Original content

English translation

A questioner stood up in an assembly And asked, 'Why is Hasan the leader in Basra?' He replied, 'Because today, in truth and metaphor, A multitude of people need his knowledge. And he does not need anyone for even a grain of barley, When would he be bound to anyone in this world? He is free from everyone regarding provisions and goods, While people need him until the day of their death. This is true mastery in both worlds, Inevitably, he has become the leader at this time.' O heart, make wine from blood and a goblet from the soul, Do not deceive the people nor lay a trap for them. When you have just bread and old clothes, Every tip of your hair will be a king. Whoever eats bread from the hands of swine, There is no doubt that he drinks the blood of his own soul. How long will you share a table with dogs? You are a sun, how long will you act like a speck of dust? Pass by these misers manfully, Throw yourself into the candle like a moth. If you avoid these miserly people, How would you be aware of their stinginess? Make yourself a moth and do not ask about your wings, Sacrifice your soul, be silent, and ask no more. When the male lion sees fire, he does not overcome it, The moth acts like a lion towards the fire. Step entirely into the path of heroic manhood, How long will you seek favors from these common beasts? Become a man of religion and a confidant of secrets, And grow weary of philosophical fantasies. There is no human being further From the Sharia of the Hashemite Prophet than the philosopher. The Sharia is obeying the Prophet's command, For the philosopher, it is putting dirt on his own head. Consider the philosopher's way to be like Zoroaster's, Consider philosophy and Sharia to be back-to-back. For the philosopher, the Universal Intellect is sufficient, For our intellect, the command 'Say' is sufficient. In truth, a hundred worlds of the Universal Intellect Are lost in the awe of a single command of 'Say'. If the command does not give life to the intellect, How can any intellect perform servitude? The guide of your intellect is weak because It has grown from its own self. Annihilate the essence of your intellect in the command, So that the essence of your intellect does not become annihilated by wine. If the intellect disappears because of wine, How will it ever see the command 'Say'? The intellect needs 'Say' and the command of God, So that He becomes both the leader and the guide. Whether your intellect remains partial or universal, If you discard the essence of your intellect, only 'Say' remains for you. Since the essence of your intellect has fallen into alignment through 'Say', If the intellect turns its head away from 'Say', this is an error. The knowledge of your intellect is to walk by command, Not to walk bewildered by individual intellect. Do not study knowledge except for the life of Truth, And do not consider your salvation to come from reading Avicenna's 'Shifa'. The knowledge of religion is jurisprudence, exegesis, and Hadith, Whoever studies other than this becomes wicked. The man of religion is the Sufi, the reciter, and the jurist, If you are not called these, I will call you a fool. The core of salvation for these three pure sciences Is good character and the transformation of attributes. These three sciences are the root, and these three are the source, Whatever goes beyond this is useless. This speech, truly, is not out of a threat, This flows from vision, it is not blind imitation. I have caught a scent in every one of these sciences, I have bowed down before every color. When I realized that religion is this and nothing else, Those other things are nothing; certainty is this and nothing else. I abandoned all of them until they burned away, So that from that abandonment, they sewed a hat for me. The sky, with its golden helmet and bent back, Turned blue in mourning for this hat. This is the hat of the headless ones, O boy, If they give it to you, you will boast about having a head. If you want the hat of poverty, cut off your head, And cut yourself off completely from yourself and both worlds. I know this speech will seem like nonsense to you, It will seem like trifles full of superstitions to you. When would that bat have the power To look at the manifest sun? Lose your intellect completely in the Sharia, After that, enter the yearning for the Truth without metaphor. So that when intellect, Sharia, and yearning become manifest, What you seek will appear through spiritual taste. Forty stations will come before you, All of them will come within yourself. When you have kept this forty-day retreat in the spiritual path, You will have made peace with the Truth. When you seek yourself in the forty stations, In the end, you will be everything, and peace.