بخش 138 - باز جواب انبیا علیهم السلام

The prophets said, “The foul and evil presage has its support from within your souls.

If you are asleep in a perilous place, and a dragon is approaching you from a spot close at hand,

And a kindly person has made you aware (of it), saying, ‘Jump up quickly, or else the dragon will devour you’—

If you say, ‘Why are you uttering an evil presage?’ (he will reply), ‘What (evil) presage? Jump up and see in the light of day.

I myself will deliver you from the midst of the evil presage and will take you home.’

He (such a person) is one that acquaints (you) with things hidden, like the prophet who has seen what the people of this world have not seen.

If a physician say to you, ‘Do not eat unripe grapes, for such an illness (as is caused by them) will produce (grave) trouble and mischief,’

And if you say, ‘Why are you uttering an evil presage?’— then you are making out your sincere adviser to be culpable.

And if an astrologer say to you, ‘By no means set about such an affair to-day,’

Though you see the falsehood of the astrologer a hundred times, (yet if) it (the prediction) come true once or twice, you are eager to trust him.

These stars of ours are never at variance (with the truth): how does their truth remain concealed from you?

The physician and the astrologer inform (you) from (their own) opinion, and verily we (inform you) from clairvoyance:

We behold the smoke and fire rushing from afar towards the unbelievers.

You are saying, ‘Be silent (and refrain) from these words, for the words of evil presage are hurtful to us.’”

O you who hearken not unto the admonition of the admonishers, the evil presage is with you wherever you go.

A viper is walking on your back: he (the admonisher) sees it from a roof and makes (you) aware;

You say to him, “Hush! do not vex me”: he says, “Be happy! Truly, the words have gone (have been spoken).”

When the viper darts its mouth at your neck, all your desire for happiness is made bitter.

Then you say to him, “O so-and-so, was this all (the warning you gave me)? Why didn't you tear your collar in outcry,

Or why weren't you throwing a stone at me from above, in order that that grave calamity and misfortune might be shown to me (plainly)?”

He says, “(I refrained) because you were annoyed”; you say (ironically), “You have made me very happy!”

He says, “I bestowed counsel generously, that I might deliver you from this sterile (unprofitable) bondage.

From vileness you acknowledged no obligation for that (generosity): you made (it) a source of injury and insolence.”

This is the nature of base villains: he (such a one) does evil to thee when thou doest good (to him).

As for the fleshly soul, bend it double (mortify it) by means of this renunciation, for it is vile, and kindness suiteth it not.

If thou show beneficence to a noble man, ’tis fitting: he will give seven hundred (benefits) in exchange for every one (conferred upon him);

(But be merciless to the ignoble): when thou treatest a villain with violence and cruelty, he becomes a very faithful servant to thee.

The infidels in (their) prosperity sow (the seed of) cruelty; again (afterwards) in Hell their cry is “O Lord, (deliver us)!”