How the Jew said to ‘Alí, may God honour his person, “If you
have confidence in God's protection, cast yourself down from the top of this kiosk”; and how the Prince of the Faithful answered him.
One day a contumacious man, who was ignorant of the
reverence due to God, said to
Murtazá
(‘Alí),
On the top of an
exceedingly high
terrace or pavilion, “Art you conscious of God's protection,
O
intelligent man?”
355. “Yes,” he replied;
“He is the
Protector and the
Self-sufficient for (preserving) my
existence from (the time of) infancy and conception.”
He (the Jew) said, “Come, cast yourself down from the roof, put an
entire confidence in the
protection of God,
So that your sure faith
and
your goodly proven conviction may become
evident to me.”
Then the Prince said to him, “Be silent, go, lest for this boldness
your soul be pawned (given over to perdition).”
How is it right for a servant (of
God) to venture on an experiment with
God by making trial (of
Him)?
360. How should a servant (of God) have
the stomach vaingloriously to put
Him to the test, O
mad fool?
To God (alone) belongs that (right), who brings
forward a test for His servants at every moment, In
order that He may show us plainly to ourselves (and
reveal) what beliefs
we
hold in secret.
Did Adam ever say to God,
“I
made trial of you in (committing) this sin and
trespass,
That I might see the utmost limit of Thy clemency,
O King?” Ah, who would be capable of
(seeing) this, who?
365. Forasmuch as your understanding is confused, your excuse is worse than your crime. How can you make trial of Him who
raised aloft the vault
of
heaven?
O you that have not known good and evil, (first) make trial
of yourself, and then of others.
When you have made trial of yourself, O
such-and-such, you will be unconcerned
with making trial
of others.
When you have come to know that
you are a grain
of sugar, then you will know
that you belong
to the sugar-house.
370. Know, then, without making any
trial, that (if) you are sugar, God
will not send you to the
wrong place.
Without making trial, know this
of the King's (God's) knowledge:
when you are a (spiritual) chief,
He will not send you (down) to the vestibule.
Does any intelligent
man let a precious pearl fall into the midst of a privy full of
ordure? Inasmuch as a sagacious and
attentive man
will nowise send
wheat to a straw-barn,
If a novice has
made trial of the
Shaykh who is the (spiritual) leader and guide, he is an ass.
375. If you make trial of him in the way of religion, you will be tried (by tribulation), O man
without faith.
Your audacity and ignorance
will become
naked and exposed to view: how should he be made naked by that scrutiny?
If the mote come and
weigh the mountain, its
scales will be shattered by the mountain, O youth;
For he (the
novice) applies
the
scales of his own
judgement and puts the man of God in
the scales;
(But) since he (the Shaykh) is not contained by the scales of intellect, consequently he shatters
the scales of intellect.
380. Know that to make trial (of him) is like
exercising authority
over him: do not seek to exercise authority over such a (spiritual) king.
What authority should the pictures (phenomenal forms) desire to exercise over such an Artist for the purpose of
testing Him?
If it (the
picture) has known and
experienced any trial,
is it not the
case that the Artist
brought
that (trial) upon it?
Indeed, this form
that He fashioned—what is it worth
in comparison with the
forms which are
in
His knowledge?
When the temptation
to
make this trial has come to you, know that
ill fortune has come
and smitten your neck.
385. When you feel such a temptation, at once, at once turn unto God and begin the prostration (in prayer).
Make the place of prostration wet with flowing
tears and say, “O God,
do
You deliver me from
this doubt!”
At the time when
it is your object to make trial (of God), the mosque,
namely, your
religion,
becomes filled with kharrúb (carob).
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