بخش 133 - متوفی شدن بزرگین از شه‌زادگان و آمدن برادر میانین به جنازهٔ برادر کی آن کوچکین صاحب‌فراش بود از رنجوری و نواختن پادشاه میانین را تا او هم لنگ احسان شد ماند پیش پادشاه صد هزار از غنایم غیبی و غنی بدو رسید از دولت و نظر آن شاه مع تقریر بعضه

The youngest (brother) was ill, and (so) the middle one came alone to the funeral of the eldest.

(When) the King espied him, he said with a purpose, “Who is this?—for he is of that sea, and he too is a fish.”

Then the announcer said, “He is a son of the same father: this brother is younger than that (deceased) brother.”

The King greeted him affectionately, saying, “Thou art a keepsake (from thy brother to me)”; and by this enquiry (gracious attention) made him too his prey.

In consequence of the kindness shown (to him) by the King, that wretched man, (who was) roasted (in the fire of love), found in his body a soul other than the (animal) soul.

He felt within his heart a sublime emotion which the Súfí does not experience during a hundred chilas.

Court-yard and wall and mountain woven of stone seemed to split open before him like a laughing (bursting) pomegranate.

One by one, the atoms (of the universe) were momently opening their doors to him, like tents, in a hundred diverse ways.

The door would become now the window, now the sunbeams; the earth would become now the wheat, now the bushel.

In (men's) eyes the heavens are very old and threadbare; in his eye ’twas a new creation at every moment.

When the beauteous spirit is delivered from the body, no doubt an eye like this will be conferred upon it by (Divine) destiny.

A hundred thousand mysteries were revealed to him: he beheld that which the eyes of the initiated behold.

He opened (the inward) eye (and gazed) on the (ideal) form of that which he had (only) read in books.

From the dust of the mighty King's horse he obtained a precious collyrium for his eyesight.

In such a garden of flowers he was trailing his skirt, while every part of him was crying, “Is there any more?”

The flowers that grow from plants are (living but) a moment; the flowers that grow from Reason are (ever) fresh.

The flowers that bloom from earth become faded; the flowers that bloom from the heart—oh, what a joy!

Know that (all) the delightful sciences known to us are (only) two or three bunches of flowers from that Garden.

We are devoted to these two or three bunches of flowers because we have shut the Garden-door on ourselves.

Alas, O (dear) soul, (that) on account of (thy greed for) bread such (admirable) keys are always dropping from thy fingers!

And if for a moment thou art relieved from preoccupation with bread, thou danglest about the chádar and (givest thyself up to) thy passion for women;

And then, when (the sea of) thy dropsy (lust) breaks into billows, thou must needs have under thy sway a (whole) city full of bread and women.

(At first) thou wert (only) a snake: (now) indeed thou hast become a dragon. Thou hadst (only) one head: now thou hast seven heads.

Hell is a seven-headed dragon: thy greed is the bait and Hell the snare.

Pull the snare to pieces, burn the bait, open new doors in this (bodily) tenement!

O sturdy beggar, unless thou art a lover (of God), thou hast (only) an echo, like the unconscious mountain.

How should the mountain possess a voice of its own? The echo is reflected from another, O trusty man.

In the same fashion as thy speech is the reflexion of another, so all thy feelings are nothing but a reflexion.

Both thy anger and thy pleasure are (only) reflected from others, (like) the joy of the procuress and the rage of the night-patrol.

Pray, what (harm) did that poor fellow do to the night-patrol that he should punish and torment him in revenge?

How long (wilt thou follow) the glittering phantom reflected (from another)?Strive to make this (experience) actual for thyself,

So that thy words will be (prompted) by thy immediate feelings, and thy flight will be made with thine own wings and pinions.

’Tis with alien feathers that the arrow captures its prey; consequently it gets no share of the bird's flesh;

(But) the falcon brings its quarry from the mountains itself; consequently the king lets it eat partridge and starling.

The speech that is not (derived) from (Divine) inspiration springs from selfwill: it is like dust (floating) in the air and among the motes (in the sunbeams).

If this saying appear to the Khwája to be erroneous, recite a few lines at the beginning of (the Súra) Wa’l- Najm.

Down to (the words), Mohammed does not speak from self-will: ’tis only (a speech) gained by inspiration.

O Ahmad (Mohammed), since thou despairest not of (receiving) inspiration, leave investigation and conjecture to the corporealists;

For in case of necessity a carcase is lawful (food), but there is no need to investigate (when one is) in the Ka‘ba of union.

Whosoever wilfully adopts a heresy without investigation and the utmost efforts to discover the right way,

The wind (of self-will) will lift him up and kill him, like (the people of) ‘Ád: he is no Solomon that it should waft his throne along.

For ‘Ád (and those like them) the wind is a treacherous carrier: (they are) as a lamb in the hands of a glutton,

Which he lays in his lap as though it were his own child and carries away to slaughter like a butcher.

That wind was (the punishment) for ‘Ád because of their pride: they indeed deemed it a friend, (but) it was (really) a stranger (foe).

When of a sudden it turned its coat, that evil comrade shattered them piecemeal.

Shatter (destroy) the wind—for the wind (of self-will) is a great temptation— ere it shatter thee, like ‘Ád.

Húd admonished them, saying, “O prideful folk, this wind will tear out of your hands the skirt (to which ye are clinging).

The wind is God's army, and (only) in hypocrisy (deceit) has it embraced you for a few days.

Secretly it is loyal to its Creator: when the appointed term arrives, the wind will throw up its hands (and desert you).”

See how the wind passes through the mouth, coming and going at every moment in advance and retreat.

The throat and teeth are in no danger from it; (but) when God commands, it attacks the teeth;

(And then) a (mere) atom of wind becomes (like) a mountain and heavy, and toothache keeps him (the sufferer) miserable and ill.

This is the same wind that used to pass by harmlessly: it was the life of the crops and it became the death of the crops.

The hand of the person who (formerly) kissed thy hand—in the moment of anger that hand becomes a mace.

He (who has toothache) cries from his soul, “O Lord! O Lord! Take away this wind, O Thou whose aid is besought (by all)!

O mouth, thou wert heedless of this wind: (now) go and betake thyself to asking pardon of God with utter abasement.”

His hard eye (now) sheds tears like rain: (only) pain causes the unbelievers to call unto God.

Since thou hast not received the breath (inspiration) of (holy) men from a (holy) man, hark, receive the Divine inspiration from pain.

The wind says, “I am a messenger from the King of mankind: now I bring good news, now calamitous and bad;

For I am subject to command, I am not in command of myself: when am I forgetful, like thee, of my King?

If thy (spiritual) state resembled that of Solomon, I should have carried thee as (I carried) Solomon.

I am (only) lent (to thee); I should have become a possession in thy hand:

I should have made thee acquainted with my mystery.

But since thou art rebellious and I am (only) taken on loan to serve thee for three or four days, Therefore I will lay thee low, like ‘Ád, and dash away in revolt from thy army,

In order that thy faith in the Unseen may become firm at the moment when thy faith is (only) a source of woe.”

(For) at that moment, in sooth, all become believers: at that moment even the (most) headstrong run on their heads.

At that moment they cry piteously and make humble supplication, like robbers and brigands under the gibbet.

But if you become upright in (your faith in) the Unseen, you are owner of the two worlds and a magistrate (exercising sovereign authority) over yourself.

The abiding (spiritual) magistracy and kingship is not (something) taken on loan for two days and ailing (perishable).

(Possessing that) you are delivered from strife and can act for yourself: you are king and at the same time beating your own drum.

When the World squeezes our throats tightly, would that our gullets and mouths had eaten (only) earth!

This mouth, indeed, has (always) been an eater of earth; but an earth that has been coloured.

This roast-meat and this wine and this sugar are (merely) coloured and painted earth, O son.

When you have eaten or drunk (them) and they have become flesh and skin, He gives them the colour of flesh, but they are still the earth of (His) street.

’Tis from a bit of earth that He stitches the (body of) clay, and then makes the whole (fabric) a bit of earth again.

Hindús and Qifcháq (Turks) and Greeks and Abyssinians— all have quite the same colour in the grave.

So you may know that all those colours and pictures are entirely a mask and deceit and borrowed (ephemeral).

The only lasting colour is the dye of Allah: know that all the rest are tied (stuck) on (superficially) like a bell.

The colour of sincerity and the colour of piety and intuitive faith will endure in the (devout) worshippers for evermore;

And the colour of doubt and the colour of ingratitude and hypocrisy will endure in the undutiful soul for evermore;

Like wicked Pharaoh's blackness of face, the colour whereof is enduring, though his body passes away.

(And so with) the radiance and glory in the beauteous faces of the sincere (believers): their bodies pass away, but that remains till the Day of Judgement.

The only ugly one is that (eternally) ugly one; the only beautiful one is that (eternally) beautiful one: this one is always laughing and that one scowling.

He (God) gives to earth a certain colour and variety and value, and causes childish folk to wrangle over it.

(When) a piece of dough is baked in the shape of a camel or lion, (these) children bite their fingers (excitedly) in their greed for it.

The lion or camel turns to bread in the mouth, but it is futile to tell this to children.

The child is in a (state of) ignorance and fancy and doubt: at any rate, thank God, his strength is (but) little.

The child is quarrelsome and very mischievous: thank God for his lack of skill and strength.

(But) alas for these childish undisciplined elders who in their strength have become an affliction to every guardian!

When weapons and ignorance are brought together, he (such an one) becomes in his tyranny a world- consuming Pharaoh.

O poor man, thank God for thy deficiency (of means), for (thereby) thou art delivered from being a Pharaoh and ungrateful (for Divine blessings).

Thank God that thou art the oppressed, not the oppressor: thou art secure from acting like Pharaoh and from every temptation.

An empty belly never bragged of Divinity, for it has no faggots to feed its fire.

An empty belly is the Devil's prison, because anxiety for bread prevents him from plotting and deceiving.

Know that a belly full of viands is the Devil's market, where the Devil's merchants raise a clamour:

Merchants who practise sorcery and sell worthless goods and obfuscate (men's) wits by vociferation.

By a (trick of) sorcery they cause a vat to run like a horse and make a piece of linen out of moonshine and twilight.

They weave earth like silk and throw earth (dust) in the eyes of the discerning.

They give to a bit of (fragrant) sandal-wood the appearance of a piece of (common) wood; they put in us the envious desire for a clod.

(But) holy is He who giveth (mere) earth a (specious) colour and causes us to quarrel over it like children.

(The world is) a skirtful of earth, and we are like little children: in our sight the earth is as gold of the mine.

There is no room for a child beside (grown-up) men: how should God let a child sit with men?

If fruit become old, (yet) so long as it is immature and not ripe it is called ghúra (unripe grapes).

Though (one resembling) immature and sour (fruit) reach the age of a hundred years, he is (still) a child and unripe (ghúra) in the opinion of every sagacious person.

Though his hair and beard be white, he is still in the childish state of fear and hope,

Saying, “Shall I attain (to maturity), or am I (to be) left immature? Oh, I wonder, will the Vine bestow that bounty on me?

Notwithstanding such an incapacity and remoteness (from God), will He confer on these unripe grapes (ghúra) of mine a perfection like that of the ripe grape (angúr)?

I have no hopes from any quarter, but that (Divine) Bounty is saying to me, ‘Do not ye despair!’”

Our Kháqán (Emperor) has made a perpetual feast (for us): He is always pulling our ears (drawing us thither and saying), “Do not lose hope!”

Although we are in the ditch (and overwhelmed) by this despair, let us go dancing along since He has invited us.

Let us dance (along) like mettlesome horses galloping towards the familiar pasturage.

Let us toss our feet, though no foot is there; let us drain the cup, though no cup is there,

Because all things there are spiritual: ’tis reality on reality on reality.

Form is the shadow, reality is the sun: the shadowless light is (only to be found) in the ruin.

When not a brick is left (resting) on a brick there, no ugly shadow remains in the moonlight.

(Even) if the brick be of gold it must be torn away, since (the removal of) the brick is the price paid for inspiration and light.

In order to remove the shadow (of materiality) the mountain (Sinai) is rased to the ground: ’tis a small matter to fall to pieces for the sake of this light.

When the light of the Lord struck on the surface of the mountain, it (the mountain) fell to pieces in order that it (the light) should penetrate its interior too.

As soon as a loaf of bread touches the palm of a hungry man, his eyes and mouth open wide in desire (to eat it).

This (light) is worth (the price, namely) falling into a hundred thousand pieces: soar up through the (spiritual) heaven, O (thou who resemblest) earth,

That the light of heaven may consume thy shadow: the (dark) night is caused by thy shadow, O enemy of Day.

This earth is like a cradle for babes: it cramps the movements of grownup men.

On account of the babes (who live in it) God hath called the earth a cradle (mahd), and He hath bestowed milk on the babes in their cradle.

The house is crowded with these cradles: let the babes grow up quickly, O King!

O cradle, do not incommode the house (but let there be room), so that the grown-up man can move freely.