Imagine this for your Instruction

Peace, one and all…

‘When Satan said, ‘You led me into sin’,
the vicious demon hid his shameful deed.

But Adam said, ‘O Lord we’ve wronged ourselves’.
He was not blind, as we are, to God’s action.

Respectfully he hid it in the sin;
with sin upon his head he ate the fruit.

When he repented, God addressed him: ‘Adam!
Have I created sin and toil in you?

Was that not My decree and My command?
Why did you hide it at the time of pardon?’

‘I was reluctant to forgo respect’.
He said, ‘I’ve shown the same regard for you’.

For he who shows respect shall have it shown him,
and he who brings the sugar eats sweet cake.

For whom are ‘the good women’ meant?  For
‘good men’.
Be good to friends; annoy them at your peril!

Dear heart, imagine this for your instruction:
know how compulsion differs from free will’.

(Mevlana, Masnavi 1.1498-1506, trans. A. Williams)