بخش 113 - خشم کردن پادشاه بر ندیم و شفاعت کردن شفیع آن مغضوب علیه را و از پادشاه درخواستن و پادشاه شفاعت او قبول کردن و رنجیدن ندیم از این شفیع کی چرا شفاعت کردی

A king was enraged with a boon-companion and was about to reduce him to smoke and dust.

The king drew his sword from the scabbard that he might inflict upon him the punishment for that disobedience.

No one had the courage to utter a word nor any intercessor to venture on intercession,

Except one amongst the courtiers named ‘Imádu ’l-Mulk, (who was) privileged in respect of intercession, like Mustafá (Mohammed).

He sprang up and at once prostrated himself: the king immediately put away from his hand the sword of vengeance,

And said, “If he is the (very) Devil, I forgive him; and if he has done a satanic deed, I cover it up.

Since thou hast intervened, I am satisfied, (even) if the culprit has committed a hundred acts of harm.

I can break (annul) a hundred thousand angers, seeing that thou hast such excellence and such worth;

(But) nowise can I break (annul) thy supplication, because thy supplication is assuredly my supplication.

(Even) if he had thrown earth and heaven into confusion, this man would not have escaped from (my) vengeance;

And if (the whole world) atom by atom had become a suppliant (for his release), he would not have saved his head from the sword at this moment.

We confer no obligation on thee (by this), O noble one; but (on the contrary) ’tis (only) to explain thy honour (the honour in which I hold thee), O boon-companion.

Thou didst not make this (intercession), for assuredly I made it, O thou whose qualities are buried in my qualities.

In this (matter) thou art the one employed to do the work, not the (prime) doer (of it), inasmuch as thou art borne by me and art not (thyself) the bearer.

Thou hast become (the instrument of my action, according to the text) Thou didst not throw when thou threwest: like the foam, thou hast abandoned thyself in the wave.

Thou hast become ‘not’; (now) take up thy abode beside ‘except.’ This is wonderful, that thou art both a prisoner and a prince.

Thou didst not give what thou gavest: the king gave it. He alone is. God best knoweth the right course.”

And the boon-companion who had been delivered from the stroke of calamity was offended with this intercessor and drew back from (his former) fealty.

He cut off all (relations of) friendship with that sincere man, and turned his face to the wall in order that he might not give (him) the salaam.

He became estranged from his intercessor; in astonishment at this the people began to talk,

Saying, “(If) he is not mad, how did he cut off friendly relations with the person who redeemed his life?

He (the intercessor) redeemed (saved) him from beheading at that moment: he (the culprit) ought to have become the dust of his (the intercessor's) shoe.

He has gone the reverse way and has taken (the course of) renouncing (his friend): he has taken to cherishing enmity against a beloved like this.”

Then a certain mentor reproached him, saying, “Why are you acting so unjustly towards a loyal friend?

That elect beloved redeemed your life and saved you from beheading at that moment.

If he had done evil (towards you), you ought not to have turned away (from him; but) that praiseworthy friend was especially your benefactor.”

He replied, “Life is freely given for the king's sake: why should he come as an intercessor between (us)?

At that moment mine was (the state described by the words) —‘I am with God in a state wherein no chosen prophet is my peer.’

I desire no mercy but the blows of the king; I desire no refuge except that king.

I have naughted all besides the king for the reason that I have devoted myself to the king.

The king, if he behead me in his wrath, will bestow on me sixty other lives.

’Tis my business to hazard (and lose) my head and to be selfless; ’tis the business of my sovereign king to give (me) a (new) head.”

Honour to the head that is severed by the King's hand! Shame on the head that betakes itself to another!

The night which the King in his wrath covered with pitch (pitchy darkness) holds in disdain a thousand days of festival.

Verily, the circumambulation performed by him who beholds the King is above wrath and grace and infidelity and religion.

Not one word (capable of) expressing it has (ever) come into the world, for it is hidden, hidden, hidden,

Inasmuch as these glorious names and words were manifested from the reel (uttered from the mouth) of Adam.

He (God) taught (him) the names was an Imám (an infallible authority) for Adam; but (the teaching was) not in the garb of (letters such as) ‘ayn and lám.

When he put on his head the cap of water and clay, those spiritual names became black-faced,

For they assumed the veil of letters and breath, (only) in order that the essential reality might (gradually) be made manifest to the water and clay.

Although from one point of view speech is a revealer, yet from ten points of view it is a curtain and concealer.