The Tale of the Journey to Abyssinia

I arrived a stranger in the land of Abyssinia, my heart free of the world, my mind at ease with simple pleasures. Along the road I saw a raised platform, and a few wretched men chained by the foot to it. I made ready for the journey within myself, and set out across the desert like a bird freed from its cage. Someone said: these prisoners are night thieves; they take no advice and will not hear the truth. If your hand has done no wrong to anyone, why fear even if the whole world's police seize you? The honest official who lets no fraud slip in fears no reckoning from the tax collectors. But if your honesty hides deceit beneath it, when the accounting comes your tongue loses its courage. No one takes a person of good name as prisoner; fear God, and do not fear the ruler. When I do my service well and faithfully, I have no worry about a wrong-minded enemy. If a servant strives as a servant should, his master will hold him dear. But if he grows lazy in his service, he falls from a station of trust down to tending donkeys. Step forward, even if you must pass beyond the angels; for if you fall short, you are lower than a wild beast.