Hadıqatu’ l-Haqıqat Or The Enclosed Garden Of The Truth
THE
FIRST BOOK
OF
THE
HADIQATU’
L-HAQIQAT
OR
THE
ENCLOSED
GARDEN OF THE TRUTH
OF
THE
HAKIM
ABU’ L-MAJD MAJDUD SANA’I OF GHAZNA.
EDITED
AND TRANSLATED BY
MAJOR
J. STEPHENSON,
Indian
Medical Service ; Member of the Royal Asiatic Society, and of the Asiatic Society
of Bengal.
CALCUTTA :
PRINTED AT THE BAPTIST MISSION PRESS.
1910.
Sana’i’s Preface.
The author’s Preface to the work, given in A and L. and occupying
in the latter nearly thirteen closely printed pages, is here giv^n in abstract.
It was not, as will appear, written specially as an introduction to the Hadiqa, but
to his collected works.
After an opening section in praise of God, the author
introduces the tradition, “ When a son of Adam dies, his activity
ceases, except in three things ; a permanent bequest, and knowledge by which
men arebenefited, and pious sons who invoke blessings on him after his death.''
’ Considering these words one day, and reflecting that none of the
three condition was applicable to himself, he became sorrowful, and continued
for some time in a state of grief and depression. One day while in this
condition, he was visited by his friend Ahmad b. Mas'ud, who inquired the cause
of his sorrow. The author told him that, not fulfilling any one of the above
conditions, he was afraid to die ; possessing not one of these three advocates
at court, he would stand without possessions or adornment in the Presence of
the Unity. His friend then began to comfort him, saying, First
let me tell you a story.” Sana’! replied, Do so.”
Ahmad b. Mas‘ud then related how one day a company of women
wished to have audience with Fatima, Muhammad’s daughter. Muhammad gave
permission ; but Fatima, weeping, said, Father, • how long is it since I have had even
a little shawl for my head ? and that mantle that I had pieced together in so
many places with date-leaves is in pledge with Simeon the Jew. How can I
receive them ?” But Muhammad said, There is no help ; you must
go.” Fatima went ashamed to the interview, and came back in sorrow to her father
; who was comforting her when the rustle of Gabriel’s wings was heard. Gabriel
looked at Fatima and asked, What is this sorrow ? Ask the women,
then, what garments they had on, and what thou.” Muhammad sent a messenger to
the women, who returned, and said, “ It was so, at the time when the Mistress
of Creation bestowed beauty on that assembly, that the onlookers were astounded
; though clothed, they seemed to themselves naked ; and among themselves they
were asking Whence came this fine linen, and from which shop this embroidery ?
What skilful artificers, what nimble-fingered craftsmen ! ’ ” Fatima said, “O
my father, why didst thou not tell me, that I might have been glad ? ” He
answered, O dear one, thy beauty consisted in that which was concealed inside
thyself.”
.
By my life,” continued Abmad, such modesty was
allowable in Fatima, brought up in seclusion ; but here we have a strong and
able man of happy fortune, one who is known as a pattern to others in both
practice and theory ! Though thou hast considered thyself naked, yet they have
clothed thee in a robe from the wardrobe of Eternity. Is it proper for this
robe to be concealed, instead of being displayed for the enlightenment of
others ? ’ ’ And adverting to the saying, When a son of Adam dies,
his work is cut short, except in three things,” he takes the three one by
one. First, a con- tinuiny alms ; but ‘ Every kindness
is an alms; and it is a kindness that thou meet thy brother with a cheerful
countenance, and that thou empty thy bucket into the pots of thy brother ;
’ that is, alms does not wholly consist in spreading food before a glutton, or
giving some worthless thing to a pauper ; it is a truer alms and a more
imperishable hospitality to wear a cheerful countenance before one’s friends ;
“ and if others have the outward semblance of alms, thou hast its inward
essence ; and if they have set forth a table of food before men, thou hast set
forth a table of life before their souls ; so much for what thou sayest, ‘I am
excluded from a continuing alms ! ’ ”
Ahmad b. Mas4ud then takes up the second
point, knowledge that benefits ; and quotes, “ We take
refuge with God from knowledge which does not benefit ’ ’ and ‘
‘ Many a wise man is destroyed by his ignorance and his knowledge which
does not advantage him.” As examples of knowledge that does not
benefit he takes the science of metaphysics, a science tied by the leg to
desire and notoriety, lying under the opprobrium of ; He
who learns the science of metaphysics is a heretic, and flys in circles in the
air as well as of the saying “ A science newly born, weak in
its credentials,”—“ I have perfected it for the sake of heresy, and so
peace.” Then similarly the science of calculation, a veil which diverts
attention from the Truth, a curtain in front of the subtilties of religion; and
the science of the stars, a science of conjectures and the seed of irreligion,
for “ Whoso credits a soothsayer has become an infidel.’ ’ After
a tirade against the ordinary type of learned man, he proceeds, “ All their
falsifyings and terrorizings and imaginings and conjecturings are limited by
their own defects ; that philosophy of the law is cherished which is notorious
over all the quarters and regions of the world; there is your ‘ knowledge
that men benefit by ’ ! From earth to Pleiades who is there sees any
benefit in our doctors ?” He then tells Sana’i that he is master of a more
excellent wisdom ; “ the poets are the chiefs of speech “ the gift of
the poets comes from the piety of the parents “ verily from poetry comes
wisdom'” and will have none of such sayings as “ poetry is of
the affairs of Satan.”
As to the third part of the tradition, and pious
descendants to invoke blessings on him after his death, Ahmad says, “
The sons which suffice are thy sons ; what son born in the way of generation
and begetting is dearer than thy sons, or more honoured ? Who has ever seen
children like thine, all safe from the vicissitudes of time ? The sons of poets
are the poets’ words, as a former master has said—
‘ A learned man never desires son or wife ;
Should the offspring of both these fail, the scholar’s offspring
would not be cut off. ’
A son according to the flesh may be a defilement to a family
; but the son of intelligence and wisdom is an ornament to the household. These
sons of yours you cannot disown.”
He then asks Sana’! why he has thus become a recluse, and
indolent and languid. This languidness is indeed preferable to a total
heedlessness and forgetfulness of God, though Mutanabbi has said—
‘ ‘ I have not seen anything of the faults of men
like the failure of those who are able to reach the end.'
He asks Sana’i not to bring forward the saying, “ Laziness
is sweeter than honey,” but to bestir himself and collect and complete
his poetical works.
Sana’i tells us that he submitted himself to the advice of
his friend, but brought forward the difficulties of house and food, since the
work could not be performed friendless and homeless. Ahmad b. Mas‘ud thereupon
built him a house, gave him an allowance for his maintenance for one year, and
sent also a supply of clothing. He was therefore enabled to complete and
arrange his writings free from all care and anxiety. The preface ends with the
praise of his generous friend.
The First Book
of the Hadiqatu’= l
= Haqiqat of Sana’i.
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
Thou who nurtures! the mind, who adornest the
body, Thou who givest wisdom, who showest mercy on the foolish, Creator
and Sustainer of earth and time, Guardian and Defender of dweller and dwelling
; dwelling and dweller, all is of Thy creation ; time and earth, all is under
Thy command ; fire and wind, water and the firm ground, all are under the
control of Thy omnipotence, O Thou the Ineffable. From thy throne to earth, all
is but a particle of what Thou hast created ; the living
intelligence is Thy swift messenger. Every tongue that
moves within the mouth possesses life for the purpose of praising Thee ; Thy
great and sacred names are a proof of Thy bounty and beneficence and mercy.
Each one of them is greater than heaven and earth and angel; they are a
thousand and one, and they are ninety-nine ; each one of them is related to one
of man’s needs, but those who are not in Thy secrets are excluded
from them. Lord, of thy grace and pity admit this heart and soul to a sight of
Thy name !
Infidelity and faith, both travelling on Thy road, exclaim,
He is alone, He has no partner. The Creator,
the Bounteous, the Powerful is He ; the One, the Omnipotent,—not like unto us
is He, the Living, the Eternal, the All-knowing, the Potent, the Feeder of
creation, the Conqueror and the Pardoner. He causes movement, and
causes rest; He it is who is alone, and has no partner ; to whatever thing thou
ascribest fundamental existence, that thou assertest to be His partner ; beware
!
Our weakness is a demonstration of His perfection ; His omnipotence
is the deputy of His names. Both No and He returned
from that mansion of felicity with pocket and purse empty. What is there
above imagination, and reason, and perception, and thought, except the mind of
him who knows God ? for to a knower of God, wherever he is, in whatever state,
the throne of God is as a carpet under his shoe. The seeing soul knows praise
is folly, if given to other than the Creator ; He who from earth can create the
body, and make the wind the
register of speech, the Giver of reason, the Inspirer of hearts, who calls forth
the soul, the Creator of causes ;—generation and corruption, all
is his work ; He is the source of all creation, and the place to which it
returns ; all comes from Him and all returns to Him ; good and evil all
proceeds to Him. He creates the freewill of the good and of the wicked ; He is
the Author of the soul, the Originator of wisdom ; He from nothing created thee
something ; thou wert of no account, and He exalted thee.
No mind can reach a comprehension of His mode of being ; the reason and soul know not His perfection. The
mind of Intelligence is dazzled by His majesty, the soul’s eye is blinded
before His perfection. The Primal Intelligence is
a product of His nature,—it He admitted to a knowledge of himself. Imagination
lags before the glory of His essence ; understanding moves confined before His
nature’s mode of being. His fire, which in haughtiness He made His carpet,
burnt the wing of reason ; the soul1 is a serving-man in
His pageant, reason a novitiate in His school. What is reason in this
guest-house ? only a crooked writer of the script of God.
What of this intelligence, agitator of trifles ? What of this
changing inconstant nature ? When He shows to intelligence the road to Himself,
then only can intelligence fitly praise Him. Since Intelligence was the first
of created things, Intelligence is above all
choicest things besides ; yet Intelligence is but one word out of His
record, the soul one of the
foot-soldiers at His door. Love He perfected through a reciprocal love ; but
intelligence He tethered even by intelligence. Intelligence, like us, is
bewildered on the road to His nature, like us confounded. He is intelligence of
intelligence, 3 and soul of soul ; and what is above that, that He is. How
through the promptings of reason and soul and senses can one come to know God ?
But that God showed him the way, how could man ever have become acquainted with
Divinity ?
On The Knowledge Of
God
Of himself no one can know Him ; His
nature can only be known through Himself. Reason sought His truth,—it ran not
well; impotence hastened on His road, and knew Him. His mercy said, Know me ; otherwise who, by
reason and sense, could know Him ? How is it possible by the guidance of the
senses ? How can a nut rest firmly on the summit of a dome ? Reason will guide
thee, but
only to the door; His grace must carry thee to Himself. , Thou canst not
journey there by reason’s guidance ; perverse like others, commit not thou this
folly. His grace leads ys on the road ; His works are guide and witness to Him.
Thou, who art incompetent to know thine
own nature, how wilt thou ever know God ? Since thou art incapable of knowing
thyself, how wilt thou become a knower of the Omnipotent ? Since thou art unacquainted with the first
steps towards a knowledge of Him, how thinkest thou to conceive of Him as He is
?
In
describing Him in argument, speech is a comparison, and silence a dereliction of duty. Reason’s highest attainment on His road is
amazement; the people’s riches is their
zeal for Him. Imagination falls short of
His attributes ; understanding vainly boasts her powers ; the prophets are
confounded at these sayings, the saints stupefied at these attributes. He is
the desired and lord of reason and soul, the goal of disciple and devotee. Reason is
as a guide to His existence; all
other existences are under the foot of His existence. His acts are not bounded
by ‘ inside ’ and ‘ outside’ ; His essence is superior to ‘ how ’ and ‘ why.’
Intelligence has not reached the comprehension of His essence ; the soul and
heart of reason are dust upon this road ; reason, without the collyrium of friendship with Him, has no
knowledge of His divinity. Why dost thou instigate imagination to discuss Him ?
How shall a raw youth speak of the Eternal ?
By reason and thought and sense no living
thing can come to know God. When the
glory of His nature manifests itself to reason, it sweeps away both reason and
soul. Let reason be invested with dignity
in the rank where stands the faithful Gabriel; yet before all His majesty a
Gabriel becomes less than a sparrow through awe ; * reason arriving there bows
down her head, the soul flying there
folds her wing. The raw youth discusses the Eternal only in the light of his
shallow sense and wicked soul; shall thy nature, journeying towards the majesty
and glory of His essence, attain to a knowledge of Him ?
On The
Assertion Of The Unity
He is One,
and number has no place in Him ; He is Absolute, and dependence is far
removed from Him ; not that One which reason and understanding can know, not
that Absolute which sense and imagination can recognise. He is not multitude,
nor paucity one multiplied by one remains one. In
duality is only evil and error ; rh singleness is never any fault.
While multitude
and confusion remain in thy heart, say thou 1 One ’ or ‘
Two,’—what matter, for both are the same. Thou, the devil’s pasture, know for
certain what, and how much, and why, and how ! Have a care ! His greatness
comes not from multitude ; His essence is above number and quality ; the weak
searcher may not ask ‘ Is it ’ or ‘ Who * concerning
Him. No one has uttered the attributes of the Creator, HE,—quantity, quality,
why, or what, who, and where. His hand is power, His face eternity ; ‘ to come
’ is His wisdom/ the descent ’ His gift; His
two feet are the majesty of vengeance and dignity, His two fingers are the
effective power of His command and will. All existences
are subject to His omnipotence ; all are present to Him, all seek Him ; the
motion of light is towards light—how
can light be separated from the sun ?
In comparison
with His existence eternity began but the day before yesterday ; it came at
dawn, but yet came late. . How can His working be bounded
by eternity ? Eternity without beginning is a houseborn slave of his ; and
think not nor imagine that eternity without end (is more), for eternity without
end is like to eternity without beginning.
How shall He
have a place, in size greater or smaller ? for place itself has no
place. How shall there be a place for the Creator of place, a heaven for the
Maker of heaven himself ? Place cannot attain to Him, nor time ; narration can
give no information of Him, nor observation. Not through columns is His state
durable ; His nature’s being has its place in no habitation.
O thou, who
art in bondage to form and delineation, bound by ‘ He sat upon
the throne’; form exists not apart from
contingencies, and accords not with the majesty of the Eternal. Inasmuch as He
was sculptor, He was not image ; ‘ He sat ’ was, not throne,
nor earth. Continue calling ‘ He sat ’ from thy inmost soul,
but think not His essence is bound by dimensions ; for ‘ He sat ’ is
a verse of the Qur’an/ and to say ‘ He has no place ’ is an
article of faith. The throne is like a ring outside a door ; it
knows not the attributes of Godhead. The word ‘ speech ’ is written
in the Book ; but shape and voice and form
are far from Him ; ‘ God descends ’ is written in tradition,
but believe not thou that He comes and goes ; the throne is mentioned in order
to exalt it, the reference to the Ka‘ba is to glorify it. To
say ‘ He has no place ’ is the gist of religion
; shake thy head, for it is a fitting opportunity for
praise. They pursue Husain with enmity because ‘All spoke the word ‘ He
has no place.’
He made an
earth for His creation in this form ; behold how He has made a nest
for thee ! Yesterday the sky was not, to-day it is; again to-morrow it will not
be,—yet He remains. He will fold up the veil of smoke in
front of Him ;—‘ On a day we will fold up the heavens ; breathe
thou forth a groan. When the knowers of God live in Him, the
Eternal, they cleave ‘ behold ’ and ‘ He ’ in
two through the middle.
On God As First Cause.
The
course of time is not the mould whence issues His eternal duration, nor
temperament the cause of His beneficence ;
without His word, time and temperament exist not, as apart from His
favour the soul enters not the body. This and that6 both are wanting and worthless ; that and this both are foolish
and impotent. ‘ Old ’ and ‘ new ’ are words inapplicable to His essence ; He
is, for He consists not of any existences except Himself. His kingdom cannot be
known to its limits, His nature cannot be described even to its beginning ; His
acts and His nature are beyond instrument and direction, for His Being is above
‘ Be ’ and ‘ He ’.
Before thou wert in existence a greater than thou for thy
sake brought together the causes that went to form thee ; in one place under the heavens by the command and act of
God were the four temperaments prepared;
their gathering together is a proof of His power ; His power is the
draughtsman of His wisdom. He who laid down the plan of thee without pen can
also complete it without colours ; within thee, not in yellow and white and red
and black,1 God has pourtrayed His work ; and without thee He has designed the spheres ; of what ?—of wind and'water and
fire and earth. The heavens will not for ever leave to thee thy colours,—yellow
and black and red and white ; the
spheres take back again their gifts, but the print of God remains for ever
; He who without colours drew thy
outlines will never take back from thee thy soul. By His creative power He
brought thee under an obligation, for His grace has made thee an instrument of
expression of Himself ; He said, ‘ I was a hidden treasure ; creation was created that thou
mightest know me ; the eye like to a
precious pearl through leaf and nun He made a mouth filled with Ya Sin.
Sew no purse and tear not thy veil ; lick no plate and buy
not blandishment. All things are
contraries, but by the command of God all travel together on the same road ; in
the house of non-existence the plan of all
is laid down for all eternity by the command of the Eternal ; four essences,
through the exertion of the seven stars, become the means of bodying forth the
plan. Say, The world of evil and of
good proceeds not except from Him and to
Him, nay," is Himself. All objects receive their outline and forms from
Him, their material basis as well as their final shape. Element and material substance, the form and colours clothing the
four elements,—all things know as limited and finite, as but a ladder for thy
ascent to God. .
On Purity Of Heart.
Then, since the object of desire exists not in any place,
how canst thou purpose to journey towards Him on foot ? The highroad by which
thy spirit and prayers can travel towards God lies in the polishing of the
mirror of the heart. The mirror of the heart become not free from the rust of
infidelity and hypocrisy by opposition and hostility ; the burnisher of the
mirror is your steadfast faith ; again, what is it ? It is the unsullied purity
of your religion. To him in whose heart is no confusion the mirror and the form
imaged will not appear as the same thing ; although in form thou art in the
mirror, that which is in the mirror is not thou,—thou art one, as the mirror is
another. The mirror knows nothing of thy form ; it and thy form are very
different things ; the mirror receives the image by means of light, and light
is not to be separated from the sun ;—the fault, then, is in the mirror and the
eye.
Whoso remains for ever behind a veil, his likeness is as the
owl and the sun. If the owl is incapacitated by the sun, it is because of its
own weakness, not because of the sun ; the light of the sun is spread
throughout the world, the misfortune comes from the weakness of the bat’s eye.
Thou seest not except
by fancy and sense, for thou dost not even know the line, the surface and the
point ; thou stumblest on this road of
knowledge, and for months and years remainest tarrying in discussion ; but in
this matter he utters only folly who does not know the manifestation of God
through his incarnation in man.
If thou wishest that
the mirror should reflect the face, hold it not crooked and keep it bright ;
for the sun, though not niggardly of his light, seen in a mist looks only like
glass, and a Yusuf more beautiful than
an angel seems in a dagger to have a devil’s face. Thy dagger will not distinguish
truth from falsehood ; it will not serve thee as a mirror. Thou canst better
see thy image in the mirror of thy heart than in thy clay ; break loose from
the chain thou hast fettered thyself with,—for thou wilt be free when thou
hast got clear from thy clay ; since clay is dark and heart is bright, thy clay
is a dustbin and thy heart a rose-garden. Whatever increases the brightness of
thy heart brings nearer God’s manifestation of Himself to thee ; because Abu
Bakr’s purity of heart was greater than others’, he was favoured by a special
manifestation.
On The Blind Men And The Affair Of The Elephant
There was a
great city in the country of Ghur, in which all the people were blind. A
certain king passed by that place, bringing his army and pitching his camp on
the plain. He had a large and magnificent elephant to minister to his pomp and
excite awe, and to attack in battle. A desire arose among the people to see
this monstrous elephant, and a number of the blind, like fools, visited it, every
one running in his haste to find out its shape and form. They came, and being
without the sight of their eyes groped about it with their hands ; each of them
by touching one member obtained a notion of some one part ; each one got a
conception of an impossible object, and fully believed his fancy true. When
they returned to the people of the city,
the others gathered round them, all expectant, so misguided and deluded were
they. They asked about the appearance and shape of the elephant, and what they
told all listened to. One 9 asked him whose hand had come upon its ear about
the elephant; he said, It is a huge and formidable object, broad and rough and
spreading, like a carpet. And he whose hand had come upon its trunk said, I
have found out about it; it is straight and hollow in the middle like a pipe, a
terrible thing and an instrument of destruction. And he who had felt the thick
hard legs of the elephant said, As I have
it in mind, its form is straight like a planed pillar. Every one had
seen some one of its parts, and all had seen it wrongly. No mind knew the
whole,—knowledge is never the companion of the blind ; all, like fools
deceived, fancied absurdities.
Men know not the Divine essence ; into this subject the philo- sophers may not enter. _
On the above- Allegory.
One talks of ‘ the foot ’, the other
of ‘ the hand3, pushing beyond all limits their foolish words; that other
speaks of ‘ fingers ’ and ‘ change
of place ’ and ‘ descending ’, and of
His coming as an incarnation. Another considers in his science His ‘ settling
himself ’ and ‘ throne ’ and ‘ couch ’,
and in his folly speaks of He sat ’
and He reclined ’, making of his foolish
fancy a bell to tie round his neck. ‘ His face says
one ; ‘ His feet ’ another ; and no one says to him, ‘ Where is thy object ?’
From all this talk there comes altercation, and there results what happened in
the case of the blind men and the elephant. .
Exalted be the name of Him who is
exempt from ‘ what ’ and ‘how’ I the livers of the prophets have become blood.
Reason hamstringed by this saying ;
the sciences of the learned are folded up. All have come to acknowledge
their weakness ; woe to him who persists
in his folly ! Say, It'is allegorical ; depend not on it, and fly from foolish
conceptions. The text of the Qur’an—we believe it all ; and the traditions—we
admit the whole of them?
Of those who Heed not.
A discerning man questioned one of
the indifferent, w’hom he saw to be very foolish and thoughtless, saying, Hast
thou ever seen saffron, or hast thou only heard the name ? He said, I have it
by me, and have eaten a good deal of it, not once only, but a hundred times and
more. Said the wise and discerning man to him, Bravo, wretch! Well done, my friend ! Thou knowest
not that there is a bulb as well ! How long wilt thou wag thy beard in thy
folly ?
He who knows not his own soul, how shall he know the soul of another ?
and he who only knows hand and foot, how shall he know the Godhead ? The
prophets are unequal to understanding this matter ; why dost thou foolishly
claim to do so ? When thou hast brought
forward a demonstration of this subject, then thou wilt know the pure essence
of the faith ; otherwise what have faith
and thou in common ? thou hadst best be silent, and speak not folly. The
learned talk nonsense all; for true religion is not woven about the feet of
everyone.
On the Steps of Ascent.
Make not thy soul’s nest in hell, nor thy
mind’s lodging in deception ; wander not in the neighbourhood of foolishness
and absurdities, nor by the door of the
house of vain imagining. Abandon vain conceits, that thou mayestfind admission
to that court ; forthat mansion of eternity is for thee, and this abode of
mortality is not thy place ; for thee is that mansion of eternity
prepared,—abandon to-day, and give up thy life for to-morrow’s sake. This
world’s evil and good, its deceit and truth, are only for the ignoble among the
sons of Adam.
To a high roof the steps are many,—why art
thou contented with one step ? The first step towards it is serenity, according
to the attestation of the lord of knowledge ;
and after it thou comest to the second step,—the wisdom of life, of form
and matter.
Know thou the truth,—that there is not in
the world for the offspring of Adam a better staircase to mount the eternal
heaven by, than wisdom and work. The wisdom of life makes strong the mind for
both the upper and the lower abode ; strive thou in this path, and although
thou do not so in that, yet thou shalt
not do amiss.
Whoso sows the seed of sloth, sloth will
bring him impiety for fruit ; whoso took unto himself folly and sloth, his legs
lost their power and his work failed ; I know nothing worse than sloth ; it
turns Rustams into cowards. Thou wert created for work, and a robe of honour is
ready cut for thee ; why are thou content with tatters ? Why wilt thou not desire those striped garments
of Arabia ? Whence wilt thou get fortune and kingdom when thou art idle sixty
days a month ? Idleness in the day, and
ease at night,—thou wilt hardly reach the throne of the Sasanians. Know that
handle of club and hilt of sword are crown and throne to kings who know not the
moisture of weeping eyes ; but he who
wanders about after money and a meal
cringes ignoble and vile before a clenched fist.
Possessing knowledge, possess also
serenity like the mountain ; be not
distressed at the disasters of fortune. Knowledge without serenity is an unlighted candle, both
together are like the bee’s honey ; honey without wax typifies the noble, wax
without honey is only for burning.
Abandon this abode of generation and
corruption ; leave .the pit, and make
for thy destined home ; for on this dry- heap of dust is a mirage, and fire
appears as water. The man of pure heart unites the two worlds in one ; the
lover makes but one out of all three abodes.
On the Protection and
Guardianship of God
Whoso is fenced around by
divine aid, a spider spreads its web before him ; a lizard utters his
praise, a serpent seeks to please him. His shoe treads the summit of the
throne ; his ruby lip is the world’s in his month poison becomes sugar ; in
his hand a stone becomes a jewel? Whoso lays his head on this threshold places
his foot on the head of things temporal; wise reason is powerless to explain
these things, for all are powerless who come not to this door. I fear that
through thy ignorance and folly thou wilt one day be left helpless on
Sirafc ; thy ignorance will deliver thee to the fire ;
see how it is administering the soporific lettuce and
poppies to thee.
Thou hast seen how in the
middle of a morsel of food that one eats there will appear a grain of wheat,
which has survived the attack of locust, and bird, and beast, has seen the heat
of heaven and the glow of the oven, and remained unchanged under thy millstone.
Who preserved it ? God, God. He is a sufficient protector for thee, for
possessions and life and breath ; thou art of His creation, that is enough. If
thou procurest dog and chain thou canst overcome the antelope of the desert,
and in thy trust and sincere belief in this thou art free from anxiety as
regards a maintenance and livelihood : I say to thee,—and with reason and
judgment, so that thou mayst not shut the door of thine ear against my
words,—Thy trust in dog and chain I see is greater than in the All-hearing and
All-seeing ; the light of thy faith, if standing on this foundation, is given
over to destruction by a dog and a thing of iron.
The Parable Of Those Who
Give Alms
A certain wise and liberal
man gave away so many bags of gold before his son’s eyes that when he saw his
father’s munificence he broke forth into censure and remonstrance, saying,
Father, where is my share of this ? He
said, o son, in the treasury of God ; I have given to God thy portion, leaving
no executor and none to divide it with thee, and He will give it thee again.
He is Himself our Provider
and our Master ; shall He not suffice us, both for faith and worldly goods ? He
is no other than the disposer of our lives ; He will not oppress thee,—He
is not of those. To everyone He gives back seventy-fold ; and if He closes one
door against thee, He opens ten
On the Cause of our
Maintenance
Seest thou not that before
the beginning of thy existence God the All-wise, the Ineffable, when He had
created thee in the womb gave thee of blood thy sustenance for nine
months ? Thy mother nourished thee in her womb, then after nine months brought
thee forth ; that door of support He quickly closed on thee, and bestowed on
thee two better doors, for He then acquainted thee with the breast,—two
fountains running for thee day and night; He said, Drink of these both : eat
and welcome, for it is not forbidden thee. When after two years
she weaned thee, all became changed for thee; He gave thee thy sustenance
by means of thy two hands and feet,—‘ Take it by means of these, and by those
go where thou wilt ! ’ If He closed the two doors against thee, it is but
right, for instead of two, four doors have appeared,—‘ Take by means of these,
by those go on to victory ; go seek thy daily bread throughout the world
! ’
When suddenly there comes
on thee thy appointed time, and the things of the world all pass away, and the.
two hands and feet fail in their office, to thee in thy helpless state He
gives an exchange for these four. Hands and feet are shut up in the tomb, and
eight heavens become thy fortune ; eight doors are opened to thee, the
virgins and youths of. Paradise come before thee, that going joyfully to any
door thou wilt thou mayest lose remembrance of this world.
Youth, hear this saying, and despair not of God’s
bounty. If God has given thee knowledge of Himself and put belief within thy
heart, the robe of honour which is to thee like thy
wedding-garment He will not take from thee on the day of resurrection. If
thou hast neither learning nor gold, yet hast this, thou wilt not be destitute.
He will bring thee to glory,—thou shalt not be disgraced ; He will set thee in
honour,—thou shalt not be despised. Thy possessions,— give not thy soul to
their keeping ; what He has given thee, hold thou fast to that. Thou layest up
treasure,—thou shalt not see it again ; if thougavest it to Him, He would give
it thee again. Thou puttest gold in the fire,—it burns up the dross ; so He
burns thy pure gold ; when He has burnt out the bad, the good He gives to thee
; fortune bends down her head to thee from the skies. The more enduring
the benefit afforded by the fire, the kinder on that account is He
who kindles the fire ; thou knowest not what is good nor what bad ; He is a
better treasurer for thee than thou for thyself. A friend is a serpent ; why
seekest thou his door ? the serpent is thy friend ; why
fliest thou from it in terror ?
O seeker of the shell of
the pearl of ‘ Unless ’, lay down clothing and life on the
shore of ‘ Not ’; God’s existence
inclines only towards him who has ceased to exist ; n«m-existence is the
necessary provision for the journey. Till in annihilation thou lay aside thy
cap thou wilt
not set thy face on the road to eternal life ; when thou becomest nothing, thou
runnest towards God ; the path of mendicancy leads up to Him. If fortune
crushes thee down, the most excellent of Creators will restore
thee. Rise, and have done with false fables ; forsake thy
ignoble passions, and come hither.
Of The Right Guidance?
Every indication of the road thou receivest, o darwish,
count it a gift of God, not thine own doing ; He is the cause of the bestowal
of benefits, He it is to whom the soul is guided, and He its guide. Recognise that it is God’s
favour guides thee on the path of duty and religion and His ordinance, not
thine own strength. He is the giver of the light of truth and instruction, both
Guardian of the world and its Observer too. He is kinder than mother and father
; He it is who shall guide thee to Paradise.
.
Because of the unbelief of the people He made us our
religion ; He made us see clearly in the darkness. See the favour of God the
Guider ! for out of all creation He made man His chosen. His majesty needs not
saint nor prophet for the enlightening of male or female : for the guidance of
the six princes He made a cat a prophet/ a dog a saint. Whoso comes to Him and lends his ear,
comes not of himself, but His grace leads him ; His grace will guide thee to
the end, and then the heavens will be thy slave. Know that it is He who makes
the soul prostrate itself, as even through the sun the clouds give bounteous
rain.
[this part is
missing]
On
The Surrender Of The Self
Dost thou desire thy collar of lace to be washed, then first
give thy coat to the fuller. Strip off thy coat, for on the road to the
King’s gate there are many to tear it. At the first step that Adam took, the
wolf of affliction tore his coat : when Cain became athirst to oppress, did not
Abel give up his coat and die ? Was it not when Idris threw off his coat that he saw the door of
Paradise open to him ? When the Friend
of God remorselessly tore their garments '
from star and moon and sun, his night became bright as day, and the fire
of Nimrod became a garden and a rose-bower. Look at Solomon, who in his justice
gave the coat of his hope to the fuller ;8 jinn and men, birds and ants and
locusts, in the depth of the waters of the Red Sea, on the tips of the
branches, all raised their face to him,
all became subservient to his command ; when the lustre of his nature
had been burnt in the fire of his soul,
the heavens laid his body on the back of the wind.
When the venerable Moses, reared in sorrow, turned his face
in grief and pain towards Midian, in bodily labour he tore off the coat from
his anguished heart. For ten years he served Shu‘aib,6 till the door of the
invisible was opened to his soul. His hand became bright as his piercing eye ;
he became the crown on the head of the men of Sinai.
When the Spirit,
drawing breath from the spiritual ocean, had received the grace of the Lord, he sent his
coat to the cleanser of hearts at the first stage of his journey. He gave
brightness to his soul, He gave him
kingship, even in childhood. By the Eternal Power, through encouragement in
secret and grace made manifest, he lost the self; the leprous body became dark
again through him as the shadow on the earth, the blind eye became bright as
the steps of the throne. Whoso like him seeks neither name nor reputation, can
produce ten kinds (of food) from one jar. A stone with him became fragrant as musk ; the dead
rose to living action and spoke. By his grace life broke forth in the dead
earth of the heart; by his power he animated the heart of the mire.
When predestined fate had closed the shops, and the hand of
God’s decree lay in the hollow of non-existence, the world was full of evil passions, the
market full of ruffians and patrols. Then He sent a vicegerent into this world
to abolish oppression ; when he
appeared from mid-heaven,
fervid in soul and pure in body,
lie wore no coat on the religious path ; then what could he give to the fullers
of the land ? When he passed from this
mortal state to eternal life he became the ornament and glory of this
perishable world. [THIS PART IS MISSING]
In His Magnification
Ka[ and nun are only
letters that we write, but what is kun I the hurrying of the agent of
the divine decree. If He delays, or acts quickly, it depends not on His
weakness; whether He is angry or placable depends not on His hate. His
causation is known to neither infidelity nor faith, and neither is acquainted with
His Nature. He is pure of those attributes the foolish speak of, purer than the
wise can tell.
Reason is made
up of confusion and conjecture, both limping over the earth’s face. Conjecture
and cogitation are no good guides ; wherever conjecture and cogitation are, He
is not. Conjecture and cogitation are of His creation ; man and reason are His newly- ripening plants.
Since any affirmation about His Nature is beyond man’s province, it is like a
statement about his mother by a blind man
; the blind man knows he has
a mother, but what she is like he cannot imagine ; his imagination is without
any conception of what things are like, of ugliness and beauty, of inside and
outside.
In a world of
double aspect such as this, it would be wrong that 18 thou shouldst be He, and
He thou. If thou assert Him not, it is not well; if
thou assert Him, it is thyself thou assertest, not He. If thou know not (that
He is) thou art without religion, and if thou - assert Him thou art of those
who liken Him. Since He is beyond ‘ where ’ and ‘ when ’, how can He become a
corner of thy thought ? When the wayfarers travel towards Him, they vainly exclaim, ‘Behold, Behold! ’* Men of
hawk-like boldness are as ringdoves in the street, a collar on their necks,
uttering ‘ Where, Where ? ’
If thou wilt,
take hope, or if thou wilt, then fear ; the All-wise has created nothing in
vain. He knows all that has been done or will be done ; thou knowest not,—yet
know that He will assuage thy pain.
In the knowledge of Him is
naught better than submission, that so thou mayest learn His wisdom and His clemency.
Of His wisdom He has given resources to His creatures, the greater to him who
has the greater need ; to all He has given fitting resources, for acquiring profit and warding off injury. What
has gone, what comes, and what exists in the world, in such wise it was necessary
; bring not folly into thy conversation ; look thou with acceptance on His
decrees.
About Consecration
When He shows
His Nature to His creation, into.what mirror shall He enter ? The burden of proclaiming the Unity not everyone
bears ; the desire of proclaiming the Unity not everyone tastes. In every
dwelling is God adored ; but the Adored cannot be circumscribed by any
dwelling. The earthly man, accompanied by unbelief and anthropomorphism,
wanders from the road ; on the road of truth thou must abandon thy passions
;—rise, and forsake this vile sensual nature ; when thou hast come forth from
Abode and Life, then, through God, thou wilt see God.
How shall this
sluggish body worship Him, or how can Life and Soul know Him ? A ruby of the
mine is but a pebble there ; the soul’s wisdom talks but folly there.
Speechlessness is praise,— enough of thy speech ; babbling will be but sorrow
and harm to thee,—have done !
His Nature, to
one who knows Him and is truly learned, is above ‘ How ’ and ‘ What
’ and i Is it not’ and ‘ Why.’ His creative power is
manifest, the justice of His wisdom ; His wrath is secret, the artifice of His
majesty. A form of water and earth is dazzled by His
love, the eye and heart are blinded by His Nature. Reason in her uncleanness,
wishing to see Him, says, like Moses, ‘ Show me ’ ; when the messenger
comes forth from that glory, she says in its ear, ‘ I turn repentant
unto thee.’ Discover then
the nature of His Being through thy understanding ! recite his thousand and one pure names. It is
not fitting that His Nature should be covered by our knowledge ; whatever thou
hast heard, that is not He. ‘ Point ’ and ‘ line ’ and ‘ surface ’ in relation
to His Nature are as if one should talk of His ‘ substance ’ and ‘ distance ’
and ‘ six surfaces ’ ; the Author of those three is beyond place ; the Creator
of these three is not contained in time. No philosopher knows
of imperfection in Him, while He knows the secrets of the invisible world ; He
is acquainted with the recesses of the mind, and the secrets of which as yet
there has been formed no sketch upon thy heart.
An Old
Story
A
fool saw a camel grazing, and said, Why is thy form all crooked ? Said the
camel, In disputing thus thou censurest the sculptor ;
eware ! Look not on
my crookedness in disparagement, and kindly take the straight road away from
me. My form is thus because it is best so, as from-a bow’s being bent comes
its excellence. Begone hence with thy impertinent interference ; an ass’s ear
goes well with an ass’s head.
The arch of the
eyebrow, though it displease thee, is yet a fit- ing cupola over the eye ; by
reason of the eyebrow, the eye is able to look at the sun, and in virtue of the
bloom of its strength becomes an adornment to the face. Evil and good, in the
estimation of the wise, are both exceeding good ; from Him there comes no evil
; whatever thou seest to come from Him, though evil, it were well thou look on it all as good. To the body
there comes its portion of ease and of pain ; to the soul ease is as a treasure
secured ; but a twisted snake is over it, the hand and foot of Wisdom are at
its side.
A Representation of People Looking At You With a Squint
Eye
"The boy's debate with the father"
A squint-eyed son asked his father, O thou whose words are
as a key to the things that are locked up, why saidst thou that a squinter sees
double ? I see no more things than there are ; if a squint-eyed person counted
things crookedly, the two moons that are in the heavens would seem four.
But he who spoke thus
spoke in error ; for if a squinter looks at a dome, it is doubled.
I fear that on the
high-road of the faith thou art like the crooked- seeing squinter, or like the
fool who senselessly quarrelled with the camel because of God’s handiwork. His
flawless creation is the qibla of our understanding ; His changeless nature is
the ka'ba of our desire. He has exalted the soul in giving it wisdom ; He has
nourished His pardoning mercy on our faults. God well knows your turning to Him
; His wisdom it is which prevents His answer¬ing your prayers. Though the
physician hears his patient when he begs, he does not give earth to an
earth-eater ; and though his soul desire it, how shall He give earth through
all his life to him who digs the earth ? How shall His act be without a reason,
or His decrees in accordance with thy weak understanding ?
There are exceeding
many who have drunk the cup of pure poison
and have not died of it; nay, it is life’s food to him who from the
violence of his disease is wasted to a reed. In His wisdom and jus¬tice He has
given to all more than all that is requisite ; if the gnat bites the elephant’s hide, tell him to flap
his ears,—he has a gnat dispeller in them ; if there is a louse, thou hast
a.finger-nail; punish the flea, when it jumps on thee ; though the mountains
were full of snakes, fear not,—there are stones and an antidote on the mountain
too ; and if thou art apprehensive of the scorpion, thou hast slipper and shoe
for it. If pain abounds in the world, everyone has a 5thousand remedies.
In accordance with
his scheme He has suspended together the sphere of intense cold and the globe
of fire? The motions of the body are rendered equable, the coolness of the
brain and the warmth of the heart are both moderated ; the liver and heart, by
means of the stomach and arteries, send forth water and air to the body, that through breath
and blood the heart by its movement, and the liver by its quiescence, may give
the body life.
There is a spiritual
kingdom in the universe, and also a temporal power ; above the throne light,
and below darkness ; both these principles He bestowed at the creation, when He
spread His shadow over His handiwork. The temporal world He has given of His
bounty to the body, the spiritual world as a glory to the soul; that so both
inner and outer man may receive food, the body from the lord of this world, the
soul from the Lord of the spirit-world ; for through all His creation God keeps
a benign grace for the benefit of the noble soul.
The acute thinker knows that what He does is
well ; it is thou who namest some things evil and some good, otherwise all that comes from Him is pure kindness.
Evil comes not into existence from Him ; how can evil subsist with Godhead ?
Only the foolish and ignorant do evil; the Doer of good Himself does no evil.
If He gives poison, deem it sweet; if He shows wrath, deem it mercy.
Good is the cupping-glass our mothers apply to
us, and good too the dates they give.
Again The Parable Of Those Who Heed Not.
Dost thou not see how the nurse in the earliest days of its
child hood sometimes ties the little one in its cradle, and at times is ever
laying it on her bosom ; sometimes strikes it hard and sometimes soothes it ;
sometimes puts it away from her and repels it, sometimes kindly kisses its
cheek and again caresses it and bears its grief ?
A stranger is angry with the nurse when he
sees this, and sighs ; he says to it, The nurse is not kind, the child is of
little account with her. How shouldst thou know that the nurse is right ? Such
is always the condition of her work.
God too, according to
his compact, performs his whole duty towards his slave ; He gives the daily
food that is required, sometimes disappointment, sometimes victory; sometimes
He sets a jewelled crown upon his head, sometimes He leaves him needy with only
a copper.
Be thou contented
with God’s ordinance ; or if not, then cry
aloud and complain before the Qazi, that he may release thee from His
decree! A fool is he who thinks thus! Whatever it is,— whether misfortune or
prosperity,—it is an unmixed blessing, and the evil only transitory. He who
brings the world into being with ‘ Be, and it was,’—how, how shall He do evil
to the creatures of the world ? Good and evil exist not in the world of the
Word; the names ‘ good ’ and ‘ evil ’
belong to thee and to me. When God
created the regions of the earth He created no absolute evil; death is
destruction for this one, but wealth for that; poison is food to this, and
death to that.
If the face of the
mirror were black like its back, no one would look at it; the usefulness
belongs to the face of the mirror, even though its back be stuffed with jewels.
The bright-faced sun is good, be its
back black or white ; if the peacock’s foot were like its feathers, it would shine splendid both
by night and day.
On
The Proverbs And Admonitions ‘ Poverty Is Blackness Of The Face ’ (The Recital
Of Proverbs Is The Best Of Discourses) And ‘ The World Is A House Of Departure
And Changing Affairs And Migration.’
Keep thy
blackness, thou canst not do without it ; for blackness admits no change of
colour. With blackness of face there goes happiness ; a blushing face seldom
causes joy. The scorched pursuer is black of face before the flame of his
heart’s desire ; though in tribulation, the ugly Ethiopian finds
gladness in his blackness of face; his gladness comes not from his beauty, his
happiness comes from his sweet odour? Brighter than the splendour of the new
moon is the display of the moon of Bilal’s shoe ; if thou dost not wish thy heart’s secret
known, keep thy blackness of face in both worlds, since for him who seeks his desire, day tears the
veil and night spreads it.
Withhold thy
hand from these vain lusts ; know, desire is poison, and the belly as a snake;
the serpent of desire, if it bite thee, will soon despatch thee from the world.
For in this path in evil there is
good; the water of life is in the midst of darkness. What sorrow has the heart
from blackness ? For night is pregnant with day, and the men who are now
imprisoned without food or drink in this old ruin throw aside all instruction
when they march proudly in the
garden of God.
Everything except God, all that is of earth, is aside from
the path of the true faith. Loss of self is the hidden goal of all; the re¬fuge
of the pure soul is with the Word.
O thou, who hast rolled up the carpet of time,
who hast passed beyond the four and the nine, pass at one step beyond life and reason, that
so thou mayst arrive at God’s command. Thou canst not see, forasmuch as thou
art blind at night; and in the day too hast but one eye, like the wisdom of
fools. I do not speak to thee with wink and nod, but in God’s way, with mystical significations
and allegories.
Till thou pass
beyond the false, God is not there ; the perfect truth
belongs not to this half-display. Know, that as provision for the journey to
the eternal world, la khair is your strength and la shai your
gold ; la khair is the strength of the rich,
as la shai is the wisdom of the wine-drinkers.
On The Need Of God, And Independence Of All Beside
Hem.
He is wholly independent of me and thee in his plans; what matters infidelity or faith to His
Independence ? What matters that or
this to His Perfection ? Know that God exists in real exist¬ence ; in pursuance
of His decree and just designs, the Independent seeks thy favours, the Guardian
gives thee thanks.
The wolf and Yusuf
appear to thee to be small and great ;
but with Him, Yusuf and wolf are the same. What, to His Mercy, matters opposition or help ? What, to His
Wrath, are Moses and Pharaoh
Thy service or thy
rebellion are an honour or a shame to thee, but with Him the colour of both is
the same. What honour has He from Reason, or from the lightning, what greatness
from the soul, or the sky ? The soul and the heavens are His creatures. Happy
the man who is chosen of Him.
The heavens and He
who causes them to revolve are as the mill stone and the miller ; the supreme
Disposer and the obedient Rea¬son are as the carver’s self and the matter he
shapes. The motion of the restless heavens and of the earth is as it were an
ant in the mouth of a dragon ; the dragon does not swallow the ant, and the
revolution of the unconscious heavens sweeps on. He has imposed its task upon
the mill-wheel of misfortune, itself unmindful and closed round by
annihilation. Think of thy life as an
atom in His time, His banquet as
accompanied by His affliction planation again.
Thou knowest that thy
goblet has four feet* for movement; yet
though thou be persevering in His service thou wilt not reach His path. but by
His grace. When will the slave who wishes to attain to God reach Him by means
of reason, or by hand and foot ? When
will he attain to God, who in his own body attains (only to the recognition of)
his hands and feet ?
On Self-Abasement And Humility.
Lowliness befits thee,
violence suits thee not; a naked man frantic in a bee-house is out of place.
Leave aside thy strength, betake
thyself to lowliness, that so thou mayest trample the heights of heaven beneath
thy feet ; for God knows that, rightly seen, thy strength is a lie, and thy
lowliness truth. If thou layest claim to strength and wealth, thou hast a blind eye and
a deaf ear. Thy face and thy gold are red, thy coat is of many colours,—then look to find
thy honour disgrace, thy peace strife. Come not to God’s door in the dust of
thy strength, for in this road it is through lowliness that thou becomest a
hero. This comes not of discharging thy debt, but from bartering thy indigence.'
Look
not on His Omnipotence with thy impotent eye ; O my master, commit not such an
outrage.
So
long as thou art thy own support, clothe thyself, and eat; but if thou art
upheld by Him, thou shalt neither sew nor tear? All that exists, friend, exists through Him ; thine own
existence is as a pretence,—speak not folly. If thou lose thyself, thy dust
becomes a mosque ; if thou hold to thyself, a fire-temple : if thou hold to thyself, thy heart is hell; if
thou lose thyself, heaven. If thou lose thyself, all things are accomplished
; thy selfiulness is an untrained colt. Thou art thou,—hence
spring love and hate ; thou art thou,—hence spring infidelity and faith. Remain a slave, without lot or portion ; for
an angel is neither hungry nor full. Fear and hope have driven away fortune
from thee ; when thy self has gone, hope and fear are no more. .
The
owl that frequents the palace of the king is a bird of ill- omen, ill-fated and
guilty : when it is contented in its solitude, its feathers are finer than the splendour of the
phoenix. Musk is spoilt by water and by fire ; but to the musk-bladder what
matters wet or dry ? What
matters, at His door, a Muslim or a fire-worshipper? What, before him, a
fire-temple or a monk’s cell ? Fire-worshipper and Christian, virtuous and
guilty, all are seekers, and He the sought.
God’s
essence is independent of cause ; why seekest thou now a place
for cause ? The sun of religion comes not forth by instruction ; the moon goes
down when the light of the truth shines out. If the holy man is good, it is well for
him ; if the king is bad, what is that to us ? To be saved, do thou thyself
persevere in good ; why contendest thou with God’s decree and predestination ?
In
this halt of but a week, to be is not to be, to come is to go. Recite the word ‘ hastening on ’
; for in the resurrection the
believer calls ‘ ‘Make way !' ’ Mustafa exclaimed ‘ How excellent! ’ ; through this
the hand of Moses became a moon, the Friend of God grew pitiful ; the waw of awivah gave him the
sincerity of his faith, the majesty and beauty of his belief, — then when the waw goes out of
awwah there remains but ah, a sigh,— how wonderful I Ah remains, a memorial of Him ; His religion
remains as a manifestation of Him.
Before
the trumpet sounds kill thou thyself with the sword of indigence ; if they
accept it, thou art at rest ;
if not, think of what has happened as if it had not been. If thou come small or
great to the door of the Absolute, or if thou come not at all, what is that to
Him ? Shall the day subsist for the sake of the cock ? it w’ill appear at its
own time. What is thy
existence, what thy non-existence to Him ? Many like thee come to His door.
When
the fountain of light starts
forth, it has no need of any to scourge it on ; yet all this magnificence is
but water and earth,— the pure life and soul are there. What can the ‘Make way / ’ of a
handful
of straw effect ? His own light alone cries 'Make way Z’ That
lamp of thine is thy trust in thyself ; the suna comes forth of
himself in brightness, and this flame the cold wind cannot extinguish, while
half a sneeze wrests from that its life.
So
then your road lies not in this street; if there be a road, it is the road of
your sighs. You are all far from the road of devotion, you are like asses
straying for months and years deluded with vain hopes. Since thou art sometimes
virtuous, sometimes wicked, thou fearest for thyself, hast hope in
thyself; but when thy face of wisdom and of shame grows white, —go, know thou that fear and hope are
one.
On The Justice Of
The Prince And The Security Of His
Subjects.
‘Umar
one day saw a group of boys on a certain road all engaged in play and everyone
boasting of himself ; everyone was in haste to
wrestle, having duly bared his head in Arab fashion. When ‘Umar looked towards the boys, fear of
him tore the curtain of their gladness ; they all fled from him in haste,
except ‘Abdu’l-lah b. Zubair. 3 ‘Umar
said to him, “ Why didst thou not fly from before me ? ” He said, “ Why should
I fly from before thee, beneficent one ?
Thou art not a tyrant, nor I guilty.”
If a prince is pious and just, his people are
glad in his justice ; but if his inclination is towards tyranny, he plunges his
country in ruin. When thou hast provisioned thyself with
justice, thy steed has passed beyond both halting-places.6
What matters acceptance or
rejection, good or evil, to him who knows his own virtue ? Be virtuous,—thou
wilt escape an aching head ; if thou be bad, thou breakest the whole compact.
So stand in wonder at His justice that thou losest memory of all else but of
Him.
On Celebrating The Praise Of God
To call on the
name of friends, and the unhappy ones of this world, how thinkest thou of it ? It is like
calling on old women. Oppression, if He ordain it, is all justice; a life
without thought of Him is all wind. He laughs who is brought to tears through
Him ; but that heart is an anvil that thinks not on Him. Thou art secure when
thou pronouncest His name,—thou keepest a firm footing on thy path ; make thou
thy tongue moist, like earth, with remembrance of Him, that He may fill thy
mouth, like the rose, with gold. He fills with life the soul of the wise man ; the
heart of the lover of self He leaves thirsty. That thy purpose and judgment may be true,
leave not His door at all; to pay heed to those about us is the act of a thoughtless fool.
Concerning The Pious Disciple And The Great Master
Thauri, by way of obsequiousness and in anxiety to acquire a
good reputation, asked an excellent question of Bayazid Bistami ; weeping, he
said, ‘ ‘Master, tell me, who is unjust ? ’ ’ His master,
giving him a draught out of the law, answered him and said,
‘ ‘ Unjust is that ill-fated one who for one moment of the day and night
in negligence forgets Him : he is not
His submissive slave.” If thou
forget Him for one breath, there is none so shamelessly
unjust as thou ; but if thou be present
and commemorate His name, thy being is lost in the fulfilment of His
commands.' So think upon Him that in thy
heart and soul thou lapse not into forgetfulness even for an instant. Keep in mind this
saying of that ever-watch¬ful traveller on this road, the impetuous lion, ‘ And
worship thou the Lord in prayer as if thou sawest Him ; ’ and if thou do not thus, thou wilt be forced
to cry ‘ Help, help ! ’ So worship Him in both worlds, as if thou sawest Him
with thine outward eye ; though thine eye sees Him not, thy Creator sees thee.
The commemoration of God exists only in the path of conflict
; it exists not in the assembly of the contemplation : though remem¬brance of Him be thy guide at
first, in the end remembrance is naught.
Inasmuch as the diver seeks pearls in the seas, it is the
water too that kills his cry; in absence the dove calls ‘ where ? ’—if present,
why recite ‘ He ’ ?
Those in His presence
are rich in His majesty ; weep thou, if absence is thy portion.
Listen to the ringdove’s plaint of yearning,—two grains of
barley changes it into joy ; but he who seeks the only true contentment, seeks
the light of the Unity in the grave? To him the tomb is the garden of Paradise
; heaven is unlovely in his eyes. Then
wilt thou be present, when in the abode of peace thou art present in soul, not
in body ; whilst thou art in this land of fruitless search, thou art either all
back or all front ; but when the soul of
the seeker has gone forward a few paces out of this land, love seizes the
bridle. Unbelief is death, religion life,—this is the pith of
all that men have said.
Whoso for one moment takes delight in himself, he is
imprisoned in hell and anguish for years. Who then shall have this honour and
high dignity conferred upon him ? Only he who possesses the princi- pie of Islam ; in loving, and in striving
towards that world, one must not talk about one’s life ; those who travel on
this road know nothing of grief for life and sorrow of soul. When thou hast
passed out of this world of fruitless search, then seek thou in that the
fountain of life.
Concerning The House Of Deception
Death comes as the key of the house of the Secret;
without death the door of true religion
opens not. While this world stays, that is not; while thou existest, God is not
thine. Know, thy soul is a sealed casket; the love-pearl within is the light of
thy faith. The Past sealed
the writing, and delivered it for thee to the Future ; as long as thou shalt
depend for thy life upon the revolutions of Time, thou
shalt not know what is inside. Only the hand of death shall unloose the binding
of the book of God, the
Exalted, the Glorious. So long as the breath of man flies not from thee, the
morning of thy true faith will not dawn in thy soul’s East.
Thou wilt not
reach the door of the King’s pavilion without experiencing the heat and cold of
the world : at present thou knowest naught of the invisible world, canst not
distinguish faults from virtues ; the things of that world are not those of
sense, are not like the other things of wont. The soul reaches His
presence, and is at rest; and what is crooked then is seen to be straight.
When thou
arrivest in the presence of the decree the soul sets forth, and like a bird leaves
its cage for the garden ; the horse of religion becomes familiar with the
verdant meadow. Whilst thou
livest true religion appears not; the night of thy death brings forth its day.
On this subject a man of wisdom, whose words are as a mufti’s
decision, said, “Through
desire and transgression men have gone to sleep; when death shows his face,
they awake.” All the people of this world are asleep, all are living in a
vicious world : the desire that goes beyond this is use and custom, and not religion ; for the
religion which is only of this life is not religion, but empty trifling.
To knock at
the door of non-existence is religion and fortune ; knocking little comes of
being little. He who esteems
of small account the substance of this world, say to him, “ Look thou on
Mustafa and Adam” ;' and he who seeks for increase, say to him, “
Look thou on ‘Ad and on Qarun. ;
the foot of the one clave
to his stirrup, the other lived pierced through,
with terror ; the Eternal destroyed the foot of the one ; remorse turned the hand of the other into a
reed; the dire blast falls on ‘Ad, the dust of execration is the abode of
Qarun.
What harm is
it, if from fear of misfortune thou sacrifice thyself like wild rue for the
sake of virtue ? Inflame not
thy cheek before the men of
the Path ; burn thyself, like wild rue ; thou hast the wisdom and religion of a fool if thou pretendest to
eminence before God. Let not man weave a net about himself ; rather the lion
will break his cage.
O thou, who
art sated with thyself,—that is hunger ; and thou, who bendest double in
penitence,—that is prayer? When thou art freed from thine own body and soul, then
thou findest isolation and
eminence. Display not at all thy city-inflaming countenance ; when thou hast done so, go, burn wild rue? What is
that beauty of thine ?
it is thy lust; and what is thy wild rue ? it
is thine own being. When thy lip touches the threshold of true religion, Jesus,
son of Mary, becomes thy sleeve.6 In this quest do thou melt
thyself; adventure thy life and soul in the path of fidelity ; strive thou,
that so through non-existence thou mayest pass to existence ;
About Absence
that thou
mayest be drunk with the wine of God. The ball and stick of the universe are in
the hand of him whom true religion makes to live when thy soul becomes drunk
with this draught, thou hast reached the
summit; from being naught thou comest into existence.
Every freed
man of that place is a slave, bound by the foot, with a ring
in his ear j but those bonds
are better than the steed of fortune ; but that ring is better than the striped
garments of Arabia and a throne. The bonds that He imposes, account a crown;
and if He gives thee sackcloth, reckon
it brocade ;' for He bestows
benefits, and He gives beauty ; He is kind, and He is bounteous.
Seeing that
thou art needy, what dost thou with Gladness, and what with Cleverness, both
bought with a price ? Be glad
in Him, and clever in His religion, that thou mayest find acceptance and honour
with Him. That man is wise whom He lifts up ; joyful is he
whom He abandons not; and fortunate, who is His slave, approved by Him in all
his works. When thou hast cast these branches, and hast grappled with death, thou wilt no
longer turn away from death, and shalt come to know the world of Life. When thy
hand reaches the branch of death, thy foot treads the palace of power ; the foot which is far from the dome of right
guidance is not a foot,—it is a drunken brain.
On Giving Thanks
Ingratitude’s only seat is the door of sorrow; thankfulness
arrives with certainty at the treasure..
Utter thy thanks for the sake of increase, of the hidden world, and of
the sight of God ; then when
thou hast become patient of His decree He will name thee ‘
giver of thanks ’ ; whoso presses forwards towards God, speaks not without ’
uttering his thanks to God. Who can tell
the sweetness of
giving thanks to Him ?
Who can pierce the pearl of the celebration of His name ? He bestows,
and He gives the reward ; He speaks, and He imparts the answer. Whatsoever He took away from thee of kindness
or show of love, the same or more than that He gives back to thee. If every hair became a tongue, and each an
interpreter at thanksgiving’s door to
swell thereby His thanks, they could not utter due thanks for the divine grace
of the power to give thanks.
Then let men seek to give thanks for His mercies ; if they
utter them, it is even through Him they do so,—body and soul drunk 35 with His
decree, the heart singing " Lord, thanks /” And if not, then as far as
regards the path of knowledge and prudence, woman and man, young and old, are
blind of eye in the world of lust, are naked of body like ants and flies.
On His Wrath And His Kindness.
The pious are
those who give thanks for His kindness and mercy, the unbelievers those who
complain of His wrath and jealousy. When God becomes angry, thou seest in the
eyes what is rightly in the spring.
His wrath and His kindness, appearing in the newly-formed world,
are the cause of the error of theGuebre and the doubt of the Magian? His
kindness and His wrath are imprinted on the pulpit and the gallows ; the
rendering of thanks to Him is the mansion of honour, and forgetfulness of Him, of disgrace. His kindness is comfort
for men’s Eves, His wrath a fire for their souls ; His kindness rejoices the
slave ; His wrath makes man its mock. When the lam of His
kindness shows itself, the dal of fortune gains the victory ; if the qaf of His wrath rushes forth, it melts Mount Qaf like silver.
The whole world dreads His anger and His subtlety ; the virtuous and the
ungodly are alike in their terror. When His kindness mixes the draught of
exhilaration, the shoe of the Sufi mounts to ecstasy ; when His wrath comes
forth again, ecstasy draws in its head like a tortoise. His wrath melts even
His beloved ; His kindness cherishes the beggar. He it is who nourishes thy
soul in unbelief or in the faith, He who gives thy soul the power of choice.
Thy life’s soul lives through His kindness ; for by His kindness thy life
endures.
By His
disposing wrath and kindness He brings to fife the dead, to death the living ;
His wisdom cares for the slave, His favour accomplishes our undertakings. When
His wrath came forth in conflict, it killed the country’s king by means of an
impotent gnat. Thenwhen He saddled the horse of kindness, he caused the food of
worms to gather locusts ; through God he abode in wisdom and right counsel, the
worms were silver, the locusts gold ;
and as in the midst of
God’s favour
he suffered a proving trial, when again in favour he laughed at his
misfortunes. When His wrath spreads the snare, He turns the form of Bil'am into
a dog ; when His kindness worked, He
brought the dog of the Companions of the Cave into the cavern.8 The
magicians through His kindness exclaimed “ No harm'" ; His wrath caused ‘Azazil to say, “ 1 am
better.”
With God no
good and no evil has power ; with whom can it be said that there exists no one else
in the world ? No matter whether small or great, His wrath and His kindness
reach everyone alike. Emperors humble themselves on His path, heroes bow down their heads at
His door; kings are as dust before His door, Pharaohs fly in terror from before
Him. By means of a Turkish demon, a slave just bought, He overthrew a hundred
thousand standards of war ; while yet he had no more than a couple of
retainers, he folded up the carpet of a
hungry band.
If He says to
the dead, Come forth, the dead comes forth, dragging his winding-sheet behind
him; and if He says to the living, Die, he dies on the spot, though he be a
prince. The people are proud of heart through His kindness ; because of the
respite He gives them they fear not at all; but whoso manifests presumption in
His kingdom has broken away from the straight road. His poison shall be the sufficient food of the champions, His
wrath an adequate bridle for the haughty ; He has broken the necks of heroes by
His wrath ; to the weak He has given a double share of His kindness. The
quickness of His forgiveness obliterates the marks of our pleading from the
path of speech ; He gives shelter to him who repents of his sin, and cleanses-
his pages of the crime ; His forgiveness outruns the fault,—“My mercy
outstrips ’ ’ is a wonderful saying. He is the giver of the soul; not, as we are, a
creature to whom a soul is given ; He
holds up the veil, He does not tear it as we do. He is thy shepherd, and thou choosest the
wolf; He invites thee, and thou remainest in want; He is thy guardian, and thou
thyself carest not
well done,
thou senseless sinning fool! He reforms our nature within us ; kinder than
ourselves is He to us ; mothers have not for their children such love as He
bestows. The worthless He makes worthy by His kindness; from His servants He
accepts thankfulness and patience as sufficient. His beneficence has shut the door of sense
against the eye of wisdom and uprightness, and opened to it the path of the
spirit.
Since His
clemency has established thee thou art
secure against the plunderers ; the mountain-dweller ever escapes in the plain
the affliction of the north-east wind. Though invisible to us, He knows our
faults ; His pardon can wash
them away. His knowledge has concealed our imperfection ; the secret thou hast
not yet spoken,
He has heard.
The sons of men, ever unjust and ignorant, talk in folly of God’s kindness ; He works
good, and ye work evil : He knows the hidden things, and ye are full of fault.
Behold, after thy so many doubts, this care of the Knower of the hidden for a
wicked world ; had it not been pure favour on His part, how could a handful of
earth have come to wear a crown ?
The
alighting-place of His pardon is on the plain of sin, the army of His kindness
comes out to meet our sighs ; when the sigh of the knower of God raises the
veil/ hell seizes its shield from fear of Him. His forgiveness grants itself to
our sins ; His mercy descends to bestow benefits. Thou hast committed the iniquity, yet He keeps
faith with thee ; He is more true to thee than thou art to thyself. His bounty
brought thee into activity ; otherwise how could this market have been set up
on earth ? Whoso becomes nonexistent, to him is given
existence ; whoso slips receives a helping hand. He it is who takes the hand of
the friendless, and chooses weeds like us. Forasmuch as He is pure, He desires the pure;
theKnower of the hidden desires the dust.
On His Omniscience, And His
Knowledge Of The Minds Of Men
He
knows the draught of each of His creatures ; He has given it, and He can give
its opposite. He is the Creator of thy wisdom ; but His wisdom is untainted by the passage of
thought. He knows concerning thee what is in thy heart,
for He is the Creator both of thy heart and of thy clay. Dost thou think that
He knows as thou knowest ? then is the ass of thy nature stuck fast in thy
clay? He sees xv hat is best for His creatures before the desire is formed ;
He knows the mind before the secret
thought exists. He knows what is in thy heart ; before thou speakest He
performs the work. God brings joy and takes away sorrow ; God knows our
secrets, and He keeps them safe.
Silence
before Him is the gift of tongues ; thy life’s food thou receivest from a table
bare of bread ; man’s desire cannot wish for such things as He has prepared for
him. He knows the condition of His creatures ; He
sees it, and can give accordingly ; He has prepared for thee thy place in
Paradise, that to-morrow thou mayest enter into joy. It is enough that He speaks,—be thou dumb and
speak not; it is enough that He seeks, remain thou a cripple, and run not to
and fro. In presence of the
power and omniscience of God, feebleness and ignorance are best; feebleness
makes thee wise, weakness confers eminence on thee.
Whoso
can make existence non-existent, can also change nonexistence into existence.
He in His mercy arrests the rhythmical forces in the wombs for the due
constituting and establishing of the offspring j and forasmuch as His inscrutability pourtrayed
thy form, knowest thou not that thou
canst not remain hidden ? * He knows thy case better than thyself ; why
frequentest thou the neighbourhood of folly and deceit ? Speak not of thy
heart’s sorrow, for He is speaking ; seek thou not for Him, for He is seeking.
He
perceives the touch of an ant’s foot, though in night and darkness the ant move
on a rock ; if a stone moves in the dark night in the
depth of the water, His knowledge sees it ; if there be a worm in the heart of a rock, whose body is smaller
than an atom, God by His knowledge knows its cry of praise, and its hidden
secret. To thee He has given guidance in the path ; to the worm He has given
its sustenance in the rock. No soul has ever rested in patience apart 39 from Him
; no understanding deceived Him by its subtlety. He is ever aware of the minds
of men,—ponder thou this, and thy duty is fulfilled.
If
thou turn thy face from evil usage, thy mind shall preserve the true religion of
Islam; but since thou choosest to hold false ideas of His clemency, thou shalt
have no light, but hell-fire in thy heart ; for since thou wilt not take
account of His knowledge, man, cherish
no hope of clemency from Him. His omniscience kindles the lamp of the
understanding ; but His clemency teaches nature to sin ; were not His clemency a perpetual refuge, how
could a servant dare to sin ?
If
then thou committest a sin, that sin falls under one of two cases; if thou
thinkest that God knows not, I say to thee, Well done, O
thorough-going infidel! and if thou thinkest that God knows, and still thou
committest it,—Bravo, impudent one, and vile ! Myself I acknowledge that no man
knows thy secrets ; God knows,—God is not less than man ; and I take it that if He hides this
forgiveness from thee, is it not that His omniscience knows that it is thus
with thee ? Then turn from this vile conduct of thine ; otherwise on the day of
thy resurrection thou wilt forthwith see thyself drowning in the sea of thy
shame.
A Story
An old man put
forth his head, and seeing his field dried up spoke thus : “ Lord of
both new and old, our food is in Thy hands,- do what thou wilt. The
sustenance Thou givest to fair and foul depends not on tears of cloud nor
smiles of field; I well know Thou art the Uncaused Sustainer ; my life and my food, all comes from Thee. Thy
one is better than thousands of thousands, for Thy little is not a little.”
A flame from Him, and a hundred thousand stars appear; a drop
from Him, and a hundred thousand palm-trees spring up. He who is in fear about his daily food is not
a man,—truly he is less than a woman.
A Story
Hast thou not
heard how in a rainless time some birds received their food from a Magian’s
door ? Many Muslims spoke to him, and among them one clever and eloquent—‘ ‘
Though the little birds take your corn, yet this generosity of yours
will not find acceptance.” Said the Magian, ‘ ‘ If He does not choose me, still
He sees my toil; since He himself is kind and generous, He does not think the
same of niggardliness as of liberality.”
Ja‘farisacrificed
his arm in His Path; instead of arms God gave him wings. None shall discover
thy work but God; truly nothing can happen to thee from men. Pay no heed to the
doing and bustling of men; fasten thy mind on Him, and thou hast
escaped from sorrow and bondage. So far as thou canst, take thou no friend but
Him; take men not into thy account at all. Your bread is laid up in God’s
eternity; His friendship He gives you,—it is your life ; know that both of
these are represented in the world of love and search by the Persian water
and the Arabic father?
On the Desire for God
So long as
thou art a stranger to the light of Moses, thou art blind to the day, like the bird of Jesus ; since thou hast no knowledge of the path of
poverty, thou art in hiding, like the inside of an onion. First, for the sake of His comforting love, do
thou make thy head thy foot, 42 like the reed, and continue seeking Him ; that by thy perfect
search thou mayest reach that place, where thou knowest thou needest seek no
more.
Did nob an
indolent one, when he heard murmurs of sloth on his heart’s tongue, ask ‘Alf, “
Say, Prince, illuminer of the soul, is
the dark night better, or the day?” Murtaza said, “Hear,
ques- tioner ; yield not to this
backsliding; for to the lovers in this soulinflaming path the fire of the
secret is better than the splendour of the day.”8 He whose soul the
path has fired stays not behind on foot at the halting-place ; in that world where love tells the secret, thou
no longer art, thy reason no longer endures.
On Affection And Isolation.
The lovers are
drunk in His Presence, their reason in their sleeve and their soul in their
hand. Lo, when they urge the Buraq of their heart
on towards Him, they cast all away under his feet; they throw down life and heart in His path,
and make themselves of His company. In the face of his belief in the Unity,
there exists for him no old or new; all is naught, naught ; He alone is. What
worth have reason and life in his eyes ? the heart and the true faith pursue
the road together. The veil of the
lovers is very transparent; the tracings on these veils are very delicate. Love’s conqueror is he who is conquered by love; ‘ love’ inverted will itself explain this to
thee.
When the clouds
fall away from the Sun, the world of love is filled with light. The cloud is dark and murky as a Magian,
but water may be useful as well as harmful;—a little of it is man’s life, but
his life is destroyed by too much of it; so he who believes in the Unity is the
beloved of His Presence, though affection, too, is a veil over His glory?
He is not in
evil plight to whom He addresses His instruction. What then is evil ?—to be the
friend who toils. Look at the letters
oimahabbat (friendship); the very wordmi’/zna/ (labour) is shown in its
characters. Thou who lovest the Beauty of the Presence of the
Invisible, till thou seek for the meeting with His face thou wilt never drink
the draught of communion with Him, nor taste the sweetness of inward converse
with Him.8 Since thou knowest the One, and assertest the One, why search after
the two, and three, and four ? Together with alif go be and te,—count be and te
an idol, and alif God.
Continue to
ply hand and foot in search ; when thou reachest the sea’, talk not of the
rill. Since glory and shame have made
of thee a slave, youth, what hast thou to do with
the Eternal ? Thou art but newly come
into existence,—talk not of the Eternal,1 thou who dost not know thy head from
thy foot. There are a hundred thousand obstructions in thy path; thy courage
fails, and falls short; thy talk is trickery still, still thou remainest in the
snare. Betake thyself at once to the ocean of righteousness and true religion,
thy body naked like wheat-grains, or
like Adam; that so He may approve thy complete renunciation; then see that thou
meddle not again with these useless encumbrances. Thou art as yet a follower of
Satan ; how canst thou become a man without repenting ?
When He admits
thee in His court, ask from Him no object of desire,—ask Himself; when thy Lord
has chosen thee for friendship, thy unabashed eye has seen all there is to see.
The world of love suffers not duality,—what talk is this of Me and Thee ?
When thy
Thee-ness leaves thee, fortune will uplift thy state and seat; in a compact of
intimacy it is not well to claim to be a friend, and then—still Me and Thee\
How shall he that is free become a slave ?
How canst thou fill a vessel already full ? Go thou, all of thee, to His
door; for whoso in the world shall present himself there in part only, is
wholly naught. When thou hast reached
to the kiss and love-glance of the Friend, count poison honey from Him, and the
thorn a flower.
For the rust
on the mirror of the free, No is the nail-parer, —with it cut off existence.6
Be not filled with thy incapacity time after time, as a boat is filled; dost thou not read in God’s book that
those who die are not dead but living ?
Receive alike
good and evil, fair and foul; whatever God sends thee, take it to thy soul. Did not
‘Azazil, receiving from God both His
mercy and His curse, deem them both alike ? Whatsoever he obtained from God,
good or evil, he held both equal. But the hkeness of him who waits at the door
of princes is as a sail in unskilled hands.
On Renunciation And Strenuous Endeavour.
Whoso desires
to be lord of his isolation and whoso seeks to guard his seclusion,6 must take
no ease within, nor adorn himself without;
that praise
which is bestowed on outward seeming imports the abandonment of true praise and
adornment. The beggar asks bread at the
door of the king; so the lover begs food for
his soul. On the path, naked and
fearless, he has cast water and fire and earth to the winds. Standing on the plain of the sign¬posts of
time, what matter fools to him, what the philosopher of the age ?
Brother, hold
thy liver as roast meat in the fire of re¬nunciation, not a broth. The mean-spirited dog seeks a bone ; the
lion’s whelp seeks the marrow of life. The lovers have sacrificed soul and
heart, and day and night have made His memory their food. The man of high
resolves seeks not bondage ; a dog is a dog, made happy by a bite.
If revelation
become a restraint on thee, make of it a
shoe and beat thy head with it; talk
fewer superfluities, and keep thy weak¬ness before thee ; leave the bone to the
dogs. In virtue of thy essential nature thou hast obtained a high station ;
then why be mean in spirit like a dog ? On the man of high endeavour both
worlds are bestowed ; but whoso is mean-spirited
like a dog, like a dog runs about after a meal.
If thou
desirest to possess thy soul free from the body,6 La is as a gallows,1—keep
company with it. How can pure Divinity admit thee till thy humanity has been
uplifted on the gallows ?—for on the path to divinity thy soul will suffer many crucifixions. Put an end to
all imitation and speculation, that thy
heart may become the house of God. As long as thy existence is with thee in thy
soul, the ka'ba is a tavern, though thou serve Him ; but if thy soul has parted
from thy existence, through thee an idol temple becomes the Inhabited House.
seeker of
taverns, full of wretchedness, thou art but an ass’s son, and asses are thy
fathers ! Thy understanding is muddied
with thy Self and thy Existence; thy reason’s sight is dark before that other
world. Thine own soul it is that distinguishes unbelief and true religion; of
necessity it colours thy vision.
Selflessness is happy,- selffulness most unhappy ; cast away the cat
from under thy arm. In the-Eternal,
unbeliefs and religions are not; such thingsexist not if the nature be pure.
On Following The Path Of The Hereafter.
All this
knowledge is but a trifling matter ; the knowledge of the journey on God’s road
is otherwise, and belongs to the man of acuter vision. What, for the man of
wisdom and true religion, whose bread and speech are alike of wheat,
distinguishes that path and points it out ? Inquire its mark from the Speaker
and the Friend.
And if, brother, thou also ask of me, I answer
plainly and with no uncertainty, ‘ To turn thy face towards the world of life,
to set thy foot upon outward prosperity, to put out of mind rank and
reputation, to bend one’s back double in His service, to purify ourselves from
evil, to strengthen the soul in wisdom.’
What is the
provision for such a journey, heedless
one ? By looking on the Truth to cut oneself off from the false; to leave the abode of those who strive with
words, and to sit before the silent; to journey from the works of God to His
attributes, and from His attributes to the mansion of the knowledge of Him ;
then from knowledge to the world
of the secret, then to reach the threshold of poverty; then when thou art
become the friend of poverty, thy Soul 46 destroys thy impure Self; thy Self becomes Soul inside thee ; it becomes
ashamed of all its doings, and casting aside all its possessions is melted on
its path of trial; then when thy Self has been melted in thy body, thy Soul has
step by step accomplished its work ; then Clod
takes away its poverty from it,—when poverty is no more, Clod remains.
Not in folly
nor ignorance spoke Bayazid, if be said ‘ Glory to me; ’ so too the
tongue that spoke the supreme secret moved truly when it said, ‘ 1 am God.'’
When he proclaimed to the back
the secret he had learned from the face, it became his executioner and killed him ; his
secret’s day-time became as night, but God’s word was w'hat he spoke ; when in the midst of the rabble he
suddenly disclosed, unauthorized, the
secret, his outward form was given to the gallows, his inward being was taken
by the Friend ; when his life’s soul could speak no longer, his heart’s blood
divulged the secret.
He spoke well
who said in his ecstacy, Leave, thyself, son, and come hither. From thee
to the Friend is not long; thyself art the road, —then set thy feet on it.
that with the eye of Godhead thou
mayest see the handwriting of
the Lord of power and the land of spirits.
When shall we
be separated from our Selves,—I and thou departed and God
remaining ? the heart arrived at God’s threshold, the Soul saying, Here am I, enter thou. When
by the doorway of renunciation heart and soul have reached the dome of a true
belief in the Unity, the soul locks itself in the embrace of the Houris, the
heart walks proudly in the sight of the Friend. •
thou who knowest not the life that comes of the juice of the grape, how
long then wilt thou be drunk with the grape’s outward form ? Why boastest thou
falsely that thou art drunk ? So that they say, ‘ The fellow has drunk
butter-milk ! ’ If thou drink wine, say naught; the drinker of butter-milk too
will guard his secret.6
Why seekest
thou ? Deem it not like thy soul; drink it as thou dost thy faith. Thou knowest not what mas is in
Persian; when thou hast eaten it, thou recognizest the taste. When in this ruined hall thou drinkest a cup
of wine, I counsel thee put not thy foot outside the house of thy drunkenness,
lay down thy head where thou hast drunk the wine ; till thou hast drunk it,
hold it an unlawful thing, and when thou hast drunk it, rub a clod of earth on
thy lips? When with a hundred pains thou hast twice drunk the dregs, I will say, Look at the man’s courage I More
numerous than asses without head-stalls are all the carrion- hearted
wine-drinkers ; wine has eaten up and the grape has carried off both their
understanding and their soul. In this company of youths, in their cowardice no longer men, if
thou speak not, thou remainest true ; but if thou speak, thou blasphemest.1
How canst thou
go forward ? there is no place for thee; and how then wilt thou leap ? thou
hast no foot; he feeds on sorrow for whom there is no place, and he is
destitute who has no foot. Those who, freed from being, stand at the door of
the true Existence, did not today for the first time gird up their loins at
His door ; from Eternity the sons of the serving-men, giving up wealth and
power, have stood before Love as numerous as ants.
Strive that
when death shall come with speed he may find thy soul already in his street.
Leave this house of vagabonds : if thou art at His door, remain there ; if not,
repair thither : for those who are His servants are contented in His Godhead,
ever their loins of servitude girt up, the lord of the seven heavens even as a
slave.
Of The Learned Man And The Fool
The shaikh of
Jurjan said to his son, “ Thou must have
a house in this street for thy private pursuits ; and it will be well if the
lock be a cunning one.”
Contrive thy finery in the path of
renunciation with its head of the Law, and its secret parts of the Unity ; and
enter this lodging of trouble and distress like a traveller, and quickly pass
on from it. At the door of the garden of Except God strip off and make away
with thy coat and cap ; become naught, that He himself, engaging thee to answer,
may with justice call to thee/ “ To whom belongs the kingdom?”
A Story
The saint
Shibli said in private converse, after a period of inward communion with God,
If, for that I am not far from Him, He give me leave to speak, and with just
purpose ask, To whom belongs the kingdom ? then in sincerity I will answer Him
and say, Today the kingdom belongs to him who from yesterday and the day before
has administered it; to-day and to-morrow Thy kingdom, Mighty over
us, is for him whose yesterday and the day before it was. The sword of
Thy wrath cuts off the head of the valiant, and then gives back to the head its
life.
Know that traffic is good for gain, and the lance of the sun
healthful for the sunflower.
When
thou shalt be offended with all but God, Gabriel will appear to thee as
naught. No one knows how long the way may be from the word Not to God ; for while thou boldest to thy Self thou wilt
wander day and night, right and left, for thousands of years ; then when after
laying long toil upon thyself at last thou openest thine eyes, thou seest Self,
because of its essential nature and its limitation to conjecture, wandering
round about itself, like the ox in a mill. But if, freed from thyself, thou
begin at all to labour, thou wilt find admission at this door within two
minutes ; the two hands of the understanding, holding but this distance, are
empty; but what that distance is, God
knows.
Sikandar, on this path of troubles and in this darkness, do thou, like
the prophet Khizr, bring under foot thy jewel of the mine, that so thou mayest
obtain the water of life. God will not
be thine whilst thou retainest soul and fife ; both can not be thine,—this and
that. Bruise thy Self through months and
years, then deem it dead and leave it where it lies ; when thou hast finished
with thy vile Self, thou hast reached eternal life and joy and Paradise.
Remain unmoved by hope and fear ; why
contendest thou with Malik and Rizwan ?
To non-existence, mosque and fire-temple are one ; to a shadow, hell and heaven are
the same : for him whose guide Love is,
infidelity and faith are equally a veil before His door ; his own being is the
veil before the friend’s eyes, hiding the court of God’s essence.
On Trust In God
Set not thy
foot in His court with hypocrisy. The men of the Path walk in trust; if thou
hast a constant trust in Him, why not also in His feeding thee ? Bring then thy belongings to the street of
trust in God; then fortune will come out to meet thee. Listen to a story
concerning trust in God, so that thou remain not a pledge in the hand of the
devil; and learn the law of the Path from a woman besides whom a braggart man
shows but contemptibly.
On The Trust In God
Shown By Old Women
When Hatim set
out for the sanctuary, —he whom thou
callest Asamm, —when he set out for
the Hijaz’1 and the Sacred House, making
towards the tomb of the Prophet (on whom be peace /) , there remained behind a colt of his household, with no supplies whatever
and owning nothing ; he left his wife alone in the house, with no means of
support, and set forth on the road ; alone and in trouble he left her, her life
or death the same to him. Her womanhood
was a fellow-traveller with him towards trust in God, for she knew her Provider;
she had a friend behind the curtain, being a sharer in God’s secret.
The men of the quarter assembled, and all went
cheerily to the woman; when they saw her alone and in trouble, they all began
at once to ask her her affairs, and by way of advice and counsel, in sympathy
said, “When thy husband set out for ‘Arafat
did he leave thee any means of support?” She said, “He did; I am quite
contented,—my maintenance is what it was before.” Again they said, “ How much
is thy maintenance ? for thy heart is con_ tented and happy.” She said, “ However
long my life lasts, He has given into my hands all the support I need.” The
other said, ‘ ‘ Thou knowest not aught thyself, and what does he know, about
thy life ? ”
She said, ‘ ‘ The Giver of my daily bread
knows; while life lasts, He will not take away my sustenance.” They answered, “
He does not give it apart from means ;
He never gives dates from the willow¬tree ; thou hast no sort of earthly
possessions, and He will not send thee a wallet from heaven.” She said, “ ye of clouded minds ! How long will ye utter
folly and perversity ? He needs to use a wallet who owns no piece of land; hut
His are heaven and earth entirely ; what He wills He does; His is the
authority. He brings it to pass as He desires; sometimes He gives increase,
sometimes He takes away.
long
wilt thou talk of trust in God ? Thou bearest the name of a man, but art less than a woman. Since
on thy journey thou com- portest thyself not as men do, go learn how to journey
from the women. Thou hast chosen sloth,
body of woman ! Alas for the man who is less than a woman
Look
to thy soul, and abandon thy lower nature, for this is as a hawk, and that a heron
; that in that place, where it comes to
comprehend ‘ We and ‘ Thou when it has been wholly burnt,
‘ He'
and ‘ He ’ shall remain. Reason,
that, living in this world, cannot like
soul attain to aught, arrives but as far as itself and reaches not to Him.
The ears of the head are two, the ear of love
one ; this is for religion, those for doubt ;
though the ear of the head listens to innumerable things, the ear of
love listens only to the story of the One. Those two ears are set on each side
of thy head like waterspouts ; why dost thou still cry and howl ? Thou art but
a child ;—go, turn thine eyes away from the devil, lest he put ears on the
sides of thy head.
The Kalima
As the
inhabited world , is computed at twenty-four thousand leagues, so, if thou add the hours of night to
those of day, there are twenty-four of those torturers of mankind also.
Exchange them, if thou art dexterous and versed in transformations, for the
twenty- four letters; the qafi
of the affirmation of the two testimonies, if these be uttered without deceit
or hypocrisy or disputation or contention, will take thee completely out
of thy world, bringing thee,
not to any instrument, but to kaf and nun : on this road and in this street, beyond where
wisdom is, this is thy sufficient task, to repeat, ‘ None
is God' but He.
The confession of the faith when
reckoned up gives twenty-four as the
number of its letters, half of them twelve jewel-caskets from the ocean of
life, the other half the twelve zodiacal constellations of the heavens of the
faith ; the caskets are full
of the pearls of hope, the zodiac filled by the moon and sun :—not the pearls
of any sea of this world, not the moon and sun of these heavens ; but the
pearls of the ocean of the world of Power, the moon and sun of the heaven of peace.
On
the Interpretation of the Dream
In the
phantoms of sleep He has ordained for men of understanding both fear and hope.
When a man has laid down his head
in sleep, his tent-ropes are severed. As long as men are in the world of causes,
they are all in a boat, and all asleep ; waiting for what their soul shall see in sleep, of what awaits
them of reward and punishment.
A fierce fire
means the heat of anger; a spring of water is a beloved child?
To weepin a
dream is a provision of happiness afterwards; slavery means
immunity from disgrace. Playing at draughts or chess in sleep brings war and
conquest and misery.
Water in a
dream, if it be pure and sweet and clean and wholesome, is daily bread lawfully
earned; but if it be muddy, know that it means an unhappy life ;—though it be
water, deem it fire itself. Earth in a dream brings food ; to the farmer it indicates
prosperity. A wind, if it be either hot or cold, is equally a store of grief
and pain; but if it be temperate to the skin it is grief to an enemy and joy to
a friend.
To give
anything to the dead in a dream is loss of wealth and property. Laughter is
anxiety and dangers ; silence is affection for one’s wealth. To drink water and
have one’s thirst increased is knowledge, for one is never satiated with it.
And he who is naked in his dream falls into disgrace, like the drunken libertine.
A drum in a dream,—the secret leaks out; a trumpet in a dream results in a
quarrel. Bonds and fetters are a repentance of Nasuh to see a garden is food
for the soul. Fruit in a dream is a stipend from the king,— not at once, but at
some future time; when the time comes for him to obtain it, the man who saw the
dream will attain thereby to affluence.
When a man
sees his own hand outstretched, he will be of singular generosity and munificence ; but if his hands
be withdrawn, he will surround himself with an army by his stinginess. The
hands are brother and sister, the left the girl, the right the boy; the fingers
represent sons; the teeth refer to father and mother; daughters are represented
by the breast and nipple. Hidden wealth and riches are shown as the belly; in a
dream, the liver and heart are a store of wealth.
The leg and knee are weariness and trouble. The brain is hidden wealth; the
side a woman, for veil the skin drawn round her body. The organ of generation is a son,—good or bad,
ugly or fair, wretched or fortunate.8
To wash the
hands is despair in regard to the matter in hand: to dance
is impudence and deceit. Bathing drawers and can and implements of bathing all point to
servants; and he who in his dream plays upon the lute will certainly marry in
haste. To wrestle with another is to conquer and to harass ; and he
who takes medicine in his dream escapes from pain and sorrow and
torment.
Perfume in a
dream is of two kinds, one meaning pleasure, the other nothing but affliction;
the kind that is rubbed on brings pleasure, that which they scatter about,
trouble. Since by smoke is meant an
increase of
trouble, such an one’s comfort will be small compared with his distress. A sick
man, and perfume, and a new coat, is bad,— the bad
that I represent to thee as good.
To dance in a boat in a
dream means danger from drowning, and brings wretchedness; but for one who is
in prison, to dance is of good omen.
Whoever sees
blood running from his body will find that happiness is denied him : permitted
him, however, if he does not see a wound ; but otherwise, if a wound be there/
his affairs will cause him heavy trouble
; he will be captive in sorrow’s hands. And if a woman dreams of menstruating,
she will give birth to a dead child. If a sick man seeing meat in a dream, eats
of it, hope not for his recovery. To dream of drunkenness and madness from
drinking wine, if it be Arabian wine, is bad ; if Persian, deem it a livelihood, honour, and
good-fortune. Milk in a dream is profit from one’s possessions, an ample and
lawful subsistence.
On Dreams Of Vessels And Garments
An old garment
is grief and sorrow ; a new garment is great wealth; best of all is a garment
that is closely woven, so my
master told me. For women, a garment of
many colours is a cause of joy and happiness and honour. A red garment brings
gladness and the unrestricted enjoyment of a lasting good-fortune. The garment
of fear is black; if yellow, it is pain and trouble and sighing; blue clothes
are grief, a sorrow heavier than a mountain on the heart. Mantle . and cloak
are beauty ; purse and moneybag are a source of riches.
A ladder will
result in a journey, but one full of danger for the man. A millstone is a trusty man, the chosen one of
a house. A snare in a dream is a block in the business in hand.1 A
mirror is a woman ; be well on thy guard. Captivity is plainly shown thee by a
lock ; so by a key thou obtainest thy release.
On Dreams of Handicraftsmen
A cook means
great riches, just as a butcher means that one’s affairs are ruined. A
physician is pain and sickness, especially to one who is wretched and needy.
The tailor is the man in virtue of whom troubles and affliction are all changed
to good-fortune. A bootmaker and shoemaker and cobbler are among the heritages
of one who will possess a secret. A draper, a goldsmith, and a druggist mean a
successful undertaking and great wealth. A vintner, a musician, and a dancer
bring joy and gladness; a horse-doctor and horse-breaker and oculist point like
a finger-post to ruin. To see a hunter in a dream brings trickery and deceit
into one’s path. A maker of swords indicates affliction ; so too an
arrow-maker, preparing arrows. A water carrier, a potter, and a porter, all three are
to be considered as indicating wealth.
On Dreams Of Beasts.
An ass is a servant, but a lazy one, who refuses to work. A
horse, Thou of unparalleled wisdom! is a
woman; both are suitable possessions for a man. A mule is bad for him whose
wife is pregnant; a child will not be bom to him. A journey comes to thee in a
dream as a camel,—a terrible journey, grievous and painful. A cow points to a
year of plenty ; the owl grows arrogant before the king.
On Dreams of Wild Animals
A lion is a
powerful and haughty adversary whose actions show no regard for humanity. An
elephant is a king,—but a terrible one, whose rage is feared by all. Fortune
and wealth come before thee as a sheep; a year of plenty demands the same sign.
A goat signifies men mean and base by nature, clamorous, full of wickedness in
their actions. A bustard is in every way ad vantageous ;—this is no more than my master’s words. The deer, aged in wisdom! rather receives its
interpretation from the women’s apartments. The leopard, of evil deeds,
represents an enemy perfidious in his dealings; the tiger also is considered to
be an enemy,—so they relate in the book. The
bear is a
treacherous adversary, and a robber; no one will come by any good from seeing him. A hunting-leopard
and hyena and wolf and fox are enemies, evil-disposed every one of them. And
although the fox is a worker of wiles, yet it is still worse if thou see one
dead. Every snake is a rancorous enemy ; but again it is worse for thee if it
makes towards thee. A scorpion and tarantula and other creeping things all and
each denote calamities. Though in waking life a dog is a shepherd, in a dream
it means war.
On Dreams Of Lights And Stars
To see the sun
in a dream is said in every case to mean a king. The
moon is as a counsellor ; another has said, No, it is a woman. The globe of
Mars or Saturn in a dream brings trial and grief and torment; Mercury
represents a writer; Jupiter comes as a treasurer and minister of state ; Venus
is the origin of joy, of pleasure, of desire and of ease. And the other stars
deem thou brothers ; when thou interpretest
them pronounce them such, for thus Ya‘qub, who established this method
of interpretation, disclosed the secrets of this science to his son ; the sun
and moon were his father and mother, the stars represented his brothers.
Has anyone
seen the sorrowing ones perplexed like we have ? Now we will leave the dreams
of those who wake ; to awaken a sleeper is easy, but the heedless is like one
dead. Make an end of divination and augury and interpretation; pass hence,—thou
hast finished thy recital.
On the Incompatibility of the Two Abodes
The sun and
earth produce the day and night; when thou hast passed beyond, neither the one
nor the other will exist for thee.
thou in whose
imagination desire and desirer are two, know that the duality belongs to thy
understanding, and belongs not to the Unity. Since in the Presence of One such
as He all things are one, if thou wilt listen to my words, then seek not thou
duality; know that in duality is pain and opposition, in Unity Rustam and a catamite are alike.
Till on the
battlefield of purity and in the court of the soul, stand- ing
above thy fife and treading on thy earthly body, thou cast away thy sword, thou
wilt not become a shield; till thou lay aside the crown thou wilt not become
a leader. So long as thy soul is a slave to the crown, thy acts will ever be
wrong; when thou no longer heedest crown and zone, then art thou chief over the
chiefs of the age. To abandon the world is to mount the horse of God’s favour;
its repudiation is the establishment of pure truth. The death of the sou] is the
destruction of fife; the death of the life is salvation for the soul. By no means stand still on this path; become
non-existent,— non-existent too as regards becoming non-existent ; when
thou hast abandoned both individuality and understanding, then for thee this
world changes to that one.
Every
desire that springs up in
thee, strike that moment at its head, as thou dost with the lamp, the candle,
and pen ; for every head that comes in sight is on this
Path meet to be cut off. To be headless
before heroes is due respect; for ever a chief seeks a cap of
honour. To lose thy head
brings thee a head again for its fruit f by reason of its headlessness
the pomegranate is a casket full of pearls.
Though a crown is a protection to a bald head,
with such a head it is wrong to wear a crown.8 Thou hast corruption
under thy cap, —then canst thou not possibly pass the bridge of fire. Better for a man than earthly fortune is a
well ; a bald man becomes
arrogant when he receives a crown ; so is it well that while on this nightjourney, when thou puttest thy hand to thy head, thou
shouldest find no crown thereon ; for while the baldheaded man desires a crown
to cover his defect, the man of the Path seeks for the invisible. If the crown
hurts thee, no less too inverted it destroys thy life; the head that is a slave to the crown is a
prisoner, like Bizhan, in a well. Then own neither head nor crown on the Path; if thou dost, thou wilt
have thy heart aflame like wax; and if thou must needs have a crown, take one
of fire, like the candle ; for he who in his love is the light of the Path,
like a candle has a crown of fire.
If thou demandest Yusuf’s place and power,
invert thyself before God, like a well; guard like Sulaiman the perfectness of the
Path; like Yusuf look upon
the well as beautiful; till thy bodily form becomes a dweller in the well, thy
hidden figure will not be of God.
Arise, and
leave this ignoble world to find the ineffable God; abandon body and life and
reason and religion ; and in His path get for thyself a soul. Know,
that whatso is of the true essence of learning and knowledge is all mere
falsehood to him who is learned in attributes. Form, and attribute, and essence,—the first is
like the womb : the next the membranes, the last the child ; thy outward form covers in thy attributes, thy
attributes again are a rampart around thy
inmost essence ; that, like a lamp, is bright in itself, while the other two
are as a glass and a niche in the wall.
Till on that
road thou hast endured distress, thou hast two souls, though thy effigy is single. Thou4 who art related to phenomenal
existence but as soul is to body, whose soul is related to thy individuality
but as a man to his name, exertion originates in the body, attraction
in the soul; but the search begins in leaving both of these. Contingent
existence is for ever an infant before the Eternal ; but he who has
been purified is free from these dregs.
So long as the
race of man endures, there are two mansions prepared for him ; this, for pain
and want, that one, for blessing and delight. While earth is the habitation of
the sons of men, the tent of their daily supplies is erected over them; esteem
then this earth a guest-house, but count
man the master of a family; though till he has suffered pain on this
dust-heap he will not reach the treasure of that mansion.
I ask thee,
since thou art heir to the knowledge of philosophy and law, their principles
and deductions, (religion
ever flees from form, that she may constrain men from evil), —give
me an answer truly, if thou art not dead, nor art asleep: Since thou hast been
constituted with a soul, is not the soul a sufficient reward for thee in
exchange for thyself ?
The Parable of the Schoolboys
Thou knowest not
the difference between the hidden world and this,—canst not distinguish between
welfare and affliction. In truth,
thou art not a man travelling on this Path; thou art a child of the Path,
knowest not the Path; thou art but a boy,—go about thy play, go back to thy
pride and independence. The airs and graces of thy mistress are enough for
thee,—what, son, hast thou to do with
God ? What concern hast thou with Paradise and eternal delight, who bast rejected the life to come for this present
world ? He knows thy baseness ; how shall He invite thy thee-ness to Himself ?
He offers thee the virgins and palaces of Paradise, but thou art beguiled by
this present world and its beauties. unfruitful
one!’ be not feebler than a boy to follow the path of God.
If a boy is
unequal to learning his task, hear at once what it is that he wants ; be kind
to him and treat him tenderly; make him not to grieve in helpless
expectation: at such a time
give him sweetmeats in his lap to comfort him, and do not treat him
harshly. But if he will not read, at
once send for the strap; take hold of his ears and rub them hard;4
threaten him with the schoolmaster, say that he will have strict orders to
punish him, that he will shut him up in a rat-house, and the head rat will
strangle him.
In the path
that leads to the life to come be not thou less apt than a boy to receive
admonition; eternity is thy sweetmeat,—haste thou then, and at the price of two
rak‘ahs obtain Paradise. Other wise the
rat-house will for thee be Hell,—will be thy tomb which meets thee on thy way to that other
mansion. Go to the writing-school of the prophets for a time; choose not for
thyself this folly, this affliction. Read but one tablet of the religion of the
prophets; since thou knowest nothing thereof, go, read and learn, that haply
thou mayest become their friend, mayest haply escape from this stupidity;—in
this corrupt and baleful world deem not thou that there is aught worse than
stupidity.
Of’ the Story of Qais ibn ‘ Asim
When the
command of ‘ Who is there that will lend ’a came down from
God to the Prophet, everyone brought before the Prince what he could lay hands on, not
disobeying,—gems and gold, cattle and slaves and goods, whatever they possessed
at the time. Qais b. ‘ Asim was a poor man, for he sought no worldly gain. He
went into his house, and spoke with his family, concealing nothing of what he
had heard :—Such a verse has been revealed to-day; rise, and do not make me
burn in waiting; bring whatever is to be had in the house, that I may present
it before the Prince. Has wife said, There is nothing in the house,—you are not
a stranger here. Said he, Seek at least for something ;
whatever you find, bring it to me quickly. She went and long searched the
house, to see if by chance something would turn up; and found in the house a
measure of dates, bad ones, and dried up, not fit for food, which she
straightway brought 61 to Qais, saying, We have nothing more than this. Qais
put the dates in his sleeve, and brought them joyfully before the Prcfphet.
When, not meaning a jest, but in all seriousness, he entered the mosque, one of
the Hypocrites said to him, Bring it in; come, present
quickly what thou hast brought: are they jewels, or gold, or silver, these
valuables that thou art entrusting to the Prince ? At this speech Qais suddenly
became ashamed.
Look now what
was the outcome. He went into a corner and sat down sorrowing, folding his
hands together in shame. Gabriel the trusty came from the sidra-tree and said, O lord of time and earth, do not keep the man
waiting, and deem not contemptible what he has brought. He acquainted Mustafa
with the matter, and • ‘ Those who defame the willing ones' was
thereupon revealed. The angel
world came and looked on,—how they watched the
man ! An earthquake fell upon the angel world,—no place of rest, no
place of peace. God Most High thus speaks, and in His kindness seeks out Qais’s
heart: O exalted, and chosen as my
Prophet, accept forthwith this much from Qais, for before me these poor dates
show better than the others’ gojd and gems. I have accepted this small
merchandise from him, because he has no date-palm. Of all the choicest things
the endeavour of the poor is most approved.
- Hence it was
that Qais’s act triumphed over the deed of that evil-spoken hypocrite. The
hypocrite was straightway humiliated, and Qais’s work thus completed ; that
thou mayest know that whoso comes
forward, even in the state he is, does well. He who acts the hypocrite towards
God is shamed by all his works. Sincerity is better than ah else,—thou wilt at
least have read so much.
An alms of a
single diram from the hand of a darwish is more than a thousand di rams of the wealthy ; forasmuch
as the darwish’s heart is sore, the alms he gives from his sore heart is
greater than the other’s. See the rich man, how his soul is dark and clouded,
like his clay ; the darwish’s clay is for ever pure, his soul is imperishable essence of gold? Hear
what God’s bounty has said ; but to whom shall I tell it, for no one bears me company ?—to the king of
kings and lord of ‘ But for thee ’s He said “ Nor let
thine eyes be turned from them.”*
On Intimate Friendship and Attachment
There is no
injury in the world for thee like thy prosperity ; there is no such enduring
imprisonment as thy existence ; ‘ the light has appeared ’ it is that
bestows favours, ‘ the lie has failed ’ is both life and body. Wishest
thou the Invisible ? take Self out of the path; what has imperfection to do
with the mansion of Invisibility ? Thou art full of fault, yet intendest the invisible
world ;—it is above all impossible in incredulity and doubt. The chains of thy
selfhood will not fall from the two feet of thy nature under the compulsion of
thy folly; when thy being appears to thee as a veil, thy understanding will
have fallen under thy anger.
Abandon talk, and bid farewell to thy lower self; if thou
canstnot, then turn thy two eyes into rivers, day and night in thy separation
from God grieve over thy understanding,
no longer employ it to
meditate evil ; free it from this tether,—then has thy task become easy for thee. When thou findest thy
sustenance in the Soul, thou
wilt look out on the land from the window of the angel world.
How long wilt
thou say, “What is the arriving? In the path of religion what is it to be
chosen ?” Lay bonds upon thyself,— then wilt thou be chosen; plant thy foot
upon thy head,—then wilt thou have arrived. As long as thou art a biter, thou art not
chosen ; whilst thou
inclinest to this world, thou hast not arrived.
How shall a
true son of Adam be such a biter as thou, or how shall devil or
wild beast rend as thou dost ? Thou art ever heedless and arrogant, a beast of
prey and a devil, far removed from man’s estate ; like a tiger ever
malevolent,—the people of the world in distress
63 through thy
evil disposition. Upon this high road of debasement thou wilt attain to
Self,—thou wilt not attain to Him/
The Kufan has
given forth but one verse about the Sufi; but what has Love to do with the
decision of Quraishite or Kufan ; or the Sufi and his love with ‘ Further, it
is in the tradition,’ with negation and affirmation, and ‘ It is lawful ’
and ‘ It is not lawful ’ ? The Sufis have lifted up their hands, and for ‘ Yes ’ have substituted ‘
No.’
The
earth-scatterers in the bridal-ch amber of His affection, and those who sit by
the road which leads to the cell of His sanctity, all are moon-bright signs on
the curtain of jealousy, immersed in tears from foot to head; all are recipients of His clemency, all
captive to the knowledge of Him. Lay down thy burden of Self, that so thou
mayest become the beloved of every street. The pure eye sees the purity of religion
when the eye is pure, it sees purely. Those who are not steadfast in Him are
covered with dust; those who wear His crown are kings indeed.
Take off thy head this many-coloured cloak ; hold to
a garment of one colour, like ‘Isa, that like him thou mayest walk upon the water,
and make of sun and moon thy fellow-travellers. Take all of self away from
thyself, and then with that same breath speak the story of Adam. Till thy Self becomes small as an atom to thee,
thou canst not possibly reach that place ; that desire will never harmonize
with Self ; rise, and without thy Self pursue thy path.
He Who Trusts In His Submission Surfers A Manifest Hurt
An old fox said to another, “master of wisdom and counsel and
knowledge, make haste, take two hundred dirams, and convey our letter to these
dogs.” He said, “ The pay is better than a headache, but it is a heavy and perilous
task ; when my life has been spent in this venture, what use will your dirams
be then ? ’ ’
A feeling of
security against Thy decree, God, is, rightly under¬stood, the essence of
error; it made both ‘Azazil and Bal‘am in¬famous.
He Who Is Indifferent To The World Finds A Kingdom That
Shall Not Wane
There was an old ascetic in Basra, none in that age so devout
as he. He said, I rise every morning determined to fly from this vile Self. My
Self says to me, Come, old man, what wilt thou eat this morning ? Make some
preparation, come, tell me what I am to eat.
I tell him, Death ; and leave the subject. Then my Self says to me, What shall
I put on ? I say, The winding-sheet. Then he questions me, and makes most
absurd requests, such as, thou of blind heart,
where dost thou wish to go ? I say to him, Silence ! to the grave-side ; so
that perhaps while in rebellion against my Self I may draw a breath in freedom
from the fear of the night-watchman.
Honour to him who contemns Self, and does not permit it to
stand before him.
On The Asceticism Oe The Ascetic.
An ascetic fled from amongst his people, and went to the top
of a mountain, where he built a cell. One day by
chance a sage, a learned man, wise and able, passed by and saw the ascetic, so
holy and devout. Said he, Poor wretch ! why hast thou made thy dwelling and
habitation and home upon this height ? The ascetic said, The people of this
world have been clean destroyed in their pursuit of it: the hawk of the
world is on the wing, calling aloud in every country ; he sptaks with eloquent
tongue, seeking his prey throughout the world, ever calling on its people
afflicted and parted from their lord, “Woe to him who fears me not, who shows
no anxiety to seek me ! Let it not happen as in Fustat,—few birds and hawks in
plenty !8
On The Love Of The World And The Manner Of The People
Of It
There is a great city
within the borders of Rum, where a large number of hawks have made their home.
Fustat is the name of that city of renown; it extends to the borders of
Dimyafc. Within it no house-sparrows fly, for the hawks
hunt them through the air and leave no birds inside that city, for they devour
them within an hour. The times are now
become like Fust fit; the wise are like the birds, despised and helpless.
I have hidden
myself upon this height to be at peace from the evil
of the world. The sage said, Who lives here with thee ? How farest thou on
this hill-top ? Said the ascetic, Aly Self is in this house with me by day and night. The
sage said, Then hast thou accomplished nothing ; cease, fool,
to follow the path of asceticism. The ascetic said, They have fixed my Self
within me, and sold me into his hands ; I cannot separate myself from him—what
means of escape could I contrive ? Said that worthy philosopher to the
ascetic, Thy Self instructs thee in evil deeds. The ascetic said, 1 have come
to know my Self, and so 1 am able to get on with him ; he is a sick man, and 1
am as it were his physician ; day and night 1 look after him and am busy
treating him, for he keeps saying he is indisposed. Sometimes I determine to bleed him, and open the vein
before liis eyes; as the blood spouts out, he subsides, and
the bleeding calms him. Sometimes I give him a purge to clear out his
distempers ; and liis love of the world, and hatred, and rancour, and envy, and
treachery, and deceit are expelled from his body ; on taking it he thrusts
aside his natural inclinations and shuts the door of desire against himself.
Sometimes 1 forbid him to indulge liis appetites, that haply he may j relinquish pleasure ; I feed him on two beans,
and make the room like a tomb upon him. Sometimes I put my Self to sleep, and
then in haste make one or two obeisances ; but even before he awakes from his sleep he
clings to me like a sick man;' and when T have got through one or two
obeisances without him, then my Self wakes up.
On hearing
these words the sage tore his garments one by one upon his body and said, How
excellent art thou, ascetic ! May God
bless thy life, thou pious man ! Such words are granted but to thee ; thy
wealth is not less than the kingdom of Jam. That which thou possessest today is
adornment, and what thou mayest have tomorrow, impurity.
He is not stained who leaves his sins, from whom in sorrow a
sigh of ‘ Alas ’ arises ; a woman nimbly adorns her
eyebrows and her ringlets for a feast.
In three
prisons, deceit and hatred and envy, thou hast made thy understanding captive
to thy body. The five senses, having their origin in the four elements, are the
five tale-bearers of these three prisons. The soul is a stranger here, and a
fool, so long as it is in bondage to the
four elements ; how can the soul that is admitted to the treasury of the secret
pay honour to spies and informers ? But here wisdom empties the quiver, for persistencein one’s purpose is useless at
the Ka‘ba.6 Haply a fool at the Ka'ba will hear much philosophy
about the direction of the qibla; but at the Ka‘ba whoso should strive even
till he died would but take fresh cuminseed to Kirman. His tongue the tongueless speak ; some mark of Him those seek who have no mark?
Cast in the fire all else besides the Friend, then raise thy head from out the
water of Love. On the journey from this life to the next the slave has no ally
in what he does of right or infamy ; surrender not thy heart and thy desire to the
companionship of men ; cut thyself off from them, lest they cut thy throat. At the last day thou shalt weary of
men, but thou art far off now, and it will take thee long to come; then wilt thou discover the onion’s value,
when thou art denied admittance to the straight road. Those who are not friends, yet whom thou
deemest such, thou wilt see that they all break their faith with thee. The
rose-tree of the garden of those who cherish Self is become as a boil, a
malignant pimple. Understand well, the state of men will be no whit different
at the resurrection ; whatsoever he chooses, that will be set before him, and what
he takes from here he will see there.
When
the second command of God has uttered four tekbirs supon thy three pillars, the
cloth-weavers of the eternal world will recite thine own words and poems to
thee.
The things
the worthy shopkeeper sends’ to his house from
the market, whatever they may be, his family bring before him at home in the evening ; so whatever thou takest away
from here is kept, and the very same is brought before thee at the
resurrection. There is no change or substitution there; by no possibility can
an evil become a good. Nothing will be given free to anyone there; what is due
is given, and nothing besides. Rise and read, if thou knowest it not, the explanation of this in the Divine Word;
‘thou shalt not find any change in the ordinance of God, thou shalt not find
any alteration in His religion.’ No alteration comes over His inexorable
sentence, no change upon His all-embracing decree. Rise, and put away thy
uncleanness, or thou wilt not receive thy pardon in that world; if now thou
piercest thy Self with an arrow thou wilt throw into the fire thy sorrow and
thy pain.
Of Addresses To God, And Self-Abasement, And Humility.
Prayer will not draw back the veil of
Majesty till the servant comes forth from his defilement; as thy purity opens the door of prayer, so
know that thy corruption locks it against thee. When wilt thou plant thy foot
upon the heavens’ roof, when drink wine from the angels’ cup? How can God in
His kindness take thee to Himself, or freely
accept thy prayers, while like an ass within this rotting mansion thy
belly is full of food and thy loins of water ?
How wilt thou ever see the Lord of the divine Law, thy lower parts sunk
in the water and thy nose in heaven ?
Thy beggar’s food and cloak must both be
pure, or thou wilt come to thy destruction in the dust; if food and raiment be
not pure how is thy prayer better than a handful of dust ? Keep pure for the
glory of God’s service thy habitation and thy raiment and thy soul; the dog
sweeps his lair with his tail, but thou sweepest not with sighs thy place of prayer.
Though all thou hast be spotless, yet is
all polluted before God. He who seeks Him makes use first of a bath, for God
accepts not the prayers of the unclean; and how canst thou perform thy
neglected ablution so long as thy heart
holds enmity and hatred? Thy envy, anger, avarice, desire, and covetousness,—I
marvel indeed if these will admit of thy coming to prayer ! Till thou banishest
envy from thy heart, thou wilt never be free from its evil workings. If thou
hast not washed thyself free from blame, the mighty Lord will not receive thy
prayer; but when thy heart draws thee out from thyself, then true prayer rises up from thy
destitution. The whole of prayer lies in ablution and purification; recovery from a grie' ous sickness depends
on the use of remedies.
Until thou sweep the path with the broom
of Not, how canst thou enter the abode of Except God V So long as thou art
under the dominion of the four, the five and the six, thou shalt not taste of wine save from
the jar of lust. Burn and destroy all else but God ; cleanse thyself from
everything but the true faith. The soul’s qibla
is the threshold of the Most High ; the heart’s Uhud is the sanc¬tuary
of the One ; at Uhud devote thy life
like Hamza, that so thou mayest taste the sweetness of the call to prayer.
Come not in thy pride to prayer ; take
shame to thyself and stand in awe of God ; him God receives in prayer who has
no commanding dignity in his own eyes? Helpless, thou wilt be received with
kind¬ness ; wanting for nothing, thy prayer will not be accepted.
Wanting for nothing, if thou give thyself the
trouble of prayer, thou shalt consume thy liver fried in the pan with
onions. But if along with prayer
goes helplessness, the hand of kindness shall raise the veil of the secret;
then, speeding into the Court of God’s kindness, he renders what is due, he
obtains what he sought ; and if it be not
so, Iblis will hear thee when thou art
at prayer, and drag thee forth again.
Thou earnest abject, thy prayer is
honoured ; thou earnest as a raw youth,
thy prayer is as one of venerable age. Know, that the seventeen rak'ahs of
prayer given forth from the soul’s heart are a kingdom of eighteen thousand
worlds ; a kingdom of eighteen thousand
worlds belongs to him who performs the seventeen rak'ahs ; and say not that
this reckoning is too small, for seventeen is not far from eighteen.
Thy self-esteem utters no prayer, for it sees no profit
for thee in religion ; while thy
self-esteem guides the reins I doubt indeed if it will ever come where Gabriel
is. Thy prayer will not admit thee to God if thou hast not purified thyself in
indigence ; thy purification lies in lowliness and selflessness, thy atonement
in the slaughter of thy Self ; and when thou hast slain thy Self upon the path,
God’s favour will quickly manifest
itself. Come in thy poverty if thou wouldst find admission : and if thou do not
so, then thou wilt quickly find thyself trebly divorced ; for the prayer that is received into His
presence has no concern with the pollution of worldly glory.
When death drags forth thy life, then from
thy indigence there springs true prayer ; when thy body has gone to the dust
and spirit to the skies, then mayst thou see thy soul engaged, as angels are,
in prayer.
On The Participation Of The Heart In Prayer.
At the battle
of Uhud cAli the Prince, the impetuous Lion, received a grievous
wound. The head of the arrow remained in his foot, and he knew that it was
necessary to take it out, this being the only cure for him. As soon as the
surgeon saw it, he said, We must cut it open with a knife ; to find the
arrow-head, a key must be applied to the closed wound.” But ‘Ali had no strength to bear the insertion
of the forceps ; “ Let it alone,” said
he, “ till the time of prayer.” So when he was engaged in prayer his surgeon
gently took out the arrow-head from his limb,’ bringing it clear away while ‘All was
unconscious of any suffering or pain.
When ‘All
ceased from prayer (he whom God called Friend), he said, “ My pain is less,—how
is that ? And why is there all this blood where I have been praying ?” Husain,
the glory of the world, splendid
above all the children of Mustafa, answered him, “ When u thou
enteredst into prayer, thou wentest up to God, and the surgeon took out the
arrow-head before thou hadst finished thy prayer.” Said the Lion, “ By the most
great Creator, I knew nothing of the pain of it.”
thou, who art well known for thy prayers, who
art commended before men for thy piety, pray in this wise anddiscern the
interpretation of the story ; or else rise, and cease vainly to wag thy beard.
When thou
enterest into prayer in sincerity, thou 'wilt come forth from prayer with all
thy desire obtained; but if without sincerity thou offer a hundred salutations,
thou art still abungler, thy work
a failure. One salutation is the same as two hundred one prostration ) in
sincerity is worth thy standing erect a
hundred times, for the ( prayer that is mere matter of custom is dust that is
scattered by the ' wind. The prayers that reach God’s court are those that the
soul prays; the mere mimic is ever a mendicant, praying unworthily, without
intelligence, since he chooses the path of folly. For on this Path prayer of
the spirit is of more account than barren mimicry.
Desire
To Pray
When thou
callest on God, bring supplication meet for Him, that His good pleasure may
receive thee. From time to time, divided from the real and bound up in the
phenomenal, thou comest to pray the obligatory prayers ; calling not on God,
without self-abasement, without humility, thou carelessly performest a rak‘ah
or two.
Thou deemest
it prayer,—I marvel if thou art listened to at all ! Thou comest before God in
thy pride,—how shall God hear thee when thou callest ? Let thy prayer be free
from Self, and He will accept Las pure ; if it be smirched with Self He
will not receive it. The message that the tongue of anguish utters is an envoy
from this world of men to Him ; when it is thy helplessness that sends the
messenger, thy cry is ‘ Lord ’, and His is ‘ Labbeyk.’ [here
you go sir]
As a proud
lord marches to the arms of his servants and slaves so thou layest the load of obligation on Him
;—“ I am Thy friend,” sayest thou, honour be mine ! ” Thou
deemest thyself a friend, not a slave ; is this the manner of a man of wisdom ?
Better were it, son, that thou offer not
such service to Him ; go, strive not with Him. Without right guidance man is
less than a beast; whoso is without guidance labours in vain.
Have done with
this service, thou fool ! Never again call thyself a slave I If thou wert
mighty in the world, thou wouldst say ’ what Pharaoh did, every word ! who in his surpassing fatuity, and his supreme
insolence and folly, averse from service and submission, drew aside the veil
from before his deeds,’ saying, “I am greater than the kings, I am
above the princes of the world.” All have this insolence and pride; Pharaoh’s
words are instinct in everyone; but daring not through fear to utter their
secret, they hide it away even from themselves.
On Failure To Pray Aright
Bu Shu'aib
al-Ubayy was a leader in religion whom everyone used to praise ; one who rose
in the night and fasted
continually, one who was distinguished in that age for his asceticism. He betook
himself from the city to a cell on the mountain, and made his escape from pain
and sorrow.
It chanced
that a certain woman had an affection for him ; she said, “
O Shaikh, would it be fitting
for thee to have a wife ? If thou wilt, I place myself at thy disposal, and
will willingly become thy wife ; my soul will cheerfully be satisfied with
little, and I shall never think of my former ease.” He answered, “ Excellent ;
it is very fitting ; I approve. If thou art satisfied, I am content.”
She was a
modest woman called Jauhara, and had a full share of beauty and grace ; chaste,
refined, of sweet disposition, an incarnation of good
deeds ; content with the
decree of the revolving heavens, she left the city for the hermit’s cell, and
there seeing a piece of matting lying on the floor, she straightway took it up.
The devout Bu $hu‘aib said to her, “thou, now my cherished wife, why hast thou
taken up the carpet ? For the black earth is only the place for our shoes.” She said, “ I did it because it was best so ;
for I have heard you say that any act of devotion is best performed when no
screen interposes ; and the mat was an obstacle between my forehead and the
actual earth.'
Every night Bu
Shu‘aib’s daily meal consisted of two round cakes for his querulous belly; with these two barley-cakes that pious man
broke his fast and was always content. But he fell ill from the risings that so
afflicted his nights ; and so, being helpless, the good man, because of the weakness brought
on by fasting, said the jarz and sunnah prayers that night sitting. His wife laid one cake
before him, and gave him a drop of vinegar,—nothing more. Said the
Shaikh, “wife, my allowance is more than this ! Why is it so little, wife ! She
said, “ Because the worshipper who says his prayers sitting receives only half
the full reward ; and if thou sittest to say thy prayers, thou eatest the half
of thy usual allowance. Ask no more from me,
Shaikh, than half thy dole ; I have warned thee. For the portion that
belongs to prayers said sitting is the half of the reward given for those said
standing ; why expect the reward of the
whole when thou performest but half thy devotions ? Perform the whole,
and then ask for the whole reward ; otherwise such worship is absolutely
wrong.”
thou, in the
path of sincerity thou art feebler thanawoman, laggest far behind such of thy
fellow-creatures as she. By such prayer as comes not from the heart thou canst
not anywise obtain thy soul’s release. No one regards as of any worth the service
whose life- principle comes not from the
heartfor a bone is of itself no delicacy . on one’s plate without the marrow.
Know that at the resurrection no prayer, that is imperfect will be taken into
account; the marrow of prayer consists in lowliness, and if there be not
lowliness it will not bereceived. A man must come to prayer as one wounded,
sorrowing, and in poverty ; and if there be not lowliness and trust the devil
derides him.
Whoso is
wholly taken up with fasting and prayer,s poverty ever locks the
door of his soul ;k in this world of deceit and desire, in this hundred-thousand-years-enduring cage, the cap
of thy degree is the compliment thou offerest it but thy head is greater than the cap.
Whoso enters
into prayer with fitting preparation, the reward of his prostration is the cave
of the West.
Go then,,
perform thy prayers without breath of desire, for the \ dew of desirq
utterly corrupts them ; the baseness of thy prayers and thy fasting is such
that the slipper of thy foot is the only present in thy hand.
Speak in
pleasant tones on coming to the mountain ; why offer it the braying of an ass ?
Thou hast raised up a hundred
thousand ruffians in the path of prayer, who drown thy cries. It must needs be that the words of thy prayer
come back in their entirety, like an echo, from the mountain of the world.
On Laud And Praise.
In every mouth
the tongue that utters speech becomes fragrant as musk in praising Thee. In Thy
decree and will, as Thou art far or near, lies for the heart and soul eternal
happiness or ruinous disaster, an imperishable kingdom or everlasting
beguilement; Thy servants wander to and fro by day and night, all seeking
Thyself from Thee.. Fortune, and empire, and the glory of both worlds he knows
who understands things manifest and hidden, yet longs not for them; for all is
nothing without Thee,—nothing. Destruction and creation are alike easy to Thee
; all that Thou hast willed, takes place. The cunning man, though mightier he be,
is yet the feebler in Thy praise; or in tais court Zil-i-zar, though full of
fury, is powerless as an old woman ; in face of Thy decree of ‘ Be, and it was,’
no one dares to question, ‘ What is this ? How comes that ?’
On Poverty And Perplexity.
He hears the heart’s low voice of
supplication. He knows when the heart’s secret rises up to Him ; when
supplication opens the door of the heart, its desire comes
forward to meet it: the { Here am 1 ’ of the Friend goes out
to welcome the heart’s cry of { Lord ’ as it ascends from the high road of acquiescence.
One cry of ‘ Lord ’ from
thee,—from Him two hundred times comes ‘ Here am I ’ ; one ‘ Peace '
from thee,—a thousand times He answers 'And on thee' ;* let men do good
or ill, His mercy and His bounty still proceed.
Poverty is an
ornament in His court,—thou bringest thy worldly stock-in-trade and its profits
as a present ; but thy long
grief is what He will accept, His abundance will receive thy neediness. Bilal whose body’s skin was black as a sweetheart’s
locks, was a friend in His court; his
outward garment became as a
black mole of amorous r allurement upon the face of the maidens of Paradise.
Thou who marshallest the company of darwishes, Thou who
watchest the sorrow of the sore at heart, heal him who is now like unto a
quince, make him like the bowstring who is now bent as
the bow? I am utterly helpless in the grasp of poverty; Thou,
who rulest the affairs of men, rule mine. I am solitary in the land of the
angels, i.'i lonely in the glory of the world of might ; the verse of my knowledge has not even a beginning, but the excess of my
yearning has no end.
On
Being Glad In God Most High, And Humbling Oneself Before Him
Life of all
the contented, who grantest the desires of the desirous; the acts in me that
are right, Thou makest so,—Thou, kinder to me than I am to myself. No bounds
are set to Thy mercy, no interruption appears in Thy bounty. Whatever Thou
givest, give thy slave piety ; accept of
him and set him near Thyself. Gladden my heart with the thought of the holiness
of religion ; make fire of my human body of dust and wind. It is Thine to show mercy and to forgive, mine
to stumble and to fall. I am not wise,—receive me, though drunk ; I have slipped, take Thou my hand. I know full
well that Thou hidest me ; Thy screening of me has made me proud. I know not
what has been from all eternity condemned to rejection ; I know not who will be
called at the last. I have no power to anger or to reconcile Thee, nor does my
adulation advantage Thee. My straying heart now seeks return to Thee ; my uncleanness is drenched
by the pupil of my eye.
Show my
straying heart a path, open a door before the pupil of my eye,
that it may not be proud before Thy works, that it may have no fear before Thy might. O Thou who shepherdest this flock with Thy
mercy,—but what speech is all this ? they are all Thee. .Show Thou mercy on my soul and on my clay,
that my soul’s sorrow may be assuaged within me. Do Thou cherish me, for others are hard ; do Thou receive me, for others
themselves are rent asunder.
How can I be
intimate with other than Thee ? They are dead,— Thou art my sufficient Friend.
What is to me the bounty of Theeness and doubleness, so long as I believe that
I am I, and Thou art Thou ?1 What to me is all this smoke, in face
of Thy fire ? Since Thou art, let the existence of all else cease the world’s
existence consists in the wind of Thy
favour. Thou, injury from whom is better
than the world’s gain.
I know not
what sort of man he is, who in his folly can ever have sufficiency of Thee. Can
a man remain alive without Thy succour, or exist apart from Thy favour ? How
can he grieve who possesses Thee ; or how can he prosper who is without Thee ?
That of which Thou saidst, Eat not, I have eaten ; and what Thou forbadest,
that have I done; yet if I possess Thee, I am a coin of pure gold,-2
and with out Thee, I am a mill-wheel’s groaning.3 I am in an agony 4
for fear of death; be Thou my life, that I die not. Why sendest Thou Thy word and sword to me ?
Alas for me,who am I apart from Thee ?
If Thou
receive me, O Thou dependent on no cause, what matters the good or ill of a handful of dust ? This is
the dust’s high honour, that its speech should be in praise of Thee;~ Thy glory
has taken away the dust’s dishonour, has exalted its head even to the Throne.
Hadst Thou not given the word of permission, who, forthat he is so far from
Thee, could utter Thy name ? Mankind would not have dared to praise Thee in their imperfect speech.3
What is to be found in our reason
or our drunkenness ? for we are not, nor have we an existence.
Though we be
full of self, purify us from our sins ; by some way of deliverance save me from
destruction. In presence of Thy decree, though I be wisdom’s self, yet who am I
that I should count as either good or evil ? My evil becomes good when Thou
acceptest it; my good, evil when Thou refusest it?
1 Thou art
all, Lord, both my good and ill ; and, wonderful to say, no ill comes from Thee
! . Only an evil-doer commits evil; Thou canst
only be described as altogether good ; Thou wiliest good for Thy servants
continually, but the servants themselves know naught of Thee. Within this veil
of passion and desire our ignorance can only ask for pardon at the
hands of Thy Omniscience. If we have behaved like dogs in our duty, Thou hast
found no tigerishness in us, then pass over our offence. As we stand, awaiting the fulfilment of Thy
promised kindness at the bountiful door of the Court of Thy generosity, on Thy
side all is abundance ; the falling short is in our works.
On His Kindness And
Bounty
Lord, the
Enduring, the Holy, whose kingdom is not of touch or sense ; by Thee we
conquer, without Thee we fail; in Thee we are content, apart from Thee unsatisfied. Though
none amongst us is of any avail, is not Thy kindness a sufficient messenger of
promise ? Thou hast given us our religion, give us a sure belief in it; though
we have the faith, give us yet more. Checkmated on the chessboard of our
passions as we are, we thirst
for the heavenly valley; none of us can tell the good from ill,—give us what
Thou knowest to be good.
Thou, desire of the desirous, Thou,
the hope of those who hope, Thou who
seest what is manifest, who knowest what is hidden, Thou surely accomplishest
my hope ; all my hope is in Thy mercy,— life and daily bread, all is of Thy
bounty. From the river of the
true religion give to my thirsty heart
a draught full of the light of the Truth.
’ Not by
wisdom and not by skill can I obtain other intercessor with Thee than Thyself.
All that Thy decree has written for me is well; it is not ill. I can dispense
with everything,—all that is ; but Thou art indispensable to me ; receive me
Thou ! In the rose-tree of the search the nightingale of love trills its song
of “ Thou art all!” The falcon of my glory flies up from the path of lowliness higher
than the sidra-tree. He rules empires
who presses on towards Thee ; but whoso makes not for this door, wretched is
he.
Who shall give
me speech but Thou ? Who shall save me from myself but
Thou ? Thou buyest not perfume and paint and deceit ; save me from
all this, Thou who art all ! Thou buyest
weakness and helplessness and feebleness, but not indolence and stupidity and
uncleanness. Pain becomes ease at Thy court, silence is perfect eloquence. Kill everything and, for it all, to be received by Thee will
be sufficient blood-money. To turn the reins of hope away from Thee,—what is
that but the sign and mark of a fall ? Thy vengeance takes shape in the soul of whoso
seeks aught but to be beloved of Thy presence ;
Guardian of the mysteries, save our inward nature from the impress which
marks the wicked !
On Turning to God
Creator of the
world, who preset vest the soul in beauty; Thou who guidcst the understanding to the path
of true devotion ; in the Paradise of the skies they are all raw youths ; in
Thy Paradise are those who drink of
Hell. What are good and ill
to me at Thy door ?' What is
Heaven to me when Thou art there ? Who can show forth in this deceptive mirror the import of the words ‘ ‘ All-knowing ’ ’
and “ All-powerful ” ?
When the
heart’s blood bores the liver, what is Hell, what a baker’s live coal ? Hell would become Heaven through fear of Him ; how can clay become a brick without a
mould ?6 Those who love Thee weep in their laughter because of Thee
; those who know Thee laugh in their weeping because of Thee. They rest in Paradise who are in Thy fire ;
but the most are contented apart
from Thee with the maidens of the eyes. If Thou send me from Thy door to Hell, I will
not go on foot but on my head ; but whoso opposes Thy decree, his soul shall
hold up a mirror to him, because of his recklessness.
His standing
and his occupation Thou givest to everyone ; a friend is a snake,—a snake a
friend if sent by Thee. Though threat- ened
with “ None will think himself secure," I cannot have enough of
Thee ; nor do I become bold because of “ Be not in despair." If Thou givest poison to my soul, I cannot
mention anything bitterer than sugar.
He only is secure from Thy
craft who is mean and
lowly ; Thy
peace and Thy craft appear alike, but at Thy craft the wise man trembles. We
must not think ourselves secure against Thy craft, for neither obedience nor
sin is of avail he only thinks himself secure, who knows not Thy craft in
dealing with wickedness.
On Devotion to God.
Say, Grind
sleep under the foot of the horsemen of thy thought; for this is of Thy Court. When Thou strikest off the head of him in whom
Self no long dwells, he rejoices in Thee, like a candle? If I have Thee, what
care I for intellect, and honour, and gold ? Thou art both world and faith ;
what care I for aught else ? Do Thou give
me a heart, and then see Thou my valour ; call me to be Thy fox, and see
how like a tiger I shall be. If I fill my quiver with Thy arrows, I grip
Mount Qaf by loins and armpits. Thou art his Friend who is not knowledgeless ;
Thou belongest to him who belongs
not to Self. No one who regards Self can see God; he who looks at Self is not
one of the faith ; if thou art a man of the Path, and of the true religion,
cease for a time to contemplate thyself.
God, Omnipotent,
Forgiving, drive not Thy servant from Thy
door ; make me Thy captive ; take away my indifference ; make me athirst for Thee,—give me not water !
Why should I seek my soul in this
or that ? my pain itself leads me to Thee, my goal.
Like an ass
without headstall before its greens, thou now beginnest to employ thy worthless
life. Thou idly wanderest from city to city;seek thy ass on that road where
thou hast lost it. If they
have stolen thy ass from thee in ‘ Iraq, why art thou to be seen in Yazd and
Rai ?
Till thou
becomest perfect, there is a bridge for thee ; when thou hast become perfect,
what matters sea or bridge to thee ? Let thy burden on this road be thine own
right-doing and knowledge, and trouble not thyself about any bridge. Make
not for the boat, for it is not safe ; he who goes by boat knows nothing of the
sea ; it would be a strange sight to see a duck, however young and inexperienced,
seeking for a boat. Though a
duckling be born but yesterday, it goes
up to its breast in the water. Be thou as a duck,—religion the stream; fear not
the fordless sea’s abyss; the duckling swims in the midst of the sea of ‘Uman,
whence the ignorant boatman turns back. Lord,
for the honour of Adam, confound
these fools of the world !
If thou
maintain thy foot in the path of the Eternal, thou wilt hold the sea in thy
hand ; the surface of the outer encircling ocean is a bridge to the foot that speaks with the
Eternal.
On His
Decree And Ordinance And His Creative
Power.
All
that comes forth in the world is by decree, and what the prophet speaks is also by decree; infidelity and faith, good and evil, old and
new,—all is referable to Him ; whatso exists, is under
the command of the Almighty ; all things work in accordance with the decree.
All are in subjection,—His Omnipotence the subduer ; His creative Power appears
high above all. All is subject to His Omnipotence, dependent on His mercy ; all were preceded in time by
His eternal Omniscience. The man of the people, or he of the philosophers, he
who is under command, or who is of the learned,—all must return to His
Presence; whoso possesses power, it is of His favour. His causes have displaced
Reason from her position ;' His methods of deriving one thing from another
have cut off the soul’s feet.
The
soul’s relation to the world of life is like a blind man and a pearl of ‘Umman.
One showed a pearl to a blind man;
the greedy fool asked him, ‘ How much wilt thou give for this pearl ?’ He said, » ' A round cake and two fishes ; for
no one can discern ruby or pearl,— why be angry ?—except by the pearl of the
eye. So, since God has not given me this pearl, do thou take away that other pearl, and talk
no more folly. If thou dost not wish to be laughed at by the ass, take thy
pearl to one who is skilled in pearls ; as soon as he puts the sole of his foot
upon the oyster, his art knows well its value.’ Understanding is a tent before His gate, the
soul a soldier in His army ; the
soul from fear of being rejected by Him sweeps not the dust of His Court except
by permission ; all in place and time are’His property, from the ‘ Be ’
of His decree to the wicket of ‘ Jt was.'1 His decree has
commanded the service of His Court to all intelligences in the words ‘ Obey
God ; from the vegetative to the reasonable
soul all like slaves are seeking Him.
On
The Desire For God.
Thereafter
the desire for God, existing
in his heart and soul and reason and
discernment, becomes his
horse ; when this creation
has become a prison to him, his soul seeks freedom ; a fire is kindled within
him, which burns up soul and reason and religion.
So
long as he seeks for love with self in view, there waits for him the crucible
of renunciation ; whoso has newly undertaken the way of love, his renunciation
is the key of the gate. Desire, when it is joined to its mistress, is gladness,
but he who seeks mistress is far from God. The legion of thy pleasures will
cast thee into the fire; the following out of thy desire for God will keep thee
safe as a virgin of Paradise.
Then
when the soul sets forth from the gate, the old heart becomes new thereat; his
form escapes from the bonds of nature, the heart - gives back its charge to the
spirit? From earth to God’s throne comes forth a mighty shout by reason of his
soul’s progress ; the dust raised by the wind of his desire and pain turns
woman into man if it but pass by her. All that would cause him trouble in his way
quits the path before him; before him
the mountains in fear become coloured wool for his socks; the fire in him
destroys the glory of the sea for the sake of his upward ascent. When he is
roused to leave himself they
throw down the stars before him; when
his eye sees the brightness of the Path,
the
sun seems dark to him by its side. There is no evil or good in that world, no
earth or sun or stars; but whoso walks not in love’s street, nor in his heart seeks love, for him is made
a different heaven, him they seat upon a different earth.
Because
of the labour of his search Gabriel unceasingly bathes his face in the water of
life. Understanding is bewildered by his soul’s shout; devils become firewood
for the lightning of his horse’s hoofs ; to pursue the path his pained heart1
would burn mankind with fire of sighs. None of the contented2 can
know the secret of his sigh, none pious
with earthly piety3 can ever find his footprints. When his horse’s
hoof scatters the dust, Gabriel makes of it a life-giving fragrance;4
as he makes towards the world of annihilation the wind cries ‘ Halt a moment ’
; Mustafa standing by his path in benevolence calls out
‘ Lord, keep him safe ! ’ Because of his
high dignity God suspends the scales of justice from his heart;7 the
friend of God 6 sprinkles water in his path ; Gabriel’s self cracks the whip?
[Of His Mercy.]
Malice and
rancour are far removed from His attributes ; for hate belongs to him who is
under command. It is not permissible to
speak of anger in respect of God, for God has no quality of anger; anger and hatred are both due to
constraint by superior force, and both qualitiesare far distant from God. Anger
and passion and reconcihation and hatred and malice are not among the
attributes of the one sole God ; from God the Creator all is mercy; He is the
Veiler of His slaves ; of His
mercy He gives thee counsel ; He draws thee to
1 Himself by the kindness of the noose. If thou comest not, He calls thee towards Himself
; He offers thee Paradise in His kindness, but because thou livest in this
abode of sorrow thou of thy folly hast taken the road of flight. Thou art as a
shell for the pearl of the belief in the Unity ; thou art a successor of the
newly-created Adam ; if thou
lose that pearl of thy belief, in being dispossessed of it thou wilt be parted
from thy substance ; but if thou guard that pearl,
thou shalt raise thy head beyond the seven
and the four ; thou shalt
reach eternal happiness, and no created thing shall harm thee ; thou shalt be
exalted in the present time, and upon the plain of eternity thou shalt be as a
hawk ; thy alighting-place shall be the hand of kings, thy feet shall be freed
from the depths of the mire.
Of Him Who Feeds Me And Gives Me Drink
When they
capture the hawk in the wilds, they secure it neck and feet; they quickly cover up both its eyes and
proceed to teach it to hunt. The hawk becomes accustomed and habituated to the
strangers, and shuts its eyes upon its
old associates ; it is content with little food and thinks no more of what it
used to eat. The falconer then becomes its attendant, and allows it to look out
of one corner of an eye, so that it may only see himself, and come to prefer
him before all others. From him it takes all its food and drink, and sleeps not
for a moment apart from him. Then he opens one of its eyes completely, and it
looks contentedly, not angrily, upon him ; it
abandons its former habits and disposition, and cares not to associate with any
other. And now it is fit for the assembly and the hand of kings, and with it
they grace the chase. Had it not suffered hardship it would still have been
intractable, and would have flown out at everyone it saw.
Others are
heedless,—do thou be wise, and on this path keep thy tongue silent. The
condition laid on such an one is that he should
receive all food and drink from the Causer, not from the causes. Go, suffer hardship, if thou wouldst be
cherished ; and if not, be content with the road to Hell. None ever attained
his object without enduring hardship ; till thou burn them, what difference
canst thou see between the willow and aloes wood ?
Of The Multitude ; They Are Like Cattle—Nay, They Are More
Erring
On the colt
that is full three years old the breaker puts the saddle and bridle ; he gives
him a training in manners, and takes his restive- ness out of him ; he makeshim
obedient to the rein,—what is called a handy horse. Then he is fit for kings to
ride, and they deck him with gold and jewels.
If that colt
had not experienced these necessary hardships, he would have been of less use
than an ass, only fit to carry millstones ; and would have been perpetually in
pain from his loads, bearing now the
Jew’s baggage, now the Christian’s, in pain and sorrow and tribulation.
The man who
has never undergone hardship has not, so think the wise, received a full
measure of blessing ; he is Hell’s food, is in terror ; even in Hell he is no
more than a stone ; his is
the place of fear 82 and dread; it is read in His incontrovertible book, ‘Whose fuel is men. ’
Though thou
canst neither purpose nor compass aught withou Him, yet religion’s task is not
to be accomplished without thee, any more than without Him; religion’s task is not an easy business, God’s
religion is always a thing of heaviness. God’s religion is a man’s crown and diadem ; does a crown befit a
worthless man ? Guard thy religion, so mayest thou attain thy kingdom ; otherwise, know that without religion thou art
a man of naught. Tread the path of religion, for if thou do so, thou shalt not
tremble like a branch in nakedness. Sweet is religion’s path and God’s decree
! leave the black mire, lift thy feet out of it.
To Remember the Words of the All-knowing Lord benders
easy the Accomplishment of the Aim. God Most High has said, Say, if Men and
Jinns conspired to bring the like of this Qur’an, they could not bring its
like, not THOUGH THEY
HELPED EACH OTHER. AND SAID
THE PROPHET (on whom be Mercy and Peace), The Qur’an is Riches ; THERE IS NO POVERTY IF IT BE GIVEN, AND
THERE IS NO Riches beside it. And he said (Peace
be upon him), The Qur’an is a medicine for every Disease except Death.
By reason of
its beauty and its pleasantness the discourse of the Qur’an has no concern with
clang of voice or travail of the letter; how shall phenomenal existence weigh
its true nature, or written
characters contain its discourse ? Thought is bewildered before its outward shape,
understanding stupefied before the
secret of its suras ; full of meaning and beautiful are its words and suras,
ravishing and enchanting is its outward form. From it earth’s produce and the sons of the angel-world have ever
drawn their strength and nurture; in the loosing of perplexities its hidden
meaning is souls’ repose and hearts’ ease. The Qur’an is balm for the wounded
heart, and medicine for the pain of the sore at heart. Do thou, if thou art not a parrot nor a donkey
nor an ass, surely hold the word of God
to be the root of the faith, and the cornerstone of piety, a mine of rubies, a
treasure of spiritual meaning. It is the canon of the wisdom of the wise, the
standard of the practice of the learned ; to praise it is joy to the soul, to
look on it is solace to the mind. Its
verses are healing to the soul of the pious, its banner is pain and grief to the evil-doer; it has
thrown the Universal Reason into affliction, has made the Universal Soul sit
down in widowhood? Reason and Soul but hold men back from its true essence; the eloquent are impotent to rival its
manner.
On the Glory of the Qur’an.
Glorious it is, though concealing its glory ; and a guide,
though under the veil of coquetry.
Its discourse is bright and
strong ; its argument clear and apt; its words are a casket for the pearl of
life, its precepts a tower over the water-wheel of the faith to the Knowers it
is love’s garden, to the soul the highest heaven.
Thou to whom, by reason of thy heedlessness and sin, in read
ing the Qur’an
there comes upon thy tongue no sweetness from its words, into thy heart no yearning
from their comprehension,—by its exceeding majesty and authority the Qur’an,
with argument and proof, is in its inner meaning the light of the high road of
Islam, in its outward significance the guardian of the tenets of the multitude
; life’s sweetness to the wise, to the heedless but a recitation on the
tongue,—phrases upon their tongue whose
sweetness they cannot taste, while careless of their spirit and design.
There is an
eye which sees the spirit of the Qur’an, and an eye which sees the letter ; —for this the bodily eye, for that the
eye of the soul ; the body, through the ear, carries away the melody of its
words ; the soul, by its perceptive power, feeds on the delights of its spirit.
For strangers the curtains of majesty are drawn together in darkness before its
loveliness ; the curtain and
the chamberlain know not aught of the
king ;—he knows who is possessed of sight, but how can the curtain know aught of him ?
The
revolutions of the azure vault have brought no weakening of its power, no
dimming of its lustre ; its syntax and form, pronunciation and nunation,
prevail from earth to Pleiades.
gg Now hast
thou in thy daily provision tasted the nut’s first husk ; the first skin is
rough and harsh, the second is like the moon’s slough,' the third is silk, pale
and fine, and fourth is the succulent cool kernel; the fifth degree is thy
abode, where the prophets’ law becomes thy threshold. Seeing then thou mayest
delight thy soul with the fifth, why
halt at the first ? Thou hast seen of the Qur’an but its veil,— hast seen its
letters, which do but hide it; it does not reveal its countenance to the
unworthy,—him only the letters confront. If it had seen thee to be worthy, it
would have rent this subtle veil and shown its face to thee, and there thy soul
might have found rest; for it heals the
wounded heart, and medicines the disappointed soul ; the body tastes the flavour of the dregs that
it may five ; the soul knows the taste of the oil.
What can sense
see, but that the outward form is good ? What there is within, wisdom knows.
Thou recitest the form of its suras, and its true nature thou knowest not; but
know, that to him who truly reads the Qur’an, the feast it gives comes not
short of the guesthouse of Paradise. It has made the letter its veil, because
it is to be concealed from alien eyes ; material existence knows naught of its
inmost soul,—know, its body is one thing, its soul a thing apart; from its
outward form thou seest but so much as do the common men from the appearance of
a king.
Why deemest thou that the words are the Qur’an ? What crude
discourse is thine concerning it ? Though the letter is its bedfellow, it
knows it not, no more than the figures on the bath ; nor do the
sleepers and the cut-purses see, like those who watch/ the spirit of the
Qur’an.
Of the Recital of the Secret of the Qur’an.
Tongue cannot
tell the secret of the Qur’an, for His intimates 89 keep it concealed ; the Qur’an
indeed knows its own secret,—hear it from itself, for itself knows it. Except
by the soul’s eye none knows the measurer of words from the true reader of the
Qur’an ;—I will not take upon myself to say that thou truly knowest the Qur’an
though thou be ‘Ubhman.
The world is
like the summer’s heat, its people like drunkards therein, al] wandering in the desert of
indifference; death the shepherd, men his flock ; and in this waste of desire
and wretchedness the hot sand
shows as running water. The
Qur’an is as the cool water of Euphrates, whilst thou art like a thirsty sinner
on the plain of the Judgment. The letter and Qur’an hold thou as cup and water; drink the water,
gaze not on the vessel. Because it is summer, thy home seems to thee a mine of enmity ; because
the water is cold, the vessel of turquoise, thou usest not to fast. To the pure heart suffering will tell in a cry
of anguish the secret of the pure Qur’an ; how can Reason discover its
interpretation ? But a delight in it finds out its inmost secret.
Though the written characters are not of the word, the scent of Yusuf is
in his garment; the fair Yusuf was cast away in Egypt, but the scent reached
Ya’qub in Canaan. The letter of the Qur’an is to its sense as thy clothes to
thy life; the letter may be uttered by the tongue, its soul can be read but by
the soul. The letter is as the shell, the true Qur’an the pearl; the heart of
the free-born desires not the shell. Though its words are fair and finely
traced, though the mountain becomes as carded wool before them, make music of them in thy heart like Moses,
not outwardly like the treble of the pipes. When the soul recites the Qur’an it enjoys a luscious
morsel; whoso hears it, inepds his ragged robe? The words, the voice, the
letters of the versus, are as three stalks in bowls of vegetables. Though the husk is not
fair nor sweet, still it guards the kernel; but through thy 9 impurity the mystery becomes a song, the
word of God a tune through thy folly. .
Whilst thou
art in this tomb appointed for us, this residence contrived for us, in this
world full of objects of pursuit, this abode of deceit, look with thy earthly
sight upon the willow, and with thy soul upon the tuba-tree ; read with thy tongue the letter, and the sense
with thy soul.
Sacrifice, to
honour the Qur’an, thy reason before its discourse ; reason is no guide to its mysteries ; reason
is impotent here. Thou art now shameless, deceitful; thou art not worthy to
have the curtain of the mystery drawn aside ; thou knowest naught of its
secret, hast not yet arrived at ‘Arafat.
So long as thou desirest
pleasure and cherishest desire, play as a child,—thou art not man enough for
this.
But when wisdom has conquered the world of
desire, pure goodness succeeds to evil ; the devil of passion flies to Hell,
and Sulaiman regains his ring ;* the Qur’an’s secret routs the demon ;—what
wonder if he flies in terror from the Qur’an ?
Wait, for when
the day of true religion dawns, the night of thought and fancy and sense flies away. When the veiled ones of the
unseen world see that thou art stainless, they will lead thee into the
invisible abode and reveal to thee their faces ; and disclosing to thee the
secret of the Qur’an, they will withdraw the veil of letters. The earthy will
have a reward of earth, the pure shall see purity. An understanding of the Qur’an
dwells not in the brain where pride starts up ; the ass is dumb as a mere
stone, and lends not his ear to the secret of God’s word,—turns away from hearing the Qur’an
and pays no heed to the sura’s secret; but if the mind be disciplined of God it
shall discover in the sura the secret of the Qur’an.
In the Recital of the Miracle wrought by the Qur’an.
Thou, who hast got into thy palm but the
ocean’s foam, and of thy possessions hast made the semblance of an array ; thou
hast not laid hold of the pearl’s true substance, for that thou art occupied
only concerning the shell; withhold thy hand from these lack-lustre shells-,
and bring up the bright pearl from the ocean depths. The pearl without its
shell is cherished in the heart, the shell without its pearl is clay to be
thrown aside ; the pearl’s value comes not from the shell,—the arrow’s value comes from its hitting the
mark.
He who knows of his own sight the pebbles of the sea-bottom will not mistake sheep’s dung for
pearls of the sea ; while he who stands aside on tins stream’s
shore can lay no claim to its
shining pearls.
The lines of the Qur’an are like unto faith’s shore,6
for it gives ease to heart and soul; its bounty and its might are as the
encircling sea around the soul’s world ; its depths are full
of pearls and jewels, its shores abound
in aloes-wood and ambergris ; knowledge of first and last is scattered from it
for benefit of soul and body both.
Be pure, that the hidden meanings may appear to thee from out
the cage of the letters, for till a man come forth from his impurity how can
the Qur’an come forth from its letters ? As long as thou art veiled inside thy
Self, what difference, to
thee or to thy understanding,
is there between evil and good ? In the
letter of the Qur’an is no healing for thy soul,—the goat grows not fat on the
goatherd’s call ; nor soon nor late the water of his dream satisfies the
thirsty one in his helplessness. Thou, who art in thraldom to pen and ink,
canst not distinguish between face
and veil; in the world of the Word at least, the word’s outward characters are not esteemed to be its fife.
When thou
settest foot in that country * He will teach thee the alphabet of sincerity, and when thou shalt
recite the alphabet of the faith thou shalt know sun and Pleiades for thy
father and ancestors; such is
the way of the loyal followers, and such too is the alphabet of the lovers.
Dark is the
veil on the face of day ; the verse of its conceits is 92 very subtle.6
If thou wouldst have a treasure for thy soul and heart, recite with heart and
soul a verse from it; that in it thou mayest find the jewel of the truth, the
essential basis of thy faith ; that thou mayest find the casket of the
incomparable pearl, and know the pure gold from the silver ;8 that
glorious as the sun and moon there may appear to thee from behind the dark
screen its own beauti- ful face, like a
bride who comes forth lovely and joyous from out her gauzy veil.
Of the Guidance of the Qur’an.
It is the
guide, and the lovers the travellers ; it is a rope, and the heedless sit in
the pit. Thy soul has its home at the pit’s bottom ; the Qur’an’s light is a
rope let down to it; rise and seize the rope, so thou mayest haply find
salvation ; else thou art lost in the pit’s depth,— flood and storm will destroy thee. Like Yusuf thou art brought
by Satan into the pit; be thy wisdom the glad tidings, thy rope the . Qur’an ; if thou desirest to be
as Yusuf, and to enjoy high place, take hold of it and come forth from the
well.
The wise use
the rope to obtain the water of life, but thou makest ready thy rope to dance
on it for daily bread. No one
learns two letters of the Qur’an in a thousand centuries with such an eye as
thine ; the understanding’s arm turns about as does a wheel; body and soul are
captives of thy passions.4 If thou desirest throne and crown and
honour, why sittest thou for ever at the well’s bottom? Thy Yusuf is helpless in the well, thy heart
reciting the sura ‘ sajah ’;6 make of sorrow a rope, of thy
sighs a bucket, and draw up thy Yusuf from the well.
On The Greatness Of The Qur’an,—Verily It Consists Not In Its Division Into ‘ Tens ’ And ‘Flves.’
To attract a
handful of boys thou hast made its honour to consist in the ‘ tens,’ and ‘
fives’ ; thou hast abrogated
the authority of every verse which abrogates another,1 art still
unlearned in its doctrines ; the intricate passages seem to thee plain, while
in its plain teachings thou hast no faith ; thou hast abandoned the light of the Qur’an,
and for the sake of the multitude hast made its outward form the tool of thy
hypocrisy for a measure of barley and two plates of chaff. Now thou intonest
its cadences, now recitest its stories ; sometimes thou makest of it a weapon for strife; sometimes
in thy irreverence throwest it into disorder, sometimes esteemest it a prodigy ; now thou
interpretest it according to thine own conjecture, and again determinest to
the contrary of that; now in thy fancy thou takest the conclusion of its
passages for the beginning, now absurdly turnest its meaning inside out; again
thou expoundest it by thine own opinion, and ex- plainest it according to thine
own knowledge ; amongst the thirty caskets of the Qur’an thou wand erest not except with railing.
1 Sometimes thou sayest to a foolish friend,
perhaps a lazy clothweaver, “ If I write thee a charm, keep it clean, youth, and soil it not; but there must be a
sacrifice in the morning,—the blood of a black bird is required.” All this
deceit for a diram or two, a supper or a breakfast for thy belly!
Thou hast wasted thy life in folly ;
what can I say ? begone, and shame to thee ! Thou creepest into some mosque or
other in thy appetite,6 thy throat full of wind, like a pipe or a
bell; shame on thy religion and thy faith for this
appetite ! May either wisdom be thy portion, or death ! Shame on thee for such
a nature, such accomplishments and science,—they bring thee no esteem !
On the Allegations brought forward by the
Word of God.
Wait till the
Qur’an shall make complaint of thee before God on the judgment day, and shall
say, How much falsehood has this deceitful one, whom Thou trustedst, drawn forth from Thy truth !—shall say, God, thou knowest both the manifest and the
hidden ; night and day he recited me loudly, and rendered not justice to a
single word of me. Neither in grammar, nor meaning, nor pure pronunciation did
94 I ever receive in the mihrab my due from him with honesty. He has a good
voice when he intones, and his robe of mourning is a pretty blue; but however
he boasted his claims in respect of me, he knew not the depth of my meaning,
for beyond talk and clamour this crowd are unable to utter a word. He never
pushed forwards his horse towards my
private grounds, —could not distinguish my face from my veil; when
he entered my street he showed in his discussions no worth but only worthlessness. He
surrendered not his mind and soul to my words, but forced me in the direction
of his own decision and desire ; now he wounded me with the sword of his lusts,
and again he fettered me in the snare of his passions ; now he brought me to
his drinkingparties, and again sang me as a song ; sometimes he would recite
me by way of profanity, making a noise
like an ass in his shamelessness ; now he would break through the frigidity of
my words with his amorousness, as a gimlet through wood ; now like a professional story-teller with his
cadences he would scatter my words abroad to the stroke of his plectrum. deviser of schemes P I ask for a just
decision on the day of judgment against such an affliction !
For the sake
of blandishment in this transitory abode,—sometimes in the crowded street and
sometimes at time of prayer, sometimes by thy words and sometimes by thy
voice,—thou shinest but to attract admiration. The words that have been
polluted by thee, though they be wise, yet are they folly; for though the
breeze is pleasant and delightful, yet if it pass over ordure it is not so. Has
not God by His command plainly denied His Qur’an to the impure ?
On the Sweetness of the Qur’an.
How shalt thou taste the flavour and delight
of the Qur’an, since thou chantest it without comprehension ? Come forth through the door of the body into
the landscape of the soul; come and view the garden of the Qur’an, that all
things may appear before thy soul,— 95 what has been, what is, and what shall
be, the world’s dry and moist, within
and without, whatsoever has been created by ‘ Be, and it was,' the
decrees ordained by Him,—all will be made plain to thee through it. God’s
attributes shall obey thee, and shall truly recount their narrations before
thee.
When the
hearer hears God’s word, the utterance of it causes him to tremble. Till thou see with the eye of purity, how
canst thou recite the sura Ikhlas *—a sura like a cypress of Ghatfar,
its rhythm like the violets of
Tabaristan. The Qur’an’s
loftiness and sublimity, if thou ask thy preceptor, are as the throne and seat
of God its letters are the wings of the Spirit, the
curtain of the Light; its diacritical points black moles on the cheeks of the
virgins of Paradise. Regard thou in this
wise its outward form, that so thou mayest understand the secret of its suras ;
that it may place an alif in thy mind, and put ba and ta
underneath thy feet / and, for the sake of life and wisdom, may dispose of thy
fair Yusuf for eighteen worthless pieces/—for in the
street of the love of Unity and true wisdom beauty is valued no. higher than this.
The
crucible of desire shall try him,6 and afterwards he shall be made
like gold of the mine; yet again is the crucible prepared, that in it all fraud
and deceit may be melted out; then when the pure metal becomes soft, it is
polished and made an ornament for its possessor’s crown. The diadem and crown
of every lord of rectitude and faith are such as this.
On the Hearing of the Qur’an.
When the pious reader8 has set the book with
reverence upon his lap, and has recited ‘ Let no one touch it *• over
both his hands, for a single copper he gives forth a lusty cry, like a
turtledove for a grain of corn.1 Hear God’s word from God Himself,
for the labour of the reader is only a veil. The Knower hears the word from the
96 Truth ;4 the force of his desire denies him sleep. The feelings
may be captive to the professional reciter, but Love has its songster in the
heart itself. Set a mole in thy inmost heart, and not upon thy cheek ;8 for
it is thy thoughts are the true index of thy state. The Qur’an tells its secret
to the discerning thought; turn and twist and pause4 are only
matters of the voice, and whatso are matters of voice and written character and
sound, reside outside the gate. .
If there were
any meaning in its song, a nightingale would not be sold for two coppers ; seek
for the essence of the matter in the meaning, not in the written words,—thou
wilt find no scent in a picture of ambergris. The time of waiting in this transitory world deem but colour to
the eye, and sound to the ear ; but the session of the Soul is a place where
hearing is not, and song is silence there. How shall Love deem worthy notice a sweet that can be
tasted ? Make not thy soul glad with song, for song brings no memories but of
heaviness.
The friend who
becomes thy friend at the bridge, take him not away from the water with thee;6
either drown him in thy hatred, or put him under ground, and then rest happy ;
but in Love, to bear the burden of its commands, whether good or whether evil,
is wisdom. Give to the flames
the gifts of the material world,—in thy smiling heart place instead of smiles a
cry of lamentation ; and when one of smiling heart gives forth a plaint, seize
him by the foot and drag him off to Hell.
Knowest thou
not, thou monster, that all those devils of thy lower nature, by using a
hundred tricks and frauds and deceits, will break forth within thee, till thy
reason and sense desert thee ? Thou, who
in this desert of injustice readest ‘ prosperity ’ for ‘ a whirlpool,’ shame on
thee ! * The path of religion consists not in works and words, not in syntax
and accidence and metaphor; these kinds
of things are far from God’s word,—the contents of the Qur’an are like
scattered pearls. O Musalmans, it may be the Qur’an will one day depart again
skywards ; for though now its name is with us, its laws and commands are obeyed
among us no longer.
The wise man listens to the Qur’an with his soul, and
abandons 97 the letter and the outward elegance ; his soul takes its delight in
it, and sets to work afresh on all its duties. Know that to the eager disciple music and
beating time are like poverty to a lover ; the state of ecstasy that comes of skill and
fraud is like the drowning cry of Pharaoh ; his cry
was useless to him as he drowned,—the fire of his reconciliation gave forth no smoke.
On the path,
the condition of pursuing which is the devotion of one’s life, foolish shouting
is asinine and shameless ; whoso gives forth three shouts in the
assembly, know that he does it in his anxiety for two coppers; but the sigh of
the disciple who has gained Love is like a serpent sleeping upon a treasure ;8
if the serpent raises himself upon the treasure, the pearl in his mouth darts
forth fire. What is the darwish’s laughter ?—folly; and
what the crackling of a lamp?—water? When water is mixed with the oil, the
light, depending on the purity of the oil, is affected ; when the oil begins to
burn, the foreign moisture announces itself. Thy sighing is mere
self-adornment, thy proper path is to observe God’s law ;—thy path is a
polished mirror, but thy sighs veil it over.
The Comparison of
the Creation of Adam and of Jesus son of Mary (on both of whom be Peace !)?
Adam’s father
in this world was the same breath which begot the son of Mary ; that which became his body was of the nature
of humanity, and that which became his soul was of the fragrance of that
breath. Whoso has in him that breath, is an Adam ; and whoso has it not, is an
effigy belonging to this world only. When Adam received that breath from the
power of God his soul became conscious, and
hastening towards the Universal Soul he asked, ‘ ‘ What canst thou tell me of
this breath ?” Soul replied, “ My cup and robe are empty; my robe and cup hold
naught of it,—this precious gift has been given freely.”
Wheresoever
thou wilt incline, let it be in accordance with this 98 breath ; incline not
towards thyself in opposition to it; and soar above the snares of earth,
gaining the abode of Godhead, viewing the confines of the spirit-land, like
Jesus, with the eye of thy divinity.
Claim no
distinction for thyself in thy village, for thou art only distinguished in that
to be naught is better than such distinction. Like a dot on the die used as a
tool of the game, thou thinkest thyself to be something, but that something is
naught; thou art indeed a unit, but like the dots on the dice hast a name
merely for purposes of counting.
Fortunate is
he who has effaced himself from the world none seeks him, nor seeks he anyone.
Whoso is caught in the bonds of this world, is a gainer if he escape from its
forces; for this world is the source of pain and sorrow, and the wise man calls
it ‘ the house of lodging.’ Since in the light of reason and clear sight two
flights at the proper time are as good as three victories, so thou,
full of excellencies, art a fool, if at this river thou stayest on the bridge or
in the cave.
Let the guide
of thy bodily and of thy spiritual life be for this world wisdom, for the other
thy faith ; fortunate is he whose guide is wisdom, for both worlds are his
submissive servants. When the fruition of desire is attained, the go-between’s
talk becomes a heaviness ; though she sets the business going, yet when the
closet is reached she is only a bore to thee.
To Commemorate The Prophets Is Better Than Speaking
Of Fools.
The prophets
were the upright ones of the faith, who showed to the people the path of
rectitude ; the self-opinionated were bewildered when they disappeared in the
sunset of annihilation. The darkness of the night of polytheism drew
close its curtains ; infidelity placed kisses on the lips of idolatry ; one
bore a cross in his hand as it were a
rose-branch, another like a waterlily worshipped the sun ; one worshipped idols continually, and another
had no aims whatever ; this one in his senseless folly deeming evil from the
devil, good from God ;8 some strewers of dust, eaters of
fire,—others beaters of the 99 water, calmers of the wind ; here one scouring
all sense out of his brain, as it were done by wine,—there another dashing the
turban from his head, as if it were carried off by the gale ; this one calling
an image his god, and that one like the priest of an idol-temple wrecking all
religion ; one practising magic, another astrology,—one living in hope, another
in fear ; all were leading unlovely lives, all were blind of understanding.
The masses
were suppliants to an impostor in the faith,—the magnates occupying the high
places of religion ; the religion of the Truth concealed its face,<and
everyone published a false faith ; false doctrine and polytheism began to fly
abroad, and every kind of heresy reared its head. Here one in bondage to the
teachings of folly, there another satisfied with an empty deception ; their
ears listening to the devil’s promptings of desire, their ravings displaying
the devil’s guidance. Folly and slander
and idle chatter appeared wisdom alike to the crowd and to the wise ; the great
were the slaves of their lusts and pleasures, the populace of their jests and
follies ; the knowledge of God’s religion was blotted out, all alike triflers,
babbling folly ; under pretence of knowledge each sought his own glory, and
under cover of such knowledge each hid his reason. From fear of imposture and
magic the virtues hid themselves, like the alif in bism ;4
when the great withdrew to their houses, the people returned to their
impieties. One followed the path of Moses, Jesus the leader of another; the
faith of Zoroaster proclaimed itself, the veil of mercy was tom to pieces.
The land of
Turan and kingdom of Iran
were each laid waste by the other’s violence ; the Ethiopians advanced towards
Yathrib, the elephant and Abraha were
routed by the birds.’ The
house of the Ka'ba, seized by the stranger, became an idol-temple ;
the world was full of
stupidity and fraud, the man of wisdom found the path of re. ligion difficult.
In this world of the lost ones dog and ass raised their voices every morning ;
it was a world full of the vile and worthless,— ‘Utba and Shaiba and the cursed
Bu Jahl ; a world full of devil-likei beasts
of prey, —a hundred thousand paths with pits in the way, and all men
blind ; ghouls on either hand, in front a monster,—the guide blind, his
companion lame ; disabled by their ignorance, in the heaviness of sleep, the
scorpion of their folly wards off from them the knowledge of their danger.
Since somewhat
has been said of the Unity, I will now speak of the glory of the prophets ;
especially the praise of the last of the apostles, the best and choicest of
God’s messengers.
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