1- Discourse (Hikayate) of Rumi - The Scholar and Friendship of Kings - Part 2

 

Part 1   “But since you have not yet been granted the vision to see what I am saying, listen. God commands me to say this to you: First you gathered your forces and mustered your might, trusting completely in your own virtue and valor. You said to yourselves, ‘We will conquer the Muslims and vanquish them.’ But you did not see that One Power more powerful than yourselves. You did not know the One Force above your force. And so all that you planned turned out the opposite. Even now in your fear, you still hold onto your beliefs and do not see the One Reality over you. Rather than facing that Power, you see my power, because it is easier for you to see yourselves conquered by me.

“But even in your present state, still I say to you: If you recognize my power, and accept yourselves vanquished to my will in all circumstances, I can still deliver you from this grief. He, who is able to bring forth a black bull from a white bull, can also produce a white bull from a black bull. Turn away from your former ways, and likewise I will return to you all the property that has been taken from you, in fact many times as much. Even more, I will absolve you of all blame, and grant you prosperity in this world and the world to come.”

“I have repented,” said ‘Abbas. “I have turned from my former ways.” 

Mohammed said, “God demands a token of this claim you make, for easy it is to boast of love, but other is the proof thereof.”

“In God’s name, what token do you demand?” asked ‘Abbas.

“Give all the properties that remain to you for the army of Islam, so the army of Islam may be strengthened,” said Mohammed. “That is, of course, if you have truly become a Muslim and desire the good of Islam and Muslimdom.”

“Prophet of God, what remains to me?” said ‘Abbas. “They have taken everything, leaving me not so much as an old reed-mat.”

“You see,” said Mohammed, “you have not yet given up your old ways. You have not yet seen the light of truth. Should I tell you how much property you still have? Where you have hidden it? To whom you have entrusted it? Where you concealed and buried it?”

“God forbid!” exclaimed ‘Abbas.

“Did you not entrust so much property specifically to your mother?” asked Mohammed. “Did you not bury your gold under such and such a wall? Did you not tell your mother in detail, ‘If I return, give this back to me. But if I do not return safely, then spend so much upon such and such an object, and give so much to So-and-So, and so much is to be for yourself’?”

When ‘Abbas heard these words he raised his hand in complete acceptance. “Prophet of God,” he said, “truly, I have always thought you carried the fortune of the old kings, such as Haman, Shaddad, Nimrod and the rest. But now that you have spoken I know this favor is divine, from the world beyond, from the throne of God.”

“Now you have spoken truly,” said Mohammed. “This time I have heard the snapping of the girdle of doubt, that you had within you. I have an ear hidden within my inmost Soul, and with that hidden ear I can hear the snapping of doubt within anyone. Now it is true for a fact that you believe.”

Part 3_Last : Here

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