The Merchant's Slave

Salim was a great merchant in the immense land of Persia. Every year he would load his ship with cloth and saffron and sail towards faraway places where he sold his goods and bought mirrors and shoes and medicinal herbs to sell to his own townspeople. He had gathered a considerable wealth by trading for many years so he could afford to keep slaves. His most favorite and trusted slave known by the name of Yoseph was tending to his gardens and Salim and his wife were sitting in the shade, enjoying the afternoon breathe. Salim, previously deep in thought, looked towards his wife and said: "I want to do something for Salim!" His wife Sanma reached for some grapes from a bowl of fruit and asked: "do you want to seek a bride for him?" Looking at his slave's powerful and skilled hands at work Salim replied thoughtfully: "More than just a bride. I want to send him to trade for one last time and once he returns with the profit I want to give him a portion of the gain and..." Sanma interrupted him: "....and set him free?" And why not? Yoseph has been a wonderful servant for many years, always loyal and always ready to take orders. It would not be fair to keep as a slave and not reward him for all the good service that he has done to us.
That night Salim called Yoseph to him and told him of his decision, who gratefully thanked him with all his heart, rushed to his room, fell to his knees and thanked Allah the Almighty for his good fortune through the night.
At the end of the week Salim's ship was ready to set sail and everyone on shore was marveling on the heaps of goods that were ready to be taken onboard and loaded in the ship. One could smell the salt in the air and seabirds were shrieking over the ships's magnificent masts. Slim was watching his merchandise as it was being taken into the ship and Yoseph was standing right beside him, listening to his master's last minute commands: "do not rush over selling your loads. Talk to my old friends and take their counsel. I have faith in you, I know you will earn me the best profit. You are a wise young man and this is the last time that you go on a merchant ship in my behalf. Who knows? You could be a merchant yourself the next time you set sail! You will be a wise and proper competitor for me!" Then he laughed good-naturedly, patting him on the back which made the ever so grateful Yoseph blush a deep crimson. "I will take care of your goods with my own life. Wherever I go I will be grateful for your kindness"
It was around noon when the ship finally raised anchor and set sail with the lucky wind. Yoseph, his head wrapped with a brown sailor's turban, watched the shore and his master slowly getting smaller and smaller until they vanished from sight completely.
It was almost dawn, two days since the start of the voyage when the ship started rocking savagely. A great storm had broken out. Yoseph rushed out of his cabin, half dressed and asked his second in command what was to be done. He was informed that the sails had already been lowered and they could do nothing but prey. So Yoseph, praying all the while, went down to his cabin and dressed completely and waited for his doom: "Lord have mercy!"
Soon enough the clouds met in the sky and a thunder storm broke out, turning the mast into ashes in a blink of eye. All was lost in a second: Yoseph was falling off-board and clutched on the nearest hard surface that he could find and then everything went dark.
When he came back to his senses, he was still clutching the shell of an immense sea turtle slowly swimming towards a far off shore that was barely visible in the horizon. The sun had raised high in the sky and the only remainders of the great ship with its valuable goods were splinters of wood scattered all over the foamy ocean surface. Not a single sailor had survived. Yoseph cried bitterly, pleading to his God Allah: "oh Lord! You hold our lives and our deaths in your holy hands but Yoseph is now too ashamed to live and too look into his master's eyes and see the disappointment…everything is lost" and while talking to his Lord continuously, seeking some reliefe, he clutched on the turtle and let it take him wherever he pleased. Soon they reached a beautiful shore where Yoseph could see the palm trees swaying in the sea breathe. He detached himself from the turtle, swam to the trees and collapsed in their shade. There was a not a soul about, only the salty smell of the sea and the sound of the waves that ceaselessly crashed on the shore. He ate some dates that had fallen from the trees and wondered to himself how quickly it had all happened and his whole future had changed in a matter of hours. He spent a few days exploring his surroundings and as he had suspected he did not find anybody around so he made up his mind to move away from the palm trees and go wherever he might find some people. He knit a basket from bamboo leaves as villagers often do and filled it with strewn about date fruit and set on his way, exploring the unknown land that he had come upon.
Yoseph walked for three days, only stopped a few hours each night for rest and always starting his journey at dawn and eating only dates until he reached a hill and looked down on a beautiful and prosperous city and cried in joy and ran with all his might towards it. He was almost at the city gates when a massive crown came to him, with music and dancing and much merriment and welcomed him into their town. He had never been treated like this in his whole life so he was too shocked to speak a word. Some elders respectfully approached him and shook his hand and maidens approached with pots of incense and esfand seeds that filled with air with their sweet smoke. Some men brought forth a set of magnificent silk clothes and helped him change into them, and then they accompanied him to the luxurious castle inside the town.
"You are now our king, and we will do as you command, your highness"
Yoseph did not even know whether he was supposed to laugh or cry. Was this a joke? Or had he actually died and gone to heaven where he was made king as a reward for his pious life? Either was he was far too tired to marvel at his situation for long. Once he was left alone at his royal chambers he undressed and fell asleep almost as soon as his head touched the goose feather pillows.
The next day, it was almost noon and time for midday prayers when he woke up, and looked about still wondering if he had been dreaming. But no, this was not a dream. The handmaids rushing about and guards standing in every hallway were most definitely real. So were his bejeweled throne and his silken carpets and golden cups and saucers. All of this was indeed real. But how was this possible? He walked among the castle slaves and examined their faces closely one by one, and at last found a young black man with honest features that seemed to him like someone who would not tell him lies. At his heart Yoseph felt as though he had known this youth all his life. He asked the slave to follow him to his chambers, and he obeyed. His name was Shams.
"I have been kind to you, Shams and now I ask you for the truth. I trust you. What is going on here? This land is so magnificent and so powerful that the greatest or armies can't seize it no matter how many soldiers they have. And yet they have yielded to me, a complete stranger, and they call me their Emir?"
The weak sunbeams of the dusk were coming through the windows and touching Shams' face, making it look so lovely and so innocent. Yoseph thought to himself, a more honest man never lived. Is anybody is to ever tell me the truth, it is him. He whispered his answer in a grave voice: "my Emir! These are prosperous people who have need for a king. Their houses are almost as magnificent as your own castle and they have no want of ruling because they never have any disputes. But you must see, such people only seek amusement and so every year they gather at their city gate on a particular day, and the first stranger that approaches is made their Emir for one year. Throughout this year they shower him with luxuries and obey him for their own amusements, and then once the year is up they strip him of every coin they have given him and leave him in the deserted shores by the ocean to fall prey to wild animals or starve to death"
Yoseph could not believe his own ears. "And they plan to do this to me as well, after being so selflessly kind and obliging?" Shams lowered his head in shame and affirmed: "Yes, my Emir"
Yoseph rose from his seat and started pacing along the room, his hands firmly knotted at his back, deep in thought. Finally he got back to Shams: "Alright dear boy. Go and rest, I shall think tonight and seek guidance from Allah Almighty. Tomorrow I will require your assistance." Shams bowed to the Emir respectfully and left the chambers. Yoseph, still deep in thought went out into his vast balcony overlooking the ocean and looked towards the palm trees drenched in moonlight. Slowly but surely he devised an elaborate plan.
At the Emir's behest, Shams gathered a group of the city's best craftsmen, from shipwrights to woodworkers and organized them into a large camp with many camels loaded with all sorts of goods and materials and sent them out of town under the guise of a merchant group. Once they got far enough from the town, they started building a fleet of ships and in six month's time they had successfully loaded all their precious goods on to the ships and sailed towards a close by deserted island which Shams knew, waiting for Emir's farther instructions on his plan.
Meanwhile Salim the Merchant was watching the horizon every day, waiting for the outline of his ships to appear in the distance. Everyone knew that Salim was awaiting his most trusted slave. He had promised to awards any man with words from Yoseph a hundred gold coins. But as months passed the hopeful smile on Salim's face slowly began to fade away and he began to lose hope. His wife was teasing him on his misplaced trust in an unworthy slave: "He's the most royal! We should do something for him! We should set him free! Oh foolish husband of mine…that thief stole everything we owned and went far away as he could! He will never return. I would have done the same if I had such a stupid master!" Salim the Merchant bore all this misery in silence and did not speak a word. Deep in his heart he knew that Yoseph would never do this to him, but what could he do but keep his silence?
Ten months after Yoseph's departure a massive earthquake shook Salim's city, turning buildings into dust and Salim, like many others lost all he had.
Back at the Emir's castle everything was growing more and tenser as everybody silently knew that the year was almost at its end. The day came when the Emir Yoseph was to become Yoseph the Slave once more. He woke up to find one of his own servants violently shaking him, the same man who was so respectfully obedient the day before shackled him and put chains to his feet and dragged him out of his chambers into the streets where the whole city had gathered to watch and laugh and throw rotten eggs at him. "What a stupid Emir you were! Sending out your favorite slave with so many men to go on trade! Sharks were much pleased by your gift!" they mounted him on an old donkey without even a saddle and sent him on his way towards the deserted shore to starve to death in isolation. Yoseph was trying not to snigger at their foolery while silently praying for them to his God for them to be less cruel and more sensible towards the guests that arrive at their gates because Allah has ordered every Muslim to welcome guests in their homes with open arms. He was left alone by the shore and he was duly warned: "there is no other town for hundreds of miles. And do not for a second think that you will be allowed back into our beloved city! We will set our wild dogs on you!"
Hours passed and Yoseph was almost getting nervous, having watched the horizon tirelessly while pacing along the beach waiting for the last part of his plan to take place. When he spotted a small ship coming towards him, his eyes filled with tears: "Shams my boy! You're here!" Shams replied with much joy: "I am, my Emir!" then they both laughed at this little joke. "From today till the rest of my life, you are my own brother". Together they boarded the ship and sailed towards the island. They sailed for a day and reached shore in what looked like an equally prosperous land to the one they had just left. Yoseph was almost uncertain if he was dreaming. It was too difficult to believe his own eyes: Shams and his men had planted crops in large fields and everywhere beautiful bushes and flowers had grown and birds sang among the young trees .In the middle of the vast island a beautiful castle, more magnificent than any Yoseph had ever seen glimmered in the sun. He set aside all pretenses of composure and to the amazed eyes of the beholders fell to the ground and rested his forehead on the sand: "Thank you Allah Almighty for such a brother as Shams and for answering all my prayers! Thank you my Lord! Thank you!"
Yoseph immediately sent a ship to his master Salim and wife and brought them to his island. They were equally surprised by seeing one another; Yoseph in humble but neat clothing of a man of good wealth and Salim in a peasants clothes but the whole incredible story was told in a matter of half an hour and many tears of joy were shed as all those with good hearts lived happily and in peace with each other in their heavenly island till the end of their days.