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2083-2132

  • Lo, the lofty bough is proclaiming what the root has imbibed, whether it be poison or sugar.
  • If the root is leafless and without sap, what (then) are (signify) the green leaves on the bough?
  • The earth lays a seal on the root's tongue, (but) the bough, its hand and foot, is bearing witness.” 2085
  • All those trusted (officers) began to excuse themselves: they fell prostrate, like a shadow in the presence of the moon.
  • In excuse for that heat (hot-headedness) and boasting and egoism they went to the King with sword and winding-sheet,
  • All of them biting their fingers from shame, and every one saying, “O King of the world,
  • If thou shed (our) blood, ’tis lawful, lawful (for thee to do so); and if thou forgive, ’tis (an act of) grace and bounty.
  • We have done those deeds that were worthy of us: consider what thou wilt command, O glorious King. 2090
  • If thou forgive our crime, O thou who makest the heart radiant, the night will have shown the qualities of night, and the day (those of) day.
  • If thou forgive, despair will be removed; and if not, may a hundred like us be a sacrifice to the King!”
  • The King replied, “Nay, I will not show this clemency or deal this punishment: that (right) belongs to Ayáz.
  • [How the King referred to Ayáz the question of accepting the repentance of the ploiters who had opened his chamber or of punishing them, because he judged that the offence had been committed against his honour.]
  • This is an offence against his person and honour: the blow is (inflicted) on the veins of that man of goodly ways.
  • Although we are spiritually one, formally I am far from (I am unaffected by) this profit and loss.” 2095
  • An accusation against a (guilty) servant is no disgrace to the King: it is only (a means of) increasing (His) forbearance and (the servant's) reliance (on His protection).
  • Inasmuch as the King makes one who is accused (rich as) Qárún (Korah), consider how He will act towards one who is innocent.
  • Deem not the King to be ignorant of any one's actions: ’tis only His forbearance that prevents it (the evil action) from being brought to light.
  • Here who shall recklessly intercede with His knowledge— (who) except His forbearance?
  • The sin arises at first from His forbearance; otherwise, how should His awful majesty give (any) room for it (to arise)? 2100
  • (Payment of) the blood-price for the crime of the murderous carnal soul falls on His forbearance: the blood-wit is (an obligation) on the (murderer's) kin.
  • Our carnal soul was intoxicated and made beside itself by that forbearance: during its intoxication the Devil snatched away its cap.
  • Unless the Sáqí, Forbearance, had poured (the intoxicating) wine, how should the Devil have quarrelled with Adam?
  • At the time of (his being in possession of) knowledge, who was Adam in relation to the angels? (He was) the teacher of knowledge and the assayer of (its) coins.
  • After he had drunk the wine of (God's) forbearance in Paradise, he was confounded by a single trick of Satan. 2105
  • The doses of anacardium, (namely), the lessons (given to him) by the Loving One, had made him sagacious and wise and clever;
  • (But) afterwards the potent opium of His forbearance brought the Thief to (carry away) his (Adam's) property.
  • Reason comes to seek refuge with His forbearance, (saying), “Thou hast been my Sáqí (Thou hast intoxicated me): take my hand (succour me)!”
  • How the King said to Ayáz, “Choose either to pardon or to punish, for in the present case ’tis (equally) right whether you do justice or show mercy; and there are advantages in each.” Within justice a thousand mercies are enclosed: (God hath said), “and for you in retaliation there is a life.” He who deems retaliation abominable is regarding only the single life of the murderer and does not consider the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be protected and kept safe, as in a fortress, by fear of punishment.
  • “O Ayáz, pass sentence on the culprits! O incorruptible Ayáz who takest infinite precautions (to keep thyself pure),
  • Though I boil (test) thee in practice two hundred times, I do not find any refuse in the foam of thy boiling. 2110
  • A countless multitude of people are ashamed of (being put to) the test, (but) all tests are ashamed of (being tried on) thee.
  • It (thy knowledge) is a bottomless ocean: it is not (creaturely) knowledge alone; it (thy forbearance) is a mountain and a hundred mountains: indeed, it is not (creaturely) forbearance.”
  • He (Ayáz) replied, “I know that this is thy gift; otherwise I am (nothing except) those rustic shoon and that sheepskin jacket.”
  • Hence the Prophet expounded this (matter), (when he said), “Whoso knoweth himself knoweth God.”
  • The seed (from which you were conceived) is your shoon, and your blood is the sheepskin jacket: (all) the rest, O master, is His gift. 2115
  • He hath given it to you in order that you may seek more: do not say, “He has only this amount (to give).”
  • The gardener shows a number of apples, to the end that you may know the trees and produce of the orchard.
  • He (the wheat-merchant) gives the purchaser a handful of wheat, in order that he may know (the quality of) the wheat in the granary.
  • The teacher explains a nice point in order that you may recognise that his knowledge exceeds (those limits);
  • And if you say, “This is all (the knowledge) he has,” he will cast you far (from him) as sticks and straws (are cast) from the beard. 2120
  • “Now come, O Ayáz, and deal justice: lay the foundation of a rare justice in the world.
  • Those who have sinned against thee deserve to be killed, but in hope (of escaping death) they are attending (waiting upon) thy pardon and forbearance,
  • To see whether mercy will prevail or wrath, whether the water of Kawthar will prevail or the flames (of Hell).”
  • From the (ancient) Covenant of Alast (until now) both (these) boughs, (namely) forbearance and anger, are in existence for the purpose of carrying men (up to God).
  • Hence the perspicuous word Alast is (a case of) negation and affirmation joined in one word, 2125
  • Because this (Alast) is an affirmative question, but (nevertheless) the word laysa is buried in it.
  • Leave off, and let this exposition remain incomplete: do not lay the bowl for the elect on the table of the vulgar.
  • (’Tis) a wrath and a mercy like the zephyr (sabá) and the plague (wabá): the former is (like) the iron-attracting (magnet) and the latter (like) the straw attracting (amber).
  • The truth draws the righteous to righteousness; the false class (of things) draws the false (the wicked).
  • (If) the belly be sweet, it draws sweets (to itself); (if) the belly be bilious (acid), it draws vinegar (to itself). 2130
  • A burning (hot) carpet takes away coldness from one who sits (on it); a frozen (cold) carpet consumes (his) heat.
  • (When) you see a friend, mercy is aroused in you; (when) you see an enemy, violence is aroused in you.