Polishing the mirror

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When Abu Bakr met Muhammad, he said,

“This is not a face that lies.”

Abu Bakr was one whose bowl has fallen from the roof.

There’s no hiding the fragrance that comes from an ecstatic.

A polished mirror cannot help reflecting.

Muhammad once was talking to a crowd of chieftains,

princes with great influence,

when a poor blind man interrupted him.

Muhammad frowned and said to the man,

“Let me attend to these visitors.

This is a rare chance, whereas you are already my friend.

We’ll have ample time.”

Then someone nearby said,

“That blind man may be worth a hundred kings.

Remember the proverb,

Human beings are mines.”

World-power means nothing.

Only the unsayable, jeweled inner life matters.

Muhammad replied,

“Do not think that I’m concerned

with being acknowledged by these authorities.

If a beetle moves toward rosewater,

it proves that the solution is diluted.

Beetles love dung, not rose essence.

If a coin is eager to be tested by the touchstone,

that coin itself may be a touchstone.

A thief loves the night.

I am day.

I reveal essences.

A calf thinks God is a cow.

A donkey’s theology changes when someone new pets it

and gives what it wants.

I am not a cow,

or thistles for camels to browse on.

People who insult me are only polishing the mirror.”