Читать книгу One Thousand and One Nights (Complete Annotated Edition) - Richard Francis Burton - Страница 108

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She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Nuzhat al-Zaman continued thus, “Said Omar, ‘Verily Allah commissioned as His Apostle Mohammed (upon whom be the benediction of Allah and His salvation!), for a blessing to some and a bane to others; and He elected for him those with him and took him to Himself, leaving the people a stream whereof they might drink. After him Abu Bakr986 the Truth teller became Caliph and he left the river as it was, doing what was pleasing to Allah. Then arose Omar and worked a work and strove in holy war and strife where of none might do the like. But when Othman arose to power he diverted a streamlet from the stream, and Mu’awiyah in his turn diverted from it several streamlets; and without ceasing in like manner, Yezid and the Banu Marwán such as Abd al-Malik and Walíd and Sulaymán987 drew away water from the stream, and the main course dried up, till rule devolved upon me, and now I am minded to restore the stream to its normal condition.’ When Fatimah heard this, she said, ‘I came wishing only to speak and confer with thee, but if this be thy word, I have nothing to say to thee.’ Then she returned to the Ommiades and said to them, ‘Now take ye the consequences of your act when ye allied yourselves by marriage with Omar bin al-Khattab.’988 And it is also said that when Omar was about to die, he gathered his children round him, and Maslamah989 bin Abd al-Malik said to him, ‘O Prince of the Faithful, how wilt thou leave thy children paupers and thou their protector? None can hinder thee in thy lifetime from giving them what will suffice them out of the treasury; and this indeed were better than leaving the good work to him who shall rule after thee.’ Omar looked at him with a look of wrath and wonder and presently replied, ‘O Maslamah, I have defended them from this sin all the days of my life, and shall I make them miserable after my death? Of a truth my sons are like other men, either obedient to Almighty Allah who will prosper them, or disobedient and I will not help them in their disobedience. Know, O Maslamah, that I was present, even as thou, when such an one of the sons of Marwanwas buried, and I fell asleep by him and saw him in a dream given over to one of the punishments of Allah, to whom belong Honour and Glory! This terrified me and made me tremble, and I vowed to Allah, that if ever I came to power, I would not do such deeds as the dead man had done. I have striven to fulfil this vow all the length of my life and I hope to die in the mercy of my Lord.’ Quoth Maslamah, ‘A certain man died and I was present at his burial, and when all was over I fell asleep and I saw him as a sleeper seeth a dream, walking in a garden of flowing waters clad in white clothes. He came up to me and said: ‘O Maslamah, it is for the like of this that rulers should rule.’ Many are the instances of this kind, and quoth one of the men of authority, ‘I used to milk the ewes in the Caliphate of Omar bin Abd al-Aziz, and one day I met a shepherd, among whose sheep I saw a wolf or wolves. I thought them to be dogs, for I had never before seen wolves; so I asked, ‘What dost thou with these dogs?’ ‘They are not dogs, but wolves,’ answered the shepherd. Quoth I, ‘Can wolves be with sheep and not hurt them?’ Quoth he, ‘When the head is whole, the body is whole.’990 Omar bin Abd al-Aziz once preached from a pulpit of clay and, after praising and glorifying Allah Almighty, said three words as follows, ‘O folk, make clean your inmost hearts, that your outward lives may be dean to your brethren, and abstain ye from the things of the world. Know that between us and Adam there is no one man alive among the dead. Dead are Abd al — Malik and those who forewent him, and Omar also shall die and those who forewent him.’ Asked Maslamah, ‘O Commander of the Faithful, an we set a pillow behind thee, wilt thou lean on it a little while?’ But Omar answered, ‘I fear lest it be a fault about my neck on Resurrection Day.’ Then he gasped with the death rattle and fell back in a faint; whereupon Fatimah cried out, saying, ‘Ho, Maryam! Ho, Muzahim!991 Ho, such an one! Look to this man!’ And she began to pour water on him weeping, till he revived from his swoon; and, seeing her in tears said to her, ‘What causeth thee to weep, O Fatimah?’ She replied, ‘O Commander of the Faithful, I saw thee lying prostrate before us and thought of thy prostration in death before Almighty Allah, of thy departure from the world and of thy separation from us. This is what made me weep.’ Answered he, ‘Enough, O Fatimah, for indeed thou exceedest.’ Then he would have risen, but fell down and Fatimah strained him to her and said, ‘Thou art to me as my father and my mother, O Commander of the Faithful! We cannot speak to thee, all of us.’ Then quoth Nuzhat al-Zaman to her brother Sharrkan and the four Kazis, “Here endeth the second section of the first chapter.”— And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.