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 Budasaf's wish to flee with Bilawhar, Bilawhar's warning about the life of renunciation, the reckoning of true life, and the parable of the bird's three words.
Translation
Budasaf said, "As for me, I will not be occupied by any of these matters, nor will I occupy myself with them away from this path. I have already told myself to flee with you in the middle of this very night, whenever it seems good to you to flee with me."
Bilawhar said, "How will you be able to go with me and endure my company? I have no shelter to house me, no riding beast to carry me, I own neither gold nor silver, I store up neither evening meal nor morning meal, I never have a spare garment, and I do not remain in a town except a little while before moving on from it. I do not provision myself with anything from one land to another."
Budasaf said, "I hope that God, who strengthened you, will strengthen me."
Bilawhar said, "If you come into my companionship, you will be like the rich man's son who married into the poor."
Budasaf said, "How was that?"
Bilawhar said, "A young man from among the sons of the rich was urged by his father to marry a daughter of his uncle, a woman of wealth, perfection, and rank. He did not want that and did not obey his father, until his father became angry with him. So he went out from his presence and from his estates, heading toward another land.
"On his way he passed a young woman in rags, sitting at the door of a house among the houses of the poor. The young woman pleased him, and he said to her, 'Who are you, young woman?'
"She said to him, 'I am the daughter of a poor old man in this house.'
"He called the old man, and he came out to him. He said to him, 'Will you marry this daughter of yours to me?'
"The old man said to him, 'What have you to do with marrying a daughter of the poor, when you are in the dress of the rich?'
"He said, 'This young woman has pleased me. I left my family, fleeing on account of a woman of beauty and loveliness whom they wanted for me; I hated her. So marry your daughter to me, for, God Most High willing, you will find me a good son-in-law.'
"The old man said, 'How shall I marry you, when our souls would not be content for you to remove her from us, and I do not think your family would be satisfied for you to move her to them?'
"The young man said, 'I will stay with you in this house of yours.'
"The old man said, 'And will you put away your dress and ornament, and wear the garments of the poor with us?'
"He said, 'Yes.'
"The old man said, 'Enter the house, then take off your garments and ornaments.'
"He did that, took some of their rags, and put them on. Then he sat with the old man in the house. The old man asked him about his condition, drew him out with conversation, and examined his mind until he knew that his mind was sound, that he had not done what he had done out of ignorance, and that foolishness had not driven him to what he had done. He saw him as intelligent, well-mannered, and discerning, not having done what he had done out of ignorance.
"Then the old man said to him, 'Young man, since you have chosen us and are content with our companionship, rise with me to this underground passage.'
"He took him into it, and the young man walked behind him. Beyond it were houses and dwellings, the like of which he had never seen for spaciousness and beauty, and livestock; and upon it were treasuries filled with everything he might need. Then he handed him the keys and said, 'All this is yours; do with it what you wish.'
"The young man rejoiced. He had found more than he had wanted."
Budasaf said, "I hope that I may be the owner of the parable. But I heard you mention the old man's examination of the young man's mind until he trusted him, so I was afraid that your examination of my mind might be long. Tell me the extent of your purpose in that."
Bilawhar said, "If the matter were up to me, I would be satisfied with the least spoken exchange from you. But above my opinion there is a custom established by the imams of religion, may God's mercy be upon them, for reaching the fullest trust and for looking into intentions and inward thought, in order to treat hearts with medicines rooted in them.
"I am leaving you tonight, and I will be present at your door every night. I do not want you to keep reminding yourself of this matter too much, nor to take it because of its sweetness before establishing it firmly and examining it. Make your heart feel doubt, and do not hurry to certainty. Exert yourself in every question in which you think there is obscurity, then speak to me of what appears to you, and let me know what your opinion is about departing from what you are in, when it seems good to you."
They parted on this for that night. Then he came back to him on the following night, greeted him, and returned the greeting; then he sat down.
Budasaf said, "Tell me, Bilawhar, how much of life has passed over you?"
Bilawhar said, "Twelve years."
Budasaf was alarmed at that and said, "A son of twelve years is a child, while you, with what I see of your mature age and completeness, look more like a man of sixty years."
Bilawhar said, "As for birth, it has approached sixty. But you asked me about life. Life is only true life, and there is no life except by religion and by putting away the world. I did not find religion, nor put away the world, except twelve years ago. As for before that, I was only dead, and I do not count the days of death among my life."
Budasaf said, "How can you make the eating, drinking, moving person dead?"
Bilawhar said, "He resembles the dead in incapacity, deafness, dumbness, weakness of means, and lack of benefit. When he shares their description, he agrees with them in name."
Budasaf said, "If you do not count your life in those days as life or felicity, then you ought not to count what is expected from death as hateful, nor to see it as hated."
Bilawhar said, "This is what my risking myself indicates to you, son of the king: my entering upon you, though I know your father's power over the people of my religion. That indicates to you that I do not see this life as life, nor what I expect from death as hateful.
"How should one who has left his share of life desire life? Or how should one flee from death who has already put himself to death by his own hand? Do you not see, son of the king, that the man of religion has rejected his family and his wealth? How should he desire life except for kindness, when he has borne such hardship, discipline, and weariness of worship as he can rest from only by death?
"What need has one who does not benefit from the pleasure of life, nor enjoy it, for life? Or why should one flee from death when he has no rest except in death?"
Budasaf said, "Would it please you, then, if death came down upon you tomorrow?"
Bilawhar said, "Rather, it would please me if it came down upon me in the night before tomorrow. Whoever knows the fair and the ugly and their recompense, and leaves the ugly for the fair, is certain of God's justice and has contemplated His justice. His knowledge of that has forced him toward renunciation of life and boldness before death."
Budasaf said, "I see that you have grown bold through this insight of yours, just as these questions of ours have moved against the worship of idols. Do you have a proof of certainty?"
Bilawhar said, "There was a man in ancient time who had a garden, which he tended and watched over. While he was in that condition, he saw in his garden a bird perched on one of the trees of the garden, eating from its fruit and spoiling it. That angered him, so he set a snare for the bird and caught it.
"When he intended to slaughter it, the bird opened its mouth with speech and said to the owner of the garden, 'I see that you intend to slaughter me, though there is nothing in me to satisfy you from hunger or strengthen you from weakness. Let me go, and I will tell you of something better than wealth.'
"The man said to it, 'What is it?'
"The bird said, 'Let me go. I will teach you three words: if you keep them, they will be better for you than every family and wealth.'
"The man said, 'What are they?'
"The bird said to him, 'Give me assurance that you will let my way go, and I will do it.'
"The bird said to him, 'Keep from me what I tell you: do not grieve over what has escaped you; do not believe what cannot be; and do not seek what you cannot attain.'
"When the bird had finished these words, the man released the bird. The bird sat on a branch of the garden's trees. Then it said to the man, 'If you knew what you have missed from me, you would know that something great and weighty in danger has missed you.'
"The man said, 'What is that?'
"The bird said, 'If you had completed against me what you intended by slaughtering me, you would have extracted from my crop a pearl like a goose egg, in which there would have been wealth for all time.'
"When the man heard that from the bird, he secretly felt regret and sorrow within himself. He said to the bird, wanting to deceive it and take it, 'Leave aside what has passed. Come, I will take you to my dwelling and my family, and I will make your companionship and your honoring good.'
"The bird said to him, 'I do not see that you kept me, ignorant man, when you had power over me, nor have you benefited from the words I taught you. I took from you the pledge concerning them: that you should not grieve over what has escaped you, should not believe what cannot be, and should not seek what you cannot attain. Yet here you are pained over what has escaped, seeking from my return to you what you cannot attain, and believing that in my crop there is a pearl like a goose egg, while a goose egg is larger than I am.
"And this nation of yours, son of the king, made their idols with their own hands, claimed that they created them, guarded them for fear they might be stolen, spent upon them from their earnings, and claimed that they were the ones who provided for them. In this they sought what cannot be attained and believed what cannot be. From that, the same great ignorance clung to them as clung to the owner of the garden."
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: Budasaf's request to flee with Bilawhar, the rich-son parable, Bilawhar's instruction on testing resolve, the question of Bilawhar's age and true life, and the bird's three words against idol-worship, printed Arabic pages 79-87. The translated passage begins after the swimmer parable and ends inside page 87, before Budasaf asks about the first thing of religion.
Public source: https://books.google.com/books?id=vYacAQAACAAJ
Source Text
Arabic Text
قال بوداسف اما انا بشاغل
بشئ من هذه الامور ولا شاغل نفسي به عن هذه السبيل
ولقد حدثت نفسي بالهرب معك في جوف ليلتي هذه
حيث بدا لك ان تهرب بي قال بلوهر وكيف تستطيع
الذهاب معي الصبر على صحبتي انا ليس لي جحر يؤويني
ولا دابة تحملني ولا املك ذهبا ولا فضة ولا ادخر عشاء
ولا غذاء ولا يكون لي فضل ثوب ابدا ولا استقر في
بلدة الا قليلا حتى اتحول عنها ولا اتزود من ارض الى
ارض شيئا قال بوداسف انا ارجوا ان يقويني الله
الذي قواك قال بلوهر اما انك ان اتيت الى صحبتي
كنت خليقا كابن الغني الذي صاهر الفقير قال بوداسف
وكيف كان ذلك قال بلوهر ان فتى من بني الاغنياء
اراده ابوه على أن يتزوج ابنة عم له ذات حال وكمال و
منزلة فلم يرد ذلك ولم يطع اباه حتى غضب عليه
فخرج من عنده ومن اعماله متوجها الى ارض اخرى فمر في
طريقه على جارية عليها اطمارها قاعدة على باب بيت
من بيوت المساكين فاعجبته الجارية فقال لها من انت
ايتها الجارية قالت له انا بنت شيخ كبير مسكين في هذا
البيت فنادى الشيخ فخرج اليه فقال له هل انت مزوجي
بنتك هذه قال له الشيخ مالك وتزويج ابنة الفقراء
وانت في زي الاغنياء قال اعجبتني هذه الجارية وقد
خرجت من اهلي هاربا من اجل امرأة ذات حسن وجمال
ارادوني عليها فكرهتها فزوجني بنتك فانك واجد لي
خير صهر انشاء الله تعالى قال الشيخ كيف ازوجك ونحن
لا تطيب انفسنا ان تنقلها من عندنا ولا اظن اهلك يرضون
ان تنقلها اليهم قال الفتى اقيم معكم في
منزلكم هذا قال الشيخ وتطرح عنك زيك وحليتك و
تلبس معنا ثياب الفقراء قال نعم قال ادخل البيت فانزع
ثيابك وحليتك ففعل ذلك واخذ اطمارا لهم فلبسها
ثم قعد مع الشيخ في البيت فسأله عن شانه وعرض له
بالاحاديث وفتش عقله حتى عرف ان عقله صحيح وانه
لم يصنع ما صنعه بجهالة وانه لم يحمله على ما صنع
السفه فرآه عاقلا اديبا لبيبا لم يأت ما فعله
بجهالة ثم قال له الشيخ ايها الفتى اما اذا اخترتنا ورضيت
صحبتنا فقم معي الى هذا السرب فادخله فمشى من ورائه
بيوت ومساكن لم ير مثلها قط سعة وحسنا ومواشي
عليه خزائن مملوة من كل ما يحتاج اليه ثم دفع اليه المفاتيح
وقال كل هذا لك فاصنع به ما احببت ففرح الفتى اصاب
فوق ما كان يريد قال بوداسف ارجو ان اكون
صاحب المثل ولكن سمعتك تذكر تفتيش الشيخ عقل الفتى
حتى وثق به فشفقت ان يطول تفتيشك عقلي
فاعلم غايتك في ذلك قال بلوهر لو كان الامر اليّ
لاكتفيت منك بادنى المشافهة ولكن فوق رأيي سنة
قد سنها ايمة الدين رحمة الله عليهم في بلوغ غاية
التوثق والاطلاع على النيات والضمير لمداواة القلوب
بالادوية الراسخة فيها فانا منصرف عنك الليلة و
حاضر بابك كل ليلة ولا احب ان تكثر تذكير نفسك
بهذا الامر ولا تاخذه باستحلائه قبل التثبت والنظر
واشعر قلبك الشك ولا تعجل باليقين واجتهد في جميع
المسائل التي تظن ان فيها اللبس ثم تكلمني بما يبدو لك
واعلمني اي راي رايك في الخروج مما انت فيه اذا بدا
لك فافترقا على هذا تلك الليلة ثم عاد اليه القابلة فحياه
ورد عليه ثم جلس قال بوداسف اخبرني يا بلوهر
كم اتى عليك من العمر قال بلوهر ثنتا عشرة سنة فارتاع
بوداسف لذلك وقال ابن اثنتي عشرة سنة طفل و
انت مع ما ارى من اكتهالك وكمالك بابن ستين سنة اشبه
قال بلوهر اما المولد فقد راهق الستين ولكنك
سألتني عن العمر فانما العمر الحيوة ولا حياة الا بالدين
والتخلي من الدنيا ولم اصب الدين ولم اتخل من الدنيا
الا منذ اثنتي عشرة سنة فاما قبل ذلك فانما كنت ميتا
ولست اعتد بايام الموت في عمري قال بوداسف كيف
تجعل الاكل الشارب المتقلب ميتا قال بلوهر يشاكل
الاموات في العي والصمم والبكم وضعف الحيلة وقلة الغناء
فلما شاركهم في الصفة وافقهم في الاسم قال بوداسف
لئن كنت لا تعتد حياتك تلك الايام حياة ولا غبطة
ما ينبغي لك ان تعتد ما يتوقع من الموتة ولا ان تراه
مكروها قال بلوهر هكذا هو يدلك عليه تغريري
بنفسي يابن الملك في الدخول عليك مع علمي بسطوة
ابيك في اهل ديني فذلك يدلك على اني لا ارى هذه
الحياة حياة ولا ما اتوقع من الموت مكروها وكيف يرغب
في الحياة من قد ترك حظه منها او كيف يهرب من الموت من
قد امات نفسه بيده اولا ترى يا ابن الملك ان صاحب
الدين قد رفض اهله وماله وكيف يرغب في الحيوة الا
للرفق وقد احتمل من نصب العبادة ودؤبها وتعبها ما يستريح
منه الا بالموت فما حاجة من لا ينتفع ولا يتمتع بلذة
الحيوة الى الحيوة او ما هرب من لا راحة له الا في الموت
من الموت قال بوداسف او قد يسرك ان ينزل بك
الموت من غد قال بلوهر بل يسرني ان ينزل بي
في الليلة قبل غد فان من عرف الحسن والقبيح وثوابهما
فترك السيئ للحسن فهو موقن بعدل الله وتأمل عدله
فقد اضطره علم ذلك الى الزهد في الحيوة والجراءة على
الموت قال بوداسف اراك قد جسرت على بصيرتك
هذه كما جرت مسائلنا هذه على عبادة الاوثان فهل معك من الحجة اليقين
قال بلوهر قد كان رجل في الزمان الاول له بستان يعمره
ويقوم عليه فبينا هو كذلك اذ راى في بستانه عصفورا
واقعا على بعض شجر البستان يصيب من ثمره ويفسد فغاظه
ذلك فنصب للعصفور فخا فاصطاده فلما هم بذبحه فتح
العصفور فاه بالمنطق فقال لصاحب البستان اراك هممت بذبحى
وليس فيّ ما يشبعك من جوع ولا يقويك من ضعف فخل عني
اخبرك بخير من مال قال له الرجل وما هو قال العصفور خل عني
اعلمك ثلاث كلمات ان انت حفظتهن كن خيرا لك من كل اهل ومال
قال الرجل وما هن قال له العصفور وثق لي لتخلي
سبيلي فافعل قال له العصفور احفظ عني ما اقول لك
لا تأس على ما فاتك ولا تصدقن بما لا يكون ولا تطلبن
ما لا تدرك فلما قضى العصفور هذه الكلمات خلى الرجل
سبيل العصفور وقعد على غصن من اغصان البستان
ثم قال للرجل لو علمت ما فاتك مني لعلمت ان قد فاتك
شيء عظيم جسيم الخطر قال الرجل وما ذاك قال العصفور
ولو كنت اتممت عليّ الذي هممت به من ذبحي لاستخرجت
من حوصلتي درة كبيضة الوزة كان لك فيها غنى الدهر
فلما سمع الرجل ذلك من العصفور اسر في نفسه ندما
وحسرة وقال للعصفور ليخدعه ويأخذه دع عنك ما
مضى وهلم انطلق بك الى رحلي واهلي فاحسن صحبتك
واكرامك قال له العصفور ما اراك ايها الجاهل حفظتني
اذ ظفرت بي ولا انتفعت بالكلمات التي علمتك اخذت
بهن من نفسك منك العهد اليك الا تاس على ما فاتك ولا
تصدقن بما لا يكون ولا تطلبن بما لا تدرك ثم انت متوجع
من على الفائت وتطلب من رجعتي اليك ما لا تدرك و
تصدق بان في حوصلتي درة كبيضة الوزة وبيضة الوزة اعظم مني
وان امتك هذه يا ابن الملك صنعوا اصنامهم بايديهم و
زعموا انها خلقتهم وحفظوها مخافة ان تسرق وزعموا
انها هي التي تحفظهم وانفقوا عليها من مكاسبهم وزعموا
انها هي التي ترزقهم فطلبوا من ذلك ما لا يدرك وصدقوا
منه بما لا يكون ولزمهم من ذلك من الجهل العظيم مثل الذي
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