Ain Al-Hayat, The Essence of Life.pdf - Higher Intellect | Content ...

and objected to remaining alone in the absence of her husband. She asked her
husband to make an excuse to the king and refuse the assignment. But the man
didn’t agree and went away on the king’s errand.
The courtier took advantage of the loneliness and helplessness of his brother’s
wife and started to seduce her. The woman was adamantly chaste. The courtier
said that if the woman didn’t respond to his advances, he would involve her in a
false case of adultery and get her killed by public stoning. Even then the woman
didn’t budge an inch. The courtier went to the king and appealed to him to
punish the woman for adultery. The woman was stoned and was given for dead.
But the woman was, in fact, not dead. The whole night she remained at the
ground where she was stoned. In the morning she managed to reach herself to a
nearby hermitage. The hermit took pity on her, gave her food and treated the
wounds. The woman recovered completely. The hermit had a son whom he loved
dearly. The woman was entrusted to take care of the son. The hermit had a slave
who got enamored of the woman. Despite all his overtures, he was unable to win
over the woman. When all his subterfuges failed, he killed the hermit's son and
put the blame for the murder on the woman. The hermit was very sad. But he
was a kind person. Instead of punishing the woman, he gave her some money
and ordered her out of the hermitage.
The woman was travelling forlornly in her loneliness when she found some
persons cuffing a man. She went near them and asked the reason for the
punishment. They said that the man owed them some money and was not paying
it back. The woman took pity on the person and settled his debt from the money
the hermit had given her. The man was therefore released and he accompanied
her on the way. They were going along the bank of a river when they noticed
some people sitting at a distance. The man asked her to wait for a while that he
would go and inquire about them. He went to the persons and found that they
were itinerant traders. He told them that he had a very pretty slave girl for sale.
One of the traders went with the person to the woman and liked her. The deal
was struck for the sale. The man took the money and left the woman with the
traders. However much the woman tried to convince the men that she was not a
slave, they didn’t agree. Looking at the fair appearance of the woman, every
trader claimed that she would be his companion.
At the time of departure they had two boats. They decided that they would board
one boat and the second would carry their merchandise and the woman. They
therefore set sail. On the way they came across a storm and the boat carrying the
men sank with all the merchants aboard. The other boat, with the woman and the
merchandise, reached a place on the coast safely. The woman found that the
place had a beautiful garden that had no human being on it. There was also a
well-appointed mansion in the garden, as if ready to receive its inmates. The
pious woman started living there and busied herself in prayers. The prophet (a.s.)
of the time was ordered by Allah to go to the king and ask him to seek the
pardon of a person living at a particular garden in an island for the unjust