بخش 83 - جواب گفتن مسلمان آنچ دید به یارانش جهود و ترسا و حسرت خوردن ایشان

Then the Moslem said, “O my friends, to me came Mustafá (Mohammed), my sovereign,

And said to me, ‘That one (the Jew) has sped to Sinai with him (Moses) to whom God spake, and has played the game of love (with God);

And the other (the Christian) has been carried by Jesus, the Lord of happy star, to the zenith of the Fourth Heaven.

Arise, O thou who hast been left behind and hast suffered injury, at least eat up the sweetmeat and comfit!

Those (two) talented and accomplished men have pushed forward and have read the book of fortune and honour.

Those two eminent men have attained to their (proper) eminence and because of their talents have mingled with the angels.

Hark, O foolish simpleton who hast been left behind, jump up and seat thyself beside the bowl of halwá!’”

Thereupon they said to him, “Then, you greedy fellow, have you made a meal of the halwá and khabís? Oh, (what) an astonishing thing!”

He replied, “When that sovereign who is obeyed (by all) gave the order, who was I that I should resist it?

Will you, Jew, rebel against the command of Moses if he summon you (either) in a fair cause or a foul?

Can you, Christian, ever spurn the command of Christ (whether) for good or evil?

How, (then), should I rebel against the Glory of the prophets? I have eaten the halwá and now I am happy.”

Then they said to him, “By God, you have dreamed a true dream, and ’tis better than a hundred dreams of ours.

Your dreaming is waking, O gleeful one, for its effect (reality) is made evident by (your) waking (and eating the sweetmeat).”

Abandon eminence and (worldly) energy and skill: what matters is service (rendered to God) and a goodly disposition.

For this (object) God brought us forth (from non-existence): “I did not create mankind except to serve Me.”

How did that knowledge (of his) profit Sámirí, whom the skill (shown in making the golden Calf) banished from God's door?

What did Qárún gain by his alchemy? See how the earth bore him down to its abyss.

What, after all, did Bu ’l-Hakam (Abú Jahl) get from (intellectual) knowledge? On account of his unbelief he went headlong into Hell.

Know that (true) knowledge consists in seeing fire plainly, not in prating that smoke is evidence of fire.

O you whose evidence in the eyes of the Sage is really more stinking than the evidence of the physician,

Since you have no evidence but this, O son, eat dung and inspect urine!

O you whose evidence is like the staff in your hand (which) indicates that you suffer from blindness,

(All this) noise and pompous talk and assumption of authority (only means), “I cannot see: (kindly) excuse me.”