How the stirrup-holder of ‘Alí, may God honour his person, came (to him), saying, “For God's sake, kill me and deliver me from this doom.”
“He came back, saying, ‘O‘ Alí, kill me quickly, that I may not see that bitter moment and hour.
Shed my blood, I make it lawful to thee, so that my eye may not behold that resurrection’.
I said, ‘If every atom should become a murderer and, dagger in hand, go to attack thee,
None (of them) could cut from thee the tip of a single hair, since the Pen has written against thee such a line (of doom).
But do not grieve: I am intercessor for thee: I am the spirit's master, I am not the body's slave.
This body hath no value in my sight: without my body I am the noble (in spirit), the son of the noble.
Dagger and sword have become my sweet basil: my death has become my banquet and narcissus-plot.’”
He that hamstrings (mortifies) his body in this fashion, how should he covet the Princedom and the Caliphate?
Outwardly he strives after power and authority, (but only) that he may show to princes the (right) way and judgement;
That he may give another spirit to the Princedom; that he may give fruit to the palm tree of the Caliphate.
