Where there's life, there's hope. This has been epitomized by a father who lost his only son 22 years ago at the Grand Mosque in Makkah. Ever since then the distraught father has left no stone unturned to find his missing son. On Friday, April 18, 1987, a Saudi family consisting of a couple, two children and their grandmother were at the Grand Mosque of Makkah for the Maghrib prayers. Their daughter, then seven, kept an eye on her brother while the family prayed. She held him securely in her arms and stood nearby, watching worshippers. The father headed for the men's section to pray. Upon returning to the spot where he had left his family, he was met with the horrified look of his wife and mother. He later discovered that the family was under the impression that their son was with him, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported on Wednesday. When asked to explain, his daughter said that a veiled, dark-skinned woman approached her when the family was praying and asked her to go to the coolers to drink water and come back for her brother. However, when she came back, the woman had vanished and, with her, the baby. The family frantically searched every corner of the Holy Mosque for their baby. Abdullah Bin Abdulrahman Al-Zahrani, the father, now in his sixties remembers every bit of that fateful day. He relates: "Between Al-Hateem and Zamzam Well - that is where my son went missing. We reported the incident to the police and all my relatives and friends rushed to the Mosque to assist us with the search. We stayed in Haram until dawn on the following day, all exhausted and emotionally shattered." He says that his daughter, now 30, will forever live with the bitter memory of that day if her brother is not found. "We looked everywhere for our son who now must be 22, hoping that he is still alive and will show up someday," said Al-Zahrani. "Over the past 22 years, I went to Morocco and Yemen and to several Saudi cities whenever I was tipped that my son lives there only to discover that I was conned time and again." These people have hearts made of stone! They find joy in torturing me and my family, he lamented. "A person in Yemen once sent me a message that my son lives there and that he is in perfect health. I asked him to send me my son's fingerprints for matching and he did. A few days later, I asked him to resend the fingerprints because I misplaced the ones he sent before. I was appalled that the second set of fingerprints did not match the first ones. Despite all the pain and suffering, Al-Zahrani and his family are still hopeful. "I have tread all paths even the unimaginable ones and spent thousands of riyals searching for my son and does not regret doing so. I will look for him until the day I die," the distraught father said. Al-Zahrani said birthmarks would help him in identifying his son. "There is a white mole on the right side of his back - his hair is black but not thick and his eyes are honey-colored," he said. However, the fact that his son's appearance must have changed over the years is a cause of concern for Al-Zahrani. He said he has heard about research and criminal centers in some countries which may be able to produce a computerized photo of his son at his current age __
