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5
468-492

  • Do not weave plots in vain imagination and cunning; for the Self-sufficient One does not give way to the contriver.
  • Contrive, in the way of (by following the guidance of) one who serves (God) well, that you may gain the position of a prophet in a religious community.
  • Contrive that you may be delivered from your own contrivance; contrive that you may become detached from the body. 470
  • Contrive that you may become the meanest slave (of God): if you enter into (the state of) meanness (self-abasement), you will become lordly.
  • Never, O old wolf, practise foxiness and perform service with the purpose of (gaining) lordship;
  • But rush into the fire like a moth: do not hoard up that (service), play for love!
  • Renounce power and adopt piteous supplication: (the Divine) mercy comes towards piteous supplication, O dervish.
  • The piteous supplication of one sorely distressed and athirst is real; the piteous (but) cold supplication of falsehood is proper to the miscreant. 475
  • The weeping of Joseph's brethren is a trick, for their hearts are full of envy and infirmity.
  • Story of the Arab of the desert whose dog was dying of hunger, while his wallet was full of bread; he was lamenting over the dog and reciting poetry and sobbing and beating his head and face; and yet he grudged the dog a morsel from his wallet.
  • The dog was dying, and the Arab sobbing, shedding tears, and crying, “Oh, sorrow!”
  • A beggar passed by and asked, “What is this sobbing? For whom is thy mourning and lamentation?”
  • He replied, “There was in my possession a dog of excellent disposition. Look, he is dying on the road.
  • He hunted for me by day and kept watch by night; (he was) keen-eyed and (good at) catching the prey and driving off thieves.” 480
  • He (the beggar) asked, “What ails him? Has he been wounded?” The Arab replied, “Ravenous hunger has made him (so) lamentable.”
  • “Show some patience,” said he, “in (bearing) this pain and anguish: the grace of God bestows a recompense on those who are patient.”
  • Afterwards he said to him, “O noble chief, what is this full wallet in your hand?”
  • He replied, “My bread and provender and food left over from last night, (which) I am taking along (with me) to nourish my body.”
  • “Why don't you give (some) bread and provender to the dog?” he asked. He replied, “I have not love and liberality to this extent. 485
  • Bread cannot be obtained (by a traveller) on the road without money, but water from the eyes costs nothing.”
  • He (the beggar) said, “Earth be on your head, O water-skin full of wind! for in your opinion a crust of bread is better than tears.”
  • Tears are (originally) blood and have been turned by grief into water: idle tears have not the value of earth.
  • He (the Arab) made the whole of himself despicable, like Iblís: a piece of this whole is naught but vile.
  • I am the (devoted) slave of him who will not sell his existence save to that bounteous and munificent Sovereign, 490
  • (So that) when he weeps, heaven begins to weep, and when he moans (in supplication), the celestial sphere begins to cry, “O Lord!”
  • I am the (devoted) slave of that high-aspiring copper which humbles itself to naught but the Elixir.