Page 165 - The Book of Rumi

The King and the Servant

he king was gripped with wrath at one of his servants who had commit-
Tted an unforgivable mistake. He instinctively drew his sword to behead
the poor man. No one in the court stepped forward to intermediate, as they
all believed that the man’s fate was now sealed. No one dared ask the king to
forgive the young man, except Emadal-Molk.
When Emad, one of the king’s most trusted and respected ministers,
knelt before the ruler and asked for leniency for the servant, the king imme-
diately withdrew his outthrust sword. He ordered the servant to retreat to his
quarters and not to appear before him until his anger had subsided.
The servant, however, instead of thanking Emad for saving his life, began
to act strangely after the incident. Like most others in the court, he had always
adored Emad, but after the incident, he avoided the kind man. Soon, he even
stopped greeting Emad when they crossed paths at court.
One day, a courtier asked the servant out of curiosity the reason for his
odd behavior: “Why do you act so ungraciously toward someone who has
literally saved your neck?”
“I didn’t ask Emad to save my life!” retorted the servant. “My life doesn’t
belong to him to save! It belongs to the king, and he can take it or give it back
when he chooses. In that instant when the king wanted to slash my throat, I
was willing to give up my life. I wanted to become nothing before him. Ah,”
he sighed, “to have simply been nothing before that king of kings! But Emad
took that chance away from me, and I shall never be able to regain that glory!”

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