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4
2148-2197

  • Be trembling for (fear of losing) the delightful moment: conceal it like a treasure, do not divulge it.
  • Lest calamity suddenly befall (your) plighted love, take heed, go very fearfully into that place of ambush.
  • The spirit's fear of loss at the moment of enjoyment is (the sign of its) departure (descent) from the hidden roof-edge. 2150
  • If you do not see the mysterious roof-edge, (yet) the spirit is seeing, for it is shuddering (with fear).
  • Every sudden chastisement that has come to pass has taken place on the edge of the turret of enjoyment.
  • Indeed there is no fall except (on) the edge of the roof: (take) warning from (the fate of) the people of Noah and the people of Lot.
  • Explaining the cause of the eloquence and loquacity of that impertinent man in the presence of the Prophet, on whom be peace.
  • When the ray (reflexion) of the Prophet's boundless intoxication struck (the objector), that stupid fellow also became drunken and merry.
  • Of course, in consequence of (drunken) glee he became loquacious: the intoxicated man neglected (to observe) respect and began to rave. 2155
  • Not on every occasion does selflessness (intoxication) work mischief, (but) wine makes the unmannerly person more so.
  • If he (the wine-drinker) be intelligent, he becomes decorous (displays goodly qualities when beside himself); and if he be evil-natured, he becomes worse.
  • But since the majority are evil and reprobate, wine has been forbidden to all.
  • How the Prophet, on whom be peace, explained the cause of his preferring and choosing the (young) man of Hudhayl as commander and chief of the army over the heads of the elders and veterans.
  • Cases are decided by the general rule (not by the exceptions):since the majority are evil, the sword was taken away from the hand of the highwayman.
  • The Prophet said, “O thou who lookest on externals, do not regard him as a youth and unskilled. 2160
  • Oh, there is many a black beard and the man (its owner) old (in wisdom); oh, there is many a white beard with a heart (black) as pitch.
  • Often have I tested his understanding: that youth has shown (the ripe experience of) age in (handling) affairs.
  • O son, the (really) old is the old in understanding: ‘tis not whiteness of the hair in the beard and on the head.
  • How should he (any old man) be older than Iblís? When he lacks understanding, he is good-for-naught.
  • Suppose he is a child: (what matter) when he hath the (life-giving) breath of Jesus (and) is purged of vainglory and vain desire? 2165
  • That whiteness of hair is a proof of maturity to the bandaged eye that hath little penetration.
  • Since the blind imitator recognises nothing but (an external) proof, he continually seeks the way (to the truth) in the (out ward) sign.
  • For his sake we have said, ‘When you wish to plan (anything), choose an elder (to advise you).’
  • He who has escaped from the purdah of blind imitation sees by the light of God that which (really) is.
  • Without proof and without exposition the pure Light cleaves its (the object’s) skin and enters into the middle (the core). 2170
  • To one who regards (only) the appearance, what is (the difference between) the adulterated and genuine coin? How should he know what is in the date-basket?
  • Oh, there is much gold made black with smoke, that it may be saved from (falling into) the hands of every envious thief.
  • Oh, there is much copper gilded with gold, that he (the counterfeiter) may sell it to (those of) small understanding.
  • We, who see the inward (reality) of the whole world, see the heart and look not on the outward form.”
  • The cadis who are concerned with the outward form (the letter of the law) give judgement according to outward appearances. 2175
  • When he (the suspected person) has uttered the profession of the Faith and has shown some (formal sign of) true belief, at once these people (the cadis) pronounce him a true believer.
  • There is many a hypocrite who has taken refuge in this out ward form and has shed the blood of a hundred true believers in secret.
  • Endeavour to become old in intelligence and religion, that you may become, like the Universal Intelligence, a seer of the in ward (reality).
  • When the beauteous Intelligence unveiled its face (revealed itself) from non-existence, He (God) gave it a robe of honour and a thousand names.
  • Of those sweet-breathing names the least is this, that it (the Intelligence) is not in need of any one. 2180
  • If the Intelligence display its face in visible form, day will be dark beside its light;
  • And if the shape of foolishness become visible, beside it the darkness of night will be radiant,
  • For it is darker and more murky than night; but the miserable bat is a buyer (seeker) of darkness.
  • Little by little accustom yourself to the daylight, else you will remain a bat deprived of splendour.
  • He (the bat-like person) is the lover of every place where there is difficulty and perplexing doubt, and the enemy of every place where there is the lamp of (spiritual) felicity 2185
  • His heart seeks the darkness of perplexity in order that his acquirements may seem greater (than they are),
  • So that he may preoccupy you with that difficult question and make you oblivious of his own evil nature.
  • The marks of the wholly intelligent and the half-intelligent and the whole man and the half-man and the deluded worthless wretch doomed to perdition.
  • The intelligent man is he who hath the lamp: he is the guide and leader of the caravan.
  • That leader is one who goes after his own light: that selfless traveller is the follower of himself.
  • He is the one that puts faith in himself; and do ye too put faith in the light on which his soul has browsed. 2190
  • The other, who is the half-intelligent, deems an (entirely) intelligent person to be his eye,
  • And has clutched him as the blind man clutches the guide, so that through him he has become seeing and active and illustrious.
  • But (as for) the ass who had not a single barley-corn's weight of intelligence, who possessed no intelligence himself and forsook the intelligent (guide),
  • (Who) knows neither much nor little of the way (and yet) disdains to go behind the guide,
  • He is journeying in a long wilderness, now limping in despair and now (advancing) at a run. 2195
  • He hath neither a candle, that he should make it his leader, nor half a candle, that he should beg a light.
  • He hath neither (perfect) intelligence, that he should breathe the breath of the living, nor hath he a half-intelligence, that he should make himself dead.