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1
2295-2344

  • Similarly you may take (every animal) from the gnat to the elephant: they all have become God's family (dependent on Him for their nourishment), and what an excellent nourisher is God! 2295
  • All these griefs that are within our breasts arise from the vapour and dust of our existence and wind (vain desire).
  • These uprooting griefs are as a scythe to us: (to think that) this is such and such or that that is such and such is a temptation (of the Devil) to us.
  • Know that every pain is a piece of Death: expel (that) part of Death from thee, if there be a means (of doing so).
  • When thou canst not flee from the part of Death, know that the whole of it will be poured upon thy head.
  • If the part of Death has become sweet to thee, know that God will make the whole sweet. 2300
  • Pains are coming from Death as (his) messengers: do not avert thy face from his messenger, O foolish one!
  • Whoever lives sweetly (pleasantly) dies bitterly (painfully): whoever serves his body does not save his soul.
  • Sheep are driven from the plains (to the town): they kill those that are fattest.
  • The night is past and dawn is come. O my soul, how long wilt thou take up (again) this tale of gold from the beginning?
  • Thou wert young (once), and (then) thou wert more contented: (now) thou hast become a seeker of gold, (but) at first thou wert gold indeed (precious and perfect). 2305
  • Thou wert a fruitful vine: how hast thou become unsaleable (worthless)? How hast thou become rotten when thy fruit is ripening?
  • Thy fruit ought to become sweeter and not move farther backwards like rope-makers.
  • Thou art my wife: the wife must be of the same quality (as the husband) in order that things may go rightly.
  • The married pair must match one another: look at a pair of shoes or boots.
  • If one of the shoes is too tight for the foot, the pair of them is of no use to thee. 2310
  • Hast thou ever seen one leaf of a (folding) door small and the other large, or a wolf mated with the lion of the jungle?
  • A pair of sacks on a camel do not balance properly when one is empty and one full to the brim.
  • I march with stout heart towards contentment: why art thou betaking thyself to revilement?”
  • In this fashion the contented man, moved by sincerity and ardour, was talking to his wife till daybreak.
  • How the wife counselled her husband, saying, "Don't talk in excess of (beyond) thy merit and (spiritual) rank—'why say ye that which ye do not?'—for although these words are true, yet thou hast not attained to the degree of trust in God, and to speak thus above thy station and devotional practice is harmful and 'exceedingly hateful in the sight of God.'"
  • The wife cried out at him, saying, “O thou who makest reputation thy religion, I will not swallow thy spells (deceiving speeches) any more. 2315
  • Don't talk nonsense in thy presumption and pretension: begone, don't speak from pride and arrogance.
  • How long (wilt thou utter) pompous and artificial phrases? Look at thine own acts and feelings and be ashamed!
  • Pride is ugly, and in beggars (all the) more ugly: (it is like) wet clothes after a cold snowy day.
  • How long (this) pretension and palaver and bluster, O thou whose house is (frail) as the house of the spider?
  • When hast thou illumined thy soul by contentment? Of contentment thou hast learned (only) the name. 2320
  • The Prophet said, ‘What is contentment? A treasure.’ Thou canst not distinguish the gain from the pain.
  • This contentment is the soul's treasure: do not thou boast (of possessing it), O (thou who art) grief and pain to my soul.
  • Don't call me thy mate, don't flap so much. I am the mate of justice, I am not the mate of fraud.
  • How art thou walking (consorting) with amír and bey, when thou art slitting the veins of (killing for food) the locust in the air?
  • Thou art contending with dogs for the sake of this bone, thou art wailing like an empty-bellied reed-pipe. 2325
  • Don't look at me dully (coldly) with contempt, lest I tell (others) what is in thy veins (disclose thy hidden faults).
  • Thou hast deemed thy understanding superior to mine, (but) how hast thou (truly) seen me, who am deficient in understanding?
  • Don't spring upon me like a reckless wolf! Oh, better be without understanding (mad) than (suffer) the disgrace of (having) thy understanding.
  • Since thy understanding is a shackle for mankind, it is not understanding: it is a snake and scorpion.
  • May God be the enemy of thy iniquity and deceit! May thy (superior) talent and understanding fall short of (fail to injure) us! 2330
  • Thou art both the snake and the charmer—oh, this is wonderful! Thou art (both) the snake-catcher and the snake, O thou disgrace to the Arabs!
  • If the crow knew its ugliness, from grief and sorrow it would melt like snow.
  • The charmer chants (a spell) as an enemy (does); he is (casting) a spell upon the snake and the snake is (casting) a spell upon him.
  • If his trap were not (devised by him as) a spell for the snake (a means of catching it), how would he become a prey to the snake's spell?
  • The charmer, from greed of getting and making (money), is not conscious of the snake's spell at the time. 2335
  • The snake says, ‘O charmer, beware, beware! Thou hast beheld thine own spell (and its effect upon me): now behold mine!
  • Thou beguilest me with the Name of God in order that thou mayst expose me to shame and confusion.
  • The Name of God enthralled me, not thy contrivance: thou madest the Name of God a trap: woe to thee!
  • The Name of God will take vengeance from thee on my behalf: I commit my soul and body to the Name of God.
  • Either it will sever the vein of thy life by my stroke, or it will bring thee into a prison as (it has brought) me.’” 2340
  • Rough speeches of this sort, (whole) volumes, the woman recited to her youthful husband.
  • How the man counselled his wife, saying, “Do not look with contempt on the poor, but regard the work of God as perfect, and do not let thy vain thought and opinion of thine own penury cause thee to sneer at poverty and revile the poor.”
  • “O woman,” said he, “art thou a woman or the father of sorrow? Poverty is (my) pride, and do not thou beat me on the head (lash me with thy reproaches).
  • Wealth and gold are as a cap to the head: ’tis the bald man that makes a shelter of his cap,
  • (But) he that has curly and beautiful locks is happier when his cap is gone.