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

The Prophet’s Scribe Becomes an Apostate
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When from the soul His spirit should depart
It’s like a soulless body, stripped of heart.
I lay my head down on the ground this way
So earth will vouch for me on Judgment Day,
On that day when 
it will be forced to quake
The role of witness then the earth will take,
For what it knows 
it will say publicly,
*
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And earth and rocks will talk miraculously.
Philosophers doubt, for they’re logical ––
Tell them to slam their heads on a brick wall!
For water, earth, and clay speak, and each word
By Su
fi mystics is quite clearly heard;
Philosophers doubt moaning pillars too ––
About the saints’ perception they’ve no clue,
Saying, ‘These men must be moved by emotions
To have such fantasies and foolish notions.’
Their in
fidelity and vile corruption
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Has
filled them with vain thoughts––they choose rejection;
When they deny that demons can exist,
They’re mocked by those same demons they’ve dismissed!
You’ve not seen one? Look at yourself instead!
Only a madman boasts a swollen head!
Each man whose heart is 
filled with stress and doubt
Is a philosopher who’s not come out:
He utters true belief, but all the same
This man’s philosophy still earns him shame;
Take care, believers, it’s inside of you,
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And there are many endless worlds there too.
The warring sects are also there within,
Woe to you, friend, if one day they should win!
Those having the essentials of belief
In fear of this are shaking like a leaf.
You laughed at Satan and the demons then,
Judging yourselves, in contrast, virtuous men;
When men’s souls turn their jackets inside out,
How many Muslims in distress will shout:
The Prophet’s Scribe Becomes an Apostate
201

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The store’s gold-plated things all feel delight
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Because the touchstone is now far from sight,
‘Don’t lift the veil, don’t make faults manifest,
Concealing Lord, when we’re put to the test!’
False gold can lie with real gold through the night,
Though real gold’s waiting for the dawn’s
first light;
Gold says by means of its own inner state:
‘Daybreak will show the truth, fake, you just wait!’
Accursed Satan for millennia
Led faithful saints as their superior,
But then he fought with Adam out of pride
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And was disgraced like dung that’s thrown aside.
Bal
am, son of Baur, prayed, ‘Make Moses and his people turn
back from this town which they have besieged without
achieving their goal!’ It was answered
To Bal
am men were subject at one stage
For he was then the Jesus of his age,
To no one else would they bow down, his spell
Could make those terminally ill get well;
He fought with Moses out of self-conceit,
You’ve heard, I’m sure, the fate that he would meet,
For Bal
am, Satan, and the others too,
Met such sad ends, unseen and in plain view.
God made these two notorious as a test,
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As an example to warn o
ff the rest:
He hanged these two thieves in the public square,
So thieves who earn such wrath might then be rare.
He brought their banners back, victorious ––
Those slaughtered by His wrath are numerous!
When you keep in your bounds, to God you’re dear;
Don’t overstep the mark! Is that quite clear!
For if you strike one whom God loves still more,
You’ll be sent to the earth’s most rotten core.
What have you learned from Thamud and from Aad
*?
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Their tales show prophets are all loved by God: