6-4421 Worldly dominion is lawful only to those who indulge the body: we (lovers)

are devoted to the everlasting kingdom of Love.

6-4422 He (the prince) is in Love’s employ: do not deprive him of his employment, do
not let him be employed in anything but loving you.

6-4423 The high position (business) that veils me from seeing your face is the very
essence of being disgracefully dismissed, even though it is called ‘high
position.

The Second Rivulet [2.4.2]

Renouncing the perils and pitfalls of the nafs and of passion,
and the meaning of the ḥadīth: “Your greatest enemy is
your nafs, enclosed between your two sides”612.
1-772 The idol of your self (nafs) is the mother of all idols, because the material idol
is only a snake, while the spiritual idol is a dragon.

1-773 The self is like iron and a flintstone, while the material idol is like the sparks:
those sparks are extinguished by water.

1-774 But how should the stone and iron be appeased by water? How should a man,
who has these two, be secure?

1-778 It is easy to break an idol, very easy; to regard the self as easy to subdue is
foolishness, foolishness.

2-15 Adam took one step in sensual pleasure: separation from his high place in
Paradise became a collar on the neck of his fleshly soul (nafs).

2-16 The angels fled from him as from a devil: how many tears did he shed for the
sake of a single loaf of bread613!

1-3004 Sun and cloud obey the command of anyone in whose body the unbelieving
self has died.

2-474 Beware! Do not wish your currish (fleshly) soul alive, for it has been the
enemy of your soul for a long time.

2-475 Dust be on the head of the bones that prevents this cur from hunting the soul!

4-1916 You are like Pharaoh, who had left Moses alone and was taking off the heads
of the people’s babies;

4-1917 The enemy (Moses) was in the house of that blind-hearted man, while outside
he was cutting the necks of the children.

612
Aḥādīth-e Mathnawī p. 41. The meaning of “between your two sides” is between man’s two different aspects:
his material or earthly aspect and his spiritual or heavenly aspect. It does not refer to the human body.
613
I.e. the forbidden fruit.

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