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2
845-894

  • Man is concealed underneath his tongue: this tongue is the curtain over the gate of the soul. 845
  • When a gust of wind has rolled up the curtain, the secret of the interior of the house is disclosed to us,
  • (And we see) whether in that house there are pearls or (grains of) wheat, a treasure of gold or whether all is snakes and scorpions;
  • Or whether a treasure is there and a serpent beside it, since a treasure of gold is not without some one to keep watch.
  • Without premeditation he (that slave) would speak in such wise as others after five hundred premeditations.
  • You would have said that in his inward part there was a sea, and that the whole sea was pearls of eloquence, 850
  • (And that) the light that shone from every pearl became a criterion for distinguishing between truth and falsehood.
  • (So) would the light of the Criterion (Universal Reason), (if it shone into our hearts), distinguish for us truth and falsehood and separate them mote by mote;
  • The light of the (Divine) Pearl would become the light of our eyes: both the question and the answer would be (would come) from us.
  • (But) you have made your eyes awry and seen the moon's disk double: this gazing in perplexity is like the question.
  • Make your eyes straight in the moonshine, so that you may see the moon as one. Lo, (that is) the answer. 855
  • Your thought, (namely), "Do not see awry, look well!" is just the light and radiance of that Pearl.
  • Whenever an answer comes to the heart through the ear, the eye says, “Hear it from me; let that (answer given through the ear) alone!”
  • The ear is a go-between, while the eye is possessed of union (immediate vision); the eye has direct experience (of reality), while the ear has (only) words (doctrine).
  • In the ear's hearing there is a transformation of qualities; in the eyes' seeing there is a transformation of essence.
  • If your knowledge of fire has been turned to certainty by words (alone), seek to be cooked (by the fire itself), and do not abide in the certainty (of knowledge derived from others). 860
  • There is no intuitive (actual) certainty until you burn; (if) you desire this certainty, sit down in the fire.
  • When the ear is penetrating, it becomes an eye; otherwise, the word (of God) becomes entangled in the ear (and does not reach the heart).
  • This discourse hath no end. Turn back, that (we may see) what the King did to those slaves of his.
  • How the King sent away one of the two slaves and interrogated the other.
  • When he saw that that laddie was possessed of keen intelligence, he made a sign to the other to come (to him).
  • (If) I have called him by (a word which has) the suffix of pity (tenderness), ’tis not to belittle him: if a grandfather say “my sonny,” it is not (in) contempt. 865
  • When the second (slave) came before the King, he had a stinking mouth and black teeth.
  • Although the King was displeased by his speech, still he made some inquiry concerning his hidden thoughts.
  • He said, “With this aspect and this foul smell of the mouth, sit at a distance, but do not move too far off—
  • For (hitherto) you have been (with regard to me in the position of) a writer of letters and notes; you have not been a companion and friend and comrade—
  • That we may treat (and cure) that mouth of yours: you are (now) the beloved (patient), and we are the skilful physician. 870
  • ’Tis not fitting to burn a new blanket on account of one flea; (nor would it become me) to shut my eyes to (turn my back on) you (because of superficial faults).
  • Notwithstanding all (this), sit down and talk on a few topics, that I may well see the form of your mind.”
  • Then he sent that keen-witted one away to do (his behest): (he sent him) to a bathhouse, saying, “Go, scrub yourself.”
  • And to this other one he said, “Good! you are a clever lad: in truth you are a hundred slaves, not one.
  • You are not such as your fellow-servant declared: that envious one would (fain) have made me cold to (disgusted with) you, 875
  • (For) he said that you are thievish and dishonest and ill-behaved, immoral and infamous and so forth.”
  • The slave said, “He (my fellow-servant) has always been veracious; I have not seen any one so truthful as he is.
  • Veracity is inborn in his nature; whatever he says, I do not say it is void (of truth).
  • I deem not that good-minded one malicious: I (rather) suspect my own person.
  • Maybe, he sees in me faults I do not see in myself, O King.” 880
  • Any one saw his own faults before (seeing those of others) —how should he be unconcerned with correcting himself?
  • These people (of the world) take no heed of themselves, O father: consequently they blame one another.
  • O idolater (dualist), (if) I do not behold my own face (reality), I behold thy face and thou beholdest mine.
  • He that beholds his own face (reality)—his light is greater than the light of the creatures (of God).
  • Though he die, his sight is everlasting, because his sight is the sight of the Creator. 885
  • That light by which he sensibly beholds his own face (reality) before him, is not the light of sense.
  • The King said, “Now tell his (your fellow-servant's) faults, just as he spoke of yours,
  • That I may know whether you are solicitous for me and a (good) house-steward of my property and business.”
  • He replied, “O King, I will tell his faults, though he is to me a pleasing fellow-servant.
  • His faults are affection and loyalty and humanity; his faults are sincerity and keen wittedness and cordial comradeship. 890
  • His least fault is generosity and bounty—the generosity that even gives up life.”
  • God has brought to view myriads of lives (in return for the life given up): what generosity would there be (in him) that saw not those?
  • And if he saw them, how should he grudge his life? How should he become so grieved for the sake of one life?
  • On the river-bank, water is grudged by him (alone) that is blind to the stream of water.