(CALLED "OF DAMASCUS")[27]
Al Harith, son of Hammam, related: I journeyed from Irak to the Ghutah;
and then was I master of haltered steeds and envied wealth. Freedom
of arm called me to diversion, fulness of store led me to pride. And
when I had reached the place after toil of soul, after making lean my
camel, I found it such as tongues describe it; and in it was whatever
souls long for or eyes delight in. So I thanked the bounty of travel
and ran a heat with pleasure: and began there to break the seals of
desires and gather the clusters of delights, until some travelers were
making ready for the journey to Irak, and I had so recovered from
my drowning, that regret visited me in calling to mind my home and
longing after my fold. Then I struck the tents of exile and saddled
the steeds of return. And when the company had equipped themselves and
agreement was completed, we shrank from setting forth without taking
with us a guard. And we sought one from every tribe and used a thousand
devices to obtain him. But to find him in the clans failed, so that we
thought he was not among the living. And for the want of such a one the
resolves of the travelers were bewildered, and they assembled at the
gate of Jayrun to take counsel. And they ceased not tying and untying,
and plaiting and twining, until suggestion was exhausted and the hoper
despaired. But opposite them was a person whose demeanor was as the
demeanor of the youthful, and his garb as the garb of monks, and in his
hand was the rosary of women, and in his eyes the mark of giddiness
from watchings. And he had fastened his gaze on the assemblage and
sharpened his ear to steal a hearing. And when it was the time of their
turning homeward and their secret was manifest to him, he said to them,
"O people, let your care relieve itself, let your mind be tranquil;
for I will guard you with that which shall put off your fear and show
itself in accord with you." Said the narrator: Then we asked him to
show us concerning his safe conduct, and promised him a higher wage for
it than for an embassy. And he declared it to be some words which he
had been taught in a dream, whereby to guard himself from the malice
of mankind. Then began one to steal a look at another, and to move his
eyes between glances sideward and downward. So that it was plain to him
that we thought meanly of his story, and conceived it to be futile.
Whereupon he said, How is it that ye take my earnest for jest, and
treat my gold as dross? Now, by Allah, oft have I gone through fearful
tracts and entered among deadly dangers: and with this I have needed
not the companying of a guard or to take with me a quiver. Besides, I
will remove what gives you doubt, I will draw away the distrust that
has come on you, in that I will consent with you in the desert and
accompany you on the Semaweh. Then, if my promise has spoken you true,
do ye renew my weal and prosper my fortune: but if my mouth has lied to
you, then rend my skin and pour out my blood.
Said Al Harith, son of Hammam: Then we were inspired to believe
his vision and take as true what he had related; so we ceased from
disputing with him and cast lots for carrying him. And at his word we
cut the loops of hindrance, and put away fear of harm or stay; and
when the pack-saddles were fastened on and the setting forth was near,
we sought to learn from him the magic words that we might make them a
lasting safeguard. He said: "Let each of you repeat the Mother of the
Koran as often as day or night comes on; then let him say with lowly
tongue and humble voice: O God! O thou who givest life to the moldering
dead! O thou who avertest harms! O thou who guardest from terrors! O
thou generous in rewarding! O thou the refuge of suppliants! O thou the
Lord of pardon and protection! Send thy blessing on Mohammed, the Seal
of thy prophets, the Bringer of thy messages, and on the Lights of his
kindred, the Keys of his victory; and give me refuge, O God, from the
mischiefs of devils and the assaults of princes; from the vexing of the
wrongers, and from suffering through the tyrannous; from the enmity
of transgressors, and from the transgression of enemies; from the
conquest of conquerors, from the spoiling of spoilers, from the crafts
of the crafty, from the treacheries of the treacherous; and deliver
me, O God, from the wrongfulness of neighbors and the neighborhood
of the wrongful; and keep from me the hands of the harmful; bring me
forth from the darkness of the oppressors; place me by thy mercy among
thy servants who do aright. O God, keep me in my own land and in my
journeying, in my exile and my coming homeward, in my foraging and
my return from it, in my trafficking and my success from it, in my
adventuring and my withdrawing from it. And guard me in myself and my
property, in my honor and my goods, in my family and my means, in my
household and my dwelling, in my strength and my fortune, in my riches
and my death. Bring not on me reverse; make not the invader lord over
me, but give me from thyself helping power. O God, watch over me with
thy eye and thy aid, distinguish me by thy safeguard and thy bounty,
befriend me with thy election and thy good, and consign me not to
the keeping of any but thee. But grant to me health that weareth not
away, and allot to me comfort that perisheth not; and free me from the
terrors of misfortune, and shelter me with the coverings of thy boons;
make not the talons of enemies to prevail against me, for thou art he
that heareth prayer."
Then he looked down, and he turned not a glance, he answered not a
word: so that we said, "A fear has confounded him or a stupor struck
him dumb." Then he raised his head and drew his breath, and said, "I
swear by the heaven with its constellations, and the earth with its
plains, and the pouring flood, and the blazing sun, and the sounding
sea, and the wind and the dust-storm, that this is the most sure of
charms, one that will best suffice you for the wearers of the helmet.
He who repeats it at the smiling of the dawn has no alarm of danger to
the red of eve; and he who whispers it to the vanguard of the dark is
safe the night long from plunder."
Said the narrator: So we learned it till we knew it thoroughly, and
rehearsed it together that we might not forget it. Then we set forth,
urging the beasts by prayers, not by the song of drivers; and guarding
the loads by words, not by warriors. And our companion frequented us
evening and morning, but required not of us our promises: till when
we spied the house-tops of 'Anah, he said to us, "Now, your help,
your help!" Then we set before him the exposed and the hidden, and
showed him the corded and the sealed, and said to him, "Decide as thou
wilt, for thou wilt find among us none but will consent." But nothing
enlivened him but the light, the adorning; nothing was comely in his
eye but the coin. So of those he loaded on his burden, and rose up
with enough to repair his poverty. Then he dodged us as dodges the
cut-purse, and slipped away from us as slips quicksilver. And his
departure saddened us, his shooting away astonished us: and we ceased
not to seek him in every assembly, and to ask news of him from each
that might mislead or guide. Until it was said, "Since he entered
'Anah he has not quitted the tavern." Then the foulness of this report
set me on to test it, and to walk in a path to which I belonged not.
So I went by night to the wine-hall in disguised habit; and there was
the old man in a gay-colored dress amid casks and wine-vats; and about
him were cup-bearers surpassing in beauty, and lights that glittered,
and the myrtle and the jasmine, and the pipe and the lute. And at one
time he bade broach the wine-casks, and at another he called the lutes
to give utterance; and now he inhaled the perfumes, and now he courted
the gazelles. But when I had thus stumbled on his hypocrisy, and the
differing of his to-day from his yesterday, I said to him, Woe to thee,
accursed! hast thou forgotten the day at the Jayrun? But he laughed
heartily, and then indited charmingly:
I cling to journeying, I cross deserts, I loathe pride that I may cull
joy:
And I plunge into floods, and tame steeds that I may draw the trains
of pleasure and delight.
And I throw away staidness, and sell my land, for the sipping of wine,
for the quaffing of cups.
And were it not for longing after the drinking of wine my mouth would
not utter its elegancies;
Nor would my craft have lured the travelers to the land of Irak,
through my carrying of rosaries.
Now be not angry, nor cry aloud, nor chide, for my excuse is plain:
And wonder not at an old man who settles himself in a well-filled
house by a wine-cask that is brimming.
For truly wine strengthens the bones and heals sickness and drives
away grief.
And the purest of joy is when the grave man throws off the veils of
shame and flings them aside:
And the sweetest of passion is when the love-crazed ceases from the
concealing of his love, and shows it openly.
Then avow thy love and cool thy heart: or else the fire-staff of thy
grief will rub a spark on it;
And heal thy wounds, and draw out thy cares by the daughter of the
vine, her the desired:
And assign to thy evening draught a cup-bearer who will stir the
torment of desire when she gazes;
And a singer who will raise such a voice that the mountains of iron
shall thrill at it when she chants.
And rebel against the adviser who will not permit thee to approach a
beauty when she consents.
And range in thy cunning even to perverseness; and care not what is
said of thee, and catch what suits thee:
And leave thy father if he refuse thee, and spread thy nets and hunt
who comes by thee.
But be sincere with thy friend, and avoid the niggardly, and bestow
kindness, and be constant in gifts;
And take refuge in repentance before thy departure; for whoso knocks
at the door of the Merciful causes it to open.
Then I said to him, "O rare thy recitation, but fie on thy misconduct!
Now, by Allah, tell me from what thicket is thy root, for thy puzzle
vexes me." He said I love not to disclose myself; yet I will intimate
it: