One day a contumacious man, who was ignorant of the reverence due to Allah, said to Murtaza (Ali (R)),

On the top of an exceedingly high terrace or pavilion, “Art thou conscious of Allah’s protection, O intelligent man?”

“Yes,” he replied ; “He is the Protector and the Self-sufficient for preserving my existence from the time of infancy and conception.”

He said, “Come cast thyself down from the roof, put an entire confidence in the protection of God,

So that thy sure faith and thy goodly proven conviction may become evident to me.”

Then the Prince said to him, “Be silent, go, lest for this boldness thy soul be pawed (given over to perdition).”

How is it right for a servant (of Allah) to venture on an experiment with Allah by making trial of Him?

How should a servant of Allah have the stomach vain-gloriously to put Him to the test, O mad fool?

To Allah alone belongs that right, who brings forward a test for His servants at every moment,

In order that He may show us plainly to ourselves (and reveal) what beliefs we hold in secret.

Did Adam (AS) ever say to Allah, “I made trial of Thee in committing this sin and trespass,

That I might see the utmost limit of Thy clemency, O King?” Ah, who would be capable of seeing this, who?

Forasmuch as your understanding is confused, your excuse is worse than your crime.

How can you make trial of Him who raised aloft the vault of heaven?

O you that have not known good and evil, (first) make trial of yourself, and then of others.

When you have made trial of yourself, O such-and-such, you will be unconcerned with making trial of others.

When you have come to know you are a grain of sugar, then you will know that you belong to the sugar house.

Know, then, without making any trial, that (if) you are sugar, Allah will not send you to the wrong place.

Without making trial, know this of the King’s (Allah’s) knowledge: when you are a spritiual chief, He will not send you down to the vestibule.

Does any intelligent man let a precious pearl fall into the midst of a privy full of ordure?

Inasmuch as a sagacious and attentive man will nowise send wheat to a star barn,

If a novice has made trial of the Shaykh who is the (spiritual) leader and guide, he is an ass.

If you make trial of him in the way of religion, you will be tried( by tribulation), O man without faith.

Your audacity and ignorance will become naked and exposed to view: how should he be naked by that scrutiny?

If the mote come and weight the mountain, its scales will be shattered by the mountain, O youth;

For he(the novice) applies the scales of his own judgment and puts the man of God in the scales ;

But since he (the Shaykh) is not contained by the scales of intellect, consequently he shatters the scales of intellect.

Know that to make trial of him is like exercising authority over him: do not seek to exercise authority over such a spiritual king.

What authority should the pictures desire to exercise over such an Artist for the purpose of testing Him?

If it(the picture) has known and experienced any trial, is it not the case that the Artist brought that (trial) upon it?

Indeed, this form that He fashioned – what is it worth in comparison with the forms which are in His knowledge?

When the temptation to make this trial has come to you, know that ill fortune has come and smitten your neck.

When you feel such a temptation, at one, turn to Allah and begin the prostration.

Make the place of prostration wet with flowing tears and say, “O Allah, do Though deliver me from this doubt!”

At the time when it is your object to make trial of Allah, the mosque, namely, your religion, becomes filled with kharrub (carob)

Maulana Rumi (ks) – Mathnwai Volume 4 (353)