|
|
|
|
83-2 - Noor
al-Deen Alee and the Damsel Anees al-Jalees
Noor Loses Everything
"Now
Noor al-Deen was scared of the consequences of all this, so he stayed in
his garden all day long and came back home only in the night to his
mother's apartment, slept there and again went away to the garden in the
morning. He did this for the whole two months without showing his face to
his parents. One day his mother said to his father - "Shall we lose
our son too along with the girl? If this will continue for a long time, he
will flee from us." "Then what to do?" "Just watch
tonight. When he comes, seize him, threaten him. I will rescue him from
you, you make peace with him and give him the girl as his wife, for she
also loves her as he loves her, and I will pay you her price.
So
when the night fell, the Vazeer kept watch over his son, and when he came
in, he seized him and knelt on his chest as if he would kill him. At the
same time his mother came and rescued him from his father - "What are
you going to do with him?" "I am going to split his
throat." The son asked his father - "Is my death so easy for
you?" At this, his father's eyes filled with tears, still he managed
to say - "O my son, How easy was to you the loss of my good and my
life?" The son asked his forgiveness and the father forgave his son.
Then
he asked his son - "If you make sure me that you will behave justly
with Anees, I will give her to you." Noor said - "What kind of
just behavior am I to do with her?" The Vazeer said - "You take
vow, that you will not take another wife, not sell her, not take any
concubine to share with her." "I do." Then Noor al-Deen went
to that girl and lived with her for a whole year, and during this time the
King forgot this matter of getting a maid for himself, and al-Mueen also could not dare to say anything
because the King favored al-Fazal.
One
day al-Fazal went to a public bath and when he came out of the bath, the
air struck him, he caught a cold which turned into fever and it took him to
his bed. He became very weak, so one day he called his son and said to him -
"O Son, There are many kinds of men and the means are distributed and
fixed, and the days are fixed for everybody, so everybody has to die. I
don't have to tell you anything else, except that you fear from Allaah and
look at you acts and bear in mind Anees." The son said - "O
Father, Who can be compared with you? You are famous for your well doing
and preachers offer prayers for you." And he died. The news of his
death reached the King. Everybody wept including the city. Noor did his
last rites.
After
his father's died, he mourned for him for a long time him, till one day
when he was sitting at home, a knock came on the door. He opened the door
and saw an intimate friend of his father. The visitor kissed Noor's hand
and said - "O Lord, Your father is not dead, he has gone only to the
Chief of the Ancients and the Moderns. Be comforted and leave sorrowing
for him." Noor took him to the guest room and offered him whatever he
needed. Then he collected all his friends and handmaids and started eating
drinking.
One
day his steward came to him and said - "My Lord, Have you heard that
who spends and does not earn, becomes poor and does not flourish. As you
are spending your wealth, it is going waste." Noor said - "I am
not going to listen to you. Know O steward, As long as you have enough
money for my breakfast, you should not worry about my supper." The
steward asked - "Must it be so?" Noor replied, "Yes, It
must be so." So the steward went away, and Noor continued to spend
his money lavishly. If any of his cup-companion would say, "This
thing is very nice." He would give it to him as a gift. This reckless
behavior continued for one full year.
One
day his friends and Anees were sitting with him that somebody knocked at
the door. Noor went to open the door and one of his boon-companions
followed him without being seen. Noor opened the door and he found his
steward. He asked him what was the matter? The steward said - "What I
feared for you has come to pass." "What?" "I don't
have any money in my hand. These are the register showing both income and
expenditure." Hearing this Noor's head bowed down and he said -
"As Allaah's wish."
Now
the man who followed him secretly came back to his friends and said to
them - "Be careful, what you do, Noor is penniless now." As Noor
came back the sadness was on his face. One his friends rose and asked for
his leave. He asked him, "Why so early today?" He replied - My
wife is in childbirth so I cannot be absent from my house for long. In
fact I must go and see how she is doing." Then rose another one, and
then rose another one, till all the ten friends had gone.
Then
he called his slave girl and asked her - "O Anees, Did you see my
case?" Then he told her what the Steward told him. Anees said -
"O Lord, For several days I have wanted to talk to you on this
matter, but when I heard you saying, "When the world pours favors on
you, pass them to your friends." I decided not to tell you
anything." He said - "O Anees, You know that I have not wasted
my money except on my friends, especially on these ten who have deserted
me without even comforting me." "By Allaah, They will not come to
your aid." He said - "I am going to them and will ask them
something so that I can start trading with that." And he ran away to
the street where all his ten friends lived.
He
went to the nearest friend and knocked his door. A handmaid opened the
door and asked him "Who are you?" Noor said - "Tell your
master that your friend Noor al-Deen stands at the door." She went
inside and came out to tell him that her master was not at home. Noor
thought, if this one has turned me away like this, another may prove
better, so he went his another friend, but his this friend also gave him
the same reply. Thus he went to all of his ten friends but none of them
opened his door to him. He said to himself, "When a tree is laden
with fruits, everybody comes to it, but when its all fruits are gone, people
leave it to suffer from dust and the Sun."
Then
he came back to his slave girl. His grieve grew more than before. Anees
said to him - "Didn't I tell you that none of will come to your
aid?" She said - "Now you sell some of the movable and immovable
household stuff, pots and pans and spend their proceeds until Allaah gives
you something substantial." So he sold everything which was in the
house, came back to Anees and asked her - "Now what shall I do?"
She answered - "Now it is my advice that you take me to the market
and sell me. Your father bought me for 10,000 Deenaars. Hopefully Allaah
will give the same price for me; and if it be His will we shall meet
again."
Noor
cried - "Oh Aness, I can't live without you even for one hour."
Anees replied - "By Allaah, nor it is easy for me, but Need
has its own law as some poet has said - "Need drives a man on crooked
roads and doubtful paths." So he took her to the market, while the
tears rolled down his cheeks like rain, and handed over her to the broker
and said - "O Haaj Hasan, Note her value before you cry for her
sale." He said - "O Lord Noor, Fundamentals are remembered. Is
it not that your father bought her for 10,000 Deenaars."
"Yes."
A
little later when all merchants had gathered in the marked he cried loud -
"Every round thing is not a walnut, and every long thing is not
a banana, not all reds are meats and not all whites are fat, nor every
brown thing is date. I have a pearl with me, at what sum shall I cry for
her?" One of them said - "4,500 Deenaars." So the broker
opened the door of the sale by crying out this sum to other traders.
Presently al-Mueen was passing from that side. He saw Noor al-Deen sitting
at one side. He thought to himself - "Why the son of Khaakaan is
sitting here? Has he come to buy any slave girl?" Then he saw the
broker crying for Anees, he understood that Noor is penniless and he has
come to sell Anees here. "How cool is this to my heart."
He
went to the broker and said - "I want this girl." The broker did
not dare to cross him so he said, "So be it." "What is the
bid for this girl?" "4,500 Deenaars." "4,500 is my bid
for this girl." When the merchants heard his bid, they did not dare
to bid another Dirham because of his fear. So al-Mueen asked him - "Why
are you standing here, go and offer 4,500 Dirhams for me and 500 for
you." The broker went to Noor and said "O Lord, Your slave is
going for nothing." "How?"
The
broker said - "We opened the bid at 4,500, but unfortunately al-Mueen
was passing from this side and as he saw the girl, she pleased him so he
got ready to buy her in 4,500 Dirhams and 500 for me. I am sure that he
has known that this girl belongs to you, and he would pay less price for
her. I know that it is injustice. He will give you a written order and
will tell his people to give you nothing. So as often you will go to him
to take your money, they will always ask you come tomorrow and when they
will be tired of you, they will ask you to show the check and when you
will show the check, they will tear it. Thus you will lose the girl as
well her
price."
He
asked him "Then how this matter should be managed?" The
broker said - "I give you one advice, if you will follow it, you
should be satisfied." "And what is that?" "When I am
standing in the middle of the market, you come to me, take the girl by her
hand and scold her and say to her, "I have kept my vow and brought
you here, because I swore to carry you from home to Bazaar and make
brokers cry you for sale." If you do this, perhaps this works and the
Vazeer and other people believe that you have not brought her to market,
but to discharge your debt." "Good idea."
Then
the broker returning to the market took the girl by hand and signed to the
Vazeer and said - "O Lord, Here is her owner." And Noor al-Deen
appeared there snatching the girl from the broker's hand and said to her -
"Shame on you. I brought you to Bazaar to discharge my debt. Now come
home and do not baffle me any more. Do I need your price, that I sell you?
Even the furniture will fetch me many times more money than I will get by
selling you."
When
al-Mueen saw this, he said to Noor al-Deen - "Do you have anything
left in your house to sell?" And the Vazeer was about to beat him
that the merchants saved him. Still Noor went to the Vazeer and he threw
him on the ground and the Vazeer fell upon the brick clay. Seeing the
condition of their Vazeer, his people wanted to kill Noor with their sword
but the merchants said - "He is the Vazeer, and he is the son of
Vazeer. May be sometime both will become friends, then you will lose the
favor of both, so do not come in between them." So they held their
hands. After beating the Vazeer, Noor took his maid and took her to his
house. The Vazeer also went away from there.
|
