"Thou Shall not trespass. "

My love for nature was at its best when I was little; the celestial bodies, the trees, flowers, animals, water bodies, you name it. One of the things that used to surprise me is the agama lizard. First, the agama lizard is very common here and can be found almost everywhere, even in your comlind or room. They have these bright colours:red or orange head, light blue skin and a yellow tail. My mates at that time used to be scared of this animal but I liked it, especially its colours.

One thing I noticed again about agama lizard is its territorial behaviour which is a form of display or courtship. The male agama lizard often marks out an area, probably a scent or by some other invisible marking and fights any other lizards who dares trespass in this territory. When they fight, the stronger one, be it the intruder or the owner of the territory eventually win and either takes over the territory or keep the territory depending on which wins. I have also heard that animals like tigers and lions exhibit territoriality.

Yesterday, in where I live, some young boys where playing football at the back of a house. One of them mistakenly kicked the ball, it flew over the fence but instead of it landing on house, it landed in another adjacent to the house, which is an abandoned bakery. The boys came to the house begging to please give them the ball, thinking that it fell in the house. The boys in the house replied to them that they didn't see any ball. Note that this isn't the first time something like this has happened before. On some occasions, they would play the ball and it would land inside the house. There was a time when one of them played the ball and it fell on an old woman's head who lives in the house. They came, they apologised and they would give them their ball back, but they still persisted.

Seriously, this time around the ball didn't land in the house. After much begging the boys began to get frustrated and threatened that if the ball is not handed over to them, they would barge in and take it themselves. This infuriated one of the boys in the house and he dares them to come take it. They barged in!

With full force, they barged in and the rest of the boys of the house stood up in defence to fight against them. This led to a vigorous exchange of blows and hits including the use of sticks, firewoods and canes. It was getting really serious and one boy was already down with serious back injuries before some elders in the community hopped in to help curb the fight. After much effort they stopped and after some more chattering and threats, both parties went their separate ways.

When the father came in the evening from work and was informed. He was very angry and swore to report them to the police. He did and right now the boys are being detained in a correctional centre for three weeks for trespassing and disrupting neighbourhood peace.

If this had happened like five years back in this same district, nothing would have happened but it seems things are getting better now. I thank God for the improvement in ensuring law and order in our community.

Remember the paragraph about lizards? Yes, there was a point I was trying to make. Some people kind of blamed the owners of the house for fighting them. Even animals hold their territory in high esteem and are ready to defend it by all costs so it's only natural for those boys to feel the need to fight even if they are all gentlemen. I was really surprised when I saw them in action😂. The way one of them broke a firewood on one of the other boy's back left me in a shock I haven't still gotten over😂.

When others overstep their boundaries, it is only natural that we act. We all have to respect other people's boundaries and make sure we act when others try to trespass on ours. This is very simple and is totally wrong whatever your beliefs may be. Whether you're a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu or even atheist. Common logic tells us that it is wrong to trespass on other people's territory, especially our neighbours.

Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary mark.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

-Deuteronomy 27:17

The prophet of Islam(S. A. W) says,

“Go and publicly announce that the curse of God and the angels is on one who troubles his neighbor.”

[Mustadrak al-Wasa’il, v.2, pp.78-79]

Thanks for reading guys.

Special thanks to all my sponsors, up voters, commenters, and viewers.

Yours Layly,

❤❤❤❤❤