YAHOWA

It is related that at al-Mada'in [= Ctesiphon] there was a house of idols that Fattiq [Patteg] was in the habit of frequenting, like many other peo­ ple. Now, one day, there resounded for him from the inner sanctum of the house ofidols this cry: "0 Fattiq, eat no meat, drink no wine, abstain from all sexual relations!" Fattiq heard this call many times, for three days. Having understood the message, he associated himself with a group of people near Dastumisan known as the Cleansers [al-mughtasila]. Even in our time, some of them still survive in these regions and in the Bata'ih. They followed the religious law [al-madhhab] to which Fattiq had been ordered to adhere while his wife was pregnant with Mani.