Sol 5.6

  1. Bring it forth, O caravan-singer—the hour of solace has come.

    The rust has cleared from the sky of my heart.

  2. Put worry behind you, and abandon the words “if only.”

    Do not heed the enemies’ words about the one you love.

  3. Indeed, my beloveds have drawn near to union with me.

    And my turtledove of the moringa trees has sung beside me.

  4. Do not busy your present hour with what is bad.

    Let go of what has passed, and leave whatever arises.

  5. For the One who governs affairs is not you—

    in all your states and all your concerns.

  6. So seize your joy in the present hour.

    And do not obey the reproachers when they forbid you.

  7. Indeed, sheer waywardness in love is guidance.

    The lovers never rose to the heights they reached

  8. except by leaving all but the Beloved as naught.

    How many things are terrifying at the outset,

  9. yet their outcome is safety and bliss.

    The stratagems those matters call for only stand in the way,

  10. and whatever Providence abandons is misery.

    Indeed, in surrender there is immediate relief,

  11. and from entrusting all to God, an overflow of blessings.

    Surely, it is obstinacy and excess

  12. to squander today’s serenity over tomorrow.

    Each day, you have a known allotted share.

  13. So do not, you fool, be anxious over it.

    Provision is apportioned in the Mother of the Book.

  14. Therefore they forbade avarice and all its offshoots.

    Indeed, your Lord abounds in gracious bounty and generosity.

  15. Your future is governed by pardon,

    just as He set the affairs of the beginning in order.

  16. Stand at the gate of purity, and forsake estrangement.

    This is counsel; listen to one who counsels you.

  17. The cure—all the cure, all the cure—

    is to seize whatever your time affords.

  18. For this age is utterly devoid of fidelity.

    Be resigned, whether it goes well or does not.

  19. A breath of the All-Merciful, as they have related,

    will surely come, though the waiting be long.

  20. As for me—by God, I do not care,

    if my state with the Beloved is serene.

  21. for every bitterness after that is sweet to me.

    God confound the reproachers, however they strive!

  22. They do not know: my soul and body are his ransom.

    I am not sober, though they may have sobered.

  23. My only cure in him is every malady.

Sol 5.6