The merchant then arrived and found the woman in a state of great distress, and when he asked her what was wrong she said: ‘Last night you sent me two men who tried to seduce me and who caused me the greatest anxiety.’ The angry merchant went off to the king and told him what his agents had done. The king, who loved them because of their trustworthiness and their piety, quickly summoned them and ordered the woman to be brought to him so that she could give evidence in person of what they had done. When she came before him he asked her to tell him what had happened. She said: ‘O king, I ask you in the Name of the Almighty God, Lord of the celestial throne, to tell these two to repeat what they said last night.’ The king ordered them to do this and to conceal nothing. When they told him what they had said, he rose from his throne, gave a great cry and, throwing himself on them, he embraced them, exclaiming: ‘By God, it is true! You are my sons.’ At that the woman unveiled herself and said: ‘And I, by God, am their mother.’
They were all reunited and lived the most delightful and pleasant of lives until they died. Praise be to God, Who rescues His servants when they seek Him and does not disappoint their hopes and expectations. How well it has been said on this theme:
Everything has its appointed time, my brother.
Things are at times erased and at other times confirmed.
Do not grieve over a misfortune that befalls you;
God has shown us that out of hardship there comes ease.
Many a man suffers distress, whose outer show
Is harmful, but within lies joy.
There is many a one despised and hated in men’s eyes,
Concealed in whom are the miracles of God.
Here is a man who suffered harm and sorrow,
Visited, as he was, at one time by disasters;
Time parted him from those he loved;
They had long been together but were then dispersed.
God favoured him and brought them back,
And in all things there are signs of our Lord.
Praise be to Him, Whose power encompasses all things;
The signs point to the fact that He is near.
He is at hand, but intellect cannot assess His qualities,
Nor can He be brought near in terms of space.
It is told that ABU’L-HASAN AL-DARRAJ SAID:
I often used to visit Mecca, may God add to its nobility, and because I knew the route and could remember where to find water, people used to follow me. It happened that one year, when I was intending to visit the Ka‘ba and the tomb of the Prophet, may God bless him and give him peace, I said to myself: ‘I know the way and I shall go on my own.’ I walked as far as al-Qadisiya and on entering the town I went into the mosque. There in the prayer niche I saw a leper sitting, and when he caught sight of me he said: ‘Abu’l-Hasan, may I go with you to Mecca?’ I said to myself: ‘I have avoided taking anyone with me, so why should I go with a leper?’ So I told him that I was not taking anyone with me, and he said nothing more. The next morning I set out alone and went on like that until I got to al-‘Aqaba, where I entered the mosque, and when I did so, there in the prayer niche I found the leper. ‘Glory to God,’ I said to myself, ‘how did this man get here?’ He raised his head, smiled at me and said: ‘God does for the weak what surprises the strong.’
In the morning I went off on my own and got to ‘Arafat, where I went to the mosque, only to find the leper sitting in the prayer niche. I threw myself down before him and said: ‘Master, allow me to accompany you,’ and I started to kiss his feet. ‘You cannot do that,’ he replied, at which I started to weep and wail at being deprived of his company. ‘Do not take this so hard,’ he said, ‘for tears will do you no good…’
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and eighty-second night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that ABU’L-HASAN WENT ON:
When I found the leper sitting in the prayer niche, I threw myself down before him and said: ‘Master, allow me to accompany you,’ and I started to kiss his feet. ‘You cannot do that,’ he replied, at which I started to weep and wail at being deprived of his company. ‘Do not take this so hard,’ he said, ‘for tears will do you no good, however many you shed.’
Then he recited:
Do you weep at being far from me when you are the cause,
And do you hope to bring back what cannot be restored?
You saw my weakness and the clear signs of my illness,
And you said: ‘This is a sick man who cannot go to and fro.’
Do you not see that the Great and Glorious God
Grants us the grace His servants cannot grasp?
If to outward show I am as you can see,
My body showing the ravages of long disease,
And if I have no travel provisions to bring me
To where His servants go to wait upon their Lord,
I have a Creator Who favours me with hidden grace;
He has no equal and from Him I cannot be parted.
Go with my blessing and leave me here as a stranger,
For the lonely stranger is befriended by the One.
I left him, but to whichever pilgrimage station I came, I found that he had got there first. Then, when I reached Medina, I lost track of him and heard no news of him. I met Abu Zaid al-Bistami, Abu Bakr al-Shibli and a number of other shaikhs, to whom I told my story, complaining to them of what had happened to me. ‘Never again will you enjoy his company,’ they said. ‘That was Abu Ja‘far, the leper, whose sanctity is invoked in prayers for rain and through whose blessing prayers are answered.’
When I heard what they said I longed even more to meet the man again, and I prayed that God might reunite us. Then, while I was standing at ‘Arafat, I felt someone pulling me from behind, and when I turned I saw that it was the leper. On seeing him I gave a great cry and fell down in a faint, and when I had recovered he could not be found. That increased my longing, and as I could find no peace of mind, I prayed to Almighty God to allow me to see him again. A few days later I felt another tug from behind and, turning, I saw him. This time he insisted that I should tell him what I wanted, and so I asked him to pray on my behalf for three things: firstly, that God should make me love poverty; secondly, that I should never pass the night in the certain knowledge that my daily bread was assured me; and thirdly, that He should allow me to see His glorious face. Abu Ja‘far prayed for me and then left, and God Almighty answered his prayer. God has caused me to love poverty so much that I swear there is nothing in this world which I prefer. As for the second prayer, for a number of years I have never passed a night in the certain knowledge of a secure source of livelihood, and in spite of that God has never left me in need. As for my third request, I hope that God may grant me this as He has granted the first two, for He is bountiful and generous. May God have mercy on the poet who said:
The faqir is dressed in self-denial and in gravity,
While his clothes are rags and tatters.
Pallor adorns him, as moons are adorned
During the last night of their cycle.
His long night prayers have made him thin,
And tears pour from his eyelids.
His household friend is his mention of God’s Name,
And his night companion is God in His omnipotence.
His help is sought by those who seek refuge,
As well as by the beasts and by the birds.
Because of him, God sends afflictions,
While it is through his grace rains come.
When he prays for a misfortune to be removed,
Wrongdoers are destroyed and tyrants fall.
When all mankind is sick and ailing,
He is the kindly doctor bringing help.
His marks are clear; look at his face
And hearts are purified as radiance shines.
You who turn from such men and fail to see their virtue,
It is t
he burden of your sins that hides them from you.
You hope to reach them, but find yourself fettered;
This is the burden that keeps you from your goal.
For if you knew their worth you would respond to them,
And rivers of tears for them would flood from you.
A blocked nose is not quick to smell the flowers;
The salesman knows the value of the clothes.
Hurry towards your Master; ask for His union.
It may be that fate will come to your aid.
You are too far from Him and filled with hate.
Abandon this, and reach your real desire.
For all who hope are welcomed by His grace,
And He is God, the One, the Omnipotent.
A story is told that in the old days there was among the Greeks a wise man named Daniel, with pupils and followers, whom the other Greek sages acknowledged as their master and on whose learning they relied. He had no male child and one night, when he was thinking of this and weeping because he had no heir to inherit his learning, it occurred to him that God answers the prayers of those who turn to Him. The door of His grace is guarded by no gatekeeper; His sustenance is given without a reckoning to those He wishes; and He turns away no suppliant, but supplies His bounties and favours in abundance. So Daniel prayed to God to grant him this great favour and provide him with a son to succeed him. Then he went home and lay with his wife, who conceived that same night.
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and eighty-third night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that the wise Greek went home and lay with his wife, who conceived that same night. Some days later, Daniel set out on a voyage on which his ship was wrecked. His books were lost in the sea, but he himself climbed on to a plank holding five pages, which were all that were left of them. When he got home he put these in a chest and locked it. His wife was by now showing signs of her pregnancy and he told her: ‘Know that my death is near at hand and I am soon to leave this transitory world for the world of eternity. You are pregnant and it may be that you will give birth to a son after my death. When you do, call him Hasib Karim al-Din; give him the best of upbringings and when he grows up and asks you what his father left him by way of inheritance, give him these five pages. When he reads them and grasps their contents, he will become the wisest person of his age.’ He then said farewell to his wife, gave a groan and died, leaving this world and all that is in it, may Almighty God have mercy on him.
His family and his companions wept over him, and, after washing his corpse, they brought him out in great pomp, buried him and then went to their homes. A few days later his wife gave birth to a handsome boy, whom she called Hasib Karim al-Din, following her husband’s instructions. After his birth she brought in astrologers, who calculated his horoscope by studying the stars. They then told his mother that he would have a long life, that he would face difficulties in his early days but that when he had escaped from these he would become a sage. After making this prediction they left.
His mother fed the boy with her milk for two years and then weaned him. When he was five years old she sent him to school to be taught, but as he learned nothing she took him away and had him taught a trade. Here too he learned nothing and would do no work at all, reducing his mother to tears. She was then advised to get him married, as, if he had a wife to look after, he might have to work at a trade. So she looked out a girl for him and married him to her, but some time later he had still not taken up any trade. Neighbours of the family, who were woodcutters, went to his mother and said: ‘Buy your son a donkey, a rope and an axe. He can come to the mountain with us and we can all gather wood, sharing the money that we get for it between ourselves and him, and he can then spend his share on you.’ Karim’s mother was delighted when she heard this, and she bought the donkey, the rope and the axe, after which she took her son and handed him over to the woodcutters, leaving him in their charge. ‘Don’t worry,’ they told her, ‘this is the son of our master and God will provide for him.’
They took him with them to the mountain, chopped wood, loaded their donkeys and went to the city. There they sold the wood and spent the money on their families. They did this again on the next day, the day after that and so on for some time until it happened that one day, when they had gone to work, a great rainstorm burst over them, forcing them to take refuge in a large cave. Karim got up and left them, going to sit by himself in a different part of the cave. He began to strike the ground with his axe and it turned out that the place he struck sounded hollow. He spent some time digging until he discovered a rounded flagstone with a ring in it. In his joy at seeing this he called his companions…
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and eighty-fourth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that Karim was delighted to find the flagstone with the ring. He called his companions, who gathered round him. When they saw the stone they quickly pulled it up and opened the door that they found beneath it, discovering there a pit filled with honey. They said to one another: ‘Here is all this honey. What we have to do is go back to town and fetch containers in which to put it, and afterwards we can sell it and share the profit. One of us should stay here to guard it from all comers.’ Karim volunteered to act as guard while the others went to get the containers, and so they left him watching over the pit for them. When they had brought containers from the town, they filled them with honey and loaded them on their donkeys. Then they returned to the town and sold their honey, before coming back again to the pit. They went on doing this for some time, selling in the town and then returning to fetch a fresh load of honey, while all the time Karim stood guard.
One day the woodcutters said to themselves: ‘It was Karim who discovered the honey pit, and tomorrow he will go to the town and claim that it is he and not we who should get the money for its contents, on the grounds that he was the finder. The only way that we can get out of this is to tell him to go down into it to collect the rest of the honey, after which we can leave him there to die a miserable death, without anyone knowing about it.’ They all agreed to this and went back to the pit, where they told Karim to climb down to collect the remains of the honey. When he had finished doing this, he said: ‘There is nothing left, so pull me up,’ but no one answered him. Instead, the others loaded their donkeys and went back to the town, leaving him there alone. He started to cry for help, weeping and exclaiming: ‘There is no might and no power except with God, the Exalted, the Omnipotent! I am doomed to a wretched death.’
So much for him, but as for the woodcutters, they got back to the town where they sold their honey and they then came to Karim’s mother, shedding tears as they went and saying: ‘May you be granted life in exchange for Karim, your son.’ ‘How did he die?’ she asked, and they said: ‘While we were sitting on the mountain, a rainstorm burst over us and we sheltered from it in a cave. Before we noticed what was happening, your son’s donkey bolted into the valley and he followed to turn it back. There was a huge wolf there and it killed him and ate the donkey.’ When Karim’s mother heard this she struck her face and poured dust on her head in mourning for him. The woodcutters used to bring her food and drink every day, while they themselves opened shops and set up as merchants, eating, drinking, laughing and enjoying themselves.
As for Karim, he continued his weeping and wailing, and then, as he was sitting miserably in the pit, a large scorpion fell on him. He got up and killed it, but after thinking the matter over, he asked himself: ‘This pit was full of honey, so how did the scorpion get here?’ He stood up to see where it had come from, and after looking right and left in the pit, he found where this must have been and noticed that light was shining through a hole. Taking out a knife that he had with him, he enlarged the hole until it was as big as a window. He made his way through it and, after he had w
alked on for some time, he came across a great corridor, which he went along until he came in sight of a large black iron door with a silver lock, in which was a key of gold. He went up to it and, on looking through a crack, he saw a great light shining from the other side. Taking the key, he opened the door and entered, after which he walked on until, after a time, he came to a large lake in which he saw something that glittered brightly. On approaching it, he discovered that this was a tall mound of green chrysolite on which was set a golden throne studded with gems…
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the four hundred and eighty-fifth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that when Karim got to the mound, he discovered that it was made of green chrysolite and that on it was a golden throne studded with gems of all types. Around this throne were chairs, some of gold, some of silver and some of green emerald.
Karim sighed as he came to the chairs, and when he counted he found that they were twelve thousand in number. He went up to the throne set in the middle of them and sat down on it to admire the lake and the chairs. He was still doing this when he fell asleep, but after he had slept for some time, he heard a puffing and a hissing accompanied by a great commotion. When he opened his eyes and sat up, he was terrified to discover that the chairs were now occupied by enormous snakes, each a hundred cubits long. His mouth was dry with fear and he despaired of life, as he saw the eyes of all these snakes on their chairs blazing like burning coals. Then he turned towards the lake, where he saw small snakes in numbers that only God could count. After a time a snake as big as a mule came towards him. On its back was a golden tray, and in the middle of this was another snake that glistened like crystal and had a human face.
The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 2 Page 46