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KHELIFEH THE FISHERMAN OF BAGHDAD.
There was once, of old days and in bygone ages and times, in the city of Baghdad, a fisherman called Khelifeh, a very poor man, who had never been married. It chanced, one day, that he took his net and went forth, according to his wont, to fish before the others came. When he reached the river, he girt himself and tucked up his skirts; then, stepping into the water, he spread his net and cast it once and again, but brought up nothing. He ceased not to throw it, till he had made ten casts, and still nothing came up in it; wherefore his breast was straitened and his mind perplexed concerning his case and he said, ‘I crave pardon of God the Great, there is no god but He, the Living, the Eternal, and I repent unto Him. There is no power and no virtue save in God, the Most High, the Supreme! What He wills, is, and what He wills not, is not! Upon God (to whom belong might and majesty) dependeth provision! When He giveth to a creature, none denieth him, and when He denieth a creature, none giveth to him.’ And of the excess of his chagrin, he recited the following couplet:
If Fate with a calamity afflict thee, thou wert best Meet it with patience and oppose thereto an open breast;
For God, the Lord of all that be, shall, of His power and grace, Cause ease to follow after stress, and after travail, rest.
Then he sat awhile, with his head bowed down, pondering his case, and recited these verses also:
I rede thee, the sweet and the bitter of fortune with fortitude bear, And know, whatsoever betideth, that God of His purpose fails ne’er.
