4-2177 There are many hypocrites who have taken refuge in this outward form and

have shed the blood of a hundred true believers in secret.

4-2178 Strive to become ripe in intelligence and religion, that you may become, like
the Universal Intelligence, a seer of the inward reality.

5-2470 The imitator brings forward a hundred proofs in his explanation, but he speaks
to them from logical reasoning, not from immediate experience.

5-2471 He is impregnated with musk, but he is not musk: he has the scent of musk, but
he is only dung.

5-2472 In order that a piece of dung may become musk, o disciple759, one must graze
for years in the spiritual garden.

5-2473 One must not eat straw and barley, like asses: graze on arghawān760, like the
musk-deer in Khutan761.

5-2475 Accustom your belly to the sweet basil and the rose, that you may gain the
wisdom and spiritual food of the Prophets.

5-2476 Break your belly of its habit of eating straw and barley: begin to eat the sweet
basil and the rose.

5-2478 Whoever feeds on straw and barley becomes a sacrifice (qurbān); whoever
feeds on the Light of God becomes the Qur’ān.

5-2480 The imitator brings a hundred proofs and explanations on to his tongue, but he
has no soul.

5-2482 He boldly directs people in the Way to salvation, even though he is more
quivering (weak) in soul than a blade of straw.

5-2490 Become like the sky, become like the cloud and shed rain: the drain pipe rains
too, but it is not at work productively762.

5-2491 The water in the drain pipe is borrowed; the water in the cloud and in the sea is
original.

5-2492 Your thought and reflection resemble the drain pipe; inspiration and revelation
are like the cloud and the sky.

5-2493 The rainwater produces a many-coloured garden; the drain pipe causes your
neighbour to quarrel with you.

759
The word used in the original text is murīd, which is the common term for a Ṣūfī disciple. It literally means
“one who is willing” or “one who is longing”.
760
The flowers of the Judas tree (Nich.).
761
Khutan or Khotan is a city of Eastern Turkestān, also known as the north-western Xinjiang province of China.
762
I.e. the drain pipe has nothing to do but discharge the rain-water which passes through it (Nich.).

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