138
ʾILÂM-EN-NÂS.
My heart beholds thee in thy distant land;
Does thy heart likewise see me from afar?
My soul and my eye yearn after thee;
With thee is my spirit, thy memory with me.
Even were I in the eternity of Paradise or Heaven,
Pleasureless would be life till again I beheld thee.
The narrator continues: Then I cried to him, "O son of my brother! repent of thy sin, and return unto thy Lord, for verily the terrors of the Judgment Day await thee."[1]
But he exclaimed, "Get thee hence! I shall not know fear until the Kárazhan returns."[2]
Nevertheless, I did not cease importuning him until the morning star rose, when I said, "Let us to the Ahzâb mosque."[3]
- ↑ He feared for the young man on account of the blasphemy contained in the two last lines of his verses.
- ↑ A man of the tribe of the el-Anêzah went to gather the fruit, called Káraz, of an acacia, and never returned ; whence the proverb, "Till the return of the Kárazhan."
- ↑ The Ahzâb mosque lies without the city of el-Medînah. There it is said the Prophet prayed for three days during the Battle of the Ditch (A.H. 5), the last fought with the infidel Kuraish under Abu-Sufyân. After this three days' prayer, say some of the Arab writers, God sent a piercing cold east wind, which benumbed the limbs of the infidels, blew dust in their eyes, overturned their tents, put their horses in disorder, and gave the victory to the Muslims. The Prophet's prayer therefore, having been granted, Muslims believe that no petition raised at the Ahzâb mosque is neglected by Allâh.
