English
Chapter Three, On Chastity: The Chosen Doctrine
Our companions declare: the ancients made a shameful blunder in this matter and squandered their precious lives in error and ignorance. Whoever practices that old way of restraint gets no benefit from being alive. In scripture it is written: '...the life of this world is only play and amusement and adornment, and boasting among yourselves, and rivalry in wealth and children...' and they interpret its meaning to be that the whole point of worldly life is play, amusement, finery, showing off, piling up money, and outbreeding others.
They say that amusement and play without vice and the instruments of forbidden pleasure are impossible, and that gathering wealth without hurting people, without oppression and slander and running one's tongue over others' honor, cannot be done. So inevitably anyone who practices chastity is deprived of all this, cannot be counted among the living, and his life is pointless. And they take this from the verse: 'Did you think We created you in vain, and that you would not be returned to Us?' What idiocy it is when a man finds himself alone with a moon-faced beauty and does not enjoy her life-giving embrace, saying 'I am pure of skirt,' until he is stricken with the brand of deprivation, and perhaps such a chance never comes again in his whole life, so he dies of grief muttering 'Wasting an opportunity is a lasting sorrow.' The one they once called chaste and pure and self-restrained is now called a jackass, a fool, and a cold-hearted dolt.
They say: the eye and ear and tongue and the other organs were created to draw in benefit and ward off harm, and to forbid any organ its natural function, the very reason it was made, is to void that organ. Since voiding an organ is not permissible, everyone should see with the eye whatever pleases it, hear with the ear whatever pleases it, and speak with the tongue whatever serves his interests, be it filth, injury, slander, flattery, foul insult, or false testimony. If this harms another or ruins another's household, pay it no mind, and keep your heart easy about it: do and say whatever pleases you; screw anyone your heart desires without hesitation, so that your life does not go to waste.
As long as you can, seek a charming, heart-stealing lover;
seek a mistress who is quick and sweet and lovely.
Once you have found her, give her not a breath's respite;
have her, let her go, and go seeking another.
They say: if a teacher or a friend has an appetite to take pleasure from this person, he should give in without delay or hesitation and by no means refuse, for 'opportunity passes like a drifting cloud.'
Do not leave today's work for tomorrow;
who knows what the times will bring by then.
And he should not let refusal cross his mind, for 'refusal is unbelief,' and he should count it a complete windfall. For it is plain to see that whoever, man or woman, never yielded to sex remained forever wretched and downtrodden, scorched by the brand of deprivation and abandonment. And it has been proven by decisive arguments that from the time of Adam the Chosen until now, no one who refused this ever became a prince, a vizier, a champion, an army-breaker, a warrior, a rich man, a man of fortune, a sheikh, a preacher, or a herald. Proof of this claim: the Sufis call yielding to it 'the ailment of the masters.' And in the chronicles it is written that Rostam son of Zal won all his fame and glory by yielding. As they have said:
When the mighty champion loosened his waistband,
the noble hero came down onto his knees.
Human raised his shaft like a rising smoke,
just as Piran had ordered him to do.
He drove so hard into Rostam that Rostam
was set ablaze by the blow.
Then it was Human's turn to go beneath,
while the champion rose like a bold lion.
He rammed him with such a mighty stroke
that Human was torn to pieces.
So two sword-wielders were both taken from behind,
and both were reckoned among the chosen heroes.
You too, my brother, when you grow strong,
would do well to heed my words.
Lie down and lift yourself up to be taken,
and put your talents on full display.
So that everyone who comes may have you,
and your heart may find its ease in what it takes.
'Since the world stays firm for no one,
better that goodness be left behind as one's legacy.'
And they have also said:
Know that eternal bliss lies in coupling,
yet only the one who gives carries off the prize of bliss.
Truly our elders speak these words from experience, and the right is on their side. For it has become clear that keeping one's rear intact brings no blessing. A man should both give and take, for the order of things rests on give and take; only then can he be called great and 'noble on both ends,' and if his father and mother did the same, he may be addressed as 'well-born on both sides.' And though some of the common folk mock, saying that yielding is a backwards generosity and a chivalry from the rear end, their words carry no weight, and they fail to grasp that 'generosity with one's own self is the highest kind of generosity.' Whoever, out of ill fortune, misses the chance to give has lost the key to good fortune and will remain forever in humiliation and misery. A poet has said of such a man:
Let him bite the back of his hand in regret:
an oven this hot, and he baked no bread in it.
For the fortunate soul who is ready to accept counsel, this much on the subject is enough. May God grant everyone the grace to do good.