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6
387-411

  • The King, accompanied by the thirty Amírs, went out to hunt in the desert and mountain-land.
  • The monarch descried a caravan in the distance: he said to an Amír, “Go, man of weak judgement,
  • Go and ask that caravan at the custom-house from what city they are arriving.”
  • He went and asked and returned, saying, “From Rayy.” “Whither bound?” asked the King. He (the Amír) was unable (to reply). 390
  • (Then) he said to another (Amír), “Go, noble lord, and ask whither the caravan is bound.”
  • He went and returned and said, “For Yemen.” “Ha,” said the King, “what is their merchandise, O trusty one?”
  • He (the Amír) remained (silent) in perplexity. (Then) the King said to another Amír, “Go and inquire (what is) the merchandise of those people.”
  • He came back and said, “It is of every sort; the greater part consists of cups made in Rayy.”
  • He (the King) asked, “When did they set out from the city of Rayy?” The dull-witted Amír remained (silent) in perplexity. 395
  • So (it went on) till thirty Amírs and more (had been tested): (all were) feeble in judgement and deficient in (mental) power.
  • (Then) he said to the Amírs, “One day I put my Ayáz to the test separately,
  • Saying, ‘Inquire of the caravan (and find out) whence it comes.’ He went and asked all these questions (just) right.
  • Without instructions, without a hint (from me), he apprehended everything concerning them, point by point, without any uncertainty or doubt.”
  • Everything that was discovered by these thirty Amírs in thirty stages was completed by him (Ayáz) in one moment. 400
  • How the Amírs endeavoured to rebut that argument by the Necessitarian error and how the King answered them.
  • Then the Amírs said, “This is a branch (species) of His (God's) providential favours: it has nothing to do with (personal) effort.
  • The fair face of the moon is bestowed on it by God, the sweet scent of the rose is the gift of Fortune.”
  • “Nay,” said the Sultan, “that which proceeds from one's self is the product of (one's own) remissness and the income derived from (one's own) labour.
  • Otherwise, how should Adam have said unto God, ‘O our Lord, verily we have wronged ourselves’?
  • Surely he would have said, ‘This sin was from Fate: since it was destiny, what does our precaution avail?’ 405
  • Like Iblís, who said, ‘Thou hast led me astray: Thou hast broken the cup and art beating me.’”
  • Nay, (the Divine) destiny is a fact and the slave's (man's) exertion (of power) is a fact: beware, do not be blind of one eye, like the tatterdemalion Iblís.
  • We are left vacillating between two (alternative) actions: how should this vacillation be without (unaccompanied by) free-will?
  • How should he whose hands and feet are chained say, “Shall I do this or shall I do that?”
  • Can there ever be in my head such a dilemma as this, (namely), “Shall I walk on the sea or shall I fly aloft?” 410
  • (No); there is (only) this (kind of) vacillation, (namely), “Shall I go toMosul (for trade) or shall I go to Babylon for (the study of) magic?”