Thus saith the excellent, the incomparable, Abu Mohammed al Kasim
ibn 'Ali ibn Mohammed ibn 'Othman Al Hariri of Basrah (God cool his
resting-place).
O God, we praise thee for what perspicuity thou hast taught, and
what enunciation thou hast inspired; as we praise thee for what
bounty thou hast enlarged, what mercy thou hast diffused: And we take
refuge with thee from the vehemence of fluency and the immoderation
of talkativeness, as we take refuge with thee from the vice of
inarticulateness and the shame of hesitation. And by thee we seek to
be kept from temptation through the flattery of the praiser and the
connivance of the favor, as we seek to be kept from exposure to the
defaming of the slanderer and the betrayal of the informer. And we ask
pardon of thee if our desires carry us into the region of ambiguities,
as we ask pardon if our steps advance to the domain of errors. And we
ask of thee succor which shall lead us aright, and a heart turning with
justice, and a tongue adorned with truth, and a speech strengthened
with demonstration, and accuracy that shall keep us from mistake, and
resolution that shall conquer caprice, and perception by which we may
estimate duly: And that thou wilt help us by thy guidance to conceive,
and enable us by thy assistance to express; that thou wilt guard us
from error in narration, and turn us from unseemliness in jesting; that
we may be secure from slanders of the tongue; that we may be free from
the ill of tinseled speech; that we walk not in the road of sin, nor
stand in the place of repentance; that we be not pursued by suit or
censure, nor need to flee from hastiness to excuse. O God, fulfil to us
this wish; give us to attain to this desire: put us not forth of thy
large shadow, make us not a morsel for the devourer. For now we stretch
forth to thee the hand of entreaty; we are thorough in humiliation
to thee and abasement. And we call down thy abundant grace and thy
bounty that is over all, with humbleness of seeking and with the
venture of hope. Also approaching thee through the merits of Mohammed,
lord of men, the intercessor whose intercession shall be received at
the congregation of judgment. By whom thou hast set the seal to the
prophets, and whose degree thou hast exalted to the highest heaven;
whom thou hast described in thy clear-speaking Book, and hast said
(and thou art the most truthful of sayers): "It is the word of a noble
envoy, of him who is mighty in the presence of the Lord of the throne,
having authority, obeyed, yea, faithful." O God, send thy blessing on
him and his house who guide aright, and his companions who built up the
faith; and make us followers of his guidance and theirs, and profit us
all by the loving of him and them: for thou art Almighty, and one meet
to answer prayer.
And now: In a meeting devoted to that learning whose breeze has stilled
in this age, whose lights are nigh gone out, there ran a mention of
the Assemblies which had been invented by Badi'az Zeman, the sage of
Hamadan (God show him mercy); in which he had referred the composition
to Abu'l Fath of Alexandria and the relation of 'Isa, son of Hisham.
And both these are persons obscure, not known; vague, not to be
recognized. Then suggested to me one whose suggestion is as a decree,
and obedience to whom is as a prize, that I should compose Assemblies,
following in them the method of Badi' (although the lame steed attains
not to outrun like the stout one). Then I reminded him of what is said
concerning him who joins even two words, or strings together one or
two verses: and deprecated this position in which the understanding is
bewildered, and the fancy misses aim, and the depth of the intelligence
is probed, and a man's real value is made manifest: and in which one
is forced to be as a wood-gatherer by night, or as he who musters
footmen and horsemen together: considering, too, that the voluble
man is seldom secure or pardoned if he trips. But when he consented
not to forbearance, and freed me not from his demand, I assented to
his invitation with the assenting of the obedient, and displayed in
according with him all my endeavor; and composed, in spite of what
I suffered from frozen genius, and dimmed intelligence, and failing
judgment, and afflicting cares, fifty Assemblies, comprising what is
serious in language and lively, what is delicate in expression and
dignified; the brilliancies of eloquence and its pearls, and beauties
of scholarship and its rarities: besides what I have adorned them with
of verses of the Koran and goodly metonymies, and studded them with of
Arab proverbs, and scholarly elegancies, and grammatical riddles, and
decisions dependent on the meaning of words, and original addresses,
and ornate orations, and tear-moving exhortations, and amusing jests:
all of which I have indited as by the tongue of Abu Zayd of Seruj,
while I have attributed the relating of them to Al Harith, son of
Hammam, of Basra. And whenever I change the pasture I have no purpose
but to inspirit the reader, and to increase the number of those who
shall seek my book. And of the poetry of others I have introduced
nothing but two single verses, on which I have based the fabric of the
Assembly of Holwan; and two others, in a couplet, which I have inserted
at the conclusion of the Assembly of Kerej. And, as for the rest, my
own mind is the father of its virginity, the author of its sweet and
its bitter. Yet I acknowledge withal that Badi' (God show him mercy) is
a mighty passer of goals, a worker of wonders; and that he who essays
after him to the composition of an Assembly, even though he be gifted
with the eloquence of Kodameh, does but scoop up of his overflow, and
travels that path only by his guidance. And excellently said one:
If before it mourned, I had mourned my love for Su'da, then should I
have healed my soul, nor had afterward to repent.
But it mourned before me, and its mourning excited mine, and I said,
"The superiority is to the one that is first."
Now I hope I shall not be, in respect of the playful style that
I display, and the source that I repair to, like the beast that
scratched up its death with its hoof, or he who cut off his nose with
his own hand; so as to be joined to those who are "most of all losers
in their works, whose course on earth has been in vain, while they
count that they have done fair deeds." Since I know that although
he who is intelligent and liberal will connive at me, and he who is
friendly and partial may defend me, I can hardly escape from the
simpleton who is ignorant, or the spiteful man who feigns ignorance;
who will detract from me on account of this composition, and will give
out that it is among the things forbidden of the law. But yet, whoever
scans matters with the eye of intelligence, and makes good his insight
into principles, will rank these Assemblies in the order of useful
writings, and class them with the fables that relate to brutes and
lifeless objects. Now none was ever heard of whose hearing shrank from
such tales, or who held as sinful those who related them at ordinary
times. Moreover, since deeds depend on intentions, and in these lies
the effectiveness of religious obligations, what fault is there in
one who composes stories for instruction, not for display, and whose
purpose in them is the education and not the fablings? Nay, is he not
in the position of one who assents to doctrine, and "guides to the
right path"?
Yet am I content if I may carry my caprice, and then be quit of it,
without any debt against me or to me.
And of God I seek to be helped in what I purpose, and to be kept from
that which makes defective, and to be led to that which leads aright.
For there is no refuge but to him, and no seeking of succor but in him,
and no prospering but from him, and no sanctuary but he. On him I rely,
and to him I have recourse.