How disciples (novices in Súfism) are beguiled in their need by false impostors and imagine them to be Shaykhs and venerable personages and (saints) united (with God), and do not know the difference between fact (naqd) and fiction (naql) and between what is tied on (artificially) and what has grown up (naturally).
شاعر: رومی
وزن: فاعلاتن فاعلاتن فاعلن (رمل مسدس محذوف یا وزن مثنوی)
صنف: مثنوی
For this reason the wise have said with knowledge, ‘One must become the guest of those who confer benefits.’
Thou art the disciple and guest of one who, from his vileness, robs thee of all thou hast.
He is not strong: how should he make thee strong? He does not give light, (nay) he makes thee dark.
Since he had no light (in himself), how in association (with him) should others obtain light from him?
(He is) like the half-blind healer of eyes: what should he put in (people's) eyes except wool?
Such is our state in poverty and affliction: may no guest be beguiled by us!
If thou hast never seen a ten years' famine in (visible) forms, open thine eyes and look at us.
Our outward appearance is like the inward reality of the impostor: darkness in his heart, his tongue flashy (plausible).
He has no scent or trace of God, (but) his pretension is greater than (that of) Seth and the Father of mankind (Adam).
The Devil (is so ashamed of him that he) has not shown to him even his portrait, (yet) he (the impostor) is saying, ‘We are of the Abdál and are more (we are superior even to them).’
He has stolen many an expression used by dervishes, in order that he himself may be thought to be a (holy) personage.
In his talk he cavils at Báyazíd, (although) Yazíd would be ashamed of his existence.
(He is) without (any) portion of the bread and viands of Heaven: God did not throw a single bone to him.
He has proclaimed, ‘I have laid out the dishes, I am the Vicar of God, I am the son of the (spiritual) Khalífa:
Welcome (to the feast), O simple-hearted ones, tormented (with hunger), that from my bounteous table ye may eat your fill’— of nothing.
Some persons, (relying) on the promise of ‘To-morrow,’ have wandered for years around that door, (but) ‘To-morrow’ never comes.
It needs a long time for the inmost conscience of a man to become evident, more and less (both in great and small matters),
(So that we may know whether) beneath the wall of his body there is treasure, or whether there is the house of snake and ant and dragon.
When it became clear that he was naught (worthless), (by that time) the life of the seeker (disciple) had passed: what use (was) the knowledge (to him)?
