Favours of the Gracious God — Page 172
172 any hunger; it possesses wealth; silver and pure gold; gardens and rivers; flowers and fruits; slaves and free men. It has fine horses, enviable entourage, wealth, and lofty structures and decorated assemblies. Then due to disorder, all those gatherings dispersed taking whatever they could with them. And everyone gathered provisions according to their capacity and then embarked upon the mounts of disunity and dissent. And due to their departing from appropriateness of conduct, they mutilated the impression of words to such an extent that: a date tree was transformed into a date stone; a ruby became a stone; food served at the occasion of marriage became food served at the occasion of mourning; virtue became vice; a fine-bred horse became a donkey; and a garden became a desolate wasteland. They cleaned out the house of eloquence like the bare palm of an empty hand, casting out any pleasure and comfort that was once found therein. Neither their gardens remained nor their wells; neither their lush green meadows nor its freshness; after which a rain of adversity befell their tongues, calamities decimated them until stagnation and inactivity destroyed their merchandise and even its admirable parts began to decay. Thus, the houses [of such languages] came to