بخش 52 - قصهٔ رستن خروب در گوشهٔ مسجد اقصی و غمگین شدن سلیمان علیه‌السلام از آن چون به سخن آمد با او و خاصیت و نام خود بگفت

Then Solomon saw that a new plant had grown, like an ear of corn, in a nook (of the Mosque).

He saw a very uncommon plant, green and fresh: its green ness took away the light from (dazzled) the sight.

Then that herb at once saluted him: he answered it (returned its salutation) and marvelled at its beauty.

I said, “What is thy name? Say (it) without mouth.” It said, ‘‘It is ‘carob,’ O king of the world.’’

He said, “What special property is (resides) in thee?” It replied, “(Where) I have grown, the place becomes desolate.

I, who am carob (kharrub), am the ruin (kharàb) of the abode: I am the destroyer of the building (made) of this water and clay.”

Then at that moment Solomon immediately understood that the appointed term (of his life) was come and that the (hour of) departure would (soon) appear.

He said, “So long as I exist, assuredly this Mosque will not be damaged by the banes of the earth.

Whilst I am (here) and my existence continues, how should the Farther Mosque become riven with cracks (fall into decay)?”

Know, then, that without doubt the ruin of our mosque does not occur except after our death.

The mosque is the heart to which the body bows down: wherever the mosque is, the bad companion is the carob.

When love for a bad companion has grown in you, beware, flee from him and do not converse (with him).

Tear it up by the root, for if it shoot up its head it wilt demolish (both) you and your mosque.

O lover, your carob is falseness: why do you creep, like children, towards the false?

Know yourself a sinner and calf yourself a sinner—do not be afraid—so that that Master may not steal (secretly take away) the lesson from you.

When you say, “I am ignorant; give (me) instruction,” such fair-dealing is better than (a false) reputation.

He made no excuse, nor did he invent falsehood nor lift up the banner of deceit and e

That Iblis, on the other hand, began to dispute, saying, “I was red-faced (honourable): Thou hast made me yellow (disgraced).

The colour is Thy colour: Thou art my dyer, Thou art the origin of my sin and bane and brand.”

Beware! Recite (the text) because Thou hast seduced me, in order that you may not become a necessitarian and may not weave untruth.

How long will you leap up the tree of necessitarianism and lay your free-will aside,

Like that Iblis and his progeny, (engaged) in battle and argument with God?

How should there be compulsion when you are trailing your skirt (sweeping along) into sin with such complacence?

Does any one under compulsion walk so complacently? Does any one, having lost his way’, go dancing (gleefully) like that?

You were fighting like twenty men (to prevail) in the matter concerning which those others were giving you good advice.

You said, “This is right and this is the only (approved) way: how should any one but a nobody (worthless person) rail at me?”

How should one who is compelled speak thus? How should one who has lost his way wrangle like this?

Whatever your fleshly soul desires, you have free-will (in regard to that); whatever your reason desires, you plead necessity (as an excuse for rejecting it).

Leave off swimming, let pride and enmity go: this is not a Jayhun (Oxus) or a (lesser) river, it is an ocean;

And, moreover, (it is) the deep Ocean without refuge: it sweeps away the seven seas like straw.

Love is as a ship for the elect: seldom is calamity (the result); for the most part it is deliverance.

Sell intelligence and buy bewilderment: intelligence is opinion, while bewilderment is (immediate) vision.

Sacrifice your understanding in the presence of Mustafa (Mohammed) say, “hasbiya ‘llah’, for God sufficeth me.”

Do not draw back your head from the ship (ark), like Kan’án (Canaan), whom his intelligent soul deluded,

Saying, “I will go up to the top of the lofty mountain: why must I bear gratitude (be under an obligation) to Noah?”

How should gratitude to him not be (as an obligation) on our souls, when God gives him words of thankful praise and gratitude?

What do you know (about his exalted state), O sack full of envy? Even God bears gratitude to him.

Would that he (one like Kan’án) had not learned to swim, so that he might have fixed his hope on Noah and the ark!

Would that, like a child, he had been ignorant of devices, so that, like children, he might have clung to his mother,

Or that he had not been filled with traditional knowledge, (but) had carried away from a saint the knowledge divinely revealed to the heart!

When you bring forward a book (in rivalry) with such a light (of inspiration), your soul, that resembles inspiration (in its nature), reproaches (you).

Know that beside the breath (words) of the Qutb of the time traditional knowledge is like performing the ritual ablution with sand when there is water (available).

Make yourself foolish (simple) and follow behind (him): only by means of this foolishness will you gain deliverance.

On this account, O father, the Sultan of mankind (Mohammed hath said, “Most of the people of Paradise are the foolish.”

Since, intelligence is the exciter of pride and vanity in you, become a fool in order that your heart may remain sound—

Not the fool that is bent double (abases himself) in buffoonery, (but) the fool that is distraught and bewildered (lost) in Him (God).

The foolish are (like) those women (of Egypt) who cut their hands—foolish in respect of their hands, (but) giving (wise) notice to beware of the face (beauty) of Joseph.

Sacrifice your intellect in love for the Friend: anyhow, (all) intellects are from the quarter where He is.

The (spiritually) intelligent have sent their intellects to that quarter: (only) the dolt has remained in this quarter where the’ Beloved is not.

If, from bewilderment, this intellect of yours go out of this head, every head (tip) of your hair will become (a new) head and intellect.

In that quarter the trouble of thinking is. not (incumbent) on the brain, for (there) the brain and intellect (spontaneously) produce fields and orchards (of spiritual knowledge).

(If you turn) towards the field, you will hear from the field a subtle discourse; (if) you come to the orchard, your palm- tree will become fresh and flourishing.

In this Way abandon ostentation: do not move unless your (spiritual) guide move.

Any one who moves without the head (guide) is a (mere) tail (base and contemptible): his movement is like the movement of the scorpion.

Going crookedly, night-blind and ugly and venomous—his trade is the wounding of the pure bodies (of the unworldly).

Beat the head of him whose inmost spirit is (like) this, and whose permanent nature and disposition is (like) this.

In sooth ‘tis good for him to beat this head (of his), so that his puny-soul may be delivered from that ill-starred body.

Take away the weapons from the madman’s hand, that Justice and Goodness may be satisfied with you.

Since he has weapons and has no understanding, shackle his hand; otherwise he will inflict a hundred injuries.