GhazzaWs Alchemy of Happiness. 



123 



previously. On that night they had anew changed the 

 coverings, burned incense and lighted the candles. 1 



"When the prince's son sees himself in this condition, 

 shame and mortification overwhelm him to such a degree, 

 that he is upon the point of destroying himself. But still 

 severer anguish lays hold of him, lest, when he should leave 

 the place in this filthy state, he should be seen by some 

 person. While he is asking himself what he should do, his 

 father who knew nothing as to the place where his son had 

 been, but who had left his palace with his friends and his 

 suite in search of his son, meets him just at the moment 

 he is coming out of that house in that state. Imagine now 

 the shame of the son and what must be his feelings. ~No 

 doubt but that he would have given his life to any one who 

 could have offered him a refuge and deliverance from his 

 shame. You see that the torment here is spiritual and not 

 material ; for there is not an iota of pain here that affected 

 the body. 



In like manner the men of this world when they go to their 

 graves, will see that what they called pleasure was flesh 

 and corruption which they had unlawfully taken into their 

 mouths. They will see that that beloved object, dressed 

 in rich clothing, obtained by illicit means and stained with 

 pollution, is but the old bag the world, with her disgusting 

 face and horrid smell and putrefied corruption, on account 

 of whom so many drowned in illusions have become vic- 

 tims to shame and remorse. Still more bitter torment will 

 that be, beloved, which will be the lot of man, when in the 

 day of resurrection and assembly all these crimes and sins 

 shall be laid open before all the angels and prophets. Our 

 refuge is in God ! 



Think not that the shame and remorse of the future 

 world is only of the kind that we have been describing. 



1 The fire-worshippers did not bury their dead. 



