بخش 4 - مناجات و پناه جستن به حق از فتنهٔ اختیار و از فتنهٔ اسباب اختیار کی سماوات و ارضین از اختیار و اسباب اختیار شکوهیدند و ترسیدند و خلقت آدمی مولع افتاد بر طلب اختیار و اسباب اختیار خویش چنانک بیمار باشد خود را اختیار کم بیند صحت خواهد کی سبب اختیارست تا اختیارش بیفزاید و منصب خواهد تا اختیارش بیفزاید و مهبط قهر حق در امم ماضیه فرط اختیار و اسباب اختیار بوده است هرگز فرعون بی‌نوا کس ندیده است

From Thee first came this ebb and flow within me; else, O glorious One, this sea (of mine) was still.

From the same source whence Thou gavest me this perplexity, graciously (now) make me unperplexed likewise.

Thou art afflicting me. Ah, help (me), O Thou by whose affliction men are (made weak) as women.

How long (will) this affliction (continue)? Do not (afflict me), O Lord! Bestow on me one path, do not make me follow ten paths!

I am (like) an emaciated camel, and my back is wounded by my free-will which resembles a pack-saddle.

At one moment this pannier weighs heavily on this side, at another moment that pannier sags to that side.

Let the ill-balanced load drop from me, that I may behold the meadow of the pious.

(Then), like the Fellows of the Cave, I shall browse on the orchard of Bounty— not awake, nay, they are asleep.

I shall recline on the right or on the left, I shall not roll save involuntarily, like a ball,

Just as Thou, O Lord of the Judgement, turnest me over either to the right or to the left.

Hundreds of thousands of years I was flying (to and fro) involuntarily, like the motes in the air.

If I have forgotten that time and state, (yet) the migration in sleep (to the spiritual world) recalls it to my memory.

(Every night) I escape from this four-branched cross and spring away from this (confined) halting-place into the (spacious) pasture of the spirit.

From the nurse, Sleep, I suck the milk of those bygone days of mine, O Lord.

All the (people in the) world are fleeing from their free-will and (self-)existence to their drunken (unconscious) side.

In order that for awhile they may be delivered from sobriety (consciousness), they lay upon themselves the opprobrium of wine and minstrelsy.

All know that this existence is a snare, that volitional thought and memory are a hell.

They are fleeing from selfhood into selflessness either by means of intoxication or by means of (some engrossing) occupation, O well-conducted man.

Thou (O God) drawest the soul back from that state of not-being because it entered into unconsciousness without Thy command.

Neither for the Jinn (genies) nor for mankind is it (possible) to pierce through the prison of the regions of the temporal world.

There is no piercing through the cavities of the highest heavens save by the power of Guidance.

There is no guidance save by a power that preserves the spirit of the devout from the keepers of the shooting stars.

There is no way (admittance) for any one, till he become naughted, into the audience-chamber of (Divine) Majesty.

What is the means of ascension to Heaven? This not-being. Not-being is the creed and religion of the lovers (of God).

From self-abasement in the way of Love the fur jacket and rustic shoon became the prayer-niche of Ayáz.

Even though he was beloved by the king (Mahmúd), and was charming and beauteous outwardly and inwardly—

(For) he had become devoid of any arrogance or ostentation or malice, and his face was a mirror for the beauty of the king—

(Yet ’twas only) because he was far removed from his (self-) existence, (that) the end of his affair was praiseworthy.

The steadfastness of Ayáz was all the firmer forasmuch as he was taking (those) precautions in fear of arrogance.

He had been purified, and he had come and smitten the neck of (had beheaded) arrogance and selfishness.

He was practising these devices either for the purpose of instructing (others) or for the sake of some principle of wisdom far removed from fear;

Or (perhaps) the sight of his rustic shoon pleased him because (self-)existence is a shutter against the breeze of not-being,

(And he looked at them) in order that the charnel-house which is (built) on not-being might open, and that he might feel the breeze of vitality and life.

The wealth and riches and silks of this travellers' halt are a chain on the lightfooted spirit.

The spirit espied the golden chain and was beguiled: it remained in the hole of a dungeon (far) from the open country.

Its (the world's) appearance is (that of) Paradise, (but) in reality it is a hell; it is a viper full of venom, though its figure is (that of) a rose-cheeked (beauty).

Although Hell-fire does no injury to the true believer, yet ’tis still better to pass on from that place (and leave it behind).

Although Hell keeps its torment far from him, yet in any case Paradise is better for him.

O ye deficient (in understanding), beware of this rose-cheeked one who at the time of intercourse becomes (like) a hell.