(Masnavi Book 4: 19) Ibrahim ibn Adham and his abandonment of his Kingdom

The cause of the emigration of (Ibráhím son of) Adham, may God sanctify his spirit, and his abandoning the kingdom of Khurásán.

Quickly dash to pieces the kingdom (of this world), like (Ibráhím son of) Adham, that like him you mayst gain the kingdom of everlasting life.

At night that king was asleep on his throne, (while) on the roof (of the palace) the guards were exercising authority.

The king's purpose in (having) the guards was not that he might thereby keep off robbers and ne’er-do-wells.

He knew that the man who is just is free from (fear of) attack and secure in his heart.

730. Justice is the guardian of pleasures; not men who beat their rattles on the roofs at night. But his object in (listening to) the sound of the rebeck was, like (that of) ardent lovers (of God), (to bring into his mind) the phantasy of that (Divine) allocution;

(For) the shrill noise of the clarion and the menace of the drum somewhat resemble that universal trumpet.

Hence philosophers have said that we received these harmonies from the revolution of the

(celestial) sphere,

(And that) this (melody) which people sing with pandore and throat is the sound of the revolutions of the sphere;

735. (But) the true believers say that the influences of Paradise made every unpleasant sound to be beautiful.

We all have been parts of Adam, we have heard those melodies in Paradise.

Although the water and earth (of our bodies) have caused a doubt to fall upon us, something of those (melodies) comes (back) to our memory;

But since it is mingled with the earth of sorrow, how should this treble and bass give (us) the same delight?

When water is mingled with urine and stalings, its temperament is made bitter and acid by the commixture.

740. There is a small quantity of water in his (a man's) body: suppose it is urine, (yet) it will extinguish a fire.

If the water has been defiled, (still) this natural property of it remains, for by its nature it allays the fire of grief.

Therefore samá‘ (music) is the food of lovers (of God), since therein is the phantasy of composure (tranquillity of mind).

From (hearing) sounds and pipings the mental phantasies gather a (great) strength; nay, they

become forms (in the imagination).

The fire of love is made keen (inflamed) by melodies, just as the fire (ardour) of the man who dropped walnuts (into the water).