A fox said to a camel, ‘O uncle,
Tell me truly whence you come.’
The camel replied, ‘Lo, I come from the bath ³⁹⁵
Where I have bathed my limbs in water hot and cold.’
The fox said, ‘You have fine proof of what you say,
For both your forelegs and your hindlegs are very dirty.’

It is now high time for me to raise the hand of supplication to the court of that Providence who lacks nothing and who cherishes his servants, and to ask of Him that which shall be most expedient for me, although His glorious majesty is fettered by no expediency. I shall therefore conclude with the following suppli­cations, which are free from all spaciousness and elaboration, and are (therefore) not far from the assurance of a favourable answer.

O King, look upon us with the eye of acceptance and mercy! O Lord of all things, visible and invisible, compose us in the seeking of Thy will, and remove from our way, and from the way of all Muslims, all disunion, disquiet, and perplexity! Bestow Thy pardon and forgiveness on us in our time. Let Thy gracious favour and guidance both impel and lead us. Deliver us not up into the hands of our own disunion and leave us not to ourselves, neither entrust us with ourselves, but preserve us from our own wickedness, and bring our affairs and those of all Muslims to a happy conclusion in Thy pardon and acceptances. Pardon what we have done in the past and preserve us from what we would do in the future.

Whatever Thou bestowest on Thy servant, bestow on him
faith,
Bestow on him adherence to Thy will.

Forsake us not in Thy wrath; let us not be occupied with any but Thee. Displace us not from Thy remembrance. If Thou shouldst question us we have no answer ready, if Thou art angry we have no strength to abide it. From Thy servant proceed faults and lapses, and from Thee all pardon and mercy. O Ancient of Days that changest not, and Glorious one without peer! O Hidden and Omniscient God, Thou that hearest and seest, that hast no need of description or explanation, our faults ³⁹⁶ are many, and Thou knowest and seest us: grant unto us a good end, let us die Muslims, and join us to the pious; and bless and assoil Muḥammad and the race of Muḥammad, and all Thy prophets and apostles.

Look on me as though I were entirely free from disobedience,
Consider not mine offences, consider Thy mercy.
Ward off from me all the evils of the age,
Keep me afar from every evil that there is,
So direct for me all worldly affairs and religious matters,
That I may be free from want in both worlds.
By Thy favour Thou keepest me in safety
From the calamities and tumults of these latter days.
Thou accomplishest the desires of Thy poor servant,
Thou makest me a partaker of worldly and spiritual bless-
ings.
Deliver me not helpless into the hands of mine own lusts,
But grant me protection from my dominant lusts.
Send me not as a beggar before any one,
My begging is at Thy door and no other.
Give me a portion of lawful gain,
Give me a corner apart from the worldly.
Pardon and veil my sin,
For it is Thou that veilest and pardonest sins.
Grant me knowledge of Thine eternal bounty,
Free me from ignorance and error.

Preserve me from companionship with the unworthy
Cause me to meet with a pious and sympathetic friend.
Set my face on the road towards Thee,
Free me from all else but Thee.
Accomplish not my desire in any object
The end of which will bring me shame.
No one but Thee knows what is for my good,
Thou knowest my loss and my profit.
Enrich me with the treasure of contentment,
Give me ease in the joy of serving Thee.
Incline me not to objects of this world,
Make my heart cold to such desires.
So accustom me to thoughts of Thee
That I may think on no other but Thee.
Open before me the door of knowledge of Thee
And in that privy chamber impart Thy secrets to me.
Give me a cup from the flagon of love
And grant me, from that wine, a new intoxication.
So fashion my inclinations to the world to come ³⁹⁷
That I may no more desire the things of this world.
Though death shall rend my upper garment
Let not the dust of this world settle on my lower garment.
When the sword of death cleaves my life,
When ‘Azāzīl* shall resolve to accept the faith,
Of Thy mercy cast one glance towards me,
Open in my face the door of Thy favour,
Declare to me the glad tidings of Thy gracious forgiveness.
That I may have rest in the sleep of death.
Grant unto me such power that, in that perplexity,
My cross-examination* may be easy to me.

When the people of this world set their faces towards the
resurrection.
And raise their heads in bewilderment from the dust.
Captured, by their evil fate, in disobedience
Their faces blackened with shame for their sins,
When, in that confusion, in the heat of the Resurrection
Day,
The rocks shall become water from the fierceness of the sun's
rays,
When there shall not be, in all that plain full of grief
Any refuge but the shadow of the Most High,
Of Thy bounty, O Creator, Lord of many claims,
Cast the shadow of Thy favour on my head!
When the balance of justice is brought into the midst
And the deficiency and excess of all shall be made apparent,
When I shall have in my company mountains of sin,
Beside which the mountains shall seem no larger than a blade
of grass,
It is not impossible to Thine illimitable mercy
To weigh down the scale of my obedience:
In that place of fear and confusion
When the records of each one's acts shall fly open
And my record shall be so black
That it will be impossible to enter any fresh sin therein,
Wash my record with the cloud of Thy clemency,
And, by that washing, raise me to honour:
When the fire of hell shall leap forth as a banner
To draw to itself all the people of the world
Pour, of Thy grace, some water on my fire
And bring me forth purified from that fire.
When over hell the narrow bridge* shall appear

And the people shall raise a shout for joy,*
That bridge, long as the dark nights of separation,
Soul-melting as the sighs from lovers' hearts,
Narrower than a hair,
Darker than the smoke of the night of separation,
Sharper than a sharp cutting sword,
Shooting forth tongues of flame like hell fire,
If Thou take me not by the hand, woe is me,
For the nethermost pit of hell will be my place!
I bring no goods with me but hope,
O God, make me not hopeless of forgiveness!

Praise be to God, and thanks, that after all this smearing of myself with the smoke of the midnight lamp and all this fever of the brain I have gained freedom from this hasty work. Ah, how much distraction have I not suffered at the hands of these troubled times, before this valuable coin of time (to complete my work) and this priceless jewel (the work itself) was obtained.

Please God this work will, for a while, be preserved from the treachery of lack of preservation,* of faithlessness, or of evil guardianship, and will thus be safeguarded from the picking and stealing of the ignorant cutpurses of this age, and, being con­stantly hidden under the protection of God's guardianship, will receive the ornament of acceptance, and no damage will reach it from the evil eyes of squinting (rogues) of varying degrees,* and the hands of impotent (foes) will fail to reach the skirt of the beauty of this creature of my wit, and whoever is not admitted to the knowledge of its secret will remain disappointed.

A thousand thanks to the God of the world.
For that I have entrusted my jewel to one who can appraise
jewels.

It was the intention of my languid and secretive* heart and my wearied mind to gather together the “Key to the History of Kashmīr,* and the histories of the Kings of Gujarāt, Bengal and Sind, with an account of the wonders of India, and to have them bound together in one volume with this, but that stuff did not match this, for silk must be joined with silk. Therefore, on Friday, the twenty-third of the month Jamādī'u--Sānī A.H. 1004 (March 5, A.D. 1595) I shortened the rope of prolixity and contented myself with writing this much. I composed the following verses with the object of giving, in an enigma, the date of its completion:—

Thanks be to God, by whose clemency this Selection* has
arrived at completion
When I sought the date of it from my heart (my heart)
replied
(It is) a selection which has no second.

Praise be to God whose assistance has enabled me to complete it, and blessings and peace be on the best of mankind, our lord Muḥammad, and on his family, and on his great companions, till the Day of Resurrection.