Merchant (thinking): –
Place–Desert
Oh! There is the oasis! From days and days of long journey, I am too tired and thirsty and I should hurry there, quench my thirst and should grab some ripe dates(khajjuras) from the trees there. The journey it seems is still long enough and the desert seems unending! I should collect some for my way ahead and should water my camel and fill up my water bag. Since a thousand years I am traveling but I am seeing only mirages. May Allah bless me and may be this the real oasis. I should drive my camel swift in that direction(whips the camel)
The Camel (Thinking to herself) :-
What a foolish master! Always he sees the mirages and drives me and whips me towards them whilst I am leading him to an oasis. The oasis that I can scent he can’t see, and since he cannot scent nor can see he disbelieves their existence and drives me towards what he thinks that he sees. What a pity! He knows not that he is losing his way in this desert by running after mirages. Had he allowed me to pick the path he would have crossed the desert by now. He seems like the mind that quarrels with the soul and makes the goal farther each time. Oh! He is whipping me again. Just as the intellect and the ego crush the conscience, and the evil heart the thought of God! Yet he is my master and I his slave! I know not to speak and my language he can’t understand. He leads me and himself to death but it’s my duty to follow him wherever he leads, though it be painful.
The Merchant (after a long while)
The sun is again setting yet the Oasis is nowhere near. Oh! It has disappeared altogether and so it is again a mirage. My lord! I am thirsty and I can’t endeavor it further. Lead me out of this barren desert looking like a miser’s house with everything hoarded and hidden from sight. My eyes are closing against my will and even my dear camel’s steps are faltering! Lord… (faints)
The Camel:-
My lord has now fainted and I am also nearing my death. But! What is it? The scent of a town through the far is entering my nostrils. If I could reach there before I die, atleast my master could be saved. God! Give me strength to save! (pulls up all its energy and rushes towards the scent)
SceneII–atown
Merchant: – (waking up where cold water is sprinkled on his face) Where am I? Am I dead or alive? (tries to open his eyes painfully and looks around and sees men) Oh! How can I come here? Is it a dream? I was in the deep desert last night and driving my camel towards a mirage! I swooned and lost control over it and I can’t recall further! Tell me Oh! Ye wise and kind if you know how I was saved?
An old man comes forward:-
Allah is merciful my son! You are saved for you lost your control. You are proud and so you drove your camel which can cross the deserts with scent as her guide through the ways your veiled and uncertain eye directed and so you lost your way. Just as the heart leads you to God when your egos control faints your camel with its last bit of energy brought you here.
The merchant (eagerly) Where is my camel? Where is it that saved my life?
The old man (melancholily) When their mission is completed even the saints return back to their abode in God my son. (Point to ways the dead camel is lying a little away)
The Merchant: ( with tears rolling down his cheeks gazes at the camel and the old man moves nearer to him and puts an arm around his shoulder)
(curtain)
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