Sacred-Texts Islam
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'The weeping of the sinner ought to be as that of a father who weepeth over his son nigh to death. Oh madness of man, that weepest over the body from which the soul is departed, and weepest not over the soul from which, through sin, is departed the mercy of God!
'Tell me, if the mariner, when his ship hath been wrecked by a storm, could by weeping recover all that he had lost, what would he do? It is certain that he would weep bitterly. But I say unto you verily, that in every thing wherein a man weepeth he sinneth, save only when he weepeth for his sin. For every misery that cometh to man cometh to him from God for his salvation, so that he ought to rejoice thereat. But sin cometh from the devil for the damnation of man, and at that man is not sad. Assuredly here ye can perceive that man seeketh loss and not profit.'
Said Bartholomew: 'Lord, what shall he do who cannot weep for that his heart is a stranger to weeping?' Jesus answered: 'Not all those who shed tears weep, O Bartholomew. As God liveth, there are found men from whose eyes no tear hath ever fallen, and they have wept more than a thousand of those who shed tears. The weeping of a sinner is a consumption of earthly affection by vehemence of sorrow. Insomuch that just as the sunshine preserveth from putrefaction what is placed uppermost, even so this consumption preserveth the soul from sin. If God should grant tears to the true penitent as many as the sea hath waters he would desire far more and so this desire consumeth that little drop that he fain would shed, as a blazing furnace consumeth a drop of water. But they who readily burst into weeping are like the horse that goeth the faster the more lightly he is laden.'