How God addressed Azrael, saying, “Of all these creatures whose souls you have seized, whom did you pity most ?” and the answer given by Azrael to the Lord.

4797 - God was saying to Azrael, “O marshal, whom of all the miserable ones did you pity ?”

4798 - He replied, “My heart burns with grief for them all, but I am afraid to neglect the command,

4799 - So that I should say, ‘would that God might sacrifice me in exchange for the youth !’”

4800 - God asked, “For whom did you feel the greatest pity ? On account of whom was your heart most filled with flame and grilled ?”

4801 - “One day,” said he, “by Your command I wrecked a ship on the fierce waves, so that it went to pieces.

4802 - Then You bade me take the souls of them all, except one woman and one child belonging to that company.

4803 - The two were left on a plank, and the plank was being driven on by the waves.

4804 - Then You said, ‘Take the mother’s soul and leave the child alone in obedience to the command Be !’

4805 - When I parted the child from its mother, You yourself know how bitter It was to me.

4806 - Often have I seen sighs in great mourning, the bitter grief of that child has never gone from my recollection.”

4807 - God said, “Of My grace I bade the waves cast that child into a forest—

4808 - A forest abounding in lilies and sweet basils and roses, full of trees laden with fruit good to eat,

4809 - And fountains of sweet limpid water. I fostered the child with a hundred endearments.

4810 - Myriads of melodious singing-birds poured forth a hundred songs in that garden.

4811 - I made for him a couch of wild-rose leaves; I made him secure from the shock of afflictions.

4812 - I told the sun not to scorch him; I told the wind to blow on him gently;

4813 - I told the clouds not to rain upon him; I told the lightning not to dart at him.

4814 - I said, ‘O December, do not cut off the mild weather from this orchard; O Summer, do not let your fist fall on this garden.’”

The miracles of Shayban Ra’i, May God sanctify his venerable spirit !

4815 - Just as Shayban Ra’i, because of the stubborn wolf, used to draw a line round his flock at the hour of the Friday prayers,

4816 - In order that no sheep should go beyond that line, and that no wolf or mischievous robber should come inside.

4817 - It was on the model of Hud’s circle of refuge, in which his followers were safe from the sarsar wind.

4818 - “Stay quietly within this line for eight days and view the terrible mutilation outside.”

4819 - It lifted into the air and flung them on the stones, so that flesh and bone were torn asunder.

4820 - One party it hurled against each other in the air, so that their bones crumbled like poppy-seed.

4821 - There is no room in the Masnaví to describe fully that chastisement whereat Heaven trembled.

4822 - If, O icy wind, you are doing this by nature, try to invade the line and circle drawn by Hud !

4823 - O natural philosopher, perceive that this kingdom is above Nature, or else come and wipe out this from the Holy Book !

4828 - He is conscious of being helpless both in the stable and in the last state: he is dead; he has adopted “the old women’s religion.”

4829 - Like Zalikha, when Joseph beamed upon her, found the way from decrepitude to youth.

4830 - Life depends on dying and on suffering tribulation: the Water of Life is in the Darkness.

Resuming the Story of the most High God’s bringing up Nimrod in his childhood without the intervention of mother and nurse.

4831 - “In short, that garden, like the orchard of gnostics, was secure from the simoom and the sarsar wind.

4832 -A leopardess had newly given birth to cubs: I bade her give milk to him, and she obeyed.

4833 - So she gave him milk and tended him till he grew up and became strong and valiant.

4834 - When he was weaned, I told the peris to teach him how to discourse and deal justice.

4835 - I gave him nourishment from that garden: how should My artfulness be contained in words.

4839 - I showed a hundred favours and a hundred ties, that he might experience My kindness directly,

4840 - And not be distracted by any secondary cause, to the end that every call for help should be made by him to Me,

4841 - Or at least that he should have no excuse and no occasion to complain of any evil companion.

4842 - He enjoyed this tender care by a hundred ties, for I fostered him without an intermediary.

4843 - His thanks, O honoured servant, were this that he became Nimrod and the burner of Khalíl Ebrahim,”

4844 - Just as this prince, in return for the favours of the King, showed arrogance and sought to aggrandise himself,

4845 - Saying, “Why should I become the follower of another when I possess empire and new fortune ?”

4846 - The King’s favours, of which the tale has been told above, were veiled from his heart by his outrageous insolence,

4847 - “Even so did Nimrod ignorantly and blindly trample underfoot those favours.

4848 - Now he has become an infidel and is waylaying: he is acting with arrogance and pretending to Divinity.

4862 - The entire Qur’an is a description of the viciousness of carnal souls: look into the Holy Book ! Where is your eye ?

The injunctions given by a certain person that after he died his property should be inherited by whichever of his three sons was the laziest.

4877 - Long ago a certain person, in giving injunctions on his death-bed, had spoken,

4878 - He had three sons like three moving cypresses: to them he had devoted his soul and his spirit.

4879 - He said, “Whichever of these three is the laziest, let him take all the goods and gold in my possession.”

4880 - He told the cadi and enjoined him strictly: after that, he drained the wine cup of death.

4881 - The sons said to the cadi, “O noble sir, we three orphans will not depart from his decision.

4882 - We accept and obey: control belongs to him: what he has commanded must be executed by us.

4883 - We are like Ismail: we will not recoil from our Abraham though he is offering us in sacrifice.”

4884 - The cadi said, “Let each one, using his intelligence, and give some account of his laziness,

4885 - That I may perceive the laziness of each and know beyond any doubt the case of every one.”

4886 - The gnostics are the laziest folk in the two worlds, because they get their harvest without ploughing.

4887 - They have made laziness their prop since God is working for them.

4888 - The vulgar do not see God’s working and never rest from toil at morn or eve.

4889 - “Come,”, “define laziness, so that from the disclosure of the secret I may learn its definition.”

4890 - It is unquestionable that every tongue is a curtain over the heart: when the curtain is moved, the mysteries reach us.

4891 - A little curtain like a slice of roast-meat conceals the forms of a hundred suns.

4892 - Even if the oral explanation is false, yet the scent makes one acquainted with his veracity or falsehood.

4893 - The zephyr that comes from a garden is distinct from the simoom of the ash-heap.

4894 - The scents of truth and fool-catching falsehood are apparent in the breath, like musk and garlic.

4895 - If you cannot distinguish a friend from a double-hearted person, complain of your own rotten sense of smell.

4896 - The voices of cowards and brave courageous men are as distinct as the characteristics of the fox and the lion.

4897 - Or, the tongue is just like the lid of a cooking-pot: when it is moved you know what sort of food is inside;

4898 - One whose sense is keen can tell by the vapour whether it is a pot of sweetmeat or sour sikbáj (stew flavoured with vinegar).

4899 - When a man taps a new pot with his hand at the time when he is buying it, he detects the cracked one.

4900 - He said, “I know a man at once by his mouth; and if he do not speak, I know him within three days.”

4901 - The second said, “I know him if he speak, and if he do not speak, I engage him in conversation.”

4902 - He said, “If he has heard of this device, he will close his lips and take refuge in silence.”

4911 - He said, “Suppose the worthy man is not induced to speak by your device and has perceived the trick,

4912 - Tell me truly, how can you know his hidden nature ?” He replied, “I sit before him in silence.

4913 - And make patience a ladder to climb upwards: patience is the key to success.

4914 - And if in his presence there should gush from my heart a speech beyond this joy and sorrow,

4915 - I know that he has sent it to me from the depths of a soul like Canopus in Yemen.

4916 - The speech in my heart comes from that auspicious quarter, for there is a window between heart and heart.”

4910 - On whichever side that Gracious One may be, go and for God’s sake, for God’s sake, be you also on that side !

Ya Ali Madad

Part - 6 Complete.