What do you know (about his exalted state), O sack full of envy? Even God bears gratitude to him.
تو چه دانی ای غراره‌ی پر حسد ** منت او را خدا هم می‌کشد
Would that he (one like Kan‘án) had not learned to swim, so that he might have fixed his hope on Noah and the ark!
کاشکی او آشنا ناموختی ** تا طمع در نوح و کشتی دوختی
Would that, like a child, he had been ignorant of devices, so that, like children, he might have clung to his mother,1415
کاش چون طفل از حیل جاهل بدی ** تا چو طفلان چنگ در مادر زدی
Or that he had not been filled with traditional knowledge, (but) had carried away from a saint the knowledge divinely revealed to the heart!
یا به علم نقل کم بودی ملی ** علم وحی دل ربودی از ولی
When you bring forward a book (in rivalry) with such a light (of inspiration), your soul, that resembles inspiration (in its nature), reproaches (you).
با چنین نوری چو پیش آری کتاب ** جان وحی آسای تو آرد عتاب
Know that beside the breath (words) of the Qutb of the time traditional knowledge is like performing the ritual ablution with sand when there is water (available).
چون تیمم با وجود آب دان ** علم نقلی با دم قطب زمان
Make yourself foolish (simple) and follow behind (him): only by means of this foolishness will you gain deliverance.
خویش ابله کن تبع می‌رو سپس ** رستگی زین ابلهی یابی و بس
On this account, O father, the Sultan of mankind (Mohammed hath said, “Most of the people of Paradise are the foolish.”1420
اکثر اهل الجنه البله ای پسر ** بهر این گفتست سلطان البشر
Since, intelligence is the exciter of pride and vanity in you, become a fool in order that your heart may remain sound—
زیرکی چون کبر و باد انگیز تست ** ابلهی شو تا بماند دل درست
Not the fool that is bent double (abases himself) in buffoonery, (but) the fool that is distraught and bewildered (lost) in Him (God).
ابلهی نه کو به مسخرگی دوتوست ** ابلهی کو واله و حیران هوست