This Good Works Translation is made from the 1888 Arabic printed text of Kitab Bilawhar wa-Budhasaf fi al-mawa'iz wa-al-amthal al-hikmiyah. This passage gives Bilawhar's instruction on renunciation of the world, the frailty of the body, the burned renunciants, and the parable of the dogs over carrion.
Translation
Budasaf said, "You have spoken truly. You are the lost thing I was seeking. Describe to me the matter of the hereafter. As for renunciation of the world, I have never ceased being renunciant in it, hating it, and treating it lightly; its matter has never ceased to be contemptible and detested to me."
Bilawhar said, "Renunciation of the world is the key to desire for the hereafter. Whoever desires it obtains it and enters its kingdom. How should someone like you not renounce the world, when you have been given the reason you have been given, and you see that the whole world is a house of darkness, harshness, harm, and disobedience?
"The noblest of what is in it among created beings is this human being, who is part outward and part inward. The inward part of him is filled with ignorance, error, grief, sickness, distress, sin, falsehood, rage, ruin, usurpation, rancor, evil, sorrow, greed, poverty, destructive appetite, ruinous passion, love of idols, hatred of wisdom, faith in Satan, unbelief in the Merciful, strength for sin and aggression, and weakness for righteousness and piety.
"As for the outward part, it is weakest in substance, darkest, most manifest in stench, pus, and filth, and most filled with affliction. You see that the whole world comes down to gathering this body, and this body has no stability and no resistance. Heat melts it, cold freezes it, hot wind scorches it, water drowns it, poison burns it, vermin make it rot, beasts devour it, and iron cuts it. Fasting crushes it, and sleeplessness changes it. It is molded in its nature with many kinds of ailments, diseases, pains, and disabilities. It is pledged to them and expects them, not hoping for long safety and health from them, together with the four humors that do not agree with one another. Then it is accompanied by the seven afflictions from which no one is delivered. Joined to it are the two biles, blood, phlegm, heat, cold, hunger, thirst, fear, sickness, and death.
"As for what you ask me to describe concerning the matter of the hereafter, I hope that you will find what you used to reckon far as near, what you used to reckon easy, and what you used to suppose little as much."
Budasaf said, "What do you think about the people concerning whom it has reached me that my father banished them and burned them in fires? Are they your companions or not?"
Bilawhar said, "Yes."
Budasaf said, "It has reached me that the people agreed in enmity toward them, evil speech against them, reviling, killing, and burning."
Bilawhar said, "As for evil speech against them, what can they say against one who tells the truth and does not lie, knows and is not ignorant, restrains himself and does not harm, prays and does not sleep, fasts and does not break his fast, is afflicted and is patient, and is content in soul away from wealth and family? People do not fear him for their wealth or their families."
Budasaf said, "How can this be, when the people have gathered and agreed in enmity toward them, while the people are divided among themselves?"
Bilawhar said, "Their likeness in that is the likeness of dogs gathered over a carcass, tearing it and fighting over it, each growling at the other, different in colors and kinds. While they were fighting over the carcass, a man passed by it. They left one another and turned upon the man; they growled at him and all bit him together, cooperating against him while hostile among themselves. The man had no need of their carcass, and he did not want to dispute with them over it, but they found his foreignness among them strange, were alarmed by him, and incited one another.
"I have compared the carcass to the goods of the world, and the kinds of dogs fighting over it to the kinds of people among idol-worshippers and others: those who want nothing but the world, fight over it, shed blood for it, are not satisfied with it, and want nothing besides it. And the man against whom the dogs gathered, who had no need of the carcass, is the man of religion, who has rejected the world, gone out from it, and disputed with no one over it. Nothing prevents people from growling at him because of his strangeness among them.
"What wonder is more astonishing than this: that people have no purpose but the world and fighting over it, yet when they also see someone who has left it in their hands, gone out from it, and surrendered it to them, they are more hostile to him, more treacherous and harsh, and greater in anger toward him than toward someone who contends with them and fights them over it. What argument is more refuting than the cooperation of divided people in enmity against one against whom they have no argument? The desire of the people of the world for it makes him renounce it."
Colophon
This Good Works Translation was made from the Arabic text of Kitab Bilawhar wa-Budhasaf fi al-mawa'iz wa-al-amthal al-hikmiyah, al-Matba' al-Safdari, 1888. The English body is newly written from the Arabic source.
Source Colophon
Primary source witness: Google Books volume vYacAQAACAAJ, Kitab Bilawhar wa-Budhasaf fi al-mawa'iz wa-al-amthal al-hikmiyah, al-Matba' al-Safdari, 1888, original from Harvard.
Translated passage: Bilawhar's instruction on renunciation, bodily frailty, the burned renunciants, and the dogs-over-carrion parable, printed Arabic pages 52-56. The translated passage begins inside page 52, after the one-year-king city parable, and ends inside page 56, before Budasaf asks about Bilawhar's food and drink.
Public source: https://books.google.com/books?id=vYacAQAACAAJ
Source Text
Arabic Text
قال بوداسف صدقت وانت الضالة التي كنت
اطلبها فصف لي امر الاخرة فاما الزهادة في الدنيا فاني
لم ازل فيها زاهدا ولها قاليا وبها مستخفا ولم يزل امرها
عندي حقيرا مشنوءا قال بلوهر ان الزهادة في الدنيا
هي مفتاح الرغبة في الاخرة ومن رغب فيها اصابها ودخل
في ملكوتها وكيف لا يزهد مثلك في الدنيا وقد اوتيت
من العقل ما اوتيت وانت ترى الدنيا كلها دار ظلمة و
غلاظة ومضرة ومعصية وان اشرف ما فيها من الخلق
هذا الانسان الذي بعض ظاهر وبعض باطن الباطن
منه مملو جهالة وضلالة وغما وسقما وكربا واثما وافكا
وغيظا وعطبا وغصبا وحقدا وشرا وحزنا وحرصا و
فاقة وشهوة مردية وهوى مهلكا وحبا للاوثان
وبغضا للحكمة وايمانا بالشيطان وكفرا بالرحمن وقوة على
الاثم والعدوان وضعفا عن البر والتقوى اما الظاهر
فهو اضعفها نفسا واشدها ظلمة واظهرها نتنا وقيحا
وقذرا واكثرها افة وانت ترى الدنيا كلها تصير الى ان
تجمع هذا الجسد وهذا الجسد لا قوام له ولا امتناع له
والحر يذيبه والبرد يجمده والسموم تلفحه والماء
يغرقه والسم يحرقه والهوام تفسخه والسباع تفترسه والحديد
يقطعه والصوم يحطمه والسهر يحيله وهو مجبول في طبيعته
بالوان الاسقام والامراض والاوجاع والزمانات فهو
مرتهن بها مترقب لها غير طامع في طول السلامة والصحة
منها مع الاخلاط الاربعة التي لا توافق بعضها بعضا ثم
مقارن للآفات السبع التي لا يخلص منها احد وقد وصلت
بها المرتان والدم والبلغم والحر والبرد والجوع
والعطش والخوف والسقم والموت فاما ما تستوصفني به
من امر الاخرة فاني لارجوا ان تجد ما كنت تحسبه بعيدا قريبا
وما كنت تحسبه يسيرا وما كنت تظنه قليلا كثيرا قال
بوداسف ارايت القوم الذين بلغني ان ابي نفاهم و
حرقهم بالنيران اهم اصحابك ام لا قال بلوهر نعم قال
بوداسف بلغني ان الناس اتفقوا على عداوتهم وسوء الثناء عليهم والشتم
والقتل والاحراق قال بلوهر اما سوء الثناء عليهم فما
عسى ان يقولوا فيمن يصدق فلا يكذب ويعلم فلا
يجهل ويكف فلا يؤذي ويصلي فلا ينام ويصوم فلا
يفطر ويبتلى فيصبر ويطيب نفسا عن الاموال والاهلين
ولا يخافه الناس على اموالهم واهاليهم قال بوداسف و
كيف هذا وقد اجتمع الناس اتفقوا على عداوتهم والناس
فيما بينهم مختلفون قال بلوهر مثلهم في ذلك مثل كلاب اجتمعت
على جيفة تنهشها وتتهارش عليها ويهر بعضها على بعض
مختلفة الالوان والاجناس فبينا هي تقتتل على الجيفة اذ
مر بها رجل فترك بعضها بعضا واقبلت على الرجل فهررن
ونهشنه جميعا متعاونات عليه متعاديات فيما بينهن وليس
للرجل في جيفتهن حاجة وكان لا يريد ان ينازعهن فيها ولكنهن
انكرن غربته فيهن فاستوحشن منه واستأز بعضهن
الى بعض فشبهت الجيفة متاع الدنيا وصنوف الكلاب
التي تقتتلن عليها بضروب الناس من عبدة الاوثان وغيرهم
الذين لا يريدون الا الدنيا ويقتتلون عليها ويريقون
لها الدماء وهم لا يشبعون منها ولا يريدون غيرها والرجل الذي
اجتمعت عليه الكلاب ولا حاجة له في الجيفة صاحب الدين
الذي رفض الدنيا وخرج منها ولم ينازع فيها احدا ولا
يمنع الناس من ان يهروه لغربته فيهم فاي عجب اعجب من
ان الناس لا همة لهم الا الدنيا والاقتتال عليها حتى اذا رأوا
ايضا من قد تركها في ايديهم وخرج منها وسلمها اليهم كانوا
له اشد عداوة واكثر اغتيالا وغلظة واعظم حنقا له ممن
يغالبهم ويقاتلهم عليها واي حجة ادحض من تعاون المختلفين
على عداوة من لا حجة لهم عليه فرغبة اهل الدنيا فيها زهد فيها