Muntakhab al-tawarikh 363.8

363.8

I have uttered many cries but no one comes to my assistance. It is as though there were nobody in this turquoise vault. Perforce, therefore, I remain in the bonds forged for me from eternity, and place my head on the threshold of discipleship. And, since the country and the king are alike in this condition in relation to fate, it is evident that mankind in general, much less a solitary individual, can have but little power to move hand or foot in those bonds, or release himself from durance in its prison; unless it be a perfect religious leader and perfected guide, aided in various ways and by different means by divine guidance and divine inspiration. Such a man might, striving with the strength of divine assistance, and the aid of boundless struggles and ecstacies, free himself from this most dangerous of places, this most difficult of situations. But, in truth, in these days there is, save that incomparable one of the age, whose nature is endowed with auspicious attributes, angelic qualities, and holy signs of God’s handiwork, who is a revelation of the marks of the mercy of Providence (His power is honoured), no perfect knower of God illuminated and adorned by the qualities described above. into the service of the youngest prince. The following verses are by him:— “I am Nau‘i the wine-bibber, and after my death My blisters will fester like the sun.” “Nau‘i’s sorrow arises not from pain and grief But from the exiguity of his stomach.”