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 returns to renunciation of the world: the world as prison and garden, the two opposed abodes of world and hereafter, the world's reversal of every apparent gift, and the desert garden parable with its interpretation.

Translation

Budasaf said, "So return me to renunciation of the world."

Bilawhar said, "The world is a paltry attachment, and not all people are fit for renunciation of it, because it is the prison of the righteous and the garden of the wicked. For the one for whom it is the best of dwellings, what desire would there be to leave it? For the one for whom it is the worst of dwellings, what share would there be in remaining there?

"Yet hatred of it, abhorrence toward it, and anger against it are proper only to those who seek departure from it and know its baseness. What makes them renounce staying in it, leaning upon it, fighting on its behalf, attending upon its troops, serving its appetites, and becoming caught in its snares is what they know of the bliss and honor of the hereafter, which is attained only by being loosed from its bonds and throwing off its yoke.

"For they are two abodes, each of them opposed to the other. No builder builds them both, and no gatherer gathers them both, just as one man cannot join together the support of two opposing consorts and obedience to both of them.

"Among the breadth and generosity of the hereafter is that it is present, its path is easy, and its gates are open for whoever finds its way and renounces the world, which is its opposite. Among the blame, narrowness, and hardness of the world is that it is forbidding and rough in its paths, while those who seek it are more pressed in it and more wretched than the people who reject it and renounce it.

"Sometimes some of its own children turn back toward it and side with it by renouncing the hereafter, which is its opposite, but that does not turn it kindly toward them.

"Among the blame of its nature is that it begins with stripping before clothing, and with bereavement before gift. It does not clothe one of its servants without stripping another, and it gives him only what it has taken from someone else by bereavement. No favor of hers is completed unless she completes a ruin alongside it: taking back the gift, scattering what was gathered, demolishing what was built, wearing out what was new, crushing what was green, lowering what was high, sickening what was healthy, and killing what was alive.

"So I have likened it for you, son of the king, to a desert surrounded by deadly waterless wastes. It is filled with predatory beasts, violent thieves, overpowering devils, snatching ghouls, and burning simooms. Its water is deadly poison, and its plant is the tree of death. In its midst is a garden with a wall that cannot be reached and cannot be overcome, and with a solid, strong door. In it are fruit-bearing trees, pure water, refreshment, and shade. Beyond those waterless wastes, on one of its two sides, are open country, fertility, fellowship, and community.

"On its other side is a sea of poison, into which the bile of serpents is poured, and over which the burning poisons of fire pour down. There is no way out of that desert except by these two paths.

"People have been admitted into that garden, while many people travel outside it in the desert. Among those inside are some whose only concern is to go out and hasten toward harm and torment, so that this may bring them near to the open country and the community. Among them are others to whom nothing is more hateful than leaving, because they seek ease and softness.

"Among those outside are some whose only concern is to enter, hastening toward food and greenness because they cannot bear the toil required for the return. Among them is one who rejoices in his place, waiting for someone to bring him to refreshment and spaciousness.

"That garden is the king's preserve. He never ceases to tend it through trustworthy messengers of his. Whoever they find restrained and chaste, whether he was inside and did not deny or transgress, or was outside and did not wrong anyone or act arrogantly, they move him from that place gently and compassionately until they return him to his town and his people.

"But whoever they find violent or excessive, if he was inside and became vain and transgressed, or if he was outside and broke in and demolished, they carry him away by dragging him and seizing him by the collar, loathing him and being harsh with him, until they cast him into the depth of the deadly poison in which death and drowning have been lodged.

"The desert is this world, with the kinds of affliction it contains. The garden is the small measure of refreshment and pleasures in it. The open country on one of its two sides is the return-place of the righteous at the return, and the sea of poison and burning poison is the return-place of the wicked.

"What I described outside that garden and inside it is the classes of people in this world. You, son of the king, and your father are among those who were inside. As for your father, he neither feared God nor spared anyone. As for you, you have been gentle and have shown pity.

"I, son of the king, and many of the idol-worshippers were among those who were outside. As for them, they clamored and raged; but you softened and yielded. We were people whom the king's messengers had separated and set apart. Then they brought our speech over to what was fitting for it and called us to 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: Budasaf's renewed request for renunciation of the world, Bilawhar's answer on the world as prison and garden, the world and hereafter as two opposed abodes, the world's reversal of gifts, and the desert garden parable, printed Arabic pages 112-116. The translated passage begins inside printed page 112, after Budasaf's faith statement, and ends inside printed page 116, before Bilawhar begins the admonition on the three enemies.

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

Source Text

Arabic Text

فعد لي الى التزهيد في الدنيا قال بلوهر ان الدنيا
علق زهيد وليس كل الناس يستحق الزهادة فيها
لانها سجن الابرار وجنة الفجار فما رغبة من هي خير
منازل له في الخروج منها وما حظ من هي شر منازله
في المقام فيها غير انه لا يستحق بغضها والمقت لها والحنق
عليها الا الطلاب الرحول عنها عارفون بدنائتها
فيزهدهم عن المكث فيها والركون اليها والمناضلة عليها
بالتفقد لاجنادها وعبادة شهواتها والنشوب في
فخاخها ما يعرفونه من نعيم الاخرة وكرامتها التي لا
تنال الا بالانحلال من ربقها والخلع لربقها لانهما داران
كلتاهما ضد على صاحبتها لا يعمرهما عامر ولا يجمعهما
جامع كما لا يجتمع للرجل الواحد نصرة القرينتين المختلفتين
ومعونة طاعتهما غير ان من سعة الاخرة وكرمها انها
موجودة سهل مسلكها مفتحة ابوابها لمن اصاب سبيلها وزهد
في الدنيا التي هي ضدها ومن لوم الدنيا وضيقها
انها ممتنعة كؤدة وعرة المسالك بما ان طلابها اكيد فيها
واشقى من اهل الرفض لها والزهادة فيها وربما يؤول

اليها بعض اولادها ويعدل لها بالزهادة في الاخرة التي
هي ضدها فلا يعطفها ذلك عليهم ثم من لوم طبيعتها
انها تبتدئ بالسلب قبل الكسوة بالفجيعة قبل الهبة
بما انها لا تكسو بعض عبد لها الا سلبت اخر ولا
تعطيه الا ما تفجع به غيره ولا يتم لها معروف الا تكمل
لها ضيعة بارتجاعها العطية وتفريقها الجمع وهدمها
المبني وابلاءها الجديد وتهشيمها الخضر ووضعها
العلي واسقامها الصحيح واماتتها الحي فشبهتها يا بن
الملك بمفازة محفوفة بالمعاطش المهلكة ثم هي مملوة
سباعا ضارية ولصوصا عادية وشياطين مسلطة
وغيلانا مختطفة وسمايم محرقة ماءها السم الزعاق
ونباتها شجر الموت وفي وسطها بستان عليه حايط
لا يرام ولا يستطاع وباب مصمت وثيق وفيه شجر
مثمر وماء طاهر وروح وظلال ومن وراء تلك
المعاطش من احدى جهتيها الريف والخصب والانس

والجماعة ومن جهتها الاخرى بحر السم يدفع فيه مرار
الثعابين وتصب عليه سموم النار ولا مخرج من تلك
المفازة في غير هذين السبيلين فقد ادخل ذلك البستان
ناس يسيرون من خارجه في المفازة بشر كثير فمن
الداخلين من لا همة له الا الخروج والتعجل الى الاذى
والعذاب ليقربه ذلك الى الريف والجماعة ومنهم من
لا شيء اكره اليه منه ابتغاء للدعة والهوينا ومن
الخارجين من لا همة له الا الدخول استعجالا الى الاكل
والخضر عجزا عن احتمال النصب للمعاد ومنهم المغتبط
بمكانه المتوقع لمن يبلغه الى الروح والسعة وذلك
البستان حمى الملك لا يزال يتعاهده بالثقات من رسله
فمن وجدوه كف وعف ممن كان داخلا فلم يجحد
ولم يشطط او كان خارجا فلم يظلم ولم يكابر نقلوه
من ذلك الموضع رفقا به متحننين عليه حتى يرجعوه
الى بلدته وقومه ومن وجدوه عسف او اسرف

ممن كان داخلا فحبط وشطط او كان خارجا فاقتحم و
هدم نقلوه سحبا ولببا مشمأزين به غلظا عليه حتى
يقذفوه في لجة الزعاق التي اودع ما فيها الحتف والغرق
فالمفازة هذه الدنيا بما ضمنت من انواع البلاء والبستان
ليسير ما فيها من الروح واللذات والريف الذي من احد
جهتيها منقلب الابرار في المعاد وبحر السم والسموم
معاد الفجار واما الذي وصفت من خارج ذلك
البستان وداخله فاصناف الناس في هذه الدنيا
فانت يا بن الملك وابوك ممن كان داخلا فاما ابوك
فلا اتقى ولا ابقى واما انت فقد رفقت واشفقت
وانا يا بن الملك وكثير من عباد الاوثان ممن كان
خارجا فاما هم فقد اجلبوا واستكلبوا وقد لنت
ووهنت وكنا برسل الملك قد فصلونا وعزلونا
فنقلوا كلامنا الى ما ينبغي له ودعى اليه