The Question

In expressing that everyone knows God's grace and wrath, and all flee from His wrath and cling to His grace, yet God hides wrath in grace and grace in wrath, a reverse game and the deception of God, so that those who discern and see with God's light are separated from those who see only appearances, to test which of you is best in deeds.

A dervish said to another dervish, "When you saw the presence of God, tell me."  
He replied, "I saw without condition, but for the sake of speech, I will briefly give an example."  
"I saw on His left a fiery blaze, and on His right a stream of abundance.  
To His left, a world-burning fire, and to His right, a pleasant stream.  
To that fire, a group reached out, and to that stream, a group was joyful and intoxicated.  
But the game was reversed, hard before the feet of every wretched and fortunate one.  
Whoever went into the fire and sparks, emerged from the water.  
Whoever went towards the water, found themselves in the fire instantly.  
Whoever went to the right and the clear water, emerged from the fire on the left.  
And whoever went to the fiery left, emerged from the right.  
Few understood this hidden matter, thus few entered that fire.  
Except for those upon whom fortune poured, who left the water and fled into the fire.  
The taste of the present has become the idol of the people, thus they are deceived by this game.  
In groups, they flee from the fire in haste towards the water.  
Thus, they emerged from the fire, heedless of the lesson.  
The fire cried out, "O foolish ones, I am not fire, I am the spring of acceptance.  
They have blinded you, O sightless ones, come into me and do not flee from the sparks.  
O friend, here there is no flame or smoke, only the magic and deceit of Nimrod.  
If you are wise like God's friend, the fire is water to you, and you are the moth.  
The moth's soul cries out, 'Alas, if only I had a hundred thousand wings.'  
So it burns in the fire without respite, blinding the eyes and hearts of the unworthy.  
The ignorant may pity me out of foolishness, but I pity them out of insight.  
Especially this fire, which is the soul of the waters, the moth's work is the opposite of ours.  
It sees the light and goes into the fire, the heart sees the fire and becomes light.  
Such is the game from the Glorious Lord, to see who is of the family of the friend.  
They have given the fire the form of water, and opened a spring within the fire.  
A magician, with skill, fills a brass plate with worms in a gathering.  
He shows the house full of scorpions, by the breath of magic, though they are not scorpions.  
When a magician shows a hundred such things, how is the trick of the creator of magic?  
Thus, from the magic of God, century after century, they fell like a woman under a burden.  
Their magicians were their servants and slaves, they fell like a sparrow into a trap.  
I am not Pharaoh to go to the Nile, I go to the fire like the friend.  
It is not fire, it is the clear water, and the other is the deceit of fiery water.  
Thus, the blessed messenger rightly said, 'A grain of your intellect is better than fasting and prayer.'  
For your intellect is the essence, and these two are attributes, these two are obligatory for its perfection."