Note 114 — Chapter XI · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN AFRICA.
Reading edition
The Galla freedman whom Doughty met at Khaybar certainly exhibited a remarkable degree of zeal for his own faith. He had been carried off from his home when a child and sold as a slave in Jiddah; when Doughty asked him whether no anger was left in his heart against those who had stolen him and sold his life to servitude in the ends of the earth, “Yet one thing,” he answered, “has recompensed me,—that I remained not in ignorance with the heathen!—Oh, the wonderful providence of Ullah! whereby I am come to this country of the Apostle, and to the knowledge of the religion!”114 “Oh! what sweetness is there in believing! Trust me, dear comrade, it is a thing above that which any heart may speak; and would God thou wert come to this (heavenly) knowledge; but the Lord will surely have a care of thee, that thou shouldst not perish without the religion. Ay, how good a thing it were to see thee a Moslem, and become one with us; but I know that the time is in God’s hand: the Lord’s will be done.”115