A Night of Reckoning

So I began to wander among the ruins,

Then he was standing behind a wall.

And when his right hand was hanging from his neck.

And he had bound her with two heavy chains to his feet.

And he was bowing and prostrating.

So when he felt the light brush of my foot,

He said, "Who are you?"

I said, 'Malik ibn Dinar.'

He said, O Malik, what brought you to me?

If you saw a dream, relate it to me.

He said, "I am ashamed to say it."

He said, 'Rather, say it.'

So I recounted it to him.

Then he wept for a long time.

And he said, I used to be a man who often drank intoxicants.

One day I drank at a man's house until I became intoxicated and my mind left me.

Then I came to my house and entered.

Then my mother lit an oven for us.

When she saw me swaying, drunk,

She came forward and fed me.

And she said, "This is the last day of Sha'ban and the first night of Ramadan."

The people wake up fasting.

And you wake up drunk.

Are you not ashamed before God?

Then I raised my hand and jabbed her.

So she said, "May you be accursed."

I became angry at what she said, I carried her while she was intoxicated, and I threw her into the oven.

When my wife saw me,

She brought me into a room and shut me in.

As the night drew to a close, my drowsiness left.

I called my two wives to open the door.

She answered me with a curt reply.

Then I said, "Woe to you; what is this rudeness?"

She said, "You deserve that I withhold my mercy from you."

I said, 'Why?'

She said, "I killed your mother."

I threw her into the oven, and she burned.

She went out to the oven, and behold, she was like a burnt loaf.

So I went out and gave my money in charity.

And I freed my little slave.

And for forty years I have fasted during the day and stood in prayer at night,

And I go on pilgrimage every year.

And every year a devout worshipper like you sees this vision about me.

So I shook my hand in his face,

And I said, "O accursed one,"

You almost burned the earth and what is on it with your fire.