How the donkey of a scholar slips into mud

The great scholar Abdullah Ibn al-Mubarak used to rebuke the scholars who were found at the doors of the Rulers as more often than not, who sold their religion and their knowledge for mere temporary gain, honor or praise. He would also see it to be unbefitting when a scholar accepted a position of authority from the Rulers as this could also lead to the scholar's downfall and demise in this world. One example of this is when it was said to Ibn al-Mubarak, that 'Isma'il ibn ‘Aliya has been made a Judge.' So Ibn al-Mubarak wrote to him the following lines of poetry: 

يا جاعل العلم له بازيا *** يصطاد أموال المساآين

O you who made his knowledge to be a falcon

With which he seizes the wealth of the poor!

احتلت للدنيا ولذاتها *** بحيلة تذهب بالدين

You have taken on the world and its delights

With a scheme that does away with religion!

فصرت مجنونا بها بعدما *** آنت دواء للمجانين

And so you have become a mad one

After having being a cure for the mad ones

أين رواياتك في سردها *** عن ابن عون وابن سيرين

Where are your recorded narrations

From Ibn 'Awn and Ibn Sireen?

أين رواياتك فيما مضى *** في ترك أبواب السلاطين

Where are your narrations in the past

About abandoning the doors of the Rulers?

إن قلت أآرهت فما هكذا *** زل حمار الشيخ في الطين

If you say that you've been forced (into judgment)

Then that's not how the donkey of a scholar slips into mud

Source: The biography of Abdullah Ibn al-Mubarak compiled by Farhiya Yahya