Original content

English translation

The judge said: "Show me his insolvency." He said: "Here are the inmates of your prison as witnesses." He said: "They are suspect, since they flee from you and weep blood, and from you they also wish to be freed — out of this corrupt motive they bear witness." All the people of the court said: "We too are witnesses to his misfortune and insolvency." Whoever the judge asked about his condition said: "My lord, wash your hands of this insolvent." The judge said: "Lead him around openly throughout the city — he is insolvent and utterly a rogue. Street by street, proclaim him; beat the drum of his insolvency plainly everywhere. Let no one sell to him on credit; let no one lend him even a farthing. Whoever brings a claim against him here by craft — I will no longer imprison him. Before me his insolvency is established: he has nothing in hand, neither cash nor goods." Man is kept in the prison of the world for this — that his insolvency may be established. Our God also proclaimed the insolvency of the Devil as a herald in our Qur'an: "He is a cheat, insolvent, and evil of speech — make no partnership or trade with him at all. And if you do, you will make excuses — he is insolvent; when will you profit from him?" They brought him forward, for he had stirred up mischief, having made use of the camel of one who sold firewood. The poor wretch cried out greatly and also gladdened the court officer with a dāng. They led his camel away from mid-morning until evening, and his lamentation availed him nothing. That heavy blight sat upon the camel, the camel's owner running behind it. Side to side and street by street they rode until all the city plainly recognized him. Before every bathhouse and every marketplace all the people fixed their gaze upon his appearance. Ten loud-voiced heralds — Turks, Kurds, Romans, and Arabs: "This one is insolvent and has nothing whatsoever — let no one lend him so much as a pashiz. In outward and inward he has not a ḥabba — he is a counterfeit insolvent, a cheat, a fraud. Beware, beware — make no fellowship with him; when he brings his cow, tie the knot firm. And if you bring this withered one before the court — I will not imprison a dead man. He is pleasant of speech and his throat is very wide, with a new badge but a tattered cloak. If he wears that garment for the sake of deceit — it is borrowed, to delude the common folk." Words of wisdom on the tongue of the unwise — know them as borrowed robes, O Salīm. Though a thief has put on a fine robe, how can that severed hand take yours? When at nightfall he dismounted from the camel, the Kurd said to him: "My home is far and it is late. You mounted my camel since morning; I left barley aside, receiving less than the cost of hay." He said: "What have we been doing until now? Where is your sense? There is no one home in you. The drum of my insolvency has gone to the seventh sphere, and you have not heard — wretched event! Your ear has been filled with raw greed, for greed makes one deaf and blind, O servant." Until clod and stone heard this proclamation: "He is insolvent! He is insolvent! This scoundrel!" Until evening they proclaimed it, and the camel's owner knocked on no door — for he was brimful of greed. God has set a seal upon hearing and sight; in the veils there are many forms and many sounds. What He wills He brings to the eye — of beauty, of perfection, and of grace; and what He wills He brings to the ear — of samā', of glad tidings, and of outcry. The universe is full of remedies, yet you have no remedy, until God opens a window for you. Though you are now heedless of this, in time of need God makes it manifest. The Prophet said: "The Glorious God has created a remedy for every pain — but of that remedy you will see no color or scent for your own pain without His command." Set your eye, O seeker of remedy, upon lā-makān — quick, direct it like the eye of the slain toward the Soul. This world appeared from the directionless, for from placelessness the world found its place. Turn back from being toward non-being — seek your Lord and lordliness. This non-existence is the place of income — flee not from it; this existence, more or less, is the place of expenditure. Since the workshop of God's craftsmanship is non-existence, who in the world of being is anything but idle? Remind us of subtle words which draw forth Your mercy, O Friend. Both prayer is from You and response is from You; safety is from You and awe is from You. If we have spoken in error, correct it — You are the reformer, O Sultan of speech. You have the alchemy to transform it: though it be a stream of blood, You make it the Nile. Such enamel-work is Your doing; such elixirs are Your secrets. You mixed water and earth together — from water and clay You fashioned the form of Adam's body; gave him kinship — spouse and maternal uncle and paternal uncle — with a thousand thoughts, joys, and griefs. Yet some You have freed, given separation from this grief and joy; drawn them away from self, attachment, and nature, made every beautiful thing ugly in their eyes. Whatever is sensible he rejects, and what is imperceptible he makes his throne. His love is manifest while his beloved is hidden; his companion is outward, yet the turmoil of his love is in the world. Leave aside these formal loves — there is no faithfulness in form, nor in face. What is beloved is not form — whether love of this world or of that world. What you fell in love with because of form — when the soul has departed, why have you abandoned it? The form remains in place — from what is this satiety? O lover, seek back to know who your beloved is. If what is sensible were the beloved, whoever has sensation would be a lover. Since faithfulness increases that love — when does faithfulness change the form? The sunlight shone upon the wall; the wall received a borrowed radiance. Why bind your heart to a clod, O Salīm? Seek back the origin that shines permanently. O you who are also in love with your own intellect — you have seen yourself as greater than the form-worshippers. That is but the reflection of intellect upon your sense — know it as borrowed gold upon your copper. Beauty in man is like gold-plating; otherwise how does the fresh beauty become an old donkey? He who was like an angel became like a demon — for that loveliness in him was borrowed. Little by little they take away that beauty; little by little the sapling withers. Go, recite "naʿammiru-hu nunakkis-hu" — seek the heart; do not set your heart upon bones. For the beauty of the heart is everlasting beauty; its fortune is drawn from the Āb-i Ḥayawān. Indeed, He Himself is both the water and the sāqī and the drunk — the three became one when your talisman was broken. That One you cannot know by analogy — render servitude; chew no rubbish, O unknowing one. Your meaning is form and borrowing, suited to your joy and fitted to your rhyme. Meaning is that which takes you away, makes you free of need for the image. Meaning is not that which makes one blind and deaf and makes a man more enamored of the image. The blind one's portion is sorrow-multiplying fantasy; the eye's share is: these fantasies are transient. The blind are the mine of Qur'anic letters — they do not see the donkey and yet strike the packsaddle. Since you are sighted, go after the donkey that has strayed — how long will you stitch the packsaddle, O packsaddle-worshipper? When the donkey is found, the packsaddle will surely come; bread does not diminish when you have the soul. The donkey's back is the shop, wealth, and livelihood; in your heart is the capital of a hundred molds. Ride the donkey bare, O impertinent one — not bare, for the Messenger rode thus: "The Prophet indeed rode bareback" — and "The Prophet, it is said, traveled on foot." Bind your ego-donkey to its stake; how long will it flee from work and burden? The load of patience and gratitude is what it must bear — whether in a hundred years or in thirty or twenty. No bearer of burdens has borne another's burden; no one reaps until he has sown something. That is raw greed — do not eat raw, O son; eating raw brings illness to man. "That so-and-so suddenly found a treasure — I want the same, without work and without shop." That is the work of fortune, and that too is rare; one must strive as long as the body is capable. Who is the obstacle preventing earning from reaching the treasure? Do not pull your foot from work — it is right ahead. Lest you become ensnared in "if" — "If I had done this or that other thing" — for the faithful Prophet forbade saying "if" and said: "That comes from hypocrisy." For the hypocrite died in saying "if," and from saying "if" gained nothing but regret.