Inasmuch as this abode of mortality is not the world of (real) Being, the return to a borrowed (impermanent) thing is not much gain.
این فناجا چون جهان بود نیست ** بازگشت عاریت بس سود نیست
Strew a gift of mercy upon them even now in the secret chamber of assembled in Our presence.”
رحمتی افشان بر ایشان هم کنون ** در نهان‌خانه‌ی لدینا محضرون
(I have related this story) that you may know that loss of the body and of wealth is gain to the spirit and delivers it from bane.3395
تابدانی که زیان جسم و مال ** سود جان باشد رهاند از وبال
Therefore be a purchaser of (ascetic) discipline with (all) your soul: you will save your soul when you have given up your body to service (of God).
پس ریاضت را به جان شو مشتری ** چون سپردی تن به خدمت جان بری
And if the discipline come to you without free choice (on your part), bow your head (in resignation) and give thanks, O successful one.
ور ریاضت آیدت بی اختیار ** سر بنه شکرانه ده ای کامیار
Since God has given you that discipline, render thanks: you have not done (it); He has drawn you (to it) by the command, “Be!”
چون حقت داد آن ریاضت شکر کن ** تو نکردی او کشیدت ز امر کن
Story of the woman whose children never lived (long), and how, when she made lamentation (to God), the answer came—“That is instead of thy (unpractised) ascetic discipline and is for thee in lieu of the self-mortification of those who mortify themselves.”
حکایت آن زنی کی فرزندش نمی‌زیست بنالید جواب آمد کی آن عوض ریاضت تست و به جای جهاد مجاهدانست ترا
That woman used to bear a son every year, (but) he never lived more than six months;
آن زنی هر سال زاییدی پسر ** بیش از شش مه نبودی عمرور
Either (in) three months or four months he would perish. The woman made lamentation, crying, “Alas, O God,3400
یاسه مه یا چار مه گشتی تباه ** ناله کرد آن زن که افغان ای اله
For nine months I have the burden (of pregnancy), and for three months I have joy: my happiness is fleeter than the rainbow.”
نه مهم بارست و سه ماهم فرح ** نعمتم زوتر رو از قوس قزح
That woman, because of the terrifying anguish (which she suffered), used to make this plaintive outcry before the men of God.
پیش مردان خدا کردی نفیر ** زین شکایت آن زن از درد نذیر