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The Emir walked into the court room
and took the central chair while at his right and left sat the wise
men of the country. The guards, armed with swords and spears, stood in
attention, and the people who came to witness the trial rose and bowed
ceremoniously to the Emir whose eyes emanated a power that revealed
horror to their spirits and fear to their hearts. As the court came to
order and the hour of judgment approached, the Emir raised his hand
and shouted saying, "Bring forth the criminals singly and tell me
what crimes they have committed." The prison door opened like the
mouth of a ferocious yawning beast. In the obscure corners of the
dungeon one could hear the echo of shackles rattling in unison with
the moaning and lamentations of the prisoners. The spectators were
eager to see the prey of Death emerging from the depths of that
inferno. A few moments later, two soldiers came out leading a young
man with his arms pinioned behind his back. His stern face bespoke
nobility of spirit and strength of the heart. He was halted in the
middle of the court room and the soldiers marched a few steps to the
rear. The Emir stared at him steadily and said, "What crime has
this man, who is proudly and triumphantly standing before me,
committed?" One of the courtmen responded, "He is a
murderer; yesterday he slew one of the Emir's officers who was on an
important mission in the surrounding villages; he was still grasping
the bloody sword when he was arrested." The Emir retorted with
anger, "Return the man to the dark prison and tie him with heavy
chains, and at dawn cut off his head with his own sword and throw his
body in the woods so that the beasts may eat the flesh, and the air
may carry its remindful odor into the noses of his family and
friends." The youth was returned to prison while the people
looked upon him with sorroful eyes, for he was a young man in the
spring of life.
The soldiers returned back again
from the prison leading a young woman of natural and frail beauty. She
looked pale and upon her face appeared the signs of oppression and
disappointment. Her eyes were soaked with tears and her head was bent
under the burden of grief. After eyeing her thoroughly, the Emir
exclaimed, "And this emaciated woman, who is standing before me
like the shadow beside a corpse, what has she done?" One of the
soldiers answered him, saying, "She is an adulteress; last night
her husband discovered her in the arms of another. After her lover
excaped, her husband turned her over to the law." The Emir looked
at her while she raised her face without expression, and he ordered,
"Take her back to the dark room and stretch her upon a bed of
thorns so she may remember the resting place which she polluted with
her fault; give her vinegar mixed with gall to drink so she may
remember the taste of those sweet kisses. At dawn drag her naked body
outside the city and stone her. Let the wolves enjoy the tender meat
of her body and the worms pierce her bones." AS she walked back
to the dark cell, the people looked upon her with sympathy and
surprise. They were astonished with the Emir's justice and grieved
over her fate. The soldiers reappeared, bringing with them a sad man
with shaking knees and trembling like a tender sapling before the
north wind. He looked powerless, sickly and frightened, and he was
miserable and poor. The Emir stared at him loathfully and inquired,
"And this filthy man, who is like dead amongst the living; what
has he done?" One of the guards returned, "He is a thief who
broke into the monastery and stole the sacred vases which the priests
found under his garment when they arrested him."
As a hungry eagle who looks at a
bird with broken wings, the Emir looked at him and said, "Take
him back to the jail and chain him, and at dawn drag him into a lofty
tree and hang him between heaven and earth so his sinful hands may
perish and the members of his body may be turned into particles and
scattered by the wind." As the thief stimbled back into the
depths of the prison, the people commenced whispering one to another
saying, "How dare such a weak and heretic man steal the sacred
vases of the monastery?"
At this time the court adjourned
and the Emir walked out accompanied by all his wise men, guarded by
the soldiers, while the audience scattered and the place became empty
except of the moaning and wailing of the prisoners. All this happened
while I was standing there like a mirror before passing ghosts. I was
meditating the laws, made by man for man, contemplating what the
people call "justice," and engrossing myself with deep
thoughts of the secrets of life. I tried to understand the meaning of
the universe. I was dumbfounded in finding myself lost like a horizon
that disappears beyond the cloud. As I left the place I said to
myself, "The vegetable feeds upon the elements of the earth, the
sheep eats the vegetable, the wolf preys upon the sheep, and the bull
kills the wolf while the lion devours the bull; yet Death claims the
lion. Is there any power that will overcome Death and make these
brutalities an eternal justice? Is there a force that can convert all
the ugly things into beautiful objects? Is there any might that can
clutch with its hands all the elements of life and embrace them with
joy as the sea joyfully engulfs all the brooks into its depths? Is
there any power that can arrest the murdered and the murderer, the
adulteress and the adulterer, the robber and the robbed, and bring
them to a court loftier and more supreme than the court of the
Emir?"
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