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is a great sin and the Almighty Lord hath forbidden it in His Book.’ ‘O my lord Noureddin,’ answered the gardener, ‘if thou forbear to drink only by reason of the sin, verily God (blessed and exalted be He!) is bountiful, mild, forgiving and compassionate and pardoneth the greatest sins. His mercy embraceth all things and be it upon the poet who says:
Be as thou wilt and banish dread and care, For God is bountiful and debonair;
So of two things, the doing hurt to men And giving God a partner, thou beware.’
Then said one of the sons of the merchants, ‘My life on thee, O my lord Noureddin, drink of this cup!’ And another conjured him by the oath of divorce and yet another stood before him, till he was ashamed and taking the cup from the gardener, drank a mouthful, but spat it out again, saying, ‘It is bitter.’ ‘O my lord Noureddin,’ said the gardener, ‘knowest thou not that the sweetest things, when taken by way of medicine, are bitter? Were this not bitter, it would lack of the [many] virtues it possesseth; amongst which are that it digesteth food and doth away care and anxiety and dispelleth vapours and clarifieth the blood and cleareth the complexion and enliveneth the body and hearteneth the poltroon and fortifieth the sexual power; but to name all its virtues would be tedious. Quoth one of the poets:
We’ll drink, for God His clemency encompasseth the soul On every side: I medicine my ailments with the bowl;
And nought (for well I know its sin) save God His saw, ‘Therein Are for the folk advantages,’[1] doth me thereto cajole.
Then he opened one of the cupboards there and taking
- ↑ “They will ask thee of wine and casting of lots; say, ‘In them both are great sin and advantages to mankind; but the sin of them both is greater than the advantage thereof.’”—Koran ii. 216.
