Story of Muhammad Khwárizmsháh who took by war (force) the city of Sabzawár, where all (the inhabitants) are Ráfizís (extreme Shí‘ites). (When) they begged him to spare their lives, he said, “I will grant (you) security as soon as ye produce from this city a man named Abú Bakr and present him to me.”
شاعر: رومی
وزن: فاعلاتن فاعلاتن فاعلن (رمل مسدس محذوف یا وزن مثنوی)
صنف: مثنوی
Muhammad Alp Ulugh Khwárizmsháh marched to battle against Sabzawár, (the city) full of refuge (for the wicked).
His troops reduced them (the inhabitants) to straits; his army fell to killing the foe.
They prostrated themselves before him, crying, “Mercy! Make us thy thralls, (but) spare our lives!
Whatever thou requirest (in the way of) tribute or presents will come to thee from us with increase (abundantly) at every fixed time (of payment).
Our lives are thine, O lion-natured (prince): let them be on deposit with us for a (little) while.”
He replied, “Ye will not save your lives from me unless ye bring an Abú Bakr into my presence.
Unless ye bring to me as a gift from your city one whose name is Abú Bakr, O people who have fled (from righteousness),
I will mow you down like corn, O vile folk: I will accept neither tribute nor blandishments.”
They offered him many sacks of gold, saying, “Do not demand an Abú Bakr from a city like this.
How should there be an Abú Bakr in Sabzawár, or a dry sod in the river?”
He averted his face from the gold and said, “O Magians (infidels), unless ye bring me an Abú Bakr as an offering,
’Tis of no avail. I am not a child that I should stand dumbfounded (fascinated) by gold and silver.”
Unless thou prostrate thyself (in humble submission to God), thou wilt not escape (from punishment), O wretch, (even) if thou traverse the (whole) mosque on thy séant.
They (the inhabitants of Sabzawár) despatched emissaries, (to inquire) where in this desolate (corrupt) place an Abú Bakr was (to be found).
After three days and three nights, during which they made haste (in searching), they found an emaciated Abú Bakr.
He was a wayfarer and, on account of sickness, had remained in the corner of a ruin, in utter exhaustion.
He was lying in a ruined nook. When they espied him, they said to him hurriedly,
“Arise! The Sultan has demanded thee: by thee our city will be saved from slaughter.”
He replied, “If I had the foot (power to walk) or any (means of) arrival, I myself would have gone by my own road to my destination.
How should I have remained in this abode of my enemies? I would have pushed on towards the city of my friends.”
They raised the corpse-bearers' board and lifted our Abú Bakr (upon it).
The carriers were taking him along to Khwárizmsháh, that he (the Sultan) might behold the token (which he desired).
Sabzawár is this world, and in this place the man of God is wasted and goodfor- naught.
Khwárizmsháh is God Almighty: He demands from this wicked folk the (pure) heart.
He (the Prophet) said, “He (God) doth not regard your (outward) form: therefore in your devising seek ye the owner of the Heart.”
(God says), “I regard thee through the owner of the Heart, not because of the (external) marks of prostration (in prayer) and the giving away of gold (in charities).”
Since thou hast deemed thy heart to be the Heart, thou hast abandoned the search after those who possess the Heart—
The Heart into which if seven hundred (heavens) like these Seven Heavens should enter, they would be lost and hidden (from view).
Do not call such fragments of heart as these “the Heart”: do not seek an Abú Bakr in Sabzawár!
The owner of the Heart becomes a six-faced mirror: through him God looks upon (all) the six directions.
Whosoever hath his dwelling-place in (the world of) six directions God doth not look upon him except through the mediation of him (the owner of the Heart).
If He (God) reject (any one), He does it for his sake; and if He accept (any one), he likewise is the authority.
Without him God does not bestow bounty on any one. I have told (only) one sample of (the sublimity of) the possessor of union (with God).
He (God) lays His gift on the palm of his hand, and from his palm dispenses it to those who are the objects of His mercy.
The unitedness of the Universal Sea (of Bounty) with his palm is unqualified and unconditional and perfect.
A unitedness that is not containable in words—to speak of it were a vain task, so farewell.
O rich man, (if) thou bring a hundred sacks of gold, God will say, “Bring the Heart, O thou that art bent (in devotion).
If the Heart be pleased with thee, I am pleased; and if it be averse to thee, I am averse.
I do not regard thee, I regard that Heart: bring it, O soul, as a gift to My door!
According as it is in relation to thee, so am I: Paradise is under the feet of mothers.”
It (the Heart) is the mother and father and origin of (all) the creatures: oh, blest is that one who knows the Heart from the skin.
Thou wilt say, “Lo, I have brought unto Thee a heart”: He (God) will say to thee, “Qutú is full of these hearts.
Bring the Heart that is the Qutb (Pole) of the world and the soul of the soul of the soul of the soul of Adam.”
The Sultan of (all) hearts is waiting expectantly for that Heart full of light and goodness.
Thou mayst wander (many) days in Sabzawár, (but) thou wilt not find (there) a Heart like that by (the most) careful observation.
Then thou wilt lay upon a bier the corrupt heart, whose soul is rotten, to carry (it) Yonder,
And say, “I bring Thee a heart, O King: there is no better heart than this in Sabzawár.”
He (God) will answer thee, saying, “O audacious man, is this a graveyard that thou shouldst bring a dead heart hither?
Go, bring the Heart that is kingly, from which is (derived) the security of the Sabzawár of (mundane) existence.”
You may say that that Heart is hidden from this world, because darkness and light are opposites.
From the Day of Alast there is an hereditary enmity of that Heart to the Sabzawár of the carnal nature;
For it is a falcon, while this world is the city of the crow: the sight of one who is uncongenial inflicts pain upon him who is not his congener;
And if he (the worldling) behave with mildness (complaisance), he is acting hypocritically: he is seeking an advantage for himself by conciliating (the owner of the Heart).
He assents, not on account of sincere feeling, (but) in order that the admonisher may curtail his long admonition;
For this vile carrion-seeking crow hath a hundred thousand manifold tricks.
If they (the saints) accept his hypocrisy, he is saved: his hypocrisy becomes identical with the sincerity of him who benefits by instruction,
Because the august owner of the Heart is a buyer of damaged goods in our bazaar.
Seek the owner of the Heart, if thou art not soulless: become a congener of the Heart, if thou art not an adversary of the (spiritual) Sultan.
(But) that one whose hypocrisy pleases thee, he is (only) thy saint, (he is) not the elect of God.
Whosoever lives in accordance with thy disposition and nature seems to thy (carnal) nature to be a saint and a prophet.
Go, renounce sensuality in order that the (spiritual) scent may be thine and that the sweet ambergris-seeking organ of smell may be thine.
Thy brain (organ of smell) is corrupted by sensual indulgence: to thy (olfactory) sense musk and ambergris are unsalable.
This discourse hath no bound, and (meanwhile) our gazelle is running to and fro in flight in the stable.
