Chapter 90 The Story of Abdullah Fazri and Two Brothers-1

It is said that when the caliph, the fifth great king of the Abbasid dynasty, was in power, one day, he personally checked the tax situation of all parts of the country this year, and found that except for the Basra area, the tax revenue of other places had been put into the treasury, so he called a meeting of ministers to discuss At the meeting, he asked Prime Minister Zhang Erfan: "Why have the taxes of various places been turned over to the treasury, but the Basra area has not been turned over yet?" "Your Majesty! Perhaps something happened in the Basra area, causing the magistrate to forget about paying taxes."

"The time limit for paying the tax was set at twenty days. During this period, the Basra administrator neither paid the tax nor reported the reason for the delay. What a shame!" "Your Majesty! With your permission, I will send a minister to Basra to urge you." "Well, you send Abbot Ishag to do it." "As ordered." Zhang Erfan led the order back to the Prime Minister's Mansion, and immediately wrote a letter to the governor of Basra, summoned Aibo Ishag, handed the letter to him, and ordered: "I have ordered you to go to Basra to meet Governor Abdullah Fazri and ask him why he forgot to pay this year's tax? And you will be responsible for checking and accepting the local tax payable, and paying it to the treasury without any mistakes. Because His Majesty found that the taxes in all places have been paid, only the Basra area has not been paid. You go there to see if the taxes have not been prepared, there must be a reason. Abdullah will tell you the reason. When you come back We can report to His Majesty, understand?"

"Understood." So Ishag took the order and left. Ishag led the 5,000 troops assigned to him by the prime minister to Basra to perform tax collection missions.When he arrived in Basra, Governor Abdullah hurried out of the city to greet him, and immediately settled the board and lodging for Ishaq and others. Ishaq came to the provincial capital, entered the governor's office, and sat on the chief chair. Abdullah sat next to him, and the rest of the officials sat around according to their rank.After the guests and the host greeted each other, Abdullah said: "Your Excellency must have a mission to come here, right?"

"Yes, I was ordered to collect taxes, because His Majesty asked about it, and now the tax payment time has expired." "Oh, if I had known this, your Excellency would not need to go through this long journey to be exhausted, because I have prepared all the taxes that should be paid, and decided to set off tomorrow to pay them. Now that your Excellency is here, I will pay all the taxes to you for three days It will be delivered to you after the expiration of your visit. That is to say, there will be no mistakes in collecting all the taxes payable in front of you on the fourth day.For the Caliph and His Excellency for our Sho.We should offer a little gift as a token of our gratitude. "

"It's okay." Abdullah held a grand banquet and warmly entertained Ishaq and his entourage.The host and guest ate and drank freely and enjoyed themselves until midnight, when they broke up happily. Abdullah ordered his attendants to provide Ishag with a splendid ivory bed inlaid with gold for his rest, while he himself slept in a plain bed next to it. After the lights were turned off, Ishag suffered from insomnia and tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.As a last resort, I had to stand up and ponder the rhythm of the poem word by word.Because YSHT is a confidant who is favored in the palace of the Great King Caliph and only accompanies the king to eat, drink and have fun. He can speak well, write poetry and prose, and is good at writing funny and interesting stories. Always please the Caliph.

Just as he was deep in thought, he suddenly noticed that Abdullah got up from the bed, opened the closet, took out a whip, and tiptoed out of the room.He thought Ishaq was still asleep and would not know what he was doing. Seeing Abdullah leave the room late at night, Ishaq felt strange and thought to himself: "Where would he go with the whip? Maybe he's going to punish someone.I need to find out. " Driven by curiosity, Ishaq followed Abdullah lightly to a storage room. I saw Abdullah bring out a large tray from the room, with four plates of food and a jar of water in it.He walked forward into a hall with these meals.Ishag still followed quietly to the door of the hall, and looked in through the crack of the door. It turned out to be a spacious hall, the furnishings in the hall were very magnificent, and there was a golden ivory bed in the middle, shining golden , two dogs locked on the bed with gold chains.

Abdullah put down the food tray, rolled up his sleeves, and unchained the first dog's neck, then twisted the dog's neck and made it kneel before himself as if begging for mercy.The dog barked faintly from being tossed.Then, Abdullah tied up the dog, drew out the whip, and beat the dog viciously, whip after whip, and kept beating the dog. The dog was beaten to death, and Abdullah didn't stop, and continued to beat until The dog lost consciousness, so it was released in its original place, and then, turned to the second dog, treating it as it had been with the first dog.Finally, he took out his handkerchief, wiped the tears of the two dogs respectively, and comforted:

"Forgive me. I swear to Allah, I didn't do it voluntarily, because my situation is very difficult. Maybe Allah will free you from this difficult situation." After finishing speaking, he prayed for the two dogs, and then Hold the tray in front of the dogs and hand feed them both.After feeding, give the water in the tank to the dog to drink.After the two dogs had eaten and drank, he put away the tray and prepared to leave the hall. Ishag stood outside the door of the hall, seeing all this through the crack of the door, he felt extremely amazed and amazed.It wasn't until Abdullah was about to exit the hall that he took the first step and ran back to the room to sleep on the bed.Abdullah didn't see him at all, didn't know that he had been following him, prying into his secrets.

Abdullah went back to his room, opened the wardrobe, put the whip in place, and went on to bed. Ishag was lying on the bed, thinking about this matter, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt strange, so he didn't feel sleepy, and stayed awake throughout the second half of the night.He did not say morning prayers with Abdullah until dawn, then had breakfast, drank coffee, and then went to work in the provincial government together. On this day, Ishag had been thinking about this incredible thing all day long. Although he couldn't understand it, he had no choice but to hide his doubts in his heart.

That night, Abdullah tossed the two dogs as he had done the night before. Ishag still followed him and saw that his behavior was exactly the same as last night, and it was also the same on the third night.Ishag saw all this and kept it in his heart. The three-day guest period passed quickly. On the fourth day, Abdullah paid all the taxes as promised.So, Ishaq set off quietly and rushed back to Baghdad for business.When the Great King Caliph asked the reason for the expiration, Ishaq replied: "His Majesty the King, as far as I know, the taxes have already been collected and ready to be handed over. If I go one day late, I will meet Abdullah on the way. But this time I went to Basra, but unexpectedly found Abdullah A grotesque of Dora himself, such as I have never seen in my life."

"Oh! What's the matter?" So, Ishag told the whole story of what he had seen and heard. "What is the reason, have you asked him?" the Caliph asked strangely. "No, Your Majesty the King, I didn't ask him. I can swear on my life." "Okay, Ishaq, go to Basra again and bring me Abdullah and the two dogs." "Your Majesty, please don't ask me to do this, because I revealed it to Your Majesty by accident. Peeping into other people's secrets is not good in itself, and as a friend, I would have no face to meet him.Therefore, I implore Your Majesty to write a letter and send someone else to complete this matter! " "If I send someone else, Abdullah will definitely deny it. He will say that he does not have a dog. If you go, you can explain to him that you saw it with your own eyes, and he will not be able to deny it. Therefore, we can only send You go. If you dare to disobey orders, you will be killed." "Of order." Ishag replied in a hurry, while thinking to himself: "The so-called 'disaster comes from the mouth' is indeed a golden word, and now I reveal the secret to His Majesty, it is entirely my own fault." Thinking of this, he said : "Just ask Your Majesty to write a letter, I will go to Basra and bring Abdullah to His Majesty." "So be it." Ishaq took the king's letter and went to Basra again in fear.Abdullah was quite surprised when he saw him, and said, "I beg Allah to bless you, nothing happened, right? Ishaq, why did you come back so soon? Could it be that the tax paid was not enough and the king refused to accept it?" ?” "Your Excellency, I am revisiting your land this time. It is not that I have not paid enough taxes. The taxes are sufficient, and the king has accepted them. But there is one thing, please forgive me, because as far as I am concerned, I have made a mistake. But it wasn't my intention." "What the hell happened, tell me. You're my friend, and I won't blame you." So Ishaq told the whole process of how he followed Abdullah secretly for three consecutive days, prying into his secrets, and how he inadvertently leaked the matter to the King Caliph, who ordered him to come to Basra again, All told. "Since you have told the caliph my secret, I am compelled to testify for you, lest he suspect you of lying. Who told us to be friends?If it were someone else, I would definitely deny it and say he spread rumors.Now I am going to go to the king with you, taking two dogs.Although this trip is more or less auspicious, I have no choice but to bite the bullet and go forward. " "Allah will bless you." Ishaq prayed for Abdullah and expressed his thanks repeatedly. Abdullah prepared a very rich variety of gifts for the caliph. At the same time, he tied the dogs with golden chains, each dog was carried by a camel, and then set off for Baghdad.Upon arrival, he immediately entered the palace to meet the Caliph. Abdullah knelt before the Great King Caliph, first kissed the ground, and then sat down as the Caliph ordered. The two dogs were brought before the Caliph.When the Caliph saw this, he asked: "Abdullah, what are your two dogs for?" As soon as the caliph finished speaking, the two dogs jumped down and kissed the ground, weeping and wagging their tails, as if complaining to the caliph for justice.The Caliph was amazed at the behavior of the dogs and said to Abdullah: "Tell me the history of these two dogs. Why do you show affection for them after beating them like that?" "Your Majesty, these two dogs are actually not dogs, but two handsome young men. They were originally my brothers." "Since they belong to human beings, how did they become dogs?" "Your Majesty, with your permission, I will clarify the truth of the matter." "Then tell me the truth, but don't lie!" "For Your Majesty, these two dogs can prove that what I'm telling is not a lie, but the truth." "These two dogs are beasts. They can't talk, and of course they can't answer any questions. How can this prove your honesty or hypocrisy?" Hearing the caliph's question, Abdullah turned his head and said to the two dogs: "Brother! If what I have stated is not true, you two should raise your heads, open your eyes, and stare at me to expose the truth." My hypocrisy; if I speak the truth, you two bow your heads and close your eyes to prove my honesty." After speaking, he began to narrate the origin of the two dogs in front of the caliph—my parents have three sons.The eldest son is called Mansuer, and the second son is called Naer.I was third and my name was Abdullah. After the three of us grew up, my mother and father passed away.They left us some property. After his father died, we held a grand funeral for him, and within 40 days, we chanted sutras for him, and donated money to pray for his spirit in heaven to be liberated, in order to fulfill our filial piety.During the mourning period, I threw a grand banquet for my father's business colleagues and some famous people.During the meeting, I said to everyone: "Guests, this life is short, and only the next life is eternal. Praise be to Allah! May I ask everyone, do you know why I invite you to the banquet today?" "Only Allah the Almighty can foreknow the unseen." "My father passed away. Although he left us a property, I am afraid that he has unfinished business with others in terms of loans, mortgages or other aspects. Therefore, I plan to make up the debt procedures for him. If he The money owed to you, as long as I tell the truth about the matter, I will pay it for him. It is only right and proper for the father to pay his debts." Someone in the crowd said: "A person's conduct in this life is very important for the next life. Since we are not bad people, we can distinguish between good and bad, because we all fear Allah. As far as I know, your father When he was born, people often borrowed money from him, but he himself was not in debt. He often said: "All my life, I will never covet other people's money." He often prayed: "Lord, I put all my trust and hope in God. On you, please don’t let me die while I’m in debt.’ He is kind to others and strict to himself. He never needs the creditor to urge him to repay the debt. When others owe him a debt, he always tells people not to worry and pay it slowly .If the poor were in debt, he always forgave or pardoned as he saw fit. And now we all here testify that your father owes no debt to anyone." "May Allah bless you all!" I thanked the guests while praying for them, and then turned to my two brothers and said, "My father owed no debts to anyone during his lifetime, but he left us cash, cloth, Houses and shops. Now each of us can inherit one-third of the inheritance. But I consider whether to temporarily separate the family, let the property still be together, and we can use it together. We can eat and live together, and live together. " My two elder brothers objected to the opinions I put forward. They advocated separation and refused to work together. Having said this, Abdullah asked the two dogs, "Brother, is this the case?" The two dogs immediately lowered their heads and closed their eyes, as if they replied, "Yes." Since the two elder brothers agreed to separate the family, I had no choice but to do so.So we divided the family under the supervision of the judge. They gave me houses and shops, and took part of the cash and cloth I deserved as bags.The two elder brothers shared more money and cloth.At that time, the three of us brothers agreed on this division and were satisfied with it. After the separation, my two older brothers bought a large amount of cloth with the money they shared, and shipped them overseas for business.But I opened a shop as usual to run a business locally, and I have been praying for my two older brothers at home, may Allah help them.Day by day, almost a year has passed, and thanks to Allah, my business is booming, I have made a lot of profits, and the situation is getting better day by day, gradually becoming exactly the same as when my late father was alive. On this day, I ran my business in the shop as usual.In the middle of winter, the weather is extremely cold.Suddenly, my two older brothers appeared in front of me.Their clothes were torn, their lips were purple from the cold, and they were shivering from head to toe. Seeing their shabby appearance, I was very sad, and immediately got up to greet and hug them, tears of sadness flowed from my eyes.At the same time, I hurriedly took off the two rabbit fur and sable fur coats I was wearing, put them on respectively, and took them to the bathhouse, let them wash off the dirt all over their bodies with hot water, and helped them Each prepared a set of expensive clothes that only wealthy businessmen could afford.After they had bathed and dressed, I took them back to my home.Seeing that they were very hungry, I hurriedly brought out meals, ate and drank with them, and kept comforting them. Speaking of this, Abdullah turned back to the two dogs and asked, "Is this the case?" After hearing this, the two dogs immediately lowered their heads and closed their eyes, as if they were replying, "That's right." I warmly received my two elder brothers and saw that they were full and warm, so I asked: "What disaster happened to you two? Where did your money and goods go?" "We sailed from here," said my brother, "and at the first stop we came to a city called Kufa, where we sold the cloth we brought with us for twenty lee a book, and made a lot of money. money. Then we bought a batch of cheap and fine Persian satins, shipped them to Basra and sold them at a price of one to four, and then we went to another city called Kalha, where we made a deal and issued We made a lot of money, so we have more and more money in our hands.” They talked endlessly about the cities they passed and the business they had done, and they talked with great interest.I found it strange and incomprehensible, so I interrupted and asked: "Since you two have such good luck, have made a big business, and made so much money, how can you be naked and almost naked?" come back?" They both sighed deeply, and said: "We have been doing business abroad for a long time, and we have made a lot of profit, so we decided to go back to our hometown. So we packed all our capital and earned property in the boat, and then set off to the Sail to Basra. On the way home, we sailed smoothly for three days. On the fourth day, the wind and cloud suddenly changed, and the hurricane rolled up the waves and rushed towards our ship. The waves collided with waves, like blazing flames. Under the siege of hurricanes and raging waves, the ship was finally thrown onto the rocks and smashed. All the people, money and goods on board sank in the sea. We struggled desperately with the sea water, struggling One day and one night. Just when we were exhausted and about to be swallowed by the sea, we were rescued by a boat sent by Allah to pass there. From then on, we continued to travel with others, wandering from one place to another place, relying on begging to survive, and suffered a lot. In order to maintain our lives, we finally had to take off our clothes and sell them. We went through a lot of hardships and finally returned to Basra. If we hadn’t encountered such a disaster, then , we will be as rich as princes and nobles, but fate is destined to be like this, what can we do?" "You two elder brothers don't need to worry about this. It is a blessing among misfortunes that you two escaped safely. Since Allah has arranged it in this way, you should appreciate it. Money is something outside of your body, so don't regret it too much. The poet sang Well done: When a person is out of danger, he sees money as shredded pieces of paper. Today, I can think of my property as an inheritance from my late father, which I share equally with my brothers. "Afterwards, I invited a respected notary, took out all the cash, and he divided it into three parts under his presidency, and each of us took one part. After distributing the money, I told my two elder brothers: "Allah will bless a person who works hard to make a living locally. Now you two should each open a shop and manage it well. Anything that is destined to be there will be there when the time comes." will appear." I ran around for them, got two shops, and placed the goods. After everything was arranged, I told them: "You two can do business here. The money you earn can be saved. Your food and drink And other necessary expenses of life shall be fully borne by me." Since then, I have been meticulously caring and taking care of them. They were doing business in the shop during the day and stayed at my house at night.I never let them spend the money they earn, and I only hope that they can save more capital so that they can expand their business.Whenever we sat and chatted together, they always praised the goodness of the foreign country, mentioned its merits again, and kept describing the situation of their business and wealth in other places, thus trying their best to encourage and encourage me to go with them. Do business abroad. When Abdullah talked about this, he turned to the two dogs and said, "Brother! Is this how it happened?" When the two dogs heard this, they immediately lowered their heads and closed their eyes to prove that what he said was true. Later, my two elder brothers kept telling me that doing business in a foreign country would make more money, get rich easily, and other benefits, and then pestered me and them to go to a foreign country to do business and seek wealth.No way, I finally agreed to their request. So, my two brothers and I joined forces, prepared a large number of various valuable goods and food, chartered a boat and set off from Basra.After sailing for days and nights on rough seas, they came to a city where they traded.We sold the cloth we brought along and purchased some local specialties, earning a lot of money.Then we left the city again. In this way, we go from one place to another, from one city to another.Wherever we passed, we traded, and the profits were very handsome.Our surplus is increasing day by day. One day, as our ship was passing by an island, the captain gave the order to drop anchor, and said to us: "Passengers, let's all go ashore, let's split up to find water and quench our thirst." The passengers went ashore in response to the captain's call, and I myself followed them all in search of water.I was walking slowly along the mountain road, and suddenly I saw a white snake fleeing forward desperately, followed by an ugly, thick black snake chasing it.After a while, the black snake caught up with the white snake and brutally oppressed and tortured the white snake with its tail.I couldn't hold back anymore when I saw this scene, so I picked up a granite stone weighing about five catties, and threw it at the black snake, hitting it on the black snake's head impartially, and smashed it all at once. Stoned to death.At this moment, the white snake transformed into a slim and beautiful young girl.She came to me with a smile on her face, kissed my hand and said: "May Allah bless you, on the one hand, save you from disgrace in this life, and on the other hand, save you from being burned in the next life." After praying for me, the girl continued: "Young man, it is you who protected me. After the favor, I will repay you." After finishing speaking, she stretched out her hand and pointed to the ground, and a crack opened in the ground.Then she jumped down, and the seam closed quickly, returning to its original shape.Looking at all this, I know she is a god.I looked back at the black snake again, its body was already in flames, and it was slowly being burned into a pile of ashes.That evening I returned to my companions in a state of curiosity, and told them all that had happened to me.This night, we spent the night on the mountain. The next morning, under the command of the captain, all the crew raised the sails and weighed anchor, and continued sailing.We drifted in the sea for another 20 days, but we never met a piece of land, didn't see a single bird, and the fresh water we brought was used up. The captain said anxiously to everyone: "Gentlemen, we have run out of fresh water. What shall we do?" "The only way is to find land as soon as possible." "In the name of Allah, the Almighty God, I have lost my way and I don't know where to drive so that I can land as soon as possible." Even the captain said so, and we didn't know what to do.People were shrouded in sorrow and depression, so they had to cry and pray, begging Allah to show us a way out. That night, we felt deep pain and despair, and our emotions fell to the extreme.The poet sings well: How many bleak nights toss and turn, The unbearable suffering makes the baby grow old quickly. But when morning dawns on the horizon, Beside you are the blessings of Allah. We finally survived a long night, and in the early morning of the next day, just as the sun rose from the east, a high mountain came into view.Seeing the land, we couldn't help dancing and hugging each other with joy.Then the boat docked.The captain ordered everyone: "Go ashore immediately and split up to find water." After we landed, we split up to look for water, but we couldn't find it.We are getting harder and harder because of the lack of water. I kept going forward and reached the top of the mountain in one breath.I looked up and saw a vast circular area behind the mountain, with the outline of the city vaguely.I was overjoyed and called out to my companions.They heard the sound and rushed to me.I said: "Did you see the city there? There will definitely be no shortage of water. Let's go to the city, we can get drinking water back, and buy some daily necessities such as food and fruits for the continued voyage. " "We were afraid that the people in the city would regard us as heretics who were their enemies, and kill us indiscriminately. You know, the man who takes risks with his own ego is not to be praised.The poet sings well: As long as the world remains the same, no one will praise the adventurer who gets out of trouble. From this point of view, we are not willing to risk our lives. " "I have no right to force you to do what you don't want to do, but I can go to that city with my two brothers." "The two of us don't want to play with our lives, so we can't go with you." My two older brothers also raised objections in person. "It doesn't matter if you two don't go, anyway, I am determined to go. Allah, the Almighty God, will bless us. You two just wait, I will come back after I go." Leaving everyone and my two older brothers behind, I walked towards the city. When I walked into the city gate, I saw a man sitting on a stone bench.On the man's arm was a brass chain with fourteen keys fastened to it.From this, I knew that this person was guarding the city gates, and that there were fourteen gates in the whole city.I went up to him and said: "Hello!" He ignored me.I greeted him the second and third time, but he still didn't answer, until I put my hands on his shoulders and realized something was wrong.I looked it over carefully, and then suddenly realized that he was a stone man.I can't help sighing: "It's so strange! A person carved out of stone is no different from a real person except that he has no thoughts and cannot speak. It is so lifelike that it can be mistaken for the real one." I left the stone man at the gate, entered the city, and wandered through the streets. Every time I saw someone, I would go over and take a closer look, but all I saw were stone men. From the food market to the cloth market, I saw merchants and people who came to buy things in the shops, but they were all stone people.The shop is filled with all kinds of goods, all made of stone.I went into a fabric store and saw the fabric like a beaded net, so I reached out to touch it, but as soon as I touched it, the fabric crumbled into dust.There are cash drawers in the shop, I opened one of them, and saw gold coins in the cloth bag, I stretched out my hand to take it, and the cloth bag immediately turned into powder, but the gold coins remained unchanged.So I collected as many gold coins as possible.At that time, I thought to myself: "If the two brothers come with me, they will desperately enjoy this treasure without an owner." Later, I found more gold and silver in other shops, but I could no longer take any more, so I reluctantly left here and continued wandering around in other places in the city.As before, all kinds of people with different appearances I saw, and even animals such as cats and dogs were made of stone. I came to the gold and silver jewelry market again, and saw merchants sitting in the shop, all kinds of gold and silver jewelry were filled with containers.When I saw this, I threw away the gold coins that were with me, selected at random from among the jewels a large number of treasures that I could carry, and went away happily.In the front is the jewelry market. I hurried over and saw jewelers sitting in the shop. The copper containers in front of them were filled with pearls, agates, jade, various colored gemstones, and diamonds.So I threw away the gold and silver jewelry around me again, and picked as much as I could from all kinds of precious jewelry and jade.I am very sorry that my two brothers did not come with me, otherwise how could I give up these priceless jewels?