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

Seeing I was bewildered, and beside myself, and senseless.
Think not my feet touched the earth,
For the lover verily travels with the heart.
What knows the heart of road and stages?
What of distant and near, while it is drunk with love?
Distance and nearness are attributes of bodies,
The journeys of spirits are after another sort.
You journeyed from the embryo state to rationality
Without footsteps or stages or change of place,
The journey of the soul involves not time and place.
And my body learnt from the soul its mode of journeying,
Now my body has renounced the bodily mode of journeying;
It journeys secretly and without form, though under a form."
He added, "One day I was thus filled with longing
To behold in human form the splendours of 'The Friend,'
To witness the Ocean gathered up into a drop,
The Sun compressed into a single atom;
And when I drew near to the shore of the sea
The day was drawing to a close."
All religions are in substance one and the same.
In the adorations and benedictions of righteous men
The praises of all the prophets are kneaded together.
All their praises are mingled into one stream,
All the vessels are emptied into one ewer.
Because He that is praised is, in fact, only One,
In this respect all religions are only one religion.
Because all praises are directed towards God's light,
Their various forms and figures are borrowed from it.
Men never address praises but to One deemed worthy,
They err only through mistaken opinions of Him.
So, when a light falls upon a wall,
That wall is a connecting-link between all its beams;
Yet when it casts that reflection back to its source,
It wrongly shows great as small, and halts in its praises.
Or if the moon be reflected in a well,
And one looks down the well, and mistakenly praises it,

In reality he is intending to praise the moon,
Although, through ignorance, he is looking down the well.
The object of his praises is the moon, not its reflection;
His infidelity arises from mistake of the circumstances.
That well-meaning man goes wrong through his mistake;
The moon is in heaven, and he fancies it in the well.
By these false idols mankind are perplexed,
And driven by vain lusts to their sorrow.
The Man in the time of the Prophet David who prayed
to be fed without having to work for his food.

After the petitioner had slain and eaten the cow, the owner of the cow came up and accused him of theft, and seizing him by the collar, dragged him before the judgment-seat of the prophet David. When he had stated his case, David ordered the accused to make restitution, telling him that he must not break the law. At this order the accused redoubled his cries, telling David that he was siding with an oppressor. David was staggered at the man's assurance, and finally resolved to take further time for consideration before deciding the case. After private meditation he re-versed his former sentence, and directed the plaintiff to relinquish his claim. On the plaintiff refusing to do this, and stoutly protesting against David's injustice. David further ordered that all the plaintiff's goods should be given to the accused. The reason for this decision was, that David discovered the plaintiff had formerly slain the grandfather of the accused, and stolen all his goods. David then led all the Mosalmans to a tree in the desert where the murder had been perpetrated, and there put the murderer to death. The hands and feet of criminals betray their crimes even in this world. He of himself lifted the veil that hid his crime; Had he not done so, God would have kept it hidden. Criminals and sinners, even in the course of sinning, Themselves rend the coverings of their crimes. Their sins are veiled among the heart's secrets, Yet the criminal himself exposes them to view, Saying, "Behold me wearing a pair of horns, A cow of hell in sight of all men." Thus, even here, in the midst of thy sin, thy hand and foot Bear witness of the secrets of thy heart. Thy secret thought is as a governor who says to thee, "Tell forth thy convictions, withhold them not;" Especially in seasons of passion and angry talk It betrays thy secrets one by one. Thy secret sins and crimes govern hand and foot, Saying, "Disclose us to men, O hand and foot!" And since these witnesses take the bit in their mouths, Especially in times of passion and wrath and revenge, Therefore the same God who appointed this governor To blazen forth thy secret sins to the world Is also able to create many more governors To divulge thy secret sins on the day of judgment. 4 O man whose only handiwork is crime and sin; Thy secret sins are manifest; no divulging is needed. There is no need to proclaim thy sins, All men are cognizant of thy sin-burnt heart. Thy soul every moment casts up sparks of fire, Which say, "See me a man destined to the fire; I am a part of the fire, and go to join my whole; Not a light, so that I should join the Source of light." Comparison of lust to the murderer in the story. Kill thine own lust and give life to the world; It has killed its lord, reduce it to servitude. That claimant of the cow is thy lust; Beware! It has made itself lord and master. That slayer of the cow is thy reason; Go! Be not obdurate to the prayers of him that kills the cow. Reason is a poor captive, and ever cries to God For meat on its dish without laboring and toiling. On what depends its getting meat without toiling? On its killing the cow of the body, the source of evil. Lust says, "Why hast thou killed my cow?" It says, "Because lust's cow is the form of the body." 5 Reason, the Lord's child, has become a pauper, Lust, the murderer, has become a lord and chief. Know'st thou what is meat untoiled for? 'Tis the food of spirits and the aliment of the Prophet. But it is attainable only by slaying the cow; Treasure is gained by digging, O digger of treasure!