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Abdullah Fazri and his two older brothers

Legend has it that when Caliph, the fifth great king of the Abbasid Dynasty was in power, one day, he personally checked the tax revenue of all parts of the country in this year and found that the tax revenue of other parts of the country had been deposited except Basra. So he called a meeting of ministers to discuss it. At the meeting, he asked Prime Minister Zhang Erfan: "Why is it that taxes have been paid to the Treasury everywhere, but not in Basra?"

"Your Majesty! Perhaps some accident happened in Basra, and the magistrates forgot to pay the taxes."

"The period for paying taxes is set at twenty days. In the meantime, the governor of Basra neither pays his taxes nor reports his reasons for the delay. What is this?"

"Your Majesty! With your permission, I'll send one of my ministers to Basra to make sure."

"Well, send Abel Ishag."

"Yes, Sir."

Zhang Erfan took orders to return to the Prime minister's house, and immediately wrote a letter to the governor of Basra. He summoned Abbo Ishag and gave him the letter with the following instructions:

"I have been instructed to send you to Basra to see the governor, Abdullah Fazri, and ask him why he forgot to pay this year's taxes? And you are responsible for the acceptance of the local tax payable, promptly paid into the warehouse, no mistake. For His Majesty has found that taxes have been paid everywhere except in Basra. Go there, and if the taxes are not ready, there must be a reason. Abdullah will tell you why. We can inform your Majesty when you return. Is that understood?"

"I see."

So Ishag took his lead.

Ishag went to Basra with five thousand men sent to him by the prime minister on a mission to collect taxes. When he arrived in Basra, Governor Abdullah rushed out of the city to meet him, and promptly settled Ishag and his men.

Ishag arrived at the provincial house and entered the governor's office, where he sat in the chief chair, Abdullah sitting close to him and the other officials around him in order of rank. After the guests and hosts exchanged greetings, Abdullah said:

"Surely your Excellency is here on a mission?"

"Yes, I have been ordered to collect taxes, because Your Majesty asked about them, and they are now overdue."

"Oh, if that had been so, your lordship would not have had to go through the toil of this journey, for I have all my taxes ready, and have decided to set out tomorrow to pay them. Now that you are here, I will pay you all the taxes at the end of your three days' visit. In other words, it is not wrong to have all the taxes due in front of you on the fourth day. To the Caliphate and his Excellency's love for us. We ought to show our gratitude with a small present."

"It's all right."

Abdullah gave a feast to Ishag and his entourage. Guest and host feasting, unfettered, enjoy, until the middle of the night, just do happy and scattered.

Abdullah told the chamberlain to provide Ishag with a splendid ivory bed, inlaid with gold, for his rest, while he slept in an ordinary bed beside it.

After the lights went out, Ishag fell asleep, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. I had no choice but to get up and try to figure out the rhythm of the poem word by word. Because YSHT was a favorite in the palace of the great king of the Caliph, and specially accompanied the king to eat and drink for pleasure. He was good at talking, writing and writing funny and interesting stories, so when he was free, he would work hard on poetry, in order to please the Caliph at any time.

While he was deep in thought, he suddenly noticed Abdullah getting up from his bed, opening the wardrobe, taking out a whip, and tiptoeing out the door. He assumed that Ishag was still asleep and would not know of his movements.

Ishag was surprised to see Abdullah leave the room late at night. He thought to himself, "Where will he go with his whip? Maybe he wants to punish someone. I must go and see."

Ishag, driven by curiosity, followed Abdullah softly into a storage room. Abdullah brought out a large tray with four plates of food and a pitcher of water. He carried the food forward into a large hall. Ishag followed quietly to the door, and peeped in through the crack of the door. It was a large hall, magnificently furnished, with a golden elephant's jaw in the middle, and two dogs on gold chains.

Abdullah put down the food dish, rolled up his sleeves, untied the chain around the first dog's neck, and then twisted the dog's neck as if it were kneeling before himself and kowtowing for mercy. The dog was writhed to a faint howl. Abdullah then tied up the dog, drew the whip, and lashed the dog again and again and again. The beating was so painful that it came to life and death. Abdullah did not stop, but continued to beat the dog until he lost consciousness, and then retied him in the same place. At last he took out his handkerchief, wiped the tears of each dog, and consoled them:

"Forgive me. Swear to Allah, I did not do this voluntarily because I was in a difficult situation. Perhaps Allah will free you from your plight." Then he said a prayer for the two dogs, held the tray in front of them, and fed them with his own hands. After feeding, give the dog water from the can to drink. When the dogs had had enough to eat and drink, he gathered up his tray and prepared to leave the hall.

Ishag stood outside the hall door and saw all this through the crack in the door, with great surprise and wonder. It was only when Abdullah was about to exit the hall that he beat him to it and ran back to his room to sleep on his bed. Abdullah had not seen him at all and had no idea that he had been following her and prying into her secrets.

Abdullah went back to his room, opened the wardrobe, put the whip in its place, and went back to bed.

Ishag lay in bed thinking about this, and the more he thought about it, the more strange it became, so that he did not sleep, and stayed awake for the rest of the night. It wasn't until dawn that he and Abdullah said morning prayers, then had breakfast and coffee before heading to the provincial capital.

All that day Ishag thought about this incredible thing, and though he could not understand it, he kept his doubts to himself.

That night Abdullah played with the dogs as he had the night before.

Ishag followed him, and saw that he had done exactly as he had done on the night before, and on the third night. Ishag saw and remembered all this.

My three-day stay soon passed.

On the fourth day Abdullah paid all the taxes as promised. So Ishag went quietly back to Baghdad. When the High King Caliph asked why it was overdue, Ishag replied:

"I tell you, Your Majesty, that as far as I know, the taxes have already been collected and ready to be paid, and if I had been a day late, I would have met Abdullah on the way. But when I went to Basra, I was surprised to find a bizarre behavior by Abdullah himself, which I have never seen in my life."

"Oh! What's the matter?"

So Ishag came clean about what he had seen and heard.

"What was the reason? Did you ask him?" "Asked the caliph in surprise.

"No, Your Majesty, I did not ask him, on my life."

'Well, Ishag, you go up to Basra again and bring me Abdullah and the dogs.'

"Please, Your Majesty, don't ask me to do this, because I came across it and told it to Your Majesty. Spying on other people's secrets is not good in itself, as a friend, I have no face to meet him. Therefore, I beg your Majesty to write a letter and send someone to do it!"

"If I send someone, Abdullah will deny it. He will say he has no dog. But if you go and show him what you saw, he won't be able to deny it. Therefore, I have to send you. If you disobey, kill on sight."

"Yes, Sir." Ishag answered quickly, and thought to himself, "It is true to say that a curse is spoken, and I have brought it upon myself to reveal the secret to Your Majesty." Thinking of this, he said, "But please write a letter from Your Majesty. I will go to Basra and bring Abdullah to Your Majesty."

"So be it."

Ishag went to Basra again with the king's letter in his hand. Abdullah was surprised to see him and said, "Please Allah, nothing happened? Ishag, how come you are back so soon? Is it possible that your taxes are not enough, and the King refuses to accept them?"

"Sir, it is not that I have not paid enough taxes in this visit to your land. The taxes are sufficient, and the King has accepted them. But forgive me one thing, for I have done a wrong in my case, but it was not my intention."

"Tell me what happened. You're my friend, and I don't blame you. '

Ishag then recounted how he had secretly followed Abdullah for three days, spying on him and unwitting it to the king, the Caliph, who ordered him to return to Basra.

"Now that you have told the Caliph my secret, I must testify on your behalf, lest he suspect you of lying. Who said we were friends? If it were anyone else, I would deny it and say it was false. Now I am ready to go with you to the king with my two dogs. There is no good chance of going, but I must go."

"Allah will bless you." Ishag prayed for Abdullah and thanked him repeatedly.

Abdullah prepared a rich variety of gifts for the caliph, and at the same time, tied the dogs in gold chains, each dog was carried by a camel, and set off for Baghdad. Upon arrival, he immediately went to the palace to see the Caliph.

Abdullah knelt before the high King, the Caliph, kissed the ground, and then sat down at the command of the Caliph. The two dogs had been led to the Caliph. The caliph saw this and asked:

"Abdullah, what are your dogs for?"

No sooner had the Caliph finished speaking than the two dogs fell down and kissed the ground, shedding tears and wagging their tails, as if they were complaining to the Caliph about their grievances. The Caliph looked at the two dogs and was very surprised. He said to Abdullah:

"Tell me where these dogs came from. Why do you show affection to dogs after you beat them like that?"

"Your Majesty, these two dogs are not really dogs, but two handsome young men, who are my brothers."

"How did they become dogs when they were humans?"

"Your Majesty, if you will allow me, I will tell the truth."

'Then tell me the truth, but don't lie!

"My Lord, these two dogs prove that what I have told you is not a lie, but the truth."

"These two dogs are animals. They can't talk, so they can't answer any questions. How does that prove your honesty or hypocrisy?"

When Abdullah heard the Caliph's question, he turned to the dogs and said, "Brother! If what I say is not true, you both raise your heads, open your eyes, and stare at me, thereby exposing my hypocrisy; If I am telling the truth, both of you will prove my honesty by lowering your heads and closing your eyes."

With that, he began to tell the story of the two dogs in front of the caliph

My parents have three sons between them. The name of the first son was Mansur and the name of the second son was Nar. I'm the third. My name is Abdullah. After our three brothers had grown up, my mother and then my father died. They left us some property.

After Father's death, we held a solemn funeral for him, and for forty days, we chanted sutras for him, and gave money to pray for his spiritual detachment from heaven to fulfill our filial duty. During the mourning, I gave a big banquet for my father's former business associates and some prominent people. During the dinner I said to the crowd:

"Distinguished guests, this life is short, only the afterlife is eternal. Praise be to Allah! Do you know, gentlemen, why I have invited you to dinner today?"

"Only Allah the Almighty can predict what has not been seen."

"My father is dead. Although he has left us a fortune, I fear that he has unfinished business with others, in terms of loans, mortgages, or otherwise, and I intend to redeem it for him. If he owes you money, I will pay it for him as long as he tells the truth. It is natural for the father to repay the son."