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(Masnavi Book 4: 57) Ali's advice to the Mother whose child was in danger of falling from the top of the water-spout







Story of the woman whose child crawled to the top of the water-spout and was in danger of falling; (whereupon) she besought help of ‘Alí Murtadá, may God ennoble his person.

A woman came to Murtadá (‘Alí) and said, A child belonging to me has gone up on to the water- spout.
If I call it, it will not come to my hands; and if I leave it, I am afraid it will fall to the ground.
It is not intelligent, that it should apprehend, like us, if I say, ‘Come to me (and escape) from the danger.’

2660. Moreover, it does not understand signs made by the hand; or if it should understand, it will not hearken: this too is bad (useless).
Many times have I shown to it the milk and the teat, (but) it always turns its eyes and face away from me.
For God's sake—(since) ye, O noble ones, are those who give succour in this world and that
(other) world—
Quickly apply the remedy, for my heart is trembling lest I be torn painfully from the fruit of my heart.”
He (‘Alí) said, “Take another child up to the roof, in order that the boy may see his congener,

2665. And come nimbly from the water-spout to his congener: congener is ever in love with congener.”
The woman did so, and when her child saw its congener, it turned its face towards it with delight And came from the ridge of the water-spout to the roof: know that a congener attracts every congener.
The child came crawling along to the (other) child: it was saved from falling to (the ground)
below.
The prophets are of humankind for this reason, that they (humankind), through the homogeneity
(of the prophets with them), may be saved from the water-spout.

2670. Therefore he (the Prophet) called himself a man like you, that ye might come to your congener and might not become lost;
For homogeneity is a wondrous attractor: wheresoever there is a seeker, his congener is
attracting him.
Jesus and Idrís ascended to heaven, since they were homogeneous with the angels.
Again, rút and Mát were homogeneous with the body: hence they descended from on high. The infidels have become homogeneous with Satan: their spirits have become disciples of the
devils.

2675. They have learned a hundred thousand evil dispositions; they have sewn up the eyes of intellect and heart.
Their least ugly disposition is envy—that envy which smote the neck of (destroyed) Iblís.
From those curs they have learned hatred and envy, for he (Satan) does not wish the kingdom everlasting (to be granted) to (God's) creatures.
When he sees, on left or right, any one perfect, colic comes to him and pain arises (in him) from
envy,
Because every miserable wretch whose stack has been burnt is unwilling that any one's candle should be lighted.

2680. Hark, bring to hand (acquire) some (degree of) perfection, in order that you too mayst not be aggrieved by the perfection of others.
Beg of God the removal of this envy, that God may deliver you from the body,
And bestow on you an inward occupation, from which you wilt not become disengaged (so as to turn your attention) outwards.
God gives to a draught of wine such (potency) that one intoxicated with it escapes from the two
worlds.
He has endowed hashísh with the property that, for a time, it delivers him (who eats it) from self-consciousness.

2685. God makes sleep to be (constituted) in such a manner that it erases (all) thought of the two worlds.
He made Majnún, through love for a (dog's) skin, to be such that he would not know an enemy
from a friend.
He has a hundred thousand wines of this sort which He sets (in authority) over your (intellectual)
perceptions.
For the carnal soul there are the wines of damnation, which carry that illstarred one out of the
(right) way.
For the intellect there are the wines of felicity, so that it gains the abode whence is no departure.

2690. Through its intoxication it uproots the tent of the sky and takes the way (leading)
onward from that (earthly) direction.
Hark, be not deceived, O heart, by every intoxication: Jesus is intoxicated with God, the ass is intoxicated with barley.
Seek wine like this from these jars: the intoxication (produced) by it is not (to be obtained) from
the bobtailed;
For every object of love is like a full jar, one (full of) dregs, and another pure as pearls.
O connoisseur of wine, beware, taste with precaution, that you mayst find a wine free from adulteration.

2695. Both (jars) will intoxicate you, but this (blessed) intoxication, drawing (thee along), will lead you to the Lord of the Judgement,
So that you wilt be delivered from thought and anxiety and expedients, (whilst) this intellect
(moves) unshackled at the camel's ambling pace.
Since the prophets are homogeneous with spirit and angel, they drew angels from heaven. Wind (air) is the congener and friend of fire, for the tendency of both is upward.
When you stop the mouth of an empty pot and put it in a tank or river,

2700. It will not sink till the Resurrection, for its heart (interior) is void and there is (nothing but) wind (air) in it.
Since the desire of the wind (confined) in it is (to move) upward, it draws upward also the vessel containing it.

Again, the spirits that are homogeneous with the prophets are moving gradually, like shadows, towards them,
Because its (such a spirit's) intelligence is predominant; and beyond doubt the intelligence is homogeneous in nature with the angel;
While in the enemy (of God) the carnal soul's concupiscence is predominant: the carnal soul is homogeneous with the lowest (of the low) and goes to it.

2705. The Egyptian was a congener of the reprobate Pharaoh; the Israelite was a congener of
Moses, the Kalim.
Hámán was more congenial (than any one else) to Pharaoh: he (Pharaoh) chose him out and brought him to the high-seat in the palace.
Inevitably he (Hámán) dragged him (Pharaoh) from the high-seat to the lowest depth, for those
two unclean ones are homogenous with Hell.
Both, like Hell, are burning and contrary to light: both, like Hell, are exceedingly averse to the light of the heart;
For Hell says, O true believer, pass by quickly, since your light has taken away (extinguished)
the Fire.


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