love.
‘I pass by these walls, the walls of Layla
And kiss this wall and that wall.
It’s not love of the houses that has taken my heart
but of the One who dwells in those houses.’

25. 25. How did Majnun react to the rejection he got
from Layla’s father?
a. Killed himself
b. Ruined Layla’s marriage
c. Felt broken, then secluded in the
wilderness
d. Went away to other countries and
searched another woman
e. Left his home and family and filled his life
with new energy with his new lover
26. Why Laila still couldn’t unite with Majnun after
her husband died? Because…
a. Majnun has died
b. Layla’s father forbade her
c. Layla couldn’t find Majnun anywhere
d. A tradition obliged her for grieving in more
years
e. Majnun had left her in other places with
another woman
27. They had been separated for a lifetime and
two more years of solitude … (Paragraph 10).
The underlined word refers to …
a. The citizens
b. The parents
c. Layla and Majnun
d. Majnun and old man
e. Layla and her father
28. … but her father refused the request.
(Paragraph 2). The bold typed word is similar
to …
a. agreed d. believed
b. declined e. overworked
c. accepted