Page:Muhammad Diyab al-Itlidi - Historical Tales and Anecdotes of the Time of the Early Khalîfahs - Alice Frere - 1873.djvu/284

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the Almighty dwells. The first heaven is of water, solid and hard like ice. The second of green emeralds. The third of brass. The fourth of silver. The fifth of gold. The sixth of fine steel. The seventh of red rubies. Then comes el-ʾArsh, of which no one knows aught save God alone. But of so vast an extent is it, that, were the world and the seven heavens united and laid therein, they would appear but as a scribe's seal set in the midst of the desert. The individual alluded to in the tale was Saʾad, one of the Associates, a man of extraordinary piety, as the supposed effect of his death shows. According to Muhammadan faith, when a corpse is laid in the grave, the sides of the tomb contract and crush the body: with good persons, only "like a mother pressing her child to her bosom," but in the case of sinners with such force as to drive the ribs through the opposite side of the body. When the surviving Associates found out the effect caused in el-ʾArsh by the death of Saʾad, they said to the Prophet, "Surely the tomb will not contract upon him;" but the Prophet told them it would, and it did. And the only person who has ever escaped this torture was Fâtimah, daughter of el-Asad and mother of the Khalîfah ʾAly, into whose tomb the Prophet descended, and in which he slept the night before her burial.

5, 6 I cannot discover anything further concerning these heroes.

⁷ The Kaʾabah at Mekkah. See Note *, p. 69.

⁸ A road between two hills called Sáfah and Merwah, within the city of Mekkah. One of the rites observed by pilgrims consists in traversing this road seven times, and invoking blessings upon themselves, their families, and friends the while.

⁹ The holy well at Mekkah. Muhammadans are persuaded that this is the very spring which appeared miraculously in the desert for the relief of Ismael when he and his mother were cast out by Abraham. It is drank with particular devotion by the pilgrims, and sent, in bottles to all parts of the Muslim dominions. According to a tradition derived through the Khalîfah ʾOmar-ibn-el-Khattâb from the Prophet, the water 