interest, he made such a nice and beautiful inkpotthat it could be
presented to the king. Heexpected that, appreciating his artistic
skill, the king would encourage him as far as possible. So, with
countless hopes and thousand of desires, he presented that inkpot to
the king. In the beginning the king was very impressed by his artistic
skill but afterwards an unpleasantevent occurred that caused an
extraordinary change in Sakkaki's life and way of thinking.
When the king was observing the skilled artistry of the beautiful
inkpot and Sakkaki was lost in the world of thoughts, the people
informed that a scholar-literary person or jury is about to enter the
court. As soon as the scholar entered, the king got so much absorbed
in welcoming and talking tohim that he forgot Sakkaki and his skilled
artistry. This incident caused an adverse and deep effect on the heart
of Sakkaki.
Sakkaki realized that now he would not receive the encouragement he
had expected and all his desires and hopes are useless now. But
Sakkaki's high spirited mind did not allow him to be in peace, so he
started thinking as to what should he do. He decided to do what the
others have done and go on the same way that theothers have gone
(until now). Therefore, he decided to search for his lost hopes in the
world ofknowledge, literature and books. Although for a wise man who
has passed the days of his young age, it was not easy to study with
young children and to start right from the preliminary stage. But he
did not have a choice. After all whenever the fish is taken out of
water,it is fresh.
Worse than that, in the beginning he did not find any sort of interest
in himself regarding reading and writing. Perhaps spending a long time
in artistic works andhandicraft was the reason for stagnancy in his
scientific and literary talent. But neither his advanced age nor lack
of capability, none of these could change his decision. With great
enthusiasm and zeal for attaining knowledge, he strictly got busy with
his studies, until another incident occurred:
The teacher who was teaching him Shafi'i jurisprudence (fiqh Shafi'i),
taught him this lesson: "The teacher believes that the skin of adog
becomes clean (tahir) after tanning." Sakkaki repeated this sentence a
lot of times so that at the time of examination he should be able to
succeed. But when he was asked to answer this question, he said: "The
dog believes that the skin of a teacher becomes clean after tanning."
The audience upon hearing this answer started laughing. It was clear
for everybody that this old man is absolutely incapable of reading
andwriting. After this incident Sakkaki not onlyleft the school, but
he leftthe town and went towards the jungle. By chance, he reached the
foot of a mountain, where he saw that the water is falling drop by
drop from the top and due to the continuous falling of water, a hole
had been formed in that hard stone. He reflected for sometime, a good
idea crossed his mind likelightning. And he said:"Maybe my heart is
not ready to accept (knowledge) but it is not harder than this stone.
It is impossible that continuous studying withpersistence,
determination and hard work would be ineffective."
Therefore, he came back and with hard work, he got busy in the
attainment of knowledge. As a result hewas reckoned as one of the
popular scholars of his time.
Imam Ali (a.s.) Says:"Books are the gardens oflearned." and "The man
of learning is alive even after his death. The man of ignorance is
dead even while he is alive."
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