ABSTRACT
Balahvar said: ‘Seekers after worldly bliss, however envious and hostile they may be to one another, yet confine their enmity to transitory matters. Towards the believers who serve Christ Our God, however, they behave like dogs of various hues, gathered together from divers places and crowding round some carrion and biting at each other. But as soon as they catch sight of a wayfarer passing by, they stop snapping at each other and all with one accord co-operate in attacking him, for they imagine this man to be coming along with designs on their carrion. This idea of theirs arises from their greed and gluttony. As soon as they notice that man’s alien presence among them, they make common cause against him, although they were previously at enmity; and they fail to realise that this carrion of theirs is quite valueless to him.
