"Spiritually you embraced her, my son; Allah, in His perfect understanding, granted you this great comfort."
"I have not heard from her, my father, nor has her spiritual presence been close to me for many weeks. My heart is desolate."
"Pray for fortitude, my son, that moral condition which enables us to meet danger and endure pain with calmness." As he said the last words, his eyes looked into the future; his expression became agonized. "Fortitude," he repeated the word slowly and deliberately, "fortitude—you must pray for it without ceasing, for without it you cannot face the future."
"You do not explain, O my father, why I do not see or hear anything from those who love me."
Michael had seen by the visionary's expression that his thoughts were again obsessed with the Armageddon he had visualized.
The African shook his head. "Some things I may not see, O my son, Allah withholds them from my imperfect human understanding. It is only by His ordaining that I can see what I see. If your heart is clean and worthy, my son, doubt not the faithfulness and steadfastness of the woman to whom you are spiritually united. She raises not her eyes to strange men; if by your own weakness you have lost your spiritual connection with her, then hasten to act worthily of her. The world will have need of all those who have the love of God in their hearts, of all those who have the moral quality of forgiveness and sympathy. It is an easy matter to forgive those whom we love. Go you forth into battle and learn to forgive those whom you hate. Never have your opportunities been greater."
As his last words were uttered, with extreme earnestness, through the colonnade and courtyard of the ancient building came the midday call to prayer; it was sonorous and prolonged.
Michael rose hastily from his low seat. The aged student did not detain him. Their farewell was comparatively brief, owing to the mueddin's harmonious and sonorous chanting of the adan.
"I will return," Michael said. "I will not leave Egypt without saying farewell to you, O my father, and asking for thy blessing."
"Insha Allah (if God wills), my son. Very soon God will permit His servant to enjoy the blessings of paradise."