Original content

English translation

Al-Asma'i says: I was acquainted with a generous man to whose door I would always go in expectation of his bounty and beneficence. Once I came to his door and found that he had stationed a doorkeeper, who forbade me from entering to him. Then the doorkeeper said: O Asma'i! The reason he has forbidden me to let you in to him is the destitution and poverty that has befallen him. I wrote this couplet: 'When the generous man keeps a veil [barrier before him], what then is the merit of the generous over the base?' And I gave it to that doorkeeper to deliver it to him. When the doorkeeper returned and brought back the note, there was written on the back of it: 'When the generous man is short of wealth, he screens himself with a veil from the creditor.' And along with the note was a purse of five hundred dinars in it. I said to myself: never has a tale stranger than this passed by me; I shall make it a gift for the assembly of Ma'mun. I went to him. He said: From where do you come, O Asma'i? I said: From the most generous of all the living Arabs. He asked: Who is that? I said: A man who has given me a share of his knowledge and his wealth; and I laid that note and purse before him on the ground. When he saw the purse his color changed, and he said: This bears the seal of my treasury; I wish to summon that person. I said: O Commander of the Faithful, by God I am ashamed lest, on account of some of your officers, some fear should enter his heart. Ma'mun told one of his intimates: Go with Asma'i, and when you see that man, say to him, the Commander of the Faithful summons you—without any alarm reaching his heart. When that man was brought into the presence, Ma'mun said to him: Are you not the person who came to us yesterday and expressed poverty and need? We gave you this purse to spend on your livelihood, yet you gave it away for a single couplet of verse that Asma'i sent to you. He said: By God, I did not lie in the poverty and need I expressed yesterday, but I did not wish to send back his messenger empty, except in the manner that the Commander of the Faithful has sent me back. Then he commanded that a thousand dinars be given to him. Asma'i said: O Commander of the Faithful, include me too with him in this gift. He commanded that a thousand be completed for Asma'i as well, and he made that man one of his intimate companions. When the palm of the generous man is left without a coin, count it, out of destitution, should he close his door; yet his closing of the entrance is only such as one who ties shut the mouth of a purse of coins.