Prevod

It is also told that al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi was seeking a man of high standing. When the man was brought before him, he said, “Enemy of God! God has delivered you into my hands.” Then he said, “Take him to prison, bind him in tight, heavy fetters, and build a cell around him from which he cannot leave and into which no one may enter.” So the man was taken to prison, and a blacksmith was summoned with the fetters. Whenever the blacksmith struck with his hammer, the man raised his head, looked up to heaven, and said, “Surely His are creation and command.” When the smith had finished, the jailer built the cell around the prisoner and left him there utterly alone. Anguish and bewilderment overcame him, and his plight seemed to find voice in these verses:

O Goal of all who seek, You are my goal; On Your all-embracing bounty I rely. Nothing of what I suffer is hidden from You; One glance from You is all I seek and crave. They have imprisoned me and sorely tried me; Alas for my soul, so far from home, alone! Though I am solitary, Your remembrance is my solace, My companion when sleep is denied me. If You are pleased, then nothing else concerns me; You know all that You behold within my heart. When night fell, the jailer left his guards at their posts and went home. In the morning he returned to inspect the prisoner, only to find the fetters cast aside and no trace of the man. Terrified and certain that he would be put to death, the jailer went home, bade his family farewell, tucked his shroud and burial spices into his sleeve, and entered al-Hajjaj’s presence. As he stood before him, al-Hajjaj caught the scent of the burial spices and asked, “What is this?” “My lord,” he replied, “I brought them with me.” “What made you do that?” he asked. So the jailer told him what had happened to the prisoner. And dawn overtook Shahrazad, and she ceased her permitted tale.

When it was the four hundred and seventy-first night

She said: It has reached me, O fortunate King, that when the jailer told al-Hajjaj what had happened to the prisoner, al-Hajjaj said to him, “Woe to you! Did you hear him say anything?” “Yes,” he replied. “Whenever the blacksmith struck with his hammer, he would look up to heaven and say, ‘Surely His are creation and command.’” Al-Hajjaj said, “Did you not know that He whom the man invoked while you were present released him while you were absent?” And the spirit of this tale found expression in these verses:

O Lord, how many afflictions You have lifted from me! Without You, I could neither sit nor stand. How many troubles, far beyond my counting, You have saved me from—how many, how many, how many!