After an anecdote of 'Isa being obliged to ascend a mountain to get away from the fools comes the story of the men of Saba. "A sign there was to Saba in their dwelling-places two gardens, the one on the right hand and the other on the left; 'Eat ye of your Lord's supplies, and give thanks to Him; goodly is the country and gracious is the Lord.' But they turned aside, so we sent upon them the flood of lram. Such was our retribution on them for their ingratitude." The men of Saba were all fools, and brought destruction on themselves by their ingratitude to God. One was far-sighted, and yet blind; another sharp of hearing, and yet deaf; and a third naked, and yet wearing a long robe. Avarice is blind to its own faults, but sees those of others; the sharp-eared deaf man hears death approaching others, but not himself, and the long-robed naked man is he who fears robbers, though he has nothing to lose. In fact, all these men of Saba were afflicted with follies and self-delusions of this kind, and gave no thanks to God for the blessings which they enjoyed. Accordingly thirteen prophets were sent to admonish them, but their admonitions were not listened to, the men of Saba questioning their divine mission and demanding a miracle as a sign. They also told the prophets a parable of a clever hare, who, wishing to frighten an elephant away from a fountain, went to the elephant, pretending to be an ambassador from the moon. The prophets were naturally indignant at the effrontery of the men of Saba in misapplying parables to discredit their divine mission, and reminded them that wicked men had flouted the prophet Noah in the same way when he was warning them of the flood. And they demonstrated at length how the men of Saba had misapplied the parable of the hare and the elephant, and again adjured them to believe. But the men of Saba continued refractory, and would not, accept the Prophets' counsels. They plied the prophets with the arguments of the Compulsionists (Jabriyan), and refused to be convinced of the fallacy of their reasoning. So at last the prophets despaired of them, and left them to their doom.

The faculty of using similitudes is peculiar to a saint What know you of the mystery hid in aught, that you In your folly should use similitudes of curl and cheek? Moses took his staff to be a stick, though it was not; It was a serpent, and its mystery was revealed. If a saint such as he knew not the mystery of a stick, What know you of the mystery of the snare and grains? When the eye of a Moses erred as to a similitude, How can a presumptuous mouse understand one? Those similitudes of yours are changed into serpents Such a parable did cursed Iblis use,

Such a parable did Korah use in his argument, Such parables know to be as crows and owls, When Noah was building the ark in the desert, A hundred parable-mongers attacked him with irony, Saying, "In the desert, where is no water or well, He builds a boat! What ignorant folly is this!" The arguments of the Jabriyan, i.e., the Fatalists or Compulsionists. The men of Saba said, "O preachers, enough! What you say is enough, if there are any wise here. God has placed a 'lock upon our hearts,' That great Painter has painted us thus;

Keep telling forever a stone to become a ruby, Keep telling forever the old to become young! Tell earth to assume the quality of water, Bid water to become honey or milk! God is the creator of heaven and them that dwell therein; Also of water and of earth, and them that dwell therein; To heaven He gave its revolutions and its purity, Can the heaven will to become as dregs? Can earth will to assume the clearness of pure wine? That Person has assigned 'to each its lot, Can mountain by endeavor become as grass?"

The prophets answered, "Verily God has created Some qualities in you which you cannot alter; But He has created other accidental qualities, Which, being objectionable, may be made good. Bid stone become gold that is impossible; Bid sand bloom as a rose it cannot; God has sent some pains for which there is no cure, Such, for instance, as lameness, loss of nose, and blindness. God has sent other pains for which there are cures, To wit, crooked mouth and headache. God has ordained these remedies of His mercy;

Nay, the majority of pains may be cured; When you seek those cures earnestly you find them." The men of Saba replied, "O men, these pains of ours Are not of the sort 'that admit of cure. Long time ye utter these presages and warnings, If our sickness admitted of a cure, When the body is obstructed water reaches not the liver, Though one drinks the ocean, it passes elsewhere. Then of course the hands and feet become dropsical, And. yet that draught does not quench his thirst."

The prophets replied, "To despair is wrong, One must not despair of the grace of such a Benefactor, Ah! many are the conditions which at first are hard, But, are afterwards relieved and lose their harshless. Oftentimes hope succeeds to hopelessness, We admit that ye are weighted as with stones, No condition of ours is altogether as we wish, God has enjoined this servitude upon us; We enjoy life on condition of doing His will; If He bids us, we sow our seed upon the sand.

The soul of the prophet cares for naught but God, It has naught to do with approving or disapproving His works." The men of Saba replied, "If ye yourselves are happy, Our souls were void of all anxieties, The comfort and harmony which we enjoyed heretofore We used to be as parrots munching sugar, On every side stories inspiring anxiety, On every side sounds exciting fears: On every side in the world an evil presage, On every side evil portents threatening punishment:

This is the burden of your parables and presages, This the purport of your awe-inspiring stories." The prophets replied, "Our evil presages Suppose you are sleeping in a place of danger, And serpents are drawing near to bite your heads, A kind friend will inform you of your danger, Saying, 'Jump up, lest the serpent devour you.' You reply, 'Why do you utter evil presages?' He answers, 'What presage? Up, and see for yourself! By means of this evil presage I rouse you,

And release you from danger and lead you to your home.' Like a prophet he warns you of hidden danger, For a prophet sees what worldlings cannot see." Mercy inclines the good to devotion, but vengeance the bad. If you do a kindness to a generous man, 'tis fitting, When you treat a base man with scorn and contumely, Infidels when enjoying prosperity do wrong, When they are in hell they cry, "O our Lord!" For base men are purified when they suffer evil, Wherefore the mosque of their devotion is hell,

The prison is the hermitage of the wicked thief, Whereas the object of man's being is to worship God, Hell is ordained as a place of worship for the proud; Man has the power to engage in any actions soever, Read the text, "I have not created Jinns and men but to worship me." Though the object of a book is to teach an art, If you make a pillow of it, it serves that purpose too. Yet its main object is not to serve as a pillow, If you use a sword for a tent-peg, Though the object of all men's being is wisdom,

The place of worship of the noble is nobility, Inasmuch as the base are evil and arrogant, Hell and humbling are the "small gate" for them. Verily God has created two places of adoration, Even so Moses made a small gate in Jerusalem, The prophets said, "How long, in our benevolence, Shall we give to this and that one good advice? How long shall we hammer cold iron in vain? How long waste breath in blowing into a lattice? Men are moved by God's decree and fixed ordinance,

'Tis Primal Soul that dominates the Second Soul, Fish begins to stink at the head, not the tail. Yet be advised and keep your steed straight as an arrow, When God says 'Proclaim' we must obey. O men, ye know not to which party ye belong, Exert yourselves then, till ye see which ye are. When you place goods upon a ship, You do it in trust that the voyage will be prosperous; You know not which of the two events will befall you, If you say, 'Till I know which will be my fate

I will not set foot upon the ship; Shall I be drowned on the voyage or a survivor? I shall not undertake the voyage on the chance On the bare hope of reaching land, as the rest do.' In that case no trade at all will be undertaken by you, The lamp of the heart, that is a timid trader, Nay, it acquires loss, for it is precluded from gain; 'Tis the lamp that takes fire that acquires light. Since all things are dependent on probability, Religion is so first of all, for thereby you find release.

In this world no knocking at the door is possible Save hope, and God knows what is best." The final cause of trading is hope or probability, When the merchant goes to his shop in the morning, If you have no hope of getting bread, why go? There is the fear of loss, since you are not strong. But does not this fear of utter loss in your trade Become weakened in the course of your exertions? You say, "Although the fear of loss is before me, I have a better hope through exerting myself;

My fear is increased by remaining idle." Why then, O faint-hearted one, in the matter of religion Are you paralysed by the fear of loss? See you not how the traders in this market of ours Make large profits, both apostles and saints? What a mine of wealth awaits them on leaving it, Seeing they make such profits while still here! Fire is soft to them as cotton raiment, The ocean bears them gently like a porter; Iron in their hands is soft as wax,