بخش 2 - سؤال سایل از مرغی کی بر سر ربض شهری نشسته باشد سر او فاضل‌ترست و عزیزتر و شریف‌تر و مکرم‌تر یا دم او و جواب دادن واعظ سایل را به قدر فهم او

One day an inquirer said to a preacher, “O thou who art the pulpit's most eminent expounder,

I have a question to ask. Answer my question in this assembly-place, O possessor of the marrow (of wisdom).

A bird has settled on the city-wall: which is better—its head or its tail?”

He replied, “If its face is to the town and its tail to the country, know that its face is better than its tail;

But if its tail is towards the town and its face to the country, be the dust on that tail and spring away from its face.”

A bird flies to its nest by means of wings: the wings of Man are aspiration, O people.

(In the case of) the lover who is soiled with good and evil, do not regard the good and evil; (only) regard the aspiration.

If a falcon be white and beyond compare, (yet) it becomes despicable when it hunts a mouse;

And if there be an owl that has desire for the king, it is (noble as) the falcon's head: do not regard the hood.

Man, no bigger than a kneading-trough (scooped in a log), has surpassed (in glory) the heavens and the aether (the empyrean).

Did this heaven ever hear (the words) We have honoured which this sorrowful Man heard (from God)?

Did any one offer to earth and sky (his) beauty and reason and eloquence and fond affection?

Didst thou ever display to heaven thy beauty of countenance and thy sureness of judgement in (matters of) opinion?

Didst thou ever, O son, offer thy silvery limbs to the pictured forms in the bath-house?

(No); thou leavest those houri-like figures and displayest thyself to a half-blind old woman.

What is there in the old woman that was not in them, so that she rapt thee away from those figures (and attracted thee) to herself?

(If) thou wilt not say (what it is), I will tell (thee) plainly: ’tis reason and sense and perception and consideration and soul.

In the old woman there is a soul that mingles (with the body): the pictured forms in the hot-baths have no (rational) spirit.

If the pictured form in the hot-bath should move, it would at once separate thee from the old woman.

What is soul? (Soul is) conscious of good and evil, rejoicing on account of kindness, weeping on account of injury.

Since consciousness is the inmost nature and essence of the soul, the more aware one is the more spiritual is he.

Awareness is the effect of the spirit: any one who has this in excess is a man of God.

Since there are consciousnesses beyond this (bodily) nature, in that (spiritual) arena these (sensual) souls are (like) inanimate matter.

The first soul is the theatre of the (Divine) court; the Soul of the soul is verily the theatre of God (Himself).

The angels were entirely reason and spirit (till) there came a new Spirit of which they were the body.

When, by happy fortune, they attached themselves to that Spirit, they became subservient to that Spirit, as the body (is subservient to the spirit dwelling in it).

Hence Iblís (Satan) had turned his head away from the Spirit: he did not become one with it because he was a dead limb.

Since he had it not, he did not become devoted to it: the broken hand does not obey the spirit (which rules the body).

(But) the Spirit is not impaired though its limb is broken, for that (limb) is in its power, and it can bring it to life.

There is another mystery (to be told), (but) where is another ear? Where is a parrot capable of (eating) that sugar?

For the elect parrots there is a profound (occult) candy: to that food the eyes of the vulgar parrots are closed.

How should one who has (only) the appearance of a dervish taste of that purity? It is spiritual reality, not (mere) fa‘úlun fá‘ilát (amphibrachs and cretics).

Candy is not withheld from the ass of Jesus by him (Jesus), but the ass is naturally pleased with straw.

If candy had roused delight in the ass, he would have poured hundredweights of sugar in front of the ass.

Know that this is the (inner) meaning of We seal their mouths: this (knowledge) is important for the traveller on the Way,

That perchance, by (his following) the Way of the Seal of the prophets, the heavy seal may be lifted from his lips.

The seals which the (former) prophets left were removed by the religion of Ahmad (Mohammed).

The unopened locks had remained (as they were): they were opened by the hand of Lo, We have opened (unto thee).

He is the intercessor in this world and in yonder world—in this world (for guidance) to the (true) religion, and yonder (for entrance) to Paradise.

In this world he says, “Do Thou show unto them the Way,” and in yonder world he says, “Do Thou show unto them the Moon.”

It was his custom in public and in private (to say), “Guide my people: verily they know not.”

By his breath (powerful intercession) both the Gates were opened: in both worlds his prayer is answered.

He has become the Seal (of the prophets) for this reason that there never was any one like him in munificence nor ever shall be.

When a master surpasses (all others) in his craft, don't you say (to him), “The craft is sealed on thee”?

In the opening of seals thou (O Mohammed) art the Seal: in the world of the givers of spiritual life thou art the Hátim.

The purport (is this, that) the indications (esoteric teachings) of Mohammed are wholly revelation within revelation within revelation.

A hundred thousand blessings on his spirit and on the advent and cycle of his sons!

Those fortunate Caliph-born sons of his are born of the substance of his soul and heart.

Whether they be of Baghdád or Herát or Rayy, they are his progeny without admixture of water and earth.

Wherever the rose-bough blossoms, ’tis still the (same) rose; wherever the wine-jar bubbles, ’tis still the (same) wine.

If the sun uplift its head (rise) from the west, ’tis the same sun, not anything else.

O Maker, by means of Thy veiling grace keep the fault-pickers blind to this (mystic) utterance.

God said (in answer to my prayer), “I have blindfolded the eyes of the evil-natured bat (so as to prevent it) from (seeing) the peerless Sun.

From the glances of the infirm and feeble bat even the stars of that Sun are concealed.”