[_Translated by Aristide Marre and C. C. Starkweather_]
Kings who are of the true faith, who have wisdom and follow justice,
cause men worthy of their confidence to travel through their kingdom,
to serve as their eyes and ears, and to make reports on the state and
condition of their subjects, so that, knowing the cause, they may
examine for themselves the conduct of the servants of God. But there
are kings who do not rest contented with the report of their servants,
and go themselves by night to see the condition and hear the complaints
of subjects. Then they make by day a thorough examination of the
matters thus come to their knowledge, in order to regulate them with
justice and equity.
A story will illustrate this. Zeyd Ibries Selam tells what follows: The
prince of the believers, the Caliph Omar (may God be satisfied with
him!), judged the servants of God with equity during the day, and after
pronouncing his judgments he went out of the city on the side toward
the cemetery called Bakia-el-Gharkada. There he cut stone to gain money
enough for the maintenance of his house, and when night had come he
went through the city to know the good and evil of the servants of God.
One night, says Zeyd Ibries Selam, "I accompanied the prince of the
believers, Omar. When he was outside of Medina, he perceived a fire in
an out-of-the-way place, and turned his steps thither. Scarcely had he
arrived when he heard a woman with three children, and the latter were
crying. The woman said: 'O God the most high, I beseech thee, make Omar
suffer what I am suffering now. He sleeps satiated with food, while I
and my children are starving.' The prince of the believers, Omar,
hearing these words, went to the woman, and with a salutation said,
'May I approach?'
"The woman answered, 'If it be by way of goodness, come.'
"He approached her and questioned her about her situation.
"The woman said: 'I come from a far place; and as it was dark when I
arrived here, I could not enter the city. So I stopped at this place.
My children and I are suffering from hunger and we cannot sleep.'
"The Caliph inquired, 'What is there in this kettle?'
"The woman answered: 'Nothing but water. I put it in the kettle so that
the children should imagine that I was cooking rice--perhaps, then,
they would go to sleep and stop crying so loudly.'
"As soon as Omar had heard these words he returned promptly to the city
of Medina. Arriving at a shop where they sold flour, he bought some and
put it into a sack. In another shop he bought some meat. Then lifting
the sack to his shoulders he carried it out of the city. I said to him:
"'O prince of the believers, give me this sack, that I may carry it for
you.'
"'If you bear the weight of this sack,' said his glorious Majesty to
me, 'who will bear the weight of my fault, and who will clear me from
the prayer of this woman in the affliction of her heart when she
complained to the Lord of my negligence?'
"Omar, having said these words, continued to walk in tears until he had
come near the woman and her children. Then he gave her the flour and
the meat, and they ate till their hunger was appeased. The woman with a
satisfied heart cried:
"'May God the most high hear my prayer and render you benefits, since
you are so full of compassion for the servants of God and are so much
better than Omar.'
"The Caliph said to her, 'O woman, blame not Omar, for he knew not how
you fared.'"
There was once a king in the country of Syria named Malik-es-Saleh,
very pious and just, and continually preoccupied with the state of his
subjects. They say that every night he went to the mosque, cemeteries,
and other solitary places, in search of strangers, fakirs, and poor
people who had neither home nor family. One night, arriving near a
mosque, he heard the voice of a man inside the edifice. He entered and
saw a fakir there. He could not see him distinctly, because he was
covered with a mat. But he heard him, and this is what he said: "O
Lord, if on the judgment-day thou shalt give a place in heaven to kings
who are forgetful of the fakirs and the poor, then, O Lord, grant that
I may not enter there."
Malik-es-Saleh, hearing these words, shed tears. He placed a piece of
stuff before the fakir with 100 tahil of silver, and said to him:
"O fakir, I have learned from the glorious prophet (may peace be with
him!) that fakirs become kings in heaven, after a life of self-
sacrifice on earth. Since I am King in this perishable world, I come to
you with the weakness of my nature and baseness of my being. I ask you
to be at peace with me, and to show yourself compassionate to me when
the moment of your glory in heaven shall have arrived."
When the Sultan Zayad sat upon the royal throne of Ikak, the country
was infested with malefactors, brigands, robbers, assassins, and the
like. The compounds were destroyed, the houses pillaged, and the people
killed. The inhabitants could not sleep a single night in quiet, nor
pass a single day in safety at home. A crowd of people came with their
complaints to the Sultan Zayad, saying:
"The compounds are destroyed, the houses are pillaged, and the men are
killed." All throughout Irak one heard nothing but reports of this
kind.
One Friday the Sultan went to the mosque to pray. He then shut all the
doors and said to the people in the mosque: "O servants of God now
present in this mosque, know that a duty is imposed upon me. I must
protect my subjects, for I shall have to give an account of my actions
on the day of judgment. There are now in this country large numbers of
malefactors, and many of my people have been ruined by them. It is my
duty to repress these disorders. So, then, listen to what I have to
say, and repeat it to those who are not present. I swear to you that
all who shall, three days from now, leave his house after the hour of
evening prayer, shall be put to death."
When the three days had passed and the fourth night arrived, Sultan
Zayad mounted his horse and traversed the city with an escort of
cavaliers. Outside of the city he came to a place and saw a man
standing under a tree in the middle of a flock of sheep and goats. He
said to him, "Who are you?"
The man said: "I come from a far-off village, and I am bringing sheep
and goats to the city to sell them, and with their price to buy what I
can for my wife and children. When arrived at this place I was so tired
that I could not enter the city, and was obliged to stay here, with the
intention of entering at daybreak and selling my sheep and goats."
Sultan Zayad, having heard this response, said: "Your words are true,
but what can I do? If I do not put you to death to-morrow, when the
news spreads, they will say Sultan Zayad is not faithful to his word.
They will regard me with disdain, and no one will obey my orders. And
the wicked ones will commit violent acts upon the good ones, and my
country will be ruined. Heaven is better for you than this world." So
he had him put to death and ordered that they should take his head.
During that same night all that he met were killed and beheaded. They
say that in the course of that first day 500 persons were put to death.
At dawn he had all these heads exposed on the highways, and published
this proclamation:
"Whosoever shall not obey the commands of Sultan Zayad shall suffer the
same fate."
When the people of the country saw these heads exposed at all sides on
the earth, they were frightened, and a respectful fear of Sultan Zayad
filled all hearts.
The second night Sultan Zayad went out again from the city, and that
night 500 persons were killed.
The third night he remained out of the city till morning, but he did
not meet a soul.
The following Friday Sultan Zayad went to the mosque, said his prayers,
and declared: "O servants of God, let no one after to-day shut the door
of his house nor his shop. I take upon myself the charge of replacing
those of your goods which shall be destroyed or stolen."
They all obeyed his orders, for they feared him greatly. Their doors
remained opened for several nights, and they never suffered the
slightest loss. But after a while a man complained to the Sultan,
saying, "Last night someone stole from me 400 tahil."