If you have a journey (to make), go with this intention; and if it be (that you stay) at home, neglect not this.
گر سفر داری بدین نیت برو ** ور حضر باشد از این غافل مشو
How a certain Shaykh said to Báyazíd, “I am the Ka‘ba: perform a circumambulation round me.”
گفتن شیخی بایزید را که کعبه منم گرد من طوافی میکن
Báyazíd, the Shaykh of the community, was hurrying to Mecca for the greater pilgrimage (hajj) and the lesser (‘umra).
سوی مکه شیخ امت بایزید ** از برای حج و عمره میدوید
In every city to which he went he would at first make search after the venerable (saints).
او به هر شهری که رفتی از نخست ** مر عزیزان را بکردی باز جست
He would roam about, asking, “Who is there in the city that is relying on (spiritual) insight?”2220
گرد میگشتی که اندر شهر کیست ** کاو بر ارکان بصیرت متکیاست
God has said, “Whithersoever thou goest in thy travels, thou must first seek after a (holy) man.”
گفت حق اندر سفر هر جا روی ** باید اول طالب مردی شوی
Go in quest of a treasure, for (worldly) profit and loss come second: regard them as the branch (not as the root).
قصد گنجی کن که این سود و زیان ** در تبع آید تو آن را فرع دان
Whoever sows is in quest of wheat; the chaff comes to him indeed, (but only) secondarily.
هر که کارد قصد گندم باشدش ** کاه خود اندر تبع میآیدش
If you sow chaff, no wheat will come up: seek a man, seek a man, a man!
که بکاری بر نیاید گندمی ** مردمی جو مردمی جو مردمی
When it is the season of pilgrimage, go in quest of the Ka‘ba; when you have gone (with that purpose), Mecca also will be seen.2225
قصد کعبه کن چو وقت حج بود ** چون که رفتی مکه هم دیده شود
In the Mi‘ráj (Ascension of the Prophet) the quest was (for) vision of the Beloved; ’twas but secondarily that the empyrean and the angels were also shown.
قصد در معراج دید دوست بود ** در تبع عرش و ملایک هم نمود