The moral of the altercation of the Arab and his wife.
The heart of one who is sincere is seeking (to find) a moral for the altercation of the man and wife.
The altercation of the man and wife has been related (as a story): know that it is a parable of your own flesh (nafs) and reason.
This man and wife, which are the flesh and the reason, are very necessary for (the manifestation of) good and evil;
And this necessary pair in this house of earth are (engaged) in strife and altercation day and night.
The wife is craving requisites for the household, that is to say, reputation and bread and viands and rank.
Like the wife, the flesh, in order to contrive the means (of gratifying its desires), is at one time seeking (having recourse to) humility and at another time to domination.
The reason is really unconscious of these (worldly) thoughts: in its brain is nothing but love of God.
Although the inner meaning of the tale is this bait and trap, listen now to the outward form of the tale in its entirety.
If the spiritual explanation were sufficient, the creation of the world would have been vain and idle.
If love were (only spiritual) thought and reality, the form of your fasting and prayer would be non-existent.
The gifts of lovers to one another are, in respect of love, naught but forms;
(But the purpose is) that the gifts may have borne testimony to feelings of love which are concealed in secrecy,
Because outward acts of kindness bear witness to feelings of love in the heart, O dear friend.
Your witness is sometimes true, sometimes false, sometimes drunken with wine, sometimes with sour curds.
He that has drunk sour curds makes a show of intoxication, shouts ecstatically, and behaves like one whose head is heavy (with the fumes of wine);
That hypocrite is (assiduous) in fasting and praying, in order that it may be supposed that he is drunken with devotion (to God).
In short, external acts are different (from internal feelings), (and their purpose is) to indicate that which is hidden.
O Lord, grant us according to our desire such discernment that we may know the false indication from the true.
Do you know how the sense-perception becomes discerning? In this way, that the sense-perception should be seeing by the light of God.
And if there be no effect (outward sign), the cause too makes manifest (that which is hidden), as (for example) kinship gives information concerning love (enables you to infer the presence of love).
When the light of God comes into the sensorium (and becomes the medium of perception), you will not be a slave to effect or cause—
So that Love will throw a spark within, wax mighty, and make (the illumined one) independent of effect.
He has no need for the signs of love, since Love has shot its radiance over the sky (of his heart).
There are detailed explanations (which I could give) in order to complete this subject; but seek them (for yourself), and (now) farewell.
And as for him that perceived the inner meaning in this outward form, the form is (both) near to the meaning and far (from it).
In regard to indication, they (the meaning and the form) are like the sap and the tree; (but) when you turn to the quiddity, they are very far (removed from each other).
(Let me) take leave of quiddities and essential properties, and relate what happened to those twain with faces like the moon.
