The Masnavi, Book One (Oxford World's Classics)

How a Hare Killed the Tyrannical Lion
59

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When you have feet, why make out that you’re lame?
935
When you’ve a pair of hands why do the same?’
If a king puts a spade in his slave’s hand
Without a word he’s given his command:
Think of your hands the same as that slave’s spade ––
Mere thought of action means his judgement’s made:
Act on His signs with heart, and be sincere,
And then their truths before you shall appear;
He’ll give you hints of secrets that he masks,
Lift o
ff your burden, give you other tasks––
If you consent, then you’ll be carried through,
940
If you accept, you’ll be accepted too,
Become His spokesman –– follow His command:
The union that you seek you’ll reach as planned.
Exertion’s thanking God for strength to act
While fatalism spurns it –– that’s a fact!
Through giving thanks our means to act increase,
Through fatalism grace from Him will cease:
Don’t doze while travelling, for if you should sleep
You’ll miss His gate and court, and then you’ll weep!
Don’t sleep, you lazy brat, so heedlessly,
945
Except beneath His own fruit-laden tree,
So when the wind should make the branches sway
Some fruit will fall to help you on your way!
Sleeping near highwaymen so trustfully
How can you ever feel security?
Don’t turn your nose up at His signals, brat,
Spoilt women who believe they’re men do that!
The little sense you have will not remain:
A head is just a tail without a brain!
For such ingratitude is mean and low
950
And leads you to the 
fiery depths below––
Trust God, but also act and not just wait:
First sow your seeds before you count on fate!
How a Hare Killed the Tyrannical Lion
60

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The lion’s prey say again that trust is better than exertion
The animals made a hullabaloo:
‘The greedy who have “sown” their deeds like you,
A thousand men and women who have tried,
From fortune then why were they all denied?’
For countless centuries from creation’s start,
Like dragons who have spread their jaws apart
These clever people planned such schemes at will
955
Which lift up mountains from their base, but still
God has described their schemes as disapproved:
He’s warned: 
the tops of mountains might be moved.
*
Apart from that which had been pre-ordained
From all their scheming nothing has remained,
They fell from grace and lost the power to act
While God’s decrees have all remained intact ––
Don’t think that earning’s more than just a name,
Or that exertion’s more than just a game!
How Azrael once stared at a man who then 
fled to Solomon’s
palace; the demonstration of the superiority of trust over exertion,
the latter being of relatively little value
A noble man once barged in through the crowd
960
In Solomon’s famed court, and cried aloud;
His face was white with fear, his lips were blue.
Solomon asked, ‘Friend, what is wrong with you?’
‘It’s Azrael –– he gave me such a stare
That showed more rage than any man could bear!’
Solomon said, ‘Whatever you want, just ask!’
He pleaded, ‘Please assign the wind this task:
To transfer me to India with its breath
So, over there, I might escape my death.’
People will run away from deprivation
965
To be devoured by greed and expectation;
His fright was like the fear of feeling need,
His
flight to India represents his greed.
How a Hare Killed the Tyrannical Lion
61

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Solomon told the wind to make this trip,
To take this man to India’s southern tip.
The next day at exactly the same time
He questioned Azrael right at the chime:
‘Angel of death, did you drive that good man
From home and family –– was that your plan?’
He answered, ‘Now you know I wouldn’t lie,
970
I just looked on amazed as he strolled by,
For God had said today he would be dead
Not over here, but India’s tip instead ––
Even with wings to take him through the air
I thought he was too far to die down there!’
All of the world’s a
ffairs are planned this way,
Open your eyes to see this clear as day!
Whom shall we leave? Ourselves? Impossible!
To 
flee from God? That’s simply laughable!