Читать книгу The Epistle of Forgiveness - Abu l-'Ala al-Ma'arri - Страница 5
Оглавление1.1
استفتاحاً باسمِه، واستنجاحاً ببَرَكتِه. والحمدُ لله المبتدِي بالنعَم، المنفرد بالقِدَم، الذي جلّ عن شَبَه المخلوقين، وصِفات المحدَثين، وليّ الحَسَنات، المُبَرَّأ من السيّئات، العادل في أفعاله، الصادقِ في أقواله، خالق الخلق ومُبديه، ومُبقيه ما شاء ومُفنيه. وصلواتُه على محمد وأبرار عِترته وأهليه، صلاةً ترضيه، وتقرّبه وتُدنيه، وتُزلفُه وتحظيه:
We commence in His name, seeking success through His benediction. Praise be to God, the originator of blessings, Who is alone in being pre-eternal; Who is exalted above any likeness to His creatures and above the attributes of those who have been brought into being; Who bestows benefactions but is not responsible for malefactions; Who is just in His acts and truthful in His words; the Creator and Originator of creation, who makes it last and annihilates it as He wills. His blessings be on Muḥammad and his pious family and relations, with a blessing that may gratify him, bring him nearer and closer to Him, and give him favor and good graces with Him.
Ibn al-Qāriḥ’s Hopes for a Meeting with al-Maʿarrī1
2.1
كتابي – أطال الله بقاء مولاي الشيخ الجليل، ومَدَّ١ مُدّته، وأدام كفايته وسعادته، وجعلني فداءه، وقدّمني قِبَلَه٢ على الصحة والحقيقة، وبعد القصد والعقيدة، وليس على مجاز اللفظ ومجرى الكتابة، ولا على تنقُّص وخِلابة، وتحبُّبٍ ومسامحة، ولا كما قال بعضُهم وقد عاد صديقًا له: كيف تجدك جعلني الله فداك، وهو يقصد تحبُّبًاً، ويريد تملُّقًا، ويظنّ أنه قد أسدى جميلاً يشكره صاحبه إن نهض واستقلّ، ويكافئه عليه إن أفاق وأبلّ، عن سلامة تمامُها بحضور حضرته، وعافية نظامُها بالتشرّف بشريف عِزَّتِه، وميمون نقيبته وطلعته.
ويعلم الله الكريم – تقدّست أسماؤه – أنّي لو حننتُ إليه – أدام الله تأييده – حنينَ الواله إلى بكرها، أو ذات الفرخ إلى وكْرها، أو الحمامة إلى إلفها، أو الغزالة إلى خِشْفِها، لكان ذلك مما تُغَيِّره الليالي والأيام، والعصور والأعوام، لكنّه حنين الظمآن إلى الماء، والخائفِ إلى الأَمن، والسليم إلى السلامة، والغريقِ إلى النجاة، والقَلِقِ إلى السكون، بل حنين نفسه النفيسة إلى الحمد والمجد، فإنّي رأيتُ نِزاعَها إليهما نِزاعَ الاستُقُصّاتِ إلى عناصرها، والأركانِ إلى جواهرها. فإن وهَبَ الله لي مَلاءً من العمر يُؤنِسُني برؤيتِه، ويُعلِقُني بحبلِ مَوَدّتِه، صِرتُ كساري الليل ألقى عصاه، وأَحْمَدَ٣ مَسراه، وقَرَّ عَينًا ونَعِمَ بالًا، وكان كمن لم يَمسَسْه سوءٌ، ولم يَتَخَوَّنْه عَدُوٌّ، ولا نهكَه رَواحٌ ولا غُدُوّ. وعسى الله أن يَمُنَّ بذلك، بيومِه أو بثانيه، وبه الثقةُ.
١ ب: (ومُدّ).
٢ ب: (قبْلَه).
٣ ب: (وأُحْمِدَ).
I am writing—may God lengthen the life of my lord the venerable Sheikh and prolong his time; may He give him lasting protection and happiness; may He make me his ransom and may He present me before him2 in truth and in reality, having been moved by good intention and firm belief, not only by way of speech and writing, without disrespect or guile, without the affectation of affection or complaisance; not as somebody said when visiting a sick friend of his: “How are you? May God make me your ransom!,” merely intending to show affection and wanting to flatter, thinking that he had done a good deed for which his friend would thank him were he to get up and recuperate, and reward him were he to regain his health and recover—I am writing in a state of well-being that would be complete with being in the Sheikh’s presence, and in a state of prosperity that would be in perfect order by being honored by his noble person, his blessed mind, and his countenance.
God, the most Noble—His names be sanctified—knows that if I had yearned to meet him—may God always support him!—as a bereft mother camel yearns for her calf, or a bird with chicks for its nest, or a dove for its mate, or a gazelle for its fawn, it would have been one of those things changed by the course of nights and days, years and ages; rather, it is the yearning of the thirsty for water, the fearful for safety, the snake-bitten for recovery, the drowning for rescue, the perturbed for quiet of mind—nay the yearning of the Sheikh’s precious soul for God’s praise and glory; for I have seen how it is drawn toward these things as components are drawn toward their elements and basic principles toward their substances.3 If God grants me a fullness of life that enables me to delight in seeing the Sheikh and to hold fast on to the 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.
2.2
وأنا أسأل الله على التَدَاني والنوى والبعاد، إمتاعَه بالفضل الذي استعلى على عاتقه وغاربه، واستولى على مَشارقه ومَغاربه، فمن مَرَّ على بحره الهيّاج، ونظر في لألاء بَدرِه الوهّاج، خليقٌ بأن يَكبُوَ قلمُه بأنامله، ويَنبُوَ طَبعُه عن رسائله، إلا أن يُلقِى إليه بالمقاليد، أو يَستَوهِبَه إقليدًا من الأقاليد، فيكون منسوبًا إليه، ومحسوبًا عليه، ونازلا في شِعبِه، وأحد أصحابه وحِزبِه، وشرارةَ ناره، وقُراضَةَ ديناره، وسَمَلَ بحره، وثَمَد غَمره. وهيهات!
ضاق فِترٌ عن مَسيرِ
ليس التكَحُّلُ في العَيْنيْن كالكَحَلِ
| خُلقوا أَسخياءَ لا متساخي | نَ وليس السخيُّ من يتساخى |
لا سيّما وأخلاقُ النفس تَلزَمُها لزومَ الألوان للأبدان، لا يَقدِر الأبيض على السواد، ولا الأسود على البياض، ولا الشجاع على الجُبن، ولا الجبان على الشجاعة، قال أبو بكر العَرْزَميّ:
| يَفِرُّ جَبانُ القومِ عن أُمّ رأسِه | ويحمي شُجاعُ القوم مَنْ لا يناسبُهْ |
| ويُرزَقُ معروفَ الجَوادِ عَدُوُّهُ | ويُحرم معروفَ البخيلِ أقاربُهْ |
| ومَن لا يكُفّ الجهْلَ عَمّن يوَدُّه | فسوف يكُفّ الجهلَ عَمّن يواثبُهْ |
I ask God, despite the need to come closer, the distance, and the remoteness, 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 itself5 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.
2.3
ومن أين للضَّباب صوْبُ السحاب، وللغُراب هُوِىُّ العُقاب! وكيف وقد أصبح ذِكرُه في مواسِمِ الذكر أذاناً، وعلى مَعالم الشكر لسانًا! فمَن دافع العِيان، وكابَرَ الإنْس والجان، واستَبدَّ بالإفْكِ والبُهتان، كان كمن صالَبَ بوَقاحتِه الحجر، وحاسن بقَباحتِه القمر، وهذَى وهذَر، وتعاطى فعقَر، وكان كمحموم بُلسِم فعفر، ونادى على نفسه بالنقص في البدو والحضر، وكان كما قال من يعنيه ولا يشكّ فيه :
| كناطحٍ صخْرةً يومًا لِيَفلقَها | فلم يَضِرْها وأَوْهَى قَرنَه الوعِلُ |
ورُوي أنّ رسول الله – صلّى الله عليه وسلّم، وزاده شرفاً لديه – قال: لعن الله ذا اللسانين، لعن الله كلّ شقَّارٍ، لعن الله كلّ قَتَّات.
How could a fog compare with a downpour from the clouds? How could the 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 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!”
2.4
وردتُ حلب ظاهِرَها – حماها الله وحرسها – بعد أن مُنيتُ بِرَبضِها بالدُرَخْمين وأُمّ حَبَوْكَرَى والفُتَكْرين، بل رُمِيتُ بآبِدة الآباد والداهيةِ النآد، فلما دخَلتُها – وبعدُ لم تستقرّ بي الدار، وقد نكرتُها لفقدان معرفةٍ وجار – أنشدتُها باكياً:
| إذا زُرْتُ أرضًا بعد طولِ اجتنابها | فقَدتُ حبيبًا والبلادُ كما هيا |
كان أبو القَطِران، المرّارُ بنُ سعيد الفَقْعسيّ، يهوَى ابنةَ عمه بنجدٍ، واسمُها وحشيّةُ فاهتداها رجلٌ شاميٌّ إلى بلده. فغمَّه بُعدُها، وساءَه فِراقُها، فقال من قصيدة:
| إذا تركتْ وحْشيّةُ النجْدَ لم يكنْ | لعينيْك مما تبكيان طبيبُ |
| رأى نظرةً منها فلم يَملِك البُكا | مَعاوِزُ يَربو تحتهن كثيبُ |
| وكانت رياحُ الشام تُكْرَه مرّة | فقد جَعلتْ تلك الرياحُ تطيبُ |
فحصلتُ من الرباح على الرياح، كما حصل لأبي القطران من وحشيّةَ.
ثم. . . وثم. . . وثم. . .١
١ كذا في النسخ.
I reached the periphery of Aleppo—may God protect and guard it—after 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.
And then . . . and then . . . and then . . .16
2.5
ثم أُجري ذكرُه – أدام الله تأييده – من غير سبب جرَّه وغير مقتضٍ اقتضاه، فقال: الشيخ بالنحو أعلَمُ من سيبويه، وباللغة والعَروضِ من الخليل.
فقلتُ والمجلس يأذن: بلغني أنه – أدام الله تأييده – يُصَغِّر كبيرَه، ويُنَزِّر صغيرَه، فيصير تصغيره تكبيرًا وتحقيره تكثيرًا. هكذا شاهدتُ من شاهدتُ من العلماء رحمهم الله أجمعين، وجعله وارث أطْولِ أعمارِهم وأَنضَرِها وأرغَدِها. وما ثمّ له حاجةٌ دَعَتْ إلى هذا: قد تَفَتَّح النَوْرُ وتَوضّح النُور، وأضاءَ الصبحُ لذي عينين!
Then the Sheikh’s name was mentioned—may God always support him!—without any cause or occasion requiring it; and someone said, “The Sheikh knows more about syntax than Sībawayh and more about lexicography and metrics than al-Khalīl.”
I replied, as the assembly gave ear, “I have heard that he—may God always support him!—belittles what is great in him, and even minimizes what is little in him; thus his belittling becomes a form of aggrandizement and his deprecation becomes an augmentation. I have witnessed the same thing in some other scholars I have met personally—may God have mercy upon them all, and may He make the Sheikh the inheritor of their longest, most flourishing, and most prosperous lifetime!—but there is no need for this: the flowers have blossomed, the light is bright, and dawn is shining for those with sight!”
2.6.1
كان أبو الفرج الزَهْرَجيّ كاتبُ حضرةِ نصرِ الدولة – أدام الله حراستَه – كتب رسالةً إليّ أعطانيها، ورسالةً إليه – أدام الله تأييده – استَوْدَعَنيها، وسألني إيصالها إلى جليلِ حضرته، وأكون نافِثَها لا باعِثَها، ومُعَجّلَها لا مُؤَجِّلَها. فسرق عديلي رحلاً لي، الرسالةُ فيه، فكتبتُ هذه الرسالةَ أشكو أُموري وأبثُّ شُقُوري، وأُطلِعُه طِلعَ عُجَري وبُجَرِي، وما لقيتُ في سفري من أُقَيوام يدّعون العلم والأدب، والأدبُ أدبُ النفس لا أدبُ الدرس، وهم أصفارٌ منها جميعًا، ولهم تصحيفاتٌ كنت إذا ردَدتُها عليهم، نَسَبوا التصحيف إليَّ، وصاروا إلبًا عليَّ.
Abū l-Faraj al-Zahrajī, state secretary at the court of Naṣr al-Dawlah—may God always protect him!—wrote a letter to me, which he gave me, and another letter to the Sheikh—may God always support him!—which he entrusted to me, asking me to deliver it to the venerable Sheikh, as speech, rather than as a dispatch, and quickly convey it and not to delay it. But my traveling companion robbed me of one of my saddlebags, which had the letter in it, so I wrote this letter instead, complaining of my state of affairs and explaining my needs, to inform the Sheikh of all my foibles and failings and of my experiences, during my travels, with all the petty people who pretend to have knowledge and erudition. True erudition is that of the soul, not that of study; but they are devoid of both. They commit errors when they read and write17 but when I point them out, they gang up against me and impute the errors to me!
Criticism of Heresy and Heretics
2.6.2
لقيتُ أبا الفرج الزهرجيّ بآمدَ ومعه خِزانة كتُبِه، فعرضها عليّ فقلتُ: كتبك هذه يهوديّةٌ، قد برئت من الشريعة الحنيفيّة، فأظهر من ذلك إعظاماً وإنكارًا، فقلت له: أنت على المُجَرَّب، ومثلي لا يَهْرِف بما لا يعرِف، وابلُغْ تَيْقَنْ. فقرأَ هو وولدُه وقال: صغَّرَ الخُبرُ الخَبَر. وكتب إليّ رسالةً يُقَرِّظُني فيها بطبعٍ له كريم وخُلُقٍ غير ذميم.
I met Abū l-Faraj al-Zahrajī in Āmid. He had a library that he showed me. I told him, “These books of yours are Jewish and devoid of the Shariah of the True Religion!” He showed his annoyance and disapproval of this remark. So I said to him, “You are talking to an experienced man; someone like me does not talk rubbish about things he does not know about. Verify and you will be certain!” He and his son began to read, and he said, “First-hand knowledge has belittled reported knowledge!” He wrote me a letter, eulogizing me, for such is his good nature and unblemished character.18
2.7.1
قال المتنبّي:
أذمُّ إلى هذا الزمان أُهَيلَهُ
صغَّرَهم تصغيرَ تحقيرٍ غير تكبير، وتقليل غير تكثير، فنَفَثَ مصدورًا، وأظهر ضميراً مستورًا. وهو سائغ في مجاز الشعر، وقائله غير ممنوعٍ من النَظْم والنثر ولكنه وضعَه غير موضعِه، وخاطَب به غير مستَحِقِّه. وما يستَحِقّ زمانٌ ساعدَه بلقاءِ سيف الدولة أن يُطلِق على أهلِه الذمَّ. وكيف وهو القائل:
| أَسيرُ إلى إقطاعِه في ثيابِه | على طِرْفِه من دارِه بحُسامِهِ |
وقد كان من حقّه أن يجعلهم في خِفارته، إذ كانوا منسوبين إليه محسوبين عليه. ولا يجب أن يشكو عاقلاً ناطقًا إلى غير عاقلٍ ولا ناطقٍ، إذ الزمان حركاتُ الفلك إلا أن يكون مِمَن يعتقد أن الأفلاك تَعقِل وتعلَم وتفهم، وتدري بمواقع أفعالها، بقصود وإرادات، ويَحمله هذا الاعتقادُ على أن يُقرِّب لها القرابين ويُدَخِّنَ الدُخْن، فيكون مناقضًا لقوله
| فتَبًّا لدين عبيدِ النجومِ | ومَن يَدّعِي أنها تعقِلُ |
أو يكونَ كما قال الله تعالى في كتابه الكريم: مُذَبْذَبِينَ بَيْنَ ذَلِكَ لا إِلَى هَؤُلاءِ وَلا إِلَى هؤُلاءِ ويوشك أن تكون هذه صفته.
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.
2.7.2
حكى القُطْرَبُّليّ١ وابن أبي الأزهر في كتابٍ اجتمعا على تصنيفه – وأهلُ بغداد وأهلُ مصر يزعمون أنه لم يُصَنَّف في معناه مثله، لصِغَر حجمه وكِبَر علمه – يحكيان فيه أن المتنبّي أُخرج ببغداد من الحبس إلى مجلس أبي الحسن عليّ بن عيسى الوزير – رحمه الله. فقال له: أنت أحمد المتنبي؟ فقال: أنا أحمد النبي، وكشف عن بطنه فأَراه سَلْعة فيه وقال: هذا طابع نُبُوَّتي وعلامة رسالتي. فأمر بقلعِ جَمشَكه٢ وصَفَعَه به خمسين، وأعاده إلى محبسه.
ويقول لسيف الدولة:
| وتغضبونَ على مَنْ نال رِفْدَكُمُ | حتى يُعاقِبَه التنغيصُ والمِنَنُ |
وكذب والله، لقد كان يتحرّش بالمكارم ويتحكّك بها، ويحسد عليها أن تكون إلا منه وبه. وهذا غيرُ قادحٍ في طُلاوة شعره ورَونَق ديباجته.
١ ب: (القُطْرُبُّلّي) بضمة الراء وتشديد اللام، والصحيح ما أثبتناه.
٢ ب: (جُمْشُكِهِ )، والصحيح ما أثبتناه.
In a book on which they collaborated—the people of Baghdad and Cairo 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 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.
3.1
ولكني أغتاظ على الزنادقةِ والملحدين الذين يتلاعبون بالدين، ويرومون إدخال الشُبَهِ والشكوك على المسلمين، ويستَعذِبون القدح في نبوّة النبيّين، صلواتُ الله عليهم أَجمعين، ويتظرّفون ويبتدئون إعجابًا بذلك المذهب:
تِيهُ مُغَنٍّ وظَرْفُ زنديقِ
وقتل المهديّ بشّاراً على الزندقة، ولما شُهر بها وخاف، دافع عن نفسه بقوله:
| يا ابن نِهْيا١ رأسي عليَّ ثقيلُ | واحتمالُ الرأسين عبْءٌ ثقيلُ |
| فادْعُ غيْري إلى عبادةِ ربَّيْ | نِ فإنّي بواحدٍ مشغولُ |
١ ب: (نَهْيا)، والصحيح ما أثبتناه.
But I am furious about those heretics29 and apostates30 who make fun of 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.3132
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!
3.2
وأحضر صالح بن عبد القدّوسِ وأحضر النطع والسيّاف، فقال: عَلامَ تقتلني؟ قال: على قولك:
| رُبَّ سِرٍّ كتمتُه فكأَني | أَخرسٌ أَو ثَنَى لسانِيَ عَقْلُ |
| وَلَو ٱنّي أَظهرتُ للناسِ ديني | لم يكنْ لي في غير حَبْسِيَ أَكْلُ |
ياعُدَيَّ الله وعُدَيَّ نَفسِه:
| السِتْرُ دون الفاحشاتِ ولا | يَلْقَاكَ دونَ الخيْرِ من سِتْرِ |
فقال: قد كنت زنديقًا وقد تُبت عن الزندقة. قال: كيف وأنت القائل
| والشيخُ لا يَتركُ عاداتهِ | حتى يُوَارَى في ثَرى رمْسِه |
| إذا ارْعَوى عاد إلى غَيِّه | كذِي الضنَى عاد إلى نكْسِه |
وأخذ غَفلتَه السيّافُ، فإذا رأَسه يَتَدَهدأُ على النطع.
Al-Mahdī also summoned Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿAbd al-Quddūs. He called for the execution 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.
“Enemy of God, and enemy of yourself!
A fine reputation veils scandalous deeds;
but you’ll find no veil that covers good deeds.”33
Then Ṣāliḥ said, “I was a heretic but I have repented and renounced heresy!” But al-Mahdī said, “How can that be! You yourself said:
An old man will not abandon his habits
until he is buried in the earth of his grave.
Though he may mend his ways, he will return to his error,
just as a someone chronically ill will relapse.”
The executioner struck before he knew what was happening, and his head rolled on the mat!
3.3
وظهر في أيامه في بلد خلف بخارى وراء النهر رجل قصّار أَعور، عمل له وجهاً من ذهب وخوطِبَ بربّ العِزَّة، وعمل لهم قمراً فوق جبلٍ ارتفاعُهُ فراسخُ فأنفذ المهديّ إليه فأُحيط به وبقلعته، فحرق كل شيء فيها، وجمع كل مَن في البلد وسقاهم شرابًا مسمومًا، فماتوا بأَجمعهم، وشرب فلَحِق بهم، وعجَّل الله بروحه إلى النار.
In his reign, in a town beyond Bukhārā in Transoxania, there lived a one-eyed man, a fuller, who made himself a gold mask and who was addressed as Lord Almighty.34 He also erected a moon on a mountain several parasangs high for his followers.35 Al-Mahdī dispatched an army to him, which laid siege to him in his fortified town. Then the heretic burned everything in it, gathered all the townspeople and gave them poisoned wine to drink; they all died. He too drank and joined them; and God hastened his spirit to Hell.
3.4
والصناديقيّ في اليمن كانت جيوشه بالمُدَيْخِرَةِ وسَفْهَنَةَ وخوطب برب العِزَّة، وكوتِبَ بها، فكانت له دار إفاضة يَجْمَعُ إليها نساء البلدة كلها ويُدْخِلُ الرجالَ١ عليهنّ ليلاً. قال مَن يُوثَقُ بخبره: دخلت إليها لأَنظُر، فسمعتُ امرأةً تقول: يا بُنيَّ! فقال: يا أُمَّهْ، نريد أن نمضي أمر وليّ الله فينا!
وكان يقول: إذا فعلتم هذا لم يتميّز مال من مال ولا ولد من ولد، فتكونوا كنفس واحدة. فغزاه الحَسَنيّ من صنعاء فهزمه، وتحصّن منه في حِصْنٍ هناك، فأنفذ إليه الحسنيّ طبيباً بمِبْضع مسمومٍ ففصده به فقتله.
١ ب: (ويُدْخِلُ عليهن ليلاً). د: (ويَدخُل الرجالُ). وفي ق و إف ما أثبتناه.
Al-Ṣanādīqī, in Yemen, had his troops in al-Mudaykhirah and Safhanah. He was addressed as Lord Almighty, also in writing. He had a “House of Abundance,” to which he brought all the women of the town, and he would let the men come and sleep with the women36 at night. A trustworthy souce said: “I entered that place, to have a look. I heard a woman say, ‘My dear son!’ and he said, ‘Mummy, we want to perform what God’s Friend has commanded us!’”
He would say, “If you do this, private possessions will cease, and child will no longer be distinct from child. Thus you will become like one soul.” Al-Ḥasanī conducted a campaign against him, from Sanaa, and routed him; he then entrenched himself in a citadel in that region. Then al-Ḥasanī sent to him a physician with a poisoned lancet. He used it to let his blood and thus killed him.
3.5.1
والوليد بن يزيد أقام في المُلكِ سنةً وشهرين وأياماً وهو القائل:
| إِذا متُّ يا أُمَّ الحُنَيْكِل فانْكِحي | ولا تأْملي بعدَ الفراقِ تلاقِيا |
| فإنّ الذي حُدِّثْتِه من لقائِنا | أَحاديثُ طَسْمٍ تتركُ العقْلَ واهيا |
ورمى المصحف بالنشّاب وخرقه وقال:
| إذا ما جئتَ ربَّكَ يوم حشْر | فقل: يا ربّ خَرَّقَني الوليدُ |
وأنفذ إلى مكّة بَنَّاءً مَجوسيّاً ليبني له على الكعبة مَشرَبَة، فمات قبل تمام ذلك. فكان الحُجَّاجُ يقولون: لَبَّيْكَ اللهمَّ لبيك، لبيك يا قاتل الوليد بن يزيد، لبيك!
وأحضر بُنابِجة١ من ذهب وفيها جوهرةٌ جليلةُ القدر، على صورة رجلٍ. فسجد له وقبّله وقال: اسجُدْ له ياعِلج! قلت: ومن هذا ؟ قال: هذا ماني. شأنه كان عظيمًا، اضمَحَلَّ أمرُه لطولِ المدّة. فقلت: لا يجوز السجود إلا لله. فقال: قُم عنا.
وكان يشرَبُ على سطحٍ وبين يديه باطية كبيرةٌ بِلَّور وفيها أقداحٌ، فقال لندمائه: أين القمر الليلة؟ فقال بعضهم: في الباطية. فقال: صدقتَ، أتيتَ على ما في نفسي، والله لأَشرَبَنَّ الهَفتَجَةَ، يعني شُرْبَ سبعة أسابيع متتابعة.
وكان بموضع حول دمشق يُقال له البَخْراء٢ فقال:
| تَلَعَّبَ بالنبوّةِ هاشميٌّ | بلا وحْيٍ أَتاه ولا كتابِ |
فقُتِلَ بها، ورأيت رأسه في الباطية التي أراد أن يُهَفْتجَ بها.
١ ب٤، إف، ق: (بُنايجةً). ك: (بُنابَجَةً). د: (بِنافجةٍ).
٢ ب، إف، ك، ق، د: (البحرا).
Al-Walīd ibn Yazīd reigned for one year, two months, and a few days. He is the one who said:
When I die, mother of the little dwarf, marry
and do not hope to meet after the separation!
For what you have been told about our meeting
is but “tales of Ṭasm,” which leave one’s reason feeble.37
He once shot arrows at a copy of the Qurʾan, piercing it, and saying,
When you come to your Lord, on Resurrection Day,
then say: O Lord, I have been pierced by al-Walīd!
He sent a Zoroastrian builder to Mecca, to build him a chamber to drink in on top of the Kaaba; but he died before its completion. The pilgrims would cry,38 “Here we are, O God, here we are! Here we are, O Thou who hast killed al-Walīd ibn Yazīd, here we are!”
Once he called for a vessel(?)39 made of gold which contained a jewel of great value, in the shape of a man. He prostrated himself before it, kissed it, and said, “Prostrate yourself before it, you lout!” I said,40 “Who is this?” “Mani,” he replied, “He was once great but his cause has dwindled with the passing of time.” “One is not permitted to prostrate oneself,” I said, “before anything but God!” He replied, “Leave us!”
Once41 he was drinking on a rooftop with a large crater made of crystal set before him, which contained several cupfuls. He said to his drinking companions, “In which sign of the zodiac is the moon tonight?” One of them said, “In the crater!” “True!” he replied, “You have said what I had in mind, too. By God, I shall drink a hebdomad!”42 i.e., drinking for seven consecutive weeks.
Once he was in a place called al-Bakhrāʾ,43 in the environs of Damascus; then he said,
A Hāshimite played at being a prophet,
without a revelation that came to him, nor a book.
He was killed in that place. I saw his head in that crater, with which he intended to “hebdomadize.”
3.5.2
وأبو عيسى بن الرشيد القائل:
| دهَانِيَ شَهْرُ الصَوْمِ لا كان من شهْرِ | ولا صُمْتُ شهرًا بَعْدَهُ آخِرَ الدهرِ |
| ولو كان يُعْديني الإِمامُ بقدْرةٍ | على الشهرِ لاستعديتُ دهري على الشَهرِ |
عرض له في وقته صَرْعٌ فمات ولم يُدرِك شهرًا غيره والحمد لله.
Abū ʿĪsā, the son of al-Rashīd, is the one who said:
The month of fasting has come to me as a disaster; may that month cease to be!
And may I never fast for another month!
If the caliph were to aid me and give me power over that month
I would appeal for aid against that month as long as I live.
Instantly he was struck with a fit and he died before he lived to see another month, God be praised!
3.6.1
والجنّابيّ قتل بمكة أُلوفًا، وأخذ ستة وعشرين ألف جمل١ خِفًّا، وضرب آلاتهم وأثقالهم بالنار، واستملك من النساء والغلمان والصبيان من ضاق بهم الفضاء كثرةً ووفوراً، وأخذ حجر الملتزَم وظنّ أنها مغناطيسُ القلوب، وأخذ الميزابَ. قال: وسمعت قائلاً يقول لغلام دُحَسْمَانَ طُوال يرفل في بُردَيْه وهو فوق الكعبة: يا رَخَمة، اقلعْه وأسرعْ، يعني ميزاب الكعبة. فعلمتُ أن أصحاب الحديث صحّفوه فقالوا يقلعه غلام اسمه رَحْمة، كما صحّفوا على عليّ رضي الله عنه قوله: تهلك البصرة بالريح. فهلكت بالزنج، لأنه قتل علويُّ البصرة في موضع بها يقال له العقيق أربعة وعشرين ألفًا، عدُّوهم بالقَصَب، وحرق جامعها، وقال في خطبته يخاطب الزنج: إنكم قد أُعِنتُم بقُبحِ مَظْهَر فاشفعوه بقبح مَخْبَر: اجعلوا كل عامرٍ قفراً وكلّ بيتٍ قبرًا! قال لي بدمشق أبو الحسين اليزيديّ الوَرْزَنينيّ٢: على نَسَب جَدّي دخل وإيّاه ادَّعى.
١ ب٤، ك: (حملٍ).
٢ ب، ق، د: (الوزرينى). ك: (الوزير بن).
Al-Jannābī killed thousands of people in Mecca. He took twenty-six thousand camels easily,44 he set fire to their equipment and baggage, and seized so many women, youths, and small children, that the area was crowded with them. He took away the “stone of the place of attachment,”45 thinking that it was the “magnet of the hearts,” and he took the waterspout.46 I47 heard him say to a tall, bulky, black servant, who, dressed in his two mantles, was strutting on top of the Kaaba, “Rakhamah, wrench it off, be quick!”— meaning the waterspout of the Kaaba. Then I became aware that the Hadith scholars had made a mistake when they said, “A boy called Raḥmah will wrench it off,”48 just as they misspelled ʿAlī’s words—God be pleased with him—when he said, “Basra will perish through the wind,” but it perished with the Zanj,49 for the Alid pretender of Basra killed twenty-four thousand people there at a place called al-ʿAqīq; they counted them by tallying with reeds. He set fire to its great mosque. He addressed the Zanj in a sermon: “You have been helped by your ugly physique; to follow it up, an ugly reputation you must seek! To every habitation bring doom; turn every room into a tomb!” Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Yazīdī al-Warzanīnī50 said to me in Damascus, “He attached himself to my ancestor’s family and claimed to be related to him.”51
3.6.2
وقال أبو عبد الله بن محمد بن عليّ بن رِزام الطائيّ الكوفيّ: كنتُ بمكّة وسيف الجَنّابيّ قد أخذ الحاجَّ، ورأيت رجلاً منهم قد قتل جماعةً وهو يقول: يا كلاب، أَليس قال لكم محمد المكّيّ: وَمَنْ دَخَلَهُ كانَ آمِنًا، أيُّ أمنٍ هنا؟ فقلت له: يا فتى العرب تؤمّنني سيفَك أفسّر لك هذا؟ قال: نعم. قلت: فيها خمسة أجْوبة، الأول: ومَن دخله كان آمناً من عذابي يوم القيامة، والثاني: مِن فَرْضي الذي فرضْتُ عليه، والثالث: خرج مَخرج الخبر وهو يريد الأمر كقوله: وَالْمُطَلَّقَاتُ يَتَرَبَّصْنَ بِأَنْفُسِهِنَّ، والرابع: لا يقام عليه الحدّ فيه إذا جني في الحِلّ، والخامس: مَنَّ الله عليهم بقوله: أَنَّا جَعَلْنَا حَرَمًا آمِنًا وَيُتَخَطَّفُ النَّاسُ مِنْ حَوْلِهِمْ فقال: صدقتَ، هذه اللحية إلى توبة؟ فقلت: نعم فخلاني وذهب.
Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Rizām al-Ṭāʾī al-Kūfī reports: “I was in Mecca at the time when the sword of al-Jannābī had wrought havoc among the pilgrims. I saw one of them who had killed a number of people, saying, ‘You dogs! Has Muḥammad, the man from Mecca, not told you that «Whoever enters it will be safe»?52 But what safety is there here then?’ I replied, ‘Arab warrior, if you guarantee that I will be safe from your sword, I shall explain this to you.’ ‘Very well,’ he said. I continued, ‘There are five answers. First, it means: whoever enters it will be safe from My torment at the Resurrection. Secondly: safe from the religious duty that I have imposed 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.”
3.7.1
والحسين بن منصور الحلاج من نيسابور وقيل: من مَرْو، يَدَّعي كل علم، وكان متهوّرًا جَسورًا يروم إقلاب الدوَل ويدَّعي فيه أصحابُه الإلهية، ويقول بالحلول، ويُظهِر مذاهب الشيعة للملوك، ومذاهب الصوفيّة للعامّة، وفي تضاعيف ذلك يَدَّعي أن الإلهية قد حلَّت فيه. وناظَره عليّ بن عيسى الوزير فوجده صِفرًا من العلوم وقال: تَعَلُّمُك لطهورك وفَرْضِك أجدى عليك من رسائل أنت لا تدري ما تقول فيها، كم تكتب إلى الناس: تبارك ذو النور الشَعْشَعاني الذي يلمع بعد شَعْشعته! ما أحْوجك إلى أدب!
حدّثني أبو علي الفارسيّ قال: رأيت الحلاج واقفًا على حلقة أبي بكر الشِبْليّ. . .١ أنت بالله ستفسد خشيته.٢ فنفض كُمَّه في وجهه وأنشد:
| يا سِرَّ سِرٍّ يَدِقُّ حتى | يَجِلَّ عن وصْفِ كلِّ حَيّ |
| وظاهرًا باطنًا تَبَدَّى | من كلِّ شيءٍ لكلِّ شيّ |
| يا جُملَةَ الكُلِّ لسْتَ غيري | فما اعتذاري إذًا إليّ |
وهو يعتقد أن العارف من الله بمنزلة شُعاعِ٣ الشمس، منها بدأ وإليها يعود، ومنها يستمدّ ضَوءَه.
١ النص ناقص على ما يظهر.
٢ في نسحة : (ستفسد خشبته)، وفي نسختين: (ستفسد خشبة)؛ وفي العبارة غموض.
٣ كلمة (الشعاع) مأخوذة من هامش نسخة الأصل.
Al-Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj from Nīsābūr—some say from Marw—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.
3.7.2
أنشدني الظاهر لنفسه:
| أَرى جِيلَ التصوُّفِ شرَّ جيلٍ | فقل لهمُ، وأَهْوِنْ بالحلولِ |
| أَقال اللهُ حين عَشقتُموه | كُلُوا أَكلَ البهائِم وارقصوا لي؟ |
وحرّك يوماً يده فانتثر على قومٍ مسكٌ، وحرّك مرةً أُخرى فانتثر دراهم، فقال له بعض مَن حضر ممن يفهم: أَرِني دراهم غير معروفة، أُومنْ بك وخلقٌ معي إِن أَعطيتَني درهماً عليه اسمك واسم أَبيك. فقال: وكيف هذا وهذا لا يُصنَع؟ قال: مَن أحضر ما ليس بحاضر، صنع ما ليس بمصنوع.
وكان في كتبه: إني مُغرِقُ قوم نوح ومُهلِك عادٍ وثَمودَ.
فلما شاع أمرُه وعرف السلطان خَبرَه على صحّة، وقّع بضربه١ ألفَ سوط، وقطع يديه، ثم أحرقه بالنار في آخر سنة تسع وثلاثمائة. وقال لحامد بن العبّاس: أنا أُهلِكك. فقال حامد: الآن صحّ أنك تَدَّعِي ما قُرِفْتَ به.
١ ب٤: (بضربةِ).
Al-Ẓāhir62 recited to me these verses of his own:
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.”
3.8
وابن أبي العَزاقر أبو جعفر محمد بن علي الشَلْمغاني أهله من قرية من قرى واسط تُعرف بشلمغان، وصورته صورة الحلاج ويدَّعي عنه قوم أنه إله، وأن الله حلّ في آدم ثم في شِيث ثم في واحدٍ واحدٍ من الأنبياء والأوصياء والأئمة حتى حلّ في الحسن بن عليّ العسكريّ وأنه حلّ فيه. وكان قد استغوى جماعةً منهم ابن أبي عَونٍ صاحب كتاب التشبيه، ومعه ضُربت عنقه. وكانوا يُبيحونه حرمهم وأموالهم يتحكّم فيهم، وكان يتعاطى الكيمياء، وله كتب معروفة.
The case of Ibn Abī l-ʿAzāqir Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Shalmaghānī,64 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.
3.9
وكان أحمد بن يحيى الراوَنْديّ من أهل مرْو الرُّوذ حسن السِّتر جميل المذهب، ثم انسلخ من ذلك كله بأسباب عرضتْ له، ولأن علمه كان أكثر من عقله، وكان مثله كما قال الشاعر:
| ومَنْ يُطيق مَرَدًّا عند صَبْوته | ومَن يقومُ لمستورٍ إِذا خَلَعا؟ |
صنّف:
كتاب التاج، يحتجّ فيه لقِدَم العالَم، فنقضه أبو الحسين الخيّاط.
الزمُرُّذ، يحتجّ فيه لإبطال الرسالة. نقضه الخيّاط.
نعت الحكمة، سفّه الله – تعالى – في تكليف خَلْقِه أمره، نقضه الخيّاط.
الدامغ، يطعن فيه على نظم القرآن.
القضيب، يُثبتُ أنّ علم الله محْدَث، وأنه كان غير عالم حتى خلق لنفسه علمًا، نقضه الخيّاط.
المرْجان، في اختلاف أهل الإسلام.
Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā al-Rāwandī, from Marw al-Rūdh, had a good reputation 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
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
3.10.1
علي بن العباس بن جُريج الرُّوميّ، قال أبو عثمان الناجم: دخلتُ عليه في علّته التي مات فيها، وعند رأسه جام فيه ماء مثلوج وخنجر مجرَّد لو ضُرب به صدر خرج من ظهر، فقلت: ما هذا؟ قال: الماء أَبُلّ به حلقي فقلّما يموت إنسان إلا وهو عطشان. والخنجر، إن زاد عليّ الألم نحرتُ به نفسي. ثم قال: أقصّ عليك قِصّتي تستدلّ بها على حقيقة تَلَفي: أردتُ الانتقال من الكَرْخ إلى باب البصرة، فشاورتُ صديقنا أبا الفضل وهو مُشتَقٌّ من الإفضال، فقال: إذا جئتَ القنطرة فخذْ على يمينك – وهو مشتقّ من اليُمْن – واذهبْ إلى سِكّة النعيمة – وهو مشتقّ من النعيم – فاسكنْ دار ابن المُعافَى – وهو مشتقّ من العافية – فخالفتُه لتعسي ونحْسي. فشاورتُ صديقنا جعفرًا – وهو مشتقّ من الجوع والفرار – فقال: إذا جئت القنطرة فخذ على شمالك – وهو مشتقّ من الشؤم – واسكن دار ابن قِلابة. وهي هذه لا جَرَمَ، قد انقلبت بي الدنيا، وأضرّ ما عليّ العصافير في هذه السِّدرة تصيح: سِيقْ سِيقْ: فها أنا في السياق، ثم أنشد:
| أبا عثمان أنت قريعُ قومِكْ | وجُودُك للعشيرةِ دونَ لَوْمِكْ |
| تمتَّعْ من أخيك فما أُراه | يراكَ ولا تراه بعد يومِكْ |
ʿAlī ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Jurayj al-Rūmī: Abū ʿUthmān al-Nājim says, “I visited 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.”7172 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
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.
3.10.2
وأَلَحَّ به البوْل فقلتُ له: البول مُلِحٌّ بك. فقال:
| غدًا ينقطعُ البولُ | ويأتي الويل والعَوْلُ |
| ألا إن لقَاءَ اللّـ | ـهِ هولٌ دونَه الهولُ |
ومات من الغد.
فأرجو أن يكون هذا القول توبةً له مما كان اعتقده من ذَبحِه نفسه، والرسول عليه الصلاة والسلام يقول: من وَجَأَ نفسه بحديدة حُشِرَ يوم القيامة وحديدته بيده يجأ بها نفسه خالدًا مخلّدًا في النار، من تردّى من شاهق حُشر يوم القيامة يتردَّى على مِنْخريْه في النار خالدًا مخلّدًا، من تحسّى سُمًّا حُشر يوم القيامة وسمُّه بيده يتحسّاه خالدًا مخلّدًا في النار.
“He found it difficult to stop urinating, so I said to him, ‘You find it difficult 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.”
3.11
قال الحسن بن رَجاء الكاتب: جاءني أبو تمّام إلى خراسان فبلغنى أنه لا يصلّي، فوكلتُ به من لازَمَه أيامًا فلم يره صلّى يومًا واحدًا، فعاتبته فقال: يا مولاي، قطعتُ إلى حضرتك من بغداد، فاحتملت المَشَّقَة وبُعْدَ الشُّقّة ولم أره يَثقُل عليّ، فلو كنت أعلم أن الصلاة تنفعني وتركُها يَضُرّني ما تركتُها. فأردتُ قتله فخشيت أن يُحمَل على غير هذا.
Al-Ḥasan ibn Rajāʾ, the state secretary,74 said, “Abū Tammām came to me in 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.”
3.12
وفي تآريخ كثيرةٍ أنه أُحضر المازيار إلى المعتصم وقبل قدومه بيومٍ سخط على الأفشين لأن القاضي ابن أبي دُواد قال للمعتصم: أَغْرَلُ ويطأ امرأةً عربية! وهو كاتب المازيار، وزيّن له العصيان.
فأحضر كاتبه، وتهدده المعتصم فأقرّ أنه كتب إلى المازيار: لم يكن في الأرض ولا في العصر بَليَّةٌ إلا أنا وأنت وبابَك، وقد كنت حريصًا على حقن دمه حتى كان من أمره ما كان، ولم يبق غيري وغيرك، وقد توجَّه إليك عسكرٌ من عساكر القوم، فإن هزمته وثَبْتُ أنا بمَلِكِهم في قرار داره، فظهر الدينُ الأبيض. فأجابه المازيار بجوابٍ هو عنده في سَفَط أحمر. فجمع بين الأفشين والمازيار، فاعترف المازيار بما حُكي عنه. وقيل للمعتصم: إن وراء المازيار مالًا جليلًا، فأنشد:
| إن الأُسودَ أُسودَ الغابِ هِمَّتُها | يوم الكريهة في المسلوب لا السَلَبِ |
وذكروا أن اثنين قتلوا١ ثلاثة آلاف ألف وخمسمائة ذبّاحٍ بالثياب الحُمْر والخناجر الطوال، وأنهم وجدوا أسماءهم في وقعةٍ وقعةٍ وفي بلد وبلد، وكانوا يأخذون من كل واحد علامةً: خاتمَه أو ثوبَه أو منديلَه أو تِكَّتَه: أتى الوادي فطَمَّ على القَرِيّ.
١ كذا في ب؛ وفي ق، إف: (قتلا) ؛ وفي العبارة عموض ولحن.
It is mentioned in many historical works that al-Māzyār was brought into 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!”
Al-Afshīn’s secretary was summoned; when al-Muʿtaṣim threatened him he confessed to having written on behalf of al-Afshīn to al-Māzyār as follows: “In this world and at this time there is no scourge other than I, you, and Bābak. I was keen not to have Bābak’s blood shed, but his fate was otherwise. Now there is no one left but you and me. One of the armies of the Abbasids is heading for you. If you defeat it I shall attack their king, in his ‘fixed abode,’75 and the ‘white religion’76 will prevail.” Al-Māzyār had written a reply, which he had with him in a red basket. The caliph confronted al-Afshīn with al-Māzyār and the latter confessed to what had been reported of him. Someone said to al-Muʿtaṣim, “Al-Māzyār has lots of money!” But the caliph recited,
The lions, the lions of the thicket, are intent,
on an evil battle day, on the despoiled, not on the spoils.77
It is said78 that two men killed three million and five hundred dhabbāḥ(?) in red clothes and with long daggers, and that they found their names in every individual encounter in every individual location; from each they took a token: his signet ring, his cloak, his kerchief, or his waistband. “The torrent reached the wadi and flooded the riverbed.”79
3.13
قد لقيتُ مَن يجادلني أن عليًّا، رضي الله عنه. . .١ وكذلك الحاكم.
وقد ظهر بالبصرة من يدّعي أنَّ جعفرَ ابنُ محمد عليهما السلام، وأنه متّصِلٌ به وروحه فيه ومُتصلةٌ به. ولو استقصيتُ القول في هذا الفنِّ لطال جدًّا ولكن:
| لا بُدّ للمصدور أن ينفثا | وللذي في الصدر أن يُبْعَثَا |
بل لو قلتُ كل ما أعلمه، أكلتُ زادي في محبسي، بل كنت أُنشد:
| أحمِلُ رأسًا قد مللتُ حمْلَه | ألا فتًى يحمل عنِّي ثِقلَه |
وأستريح إلى أن أُنشد:
| ليس يشفي كلومَ غيري كلومي | ما به ما به، وما بِيَ ما بي٢ |
١ في النص نقص واضح.
٢ ب: (ما بى بى) ، والصحيح ما في سائر الطبعات.
I have met somebody who disputed with me, arguing that ʿAlī—God be pleased with him— . . . and likewise al-Ḥākim . . .80
In Basra there appeared someone who claimed that Jaʿfar81 was the son of Muḥammad—on both of whom be peace—, that he had a close connection with him, and that his spirit was in him and connected with him.
If I were to treat this topic exhaustively it would be very lengthy. However,
He who suffers from a chest infection must spit;
What his chest contains must be ejected.
In fact, if I mentioned all I know, “I would eat the rest of my meals in my prison,”82 or rather I would recite:83
I carry a head I am tired of carrying:
Is there no lad who’ll carry its load for me?
And I would rest and finally recite:84
My wounds cannot heal another’s wounds:
he has his and I have mine.
On Fate
4.1
إن شكوتُ العصر وأحكامه، وذممتُ صروفه وأيامه، شكوتُ مَن لا يُشْكي أبدًا، وذممتُ مَن لا يُرضي أحدًا، شيمتُه اصطِفاءُ اللئام، والتحامل على الكرام، وهمّته رفع الخامل الوضيع، ووضع الفاضل الرفيع إذا سمَحَ بالحِباء فأَبْشِرْ بَوشْكِ الاقتِضاء، وإذا أَعار فأحسبه قد أغار، فما بين أن يقبل عليك مستبشرًا، ويولّي عنك متجهماً مستبسرًا، إلا كلَمْح البصر واستطارة الشرر. لم يخترق ذكرُ الوفاء مَسامِعَه، ولم يَمْسس ماءُ الحياء مدامعه، ظاهره يسرّ ويؤنِس، وباطنه يسوء ويوئس، يُخيِّب ظنّ راجيه، ويُكذّب أمل عافيه، لا يسمع الشكوى ويشمتُ بالبلوى.
If I complain of the time we live in and its decrees and blame its vicissitudes and evil days, I complain to someone who never heeds a complaint, and I blame someone who makes none content. His habit is to favor the ignoble and to maltreat the noble; he is bent on raising the lowly and obscure, and on debasing the virtuous and high-minded. If he grants a gift, look forward to being soon asked to return it! If he lends a thing (aʿāra) I think he has carried out a raid (aghāra). Between turning toward you with a cheerful face and turning away from you with a glum frown lies but the wink of an eye, the flying of a spark. His ears have never heard of fidelity to promises, his eyes have never been touched by tears of embarrassment. His appearance gives joy and delight, but his inner self causes evil and despair. He disappoints those who expect his favors, he thwarts the hopes of those asking for support. He does not listen to complaint and gloats at people’s torment.
Ibn al-Qāriḥ’s Complaints of Old Age
4.2
قد ذممت شيئًا ووقعت فيه أنا، كالغريق يطلب مَعْلَقًا، والأَسير يندب مطلقًا. وأستحسن قول عليّ بن العبّاس بن جُرَيح الروميّ:
| أَلا ليس شيبُك بالمنتزَعْ | فهل أَنتَ عن غيّهِ مُرْتَدِعْ؟ |
| وهل أَنت تاركُ شكوى الزمانِ | إذا شئتَ تشكو إِلى مُستَمِعْ؟ |
| فشَيبُ أَخي الشيبِ أُمنيَّةٌ | إذا ما تناهى إِليها هلَعْ |
For this I once cast blame, but now I do the same,85 having fallen into it like a drowning man clutching at straw, or a prisoner lamenting his freedom. I think ʿAlī ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Jurayj ibn al-Rūmī said it well:
Ah, the grayness of your hairs will not be snatched away:
will you forswear the foibles of old age?
And will you stop complaining of the times,
complaining to a listener whenever you want?
To live to be gray-haired is everyone’s desire,
but having gained it, one desponds.86
4.3
كنت في حال الحداثة أقربُ الناس إليَّ، وأعزُّهم عليّ، وأقربُهم عندي وأجلُّهم في نفسي مرتبةً، من قال لي: نسأ الله في أَجَلِكَ، جعل الله لك أمدّ الأَعمار وأطولها. فلما بلغتُ عشر الثمانين جاء الجزعُ والهلع. فمِمَّ أرتاع وألتاع، وأخلد إلى الأطماع، وهو الذي كنت أتمنّى ويتمنّى لي أهلي؟ أمن صدوف الغواني عنّي؟ فأنا والله عنهنّ أصدفُ، وبهنّ وأدوائهنّ أعرف، إذا لست ممّن ينشد تحسُّرا عليهنّ:
| للسودِ في السودِ آثارٌ تركنَ بها | لُمعًا من البيض تَثني أعينَ البيضِ |
وقول الآخر:
| ولما رأيتُ النسرَ عَزَّ ابنَ دايةٍ | وعشَّش في وكريْه جاشت له نفسي |
ولا أنشد لأبي عُبادة البحتريّ:
| إن أَيّامَه من البيض بيضٌ | ما رأَين المَفارِقَ السودَ سودا |
| وإذا المحْلُ ثارَ ثاروا غيوثًا | وإذا النقعُ ثار ثاروا أُسودا |
| يحسن الذكرُ عنهُمُ والأَحاديـ | ـثُ إذا حدَّثَ الحديدُ الحديدا |
| بلدةٌ تنبت المعالي فما يثّـ | ـغِرُ الطفلُ فيهمُ أَو يسودا |
In my youth, my closest friend and dearest fellow, the man I deemed nearest to me, and the person I held in highest esteem was anyone who would say to me, “May God postpone your term, may God extend your life and grant you the longest of lives!” But now, with my eighth decade, come dismay and despondence. But why should I feel anxiety and agony, cherish ambitions in perpetuity, when I have attained what I desired and what my family wished for me? Because pretty women shun me? But, by God, I shun them more than they shun me, and I know them and the illnesses they bring only too well, for I am not one to recite, in grief over them:
Black [nights] have left their mark on black [hairs],
gleamings of white, by which the eyes of the white[-skinned women] are turned off.87
Or some other poet’s verse:
But when I saw the vulture overcome the crow,
and settle in two nests, my soul grew agitated.88
Nor shall I recite Abū ʿUbādah al-Buḥturī:89
Its days were white, because of white-skinned women,
so long as they saw that my black hair stayed black.
Whenever a drought came on they rose as showers of rain,
whenever a dust cloud rose in battle, they would rise as lions.
It’s good to mention them and tell their stories,
of iron swords that, clashing, talked to iron swords.90
A place91 where lofty deeds grow; as soon as the young child among
them sheds his milk teeth, he becomes a leader.
4.4
وهذه صفة مَعرَّةِ النعمان به – أدام الله تأييده – لا خلتْ منه ومن النعمة عليه وعنده، فقد وجدتُ أَهلَها معترفين بعوارفه، خلا أبي العبّاس أحمدَ بنِ خلف المُمَتَّع - أدام الله عزّه – فإني وجدتُ آثار تفضُّلِه عليه ظاهرةً، ولسانه رطبًا بشكره وذكره، قد ملأ السماء دعاءً والأرض ثناء.
And this is how Maʿarrat al-Nuʿmān may be described, while the Sheikh is there—may God always support him, and may it never be parted from him, never cease to bring him blessings and to be blessed in his presence! I have found that its inhabitants acknowledge his acts of kindness, to say nothing of Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Khalaf al-Mumattaʿ92—may God give him lasting vigor!—for I found clear evidence of his beneficence toward the Sheikh, while the latter’s tongue is voluble with his approbation and his laudation, having filled heaven with prayer and earth with praise.93
The Prophet at the Beginning of his Mission
5.1
قالت قريشٌ للنبي عليه الصلاة والسلام: أتباعك من هؤلاء الموالي كبِلالٍ وعَمَّارٍ وصُهَيب، خيرٌ من قُصَيّ بن كلاب، وعبد مَناف وهاشم وعبد شمس؟ فقال: نعم، والله لئن كانوا قليلًا ليكثُرُنَّ، ولئن كانوا وُضَعاءَ ليَشْرُفُنَّ حتى يصيروا نجومًا يُهتدى بهم ويُقتدى، فيقال: هذا قول فلان وذكر فلان. فلا تُفاخروني بآبائكم الذين مُوِّتوا في الجاهلية، فلَمَا يُدَهْدِه الجُعَل بمِنخره خيرٌ من آبائكم الذين مُوِّتوا فيها. فاتَّبعوني أجعلْكم أنسابًا، والذي نفسي بيده، لتَقْتَسِمُنَّ كنوز كِسرى وقيصر.
فقال له عمُّه أبو طالب: أبقِ عليّ وعلى نفسك. فظنَّ عليه الصلاة والسلام أنه خاذلُه ومُسْلِمه، فقال: ياعمّ، والله لو وضعوا الشمس في يميني والقمر في شمالي على أن أترك هذا الأمر حتى يُظهره الله أو أَهلِك فيه ما تركتُه. ثم استعبر باكيًا، ثم قام. فلمّا ولَّى ناداه: أقبلْ يا ابن أخي. فأقبل. فقال: اذهبْ وقل ما شئتَ، فوالله لا أسلمتُك لسوء أبدًا.
The men of Quraysh said to the Prophet—blessing and peace upon him—: “Your followers who are freedmen—such as Bilāl, ʿAmmār, or Ṣuhayb94—are they better than Quṣayy ibn Kilāb, ʿAbd Manāf, Hāshim, or ʿAbd Shams?”95 He replied, “Yes, by God, though they be few they will be many; though they be lowly, they will be noble, to the point of becoming stars by which one is guided and that are followed. Then people will say, ‘This was said by So-and-so, or mentioned by So-and-so.’ So do not boast to me of your ancestors who died in pre-Islamic ignorance.96 Truly, what the dung beetle rolls about with its nose is better than your ancestors who died then! So follow me and I shall give you worthy lineages! By Him who holds my soul in His hand, you shall divide among yourselves the treasures of Chosroes and Caesar!”
Abū Ṭālib, his paternal uncle, said to him, “Spare me and yourself!”97 So he thought—blessing and peace be upon him—that his uncle was deserting him and forsaking him, and he said, “Uncle, I swear by God that even if, on condition that I abandon this, they put the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left, I shall never give it up until either God makes it prevail or I die!” Then he burst into tears and sobbed. He stood up and as he turned away, his uncle called him, “Come here, my nephew!” He did so and then Abū Ṭālib said, “Go and say whatever you want, for, by God, I shall never forsake you and let you come to any harm!”
5.2
فكان عليه الصلاة والسلام يذكر يومًا ما لقي من قومه من الجهد والشدة، قال: لقد مكثتُ أيامًا وصاحبي هذا – يشير إلى أبي بكر – بضع عشرة ليلة ما لنا طعامٌ إلا البرير في شُعَب الجبال. وكان عُتبة بن غَزْوان يقول إذا ذكر البلاء والشدّة التي كانوا عليها بمكّة: لقد مكثنا زمانًا ما لنا طعامٌ إلا ورق البَشام أكلناه حتى تقرحت أشداقُنا، ولقد وجدتُ يومًا تمرةً فجعلتُها بيني وبين سعد وما منا اليوم أحدٌ إلا وهو أمير على كُورة. وكانوا يقولون فيمن وجد تمرةً فقسّمها بينه وبين صاحبه: إن أسعدَ الرجلين من حصلت النَّواةُ في قسمه، يلوكها يومَه وليلته، من عَدَم القوت. وكذا قال رسول الله صلّى الله عليه وسلّم: لقد رَعيتُ غُنيماتِ أهل مكّة لهم بالقراريط.
وابتداء أمره أنه وقف على الصَّفا ونادى: يا صباحاه، يا صباحاه! فجاءوا يهرعون فقالوا: ما دهَمك؟ ما طَرَقَك؟ قال: بم تعرفونني؟ قالوا: محمد الأمين. قال: أرأيتم إن قلتُ لكم إن خَيلًا قد طَرقَتكم في الوادي، وإن عسكرًا قد غشيكم من الفَجّ، أكنتم تُصدّقوني؟١ قالوا: اللهمَّ نعم، ما جرّبنا عليك كذِبًا قطّ. قال: فإن الذي أنتم عليه، ليس لله ولا من الله ولا يرضاه الله، قولوا: لا إله إلا الله، واشهدوا أني رسوله، واتبعوني تُطِعْكُم العرب وتملكوا٢ العجم، وإن الله قال لي: استخرجْهم كما استخرجوك، وابعثْ جيشًا أبعثْ خمسة أمثاله، وضمن لي أنه ينصرُني بقومٍ منكم، وقال لي: قاتلْ بمن أطاعك من عصاك. وضمن لي أنه يغلب سلطاني سلطانَ كسرَى وقيصر.
١ ق، إف: (تصدقونني).
٢ في النسخ: (تملكون).
One day the Prophet—blessing and peace upon him—mentioned the trouble and hardship he had experienced at the hands of his fellow tribesmen: “For days I went with no food but the fruit of the arāk tree in the mountain clefts. My companion here (pointing at Abū Bakr) went for more than ten days.” ʿUtbah ibn Ghazwān, speaking of the distress and hardship they had suffered in Mecca, said, “We stayed for some time with nothing to eat except leaves of the balsam tree, which we ate until our jaws were sore. One day I found a date and I divided it between myself and Saʿd; and now every single one of us is a governor of a province!” They used to say that when someone found a date and divided it between himself and his friend, the luckier of the two was the one who got the stone, for he could chew it day and night, so scarce was food. The messenger of God—God bless and preserve him—also said, “I used to shepherd the small herds of the Meccans for a trifling sum.”98
His mission began when he stood at al-Ṣafā and called out, “O dawn! O dawn!” They came hurrying toward him and said, “What has happened to you? What has come over you?” He asked them, “How do you know me?” “As Muḥammad, the trusted one,” they said. He continued, “Do you think that if I said to you that horsemen are coming against you in the wadi, or that an army is attacking you coming from the mountain road, you would believe me?” “Yes, by God!” they said, “We have never known you to utter a lie.” He said, “Your conduct is not for the sake of God, nor is it from God, nor is God pleased with it. Say: there is no god but God, and testify that I am His messenger! And follow me, and then the Arabs will obey you and you will reign over the non-Arabs. God has said to me, ‘Draw them out, as they have drawn you out, and I shall send an army five times its size.’ He guaranteed to me that He would grant me victory by means of some fellow tribesmen of yours, and He said to me, ‘Join with those who obey you in fighting against those who disobey you,’ and He guaranteed to me that my power would overcome the power of Chosroes and Caesar.”
5.3
ثم إنه عليه الصلاة والسلام غزا تَبوك في ثلاثين ألفًا، وهذا من قِبَل الله الذي يجعل من لا شيء كلَّ شيء، ويجعل كل شيء لا شيء، يُجمِّد المائعات ويُميع الجامدات، يُجَمِّد البحر ثم يفجّر الصخر. وما مَثَله في ذلك إلا كمثل من قال: هذه الزجاجة الرقيقة السخيفة، أَحكُّ بها هذه الجبال الصلْدة الصلْبة المُنيفة، فترضّها وتفُضّها، وهذه النملة الضعيفة اللطيفة، تهزم العساكر الكثيرة المُعَدّة!
وكذا حقيقة أمره عليه الصلاة والسلام، حتى لقد قال عُروة بن مسعود الثَقَفيّ لقريش، وكان رسولهم إليه صلّى الله عليه وسلّم بالحُدَيْبِيَةِ: لقد وردتُ على النَّجاشي وكسرى وقيصر ورأيتُ جندهم وأتباعهم، فما رأيت أطْوع ولا أوقَرَ ولا أهْيب من أصحاب محمد لمحمدهم، هم حوله وكأن الطير على رؤوسهم، فإن أشار بأمرٍ بادروا إليه، وإن توضَّأَ أقتسموا وضوءه، وإن تَنَخَّمَ دَلكوا بالنُخامة وجوهَهم ولِحاهم وجلودهم. وكانوا له بعد موته أطوع منهم في حياته، حتى لقد قال بعض أصحابه: لا تَسُبّوا أصحاب محمد فإنهم أسلموا من خوف الله، وأسلم الناس من خوف أسيافهم.
Then—blessing and peace be upon him—he carried out the raid of Tabūk with thirty thousand men.99 This was due to God, who makes everything from nothing, and who makes everything into nothing; He solidifies liquids and liquefies solids, He causes the sea to solidify and then He cleaves rocks. All this is as if someone said, “With this thin, insignificant piece of glass I shall scratch these hard, lofty mountains and they will be crushed and broken thereby; and this weak, tiny ant will rout many well-equipped armies.”
This is how it really was with the Prophet—blessing and peace be upon him. ʿUrwah ibn Masʿūd al-Thaqafī said to Quraysh, being their emissary to the Prophet—God bless and preserve him—at al-Ḥudaybiyah: “I have visited the Negus, Chosroes, and Caesar; I have seen their troops and their followers. But I have never seen people more obedient, more dignified, and more awe-inspiring than Muḥammad’s companions when it comes to their Muḥammad! They stand around him ‘as if birds were perched upon their heads.’100 At the mere gesture of a command from him they hasten to act. When he performs the ritual ablution they divide the water among themselves. When he expectorates they rub their faces, their beards, and their skins with his sputum!” They were even more obedient after his death than they were during his lifetime, to the point that one of his companions said, “Do not revile the companions of Muḥammad, for they became Muslims for fear of God, whereas other people became Muslims for fear of their swords.”
5.4
فتأمَّلْ، كيف استفتَحَ دعوتَه – وهو ضعيفٌ وحده – بأن هذا سيكون، فرآه العدوّ والوليّ. وما كان مَثَله في ذلك إلا مَثل من قال: هذه الهباءةُ تعظم وتصير جبلًا يُغَطِّي الأرض كلّها، ثم أنذر الناس بها في حال ضعفها.
وجاء صلّى الله عليه وسلّم يومًا ليدخل الكعبة، فدفعه عثمان بن طَلْحة العبْدَريّ فقال: لا تفعل يا عثمان، فكأنك بمفتاحها بيدي أضعه حيث شئتُ. فقال: لقد ذَلَّت يومئذ قريشٌ وقَلَّتْ. قال: بل كثرَت وعزَّت.
Consider, therefore, how he began his mission, when he was weak and alone, claiming that all this would happen. Friend and foe saw him, while his situation could only be likened to someone saying, “This speck of dust will grow and become a mountain that will cover all the earth!” Then he warned people about this, while as weak as the speck of dust. One day he—God bless and preserve him—wanted to enter the Kaaba, but ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥah al-ʿAbdarī stopped him. “Don’t do that, ʿUthmān,” he said, “soon you will see me holding the key in my hand, which I shall put where I please!” Then ʿUthmān said, “Quraysh will be humbled that day, and few in number.” But the Prophet said, “On the contrary, they will be many and mighty!”
Ibn al-Qāriḥ’s Weaknesses and Self-Reproach
6.1
وأنا أستعين بعصمة الله وتوفيقه، وأجعلهما مُعِينَيَّ على دفع شهواتي، واشكو إليه عكوفي على الأماني، وأسأله فهمًا لمواعظ عِبَرِ الدنيا، فقد عميتُ عن كلوم غِيَرها، بما جَثَمَ على خواطري من الشعف بها. ولست أجد مُنْصفًا لي منها، ولا حاجزًا لرغبتي فيها عنها، وأين ودائعُ العقول وخزائن الأفهام يا أولي الأبصار؟ صفَحنا عن مساوئ الدنيا إغماضًا لعاجل مُوبقِ١ التنغيص، وتومئ إليه يد الزوال، وتكمُن له الآفات. قال كُثيّر:
| كأَنّي أُنادي صخرةً حين أَعرضَتْ | من الصُّمِّ لو تمشي بها العُصْمُ زلَّتِ |
١ ب٤، إف: (مُونقِ). ب: (مونقٍ). ق: (مونق). ورجحنا أن الصحيح ما أثبتناه.
I ask protection and success from God, making them my helpers in subduing my passions; I complain to Him about my indulging in my desires; and I ask Him to make me understand the admonishing lessons of the world. For I have become blind to the wounds inflicted by its vicissitudes, by the burning desire for it that has perched on my thoughts. I find nobody who will give me justice against it, no one who can restrain my longing for it. Where are the storerooms of reason and the treasuries of understanding, O ye with insight? We have condoned the evils of this world, shutting our eyes because of fleeting, obnoxious101 troubles, to which the hand of extinction already points, and for which evils lie in hiding. Kuthayyir said:
It is as if I’m calling to a rock when she averts herself,
hard rock, where mountain goats, if walking there, would lose their footing.
6.2
وأقول على مذهب كُثيّر: يا دنيا، في كل لحظة لطرْفي منك عبرة، وفي كل فكرة لي منك حسرة! يا مُرنِّقَةَ الصفا ويا ناقضة عهد الوفا؛ ما وُفق لحظة من عرَجَ نَحوَك، ولا سعِد من آثر المُقام على حسن الظن بك، هيهات يا معشر أبناء الدنيا، لكم في الظاهر اسم الغِنى، وفي الباطن أهل التقلُّل لهم نفس هذا المعنى. كم من يوم لي أَغرّ كثير الأهلّة، قد صحَتْ سماؤه وامتدّ عليَّ ظلّه، تمدّني ساعاته بالمُنى، ويضحك لي عن كل ما أهوى، حتى إذا اتّصل بكلّ أسبابي١ نَفِسَت عليّ به الدنيا فسعت بالتشتيت إلى أُلفَتِه، والنقص إلى مُدّته، فكسفت بَهْجتَه كسوفًا، وأرهقت نضرتَه وحشيةُ الفراق، وقطّعتنا فرقًا في الآفاق، بعد أن كنّا كالأعضاء المؤتلفة، والأغصان اللدنة المنعطفة:
| واحسرتي في يوم يجـ | ـمعُ شِرَّتي كفنٌ ولَحْدُ |
| ضيَّعتُ ما لا بُدَّ منـ | ـه بالذي لي منه بُدُّ |
وأُنشد قولَ ابن الروميّ:
| أَلا ليس شيبُكَ بالمنتزعْ | فهل أَنتَ عن غَيِّهِ مرتدِعْ |
فأَقلَقُ وأبكى بكاءً غير نافع ولا ناجع، ويجب أن أبكي على بكائي وأُنشد:
| لساني يقولُ ولا أَفعلُ | وقلبي يريدُ ولا أَعملُ |
| وأَعرِف رُشدي ولا أَهتدي | وأَعْلَمُ لكنّني أَجهلُ |
١ كع، د: (بكل أسبابي وامتزج سروره بفرحى وروحى وأترابى).
And I say, following Kuthayyir: O world, at every glance you fill my eyes with tears, at every thought you cause me grief! O you who make turbid any purity, O you who breach any pact of loyalty: he who turns toward you has never prospered for a single instant, and he who prefers to remain well-disposed toward you has never been happy. Far from it! O children of this world, outwardly you are called rich, but inwardly and truly it is those happy with little who are rich in the true sense of the word. So many splendid days have I known, with many new moons, the sky bright, the shade stretching over me, the hours providing me all I desired, smilingly offering me all I longed for. But once it had attached itself to me in all my affairs,102 the world begrudged me all this; it strove to break up my intimacy with it and to shorten its extent. Its splendor was eclipsed to gloom and the desolation of separation blighted its bloom. It has scattered us, dispersed to the horizons, after we had been like limbs held together, like bending, pliant branches;
O my grief, the day my youthful zeal
was gathered in a shroud and grave!
I’ve squandered what I needed
for what I did not need.103
I quote a verse by Ibn al-Rūmī:104
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
6.3
عرض عليّ بعض الناس كأس خمر، فامتنعتُ منها وقلت: خلُّوني والمطبوخَ على مذهب الشيخ الأوزاعيّ. وقلت لهم: عَرَض إبراهيم بن المهديّ على محمد بن حازم الخمرة فامتنع وأنشد:
| أَبعدَ شيبيَ أَصبو | والشيبُ للجهل حَرْبُ |
| سِنٌّ وشيبٌ وجهلٌ | أَمرٌ لَعَمرُكَ صَعْبُ |
| يا ابنَ الإِمامِ فَأَلاّ | أَيامَ عُودِيَ رطْبُ |
| وإِذ مَشيبي قليلٌ | ومَنهلُ الحبّ عذبُ |
| وإِذ شفاءُ١ الغواني | مِنِّي حديث وقُربُ |
| فالآنَ لما رأَى بي الـ | ـعُذَّالُ ما قد أَحَبُّوا |
| وآنَسَ الرشدَ منّي | قوم أُعَابُ وأَصبو؟ |
| آليتُ أَشربُ خمرًا | ما حَجّ للهِ ركْبُ |
١ د: (شفاه).
Some people offered me a cup of wine. I refused and said, “Leave me with 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!
6.4.1
وأقبلت على نفسي مخاطبًا، ولها معاتبًا، والخطاب لغيرها والمعنى لها:
لقد أَمهَلكم حتى كأنه أهملكم! أما تستحيون من طول ما لا تستحيون! فكنْ كالوليد تُقَلِّبُه يد اللطف به على فراش العطف عليه، تُصرَف إليه المنافع بغير طلب منه لصغره، وتُصرف عنه المضارّ بغير حذر منه لعجزه. أما سمعتَ الرسول عليه الصلاة والسلام إذ يقول في دُعائه: اللهم اكلأْني كلاءةَ الوليد الذي لا يدري ما يُراد به ولا ما يريد. ألا متعلق بأذيال دليله؟١ ألا مُعدٌّ مطيّةً ورَحلًا ليوم رحيله؟ يا هلاه! الدُلجةَ الدلجة! إنه من لم يسبق إلى الماء يَظْمَ. إنما منعتُك ما تشتهي ضنًّا بك وغيرةً عليك، قال الرسول عليه الصلاة والسلام: إذا أحبَّ الله عبدًا حماه الدنيا، وأنت تشكوني إذا حميتُك، وتكره صيانتي إذا صُنتُك. ألا لائذٌ بفنائنا ليعزّ؟ ألا فارّ إلينا لا فارّ منا؟ يا من له بدّ من كل شيء، أرحم من لا بدّ له منك على كل حال! الله يُغني بشيء عن شيء، وليس يغنَى عنه بشيء، فلهذا قال جبريل للخليل: ألك حاجةٌ؟ قال: أما إليك فلا، الله يستحقّ أن يُسأل وإن أغنى، لأنه لا يُغنَى بشيء عنه. أطِعْه لتطيعه ولا تطعه ليطيعك فتفتر وتملّ. من ترك تدبيره لتدبيرنا أرحناه! جلّ من لَوالِب القلوب والهمم بيده، وعزائم الأحكام والأقسام عنده:
١ ب: (ألا مُتَعَلِّقٌ والإذلالُ أذيالُ دليلِه). ق، إف، د: (ألا مُتَعَلِّقٌ والأذيالُ أذيالُ دليلِه).
I turned to myself, addressing and reproaching my soul; the address is 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 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-sufficient, 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.
6.4.2
| أَنسِيتَ ذكْرَ أَحِبَّة | ينْسَونَ ذنبكَ عند ذكرِكْ؟ |
| وجفوتَهم ولطالما | كانوا خِلافَكَ طوعَ أَمركْ |
| وصبرْتَ عند فراقِهم | ما كان عذرُكَ عند صبرِك؟ |
تترك من إذا جفوتَه ونسيتَ ذكره وتعدّيتَ حدّه وتركتَ نهْيه وضيّعتَ أمره، وتُبتَ إليه وعَوَّلتَ في تفضُّله عليك عليه، وقلت: يا ربّ، قال لك: لبَّيْك وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ إن كان الذُّباب بوجهك فاتَّهمْك، وإن قطّعت أنا أعضاءك فلا تتّهمْني، أنت الذي إذا أعطيتك ما أمَّلْت تركتني وانصرفت: وَإِذَا أَنْعَمْنَا عَلَى ٱلإنْسَانِ أَعْرَضَ وَنَأَى بِجَانِبِهِ. يا واقفًا بالتُهم كم كم؟ أليس يقول لك: ما غرّك بي؟ تقول حِلمك، وإلا لو أرسلتَ عليَّ بَقَّةً لجمعتني عليك إذا أردتَ أن تجمعني:
| أَمِنْ بعدِ شُربِكَ كأْسَ النُهى | وشَمّكَ رَيحانَ أَهل التُقَى |
| عشقتَ فأَصبحتَ في العاشقيـ | ـنَ أَشْهَرَ من فَرَسٍ أَبْلَقَا؟ |
| أَدنيايَ من غَمْرِ بَحْرِ الهوى | خُذِي بيدي قبل أَن أَغرقا |
| أنا لكِ عبدٌ فكوني كمنْ | إذا سرّه عبدُه أعتقا |
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 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
6.5
كان ببغداد رجل كبير الرأس فِيليّ الأُذنين اسمه فاذوه رأسه في الأزمنة الأربعة مكشوفٌ، لا يتورّع عن ركوب مُخزِية، يقال له: يا فاذوه، ويْلَك! تُب إلى الله. فيقول: يا قومِ، لمَِ تدخلون بيني وبين مولاي وهو الذي يقبل التوبة من عباده؟
فكان في بعض الشوارع يومًا ذاهبًا، والشارع قد اتّسع أسفله وضاق أعلاه والتقى جَناحانِ فيه، فناولَت جارةٌ جارتَها مِهْراسًا، انسَلَّ من يدها على رأس فاذوه فهرس رأسه، وخُلِطَ كخلط الهريسة، وأعجله عن التوبة. وكان لنا واعظ صالح يقول لنا: احذروا مِيتة فاذوه.
قال جبريل في حديثه: خشيتُ أن يتمّ فرعون الشهادة والتوبة، فأخذت قطعةً من حال البحر فضربتُ بها وجهه – يعني طينه، والحال ينقسم ثمانية أقسام منها الطين – فكيف يصنع من عنده أن التوبة لا تصِحّ من ذنب مع الإقامة على آخر؟ فلا حول ولا قوة.
There was a man in Baghdad with a large head and elephantine ears, called 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
The Sheikh Exculpates Himself
7.1
بلغني عن مولاي الشيخ – أدام الله تأييده – أنه قال وقد ذُكِرتُ له: أعرفه خَبَرًا، هو الذي هجا أبا القاسم بن عليّ بن الحسين المغربيّ. فذلك منه – أدام الله عزّه – رائع لي، خوفًا أن يستشرّ طبعي، وأن يتصوّرني بصورة مَن يضع الكفر موضِعَ الشكر. وهو بتعريف التنكير أنفع لي عنده، لجلالة قَدره ودينه ونُسكِه، وأنا أُطلِعه طِلعَه، ليعرف خفضه ورفعه، وفُراداه وجمعه.
I have heard about my lord the Sheikh—may God always support him!—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.” 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
7.2
كنت أدرس على أبي عبد الله بن خالَوَيْه رحمه الله، وأختلف إلى أبي الحسن المغربيّ، ولما مات ابن خالويه سافرت إلى بغداد ونزلت على أبي علي الفارسي وكنت أختلف إلى علماء بغداد: إلى أبي سعيد السِيرافيّ، وعليّ بن عيسى الرُمّانيّ، وأبي عبيد الله المرزُبانيّ، وأبي حفص الكَتّانيّ صاحب أبي بكر بن مُجاهِد. وكتبت حديث رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم، وبلّغتُ نفسي أغراضها جهدي والجهد عاذر. ثم سافرت منها إلى مصر، ولقيت أبا الحسن المغربي فألزمَني أن لَزمته لزوم الظلّ، وكنت منه مكان المِثل، في كثرة الإنصاف، والحنو والتحافّ. فقال لي سرًا: أنا أخاف هِمّة أبي القاسم أن تَنْزُوَ به إلى أن يوردنا وِردًا لا صَدَر عنه. وإن كانت الأنفاس مما تُحفَظ وتُكتَب، فاكتُبْها واحفظْها وطالعْني بها.
فقال لي يومًا: ما نرضى بالخمول الذي نحن فيه. قلت: وأي خمول هنا؟ تأخذون من مولانا – خلّد الله مُلكَه – في كل سنة ستَّةَ آلاف دينار، وأبوك من شيوخ الدولة وهو معظَّمٌ مُكرَّم. فقال: أريد أن تُصار إلى أبوابنا الكتائبُ والمواكبُ والمقانبُ، ولا أرضى بأن يُجرَى علينا كالوِلدان والنِسوان! فأعدتُ ذلك على أبيه فقال: ما أخوفَني أن يَخضِبَ أبو القاسم هذه من هذه، وقبض على لِحيَته وهامته. وعَلِمَ أبو القاسم بذلك، فصارت بيني وبينه وَقْفَةٌ.
I studied with Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khālawayh—God have mercy on him—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.
7.3
وأنفذ إليّ القائدُ أبو عبد الله الحسين بن جوهر فشرفني بشريف خدمته، فرأيتُ الحاكم كلما قتل رئيسًا أنفذ رأسه إليه وقال: هذا عدُوّي وعدوّك يا حسين فقلت:
| مَنْ يَرَ يَوْمًا يُرَ بهْ | والدهرُ لا يُغْتَرُّ بهْ |
وعلمت أنه كذا يُفعَل به. فاستأذنتُه في الحج فأذِنَ، فخرجت في سنة سبع وتسعين، وحججتُ خمسة أعوام وعدتُ إلى مصر وقد قتله، فجاءني أولادُه سرًّا يرومون الرجوع إليهم، فقلت لهم: خيرُ ما لي ولكم الهربُ، ولأبيكم ببغداد ودائعُ، خمسمائة ألف دينار، فاهربوا وأهرب. ففعلوا وفعلتُ، وبلغني قتلُهم بدمشق وأنا بطرابلس.
General Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn Jawhar sent for me and honored me by employing me in his service. I saw that, whenever he had a leading person executed, al-Ḥākim would send his head to him, with the words “Ḥusayn, this is my enemy and your enemy!” I said to myself,
He who sees something will one day be seen himself:
One should have no illusions about Fate.120
I knew that he would be treated in the same manner. I asked leave to go on pilgrimage, which he permitted. I left in the year ninety-seven.121 I went on pilgrimage, staying away for five years, and when I returned to Egypt he had been executed. His sons came to me in secret and wanted me to return to their service; but I said to them, “The best thing we all can do is to run away. Your father has deposited goods in Baghdad worth five thousand dinars, so run and I shall run too.” They did so, as did I. I heard that they were killed in Damascus when I was in Tripoli.122
7.4
فدخلتُ إلى أنطاكِيَة وخرجت منها إلى مَلَطْية وبها المايَسْطرِيَّة، خَولة بنت سعد الدولة، فأقمت عندها إلى أن وَرَدَ عليّ كتابُ أبي القاسم فسِرت إلى ميافارقين فكان يُسِرُّ حَسْوًا في ارتغاء.
قال لي يوماَ من الأيام: ما رأيتُكَ! قلت: أَعرَضَت حاجةٌ؟ قال: لا، أردت أن ألعنك. قلت: فالعنّي غائبا! قال: لا، في وجهك أشفى! قلت: ولم؟ قال: لمخالَفَتِك إياي فيما تعلم. وقلت له ونحن على أنس بيني وبينه: لي حُرُماتٌ ثلاث: البلدية، وتربية أبيه لي، وتربيتي لإخوته. قال: هذه حُرَمٌ مُهَتَّكَةٌ: البلدية نسب بين الجدران، وتربية أبي لك مِنَّةٌ لنا عليك، وتربيتك لإخوتي بالخِلَع والدنانير.
أردت أن أقول له: استَرَحْتَ من حيث تَعِبَ الكرام فخشيت جنون جنونه، لأنه كان جنونُه مجنونًا، وأصحُّ منه مجنونٌ، وأجنُّ منه لا يكون. وقد أُنشد:
| جنونُك مجنونٌ ولستَ بواجدٍ | طبيبًا يداوي من جنونِ جنونِ |
بل جُنَّ جِنّانه، ورقص شيطانه:
| به جِنَّةٌ مجنونةٌ غيرَ أَنها | إِذا حصلَتْ منه أَلَبُّ وأَعقلُ |
Then I went to Antioch and left it again for Malatya, where Mistress Khawlah,123 the daughter of Saʿd al-Dawlah resided. I stayed with her until I received a letter from Abū l-Qāsim. Then I traveled to Mayyāfāriqīn. He was “secretly drinking the milk while pretending to sip the froth.”124
One day he said to me, “I do not want to see you ever again!” I asked, “Has something happened?” “No,” he said, “I want to curse you!” I answered, “Then curse me in my absence!” “No,” he said, “it gives me more satisfaction to do it in your face!” “Why?” I asked. He replied, “Because you act against me, as you know very well!” Since there had been such a bond of close intimacy between us, I told him that there were three reasons why I deserved respect: the fact that we came from the same place, that his father had educated me, and that I had educated his brothers. But he retorted, “These reasons are to be torn to shreds. Coming from the same place is merely sharing walls. Being educated by my father was a favor we did you, and your education of my brothers was done in return for robes of honor and dinars!”
I wanted to say to him, “You had a comfortable life when noble people toiled!” However, I was afraid of the madness of his madness, for his madness was in fact mad. A madman was sounder in mind than he! One could not be madder than he. It has been said:
Your madness is mad and you won’t find
a doctor who’s able to cure the madness of madness.125
Even the jinn who possessed him were mad126 and his devil danced!
In him is a mad madness; yet, when it occurs,
It’s more intelligent and sensible than he’s himself!
7.5
وقال لي ليلةً: أريد أن أجمع أوصاف الشمعة السبعة في بيت واحد وليس يسنح لي ما أرضاه. فقلتُ: أنا أفعل من هذه الساعة. قال: أنت جُذَيلها المحكَّك وعُذَيقُها المُرَجَّب. فأخذتُ القلم من دواته وكتبت بحضرته:
| لقد أَشبهتْني شمعةٌ في صبابتي | وفي هَوْلِ ما أَلقى وما أَتوقَّعُ |
| نحولٌ وحرقٌ في فَناءٍ ووحدةٍ | وتسهيدُ عَيْنٍ واصفرارٌ وأَدمُعُ |
فقال: كنتَ عملت هذا قبل هذا الوقت! فقلتُ: تمنعني سرعةَ الخاطر وتُعطيني عِلم الغيب؟ وقلت: أنت ذاكرٌ قول أبيك لي ولك و للبَتَّيّ الشاعر و للمحسّن١ الدمشقيّ، ونحن في الطارمة: اعملوا قطعةً قطعةً، فمن جوَّد جعلتُ جائزته كَتْبها فيها، فقلت:
| بَلَغَ السماءَ سُمُوُّ بيـ | ـتٍ شِيدَ في أَعلى مكانِ |
| بيت علا حتى تغوَّ | رَ في ذُراه الفَرقَدانِ |
| فانعَمْ به لا زلتَ مِنْ | ريْبِ الحوادثِ في أَمانِ |
فاستجاد سُرعتها وكتبها في الطارمة، وخلع عليّ.
١ في النسخ: (ولمحسن).
He said to me one evening, “I want to combine seven attributes of a candle in one verse, but nothing that comes to my mind pleases me.” I said, “I’ll do it now!” He said, “You are the well-rubbed little tree-trunk127 and its well-propped palm-bunch!” So I took the pen from its inkwell and wrote in his presence,
A candle resembles me, in my passionate love,
in my terror at what I encounter and what I expect:
Thin, and burning, and dwindling, and lonely,
with wakeful eye, being pale, and tearful.
Then he said, “You composed this earlier!” I replied, “You deprive me of my quick wit and credit me with knowing the future! You will remember,” I continued, “what your father said to us, to al-Battī the poet, and to al-Muḥassin al-Dimashqī, when we sat in the pavilion:128 ‘Compose an epigram, each of you! I shall reward the best by having his poem inscribed on this pavilion.’” Then I said:
The sky has been reached by the height of a house
raised on the loftiest place;
A building so high that its roofs
make the Little Bear’s stars129 sink beneath them.
So be happy in it and may you from bad
turns of fortune forever be safe.
“He liked my quick response and wrote it on the pavilion, also giving me a robe of honor.”
7.6.1
وكان أبو القاسم ملولا، والمَلول ربما ملّ الملالَ، وكان لا يملّ أن يملّ، ويحقد حقد من لا تلين كَبِدُه، ولا تنحلّ عُقَدُه.
وقال لي بعض الرؤساء معاتبًا: أنت حقودٌ ولم يكن حقودًا. فقلت له: أنت لا تعرفه، والله ما كان يُحنى عُودُه، ولا يُرجَى عَوده. وله رأيٌ يُزَيِّن له العُقوق، ويُمَقِّت إليه رعاية الحقوق، بعيد من الطبع الذي هو للصد صَدود، وللتآلف أَلوفٌ وَدود. كأنه من كِبره قد ركب الفلك واستوى على ذاتِ الحُبُك. ولست ممن يرغب في راغبٍ عن وصْلَته، أو ينزع إلى نازعٍ عن خُلَّته. فلما رأيته سادرًا، جاريًا في قلة إنصافي على غُلَوائه، مَحوْتُ ذكره عن صفحة فؤادي، واعتددتُ وُدَّه فيما سال به الوادي:
| ففي الناسِ إِن رَثَّت حِبالُكَ واصلٌ | وفي الأَرضِ عن دارِ القِلى مُتحَوَّلُ |
Abū l-Qāsim was easily bored. Someone easily bored is sometimes bored with his own boredom; he, however, was never bored of being bored! He was full of resentment, like someone whose liver never softens130 and whose joints are never relaxed.
A high official once reproached me, saying, “You are the one who is resentful; not him!” I said to him, “You do not know him. By God, he is inflexible and one cannot hope for any favors from him.131 He has a frame of mind that encourages him to be disrespectful and that makes respect for people’s rights seem hateful to him. He is far from having a character that rejects rejection but is amiable and loves mutual affection. It is as if he, in his arrogance, rides the celestial sphere and has seated himself on the galaxy-striped sky. Yet I am not the type to seek out anyone who seeks disassociation from his companionship, or to draw toward anyone who inclines toward withdrawal from his friendship.132 When I saw how thoughtlessly he acted without doing me justice in his excessive pride, I wiped away his name from the page of my heart and considered my affection for him as something swept away by the river’s flow.
For if the bonds with you are frayed, others will make ties;
There are places I can turn to on earth, away from an abode of hate.”133
7.6.2
وأنشدت الرجلَ أبياتًا أعتذر بها في قطعي له:
| فلو كان منه الخيرُ إذ كان شَرُّه | عتيدًا، لقلنا: إِن خيرًا مع الشرِّ |
| ولو كان – إِذ لا خيرَ – لا شرَّ عنده | صَبَرْنا وقُلنا لا يَرِيشُ ولا يبْرِي |
| ولكنه شرٌّ ولا خيرَ عنده | وليس على شرٍّ إِذا دام من صَبْرِ |
وبُغضي له - شهد الله – حيًّا ومَيِّتًا، أوجبه أخذُه محاريبَ الكعبة، الذهب والفضّة. وضربها دنانير ودراهم وسمّاها الكعبية، وأنهب العرب الرَّملة. وخرّب بغداد وكم دمٍ سفك، وحريم انتهك، وحُرّة أرمل، وصبيّ أيتم!
I recited some verses to the man, justifying myself in them for breaking off my contact with him:
If any good thing came from him, whose badness comes so readily,
then we could say: the good comes with the bad!
And if he had no bad, as well as nothing good,
we could endure it, saying: “he’s no fletcher and no trimmer!”134
But he is bad and there’s no good in him;
and badness, when it lasts, can’t be endured.
My hatred of him, whether alive or dead—God is my witness—is the inevitable result of the fact that he appropriated the gold and silver niches of the Kaaba and coined them into dinars and dirhams, which he called “Kaaba coins.”135 He made the Bedouins plunder al-Ramlah and he laid Baghdad in ruins. So much blood did he shed, and so many women did he ravish, widowing free women and orphaning little children!
Praise of al-Maʿarrī
8
وأنا معتذر إلى الشيخ الجليل من تقريظه مع تفريطي١ فيه، لأنه قد شاع فضلُه في جميع البشر، وصار غُرّةً على جبهة الشمس والقمر. خلُد ذلك في بدائع الأخبار، وكُتِبَ بسواد الليل على بياض النهار. وأنا في مكاتبة حضرته بمنظومٍ ومنثور، كمن أمدّ النار بالشرر، وأهدى الضوء إلى القمر، وصبّ في البحر جُرعةً، وأعار سير الفلك سُرعة، إذ كان لا يحلّ النقص بواديه، ولا يطور السهو بناديه.
ولقد سمعتُ من رسائله عقائل لفظٍ إن نعتُّها فقد عِبتُها، وإن وصفتُها فما أنصفتها. وأطربتْني – يشهد الله – إطراب السماع. وبالله لو صَدَرَت عن صدر مَن خِزانتُه وكتبه حوله، يُقلّب طرْفه في هذا ويرجع إلى هذا – فإن القلم لسان اليد وهو أحد البلاغتين – لكان ذلك عجيبًا صعبًا شديدًا. ووالله لقد رأيت علماء، منهم ابن خالَوَيه إذا قُرِئَت عليهم الكتب، ولا سيما الكبار، رجعوا إلى أصولهم كالمقابلين يتحفظون من سهو وتصحيف وغلط.
والعجب العجيب والنادر الغريب، حِفْظُه – أدام الله تأييده – لأسماء الرجال والمنثور، كحفْظ غيره من الأذكياء المبرّزين المنظوم، وهذا سهل بالقول صعب بالفعل، من سمعه طمع فيه، ومن رامه امتَنَعَت عليه معانيه ومبانيه.
١ في النسخ: (تقريظي).
I ask the venerable Sheikh to excuse me when I laud him, even though I fall short of doing him justice, because his excellence has spread among all people and he has become a bright light on the brow of the sun and the moon. This has been immortalized in wonderful reports and has been written night-black on day-white. In writing to his noble person in verse and in prose I am like someone who fuels a fire with a spark, who presents the moon with a gift of light, who pours a mouthful into the sea, or who lends speed to that of the celestial sphere; for no shortcoming settles in his valley and no inadvertence nears his assembly.
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
On Memorizing and Forgetting; Ibn al-Qāriḥ Complains Again
9.1
حدّثني أبو علي الصِقلّيّ بدمشق قال: كنت في مجلس ابن خالَويه إذ وردت عليه من سيف الدولة مسائل تتعلّق باللغة، فاضطرب لها ودخل خِزَانته وأخرج كتب اللغة، وفرّقها على أصحابه يُفتّشونها ليجيب عنها. وتركتُه وذهبت إلى أبي الطيِّب اللُغَوي وهو جالس وقد وردت عليه تلك المسائل بعينها وبيده قلم الحُمْرة، فأجاب به ولم يُغَيِّره، قُدرةً على الجواب. وقال أبو الطيِّب: قرأت على أبي عُمَرَ الفصيح وإصلاح المنطق حفظًا. وقال لي أبو عمر: كنت أُعلّق اللغة عن ثعلب على خَزَف، وأجلس على دِجلةَ أحفظها وأرمي بها.
Abū ʿAlī al-Ṣiqillī137 told me in Damascus: “I was sitting in Ibn Khālawayh’s 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 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.”’”
9.2
وأنا تعبت وحفظت نصف عمري، ونسيت نصفه. وذاك أني درست ببغداد وخرجت عنها وأنا طَرِيُّ الحفظ، ومضيت إلى مصر فأمرجتُ نفسي في الأغراض البهيمية، والأعراض الموثمية، وأردت بزَعْمي وخديعة الطبع المُلِيم أن أذيقها حلاوة العيش، كما صبرتُ في طلب العِلم والأدب، ونسيت أن العلم غذاء النفس الشريفة وصيقل الأفهام اللطيفة. وكنت أكتب خمسين ورقة في اليوم، وأدرس مائتين، فصرت الآن أكتب ورقة واحدة وتحُكّني عيناي حَكًّا مؤْلمًا، وأدرس خمس أوراق وتكلّ.
ثم دُفعتُ إلى أوقات ليس فيها من يرغب في علم ولا أدب، بل في فضّة وذهب، فلو كنت إياسًا صرت باقلًا. وأضع كتابًا عن يميني وأطلبه عن شمالي، وأريد مع ضعفي أرتاد لنفسي معاشًا بظهرٍ غير ظهير، بل كسير عقير، وصُلبٍ غير صليب، إن جلستُ فهو كالدُمّل، وإن مشيت فجُملتي دماميل. ومعي بقيّة نزرة يسيرة من جملة كثيرة، لو وجدت ثقة أعطيته إياها ليعود عليّ بما أُرفّه به عن جسمي من الحركة، وقلبي من الشغل. وأنا أجد من أدفعها إليه وبقي أن يرُدّها إليّ!
I have exhausted myself spending the first half of my life memorizing things, 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 noble soul and the burnisher of subtle minds. I used to write fifty folios each day and study two hundred; but now I write but one single folio and my eyes smart in pain and when I study five folios my eyes grow weary.
Then I was compelled to survive long enough to witness times in which no one desires knowledge or erudition; rather they want silver and gold! Though I may have been Iyās, I have become Bāqil.139 I put a book down on my right and then look for it on my left. In spite of my weakness I try to make a living with a back that does not back me up but is broken and wounded, with a spinal column no longer firm. If I sit down it is like having a boil; if I walk I am all boils! All I have left is a trifle, a scant remainder of what was once a huge amount. If I could find a reliable person I would give it to him in return for something with which I could ease my body with not having to move, and my heart by not being preoccupied. I have, in fact, found someone to give it to, but it remains for him to render me his service.
9.3
دفع رجل إلى صديقٍ جاريةً أودعها عنده وذهب في سفره، فقال بعد أيام لمن يأنس به وتسكن نفسه إليه: يا أخي، ذهبتْ أمانات الناس، أودعني صديق لي جارية في حسابه أنها بِكرٌ، جرّبتُها فإذا هي ثيِّب!
ومن طريف١ الأخبار أن بنت أختي سرقت لي ثلاثة وثمانين دينارًا، فلما هدّدها السلطان – أطال الله بقاءه، ومدّ مدّته، وأدام سموّه ورفعته – وأخرجت إليه بعضها قالت: والله لو علمتُ أن الأمر يجري كذا، كنت قتلته فاعجبوا من هريستي وزَبوني!
١ في كل الطبعات: (ظريف).
A man gave a slave girl to a friend, entrusting her to his keeping while he went on a journey. After a few days the latter said to someone with whom he was on intimate terms and whom he trusted, “My friend, one can no longer trust people these days! A friend has entrusted a slave girl to me, thinking that she was a virgin. But I tried her myself and she wasn’t a virgin!”140
Another curious141 story is that my sister’s daughter stole eighty-three dinars from me. When the ruler—may God prolong his life, extend his term, and perpetuate his loftiness and his elevation!—threatened her and she produced some of them to him, she said, “By God, if I had known that matters would end up thus I would have killed him!”—“Be amazed about my harīsah and my customer!”142
10.1
والله لولا ضعفي وعجزي عن السفر، لخرجت إليه متشرفًا بمجالسته ومحاضرته، فأما مذاكرته فقد يئستُ منها لما قد استولى عليّ من النسيان، واحتوى على قلبي من الهموم والأحزان. وإلى الله الشكوى لا منه، وليس يحسن أن أشكو من يرحمني إلى من لا يرحمني، وليس بحكيم من شكا رحيماً إلى غير رحيم.
وكان أبو بكر الشِبلي يقول: ليس غير الله غيرٌ، ولا عند غير الله خيرٌ. وقال يومًا: يا جواد! ثم أمسك مُفكّراً ورفع رأسه ثم قال: ما أوقحَني! أقول لك يا جواد، وقد قيل في بعض عبيدك:
| ولو لم يكنْ في كَفِّه غيرُ نفسِه | لجاد بها فليَتَّقِ الله سائلُهْ |
وقد قيل في آخر:
| تراه إذا ما جئتَه مُتهلّلا | كأَنك مُعطيه الذي أَنتَ سائلُهْ |
ثم قال: بلى، أقول: ياجوادًا فاق كل جواد، وبجوده جاد من جاد.
By God, were it not that I am too weak and feeble to travel I would go and visit the Sheikh, to be honored by sitting with him and talking to him. As for a learned discussion with him, I despair of this on account of the forgetfulness that has come over me and the worries and sorrows that have enveloped my heart. To God, not about Him, I complain; it would not be proper if I complained about Someone who has mercy upon me to someone who has no mercy upon me. One who complains about a Merciful One to someone who is unmerciful is not wise.
Abū Bakr al-Shiblī used to say, “Other than God there is no other, and there is no good but with God.” He said one day, “O Generous One!” Then he 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!’”
10.2
ودخل ابن السَمَّاك على الرشيد فقال له: عِظْني - وفي يد الرشيد كوز ماء. فقال: مهلًا يا أمير المؤمنين، أرأيتَ إن أقدرَ الله عليك مُقدَّرًا فقال: لن أمكّنك من شربة إلا بنصف مُلكِك، أكنت فاعلًا ذلك؟ قال: نعم. قال: اشرب، هنَّاك الله. فلما شرب قال: أرأيت يا أمير المؤمنين، أن لو أُسْفِتَّ نفس هذا المقدَّر عليك فقال: لن أمكّنك من إخراج هذا الكوز إلا بأن استبدّ بملكك دونك، أكنت فاعلًا ذلك؟ قال: نعم. قال: فاتقِ الله في مُلكٍ لا يساوي إلا بَولةً.
Ibn al-Sammāk145 entered into the presence of al-Rashīd, who said to him: “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.”
11.1
وكيف أشكو من قاتني وعالني نيّفًا وسبعين سنة: كان قميصي ذراعين، فوكل بي والدَين حدبين مُشفقيْن، يتناهيان في دقته ورقته وطيبه، فلما صار اثني عشر ذراعًا تَوَلاه هو وطعامي، فما أجاعني قط ولا أعراني: وَالَّذِي هُوَ يُطْعِمُنِي وَيَسْقِينِ خاطب ربّه بالأدب فقال: وَإِذَا مَرِضْتُ فَهُوَ يَشْفِينِ فنسب المرض إلى نفسه، لأنها تنفر من الأعراض والأمراض. وكلّ شيء يطرأ على الإنسان لا يقدر على دفعه، مثل النوم واليقظة والضحك والبكاء والغم والسرور والخصب والجدب والغنى والفقر، فهو منه تقدّست أسماؤه. ألا ترى أنه لا يتوعّد على فعله، ولا يعاقب عليه؟ وما يقدر على دفعه فهو منه، مثل أن يريد الكتابة فلا يقع منه البناء، ويريد البناء فلا تقع منه الكتابة. ومن به الرعشة لا يقدر على إمساك يدٍ، ومن ليست به يقدر على إمساكها.
How could I complain about Him who fed me and sustained me for more 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 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.
11.2
كنت بتِنِّيسَ وبين يديّ إنسان يقرأ ويُحزِّن: يُوفُونَ بِالنَّذْرِ وَيَخَافُونَ ويبكي، فخطر لي خاطر فقلت: أنا بضدّ هؤلاء القوم صلوات الله عليهم، أنا لا أنذر ولا أفي، ولا أخاف شقاء ولا عناء، ولو كنت أخاف ما أصحبت ١ محمومًا، وكنته.
وحدّثني مَن أثق به ولا أتّهِمه، عن أبيه – وكان زاهدًا – قال: كنت مع أبي بكر الشبلي ببغداد، في الجانب الشرقيّ بباب الطاق، فرأينا شاويًا قد أخرج حملاً من التنّور كأنه بُسْرة نضجًا، وإلى جانبه قد عمل حَلاوِيٌّ فالوذجا. فوقف ينظر إليهما وهو ساهٍ يُفكِّر، فقلت: يا مولاي دعني آخُذ من هذا وهذا ورِقاقًا وخبزًا، ومنزلي قريب، تُشَرِّفني بأن تجعل راحتك اليوم عندي. فقال: يا هذا، أظننتَ أني قد اشتهيتُهما؟ وإنما فكري في أن الحيوان كله لا يدخل النار إلا بعد الموت، ونحن ندخلها أحياء:
