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2
795-819

  • How should (unbelieving) people veil the eyes of that peerless one (the prophet or saint)? The people have (only) blinded and distorted their own eyes. 795
  • (They are) like the Indian slave who bears a grudge and kills himself to spite his master:
  • He falls headlong from the roof of the house (in the hope) that he may have done some harm to his master.
  • If the sick man become an enemy to the physician, or if the boy show hostility to the teacher,
  • In truth they act as brigands against themselves: they themselves waylay their own mind and spirit.
  • If a fuller take offence at the sun, if a fish is taking offence at the water, 800
  • Just once consider whom that (anger) injures, and whose star is eclipsed by it in the end.
  • If God create you with ugly features, take care lest you become both ugly-featured and ugly-natured;
  • And if He take away your shoes, do not go into stony ground; and if you have two spikes, don't become four-spiked.
  • You are envious, saying, “I am inferior to so-and-so: he (by his superior position) is increasing my inferiority in fortune.”
  • (But) indeed envy is another defect and fault; nay, it is worse than all inferiorities. 805
  • That Devil (Satan), through the shame and disgrace of inferiority (to Adam), cast himself into a hundred damnations.
  • Because of envy, he wished to be at the top. At the top, forsooth! Nay, (he wished) to be a blood-shedder.
  • Abú Jahl was put to shame by Mohammed, and because of envy was raising himself to the top.
  • His name was Abu ’l-Hakam, and he became Abú Jahl: oh, many a worthy has become unworthy because of envy.
  • I have not seen in the world of search and seeking (trial and probation) any worthiness better than a good disposition. 810
  • God made the prophets the medium (between Him and His creatures) in order that feelings of envy should be displayed in the agitation (produced by something that rankles in the mind).
  • Inasmuch as no one was disgraced by (inferiority to) God, no one was (ever) envious of God;
  • (But) the person whom he deemed like himself—he would bear envy against him for that reason.
  • (Now), as the grandeur of the Prophet has become established, none feels envy (of him), since he is accepted (by all the Faithful);
  • Therefore in every epoch (after Mohammed) a saint arises (to act as his vicegerent): the probation (of the people) lasts until the Resurrection. 815
  • Whosoever has a good disposition is saved; whosoever is of frail heart is broken.
  • That saint, then, is the living Imám who arises (in every age), whether he be a descendant of ‘Umar or of ‘Alí.
  • He is the Mahdí (the God-guided one) and the Hádí (the Guide), O seeker of the (right) way: he is both hidden (from you) and seated before your face.
  • He is as the Light (of Mohammed), and (Universal) Reason is his Gabriel; the saint that is lesser than he is his lamp (and receives illumination from him).