بخش 121 - غالب شدن مکر روبه بر استعصام خر

The ass strove long and argued (stoutly) against him, but ravenous hunger never quitted the ass.

Greed prevailed, and his self-restraint was (too) weak: many are the gullets that are cut by love of the loaf.

From the Messenger (Prophet) to whom the realities revealed themselves has come down (the saying), “A (great) penury is near being infidelity.”

The ass had been made prisoner by hunger: he said (to himself), “If it is a plot, (what then?).

Suppose I am dead once and for all,

At any rate I shall be delivered from this torment of hunger: if this is life, I am better dead.” If at first the ass repented and swore (to keep his vow), in the end, because of his asininity, he made a (great) lapse.

Greed makes one blind and foolish and ignorant: to fools it makes death (seem) easy;

(But) death is not (really) easy to the souls of asses who do not possess the splendour of the everlasting soul.

Since he (the ass) does not possess the everlasting soul, he is damned: his boldness in (facing) death is the result of folly.

Endeavour that your soul may become immortal, so that on the day of death you will have a (goodly) store.

Again, he (the ass) had no confidence in the Provider (to assure him) that He would scatter over him largesse from the Unseen.

Until now, the (Divine) Bounty had not kept him without the daily provision, though at times He subjected his body to a (severe) hunger.

Were hunger absent, in consequence of indigestion a hundred other afflictions would raise their heads in you.

Truly the affliction of hunger is better than those maladies in respect both of its subtilty and its lightness and (its effect on devotional) work.

The affliction of hunger is purer than (all other) afflictions, especially (as) in hunger there are a hundred advantages and excellences.