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WISDOM IS A GREAT GOOD
God has declared, Wisdom is a great good; | |
wherever you may see this good, seize it. | 1310 |
Science gives pinions to words and sounds, | |
bestows purest substance on things without substance; | |
science finds a way even to heavens zenith | |
to pluck the sight out of the suns own eye. | |
Its transcript is the commentary of the cosmos, | 1315 |
the fate of the cosmos hangs upon its determining; | |
it says to the desert, Bubble up! and it bubbles, | |
to the sea, Produce a mirage! and it produces it. | |
Its eye beholds all the events in creation | |
that it may see the sure foundations of creation; | 1320 |
if it attaches its heart to God, it is prophecy, | |
but if it is a stranger to God, it is unbelief. | |
Science without the hearts glow is pure evil, | |
for then its light is darkness over sea and land, | |
its rouge renders the whole world black and blind, | 1325 |
its springtide scatters the leaves of all being, | |
sea, plain and mountain, quiet garden and villa | |
are ravaged by the bombs of its aeroplanes. | |
It is its fire that burns the heart of Europe, | |
from it springs the joy of raiding and robbing; | 1330 |
it turns topsy-turvy the course of the days, | |
despoils the peoples of their capital. | |
Its power becomes the faithful ally of Satan; | |
light becomes fire by association with fire. | |
To slay Satan is indeed a difficult task, | 1335 |
since he is hidden within the depths of the heart; | |
better is it to make him a true Mussulman, | |
better to smite him dead with the sword of the Koran. | |
God save us from majesty that is without beauty, | |
God save us from separation without union! | 1340 |
Science without love is a demonic thing, | |
science together with love is a thing divine; | |
science and wisdom without love are a corpse, | |
reason is an arrow that never pierced the target. | |
With the vision of God make the blind to see, | 1345 |
convert Abu Lahab into an impetuous Haidar! |
Zinda-Rud
You have displayed the foundations of the Book of God, | |
yet is yonder world still veiled in a shroud. | |
Why does it not strip off the veil from its face, | |
why does it not issue yet out of our hearts? | 1350 |
Before us lies a whole world wasting away, | |
a nation quietly reposing in its own dust; | |
the hearts ardour of Tartar and Kurd is vanished | |
either the Mussulmans are dead, or the Koran is dead. |
Said
Halim Pasha
The religion of God is more shameful than unbelief, | 1355 |
because the mullah is a believer trading in unfaith; | |
in our eyes this dew-drop of ours is an ocean, | |
to his eyes our ocean is a dew-drop. | |
At the elegant graces of that Koran-vendor | |
I have seen the Trusty Spirit himself cry out! | 1360 |
His heart is a stranger to what lies beyond the sky, | |
for him the Archetype of the Book is but a fable; | |
having no share of the wisdom of the Prophets religion, | |
his heaven is dark, being without any star. | |
Short of vision, blind of taste, an idle gossip, | 1365 |
his hairsplitting arguments have fragmented the Community. | |
Seminary and mullah, before the secrets of the Book, | |
are as one blind from birth before the light of the sun. | |
The infidels religion is the plotting and planning of Holy War; | |
the mullahs religion is corruption in the Way of God. | 1370 |
The man of God is the soul of this dimensionate world; | |
say from me to him, who has gone into solitude, | |
You whose thoughts are life itself to the believer, | |
whose breaths are confirmation to the Community, | |
having the sublime Koran by heart is your rite, | 1375 |
your religion the publishing of the Word of God. | |
You with whom God speaks, how long will you hang your head? | |
Come, bring forth your hand out of your sleeve! | |
Speak of the history of the white people, | |
speak to the gazelle of the vastness of the desert. | 1380 |
Your nature is illumined by the Chosen One, | |
so declare now, where is our station? | |
The man of God takes not Colour and scent from anyone, | |
the man of God receives colour and scent from God; | |
every moment there is in his body a fresh soul, | 1385 |
every moment he has, like God, a new labour. | |
Declare the secrets to the believer, | |
declare the exposition of the mystery of Every day. | |
The caravan has no halting-place but the Sanctuary, | |
the caravan has naught but God in its heart; | |
I do not say that its road is different | |
it is the caravan that is different, different its regard. |
Afghani
Have yon any acquaintance with the Traditions of the Chosen One? | |
Gods religion came a stranger into the world. | |
I will tell you the meaning of this virgin saying. | 1395 |
The strangerhood of religion is not the poverty of Gods remembrancers; | |
for the man who is truly a researcher | |
strangerhood of religion refers to the scarceness of its verses. | |
The strangerhood of religion every time is Of a different kind; | |
ponder well this subtelty, if you have eyes to see. | 1400 |
Fasten your heart again to the perspicuous Verses | |
that you may seize a new age in your lasso. | |
No man knows the inner secrets of the Book; | |
Easterners and Westerners alike twist and turn this way and that. | |
The Russians have laid down a new design; | 1405 |
they have taken bread and water, and jettisoned religion. | |
Behold truth, speak truth, seek only truth; | |
speak one or two words from me to the people. |