XVI. Ali’s Forbearance.
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Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana and Redhouse, James W. (James William), Sir
Whatever law the Lord hath abrogated yet,
Is but a weed plucked up;—a rose blooms where ’twas set.
The night He promulgates; day’s work refrains from act.
Consider! Mind becomes like inorganic fact.
Again, night disappears; the light of day is spread;
And nature shows its marvels; reason wakes from dead.
With darkness comes the sleep that locks our reason fast,
But spirits know not darkness; life’s stream still goes past.
Is’t not that mind’s refreshed in darkest hours of night?
Its silence ’tis gives birth to every voice of light.”145
By contraries are contraries brought forth to view,
From out of darkness was the light created new.
The Prophet’s wars have brought about the peace that reigns;
These tranquil latter days the fruits are of his pains.
How many heads lay low beneath that hero’s blows,
That peace might be enjoyed by faith’s true yoke-fellows!
’Tis thus the gardener prunes away the surplus twigs,
That fruitful boughs may prosper, yield their loads of figs.
Sagacity roots out all weeds from cultured space.
The orchard, thence, new vigour finds, and blooms apace.150
A wise physician will extract a tooth decayed,
To give relief from pain to his beloved maid.
How much increase grows out of decrease here below.
The martyr gains eternal life by death in show.
Man, fed by bread, cuts down the harvest corn when ripe;
“Partakes the blessing joyfully,”421 with drum and pipe.
When brutes are slaughtered with due sense of wisdom’s law,
Man’s life is nurtured;—learning, science, vigour draw.
If man be slaughtered, see what woes from thence arise.
Compare the two;—their difference you’ll recognise.155
The vegetable world lives by God’s sun and rain,
God’s care takes charge of it. His care is not in vain.
The slaughtered beasts have food and drink as well as those.
They die, because they’ve throats. Those have no life to lose.
Withhold thy hand in season, man of little sense!
That so thy food suffice. Thy life’s thy recompense.
Thou art as fruitless as the barren willow-branch,
Because thy honour’s sacrificed mere bread to scranch.
If thy brute nature will not practise abstinence,
Administer the remedy. Bring it to sense.160