Commentary on the verse of the Quran : “And raise the battle-cry against them with thy horsemen and men on foot” (Ayat 17:64)
)

When you earnestly resolve to be religious, the Devil in your
nature cries out at you,

“Go not in that direction! Bethink you, O misguided one;
for you will become captive to distress and poverty.

You will become destitute, you will be cut off from friends,
you will be despised, you will feel sorry.”

From fear of the outcry of that accursed Devil you flee away
from certain truth into error,

Saying, “Ho, to-morrow is mine and after tomorrow : I will
run in the Way of religion, I have (plenty of) time.”

Then again you see Death killing your neighbors on left and
right, so that the cry (of lamentation) is raised.

Now, in fear of (your) life, you resolve to be religious : for
a while, you make yourself a (true) man ;

So you put on the armour of knowledge and wisdom, saying,
“I will not shrink from any danger.”

Again he (the Devil ) deceitfully cries out at you - “Be afraid
and turn away from the sword of poverty!”

Once more you flee from the Way of Light and cast off that
armour of knowledge and virtue.”

(For many) years, you are a slave to him because of a cry : you
have laid down the blanket (have lain down to rest) in such darkness as this!

Dread of the cry of the devils has bound the people and taken
hold of their throats,

Till their souls have become as hopeless of the Light as the
spirits of the infidels who dwell in the tombs.

Such is the terror of the cry of that accursed one : how (great)
must be the dread of the Divine cry!

Dread of the falcon is (falling) upon the noble partridge : the
fly hath no portion of that dread,

Because the falcon is not a hunter of flies : only spiders catch
flies.

The spider, (which is) the Devil, hath dominion over flies
like you, not over the partridge and the eagle.

The cry of the devils is the drover of the damned; the cry of
the Lord is the guardian of the (blessed) saints,

To the end that, by reason of these two cries (being) far
distant (from each other), not a drop of the sweet sea may
mingle with the briny sea.

ref: Mathnawi, Book III pg 243 tr: Nicholson