The Mathnawi of Jalaluddin Rumi

390. When the Cup-bearer of Alast the primordial day of the Covenant poured a draught upon this nitrous abject earth,
The earth seethed, and we are (the result) of that seething. (O God, pour) another draught, for we are very effortless (unaspiring).
If 'twas permitted, I sang of non-existence; and if 'twas not to be told, lo, I was silent.
This is the account of the bent (grovelling) duck, which is greed: learn of Khalíl Friend of God/Abraham that the duck ought to be killed.
In the duck there is much good and evil besides this, (but) I am afraid of missing other (more important) topics of discourse.

Description of the Peacock and its nature, and the cause of its being killed by Abraham, on whom be peace.

395. Now we come to the two-coloured (double-faced) peacock, who displays himself for the sake of name and fame.
His desire is to catch people: he is ignorant of good and evil and of the result and use of that (catching).
He catches his prey ignorantly, like a trap: what knowledge has the trap concerning the purpose of its action?
What harm (comes) to the trap, or what benefit, from catching (its prey)? I wonder at its idle catching.
O brother, thou hast uplifted thy friends with two hundred marks of affection, and (then) abandoned (them).

400. This has been thy business from the hour of (thy) birth: to catch people with the trap of love.
From that pursuit (of people) and throng (of friends) and vainglory and self existence wilt thou get any warp or woof? Try and see!
Most (of thy life) is gone and the day is late; (yet) thou art still busy in pursuit of people.
Go on catching one and releasing another from the trap and pursuing another, like mean folk;
Then again release this one and seek the other! Here's a game of heedless children!

405. Night comes, and nothing is caught in thy trap: the trap is naught but a headache (affliction) and shackle to thee.
Therefore (in reality) thou wert catching thyself with the trap, for thou art imprisoned and disappointed of thy desire.
Is any owner of a trap in the world such a dolt that, like us, he tries to catch himself?
Pursuit of the vulgar is like hunting pig: the fatigue is infinite, and 'tis unlawful to eat a morsel thereof.
That which is worth pursuing is Love alone; but how should He be contained in any one's trap?

410. (Yet) perchance thou mayst come and be made His prey, thou mayst discard the trap, and go into His trap.
Love is saying very softly into my ear, "To be a prey is better than to be a hunter.
Make thyself My fool and be a dupe: renounce the (high) estate of the sun, become a mote!
Become a dweller at My door and be homeless: do not pretend to be a candle, be a moth,
That thou mayst see (taste) the savour of Life and contemplate the sovereignty hidden in servitude."

415. In this world you see the shoes upside down: the title of "kings" is conferred on (those who are really) bondsmen.
Many a one who deserves to mount the scaffold with a halter on his throat—a crowd (gathers) round him, crying, "Behold, an emperor!"
(They are) like the tombs of infidels, outwardly (resembling) the robes of Paradise, (while) within (them) is the wrath of God Almighty and Glorious.
He (the worldling) has been plastered like the tombs: the veil of self-conceit has been brought before him (drawn over him).
Thy miserable nature is plastered with virtues, like a palm-tree of wax without (real) leaves and fruit.

Explaining that every one knows the mercy of God, and every one knows the wrath of God; and all are fleeing from the wrath of God and clinging to the mercy of God; but the Most High God has concealed wraths in mercy and mercies in wrath. This is God's mystification and disguise and contrivance to the