[Sunlight] Conventional, borrowed knowledge

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Knowledge is conventional and borrowed
when its owner is annoyed
by people who aren't fascinated by it.
Since it was learned as a bait for popularity,
and not for enlightenment,
the seeker of religious knowledge
is no better than the seeker of worldly knowledge.
He seeks to please the vulgar and the noble,
rather than to attain freedom from this world.
Like a mouse he has burrowed in every direction;
afraid of the light, he prefers to work in the darkness.

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`Elm-e taqlidi o ta`limist ân
kaz nofur mostame` dârad faghân
Chon pay-e dâneh nah be-har rawshanist
hamcho tâleb-e `elm donyâ-ye danist
Tâleb-e `elm ast be-har `amm o khâss
ni keh tâ bâyad azin `âlem-e khalâs
Hamcho mushi har taraf surâkh kard
chonke nuresh rând az dar goft bord

-- Mathnawi II:2429-2433
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Daylight"
Threshold Books, 1994
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra

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[Sunlight] Conventional, borrowed knowledge