O God! If I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell. If I worship You in hope of Paradise, forbid Paradise to me. If I worship You for Your own sake, do not withhold from me Your everlasting beauty.
خداوندا! اگر تو را از بیم دوزخ میپرستم در دوزخم بسوز، و اگر به امید بهشت میپرستم، بر من حرام گردان. و اگر برای تو تو را میپرستیم، جمال باقی دریغ مدار.
Farid al-Din Attar, Tadhkirat al-Awliya, the section "Remembrance of Rabia al-Adawiyya".
Work done out of fear belongs to fear.
Work done for reward, to reward.
Rabia clears both from the table.
Burn me, she says.
Deprive me.
A single question remains:
If you were to receive nothing,
would you still love?
People shy away from asking themselves this.
They do not want to hear the answer.
Where the accounting ends,
love only begins.