[Sunlight] The mystery of "die before death"

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The mystery of "die before death"* is this,
that the prizes come after dying and not before.
Except for dying,
no other skills avail with God, O artful schemer.
One Divine favor is better than a hundred kinds of personal effort:
such exertion is in danger from a hundred kinds of mischief.
And the Divine favor depends on dying:
the trustworthy authorities have put this way to the test.
No, not even the mystic's death is possible without Divine favor:
listen, listen, don't linger anywhere without Divine grace!
That grace is like an emerald, and this bodily self is an old viper:
without the emerald how should the viper be made blind?

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Serr-e "Mûtû qabla mawt"* in bovad
kaz pas mordan ghanimat-hâ resad
Ghayr-e mordan hich farhangi degar
dar na-girad bâ Khodây ay hileh-gar
Yek `enâyat beh ze sad gun ejtehâd
jahd-râ khawfast az sad gun fasâd
Vân `enâyat hast mawquf-e mamât
tajrebeh kardand in rah-râ seqât
Balkeh margesh bi `enâyat niz nist
bi `enâyat hân o hân jâyi mah-'ist

-- Mathnawi: VI: 3885-3889
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
(Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra)

*Hadith

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[Sunlight] The mystery of "die before death"