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

On the tradition, "I was a hidden treasure and I desired to be known, and I created the world in order to be known". Destroy your house, and with the treasure hidden in it3 You will be able to build thousands of houses. The treasure lies under it; there is no help for it; Hesitate not to pull it down; do not tarry! For with the coin of that treasure A thousand houses can be built without labor. At last of a surety that house will be destroyed, And the divine treasure will be seen beneath it. But 'twill not belong to you, because in truth4 That prize is the wages for destroying the house. When one has not done the work he gets no wages; "Man gets nothing he has not worked for."5 Then you will bite your finger, saying, "Alas! That bright moon was hidden under a cloud. I did not do what they told me for my good; Now house and treasure are lost and my hand is empty." You have taken your house on lease or hired it; 'Tis not your own property to buy and sell. As to the term of the lease, it is till your death; In that term you have to turn it to use. If before the end of the term of the lease You omit to derive profit from the house, Then the owner puts you out of it, And pulls it down himself to find the gold-mine. While you are now smiting your head in deep regret, And now tearing your beard to think of your folly, Saying, "Alas! that house belonged to me; I was blind and did not derive profit from it. Alas! the wind has carried off my dwelling Forever! 'O misery that rests on slaves!'6 In that house of mine I saw but forms and pictures; I was enchanted with that house so fleetin! I was ignorant of the treasure hidden beneath it, Otherwise I would have grasped an axe as a perfume. Ah! if I had administered the justice of the axe, I should now have been quit of sorrow.

But I fixed my gaze on outward forms, Like an infant I sported with playthings. Well said the famous Hakim Sanai, 'Thou art a child; thy house is full of pictures.' In his divine poem he gives this advice, 'Sweep away the dust from thy house!'" They who recognize the almighty power of God do not ask where heaven is or where hell is. "O Pharaoh, if you are wise, I show you mercy; But if you are an ass, I give you the stick as an ass. So I will drive you out of your stable, Even as I make your head and ears bleed with my stick. In this stable asses and men alike Are deprived of peace by your oppressions. See! I have brought a staff for the purpose of correcting Every ass who does not prove tractable. It turns into a serpent in vengeance against you, Because you have become a serpent in deed and character. You are an evil serpent, swelled to the size of a hill. Yet look at the Serpent (constellation) in heaven. This staff is a foretaste to you of hell, Saying, 'Ho, take refuge in the light! Otherwise you will fall into my jaws, And will find no escape from my clutches!' This staff even now became a serpent, So that you need not ask, 'Where is God's hell?' God makes a hell wheresover He wills; He makes the very sky a snare and trap for birds. He produces pains and aches in your teeth, So that you say, 'Tis a hell and serpent's bite.' Or again He makes your spittle as honey, So that you say, 'Tis heaven and wine of Paradise.' He makes sugar to grow in your mouth, That you may know the might of the divine decrees. Therefore, bite not the innocent with your teeth; Bear in mind the divine stroke that tarries not." God made the Nile blood to the Egyptians, He preserved the Israelites from the peril, That you might know how God discerns Between the wise and the foolish wayfarers.

The Nile learned of God discernment When it let the ones through and engulphed the others. God's mercy made the Nile wise, His wrath made Cain foolish. Of His mercy He created wisdom in inanimate things, And of His wrath He deprived the wise of wisdom. Of His mercy wisdom accrued to inanimate things, As a chastisement He took wisdom from the wise. Here at His command wisdom was shed down like rain, Whilst there wisdom saw His wrath and fled away. Clouds and sun, and moon and lofty stars, All come and go in obedience to His ordinance; No one of them comes save at His appointed time; It lingers not behind nor anticipates that time. Whereas you understood not this secret, the prophets Have instilled this knowledge into stone and staff; So that you may infer that other inanimate things Without doubt resemble in this stones and staves. The obedience of stone and staff is shown to you, And informs you of that of other inanimate things. They cry, "We are all aware of God and obey Him; We are not destructive by mere fortuitous chance." Thus you know the water of the Nile when in flood Made distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites. You know the others are wise as earth, who, when cleft, Knew Qarun and swallowed him up in vengeance. Or like the moon, who heard the command and hasted To sever itself into two halves in the sky.7 Or like the trees and stones, which in all places Were seen to bow down at the feet of Mustafa. The arguments between a Sunni and a Materialist (Dahri8) decided by the arbitrament of fire. Last night a Sunni said, "The world is transitory; The heavens will pass away; 'God will be the heir.'"9 A philosopher replied, "How know you they are transitory? How knows the rain the transitory nature of the cloud?