بخش 27 - قصهٔ احد احد گفتن بلال در حر حجاز از محبت مصطفی علیه‌السلام در آن چاشتگاهها کی خواجه‌اش از تعصب جهودی به شاخ خارش می‌زد پیش آفتاب حجاز و از زخم خون از تن بلال برمی‌جوشید ازو احد احد می‌جست بی‌قصد او چنانک از دردمندان دیگر ناله جهد بی‌قصد زیرا از درد عشق ممتلی بود اهتمام دفع درد خار را مدخل نبود هم‌چون سحرهٔ فرعون و جرجیس و غیر هم لایعد و لا یحصی

That Bilál was devoting his body to the (scourge of) thorns: his master was flogging him by way of correction,

Saying, “Why dost thou celebrate Ahmad (Mohammed)? Wicked slave, thou disbelievest in my religion!”

He was beating him in the sun with thorns (while) he (Bilál) cried vauntingly “One!”

Till (at last) those cries of “One!” reached the ears of the Siddíq (Abú Bakr), who was passing in that neighbourhood.

His eyes became filled with tears and his heart with trouble, (for) from that “One!” he caught the scent of a loving friend (of God).

Afterwards he saw him (Bilál) in private and admonished him, saying, “Keep thy belief hidden from the Jews.

He (God) knows (all) secrets: conceal thy desire.” He (Bilál) said, “I repent before thee, O prince.”

Early next day, (when) the Siddíq was going quickly in that district on account of some affair,

He again heard (cries of) “One!” and (the sound of) blows inflicted by the (scourge of) thorns: flames and sparks of fire were kindled in his heart.

He admonished him once more, and once more he (Bilál) repented; (but) Love came and consumed his repentance.

There was much repenting of this sort, (till) at last he became quit of repentance,

And proclaimed (his faith) and yielded up his body to tribulation, crying, “O Mohammed, O enemy of vows of repentance,

O thou with whom my body and (all) my veins are filled—how should there be room therein for repentance?—

Henceforth I will banish repentance from this heart (of mine): how should I repent of the life everlasting?”

Love is the All-subduer, and I am subdued by Love: by Love's bitterness I have been made sweet as sugar.

O fierce Wind, before Thee I am (but) a straw: how can I know where I shall fall?

Whether I am (stout as) Bilál or (thin as) the new moon (hilál), I am running on and following the course of Thy sun.

What has the moon to do with stoutness and thinness? She runs at the heels of the sun, like a shadow.

Any one who offers to make a settlement with (the Divine) destiny is mocking at his own moustache.

A straw in the face of the wind, and then (the idea of) a settlement! A Resurrection (going on), and then the resolve to act (independently)!

In the hand of Love I am like a cat in a bag, now lifted high and now flung low by Love.

He is whirling me round His head: I have no rest either below or aloft.

The lovers (of God) have fallen into a fierce torrent: they have set their hearts on (resigned themselves to) the ordinance of Love.

(They are) like the millstone turning, day and night, in (continual) revolution and moaning incessantly.

Its turning is evidence for those who seek the River, lest any one should say that the River is motionless.

If thou seest not the hidden River, see the (perpetual) turning of the celestial water-wheel.

Since the heavens have no rest from (being moved by) Him (Love), (be) thou, O heart, like a star, (and) seek no rest.

If thou lay hold of a branch, how should He let (thee cling to it)? Wherever thou makest an attachment, He will break it.

If thou seest not the revolutionary action of the (Divine) decree, look at the surging and whirling (that appears) in the (four) elements;

For the whirling of the sticks and straws and foam are caused by the boiling of the noble Sea (of Love).

See the giddy wind howling; see the billows surging at His command.

The sun and moon are two mill-oxen, going round and round and keeping watch (over the world).

The stars likewise run from house to house (in the sky) and convey every good and evil fortune.

Hark, though the stars of heaven are far away and thy senses are (too) dull and slack (to apprehend their motions),

(Yet ask thyself) where are our stars—eye, ear, and mind—at night, and where (are they) when we are awake?

Now (they are) in good luck and union and happiness; now in ill-luck and separation and insensibility.

Since the moon of heaven is (engaged) in making this circuit, she is sometimes dark and sometimes bright.

Sometimes ’tis spring and summer, (delicious) as honey and milk; sometimes (the world is) a place of punishment by snow and piercing cold.

Seeing that before Him (God) universals are like a ball, subject (to Him) and prostrating themselves before His bat,

How shouldst thou, O heart, which art (but) one of these hundred thousand particulars, not be in restless movement at His decree?

Be at the disposal of the Prince, like a horse (or mule), now confined in the stable, now going (on the road).

When He fastens thee to a peg, be fastened (quiet and submissive); when He looses thee, go, be exultant (prance and bound).

(But keep on the right road, for when) the sun in heaven jumps crookedly, He causes it to be eclipsed in black disgrace,

Saying, “Avoid the (Dragon's) Tail: hark, take heed, lest thou become black of face like a cooking-pot.”

The cloud, too, is lashed with a whip of fire, (as through to say), “Go that way, do not go this way!

Rain upon such and such a valley, do not rain in this quarter”: He reprimands it, saying, “Give ear!

Thy reason is not superior to a sun: do not stay in (dally with) a thought that has been forbidden.

O Reason, do not thou too step crookedly, lest that eclipse of (the bright) face befall (thee).

When (thy) sin is less, thou wilt see half the sun eclipsed and half radiant,

For I punish thee in proportion to thy sin: this is the principle laid down for justice and retribution.

Whether (thou art) good or bad or open or secret, I am He that overheareth and overseeth all things.”

Leave this topic, O father: New Year's Day is come: the creatures have had their mouths made sweet by the Creator.

The spiritual Water (of Life) has returned into our river-bed, our King has returned into our street.

Fortune is strutting and (proudly) trailing her skirt and beating the drums (as a signal) to break vows of repentance.

Once more the flood-water has swept repentance away: the opportunity has arrived, the watchman is overcome by sleep.

Every toper has drunk the wine and is intoxicated: to-night we will pawn all our belongings.

From (drinking) the ruby wine of the life-increasing Spirit we are ruby within ruby within ruby.

Once more the assembly-place has become flourishing and heart-illuminating: arise and burn rue- seed to keep off the evil eye.

The cries of the joyous drunken (lovers) are coming to me: O Beloved, I want it (to continue) like this unto everlasting.

Lo, a new moon (hilálí) has been united with a Bilál: the blows of the (scourge of) thorns have become (delightful) to him (as) roses and pomegranate-flowers.

(Bilál said), “If my body is (full of holes, like) a sieve from the blows of the (scourge of) thorns, (yet) my soul and body are a rose-garden of felicity.

My body is exposed to the blows of the Jew's (scourge of) thorns, (but) my spirit is intoxicated and enravished by that Loving One.

The scent of a (beloved) Soul is coming towards my soul: the scent of my loving Friend is coming to me.”

(When) Mustafá (Mohammed) came (to earth) from the Ascension, (he pronounced) on his Bilál (the blessing), “How dear to me (art thou), how dear!”

On hearing this (ecstatic utterance) from Bilál, in whose speech there was no guile, the Siddíq (Abú Bakr) washed his hands of urging him to repent.