بخش 96 - باخبر شدن آن غریب از وفات آن محتسب و استغفار او از اعتماد بر مخلوق و تعویل بر عطای مخلوق و یاد نعمتهای حق کردنش و انابت به حق از جرم خود ثُمَّ الَّذینَ کَفَروا بِرَبِّهِمْ یَعْدِلونَ

When he came to his senses, he said, “O Maker, I am a sinner: I was setting my hopes on (Thy) creatures.

Though the Khwája had shown great generosity, (yet) that was never a match for Thy bounty.

He gave the cap, but Thou the head filled with intelligence; he gave the coat, but Thou the tall figure and stature (of its wearer).

He gave me gold, but Thou the hand that counts gold; he gave me the beast for riding, but Thou the mind that rides it.

The Khwája gave me the candle, but Thou the cool (bright and cheerful) eye; the Khwája gave me the dessert, but Thou the food-receiving (stomach).

He gave me the stipend, but Thou life and animate existence; his promise was gold, but Thy promise the pure things (of the spirit).

He gave me a house, but Thou the sky and the earth: in Thy house he and a hundred like him (grow) fat.

Gold is Thine: he did not create gold. Bread is Thine: bread came to him from Thee.

Thou also gavest him generosity and pity, and his joy was increased by (showing) that generosity.

I made him my qibla (object of desire): I let the original qibla-Maker fall (into neglect).”

Where were we when the Judge of Judgement (Day) was sowing reason in the water and clay (of Adam)?—

Since (’twas for us that) He was producing the sky from non-existence and spreading this carpet of earth,

And making lamps of the stars, and of the (four) natural properties a lock together with the keys (to open it).

Oh, how many structures hidden (from sight) and plain to see has He enclosed in this roof (heaven) and this carpet (earth)!

Adam is the astrolabe of the attributes of (Divine) Sublimity: the nature of Adam is the theatre for His revelations.

Whatever appears in him (Adam) is the reflexion of Him, just as the moon is reflected in the water of the river.

The figures (cut) on the “spider” (uppermost tablet) on his astrolabe are there for the sake of (typifying) the Eternal Attributes,

In order that its “spider” may give lessons in exposition of the sky of the Unseen and the sun of the Spirit.

Without a (spiritual) astronomer (to explain their significance), the “spider” and this astrolabe which guides aright fall (uselessly) into the hands of the vulgar.

God bestowed (knowledge of) this (spiritual) astronomy on the prophets: for (the mysteries of) the Unseen an eye that observes the Unseen is necessary.

These (worldly) generations fell into the well of the present world: every one saw in the well his own reflexion.

Know that what appears to you in the well is (really) from outside; else you are (like) the lion that plunged into the well (and was drowned).

A hare led him astray, saying, “O such-and-such, this furious lion (thy rival) is at the bottom of the well.

Go into the well and wreak vengeance on him: tear off his head, since thou art mightier than he.”

That (blind) follower of authority was subjugated by the hare: he was filled with boiling (fury) by his own fancy.

He did not say, “This image is not produced by the water: this is not (produced) by anything except the changing activity of the (Divine) Changer.”

So when you, O slave to the six (directions), wreak vengeance on your enemy you are in error concerning all the six.

That enmity in him (your enemy) is reflected from God, for it is derived from the (Divine) attributes of Wrath (which are manifested) there;

And that sin in him is homogeneous with your sin: you must wash that (evil) disposition out of your own nature.

Your evil character showed itself to you in him because he was (like) the surface of a mirror to you.

When you have seen your ugliness in the mirror, O Hasan, do not strike (a blow) at the mirror!

A lofty star is reflected in the water, and you cast earth on the star's reflexion,

Saying, “This unlucky star has come into the water to overthrow my good luck.”

You pour upon it the earth of subjection, because on account of the resemblance you deem it to be the star (itself).

(When) the reflexion becomes hidden (from sight) and disappears, you think that the star is no more;

(But) the unlucky star is in the sky: ’tis in that quarter it must be cured (of its ill-luck);

Nay, you must fix your heart on that which is quarterless (illimitable); the ill-luck in this quarter is (only) the reflexion of the ill-luck in the realm where no quarters exist.

Know that (all) gifts are the gift of God and are His bounty: ’tis the reflexion of those gifts that appears in (the world of) the five (senses) and the six (directions).

Though the gifts of the base (worldlings) be more (in number) than the sands, (yet) you will die and they will be left behind as an inheritance.

After all, how long does a reflexion remain in view? Make a practice of contemplating the origin (of the reflexion), O you who look awry.

When God bestows bounty on those who supplicate Him in their need, together with His gift He bestows on them a long life.

(Both) the benefit and the beneficiary are made enduring for ever. ’Tis He that brings the dead to life, so repair unto Him.

The gifts of God are mingled with you like the spirit, in such wise that you are they and they are you.

If you have no more appetite for bread and water, He will give you goodly nourishment without these twain.

If your fatness is gone, God will give you from yonder a (spiritual) fatness concealed in (bodily) leanness.

Since He gives the peri nourishment from scent and gives every angel nourishment from spirit,

What is the (animal) soul that you should make a support of (should rely upon) it? God will make you living by His love.

Ask of Him the life of love and do not ask for the (animal) soul: ask of Him that (spiritual) provision and do not ask for bread.

Know that (the world of) created beings is like pure and limpid water in which the attributes of the Almighty are shining.

Their knowledge and their justice and their clemency are like a star of heaven (reflected) in running water.

Kings are the theatre for the manifestation of God's kingship; the learned (divines) are the mirrors for God's wisdom.

Generations have passed away, and this is a new generation: the moon is the same moon, the water is not the same water.

The justice is the same justice, and the learning is the same learning too; but those generations and peoples have been changed (supplanted by others).

Generations on generations have gone, O sire, but these Ideas (Divine attributes) are permanent and everlasting.

The water in this channel has been changed many times: the reflexion of the moon and of the stars remains unaltered.

Therefore its foundation is not in the running water; nay, but in the regions of the breadth (wide expanse) of Heaven.

These attributes are like Ideal stars: know that they are stablished in the sphere of the Ideas (Realities).

The beauteous are the mirror of His beauty: love for them is the reflexion of the desire of which He is the (real) object.

This cheek and mole goes (back) to the Source thereof: how should a phantom continue in the water for ever?

The whole sum of pictured forms (phenomena) is a (mere) reflexion in the water of the river: when you rub your eye, (you will perceive that) all of them are really He.

Again, his (the debtor's) reason said (to him), “Abandon this seeing double: vinegar is grape-syrup and grape-syrup is vinegar.

Since, from defect (of vision), you have called the Khwája ‘other’ (than God), be ashamed (contrite) before the jealous King, O man of double sight.

Do not suppose the Khwája, who has passed beyond the aether (the ninth celestial sphere), to be homogeneous with these mice of darkness.

Regard the Khwája as spirit, do not regard him as gross body: regard him as marrow, do not regard him as bone.

Do not look at the Khwája with the eye of Iblís the accursed, and do not relate him (refer his origin) to clay.

Do not call the fellow-traveller of the Sun ‘a bat’: do not call him who was worshipped (by the angels) a worshipper (of the material).

This (Khwája) resembles the (other) reflexions; but (in reality) ’tis not a reflexion, ’tis the appearance of God in the likeness of a reflexion.

He beheld a Sun and remained frozen no more: the oil of roses was no longer (mingled with) oil of sesame.

Since the Abdál (Lieutenants) of God have been transmuted, they are not (to be reckoned) among created beings: turn over a (new) leaf!

How should the qibla (object of worship), namely, the (Divine) Unity, be two? How should earth be worshipped by the angels?

When a man sees the reflexion of apples in this river, and the sight of them fills his skirt with (real) apples,

How should that which he saw in the river be a phantom, when a hundred sacks have been filled

by his vision?

Do not regard the body, and do not act like those dumb and deaf men (who) disbelieved in the Truth when it came to them.

The Khwája is (the God-man of whom God said) Thou didst not throw when thou threwest: to see him is to see the Creator.

To serve him is to serve God: to see this window is to see the Daylight; Especially (as) this window is resplendent of itself: nothing (no light) is deposited (therein) by the sun and the Farqad (stars).

From that (Divine) Sun, too, (beams) strike upon a window, but not in the ordinary way and direction.

Between the Sun and this window there is a way; (but) the (other) windows are not acquainted with it,

So that, if a cloud arise and cover the sky, in this window its (the Sun's) light will (still) be coruscating.

There is familiarity between the window and the Sun, otherwise than (by) the way of this atmosphere and the six directions.

To praise and glorify him (the Perfect Man) is to glorify God: the fruit is growing out of the essential nature of this tray.

Apples grow from this basket in fine variety: ’tis no harm if you bestow on it the name ‘tree.’

Call this basket ‘the Apple-tree,’ for between the two there is a hidden way.

That which grows from the fruit-bearing Tree—the same kind of fruit grows from this basket.

Therefore regard the basket as the Tree of Fortune and sit happily under the shade (protection) of this basket.

When bread produces looseness (acts as a laxative), why call it bread, O kindly man? Call it scammony.

When the dust on the road illumines the eye and the spirit, regard its dust as collyrium and know that it is collyrium.

When the sunrise shines forth from the face of this earth, why should I lift up my face to (the star) ‘Ayyúq?

He (the Khwája) is naughted: do not call him existent, O bold-eyed (impudent) man! How should the sod remain dry in a River like this?

How should the new-moon shine in the presence of this Sun? What is the strength of a decrepit old woman (zál) against such a Rustam?

The (only real) Agent is seeking and prevailing (over all), to the end that He may utterly destroy (all unreal) existences.

Do not say ‘two,’ do not know ‘two,’ and do not call ‘two’: deem the slave to be effaced in his master.

The Khwája likewise is naughted and dead and checkmated and buried in the Khwája's Creator.

When you regard this Khwája as separate from God, you lose both the text and the preface.

Hark, let your (inward) eye and your heart pass beyond (transcend) the (bodily) clay! This is One Qibla (object of worship): do not see two qiblas.

When you see two you remain deprived of both sides (aspects of the One): a flame falls on the touchwood, and the touchwood is gone.”