The sheikh presented to him the principles of Islam with such zeal and enthusiasm that the prince’s heart broke, until he almost melted like wax melts.
Ahmed Al-Gohary
Do you know who I am?
I am a purebred horse. If you knew me, you would love me.
You might consider me one of those many people you see here and there!
No, I am very different from them, and one of the aspects of my difference is that I lived between two nations: one of them was shrouded in complete darkness, and the other lived in complete light. How wretched and miserable I was in my first life, then I became very happy and happy in my second life!
On the outskirts of Russia and Mongolia my first life began; Since I was living in the service of my family, and they were infidels who did not worship God Almighty, I was not very surprised at the spread of injustice among them. They were depriving the rights of the weak, oppressing the orphan, rebuking the beggars, and not showing compassion to the widow or the poor. Their oppression and brutality increased when they started the war with their neighbors. They killed them, demolished their homes, and burned their trees and orchards. The remaining people of this country were displaced and no longer had a home!
Have you seen, my beloved, how disbelief does to people?
It makes them forget that all human beings are brothers, originating from their father Adam and their mother Eve, peace be upon them. Therefore, peace should prevail between them instead of war, cooperation instead of injustice, and kindness and mercy instead of oppression and cruelty. But it is disbelief that makes a person hostile to his fellow man!
This was my first life.
During that time, I was living in constant sadness about my condition, even though I was with the king of this country. My conversations with my brothers were not devoid of complaints and pain due to this situation. They were all feeling what I was feeling, and they were suffering from what I was also suffering from, and how much our sadness and misery increased when we learned The Mongols, in whose service we live, will march with their armies into Muslim countries, to do to them what they did to all their neighbors, but I do not… I thought that good would come from here, from their movement towards Muslim countries, and although they killed very many numbers of Muslims, and burned very many countries with their people, orchards, and homes, the outcome of that mixing with Muslims was great good, and it brought us joy, happiness, and pleasure. Do you know what it was like? that?
My master ordered his minister to equip me and a number of my brothers with purebred horses; Because they would go out on a hunting trip inside the vast garden, which he ordered the guards to pay attention to and surround it with their care, and he ordered a herald to call out in the east and west of the country announcing that entering this garden was forbidden to anyone other than his soldiers, and that everyone must abide by that, and whoever disobeyed him would be killed.
They prepared to ride, and mounted our backs. King Tughlu Timur was sitting on my back with arrogance and arrogance, forcing me to walk with strutting and swaying. Before we entered this garden, some of its guards came to inform him that some people had dared to enter the lands he had allocated for hunting, and the guards described the matter. As if a heinous crime had occurred, the king was furious In anger, he ordered that their hands and feet be tied, and that they appear before him.
The king sat waiting for them to enter, and the guards brought them to his council. They were a group of merchants from the city of Bukhara, and my joy was great when I learned that they were Muslims, and at their head was a man of piety and piety in the city of Bukhara, called Sheikh Jamal al-Din al-Farsi, so when they entered On the king, he asked them in anger:
How dare you enter this land?
Did you not know that I prevented anyone from entering it?
Speak!
The merchants remained silent as if they had entrusted the speech to their president, Sheikh Jamal al-Din. The Sheikh answered with courage and steadfastness: We are strangers to this country, and we know nothing about this land, and therefore we did not know that we were walking on a land where walking was forbidden to us.
When he heard their words, he knew that they were from Persia, so he said:
Are you Persians?
The Sheikh said: Yes.
The king said to him: The dog is more precious than any Persian.
The sheikh answered calmly: “Yes! We would have been worse than a dog and worth less than him if we had not followed the true religion.”
The king marveled at the steadfastness and courage that Sheikh Jamal al-Din enjoyed, and everyone around him marveled at his steadfastness as well. The king was even more astonished by the great answer that Sheikh Jamal al-Din gave to the king’s words.
King Tughlaq Timur kept thinking about this answer, and it occupied his mind, and he did not want to reveal what was inside him until he thought about it calmly, so he ordered that his entourage be prepared to go out hunting; Even when he returned, that brave Persian presented himself to him when he returned from hunting.
When the king returned, he went to Sheikh Jamal al-Din and asked him:
What do you mean by these words?
What is that religion you are talking about?
The sheikh presented to him the principles of Islam with such zeal and enthusiasm that the prince’s heart broke, until he almost melted like wax, and disbelief was portrayed to him in a horrific way that convinced him of the error and corruption of his beliefs. The king only said with emotion: I would love to enter this religion, but I If I convert to Islam now, it will not be easy to guide my subjects to the straight path, so give me a little time. The kingdom of my ancestors has come to me, so return to me.
Sheikh Jamal al-Din al-Farsi returned to his country, and there he fell seriously ill. When he was about to die, he said to his son Rashid al-Din: One day Tughluq Timur will become a great king, so do not forget to go to him and say my greetings to him, and do not be afraid to remind him of his promise that he made to me. Then Sheikh Jamal al-Din al-Farsi passed away, may God Almighty have mercy on him.
It was only a few years later that Rashid al-Din went to the king’s camp, but he was unable to reach him, so he resorted to a funny trick to get the king to let him in: One day he began calling the call to prayer in the early morning near the king’s pavilion until his voice disturbed the king’s sleep, “Timur shuts down.” This aroused his anger, so the king ordered him to be brought before him, and there Rashid al-Din delivered his father’s message. When the king asked him in anger:
Why are you calling so loudly that you bother me?
Rashid al-Din said to him: This is a trick to get to you.
The king said to him: Why?
He said: I am the son of Sheikh Jamal al-Din al-Farsi, and such-and-such a situation occurred between you and him, and he died and I conveyed his message to you. To remind you of your promise to him about Islam!
Tughluq Timur had not forgotten his promise; Therefore, he rejoiced in the words of Rashid al-Din, and said to him: Indeed, I have still remembered that since I ascended the throne of my fathers, but the person to whom I made that promise had not attended before, and now you are welcome. Then he acknowledged the two testimonies and said: I bear witness that there is no god but God, and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God, and he has since become a Muslim.
Tughluq Timur’s conversion to Islam brought happiness to him, his family, and his kingdom as a whole, and they lived in the shadow of the message of Islam, the great religion with which God sent His Prophet Muhammad to be a mercy to the worlds, and his relationship with his neighbors and those around him changed to peace, security, and cooperation for good.
This is my story, my beloved, and I cannot describe to you the extent of my happiness. I was filled with joy and happiness that I was serving Muslim people, and striving with them on my back to do good and establish justice on earth.
benefits:
We benefit from this beautiful story by:
• Islam is the religion of God Almighty, no other religion is accepted from people.
• Islam teaches its children mercy, love, justice, and doing good to people.
• Being guided to Islam is a great blessing that brings to its owner all goodness in this world and the hereafter.