Cut the Gordian knot
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Cut the Gordian knot,
And capture thy jewel;
Be of courage, be united,
Have a spirit free.
The ascetic fakir,
Clad only in rags,
Is mightier in power,
Than kings that rule the earth.
Farabi had a mind;
Rumi had a soul;
One ended in astonishment,
The other in absorption.
Choose the cunning of reason,
Or love and the help of God;
Either the guile of the West,
Or the valour of the Turk—,
Either a Muslim’s path,
Or servitude to the idols;
And a cry of passionate faith,
In Kaaba or the temple.
Whether a king or a fakir,
A master or a slave,
What thou needst most,
Is courage with abandon.