The son responded, “Is not truth dearer to you than falsehood?”
“Yes, indeed,” the father said.
“Then I intend to remain only a few days,” the son continued, “after which I shall sail again for a single voyage that will bring me many times what you now behold.”
He departed and was gone for a year and part of another, then returned with riches several times greater than those of his first venture. Addressing his father, he said, “What do you say now? Had I obeyed you, I would not have gained a penny of this wealth.”
His father replied, “My son, I see you toiling for others’ benefit. I would have preferred that all this gain be turned away from you if only your body could remain safe. What you now look upon will one day become a bitter draught; you will wish that mountains of the East lay between you and this pleasure.”
“Father,” the son answered, “it is only the astrologer’s prediction that drives you to speak like this. I still hope he was right about the wealth and wrong about the drowning.”
He thereupon ordered another ship to be built, and no more than forty nights had passed before he had resolved to set sail once again.
His father said, “The only reason I do not press you as urgently this time as I did before is the disobedience you showed me the first time. I have seen things that confirm the astrologer’s words.” Tears streamed from the old man’s eyes, and the son was moved.
“Father,” he said, “may Allah make me your ransom—be patient with me this one last time. By Allah, if He returns me safe and sound, I shall never sail the sea again for as long as I live.”
The old man replied, “My son, by Allah, today I am certain I shall lose you. By Allah, you will not return from this journey until the sun returns to its place of rising.”
He then lamented over him, wept before him, and pleaded with him by Allah, but the son would not heed his father’s words. Nothing prevented him from setting out in two ships laden with merchandise.
When he had reached the middle of the sea, a fierce wave struck, driving one vessel against the other so that both broke apart and sank. While the merchant was swimming, he recalled his father’s warning