بخش 105 - رفتن هر دو خصم نزد داود علیه السلام

He led him to the Prophet David, saying, “Come, O you crazy fool and criminal!

Drop (this) silly argument, O impostor; let (some) intelligence into your body and come to your senses!

What is this that you are saying? What is the prayer (you speak of)? Do not laugh at my head and beard and your own (too), O scoundrel!”

He (the poor man) said, “I have offered (many) prayers to God, I have borne much toil and pain in this supplication.

I possess the certainty (that) the prayer has been answered. Dash your head against the stones, O foul-spoken one!”

He cried, “Hey, gather round, O Moslems! Behold the drivel and raving of this imbecile!

O Moslems, for God’s sake, how should prayer make my property belong to him?

If it were so, by means of a single prayer of this kind the whole world would carry off (one

another’s) possessions by force.

(For) they are (engaged) day and night in invocation and praise (of God), uttering entreaties and crying, ‘O God, do Thou give unto us!

Unless Thou give, assuredly no one will give (us anything): O Opener, do Thou open the lock of this (bounty)!’

Supplication and prayer is the means whereby the blind earn their livelihood, (yet) they get no gift but a crust of bread.”

The people said, “This Moslem speaks the truth, and this prayer-monger is one who seeks to act unjustly.

How should this prayer be a means of acquiring property?

When forsooth did the religious Law enter this on the roll? A thing becomes your property by sale and donation or by bequest and gift or by some means of this kind.

In what book is this new statute (to be found)? Give back the cow or go to prison!”

He (the poor man) was turning his face to Heaven (and saying), “None knoweth my (spiritual) experience save Thee.

Thou didst put that prayer into my heart, Thou didst raise dreams.”

Not idly was I uttering that prayer: like Joseph, I had dreamed dreams.”

Joseph saw (in dream) the sun and the stars bowing low before him, like servants.

He relied upon the true dream: in the dungeoun and prison he sought nothing but that.

Because of his reliance upon that, he cared naught for servitude and reproach, whether more or less.

He had a (great) reliance upon his dream which was shining in front of him like a candle.

When they cast Joseph into the well, there came to his ear a cry from God-

“O paladin, one day thou wilt become king, so that thou mayst rub this wrong upon their faces.”

He who utters this cry is not visible, but the heart (of Joseph) recognized the Speaker from the effect (of the words.)

From that (Divine) allocution a (great) strength and peace and support fell into the midst of his soul.

Through that Majestical cry the well became to him a rose-garden and banquet, as the fire to Abraham.

Bu means of that strength he cheerfully endured every affliction that came to him afterwards-

Even as the delicious savour of the cry Am not I (your Lord)? Subsists in the heart of every true believer till the Resurrection,

So that they do not rebel against tribulation or shrink from (obeying) the commands and prohibitions of God.

The rose-conserve (of spiritual delight) digests the morsel, that is, the (Divine) decree, which bestows bitterness;

(But) he that does not rely upon the rose-conserve vomits the morsel in disgust.

Any one who has dreamed of the Day of Alast is drunken in the path of devotional works, drunken:

Like a drunken (frenzied) camel, he is bearing this (heavy) sack without flagging and without questioning and without fatique;

The froth round his muzzle, namely, his confession of faith, has become a witness to his (inward) intoxication and heart-burning.

Through the strength (bestowed on him) the camel becomes like a fierce lion; beneath the heavy burden he eats little (food).

In (his) longing for the she-camel a hundred starvations (lie lightly) on him; the mountain seems to him (as) a strand of hair.

(But) he who has not dreamed such a dream in Alast does not become a servant and seeker (of God) in this world;

Or if he does become (such), (he is) always changing and shifting in vacillation: he gives thanks (to God) for one moment and utters complaints for a year.

He steps forward and backwards in the Way of the Religion with a hundred vacillations and without (any) certainty.

I am owing (you) the exposition of this. Lo, (you have received) the pledge; and if you are in haste, hear (the complete exposition) from (the Sura beginning with the words) Have not We opened….?

Since the explanation of this subject has no end, proceed to (speak of) the litigant (who claimed redress on account) of the cow.

He (the man who killed the cow) said, “The impostor has called me blind because of (my having committed) this crime: O God, ‘tis a very Satanic inference (of his).

When have I been praying in the fashion of the blind? When have I begged of any one except the Creator?

The blind man in his ignorance hath hope of (Thy) creatures; (but) I (have hope) of Thee (alone), by whom every difficult thing is (made) easy.

That blind fellow has reckoned me amongst the blind: he has not seen my soul’s humble supplication and my entire devotion (to Thee).

This blindness of mine is the blindness of love: it is (a case of) ‘Love makes one blind and deaf,’ O Hasan.

I am blind to aught other than God, I am (made) seeing by Him: this is what Love demands. Say, (is it not so?).

Do not Thou (O God), who art seeing, deem me to be one of the blind: I am revolving round Thy grace, O Axis (of all).

Just as Thou didst show a dream to the veracious Joseph, and it became a support to him,

To me too Thy grace showed a dream: that endless prayer of mine was not an idle play.

(Thy) creatures do not understand my hidden thoughts and they regard my words as drivel.

They have the right (to do so), for who knows the mystery of the Unseen save the Knower of secrets and the Coverer of faults?”

His adversary said to him, “Turn your face to me! Tell the truth! Why have you turned your face towards Heaven, uncle?

You are employing fraud, you are casting error (suggesting falsehood) : you are prating of love and nearness (to God).

Inasmuch as you are spiritually dead, with what face have you turned your face towards the heavens?”

On this account an uproar arose in the city, (while) that Moslem laid his face (flat) on the ground.

Crying, “O God, do not put this servant (of Thine) to shame: if I sm wicked, yet do not divulge my secret.

Thou knowest (the truth), and the long nights (know it) during which I was calling unto Thee with a hundred supplications.

Albeit this (supplication) has no worth in the sight of the people, in Thy sight it is like a shining lamp.”