’Tis abominable and blameworthy to lay a command on one incapable (of obeying it); and anger (on account of his disobedience) is worse, especially from the Merciful Lord.
امر عاجز را قبیحست و ذمیم ** خشم بتر خاصه از رب رحیم
An ox is beaten if he refuse the yoke: is an ox (ever) reduced to misery because he will not fly?
گاو گر یوغی نگیرد می‌زنند ** هیچ گاوی که نپرد شد نژند
Since the ox is not excused for frowardness, wherefore is the owner of the ox (to be held) excusable and infirm?
گاو چون معذور نبود در فضول ** صاحب گاو از چه معذورست و دول
Since you are not ill, don't bandage your head: you have freewill, don't laugh at your moustache.
چون نه‌ای رنجور سر را بر مبند ** اختیارت هست بر سبلت مخند
Endeavour to gain freshness (spiritual grace) from God's cup (of love): then you will become selfless and volitionless.3105
جهد کن کز جام حق یابی نوی ** بی‌خود و بی‌اختیار آنگه شوی
Then all volition will belong to that Wine, and you will be absolutely excusable, like a drunken man.
آنگه آن می را بود کل اختیار ** تو شوی معذور مطلق مست‌وار
Whatsoever you beat will (then) be beaten by the Wine; whatsoever you sweep away will (then) be swept away by the Wine.
هرچه گویی گفته‌ی می باشد آن ** هر چه روبی رفته‌ی می باشد آن
The drunken man who has quaffed wine from God's cup— how should he do aught but justice and right?
کی کند آن مست جز عدل و صواب ** که ز جام حق کشیدست او شراب
The magicians said to Pharaoh, ‘Stop! He that is drunken hath no care for his hands and feet.
جادوان فرعون را گفتند بیست ** مست را پروای دست و پای نیست
The wine of the One (God) is our (real) hands and feet; the apparent hand is (but) a shadow and worthless.’3110
دست و پای ما می آن واحدست ** دست ظاهر سایه است و کاسدست
The meaning of ‘whatever God willed came to be,’ i.e. ‘the will is His will and pleasure. Seek His pleasure, be not distressed by the anger of others and the disapproval of others.’ Although the word ‘kána’ (came to be) denotes the past, yet there is no past or future in the action of God, for with God there is neither morn nor eve.
معنی ما شاء الله کان یعنی خواست خواست او و رضا رضای او جویید از خشم دیگران و رد دیگران دلتنگ مباشید آن کان اگر چه لفظ ماضیست لیکن در فعل خدا ماضی و مستقبل نباشد کی لیس عند الله صباح و لا مساء
The saying of (God's) servant, ‘whatever God wills comes to pass’ does not signify ‘be lazy (inactive) in that (matter)’;
قول بنده ایش شاء الله کان ** بهر آن نبود که تنبل کن در آن
Nay, it is an incitement to entire self-devotion and exertion, meaning, ‘Make yourself exceedingly ready to perform that service.’
بلک تحریضست بر اخلاص و جد ** که در آن خدمت فزون شو مستعد
If you are told, O sage, that what you wish (will come to pass, and that) you have full power to act according to your desire,
گر بگویند آنچ می‌خواهی تو راد ** کار کار تست برحسب مراد
Then, if you are neglectful (in serving God), ’tis permissible; for what you wish and say will come to pass.
آنگهان تنبل کنی جایز بود ** کانچ خواهی و آنچ گویی آن شود
When (on the contrary) you are told that whatever God wills shall come to pass, and that to Him belongs the authority absolute and everlasting,3115
چون بگویند ایش شاء الله کان ** حکم حکم اوست مطلق جاودان
Why, then, should not you move round Him like a slave, with the will of a hundred men to perform the devotions due to Him?
پس چرا صد مرده اندر ورد او ** بر نگردی بندگانه گرد او
If you are told that what the vizier wishes (is law and that) his will is paramount in the exercise of authority,
گر بگویند آنچ می‌خواهد وزیر ** خواست آن اوست اندر دار و گیر
Will you at once move round (pay court to) him with the zeal of a hundred men, that he may pour kindness and munificence on your head,
گرد او گردان شوی صد مرده زود ** تا بریزد بر سرت احسان و جود
Or will you flee from the vizier and his palace? This (flight) is not the way to seek his help.
یا گریزی از وزیر و قصر او ** این نباشد جست و جوی نصر او
You, inversely, have been made remiss by this saying: you have been turned upside down in your apprehension and thought.3120
بازگونه زین سخن کاهل شدی ** منعکس ادراک و خاطر آمدی
(Suppose you are told that) the command (supreme power) is vested in such and such a lord. Hark, what does this mean? It means, ‘Do not sit (consort) with any one except him.
امر امر آن فلان خواجه‌ست هین ** چیست یعنی با جز او کمتر نشین
Move round (pay constant homage to) the lord, since the (power to) command belongs to him; for he slays his enemy and saves the life of his friend.
گرد خواجه گرد چون امر آن اوست ** کو کشد دشمن رهاند جان دوست
Whatsoever he wills, that same thing you will certainly obtain: do not go astray, prefer his service (to all else).’
هرچه او خواهد همان یابی یقین ** یاوه کم رو خدمت او برگزین
(It does) not (mean), ‘Since he is possessed of (supreme) authority, do not move round him (do not frequent his court), so that you may fall into his black books and be disgraced.’
نی چو حاکم اوست گرد او مگرد ** تا شوی نامه سیاه و روی زود
The interpretation that makes you ardent and hopeful and active and reverent is the true one;3125
حق بود تاویل که آن گرمت کند ** پر امید و چست و با شرمت کند
And if it make you slack (in service), know the real truth to be this, that it is an alteration (of the right sense of the saying), not an interpretation.
ور کند سستت حقیقت این بدان ** هست تبدیل و نه تاویلست آن
This (saying) has come (down) in order to make (men) ardent (in serving God), that He may take the hands of those who have lost hope (and deliver them).
این برای گرم کردن آمدست ** تا بگیرد ناامیدان را دو دست
Ask the meaning of the Qur’án from the Qur’án alone, and from that one who has set fire to (and extinguished) his idle fancy,
معنی قرآن ز قرآن پرس و بس ** وز کسی که آتش زدست اندر هوس
And has become a sacrifice to the Qur’án and is (laid) low (in self-abasement), so that the Qur’án has become the essence of his spirit.
پیش قرآن گشت قربانی و پست ** تا که عین روح او قرآن شدست
The oil that has wholly devoted itself to the rose—smell either the oil or the rose as you please.3130
روغنی کو شد فدای گل به کل ** خواه روغن بوی کن خواهی تو گل
And similarly (the Tradition), ‘the Pen has dried’ means that the Pen has dried after writing (the words), ‘Obedience and disobedience (to God) are not on the same level, honesty and stealing are not on the same level.’ The Pen has dried (after writing) that thanksgiving and ingratitude are not on the same level. The Pen has dried (after writing) that God does not let the reward of the righteous be lost.
و هم‌چنین قد جف القلم یعنی جف القلم و کتب لا یستوی الطاعة والمعصیة لا یستوی الامانة و السرقة جف القلم ان لا یستوی الشکر و الکفران جف القلم ان الله لا یضیع اجر المحسنین
Likewise the (true) interpretation of ‘the Pen has dried’ (is that) it (this Tradition) is for the purpose of inciting to the most important work (of all).
هم‌چنین تاویل قد جف القلم ** بهر تحریضست بر شغل اهم
Therefore the Pen wrote that every action has the effect and consequence appropriate to it.
پس قلم بنوشت که هر کار را ** لایق آن هست تاثیر و جزا
The Pen has dried (after writing) that if you do wrong (in this world) you will suffer wrong (in the next), and that if you act rightly (here) the result will be your felicity (there).
کژ روی جف القلم کژ آیدت ** راستی آری سعادت زایدت
(If) you behave unjustly, you are damned: the Pen has dried (on that). If you show justice, you eat the fruit (of blessedness): the Pen has dried (on that).
When he (any one) steals, his hand goes: the Pen has dried (on that). (When) he drinks wine, he becomes intoxicated: the Pen has dried (on that).3135
چون بدزدد دست شد جف القلم ** خورد باده مست شد جف القلم
Do you deem it allowable, can it be allowable, that on account of the (eternally) prior decree God should come, like a person dismissed from office,
تو روا داری روا باشد که حق ** هم‌چو معزول آید از حکم سبق
Saying, ‘The affair has gone out of My hands: do not approach Me so often, do not entreat (Me) so much’?
که ز دست من برون رفتست کار ** پیش من چندین میا چندین مزار
Nay, the meaning is: ‘the Pen has dried (on this that) justice and injustice are not equal in My sight.
بلک معنی آن بود جف القلم ** نیست یکسان پیش من عدل و ستم
I have laid down a distinction between good and evil; I have also laid down a distinction between the bad and the worse.’
فرق بنهادم میان خیر و شر ** فرق بنهادم ز بد هم از بتر
If there be in you a single mote of self-discipline in excess of (that of) your companion, the grace of God will know,3140
ذره‌ای گر در تو افزونی ادب ** باشد از یارت بداند فضل رب
And will bestow on you that mote's amount of superiority: the mote will step forth as (big as) a mountain (to meet you).
قدر آن ذره ترا افزون دهد ** ذره چون کوهی قدم بیرون نهد
A king before whose throne there is no distinction between the faithful (friend) and the seeker of iniquity—
پادشاهی که به پیش تخت او ** فرق نبود از امین و ظلم‌جو
Between him who trembles in fear of his (the king's) disapproval and him who intrigues against his fortune (empire)—
آنک می‌لرزد ز بیم رد او ** وانک طعنه می‌زند در جد او
(So that) there is no difference, but both of them are one to him: he is not a king, may dark earth be on his head!
فرق نبود هر دو یک باشد برش ** شاه نبود خاک تیره بر سرش
If your (devotional) labour exceed (that of another) by a single mote, it (that mote) will be weighed in God's balance.3145
ذره‌ای گر جهد تو افزون بود ** در ترازوی خدا موزون بود
You continually work yourself to death in the service of these (worldly) kings, (yet) they are ignorant of (the difference between) treachery and honesty.
پیش این شاهان هماره جان کنی ** بی‌خبر ایشان ز غدر و روشنی
The words of a tale-bearer who speaks ill of you will cause your service (rendered) during (many) years to be wasted;
گفت غمازی که بد گوید ترا ** ضایع آرد خدمتت را سالها
(But) the words of tale-bearers do not take their abode in the presence of the King who is hearing and seeing.
پیش شاهی که سمیعست و بصیر ** گفت غمازان نباشد جای‌گیر
All the tale-bearers are reduced to despair by Him: they come to us and increase (our) bondage.
جمله غمازان ازو آیس شوند ** سوی ما آیند و افزایند پند
They speak much abuse of the King before us, saying, ‘Go! The Pen has dried (after writing your destiny). (Therefore) do not keep faith (with Him).’3150
بس جفا گویند شه را پیش ما ** که برو جف القلم کم کن وفا