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he saw in a dream one who said to him, ‘In such a place near to thee is a pious man: go to him and be at his command.’ So when it was day, he set out afoot to go thither, and at the time when the heat was grievous upon him, he came to a tree, which grew beside a spring of running water. He sat down to rest in the shadow of the tree, and birds and beasts came to the spring to drink; but when they saw him, they took fright and fled. Then said he, ‘There is no power and no virtue save in God the Most High! I am resting here, to the hurt of the beasts and fowls.’ So he rose and went on, blaming himself and saying, ‘My tarrying here hath wronged these beasts and birds, and what excuse have I towards my Creator and the Creator of these creatures, for that I was the cause of their flight from their watering-place and their pasture? Alas, my confusion before my Lord on the day when He shall avenge the sheep of the goats!’ And he wept and repeated the following verses:
By Allah, if men knew for what they are create, They would not go and sleep, unheeding of their fate!
Soon cometh death, then wake and resurrection come; Then judgment and reproof and terrors passing great.
Obey me or command, the most of us are like The dwellers in the cave,[1] asleep early and late.
Then he fared on, weeping for that he had driven the birds and beasts from the spring by sitting down under the tree, till he came to the shepherd’s dwelling and going in, saluted him. The shepherd returned his greeting and embraced him, weeping and saying, ‘What brings thee hither, where no man hath ever come in to me?’ Quoth the other, ‘I saw in my sleep one who described to me this thy stead and bade me repair to thee and salute thee: so I came, in obedience to the commandment.’ The shepherd welcomed him, rejoicing
- ↑ i.e. The Seven Sleepers.
