On one of his mercantile journeys Ḥârith arrives at Samarcand early on a Friday morning, and after having refreshed himself in a public bath and performed the ceremonial ablutions incumbent on the day, he hurries to the chief mosque, to be one of the foremost amongst the worshippers. Here he listens attentively to a most impressive sermon on the instability of human destinies, and on the certainty and terrors of death. This address strikes him not only by the forcibleness of its diction, but by the peculiarity, that all the words employed in it consist of letters without diacritical points,—a peculiarity to which he alludes by calling it “a spotless bride.” He, therefore, looks closer at the preacher, and soon recognises in him Abû Zayd. After the divine service is over, he accosts him, and, as usual, the meeting between them is most affectionate on both sides. Abû Zayd invites Ḥârith to accompany him to his dwelling, and at nightfall shocks his guest by producing decanters filled with wine. Rebuke and remonstrances are airily met with some verses, spiced with Abû Zayd’s reckless philosophy. Relaxing from his habitual austerity, Ḥârith for once does at Rome as the Romans do, and pledged to secrecy under the influence of the cup, he even countenances his abandoned friend before the outside world during his stay in the city.
Al Ḥârith, son of Hammâm, related: In one of my
journeys I chose sugar-candy for a merchandise, making
with the same for Samarcand, and in those days I was
upright of build, brimful of sprightliness, taking sight
from the bow of enjoyment at the target of pleasures,
and seeking in the sap of my youth help against the
glamours of the water-semblance [mirage]. Now I
reached her on a Friday morn, after I had endured
hardship, and I bestirred myself without tarrying, until
a nightstead was got, and when I had carried there my
sugar-candy, and was entitled to say “at home with
me,” I wended forthwith towards a bath, when I put
from me the weariness of travel, and took to the washing
of the congregation-day conformably to tradition. Then
I hastened with the bearing of the humble to the
cathedral mosque, so as to join those who near the
prayer-leader, and offer [as it were] the fattened camel,
and happily I was foremost in the race, and elected the
central place for hearing the sermon. Meanwhile people
ceased not to enter in troops into the faith of Allah, and
to arrive singly and in pairs, until, when the mosque
was crowded with its assembly, and a person had
waxed equal with his shadow, the preacher sallied forth,
swaggering in the wake of his acolyths, and straightway
mounted the steps of the pulpit of the [divine]
call, until he stood at its summit, when he gave blessing
with a wave of his right hand, sitting down thereafter
until the ritual of the cry to prayer was completed.
Then he rose and spoke: “Praise be to Allah, the
exalted of names, the praised for His bounties, the
abundant in gifts, the called upon for the rescinding of
calamity;—king of the nations, restorer of rotten bones,
honourer of the folks of forbearance and generosity,
destroyer of ‘Âd and Irem;—whose cognizance comes
up with every secret, whose compassion encompasses
every obdurate in sin, whose munificence comprises all
the world, whose power breaks down every revolter.—
I praise Him with the praise of one who proclaims
[God’s] unity and professes Islâm, I pray to Him with
the prayer of the hopeful, the trusting, for He is the
God, there is no God but He, the unique, the one, the
just, the eternal, there is none begotten to Him, and no
begetter, no companion with Him and no helpmate.—
He sent forth Mohammed to spread about Islâm, to
consolidate religion, to confirm the guidance of the
apostles, to straighten the black-hued and the red.—
He united womb-connections, he taught the fundamentals
of truth, he set a stamp on the lawful and the
forbidden, he regulated [laid down the rules for] the
doffing and the donning of the pilgrim-cloak.—May
Allah exalt his place, and perfect the blessing and
benediction upon him, may He have compassion on his
race, the worthy, and on his progeny, the uterine, as
long as the pile-cloud pours, as long as the dove coos,
as long as the cattle graze, as long as the sword
assaults.—Work ye, may Allah have mercy upon you,
the work of the pious, exert yourselves towards your
return [on the resurrection day] with the exertion of
the sound, curb your lusts with the curbing of enemies,
make ready for your departure with the readiness of the
blissful.—Put ye on the robes of abstinence, and put
away the ailings of greed, make straight the crookedness
of your dealings, and resist the whisperings of
hope.—Portray ye to your imaginings the vicissitudes
of circumstances, and the alighting of terrors, and the
attacks of sickness, and the cutting off from pelf and
kin:—Bethink ye yourselves of death, and the agony of
its throwing-place, of the tomb and the awfulness of
that which is sighted there, of the grave-niche and the
loneliness of the one deposed in it, of the angel and the
frightfulness of his questioning and of his advent.—
Look ye at fortune and the baseness of its onslaught,
and the evil of its deceit and cunning:—How many
road-marks has it effaced, how many viands embittered!
how many a host has it scattered, how many an
honoured king has it overthrown.—Its striving is to
strike deaf the ears, to make flow the tear-founts, to
baffle desires, to destroy the songster and the listener
to the song. Its decree is the same for kings and
subjects, for the lord and the henchman, for the envied
and the envier, for serpents and for lions.—It enriches
not, but to turn away, and reverse hopes; it bestows
not, but to outrage and cut into the limbs; it gladdens
not, but to sadden, and revile, and injure; it grants no
health, but to engender disease and frighten friends.—
Fear ye Allah! fear ye Allah! May Allah keep you!
How long this persistency in levity, this perseverance
in thoughtlessness, this stubbornness in sin, this loading
yourselves with crime, this rejection of the word of the
wise, this rebellion against the God of heaven?—Is not
senility your harvest, and the clod your couch? Is
not death your capturer, and [the bridge] Ṣirâṭ your
path? Is not the hour [of resurrection] your tryst,
and the plain [or hell] your goal? Are not the terrors
of doomsday laid in ambush for you? Is not the
abode of transgressors Al-Ḥuṭamah, the firmly [safely]
locked?—Their warder Mâlik, their comeliness raven
blackness, their food poison, their breathing-air the
scorching blast!—No wealth prospers them, no offspring;
no numbers protect them, and no equipments.
—But lo, Allah has mercy upon the man who rules his
passion, and who treads the paths of His guidance;
who makes firm his obedience towards his Lord, and
strives for the restfulness of his place of refuge; who
works while life lasts obedient, and fortune at truce
with him, and health perfect and welfare at hand;—
Lest he be overtaken by the frustration of his wish, by
the faltering of speech, by the alighting of afflictions, by
the fulfilment of fate, by the blunting of senses, by the
remedy of the sepulchres. Alack on them for a misery
whose woefulness is assured, whose term is infinite!
He who is remedied thereby is wretched, his distractedness
has none to allay it, his regret none to pity it;
there is no one to ward off that which befalls him.
May then Allah inspire you with the praiseworthiest of
inspirations! May He robe you with the robe of
glory! May He cause you to alight in the abode of
peace! Of Him I ask mercy upon you and on the
people of the religion of Islâm, for He is the most
forgiving of the generous, the saviour, and peace be
with you.”—Said Al Ḥârith, son of Hammâm: Now,
when I saw that the sermon was a choice thing without
a flaw, and a bride without a spot, the wonderment at
its admirable strain urged me on to look at the preacher’s
face, and I began to scan it narrowly, and to let my
glance range over him carefully, when it became clear
to me by the truth of tokens, that it was our Shaykh,
the author of the Assemblies.—There was, however, no
help from keeping silent for the time being; so I withheld
until he had left off praying, and “the dispersing
on the earth” had come. Then I turned towards him,
and hastened to meet him, and when he spied me he
quickened his pace, and was profuse in doing me
honour, bidding me to accompany him to his abode and
making me a confidant of the particulars of his intimate
affairs.—Now, when the wing of darkness had spread,
and the time for sleep had come, he brought forth wine-
“Weep not for a friend that is distant, nor for an abode, but turn thyself about with fortune as it turns about.
Reckon thou all mankind thy dwelling-place, and fancy all the earth thy home.
Forbear with the ways of him with whom thou dealest, and humour him, for it is the wise that humours.
Miss thou no chance of enjoyment, for thou knowest not if thou live a day, or if an age.
Know thou that death is going round, and the moon-haloes circle above all created beings.
Swearing that they will not cease chasing them, as long as morn and even turn and re-turn.
How then mayest thou hope to escape from a net, from which neither Kisrá escaped, nor Dârâ.”
Said he [the narrator]: And when the cups went between us from hand to hand, and the vital spirits waxed gleeful, he dragged from me the oath that allows no exception, that I would screen his repute [secret]. So I complied with his wish, and kept faith with him, and ranked him before the great in the rank of Al Fuzail, and let down the skirt over the turpitudes of the night; and this continued to be his wont and my wont, until the time for my return came, when I took leave from him, while he persisted in hypocrisy and in secretly quaffing old wine.