Kamaaluddin wa Tamaamun Ni’ma Vol. 1

Chapter 17: Report of Satih the Soothsayer

Narrated to us Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Razma Qazwini: Narrated to us Hasan bin Ali bin Nasr bin Mandur Tusi: Narrated to us Ali bin Harb Musilli Tai: Narrated to us Abu Ayyub Yala bin Imran son of Jurair bin Abdullah that he said: Narrated to me Makhzum bin Hani Makhzumi from his father who lived to the age of a hundred and fifty years that he said:

“On the night of the birth of the Messenger of Allah (S) the palace of Choesroe was rocked and its fourteen arches crashed, the water of the Sawa river dried up, the fire of the temple of Fars that they worshipped, was extinguished. The greatest scholar of Fars saw in dream that some hostile camels are dragging Arabian horses and crossing the Tigris and spreading in the Persian lands.

When Choesroe saw this, he placed the crown on his head and sat upon the throne, summoned his officers and ministers and told him all that had occurred. Meanwhile news was received that the fire of Fars temple has gone out. This increased his agony, whereas the scholar said: O king, I saw a strange dream, and he related his vision. What is the interpretation of this dream? He said: A significant event has definitely taken place in the west.

Choesroe wrote a letter to Noman bin Mundhir the king of Arabs and asked him to dispatch an Arab scholar as he wanted to consult him in an important matter. On receiving the letter he sent Abdul Masih bin Amr bin Hayyan bin Nafila Ghassani. The king narrated all the events. Abdul Masih said: I have no knowledge about this dream and this secret but my uncle lives in Damascus and he can explain the interpretation.

Choesroe said: Go and ask him and then tell me what he says. When Abdul Masih reached there he had already died. Abdul Masih greeted but received no reply. So he recited some couplets that conveyed that he had undertaken a tiring journey from a distant land to ask this great personality about something.

Is he deaf that he cannot hear what the chief of Yemen says? Or is he dead and death has come suddenly upon him?

O one who know the matters don’t you know who these people are? O one who removes the grief of the faces that are full of sorrow.

A noble of the Sunan locality has come to meet you. And his mother is from the Aale Zeb bin Hujn tribe.

He rides the old, strong and blue she-camel. He is generous and very broad chested.

He has come with a message from the Persian emperor, Choesroe. Neither he dreads the lightning nor the change of times.

The strong she-camel, leaving the earth behind is taking me to the Toor and conveys me to the hard ground.

So much so that she is weak because of the arduous journey and the wind envelops her with swirling dust.

It seems that due to the speed the sandy dust of the dunes will fall upon me. And now I have lost hope.

When Satih heard this he opened his eyes and said: Abdul Masih mounted a camel and after covering the stages of journey reached Satih at a time when he (Satih) is being transferred to the grave. The Sasanid king has sent him to find the truth behind the quaking of the palace, the going out of the fire-temple, the dream of the greatest scholar and the drying up of the Sawa river.

O Abdul Masih, the time has come when it (Quran) will be recited in excess and a prophet who always carried a small staff will arise. The streams of Sawa will be full of water and the sea will dry up. Damascus and Persia will go out of the control of their rulers and the same number of kings will rule as the number of the arches of Caesar and Choesroe have fallen. After that their rule shall decline and whatever has to happen will indeed happen. After saying this Satih died and Abdul Masih recited the following couplets:

Do it as you have a firm determination and you do what you will. No separation and change should weaken your resolve.

If the king of Bani Sasan tries to do he will have to give them up because it is the time of difficulties and calamities.

And it is possible that those people may say farewell to their place when their strength declines before the ferocious lions.

And in these places live the dear Behram and his brothers and Hurmuzan, Saboor and Saboor.

And people are born of different mothers having no attachment to each other. Thus they should know that if he is deficient and becomes helpless, he would be disgraced.

These people belong to the same mother. If they see wealth and riches, they will through the unseen become safe and dominant.

And the good and the bad are found together. Thus everyone follows the good and keeps away from the bad.

After that Abdul Masih returned to the king of Persia with utmost speed and narrated all that Satih had told. Choesroe said: “It would be a long time when fourteen kings from among us complete their reigns.” But it so happened that ten of those kings passed only in four years and another four completed their reigns till the time Uthman.

Satih was born in Sail Arim (Floods of Arim) and lived till the reign of King Zi Nawas which came to be more than thirty centuries. He lived in Bahrain. Abdul Qees says that he belonged to his tribe while the Azd say he was from them. And most tradition scholars say that he was from Azd. But nothing is known about his father. However his descendants say that they are from the Azd tribe.