A Mohammedan youth, Hakim Alí by name, on his return from a journey
through Arabia, visited his friend Yuhanna, the Christian. Though the two
held not the same faith, there was much friendship between them.[49] They
sat together under a pépul tree, and Hakim Alí, with great animation,
gave to Yuhanna an account of all that he had seen in his travels. For
a long time Yuhanna had all the listening, and his friend had all the
talking. In almost every sentence uttered by Hakim Alí, he brought in
the name of Allah (God); if he were but describing how a mule stumbled,
or what evil fare he had had at an inn, he called God to bear witness to
what he said—even if he were laughing when the holy name was on his lips.
Yuhanna had a stick in his hand, and every time that Hakim Alí uttered
the sacred name, Yuhanna with the stick made a mark on the sand. Hakim
Alí at last noticed with surprise this act of Yuhanna.
“What are you marking?” he cried.
“Debts,” was the brief reply.
“You have many,” laughed Hakim Alí, again using the name of the Highest;
and again Yuhanna drew a line on the sand.
Then Yuhanna, turning, asked a question: “You have visited many holy
shrines and sacred tombs in your life, O Hakim Alí!” said he; “did you
ever take off your slippers before entering?”[50]
Hakim Alí was so much astonished at the question, that more loudly than
ever he uttered the name of Allah. “Do you count me as an unclean swine?”
he exclaimed; “do you doubt that I always take off my slippers on such
occasions? Never without due reverence do I approach that which is holy.”
Yuhanna pointed to the marks on the sand. “O my friend!” said he,
“fifteen times within the last hour have you shown no reverence for that
which is most holy.”
“What is your meaning?” exclaimed the astonished Hakim Alí, again lightly
using the sacred name of God.
Once more Yuhanna made a mark on the sand.
“Is a building made by the hands of men more to be reverenced than that
sacred name before which the angels bow?” said Yuhanna gravely. “Is not
every time that that name is taken in vain marked down,—not on sand,
where it can be lightly effaced, but in that book of remembrance which
is kept by the Highest? O my friend! it was the voice of the Almighty
Himself that gave the command: _Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord
thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His
name in vain._ This command was written first by the finger of God on the
table of stone committed to Moses.”[51]
“Are you Christians then so careful how you take the name of God on your
lips?” asked Hakim Alí, rising somewhat angrily from his seat.
“We, of all men, should be most careful,” replied his friend, “for in the
prayer taught by the Lord Jesus Christ to His servants, the very first
petition to God is, _Hallowed be Thy name_. If we use that name without
reverence, our very prayer becomes a mockery, and we are convicted of
sin before God. Solemn was the warning given by our Lord: _Every idle
word that a man shall speak, he shall give account thereof in the day of
judgment._”
“Who then can stand in the day of judgment?” asked Hakim Alí with a
troubled countenance, as with his foot he hastily erased the marks on the
sand.
“None can stand but those who can plead not their own righteousness, but
the righteousness of another,” replied Yuhanna, looking upwards. “Like
the prophet Isaiah I have often cried: _Woe is me! for I am undone, for
I am a man of unclean lips_; but when I think of the blood that was shed
by Christ on the cross for sinners, to my heart the answer comes: _Lo!
this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin
purged. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus._”