slave descends to his grave? If I strike off his head, shall I be guiltless of his blood?"
Hishâm answered, "Yes."
Then the executioner asked permission a second time, and Hishâm consented. And then he asked it a third time; and the Amîr was about to grant it, when the young man laughed until his eye-teeth were visible. Then Hishâm wondered more and more at him, and exclaimed, "O young man, it appears to me that thou must have lost thy reason. Thou knowest that thou art about to quit this world, and to end thy life, and yet thou canst laugh derisively to thyself!"
"O Commander of the Faithful!" the young man replied, "were my days to be prolonged, and were not my life to be cut short, nothing on thy part, whether great or small, could injure me. But, nevertheless, some lines occurred to me a moment ago; listen to them, for my death will not escape, and let there be great silence."
So Hishâm said, "Repeat them, and that quickly; for these moments are thy last in this world, and thy first in that which is to come."
