Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 099.djvu/97



is related that there was in the time of Haroun ar-Raschid, a cadi named Mohammed bin Mokatil, who was celehrated for his learning and good breeding, and well skilled in divinity and jurisprudence.

And on a certain night he was reading on his couch, and he read till he alighted on the surat in which the Prophet (The blessing and peace of Allah be upon him) saith, "Most acceptable is prayer in the green places and in the gardens." And the cadi said in his soul, "It will not be proper unless in this very night I mount my mule and ride to my garden, and pray in it." And the distance between him and the garden was a league.

And the cadi arose and put on his clothes, and mounted his mule, and set out. And as he was on the road, behold a robber shouted out to him and said, "Halt in thy place."

And the cadi stopped, and lo! a man who was a thief and a highwayman; and he called to the cadi with a loud voice to terrify him. And the cadi said, "Art thou not ashamed before me, and I a cadi of the Mussulmans?"

And the robber replied, "Are not you afraid of me, and I a robber of the Mussulmans? Oh, wonderful cadi! wherefore have you come forth alone clothed in this rich apparel, and mounted on such a beautiful mule, and have set out on the road without a companion? This arises from your small sense and great ignorance."

And the cadi said, "Wullahy! I thought that certainly the dawn approached."

And the robber answered, "This is wonderful again; how can you be a cadi and not know the hours of the night-watches, nor the constellations, nor the planets, nor the position of the moon, and have no knowledge of the stars?"

And the cadi replied, "Have you not heard the saying of the Prophet, 'Whoso believeth in the stars is an infidel?'"

And the robber answered, "The Prophet hath spoken truly; but as for you, oh cadi, you have taken one saying of the Prophet, and have omitted the words of the most high Allah in his holy book, "Verily we have placed the stars in the heavens, and adorned them before the eyes of the beholders.' And in another verse, 'And signs, and they have believed in the Pleiades.' And again, 'We have placed the stars for you to guide you in the darkness both by land and by sea.' In short, there are other well-known passages respecting the knowledge of this science, and you pretend to be a cadi of the Mussulmans, and do not know the hours of prayer! Cease to display your ignorance, nor with your small wit attempt to dispute with me, but dismount from your mule, strip off your garments, and cut short your discourse, for I am in a hurry."