بخش 114 - آمدن شیخ بعد از چندین سال از بیابان به شهر غزنین و زنبیل گردانیدن به اشارت غیبی و تفرقه کردن آنچ جمع آید بر فقرا هر که را جان عز لبیکست نامه بر نامه پیک بر پیکست چنانک روزن خانه باز باشد آفتاب و ماهتاب و باران و نامه و غیره منقطع نباشد

That (Shaykh who was) obedient to the (Divine) command turned his face towards the city; the city of Ghazna became illumined by his face.

A (great) multitude joyfully went out to meet him, (but) he entered (the city) in haste and furtively.

All the notables and grandees rose up and made their palaces ready to receive him,

(But) he said, “I do not come from (motives of) self-advertisement: I come not save in humility and beggary.

I have no intention of talking and discoursing: I will go about from door to door with a basket in my hand.

I am devoted to the (Divine) edict, for ’tis commanded by God that I should be a beggar, a beggar, a beggar.

I will not use choice expressions in begging: I will tread the way of none but the vile beggars,

That I may be completely overwhelmed with abasement, and that I may hear abusive words from high and low.

God's command is my (very) soul, and I am its follower: He has commanded me to be covetous, (for) ‘base is he that covets.’

Since the Sultan of the Judgement desires covetousness from me, dust on the head of contentment henceforth!

He has desired covetousness: how should I be ambitious of glory? He has desired beggary: how should I exercise sovereignty?

Henceforth beggary and abasement are my (very) soul: in my wallet are twenty (consummate beggars like) ‘Abbás.”

The Shaykh would go about, with a basket in his hand, (saying, “Give) something, Sir, for God's sake, if He prompt you (to be generous).”

His inward experiences were higher than the Footstool and the Throne (of God); his (external) business was (to cry), “Something for God's sake, something for God's sake!”

The prophets, every one, ply this same trade: the people (to whom they are sent) are (really) destitute, (yet) they (the prophets) practise beggary,

Crying, “Lend to God, lend to God,” and persevering contrariously in (the exhortation) “Help God!”

This Shaykh is going as a suppliant from door to door, (while) in Heaven a hundred doors are opened for the Shaykh,

Because the beggary that he practised (so) diligently was for the sake of God, not for the sake of his gullet;

And even if he had done it for the sake of his gullet, that gullet hath (is endowed with) exorbitance by the Light of God.

As regards him, the eating of bread and honey and the drinking of milk is better than the forty days' seclusion and the three days' fast of a hundred dervishes.

He eats Light, do not say he eats bread: he sows anemones (though) in appearance he feeds (on them).

Like the flame that consumes the oil (wax) in a candle, from his eating and drinking there is an increase of light for the company.

God hath said, “Be not immoderate,” in reference to the eating of bread; He hath not said, “Be satisfied,” in reference to the eating of Light.

The former was the gullet subject to probation, while this (saintly) gullet was free from immoderation and secure from exorbitance.

(In the case of the Shaykh) ’twas (by) the (Divine) command and order, not (from) greed and cupidity: a spirit like that is not a follower of greed.

If the elixir say to the copper, “Give thyself up to me,” cupidity does not prevail (over it).

God had offered to the Shaykh (all) the treasures of the earth down to the seventh tier;

(But) the Shaykh said, “O Creator, I am a lover: if I seek aught but Thee, I am impious.

If I should bring into view the Eight Paradises, or if I should serve Thee from fear of Hell,

(Then) I am (only) a believer seeking salvation, for both these (motives) are concerned with the body.”

A hundred bodies are not worth a bean in the eyes of the lover who has received nutriment from God's love;

And this body which the Shaykh of insight possesses has become something different: do not call it a body.

(To be) in love with God's love and then (desire) a wage! (To be) a trusted Gabriel and then a thief!

In the eyes of that wretched lover of Laylá the kingdom of the world was (worthless as) a vegetable.

Earth and gold were alike in his eyes. What of gold? (Even) his life had no value (for him).

Lions and wolves and wild beasts were acquainted with him and gathered round him like kinsfolk,

(Knowing) that this man had become entirely purged of animality and filled with love, and that his flesh and fat were poisonous (to them).

The sweets scattered by Reason are poison to the wild beast, because the good of (that which is) good is antagonistic to (that which is) evil.

The wild beast dare not devour the flesh of the lover: Love is known both to the good and the evil;

And if the wild beast devour him even parabolically, the lover's flesh will become poison and kill him.

Everything except love is devoured by Love: to the beak of Love the two worlds are (but) a single grain.

Does a grain ever devour the bird? Does the manger ever feed on the horse?

Do service (to God), that perchance thou mayst become a lover: (devotional) service is a means of gaining (Love): it comes into action (produces an effect).

The servant (of God) desires to be freed from Fortune; the lover (of God) nevermore desires to be free.

The servant is always seeking a robe of honour and a stipend; all the lover's robe of honour is his vision of the Beloved.

Love is not contained in speech and hearing: Love is an ocean whereof the depth is invisible.

The drops of the sea cannot be numbered: the Seven Seas are petty in comparison with that Ocean.

This discourse hath no end. Return, O reader, to the story of the Shaykh of the time.