(2323) (Nasuh) I died once, and I came back (Abode): I tasted the bitterness of death and non-existence.

(2324) I have turned to God with real repentance: I will not break till my soul shall be parted from my body.

(2325) After such a tribulation, whose foot should move towards danger a second time, unless it be an ass ?”

Story demonstrating that when a person repents and feels remorse and then forgets his feelings of remorse and tries again what he has tried, he falls into everlasting perdition. Unless his repentance is reinforced by a firmness and strength and by a sweetness and acceptance, it is like a rootless tree, more faded and withered every day. We take refuge with God.

(2326) There was a washer man, who had an ass with a sore on its back and empty-bellied and lean.

(2327) In ground covered with stones, where no grass grew: from morning till night it went without food and shelter.

(2328) Except water, there was nothing for it to eat or drink: the ass was in that miserable state by day and by night.

(2329) In the neighbourhood was a reed-bed and a jungle, where a lion lived whose occupation was hunting.

(2330) A battle took place between the lion and a fierce elephant: the lion was wounded and disabled from going to hunt.

(2331) On account of his weakness he was unable to hunt for some time, and the wild animals were deprived of their morning-meal;

(2332) For they used to eat the lion’s leavings: when the lion became ill they suffered distress.

(2333) The lion gave orders to a fox, saying, “Go and hunt an ass for me.

(2334) If you find an ass round about the meadow, go, charm him with specious talk, beguile him, and bring him.

(2335) As soon as I gain some strength from (eating) the flesh of the ass, then afterwards I will seize another victim.

(2336) I will eat a little, you the rest: I am the means for you as regards food.

(2337) Procure for me either an ass or an ox: address some of the charming words that you know.

(2338) Deprive him of his wits by flatteries and fair words and bring him here.”

Parable of the Qutb, who is the gnostic united with God, in respect of his dispensing to the people their rations of forgiveness and mercy in the order and degree which God inspires him to observe; and a comparison of him with the lion, for the wild animals partake of the lion’s rations and eat his leavings in proportion to their nearness to him, not nearness in space but nearness in quality. The details of this are many, and God is the Guide.

(2339) The Qutb is the lion, and it is his business to hunt: the rest, these people, eat his leavings.

(2340) So far as you can, endeavour to satisfy the Qutb, so that he may gain strength and hunt the wild beasts.

(2341) When he is ailing, the people remain unfed, for all food provided for the gullet comes from the hand of reason,

(2342) Since the ecstasies of the people are his leavings. Keep this in mind, if your heart desires the prey.

(2343) He is like the reason, and the people are like the members of the body: the management of the body depends on the reason.

(2344) The weakness of the Qutb is bodily, not spiritual: the weakness lies in the Ship, not in Noah.

(2345) The Qutb is he who turns round himself, round him is the revolution of the celestial spheres.

(2346) Lend some assistance in repairing his ship, if you have become his favourite slave and devoted servant.

(2347) Your assistance is advantageous to you, not to him: God has said, “If you help God, you will be helped.”

(2348) Hunt like the fox and sacrifice your prey to him, that you may gain in return a thousand preys and more.

(2349) The prey caught by the disciple is after the manner of the fox, the disobedient hyena catches prey dead.

(2350) If you present the dead to the Qutb, it will become living: filth in the orchard will produce.

(2351) The fox said to the lion, “I will serve you: I will contrive expedients and rob him of his wits.

(2352) Cunning and enchantment is my business: it is my business to beguile and lead astray.”

(2353) Hastening from the mountain-top towards the river, he found that miserable emaciated ass.

(2354) Then he saluted him cordially and advanced: he advanced to meet that poor simpleton,

(2355) And said, “How are you in this arid desert amidst stones and on sterile ground ?”

(2356) The ass replied, “Whether I am in pain or in Iram, God has made it my portion, and I am grateful for it.

(2357) I give thanks to the Friend in good and evil estate, because in destiny there is worse than ill.

(2358) Since He is the Dispenser of portions, complaint is infidelity. Patience is needful: patience is the key to the gift.

(2359) All except God are enemies: He is the Friend: how is it good to complain of a friend to an enemy ?

(2360) So long as He gives me buttermilk I will not desire honey, for every pleasure has a pain joined with it.”

Story of an ass belonging to a seller of firewood, which saw some well-fed Arab horses in the royal stable and wished for the same fortune. This story conveys the lesson that one ought not to wish for anything but forgiveness and favour; for though you are in a hundred kinds of pain, they all become sweet when you feel the delight of being forgiven; and for the rest, every fortune that you wish for before you have experienced it is accompanied by a pain which you do not perceive; as in every trap the bait is visible while the snare is concealed. You have been caught in this one trap are wishing, “Would that I had gone after those baits!” You fancy that those baits are without a trap.

(2361) There was a water-carrier who owned an ass that had been bent double like a hoop by affliction.

(2362) Its back was galled by the heavy load in a hundred places: it was passionately desiring the day of its death.

(2363) What of barley? It never got its fill of dry straw: at its heels a blow and an iron goad.

(2364) The Master of the stable saw it and took pity, for the man was acquainted with the owner of the ass,

(2365) So he saluted him and asked him what had happened, saying, “What is the cause of this ass being bent double like a dál ?”

(2366) He replied, “On account of my poverty and destitution this dumb animal is not getting even straw.”

(2367) “Hand him over to me,” said the other, “for a few days, that in the King’s stable he may grow strong.”

(2368) He handed the ass over to him, and that merciful man tethered him in the Sultan’s stable.

(2369) The ass saw on every side Arab horses, well-fed and fat and handsome and glossy;

(2370) He saw the ground swept under their feet and sprinkled with water; the straw coming at the time, and the barley at the hour.

(2371) He saw the horses curry-combed and rubbed down. He lifted up his muzzle, crying, “O glorious Lord,

(2372) Am not I Your creature ? I grant that I am an ass, wherefore am I wretched, with sores on my back, and lean ?

(2373) At night, because of the pain in my back and the hunger in my belly, I am always wishing to die.

(2374) These horses are so happy and prosperous: why am I singled out for torment and tribulation ?”

(2375) Suddenly came the rumour of war: it was the time for the Arab horses to be saddled and brought into action.

(2376) They were wounded with arrows by the foe: the barbs entered them on every side.

(2377) Those Arab horses returned from the campaign, they all fell down and lay on their backs in the stable.

(2378) Their legs were tightly bandaged with canvas: the Doctors were standing in file,

(2379) Piercing their bodies with the scalpel in order to extract the barbs from their wounds.

(2380) The ass saw that, and was saying, “O God, I am satisfied with poverty and health.

(2381) I have no taste for that food and those hideous wounds.” Everyone who desires health abandons the world.

How the ass answered the fox.

(2388) He replied, “That is weak faith; else He who gave life gives (us) bread.

(2389) Whoever seeks sovereignty and victory, a mouthful of bread will not fail, O son.

(2390) All wild animals, both the herbivorous and the predatory, are devourers of the provision: they neither go in quest of work nor do they support providing.

(2391) The Provider gives their daily bread to all: He lays before each one the portion allotted to him.

(2392) The provision comes to everyone who seeks patience: the trouble of making efforts arises from your want of patience.”

Exposition of the meaning of trust in God, the Story of the ascetic who, making trial of his trust in God, abandoned his property and town and went far away from the beaten tracks and thoroughfares of men to the foot of a remote and inaccessible mountain, in extreme hunger he laid his head upon a stone and fell asleep, saying to himself, ‘I put trust in Your providing the means and daily bread; and I cut myself off from means in order that I may experience the causation of trust in God.’

(2401) A certain ascetic had heard the saying of Mustafá that the daily bread surely comes from God to the spirit,

(2402) Whether you will or no, your daily bread comes running to you because it is fond of you.

(2403) By way of trial that man went into the desert and immediately lay down near a mountain,

(2404) Saying, ‘I will see whether the daily bread will come to me: that my belief in the daily bread may become firm.’

(2405) A caravan lost its way and marched towards the mountain: the travellers saw him lying there who was making the trial.

(2406) How is this man destitute here in the wilderness, far from road and town ?

(2407) Oh, I wonder, is he dead or alive ? He has no fear of wolves or enemies.’

(2408) They came on and touched him with their hands: that venerable man deliberately said nothing.

(2409) He did not stir; he did not even move his head or open his eyes, because he was making a trial.

(2410) Then they said, ‘This poor disappointed man has had a stroke of apoplexy caused by hunger.’

(2411) They fetched bread and food in a kettle that they might pour it into his mouth and his throat.

(2412) Thereupon the man purposely clenched his teeth, in order to see the truth of that promise.

(2413) They felt pity for him and said, ‘This man is starving and perishing with hunger and at the point of death’;

(2514) They brought a knife and hastily made a rift in his closed teeth.

(2415) They poured soup into his mouth and forced into it fragments of bread.

(2416) He said to himself, ‘O my heart, even though you are keeping silence, you know the secret and are showing disdain.’

(2417) His heart replied, ‘I know and am purposely behaving: God is the provider for my soul and body.’

(2418) How should there be a trial more than this ? The daily bread comes with joy to those who have patience.”

How the ass answered the fox, saying, “Trust in God is the best way of earning a livelihood, for everyone needs to trust in God and cry, ‘O God, bring this work of mine to success’; and prayer involves trust in God, and trust in God is the means of livelihood that is independent of any other means, etc.”

(2425) He said, “In the two worlds I do not know any means of livelihood superior to trust in my Lord.

(2426) I know nothing to be compared with the acquisition of thanksgiving to Him, in order that thanksgiving to God may bring the daily bread and the increase.”

(2427) Their dispute was prolonged in mutual altercation they became incapable of questioning and answering.

(2428) Afterwards he said to him, “Mark in the kingdom the prohibition, and ‘Do not cast yourselves into destruction.’

(2429) In a barren desert covered with stones self-denial is folly: God’s world is wide.

(2430) Move from this place towards the meadow, and browse there on the verdure round about the river,

(2431) A meadow as green as Paradise, where the plants grows up to the waist.

(2432) Happy the animal that goes there: amidst such lush plant life a camel would become invisible.

(2433) There, on every side, is a running fountain; there the animals are in comfort and security.”

(2434) From asininity he did not say to him, “O accursed one, you are from there: how are you.

(2435) Where are your gaiety, fatness and comeliness ? What is this lean starved body of yours ?

(2436) If your description of the meadow is not falsehood and fiction, then why is yours eye not intoxicated by it ?

(2437) These greedy looks and this blindness are the result of your beggarliness, not of sovereignty.

(2438) Since you have come from the fountain, how are you dry ? And if you are the gland of the musk-deer, where is the fragrance of musk ?

(2439) How is there no trace in you of that which you say and describe, O exalted one?”

Parable of the camel, explaining that when someone tells of his good fortune and you do not perceive in him any appearance or sign of welfare, there is reason to suspect that he is an imitator of those who have really attained to spiritual felicity.

(2440) A certain man asked a camel, “Hey, where do you come from, O you whom fortune attends ?

(2441) He replied, “From the hot-bath in your street.” Said the other, “Truly, it is manifest in your knees !”

(2467) The ass heard of the colour and scent of the meadow, all arguments disgusted him.

(2468) The thirsty man wanted rain, and there was no cloud; the fleshly soul was ravenously hungry, and there was no self-restraint.

(2469) Self-restraint is an iron shield, O father: upon the shield God has written, “Victory will come.”

(2470) The imitator brings forward a hundred proofs in his exposition; he speaks intellectually, not from immediate experience.

(2471) He is tinctured with musk, but he is not musk: he has the scent of musk, but he is only shit.

(2472) In order that a piece of shit may become musk, O disciple, one must browse for years in that garden.

(2473) One must not eat straw and barley, like asses: browse on arghawán, like the musk-deer in Khutan.

(2474) Do not browse on aught but clove, jasmine, or roses: go to the plain of Khutan in company with those personages.

"Go towards the fields of Khutan in the company of those saintly men."

(2475) Accustom your belly to the sweet basil and the rose, that you may gain the wisdom and food of the prophets.

(2476) Break your belly of its habit of this straw and barley: begin to eat the sweet basil and the rose.

(2477) The corporeal belly leads to the straw-barn; the spiritual belly leads to the sweet basil.

(2502) You may have Dhu ’l-faqár as a heritage from ‘Alí, have you the arm of the Lion of God ? Produce it !

(2503) Though you may remember an incantation derived from the Messiah, where are the lips and teeth of Jesus, O abominable man ?

(2513) Restore your manliness in works that you may become the hot sun in Aries.

(2514) Leave the belly and stride towards the heart, in order that the salutation may come to you from God without veil.

(2516) The fox embarked on the plot: he seized the ass’s beard and led him away.

How the fox brought the ass to the lion, and how the ass jumped away from the lion, and how the fox reproached the lion, saying, “The ass was still far off: you were too hasty”; and how the lion made excuses and entreated the fox to go and trick him a second time.

(2564) When he brought him up the hill towards the meadow, in order that the lion might pulverise him with a charge,

(2565) He was far from the lion, but the lion would not wait for him to come near before attacking.

(2566) The terrible lion made a spring from an eminence, indeed he had not the strength and power to move.

(2567) The ass saw him from afar and turned and fled to the bottom of the hill, dropping his shoes as he ran.

(2568) “O king of us,” said the fox to the lion, “why did not you restrain yourself in the hour of battle,

(2574) If by your wits you can reclaim him and bring him back once more,

How the fox approached the runaway ass a second time in order to beguile him once more.

(2600) Then the fox came quickly towards the ass: the ass said, “One must beware of a friend like you.

(2512) The fox replied, “It was a spell of magic that appeared in your eyes as a lion;

(2613) Else I am punier in body than you, and I always feed there by night and day.

(2614) If he had not wrought a spell of that kind, every famishing would have run there.

(2616) Truly, I meant to tell you, by way of instruction, not to be afraid if you should see a terrible thing like that;

(2617) But I forgot to impart knowledge to you, because I was overwhelmed with grief and pity on your account.

(2619) Otherwise I would have explained the spell to you: it presents itself as an apparition, it is not a body.”

How the lion made the ass his prey, and being thirsty after his exertions went to the spring to drink. Before his return the fox had eaten the liver together with the lungs, heart, and kidneys, which are the choicest parts. The lion looked for the heart and liver, and when he did not find them asked the fox where they were. The fox replied, “If he had possessed a heart and liver, how should he have come back to you after receiving such a stern lesson on that day and saving his life by means of a thousand devices?” “If we had listened or considered with understanding we should not have been among the fellows of Hell-fire.”

(2870) The little fox brought the ass into the presence of the lion: the courageous lion tore him to pieces.

(2871) The King of the Beasts was made thirsty by his exertions and went to the spring to drink some water.

(2872) Meanwhile the little fox, having got an opportunity, ate his liver, lungs, and heart.

(2873) When the lion returned from the spring to eat, he looked in the ass to find the heart; there was neither heart nor liver.

(2874) He said to the fox, “Where is the liver ? What has become of the heart ? For no animal can do without these two.”

(2875) He replied, “If he had possessed a heart or liver, how should he have come here a second time ?

(2876) He had experienced that tremendous agony and turmoil, the scramble down the mountain, the terror, and the flight;

(2877) If he had a liver or heart, how could he have come a second time into your presence ?”

(2878) When there is no light in the heart, it is no heart; when there is no spirit, it is nothing but earth.

(2879) The glass that has no spiritual light is urine and the urine-phial: do not call it a lamp.

(2880) The light in the lamp is the gift of the Almighty; the glass and earthenware are His creatures’ handiwork.

(2881) Necessarily in respect of the vessels there is number, in respect of the flames there is nothing but unity.

Ya Ali Madad