“Through the revolution of the Sphere I have a heart and an eye,
the one like the Tigris in flood, the other like a gulf of blood.
Why should I not mourn heavily, and why should I not weep bitterly,
since I cannot make my way out of the narrows of the world?
Within the circle I find not my object; I have neither foot to fare
forth nor place within.
What profiteth me if I be as Qâren * in rank? What gain to me if I
be as Qárún * in wealth?
What fruit do farms and estates yield, since I must lay them aside?
What effect have daughters and sons, since I must pass away? ⁵
What pride have I in drinking wine or rose-water? What virtue have
I in wearing silk or black brocade? *
Since dominion and wealth remain not, what difference between
wealthy and poor? Since time endureth not, what difference
between the glad and the sorrowful?
I take pride in my understanding while every animal is full of it;
I glory in spirit when every place overflows with it.
What is it to me that I should say what Alexander did? What is it
to me that I should know who Napoleon was?
What affair is it of mine that the moon becomes crescent or full
because it shows its face in proportion to the shining of the sun
upon it? ¹⁰
What advantage is it that I should know about the eclipses of the
sun and moon, or that the sun is darkened * through the moon,
and the moon through the shadow of the earth?
What need is there for me to say that the fixed stars and planets are
all suns and spheres in the vault of heaven?

What do I gain by knowing that these spheres are poised and
revolving round suns, and are subject to two attractions?
What affair is it of mine that the wind, that undulating air, is light
and dry above, and dense and moist below?
What have I to say to this, that the moon marches round the earth,
the earth round the sun, and the sun in turn round another
sun? ¹⁵
What should I say as to this ramal-metre being ‘sound’ or ‘apoco-
pated,’ or this rajaz-metre maṭwí or makhbún? *
Or of accidence, syntax, the letters, the correct and solemn intona-
tion [of the Qur'án], or of the pauses of the Kúfans or the
junctions of the Baṣra school? *
Or of etymology, rhetoric, eloquence, style, expression, calligraphy,
prosody or the varieties of poetical criticism?
Or of biography, * jurisprudence, principles [of Law], controversy,
deduction, tradition, proof, exegesis, the Code and the Law?
Or of drawing, geometry, algebra, observations, chronology, arith-
metic, mathematics and geography in all their aspects? ²⁰
Or of Politics, the Religious Law, agriculture, mining, philology,
National Rights, expenditure, taxation, loans and armies?
Or of medicine, symptoms, anatomy, the pulse and the stools, the
properties of all the drugs, whether simple or compound?
Or of talismans, incantations, interpretation of dreams, alchemy,
mechanics, astrology, ascendants, [magic] numbers, geomancy,
cyphers and spells?
Or of the philosophical sciences, and logic, ancient and modern, or
of cautionary glosses and the sophistries of texts?
O waste not the coin of your life on such sciences, for a whole
world of men have suffered disappointment through such trans-
actions! ²⁵
Turn from these sciences to knowledge of the Religion of the Truth, *
for, save knowledge of the Truth, * all is deceit and vanity.

Hearken not to the spells of Philosophy, which from end to end is
folly; * the themes of the materialist and the cynic are all
ignorance and madness.
Why dost thou consider the fancies of the naturalist as sciences?
Why dost thou assume the Divine sciences to be mere
fancies?
What is the talk of these philosophers? All doubtful! What is the
speech of these ignorant men? All conjecture!
Their sciences are [designed] to dispose of modesty, sincerity and
purity; their arts are for [the promotion of] sin, mischief, guile
and wantonness! ³⁰
Their whole [idea] is the socialization of the earth and the commun-
izing * of property; their whole [aim] is the diffusion of sin and
the filling of their bellies!
Their ideas are all short-sighted and their outlook narrow; their
arts are all phantasy, and their conditions vile!
Had it not been for the barrier of the Holy Law against this
Gog, * no one would have been secure of honour, property, or
life.
By God's Truth, the talk of this gang of materialists is the worst
pestilence in the body of the Nation and the Kingdom!
By the Divine Knowledge thou wilt become the choicest product of
the two worlds; by the cynic's philosophy thou wilt become
the grandchild of an ape! ³⁵ *
Behold manifest today whatever the Prophet hath said, but what-
ever the philosopher hath said behold at this time discredited!
All their sciences are [derived] from the Prophets, but imperfectly;
all their arts are from the Saints, but garbled.
But, regarded fairly, man in this world is distinguished by science
and knowledge from all beside.

By knowledge and learning he finds his way to the Eternal Essence;
by understanding and thought he attains to the Presence of the
Why-less. *
It is Study of which He says ‘It is the most excellent of actions’;
it is Thought whereof an hour ‘is better than seventy [years].’
The great sages, such as Socrates, Hippocrates, Aristotle and Zeno,
confess His Eternal Essence, ⁴¹
And so also Abú 'Alí [Avicenna], Euclid, Ptolemy, Thales, Plato,
Hermes and Solon. *
These sanctify Him at dusk and at dawn; these glorify Him in the
morning and in the evening.
The world is a head wherein the sage is the intelligence; time is a
body wherein the sciences are in place of the eyes.
But thou ridest with a slack rein, and the steed of the arts is restive;
thou art weak and inexperienced, and the dappled charger of
the sciences is vicious. ⁴⁵
Not having read a line thou hast doubts as to the Eternal Lord:
wonderful the constitution in which antimony produces consti-
pation!
‘Seek learning from the cradle to the grave, even in China,’ * from
the knowledge of God, whereon trust and reliance may be
placed.
Sages are dumbfounded at His wise aphorisms; men of letters are
indebted to His pregnant sayings.
Natural laws are like bodies in manifestation and emergence;
Divine Truths are like spirits in occultation and latency.
In this illimitable expanse for lack of space illimitable worlds are
buried in one another. ⁵⁰
Common people see ordinary things, and distinguished people
special things, according to their own measure: and He ‘knows
best what they describe.’ *
A thousand Platos cannot fathom the essence of His humblest
temporal work; how much less His own Eternal Essence?
The sphere and the stars move by the command of God: yea, the
eyes and eyelids are affected by the soul.

Through whom, if not by His command, is the movement of bodies?
By what, if not by the water, does the mill revolve?
For once in the way of wisdom look with the eye of reflection on
this abode whereof but one quarter is habitable. ⁵⁵ *
In each one of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms are a
thousand unseen worlds, manifest and hidden.
Beyond thy intelligence is another over-ruling Intelligence; within
thy soul is another soul concealed.
Behold the grain, which stands shoulder to shoulder with past
Eternity: behold the egg, which is conjoined with Eternity to
come!
Hidden yet manifest in this latter are a hundred worlds of fowls and
chickens; eternal yet temporal in that former are a hundred
groves of fruit and branches.
How canst thou pass through the street of Truth, thou, who comest
not forth from the mansion of Nature? ⁶⁰
Even as thou seest how the flow of life from this world reaches the
child's inward parts through its mother's aid,
So, if aid come not from the Supernatural to this world, by God,
this world will be ruined!
For within the narrow straits of this world God hath worlds from
the Supernatural beyond limit or computation.
Contrary to universal custom, behold a group of intelligent men
voluntarily and naturally plunging into blood; *
Contrary to nature, a company content with pain and grief; contrary
to nature, a party gladly enduring the cruelty of spite. ⁶⁵
Behold a community renouncing the world by natural inclination;
see a people contentedly suffering exile from their native land!
Behold a party all slain eagerly and joyfully; behold a throng all
imprisoned with alacrity and delight;
A whole series [of victims] voluntarily enduring various torments;
a whole class by natural inclination [involved] in afflictions of
every kind;
All intoxicated and singing songs, * but not from wine; all self-
effaced and dissipated, but not from opium!