IX: Consider not the wise of this world shrewd…

Consider not the wise of this world shrewd and sagacious;
For foolish and silly are all the wise ones of this world.

The light of wisdom is prohibited unto those hearts,
On which may rest the dirt and dust of this world.

What one of the world saith, is all nonsense and absurdity:
Emptiness and folly are every word and speech of this world.

They merely play and gambol, after the manner of infants,
Who occupy themselves with the affairs of this world.

Like unto babies, with their mouths filled with milk,
Are all the subtle and the experienced of this world.

He will ever continue to be a dolt and an idiot,
Who may be drunk from the intoxication of this world.

In truth, the toper's inebriation will not be so great
As will be that of the drunken with the wine of this world.

There is a medicine in the world for every sick person;
But, alas! there is no physic for the sick of this world.

The cure of every one that hath been burned can be effected;
But not that of the scorched from the fiery sparks of this world.

Whatever thou throwest into the fire consumeth away;
And satiated will never become the seeker of this world:

He will ever be as a captive, sunk in distress and sorrow;
Then God forbid one should become the slave of this world!

He will be for ever immersed in lurid gloom and darkness,
Whoever may be the captive of the infidel of this world.

Whether it be adoration unto the idol, or unto the world,
Still, idolators all, are the worshippers of this world.

He is the true Muslim amongst the whole of the Faithful,
Who hath burst asunder the Hindu cord of this world.

Headless behind, his body remaineth, but the head will go;
How, then, is the possessor of a head, a head-man of this world?

They make their sons and daughters orphans, and desert them--
All are unnatural--the fathers and the mothers of this world.

There will be a load of misery for ever upon his head,
Round which may be wrapped the turban of this world.

All is affliction; whether it be bought, or whether it be sold;
For there is nought else whatever in the bazar of this world.

They cheat and impose--the whole fraternity are knaves--
All the buyers, and all the sellers of this world.

They will never show the least affection towards it,
Who may be acquainted with the secrets of this world.

He whose regard may be directed to religion and piety,
Fostereth not any hopes or expectations of this world.

He who quaileth at the sight of a precipice or an abyss,
Will never travel upon the dangerous path of this world.

The whole of its friends and associates are impostors--
What dependence can be placed on the deceivers of this world?

Its old and its young, alike, are all rivals of each other--
Where is the true friend in the region of this world?

Whatever may be created, the whole shall fade and perish--
Draw near! behold the raids and ravages of this world!

Unto whom it cometh, from him it again departeth;
For I have well observed the gait and movements of this world.

One hour it may be spring--in another, autumn will come;
For no permanence whatever, hath the spring of this world.

Though thousands of props should be placed to support it,
Without foundation, notwithstanding, is the wall of this world.

Though thou shouldst raise round thyself a fortress of iron,
Still consider but as glass all the bulwarks of this world.

In the same manner as the sun's shadow shifteth,
So likewise there is nowhere permanence in this world.

Entertain thou no hope of pre-eminence by its means;
For incessant and perpetual is the littleness of this world.

Without shears they sever the thread of man's existence,
Both the nights and the days of this world.

After death, an account will be required of every man,
As to the number and magnitude of the sins of this world.

They will be but a mere handful of dust at the last day,
The rosy-cheeked and the rosy-bodied of this world.

They will arise on an equality with the beggar together,
Both the princes and the sovereigns of this world.

There will be a brand impressed upon the miser's breast
By every darham and every dinar of this world.

Let them be an oblation to the contentment of the contented,
All the wealth and the wealthy ones of this world.

Themselves, after death, will become the injured and oppressed--
All the tyrants and the oppressors of this world.

They may enumerate tens and hundreds until doomsday,
But no one hath completed the numeration of this world.

When the time for the winding-sheet and the ablution cometh,
Unveiled and exposed become the veiled and modest of this world.

They will be brought forth on the bier from their privacy,
Both the coy and the bashful of this world.

More than any other person the Prophet would have enjoyed,
Had there been any thing like propinquity in this world.

One even of its iniquities cannot be fully explained by Rahman;
For beyond all computation, is the wickedness of this world.