Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 9.djvu/177

153 cometh it that I find thee silent and speaking not? Art thou unheeding or asleep? Awake; succour me and speak to me!’ And he shook it with his hand; but it spoke not neither stirred from its stead.

Quoth the stranger, ‘What aileth thine idol that it speaketh not?’ And the king replied, ‘Methinks he is unheeding or asleep.’ ‘O enemy of God,’ exclaimed the other, ‘how canst thou worship a god that speaketh not nor availeth unto aught and not worship my God, who is a speedy answerer of prayer and who is ever present and never absent, never unheeding nor sleeping, whom conjecture may not apprehend, who seeth and is not seen and who is able unto all things? Thy god is powerless and cannot ward off hurt from itself; and indeed an accursed devil hath clothed himself therewith as with a garment, that he might lead thee astray and delude thee. But now hath its devil departed; so do thou worship God and testify that there is no god but He and that none is worshipful nor worshipworth save He, nor is there any good but His good. As for thy god, he cannot ward off hurt from himself; so how shall he ward it from thee? See with thine own eyes his impotence.’

So saying, he went up to the idol and dealt him a buffet on the neck, that he fell to the ground; whereupon the king waxed wroth and said to the bystanders, ‘This heretic hath smitten my god. Slay him!’ So they would have arisen to smite him, but none of them could avail to stir from his place. Then he propounded Islam to them; but they refused to become Muslims and he said, ‘I will show you the wrath of my Lord.’ Quoth they, ‘Let us see it.’ So he spread out his hands and said, ‘O my God and my Lord, Thou art my stay and my hope; answer Thou my prayer against these froward folk, who eat of Thy bounty and worship other than Thee. O Thou the Truth, O Almighty One, O Creator of Night and Day,