Now Masa ceased speaking; a few stifled sobs, a few trembling words
only, could be distinguished. But the sheik remained firm and
unyielding.
"I cannot, Masa. Right gladly would I remain and live with you, and
gladden my eyes with your lovely countenance, gladly would I still
continue to hear the voice that call to me in the loved tones of my
Aga, and is to my ear the sweetest music, but the claims of duty are
paramount, and what duty commands man must perform. Allah so wills
it. Allah be praised! The sheik cannot counsel his people to yield
to force; he must wait patiently in the path of his duty. The result
is in Allah's hand, and Allah is great and mighty. Allah il Allah!"
"Allah il Allah!" repeated the three ulemas.
Rising from his knees, the sheik now proceeded to give, with a loud
voice, the second call, the ebed, for he saw that rosy streaks were
beginning to shoot out over the horizon, and he knew that the sun
would rise from out the sea in an hour; it was therefore time to
pronounce the ebed.
"I praise the perfection of God who endures for ever and ever, the
perfection of the living, the only and the highest God. The
perfection of the God who, in his great kingdom, takes unto himself
neither wife, nor an associate, nor one who resembles him, nor one
who is disobedient, nor a substitute, nor an equal, nor a
descendant--his perfection I praise; and praised be his name! He is
a God who knew what was to be, before it became what it is, and what
has been; and he is as he was in the beginning.
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