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 answer about the divine origin of the call of truth, the people who claim religion while following the world, and the witnesses by which their claim is judged.

Translation

Budasaf said, "Tell me about this matter to which you call me. Is it something people have considered with their reason and chosen over what is besides it, or does it have some other root?"

Bilawhar said, "This matter is more exalted, greater, and stranger than to be of the affair of the people of the earth, or of their opinion and management. If it were from the reason of the people of the earth and from their opinion, it would call them to its delight and well-being: to its eating, drinking, living, adornment, marriage, clothing, works, desires, amusement, and pleasure.

"But it is a strange matter within it, opposing them: a call from God, mighty and exalted, a shining light and a straight guidance pouring over the people of the world, over their works, their delights, and their desires."

Budasaf said, "Do you know today any one among the people, besides you, who calls to this renunciation in the world and desire for the hereafter?"

Bilawhar said, "As for in this kingdom of yours, no. But among the rest of the nations there are people who call to renunciation in the world, and there are people who profess religion."

Budasaf said, "Then what has made you more entitled to the truth than they are? Did this strange matter in the world come to you except from the place from which it came to them?"

Bilawhar said, "Truth came from God, mighty and exalted. God called his servants to it. Some people accepted it with its right, its description, and its condition; other people did not accept it, and they had no resolve toward it and no conscience for acting by it. So they wasted it and found it burdensome.

"The one who wastes is not like the one who preserves; the corrupter is not like the reformer; the patient one is not like the fretful one. From this, we were more entitled to it than they were, and nearer to it.

"There is no one upon whose tongue a word runs concerning renunciation in the world and calling to seek the hereafter except that he has taken that from the root of the call of truth, from which we have taken it. But between us and them there is a difference in several things. One of them is their following the world and its delights.

"The root of the call of truth has continued to come through the passing of time, and truth appeared with God's prophets and his messengers, peace be upon them, in the former past generations, upon scattered tongues. Each call had its own path, and this is a sound and strong matter.

"Then, after that, people who were not of its people entered into it and introduced into it innovations that were not in agreement with truth, until they diverted the matter from its proper direction and blocked the straight aim of its path. Yet the truth is fixed and clear. Even so, they cling to its name, its sect, and its acknowledgment; they know some of its conditions and describe its description.

"What remains on the tongues of those who oppose us among the people of renunciation in the world and desire for the hereafter is a trace from the traces of those verified roots upon which we stand. Then what separates us from them is that their words agree with it in description, while their actions contradict it in deed and conduct.

"We do not oppose any of them except that we have against him the clear proof and the just witnesses from what remains in their hands of the books and understanding that they acknowledge to have been sent down from God. By these we make clear to everyone who speaks a word of wisdom that that word is ours, and that it is between us and him. It bears witness for us that it agrees with our description, our conduct, our action, and our way of life; and it bears witness against them that it contradicts their description, their way of life, and their action.

"They know nothing of the book except its description, and nothing of the religion except its name. They are upon nothing until they establish 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 answer about the divine call of truth, false claimants, and the witnesses against them, printed Arabic pages 58-61. The translated passage begins inside page 58, after the eating-of-necessity parable, and ends inside page 61, before Budasaf asks why prophets and messengers come and then are cut off.

Public source: https://books.google.com/books?id=vYacAQAACAAJ

Source Text

Arabic Text

قال بوداسف ارايت هذا الامر الذي تدعونى
اليه اهو شيء نظر الناس فيه بعقولهم واختاروه على
ما سواه ام له اصل غير ذلك قال بلوهر هذا الامر
اجل واعظم واغرب من ان يكون من امر اهل الارض
او رايهم يدبرونه ولو كان من عقل اهل الارض و
رايهم لدعاهم الى نعيمها وعافيتها من اكلها وشربها و
عيشها وزينتها ونكاحها ولباسها وعملها وشهواتها و
لهوها وطربها ولكنه امر غريب فيها يخالفهم دعوة
من الله عز وجل نور ساطع وهدى مستقيم فائض
على اهل الدنيا اعمالهم ولذاتهم وشهواتهم قال بوداسف
هل تعلم اليوم احدا من الناس ممن يدعو الى هذه
الزهادة في الدنيا والرغبة في الاخرة غيركم قال
بلوهر اما في مملكتكم هذه فلا واما في ساير الامم فان
فيها اناسا يدعون الى الزهادة في الدنيا واناسا ينتحلون
الدين قال بوداسف فما الذي جعلكم اولى بالحق
منهم وهل اتيكم هذا الامر الغريب في الدنيا الا من
حيث اتاهم قال بلوهر ان الحق جاء من عند الله
عز وجل والله دعا العباد اليه فقبله قوم بحقه وصفته
وشرطه ولم يقبله قوم ولم يكن لهم اليه عزيمة ولا
على العمل به ضمير فضيعوه واستثقلوه فالمضيع لا يكون
كالحافظ والمفسد لا يكون مثل المصلح والصابر لا يكون
كالجزوع فمن ها هنا كنا احق به منهم واولى ثم قال
بلوهر ليس من احد يجري على لسانه كلمة في التزهيد
في الدنيا والدعاء الى طلب الاخرة الا وقد اخذ ذلك عن
اصل دعوة الحق التي عنها اخذنا ولكن فرق بيننا وبينهم
اشياء احدها اتباعهم الدنيا ولذاتها ان اصل دعوة
الحق لم تزل تاتي على مر الزمان ويظهر الحق مع انبياء الله
عز وجل ورسله عليهم السلام في القرون الماضية الاولى
على السنة متفرقة وكان لكل دعوة هذه سبيلها وهذا
امر صحيح قوي فكان يدخله بعد ذلك قوم ممن ليسوا
من اهله فيحدثوا فيه الاحداث التي ليست موافقة للحق
حتى يحولوا الامر عن جهته ويصدوا قصد سبيله والحق
ثابت مبين وهم مع ذلك متعلقون باسمه ونحلته و
اقراره وعارفون ببعض شروطه ويصفون صفته و
هو الذي بقي على السنة من خالفنا من اهل التزهيد
في الدنيا والترغيب في الاخرة اثر من اثار تلك الاصول
المحققة التي نحن عليها واقفون ثم يفرق بيننا وبينهم
موافقة ذلك من قولهم في الصفة ومخالفة فعلهم
في العمل والسيرة ولا نخالف احدا منهم الا اننا عليه
الحجة الواضحة والشهود العادلة من بقية ما في ايديهم
من الكتب والفقه التي يقرون بها انها منزلة من الله
التي نبين بها لكل من تكلم بكلمة من الحكمة بان تلك الكلمة
هي لنا وهي بيننا وبينه وهي تشهد لنا بانها توافق
وصفنا وصنيعتنا وعملنا وسيرتنا وتشهد عليهم انها
تخالف وصفهم وسيرهم وعملهم فليسوا يعرفون من الكتاب
الا وصفه ولا من الدين الا اسمه ليسوا على شيء حتى
يقيموه