بخش 64 - باز جواب گفتن ابلیس معاویه را

He said, “At first I was an angel: I traversed the way of obedience (to God) with (all my) soul.

I was the confidant of them that follow the path (of devotion): I was familiar with them that dwell by the Throne of God.

How should (one's) first calling go out of (one's) mind? How should (one's) first love go forth from (one's) heart?

If in travel you see Anatolia or Khutan, how should love of your own country go from your heart?

I too have been one of those drunken with this wine: I have been a lover at His court.

They cut my navel in (predestined me from birth to) love of Him: they sowed love of Him in my heart.

I have seen good days from Fortune: I have drunk the water of (Divine) Mercy in (my) spring-time.

Was it not the hand of His bounty that sowed me? Was it not He that raised me up from non-existence?

Oh, many is the time I have received kindness from Him and walked in the rose-garden of (His) approval.

He would lay the hand of mercy on my head, He would open (let flow) from me the fountains of grace.

Who found milk for me in the season of my infancy? Who rocked my cradle? He.

From whom did I drink milk other than His milk? Who nourished me except His providence?

The disposition which has entered with the milk into (their) being—how can it be discharged (expelled) from folk?

If the Sea of Bounty has given (me) a rebuke, (yet) how have the doors of Bounty been shut?

Giving and grace and favour are the fundamental substance of His coin: wrath is (only) as a speck of alloy on it.

He made the world for kindness' sake: His sun caressed the motes (in its beams).

If separation (from Him) is big with His wrath, ’tis for the sake of knowing the worth of union with Him,

So that separation from Him may give the soul chastisement, (and that) the soul may know the value of the days of union.

The Prophet has declared that God said, ‘My purpose in creating was to do good:

I created to the intent that they (My creatures) might draw some gain from Me, and that they might smear their hands with My honey;

Not to the end that I might draw some gain (from them), and that I might tear off a coat from one (who is) naked.’

During the short while since He drove me from His presence, mine eye hath remained (fixed) upon His beauteous face;

(And my thought has always been), ‘Such wrath from such a face! Oh, wonderful!’ (whereas) every one (else) has become occupied with (considering) the (secondary) cause (His wrath).

I do not look at the cause (His wrath), which is temporal, inasmuch as the temporal (only) produces something temporal (like itself).

I am regarding (His eternally) precedent mercy: whatsoever is temporal I rend in twain.

Grant that my declining to worship (Adam) was from envy; (yet) that envy arises from love (of God), not from denial (of obedience to His command).

’Tis certain, all envy arises from love, (for fear) lest another become the companion of the beloved.

Brooding jealousy is the necessary consequence of love, just as saying ‘Live long!’ must follow the sneeze.

Since there was no play but this on His board, and He said, ‘Play,’ what more can I do?

I played the one play (move) that there was, and cast myself into woe.

Even in woe I am tasting His delights: I am mated by Him, mated by Him, mated by Him!

How shall any one, O noble sir, in (this world of) six directions deliver himself from the shashdara (the place with six doors)?

How shall the part of the six escape from the whole of the six, especially when the Unconditioned sets it wrong?

Whoever is in the six is in the fire; (only) He that is the creator of the six will deliver him.

Truly, whether it be infidelity or faith in Him (to which he is predestined), he is the hand-loom (instrument) of the Lord and belongs to Him.”