Aladdin and the Magic Lamp
You may have seen from the first night, that this is not exactly the Disney version. The sorcerer is not the vizier, but a Maghrebi. We will see later the vizier, whose name is never mentioned, but he is not one of the main characters. And the princess will also appear later; her name is not Jasmine.
Like all the stories in the 1001 nights, Aladdin has been created by one or several Muslims, and we will find many references to Allah, most respectfully.
ON THE SECOND NIGHT
Sheherazade said:
The Maghrebi continued to observe Aladdin with great insistence, thinking: “Here is finally the boy I need, the one I have been looking for for so long, and for whom I left the Maghreb, my country. And he approached one of the little boys quietly, without however losing sight of Aladdin, took him aside without being noticed, and inquired of Aladdin's father and mother, as well as of his name and condition. And, provided with this information, he approached Aladdin, smiling, succeeded in drawing him into a corner, and said to him: “O my child, are you not Aladdin, son of the tailor such and such? And Aladdin replied, "Yes, I am Aladdin." As for my father, he died a long time ago! At these words, the Maghrebi dervish threw himself on Aladdin's neck, took him in his arms, and began to kiss him on the cheeks for a long time, crying a lot. And Aladdin, extremely surprised, asked him: "What is the cause of your tears, my lord?" And where do you know the deceased, my father? And the Maghrebi, in a sad and broken voice, replied: “Ah! my child, how could I not shed tears of mourning and pain, when I am your uncle, and you have just revealed to me, in such an unexpected way, the death of my poor brother, your deceased father? O son of my brother, know, indeed, that I come to this country, after having left my homeland and faced the dangers of a long journey, only in the joyful hope of seeing your father again and experiencing with him the happiness of returning and reuniting! And behold, alas! that you inform me of his death! And he paused for a moment as if suffocated with emotion; then he added: "Besides, I must tell you, my brother's son, that as soon as I saw you, my blood immediately rushed to your blood and made me quickly recognize you, without hesitation, among all your comrades! And, although at the time when I left your father, you were not born yet, since he was not married, I was not long in recognizing in you his features and his resemblance! And it is precisely this that consoles me a little for his loss! Ah! calamity on my head! Where are you now, my brother, you whom I hoped to kiss at least once, after such a long absence and before death came to separate us forever? Alas! who can flatter himself to prevent what has already happened? And who can run away from his destiny or avoid what has been prescribed by Allah, the Highest?" Then after a moment of silence, he took Aladdin back into his arms, hugged him to his chest, and said to him: “Yet, O my son, glorified be Allah who brings me to meet you! You will henceforth be my consolation and you will replace your father in my affection since you are his blood and his descendant; for the proverb says: "He who has left a posterity is not dead!"
Then the Maghrebi took ten gold dinars from his belt and put them in Aladdin's hand, asking him: "O my son Aladdin, where does your mother, my brother's wife, live?" And Aladdin, completely won over by the generosity and smiling face of the Maghrebi, took him by the hand, led him to the end of the square, and showed him with his finger the way to their house, saying: "This is where she lives!" And the North African said to him: “These ten dinars that I gave you, oh my child, you will give them to the wife of my late brother, conveying my salams to her. And you will tell him that your uncle has just arrived from a trip, after a long absence abroad, and that, tomorrow, he hopes, Allah willing, to be able to come home present his respects to his brother's wife, and see the places where the deceased spent his life, and visit his tomb! »
When Aladdin had heard these words from the Maghrebi, he wanted to be eager to carry out his wishes, and, after having kissed his hand, he hastened, in his joy, to run to the house where he arrived, contrary to his habits, at an hour which was hardly that of a meal, and, on entering, he exclaimed: "O my mother, I come to announce to you that my uncle, after his long absence abroad, has just arrived, and he sends you his salams! And Aladdin's mother, greatly astonished at this new language and this unusual entrance, replied: "You say, my son, that you want to make fun of your mother! Who is, in fact, this uncle of whom you speak to me? And from where and since when do you have an uncle still alive?" And Aladdin said, "How, my mother, can you say that I have no living uncle or relative when the man in question is the brother of my late father?" And the proof is that he hugged me to his chest, kissed me crying, and asked me to come and tell you the news and let you know! And Aladdin's mother said, "Yes, my child, I know you had an uncle, but he died many years ago. And I don't know that you have ever had a second uncle!" And she looked with two very surprised eyes at her son Aladdin who was already busy with something else. And she said nothing more to him about it that day. And Aladdin, for his part, did not mention the North African's gift.
Now, the next day, early in the morning, Aladdin left the house; and the North African, who was already looking for him, met him in the same place as the day before, already enjoying himself, according to his custom, with the vagabonds of his age. And he approached him quickly, took his hand, pressed him to his heart, and kissed him tenderly. Then he took two dinars from his belt and handed them to him, saying: “Go find your mother and tell her, giving her these two dinars: "My uncle intends to come and have dinner with us this evening; that is why he sends you this money so that you can prepare some excellent dishes for us!" Then he added, bowing to her face, "And now, ya Aladdin, show me the way home a second time!" And Aladdin replied, "Upon my head and my eyes, O my uncle!" And he walked ahead of him and showed him the way to their house. And the Maghrebi left him and went away…
— At this point in her narration, Scheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.