For behold there are two who are pilgrims who journey to Mecca
That their pouches are filled with dates and they have with them
the belly of the sheep filled with fresh curds,
So that they need wasteth not, nor hunger upon the wayside.

And so it is they came upon the beggar who sitteth beside the way;
That he crieth for alms in the name of Allah
And there is the one pilgrim who thinketh thusly,
“should I give him of my curds and dates,
then surely I shall become hungry by the wayside.”
And that he hastens on and tarries not.

Yea, the second pilgrim harkens unto the beggar and sitteth beside him
And gives him of the curds and dates from his pouch,
So that as they both partake, so they are nourished.

Yea it is, that the first pilgrim finding himself weary,
so that he must pause by the wayside,
And as he opens his pouch he finds that the worms have eaten his dates,
And that his curds have become more bitter than the wine left to air.
So wherefore it is, the second pilgrim who attaineth Mecca
And that the first pilgrim has surely perished.

Wherefore it is with all manner of man,
that they shareth not of the things that they are,
For surely then they shall be eaten by the worms of desire ~
And that their minds and hearts are filled with
more bitterness than of the curds of wine.
Verily, that as man shareth ~ so he is preserved by the smallness of himself ~
With the largeness of God.
For that he who shareth not, is neither preserved nor uplifted.

Excerpt from The Anthenium