Masnavi i Ma'navi — trans. E. H. Whinfield (abridged) (1898)

In the crowd of rag-wearers there is but one Faqir; 5
Search well and find out that true one.
Tell the wary and discerning believer
To distinguish the king from the beggar.
If there were no bad goods in the world,
Every fool might be a skilful merchant;
For then the hard art of judging goods would be easy.
If there were no faults, one man could judge as well as another.
Again, if all were faulty, skill would be profitless.
If all wood were common, there would be no aloes.
He who accepts everything as true is a fool,
But he who says all is false is a knave.

NOTES:

• 1. See Koran xi. 63.
• 2. Koran ix. 108.
• 3. This is a proverb ascribed to Ali. It means, people are always losing wisdom and seeking it like a lost camel (Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, i. p. 385).
• 4. The night on which the Koran was revealed.
• 5. So in the Phaedo, "Many are the wandbearers, but few the Mystics."

STORY XII. The Four Hindustanis who censured one another.

Four Hindustanis went to the mosque to say their prayers. Each one duly pronounced the Takbir, and was saying his prayers with great devotion, when the Mu'azzin happened to come in. One of them immediately called out, "O Mu'azzin, have you yet called to prayer? It is time to do so." Then the second said to the speaker, "Ah! you have spoken words unconnected with worship, and therefore, according to the Hadis, you have spoiled your prayers." 1 Thereupon the third scolded the last speaker, saying, "O simpleton, why do you rebuke him? Rather rebuke yourself." Last of all, the fourth said, "God be praised that I have not fallen into the same ditch as my three companions." The moral is, not to find fault with others, but rather, according to the proverb, 2 to be admonished by their bad example. Apropos of this proverb, a story is told of two prisoners captured by the tribe of Ghuz. The Ghuzians were about to put one of them to death, to frighten the other, and make him confess where the treasure was concealed, when the doomed man discovered their object, and said, "O noble sirs, kill my companion, and frighten me instead."

NOTES:

• 1. Mishkat ul Masabih, by Matthews, i. 205.
• 2. Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, i. 628.

STORY XIII. The Old Man and the Physician.

An old man complained to his physician that he suffered from headache. The physician replied, "That is caused by old age." The old man next complained of a defect in his sight, and the physician again told him that his malady was due to old age. The old man went on to say that he suffered from pain in the back, from dyspepsia, from shortness of breath, from nervous debility, from inability to walk, and so on; and the physician replied that each of these ailments was likewise caused by old age. The old man, losing patience, said, "O fool, know you not that God has ordained a remedy for every malady?" The physician answered, "This passion and choler are also symptoms of old age. Since all your members are weak, you have lost the power of self-control, and fly into a passion at every word." Bad principles always produce bad acts. Fools laud and magnify the mosque, While they strive to oppress holy men of heart. But the former is mere form, the latter spirit and truth. The only true mosque is that in the hearts of saints. The mosque that is built in the hearts of the saints Is the place of worship of all, for God dwells there. So long as the hearts of the saints are not afflicted, God never destroys the nation. Our forefathers lifted their hands against the prophets; Seeing their bodies, they took them for ordinary men. In you also abide the morals of those men of old; How can you avoid fearing that you will act like them? The morals of those unthankful ones dwell in you, Your urn will not always return unbroken from the well. Seeing that all these bad symptoms are seen in you, And that you are one with those men, how can you escape?

STORY XIV. The Arab Carrier and the Scholar.