Forasmuch as the perfecting of minds is not remote (impossible), but the perfecting of the body is not within our power.
ز انکه تکمیل خردها دور نیست ** لیک تکمیل بدن مقدور نیست
The miscreance and Pharaoh-like pride of every infidel who is far (from God) have all been produced by deficiency of mind.1540
کفر و فرعونی هر گبر بعید ** جمله از نقصان عقل آمد پدید
Relief for bodily deficiency has come in the (words of the) Qur’án—it is no crime in the blind man.
بهر نقصان بدن آمد فرج ** در نبی که ما علی الاعمی حرج
Lightning is transient and very faithless: without clearness (of mind) you will not know the transient from the permanent.
برق آفل باشد و بس بیوفا ** آفل از باقی ندانی بیصفا
The lightning laughs: say, at whom is it laughing? At him that sets his heart upon its light.
برق خندد بر که میخندد بگو ** بر کسی که دل نهد بر نور او
The lights of the sky are hamstrung (feeble and imperfect): how are they like (that Light which is) neither of the east nor of the west?
نورهای چرخ ببریده پی است ** آن چو لا شرقی و لا غربی کی است
Know that the nature of lightning is that it taketh away the sight; regard the everlasting Light as entirely Helpers (to the attainment of vision).1545
برق را چون یخطف الأبصار دان ** نور باقی را همه انصار دان
To ride (your) horse upon the foam of the sea, to read a letter in a flash of lightning,
بر کف دریا فرس را راندن ** نامهای در نور برقی خواندن
Is, to fail, because of covetousness, to see the end; it is, to laugh at your own mind and intellect.
از حریصی عاقبت نادیدن است ** بر دل و بر عقل خود خندیدن است
Intellect, by its proper nature, is a seer of the end (consequence); ’tis the fleshly soul that does not see the end.
عاقبت بین است عقل از خاصیت ** نفس باشد کاو نبیند عاقبت