3.8.2 - Declining to Eat the Food from the Sultan (Ceuta, 595/1198)

It happened one day at Ceuta, when he and Ibn Tarif were there, that the Sultan Abu al-’Ala’ (Ibn ’Aazun), may God grant him success, sent two lots of food for us. I was not myself present at the time but the brothers, who had come to that place to see me, ate it, while my special companions did not partake of it. On the second night the Sultan did the same, but I myself neither accepted nor refused it. When they heard that the Sultan had sent down food, the brothers came to us to eat of it.

I, for my part, performed the night prayer. One of those who had come and who claimed to be a Shaykh, said to me: One may not pray on a full stomach. I remained silent and did not answer him, which made him angry; so I said to him: I did not accept the food, nor did I see fit to eat it because it is, in my opinion, unlawful food; nor could I order you to eat it since I wish for you what I wish for myself. Then, having explained to him the reason for my opinion regarding the food, I said: The food is available, so let him who considers it lawful eat it, otherwise not.

Then I went into the house taking my special companions with me. In the morning that man went to the Vizier and told him that I had called them law-breaking people and other things. At this the Vizier was very angry and said, This is the man (meaning me) who accepted the sending of the food. Then the charge was properly heard and finally reached the Sultan himself who was an intelligent man. The Sultan said: We only intended well by the food, but the fellow knows his own condition best, so we will do him no harm, whereupon he rejected the complaint.

Our companion al-Qalfat heard about the affair and came to see us. He feared for us all because of what he knew of the country and its ways. He said: This sort of behavior is all right for yourself, but the harm resulting from it will rebound upon our whole company, for the people here do not lightly tolerate this sort of conduct. It is a saying in these parts, “Lowly is he who has no tyrant to help him, and in error is he who has no scholar to direct him aright. When I perceived that concern for mere men had swayed him and that he was anxious to effect a compromise for purely worldly considerations, I said, Wretched is he who relies upon the enemy of God. May God cease to care for the world if it ceases to show regard for His right, and it is His right which comes first. Then I rose to my feet shaking my fist and he went away.

Sometime after this I met Ibn Tarif. He had heard of the matter and said to me, Expediency would have been a better course, to which I replied, yes, so long as the capital is preserved intact. At this he fell silent.

Were it not for the dictates of space, I would have mentioned all our masters, but I have restricted it to these in order to keep this section short. I have devoted a whole book to them which I have called, al-Durrah al-Fakhirah, this being a record of those from whom I have gained benefit on the path of the Hereafter.