بخش 78 - جزع ناکردن شیخی بر مرگ فرزندان خود

Formerly there was a Shaykh, a (spiritual) Director, a heavenly Candle on the face of the earth,

One like a prophet amongst religious communities, an opener of the door of the garden of Paradise.

The Prophet said that a Shaykh who has gone forward (to perfection) is like a prophet amidst his people.

One morning his family said to him, “Tell us, O man of good disposition, how art thou

(so) hard-hearted?

We with backs (bent) double are mourning for the death and loss of thy sons: Why art not thou weeping and lamenting? Or hast thou no pity in thy heart?

Since thou hast no pity within, what hope for us is there now from thee?

We are in hope of thee, O guide, that thou wilt not leave us to perish.

When the throne is set up on the Day of Resurrection, ’tis thou that art our intercessor on that grievous day.

On such a merciless day and night we are hopeful of thy kindness.

Our hands will cling to thy skirt at that moment when security remains not to any sinner.”

The Prophet has said, “On the Day of Resurrection how should I leave the sinners to shed tears?

I will intercede with (all) my soul for the disobedient, that I may deliver them from the heavy torment.

I will deliver by my efforts the disobedient and those who have committed capital sins from (suffering) punishment for breaking their covenant.

The righteous of my community are, in sooth, free from (have no need of) my intercessions on the Day of Woe;

Nay, they have (the right to make) intercessions, and their words go (forth) like an effective decree.

No burdened one shall bear another's burden, (but) I am not burdened: God hath exalted me.”

O youth, the Shaykh is he that is without a burden and is like a bow in the hand (a mere instrument) in receiving (the command of) God.

Who is a “Shaykh”? An old man (pír), that is (to say), white-haired. Do thou apprehend the meaning of this “(white) hair,” O hopeless one.

The black hair is his self-existence: (he is not “old”) till not a single hair of his self-existence remains.

When his self-existence has ceased, he is “old” (pír), whether he be blackhaired or grizzled.

That “black hair” is the attribute of (sensual) men; that “hair” is not the hair of the beard or the hair of the head.

Jesus in the cradle raises a cry, saying, “Without having become a youth, I am a Shaykh and a Pír.”

If he (the Súfí) has been delivered from (only) a part of the attributes of (sensual) men, he is not a Shaykh; he is grey (middle-aged), O son.

When there is not on him a single black hair (of the self-existence) which is our attribute, (then) he is a Shaykh and accepted of God;

(But) if, when his hair is white, he is (still) with himself (self-existent), he is not a Pír and is not the elect of God;

And if a single hair-tip of his (sensual) attributes is surviving, he is not of heaven: he belongs to the (material) world.