Thousand & One Nights:206th Night: Anis al Jalis, The Slave Girl - 6

The following night Shahrazad said:

I heard, O happy King, the young man who had thrown him down was his father, who then knelt on his breast and pulled out a knife as if to cut his throat.  At that moment the vizier's wife came up from behind and said, "What do you want to do with him?"

He replied, I want to kill him."
Nur al-Din asked, "My lord, do you find it so easy to kill me?" His father looked at him and, as the divine power moved him and his eyes filled with tears, he said, "Son, do you find it so easy to make me lose my life and my possessions?"

"O my lord, the poet says:
Pardon my crimes, for mighty judge
Is used to mercy some offenders.
I stand before you, guilty of all sins 
The ways of grace and mercy you
Know. He who seeks forgiveness 
Shall enjoy the fruits of forgiveness.

When he heard this, the vizier was overcome by compassion for his son.  Nur al-Din kissed his father's hands and feet, and his father said to him, "O Nur al-Din if I knew that you would treat Anis al Jalis fairly, I would give her to you."  Nur al-Din asked, "My lord, how would you wish
me to treat her?"

His father replied, "Do not take an additional wife, or abuse her, or sell her."

Nur al-Din replied, "My lord, I swear to you, that I will do none of these."  Then he went to al Jalis and for a whole year lived with her a happy life.
The king forgot the affair of the slave girl.

One day, at the end of the year, Fadl al-Din ibn-Khaqan went to the bath, and coming out, still in perspiration, caught a chill, became feverish, and took to his bed.  It got worse, and he was sleepless, restless and feverish.
He called his son, and when the son came, he wept, and said, "O my son, the fortune is allotted, life is allocated, and every one must die. The poet says:
I am mortal and know I must die
Glory to the eternal Nothingness.
My son I have no charge to give you, look after your mother and Anis al Jalis."

Nur al-Din said, "O my father, who can be like you. You are known for your good deeds."
His father said, "I pray for God's acceptance." Then his death throes began, and when he was gone, cries of the women filled the palace. The king received the news, and the subjects received the news, and all received the news.

The poet mourned:
On Thursday I left my dear and near 
They placed me on wooden slab,
Stripped me of the clothrs, washed 
The body that was I, put on me final
Clothes, carried me to the mosque 
And they swarmed around me, and 
They took me to the vaulted hut, 
Whose door is shut to Endless end.
After his father was buried, Nur al-Din returned with his family and friends in mourning.

Everybody departed after the mourning, Nur al-Din, continued to mourn his father for a long time.

But morning overtook and Shahrazad lapsed into silence.





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