Week 4: Stories of Sufi Saints

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Al-Fozail ibn Iyaz, cont.

Reading time: 2 minutes. Word count: 400 words.

These stories show something of Fozail's relations to his family. On the one hand, his love for God comes first, but he also performs miracles on behalf of his family. The story of what happens to Fozail's wife and daughter after his death even has some of the elements of a fairy tale!

Anecdotes of Fozail

One day Fozail was holding in his lap a four-year-old child, and by chance placed his mouth on its cheek as is the wont of fathers.

“Father, do you love me?” asked the child.

“I do,” replied Fozail.

“Do you love God?”

“I do.”

“How many hearts do you have?” the child asked.

“One,” answered Fozail.

“Can you love two with one heart?” demanded the child.

Fozail at once realized that it was not the child speaking, but that in reality it was a Divine instruction. Jealous for God, he began to beat his head and repented. Severing his heart from the child, he gave it to God.

Once Fozail’s son suffered an obstruction of urine.

Fozail came and lifted up his hands. “O Lord,” he prayed, “by my love for Thee deliver him out of this sickness.” He had not yet risen from his knees when the boy was healed.

For thirty years no man saw Fozail smile, except on the day when his son died. Then he smiled.

“Master, what time is this for smiling?” he was asked.

“I realized that God was pleased that my son should die,” he answered. “I smiled to accord with God’s good pleasure.”

Fozail had two daughters. When his end approached, he laid a last charge upon his wife. “When I die, take these girls and go to Mount Bu Qobais. There lift your face to heaven and say, ‘Lord God, Fozail laid a charge upon me saying, “Whilst I was alive, I protected these helpless ones as best I could. When Thou madest me a prisoner in the fastness of the grave, I gave them back to Thee.’”

When Fozail was buried, his wife did as he had bidden her. She went out to the mountaintop and conveyed her daughters there. Then she prayed with much weeping and lamentation.

At that very moment the Prince of Yemen passed by there with his two sons. Seeing them weeping and making moan, he enquired, “Whence are you come?” Fozail’s wife explained the situation.

“I give these girls to these my sons,” the prince announced. “I give each of them as a dowry ten thousand dinars. Are you content with this?”

“I am,” their mother replied.

At once the prince furnished litters and carpets and brocades, and conveyed them to Yemen.

Questions. Make sure you can answer these questions about what you just read:

  • what lesson did Fozail's son teach him about loving God?
  • why did Fozail smile on the day his son died?
  • what did Fozail tell his wife to do with his daughters after his death? what happened as a result?

 

Source: Attar, Muslim Saints and Mystics (Episodes from the Tadhkirat al-Auliya, or Memorial of the Saints). Translated by A. J. Arberry. 1966. Website: Omphaloskepsis.

Modern Languages MLLL-2003. World Literature: Frametales. Laura Gibbs, Ph.D. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. You must give the original author credit. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one.
Page last updated: October 9, 2004 12:48 PM