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2
241-290

  • Day rose. The servant came at morn and at once laid the saddle firmly on the ass's back.
  • After the fashion of ass-dealers he gave him two or three blows (with a goad): he did to the ass what is befitting from such a cur (as he was).
  • The sharpness of the sting set the ass jumping; where is the tongue (has an ass such a tongue) that he may describe his own state (feelings)?
  • How the people of the caravan supposed the Sufi's beast was ill
  • When the Súfí mounted and got going, he (the ass) began to fall on his face every time,
  • (And) every time the people (the travellers) lifted him up: they all thought he was ill. 245
  • One would twist his ears hard, while another sought for the (lacerated) part under his palate,
  • And another searched for the stone in his shoe, and another looked at the dirt in his eye.
  • Also they were saying,“O Shaykh, what is the cause of this? Were not you saying yesterday, ‘Thanks (to God), this ass is strong’?”
  • He replied, “The ass that ate Lá hawl during the night cannot get along except in this manner.
  • Inasmuch as the ass's food by night was Lá hawl, he was glorifying God by night and (is engaged) in prostrating himself by day.” 250
  • Most people are man-eaters: put no trust in their saying, “Peace to you.”
  • The hearts of all are the Devil's house: do not accept (listen to) the palaver of devilish men.
  • He that swallows Lá hawl from the breath (mouth) of the Devil, like that ass falls headlong in the fight.
  • Whoever swallows the Devil's imposture in this world and (swallows) veneration and deceit from the foe that has the face (semblance) of a friend,
  • In the Way of Islam and on the bridge Sirát he will fall upon his head from giddiness, like that ass. 255
  • Beware! Do not hearken to the blandishments of the bad friend: espy the snare, do not walk securely on the earth.
  • See the hundred thousand devils who utter Lá hawl! O Adam, in the serpent behold Iblís!
  • He gives (you) vain words, he says to you, “O my soul and beloved,” that he may strip the skin off his beloved, like a butcher.
  • He gives vain words that he may strip off your skin: woe to him that tastes opium from (the mouth of) enemies.
  • He lays his head at your feet (in flattery) and butcher-like gives (you) vain (wheedling) words, that he may shed your blood miserably. 260
  • Like a lion, hunt your prey yourself: leave (pay no heed to) the blandishment of stranger or kinsman.
  • Know that the regard of the base is like that servant; ’tis better to have nobody (as your friend) than (to accept) the flattery of nobodies (worthless people).
  • Do not make your home in (other) men's land: do your own work, don't do the work of a stranger.
  • Who is the stranger? Your earthen body, for the sake of which is (all) your sorrow.
  • So long as you are giving your body greasy (rich) and sweet (food), you will not see fatness in your (spiritual) essence. 265
  • If the body be set in the midst of musk, (yet) on the day of death its stench will become manifest.
  • Do not put musk on your body, rub it on your heart. What is musk? The holy name of the Glorious (God).
  • The hypocrite puts musk on his body and puts his spirit at the bottom of the ash-pit.
  • On his tongue the name of God, and in his soul stenches (arising) from his infidel thought.
  • In relation to him praise of God is (like) the herbage of the ash-pit: it is roses and lilies (growing) upon a dunghill. 270
  • Those plants are certainly there on loan (and belong to somewhere else); the proper place for those flowers is the symposium and (the scene of) festivity.
  • The good women come to the good men; there is (also the text) to the wicked men the wicked women. Mark!
  • Do not bear malice: they that are led astray by malice, their graves are placed beside the malicious.
  • The origin of malice is Hell, and your malice is a part of that whole and is the enemy of your religion.
  • Since you are a part of Hell, take care! The part gravitates towards its whole. 275
  • He that is bitter will assuredly be attached to those who are bitter: how should vain breath (false words) be joined with the truth?
  • O brother, you are that same thought (of yours); as for the rest (of you), you are (only) bone and fibre.
  • If your thought is a rose, you are a rose-garden; and if it is a thorn, you are fuel for the bath-stove.
  • If you are rose-water, you are sprinkled on head and bosom; and if you are (stinking) like urine, you are cast out.
  • Look at the trays in front of druggists—each kind put beside its own kind, 280
  • Things of each sort mixed with things of the same sort, and a certain elegance produced by this homogeneity;
  • If his (the druggist's) aloes-wood and sugar get mixed, he picks them out from each other, piece by piece.
  • The trays were broken and the souls were spilled: good and evil ones were mingled with each other.
  • God sent the prophets with scrolls (of Revelation), that He might pick out (and sort) these grains on the dish.
  • Before the, (the prophets) we were all alike, none knew whether we were good or bad. 285
  • False coin and fine (both) were current in the world, since all was night, and we were as night-travellers,
  • Until the sun of the prophets rose and said, “Begone, O alloy! Come, O thou that art pure!”
  • The eye can distinguish colours, the eye knows ruby and (common) stone.
  • The eye knows the jewel and the rubbish; hence bits of rubbish sting the eye.
  • These vile counterfeiters are enemies of day, those pieces of gold from the mine are lovers of day, 290