XV. Zeyd’s Inspiration.
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Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana and Redhouse, James W. (James William), Sir
In nullity, so firm thou settedst down thy foot,
And ask’dst: “Who shall remove me when I’ve taken root?”
Dost thou not see the wondrous works of God’s high will?
How He it is who “leads thee by thy forelock” still?402
He draws thee into states, conditions, turns of weal,
That never entered in thy mind to seek with zeal.
Nonentity obedient is to His command.
Of demon, and of Solomon, He rules the hand.
A demon can contrive “the trays of fishpond size.”403
He dares not make refusal these to organise.185
Contemplate now thyself in agony of fear;
And know, nonentity, too, quakes His wrath to hear.
Thou stretchest forth thy hand to seize preferment’s place;
From fear of thee, some soul itself must quick efface.
All else but love of God, the Truest and the Best,
Though sweet to thought, is but a snare to break thy rest.
What’s all thy effort worth? Thou hast to die at last;
Put out thy hand and grasp the cup of life right fast.
Men fix their eyes on what is dust and ashes, death;
Refuse belief in what is life and healthful breath.190
Exert thyself. Reduce thy doubts from ten to nine.
Employ the night. Thou sleepest. Night’s not so supine.
Employ the night to seek the everlasting day,
Increase in knowledge. Wisdom ’tis shall light thy way.
Though night be dark, and darkness be of woe the doom,
Much good is in it. Fount of Life’s in land of gloom.404
How can a mortal hope to raise his head from sleep,
When seeds of slothfulness are all he cares to reap?
The dead man’s sleep’s the body-snatcher’s open door.
Householders slumber, robbers rifle every floor.195
Thou knowest not who are thy foes around thee placed.
The imps of hell are enemies to man high graced.
The fire’s the foe of water and of water’s brood;
As water’s foe to fire, and drowns it in a flood.
To water, and its cousins all, the fire swears death;
To fire shall water never quarter give, or breath.
’Tis water puts the fire out; and the reason’s plain;
The fire has mission to destroy the water’s strain.
And then, the fire’s the heat of passion’s baneful lusts.
And lust, the root of frailty, sin, misdeeds, mistrusts.200