You have heard this from your father and mother, so you are inevitably unaware and entangled in this.
If you become aware of this without imitation, you will become a signless voice of grace.
Listen to this story as a warning, so you may know the calamity of imitation.
The selling of a traveler's donkey by the dervishes for the sake of a feast.
A dervish arrived at the monastery from the road, took his mount, and tied it at the end.
He gave it water and fed it with his own hands, unlike the dervish we mentioned before.
He took precautions against error and folly, but when fate comes, what use is caution?
The dervishes were hungry and poor, poverty almost leads to destructive disbelief.
O wealthy one, do not laugh at the crookedness of that suffering poor man.
Due to the negligence of that dervish, they all began selling the donkey.
Out of necessity, carrion is permissible; much corruption has become good out of necessity.
At that moment, they sold the little donkey, brought food, and lit candles.
A commotion arose in the monastery; tonight there is food, music, and greed.
How long will this patience and these three days last? How long will this basket and begging last?
We are also people and have souls; tonight we have the fortune of a guest.
They were sowing the seeds of falsehood because they considered that which is not a soul to be a soul.
And that traveler, too, weary from the long road, saw that welcome and grace.
The dervishes entertained him one by one, playing the game of pleasant service.
Seeing their inclination towards him, he said, "If I don't rejoice tonight, when will I?"
They ate the food and began the music; the monastery was filled with smoke and dust up to the ceiling.
The smoke of the kitchen and the dust from the stamping feet, from the longing and ecstasy of the soul's turmoil.
Sometimes they clapped their hands and stamped their feet, sometimes they swept the floor with their prostrations.
The dervish rarely finds relief from the world, hence the dervish is often despised.
Except for that dervish who, from the light of God, eats his fill and is free from the shame of hunger.
Out of thousands, only a few are such dervishes; the rest live in his fortune.
When the music began from the start to the end, the musician started a heavy beat.
The donkey is gone, the donkey is gone, he began, sharing this heat with everyone.
From this heat, they danced until dawn, clapping hands, "The donkey is gone, the donkey is gone, O son."
By imitation, that dervish did the same, starting "The donkey is gone" in his lament.
When that joy and excitement and music passed, it became day, and they all said farewell.
The monastery emptied, and the dervish remained, shaking the dust from the traveler's belongings.
He brought his belongings out of the room to load them onto the donkey and join his companions.
He hurried to reach his companions, went to the end, and did not find his donkey.
He said, "The servant has taken it to water, because the donkey drank less water last night."
The servant came and said, "Dervish, where is the donkey?" The servant said, "Look at the beard, a fight arose."
He said, "I entrusted the donkey to you, I appointed you over the donkey."
"I want back what I gave you, return what I sent to you."
"Argue with justification, do not bring excuses, return what I entrusted to you."
The Prophet said, "Whatever your hand takes, in the end, it must be returned."
"If you are not satisfied with this rebellion, here I am, and you, at the house of the judge of religion."
He said, "I was overwhelmed by the dervishes, they attacked, and I feared for my life."
He said, "Suppose they took it from you unjustly, they intended to shed my poor blood."
"Why didn't you come and tell me, 'They are taking your donkey, O destitute one'?"
"So I could reclaim the donkey from whoever had it, or else they would distribute my money."
"There were a hundred remedies when they were present, now each has gone to a different region."
"Whom should I seize, whom should I take to the judge? This fate came upon me from you."
"Why didn't you come and tell me, O stranger, such a terrible injustice has occurred?"
He said, "By God, I came many times to inform you of these matters."
"You kept saying, 'The donkey is gone, O son,' more joyfully than all the speakers."
"I would return, thinking he is aware of this fate, satisfied with it, a knowledgeable man."
He said, "Everyone was saying it joyfully, and I too found pleasure in saying it."
"Their imitation led me astray, may two hundred curses be upon that imitation."
"Especially the imitation of such fruitless ones, the wrath of Abraham with the setting ones."
"The reflection of that group's joy was striking, and my heart was becoming joyful from that reflection."
"Reflect as much as you need from good friends, so you may draw water from the sea without reflection."
"The first reflection that struck you, consider it imitation, when it becomes continuous, it becomes realization."
"Until it becomes realization, do not leave your friends, do not separate from the shell until that drop becomes a pearl."
"If you want clarity for your eyes, mind, and hearing, tear away the veils of greed."
"Because that dervish's imitation was out of greed, it closed his mind from light and brilliance."
"The greed for food and the greed for that joy and music prevented his mind from awareness."
"If greed rises in the mirror, in hypocrisy, that mirror becomes like yogurt."
"If the scale had greed for wealth, how could it speak the truth about the state?"
"Every prophet said to his people with purity, 'I do not want a reward for the message from you.'"
"I am a guide, God is your buyer, God gave me the brokerage of both worlds."
"What is the reward for my work? The sight of the beloved, even if Abu Bakr gives forty thousand."