[Sunlight] This marvelous opinion

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The goods of this world and this body are melting snow;
yet God buys them, for it is said God has purchased.*
You prefer the melting snow to God's offer,
because you are dubious, you have no certainty.
There is this marvelous opinion within you
which won't fly to that garden of certainty.
Every opinion is really thirsting for conviction
and flapping its wings in pursuit.
When it attains knowledge, then the wing becomes a foot,
and its knowledge begins to scent that garden.
In the tested Way,
knowledge is inferior to certainty but above opinion.
Know that knowledge is a seeker of certainty,
and certainty is a seeker of vision and intuition.

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Mâl o tan barfand rizân-e fanâ
Haqq kharidâresh keh Allâha-shtarâ*
Barf-hâ ze ân az saman-e avvalistet
keh hayi dar shakk yaqini nistet
Vin `ajab zannast dar to ay mohin
keh na-mi parad be-bostân-e yaqin
Har gomân teshneh-ye yaqin ast ay pesar
mi zanad andar tazâyod bâl o par
Chon resad dar `elm pas par pâ shavad
mar yaqin-râ `elm-e u buya shavad
Zânke hast andar Tariq-e moftatan
`elm kamtar az yaqin va fawq-e zann
`Elm juyâ-ye yaqin bâshad be-dân
vân yaqin juyâ-ye didast va `iyân

*al-Tawbah, 111

-- Mathnawi III: 4115-4121
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
(Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra)

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[Sunlight] This marvelous opinion