بخش 64 - زجر مدعی از دعوی و امر کردن او را به متابعت

Bú Musaylim said, “I myself am Ahmad (Mohammed): I have cunningly confounded the religion of Ahmad.”

Say to Bú Musaylim, “Do not behave with insolence: be not deluded by the beginning, regard the end.

Do not act thus as a guide from (with the motive of) greed for amassing (wealth and power): follow behind, in order that the Candle (the true guide) may go in front (of thee).”

The Candle, like the moon, shows (clearly) the (traveller's) destination, and whether in this direction there is the grain (of spiritual welfare) or the place for the snare (of perdition).

Whether thou wilt or not, (so long as thou art) with the Lantern the form of falcon and the form of crow become visible (to thee).

Otherwise, (beware, for) these crows have lit (the lantern of) fraud: they have learned the cry of the white falcons.

If a man learn the cry of the hoopoe, (yet) where is the mystery of the hoopoe and the message from Sabá?

Know (distinguish) the natural cry from the artificial one, (know) the crown of kings from the crown (crest) of hoopoes.

These shameless persons have attached to their tongues the speech of dervishes and the deep sayings of gnostics.

Every destruction of an olden people that there was—(it was) because they deemed sandal-wood to be (common) wood.

They had the discernment that should make that (difference) evident, but greed and cupidity make (men) blind and deaf.

The blindness of the (physically) blind is not far from (the Divine) mercy; ’tis the blindness of greed that is inexcusable.

Crucifixion (tribulation) inflicted by the King (God) is not far from mercy; the crucifixion (torment) of envy is not forgiven (by God).

O fish, regard the end; do not regard the hook: evil appetite has bandaged (blindfolded) thine eye that sees the end.

See the beginning and the end with both eyes: beware, do not be one-eyed like the accursed Iblís.

The one-eyed man is he who saw only the present—ignorant, like the beasts, of (what comes) after.

Since the two eyes of an ox are (rated) as one eye (of a man) in (the case of) damages for (their) destruction—for it (the ox) hath no excellence—

Its two eyes are worth (only) a half of its value, inasmuch as thine eye is the support for its two eyes.

But if thou destroy one eye of a son of Adam, by a statute (of the Law) thou must pay half of his value,

Because the human eye works alone by itself without (assistance from) the two eyes of a friend.

Since (the power of) the donkey's eye (to see) the beginning is not accompanied by (power to see) the end, it (the donkey) is in the same case as the one-eyed man, (even) if it has two eyes.

This topic hath no limit—and that light-minded (foolish) one is writing a letter in hope of loaves.