Bensalem Himmich - A Muslim Suicide

"Pinnacle of the Faith," he told me respectfully, "there's a fixed number of actual residents, but the number of itinerant visitors keeps growing. Ibn Khalas, the governor of Sabta, has doubled our assistance in funds and material goods and has instructed some of his aides to take charge of the insane asylum, which I can no longer manage. He's also told his aides to respond to any request concerning the facilities here."

"He's a genuinely good man!"

"Good and generous as well. But his one overriding quest is for us to rid the city of beggars, madmen, and wayfarers. He's strong-willed and rigorous and a fearless guardian of Muslim interests. His sole concern is to make sure that Sabta remains secure against any consequences of Christian victories in the many and various regions of al-Andalus. I've sat with him on more than one occasion and have had the opportunity to observe the probity of his actions and the genuineness of his intentions. I get the impression that news of your identity and presence here has already reached him, so don't be surprised if one day he asks you to come and debate with him, something he likes doing with men of learning and religion."

The warden suddenly fell silent, clearly aware that I was reluctant to get involved in a conversation about something that did not interest me.

"The governor has charged me with a task that I could not turn down. He wants me to give you a document that has reached him from the Almohad sultan, al-Rashid. It contains some dilemmas raised by Frederic,* the ruler of the Christians. He has previously dispatched it to Muslim sages in several regions of the East seeking responses, but to no avail. Then he sent it to Tunisia, but with the same negative result. Finally he sent it to Spain and Morocco. People gave him your name and whereabouts and told him about your high repute when it comes to matters such as those for which he is requesting a response. So, if only for the sake of myself and the livelihood of the people who live in these parts, would you please take a look at the document?"

I took the document from my dear friend and reassured him with a smile that I would do whatever I could, on condition that he himself would convey my response to the governor so that I would not be compelled to meet anyone in authority. I could not stop myself from taking a look at the questions that the king of the Christians had posed. I got the impression that, once I had managed to move beyond their confused jumble, I would have little difficulty in responding to them.

"So, `Abd al-Barr," I told him, as a way of reassuring him that the matter was easy, "the king asks me whether the world is ancient or more modern. How would you respond?"

"When it comes to proofs and analogies, I'm totally ignorant," he replied. "However I'm quite sure that only God is ancient, and that the worlds in general are all the consequence of His making and creation. That truth represents what our monotheistic faith tells us and calls us to believe."

A huge guard now came over to us, holding on to the arm of a blind youth; he clearly needed the warden for something. But the warden told him to wait while he listened to my own response:

"Your response, `Abd al-Barr, is completely correct; all it needs is a little refinement that, with God's help, I can provide with my knowledge. The same applies to the other two questions concerning theology-its premises and goals: the nature of the soul and proofs of its continuing existence after death, and the issue of categories and Aristotle's subdivision of them into ten subdivisions. Given enough time for cogitation, you could respond to them as well."

The warden looked astonished. "Absolutely not! I have no such resources at my disposal. My dear master, you're charging me with something that is quite beyond my capacities…"

"To the contrary, think along with me for a moment. We both exist, and so do these two men. Everyone who shares their human essence with us possesses a self-identity-substance. That is the primary category, and it serves as the basis for other factors and additions. These are the other nine: You and I and these two other men possess quantity, quality, relation, collocation, and situation. We exist in time and place; we act and are acted upon. These categories have been termed predicates or accidents in view of the fact that they can change from one self to another; indeed they can be different within a single self. All this is apart from a few explanatory details and refinements that I can write down for the ruler of the Christians so he can learn and fully comprehend things. Have I made my point clearly enough, do you think?"

"Indeed you have, extremely well. And that even applies to someone like myself whose aspirations and abilities are minimal!"

"If you bring all these nine separate categories into a single unified whole, the number becomes ten. That's the way Aristotle organized it, no less, and certainly no more."

The blind young man let out a malicious laugh. "Anything more would come from the head of an idiot!" he yelled loudly.

"I shall also write to that effect to the Norman king, the Christian ruler," I went on, "in the hope that he'll take note and understand. 'Abd al-Barr, you can tell the governor that I'll be sending him my responses to the king's questions very soon-all with God's help, of course. For the time being, get the doctor to look at this poor young man, and ask him to treat him as best he can."

"Poor young man?" the guard yelled angrily. "Dangerous idiot, you mean! This blind youngster is causing mayhem among the insane inmates. He steals, hits people, and strips naked in front of everyone. He keeps threatening the residents with group extermination, swearing the foulest oaths to the effect that he intends to crown the exercise by killing himself either by hanging or a knife."

The young man echoed what his guard had said. "Madness is a blot on the forehead of man's intellect. Madmen are a nasty burden on society, roadblocks on the world's pathways. Killing them off is both a remedy for them and a release for mankind in general. Isn't that the truth, people?"

I told the guard that this young man had clearly reached a hallucinatory stage in which only close observation and patience would be of any use. Once I had turned my attention away from the young man, I was told that none of his companions wanted to die before the others.

"What if the plan doesn't work?" asked `Abd al-Barr.

I paused for a moment's thought. "The major problem," I said, "is that this young man looks on his companions as mirrors that continually project the image of his own flaws and shortcomings. That's why you see him telling himself that the way to eradicate the image is by smashing those very mirrors. Just for the sake of experiment, let's try putting him in the wing with the contemplative folk and silent devotees. Maybe in the short term that will help him find some solace…"

After counseling patience and forgiveness, I said my farewells and withdrew.

The residents got to hear-I don't know how-that I was an expert on medicine and pharmacology. In emergency situations, 'Abd al-Barr, the warden, used to refer to me the cases of certain patients whose symptoms were not improving. Most of them involved people who were depriving themselves of their basic requirements in terms of cleanliness, food, and basic sanitation. I used to give them specific instructions on these matters, citing for them various Qur'anic verses and prophetic traditions on the topic. At the same time I used to give them food and liquids to consume, even if it meant forcing them to take them. I think that I managed to save most of them from yet worse situations, except, that is, for one old man and another who was middle-aged. The former insisted on following the pattern of the ascetic Bishr al-Hafi,* who only ever ate bread and imagined to himself that it was dipped in butter. The second man adhered to the practice of al-Bistami,* the mystic, who had this to say about himself: "I summoned her to perform a few pious acts, but she did not respond. Whereupon I deprived her of water for a year." These two men remained defiant till they died.