Pearls of Wisdom 322

1. When the craft of making armor was made known,
    iron became wax in your hands. The mountains became
    your accompanists; they chant the psalms along with you,
    like those who teach the recitation of the Qur'an with you.

2. As God made the Qibla manifest, abandon your search.
    Hark, turn away from all futile search, now that the House
    has come to view. If you forget this Qibla for one moment,
    you will be overcome by the qibla of desires.

3. Very high, very grand, and very wide is the ocean of God,
    the Water of life. You went after the form and were lead
   astray. How can you see it? You abandoned the truth.
   Sometimes it is named "tree," sometimes "sun," sometimes
   "ocean," sometimes "cloud," one thing from which scores
   of discoveries arise, its slightest definition an everlasting
   life.

4. You see throngs of afflicted feeble folk seated at the
    door in ardent hope. O you who are crushed, your
    pleas have been heard. Hark! Rush toward the mercy
    of God and be delivered of pain. How often has your
    disease been cured! How often your soul been
    delivered of grief!!

5. When a magician sleeps, so does his sorcery and
    his craft. When the shepherd sleeps, the wolf becomes
   assertive. But he who has made God his shepherd,
   how can the wolf make him prey? The alchemy of God
   is trustworthy and true. It is villainous to confuse it with
   sorcery. [Mawlana Rumi]