Inasmuch as this abode of mortality is not the world of (real) Being, the return to a borrowed (impermanent) thing is not much gain.
این فناجا چون جهان بود نیست ** بازگشت عاریت بس سود نیست
Strew a gift of mercy upon them even now in the secret chamber of assembled in Our presence.”
رحمتی افشان بر ایشان هم کنون ** در نهانخانهی لدینا محضرون
(I have related this story) that you may know that loss of the body and of wealth is gain to the spirit and delivers it from bane.3395
تابدانی که زیان جسم و مال ** سود جان باشد رهاند از وبال
Therefore be a purchaser of (ascetic) discipline with (all) your soul: you will save your soul when you have given up your body to service (of God).
پس ریاضت را به جان شو مشتری ** چون سپردی تن به خدمت جان بری
And if the discipline come to you without free choice (on your part), bow your head (in resignation) and give thanks, O successful one.
ور ریاضت آیدت بی اختیار ** سر بنه شکرانه ده ای کامیار
Since God has given you that discipline, render thanks: you have not done (it); He has drawn you (to it) by the command, “Be!”
چون حقت داد آن ریاضت شکر کن ** تو نکردی او کشیدت ز امر کن
Story of the woman whose children never lived (long), and how, when she made lamentation (to God), the answer came—“That is instead of thy (unpractised) ascetic discipline and is for thee in lieu of the self-mortification of those who mortify themselves.”
حکایت آن زنی کی فرزندش نمیزیست بنالید جواب آمد کی آن عوض ریاضت تست و به جای جهاد مجاهدانست ترا
That woman used to bear a son every year, (but) he never lived more than six months;
آن زنی هر سال زاییدی پسر ** بیش از شش مه نبودی عمرور
Either (in) three months or four months he would perish. The woman made lamentation, crying, “Alas, O God,3400
یاسه مه یا چار مه گشتی تباه ** ناله کرد آن زن که افغان ای اله
For nine months I have the burden (of pregnancy), and for three months I have joy: my happiness is fleeter than the rainbow.”
نه مهم بارست و سه ماهم فرح ** نعمتم زوتر رو از قوس قزح
That woman, because of the terrifying anguish (which she suffered), used to make this plaintive outcry before the men of God.
پیش مردان خدا کردی نفیر ** زین شکایت آن زن از درد نذیر
In this wise twenty children (of hers) went into the grave: a fire (of destruction) fell swiftly upon their lives,
بیست فرزند اینچنین در گور رفت ** آتشی در جانشان افتاد تفت
Till, one night, there was shown to her (the vision of) a garden everlasting, verdant, delectable, and ungrudged.
تا شبی بنمود او را جنتی ** باقیی سبزی خوشی بی ضنتی
I have called the Unconditioned Bounty a garden, since it is the source of (all) bounties and the assembly of (all) gardens;3405
باغ گفتم نعمت بیکیف را ** کاصل نعمتهاست و مجمع باغها
Otherwise, (it is that which) no eye hath beheld: what place is there for (how is it proper to speak of) a garden? (Yet the term “garden” may be applied to it): God hath called the Light of the Unseen “a lamp.”
ورنه لا عین رات چه جای باغ ** گفت نور غیب را یزدان چراغ
’Tis not a comparison, ’tis a parable thereof, (which is used) in order that he who is bewildered may get a scent (of the reality).
مثل نبود آن مثال آن بود ** تا برد بوی آنک او حیران بود
In short, the woman saw that (Bounty) and became intoxicated: at that revelation the weak (creature) fell into an ecstasy.
حاصل آن زن دید آن را مست شد ** زان تجلی آن ضعیف از دست شد
She saw her name written on a palace: she who was of goodly belief knew that it (the palace) belonged to her.
دید در قصری نبشته نام خویش ** آن خود دانستش آن محبوبکیش
After that, they said (to her), “This Bounty is for him who has risen up with constant sincerity in self-devotion.3410
بعد از آن گفتند کین نعمت وراست ** کو بجان بازی بجز صادق نخاست
Thou must needs have done much service (to God), in order that thou might’st partake of this repast;
خدمت بسیار میبایست کرد ** مر ترا تا بر خوری زین چاشتخورد
(Hence), as thou wert remiss in taking refuge (with God), God gave thee those afflictions instead.”
چون تو کاهل بودی اندر التجا ** آن مصیبتها عوض دادت خدا
“O Lord,” cried she, “give me such-like (afflictions) for a hundred years and more! Do Thou shed my blood!”
گفت یا رب تا به صد سال و فزون ** این چنینم ده بریز از من تو خون
When she advanced into that garden, she saw there all her children.
اندر آن باغ او چو آمد پیش پیش ** دید در وی جمله فرزندان خویش
She said, “They were lost to me, (but) they were not lost to Thee.” Without (possessing) the two eyes of the Unseen, no one becomes the Man (pupil of the eye).3415
گفت از من کم شد از تو گم نشد ** بی دو چشم غیب کس مردم نشد
You did not let blood (by cupping), and (therefore) the superfluous blood ran from your nose, to the end that your life might be saved from fever.
تو نکردی فصد و از بینی دوید ** خون افزون تا ز تب جانت رهید
The core of every fruit is better than its rind: deem the body to be the rind, and its friend (the spirit) to be the core.
مغز هر میوه بهست از پوستش ** پوست دان تن را و مغز آن دوستش