The Epistle of Forgiveness: Volume One: A Vision of Heaven and Hell 9780814768990

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The Epistle of Forgiveness Volume One

Library of Arabic Literature Editorial Board General Editor Philip F. Kennedy, New York University Executive Editors James E. Montgomery, University of Cambridge Shawkat M. Toorawa, Cornell University Editors Julia Bray, University of Oxford Michael Cooperson, University of California, Los Angeles Joseph E. Lowry, University of Pennsylvania Tahera Qutbuddin, University of Chicago Devin J. Stewart, Emory University Managing Editor Chip Rossetti Volume Editor James E. Montgomery

Letter from the General Editor

The Library of Arabic Literature is a new series offering Arabic editions and English translations of key works of classical and premodern Arabic literature, as well as anthologies and thematic readers. Books in the series are edited and translated by distinguished scholars of Arabic and Islamic studies, and are published in parallel-text format with Arabic and English on facing pages. The Library of Arabic Literature includes texts from the pre-Islamic era to the cusp of the modern period, and will encompass a wide range of genres, including poetry, poetics, fiction, religion, philosophy, law, science, history, and historiography. Supported by a grant from the New York University Abu Dhabi Institute, and established in partnership with NYU Press, the Library of Arabic Literature will produce authoritative Arabic editions and modern, lucid English translations, with the goal of introducing the Arabic literary heritage to scholars and students, as well as to a general audience of readers. Philip F. Kennedy General Editor, Library of Arabic Literature

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The Epistle of Ibn al-Qāriḥ

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The Epistle of Ibn al-Qāriḥ

rope of his affection, then I shall be like the nocturnal traveler who lays down his staff, praises4 his nightly journey, and whose heart and mind are gladdened and delighted; he is like someone untouched by evil, not betrayed by an enemy, not worn away by setting out at night and returning in the morning. Perhaps God will grant me this, today or tomorrow—in Him is our trust. I ask God, despite the need to come closer, the distance, and the remoteness, 2.2 to let the Sheikh enjoy the excellence that has risen high upon his shoulders and which has conquered East and West. For if one traverses his raging sea of knowledge and considers the brilliance of his radiant full moon, one’s pen is apt to falter in one’s fingers and one’s natural talent will fail to impress itself 5 on one’s epistles, unless one hands to him the keys or asks him to bestow one of the keys of his knowledge, so that one could be affiliated to him, in his debt, as someone who has come down to his mountain path, one of his associates and his party; a spark of his fire, a sliver of his gold dinar, a drop of his ocean, a puddle of his flood—Alas, how remote! A span is too short for a journey;6 Applying kohl to the eyes is not like having coal-black eyes;7 They were created generous, not feigning to be generous: the generous is he who does not feign generosity;8 —especially since the characteristics of the soul cleave to it like colors to bodies: white cannot turn black, nor black white. Nor can a brave man be cowardly, or a coward brave. Abū Bakr al-ʿArzamī says: The coward among men flees, abandoning his nearest and dearest,9 while the brave among men will defend those unrelated to him. A munificent man’s favor will be granted to his enemy, while the favor of a miser will be denied to his relatives. He who does not refrain from brutishness to those who love him will refrain from brutishness toward those who assail him. How could a fog compare with a downpour from the clouds? How could the 2.3 crow swoop like the eagle? How to compare oneself to the Sheikh, whose name, when mentioned in the sessions of recollection, has become a call to

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The Epistle of Ibn al-Qāriḥ

prayer, a tongue to express the landmarks of gratitude?10 He who rejects the evidence of the eyes, who treats both mankind and jinn haughtily, and who clings to calumny and falsehood obstinately is like someone who in his insolence vies with the hardness of the stone in his obdurateness, who seeks to rival the beauty of the moon with his ugliness, who raves and babbles, who «takes in hand and hamstrings it».11 He is like someone afflicted with fever who is delirious and who looks jaundiced,12 like someone who proclaims his own shortcomings among the dwellers of the desert and the towns. He is— and this is unquestionable—like the person the poet meant:13 Like one that butts a rock, one day, hoping to cleave it, but does not harm it, and the ibex only hurts his horns. It is transmitted that the messenger of God—God bless and preserve him and increase him in honor with Him—said, “God curse him who speaks with two tongues, God curse every liar, God curse every slanderer!” I reached the periphery of Aleppo—may God protect and guard it—after 2.4 having been smitten in its outskirts with catastrophe, calamity, and casualty; nay, I was stricken with the rarest misfortunes and a crushing disaster. When I entered the town, not yet having a fixed abode, I did not recognize it, for I could not find any acquaintance or neighbor; then I recited to it, weeping: When, after long avoidance, I pay a visit to a land, I miss a loved one, though the place is still the same. Abū l-Qaṭirān al-Marrār ibn Saʿīd al-Faqʿasī was in love with his cousin in Najd who was called Waḥshiyyah. A man from Syria took her as his wife to his country. He was grieved and afflicted by her being far away and by being separated from her. In a poem he said: Since Waḥshiyyah has left Najd, no doctor can cure your eyes of what they weep for. He saw a glance from her and he could not hold back his tears: her clothes, with underneath a rising sand dune!14 The winds that blow from Syria were once15 disliked, but now those same winds have turned sweet. What I had gained is gone with the wind, as happened to Abū l-Qaṭirān with Waḥshiyyah.

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The Epistle of Ibn al-Qāriḥ

2.7.1

Al-Mutanabbī19 says: I blame the manikins of these our times. using the diminutive (“manikin” of “man”), out of deprecation and not veneration, and by making them few and not many; thus spitting out his words like someone with a disease of the chest,20 by which his hidden mind was expressed. This is possible in the figurative language of poetry, and one is not forbidden to say such things in verse or prose, but he said it inappropriately and addressed it to people who did not deserve it. A time in which he has had the good fortune to meet Sayf al-Dawlah does not deserve to have its people blamed. How could it, when he himself said, I go to his fief in his clothes on his steed from his house with his sword. He should have considered that these people are under Sayf al-Dawlah’s protection; they were affiliated to him and his protégés. And one should not complain to a reasonless, dumb object about persons possessing reason and speech: for “time” is no more than the movements of the celestial sphere— unless he is one of those who believe that these spheres possess reason and have knowledge and understanding, aware of the effect of their actions, with intentions and volitions, and who by their belief are induced to bring sacrifices and burnt offerings to them. In that case he would contradict his own words: Perish the religion of the worshippers of stars and those who claim that these have reason. Or he would be as God the Exalted says in His noble Book:21 «Wavering between this, not to these, not to those»; he all but answers to this description.

In a book on which they collaborated—the people of Baghdad and Cairo 2.7.2 claim that nothing like it was ever written on the subject, on account of its slim size and its great learning—al-Quṭrabbulī22 and Ibn Abī l-Azhar23 tell how al-Mutanabbī was taken from prison in Baghdad, to the court of Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā, the vizier (God have mercy upon him).24 The latter asked, “Are you Aḥmad, the would-be prophet (al-mutanabbī)?” Al-Mutanabbī replied, “I am Aḥmad the prophet (al-nabī)!”25 He bared his stomach and

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     ،(  .       ) : ١      

The Epistle of Ibn al-Qāriḥ

showed him a wen.26 “This,” he said, “is the stamp of my prophethood and the sign of my mission.” The vizier gave orders that his shoe be removed and his head be slapped with it fifty times. Then he sent him back to his prison. Al-Mutanabbī also said, addressing Sayf al-Dawlah: You are angry with him who has obtained your support, so that annoyance and gifts27 torment him.28 He lies, by God! He had been badgering him about these acts of generosity and rubbing him up about them, jealously wanting them to come only from him and through him. But this does not detract from the polish of his poetry or the splendor of its fine style. But I am furious about those heretics29 and apostates30 who make fun of 3.1 religion and wish to instill doubts and skepticism among the Muslims, those who take delight in detracting from the prophethood of the prophets, God’s blessings be on them all, and who are so satisfied with their sophistication and invention: The conceitedness of a singer and the sophistication of a heretic.31 Al-Mahdī had Bashshār killed for heresy. When the latter attracted notoriety for this and began to be afraid, he defended himself by saying, Ibn Nihyā,32 my head is heavy for me, and carrying two heads would be a heavy load! Let others call for worshipping two Lords: One is enough to keep me busy! Al-Mahdī also summoned Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿAbd al-Quddūs. He called for the execu- 3.2 tion mat and the executioner. Ṣāliḥ asked, “Why are you sentencing me to death?” The caliph replied, “Because you said: Many a secret I have hidden, as if I were dumb, or my tongue were tied. If I had exposed my religion to the people the rest of my meals would be taken in prison.

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20

The Epistle of Ibn al-Qāriḥ

on him.53 Thirdly: it is expressed as a statement but a command is intended, as in God’s words:54 «and divorced women will wait by themselves». Fourthly: The prescribed punishment shall not be applied when someone commits a crime in a non-sacred territory.55 And fifthly: God has granted it to them with His words:56 «We have made a secure sanctuary, though around them people are being snatched away».’ The man answered, ‘You are right! Will this beard of mine57 be forgiven?’ I said, ‘Yes!’ Then he let me go and off he went.” Al-Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj from Nīsābūr—some say from Marw— 3.7.1 claimed to possess all knowledge. He was a reckless, insolent man who wanted to overturn dynasties. His followers claimed that he was divine; he preached the doctrine of divine indwelling. To rulers he made an outward show of the teachings of Shi’ism, to the masses he made a show of the ways of the Sufis, and implicitly in all this he claimed that divinity dwelled in him. The vizier ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā questioned him in a dispute and found him to be devoid of any knowledge. He said to him, “You would have derived more profit from learning about your ritual purity and your religious duties than writing treatises where you do not understand what you say in them. How often have you not written to the people: ‘Blessed be He with the glittering light that still gleams after its glittering!’58 You are so much in need of education!” Abū ʿAlī al-Fārisī told me: “I saw al-Ḥallāj when he was standing in the circle of Abū Bakr al-Shiblī. [ . . . ]59 ‘You, by God, will one day corrupt the fear of Him!’60 Al-Ḥallāj shook his sleeve in his face and recited: O secret secret, subtle to the point of being exalted beyond description by any living being; Outwardly, inwardly, you manifest yourself in every thing to every thing. O whole of All, you are not other than I, so why excuse myself then to myself?” He believed that someone with mystic knowledge stands in relation to God as rays are to the sun: from it they appear, to it they return,61 and from it they derive their light.

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22

The Epistle of Ibn al-Qāriḥ

Al-Ẓāhir62 recited to me these verses of his own:

3.7.2

I think the Sufi kind is the worst kind; so ask them (how contemptible is this “divine indwelling!”): “Has God then told you, when you fell in love with Him, ‘Eat like beasts and dance for Me’?” One day al-Ḥallāj moved his hand, whereupon the odor of musk spread to the people. Another time he moved it and dirhams were scattered. One of those present, someone with understanding, said to him, “Show me unfamiliar dirhams, then I shall believe in you, and other people will join me: how about giving me a dirham struck with your name and that of your father!” Al-Ḥallāj replied, “How could I, since such a coin has not been made?” The man answered, “He who presents that which is not present can make that which has not been made!” In his writings one finds: “I am he who drowned the people of Noah and who destroyed ʿĀd and Thamūd.” When his fame spread and the ruler63 had gained reliable intelligence about him, he signed the sentence of one thousand lashes and the amputation of his hands, after which he had him burned in the fire, at the end of the year 309 [922]. Al-Ḥallāj said to Ḥāmid ibn al-ʿAbbās, “I shall destroy you!” Ḥāmid replied, “Now there is proof that you claim what you have been charged with.” The case of Ibn Abī l-ʿAzāqir Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Shalmaghānī,64 3.8 whose family is from a village near Wāsiṭ called Shalmaghān, was similar to the case of al-Ḥallāj: people claimed that he was a god, that God had dwelt in Adam, then in Seth, then in each successive prophet, legatee,65 and imam, until He dwelled in al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-ʿAskarī, and finally in himself. He had led a number of people astray, including Ibn Abī ʿAwn, the author of The Book of Simile, who was beheaded along with him. They allowed him free use of their women and their property; he ruled over them according to his whims. He dabbled in alchemy, and he wrote some books that are well known. Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā al-Rāwandī, from Marw al-Rūdh, had a good reputation 3.9 and was doctrinally sound. Then he divested himself of all this, for various reasons, and because “his learning was greater than his intellect.”66 He was like the one described by the poet:67

٢٣

23

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٢٤

24

The Epistle of Ibn al-Qāriḥ

And who is able to repel someone in his youthful folly? Who can stand up to a decent man when he casts off restraint? He wrote the following books: The Book of the Crown, in which he argues for the pre-eternity of the world; it was refuted by Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Khayyāṭ. Also, The Emerald, in which he argues the invalidity of prophetic mission, also refuted by al-Khayyāṭ. In In Praise of Wisdom he declares that God the Exalted had been foolish to impose His command on His creatures; it was also refuted by al-Khayyāṭ. In The Brain-Basher68 he attacks the composition of the Qurʾan. In The Rod he establishes that God’s knowledge is not temporally originated, and that He did not have knowledge until He created knowledge for Himself. It was refuted by al-Khayyāṭ.69 The Coral deals with the differences of opinion among the Muslims.70

ʿAlī ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Jurayj al-Rūmī: Abū ʿUthmān al-Nājim says, “I vis- 3.10.1 ited him when he was ill with the disease that would carry him off. Near his head he kept a bowl of ice-cooled water and an unsheathed dagger so long that, struck in one’s chest, it would have come out at one’s back. I asked him, ‘What is this?’ and he replied, ‘With the water I moisten my throat, for people seldom die unless they are thirsty. If my pain gets so bad I’ll cut my throat with the dagger.’ He added, ‘I’ll tell you my story, from which you can infer the true cause of my demise. I wanted to move from al-Karkh to Basra Gate. I consulted our friend Abū l-Faḍl, “Father of Favor,” whose name is derived from “bestowing favor.” He said, “When you come to the bridge, turn right”—“right” (yamīn) is derived from yumn, “right good fortune”— “Then go to Naʿīmah (Bliss) Street”—whose name derived from “bliss”— “Then live in the house of Ibn al-Muʿāfā, ‘Son of Healthy’”—which is derived from “well-being.” But, to my misery and misfortune, I did not follow his advice but went on to consult our friend Jaʿfar—whose name is derived from jūʿ, “hunger,” and firār, “fleeing.”71 He said, “When you come to the bridge, turn left”—“left” (shimāl) is derived from shuʾm, “ill omen”—“And live in the house of Ibn Qilābah”—and sure enough, my world has been overturned (inqalabat)! And the worst thing of all: the birds on that lotus tree, chirruping sīq sīq, and here I am—sick!’72 Then he recited:73

٢٥

25

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26

The Epistle of Ibn al-Qāriḥ

Abū ʿUthmān, you are the leader of your people; You’re above blame through your generosity toward the tribe. Enjoy the presence of your friend, for I don’t think you’ll see him or he’ll see you after today. “He found it difficult to stop urinating, so I said to him, ‘You find it difficult 3.10.2 to stop urinating!’ He recited: Tomorrow there will be an end to urinating and there will be wailing and howling! Indeed, meeting with God is terror upon terror. “He died the following day.” I hope that these words were an act of atonement for his idea of committing suicide. God’s messenger (on whom be blessing and well-being) said, “He who stabs himself with a knife will be resurrected on the Day of Resurrection with his knife in his hand, and he will stab himself with it forever and ever in Hell. He who throws himself from a height will be resurrected on the Day of Resurrection and be thrown on to his nostrils in Hell forever and ever. He who drinks poison will be resurrected on the Day of Resurrection with his poison in his hand, drinking it forever and ever in Hell.” Al-Ḥasan ibn Rajāʾ, the state secretary,74 said, “Abū Tammām came to me in 3.11 Khorasan. I had heard that he did not perform the ritual prayer, so I appointed someone to stay close to him for some days, and he did not see him perform the ritual prayer one single day. I reproved him, but he said, ‘My lord, I have come all the way from Baghdad to visit your eminence, I have borne hardship and suffered a long journey, which I did not find burdensome. If I had known that ritual prayer would benefit me, and omitting it would harm me, I would not have omitted it!’ I intended to have him executed but I was afraid that this would be ascribed to the wrong motive.” It is mentioned in many historical works that al-Māzyār was brought into 3.12 the presence of al-Muʿtaṣim one day after the latter had become enraged with al-Afshīn, when the judge Ibn Abī Duʾād had said to al-Muʿtaṣim, “An uncircumcised fellow, and he sleeps with an Arab woman! Also, he has corresponded with al-Māzyār and encouraged him to rebel!”

٢٧

27

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40

The Epistle of Ibn al-Qāriḥ

Ah, the grayness of your hairs will not be snatched away: will you forswear the foibles of old age? I am perturbed, I weep though weeping is neither useful nor beneficial, and I should rather weep for my weeping and recite: My tongue speaks but I do not act; My heart desires but I do naught. I am aware of the right path but do not let myself be guided; I know, but act in ignorance.105 Some people offered me a cup of wine. I refused and said, “Leave me with 6.3 boiled wine, according to the doctrine of Sheikh al-Awzāʿī!”106 I told them that Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mahdī once offered wine to Muḥammad ibn Ḥāzim, who refused and recited: Shall I, with my gray hair, be foolish like a child? Gray hair is at war with brutish ignorance. Old age, gray hair, and ignorance: upon your life, they’re hard to reconcile. O caliph’s son, O for the days when I was strong and fresh, When my gray hairs were few and drinking from love’s spring was sweet, When I was cured by pretty girls by conversation and proximity! But now, when those who chided me see in me all they yearned to see, And people see me taking the right path: shall I once more be chided and be foolish like a child? I swear that I shall never drink wine as long as pilgrims ride to go on hajj for God! I turned to myself, addressing and reproaching my soul; the address is 6.4.1 phrased as if to others but is in fact to it:107 “He has given you respite as if He has neglected you. Are you not ashamed of how long you have been unashamed!”108 Be like a newborn child, turned by a gentle hand in its cot, surrounded by affection, on whom benefits are showered without asking, because of his infancy, and from whom harm is

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The Epistle of Ibn al-Qāriḥ

averted without his being on his guard, because of his infirmity. Have you not heard the messenger of God— blessing and peace upon him—when he said in his prayer, “O God, guard me as a newborn child is guarded, who neither knows what is wanted from him nor what he wants himself!” Is there no one who will hold on to the shirttails of his guide?109 Is there no one who readies a mount and a saddle for the day of his departure? You people! Departure at daybreak! Departure at daybreak! He who does not arrive before the others at a watering place will suffer burning thirst. I have refused to give you what you desire only in order to spare you and to protect you jealously. The messenger of God said— blessing and peace upon him—, “When God loves someone He protects him against the world.” You complain about me when I protect you; you dislike my guarding you when I guard you. Is there no one who will seek refuge in our courtyard so that he may be achieve glory? Is there no one who flees to us, rather than from us? O Thou who canst dispense with everything, have mercy on him who cannot dispense with Thee in any circumstance! God is all-suffic1ient, but one cannot do without Him in anything. It is for this reason that when Gabriel said to the Friend:110 “Do you need anything?” he replied “Not from you.” God deserves to be asked, even though He has already given sufficiently, because one cannot dispense with Him in anything. Obey Him in order to obey Him and do not obey Him in order that He may obey you and you grow lazy and bored. To him who abandons looking after his own affairs and leaves them to Our providence We shall give ease. Exalted is He whose hand holds the winding coils of the human hearts and human ambitions, who controls the decisions of decrees and apportionments. Have you forgotten to think of loved ones who forget your sins when they remember you?111 You treated them unkindly, even though so often, unlike you, they have been at your beck and call. And you endured it calmly when they left: what was then your excuse when you endured it thus? You abandon Someone whom you have treated unkindly, whom you forgot to remember, whose limit you have transgressed, whose prohibition you have abandoned, whose commands you have ignored; then you turned to Him in repentance, relying on His grace toward you, and saying: “O Lord!” Then He will say to you, “Here I am! «And when My servants ask you about

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The Epistle of Ibn al-Qāriḥ

Me I am near».112 If you have a fly on your face, accuse yourself; but if I sever your limbs, you must not accuse Me. You are the one who abandoned Me and turned away, after I had given you what you hoped for. «And when We bless man he recoils and turns aside».”113 O you who stands with these accusations—how many! How many! Will He not say to you, “What has deceived you about Me?”114 and you will say, “Your forbearance! Or else, if Thou wouldst send a tiny bug against me, it would gather me unto Thee if it were Thy wish thus to gather me.”115 After drinking from the cup of understanding, and smelling the sweet herbal fragrance of the pious, Have you fallen in love and turned a passionate lover, more conspicuous than a piebald horse? O world of mine, please take my hand before I drown In the deluge of the sea of love! I’ll be your slave; so be then like the master who, pleased with his slave, will set him free!116 There was a man in Baghdad with a large head and elephantine ears, called 6.5 Fādhūh. His head was uncovered during all the four seasons; he had no scruples about doing disgraceful things. People would say to him, “Hey Fādhūh, shame! Turn to God in repentance!” But he would reply, “People, why do you come between me and my Lord? It is He who accepts repentance from His servants!” One day he was going along a certain street that was broad at the bottom but so narrow further up that the opposing houses nearly met. A woman handed her neighbor woman a mortar, but it slipped from her hand and fell on Fādhūh’s head, pounding it to a pulp as if it were a harīsah. It fell too fast for him to repent! We had a pious preacher who used to say us, “Beware of a death like Fādhūh’s!” Gabriel says in a tradition: “I feared that Pharaoh117 would complete professing the creed and his repentance, so I took some of the mud (ḥāl) of the sea and struck his face with it.”—ḥāl here means “mud;” the word has eight meanings, including “mud”—So how can someone act who believes that repenting of a sin is not valid if one persists in another sin? There is neither might nor power . . . 118

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   ) % &'a ) 46M? O 1 23

The Epistle of Ibn al-Qāriḥ

I have heard about my lord the Sheikh—may God always support him!— 7.1 that he said when I was mentioned to him, “I know of him by hearsay. He is the one who lampooned Abū l-Qāsim ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Maghribī.”

The Sheikh exculpates himself

These words are alarming to me, for I fear that he thinks ill of my character, and that he imagines me as someone who replaces gratitude with ingratitude. By acquainting him with what he does not know I would enhance my standing with him, with the greatness of his worth, his religion, and his pious asceticism. And so I shall inform him so that he is aware of the long and the short of it, and the high and the low of it.119 I studied with Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khālawayh—God have mercy on him— 7.2 and I often went to see Abū l-Ḥasan al-Maghribī. When Ibn Khālawayh died I left for Baghdad and stayed with Abū ʿAlī al-Fārisī. I frequented the scholars of Baghdad, such as Abū Saʿīd al-Sīrāfī, ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā al-Rummānī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Marzubānī, and Abū Ḥafṣ al-Kattānī, the companion of Abū Bakr ibn Mujāhid. I wrote down the Traditions of the messenger of God—God bless and preserve him—and achieved the goals I had set myself, to my best efforts (one is exculpated by giving one’s best effort). Then I traveled from there to Egypt, where I met Abū l-Ḥasan al-Maghribī. He compelled me to stick to him like his shadow; I became like an equal, through the abundance of his equity, his affection, and our mutual friendship. He told me, in confidence, “I am afraid that the ambition of Abū l-Qāsim will draw him, and us with him, toward a watering place from which there is no return. If you can memorize and keep an accurate tally of even the breaths he takes, then do so and keep me informed!” One day Abū l-Qāsim said to me, “We do not like how we live in obscurity.” “What obscurity?” I replied, “You receive six thousand dinars each year from our lord—may God make him reign forever!—and your father is one of the leading men of the state; he is revered and honored.” He said, “I want battalions and processions and squadrons to defile at our gates! I don’t like being treated like boys and women!” I repeated these words to his father, who said, “I am really afraid that Abū l-Qāsim will dye this (he grasped his beard) blood-red with this (he touched his head)!” Abū l-Qāsim got to know this, and this brought about an estrangement between us. General Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn Jawhar sent for me and honored me 7.3 by employing me in his service. I saw that, whenever he had a leading person

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54

The Epistle of Ibn al-Qāriḥ

I have heard the Sheikhs’s epistles being read, which contain expressions so exquisite that if I extolled them I would have disgraced them, and which if I described them I would not have done justice to them. I was enraptured by them—God is my witness—as if enraptured by music. By God, if they were produced by someone who had his library and his books around him, turning his eyes now to this, and then to that—for “the pen is the tongue of the hand and one of the two kinds of eloquence”—it would be an amazingly difficult feat. By God, I have seen scholars such as Ibn Khālawayh who, when books were studied under their supervision, especially large ones, would consult their exemplars, like those who collate copies of texts in order to guard themselves against slips, misspellings, or errors. But what is a truly amazing and an extraordinary and rare thing, is the Sheikh’s memory—may God always support him!—of people’s names and prose texts, just as other intelligent and eminent people memorize poetry. It is easy to say but hard to do; he who hears of it aspires to it, but if he aims for it, he finds it impossible to achieve it in meaning and form.136 Abū ʿAlī al-Ṣiqillī137 told me in Damascus: “I was sitting in Ibn Khālawayh’s 9.1 assembly when he received some queries from Sayf al-Dawlah concerning lexicography. He became agitated about this, went into his library and got out dictionaries, distributing them among his companions, so that they

On memorizing and forgetting; Ibn al-Qāriḥ complains again

could consult them and he could find the answer. I left him and went to Abū l-Ṭayyib al-Lughawī, who was holding a session and who had received the very same queries. He was holding a reed pen with red ink, with which he was writing the answers, without making any changes, such was his skill in replying. ‘I recited from memory The Pure Language and The Correction of Speech138 with Abū ʿUmar,’ said Abū l-Ṭayyib, ‘and Abū ʿUmar told me, “I would take notes in lectures on lexicography from Thaʿlab, writing the notes on pieces of pottery; I would sit on the bank of the Tigris memorizing them and then throwing them away.”’” I have exhausted myself spending the first half of my life memorizing things, 9.2 and the second half forgetting them. I studied in Baghdad and left it when my memory was still fresh. I went to Egypt, letting myself indulge in animal desires and sinful designs. I wanted, in my eagerness, deceived by my blameworthy nature, to taste the sweetness of a life of pleasure, just as I persevered in seeking knowledge and erudition. I forgot that knowledge is the food of a

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58

The Epistle of Ibn al-Qāriḥ

stood still, thinking. He raised his head; then he said, “How impudent am I! I say to Thee, ‘O Generous One!’ whereas someone has said about one of Thy servants: And if in his hand he held only his soul, he would give it away; let who asks him beware!143 “And on someone else the following was said: You see him, when you come to him, exulting, as if you had just given what you ask from him.”144 Then he said, “But of course, I’ll say ‘O Generous One, who surpasses every generous one, and through whose generosity every one who is generous can be generous!’” Ibn al-Sammāk145 entered into the presence of al-Rashīd, who said to him: 10.2 “Preach to me!” The caliph held a beaker containing water in his hand. “Wait, O Commander of the believers!” said Ibn al-Sammāk, “What do you think: if God made a divine decree about you and said, ‘I shall only let you drink in return for half your empire,’ would you do it?” The caliph replied, “Yes, I would.” “Drink,” said Ibn al-Sammāk, “May God let you enjoy it!” When he had drunk, the preacher said, “What do you think: if the same divine decree was applied to you146 and God said, ‘I shall only let you pass the water of this beaker from your body if I rob you of your empire,’ would you accept?” The caliph answered, “Yes, I would.” “Then fear God,” said Ibn al-Sammāk, “and reflect upon an empire that is worth only a piss.” How could I complain about Him who fed me and sustained me for more 11.1 than seventy years? When my shirt was two cubits long(?)147 He appointed for me two loving and caring parents, who spared no effort to make it fine and soft and pleasant. When it was twelve cubits long He took care of it and of my sustenance. He never let me go starving or naked. «And He who gives me food and drink»;148 the speaker addressed his Lord tactfully and said, «And when I am ill He cures me»,149 attributing the illness to himself, because one shuns mishaps and illnesses, though everything that befalls a person and which he is unable to prevent, such as sleep and wakefulness, laughter and weeping, sorrow and joy, fecundity and drought, wealth and poverty—all this comes from Him, sanctified be His names. Do you not see

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٦٠

         .    ،( )        ،     ١  .   

60

The Epistle of Ibn al-Qāriḥ

that He neither threatens150 nor punishes for doing these things? Whereas anything a human being is able to prevent is his own doing, for instance when one wants to write something, and thus it happens that one does not build anything; or when one wants to build something, and thus it happens that one does not write. But someone who suffers from tremors is unable to steady his hand whereas someone who does not is able to hold it steady. When I was in Tinnīs there was someone who was reciting the Qurʾan with a 11.2 plaintive voice:151 «They fulfill their vows and fear», and he wept. A thought occurred to me and I said to myself, “I am the opposite of those people, God’s blessings be upon them. I neither make nor fulfill vows and do not fear misery and suffering. If I were fearful I would not be anything but152 feverish”—And then I was! An unimpeachable and trustworthy acquaintance told me the following story on the authority of his father, an ascetic, who had said, “I was with Abū Bakr al-Shiblī in Baghdad, in East Side in Bāb al-Ṭāq, when we saw a seller of roasted meat who took a lamb from the oven, which was as tender as a fresh, ripe date. Next to him was a pastry cook who was making fālūdhaj. Abū Bakr stopped and looked at them, lost in thought. ‘My master,’ I said to him, ‘let me get some of both, along with some thin cakes and bread! My house is nearby; will you honor me by relaxing at my place today?’ But he said, ‘Really, do you think I have an appetite for these things? I was merely thinking that all other living beings enter the fire only after they have died, whereas we enter it alive!’” O Lord, forgive a gray-haired, fearful man, who’s like a madman, fearful of the Fire! He has committed, in the past, blameworthy deeds, during the days he had no sense and no religion.153 The epistle is finished, praise be to God, giver of graceful gifts, and His bless- 12 ings be on Muḥammad and the elect of his family. I had hardly finished a draft when I was stirred by a bout of melancholy.154 I apologize for the rambling or any error in this letter; for someone who makes a mistake is forgiven if it is accompanied by apology, effort, and careful scrutiny.

٦١

61

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٦٢

62

The Epistle of Ibn al-Qāriḥ

But who will be given perfection, then, and be perfect?155

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said, “God have mercy on any man who points out my defects to me!” And I ask the Sheikh—may God give him lasting power!—to honor me by answering my letter, for in spite of its imperfections it has been appreciated, taken down from my dictation, and received from me through lectures; I have honored it with the Sheikh’s name and adorned it by mentioning him. The letter that al-Zahrajī wrote to me was the main reason why I came to Aleppo. If its answer comes I shall make it go round Aleppo and elsewhere, God willing. In Him is our trust, and God bless and preserve our lord Muḥammad and his family.

٦٣

63

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66

Preamble

In name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate

O God, give ease and help

The Mighty One (al-Jabr), from whom comes the name of Gabriel—He is 1.1 the Way to all good things—knows that there is a tree (ḥamāṭah)156 within me, one that never was an afāniyah tree, and on which there lived no stinging snake,157 one that produces fruit for the love of my lord the venerable Sheikh158—may God subdue his enemy, and always, evening and morning, lead him to superiority!159 If a lofty tree were to bear these fruits its branches would sink to earth and all this fruit, once well-protected, would be trampled underfoot. Ḥamāṭah is a kind of tree, which is called afāniyah when tender and ḥamāṭah when dry. A poet says: When Umm al-Wulayyid160 does not obey me, I bend my hand around a stick of ḥamāṭ wood for her And I say to her, “Get the Banū Uqaysh!161 For you haven’t got a nice figure!” A characteristic of the ḥamāṭah is that it is a familiar haunt of snakes. A poet says: Destined for her was—one from a numerous brood— a bold male snake that hid in the ḥamāṭah tree. He knows that the tree (ḥamāṭah) found in me feels a burning (ḥamāṭah) of great yearning which, as it happens, is not to be removed (imāṭah).162 Ḥamāṭah also means “heartburn.” A poet says: “Many a worry that fills one’s inside . . . .”163 At the beginning of the Preamble, ḥamāṭah means “core of the heart.” A poet says:

٦٧

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68

Preamble

She shot at the core (ḥamāṭah) of my heart, unswervingly, with arrows from her glance, the shooter unknown. And God knows that in my two ragged robes164 there is a “male snake (ḥiḍb)”165 charged with harming me; if it could speak it would mention my misery. It does not live in a rocky crack or nook; down on to narrow mountain passes it does not look. It appears neither in winter nor in summer time; it passes neither by mountain nor by incline. It harbors for my lord, the venerable Sheikh—may God make the cornerstones of scholarship firm by giving him long life!—such a love as a mother cannot harbor for her son, no matter whether she is considered venomous or not.166 This “snake” is no kin of the one meant by the rajaz poet167 who said, I curled up like a ḥiḍb. The Sheikh—may God perpetuate beautiful performance by keeping him 1.2 well!— knows that a ḥiḍb is a kind of snake, and that it is also used for the “bottom of the heart.” He knows that this “black thing,”168 which is dearer to me than ʿAntarah was to Zabībah, more precious to me than al-Sulayk was to al-Sulakah, and more entitled to my affection than Khufāf al-Sulamī was entitled to the innermost feelings of Nadbah, is always concealed, its coverings never removed and it never moves far afield. If it could travel it would, so that the Sheikh and it could meet; no mishap befalling it could make it retreat. When mentioned in speech, it can be feminine and also masculine.169 It is not known if it is really masculine; using it as a feminine is not rejected. To please it, incessantly I take pains, although one cannot avert what God ordains. I esteem it more than Lakhm esteemed al-Aswad (“Black”)170 ibn al-Mundhir, more than Kindah esteemed al-Aswad ibn Maʿdīkarib, and more than the Banū Nahshal ibn Dārim esteemed al-Aswad ibn Yaʿfur, who composed such ravishing poetry. At the same time it never ceases to be as fond of mentioning the Sheikh as Suḥaym, be he in town or desert, was fond of his

ʿUmayrah, or as Suʿdā was loved by Nuṣayb, the client of Umayyah. Just such a thing171 was found with al-Aswad ibn Zamʿah, al-Aswad ibn ʿAbd 1.3 Yaghūth, the two men called al-Aswad mentioned in al-Yashkurī’s172 verse: He guided them with the two Aswads; 173 God’s command strikes home: with it the wretched are made wretched

٦٩

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70

Preamble

and with Aswadān, viz. Nabhān ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Ghawth ibn Ṭayyi ʾ, and with Abū l-Aswad, mentioned by Imruʾ al-Qays174 in his verse: And that is because of what I have heard, something that I was told about Abū l-Aswad. Abū l-Aswad al-Duʾalī never parted from it in his lifetime for one second, whether during easy relaxation or tiring occupation. With Suwayd ibn Abī Kāhil it enjoyed a close link whenever he went to wells to drink. With Ibn al-Ṣāmit, another Suwayd, it was always closely allied, be he rejoicing gladly or gloating badly. It helped Suwayd ibn Ṣumayʿ as an ally, in days of poverty and prosperity. He was the one who said:175 When they demand from me an oath, I’ll swear for them an oath that’s like a torn and tattered robe with yellow stripes! And if they make me swear upon my wife’s divorce, I’ll come to her as happily as ever, and we shall not part. And if they make me swear upon the freeing of my slave,

ʿUbayd, my slave, knows well he won’t be freed! It was familiar with Sawdah bint Zamʿah ibn Qays’s bed, when to the Prophet 1.4 (God bless and preserve him) she was wed. God’s messenger knew its force, and in good grace did not resort to divorce.176 It entered the grave with Sawādah ibn ʿAdī, which is not a strange oddity. It is found in any congregation where the “two black things” are found, viz. water and dates, or maybe they are darkness and dusty volcanic ground. It flees from the “two things white” when these are exposed to a dustcloud raised by a fight—the “two things white” from which it flees are either two swords, or a sword and a spearhead. Yet it will bear with them both when it finds them,177 as the rajaz poet says, The “two white things” have cooled my bones: Water and millet bread, no added condiments.178 And it will delight in two other “white things,” as in the following verse:179 But a whole year has passed for me without a drink of anything except the two white things.

٧١

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٨٠

80

Paradise (I)

And if ʿAlqamah looked at them, he would be bedazzled and afraid, thinking he had lost his wits.—But how could poor ʿAlqamah see them? He may well be in a Fire that scorches the soil, where the drinking water will always boil. What has become of ʿAlqamah ibn ʿAbadah and his clan? His jug is broken and lost. But did he not say, Their jug resembled a gazelle upon a hill, wrapped in a cloth, and with a linen veil, Adorned with necklace of sweet-scented herb sprigs, white, brought by its keeper out into the light. One look at these jugs is better than all the wine, daughter of the vine, of the world that passes, better than the saliva-sipping kisses193 of sweet lasses one finds in the deceptive world, in which all pride is downward hurled. And if seen by ʿAdī ibn Zayd, from hunting and wine he would have been preoccupied, and would acknowledge that his wine jugs and all his drinking companions and friends in al-Ḥīrah were but a trifling thing: less than a blade of grass on sandy soil is its worth, less than a pebble lying on the earth. When I was in Baghdad I saw a bookseller looking for the poem by ʿAdī ibn 3.4 Zayd that begins with: The women reproached him when morning dawned: “Hey, aren’t you sober yet?” But he called for a morning drink of wine; a songstress came, holding in her hand a jug. The bookseller declared that Ibn Ḥājib al-Nuʿmān had asked for this poem; they searched for it in the copies of ʿAdī’s collected poetry but did not find it. Afterward I heard a man from Astarabad recite this poem from the collected poetry of ʿAdī; but it was not contained in the copy in the library. Take al-Uqayshir al-Asadī, he placed his bet on a bad horse in the event! 3.5 Wretched until Judgement Day he may still repent when his skin is rent. He said, My wealth, inherited or earned, has been consumed by clinking cups on mouths of jugs.

٨١

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٨٢

82

Paradise (I)

What has happened to him and his wine? All his desires, without exception, have come to nought in the world of deception. If he beheld these jugs, he would know for certain that it was an illusion which seduced him, and that it was no joyful thing that to joy induced him. Likewise Iyās ibn al-Aratt, however pleased he was with jugs “like geese on a river bank,” his fate played him a nasty prank. It is as if he never said, The jugs of wine between them look like geese high on the river bank, with their crooked necks. And God have mercy on al-ʿAjjāj, whose rajaz verse is a hodgepodge: where is the jug that he mentioned when he said, He picked a quantity of grapes, He stored it for two years; then he examined it: A red and potent wine that makes you shudder. And this he poured into the jug in little spurts, Like torrent-water over mountain ledge. How many vessels are there at those rivers, made of engraved peridot, and of 3.6 ruby, jacinth, or sapphire, carved like gazelles, of various hue: red, yellow, and blue; their sparkle is such that they burn to the touch, as al-Ṣanawbarī said, You would think it ablaze and refuse to come close to its blaze. In these rivers are vessels shaped like waterfowl that swim, or others that do not need the flowing stream. Some are formed like cranes, others resemble songbirds, or are shaped like peacocks and ducks. Some are in the water, others on the riverbank. From their spouts flows wine, like a mirage so clear and fine. If al-Ḥakamī Abū Nuwās had sipped it from a glass, he would have deemed it a cordial he had desired from times primordial. All those poets, both the moderns and the ancients,194 who have described wine would testify in its favor, above all other kinds of wine that belong to the Perishable World, such as the old wine from ʿĀnah, Adhri ʿāt, Gaza, Bayt Raʾs, or Palestine; the wine imported from Bostra on camelback, with which one hopes to make a profit on the market; the wine stored by Ibn Bujrah in Wajj,195 on which he relied at the time of the Hajj, before alcoholic drinks were prohibited and base desires, for fear of God, were limited—Abū Dhuʾayb said:

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88

Paradise (I)

Whenever the food was brought near I was fond of all those reddish-brown firm unpeeled dates. Another poet said, I do not mind, now that my drying store is full of red-brown dates, if stars do not cause rain to fall on earth.205 Possible, too, is “white bread with ḥamt,” as one says “ḥamt dates,” i.e. intensely sweet ones. If the poet turns to the letter th and says “of Umm Shathth,” he could continue with “white bread with bathth.” Bathth are dates that have not been well packed together, and are found loose. If he moved on to the letter j, saying “of Umm Lujj,” it is possible to rhyme 3.8.3 it with “white bread with dujj.” Dujj means “chicken”; al-ʿUmānī used it in his rajaz poetry. If he moved on to the letter ḥ, saying “of Umm Shuḥḥ,” he could have said “white bread with muḥḥ” or “with buḥḥ,” or “with ruḥḥ,” or “with juḥḥ,” or “with suḥḥ.” Muḥḥ is “the yolk of an egg,” buḥḥ is the plural of abaḥḥ, as in the expression “an abaḥḥ bone covered with meat,” meaning one with lots of fat. A poet said, Many a reproaching woman got up to blame me, holding in her hand a bone that drips with fat. Buḥḥ could also mean “arrows,” i.e., this woman’s kinsmen play the maysir game,206 as al-Sulamī said: They regaled their guests on meat gained at play with arrow shafts, brown ones, and thanks to them the tribe lives comfortably. Ruḥḥ is the plural of araḥḥ, “with broad hoofs,” which is one of the characteristics of wild oryx bulls, i.e.,these are hunted for that woman. Or the word is used for the cloven hoofs themselves, as the poet al-Aʿshā said: And (he has) broad hoofs with hair behind the fetlocks, firmly planted, with which he outstrips all in fighting, and with which he scouts about the land.

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Paradise (I)

The Sheikh says, “Well done, by God, well done! That’s what I think: if you 6.3 were stagnant water you would never turn stale or stink! There is an erudite man of the Islamic period who has composed a poem in this meter;270 he is known as Abū Bakr Ibn Durayd. He said: The fortunate are happy; wretched is the greedy one. No creature can escape his fate. “In this poem he says, Where are on earth the kings of Ḥimyar, the noblest men to whom a she-camel was ever urged? Jayfar the Spender: destroyed by Time, forever eager to demolish lofty things. “But you, Abū Sawādah, are better since you were the first. However, I wish you had not said in your poem ‘I wish I knew—and I (wa-na, or wāna, instead of wa-ʾana) say it loud,’ because you are doing one of two things. Either you omit the glottal stop of ʾana, which is ugly, even though they recite the following verse: If I don’t fight, then dress me (fa-lbisūnī, instead of fa-ʾalbisūnī) with a woman’s veil and put four rings on both my hands! “And you went further than merely dropping the glottal stop, by shortening the vowel after the letter n, for if you elide the glottal stop at the beginning of the word, it consists of only one remaining letter, which makes it defective.271 Or you realize the glottal stop, making it intermediate, but then you dare turn it into a pure long vowel!272 This is enough to violate normal practice. It is the same in the following verse: They say: ‘Gently! This old man has no dependents.’ But look at me, I had dependents, but I’m (wāna) childless now. “If you had said, ‘I wish I knew—I say it loud,’ without ‘and,’ it would have been better in my opinion, and more normal.” ʿAdī ibn Zayd replies, “I merely said what I have heard the people in my time say. All sorts of new things happened in Islam that we don’t know of!” The Sheikh says, “I see you do not understand my purpose. But I was about to ask you about a line of yours that is quoted as linguistic evidence by Sībawayh. It is when you say:

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A farewell in the evening or a morning one? You—see where you are going! “Sībawayh claims that ‘you’ could be taken as a nominative, on account of an implied verb, which is explained by the following word, ‘see!’ But I think this explanation is far-fetched and not, I think, what you intended.”273

ʿAdī exclaims, “O spare me all that nonsense! Actually, I was a great hunter in the Perishable World. 6.4.1

“You may have heard this poem of mine: Oft I went out in the morning, riding a noble steed, adorned with a face drained of blood274 and a cheek like a whetstone, With the length of his neck raised high, easily led with the rein in the hand, strong and large, with locks of hair, Smooth and slim like the shaft of an arrow that has no faults in it to be seen, and no blemishing cracks: He who trimmed it has shaped it, the touch of his hands and the adze’s planing have straightened its crookedness. Whenever a dangerous spot in a fight is feared, it is charged to be there, and when it is left without being led it is still guarded well, As if brought up at home; its saddle blanket is torn by obediently eating its wheat and drinking its milk. We looked after it until, in the winter, it was in a happy mood, stubbornly pacing and prancing. Whenever a wild ass would roam, or an ostrich, that fled at its first appearance, A horse at the start of its run that amazed us would take us so fast that we don’t have to hide and seek cover in bushes.275 It combines a fast running, let loose like a downpour, like a rainfall amassed, with a rapid pace(?)276 A brisk, fast horse that overtakes the young calves; while biting its bridle it reaches the herd, not weakened.277 He who holds it will praise it, an excitable, noble horse, like a lion, its halter stretched. And when we have caught four beasts a beggar for food will be guided by smoke from our fire.

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142

Paradise (I)

A gaggle of heavenly geese goes by. Immediately they descend on that 8.1 meadow and stand as if awaiting a command. Since the birds in the Garden are able to speak, the Sheikh asks them, “What do you want?” They reply,

The geese of Paradise

“We have been inspired to alight in this meadow in order to sing to those that are drinking there.” “With God Almighty’s blessing!” says the Sheikh. They shake off their plumage and turn into full-breasted girls, who strut in the garden, an embroidery of flowers. They carry lutes and instruments for musical entertainment. The Sheikh is amazed, and with reason; but it is in fact not so wonderful, coming as it does from the omnipotence of God the Glorious, whose Word is mighty, whose blessings flow abundantly on the world, whose mercy encompasses every thing, and whose vengeance falls on the unbeliever. The Sheikh says to one of them, to test them, “Sing for us, in the ‘first heavy’ 8.2 rhythmical mode, the verse by Abū Umāmah, that man who is sitting over there: Will someone come from Mayyah’s clan, in the evening or morning, in a hurry, with provisions or without any food?”315 The girl does this. With her music she enraptures; the listener, in whose limbs it creeps, it captures. An idol, carved from stone, or a tambourine sawn by a carpenter, if, by any chance, they heard that song would dance. If they stood on high they would fall, and if they broke their necks they would not mind at all. The Sheikh (may God send all kinds of lovely things into his heart!) is faced with marvellous scenes that cannot be resisted by any means. “Come on,” he says, “let’s now have it in the ‘light first heavy’ mode!” The girl starts to sing, with a melody such that if heard by al-Gharīḍ he would have to concede that by comparison his own singing was feeble indeed. When the girl, to general admiration, has exceeded expectation, he says, “And now let the ‘second heavy’ mode follow suit, between the second and third strings of your lute!” She proceeds in a manner such that if ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar had heard it, he would have to declare that the songs of Budayḥ could only compare to a camel’s blare. When the Sheikh realizes this he exclaims, “God be praised! Whenever His omnipotence is made clear, unsurpassable marvels appear. And now turn to the ‘light second heavy’! For you are doing a truly excellent thing; you banish slumber when you sing!” When she does what he has told her to do, she produces things that are fearfully good,316 and says

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160

Paradise (I)

wills. You deserve to be in the lowest reach of the Fire, where better people than you now roast. If it were possible to think that the Lord of Might had made a mistake, I would say that a mistake was made in your case. Did you not say: I entered when the watchman slept, and spent the night, while no clothes were between us. When, finally, she gave herself to sleep, after her playfulness, I turned my mind to her two halves, each one desirable! I bent a neck like that of an innocent creature352 and touched what was inside her underclothes: Just like a scent box, pale, its fragrance mixed with liquid perfume. And see! she had a cup raised to receive the wine!353 “You despise the Banū Jaʿdah; yet one of their battle-days alone outweighs all the efforts of your tribe! You have asserted that I am a coward: you lied! I am braver than you and your father, I can better endure traveling on a freezing night, and I go further into the scorching midday heat.” Al-Nābighah al-Jaʿdī pounces upon Abū Baṣīr al-Aʿshā and strikes him 9.3.4 with a golden beaker. The Sheikh (may God give peace through him, at his hands!) says, “No quarreling in Paradise! That is only known in the Perishable World, among the lower classes and the ignorant. You, Abū Laylā, are a hothead. There is a story about you: a man in Basra shouted ‘Men of Qays!’ whereupon you, al-Nābighah al-Jaʿdī, came with a little stick. You were apprehended by the constables of the governor, Abū Mūsā al-Ash ʿarī, who had you flogged, because the Prophet (God bless and preserve him) has said, ‘He who is patient in the manner of the pre-Islamic period is not one of ours!’ Had it not been said in the Holy Book354 about the wine in Paradise that «they will not suffer headache from it and not be intoxicated», we would have thought that you were out of your mind. As for Abū Baṣīr, he has drunk only milk and honey here.355 He is dignified when he sits in a gathering; he is not unseemly quick when he unwraps, getting up.356 His behavior with us is like that of Abū Nuwās, when he says:

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You two, who censure me for drinking wine, go blame me! I taste the wine by merely smelling it. A caliph357 has reproached me on account of it: I do not think it right to disobey. My share of it, when it goes round, is only seeing it and smelling its bouquet. Turn it away from me then, to another: I shall only be a conversation partner. I am in praising it, it seems, a Khārijite abstainer, who speaks in favor of the arbitration:358 Incapable of carrying arms to war, he orders others not to sit and stay behind.” Al-Nābighah al-Jaʿdī replies, “In the days of the Deceptive World people often behaved foolishly when drinking milk, especially if they were lowly slaves. A rajaz poet said: Ibn Hishām, milk has destroyed the people! They all come in the morning with a sword and with a quiver. “And another said: What do the men of Ḍabbah want? Know this: it is defaming us! Some stupid men among them got excited, drinking milk. “Someone was asked, ‘When should one be most afraid of the Banū So-andSo?’ He answered, ‘When they have plenty of milk.’” The Sheikh (may God make him attain what he wants!) means to spread 9.3.5 peace among the carousers and says, “One must beware of an angel who might pass by, see this gathering, and then report to the Omnipotent, the Almighty, which may bring about unpleasant consequences for you both. In fact, our Lord does not need reports to be brought to Him, but it happens just as it does with the recording angels in the Fleeting World.359 Don’t you know that Adam had to leave Paradise for a trivial sin? Those born later cannot be sure that a like fate will not be theirs. I ask you, Abū Baṣīr, by God, do you not secretly long for wine?” “Certainly not, by God!” replies al-Aʿshā. “To me it is like bitter aloes: even the thought of it never occurs to me. Praise be to God, who quenched

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163

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my thirst with the oblivion of wine! I no longer care for another sip of ‘Mother Iris.’360” Al-Nābighah al-Jaʿdī, angry, stands up. The Sheikh (may God keep unpleasant 9.4 things far from him!) does not want him to leave in this manner. “Abū Laylā,” he says, “God, the Almighty, has granted us these black-eyed damsels, whom He transformed from geese. Choose one of them for yourself and take her home with you, where she will speak to you with the subtlest intimations and sing to you all kinds of intonations.” Then Labīd ibn Rabī ʿah says, “If Abū Laylā takes a singing girl, and someone else takes another, will the news not spread throughout Paradise? Then these people will run the risk of being nicknamed ‘goose spouses’!” So the whole company abstains from dividing the girls among themselves.

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165

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Ḥassān ibn Thābit passes by.361 “Welcome, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān!” they all 10.1 say, “Won’t you talk with us for a while?” He sits down and they ask him, “How does this wine compare with the wine you bought and described in

The conversation with Ḥassān ibn Thābit

your verses: It is as if a wine imported from Bayt Raʾs, its mixture being honey and water, Surrounds her teeth; as if the taste of apples freshly harvested Were in her mouth, when fewer stars are visible at night, when darkness’ cover takes the stars along.362 If ever all the wines on earth were listed, they would sacrifice themselves for that fine wine! “Woe betide you! Are you not ashamed to mention this in your eulogy on the Messenger of God (God bless and preserve him)?” “He was more tolerant than you think,” replies Ḥassān, “I have said nothing but good things, I did not say that I drank wine, and I have not committed anything forbidden. I merely described the saliva of a woman who might have been my own wife after all;363 I could also have said it by way of hypothesis. The Prophet (God bless him364) has interceded for Abū Baṣīr al-Aʿshā even after he boasted in his verse on many occasions and asserted that he traveled at night, either lying or being right. One has never heard of a more magnanimous man than the Prophet (God bless and preserve him). After I had lied and he had me flogged together with Misṭaḥ, he gave me the sister of Māriyah.365 She bore my son ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. She is the aunt of the Prophet’s son Ibrāhīm.”366 The Sheikh (may God adorn belles lettres by granting him long life!) can 10.2 think of many things he wants to ask Ḥassān and the others; but he is afraid they may be unable to give the right answers, so he refrains from asking, out of respect of his companions. For instance, Ḥassān’s verse “its mixture being honey and water”: it occurs to him to ask, “What would you say, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, mizājahā (‘its mixture,’ accusative) ʿasalun (‘honey,’ nominative) wa-māʾū (‘and water,’ nominative)? Or mizājuhā (nominative) ʿasalan (accusative) wa-māʾū (‘and water,’ nominative)? Or rather mizājuhā ʿasalun wa-māʾū (all nominatives), assuming that this is a nominal sentence?”367

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Or his verse: He of you who lampoons the messenger of God and praises him and helps him, are they equal then?368 Some believe that the word “who” is elided before “praises” and “helps,” and that what follows it is a syndetic relative clause serving as an adjunct. Others say, however, that “who” is elided because it has an indefinite sense, in which case what follows it is a description of it, so that the asyndetic attributive relative clause takes the place of the thing that is described.369 One of those present asks Ḥassān: “What about this cowardice of yours, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān?” Ḥassān replies, “Are you saying this to me, when my tribe is the bravest of all Arab tribes?370 Six men of my tribe wanted to attack the heathen pilgrims with their swords and they protected the Prophet, agreeing to fight with him against any opponent. Then the tribes of Rabīʿah, Muḍar, and all the Arabs plunged their knives into our people and harbored hatred against them. If I have appeared to act with caution on some occasions, then it was merely a matter of being prudent. It is said in the Holy Book:371 «He who turns his back to them on that day—unless withdrawing to fight again, or siding with another group—he will have to bear God’s anger and his refuge will be Hell: an evil destiny!»” The company disperses, having spent a time equivalent to many earthly 10.3.1 lifetimes. While he wanders through the meadows of Paradise, the Sheikh meets five men riding five she-camels. He says, “I have never seen people in Paradise with eyes as beautiful as yours! Who are you? May God give you eternal bliss!” They answer, “We five were the one-eyed men of the tribe of Qays: Tamīm ibn Muqbil al-ʿAjlānī, ʿAmr ibn Aḥmar al-Bāhilī, al-Shammākh ibn Ḍirār of the Banū Thaʿlabah ibn Saʿd ibn Dhubyān, ʿUbayd ibn al-Ḥuṣayn al-Numayrī nicknamed the Camel-herd, and Ḥumayd ibn Thawr al-Hilālī.”372 The Sheikh addresses al-Shammākh: “I should like to ask you about a few things in your poem that rhymes in -zū and another poem rhyming in -jī; please recite them for me, may you be noble-hearted forever!” But al-Shammākh replies, “The perpetual bliss has made me forget these poems; I cannot remember a single verse from them.” The Sheikh, with his exceeding love of literature and his eagerness to attribute virtue where it is due, says, “You have been neglectful, you true believer, and you have lost something precious! Don’t you know that your two poems were more useful to

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169

The five oneeyed men of Qays

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176

Paradise (I)

singing girl ‘locust,’ because that term was used for a singing girl in ancient times. A poet has said: Locusts sing to us while we are drinking, and drinking once again, the wine with honey mixed. “As for ‘a low-lying, dark, gloomy one,’ that is a cooking pot; and ‘something made to resound, its peridot near to us,’ that is a lute, ‘its peridot’ being the decorated part of it. And haven’t you heard that one calls the various colors of a multicolored cloud zibrij, which is like zabarjad, peridot? 392 But if one reads ‘resounding,’ mujaljil instead of ‘made to resound,’ mujaljal, it refers to a thundercloud.” The Sheikh is amazed by these words. “It seems to me,” he says, “that you, 10.4.4 a true Arab whose expressions and verses are quoted as authoritative, assert that the word zabarjad is derived from zibrij! This supports what the author of al-ʿAyn claims: that the letter d is secondary in the word ṣalakhdam (‘strong camel’). But the Basran grammarians do not like this explanation.”393 At this point God Almighty inspires Ibn Aḥmar with the knowledge of morphology, in order to prove to the Sheikh His omnipotence. “Why do you find it odd,” replies Ibn Aḥmar, “that zibrij should be derived from the word zabarjad? It is as if a verb was derived from the noun zabarjad, in which not all its consonants could be used, for verbs cannot have roots of five consonants.394 So one makes a verbal form ‘yuzabriju’ and then one builds from this verb a noun: zibrij. Don’t you see that when they make a diminutive of farazdaq (‘piece of bread’)395 they say furayzid, and when they make a plural of it they say farāzid? This does not prove that the letter q is secondary.” The Sheikh (may God immortalize his utterances in the Register of Literature!) says, “You seem to assert that a verb can be derived from zabarjad, and that subsequently the noun zibrij is built on this. By this argument you are forced to maintain that verbs are prior to nouns!” Ibn Aḥmar replies, “I am not forced to say that, because I made zabarjad the original stem; it is possible that new branches are formed from it that should not be taken to be original stems. Don’t you see that they say: a verb is derived from a verbal noun,396 which is the stem. Furthermore, they speak of ‘an attribute that is analogous to the verb,’ meaning words such as ‘striking’ or ‘noble’ and the like.397 But the fact that they make these statements does not prove that an attribute is derived from a verb, since it is a noun, and nouns deserve to be prior to verbs. Rather, what is intended is that many nouns can

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180

The Sheikh’s Story of his Resurrection, the Day of Judgement, and his Entry into Paradise

Then the Sheikh says (may God make him speak meritoriously when he says 11.1 something, if his Lord will him to say something!): I’ll tell you my own story. After I got up and rose from my grave and had arrived at the Plane of Resurrection (“plane” being like “plain,” with a different spelling),404 I thought of the Qurʾanic verse, «To Him the angels and

The Sheikh’s conversation with Riḍwān and Zufar, guards of the Garden

the Spirit ascend in a day the length of which is fifty thousand years. So be patient in a decent manner».405 It did seem a long time to me; I got parched and torrid (meaning “very hot, without a puff of wind”), as your friend al-Numayrī says: The girls, in their wraps, are like ostrich eggs exposed by drizzle and the heat of a sultry night. I am easily desiccated (that is, “quick to thirst”), so I thought about my situation, which I found quite unbearable for someone like me. There came an angel to me, the one that had recorded all the good deeds I had performed. I found that my good deeds were few, as few as tussocks of grass in a year of destitution (a tussock being a tuft of vegetation, destitution being a drought). But my repentance at the end shone like a light, bright like a lamp for travelers at night. When I had stood there for one or two months, fearing I would drown in my 11.2.1 sweat, I persuaded myself that I should compose a few lines for Riḍwān, Paradise’s Porter Angel. I composed them on the meter and rhyme pattern of Stop, you two, for the memory of a beloved, and the recognition . . .406 In them I incorporated the name of Riḍwān. Then I jostled my way through the people until I stood where he could hear and see me, but he took no notice of me and I don’t think he paid attention to what I said. I waited for a short while, perhaps ten days in earthly reckoning, and then I composed some lines on the pattern of

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182

The Sheikh’s Story of his Resurrection, the Day of Judgement, and his Entry into Paradise

The gathered clans have parted. If I’d had my way, they wouldn’t have. They severed bonds of loving union.407 Again I mentioned Riḍwān in it; I approached him and did as before. But he did not appear to hear: it was as if I tried to move Mount Thabīr, or attempted to extract scent from cement (“cement” being a mixture of limestone and clay). Then I continued with all other metrical patterns that could accommodate “Riḍwān” until I had exhausted them; but still he did not help me and I don’t think he even understood what I said. When I had tried everything without success I cried out as loud as I could, “Riḍwān, who are trusted by the Omnipotent Almighty, charged with guarding Paradise! Can’t you hear me calling on you for help?” He replied, “I heard you mention Riḍwān, but I had no idea that you meant 11.2.2 me. What do you want, poor wretch?” I said, “I am a man who cannot endure to be dehydrated (that is, ‘thirsty’); it is for the Reckoning that I have waited and waited. I’ve got my Document of Repentance, which cancels all my sins. I have composed numerous poems in praise of you, mentioning you by name!” Riḍwān asked, “Poems, what’s that? This is the first time I have heard that word.” I replied: “‘Poems’ is the plural of ‘poem’, which is speech that is metrical and, on certain conditions, sounds pleasant. If the meter is defective, either by an excess or a shortfall, one notices it. People in the Temporal World used to ingratiate themselves with kings and lords by means of poems. So I composed some for you, hoping that you might let me enter Paradise by this gate. I think people have waited long enough now. I am only a weak, feeble person. Surely I am someone who may hope for forgiveness, and righly so, if God the Exalted wills.” But Riḍwān said, “Do you expect me to allow you to enter without permission from the Lord of Glory, you dimwit? Forget it! Forget it! «How could they attain it from a remote place?»”408 So I left him and, expectantly, turned to a guard who was called Zufar. For him 11.3 I composed a poem, mentioning him by name, on the meter of Labīd’s line: My two daughters hope their father will live; but don’t I belong to Rabī ʿah or Muḍar?409 I approached him and recited the poem; but it was as if I was speaking to a mute and solid rock in the end, trying to get a wild ibex to descend.410 I composed poems using the name Zufar in every possible meter and rhyme, but to no avail each time. I said, “God have mercy on you! In the Past World

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١٩٤

194

The Sheikh’s Story of his Resurrection, the Day of Judgement, and his Entry into Paradise

at this new blow and said, “We belong to God and to Him we shall return! If Abū l-Murajjā, the Emir, had had a treasurer like you we would never have received a groat from his coffers.” (A groat is a silver coin worth fourpence). But then Ibrāhīm (God bless him) turned around! He saw me—I had stayed behind. Now he came back and he dragged me along with him and brought me into Paradise. I had spent six months, earthly reckoning, at the Place of Judgment. That is why my memory is still intact: the horrors have not depleted it, nor has the detailed Reckoning weakened it.

١٩٥

195

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١٩٦

196

Paradise (II)

“So which one of you” (continues the Sheikh, addressing the five one-eyed 12.1 poets) “is the Camel-herd?” “This is he,” they answer. The Sheikh greets him and says, “I hope I shall not find you like your friends, without any recollection or having lost your knowledge of the Arabic language!” The Camel-herd

The conversation with “the Camelherd” and Ḥumayd ibn Thawr

replies, “I hope so too. Ask me, but be brief!” The Sheikh asks him, “Is it true, as Sībawayh433 says about you, that in your poem rhyming in -lā, in which you praise the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, you put the word ‘people’ in the accusative, in the verse: In the days when my tribe and the people were like one sitting firmly in the saddle, not letting it slip aside.”434 “It is true,” he answers. The Sheikh turns from him straight to Ḥumayd ibn Thawr. “I say, Ḥumayd,” 12.2.1 he says, “you composed some good poetry with your verses: I see that my eyes, once healthy, are troubling me; being healthy and sound is sufficient disease!435 Before long the two times, day and night, will have reached what they want and set out to achieve. “How is your eyesight now?” Ḥumayd replies, “I could be in the western regions of the Garden and yet notice one of my friends in the eastern parts, with a traveling distance of thousands of solar years between us—you know how fast the sun moved in the Fleeting World! God, the Exalted One, is able to create any wonderful thing.” The Sheikh continues: “You also said well in your poem rhyming in -dū, 12.2.2 that begins: A noisy, clumsy female, who castrates her donkey436— if one expects some good from her, one bites on stones! She works, provides a living; girdle always tightly bound; some youthful strength is left to her, but she is past childbearing.

١٩٧

197

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before. They all exclaim, “Glory to Him «who revives the bones after they have decayed»! It is just as it says in the Qurʾan: «When Ibrāhīm said, ‘My Lord, show me how Thou revivest the dead!’ He said, ‘Don’t you believe me, then?’ ‘Yes, I do,’ he said, ‘but just so that my heart be reassured.’ ‘Then,’ He said, ‘Take four birds and cut them up, then put a piece of them on each hill, then call them and they will come running toward you! Know that God is all-mighty and all-wise!’»” Then the Sheikh (may God delight mankind with his life!) asks, “What is the mood of ‘be reassured’?” They reply, “Subjunctive, because it is dependent on the conjunction ‘so that’ in the sense of purpose.” “Could there be another interpretation?” asks the Sheikh. (They answer,)469 “We cannot think of anything.” “It is possible,” continues the Sheikh, “that it is a jussive, after the particle li- that denotes a command,470 which here could express a prayer, as when one says, ‘O Lord, forgive me!’ As for ʿĀzar’s words that are quoted,471 these have been recited either as «He said: I know (aʿlamu) that God is powerful over everything» or «He said: know (iʿlam) . . . !», the former as a statement and the latter as a command from God, mighty is His power. Abū ʿAlī al-Fārisī thinks that ‘know!’ can be taken as addressed by ʿĀzar to himself, because this is a well-known phenomenon. Someone will say, ‘Woe unto you! What have you done?’ meaning himself. Al-Ḥādirah al-Dhubyānī says:472 Sumayyah rose early this morning. Enjoy! But she came in the morning like someone departing, not staying.” Then a goose comes along, big like a Bactrian camel.473 One person wants 13.8 it roasted, and thus it appears, on a table of emerald. As soon as he has had his fill, it returns, with God’s permission, to its former winged state. Another prefers it as kebab, someone else wants it spiced with sumac, yet another with milk and vinegar, and so on, while the goose turns into whatever is desired. This process repeats itself for some time. Then Abū ʿUthmān al-Māzinī says to ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Qurayb al-Aṣmaʿī, “I say, Abū Saʿīd, what is the morphological pattern of iwazzah, ‘goose’?” Al-Aṣmaʿī replies, “Are you insinuating something, you scorpion? You were in my class in Basra for so long when nobody paid any attention to you. The pattern is factually ifaʿlah (ʾiC1aC2C3ah) but originally if ʿalah (ʾiC1C2aC3ah).”474 Al-Māzinī asks, “What is your proof that the glottal stop ʾ is

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Thereupon he is alone (may God’s beneficence never leave him alone!) with 14.1 two black-eyed damsels of Paradise. Dazzled by their beauty he exclaims, “Alas, the poor Kindite, who perished!479 You remind me of his verses:

The conversation with the two damsels

As was your wont before her, with Umm al-Ḥuwayrith, and her neighbor friend, Umm al-Rabāb, in Maʾsal: When they rose the scent of musk would waft from them, like the eastern breeze, bringing the smell of cloves. “and his verses: Just like two oryxes, ewes from Tabālah, bending tenderly toward their calves; or like some Hakir statues: When they rose the scent of musk would waft from them, of perfume from a flask, and odoriferous aloe wood. “But his girlfriends are no match for you, no nobility, no treat for the eye! Sitting in your company for even one minute, of earthly reckoning, is better than the realm of Ākil al-Murār and his kin, or that of the Naṣrids in al-Ḥīrah, or the Jafnids, kings of Syria.” He turns to the two girls, sipping their sweet saliva, and says, “Imruʾ alQays is a poor, poor soul! His bones are burning in hellfire, while here I am quoting his verse: It seems the coolness of her teeth, when birds at dawn are warbling, is infused with wine, with rain, the smell of lavender, the scent of aloe wood. “or his verses: Days when her mouth, as I roused her from her sleep, would smell like musk, kept in its filter overnight, Wine the color of gazelle’s blood, kept for years, vintage from ʿĀnah or the vineyards of Shibām.” One of the girls begins to laugh uncontrollably. The Sheikh asks, “Why are 14.2 you laughing?” “For joy,” she replies, “because of the favor that God has bestowed on me, and the forgiveness that he showed to me! Do you know who I am, ʿAlī ibn Manṣūr?” “You are one of the black-eyed damsels whom

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God has created as a reward for the god-fearing. He said of you: «It is as if they are rubies and pearls».”480 She says, “Yes, I am indeed, through God Almighty’s kindness. But in the Fleeting World I was known as Ḥamdūnah and I used to live in Iraq Gate in Aleppo, where my father worked a mill. A rag-and-bone dealer married me, but he divorced me because of my bad breath. I was one of the ugliest women in Aleppo. When I realized that I became pious and renounced this Delusive World. I devoted myself to religious worship and earned a living from my spindle. This made me what you see now.” The other one says, “And do you know who I am, ʿAlī ibn Manṣūr? I am Black Tawfīq, who used to work in the House of Learning in Baghdad in the time of Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Khāzin. I used to fetch the manuscripts for the copyists.” He exclaims, “There is no god but God! You were black and now you are more dazzlingly white than camphor, or camphire481 if you like.” “Do you find that odd?” replies the girl, “After all, the poet says of some mortal being: One mustard-seed of light from him, with all black people mixed, would whiten all the blacks.”482 At that instant an angel comes along. The Sheikh asks him, “Servant of God, 14.3 tell me about the damsels with black, lustrous eyes: doesn’t it say in the Holy Book: 483 «We have raised them and made them virgins and loving companions for the people in the right»?” The angel replies, “There are two kinds. One kind has been created by God in Paradise and they have never known otherwise, and there is another kind that God has transferred from the Temporary World because they have done pious deeds.” The Sheikh is stupefied, i.e., amazed by what he has heard. “Where are the ones that have never been in the Transitory World?” he asks, “And how do they differ from the others?” The angel answers, “Just follow me and you will see a wondrous example of God’s omnipotence.” He follows the angel, who takes him to gardens the true nature of which only God knows. The angel says, “Take one of these fruits and break it open. This tree is known as the tree of the black-eyed damsels.”484 The Sheikh takes a quince, or a pomegranate, or an apple, or whatever God wills, and breaks it open. A girl with black, lustrous eyes emerges whose beauty dazzles the other damsels of the Paradisical gardens. She says,

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Paradise (II)

“Who are you, servant of God?” He gives his name. She says, “I was promised I would meet you four thousand years before God created the world!” At that the Sheikh prostrates himself to magnify the omnipotent God and says, “Thus it says in the Hadith: ‘I have prepared for my believing servants things no eye has seen nor any ear has heard—let alone that I should have told them about it!’”485 (“let alone” is used in the sense of “don’t think about it and why”). It occurs to him, while he is still prostrate, that the girl, though beauti- 14.4 ful, is rather skinny. He raises his head and instantly she has a behind that rivals the hills of ʿĀlij, the dunes of al-Dahnāʾ, and the sands of Yabrīn and the Banū Saʿd.486 Awed by the omnipotence of the Kind and Knowing God, he says, “Thou who givest rays to the shining sun, Thou who fulfillest the desires of everyone, Thou whose awe-inspiring deeds make us feel impotent, and summon to wisdom the ignorant: I ask Thee to reduce the bum of this damsel to one square mile, for Thou hast surpassed my expectations with Thy measure!” An answer is heard: “You may choose: the shape of this girl will be as you wish.” And the desired reduction is effected.

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     .    ٤      (  ) : ١

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Between Paradise and Hell

The Sheikh says, “Tell me about the poems of the jinnees! Someone called 15.2.2 al-Marzubānī has collected a fair number of them.” The old man replies, “But that is all rubbish, wholly unreliable. Do humans know more about poetry than cattle know about astronomy and geodesy? They have fifteen different meters, and rarely transcend them;493 whereas we have thousands of meters that humans have never heard of. Some naughty toddlers of ours happened to pass by some humans and spat some poetry at them, a trifle like a splinter from an arak tree of al-Naʿmān.494 I myself have composed informal rajaz and formal qaṣīd poetry an eon or two before God created Adam. I have heard that you, race of humans, are rapturous about Imruʾ al-Qays’s poem, ‘Stop, let us weep for the remembrance of a loved one and a dwelling place,’495 and make your kids learn it by heart at school. But if you wish I could dictate to you a thousand poems with the same meter and the same rhyme, -lī, a thousand such poems rhyming in -lū, a thousand in -lā, a thousand in -lah, a thousand in -luh, and a thousand in -lih, all composed by one of our poets, an unbeliever now burning in the depths of Hell.” The Sheikh (may God make him happy continually!) says, “You have got a good memory, old man!” The jinnee replies, “We are not like you, children of Adam, overcome by forgetfulness and moistness, for you have been created from «moulded mud»496 but we have been created from «a fiery flame».”497 The Sheikh is moved by a desire for erudition and literature to ask the old man, “Will you dictate some of these poems to me?” “If you like,” says the jinnee, “I will dictate to you loads more than camels can carry and all the pages of your world can contain.” The Sheikh has a mind (may his mind ever be lofty!) to take some dictation from him. But then he says to himself: in the Transitory World I was always wretched when I collected literature; I never profited from it. I tried to curry the favor of leading persons but I was milking the udder of a bad milk camel and was exerting myself with the teats of a slow cow. I’ll never be a success if I give up the pleasures of Paradise in order to copy the literature of the jinn. I’ve got enough erudition as it is, all the more so because forgetfulness is rife among the dwellers in Paradise, so that I have turned out to be one of those with the greatest erudition and the largest memory, thanks be to God!

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229

The poetry of the demons

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278

Hell

The Kūfan grammarians, however, read it as a subjunctive on account of the implied particle. This is corroborated by its presence in ‘that I attend pleasures,’ where you have ‘that.’ This is not more unusual than in the verse: Ill-omened people, who do not make a tribe prosper, and whose crow is croaking of naught but ill omen.634 “Al-Māzinī relates from ʿAlī ibn Quṭrub that the latter had heard his father Quṭrub quote some Bedouin Arab who read aḥḍura, with a subjunctive.— You made a marvellous piece when you said: If among us there were kings who bestow upon us like what you are bestowing on us, I would cross the two plains of Iraq635 on a lean, trusty she-camel, with flanks sloping down. On the day of departure I was given pleasure with her, by a branch selected by the arrow shafts . . . (?)636 “But you followed the ways of the Bedouin Arabs, doing what al-Muraqqish did in his poem beginning: The abodes, are they deaf, since they do not reply? If only they lived and had speech, they would speak! “Or al-Aʿshā when he says: Leave off! For everyone will become weary of what once he sought. “But Muraqqish mixed meters637 in his poem when he said: Why should we be blamed if a raid has been made by a king of the Jafnids, an unjust oppressor? “This goes against the system of al-Khalīl.638 “Much has been speculated,” continues the Sheikh, “about what hap- 17.8.3 pened to you. Some people assert that you were imprisoned during the rule of al-Nuʿmān, others say that it was ʿAmr ibn Hind who did these things to you. But if you had left no other trace in the Fleeting World than your ode rhyming on -dī,639 you would have left your mark splendidly.” “I wish,” replies Ṭarafah, “I had not uttered one single hemistich and I had not found, in the Transitory World, any rich pasturing ground, but instead

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٢٩٠

290

Hell

The Sheikh (may God empower him!) says, “That is why you were given 17.12.3 what you deserve! Did you not know all that this obstinate man persisted in, who scaled the mountains of sin! What did you find out about his belief: was he a monotheist, or did you find him to be an apostate?” Al-Akhṭal replies, “He liked these verses: O Khālidah, come here and tell me, let me know your story (I shall not reveal656 a confidential talk): The story of Abū Sufyān, when he went up to Uḥud, leaving wailing women standing!657 And how ʿAlī sought power, but he failed, and fortune favored then Muʿāwiyah and gave it him.658 Stand up, pour me another cup of wine pressed by a Christian from a Syrian vine! When we consider things in bygone ages we find that drinking it continually is allowed. There’s no dispute among mankind: Muḥammad, in Medina, has been laid to rest forever in a grave!” The Sheikh says (may God make all his moments happy!), “A curse upon you! The poets in Heaven and Hellfire have forgotten their panegyrics and love lyrics, but you have not been confused to the extent of being distracted from your unbelief and misdeeds!” Satan, who has heard all this speech, says to his angels of Hell, “I have never 17.12.4 seen creatures more impotent than you, brothers of Mālik!” “How can you say that, Father Bitterness?”659 they answer. He continues, “Can’t you hear this man speaking about things that do not concern him? He has distracted you and the others from your job! If there was anybody with guts among you he would jump up, seize him, and drag him to Hellfire!” They reply, “You can’t do anything, Father Whirlwind! We have no power over those who dwell in Paradise.” When the Sheikh (may God make him hear the things he loves!) hears what Satan says he begins to scold and curse him, openly gloating. Satan (a curse be upon him!) replies, “Have you not been forbidden to gloat, children of Adam? But— God be praised!—whenever you were told not to do something you always did it!” The Sheikh (may God continue to favor him!) says, “You are the one who first gloated at Adam’s misery; and he who starts

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291

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٢٩٢

292

Hell

is the more unjust one!” He turns to address al-Akhṭal again. “Is it you who said these verses: I shan’t obediently fast in Ramadan nor eat the sacrificial meat!660 I shan’t stand up like a wild ass and cry, just before dawn, ‘Come to salvation!’661 Rather, I’ll drink it, a chilled wine; I shall prostrate myself when dawn is breaking.” “Yes,” says al-Akhṭal, “I am sorry and full of worry! But did repentance avail the man of the tribe of Kusaʿ?”662

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293

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٢٩٤

294

Hell

The Sheikh is bored with talking to the inhabitants of Hell. He turns toward 18.1.1 his lofty castle again. Having gone for a mile or two it occurs to him that he has not asked about Muhalhil al-Taghlibī, nor about the two called

The conversation with Muhalhil

Muraqqish. He has also neglected al-Shanfarā and Taʾabbaṭa Sharrā. So he retraces his steps and stops at that same place. “Where is ʿAdī ibn Rabī ʿah?” he calls. They reply, “Be more specific!” He says, “The one whose verse is quoted as linguistic evidence by the grammarians: She struck her breast and said to me:

ʿAdī, you have had strong protectors!663 “And also this verse: (The horses) struck down Yashkur’s tents, our uncles matrilineal, the sons of uncles patrilineal.664 “And his verse: What can I hope for in my life, now that my friends have all been given to drink the cup of Death?” The answer is, “You describe your friend with things of which we have no knowledge. What are ‘grammarians’? What is ‘linguistic evidence’? What is all this drivel? We are the Guards of Hell. Say clearly what you want, and you may get a reply!” The Sheikh says, “I want him who is known as Muhalhil al-Taghlibī, the brother of Kulayb of the tribe of Wāʾil, who has become proverbial.” They reply, “There he is, listening to your speech. Say what you want.” The Sheikh says, “ʿAdī ibn Rabī ʿah! I am grieved that you have entered 18.1.2 this place! If I were sorry for you only on account of your ode that begins: O, night of ours in Dhū Ḥusam, be bright! When you are past, do not return!665 “then this poem alone were worthy of causing lengthy grief for your sake. And whenever I recited your verses about your daughter, who married into the tribe of Janb, my eyes would brim over with tears. Now tell me, why were you called Muhalhil? It is said that this is because you were the first who ‘finely wove’ (yuhalhil) poetry.”

٢٩٥

295

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296

Hell

“There are many lies that go round,” says Muhalhil, “I had a brother called Imruʾ al-Qays. Zuhayr ibn Janāb al-Kalbī raided us; my brother followed him with some of his people. He composed verses on this: When their half-bred climbed up the summit of the road I was within an inch (halhaltu) of vengeance for the deaths of Mālik and of Ṣinbil. He’s like a goshawk of great age, leading the vanguard with his weapons. “The word halhaltu means: ‘I almost did’; it is also said that it means ‘I stopped.’ By the ‘half-bred’ he meant Zuhayr ibn Janāb. Then he was nicknamed Muhalhil.666 But when he died I was confused with him and I was called Muhalhil.” The Sheikh replied, “Now at last I have stilled my thirst for knowledge with truth of certainty! “But tell me about this verse that is attributed to you:

18.1.3

They thundered in the hour of turmoil and we flashed like lightning, like stallions threatening stallions. “Al-Aṣmaʿī thought it spurious and said it was not early Arabic, but Abū Zayd used it as linguistic evidence, declaring it to be authentic. ” “Lubad lived a long life!” 667 says Mulhalhil, “I have forgotten what I said in the Perishable World. Why did he think it was spurious?” The Sheikh replies, “Al-Aṣmaʿī claimed that the verbs ‘thunder’ and ‘flash’ are not used for threats or for clouds.” “That is an error,” says Muhalhil, “This verse was said by a man who was rooted in the purity of language—whether it was me or someone else! So stick to that and pay no heed to the words of fools.” The Sheikh asks about al-Muraqqish the Elder; he spots him in the echelons 18.2 of Hell’s torment. “May God lighten your pain, you wronged young man,” says the Sheikh, “for I always grieved, in the Fleeting World, because of what that man of the tribe Ghufaylah did to you, one of the Banū Ghufaylah ibn Qāsiṭ, God’s curse be upon him!668—Some people in Islamic times would scorn your ode rhyming in -m, which begins The abodes, are they deaf, since they do not reply? If only they lived and had speech, they would speak! “I myself think it is a singularly good poem. Some literate person thought that this poem and the other poem rhyming in m by Muraqqish the Younger fall

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297

The conversation with the two poets called Muraqqish

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" k M     F5G  !789j

       (       . . .    )    ١ .           

٢٩٨

298

Hell

short of the quality of the other odes in the Mufaḍḍaliyyāt.669 But whoever said so was wrong!—Someone has attributed the following verses to you: In Naʿmān I selected a piece of arāk wood670 for Hind—but who will be able to take it to Hind? My two friends (may God bless you!), leave the road, visit Hind, even if it is not on your way to your land! And then tell her: We lost not our way when we swerved, but we turned from the road for the purpose of meeting with you! “But I do not find them in your collected verse. Is the attribution to you correct?” “I have said so many things,” replies Muraqqish. “Some of it has been transmitted to you and other things have not. It is possible that I have composed these verses, but I have forgotten them because of the eternally long time. Perhaps you find it odd that they are about Hind, whereas my girl was Asmāʾ. But do not disapprove of this, for someone who composes love poetry may move from one name to another. At one stage of his life he may rave about one person and then he may turn to another. Haven’t you heard this verse of mine: Stupid it is to remember Khuwaylah, now that the tops of Najrān’s mountains stand in the way of a meeting with her!” The Sheikh turns to Muraqqish the Younger and asks him about his affair 18.3 with the daughter of al-Mundhir and the daughter of ʿAjlān,671 but he does not find him very knowledgeable: he has forgotten the affair because of the epochs that have succeeded one another. “Don’t you remember,” he asks, “what Janāb did to you, the one of whom you say; Janāb swore an oath; I obeyed him. So blame yourself, if you must blame someone!”672 “What did he do?” asks Muraqqish. “I have encountered calamitous things and have been given to drink bitter drinks!673 I wish I could have the torment of the Fleeting World instead!”

٢٩٩

299

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˜— L   Lé›  ¾#œ

Hell

Since the Sheikh does not find with him any useful information he leaves 18.4 him. He asks about al-Shanfarā al-Azdī674 and finds him to be someone who complains little about his sufferings. “I see you are not as troubled as your companions,” says the Sheikh. “True,” replies al-Shanfarā, “I made a verse in the Deceptive World and I intend to live up to it for all eternity.

The conversation with the two brigand poets, al-Shanfarā and Taʾabbaṭa Sharrā

It is this: He erred, they erred; but then he refrained, they refrained. Forbearance, when complaining is of no avail, is best.”675 And there he is joined by Taʾabbaṭa Sharrā, as he was in the Deluding 18.5 World. The Sheikh (may God raise his share of forgiveness!) asks Taʾabbaṭa Sharrā, “Is it true what they tell about you, that you married female ghouls?” “In the pre-Islamic times of Ignorance,” he replies, “we would spread all kinds of false reports and rumors. Common sense rejects those things that have reached you; they are all lies. It is the same with all history. What Maʿadd ibn ʿAdnān has witnessed is like what the youngest of Adam’s descendants has witnessed.” The Sheikh says (may God give him abundant forgiveness!), “Some verses have been quoted to us that were attributed to you: I’m he who married ghouls in a country where no autumnal rain676 gives dew or downpour, Where no lion, hunting in the morning, overcomes his blindness (?)677 and where no ostrich is a-seeking bitter colocynths. I’ve sported with a girl with polished teeth, a virgin who tried to pinch my cup and bunch of dates. My time with her is past and gone; and on its heels there came the time of graying hairs. Of all good things, say: Gone! “I have found indications that this poem is by you, for you speak of an ostrich ‘a-seeking’ colocynths, using the verbal noun tihibbād, so I said to myself, this is like when he says, using a similar word pattern in rhyme: The apparition of the noble man’s daughter—when we were together; but then I went mad because of her, when a-drifting asunder (tifirrāq).

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301

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“The verbal noun pattern tifirrāq can be derived regularly from the verb tafarraqa (‘to separate’), even though it is rare in poetry. Likewise, Abū Zubayd says: The scolders raged; then he came ever more a-nearing (tiqirrāb), and a wicked man met him.” But Taʾabbaṭa Sharrā gave no useful reply.

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Return to Paradise

Passing through the fields of Paradise he meets the girl that had come out of 20.1 the fruit. She says, “I have been waiting for you for some time. What has kept you from visiting me? Surely I have not been with you long enough yet to bore your ears with my conversation! I am entitled to preferential treatment

The Sheikh’s return to his paradisical damsel

from you like any newly wedded wife! A husband has to give her special attention, more than his other wives.” The Sheikh replies, “I felt like having a chat with the people in Hell and when I had done what I wanted I came back to you. Now follow me, between the Ambergris Hills and the Musk Dunes!” They cross the hills of Heaven and the sands of Paradise, and she says, “Dear departed servant of God, I think you are imitating the deeds of the Kindite with me,716 when he says: Then I got up, taking her with me, as she trailed over our tracks the train of an embroidered gown. When we had crossed the clan’s enclosure, turning to a sandy coomb with twisting slopes, I drew her temple-locks toward me and she leaned to me, slender her waist but plump her calves.” The Sheihk replies, “God’s omnipotence is truly marvellous! You have said precisely what I was thinking, too, in my heart of hearts. But how do you know about Imruʾ al-Qays? I thought you had grown up in a fruit, far from jinnees and humans?” She answers, “God is able to do everything.” He remembers the story of Imruʾ al-Qays at Dārat Juljul.717 Instantly God, the Almighty, creates girls with black, lustrous eyes, who contend with one another in plunging into one of the rivers of Paradise, playing together. In their midst is one prettier than all the others, like Imruʾ al-Qays’s girlfriend. They throw bitter, acid weeds to one another,718 but they smell like the costliest perfume of Paradise. He slaughters for them his riding animal; he eats and they eat some of it, which is indescribably delicious and delectable. He passes by some houses that are not as lofty as the other houses in Paradise. 20.2 He asks about them and is told that this is the Garden of the Rajaz poets, the dwelling place of al-Aghlab al-ʿIjlī, al-ʿAjjāj, Ruʾbah, Abū l-Najm, Ḥumayd al-Arqaṭ, ʿUdhāfir ibn Aws, and Abū Nukhaylah,719 and all the others who received forgiveness.720 [The Sheikh says,] “Blessed be the Almighty Giver! The tradition that has come down to us has come true: ‘God loves that which

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In the Paradise of the rajaz poets

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