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5
3120-3169

  • You, inversely, have been made remiss by this saying: you have been turned upside down in your apprehension and thought. 3120
  • (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.
  • 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.
  • Whatsoever he wills, that same thing you will certainly obtain: do not go astray, prefer his service (to all else).’
  • (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.’
  • The interpretation that makes you ardent and hopeful and active and reverent is the true one; 3125
  • 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.
  • 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).
  • 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,
  • 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.
  • The oil that has wholly devoted itself to the rose—smell either the oil or the rose as you please. 3130
  • 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.
  • 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).
  • Therefore the Pen wrote that every action has the effect and consequence appropriate to it.
  • 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).
  • (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
  • 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,
  • Saying, ‘The affair has gone out of My hands: do not approach Me so often, do not entreat (Me) so much’?
  • Nay, the meaning is: ‘the Pen has dried (on this that) justice and injustice are not equal in My sight.
  • I have laid down a distinction between good and evil; I have also laid down a distinction between the bad and the worse.’
  • 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
  • And will bestow on you that mote's amount of superiority: the mote will step forth as (big as) a mountain (to meet you).
  • A king before whose throne there is no distinction between the faithful (friend) and the seeker of iniquity—
  • Between him who trembles in fear of his (the king's) disapproval and him who intrigues against his fortune (empire)—
  • (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!
  • If your (devotional) labour exceed (that of another) by a single mote, it (that mote) will be weighed in God's balance. 3145
  • You continually work yourself to death in the service of these (worldly) kings, (yet) they are ignorant of (the difference between) treachery and honesty.
  • The words of a tale-bearer who speaks ill of you will cause your service (rendered) during (many) years to be wasted;
  • (But) the words of tale-bearers do not take their abode in the presence of the King who is hearing and seeing.
  • All the tale-bearers are reduced to despair by Him: they come to us and increase (our) bondage.
  • 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
  • How should the meaning of ‘the Pen has dried’ be (this), that acts of perfidy and acts of faithfulness are alike?
  • Nay, perfidy (in return) for acts of perfidy: the Pen has dried (on that); and faithfulness (in return) for those acts of faithfulness: the Pen has dried (on that).
  • (True), there may be pardon (for the sinner), but where (for him) is the glorious hope that through piety the servant of God may be (spiritually) illumined?
  • If a robber be pardoned, he saves his life, (but) how should he become a vizier and keeper of the treasury?
  • Come, O godly Amínu’ddín, for every tiara and ensign has grown from trustworthiness (amánat). 3155
  • If the Sultan's son become a traitor to him, on that account his head will be severed from his body;
  • And if a Hindú slave show faithfulness, sovereignty will applaud him (and cry), ‘Long may he live!’
  • What of a slave? If a dog is faithful (in keeping watch) at a door, there are a hundred feelings of satisfaction with him in the heart of the master (of the house).
  • Since, because of this (faithfulness), he kisses the mouth of a dog, if he (the faithful one) be a lion, how triumphant he will make him!
  • (Robbers get nothing but pardon), except, to be sure, the robber who performs acts of service (to God) and whose sincerity uproots his (former) perfidy, 3160
  • Like Fudayl, the brigand who played straight, because he ran with the strength of ten men towards repentance;
  • And as the magicians (who) blackened the face of Pharaoh by their fortitude and faithfulness.
  • They gave their hands and feet (to be cut off as a penalty) for the crime that entailed retaliation: how should that (degree of faithfulness) be attained by means of a hundred years' devotional service?
  • You who have served (Him) for fifty years, when have you brought into your possession such a sincerity as this?
  • Story of the dervish who saw at Herát the well-equipped slaves of the ‘Amíd of Khurásán, mounted on Arab horses and wearing gold-embroidered coats, caps richly ornamented (with silver or gems), etc. He asked, ‘What princes and what kings are these?’ On being told that they were not princes, but the slaves of the ‘Amíd of Khurásán, he turned his face to Heaven, crying, ‘O God, learn from the ‘Amíd how to take care of slaves!’ There (in Khurásán) the State-accountant (Mustawfí) is called ‘Amíd.
  • A certain unmannerly (dervish) at Herát, when he saw a nobleman's slave 3165
  • Going about in satin raiment with a belt of gold, would turn his face to Heaven,
  • And cry, ‘O God, why dost not Thou learn from this bountiful Khwája how to keep (Thy) slave?
  • O God, let this ra’ís (high dignitary) and chosen (minister) of our king teach Thee how to care for Thy slave.’
  • He (the dervish) was needy and naked and without food: (’twas) in winter (and) he was trembling exceedingly from the (cold) air.