XI: If it be thy wish to pass through…

If it be thy wish to pass through life, from hatred and malice free,
From the longings of covetousness deliver this spotless breast.

Thro' heedlessness of heart, like what wilderness art thou grown?
Account the Devil's temptations a monster, not a gnat!

The expecting heart is one only--its cares and anxieties many:
The term, too, of thy existence, long or short, is nothingness.

The spiritual guest is an inestimable one: cherish him carefully--
Broken rice possesseth not the fitness for the tables of kings.

Covetousness tottereth like one with ophthalmia stricken;
But by perfect reliance upon the Almighty, cure thou the disease.

Change sinful arrogance for meekness and humility;
And the sword of thy vanity and pride return unto its sheath.

Become pliant, and bending, like unto the tender twig;
Not of thine own accord, like a hard, dry log of wood.

The five fingers once had an astonishing dispute together,
At which time the little finger acknowledged its own littleness.

There is dignity, in the very insignificance of form;
Hence fitness for the ring went unto the little finger.

Outwardly, become the spectator of the heart's internal things,
O thou, from truth's source, great--by scepticism, contemptible!

O Mirza! behold thou the infinite greatness of unity;
Since such delicious honey, is from the bee produced.