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2
2337-2386

  • Often have I tried (sound) intelligence; henceforth I will seek a nursery for insanity.”
  • How an inquirer managed to draw into conversation an eminent (saintly) man who had feigned to be mad.
  • A certain man was saying, “I want some one of intelligence, (that) I may consult him about a difficulty.”
  • One said to him, “In our city there is nobody of intelligence except yonder man who appears to be mad.
  • Look, there is (one named) so-and-so: mounted on a cane, he rides (it as a cock-horse) amongst the children. 2340
  • He is possessed of judgment and (keen as) a spark of fire; he is as the sky in dignity, and as the stars in high estate.
  • His glory has become the (rational) soul of the Cherubim; he has become concealed in this (feigned) madness.”
  • But you must not account every madman a (rational) soul: do not, like Sámirí, lay down your head (in worship) to a calf.
  • When a manifest saint has declared unto you hundreds of thousands of unseen things and hidden mysteries,
  • And you have not had the (proper) understanding and knowledge, (so that) you have not distinguished dung from aloes-wood— 2345
  • How, when the saint has made for himself a veil of madness, will you recognise him, O blind one?
  • If your eye of intuitive certainty is open, behold a (spiritual) captain under every stone.
  • To the eye that is open and (as) a guide, every dervish-cloak hath a Moses in its embrace.
  • ’Tis only the saint (himself) that makes the saint known and makes fortunate whomsoever he will.
  • No one can recognise him by means of wisdom when he has feigned to be mad. 2350
  • When a seeing thief steals from a blind man, can he at all detect (the identity of) the thief (who is) in the act of passing?
  • The blind man does not know who it was that robbed him, even though the wicked thief may knock against him.
  • When a dog bites a blind ragged mendicant, how should he recognise that ferocious dog?
  • How the dog attacked the mendicant who was blind.
  • A dog was attacking, as (though it were) a warlike lion, a blind mendicant in a certain street.
  • The dog rushes angrily at dervishes; the moon smears her eyes with dust of (the feet of) dervishes. 2355
  • The blind man was made helpless by the dog's barking and by (his) fear of the dog; the blind man began to pay honour to the dog.
  • Saying, “O prince of the chase, and O lion of the hunt, thine is the (upper) hand: refrain thy hand from me!”—
  • For, (moved) by necessity, that (renowned) philosopher paid honour to (one vile as) the tail of an ass, and gave him the title of “noble.”
  • He (the blind man) too, of necessity, said, “O lion, what (good) will come to thee from such a meagre prey as I am?
  • Thy friends are catching onagers in the desert; thou art catching a blind man in the street; this is bad. 2360
  • Thy friends seek on agers by hunting (them); thou in (mere) malice seekest a blind man in the street.”
  • The knowing dog has made the onager his prey, while this worthless dog has attacked a blind man.
  • When the dog has learned the knowledge (imparted to him), he has escaped from error: he hunts lawful prey in the jungles.
  • When the dog has become knowing (‘álim), he marches briskly; when the dog has become a knower of God (‘árif), he becomes (as) the Men of the Cave.
  • The dog has come to know who is the Master of the hunt. O God, what is that knowing light? 2365
  • (If) the blind man knows it not, ’tis not from (his) having no eye (to see); nay, ’tis because he is drunken with ignorance.
  • Truly, the blind man is not more eyeless than the earth; and this earth, by the grace of God, has become a seer of (God's) enemies.
  • It saw the Light of Moses and showed kindness to Moses; (but) Qárún it engulfed, (for) it knew Qárún.
  • It quaked for the destruction of every false pretender: it understood (the words that came) from God, “O earth, swallow (thy water)!”
  • Earth and water and air and sparking fire are unacquainted with us, but acquainted with God. 2370
  • Contrariwise, we are aware of (things) other than God, (but) unaware (heedless) of God and of so many warners (prophets).
  • As a necessary consequence, they (the elements) all shrank from (accepting) it (the trust offered to them): (the edge of) their impulse to partake of life was blunted.
  • They said, “We all are averse to this life, (namely), that one should be living in relation to created beings and dead in relation to God.”
  • When he (any one) remains away from created beings, he is orphaned (single): for intimacy with God, the heart must be free (from relations with aught besides).
  • When a thief steals some article of property from a blind man, the blind man is blindly lamenting. 2375
  • Until the thief say to him, “’Tis I that stole from thee, for I am an artful thief,”
  • How should the blind man know his thief, since he hath not the eye's light and that radiance (of vision)?
  • When he (the thief) speaks (and confesses), at once take tight hold of him, that he may tell the marks (descriptive) of the (stolen) goods.
  • The Greater Jihád (Holy War), then, consists in squeezing the thief, in order that he may tell what he has stolen and what he has carried off.
  • First, he has stolen your eye-salve; when you take it (from him), you will regain (your) insight. 2380
  • The goods of wisdom, which have been lost by (your) heart, are certainly to be found with the man of heart (the saint).
  • The blind of heart, notwithstanding (his possession of) life and hearing and sight, is never knowing the devilish thief by the traces (which he leaves).
  • Seek (that knowledge) from the man of heart; do not seek it from the inanimate, for (all other) people are inanimate beside (in comparison with) him.
  • The seeker of counsel approached him (the saint who was feigning madness), saying, “O father who hast become (as) a child, tell (me) a secret.”
  • He answered, “Begone from this door-ring, for this door is not open. Turn back: to-day is not the day for secrets. 2385
  • If the spatial had (any) access to the non-spatial, I should be (seated) on the bench, (giving instruction) like the Shaykhs (spiritual directors).”
  • How the Police Inspector summoned the man who had fallen dead-drunk (on the ground) to (go to) prison.