“When the Apostle of God had concluded his _worship_, offered up his _customary prayers_, and recited his usual _lessons_ from the Qur’ān, he turned, and asked of Gabriel the occult cause of his interruption at that time. Gabriel replied that God had not seen fit that ‘Alī should be deprived of the merit attaching to the performance of the first portion of the dawn worship, through the respect he had shown to the old Jew he had overtaken, but whom he would not pass. “Now,” remarked Jelāl, “when a saint like ‘Alī showed so much respect for a poor old misbelieving Jew, and when God viewed his respectful consideration in so highly favourable a manner, you may all infer how He will view any honour and veneration shown to an elderly saint of approved piety, whose beard has grown grey in the service of God, and whose companions are the elect of their Maker, whose chosen servant he is; and what reward He will mete out in consequence. For, in truth, glory and power belong to God, to the Apostle, and to the believers, as God hath Himself declared (Qur’ān lxiii. 8): ‘Unto God belongeth the power, and to the apostle, and to the believers.’ “If then,” added he, “ye wish to be prosperous in your affairs, take fast hold on the skirts of your spiritual elders. For, without the blessing of his pious elders, a young man will never live to be old, and will never attain the station of a spiritual elder.” 24. One day Jelāl took as his text the following words (Qur’ān xxxi. 18):—“Verily, the most discordant of all sounds is the voice of the asses.” He then put the question: “Do my friends know what this signifies?” The congregation all bowed, and entreated him to expound it to them. Jelāl therefore proceeded:— “All other brutes have a _cry_, a _lesson_, and a _doxology_, with which they commemorate their Maker and Provider. Such are, the _yearning cry_ of the camel, the _roar_ of the lion, the _bleat_ of the gazelle, the _buzz_ of the fly, the _hum_ of the bee, &c. “The angels in heaven, and the genii, have their doxologies also, even as man has his doxology--his _Magnificat_, and various forms of worship for his heart (or mind) and for his body. “The poor ass, however, has nothing but his _bray_. He sounds this bray on two occasions only: when he desires his female, and when he feels hunger. He is the slave of his lust and of his gullet. “In like manner, if man have not in his heart a doxology for God, a cry, and a love, together with a secret and a care in his mind, he is less than an ass in God’s esteem; for He has said (Qur’ān vii. 178): ‘They are like the camels; nay, they are yet more erring.’” He then related the following anecdote:— “In bygone days there was a monarch, who, by way of trial, requested another sovereign to send him three things, the worst of their several kinds that he could procure; namely, the worst article of food, the worst dispositioned thing, and the worst animal.