Khaled quotes

The stature and proportions of Asrael are so great that his eyes are seventy thousand days’ journey apart, the one from the other.

Khaled stood motionless during ten months and thirteen days, waiting until Asrael should rest from his writing and look towards him.

Then came the holy night called Al Kadr, the night of peace in which the Koran came down from heaven. Asrael paused, and raising his eyes from the scroll saw Khaled standing before him.

“Take this sword, which is of such fine temper that it will cleave through an iron headpiece and a shirt of mail. But remember that it is not a sword made by magic.

Let thy magic reside in thy arm, wield it for the faith, and put thy trust in Allah.

”

“I come,” said Khaled boldly, “to ask your daughter Zehowah in marriage. I bring no gifts, for I have none to offer, nor have I any inheritance.

My mare is my fortune, my sword is my argument and my wit is in my arm.

”

“And what if I refuse even to consider your proposal?” inquired the Sultan, to see what he would say.

“If it is the will of Allah that I marry your daughter, your refusal would be useless, but if it is not his will, your refusal would be altogether unnecessary.”

The Sultan was much struck by this argument which showed a ready wit in the stranger and which he could only have opposed by asserting that his own will was superior to that of heaven itself.

Zehowah looked up and smiled carelessly as though answering his question, but

Khaled was obliged to admit in his heart that the answer lacked clearness, for he found it no easier to interpret a woman’s smile than men had found it before him, and have found it since, even to this day.

“You have had many suitors,” he said at last, “and it is said that your father has given you your own free choice, allowing you to see them and hear them speak while he was receiving them.

When the enemy saw a single man riding towards them across the great square before the palace, they sent up a shout of derision, and turned again to the slaughter of such of the inhabitants as could not extricate themselves.

“Shall one man stop an army?” they said. “Shall a fox turn back a herd of hyenas?”

But when Khaled was among them they found less matter for laughter. For the sword was keen, the mare was swift to double and turn, and Khaled’s hand was strong.

“Nay, but you must rest before going upon this expedition,” objected the Sultan.

“The true believer will find rest in the grave, and feasting in paradise,” answered Khaled.

“This is true. But even the camel must eat and drink on the journey, or both he and his master will perish.”

The others saw their folly and were silent and drew back, but Khaled only smiled.

“As good mares are bred in the stable as in the desert,” he said

, and the women laughed with him at the jest, for they saw that it pleased him.

Almasta nodded, and Khaled could see that her lips trembled.

“A dead man has no companions,” said the Sultan, looking at Khaled to see what he would do.

But Khaled cared little, and said nothing.

“How shall I be satisfied until I have kindled the light in Zehowah’s eyes at my coming, and until I feel that her hand is cold and trembles when I take it in mine?”

“Do I say to my eyes, ‘be dull’⁠—or to my hand, ‘do not tremble’?”

Zehowah asked. “Is this, which you ask of me, something I can command at will, as I can a smile or a word? If it is, teach me and I will learn. But if not, why do you expect of me what I cannot do?

“Can you make gold grow in the purse of a beggar? Or can you cause a ghada bush to bear dates by reasoning with it?

Your heart is a palm tree, but mine is a ghada bush.

”

But though he searched the desert many months he was never able to find the garden again.

Wherefore it is said that Abdullah ibn Kelabah lost the earthly paradise of Irem for a mouthful of onion.

”

Or is it a stick to purify the hides of fools? The fool will die also, like his master, and both will be forgotten. But they who love shall enter the seventh heaven together, according to the promise of Allah.

Death is stronger than man or woman, but love is stronger than death, and all else is but a vision seen in the desert, having no reality.

”

“Am I more dear to you than so much gold, Zehowah?”

“What is gold that it should be weighed in the balance with the life of a man? You are dearer to me than gold.”

“Is this love, Zehowah?” Khaled asked, in a low voice.

“

The wing of night is lifted for a moment, and the false dawn is seen, and afterwards it is night again.

But the true dawn will come by and by, when night folds her wings before the day.”

When the men heard these words, they looked stealthily one at another, to see who would answer Khaled, for they had all heard the story and most of them were inclined to believe it.

Peace is the mother of evil-speaking, as garbage breeds flies in a corner, which afterwards fly into clean houses and men ask whence they come.

But none of the chief men found anything to say at first, so that Khaled sat in silence a long time, waiting for someone to speak. He therefore turned to the one nearest to him, and addressed him.

“Truly,” he said to himself, “this is a task beyond accomplishment, which Allah has laid upon me.

It is harder to get a woman’s love than to win kingdoms, and it is easier to destroy a whole army with one stroke of a sword than to make a woman believe that which she does not desire.

And now the end is at hand. For she will never love me and I shall certainly perish in this fight, being alone against so many. Allah assuredly did not intend me to run away, and moreover there is no reason left for remaining alive.”

“

Neither is truth sweet after flattery,

” said the Sheikh, who then began to eat the other onion himself.

“

It is not easy to kindle a lamp when the rain is falling heavily,

” Zehowah said. “Your sadness has taken hold of me, like the chill of a fever. I cannot laugh tonight.”

Many words rose to his lips then, and he wished that he also had the science of music that he might sing sweetly to her. Then he laughed aloud at his own imagination, which was indeed that of a foolish youth.

“The lion roaring for a sweetmeat,” he thought, “and the sword-hand aching to scratch little tunes upon a lute!”

Zehowah turned suddenly when he laughed, and ceased from playing.