طريقتنا قل بأقوالها

ودع عنك تفنيد عذالها

Speak according to the sayings of our path,

And set aside the censure of its reproachers.

خذ الفرق ما بين أهل الهدى

وأهل الضلال وأعمالها

Mark the difference between the people of guidance

And the people of error, and their deeds.

لكل على زعمه طاعة

وقانون وضع لأفعالها

Each has, by his own claim, a form of obedience,

And a rule laid down for its deeds.

وفي كل طائفة همة

لتحصيل غايات أحوالها

And in every community there is resolve

To attain the goals of its states.

وفيهم سلوك على منهج

صواب لدى عقد عمالها

And among them is wayfaring along a course

Right in the conviction of its practitioners.

ولكن سوى دين أهل الهدى

عقول رأت حسن إضلالها

But outside the religion of the people of guidance

Are minds that saw goodness in their leading astray.

فقالت على الحق ما لم يقل

وقد زخرفت قبح أقوالها

So they said of the Truth what He had not said,

And embellished the ugliness of their sayings.

فلا وضع شرع لها ثابت

لينوي به قرب إيصالها

Thus no prescription of sacred law is established for them

By which one might intend the nearness it conveys,

بصبر وزهد وأكلِ الحلال

وشكر وتقوى وأشكالها

Through patience, asceticism, and eating what is lawful,

And gratitude, piety, and their like;

وصوم وترك لذيذ النكاح

وشهوات نفسٍ وآمالها

And fasting, and forgoing the pleasure of intercourse,

And the soul's desires and its hopes;

وترك الزنى والربا والريا

وظلم وقتل وأنكالها

And abandoning fornication, usury, and ostentation,

And injustice, killing, and their fetters.

فنيتهم فعلها لم يكن

لهم طاعة دون أفعالها

So their intention to perform them was not

An act of obedience for them apart from the deeds themselves.

فيبقى لهم فعلها هكذا

بلا قصد وضع لتمثالها

Thus their performance of them remains as it is,

Without intent toward the prescription for their form.

وغاية ذلك نيل الصفا

وترك الجسوم لأثقالها

And the aim of that is attaining purity,

And the bodies' shedding of their burdens,

وتحصيل خفَّتها والفهو

م ترتاض من ترك أشغالها

And attaining their lightness; the faculties of understanding

Are trained by abandoning their occupations.

وإن دام أنتج قدس النفوس

وتطهيرها من قذى حالها

And if it persists, it yields the sanctity of souls

And their cleansing of the impurity of their condition,

وكشفاً عن الملكوت الذي

لأرواحه سر إقبالها

And an unveiling of the spiritual kingdom, whose

Spirits hold the secret of their approach.

وهم في حجاب عن الله عن

معاني التجلي وإنزالها

Yet they remain veiled from God, from

The meanings of self-disclosure and their being sent down.

وأما طريقة أهل الهدى

كماهم نزول بأطلالها

And as for the path of the people of guidance,

As they are encamped among its ruins,

فوضع صحيح به مؤمنون

على مقتضى حكم أرسالها

There is a sound prescription in which they believe,

According to the requirements of its messengers' ruling.

فأفعالهم لكمالاتهم

بنيَّتهم وضع إكمالها

So their deeds serve their perfections,

Through their intending the prescription for their completion.

فوصف الصفا عندهم زائد

وقدس النفوس بأفضالها

Thus purity is an added quality for them,

And the sanctity of souls, with their graces.

وفي ملكوت السما كشفهم

عن الروح تفصيل إجمالها

And in heaven's spiritual kingdom, their unveiling

Of the spirit is the detailing of its undifferentiated whole.

وقد زادهم ربهم علمهم

به في المجالي وإجلالها

And their Lord has increased their knowledge

Of Him in the manifestations, and their reverence for them.

وأنوار غيب إلهية

مثالية تملك الوالِها

And divine lights of the unseen,

Imaginal, which possess the love-bewildered one,

منزلة عندهم في المواد

لتعريفهم غيب آزالها

Are brought down for them into matter,

To acquaint them with the unseen of their beginningless eternities.

فيبدي الخيال بها جهده

وتوفي القروض بأمثالها

So imagination displays its effort through them,

And loans are repaid with their equivalents.