set the world to the torch to assert their truths, while you set fire to it at every chance you find, with every fancy that comes to mind? You’d do better to agree on a single view, as have they, and to the needs of God’s flock attention pay, than to drive them into such a strait and in such sticky matters implicate, to guide them to the straightest path to follow than muddle them in such a murky wallow. Leave them to strive for their daily fare and don’t ask them to grasp what’s over your head and theirs. And you too, work two hours with your hands for every hour you do with your darting tongues, and agree beforehand that, when preferences differ, you’ll be friendly and submissive to one another. Have you forgotten what it says in that Book of Psalms that you canter through and cantillate, that you so adulate, and to which you have for so long adhered: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard”?6
3.1.37
الا ولا تحرّموا ما حلل الله لكم من الطيبات * ولا تتلاوصوا الى معرفة ما لغيركم من الهفوات * ولا تبيعوا املاك السماوات * وانتم على الارض من ذوى البطالة والترّهات * ليس على السوقى ان يتزوج خرجية من حرج * ولا على الخرجىّ ان يتزوج سوقية من مَرَج * فان اختلاف الحزر فيما لا يعلم * لا يكون مانعا للفوز بهذا المغنم * الذى يدريه من تعلم ومن لم يتعلم * او لم تعلموا ان الارحام من الرحمة اشتقّت * والى المصاهرة شقّت * وعلى الانساب انطبقت * والى التآخى والتآلف خلقت * وبالتوادّ اختصت * ولانتهاز فرص الحظ فُرصت * فما لكم عنها تتباعدون * وتتقاعسون وتتقاعدون * ولمَ انتم هولآ فى بحر الشك والظن تسبحون * وتستبضعون تجارة الخرص وتربحون * لا يسمع الله دعآ احد منكم فى الشرق الا اذا كان يستصوبه اهل الغرب * ولا يفيزكم بالآخرة الا اذا تالفتم فى الدنيا على هذا الضرب * فليصافح اذًا اخضر الراس منكم اسوده * ومدوّره ذو القُبّعة مخروطه ذا اللبدة * وليُصْفِ كلّ منكم لاخيه نيّته وودّه * ويحفظ له عهده * واذ قد اتفقتم على المخلوق فلا تختلفوا على الخالق * فهو رب المغارب والمشارق * وانه ليريد ان المشرقى منكم اذا سافر الى المغرب يرى اهله فيه له اهلا * وشمله شملا *
فاقبلوا النصيحة * واسمعوا ما يمرّ بكم بعدها من العبارات
الفصيحة * والمعانى المليحة * فى هذا
الفصل الذى
سميته ☜
Verily I say unto you, “Do not forbid what God has made lawful unto you by way of good things, and do not seek officiously to uncover other men’s sins! Do not sell the goods stored up for you in Paradise by being on earth men of idleness and lies! For a Market-man to marry a Bag-woman is no shame and if a Bag-man marries a Market-woman there’s no blame, for differences regarding the Unknown are matters of surmise and should pose no obstacle to the carrying off of such a prize,7 whose value is by the unschooled as appreciated as it is by the educated. Are you not aware that ‘wombs’ (arḥām) from ‘mercy’ (raḥmah) are derived, that they were designed that men might, through marriage, be allied, and that the word to ‘ties of kinship’ is applied,8 for brotherhood and harmony were created, to mutual affection dedicated, and for the seizing of fortune’s offerings designated? Why then do you hold yourselves from such things at a distance, withdrawing and showing resistance? Why do you all in the ocean of doubt and suspicion wade, why make commerce from surmise and therein trade? God will never listen to the prayer of you Orientals unless it first be approved by the Occidentals,9 nor will you be to the next world admitted unless your conduct in this world to this model you have fitted. Let then now the towheaded man shake hands with the black, the round-headed-with-bonnet with the cone-headed-with-cap. Let each of you harbor toward his brother pure and loving intentions and fulfill toward him his obligations. Then, since your disagreements with regard to Creation will have ceased, you’ll not differ as to the Creator, for He is Lord of all that’s west and east. It is His desire that the Orientals among you, should they travel to the west, should be welcomed by its people and taken to their breast.”
Accept this advice and listen to what comes next
by way of choice phrases and witty topoi in the text
of this coming chapter
which I have
named ☞
الفصل الثانى
ڡي العشق والزواج
Chapter 2
Love and Marriage
3.2.1
قد ذكرت فى آخر الكتاب الثانى ان الفارياق ابتلاه الله بامراض كثيرة وكتب وفيرة ثم انجاه منها جميعا * وانه بعد ان راى نفسه معافًى منها اطمانّ خاطره واخلد الى الغنآ * والان ينبغى ان اذكر ختام هذه النوبة * وعاقبة هذه الحوبة * وتفصيل ذلك ان الدار التى كان فيها الخريجيّون كانت محاذية لدار بعض التجار * وكان له بنت تحبّ السماع واللهو والطرب وترتاح الى الغنآ جدا * فكانت اذا سمعت الفارياق يغنى او يعزف فى غرفته تصعد الى سطح دارها وتنصت الى ان يفرغ فتنزل الى حجرتها * فلما علم الفارياق ان صعودها كان لاجله اذ لم يكن احد غيره يظن به التعرّض لها صبت اليها نفسه ونزغه فيها نازغ من الهوى *
I mentioned at the end of Book Two that God first afflicted the Fāriyāq with many diseases and more books, then rescued him from them all, and that, believing himself pardoned, he felt great relief and devoted himself to song. Now I must relate how that episode turned out and all that this sinful pursuit brought about. To get down to detail, the house that contained the Bag-men was next door to the house of a merchant who had a daughter10 who loved music, diversion, and the raptures of art,
