VII.
It is related of Sari-as Sakati, the celebrated Sufi, that he said that for twenty years he never ceased imploring Divine pardon for having once exclaimed, 'Praise be to God!' and on being asked the reason he said: 'A fire broke out in Baghdad, and a person came up to me and told me that my shop had escaped, on which I uttered these words; and even to this moment I repent of having said so, because it showed that I wished better to myself than to others.'