Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/230

218 Eternal, the Absolute, for that He is the first, without beginning, and the last, without end. His two essences are this world and the next; and the abiding one of the two is the world to come.’ (Q.) ‘Thou sayst truly: but tell me, how knowest thou that one of God’s essences is this world and the other the world to come?’ (A.) ‘[I know this] because this world was created from nothingness and had not its being from any existing thing; wherefore its affair is referable to the first essence. Moreover, it is a commodity swift of ceasing, the works whereof call for requital, and this presumes the reproduction of that which passes away: so the next world is the second essence.’ (Q.) ‘How knowest thou that the world to come is the abiding one of the two states?’ (A.) ‘Because it is the stead of requital for deeds done in this world, prepared by the Eternal without cease.’ [sic] (Q.) ‘Who are the people of this world most to be praised for their practice?’ (A.) ‘Those who prefer their weal in the world to come to their weal in this world.’ (Q.) ‘And who is he that prefers his future to his present weal?’ (A.) ‘He who knows that he dwells in a perishing house, that he was created but to pass away and that, after passing away, he will be called to account; and indeed, were there in this world one abiding for ever, he would not prefer it to the next world.’ (Q.) ‘Can the future life subsist without the present?’ (A.) ‘He who hath no present life hath no future life: and indeed I liken the people of this world and the goal to which they fare to certain handicraftsmen, for whom an amir builds a narrow house and lodges them therein, commanding each of them to do a certain work and assigning to him a set term and appointing one to act as steward over them. Whoso doth the work appointed unto him, the steward brings him forth of that straitness; but whoso doth it not is punished.