English    Türkçe    فارسی   

2
568-592

  • Until it has become realisation, do not part from the friends (by whom you are guided); do not break away from the shell: the rain-drop has not (yet) become a pearl.
  • If you wish eye and understanding and hearing to be pure, tear in pieces the curtains of selfish desire,
  • Because the Súfí's imitation, (which arose) from desire, debarred his understanding from the light and radiance. 570
  • Desire for the viands and desire for that delight (shown by the Súfís) and for the samá‘ hindered his understanding from (gaining) knowledge (of what had happened).
  • If desire were to arise in the mirror, that mirror would be like us in (respect of) hypocrisy.
  • If the balance had desire for riches, how would the balance give a true description of the case?
  • Every prophet has said in sincerity to his people, “I ask not from you the wages for my message.
  • I am (only) a guide; God is your purchaser: God has appointed me to act as broker on both sides. 575
  • What are the wages for my work? The sight of the Friend (God), even though Abú Bakr give me forty thousand (dirhems).
  • My wages are not his forty thousand (dirhems): how should glass beads be like the pearls of Aden?”
  • I will tell you a story: listen to it attentively, that you may know that selfish desire is a plug in the ear.
  • Whosoever hath (such) desire becomes a stammerer (morally confused); with desire (present), how should the (spiritual) eye and the heart become bright?
  • The fancy of power and wealth before his eye is just as a hair in the eye, 580
  • Except, to be sure, (in the case of) the intoxicated (saint) who is filled with God: though you give (him) treasures (vast riches), he is free;
  • (For) when any one enjoys vision (of God), this world becomes carrion in his eyes.
  • But that Súfí was far removed from (spiritual) intoxication; consequently he was night-blind (purblind) in (his) greed.
  • The man dazed by greed may hear a hundred stories, (but) not a single point comes into the ear of greed.
  • How the criers of the Cadi advertised an insolvent round the town.
  • There was an insolvent person without house or home, who remained in prison and pitiless bondage. 585
  • He would unconscionably eat the rations of the prisoners; on account of (his) appetite he was (a burden) like Mount Qáf on the hearts of the people (in the gaol).
  • No one had the pluck to eat a mouthful of bread, because that snatcher of portions would carry off his entire meal.
  • Any one who is far from the feast of the Merciful (God) has the eye of a (low) beggar, though he be a sultan.
  • He (the insolvent) had trodden virtue underfoot; the prison had become a hell on account of that robber of bread.
  • If you flee in hope of some relief, on that side also a calamity comes to meet you. 590
  • No corner is without wild beasts; there is no rest but in the place where you are alone with God.
  • The corner (narrow cell) of this world's inevitable prison is not exempt from the charges for visitors and (the cost of) housewarming.