Story 9

  One of the devotees of Mount Lebanon, whose piety was famed in the

Arab country and his miracles well known, entered the cathedral mosque

of Damascus and was performing his purificatory ablution on the edge

of a tank when his feet slipped and he fell into the reservoir but

saved himself with great trouble. After the congregation had

finished their prayers, one of his companions said: 'I have a

difficulty.' He asked: 'What is it?' He continued: 'I remember that

the sheikh walked on the surface of the African sea without his feet

getting wetted and today he nearly perished in this paltry water which

is not deeper than a man's stature. What reason is there in this?' The

sheikh drooped his head into the bosom of meditation and said after

a long pause: 'Hast thou not heard that the prince of the world,

Muhammad the chosen, upon whom be the benediction of Allah and

peace, has said: I have time with Allah during which no cherubim nor

inspired prophet is equal to me?' But he did not say that such was

always the case. The time alluded to was when Gabriel or Michael

inspired him whilst on other occasions he was satisfied with the

society of Hafsah and Zainab. The visions of the righteous one are

between brilliancy and obscurity.

        Thou showest thy countenance and then hidest it

        Enhancing thy value and augmenting our desire.

        I behold whom I love without an intervention.

        Then a trance befalls me; I lose the road;

        It kindles fire, then quenches it with a sprinkling shower.

        Wherefore thou seest me burning and drowning.