(1) - O Ziya ul-Haqq, Husamu’din, you are he through whose light the Masnavi has surpassed the moon.

(3) - You have bound the neck of this Masnavi: you are drawing it in the direction known to you.

(4) - The Masnavi is running on, the drawer is unseen by the ignorant one who has no insight.

(5) - Inasmuch as you have been the origin of the Masnavi, if it increases, you have caused it to increase.

(6) - Since you wish it so, God wishes it so: God grants the desire of the devout.

(7) - In the past you have been “he belongs to God,” so that “God belongs” has come in recompense.

(9) - God saw thanksgiving to you on its lips and in its hands: He showed grace and bestowed favour and increase;

(10) - For to him that gives thanks increase is promised, just as nearness is the reward for prostration.

(11) - Our God has said, “And prostrate yourself and come near”: the prostration of our bodies is become the nearness of the spirit.

(30) - Shed light upon the Fourth Book, for the sun rose from the Fourth Heaven.

(37) - If you will complete this story, which is the current coin of our present state, it is fitting.

(32) - Whoever reads it an idle tale, he is an idle tale; and he who regards it as money in his own hands is like a man.

(39) - If this story was not finished there, it is the Fourth Volume: set it out in order.

Conclusion of the story of the lover who fled from the night-patrol into an orchard unknown to him and for joy at finding his beloved in the orchard called down blessings on the night-patrol and said, “It may be that you loathe a thing although it is better for you.”

(40) - We were at the point where that person in terror from the night-patrol galloped into the orchard.

(41) - In the orchard was the beauteous one for love of whom this had been in tribulation eight years.

(42) - He had no possibility of seeing her shadow: he was hearing the description of her, as the Anqa,

(43) - Except one meeting which happened to him by destiny at the first and ravished his heart After that,

(44) - However much effort he made, in sooth that cruel one would give him no opportunity.

(45) - Neither entreaty nor wealth availed him :

(46) - The lover of any craft or object of pursuit, God has touched his lip at the beginning of the affair;

(47) - When at that contact they have entered upon the quest, He lays a snare before their feet every day.

(48) - When He has plunged him into search for the matter, after that He shuts the door, saying, “Bring the dowry”

(49) - Still they cling to that scent and go: at every moment they become hopeful and despairing.

(50) - Everyone has hope of the fruit to which a door was opened to him on a certain day;

(51) - Then it was shut again; that devotee to the door, in the same hope, has become fire-footed.

(52) - When the youth joyously entered that orchard, truly on a sudden his foot sank in the treasure.

(53) - God had made the night-patrol the means, so that in fear of him he should run into the orchard by night.

(54) - And should see the beloved one searching with a lantern for a ring in the rivulet of the orchard.

(55) - Therefore at that moment, from the delight, he joined praise of God with prayers for the night-patrol.

(57) - Set him free from policing: make him glad even as I am glad.

(59) - Though it is the nature of that policeman, O God that he always desires the people to be afflicted”

(60) - If news come that the king has imposed a fine upon the Moslems, he waxes big and exultant;

(61) - And if news come that the king has shown mercy and has generously taken off that from the Moslems,

(62) - Mournfulness falls upon his soul thereat.

(64) - He was poison to all, but to him the antidote: the policeman was the means of uniting that longing lover.

(74) - If you wish that he should be sugar to you, then look on him with the eye of lovers.

(75) - Do not look on that Beauteous One with your own eye: behold the Sought with the eye of seeker.

(112) - He became a factory of anger and hatred: know that hate is the root of error and infidelity.

How they asked Jesus, saying, “O Spirit of God, what is the hardest thing to bear of all the hard things in existence ?”

(113) - A sober minded man said to Jesus, “What is the hardest to bear of all things in existence ?”

(114) - He replied, “O soul, the hardest is God’s anger, on account of which Hell is trembling as we.”

(115) - He said, “What is the security against this anger of God?” Jesus said, “To abandon your own anger at once.”

(120) - When that simpleton found her alone, at once he attempted to embrace and kiss her.

(121) - The beauty with an awesome demeanor raised her voice against him, saying, “Do not behave impudently, be mindful of good manners !”

(122) - He said, “Why, there is privacy, and no people: the water at hand, and a thirsty man like me !

(123) - None is moving here but the wind. Who is present ?

(124) - "`O madman,” said she, “you have been a fool: a fool you are and have not hearkened to the wise.

(125) - You saw the wind moving: know that a Mover of the wind is here, who drives the wind along.”

(143) - Is it not the fact that at winnowing-time the labourers on the threshing-floor beseech God for wind ?

(146) - Likewise, in child birth, if the wind of childbirth doesn’t come, there comes a woeful cry for help.

(152) - Therefore all have known for certain that the wind is sent by the Lord of created beings.

(153) - Therefore in the mind of every one possessing knowledge this is certain, that with everything that moves there is a mover.

(154) - If you do not see him visibly, apprehend him by means of the manifestation of the effect.

(155) - The (Noorani) body is moved by the spirit: you do not see the spirit; but from the movement of the body know the spirit.

(156) - He said, “If I am foolish in manners, I am wise in respect of faithfulness and pursuit.”

(157) - She replied, “Truly the manners were these which have been seen; as for the other, you yourself know, perverse fellow !

Story of the Sufi who caught his wife with a strange man.

(158) - A Sufi came to his house in the daytime: the house had one door, and his wife was with a cobbler.

(160) - When in the forenoon the Sufi knocked on the door with all his might, both were at a loss: neither device nor way.

(161) - It was never known for him to return home from the shop at that time,

(162) - But on that day the alarmed man purposely returned to his house at an unseasonable hour, because he was suspicious.

(163) - The wife’s confidence was on the fact that he had never come home from his work at this time.

(164) - By destiny, her reasoning did not come right: though He is the Coverer, still He will impose the penalty.

(165) - When you have done evil, be afraid, do not be secure, since it is seed, and God will cause it to grow.

(166) - For awhile He covers it up, to the end that sorrow and shame for that evil may come to you.

How the wife, for the sake of imposition, hid the beloved one under her chador and offered a false excuse, “for truly, great is your cunning.”

(186) - She quickly threw her chadar upon him: she made the man a woman and opened the door.

(187) - Beneath the chadar the man was exposed to view and clearly seen— very conspicuous, like a camel on a staircase.

(188) - She said, ‘it is a lady, one of the notables of the town: she has her share of wealth and fortune.

(189) - I bolted the door, lest any stranger should come in suddenly unawares.’

(211) - I have told this story with the intent that you may not weave idle talk when the offence is glaring.

(212) - O you who are likewise excessive in your pretension, to you there has been this exertion and belief.

(213) - You have been unfaithful, like the Sufi’s wife: you have opened in fraud the snare of cunning,

(214) - For you are ashamed before every dirty braggart, and not before your God.

(235) - The appetitive soul is deaf and blind to God: I with my heart was seeing your blindness from afar.

(236) - For eight years I did not inquire after you at all, because I saw you full of ignorance, fold on fold.

(237) - Why, indeed, should I inquire after one who is in the bath-stove, and say ‘How are you?’ when he is headlong ?

Story of the tanner who fainted and sickened on smelling attar and musk in the bazaar of the perfumers.

(257) - A certain man fell senseless and curled up as soon as he came into the bazaar of the perfumers.

(258) - The scent of the perfume from the goodly perfumers smote him, so that his head reeled and he fell on the spot.

(259) - He fell unconscious, like a carcase, at noontide in the middle of the thoroughfare.

(260) - Thereupon the people gathered over him, all crying "`La hawl"` and applying remedies.

(261) - One was putting his hand on his heart, while another sprinkled rose-water upon him;

(262) - He did not know that from rose-water in the meadow that calamity had overtaken him.

(263) - One was massaging his hands and head, and another was bringing moist clay mixed with straw;

(264) - One compounded incense of aloes-wood and sugar, while another was divesting him of part of his clothes;

(265) - And another felt his pulse, to see how it was beating; and another was smelling his mouth,

(266) - To see whether he had drunk wine, eaten hashish: the people remained in despair at his insensibility.

(267) - So they speedily brought the news to his kinsfolk— “Such and such a person is lying there in a state of collapse;

(269) - That stout tanner had a brother, cunning and sagacious: he came at once in hot haste.

(270) - A small quantity of dog shit in his sleeve, he cut the crowd and approached with cries of grief.

(271) - “I know,” said he, “whence his illness arises: when you know the cause, the curing is manifest.

(274) - He said to himself, “The smell of that dog’s shit is multiplied in his brain and veins.

How the tanner’s brother sought to cure him secretly with the smell of shit.

(289) - The youth kept driving the people away from him, in order that those persons might not see his treatment.

(290) - He brought his head to his ear, like one telling a secret; then he put the thing to his nose;

(291) - For he had rubbed the dog’s shit on his palm: he had deemed it the remedy for the polluted brain.

(292) - A short while passed: the man began to move: the people said, “This was a wonderful charm;

(293) - For this recited charms and breathed into his ear: he was dead: the charms came to succour him.”

(295) - Anyone to whom the musk, admonition, is of no use must necessarily make himself familiar with the bad smell.

(296) - God has called the polytheists "`najas"` (uncleanness) for the reason that they were born in dung from of old.

(297) - The worm that has been born in dung will nevermore change its evil nature by means of ambergris.

(298) - Since the largesse of sprinkled light did not strike upon him, he is wholly body, without heart, like husks.

(299) - And if God gave him a portion of the sprinkled light, the dung hatched a bird, as is the custom in Egypt.

(300) - But not the cheap domestic fowl; nay, but the bird of knowledge and wisdom.

(301) - “You resemble that for you are devoid of that light, inasmuch as you are putting your nose to filth.

(302) - Because of being parted your cheeks and face have become yellow you are yellow leaves and raw fruit,

(303) - The pot was blackened by the fire and became like smoke in colour, the meat, on account of hardness, has remained so raw as this !

(304) - Eight years have I boiled, you in separation: your rawness and hypocrisy have not become less by a single mote.

(305) - Your young grape is hardened; for through sickness the young grapes are now raisins, while you are immature.”

How the lover begged to be excused for his sin, with duplicity and dissimulation; and how the beloved perceived that also.

(306) - The lover said, “I made the trial—do not take offence— that I might see whether you are a courtesan or a modest woman.

(307) - I knew without the trial, but how should hearing be the same as seeing ?

(308) - You are the sun: your name is renowned and known to all: what harm is there if I have tested it ?

(309) - You are I: every day I am making trial of myself in profit and loss.

(315) - If I have sought to rob you of your honour I come, O Moon, with sword and winding-sheet.

(316) - Do not cut off my feet arid head save with your own hand, for I belong to this hand, not to another hand.

(317) - You are talking again of separation: do whatsoever you will, but do not this!”

(318) - The way is now made into the realm of Discourse; it is impossible to speak, since there is no time.

(319) - We have told the husks, but the kernel is buried; if we remain, this will not remain as it is now.

How the beloved rejected the excuses of the lover and rubbed his duplicity into him.

(320) - The loved one opened her lips to answer him, saying, “On my side it is day, and on your side it is night.

(321) - Why in contention do you bring forward dark evasions before those who see ?

(322) - To us, all the deceit and dissimulations that you have in your heart are manifest and clear as day.

(324) - Learn from your Father; for in sin Adam came down willingly to the vestibule.

(325) - When he beheld that Knower of secrets, he stood up on his feet to ask forgiveness.

(326) - He seated himself on the ashes of contrition: he did not jump from one branch of idle pleading to another.

(327) - He said only, ‘O Lord, truly we have done wrong.'

(345) - If wheat is broken and torn asunder, it appears in the shop, saying, “Look! A perfect loaf!”

(346) - "`You too, O lover, since your crime has become manifest, abandon water and oil and be broken.

How the Jew said to Alí, “If you have confidence in God’s protection, cast yourself down from the top of this kiosk”; and how the Prince of the Faithful answered him.

(353) - One day a contumacious man, who was ignorant of the reverence due to God, said to Murtaza.

(354) - On the top of an exceedingly high terrace or pavilion, “Are you conscious of God’s protection, O intelligent man ?”

(355) - “Yes,” he replied; “He is the Protector and the Self-sufficient for my existence from infancy and conception.”

(356) - He said, “Come, cast yourself down from the roof, put an entire confidence in the protection of God.

(357) - So that your sure faith and your goodly proven conviction may become evident to me.”

(358) - Then the Prince said to him, “Be silent, go, lest for this boldness your soul be pawned.”

(359) - How is it right for a servant to venture on an experiment with God by making trial ?

(360) - How should a servant have the stomach vaingloriously to put Him to the test, O mad fool ?

(361) - To God belongs that, which brings forward a test for His servants at every moment.

(362) - In order that He may show us plainly to ourselves what beliefs we hold in secret.

(363) - Did Adam ever say to God, “I made trial of You in this sin and trespass,

(364) - That I might see the utmost limit of Your clemency, O King?” Ah, who would be capable of this, who ?

(366) - How can you make trial of Him who raised aloft the vault of heaven ?

(367) - O you that have not known good and evil, make trial of yourself, and then of others.

(374) - If a novice has made trial of the Shaykh who is the leader and guide, he is an ass.

(380) - Know that to make trial is like exercising authority over him: do not seek to exercise authority over such a king.

(385) - When you feel such a temptation, at once, at once turn unto God and begin the prostration.

The cause of the emigration of Adham (son of Ibrahim), may God sanctify his spirit, and his abandoning the kingdom of Khurasan.

(726) - Quickly dash to pieces the kingdom, Adham, that like him you may gain the kingdom of everlasting life.

(727) - At night that king was asleep on his throne, on the roof the guards were exercising authority.

(829) - On a throne, that man of good name heard at night a noise of tramping and shrill cries from the roof.

(830) - (He heard) loud footsteps on the roof of the palace, and said to himself, “Who dares to do this ?”

(831) - He shouted, at the palace-window, “Who is it? This is not a man, belike it is a genie.

(832) - A wondrous folk put their heads down, “We are going round by night for the purpose of search.”

(833) - “Eh, what are you seeking?” “Camels,” they replied. He said, “Take heed! Whoever sought camel on a roof ?”

(834) - Then they said to him, “How are you seeking to meet with God on the throne of state ?”

(835) - That was all. None saw him again: he vanished like a genie from man.

(836) - His reality was hidden, though he was in people’s presence: how should the people see anything but beard and frock ?

(837) - When he became far from his own and the people’s eyes, he became renowned in the world, like the ‘Anqa.

(838) - Whenever the soul of any bird has come to Qaf, the entire world boasts and brags on account of it.

Ya Ali Madad