بخش 45 - تفسیر أَسْفَلَ سافِلینَ إِلَّا الَّذینَ آمَنوا وَ عَمِلُوا الصّالِحاتِ فَلَهُمْ أَجْرٌ غَیْرُ مَمْنونٍ

But if his physician be the Light of God, there is no loss or crushing blow (that he will suffer) from old age and fever.

His weakness is like the weakness of the intoxicated, for in his weakness he is the envy of a Rustam.

If he die, his bones are drowned in (spiritual) savour; every mote of him is (floating) in the beams of the light of love-desire.

And he who hath not that (Light) is an orchard without fruit, which the autumn brings to ruin.

The roses remain not; (only) the black thorns remain: it becomes pale and pithless like a heap of straw.

O God, I wonder what fault did that orchard commit, that these (beautiful) robes should be stripped from it.

“It paid regard to itself, and self-regard is a deadly poison. Beware, O thou who art put to the trial!”

The minion for love of whom the world wept—the world (now) is repulsing him from itself: what is (his) crime?

“The crime is that he put on a borrowed adornment and pretended that these robes were his own property.

We take them back, in order that he may know for sure that the stack is Ours and the fair ones are (only) gleaners;

That he may know that those robes were a loan: ’twas a ray from the Sun of Being.”

(All) that beauty and power and virtue and knowledge have journeyed hither from the Sun of Excellence.

They, the light of that Sun, turn back again, like the stars, from these (bodily) walls.

(When) the Sunbeam has gone home, every wall is left dark and black.

That which made thee amazed at the faces of the fair is the Light of the Sun (reflected) from the three- coloured glass.

The glasses of diverse hue cause that Light to seem coloured like this to us.

When the many-coloured glasses are no more, then the colourless Light makes thee amazed.

Make it thy habit to behold the Light without the glass, in order that when the glass is shattered there may not be blindness (in thee).

Thou art content with knowledge learned (from others): thou hast lit thine eye at another's lamp.

He takes away his lamp, that thou mayst know thou art a borrower, not a giver.

If thou hast rendered thanks (to God for what thou hast received) and made the utmost exertion (in doing so), be not grieved (at its loss), for He will give (thee) a hundred such (gifts) in return;

But if thou hast not rendered thanks, weep (tears of) blood now, for that (spiritual) excellence has become quit of (has abandoned) the ungrateful.

He (God) causeth the works of the unbelieving people to be lost; He maketh the state of the believing people to prosper.

From the ungrateful man (his) excellence and knowledge disappear, so that never again does he see a trace of them.

(His feelings of) affinity and non-affinity and gratitude and affection vanish in such wise that he cannot remember them;

For, O ingrates, (the words) He causeth their works to be lost are (signify) the flight of (every) object of desire from every one who has obtained his desire (in this world),

Excepting the thankful and faithful who are attended by fortune.

How should the past fortune bestow strength (on its possessors)? ’Tis the future fortune that bestows a special virtue.

In (obedience to the Divine command) “Lend,” make a loan (to God) from this (worldly) fortune, that thou mayst see a hundred fortunes before thy face.

Diminish a little for thine own sake this (eating and) drinking, that thou mayst find in front (of thee) the basin of Kawthar.

He who poured a draught on the earth of faithfulness, how should the prey, fortune, be able to flee from him?

He (God) gladdens their hearts, for He maketh their state to prosper: He restoreth their (worldly) entertainment after they have perished.

(He says), “O Death, O Turcoman who plunderest the village, give back whatsoever thou hast taken from these thankful ones.”

He (Death) gives it back; (but) they will not receive it, for they have been endowed with the goods of spiritual life.

(They say), “We are Súfís and have cast off our (bodily) mantles: we will not take (them) back after we have gambled (them) away.

We have seen the recompense (from God)—(and) how (can there be) a (worldly) recompense then (after that)? Want and desire and object are gone from us.

We have emerged from a briny and destroying water, we have attained to the pure wine (of Paradise) and the fountain of Kawthar.

O World, that which thou hast shown unto others—faithlessness and deceit and grievous pride—

We pour (it all) on thy head in repayment, for we are martyrs come to war (against thee).”

(This is) in order that you may know that the Holy God hath servants impetuous and combative, (Who) tear out the moustache of worldly hypocrisy and pitch their tents on the rampart of (Divine) aid.

These martyrs have become warriors anew, and these captives have gained the victory once more;

They have lifted up their heads again from non-existence, saying, “Behold us if thou art not blind from birth,”

That you may know that in non-existence there are suns, and that what is a sun here is (only) a small star yonder.

How, O brother, is existence (contained) in non-existence? How is opposite concealed in opposite?

He brings forth the living from the dead: know that the hope of (His) worshippers is non-existence.

The sower whose barn is empty, is not he joyful and happy in hope of non-existence—

(Namely, in the hope) that that (crop) will grow from the quarter of nonexistence? Apprehend (this) if thou art aware of (spiritual) reality.

Moment by moment thou art expecting from non-existence to gain understanding and (spiritual) perception and peace and good.

’Tis not permitted to divulge this mystery; else I should make Abkház a Baghdád.

Non-existence, then, is God's factory from which He continually produces gifts.

God is the Originator, and an originator is he who produces a branch (derivative) without root (fundamental principle) or support (model).