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1
1330-1379

  • Unless you are blind, know that this blueness comes from yourself: speak ill of yourself, speak no more ill of any one (else). 1330
  • If the true believer was not seeing by the Light of God, how did things unseen appear naked (plainly revealed) to the true believer?
  • Inasmuch as you were seeing by the Fire of God, in (your) badness you became forgetful of goodness.
  • Little by little throw water on the fire, that your fire may become light, O man of sorrow!
  • Throw Thou, O Lord, the purifying water, that this world-fire may become wholly light.
  • All the water of the sea is under Thy command; water and fire, O Lord, are Thine. 1335
  • If Thou willest, fire becomes sweet water; and if Thou willest not, even water becomes fire.
  • This search (aspiration) in us is also brought into existence by Thee; deliverance from iniquity is Thy gift, O Lord.
  • Without (our) seeking Thou hast given us this search, Thou hast opened to all the treasure of (Thy) beneficence.
  • How the hare brought to the beasts of chase the news that the lion had fallen into the well.
  • When the hare was gladdened by deliverance (from the lion), he began to run towards the beasts until (he came to) the desert.
  • Having seen the lion miserably slain in the well, he was skipping joyously all the way to the meadow, 1340
  • Clapping his hands because he had escaped from the hand of Death; fresh and dancing in the air, like bough and leaf.
  • Bough and leaf were set free from the prison of earth, lifted their heads, and became comrades of the wind;
  • The leaves, when they had burst (forth from) the bough, made haste to reach the top of the tree;
  • With the tongue of (seed that put forth) its sprouts each fruit and tree severally is singing thanks to God,
  • Saying, “The Bounteous Giver nourished our root until the tree grew big and stood upright.” 1345
  • (Even so) the spirits bound in clay, when they escape glad at heart from their (prisons of) clay,
  • Begin to dance in the air of Divine Love and become flawless like the full moon's orb,
  • Their bodies dancing, and their souls—nay, do not ask (how their souls fare); and of that which surrounds the soul—nay, do not ask of those things!
  • The hare lodged the lion in prison. Shame on a lion who was discomfited by a hare!
  • He is in such a disgrace, and still—this is a wonder—he would fain be addressed by the title of Fakhr-i Dín. 1350
  • O thou lion that liest alone at the bottom of this well, thy fleshly soul, like the hare, has shed and drunk thy blood;
  • Thy hare-soul is feeding in the desert, (whilst) thou art (lying) at the bottom of this well of “How?” and “Why?”
  • That lion-catcher (the hare) ran towards the beasts, crying, “Rejoice, O my people, since the announcer of joy is come.
  • Glad news! Glad news, O company of merry-makers! That hell-hound has gone back to Hell.
  • Glad news! Glad news! The enemy of your lives—his teeth have been torn out by the vengeance of his Creator. 1355
  • He who smote many heads with his claws—him too the broom of Death has swept away like rubbish.”
  • How the beasts gathered round the hare and spoke in praise of him.
  • Then all the wild beasts assembled, joyous and laughing gleefully in rapture and excitement.
  • They formed a ring, he (the hare) in the midst like a candle: they bowed (in homage) and said to him, "Hark!"
  • “Art thou a heavenly angel or a peri? No, thou art the Azrael of fierce lions.
  • Whatever thou art, our souls are offered in sacrifice to thee. Thou hast prevailed. Health to thy hand and arm! 1360
  • God turned this water into thy stream. Blessing on thy hand and arm!
  • Explain how thou didst meditate with guile, and how thou didst guilefully wipe out that ruffian.
  • Explain, in order that the tale may be the means of curing (our malady); explain, that it may be a salve for our souls.
  • Explain! for in consequence of the iniquity of that tyrant our souls have myriads of wounds.”
  • “O Sirs,” said he, “it was (by) God's aid; else, who in the world is a hare (who am I, that I should have been able to do this)? 1365
  • He (God) bestowed power on me and gave light to my heart: the light in my heart gave strength to hand and foot.”
  • From God come preferments (to high position), from God also come changes (which bring one to low estate).
  • God in (due) course and turn is ever displaying this (Divine) aid to doubters and seers (alike).
  • How the hare admonished the beasts, saying, “Do not rejoice in this!”
  • Take heed! Do not exult in a kingdom bestowed in turns (passing from one to another), O thou who art the bondsman of Vicissitude, do not act as though thou wert free!
  • (But) those for whom is prepared a kingdom beyond Vicissitude, for them the drums (of sovereignty) are beaten beyond the Seven Planets. 1370
  • Beyond Vicissitude are the kings everlasting: their spirits are circling with the Cupbearer perpetually.
  • If thou wilt renounce this drinking (of worldly pleasures) for a day or two (for thy brief lifetime), thou wilt dip thy mouth in the drink of Paradise.
  • Commentary on (the Tradition) “We have returned from the lesser Jihád to the greater Jihád.”
  • O kings, we have slain the outward enemy, (but) there remains within (us) a worse enemy than he.
  • To slay this (enemy) is not the work of reason and intelligence: the inward lion is not subdued by the hare.
  • This carnal self (nafs) is Hell, and Hell is a dragon (the fire of) which is not diminished by oceans (of water). 1375
  • It would drink up the Seven Seas, and still the blazing of that consumer of all creatures would not become less.
  • Stones and stony-hearted infidels enter it, miserable and shamefaced,
  • (But) still it is not appeased by all this food, until there comes to it from God this call—
  • “Art thou filled, art thou filled?” It says, “Not yet; lo, here is the fire, here is the glow, here is the burning!”