Classical Arabic Stories

by Salma Khadra Jayyusi

  1. An Abbasid caliph who ruled from 295 / 908 to 320 / 932.

  45

  From The Lion and the Diver

  The diver talks to the lion in a ploy to win a quest:

  “It has been told1 how [the king of Persia] Khosrow Abrawiz dispatched [his general] Shahrabraz to fight the Byzantines. Shahrabraz tightened his grip on their king in Constantinople till he was almost ready to surrender and pay the jizya imposed on the conquered.2 Still, the Byzantine king gathered on board ships all the weaponry and engines of war and ammunition he could, prepared to cross the Bay of Constantinople and face Shahrabraz with his assembled strength. When all was ready and at sea, a storm blew up and tossed the ships, driving them to the camp of Shahrabraz, who captured them all. He thereupon sent all the spoils to Abrawiz, who rejoiced at this, the merit of Shahrabraz enhanced in his eyes. He expressed his pleasure with Shahrabraz constantly at his court, where all the dignitaries of the kingdom were in attendance.

  “As these took their leave, a prominent courtier who envied Shahrabraz came to the king.

  “‘For all your knowledge and wisdom, Your Majesty,’ he said, ‘a point has escaped you. Shahrabraz sent you all these things only after keeping back a far greater share of the spoils for himself. If Your Majesty wishes to learn the truth of this, you need only summon him back. He will have to bring all the spoils with him, for he cannot leave them behind. Then you will know for certain.’

  “Abrawiz assented to this, writing to order that Shahrabraz should return home and leave his brother in his place, so that he, Abrawiz, could confer with him on matters that could not be resolved by letter. This he sent with a messenger, giving the man two letters: one of them urging Shahrabraz to return quickly, the other saying that, having considered the matter, he found it better for Shahrabraz to remain to confront the full strength of the enemy. ‘If,’ he told the messenger, ‘you find he has announced his intention to return and begun preparations, then give him the letter in which I urge him to return. And if you find he has made no arrangements for this and has made no announcement on that score, then give him the other letter.’

  “Shahrabraz, though, came to hear of this, and he sent words of conciliation to the Byzantine king, suggesting they should join forces to fight Abrawiz.

  “‘No,’ the Byzantine king answered. ‘You stay in my country and I will go to fight Abrawiz.’

  “He marched to fight Abrawiz with an army four hundred thousand strong, surprising Abrawiz, who was without a full army. Fearing the worst now, Abrawiz summoned one of his Christian subjects who had benefited from the court’s favor.

  “‘You know how beholden you are to me,’ he told the man, ‘for my munificent treatment of you. I wish you to take this cane and deliver it personally to Shahrabraz. Be careful on no account to hand it over to another.’

  “The Persian king had made a hole in the cane, inserting in it a letter supposedly sent to Shahrabraz. ‘When my letter reaches you,’ it told him, ‘I wish you to burn the seat of the Byzantine kingdom, to kill their fighters, and take their children hostage. Know that I shall be attacking the Byzantine king on the day here specified. This should be the date for your own attack.’ Abrawiz then ordered money to be given to the Christian messenger, cautioning him once more to give the cane to none but Shahrabraz.

  “The Christian went off, passing close by where the Byzantines were encamped. There he heard twenty thousand church bells ringing, and on hearing them, his heart was filled with tenderness. ‘Oh soul,’ he said to himself, ‘cursed you are if you become a cause of destruction to the religion of the Christians!’

  “He went accordingly and stood at the door of the Byzantine king, asked leave to see him, and gave him an account of the matter. The king opened the cane, brought out the letter, and read it. ‘Shahrabraz has deceived me!’ he snorted. ‘By God, if I come upon him, I shall kill him without further ado!’ And so saying, he retreated at once with his army.

  “When the news reached Abrawiz, he laughed.

  “‘A single word that defeats four thousand soldiers,’ he said, ‘is of priceless value and splendid consequence.’”

  Having heard this story, the lion answered majestically: “I will not consent, with all the strength and courage I possess, to resort to ploys. Such things are done only by feeble beasts.” The diver countered with wise arguments, then narrated the following anecdotes:

  “It has been told how a man, defeated in battle, was speeding away on a horse he cherished greatly, and another fugitive asked him to take him up on his horse, too. The man let him ride behind, but, a short while later, looked back and saw his enemies galloping along behind, about to catch up with him.

  “‘Get down,’ he requested the man. ‘If not we shall both be killed.’

  “‘By God,’ the man said, ‘I will not agree to dismount, but rather hold on to what I have gained. If we are to be saved, then let us be saved together. If not, let us perish together.’

  “‘If there is no help for it but to be killed,’ the horseman told him, ‘then it is better I should die facing the enemy boldly than flee in disgrace.’ And with that he turned toward the enemies as if intending to confront them.

  “When the other man saw the horseman was indeed about to fling himself into the midst of the enemy, he leaped from the horse, and the horseman, turning back once more, galloped safely away.”

  From Al-Asad wa ʾl-Ghawwas (The Lion and the Diver), an Arab fable from the fifth / eleventh century, ed. Ridwan al-Sayyid, 2nd ed. (Beirut, 1992).

  1. The following anecdotes are narrated by a jackal in the animal kingdom. The jackal is known for his capacity for reflection and is accordingly nicknamed the “diver” because he delves, or dives, into meanings and brings out the essence of things. Here he is advising the king (the lion) to resort to ploys in the face of his powerful enemy—an enormous ox that has been devastating the neighborhood of the lion’s kingdom.

  2. The jizya was a tax levied on non-Muslims, in lieu of military service.

  IV

  Tales of Religion

  46

  The Tale of Kaʿb ibn Malek

  * * *

  (OF HIS REPENTANCE AND THAT OF HIS TWO FRIENDS)

  I was told by Abu ʾl-Taher, Ahmad ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr ibn Surayj, a slave of the Bani Umayyah, that he was told by Ibn Wahb, who was told by Ibn Yunes, who was told by Ibn Shihab, who said that the Prophet Muhammad undertook the Tabouk Conquest against the Byzantines and the Arab Christians of Syria.

  Ibn Shihab said: I was told by ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Kaʿb ibn Malek that ʿAbd Allah ibn Kaʿb was the leader of the Kaʿb when he became blind. He said: I heard Kaʿb ibn Malek tell of how he did not join the Messenger of God [the Prophet Muhammad]1 at the Tabouk raid:

  Kaʿb ibn Malek said:

  I never held back from joining the Prophet in any conquest he undertook except for that of Tabouk. I did indeed take no part in the battle of Badr, but he blamed no one for failing to join him then, for he had left the city with the Muslims to capture the herds of the Quraysh,2 and it was by chance, not contrivance, that God brought them face-to-face with their enemy. I had joined the Prophet on the Night of al-Aqaba,3 when we faithfully adopted Islam, and I would not give up this for [the privilege of] fighting at the battle of Badr, even though Badr is more famous.

  When I held back from joining the Prophet at Tabouk, I had never been so strong or affluent. Never before, by God, had I owned two riding camels together; only in preparation for that conquest. The Prophet made his assault on a very hot day, having traveled a long distance through a great wilderness and in the face of great numbers of the enemy. Making the Muslims ready for the assault, he clearly explained the plight they were in and the goal they were to accomplish. Though the Muslims alongside the Prophet were many, no register was kept. Yet hardly a man wished to leave thinking he would be unnoticed. The Prophet achieved that conquest when the fruits were ripe and the shadows were broad, and I was
most inclined to play my part.

  The Prophet was prepared, along with the Muslims, and I began to make myself ready, too, striving vainly to do what was necessary, telling myself I could do it if I had the will. But I remained, unable to prepare my equipment, till finally the Prophet and the Muslims had gone into battle and I had accomplished nothing. I strove once more to make ready so as to join up with them—if only I could!—but such was not my destiny.

  After the Prophet had set out, I was filled with grief whenever I met with others, for I was, I found, the only [competent] one to have stayed behind. The others who had stayed were, here, a man well known for hypocrisy, or, there, a man feeble enough to be excused. The Prophet called me to mind only when he had reached Tabouk. Then, sitting there with his people, he asked:

  “What has become of Kaʿb ibn Malek?”

  “Oh Prophet,” said a man from the Bani Salimah, “he held back, gazing at his cloak and his figure.”4

  Muʿadh ibn Jabal, though, rejoined:

  “That is a poor answer indeed! Oh Prophet, I swear by God, we know him to be a good man.”

  The Prophet said nothing…

  [Kaʿb ibn Malek continued:] When I learned that the Prophet had set out on his return from Tabouk, I was filled with grief and began to seek some way to justify myself. How, I wondered, could I avert his anger the next day? I sought counsel too from all the wise men among my people. I learned the Prophet was approaching [the city], and I was convinced now I could find no way of excusing myself. So, I decided to tell him the truth.

  Next morning the Prophet arrived. It was his custom, when returning from an expedition, to go first to the mosque to pray for a short while; and so he did this time. Then he sat to receive the people, and those who had declined to take part in the expedition came to express their regret and to swear allegiance to him once more. They were around eighty men. The Prophet accepted their excuses, gave them his assurance, and asked God to forgive them, leaving it to Almighty God alone to judge the secrets of their hearts. I came in and greeted him. He smiled in an angry fashion. Then he said:

  “Come closer!”

  I approached and sat before him.

  “What held you back?” he asked. “Had you not bought a mount?”

  “Oh Prophet,” I said, “if I were, by God, to excuse myself to any other man in all this world, I should seek to avert his anger (being well spoken as I am) with some plausible reason. Yet I know, should I utter some pleasing lie, God will swiftly rouse your anger against me. If, though, I tell the truth, this may indeed make you angry, but God will, I hope, be good to me. By God, I have no excuse. I was never as strong, never as affluent, as at the time I failed to join you.”

  “This man has told the truth,” the Prophet said then. [He looked at me and said:] “Rise and go, and await what judgment God may pass upon you.”

  So I rose, and some men from the Bani Salimah rose, too, and followed me.

  “By God,” they said to me, “we never knew you commit a guilty act before. Could you not have given the Prophet some excuse, the way those others did who stayed behind? Then your guilt would have been absolved by the forgiveness the Prophet asked for you.”

  [Kaʿb continued:] By God, still they reproached me, till I was on the point of returning to the Prophet to tell my own lie. Then I said to them:

  “Has any other here embraced the course I did?”

  “Yes,” they said. “Two others told the truth as you did, and they were given the same answer.”

  “And who were they?” I asked.

  “Murarah ibn Rabiʿa al-ʿAamiri,”5 came the answer, “and Hilal ibn Umayyah al-Waqifi.”

  These were two good men, who had taken part at Badr and were an example to others. When I heard their names, I went on my way.

  [He said:] Then the Prophet ordered the Muslims that all those who had not held back [from the expedition] should no longer speak to the three of us.

  [He said:] And so people avoided us. Their manner toward us was changed, so much so that I felt a stranger in the world; it was no longer the world I had known. So things went on for fifty days. My two friends submitted to this and stayed weeping at home, but I was stronger and more patient. I would go out to attend prayers and wander about the marketplace. But no one would talk to me. I would sit with the Prophet, too, and greet him at his assembly after prayers, asking myself, did he really move his lips in response to my greeting? I would pray alongside him, sending secret glances in his direction. When I moved forward to pray, he would look at me; but when I looked at him, he would take no notice of me.

  The Muslims continued to ignore me for a long time. At last I walked and climbed the house wall of Abu Qutada, my most-beloved cousin. When I greeted him, I swear he did not respond. Then I said to him:

  “Abu Qutada, for the sake of God, do you not know I love God and His Prophet?”

  Still he said nothing. Again I besought him in the name of God. He remained silent. Then, still once more, I besought him in the name of God. Then he said: “God and His Prophet know best.” I turned back, my eyes filled with tears, then leaped over the house wall and went on my way.

  As I was walking in the market of Medina, I heard a Nabataean from Syria, a seller of food in the marketplace, asking: “Who can guide me to Kaʿb ibn Malek?” People pointed me out to him, and thereupon he came and handed me a letter from the king of Ghassan.6 The letter read as follows:

  “After due salutation, it has come to our notice that your friends have shunned you. But God forbid you should remain in a place of disgrace, where your right is lost. Come to us, and we will take our portion of your grievances.”

  When I read this, I said to myself: “Here is one evil more.” And I took it to the furnace and burned it. When forty nights of the fifty had passed, and God’s revelation was slow, a messenger from the Prophet came to me and said:

  “The Prophet commands you to keep apart from your wife.”

  “Am I to divorce her then?” I asked.

  “No,” he said. “Only keep apart from her and do not approach her.” And he sent the same message to my two friends.

  “Go to your parents,” I told my wife, “and stay there with them, until God passes His judgment.”

  Then Hilal ibn Umayyah’s wife went to the Prophet and said:

  “Oh Messenger of God, Hilal ibn Umayyah is an old man with no servant. May I go and serve him?”

  “Yes,” he said, “but he may not approach you.”

  “By God,” she said, “he can do nothing at all, and, by God, he has been weeping ever since this business began.”

  [Kaʿb said:] Some of my people said to me:

  “Why not make the same request of the Prophet concerning your own wife? He has allowed Hilal ibn Umayyah’s wife to serve him.”

  “No,” I said, “I shall not ask the Prophet’s permission in this. How, in any case, can I know what he might say, knowing as he does that I am a young man?”

  The matter went on for ten nights more, making fifty nights in all from the time he had forbidden people to talk to us. On the morning of the fiftieth night, I said my dawn prayers on the roof of one of our houses. While I was still afflicted in this state Almighty God had willed for us, stricken with dejection and sensing the earth heavy on my soul, I heard someone on Mount Salʿ cry out at the top of his voice: “Oh Kaʿb ibn Malek, rejoice!” When I heard this, I fell on my knees, for I knew relief had come.

  [Kaʿb said:] The Prophet, at dawn prayers, had advised people that God had forgiven us. So it was that people came to us with the good news; and bearers of the news went to my two friends also. One man came to me on his horse, but another, from Aslam, sent me the news from the mountaintop, and the voice was faster than the horse. When this latter man came to me in person with the news, I gave him my full attire in recompense. And, by God, it was the only attire I then had. I borrowed another, put it on, and hurried to the Prophet. People in the street received me in groups, with congratulation for the for
giveness granted.

  “May God’s forgiveness bring you happiness!” they said.

  In due course I entered the mosque, where the Prophet was sitting with people around him. When Talha ibn Ubayd Allah saw me, he rose and came swiftly toward me, shaking my hands and congratulating me. By God, no other emigrant7 did this except him.

  [The narrator said:] Kaʿb would never forget what Talha did.

  [Kaʿb said:] When I greeted the Prophet, his face lit up with pleasure.

  “Rejoice!” he said. “This is the best day you have known since the time your mother gave birth to you.”

  “Is it from you, Prophet?” I asked. “Or is it from God?”

  “No,” he said. “It is from God.”

  When the Prophet was pleased, his face would brighten as though it were part of the moon. We all knew this.

  Sitting there at his disposal, I told him:

  “Oh Prophet, part of my repentance will be to give away my wealth for the sake of God and His Messenger.”

  He, though, told me:

  “Keep some of your wealth. That is better for you.”

  “I shall, then,” I said, “keep my share from the Khaybar battle.”

  Then I added:

  “Oh Prophet, God has indeed saved me by virtue of my truthfulness, and part of my repentance will be to speak the truth so long as I live.”

  And, by God, from the moment I told the Prophet this, I have known of no Muslim with whom God was so generous for his truthfulness as He has been with me. To this day, by God, I have never tried to tell a lie, and I pray God He will keep me so for the rest of my life.

  From Sahih Muslim (Famous Authentic Compilation of the Prophet’s Traditions), “Kitab al-Tawba” (Book of Repentance), ed. Muhammad Fuʾad ʿAbd al-Baqi, vol. 4 (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1368/1978).

  1. “Messenger of God” is the common expression used here and elsewhere for the Prophet Muhammad. For literary conciseness, the translation “the Prophet” will be used throughout.