بخش 132 - در خواستن قبطی دعای خیر و هدایت از سبطی و دعا کردن سبطی قبطی را به خیر و مستجاب شدن از اکرم الاکرمین و ارحم الراحمین

The Egyptian said, “Do thou offer a prayer (for me), since from blackness of heart I have not the mouth (fit for offering an acceptable prayer),

For it may be that the lock of this heart will be opened and that a place will be (granted) to this ugly one at the banquet of the beauteous.

Through thee the deformed may become endowed with beauty, or an Iblís may again become one of the Cherubim;

Or, by the august influence of Mary's hand, the withered bough may acquire the fragrance of musk and freshness and fruit.”

Thereupon the Israelite fell to worship and said, “O God who knowest the manifest and the hidden,

To whom but Thee should Thy servant lift his hand? Both the prayer and the answer (to prayer) are from Thee.

Thou at first givest the desire for prayer, and Thou at last givest likewise the recompense for prayers.

Thou art the First and the Last: we between are nothing, a nothing that does not come into (admit of) expression.”

He was speaking in this wise, till he fell into ecstasy and his heart became senseless.

(Whilst engaged) in prayer, he came back to his senses (and witnessed the effect of his prayer): Man shall have nothing but what he hath wrought.

He was (still) praying when suddenly a loud cry and roar burst from the heart of the Egyptian,

(Who exclaimed), “Come, make haste and submit (the profession of) the Faith (for my acceptance), that I may quickly cut the old girdle (of unbelief).

They have cast a fire into my heart, they have shown affection with (all) their soul for an Iblís (like me).

Praise be to God! Thy friendship and (my) not being able to do without thee have succoured me at last.

My consortings with thee were (as) an elixir: may thy foot never disappear from the house of my heart!

Thou wert a bough of the palm-tree of Paradise: when I grasped it, it bore me to Paradise.

That which carried away my body was a torrent: the torrent bore me to the brink of the Sea of Bounty.

I went towards the torrent in hope of (obtaining) water: I beheld the Sea and took pearls, bushel on bushel.”

He (the Israelite) brought the cup to him, saying, “Now take the water!” “Go,” he replied; “(all) waters have become despicable in my sight.

I have drunk such a draught from God hath purchased that no thirst will come to me till the Congregation (at the Last Judgement).

He who gave water to the rivers and fountains hath opened a fountain within me.

This heart, which was hot and water-drinking—to its high aspiration water has become vile.

He (God), for the sake of His servants, became (symbolised by) the (letter) káf of Káfí (All- sufficing), (in token of) the truth of the promise of Káf, Há, Yá, ‘Ayn, Sád.

(God saith), ‘I am All-sufficing: I will give thee all good, without (the intervention of) a secondary cause, without the mediation of another's aid.

I am All-sufficing: I will give thee satiety without bread, I will give thee sovereignty without soldiers and armies.

I will give thee narcissi and wild-roses without the spring, I will give thee instruction without a book and teacher.

I am All-sufficing: I will heal thee without medicine, I will make the grave and the pit a (spacious) playing-field.

To a Moses I give heart (courage) with a single rod, that he may brandish swords against a multitude.

(Such) a light and splendour do I give to the hand of Moses that it is slapping the sun (in triumph).

I make the wooden staff a seven-headed dragon, which the female dragon does not (conceive and) bring to birth from the male.

I do not mingle blood in the water of the Nile: in sooth by My cunning I make the very essence of its water to be blood.

I turn thy joy into sorrow like the (polluted) water of the Nile, so that thou wilt not find the way to rejoicings.

Again, when thou art intent on renewing thy faith and abjurest Pharaoh once more,

Thou wilt see (that) the Moses of Mercy (has) come, thou wilt see the Nile of blood turned by him into water.

When thou keepest safe within (thee) the end of the rope (of faith), the Nile of thy spiritual delight will never be changed into blood.’

I thought I would profess the Faith in order that from this deluge of blood I might drink some water.

How did I know that He would work a transformation in my nature and make me a (spiritual) Nile?

To my own eye, I am a flowing Nile, (but) to the eyes of others I am at rest.”

Just as, to the Prophet, this world is plunged in glorification of God, while to us it is heedless (insensible).

To his eye, this world is filled with love and bounty; to the eyes of others it is dead and inert.

To his eye, vale and hill are moving swiftly: he hears subtle discourse from clod and brick.

To the vulgar, all this (world) is a bound and dead (thing): I have not seen a veil (of blindness) more wonderful than this.

To our eye, (all) the graves are alike; to the eyes of the saints, (one is) a garden (in Paradise), and (another is) a pit (in Hell).

The vulgar would say, “Wherefore has the Prophet become sour (of visage) and why has he become pleasure-killing?”

The elect would say, “To your eyes, O peoples, he appears to be sour; (But) come for once into our eyes, that ye may behold the laughs (of delight described) in (the Súra beginning with the words) Hal atá (Did not there come?).”

That appears (to thee) in the form of inversion (illusion) from the top of the pear-tree: come down, O youth!

The pear-tree is the tree of (phenomenal) existence: whilst thou art there, the new appears old.

Whilst thou art there, thou wilt see (only) a thorn-brake full of the scorpions of wrath and full of snakes.

When thou comest down, thou wilt behold, free of cost, a world filled with rose-cheeked (beauties) and (their) nurses.