[Sunlight] Your friends are really your enemies

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Your friends are really your enemies
as much as they keep you occupied with them
and take you away from the Presence.
There is an animal called a porcupine
which is made strong and big by the blows of the stick.
The more you beat it, the more it thrives.
Surely the true believer's soul is a porcupine,
for the blows of tribulation strengthen it.
For this reason, the trials and humiliation
laid upon the prophets is greater
than that laid upon all other creatures,
so that their souls become steadier than other souls;
for no other people have suffered such affliction.
The hide is burned by the treatment,
but it becomes supple like the leather of Ta'if;
and if the tanner didn't rub acid solution into it,
it would only become fetid and repulsive.

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Dar haqiqat dustânet doshmanand
keh ze Hazrat dur o mashghulet konand
Hast hayavâni keh nâmesh oshghorast
u be-zakhm-e chub zaft o lamtorast
Tâ keh chubesh mi zani beh mi shavad
u ze zakhm-e chub farbeh mi shavad
Nafs-e mo'men oshghori âmad yaqin
ku be-zakhm-e ranj zaftast o samin
Zin sabab bar anbiyâ ranj o shekast
az hameh khalq-e jahân afzuntarast
Tâ ze jân-hâ jâneshân shod zafttar
keh na-didand ân balâ qawm-e degar
Pust az dâru balâ-kash mi shavad
chon adim-e Tâyefi khvosh mi shavad
Var nah talkh o tiz mâlidi daru
gandeh gashti nâ-khvosh o nâ-pâk bu

-- Mathnawi IV: 96-103
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra

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[Sunlight] Your friends are really your enemies