بخش 98 - توزیع کردن پای‌مرد در جملهٔ شهر تبریز و جمع شدن اندک چیز و رفتن آن غریب به تربت محتسب به زیارت و این قصه را بر سر گور او گفتن به طریق نوحه الی آخره

The calamity of his debts became notorious, and the bailiff was distressed by his grief.

He (the bailiff) went round the city to collect subscriptions and everywhere, in hope (of exciting compassion), he told all that had happened;

(But) that devoted beggar obtained by means of begging no more than a hundred dinars.

(Then) the bailiff came to him and took his hand and went (with him) to (visit) the grave of that very wonderful generous man.

He said, “When a servant (of God) gains the Divine favour so that he entertains a fortunate man,

And gives up his own wealth for his sake and sacrifices his own dignity for the sake of (conferring) dignity on him,

Gratitude to him (the benefactor) is certainly (the same as) gratitude to God, since (it was) the Divine favour (that) caused him to show beneficence.

To be ungrateful to him is to be ungrateful to God: beyond doubt his right (to gratitude) is consequent on (that of) God.

Always give thanks to God for His bounties, and always give thanks and praise to the Khwája (your benefactor) too.

Though a mother's tenderness is (derived) from God, (yet) ’tis a sacred duty and a worthy task to serve her.

For this reason God hath said, ‘Do ye bless him (the Prophet),’ for Mohammed was one to whom (the attributes of Divine Providence) were transferred.

At the Resurrection God will say to His servant, ‘Hark, what have you done with that which I bestowed on you?’

He will reply, ‘O Lord, I gave thanks to Thee with (all) my soul, since the source of my daily provision and bread was in Thee.’

(Then) God will say to him, ‘Nay, you did not give thanks to Me, inasmuch as you did not give thanks to him who made a practice of generosity.

You have done wrong and injustice to a generous man: did not My bounty come to you by his hand?’”

When he (the debtor) arrived at the tomb of his benefactor, he began to weep bitterly and broke into loud lamentation.

He said, “O thou who wert the support and refuge of every noble (righteous) man and the hope and helper of wayfarers,

O thou on whose heart the care for our means of livelihood (lay constantly), O thou whose beneficence and charity were (like) the universal provision of sustenance,

O thou who wert (as) kinsfolk and parents to the poor in (paying) their taxes and expenses and in discharging their debts,

O thou who, like the sea, gavest pearls for those near (to thee) and (didst send) rain as a gift to those afar,

Our backs were warmed by thee, O sun (who wert) the splendour in every palace and the treasure in every ruin.

O thou in whose eyebrow none ever saw knots (wrinkles), O thou (who wert) generous and bountiful as (the archangel) Michael,

O thou whose heart was connected with the Sea of the Unseen, O thou who wert the invisible ‘Anqá on the Qáf (mountain) of munificence,

Who never tookest thought how much of thy wealth had gone, and the roof of the azimuth (amplitude) of thy magnanimity was never cloven,

O thou to whom in (every) month and year I and a hundred like me had become a family (tenderly cared for) like thine own children,

Thou wert our ready money and our movables and our furniture, our fame and our glory and our fortune.

Thou art not dead; (but) our luxury and fortune are dead, our happy life is dead and the sustenance that was provided in full measure.

(Thou wert) a single person like (equivalent to) a thousand in warfare and in generosity; (thou wert) as a hundred Hátims in the hour of lavishing bounties unselfishly.

If Hátim bestows dead (worldly goods) on the (spiritually) dead (worldlings), he (is like one who) bestows a certain number of walnuts (on children).

Thou at every moment art bestowing a life that, because of its preciousness, cannot be contained in breath (words).

Thou art bestowing a life exceedingly enduring, real gold coin exempt from depreciation and beyond count.

There exists no heir (even) to one (noble) disposition of thine, O thou to whose abode Heaven is bowing in worship.

Thy grace is the shepherd of all who have been created, (guarding them) from the wolf of pain—a loving shepherd like God's Kalím (Moses).”

One sheep fled from God's Kalím: the feet of Moses were blistered (in following it) and his shoes dropped off.

(He continued) searching after it till nightfall, and (meanwhile) the flock had vanished from his sight.

The (lost) sheep was enfeebled and exhausted by fatigue: then God's Kalím shook the dust off it,

And stroked its back and head with his hand, fondling it lovingly like a mother.

Not (even) half a mite of irritation and anger, nothing but love and pity and tears!

He said (to the sheep), “I grant you (naturally) had no pity on me, (but) why did your nature show (such) cruelty to itself?”

At that moment God said to the angels, “So-and-so is suitable for prophethood.”

Mustafá (Mohammed) himself has said that every prophet herded sheep as a young man or boy,

(And that) without his having been a shepherd and (having undergone) that trial, God did not bestow on him the leadership of the world.

A questioner said, “Even thou, O man of might?” “I too,” he replied, “was a shepherd for a long while.”

In order that their (the prophets') calmness and fortitude should be displayed, God made them shepherds before (investing them with) prophethood.

Every prince who performs the task of shepherding mankind in such wise that he obeys the

Commandments (of God),

(And) in tending them with foresight and understanding shows a forbearance like that of Moses, Inevitably God will bestow on him a spiritual shepherd's office (exalted) above the sphere of the moon,

Even as He raised the prophets from this herding (of sheep) and gave them the task of tending the righteous.

“Thou, in short, O Khwája, hast performed in thy shepherding (of the poor) that which causes him that hates thee to become blind (utterly confounded).

I know that God will give thee yonder an everlasting sovereignty in compensation.

In hope of thy (open) hand as (bountiful as) the ocean and (in reliance) upon thy giving (me) a stipend and discharging (my obligations) in full,

I recklessly incurred debts (amounting to) nine thousand pieces of gold: where art thou, that these dregs may become clear?

Where art thou, that laughing like the (verdant) garden thou mayst say, ‘Receive that (sum) and ten times as much from me’?

Where art thou, that thou mayst make me laughing (flourishing) and show favour and beneficence as lords (are wont to do)?

Where art thou, that thou mayst take me into thy treasury and make me secure from debt and poverty?—

(Whilst) I am saying continually, ‘Enough!’ and thou, my bounteous friend, replying, ‘Accept this too for my heart's sake.’

How can a world (microcosm) be contained under the clay (of the body)? How should a Heaven be contained in the earth?

God forfend! Thou art beyond this world both in thy lifetime and at the present hour.

A bird is flying in the atmosphere of the Unseen: its shadow falls on a piece of earth.

The body is the shadow of the shadow of the shadow of the heart: how is the body worthy of the (lofty) rank of the heart?

A man lies asleep: his spirit is shining in Heaven, like the sun, while his body is in bed.

His spirit is hidden in the Void, like the fringe (sewn inside a garment): his body is turning to and fro beneath the coverlet.

Since the spirit, being from the command of my Lord, is invisible, every similitude that I may utter (concerning it) is denying (the truth of the description).

Oh, where, I wonder, is thy sugar-shedding ruby (lip) and those sweet replies and mysteries of thine?

Oh, where, I wonder, is that candy-chewing cornelian (lip), the key to the lock of our perplexities?

Oh, where, I wonder, is that breath (keen) as Dhu ’l-faqár, that used to make our understandings distraught?

How long, like a ringdove seeking her nest, (shall I cry) ‘where (kú) and where and where and where and where and where?’

Where (is he now)? In the place where are the Attributes of (Divine) Mercy, and (the Divine) Power and Transcendence, and (celestial) Intelligence.

Where (is he now)? In the same place where his heart and thought always dwelt, like the lion in his jungle.

Where (is he now)? In that place whither the hope of (every) man and woman turns in the hour of anguish and sorrow.

Where (is he now)? In the place to which in time of illness the eye takes wing in hope of (regaining) health—

In that quarter where, in order to avert a calamity, you seek wind for (winnowing) the corn or (speeding) a ship (on its way);

In that quarter which is signified by the heart when the tongue utters the expression ‘Yá Hú.’

He is always with God (and) beyond ‘where? where?’ (kú, kú). Would that like weavers I might have said má kú!

Where is our reason, that it should (be able to) perceive the spiritual West and East (the universal Divine epiphany) flashing forth a hundred kinds of splendour?

His (the Khwája's) ebb and flow was caused by a (great) foaming Sea: (now) the ebb has ceased and (only) the flow remains.

I am nine thousand (dinars) in debt and have no resources: there are (only) a hundred dinars, (resulting) from this subscription.

God hath withdrawn thee (from this world) and I am left in agony: I am going (hence) in despair, O thou whose dust is sweet!

Keep in thy mind a prayer for thy grief-stricken (mourner), O thou whose face and hands and prayers are auspicious.

I come to the spring and the source of (all) fountains: I find in it instead of water blood.

The sky is the same sky, (but) ’tis not the same moonlight: the river is the same river, (but) the water is not the same water.

There are benefactors, (but) where is that one who was found (by all) to be (supremely) good? There are stars, (but) where is that sun?

Thou hast gone unto God, O venerated man: I too, therefore, will go unto God.”

God is the assembly-place where the generations (of mankind) are mustered under His banner: all are brought before Us.

The pictures (phenomenal forms), whether unconscious or conscious (of it), are (always) present in the hand of the Painter.

Moment by moment that traceless One is setting down (what He will) on the page of their thought and (then) obliterating it.

He is putting anger (there) and taking acquiescence away: He is putting stinginess (there) and taking generosity away.

Never for (even) half a wink at eve or morn are my ideas exempt from this (process of) imprinting (on the mind) and obliterating.

The potter works at the pot to fashion it: how should the pot become broad and long of itself?

The wood is kept constantly in the carpenter's hand: else how should it be hewn and put into right shape?

The garment (while being made) is in the hands of a tailor: else how should it sew and cut of itself?

The water-skin is with the water-carrier, O adept: else how should it become full or empty by itself?

You are being filled and emptied at every moment: know, then, that you are in the hand of His working.

On the Day when the eye-bandage falls from the eye, how madly will the work be enamoured of the Worker!

(If) you have an eye, look with your own eye: do not look through the eye of an ignorant fool.

(If) you have an ear, hearken with your own ear: why be dependent on the ears of blockheads?

Make a practice of seeing (for yourself) without blindly following any authority: think in accordance with the view of your own reason.