By He, Who has sent me with Guidance and Honour, if you were...

By He, Who has sent me with Guidance and Honour, if you were to offer prayers between al-Rukn and al-Maqaam (around the Ka’bah) for two thousand years and weep in such a measure that your tears flow as rivers and quench the trees, and after all this, if you were to die while still possessing the vice of stinginess, God would hurl you into Hell. Woe be unto you!

But do you not know that Allah has said: And whoever is niggardly is niggardly against his own soul [^4] and He has also said: And whoever is preserved from the niggardliness of his soul, is among the successful ones.” [^5] Mansur Dawaaniqi and his Stinginess Mansur Dawaaniqi, the second Abbasid Caliph, was well known for his stinginess and parsimony.

For instance, as a result of his reluctance to part with his money, he would give the poets who came before him the following warning: If someone, other than you, also happens to know the poetry that you are about to recite or if it is established that it belongs to someone else, you should not expect any prize or reward. And if the poet happened to recite one which was his own, Mansur would give him money according to the weight of the scroll upon which the poetry was written!

Furthermore, he possessed a sharp memory and also had a servant and a slave-girl, who were extraordinarily quick at memorizing things. When a poet recited his poetry, Mansur would say to him: “This, which you have recited for me, is not something new.

Not only I, but even this slave of mine and the slave-girl, behind the curtains, know it.” Then, upon his orders, the slave would recite the poem after which, the slave-girl, having heard its recitation three times - once by the poet, once by Mansur and once by the slave - would also recite it. The astounded poet would then be sent off empty handed and without any reward!

Asmae’e, the renowned poet, became annoyed with the miserliness of Mansur and decided to compose a poem using difficult words and write it on a broken stone pillar. When this was done, he dressed himself up as a tribesman and covered his entire face except his eyes. He then presented himself before Mansur and with a disguised accent, informed him that he had composed some verses and sought his permission to recite them before him.

As usual, Mansur informed Asmae’e of the conditions, which he accepted.