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4
61-85

  • And if news come that the king has shown mercy and has generously taken off that (penalty) from the Moslems,
  • A mournfulness falls upon his soul thereat: the policeman hath a hundred such depravities.
  • He (the lover) was bringing the policeman into the prayer (of benediction), because such solace had come to him from the policeman.
  • He (the policeman) was poison to all (others), but to him (he was) the antidote: the policeman was the means of uniting that longing lover (with the object of his desire).
  • Hence there is no absolute evil in the world: evil is relative. Know this (truth) also. 65
  • In (the realm of) Time there is no poison or sugar that is not a foot (support) to one and a fetter (injury) to another—
  • To one a foot, to another a fetter; to one a poison and to another (sweet and wholesome) like sugar.
  • Snake-poison is life to the snake, (but) it is death in relation to man.
  • The sea is as a garden to the water-creatures; to the creatures of earth it is death and a (painful) brand.
  • Reckon up likewise, O man of experience, (instances of) this relativity from a single individual to a thousand. 70
  • Zayd, in regard to that (particular) one, may be a devil, (but) in regard to another person he may be a (beneficent) sultan.
  • That one will say that Zayd is an exalted siddíq (saint), and this one will say that Zayd is an infidel who ought to be killed.
  • Zayd is one person—to that one (he is as) a shield, (while) to this other one (he is) wholly pain and loss.
  • If you wish that to you he should be (as) sugar, then look on him with the eye of lovers.
  • Do not look on that Beauteous One with your own eye: behold the Sought with the eye of seekers. 75
  • Shut your own eye to that Sweet-eyed One: borrow an eye from His lovers.
  • Nay, borrow eye and sight from Him, and then look on His face with His eye,
  • So that you may be secure from satiety and weariness: on this account the Almighty said, “God shall belong to him:
  • I shall be his eye and hand and heart,” to the end that His fortunate one should escape from adversities.
  • Whatsoever is loathed is a lover and friend when it becomes thy guide towards thy beloved. 80
  • Story of the preacher who at the beginning of every exhortation used to pray for the unjust and hard-hearted and irreligious.
  • A certain preacher, whenever he mounted the pulpit, would begin to pray for the highway robbers (who plunder and maltreat the righteous).
  • He would lift up his hand, (crying), “O Lord, let mercy fall upon evil men and corrupters and insolent transgressors,
  • Upon all who make a mock of the good people, upon all whose hearts are unbelieving and those who dwell in the Christian monastery.”
  • He would not pray for the pure; he would pray for none but the wicked.
  • They said to him, “This is unknown (extraordinary): ’tis no generosity to pray for the people of unrighteousness.” 85