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5
804-828

  • (While) on the contrary the resting-places of the Ocean, when its billows swell, have no floor or roof (to shelter the traveller) during (his) stay and detention.
  • These (Oceanic) stages have no visible beacon: these resting-places have neither sign nor name. 805
  • Between every two resting-places Yonder there is (a distance) a hundred times as much as from the vegetal state to the Essential Spirit.
  • Thou hast seen this life (to be implicit) in (previous) deaths: how, (then), art thou (so) attached to the life of the body?
  • Come, O crow, give up this (animal) soul! Be a falcon, be self-sacrificing in the presence of the Divine transmutation.
  • Take the new and surrender the old, for every “this year” of thine is superior to three “last years.”
  • If thou wilt not be lavish (of thyself) like the date-palm, (then) pile old rags on old rags and make a heap, 810
  • And offer the stinking and rotten old rags to every blind man.
  • He that hath seen the new is not thy customer: he is God's prey, he is not thy captive.
  • (But) wherever is a flock of blind birds, they will gather around thee, O brackish flood-water,
  • That (their) blindness may be increased by (thy) brackish waters; for brackish water increases blindness.
  • Hence the worldly are blind of heart: they are drinkers of the brackish water of clay. 815
  • Continue to give brackish water and buy (the favour of) the blind in the world, since thou hast not the Water of Life within thee.
  • In such a (despicable) state (as has been described) thou wouldst fain live and be remembered: in blackness of face (shame and opprobrium), like a negro, thou art rejoicing.
  • The negro in (his) blackness is pleased (with himself), for he has (always) been a negro by birth and nature;
  • (But) he that (even) for a day is beloved and beautiful, if he become black, will seek to repair (the misfortune).
  • When the bird that can fly remains (helpless) on the earth, it is in anguish and grief and lamentation; 820
  • (But) the domestic fowl walks complacently on the earth: it runs about picking grain and happy and bold,
  • Because by nature it was (always) without (the power of) flight, while the other (bird) was (naturally) a flier and open-winged.
  • The Prophet, on whom be peace, said, “Pity three (classes of men): the mighty man of a people who is abased, and the rich man of a people who is impoverished, and a learned man whom the ignorant make sport of.”
  • The Prophet said, “Take pity on the soul of him who was rich and then became poor,
  • And on him who was mighty and became despised, or on one (who is) virtuous and learned (dwelling) amongst the (people of) Mudar.”
  • The Prophet said, “Show pity to these three classes (of men), (even) if ye are of (the hardness of) rock and mountain: 825
  • (Namely), him who was made lowly after having been a chief, and the rich man, too, who became impecunious,
  • And, thirdly, the learned man who in this world becomes afflicted (by living amongst) the foolish;
  • For to come (fall) from high to low estate is like the amputation of a limb from the body.”