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It’s the true man who leads the mystic life

It’s the true man who leads the mystic life
Whoever is human, whoever dares.
Those who stand high and look below with scorn
Are bound to fall from the top of the stairs.

Though a gray-bearded old man might look grand,
There is so much he doesn’t understand,
Let him not struggle towards the Holy Land
If he causes one heart to burn in tears.

A deaf man cannot hear what people say,
He thinks it’s night when it’s brightest day,
The atheist’s eyes are blind to Allah’s way
Even though the whole world glitters and glares.

The lover’s heart is the Creator’s throne.
Allah admires and accepts it as his own,
The man who breaks a heart shall groan and moan
In both worlds, suffering sorrows and cares.

You have a self image in your own eyes,
Be sure to see others in the same guise.
Each of the four holy books clarifies
This truth as it applies to man’s affairs.

We have seen it all: Those who came are gone.
Those who once stopped here went back one by one;
He must have gulped love’s wine if anyone
Feels the reality that Allah’s truth bares.