Original content

English translation

In Medina there was a learned man, devout in practice and accomplished in all the religious sciences. One day his path fell upon the slave market, where he saw a singing slave-girl whose beauty of voice put Venus to shame and whose beauty of face bewildered the sun; he became enamored of her beauty and captivated by her tresses and beauty-spot. From hearing her singing he carried the baggage of his existence off to the desert of non-being, and by listening to her melody he passed from the narrow strait of reason onto the open road of the abode of self-effacement. The beauty of face and the beauty of voice— each one alone carries away the heart; when both are gathered in a single place, the affair of the wise-hearted becomes hard. He cast off the garment of wisdom and put on the sackcloth of disgrace, and, with his reins flung loose, he wandered shameless through the streets and bazaar of Medina. His friends rose up to reproach him, but it was of no use; the tongue of his state spoke these words and chanted this song: In such a way does that heart-ravishing one display herself— how can the lover guard himself against affliction? The blame of others is but wind in my ear, yet a wind that makes my fire burn fiercer. They recounted this tale to Abdullah ibn Ja'far (may God be pleased with him). He summoned the owner of the slave-girl and bought her for forty thousand dirhams, and commanded her to sing in the very voice by which that learned man had been ensnared. He asked, 'From whom did you learn this?' She said, 'From such-and-such a singing-woman.' He summoned her as well. After that he called for the learned man and said, 'Do you wish to hear the voice with which you are infatuated from the slave-girl's teacher?' He said, 'Yes.' He commanded that singing-woman to sing it. The learned man fell senseless, so that they supposed he had died. Abdullah ibn Ja'far said, 'You saw that we have fallen into sin by killing this man.' After that he ordered water to be sprinkled on his face, and he came back to himself. He said to him, 'We had not known that you had reached such a degree in your love for that slave-girl.' He said, 'By God, what is hidden is more than what has become apparent.' He asked, 'Do you wish to hear this voice from that slave-girl herself?' He said, 'You saw what befell me when I heard it from another whom I do not love; what then would my state be if I heard it from the lips and mouth of my own beloved!' He asked, 'If you saw her, would you recognize her?' He wept and said: You asked, 'Do you know who bore away your heart and faith?' By God, in all the horizons I know none but her. He ordered the slave-girl to be brought out and handed over to him, and said, 'She is yours; by God, I have not looked upon her save with the corner of my eye.' The learned man fell at Abdullah ibn Ja'far's hands and feet and said: By your generosity you have restored my honor to its place, and from the waves of separation you have brought me to the shore; you have brought patience back to my grief-wounded heart, and brought sleep once more to my two tear-raining eyes. Then he took the slave-girl's hand and set off for his own home. Abdullah ordered a servant, 'Take another forty thousand dirhams and carry it along with them, so that no dust of worry over livelihood may settle on their minds, and they may, with an untroubled heart, take delight in one another.'