Like a lame horse that often falls on roads
Because they’re rocky and it bears huge loads,
For breaking vows that man’s deprived of luck
And then from the Unseen he’s often struck.
With weak resolve he makes the same vow, then
The Devil spits once and he falls again.
Although extremely weak, he shows disdain
Through arrogance to seekers who attain.
The mule said, ‘Camel, you are one of those3390
Believers who don’t fall or raise their nose.
What do you have that you don’t fall like me
Or stumble and fall face-down constantly?’
‘We both rely on God, but differences
Are clear, O mule, between the two of us:
I have a high head and my eyes are lofty;
Such vision gives security from injury:
From every mountain top, if I should look
I see each plain and hollow, every nook,
Just as those glorious rulers saw ahead3395
All their affairs until when they’d be dead.’
To someone of good essence now appears
The things that will occur in twenty years,
And, in addition to his own fate, he
Sees East and West, all people’s destiny.
The light makes its home in his heart and eye
Due to love of its homeland: that is why.
He is like Joseph, who dreamed that the sun
And moon bowed down to him in unison.
What Joseph saw, once more than ten years passed,3400
Raised up its head and was fulfilled at last.*
The Prophet said, ‘By God’s light he can view ’;
God’s light can split the sky above in two.
Begone, for in your eyes this light’s not found;
By bestial senses you remain still bound.
‘You see just what’s in front,’ the camel said,
‘Due to weak eyes; your guide is weak instead:
The eye serves as the guide to legs and hands;
For where to go or run from in these lands.
Another factor is my eyes are clearer3405
And also my creation is much cleaner:
I’m a legitimate child anyway,
Not born of fornication and astray.
No doubt, you’re one of those, as men relate:
“When the bow’s bent, the arrow can’t fly straight.” ’
The mule confirmed the truth of the camel’s answer and admitted the camel’s superiority over himself. Then he asked for the camel’s help and sincerely took refuge in him. The camel was kind to him and showed the way with his support in a fatherly and regal fashion.
The mule said, ‘Camel, all your words are true.’
And after this its eyes grew tearful too.
The mule wept at the camel’s feet, subservient,
Said, ‘Chosen by the Lord of every servant ,
Through blessedness perhaps you can afford3410
To now accept me as your slave, my lord?’
The camel said, ‘Since now in front of me
You have confessed, you’re free from transiency.
You’re spared grief, since you were fair in the end.
You were a foe, but soar now as God’s friend.
It wasn’t in your essence in the end
For a bad essence gives denial, friend;
That only was a surface-grafted badness—
It makes confession and seeks out forgiveness,
Like Adam’s, for his slip was temporary3415
And he repented for it urgently.
Since Satan’s sin instead was from his essence,
He couldn’t find the way towards repentance.
You’ve been released from self and your bad flaws,
The tongues of flames and the wild beasts’ huge jaws.
You’ve now grasped fortune, so continue passing;
You’ve dived in fortune that is everlasting.
“Enter among my servants ” is your own;
“Enter my garden ”* also you have sewn.
You’ve made a path to join his servants too,3420
And by that hidden way you’ve entered through.
“Guide us to the straight path! ”* you have read out;
He led you to that bliss which you sought out.
My dear, from fire you’ve turned to light—once sour,
You’ve changed to grapes and raisins through His power.
Once a mere star, you now shine much more light—
O sun, be happy! God knows best what’s right. ’
O Light of God, Hosam, please come and pour3425
Into this milk some honey from your store,
So that milk’s savour won’t change needlessly,
But rather gain from savour’s boundless sea.
When it unites with the sea of Alast,*
Becoming ocean, free from change at last,
Inside that honey ocean it will find
An entry, safe from harm of any kind.
Lion of God, give out a lion-like roar
To reach the seventh heaven to which we soar.
What does the weary soul know of our soaring?
What does the mouse know of the lion’s roaring?
Write all about your mystic states with gold3430
For ocean-hearted ones wish to be told.
This soul-expanding talk is the Nile’s water—
Make it blood to Egyptians, Lord, Transformer!
The Egyptian begs the Israelite: fill a jug from the Nile intending it for yourself, then place it to my lips through the right of friendship and brotherhood, for the jug which you Israelites fill from the Nile for yourselves is pure water and that which we Egyptians fill is pure blood.
I heard that an Egyptian went inside
A Jew’s house, since from thirst he’d nearly died,
To beg, ‘I am your friend and kinsman, too.
Today I need a helping hand from you.
Since Moses used his spells and awful magic
To turn the Nile to blood, our fate’s been tragic.
You Jews can drink pure water from it, while3435
Closed-eyed Egyptians find blood fills the Nile—
See dying now from thirst Egyptian people,
Due to ill fortune or traits that are evil.
Fill for yourself a cup of water now,
So this old friend can drink from yours somehow.
When you fill for yourself that cup, I’m sure
It won’t be blood but water that is pure.
I’ll drink the water in your situation.
Parasites flee pain through such imitation.’
‘O precious, dear friend, I’ll come to your aid;3440
I’ll handle it,’ his Jewish friend then said,
‘I’ll carry out what you wish happily;
I’ll be your slave in bondage, then act free.’
He filled the cup then from the Nile, put it
To his own lips and drank down half of it,
Then passed it to his friend: ‘You drink some too!’
But it became dark blood then in full view.
It changed to water when he pulled the cup
Back to his own lips, so his friend blew up,
Enraged, then sat awhile once he’d calmed down:3445
‘Brother, whose firm resolve has earned renown,
What can untie this knot that’s shackling me?’
‘It’s only drunk by men with piety:
The pious one is he who’s shunned the way
Of Pharaoh, and is Moses-like today.
Join Moses’s men, then drink all this soon.
Make peace with and behold light from the moon.
You’ve so much drunkenness your eyes can’t see,
Due to your rage at every devotee
Of God—put out rage, open eyes, and learn3450
> From friends, then you can teach when it’s your turn.’
You can’t drink with me water you so prize
When your vile unbelief has Mount Qaf’s size.
How can a mountain fit a needle’s eye
Unless it turns to one thread? You must try
To make it straw by begging for forgiveness,
Then from cups for forgiven ones drink in bliss.
It has been banned for faithless men by God,
So how can you succeed to drink through fraud?
God made all fraud—He won’t be fooled, O fraudster,3455
By lies that you make up and your imposture.
Become a follower of Moses now.
Tricks will fail trying to catch the wind somehow.
Does water have the gall to disobey
God’s order and quench infidels today?
Do you think you can drink from your own bowl
When it’s snake poison and destroys your soul?
How can food make the soul start feeling stronger
When it has turned your heart against God’s order?
Do you think when you read this Masnavi 3460
That you can listen to it now for free,
That words of wisdom and deep mysteries
Reach everybody’s mouth and ears with ease?
It’s just a tale in that scenario;
The shell and not the kernel’s what will show,
Like sweethearts who veil that face you adore
From your eyes as they put on a chador.*
You see as the same thing, you wicked man,
Kalila and Dimna and the Qur’an.
Falsehood and truth are different as can be.3465
When your eyes open through God’s grace you’ll see.
Otherwise musk and dung are one as well
To someone whose nose can no longer smell.
His aim’s to save himself from weariness
By reading out the words of God, no less,
Hoping those words will cure him and snuff out
The fire inside of suffering and doubt.
To put out this much fire you easily could
Use dirty urine, for it’s just as good:
Urine and water both put out doubt’s fire,3470
The way they do in sleep when you retire.
But if you get to know pure water, which
Is God’s speech and is spiritually rich,
Doubts in your soul will all be cleared away
And then your heart takes the rose garden’s way,
For he who breathes a whiff of God’s great book
Soars in an orchard with a pleasant brook.
Or do you think that in reality
Faces of God’s Friends’ are like what we see?
The Prophet marvelled at this and asked, ‘Why3475
Is my face not seen by the faithful eye?
Why can’t the people see my face’s light
Which has surpassed the sun’s since it’s so bright?
And, if they do see, why is there confusion
Till revelation states: “That face is hidden.” ’
A moon to you, but people see a cloud.
For infidels free viewing’s not allowed.
To you it’s bait, to them traps that confine,
So vulgar men can’t drink exclusive wine.
God said, ‘They’re looking ’ to you, didn’t He?3480
Yet, like the bathhouse paintings, they can’t see :*
It’s just a form, though it may now appear
As if its lifeless eyes see what is here,
Form worshipper—you show before its eyes
Respect and say: ‘What sadness and surprise
That this nice painting won’t respond at all
Though “Peace be unto you!” I loudly call.
With head and moustache it won’t indicate
Approval for the times that I prostrate.’
Though God does not nod outwardly His head,3485
His answer’s favour’s felt inside instead,
And that’s worth hundreds of such nods—do soul
And mind in answer ever nod at all?
If you should strive in serving intellect
It gives more guidance, earned by your respect.
God doesn’t outwardly nod at you either
But He makes you among the chiefs their leader.
He gives you something very secret too
That makes all people here prostrate to you,
The way He gave such virtue to mere stone3490
That it became loved and as ‘gold’ is known;
A drop of water gains God’s kindest grace,
Becomes a pearl and then takes up gold’s place.
The body’s dust—when God gave it His light
It grew just like the moon with conquering might.
This world is a dead sketch and talisman;
Its eye lures off the path the stupid man;
It looks as if it’s winking when it’s seen;
Fools choose it as the prop on which they lean.
The Egyptian requests a prayer for blessing and guidance from the Israelite. The Israelite prays for blessing for the Egyptian and receives a reply from the Most Generous and Merciful God.
Next the Egyptian asked, ‘Pray for my heart—3495
Its darkness means my mouth is kept apart—
Then maybe my heart’s lock will be released
And this vile one join beauties at their feast.’
You can make the deformed turn beautiful,
Turn Satan back to being celestial,
Or give a dry branch freshness and musk’s scent
And fruit through Mary’s power that’s heaven-sent.*
The Israelite fell right then in prostration:
‘O God who knows both manifest and hidden,
Who else should any servant now pray to?3500
Both answer and petition come from you.
You also gave desire to pray initially,
As You give the response as well eventually.
You are the First and Last, while we are nothing
Here in the middle and now not worth mentioning.’
He said such things till his mind grew delirious
And his heart then completely fell unconscious,
Then, while in prayer, he came back to again—
Other than what they strive for, naught for men .*
A scream and roar came while he was still praying3505
From that Egyptian’s heart, and it was saying:
‘Hurry, accept this faith, no longer dawdle,
So I can quickly cut my old faith’s girdle.
A fire’s been cast into my soul, you see—
They’ve treated well one Satan-like as me.
Thank God, your friendship finally led the way
Because I now can’t bear to be away.
Time spent with you was alchemy—may your
Feet never step outside my heart’s front door!
You use a branch from paradise’s tree—3510
I grasped and was borne there amazingly.
Swept from my body by a flood, this motion
Carried me to His Kindness’s huge ocean.
I headed for the flood so I could drink,
But gained pearls when I reached the ocean’s brink.’
The Israelite brought his cup: ‘Drink!’ he said.
‘Begone! Water is loathsome now instead—
I’ve drunk a draught from “God has bought ”,* my friend,
So I’ll not thirst again until the end.
He who gave water to the stream and fountain3515
Has sent to me a fountain like an ocean.
My heart was fond of water in the past,
But my desire for water now comes last.
For His slaves He becomes kaf simply to
Make kaf ha ya ayn sad’ s big promise true.*
“I give you every good thing
,” God told me,
“Without cause or an intermediary.
I’m All-Sufficing. I feed with no bread.
Without an army, I make you the head.
Without spring I give flowers, if you look.3520
I teach without a teacher or a book.
I cure you without medicine—My grace
Can make the pit and grave an open space.
I give to Moses with one rod a heart,
So with swords he can slash a world apart.
I give to Moses’s hand light with brightness
That can outshine the sun yet show it kindness.
I make mere wood a seven-headed serpent,
A kind not seen being born from one that’s pregnant.
I don’t let blood mix with Nile’s water, rather 3525
I make blood water’s essence, for I’m clever.
Like the Nile’s waves I turn your joy to sorrow,
Such that you can’t find joy again tomorrow.
When you want to renew your faith again
But next to Pharaoh you feel helpless, then
You’ll see come Mercy’s Moses from before
And the Nile’s blood turn back to waves once more.
If you keep safe the end of your faith’s thread,
Your savour’s Nile won’t change to blood instead.”
I thought I would change faiths in place of blood3530
To drink some water from this awful flood—
How could I then have known that all the while
He’d change my nature and make me a Nile?’
I am a flowing Nile to my own eye,
Though I look motionless to passers-by,
And to the Prophet this world is continuous
In praising God yet to us it looks heedless:
To him this world is full of love and justice;
To ordinary men it’s dead and lifeless.
He sees the hills and valleys moving round;3535
He hears wise words from bricks and from the ground:
They are all dead and limited to most;
I’ve never seen a stranger veil exposed.
To our eyes graves are all alike as well—
God’s friends see gardens next to pits of hell.
Vulgar men say, ‘Why has the Prophet now
Become a killjoy and so sour somehow?’
Elite men say, ‘He only looks so sour,
O people, since your sight is lacking power—
For once, come into our eyes for a while3540
To see “Has there once come? ”* raise a huge smile.
For on the pear tree there it will appear
Topsy-turvy, young man, so come down here.
The Masnavi, Book Four Page 26