بخش 88 - لابه کردن موش مر چغز را کی بهانه میندیش و در نسیه مینداز انجاح این حاجت مرا کی فی التاخیر آفات و الصوفی ابن الوقت و ابن دست از دامن پدر باز ندارد و اب مشفق صوفی کی وقتست او را بنگرش به فردا محتاج نگرداند چندانش مستغرق دارد در گلزار سریع الحسابی خویش نه چون عوام منتظر مستقبل نباشد نهری باشد نه دهری کی لا صباح عند الله و لا مساء ماضی و مستقبل و ازل و ابد آنجا نباشد آدم سابق و دجال مسبوق نباشد کی این رسوم در خطهٔ عقل جز وی است و روح حیوانی در عالم لا مکان و لا زمان این رسوم نباشد پس او ابن وقتیست کی لا یفهم منه الا نفی تفرقة الا زمنة چنانک از الله واحد فهم شود نفی دوی نی حقیقت واحدی

A certain Khwája, accustomed to scatter (pieces of) silver, said to a Súfí, “O you for whose feet my soul is a carpet,

Would you like one dirhem to-day, my king, or three dirhems at breakfast-time to-morrow?”

He replied, “I am more pleased with (the possession of) half a dirhem yesterday than with (the promise of) this (one dirhem) to-day and a hundred dirhems to-morrow.”

(The mouse said), “A slap (given) in cash (immediately) is better than a donation (paid) on credit (hereafter): lo, I put the nape of my neck before thee: give (me) the cash!

Especially as the slap is from thy hand, for both the nape and the slap inflicted on it are intoxicated (enraptured) with thee.

Hark, come, O soul of my soul and (O thou who art the soul) of a hundred worlds, gladly take the opportunity of (seizing) the cash of this (present) moment.

Do not stealthily remove thy moon-like face from the night-travellers, do not withdraw thyself from this river-bed, O flowing water,

(But flow) in order that the river-bank may laugh (may be made to blossom) by the running water, and that jasmines may rear their heads on each brim of the river.”

When you see that verdure is fresh on the river-brim, then (you may) know (even) from afar that water is there.

If it rains during the night, no one sees (the rain), for (then) every soul and breath is asleep;

(But) the freshness of every beauteous rose-garden is (clear) evidence of the rain (that was) hidden (from view).

(The mouse said), “O comrade, I am of the earth, thou art of the water; but thou art the king of mercy and munificence.

By way of (conferring) bounty and dispensing (favour) so act that I may attain to (the privilege of) serving thee early and late.

I am always calling thee on the river-bank with (all) my soul, (but) I never experience the mercy of response.

Entrance into the water is barred against me because my (bodily) frame has grown from a piece of earth.

Use the aid either of a messenger or a token to make thee aware of my (piteous) cry.”

The two friends debated on this (matter): at the close of the debate it was settled

That they should procure a long string, in order that by pulling the string the secret should be revealed.

(The mouse said), “One end must be tied to the foot of this slave (who is bent) double, and the other (end) to thy foot,

That by this device we two persons may come together and mingle as the soul with the body.”

The body is like a string (tied) on the foot of the soul, drawing it (down) from Heaven to earth.

When the frog-like soul escapes from the mouse-like body into the water, (which is) the sleep of unconsciousness, it enters into a happy state;

(But) the mouse-like body pulls it back with that string: how much bitterness does the soul taste from this pulling!

Were it not for the pulling of the scatter-brained mouse, the frog would have enjoyed himself in the water.

You will hear the rest of it from the light-giving (illumination) of the Sun when you rise from slumber on the Day (of Resurrection).

(The mouse said), “Knot one end of the string on my foot and the other end on thine,

That I may be able to pull thee to this dry land: lo, the end of the string (the object of my plan) is (now) clear (to thee).”

This news (proposal) was disagreeable to the heart of the frog, (who thought to himself), “This wicked fellow will bring me into a tangle.”

Whenever a feeling of repugnance comes into the heart of a good man, ’tis not devoid of some significance.

Deem that (intuitive) sagacity to be a Divine attribute, not a (vain) suspicion: the light of the heart has apprehended (by intuitive perception) from the Universal Tablet.

In spite of all blows the Elephant's feet would not move, either much or little, towards the Ka‘ba.

You would have said that its legs were paralysed or that its impetuous spirit was dead.

(But) whenever they turned its head towards Yemen, the fierce Elephant would begin to stride (forward) with the speed of a hundred horses.

(Since) the Elephant's perception was aware of the blow (coming) from the Unseen, how (much more) must the perception of the saint (endowed) with (the Divine) afflatus be (aware)!

Is it not (the case) that the prophet Jacob, that man of holy nature, (said) for Joseph's sake to all his (Joseph's) brethren—

When the brothers begged their father to give him to them, that they might take him to the country for a while,

(And) they all said to him, “Do not be afraid of harm (befalling him): give him one or two days' time, O father;

Did not he (Jacob) say (to them), “I know this, that (the thought of) his being removed from me is kindling grief and sickness in my heart;

This heart of mine never lies, for my heart is illumined by the light of the highest heaven”?

That (foreboding) was a decisive proof of (their) wickedness, but by (Divine) destiny he took no account (of it).

An intimation like that passed away from him (from his mind), because Destiny was at that moment (engaged) in (putting into operation the Divine) philosophy.

’Tis no wonder that a blind man should fall into a pit, (but) the falling of one who can see the way is beyond all wonder.

This Destiny employs diverse shifts: its eye-binding spell is God doeth what He pleaseth.

The heart knows and yet knows not its (Destiny's) artfulness: its (hard) iron becomes (soft) as wax for the seal.

’Tis as though the heart should say (to itself), “Since its (Destiny's) inclination is turned to (bringing) this (to pass), whatever may happen, let it come!”

The half-baked saucy fellow, whom the wine (of Love) has relieved from the surfeit of intoxication with a hundred thousand wicked half-baked (persons like himself), Finally becomes mature and adept: he escapes from enslavement to this world and is made free.

Yearning with desire they (phenomenal ideas) come in troops from the Desert of Non-existence into the visible (material) world.

Caravan on caravan, they arrive from this Desert every evening and morning.

They come and seize our houses in distraint, (each one) saying, “I have arrived, ’tis my turn, do thou begone!”

When the son has opened the eye of reason (attained to years of discretion), the father at once puts his (own) baggage in the cart.

’Tis (like) the King's highway—(travellers) departing and arriving, one going in this direction, another in that direction.

Consider well! We, (though apparently) sitting still, are (really) marching: don't you see that we are bound for a new place (of abode)?

You do not get (and spend) your capital for any present need; nay, but (you keep it) for your ultimate purposes.

The traveller, then, O devotee of the Way, is he whose march and face are towards the future,

Even as the troops of Phantasy are at every moment arriving (and passing) unweariedly through the curtains of the heart.

If (these) ideas are not (sprung) from one (and the same) Plantation, how are they coming to the heart on each other's heels?

Company after company, the army of our ideas, (impelled) by thirst, is speeding towards the fountain of the heart.

They fill their jars and go: they are continually appearing and vanishing.

Regard (your) thoughts as stars of the sky (which are) revolving in the sphere of another heaven.

(If) you have experienced good fortune (spiritual thoughts), give thanks (to God) and do works of charity; (if) you have experienced bad fortune (sensual thoughts), give alms and ask pardon (of God).

Who am I in relation to this? Come, O my King, make my ruling star auspicious and wheel once (towards me).

Illumine my spirit with moonbeams, for my soul is blackened (eclipsed) by contact with the (Dragon's) Tail.

Deliver it from fancy and vain imagination and opinion, deliver it from the well and the tyranny of the rope,

In order that through Thy goodly lovingkindness a heart (such as mine) may lift its wings and soar up from a (body of) water and earth.

O Prince of Egypt and faithful keeper of thy promise, the wronged Joseph is in thy prison.

Quickly dream a dream of his release, for God loveth the beneficent.

The seven noxious lean kine are devouring its (the spirit's) seven fat kine.

The seven dry, ugly, and unapproved ears of corn are feeding on its fresh ears.

Famine has arisen in its Egypt, O mighty Potentate: hark, O King, do not continue to sanction this.

Let my Joseph sit in Thy prison, O King: come, deliver me from the wiles of the women.

My mother's lust caused me to fall from the highest heaven which was my tethering-place (stable), for (God said), Fall ye down!

So by the artfulness of a crone I fell from (a state of) complete perfection into the prison of the womb.

She brings the spirit from the highest heaven to the (corporeal) Hatím (enclosure): great must be the craft of women.

(Both) my first and my last fall were caused by woman, since I was spirit—and how have I become body?

Hearken to this lament of Joseph in his lapse (from grace), or take pity on that distraught Jacob.

Shall I complain of my brethren or of the women who have cast me, like Adam, from the gardens (of

Eden)?

When I saw Thy graciousness and kindness and Thy greeting of peace and Thy message, I produced rue (to burn as a charm) against the evil eye; (but) the evil eye reached even my rue.

(’Tis) only Thy languishing eyes (that) are able to avert every evil eye (whether) in front or behind.

Thy good eye, O King, defeats and extirpates the evil eye: how excellent it is as a remedy!

Nay, from Thine eye come (wondrous) alchemies (transmutations): they turn the evil eye into the good eye.

The King's eye hath smitten the eye of the falcon-heart, and its falcon-eye hath become mightily aspiring,

So that, because of the great aspiration which it has gained from the (King's) look, the royal falcon will (now) catch (hunt) nothing but the fierce lion.

What (of the) lion? The spiritual royal falcon is Thy quarry and at the same time Thou art its prey.

From Thy infinite bounty there came an (inward) eye to the falcon-soul that was flying for Thy sake.

From Thee its nose gained (the inward sense of) smell, and its ear the (inward) hearing: to each sense was allotted a portion (of the spiritual sense that was) distributed (amongst them all).

Since Thou givest to each sense the means of access to the Unseen, that (spiritual) sense is not subject to the frailty of death and hoary eld.

Thou art the Lord of the kingdom: Thou givest to the (spiritual) sense something (peculiar to itself), so that that sense exercises sovereignty over (all) the senses.