غزل شمارهٔ 499

Love is nothing but felicity and lovingkindness, it is nothing but gladness and right guidance.

B¯u H. an¯ıfa did not teach love, Sh¯afi‘¯ı had no tradition concerning it.

“Licit” and “illicit” operate till death; there is no terminus to the science of lovers.

Lovers are drowned in sugar-water; Egypt has nothing to complain about sugar.

How should the drunkard’s soul not utter thanks for a wine to which there is no boundary and limit?

Whomsoever you have seen sorrowful and scowling is not a lover, and belongs not to that province;

Otherwise, every bud is a veil of a garden, jealousy and envy have no contagion.

The beginner in this path of Love is he who is not apprised of beginning.

Become naughted from selfhood, because there is no sin worse than being.

Do not be a shepherd, be a flock; shepherdry is nothing but a bar to providential care.

God is sufficient for many a servant’s ill, but the servant has not this knowledge and sufficiency.

He says, “This is problematic and allegorical”; this is clear, this is not allegory.

A blind man struck his foot against a pitcher; he said, “The doorkeeper is not careful.

What are pitchers and glasses doing on the footpath? The road is not clear of these pots.

Remove the pitchers from the path; the doorkeeper is not attending to his job.”

The doorkeeper answered, “Blind man, no pitcher is on the path, the fact is that you have no knowledge of the path.

You have left the path and are going to the pitcher; that is plain error.”

Master, your drunkenness in the way of religion is the only sign from beginning to end.

You are a sign, and a seeker after a sign; there is no better sign than the seeker after a sign.

You are astray from the path, otherwise in the path of striving no striver goes without his wages.

Just as an atom’s weight he shall see it, an atom’s weight of slipping goes not unpunished;

An atom of good is not without a reward—open your eyes, if you are not blind.

Every herb is a token of water; what is there that is not tributary to that?

Enough, this water has many tokens; the thirsty man requires no counselling.