Does any reasonable man strike a brickbat? Does any one reprove a stone?
هیچ عاقل مر کلوخی را زند ** هیچ با سنگی عتابی کس کند
In (the eyes of) reason, Necessitarianism (jabr) is more shameful than the doctrine of (absolute) Free-will (qadar), because the Necessitarian is denying his own (inward) sense.
در خرد جبر از قدر رسواترست ** زانک جبری حس خود را منکرست
The man who holds the doctrine of (absolute) Free-will does not deny his (inward) sense: (he says), ‘The action of God is not mediated by the senses, O son.’3010
منکر حس نیست آن مرد قدر ** فعل حق حسی نباشد ای پسر
He who denies the action of the Almighty Lord is (virtually) denying Him who is indicated by the indication.
منکر فعل خداوند جلیل ** هست در انکار مدلول دلیل
That one (the believer in absolute Free-will) says, ‘There is smoke, but no fire; there is candle-light without any resplendent candle’;
آن بگوید دود هست و نار نی ** نور شمعی بی ز شمعی روشنی
And this one (the Necessitarian) sees the fire plainly, (but) for the sake of denial he says it does not exist.
وین همی‌بیند معین نار را ** نیست می‌گوید پی انکار را
It burns his raiment, (yet) he says, ‘There is no fire’; it (the thread) stitches his raiment, (yet) he says, ‘There is no thread.’
Hence this doctrine of Necessity is Sophisticism (Scepticism): consequently he (the Necessitarian), from this point of view, is worse than the infidel (believer in absolute Free-will).3015
پس تسفسط آمد این دعوی جبر ** لاجرم بدتر بود زین رو ز گبر
The infidel says, ‘The world exists, (but) there is no Lord’: he says that (the invocation) ‘O my Lord!’ is not to be approved.
گبر گوید هست عالم نیست رب ** یا ربی گوید که نبود مستحب
This one (the Necessitarian) says, ‘The world is really naught’: the Sophist (Sceptic) is in a tangle (of error).
این همی گوید جهان خود نیست هیچ ** هسته سوفسطایی اندر پیچ پیچ