بخش 123 - حکایت آن زاهد کی در سال قحط شاد و خندان بود با مفلسی و بسیاری عیان و خلق می‌مردند از گرسنگی گفتندش چه هنگام شادیست کی هنگام صد تعزیت است گفت مرا باری نیست

Even as (for example) that ascetic was laughing in a year of drought, while all (his) folk were weeping.

So they said to him, “What is the occasion for laughter, (when) the drought has uprooted (destroyed) the true believers?

The (Divine) mercy hath closed its eyes to us: the plain is burnt by the fierce sun.

Crops and vineyards and vines are standing black: there is no moisture in the earth, neither up nor down.

The people are dying from this drought and torment by tens and hundreds like fish far from the water.

Thou art taking no pity on the Moslems; (yet) the true believers are kinsmen and one body (of) fat and flesh.

The pain of one part of the body is the pain of all (its parts), whether it be the hour of peace or war.”

He (the ascetic) replied, “In your eyes this is a drought, (but) to my eye this earth is like Paradise.

I am beholding in every desert and everywhere ears of corn in abundance, reaching up to the waist;

(I see) the wilderness full of ears of corn (tossed) in waves by the east-wind, (so that it is) greener than the leek.

By way of trial I am putting my hand thereon: how should I remove my hand and eye?

Ye are friends of Pharaoh, (who is) the body, O base people: hence the Nile seems to you to be blood.

Quickly become friends of Moses, (who is) the intellect, in order that the blood may remain not and ye may behold the river-water.

(If) an injustice is proceeding from (is being done by) thee towards thy father, that father will become (as) a (biting) cur in thine eyes.

That father is not a cur: ’tis the effect of (thy) injustice that such mercy appears to thy sight (as) a cur.

Since the brethren (of Joseph) had envy and anger, they were regarding Joseph as the wolf.

When thou hast made peace with thy father, anger is gone; that currishness departs, and thy father at once becomes thy friend.