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Allah, I desired thee, whilst thou was yet in the ship, and now I have come at thee. So yield thyself to me, or I will throw thee into the sea.’ ‘Out on thee!’ cried I. ‘Hast thou no thought of that which thou hast seen, and is it no warning to thee?’ Quoth he, ‘I have seen the like of this many a time and come off safe and reck not.’ ‘O fellow,’ rejoined I, ‘we are now in a strait whence we hope to be delivered by obedience and not by disobedience [of God’s commandments].’ But he was instant with me, and I feared him and thought to put him off; so I said to him, ‘Wait till the child sleeps.’ And he took the child off my lap and threw him into the sea. When I saw this, my heart throbbed and anguish was sore upon me; but I raised my eyes to heaven and said, ‘O Thou that intervenest between a man and his heart, intervene between me and this wild beast!’ And by Allah, hardly had I spoken when a beast rose out of the sea and snatched him off the plank. When I found myself alone, my affliction redoubled and my grief and longing for my child, and I recited the following verses:
The solace of my eyes, my child, my dear, Is lost, and I am racked with pain and fear;
I see my body wrecked, and all my heart On coals of love and dole is wasting sheer.
No help is there for me in this my need, Save at Thy hands on whom my hope I rear.
Thou, O my Lord, hast seen my sore distress, For loss of him, my child, my suckling dear.
Take ruth on us and give him back to me! Thou art my stay: incline to me Thine ear.
In this condition I abode a day and a night, and on the morrow I caught sight of the sails of a ship shining afar off, nor did the winds cease to drive me and the waves to bear me on, till I reached the vessel whose sails I had seen. The sailors took me up into the ship, and
