Know, then, that love (mahabbat), and excessive love (‘ishq) too, is an attribute of God: fear is not an attribute of God, O honoured sir.
پس محبت وصف حق دان عشق نیز ** خوف نبود وصف یزدان ای عزیز
What relation exists between the attributes of God and those of a handful of earth? What relation exists between the attributes of him who is originated in time and those of the Holy (Eternal) One?
وصف حق کو وصف مشتی خاک کو ** وصف حادث کو وصف پاک کو
If I should continue to describe Love, a hundred Resurrections would pass, and it (my description would still be) incomplete;
شرح عشق ار من بگویم بر دوام ** صد قیامت بگذرد و آن ناتمام
For there is a limit to the date of the Resurrection, but what limit can there be where the Divine attributes are (concerned)?2190
زانک تاریخ قیامت را حدست ** حد کجا آنجا که وصف ایزدست
Love hath five hundred wings, and every wing (extends) from above the empyrean to beneath the earth.
عشق را پانصد پرست و هر پری ** از فراز عرش تا تحت‌الثری
The timorous ascetic runs on foot; the lovers (of God) fly more quickly than the lightning and the wind.
زاهد با ترس می‌تازد به پا ** عاشقان پران‌تر از برق و هوا
How should those fearful ones overtake Love?—for Love's passion makes the (lofty) heaven its carpet—
کی رسند این خایفان در گرد عشق ** که آسمان را فرش سازد درد عشق
Unless perchance the favours of the (Divine) Light come and say, “Become free from the world and from this wayfaring;
جز مگر آید عنایتهای ضو ** کز جهان و زین روش آزاد شو
Escape from thine own qush and dush, for (only) the royal falcon has found the way to the King.”2195
از قش خود وز دش خود باز ره ** که سوی شه یافت آن شهباز ره
This “qush and dush” is necessity and free-will: the pull of the Beloved (who draws you to Himself) transcends these twain.
این قش و دش هست جبر و اختیار ** از ورای این دو آمد جذب یار