تابدانی که زیان جسم و مال ** سود جان باشد رهاند از وبال3395
(I have related this story) that you may know that loss of the body and of wealth is gain to the spirit and delivers it from bane.
پس ریاضت را به جان شو مشتری ** چون سپردی تن به خدمت جان بری
Therefore be a purchaser of (ascetic) discipline with (all) your soul: you will save your soul when you have given up your body to service (of God).
ور ریاضت آیدت بی اختیار ** سر بنه شکرانه ده ای کامیار
And if the discipline come to you without free choice (on your part), bow your head (in resignation) and give thanks, O successful one.
چون حقت داد آن ریاضت شکر کن ** تو نکردی او کشیدت ز امر کن
Since God has given you that discipline, render thanks: you have not done (it); He has drawn you (to it) by the command, “Be!”
حکایت آن زنی کی فرزندش نمی‌زیست بنالید جواب آمد کی آن عوض ریاضت تست و به جای جهاد مجاهدانست ترا
Story of the woman whose children never lived (long), and how, when she made lamentation (to God), the answer came—“That is instead of thy (unpractised) ascetic discipline and is for thee in lieu of the self-mortification of those who mortify themselves.”
آن زنی هر سال زاییدی پسر ** بیش از شش مه نبودی عمرور
That woman used to bear a son every year, (but) he never lived more than six months;
یاسه مه یا چار مه گشتی تباه ** ناله کرد آن زن که افغان ای اله3400
Either (in) three months or four months he would perish. The woman made lamentation, crying, “Alas, O God,
نه مهم بارست و سه ماهم فرح ** نعمتم زوتر رو از قوس قزح
For nine months I have the burden (of pregnancy), and for three months I have joy: my happiness is fleeter than the rainbow.”
پیش مردان خدا کردی نفیر ** زین شکایت آن زن از درد نذیر
That woman, because of the terrifying anguish (which she suffered), used to make this plaintive outcry before the men of God.
بیست فرزند این‌چنین در گور رفت ** آتشی در جانشان افتاد تفت
In this wise twenty children (of hers) went into the grave: a fire (of destruction) fell swiftly upon their lives,
تا شبی بنمود او را جنتی ** باقیی سبزی خوشی بی ضنتی
Till, one night, there was shown to her (the vision of) a garden everlasting, verdant, delectable, and ungrudged.