ach of night
induced him to repair for shelter to a ruined edifice. A caravan was
encamped not far off, and Fudhayl heard one of the travellers say to
another, "We must rise and be going, lest Fudhayl should arrive and rob
us." Fudhayl then came forward and said, "I have good news for you.
Fudhayl has entered upon the path of penitence, and is more likely to
flee from you than you from him." Then he departed, after having asked
their pardon for his former misdeeds. For some time he resided at Mecca,
where he received instruction from Abou Hanifeh, and subsequently
returned to his own country, where his sanctity became widespread.

It is related that one night the Caliph Harun-al-Rashid said to Fazl the
Barmecide, "Take me to a man by whose aid I may rise out of the moral
torpor into which I have fallen." Fazl took him to the door of a
celebrated ascetic, Sofyan ibn Oyaina, who asked on their knocking, "Who
is there?" "The Prince of the Faithful," answered Fazl. "Why did you not
send for me?" said Sofyan, "I would have come myself in person to serve
him." Al-Rashid, hearing this, said, "This is not the man I seek." They
then departed, and knocked at the door of Fudhayl. As they arrived, the
latter was reciting the following verse of the Koran: "Do those who have
done evil imagine that we shall set them on the same level with those
who have done well?" Koran (Sura xlv., v. 20). The Caliph had no sooner
heard this verse than he said, "If it is good advice we are seeking,
here is enough for us." Then they knocked at the door. "Who is there?"
asked Fudhayl. "The Prince of the Faithful," Fazl answered. "What do you
want?" was the reply; "I have nothing to do with you, leave me alone and
don't waste my time." "But you should treat the Caliph with honour, and
let us in." "It is for you to come in if you must, in spite of me,"
answered Fudhayl. When the Caliph and his attendant entered, Fudhayl
extinguished the lamp in order not to see the intruders.
Harun-al-Rashid, having touched Fudhayl's hand in the dark, the latter
exclaimed, "How soft this hand is; may it escape hell fire." Having thus
spoken, he rose to pray. As for the Caliph, he began to weep, and said,
"Speak to me at least one word." Fudhayl, when he had finished his
prayers, said to him, "O Harun, thy ancestor Abbas, who was the
paternal uncle of the Prophet (on whom be peace!) said to him one day, O
Prophet of God, make me ruler over a nation. The Prophet replied, I