The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 2

by Penguin; Robert Irwin; Malcolm Lyons; Ursula Lyons

  I asked his name and was told that it was Maimun. So I took him by the hand and we set off together on the way back to my house. He then turned to me and said: ‘My junior master, why did you buy me? By God, I am not good at serving God’s creatures.’ I told him: ‘I bought you in order to serve you myself, and this I shall do with pleasure.’ ‘Why is that?’ he asked, and I said: ‘Were you not with us last night at the oratory?’ ‘Did you see me?’ he asked, and I told him that it was I who had gone up and spoken to him. He walked on and entered a mosque where he performed two rak‘as and then said: ‘My God, my Lord and my Master, we had a secret between ourselves, but now You have made it known to Your creatures and put me to shame among all mankind because of it. How can I enjoy life now that someone other than You knows what we shared? I call on You to take my soul this instant.’

  He then prostrated himself and I waited for a time, but when he did not raise his head I shook him only to find that he was dead, may God have mercy on him. I straightened out his arms and legs and when I looked at him I saw that there was a smile on his face; his black colour was now predominantly white and his face was gleaming with radiance. While we were wondering at all this, a young man came in through the door and said: ‘Peace be on you and may God grant us and you a great reward in respect of Maimun, our brother. Here is a shroud, so cover him with it.’ He then gave us two garments the like of which I have never seen, which we used for his shroud. His grave is now a place where people pray for rain, as well as asking other favours from God, the Great and Glorious.

  How excellent are the lines of a poet on this theme:

  The hearts of the Gnostics roam in a heavenly garden

  Separated from us by the veils of God.

  They drink wine there that is mixed

  With waters of Paradise,

  And God’s friendship is close at hand.

  Their secret is between themselves and God, the Friend,

  And is kept guarded from all other hearts.

  A story is told that one of the best of the Israelites was a man who exerted himself in the worship of God and was abstemious in the things of this world, which he had removed from his heart. He had a wife who helped him and who obeyed him at all times, and the two of them got their living by making trays and fans. They would work on these all day long, and in the evening the man would go out carrying what they had made and wander round the lanes and streets looking for a buyer to whom to sell them. One day the two of them fasted, something that they did constantly, and after their day’s work the man went out as usual carrying what they had produced, and while he was searching for a purchaser, he passed by the door of a worldly man who was both rich and important. The tray maker was a handsome man with a bright face, and the wife of the owner of the house, whose husband was absent at the time, caught sight of him and felt strongly attracted by him. She called for her maid and said: ‘Perhaps you can find some way of bringing that man to me.’ The maid went out and called the man back, pretending that she wanted to buy his goods.

  Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and sixty-ninth night, SHE CONTINUED:

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that the maid went out and called to the man. ‘Come into the house,’ she said, ‘for my mistress wants to buy some of your goods after she has examined them and tried them out.’ The man thought that she was telling the truth and, as he could see no harm in it, he went in and sat down as he was told. The maid then locked the door and her mistress came out from her room and, seizing the man by his shirt, she pulled him into it. ‘How often have I longed to be alone with you!’ she exclaimed. ‘I can no longer bear to be without you. The room is perfumed, the food is ready, the master of the house is away tonight and I have given myself to you, although kings, leaders and rich men have sought me out and I have not listened to any of them.’

  While the woman went on speaking, the tray maker kept his eyes fixed on the ground out of a sense of shame before Almighty God and in fear of His painful punishment, as the poet puts it:

  There is many a grave sin that only shame has kept me from committing.

  Shame is sin’s cure, and when it goes, no cure remains.

  The man wanted to escape from her but found himself powerless. So he said: ‘I have something to ask from you.’ ‘What is it?’ she asked. He replied: ‘I want to take some clean water up to the highest point in your house in order to do something, and that is to wash away dirt from a place that I cannot show you.’ ‘This is a large house,’ she told him, ‘with plenty of private nooks, as well as a well-appointed privy,’ but he insisted that he had to be high up. So she told her maid to take him to the top of the house. The maid did this and gave him a jug of water, after which she went back. For his part, the man performed the ritual ablution and then prayed with two rak‘as. He looked down at the ground and thought about jumping off, but seeing how far it was he was afraid lest he be dashed to pieces. Then he thought of the penalty for disobedience to God, and to lose his life and shed his own blood seemed to him a simple thing to do. So he said: ‘My God and my Lord, You see what has happened to me; my position is not hidden from You and You have power over everything. The voice of conscience repeats these lines:

  Heart and conscience point towards You;

  To You the heart’s secrets are revealed;

  If I speak, it is to You that I cry,

  And when I am silent, it is to You I point –

  You with Whom no partner is joined,

  It is to You the poor distracted lover comes.

  I have a hope, which my beliefs confirm,

  But as You know my heart is fluttering.

  To offer up one’s life is the hardest thing to do,

  But if this is Your decree, then it is easy.

  If in Your bounty You allow me to escape,

  You, Who are my hope, can bring this thing about.’

  He then threw himself from the top of the house, but God sent an angel who carried him on his wings and brought him to the ground safe and uninjured. When he had come to rest there, he gave praise to the Great and Glorious God for the protection He had granted him and the mercy He had shown him. It was late when he returned empty-handed to his wife. When he came in carrying nothing, she asked him why he was late and what he had done with the goods that he had lost, so that he had come back without anything. He told her how he had been tempted and how God had saved him after he had thrown himself from the roof. ‘Glory be to God,’ she said, ‘Who saved you from temptation and rescued you from this ordeal.’ She then went on: ‘Our neighbours are used to finding that we light our oven every night, and if they notice that we have no fire tonight they will realize that we are penniless. By way of gratitude to God, we have to conceal our poverty and so we must continue yesterday’s fast through tonight, as a duty owed to Him.’ She got up, filled the oven with wood and lit it in order to trick her neighbours, and she recited these lines:

  I shall conceal my hardship and my sorrows,

  And light my fire so as to deceive my neighbours.

  I am content with what my Master has ordained;

  I humble myself before Him, so that, seeing this, He may now be content.

  Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and seventieth night, SHE CONTINUED:

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that the woman lit the fire in order to trick her neighbours. After that, she and her husband performed the ritual ablution and got up to pray. Just then, one of the neighbours came in to ask for a light from their oven, and as she was allowed to do this, she went to the oven and then called out: ‘Come and look after your bread before it gets burned.’ ‘Did you hear what she said?’ the wife said to her husband. He told her to get up and look, and so she went to the oven and found it full of fine white bread. Taking the loaves she went to her husband, thanking God, the Exalted and Glorious, for the great go
odness and bounty that He had bestowed on them.

  They ate the bread, drank water and gave thanks to Almighty God. Then the wife said to her husband: ‘Let us pray to God that He may give us something that may allow us to stop toiling away to earn our daily bread and help us to apply ourselves to worshipping Him and obeying His commands.’ Her husband agreed; he prayed to God and his wife added the amen, at which a hole opened in the roof and a jewel came down through it, filling the whole room with its radiance. They thanked God with even more fervent praise and were filled with delight as they offered up their prayers to Him. Then, towards the end of the night, when they had fallen asleep, the woman had a dream in which she entered Paradise and saw many high seats and chairs set out in rows. She asked what they were and was told that the high seats were for the prophets and the chairs for the righteous and virtuous. ‘Where is my husband’s chair?’ she asked. ‘Here it is,’ she was told, but when she looked at it she saw that there was a hole in its side. ‘What is this gap?’ she asked, and she was told that it had been left by the jewel that had fallen through the roof of their house.

  She woke up tearful and sad because among the chairs of the righteous her husband’s chair was imperfect, and she said: ‘Husband, pray that God may put this jewel back in its place, for to endure hunger and poverty for a few days is easier than your having to sit among the virtuous on a chair with a hole in it.’ The man prayed and, as they both watched, the jewel rose through the roof. They continued to serve God in poverty until they came into His presence, Great and Glorious is He.

  A story is told that al-Hajjaj al-Thaqafi had launched a hunt for a certain important person and when the man was brought before him he said: ‘Enemy of God, He has put you in my power.’ He gave orders that the man was to be taken to prison and chained up tightly with heavy fetters; a cage was to be built over him which he could not leave and which no one could enter. So the man was taken off to prison and a blacksmith was fetched, together with fetters. At every blow of the smith’s hammer the man raised his head towards heaven, saying: ‘God is the Lord of creation and the command is His.’ When the smith had finished, the gaoler built a cage over him and left him there alone. The prisoner was filled with emotion and confusion and his inner voice recited these lines:

  You Who are the goal of the seeker, You are my desire;

  My reliance is on Your universal grace.

  My state is not hidden from You;

  One glance from You is all I can wish for and seek.

  They have imprisoned me and tested me to the utmost;

  Alas for my loneliness and isolation.

  Although I am alone, the mention of Your Name befriends me,

  Keeping me company at night, when I cannot sleep.

  I care for nothing except for Your approval;

  You know what it is You see within my heart.

  In the dark of night the gaoler posted a guard over the prisoner and went off to his own house. In the morning he came back and looked for the man, only to find the fetters discarded and no trace of the man himself. Filled with fear and certain of his own death, he went home and said goodbye to his family and then, carrying his shroud and the perfumes for it in his sleeve, he went to al-Hajjaj. When he stood before him, al-Hajjaj detected the scent of the perfumes and asked what it was. ‘It is something that I have brought,’ said the gaoler, and when al-Hajjaj asked him why he had done that, the gaoler told him about his prisoner.

  Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and seventy-first night, SHE CONTINUED:

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that the gaoler told al-Hajjaj that the prisoner had escaped. ‘Damn you,’ said al-Hajjaj, ‘did you hear him say anything?’ ‘Yes,’ said the gaoler. ‘When the smith struck with his hammer, the prisoner looked up to the heavens, saying: “God is the Lord of creation and the command is His.” ’ ‘Don’t you realize,’ said al-Hajjaj, ‘that the One Whom he was addressing while you were there freed him while you were absent?’

  On this point, the voice of inspiration recited the lines:

  Lord, from how many trials have You rescued me,

  And were it not for You, I could not sit or stand.

  How often and how often – I cannot count –

  Have You freed me from misfortune. How often and how often!

  A story is told that a virtuous man heard that in a certain town there was a smith who could put his hand into the fire and take out hot iron without suffering any harm. The man went to that town to ask for the smith and was shown where he was. When he studied the smith closely, he watched him performing this feat and so he waited until he had finished his work and then went up and greeted him, saying: ‘I would like to stay as your guest tonight.’ The smith welcomed him and took him home, after which they ate their evening meal and both of them went to sleep.

  The visitor had seen nothing to suggest that his host was in the habit of passing the night worshipping God, but he said to himself: ‘Perhaps he is hiding this from me,’ and so he spent a second and then a third night there. He saw that the smith performed no more than what was traditionally added to the obligatory prayers and only seldom rose to pray at night. So he said: ‘Brother, I have heard of the miraculous power that God has given you and I have seen you using it, but on looking at your devotion to worship, I have not seen any obvious source of miracles. So from where do you get this power?’ THE SMITH SAID:

  I will tell you about that. I was deeply in love with a girl whom I tried to seduce many times, but she was so pious that I did not succeed. Then there came a year of drought, famine and hardship. There was no food to be had and people were reduced to the extremes of hunger. While I was sitting one day, a knock came at the door; I went out and there was the girl. She said: ‘Brother, I am very hungry, and I have approached you to see whether you will give me food for the sake of God.’ I told her: ‘You know how I love you and you know the frustration I have had to put up with because of you. I shall not give you any food until you allow me to lie with you.’ She said: ‘Death is better than disobedience to God.’

  She went away, but two days later she came back and again made the same appeal to me, to which I gave the same answer. She came in and sat down but, although she was close to death, when I put food in front of her, her eyes filled with tears and she said: ‘Feed me, for the sake of God.’ ‘No, by God,’ I replied, ‘not unless you let me lie with you.’ ‘Death is better than God’s punishment,’ she said, and she got up, leaving the food behind…

  Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and seventy-second night, SHE CONTINUED:

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that THE SMITH WENT ON:

  The girl said: ‘Feed me, for the sake of God.’ ‘No, by God,’ I replied, ‘not unless you let me lie with you.’ ‘Death is better than God’s punishment,’ she said, and she got up, leaving the food behind and going out without having eaten anything. She was reciting these lines:

  I call to the One God, Whose bounty covers all creation:

  You hear my complaint and You see my distress.

  I have met hardship and poverty,

  And my misfortunes cannot even be told in part.

  I am like a thirsty man who can see water,

  But who has no drink with which to quench his thirst.

  My soul fights me for food,

  Whose pleasure passes, while the sin of disobedience remains.

  She stayed away for two days and then came knocking on my door. I went out and, although hunger made it difficult for her to speak, she said: ‘Brother, I am at my wits’ end and I cannot show my face to anyone but you. Will you give me food for the sake of Almighty God?’ ‘Not unless you let me lie with you,’ I said. She came into the house and sat down. There was no food ready so I cooked something and put it in a bowl. It was then that God’s grace overtook me and I blamed myself and said: ‘T
his woman lacks both intelligence and religious knowledge but she still will not eat, although she is so hungry that she cannot do without food, and she refuses you time after time, while you, for your part, will not abandon your disobedience to Almighty God.’ So I exclaimed: ‘O my God, I repent before You of what I had thought of doing!’ Then I took the food to her and told her to eat without fear of harm, as I was giving it to her for the sake of the Great and Glorious God.

  She lifted her eyes to the heavens and said: ‘O my God, if this man is telling the truth, then allow no fire to harm him in this world or the next, for You have power over all things and You are One to answer prayer.’ This was in the cold of winter, and I left her in order to get fire from the oven. At that, a burning coal fell on my body, but thanks to the power of the Almighty I felt no pain and I told myself that her prayer had been answered. Even when I took the coal in my hand it did not burn me, and so I went to her and said: ‘Good news: God has answered your prayer.’

  Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and seventy-third night, SHE CONTINUED:

  I have heard, O fortunate king, that THE SMITH WENT ON:

  I went to the girl and said: ‘Good news: God has answered your prayer.’ She threw away the morsel of food that she was holding and said: ‘My God, as You have shown me what I wanted in this man and answered my prayer for him, take my soul, for You have power over all things.’ At that moment God took her soul, may His mercy be on her, and the silent voice recited these lines: