[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Mughals (1526–1857)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal) › [Akbar (1556–1605)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.akbar) › [The Book of Akbar](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.akbar.akbarnama) › 1.86 # The Book of Akbar 1.86 Akbarnāma 1.86 - **Language:** Persian ### [1.86](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.akbar.akbarnama.1.86) چون میان من و دل سخن باینجا رسید عقل سرگردان را منزل از دور نمود. اندیشه را وقت بقدری خوش شد. خاطر حیرتزده اگرچه از دشواری و درازی راه آزردگ داشت اما از آهنگساز راه و نوید وصول خوشوقت گشته بود که ناگاه دل دوربینرا باز پای اندیشه بسنگ آمد که مقصود از ستایش الهی نه آنست که صفات کمال اورا دریابد و آنرا بدرگاه او نسبت دهد، یا نعمتهای بیانتهای قدمرا در شمار آورد، و در برابر آن متاع ستودگی حدوثآلود خودرا پیش کشد، تا اینرا از حوصلهآ بشری برتر داند و از پسماندگان پیشگاه سپاسگذاری باشد، یا آنکه خویشتن آرائی خودرا ثناخوانی الهی نام نهد، و از تاریکی راه و باریکی مقصود افگارخاطر گردد، و طبع حیله جوی این را غنیمت دانسته از حمد باز ماند، و آغاز در آنچه حیله ساز وقت آنرا مقصود وانموده است نماید، بلکه مراد از حمد آنست که این نفس سپاس دوست خودآرای خودفروش را بر آستان بندگی در پایهآ نیاز و سرافکندگی داشته از طاق نظر خودبین خویش > When the communing with my heart had proceeded thus far, a resting-stage showed itself afar off to my bewildered mind, and my thoughts were pleasant for a while. My astonied heart was, it is true, saddened by the length and difficulty of the journey, but was cheered by the sound of the machinery of movement, and by the good tidings of eventual arrival. Suddenly the thoughtful foot of my boding spirit came upon a stone; for the praise of God does not consist in comprehending His perfect attributes and assigning them to His Essence; nor is it the reckoning up of His benefits which are without beginning or end, and by dint of these wares of new-fangled praise, thrusting oneself forward; nor should we regard praise as beyond human comprehension and so, stop short of the porch of thanksgiving; nor should we style self-culture the recital of the Divine praise, and growing weary-hearted at the darkness of the road and the distance of the goal, regard such self-deception as a gain, and with abandonment of thanksgiving, set about whatever the cheatery of the hour represent as our true aim. Rather the note of Praise is to lay this praise-loving, self-adorning, self-auctioning spirit on the threshold of service, at the base of supplication and humiliation and to cast it down from the arch of NOTE. The following passage was accidentally omitted. It should come in at p. 13, 1. 11, at the end of the second paragraph, and immediately after the word “thanksgiving.” > — Henry Beveridge 1897, The Akbarnama (H. Beveridge), vols. I–II > “Inasmuch as my aim was lofty, and my intent majestic, my scheming soul could not extricate herself from confusion and set free the word-framing tongue. My constitution would not allow that, like the ignorant and the imitative, I should enter the Praise-Court of the most glorious God by force of words and ejaculations, and be soothed by borrowed metaphor and hackneyed phrase. Nor yet would my effusive zeal permit that I should, after the manner of feeble-souled sages, refrain from searching after Him, or stay my lips from speech concerning him, and thus by a contradictory confession, disparate from one’s practice in secular matters, proclaim inability and simultaneously hold one’s self forth as a right-thinking utterer of verities.” self-consciousness and self-regard, so that its inward poverty may be adorned by outward submissiveness, and its inner and outer nature be decked with humility and lowliness till fitness grace the bosom of purpose and be turned into praise of the Omnipotent Creator. Now as such wares of thanksgiving are abundant in the booths of men and are especially plentiful in my own stall, why do I withhold myself from Divine praise and why do I delay to laud the Eternal One? Under any circumstances, it is better for me to escape from this deceiving misery of self-pleasing and to address myself to the heights of lofty thanksgiving. > — Henry Beveridge 1897, The Akbarnama (H. Beveridge), vols. I–II - [Previous: 1.77](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.akbar.akbarnama.1.77) - [Next: 1.101](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.akbar.akbarnama.1.101) - [Up: 1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.akbar.akbarnama.1) ## Translations (1) - [The Akbarnama (H. Beveridge), vols. I–II](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.akbar.akbarnama~en-beveridge.3.1.7) — Henry Beveridge 1897, English --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.akbar.akbarnama.1.86](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.akbar.akbarnama.1.86) · Pramāṇa