Gulsan-i rāz - The Gulshan i Rāz (The Mystic Rose Garden)

THE Gulshan i Raz was composed in A.H. 717 (A.D. 1317), in answer to fifteen questions on the doctrines of the Sufis, or Muhammadan Mystics, propounded by Amir Syad Hosaini,^0-3 a celebrated Sufi doctor of Herat. The author's name was Sa'd ud din Mahmud Shabistari, so called from his birth-place, Shabistar,^0-3a a village near Tabriz, in the province of Azarbaijan. From a brief notice of his life in the Mujalis ul 'Ushshak, repeated in substance in the Haft Iklim, the Safina i Khushgu, and the Riaz ush Shu'ara, it would appear that he was born about the middle of the seventh century of the Hejira (A.D. 1250), and that he died at Tabriz, where he had passed the greater part of his life, in A.H. 720. The only particulars of his life recorded in these Tazkiras are, that he was devotedly attached to one of his disciples named Shaikh Ibrahim, and that in addition to the Gulshan i Raz he wrote treatises entitled Hakk ul Yakin and Risala i Shahid. No further information as to the circumstances of his life and times is to be found in the poem itself or in the commentary, but we know from the Habib us Siyar and other chronicles^0-3b that his birth was about contemporaneous with the incursion of the heathen Moghuls under Hulaku Khan, the conquest of Persia, Syria and Mesopotamia, and the downfall cf the Abbaside Khalifs, or “Vicars of God.” And living as he did at Tabriz, the capital of the newly established Moghul Empire, he must have witnessed the long struggle which ensued between the Christian Missionaries and the Muhammadan Mullas to gain the Moghul Sultans over to their respective religions,—a struggle the result of which was for a long time doubtful,^0-4 and which was not finally decided till A.H. 696, when the Emperor Ghazan Khan, with nearly one hundred thousand of his followers, adopted the Muhammadan faith. During the pendency of this struggle Tabriz was visited by missions from Pope Nicolas IV. and Pope Boniface VIII., and also by the celebrated Marco Polo; and possibly Mahmud's acquaintance with Christian doctrines may have been derived or improved from intercourse with Halton or some of the other monks attached to these missions.

The first European authors to notice the Gulshan i Raz were the travellers Chardin and Bernier, circ. 1700, both of whom describe it as the “Summa theologica” of the Sufis. In the course of the eighteenth century several copies of the poem found their way to the great European libraries. In 1821 Dr. Tholuck, of Berlin, published a few extracts from it, with Latin translations, in his “Ssufismus,” and in 1825 a German translation of about one-third of the entire poem in his “Blüthensammlung aus der Morgenländischen Mystik.” In 1838 Von Hammer-Purgstall published the Persian text, based on the Berlin and the Vienna MSS., along with a German verse translation and a few notes from Lahiji's commentary. ^0-4a The text now published is based on that of Hammer, collated with two Indian MSS. of the poem and commentary,—one the poor copy in the library of the Asiatic Society at Calcutta, the other a very correct copy in the possession of a Zemindar in Midnapore. On the authority of this MS. several couplets omitted by Hammer have been restored, several repetitions retrenched, and various erroneous readings corrected.^0-5 All the alterations made have been indicated in the margin, and none have been made without MS. authority. Hammer's readings are marked H; those of the Midnapere MS., L.; and others, given in the commentary or in the Calcutta copy, MSS. The translation has been made as close to the original as possible, Lahiji's renderings, as given in his paraphrase, being strictly followed throughout. The translations of the Arabic quotations in the text are printed in italics. The notes contain a brief abstract of Lahiji's voluminous commentary, which is itself a great authority on Sufiism, and also a few of the more striking parallelisms to Sufi ideas to be found in the Neoplatonists, and in the mystical theologians of Europe.

It is this correspondence with European Mysticism which gives Sufiism its chief interest for European students. Many of the Catholic definitions of ‘mystical theology’ would do for descriptions of Sufiism.^0-5a The ruling ideas in both systems are very similar, if not absolutely identical. Thus, for instance, we find the Sufis talking of ‘love to God,’ of ‘union with God,’ of ‘death to self, and life eternal in God,’ of ‘the indwelling in man of the Spirit,’ of ‘the nullity of works and ceremonies,’ of ‘grace and spiritual illumination,’ and of the ‘Logos.’ Both systems may be characterised as religions of the heart, as opposed to formalism and ritualism. Both exalt the ‘inner light’^0-5b at the expense of the outward ordinance and voice of the Church. Both exhibit the same craving for visionary raptures and supernatural exaltations, and have been productive of similar excesses and extravagancies. If Sufiism has its Mevlavis and Rafá'is and Beshara' fakirs, its dancing and howling, and Antinomian durveshes, so European Mysticism has produced the Omphalopsychi or navelgazing monks of Mount Athos, the Jansenist “Convulsionaries,” the Anabaptists of Munster, and the Shakers.^0-6 Finally, to complete the parallel, both systems have a tendency to Pantheism, and both use similar sensuous figures to express their visions and raptures. The Pantheism of the Gulshan i Raz has its counterpart in that of Eckart, the “Doctor Ecstaticus,” and much of its sensuous imagery might be matched by the erotic language of St. Bernard's sermons on the Canticles, the wonderful effusions of St. Theresa, and the mystical hymns of St. Alphonso Liguori and others.^0-6a

At first sight it is difficult to see how a subjective emotional religious system like Sufiism could have originated from the rigid formalism of the Koran,^0-6b and still more how orthodox Mussulmans can possibly reconcile its Pantheism, as many of them do,^0-6c with the uncompromising Monotheism taught by Muhammad. The answer would seem to be that the Koran, and still more the Hadis, in one department of their language, contain the germs of this line of religious thought. They in fact use a double language. At one time they represent Allah as having created the world once for all, and as now removed to His seat in the 'arsh or highest heaven, having left His creatures to work out their own salvation or condemnation by their own free will, according to the lights given them by His prophets; at another time they represent Him as the ‘Subtile’ Being, immanent and ever working in His creatures, the sum of all existence, the ‘fulness of life,’ whereby all things move, act and exist, omnipresent, not only predestinating but actually originating all action, dwelling in and directly influencing and communing with each individual soul. The Sufis, being men of an emotional mystical temperament, or, as they called themselves, ‘men of heart,’ ‘men looking behind the veil,’ ‘interior men,’^0-7 naturally caught at all expressions of this kind which seemed to bring the divine mysterious object of their religious emotion nearer to them, and, as theologians are prone to do, dwelt on the texts that fell in with their own view, to the exclusion of passages of the opposite tendency. This view they developed with the aid of the Greek and especially the Neoplatonic metaphysics, which had been popularised by the Arabian philosophers Farabi, Ghazzali, Ibn Roshd and Ibn Sina. Under these influences they identified the Allah of the Koran with the Neoplatonic Being, the One, the Necessary Being, the only Reality, “The Truth,”^0-7a the Infinite, which includes all actual being, good and evil, the First Cause, source of all action, good and evil alike. The world of phenomena and man—every thing else in fact but Allah—they identified with Not being,—absolute nonentity, which like a mirror reflects Being, and by thus borrowing particles of Being rises to the rank of Contingent being, a kind of being which, as Plato says, is and is not, and partakes both of existence and nonexistence. This Not being is a sort of Manichæan Ahriman, which solves all practical difficulties attaching to their speculative system. According to their theory the Infinite includes all being, evil included; but as this is not consistent with the goodness of the Allah of the Koran, evil is said to proceed from Not being.^0-8 Again, according to their theory the spark of real being—divinæ particula auræ—in man is identical with the Infinite Being, and hence man would seem to be above laws and creeds; but as this would lead to Antinomianism, it is said that, while man remains in the intermediate state of Contingent being, he is as it were weighed down and held apart from Being by the element of Not being, and that in this probationary state laws and creeds are needed to restrain his evil tendencies. Thus, by the aid of this convenient ‘Not being,’ which is something while it is wanted, and relapses into nothing directly it is no longer needed, the Sufis avoid all the immoral and irreligious consequences of their theory.

Hence it is clear that the Pantheism of the Sufis, at any rate as expounded in the Gulshan i Raz, must not be confounded with the European Pantheism of the present day—that Pantheism which in the words of Bossuet, “makes every thing God except God himself.” In the Gulshan i Ruz we find a different species of Pantheism— one held conjointly with a theory of divine personality, and the obligations of morality. Mahmud's Pantheism is an amplification rather than a minimification of the idea of the Divinity, infinite, omnipresent and omnipotent.^0-8a He felt the sense of his own existence and his own freedom passing away and becoming absorbed in the sense of absolute dependence on this Infinite Being. Compared with this omnipresent, infinite, unseen Power underlying all the phenomena of the universe,^0-8b dominating man's will, striving in man's heart,—

Warming in the sun, refreshing in the breeze,
Glowing in the stars, and blossoming in the trees,—

all outward existences and agencies, whether in man or in the world, seemed to sink into utter nothingness. In point of fact Mahmud's Pantheism is only the corollary of the Muhammadan doctrine of Jabr, usually translated predestination, but, more exactly, the compulsion to carry out the Divine will, the universal action of Allah. The same sense and conviction of this irresistible divine impulse and compulsion which, according to their temperaments, drives some men into furious and fanatical action,^0-9 and makes others sit down and cry ‘Kismat,’ impels men of a logical turn of mind to regard not only all the action but also all the existence in the universe as the direct outcome or manifestation of the Divine energy.

The whole Sufi system follows as a logical consequence from this fundamental assumption. Sense and reason cannot transcend phenomena, or see the real Being which underlies them all; so sense and reason must be ignored and superseded in favour of the ‘inner light,’ the inspiration or divine illumination in the heart, which is the only faculty whereby men perceive the Infinite. Thus enlightened, men see that the whole external phenomenal world, including man's ‘self,’ is an illusion, non-existent in itself, and, in so far as it is non-existent, evil, because a departure from the one real Being. Man's only duty is to shake off this illusion, this clog of Not being, to efface and die to self, and to be united with and live eternally in the one real Being—“The Truth.” In this progress to union external observances and outward forms profit little, because they keep alive the illusion of duality, of man's self-righteousness, of his personal agency and personal merit, whereas the true course is to ignore all reference to self—to be passive, that God may work—and then the Divine light and grace will enter the chamber of man's heart and operate in him without impediment, and draw him to “The Truth,” and unite him with “The One.”

The manner in which these ruling ideas are worked out and connected, by means of allegorical interpretation, with the teaching of the Koran and the Hadis will be best explained by an outline of the poem.

After an exordium laying down the fundamental principle of the sole existence of the one real Being, and of the illusive non-real nature of all phenomenal being, and a short account of the composition of the poem, Mahmud proceeds to inquire how men are to gain this essential knowledge of God. The answer commonly given is, by thought. But thought is of two kinds, one logical reasoning, the other spiritual illumination. The first method is inapplicable, because sense and reason cannot transcend phenomena, and work up to the invisible and incomprehensible Being underlying them.^0-10 They are powerless to shake off the illusion of the apparent reality of the sensible world. From this original defect of mental eyesight, whatever philosophers and theologians say of God only proves their own incapacity to apprehend Him.^0-10a

II. Reason, looking at the Light of lights, is blinded by excess of light, like a bat by the sun. This annihilation of the mental vision caused by its proximity to the Light of lights—this consciousness of its own nothingness caused by its approach to Being—is the highest degree of perception which contingent being can attain.^0-10b When the contingent seer attains this state of annihilation of his phenomenal self, the true light is revealed to him, as a spiritual illumination streaming in on his soul.

The phenomenal world is in itself Not being, wherein are reflected, as in a mirror, the various attributes of Being. By a species of radiation or effluxion of waves of light from Being, each atom of Not being becomes a reflection of some one divine attribute. These effluent atoms of Being are ever striving to rejoin their source, but so long as their phenomenal extrusion lasts they are held back from reunion with their divine source.

Passing to precept, Mahmud says, “Rest not in the illusions of sense and reason, but abandon your ‘natural realism,’ as Abraham abandoned the worship of the host of heaven. Press on till, like Moses at Mount Sinai, you see the mount of your illusive phenomenal existence annihilated at the approach of Divine glory. Ascend like Muhammad to heaven, and behold the mighty signs of the Lord.”

Thus illumined you will see “The Truth” to be the source of all being, diffused and poured out into the phenomenal world by means of the various emanations, beginning with the Logos and ending with man.

“The Truth” it is who alone is acting in the universe. All the revolutions of the heavenly spheres, stars and planets, proceed not from themselves, as the undevout astronomer says, but from “The Truth.” He is, as it were, the Master potter who turns the wheel. The motions of the heavens, the coalescence of discordant elements into bodies, the obedience of plants and animals to the laws of their kinds, are all His never ceasing handiwork.

With regard to man, he is the soul of the world—the microcosm. While other creatures reflect only single divine attributes, man reflects them all. He is an epitome of the universe, and so by introspection he may see in himself reflections of all the divine attributes— of the “fulness of the Godhead.” But on the other side he is black with the darkness and evil of Not being. His object therefore should be to purge away this non-existent corrupt side of himself, which holds him back from union. And, union once attained, thought is no longer possible, for thought implies duality.

III. To “travel into self” means “introrsum ascendere,”—to journey out of the phenomenal non-existent self into the real self, which is one with “The Truth.” This journey has two stages, dying to self and abiding in “The Truth.” When man's phenomenal self is effaced, and the real Self alone remains, law has no longer any dominion over him.

IV. These journeys are called the “journey up to God” and the “journey down from God in God,” and are a sort of circuit, and he who completes the circuit is the “perfect man.”

When man is born into the world evil passions spring up in him, and if he gives way to them he is lost. But if he attends to the promptings of Divine grace and light in his soul, he repents, and is converted, and journeys up to God,—effacing self-will, self-knowledge, and his entire phenomenal corrupt self-existence; and purifying his nobler part from the stain of externality, he ascends in spirit to heaven, and is united in spirit with “The Truth.”

This stage is the holy state known as saintship, exemplified in saints and prophets.

But the “perfect man” must not pause in this estatic union, which is above all laws. Notwithstanding this exaltation he must journey down again to the phenomenal world, in and along with God, and in this downward journey he must conform to outward laws and creeds. His sanctification must bring forth the outward fruit of good works.

The law is as a husk, and the holy state of identity with “The Truth” the kernel; and when the kernel is ripe it bursts the husk. But the perfect man must not rest or abide in this ecstatic state of union with “The Truth,” but so long as he is in this life must “return to sobriety;” and though “The Truth” is the fixed and abiding home of his soul, he must wear the law as an outward garment, and the Sufi ‘path’ or canon as his inward garment, and perform all external legal observances.^0-12

The perfection of this saintly state will be seen in Muhammad Mehdi, ‘the seal of the saints,’ who by the secret of unity will perfectly attain to “The Truth.”

V. The man who knows this secret—that all things are One—dies to self, and lives, with regenerate heart, in God. He sweeps away all that comes between God and the soul, and “breaks through to the oneness,”^0-13 as Eckart said. Good works, it is true, raise men to a ‘laudable station,’ but so long as division and duality and ‘self’ remain, true mystical union of knower and known is not attained.

VI. But if knower and Known be one, how comes it that the knower feels within him emotions of love and aspiration drawing him towards the ‘Known?’ In man's present phenomenal state, the mixture of Not being in him divides him from Being; and these aspirations are the stirrings of the true Being within him, recalling and drawing him as with a magnet to his source. If he be not of those who are born blind to this spiritual light within, these sparks kindle up the flame of love to God, which burns up his phenomenal self, and shows him his real self one with “The Truth.”

VII. The man who, like Mansur Hallaj, the wool-carder, has carded away his phenomenal self, can say, “I am the Ṭruth;” for when man takes his eternal side, ‘other,’ i. e. Not being, is annihilated, and nothing is left but Being. When God withdraws what belongs to Him all things fall back into their original nothingness. All phenomenal existence is merely an illusion, as we may see from the case of echoes, reflections, past and future time, and fleeting accidents, wherein all the externality or objectivity of substance consists.

VIII. The creature state being thus non-existent, man cannot of himself move, draw near to, or unite with “The Truth.” Union is only a phrase for annihilating the phenomenal element in man—sweeping off the dust of contingent being. The genesis of the creature world is an eternal process. It is as a drop of water, raised from the sea of Being in mist, poured down in rain, converted into plants, animals, man, and finally recalled into the bosom of the sea. Phenomena are constantly annihilated in the universal Noumenon, and this annihilation is union.

IX. The illusion of free-will is Magianism, setting up an evil first cause, Ahriman, over against the good, Ormuzd. This illusion must be shaken off and annihilated in the conviction that the only free agent is “The Truth,” and man a passive instrument in His hands, and absolutely dependent on His pleasure. Man's glory lies in abandoning his self-will, and finding his true will in God's will.

X. Going back to the relation of the law to the state of sanctification, called in the fourth answer “The Truth,”^0-14 and here called “the knowledge of faith,” Mahmud compares the former to the shell, and the latter to the pearl within it. The Sufi must extract this pearl; but, on the other hand, he must not break the shell till the pearl within it is fully formed. The law is a schoolmaster to bring him to “The Truth.” Without this faith, this fixed spiritual habitude, this settled internal character or ‘state’ of the heart, no external legal works are virtuous in the highest sense. Legal and formal works cannot sanctify man;^0-14a it is the saintly disposition which sanctifies works. From this disposition all the virtues flow spontaneously. All the virtues lie in the mean, in equipoise and harmony, and this harmony of the soul calls down and attracts the Spirit from above. This heavenly spirit operates in man like the sun's beams on the earth. As it were enamoured of the harmonious soul, the Spirit enters into a mystical marriage union with it, the issue of which is gracefulness, virtue and the beauty of holiness. But all these are not of man that worketh, but of God that giveth grace.

XI. Absolute Being is the summum genus embracing all being; but in one sense actual phenomenal being is wider, because it is absolute plus phenomenal limited being. This phenomenal side is renewed every moment, as indicated by the texts about ‘the new creation.’ Similarly the texts about ‘the resurrection and world to come’ indicate that the dispositions acquired by men in this life will then be manifested in ‘spiritual bodies,’ i.e. forms appropriate to them. The perfect will then drink the ‘pure wine’ of union with God. There will remain no duality or distinction of persons. Hence faith, reason, devotion, paradise and houris will then become an empty tale.^0-15 Such will be the perfect ‘union’ in the world to come, but in this world all ecstatic union is followed by sobriety and separation.

XII. Mahmud concludes this part of the discussion by reiterating his main thesis that all things are One. The Eternal and the temporal are not two distinct entities, since the temporal is merely a subjective illusion, like the circle of fire seen when a single spark of fire is whirled quickly round.

XIII. to XV. These last three sections are devoted to an explanation of the figurative language whereby the Sufis express their conceptions of God and the universe, and their ecstatic experiences. And of this language it may be said that though it seems irreverent and unseemly to us, it did not seem so to them. As Xenophanes^0-15a saw, men's conceptions of the Deity bear a constant relation to their own moral and intellectual stature. Symbols that we see to be inadequate and misleading, were not improbably the highest attainable by the untutored minds of other ages and countries, and thus possessed, perhaps, a relative goodness of their own. Answer XV. shows us that one of the main characteristics of the Sufis was their readiness to recognise and appreciate whatever seemed to them to be good and true in other religions, such as Christianity, Magianism, and even Idolatry;^0-16 and there is high authority^0-16a (if authority be needed) for thinking it not inconsistent with our loyalty to our own religion to mete out similar tolerant measure to them.

IN the name of Him who taught the soul to think,
And kindled the heart's lamp with the light of soul;¹
By Whose light the two worlds were illumined,
By Whose grace the dust of Adam bloomed with roses;
That Almighty one who in the twinkling of an eye,
From Kaf and Nun brought forth the two worlds!^1a
What time the Kaf of His power breathed on the pen,^1b
It cast thousands of pictures on the page of Not being.
5 From that breath were produced the two worlds,^1c
From that breath proceeded the soul of Adam.
In Adam were manifested reason and discernment,
Whereby he perceived the principle of all things.
When he beheld himself a specific person,
He thought within himself “What am I?”^1d
From part to whole he made a transit,
And thence returned back to the world.
He saw that the world is an imaginary thing,
Like as one diffused through many numbers.^1e
10 The worlds of command and of creatures proceed from one breath,
And the moment they come forth they go away again.
Albeit here there is no real coming and going,
Going, when you consider it, is naught but coming.²
Things revert to their proper original,
All are one, both the visible and the invisible.
God most high is the eternal one who with a breath
Originates and terminates both worlds.
The world of command and that of creatures are here one,
One becomes many and many few.
15 All these varied forms arise only from your fancy,
They are but one point revolving quickly in a circle.^2a
It is but one circular line from first to last
Whereon the creatures of this world are journeying;
On this road the prophets are as princes,
Guides, leaders and counsellors.
And of them our lord Muhammad is the chief,
At once the first and the last in this matter.
The One (Ahad) was made manifest in the mim of Ahmad.
In this circuit the first emanation became the last.^2b
20 A single mim^2c divides Ahad from Ahmad;
The world is immersed in that one mim.
In him is completed the end of this road,
In him is the station of the text ‘I call to God,’^2d
His entrancing state is the union of union,
His heart ravishing beauty the light of light.
He went before and all souls follow after
Grasping the skirts of his garment.
As for the saints on this road before and behind
They each give news of their own stages.
25 When they have reached their limits
They discourse of the ‘knower’ and the ‘known,’³
One in the ocean of unity says ‘I am the Truth,’^3a
Another speaks of near, and far,^3b and the moving boat,
One, having acquired the external knowledge,
Gives news of the dry land of the shore.^3c
One takes out the pearl and it becomes a stumbling-block,
Another leaves the pearl and it remains in its shell.^3d
One tells openly this tale of part and of whole,^3e
Another takes his text from eternal and temporal:^3f
30 One tells of curl, of mole, and of eyebrow,^3g
And displays to view wine, lamp and beauty.^3h
One speaks of his own being and its illusion,³ⁱ
Another is devoted to idols and the Magian girdle.^3j
Since the language of each is according to his degree of progress,
They are hard to be understood of the people.
He who is perplexed as to these mysteries
Is bound to learn their meaning.

Seven and ten years had passed after seven hundred,
From the Flight, when lo, in the month Shawál⁴
35 A messenger of a thousand graces and virtues
Arrived at the behest of the men of Khorásan.
A great man, who in that country is famed^4a
For his varied learning as a fount of light,—
Whom all the men of Khorásan, great and small,
Pronounce to be better than all men of this age,—
Had written an epistle on the matter of mystery
Addressed to the masters of mystery.
Therein many difficult expressions
In use amongst the masters of indications,
40 Had been versified in the form of several questions,
A world of mystery in a few words.
When the messenger read that epistle, forthwith
The news was noised abroad by many mouths.
All the nobles present in that congregation,
Turned their eyes upon this durvesh.
One who was a man well versed in affairs,^4b
And who had heard these mysteries from me a hundred times,
Said to me, “Tell the answers off straightway,
“That the men of the world may profit thereby.”
45 I replied, “What need? for again and again
“Have I set forth these problems in treatises.”
“True,” said he, “but I hope to have from you
Answers in rhyme corresponding to these questions.”
Wherefore at his solicitation I began
An answer to that epistle in concise terms.
Forthwith, in that illustrious congregation,
I pronounced this discourse without hesitation or repetition.
Now, with their wonted favour and kindness,
They will pardon my shortcomings;
50 All know that this person in his whole life
Has never attempted to write poetry.
And though his talents be competent thereto,
He has rarely had to compose verse.
Though he has composed many works in prose,
He has never compiled a masnavi in verse.
Prosody and rhyme weigh not mysteries,⁵
The pearl of mystery is not held in all vessels.
Mystery cannot be compressed into letters,
The Red Sea is not contained in a jug.
55 Why should I, to whom even words are lacking,
Why should I take on myself a further burden?
This is not boasting, but it is by way of compliment
And of apology to the men of heart.
I take no reproach to myself for my poor poetry,
For no poet like 'Attar is born in a hundred centuries.
Were there a hundred worlds of mystery set forth in this wise,
They would be only one grain from 'Attar's shop,^5a
But all this have I written of my own experience,
And not plagiarized as a demon from angels.^5b
60 In short, I delivered the answers to the questions
Off hand, each to each, neither more nor less.
The messenger took the letter with reverence,
And departed again by the road that he came.
Again that noble was instant with me,
Saying, “Do me yet another favour,
“Expound these mysteries which you have spoken.
“Out of theory bring them into evidence.”⁶
I did not think it possible for me at that season
To treat thereof with the unction^6a of ecstasy,
65 For the explanation thereof in speech is impossible,^6b
The master of ecstasy alone knows what is ecstasy.
Nevertheless, according to the word of the teacher of the faith,
I rejected not the postulant of the faith,^6c
But to the end that these mysteries might be explained,
The parrot of my eloquence lifted up his voice.
By aid of heavenly grace and divine blessing
I spoke the whole discourse in a few hours.
When my heart craved of heaven a title for this book,
There came an answer to my heart, “It is our Rose Garden.”
70 Since heaven has named it “Rose Garden,”
May it enlighten the eyes of all souls.

First of all I am perplexed about my own thought;
What is that which they call thinking?

You say, “Tell me what is ‘thinking,’
“Since I am perplexed as to its meaning.”
Thinking is passing from the false to the truth,
And seeing the Absolute Whole in the part.
Philosophers who have written books on it,
Say as follows when they are defining it,
75 That when a conception^7a is formed in the mind,
It is first of all named reminiscence.^7b
And when you pass on from this in thinking,^7c
It is called by the learned interpretation.^7d
When conceptions are properly arranged in the mind,
The result with logicians is known as thinking.
From proper arrangement of known conceptions
The unknown proposition^7e becomes known.
The major premiss is a father, the minor a mother,
And the conclusion a son, O brother!
80 But to learn of what kind this arrangement is,
Reference must be made to books of logic.
Moreover, unless divine guidance aids it,
Verily logic is mere bondage of forms.⁸
That road is long and hard, leave it,
Like Moses for a season cast away that staff.^8a
Come for a season into the “Valley of Peace,”^8b
Hear with faith the call, “Verily I am God.”
He that knows “The Truth,”^8c and to whom Unity is revealed,
Sees at the first glance the light of very Being.
85 Nay more, as he sees by illumination that pure Light,
He sees God first in everything that he sees;
Abstraction^8d is a condition of good thinking,
For then the lightning of divine guidance illumines us.
To him, whom God guides not into the road,
It will not be disclosed by use of logic.
Forasmuch as the philosopher is bewildered,
He sees in things nothing but the contingent;
From the contingent he seeks to prove the necessary,
Therefore is he bewildered at the essence of the necessary.
90 Sometimes he travels backwards in a circle,⁹
Sometimes he is imprisoned in the chain of proofs.
While his reason goes deep into phenomenal existence,
His feet are caught in the chain of proofs.
All things are manifested through their likes,
But “The Truth” has neither rival nor like,
Since “The Truth” has neither rival nor peer,
I know not how you can know Him.^9a
Necessary matter has no sample in contingent:^9b
How can man know it, tell me how?^9c
95 Fool that he is! for he seeks the blazing sun
By the dim light of a torch in the desert.

If the sun tarried always in one position,
And if his shining were all after one manner,
None would know that these beams are from him,
There would be no distinction between kernel and husk.
Know the whole world is a beam of the light of “The Truth,”
Yet “The Truth” within it is concealed from manifestation;¹⁰
And since the light of “The Truth” alters not nor varies,
And is void of change and transitoriness,
100 So you fancy that this world of itself is permanent
And enduring always of its own nature.
A man who relies on far-sighted reason^10a
Has much bewilderment before him,
From far-sightedness of overweening reason
One derives philosophy, another the Incarnation.^10b
Reason cannot endure the light of that face,
Go! That you may behold it, seek another eye.
Since the two eyes of the philosopher see double,^10c
He is impotent to behold the unity of “The Truth.”
105 From blindness arose the doctrine of ‘Assimilation,’^10d
From one-eyedness that of God's remoteness.^10e
From the same cause arose false and vain Metempsychosis,^10f
Since it had its origin from defective sight.
He is like one born blind, cut off from perfection,
The man who follows the road of schism,¹¹
Men of externals have ophthalmia in both eyes,^11a
For they see in external objects naught but the external.
The theologian^11b who has no perception of Unitarianism^11c
Is in utter darkness in clouds and bondage of dogmas;^11d
110 Whatever each says about Unity, more or less,
Affords a specimen of his own power of insight.
The Divine Essence is freed from where, how, and why.^11e
Let His glory be exalted above what men say of Him.^11f

What sort of thought is the condition of my path?
Wherefore is it sometimes a duty, sometimes a sin?

To think on the mercies is the condition of your path,¹²
But to think on the essence of “The Truth” is grievous sin.
Thinking on the essence of “The Truth” is vain;
Know it is impossible to demonstrate the manifest.^12a
115 Since His works are manifested from His essence,
His essence is not manifested from His works.^12b
The whole universe is exposed to view by His light,—
But how is He exposed to view in the universe?^12c
The light of His essence is not contained in phenomena,
For the glory of His majesty is exceeding great.
Let reason go, and abide in “The Truth.”
The eye of a bat endures not the bright sun.
In that place where God's light is our guide,
What room is there for the message of Gabriel?^12d
120 Though the angels stand hard by the throne,
They reach not the station, ‘I am with God.’^12e
Like as His light utterly burns up the angels,¹³
So it burns up reason from head to foot.
Reason's light applied to the very Light of lights,
Is as the eye of the head applied to the sun.
When the object seen is very near to the eye,
The eye is darkened so that it cannot see it.^13a
This blackness,^13b if you know it, is the light of very Being;
In the land of darkness is the well-spring of life.^13c
125 Since the dark destroys the light of vision,
Give up looking, for this is no place for looking.^13d
What connection has the dust with the pure world?
Its perception is impotence to perceive perception.^13e
Blackness of face^13f is not divorced from the contingent
In the two worlds; Allah is all wise.
Blackness of face in both worlds is poverty,¹⁴
Blackness is most precious, neither more nor less.
What shall I say? since this saying is fine,
‘A light night that shineth in a dark day.’^14a
130 On this place of witnessing which is the light of Epiphany,^14b
I have much to say, but not to say it is best.

If you desire to behold the eye of the sun,
You must make use of another body;
Since the eye of the head has not strength enough,
You may look on the brilliant sun in the water.
Since its brightness shows less brightly therein,
You can bear to look on it for a longer space.
Not being^14c is the mirror of absolute Being,
Therein is reflected the shining of “The Truth.”
135 When Not being is set opposite to Being,
It catches its reflection in a moment.
That Unity is exposed to view in this plurality,
Like as when you count one it becomes many.
Though all numbers have one for their starting point,
Nevertheless you never come to the end of them.
Forasmuch as Not being in itself is pure,
Therein is reflected ‘The hidden treasure.’
Read the tradition ‘I was a hidden treasure,’¹⁵
That you may see clearly this concealed mystery.
140 Not being is the mirror, the world the reflection, and man
Is as the reflected eye of The unseen Person.
You are that reflected eye, and He the light of the eye,
In that eye His eye sees His own eye.^15a
The world is a man and man is a world:^15b
There is no clearer explanation than this.
When you look well into the root of this matter,
He is at once seer, seeing eye, and thing seen.
The holy tradition^15c has declared this,
And, ‘without eye or ear,’ demonstrated it.
145 Know the world is a mirror from head to foot,^15d
In every atom are a hundred blazing suns.
If you cleave the heart of one drop of water,
A hundred pure oceans emerge from it.
If you examine closely each grain of dust,
A thousand Adams may be seen in it.
In its members a gnat is like an elephant,
In its qualities a drop of rain is like the Nile.
The heart of a barley-corn equals a hundred harvests,
A world dwells in the heart of a millet seed.
150 In the wing of a gnat is the ocean of life,¹⁶
In the pupil of the eye a heaven.
What though the corn grain of the heart^16a be small,
It is a station for the Lord of both worlds to dwell therein.
Therein are gathered the two worlds,
Sometimes Iblis and sometimes Adam.^16b
Behold the world mingled together,
Angels with demons, Satan with the archangel.
All mingled like unto seed and fruit,
Infidel with faithful, and faithful with infidel.
155 Together are gathered, in the point of the present,^16c
All cycles and seasons, day, month, and year.
World without beginning is world without end,
The mission of Jesus falls with the creation of Adam.^16d
From every point in this concatenated circle
A thousand forms are drawn;
Every point as it revolves in a circle
Is now a centre, now a circling circumference.^16e
If you take one atom link from its place
The entire universe falls to ruin.
160 The whole in a dizzy whirl, and yet no single part
Placing foot beyond the limit of contingency,
Phenomenal being¹⁷ holding each one in bondage,
Each is in despair at its particularization from the Whole.
You may say each is ever travelling and yet restrained,
Each is ever being unclothed and clothed upon;^17a
Each is alway in motion, yet ever at rest,
Never beginning and never ending.
Each ever cognizant of his own essence, and for that cause
Ever pressing his way towards the throne on high.
165 Beneath the veil of each atom is hidden
The heart-ravishing beauty of the Beloved's face!

You have heard thus much of the universe,
Come, say what you have seen of the universe.
What know you of form or of substance?
What is the next world, and what is this world?
Say what is Simurg, and what mount Kaf,^17c
What heaven and hell, and hades^17d what?
What is that world which is not seen,
One day whereof equals a year of this world?
170 That world, in fine, is not what you see.
Have you not heard the text, ‘What ye see not?’¹⁸
Come, show me what is Jabulca,^18a
What that city whose name is Jabulsa.
Consider the East along with the West,
For this world contains no more than one of each.^18b
Come and hear the meaning of ‘like unto them;’^18c
Hear it from Ibn Abbas, and then know yourself!
You are asleep, and this vision of yours is a dream,
All that you see thereby is an illusion.
175 On the morn of the last day, when you shall awake,
You will know all this to be the baseless fabric of fancy.
When the illusion of seeing double is removed,
Earth and heavens will become transfigured.
When the true Sun displays his face to you^18d
There remains not the light of Venus, moon or sun.
Falls one beam of His on the hard rock,
It is torn to pieces like wool of divers colours.^18e
Know now is the time that you have power to act:
What profit is there in knowing, when you are powerless?^18f
180 How shall I tell the tale of ‘states’ of heart¹⁹
To you, O man, with head downcast and feet in the mire?
The world is yours and yet you remain indigent.
Has man ever seen one so pitiable as you are?
Like captives you are confined to one spot,
Binding your feet with your own helpless hand.
You sit like women in the street of ill fortune,
You take no shame to yourself for your ignorance.
The valiant of the world are rolling in carnage;
You, with head wrapped up, put not forth your foot.
185 How read you the text, “old woman's creed,”
That you hold ignorance to be lawful for you?
Whereas “women are wanting in intellect and faith,”^19a
Why should men choose their road?
If you are a man, come forth and pass on,
Whatever hinders you, pass aside by it.
Tarry not day or night at the halting places,^19b
Linger not behind your fellow travellers and camels.
Like ‘The Friend of God,’ go seek “The Truth,”^19c
Turn night into day and day into night.^19d
190 Stars with moon and most brilliant sun
Represent sense, imagination and brilliant reason.^19e
Turn your face from all these, O pilgrim,
Say alway, ‘I love not them that set.’
Like Moses, son of Amran, press onwards in this road,
Till you hear the words, ‘Verily I am God.’²⁰
So long as the mount of your being remains^20a before you,
The answer to ‘Show me’ is ‘Thou shalt not see me.’^20b
“The Truth,” as amber, attracts you like a straw.
If there were no mount of “youness,” where were the road?^20c
195 When its Lord appears in glory to the mount of existence,
Existence is laid low, even as the dust of the road.
The beggar becomes by one attraction a king,
In one instant it makes the mount as a straw.^20d
Follow the steps of the prophet in his ascension,
Marvel at all the mighty signs.^20e
Come forth from the dwelling of Umháni,^20f
Say only, “Whoso hath seen me hath seen The Truth.”^20g
Forsake the Kaf of the corner of both worlds,
Sit on mount Kaf at “the distance of two bows' lengths.”^20h
200 “The Truth” will then grant you whatsoever you ask,
And show you all things as they really arc.²¹

To him, whose soul attains the beatific vision,^21a
The universe is the book of “The Truth Most High.”
Accidents are its vowels, and substance its consonants,
And grades of creatures its verses and pauses.
Therein every world is a special chapter,
One the chapter Fatihah, another Ikhlas.
Of this book the first verse is ‘Universal Reason,^21b
For that is like the B of Bismillah;
205 Second comes “Universal Soul,” ‘the verse of light,’^21c
For that is as a lamp of exceeding light;
The third verse thereof is “Highest heaven.”^21d
Read the fourth verse, it is “The throne;”²²
After that are the seven heavenly spheres,
The “chapter of the seven limbs” answers to these.^22a
After these, behold the bodies of the four elements,
Whereof each answers to its respective verse.
After these come the three kingdoms of nature,
Whose verses you cannot count.
210 The last that came down was the soul of man,^22b
And thus the Koran ends with the chapter “Men.”

Rest not in bondage in the prison of nature,
Come forth and behold the divine handiwork.
Consider the structure of the heavens,
So that you may praise “The Truth” for His signs.^22c
Look up and see how the vault of “highest heaven”^22d
Is stretched round about both worlds.
Wherefore do they name it “throne of the Merciful?”
What connection has it with the heart of man?^22e
215 Wherefore are these two continually in motion,
Never for a moment taking rest?
Peradventure the heart is the centre of that heaven,
Heart the central point and heaven the circumference.^22f
In the space of one day and night, more or less,
Highest heaven surpasses your circuits, O Durvesh!²³
Moved by this the other heavenly spheres are circling:
Mark well how they all move in one direction.
From east to west, like a water-wheel,
They are ever hastening, without food or sleep.
220 Each day and night this highest sphere
Makes a complete revolution round the world.
Moved by this, the other heavenly spheres
Are revolving in circular orbits in like manner,
But contrary to the rotation of the crystalline sphere,^23a
These eight lower spheres revolve crookedly.^23b
The Ecliptic holds the signs of the zodiac,^23c
In them is no interval nor any interstice.
Aries and Taurus, and Gemini and Cancer,
Are hung upon it with Leo and Virgo.^23d
225 Then Libra and Scorpio, then Sagittarius,
Capricorn, and Aquarius, and then the sign Pisces,
The fixed stars are one thousand twenty and four,
Who have their stations round about the “throne.”^23e
Of the seventh heaven Saturn is the watchman,
The sixth is the mansion and house of Jupiter,
The fifth heaven is the house of Mars,
The fourth of the Sun, adorner of the earth,
The third of Venus, the second of Mercury:
The Moon holds its orbit on the sphere of the Earth.
230 The house of Saturn is in Capricorn and Aquarius,
Jupiter waxes and wanes in Sagittarius and Pisces.²⁴
In Aries and Scorpio is found the place of Mars,
In Leo is the Sun's place of rest;
Like as Venus makes her house in Taurus and Libra,
So does Mercury abide in Gemini and Virgo.
The Moon sees in Cancer a creature akin to herself,
When head becomes tail she assumes the form of a knot.^24a
The Moon passes through eight and twenty mansions,^24b
And then she returns opposite to the Sun.^24c
235 Then she becomes like to a crooked palm-branch,^24d
By command of the Almighty who is Allwise.
If you think on this, as a perfect man,
Assuredly you will say, ‘All this is not vain.’^24e
The words of “The Truth” are clear on this point,^24f
That to call this vain is weakness of faith.
O fool, the body of a gnat enshrines wisdom,²⁵
Then how is there no wisdom in Mercury and Mars?
Albeit if you look into the roots of this matter,
You see the heavens subject to the Almighty.^25a
240 When the astrologer is destitute of religion, and says
That starry influences proceed from the heavenly motions,^25b
He sees not that these revolving heavens
Are all under the sway and dominion of “The Truth.”

You may say these heavens are revolving
In the rotation of day and night like a potter's wheel.
And thereby every moment the wisdom of the Master
Fashions a new vessel out of water and clay.
Whatever exists in time and in space
Proceeds from one master hand, one workshop.
245 The stars, who are of the people of perfection,^25c
Wherefore are they always undergoing the defect of setting?
Why are they continually varying in position,
In place and orbit, in colour and size?
Why are they now in Nadir, now in Zenith?
Sometimes in opposition, sometimes in conjunction?
Wherefore again is the heart of heaven fretted with fire?
What does it desire that it is always in a whirl?
All the planets circling round in search of this,
Sometimes above, sometimes beneath the earth?
250 The elements water, air, fire and earth
Have taken their station below the heavens;
Each serving diligently in its own appointed place,
Before or behind which it never sets its foot.
Though all four are contrary in their nature and position,
Still one may see them ever united together.²⁶
Inimical are they to each other in essence and form
Yet united into single bodies by fiat of necessity.^26a
From them is born the three-fold kingdom of Nature,
Minerals, them plants, then animals,
255 Setting up substance in their midst,^26b
As Sufis becoming pure from form.^26c
All at the command and by favour of the Master,
Standing in their places subject to His will,
The minerals by His wrath laid low in the dust,
The plants by His favour standing erect,
The sexual passion of animals with ardour unfeigned
Preserving their genera, species, and individuals,
All confessing the rule of their Master,
Searching out His will day and night!

260 Ponder well once for all on your own origin,
Your first mother had a father who was also her mother.^26d
Behold the world entirely comprised in yourself,
That which was made last was first in thought.²⁷
The last that was made was the soul of Adam,
The two worlds were a means to his production.
There is no other final cause beyond man,
It is disclosed in man's own self.^27a
The black hearted and the fool are the opposites of light
Yet are they the theatres of the true epiphany.^27b
265 When the back of a mirror is blackened,
It will reflect a man's face from its face;^27c
And the rays of the sun in the fourth heaven
Are not reflected till they fall on the dust of earth.
You are the reflection of “The Adored of angels,”
For this cause are you worshipped of angels.^27d
Each creature that goes before you has a soul,
And from that soul is bound a cord to you.^27e
Therefore are they all subject to your dominion,
For that the soul of each one is hidden in you,
270 You are the kernel of the world in the midst thereof,
Know yourself that you are the world's soul.
The north quarter of the world is your dwelling place,²⁸
Because the heart is on the left side of the body.
The world of reason and mind is your stock in trade,
Earth and heavens are your vesture.
Behold this Not being which is the evidence^28a
of Being,
See this height how it is the essence of depth.^28b
Your natural powers are ten thousand,^28c
Your volitions transcend limits and counting.
275 For that cause is each man^28d furnished with instruments,
With limbs, members, and sinews.
Physicians become bewildered at these,
And stand amazed at the anatomy of man.
Not one has mastered this science,
Who does not avow his ignorance thereof.
His limit and portion are appointed to each by “The Truth,”
Each arises from and returns to one Name.^28e
In that name each creature has its being,
To that name it is ever giving praise;
280 At its beginning each proceeds from that source,
At its return that is its door of departure.
By the door whereat each enters, it departs,
Though in its lifetime each wanders from door to door.^28f
Hence you learn all the names of God,
For that you are an image reflected from “The Named.”²⁹
Power and Knowledge and Will are shown forth
In you, O slave of the Lord of bliss!
You are the Hearing, Seeing, Living, Speaking,
Yet you endure not of yourself but of Him!
285 O first who are also the essence of the last!
O inner who are also the essence of the outward!^29a
You day and night are cogitating about yourself,
It is most meet that you should think on self no more,^29b
Since the end of thought is bewilderment,^29c
This discourse on thonght ends at this point.

What am I? tell me what “I” means?
What is the meaning of “Travel into yourself?”^29d

Again you question me, saying, “What am I?”
Give me news of myself as to what “I” means.
290 When Absolute Being has to be indicated
Men use the word “I” to express it.
When “The Truth” is set in evidence in a phenomenon
You express it by the word “I,”³⁰
“I” and “you” are the accidents^30a of Very Being.
The lattices of the niches of the lamp of Necessary Being.^30b
Know bodies and spirits are all the One Light,
Now shining from mirrors, now from torches.
You say “The word ‘I’ in every connection”
“Indicates the reasonable soul of man;”
295 But as you have made human intellect your guide,
You do not know your ‘self’ from one of your parts,
Go, O master, and know well your ‘self,’
For fatness does not resemble an empty tumour.^30c
“I” and “you” are higher than body and soul,
For both body and soul are parts of “me.”
The word “I” is not limited to man,
So that you should say it means only the soul.^30d

Straightway lift yourself above time and space,^30e
Quit the world and be yourself a world for yourself.^30f
300 By the imaginary line of the H of the “He”³¹
Are produced two eyes at the time He looks forth.^31a
But there remain not in the midst pilgrim or road,
When this H of the “He” is joined to the H in Allah.
Necessary Being is as Heaven and Hell as contingent,
“I” and “you” are the Hades veil between them.^31b
When this veil is lifted up from before you,^31c
There remains not the bond of sects and creeds.
All the authority of the law is over this “I” of yours,
Since that is bound to your soul and body.^31d
305 When “I” and “you” remain not in the midst,
What is mosque, what is synagogue, what is fire temple?
Phenomenal being is as the dot on 'ayn,
When 'ayn is clear, ghayn becomes 'ayn.^31e
The journey of the pilgrim is two steps and no more,
Although it is beset by divers perils.
One step is the passing out from that H of “He,”^31f
The second is passing over the field of existence.
In this holy vision plurality and individuals are one,³²
Like one which pervades all numbers.
310 You are that plurality which becomes very Unity^32a
You are that Unity which becomes very plurality.
A man may know this mystery when he passes forth
From the part, and travels up to the whole.

Of what sort is this traveller, who is this wayfarer?
Of whom shall I say that he is the perfect man?

Again you ask ‘Who is the traveller on the road?’
It is he who is acquainted with his own origin.
He is a traveller who passes on with haste,
And becomes pure from self as fire from smoke.
315 Know his journey is a progress of revelation from the contingent
To the necessary, leading away from darkness and defect.^32b
He travels back his first journey, stage after stage,
Till he attains the grade of the perfect man.^32c

Know first how the perfect man is produced
From the time he is first engendered.
He is produced at first as inanimate matter,
Next by the added spirit he is made sentient,^33a
And acquires the motive powers from the Almighty.
Next he is made lord of will by “The Truth.”
320 In childhood opens out perception of the world,
And the temptations of the world act upon him.^33b
When all the particular parts are ordered in him
He makes his way from these sources to general notions.^33c
Anger is born in him, and lust of the flesh,
And from these spring avarice, gluttony, pride.
Evil dispositions come into operation.
He becomes worse than an animal, a demon, a brute.
In his descent this point is the very lowest,
For it is the point directly opposite to Unity.
325 Of actions there arises an endless plurality,
He is thus directly opposed to his beginning.
If he remains imprisoned in this snare,
He goes astray worse than the beasts.^33d
But if from the spirit world there shines a light
From the attraction of grace or reflection of proof,³⁴
Then his heart has fellowship with the light of “The Truth,’
And he turns back along the road which he came.
From that divine attraction or certain proof
He finds his way to assured faith.
330 He arises from the seventh hell of the wicked,
He sets his face towards the seventh heaven of the righteous;
Then is he clothed with the quality of repentance,^34a
And is made one chosen among the children of Adam.^34b
From evil deeds he becomes pure,
Like Idris the prophet he is caught up to heaven.
When he obtains release from evil habits,
He becomes thereby like Noah a saviour of his own life.
The power of his ‘parts’ remains not in the ‘Whole,’
And like “the Friend of God” he acquires trust in God.^34c
335 His will is joined with the pleasure of “The Truth,”
And like Moses he enters the highest door.
He obtains release from his own knowledge,
And like the prophet Jesus he becomes near to God,^34d
He gives up his existence utterly to be plundered,
And in the steps of the “Most Pure” he ascends.^34e
But when his last point is joined to his first,
There is no entrance for angel or for prophet.^34f

The prophet is as a sun, the saint as a moon
Is set over against him in the point ‘I am with God.’
340 Prophethood is resplendent in its own perfection,
The saintship therein is manifest and not hidden.
But the saintship in a saint is concealed,
Whereas in a prophet it is shown forth openly.
When a saint by obedience obtains fellowship,
And intimacy with the prophet in saintship;^35a
Then from the text ‘If ye love God’ he finds entrance
To that secret chamber ‘God will love you.’^35b
In that secret chamber he is beloved,
He becomes altogether ‘drawn’^35c to “The Truth.”
345 The saint is obedient as to his essence,
He is a devotee in the street of essence,^35d
Howbeit his work is finished at the time
That his end is joined again to his beginning?^35e

He is a perfect man who in all perfection
Does the work of a slave^35f in spite of his lordliness.
Afterwards, when he has finished his course,
“The Truth” sets on his head the crown of Khalifate.³⁶
He finds eternal life after dying to self, and again
He runs another course from his end to his beginning.
350 He makes the law his upper garment,
He makes the mystic path his inner garment.
But know very truth is the station of his nature,
He comprehends both infidelity and faith.
Being endued with fair virtues,
And famed for knowledge, devotion and piety,
All these in him, but he far from all these,
Overshadowed beneath the canopy of Divine Epiphanies.^36a

The kernel of an almond is utterly spoiled,
If you pluck it from its husk while it is unripe.
355 But when it grows ripe in its husk, it is good;
If you pluck out its kernel, you break the husk.
The law is the husk, and the truth is the kernel,
The mystic path lies between this and that.
Error in the traveller's path is spoiling of the kernel,
When the kernel is ripe it is good without its husk.
When the knower experiences certain assurance,^36c
The kernel becomes ripe, and bursts the husk.
His being remains not in this world,
He departs, and returns again no more.
360 Another shines as a bright sun still retaining the husk,^36d
When in this state he makes another circuit.
From water and earth he springs up into a tree,
Whose branches are lifted up above the heavens.³⁷
The same brings forth in his turn another seed,
One yielding a hundred fold by fiat of the Almighty.
Like the growth of a seed into the line of a tree,
From point comes a line, and from line again a circle.
When the pilgrim has finished the circuit of this circle,
Then his last point is joined to his first.
365 Again he may be likened to a pair of compasses,
Ending in the same impression whence they began.^37a
When he has finished his course to the end,
“The Truth” sets on his head the crown of Khalifate.
These circuits are not transmigrations of souls, for verily
They are manifested in the visions of Epiphanies,^37b
‘Verily they ask, saying, what is the end,
And the answer is the return to the beginning.’^37c

The first appearance of prophethood was in Adam,
And its perfection was in the ‘Seal of the prophets.’^37e
370 Saintship lingers behind while it makes a journey,
And like a point makes another circuit in the world.³⁸
Its entirety will be seen in the ‘Seal of the saints,’
In him will be completed the circuit of the world.^38a
Individual saints are as it were his members,
For he is the whole and they are the parts.
Since he holds close relation to our lord,
Through him will be shown mercy most complete.^38b
He will be the Imam of both worlds,
He will be the Khalif of the children of Adam.

375 When the light of the sun is divided from the night,
You see its dawn and up-rising and full ascension.
Again from the circling of the revolving heavens
Declension and afternoon and sunset are seen.
The light of the prophet is a mighty sun,^38d
Now shining in Moses, now in Adam.
If you read the chronicles of the world,
You will know clearly its several degrees.
From this sun every moment is cast a shadow,
Which is one degree in the ascension of faith.
380 The time of our lord is the meridian line,^38e
For he is purified from all shadow of darkness.
On the meridian line he stands upright,
Casting no shadow before or behind, on the right hand or on the left.
Since he stands on the ‘narrow way’ “of The Trûth,”³⁹
And takes his stand on the command ‘Be steadfast.’^39a
He casts no shadow, for that involves darkness.
Hail, O Light of God, O shadow of Divinity!
His Kibla^39b is between east and west,
Because it is drowned in the midst of light.
385 When by his power Satan becomes a Musulman,^39c
He will be as a shadow hidden under his feet.
All degrees are beneath his degree,
The existence of things of earth is from his shadow.
From his light his saintship is casting shadows,
The west is made equal to the east.^39d
For every shadow cast at the beginning of his course,
Another corresponding one is cast at the ending.
At this present every doctor of the faith
Is as one corresponding to the prophets in prophecy.^39e
390 But since a prophet is most perfect through prophethood,
He is of necessity more excellent than any saint.
Saintship will be all shown forth in the “Seal of the Saints;”
The last point will be finished in the first.
Through him the earth will be filled with peace and faith,
Through him stones and animals will receive life.⁴⁰
There will remain not in the world one infidel soul,
True equity will be made manifest altogether.
By the secret of Unity he will attain to “The Truth,”
In him will be shown forth the face of the “Absolute.”^40a

395 Who then is he who attains to the secret of unity?
Who is the understanding one that is a knower?^40b

That man attains to the secret of unity
Who is not detained at the stages on the road.
But the knower is he that knows Very Being,
He that witnesses Absolute Being.^40c
He recognises no being but Very Being,
And being such as his own he gambles clean away.
Your being is naught but thorns and weeds,^40d
Cast it all clean away from you.
400 Go sweep out the chamber of your heart,
Make it ready to be the dwelling-place of the Beloved.
When you depart out, He will enter in,
In you, void of yourself, will He display His beauty.
The man who is loved for his ‘pious works,⁴¹
Whom the pains of ‘negation’^41a purify as a room that is swept,
He finds an abode in a ‘laudable station,’
He finds a portion in ‘what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard.’^41b
But while the stain of his own being remains on him,
The knowledge of the knower assumes not the form of experience.^41c
405 Until you cast away obstacles from before you,
The light enters not the chamber of your heart.
As there are four obstacles in this world,
So also the modes of purification from them are four:^41d
First, purification from filthiness of the flesh;
Second, from sin and evil “whispers of the tempter;”^41e
The third is the purification from bad habits,
Which make men as beasts of the field;
The fourth is the purification of the secret,^41f
For at this point the pilgrim's journeyings cease.
410 Whoso is cleansed with these purifications,
Verily he is fit to commune with God.
Until you utterly gamble away yourself,⁴²
How can your prayer be true prayer?^42a
When your essence is pure from all stain,^42b
Then it is that your prayers are ‘a joy of the eyes,’^42c
There remains then no distinction,
Knower and known are one and the same.

If knower and known are both the One pure essence,
What are the aspirations in this handful of dust?^42d

415 Be not thankless for the grace of “The Truth,”
For it is by the light of “The Truth” that you know “The Truth:”^42e
Besides Him is no knower or known, Be sure,
Nevertheless the dust draws heat from the sun.⁴³
It is not strange that the motes of dust have hope,^43a
And desire for the sun's heat and light.
Call to mind the state and circumstance of your creation,
For thence will you learn the root of your thought.
To whom said God, ‘Am not I your Lord?’^43b
Who was it who then answered ‘Yea?’
420 On that day when He ‘kneaded the clay,’^43c
He wrote by grace the faith on the heart.
If you will read forthwith that writing,^43d
You will understand whatsoever you desire.
Last night you tied the knot of the “covenant of service,”^43e
But have now forgotten it through ignorance;
And therefore the word of “The Truth” was sent down^43f
To recall to your mind that primeval covenant.
If you have seen “The Truth” at the beginning,
You may see Him again in this place.
425 In this place behold His attributes to-day,
That you may behold His essence to-morrow.^43g
And if you cannot, yet be not cast down,
Go, hearken to the text ‘Thou canst not direct.’⁴⁴

He that is born blind believes not what you say of colours,
Though you show him instances and proofs for a century.
White and yellow and red and dark and light green
Are to him naught but darkest black.
See the evil plight of one blind from his birth,
Can he ever gam sight from the physician's eye salve?
430 Reason cannot see the state of the world to come,
As a man born blind cannot see things in this world.
But in addition to reason man has a certain faculty,^44b
Whereby he perceives hidden mysteries.
Like fire in flint and steel,
God has placed this faculty in man's soul and body;
When that flint and steel are struck together,^44c
The two worlds are illumined by the flash!
From that collision is this mystery made clear,
Now you have heard it, go and attend to your Self.
435 Your Self is a copy made in the image of God,⁴⁵
Seek in your Self all that you desire to know.^45a

To what point belongs the aphorism, ‘I am The Truth?’^45b
Why call you that impostor a vain babbler?^45c

Verily ‘I am The Truth’ is a revelation of absolute mystery,
Save ‘The Truth,’ who can say ‘I am The Truth?’
All the atoms of the world, like Mansur,
You will take to be drunken and heavy with wine;
Continually are they singing this song of praise,^45d
Continually dwelling on this mystic verity.
440 If you desire that its meaning may be clear to you,
Then read the text, ‘All praise Allah.’^45e
When you have carded ‘self’ as cotton,
You, like the ‘wool carder,’ will raise this cry.
Take out the cotton of your illusion from your ears,
Hearken to the call of The One, The Almighty.⁴⁶
This call is ever coming to you from “The Truth,”
Why are you tarrying for the last day?
Come into the “valley of peace,” for straightway^46a
The bush will say to you, ‘Verily I am Allah.’
445 The saying “I am ‘The Truth’” was lawful for the bush,
Why is it unlawful in the mouth of a good man?
Every man whose heart is pure from doubt,
Knows for a surety that there is no being but ‘One.’
Saying ‘I am’ belongs only to “The Truth,”
For essence is absent, and illusive appearance is absent.^46b
The glory of “The Truth” admits no duality,
In that glory is no ‘I’ or ‘We’ or ‘Thou.’
‘I,’ ‘We,’ ‘Thou’ and ‘He’ are all one thing,
For in Unity there is no distinction of persons.
450 Every man who as a void is empty of self,
Re-echoes within him the cry ‘I am The Truth;’
He takes his eternal side, ‘other’ perishes,^46c
Travelling, travel, and traveller all become One.
Incarnation and Communion spring from ‘other,’
But very Unity comes from the mystic journey.^46d
That which is separate from “The Truth” is phenomenal existence,
Neither does “The Truth” become a creature, nor is a creature united with Allah.⁴⁷
Incarnation and Communion are here impossible,^47a
For duality in unity is clearly absurd.
455 The existence of creatures and plurality is but a semblance,
And not every thing that seems to be really is.

Set a mirror over against you,^47c
Look on it and see that other person.
Again see what that reflection is,
It is not this nor that, what then is that reflection?
Since I am limited to my own proper self,
I know not what is this shadow of me;
In fine, how can not being be joined with being?
The two, light and darkness, cannot be united.
460 Like the past the future month and year exist not,
What is there but this one point of the present?
Time is one imaginary point, and that ever passing away,
You have named it the fleeting river.
There is none other in this desert, but only I,
Tell me what is this echo and noise?
Accidents are fleeting, substance is compounded of them,
Say how does it exist or where is this compound?^47d
Bodies exist only through length, breadth and depth,
Since their existence proceeds from these nonentities.⁴⁸
465 And of this kind is all the fabric of the two worlds;
Now you know this, have faith and be stablished.
Of a truth there is no other existence than “The Truth,”
Whether you say ‘He is the Truth,’ or ‘I am the Truth.’
Separate imaginary appearances from True Being,
Make not yourself a stranger but a friend.^48a

Why call they a creature ‘united,’^48b
How can he achieve travelling and journey?

Union with “The Truth” is separation from the creature state,^48c
Friendship with Him is estrangement from self.^48d
470 When the contingent wipes off the dust of contingency,
Nothing remains save Necessary Being.
The existence of the two worlds is as a dream,
In the moment of eternity they become naught.
He who is ‘united’ is not a creature,^48e
The perfect man says not so.
How shall not being find entrance at that door?
What connection has the dust with the Lord of Lords?
How can not being be united with “The Truth?”
How can not being achieve travelling and journey?
475 If your soul were cognizant of this mystery,
You would straightway say “God pardon my error.”⁴⁹
You are non-existent,^49a and not being is ever immovable,
How can this non-existent contingent move to the necessary?
No substance possesses objectivity^49b without accidents,
And what is an accident?—what “endures not two moments.”
Philosophers, who have written on natural science,
Define bodies by length, breadth and depth.^49c
What then is matter but an absolute nonentity
Wherein is demonstrated form?
480 As then form without matter is not self existent,^49d
So too matter without a form is naught but not being.
All the bodies in the universe consist of these two nonentities,
Whereof nothing is known, but their non-existence.
Consider then their whole essence without more or less,^49e
In itself it is neither existent nor non-existent.^49f
Look upon contingent being in spirit and in truth,
For apart from necessary being it is naught.
Absolute Being by its own perfection is pervading all,^49g
Phenomenal objects are mere imaginary things;^49h
485 Imaginary things are not really existent,
Though the numbers are many, only One is counted.
The world has only a simulated existence,
Its state is but an insubstantial pageant and a farce.⁵⁰

The mist is raised up out of the sea,
By command of “The Truth” it rains down on the desert
The sun's rays are shed down from the fourth heaven,
And are mingled with the water.
Then the heat strives to ascend on high,
And the water of the sea clings to it.
490 And when with these are joined earth and air,
There comes forth the green and pleasant plant.^50b
This becomes the food of and is transformed into animals,
Which are eaten by and transmuted into man.
It becomes seed, and passes through divers states,
And then there is born of it another man.
Then when the reasonable soul as a light enters the body,^50c
There is produced a fair and brilliant form;
It becomes child, youth, adult and then aged man,
It knows wisdom, knowledge, reason, counsel.
495 Then comes his appointed time from the pure presence,
Pure spirit returns to spirit, dust to dust.⁵¹
All the parts of the world are like plants,
They are single drops from the ocean of life.^51a
When the set times of their manifestations pass by,
Their end becomes again their beginning.^51b
Every one of them tends towards its Centre,
For its nature forsakes not its centripetal character.
Unity is like a sea, albeit a sea of blood,^51c
Whereout rise thousands of mad waves.
500 Behold how this drop of water from that sea,
Has assumed so many names and forms!
Mist, cloud, rain, dew, clay,
Plant and animal, and perfect man.
In fine it was one drop of water at the first,
Wherefrom all these things were fashioned.^51d
This universe of reason, soul, heavens and bodies,^51e
Is as a drop of water in its beginning and ending.
When their appointed time comes to heaven and stars,
Their being is lost in not being.^51f
505 When a wave strikes it, the world vanishes away,
Then is fulfilled the text “It abounded not yesterday.”^51g
In a moment this world passes away,
None remains in the house save “The Truth.”
At that moment you attain proximity,
You stripped of ‘self’ are ‘united’ to “The Beloved.”
Union here means the cessation of this dream,
When this dream passes away, it is union.
Say not ‘the contingent outsteps its limits,’⁵²
Contingent becomes not necessary, nor necessary contingent.
510 He who is transcendent in spiritual mysteries,
Says not this, for it is an inversion of verities.
O master! you have a thousand ‘processes’ before you,^52a
Go and consider your own coming and going.
Of the argument of part and whole and the ‘process’ of man,
I tell you every whit both manifest and secret.

What is the union of necessary and contingent?
What are ‘near’ and ‘far,’ ‘more’ and ‘less’?^52b

Hear of me a discourse without ‘more’ or ‘less,’
It is by nearness that you become far from yourself.
515 As Being is manifested in not being,
From that too proceed ‘near’ and ‘far,’ ‘more’ and ‘less.’^52c
He is ‘near’ on whom ‘the light is shed,’⁵³
‘Far’ is that not being which is distant from Being;
If He makes to shine on you a light from Himself,
It delivers you from your own existence.
What profit to you is there in this non-existent existence,
Whence you have now fear and now hope?
As man fears not him whom he knows,
It is infants who are frightened at shadows.
520 Fear remains not when you have started on your journey,^53a
The Arab racer needs not the whip.
What fear will you have of the fires of hell,
When your soul and body are purged from existence?
Let pure gold be burned in the fire,
If it contains no alloy, what is there to burn?
There is no obstacle in your way but yourself,
But reflect well on your own illusory existence,
While you are cloaked in this self of yours,
The world is always as a veil before your eyes.
525 Then you are the lowest part of the circle of being,
Then are you most opposed to the point of unity;^53b
The phenomena of the world overpower you,^53c
Thence like Satan you say “Who is like unto me?”
Thence you say “I myself have free-will,”
“My body is the horse and my soul the rider,”
“The reins of the body are in the hand of the soul,”
“The entire direction thereof is given to me.”
Know you not that all this is the road of the Magians,^53d
All these lies and deception come from illusive existence?
530 How, O foolish man, can free-will appertain
To a person whose essence is nothingness?
Seeing that your being is all one with not being,
Say whence comes this free-will of yours?
A man whose real existence is not of himself,
Is neither good nor evil in his own essence.⁵⁴
Whom have you seen in the whole world
Who ever once acquired pleasure without pain?
Who in fine ever attained all his desires?
Who continued ever at his pitch of perfection?^54a
535 Dignities are permanent, but men of dignity

Are subject to the sway of “The Truth.” Allah is over all.
Recognise the “working”^54b of “The Truth” in every place,
Place not foot beyond your own proper limits.
Ask of your own state what this free-will is,
And thence know who are the men of free-will.
Every man whose faith is other than predestinarian,
Is according to the prophet even as a Gueber.
Like as those Guebers speak of Yezdan and Aherman,
So these ignorant fools say ‘I’ and ‘He.’
540 The attribution of actions to us is imaginary,
That attribution itself is but a play and a farce.
You existed not when your actions were originated,
You were appointed to fulfil a certain purpose.^54c
By the uncaused sovereign will of “The Truth,”
By His fore-knowledge giving absolute command,
There was predestined, before soul and body were,
For every man his appointed work;
One was obedient for seven hundred thousand years,⁵⁵
Yet afterwards bore the collar of curses on his neck.
545 Another after his transgression beheld the pure light,
When he repented, he obtained the name “Chosen;”^55a
And, more marvellous still, it was by Satan's disobedience
That Adam received mercy and pardon from “The Truth,”^55b
Whilst through Adam's sin Satan was cursed.
O wondrous actions of Thine without how or why!
The Divine Majesty ‘regards not,’^55c
Exalted high above fanciful reasonings.
How came it, O foolish man, that from eternity
This man was to be Muhammad, and that Abu Jahl?^55d
550 He who speaks of how and why in connection with God
Like a polytheist speaks unworthily of His Majesty.
It becomes Him to ask how and why,
Cavils on the part of His slaves are unbecoming.
Godship consists entirely in sovereignty.^55e
Causation is inapplicable to the acts of God,
Mercy and vengeance befit Godship;
But slaveship lies in poverty and necessity,
The ‘honour’ of man lies in being under compulsion,⁵⁶
Not in having a share in free-will.
555 Man has nothing whatever of himself,
Yet God asks him concerning good and evil.^56a
Man has no free-will, but is under compulsion:
Ah, poor creature, seeming to be free, yet a slave!
This is not injustice, but true fore-knowledge and justice;
This is not oppression, but pure mercy and grace.
He has imposed on you the law for this cause,
That He has imparted to you of His essence.^56b
Since you are impotent in the hands of “The Truth,”
Abandon and forsake this self of yours.
560 In “The All” you will obtain deliverance from self,
In “The Truth” you will become rich, O Durvesh!^56c
Go, Soul of your father! yield yourself to God's will,
Resign yourself to the Divine fore-ordinance.

What is that sea whose shore is speech?
What is that pearl which is found in its depths?

Being is the sea, speech is the shore,
The shells are letters, the pearls knowledge of the heart.^56d
In every wave it casts up a thousand royal pearls
Of traditions and holy sayings and texts.
565 Every moment a thousand waves rise out of it,⁵⁷
Yet it never becomes less by one drop.
Knowledge has its being from that sea,
The coverings of its pearls are voice and letters.^57a
Since mysteries are here shown in an allegory,
It is necessary to have recourse to illustrations.

I have heard that in the month Nysan
The pearl oysters rise to the surface of the sea of 'Umán.
From the lowest depths of the sea they come up,
And rest on the surface with opened mouths.
570 The mist is lifted up from the sea,
And descends in rain at the command of “The Truth.”
There fall some drops into each shell's mouth,
And each mouth is shut as by a hundred bonds.
Then each shell descends into the depths with full heart,
And each drop of rain becomes a pearl.
The diver goes down to the depths of the sea,
And thence brings up the glittering pearls.
The shore is your body, the sea is Being,^57b
The mist Grace,^57c the rain knowledge of the Names.^57d
575 The diver of this mighty sea is human reason,
Who holds a hundred pearls wrapped in his cloth.
The heart is to knowledge as a vessel,
The shells of knowledge of the heart are voice and letters.
The soul is darting as a lightning flash,⁵⁸
It bears these letters to the hearing ear.
Then break open the shell, take out the royal pearl,
Cast away the husk, carry off the sweet kernel.
Dictionary, etymology, syntax and accidence
Are all only the wrappings of letters.
580 Whoso devotes his life to these,
Has squandered his precious life on trifling.
From his nut he gets only the dry husk,
He finds no kernel unless he breaks the husk.
Nevertheless without a husk the kernel ripens not,
From external knowledge grows the sweet knowledge of faith.
O soul of my brother, hearken to my counsel!
With heart and soul strive for the knowledge of the faith.
For the ‘knower’ gains high place in both worlds,
Though he be humble, yet by this is he exalted.
585 An action which proceeds from good ‘states’ of heart
Is much better than this mere knowledge of the ‘word.’^58a
But an action which proceeds from water and clay^58b
Equals not this knowledge, for this is the action of the heart.
See what a difference there is between body and soul;
You may take one as the east, the other as the west.
Hence learn at full how bodily actions^58c
Are related to knowledge of the word as this knowledge to ‘states.’
Knowledge is not that which loves the world,
Which has the form, but is void of the reality.
590 Knowledge is never coupled with lust of the world,
If you desire the angel, cast out the dog.
Knowledge of faith springs from angelic virtues,
It enters not a heart with a dog's nature.
Thus runs the saying of “the Chosen,”⁵⁹
Mark it well, for verily it is so.
When form is contained in the house,
The angels enter it not perforce.
Go, cleanse the face of the tablets of your heart,
That an angel may make his abode with you.
595 Gain from him the knowledge that is your heritage,
Begin to till your field for the next world's harvest.
Read the books of “The Truth”—your soul and the heavens,^59a
Be adorned with the principle^59b of all the virtues.

The principles of a good character are equity,
And thereafter wisdom, temperance, courage.
He who is endued with all these four
Is a sage perfect in thought and deed.^59c
His soul and heart are well informed with wisdom,
He is neither over cunning nor a fool.^59d
600 By temperance his appetites are subdued,
Intemperance and insensibility⁶⁰ alike are banished.
The courageous man is pure from abjectness and from boasting,
His nature is exempt from cowardice and rashness.
Equity is as the garment of his nature,
He is void of injustice, thus his character is good.
All the virtues lie in the mean,
Which is alike removed from excess and defect.
The mean is as the ‘narrow way,’^60a
On either side yawns hell's bottomless pit.
605 In fineness and sharpness as a sword,
One may not turn round nor stand on it long.
Since equity has only one opposite vice,
The total number of opposite vices is seven.
Beneath each number is hidden a mystery,
For this cause has hell seven gates.^60b
Like as hell is prepared for iniquity,
Heaven is the place always appointed for equity.
Light and mercy are the recompense of equity,
Darkness and cursing the requital of iniquity.
610 Goodness is made manifest in equity,
Equipoise in a body is its summit of perfection.
Since a compound is as one entity,
It is remote from its parts in its nature and differentia.^60c
It becomes like to a simple essence,
And between it and simple essence there is a bond;^60d
Not that bond which subsists between the compound and its parts,
(For spirit is free from the attributes of corporeity,)
But when water and clay are purified altogether,⁶¹
Spirit is added to them by “The Truth.”^61a
615 When the parts, to wit, the elements attain equilibrium,
The beams of the spirit world fall upon them.
The Spirit's rays shining on the body at the time of equilibrium,
Are like the rays of the sun shining upon the earth.

Though the sun abides in the fourth heaven,
Yet his rays are the light which rule the earth.
The elementary temperaments exist not in the sun,
The stars are not hot or cold, dry or moist.
Yet by him the elements are made warm or cold,
White, red, green, pink or yellow.
620 His command goes forth as that of a just prince,
One cannot say whether it is without or within the elements.
When the elements are adjusted in equipoise,
The Soul is, as it were, enamoured of their beauty,
A mystical marriage comes to pass according to the right faith^61c
The world is the dowry given to man by the Universal Soul.^61d
Of this marriage the issue is eloquence,
Knowledge, language, virtue, earthly beauty.
Heavenly beauty⁶² descends from the unseen world,
Descends like some licentious reveller,
625 Sets up its flag in the strong city of earthly beauty,
Throws into confusion all the world's array.
Now riding royally on the steed of comeliness,
Now brandishing the keen sword-blade of language.
When beheld in a person it is called beauty,
And when heard in speech eloquence.^62a
Saints, kings, durveshes, apostles,
All alike bow down and own its sway.
What is this charm in the beauty of a fair face?^62b
It is not merely earthly beauty, say what is it?^62c
630 That heart ravishment can come only from “The Truth,”
For there is no partner in Divine agency.^62d
How can it be lust which ravishes men's hearts?
For “The Truth” now and again appears as evil.^62e
Confess the ‘working’ of “The Truth” in every place,^62f
Set not foot beyond your own limits.
Know “The Truth” in the garb of good is the true faith,
“The Truth” in the garb of evil is the work of Satan.^62g

What is that part which is greater than its whole?
What is the way to find that part?

635 Know Absolute Being is that part which is greater than its whole,
The whole is actual being, which is the universe.⁶³
Actual being bears plurality on its outside,^63a
For it contains unity only inwardly.
Every actual being is manifested through plurality,
For this is as a veil of its unity part.
Though this whole is to outward aspect many,
It is smaller in quantity than its own part.^63b
But in fine actual existence is not Necessary,
For actual existence is a vassal of Necessary Being.
640 This whole has not real absolute being,
For it is as a contingent accident of Reality.
The existence of this whole is both plural and single,
And it appears as plural through its plural aspect.
Actual being is contingent, for it is a conjunction,⁶⁴
The contingent is ever hastening of itself to not being.
In every part of this whole, as it becomes non-existent,
This whole itself is becoming non-existent on its contingent side.
The world is this whole, and in every ‘twinkling of an eye,’
It becomes non-existent and “endures not two moments.”
645 Then over again another world is produced,
Every moment a new heaven and a new earth.^64a
Every moment it is a youth and an old man,
Every moment it is gathered and dispersed.
Things remain not in it two moments,
The same moment they perish, they are born again.
But this is not the great resurrection day,^64b
This is the day of works, that the ‘day of faith.’
Between this and that is a great difference, Beware!
In ignorance make not yourself entangled.
650 Open your eyes to see amplification and epitome,^64c
Behold hour, day, month and year.

If you desire to understand this mystery,
Consider how you also have both life and death.
Of every thing in the world above or below^64d
An exemplar is set forth in your soul and body.
Like you the world is a specific person,
You are to it a soul, and it is a body to you.
Death occurs to man in three sorts;⁶⁵
The one every moment is that due to his nature;^65a
655 Of the other two, know one is the death of his will,
The third death is that compulsory on him.
And as death and life answer to one another,
His life is of three sorts in three stages.^65b
The world has not the death of will,
For you alone of all creatures have this death.
But every moment the world is changed,
And its last state becomes like to its first.
And whatever will be seen in the world at the last day,
Will be also seen in you in your death agony.
660 Your body is as earth, your head as heaven,
Your senses as stars, your soul as the sun.
Your bones are as the mountains, for they are hard,
Your hair as plants, and your limbs as trees.
On the day of death your body with contrition
Will ‘tremble’ like the earth on the day of doom.^65c
Brain will be confounded and soul darkened,
Your senses will become dim like the stars,^65d
Your pores will run with sweat like the rivers,
You will be drowned therein as a helpless log.
665 In your death agony, O wretched man!
Your bones will become “soft as dyed wool,”^65e
Leg will be twisted with leg,^65f
Every friend will be separated from his fellow.⁶⁶
And when spirit is wholly separated from body,
Your land will be “a level plain, without hills or valleys.”^66a
In like manner will be the state of the world,
Which you behold in yourself at that hour.
Permanence belongs to “The Truth,” all else is fleeting,
Its whole fabric is set forth in the “seven chapters.”^66b
670 Which say “all that is on earth is transitory,”^66c
And show forth “the new creation.”^66d
Again the constant annihilation and renovation of the two worlds
Are like the creation and resurrection of the sons of Adam.
Continually is creation born again in a new creation,
Though the duration of its life seems long.^66e
Continually the overflowing bounty of “The Truth”
Is being revealed in His continual “working.”^66f
On this side the world is renewed and perfected,
On that side it is every moment annihilated.^66g
675 But when the fashion of this world passes away,
All will be everlasting in the world to come.
For every object which you see of necessity
Contains two worlds, form and reality.
The “union” of the first is true separation,
The other is what endures for ever in Allah.^66h
Permanence is a name proper to Necessary Being,
But yet the place where Being dwells is also permanent,⁶⁶ⁱ
When the manifestors are suitable to what is manifested,
In this world is seen the world to come.⁶⁷
680 Whatsoever exists in potentiality in this “house,”
Will come into actuality in the world to come.^67a

Whatever action once proceeds from you,
If you repeat it several times, you become master of it.
Every time you repeat it, be it gain or loss,
One of these two becomes implanted in your soul.
By habit dispositions become habitual,
By length of time fruits gain their savour.
By habitual practice men learn their trades,
By habit they learn to collect their thoughts.
685 All man's ingrained actions and sayings
Will be made manifest at the last day.^67c
When you are stripped of the garment of this body,^67d
All your vices and virtues will at once be shown.
A body you will have, but one free from stain,^67e
In it will be reflected forms as in pure water.
All secrets will be revealed in that place,
Read the text “All secrets shall be searched out.”^67f
Again, suitably to that special world
Your dispositions will be embodied and personified.
690 Just as in this world from the potentialities of elements
The three kingdoms of nature are produced.⁶⁸
So all your dispositions in the world of spirits
Will be made manifest now as lights, now as fires.^68a
Phenomenal limitations will be removed from Being,
Nor height nor depth will remain in sight.^68b
The death of the body will abide not in the ‘house of life,’^68c
External form and soul will appear as one stainless entity.
Your head, foot and eye will become as a heart,
Pure from the stain of earthly form.
695 Then the light of “The Truth” will illuminate you,
You will behold face to face “The Truth” Most High.
I know not what intoxication will possess you,
You will scatter in confusion the two worlds.
Consider what means “their Lord gives them to drink,”^68d
And what is “pure wine”! It is purification from self.
What a draught, what lusciousness, what sweetness!
What bliss, what ecstasy, what intoxication!
O happy moment when we shall quit our “selves”!
When we shall be most rich in utterest poverty!^68e
700 Without faith or reason, or piety or perception,
Bowed down in the dust, drunken and beside ourselves!
Of what account then will be paradise and houris?⁶⁹
For no stranger finds entrance to that secret chamber.
When I have seen this vision, and drunk of this cup,
I know not what will come to pass thereafter.
Nay, after all intoxication comes headache,^69a
This thought again drowns my soul in blood.

How are eternal and temporal separate,^69b
That one is the world, and the other God?

705 Eternal and temporal are not separate from one another.
For in that Being this non-existent has its being.
The first is all in all, the other is like the 'Anka,^69c
Save “The Truth” no names have things answering to them.
Not being to become existent—this is impossible,
But real Being in point of existence is imperishable.
Neither does this become that, nor that this.
All difficulties are now plain before you;
The whole world is merely an imaginary thing,
It is like one point whirled round in a circle.
710 Go! whirl round a single spark of fire,
And from its quick motion you will see a circle.
Though one be counted again and again,⁷⁰
Yet surely one becomes not many by this counting.
Cast away the saying “What is other than Allah”
By your own reason separate that from this.
How can you doubt that this is a dream?^70a
For duality by the side of unity is a pure delusion.
Not being is single like being,
All plurality proceeds from attribution.^70b
715 The manifestation of differences and plurality of things
Proceed from the chameleon contingent.^70c
Since the Being in all of them is One,^70d
They all bear witness to the unity of “The Truth.”

What means the mystic by those expressions of his^70e
What does he indicate by “eye” and “lip?”
What seeks he by “cheek,” “curl,” “down,” and “mole?”
He, to wit, who is in “stations” and “states?”^70f

Whatsoever is seen in this visible world,
Is as a reflection from the sun of that world.
720 The world is as curl, down, mole and brow,
For everything in its own place is beautiful.
The epiphany is now in beauty, now in majesty,⁷¹
Cheek and curl are the similitudes of those verities.
The attributes of “The Truth” are mercy and vengeance,
Cheek and curl of fair ones are types of these two.
When these words are heard by the sensual ear,
At first they denote objects of sense.
The spiritual world is infinite,
How can finite words attain to it?^71a
725 How can the mysteries beheld in ecstatic vision
Be interpreted by spoken words?
When mystics treat of these mysteries,
They interpret them by types.
For objects of sense are as shadows of that world,^71b
And this world is as an infant, and that as the nurse,
I believe that these words were at first assigned
To those mysteries in their original usage.
They were afterwards assigned to objects of sense by usage of the vulgar
(For what know the vulgar of these mysteries?)
730 And when reason turned its glance on the world,
It transferred some words from that place.^71c
The wise man has regard to analogy,
When he turns his mind to words and mysteries.
Although perfect analogies are unattainable,
Nevertheless continue steadfast in seeking them.
In this matter none can judge you,
For there is no leader of the sect here save “The Truth.”⁷²
Yet so long as you retain yourself, Beware! Beware!
And observe the expressions used in the law.
735 The license of mystics is in three “states,”^72a
Annihilation, intoxication, and the fever of love.
All who experience these three “states”
Know the use of these words and their meanings.
But if you experience not these “states”
Be not an ignorant infidel blindly repeating them.^72b
These mystic “states” are not mere illusions,
All men reach not the mysteries of the mystic path.
O friend, vain babbling proceeds not from men of truth,
To know these states requires either revelation or faith.^72c
740 I have explained the usage of words and their meanings
To you in brief, and if you attend you will understand.
In applying them look to their final intent,
And regard all the attributes of each.
Use them in comparisons in manner proper thereto,
Carefully abstain from applying them otherwise.
Now that this rule is well established,
I will show you more of these types.

See what proceeds from the eye and the lip,
Consider their attributes in this place.⁷³
745 From His eye proceed languishing and intoxication,
From His ruby lip^73a the essence of being.^73b
Because of His eye all hearts are burning,
His ruby lip is healing to the sick heart.
Because of His eye hearts are drunken and aching,
By His ruby lip all souls are clothed.^73c
Though the world is not regarded by His eye,
His lip ever and anon shows compassion.
Sometimes with humanity He charms our hearts,
Sometimes He grants help to the helpless.
750 By smiles He gives life to man's water and clay,
By a breath He kindles the heaven into a flame.^73d
Every glance of His eye is a snare baited with corn,
Every corner thereof is a wine shop.
With a frown He lays waste the creature world,
With one kiss He restores it again every moment.
Because of His eye our blood is ever boiling,
Because of His lip our souls are ever beside themselves.
By a frown of His eye He plunders the heart,
By a smile on His lips He cheers the soul.
755 When you ask of His eye and lip an embrace,^73e
One says “nay,” and the other “yea.”
By a frown He finishes the affair of the world,
By a kiss He ever and anon revives the soul.
One frown from Him and we yield up our lives,
One kiss from Him and we rise again.
As the “twinkling of an eye”⁷⁴ comes the last day,
By a breath the spirit of Adam was created.
When the world reflects on His eye and His lip,
It gives itself up to the worship of wine.^74a
760 All existence is not regarded by His eyes,
They regard it only as the illusion of a dream.
Man's existence is but intoxication or a sleep,
What relation does the dust bear to the Lord of Lords?
Reason draws a hundred perplexities from this
That He said “thou mightest be formed after mine eye.”^74b

The story of the curl of The Beloved is very long,
What is it meet to tell of this seeing it is a mystery?
Ask not of me the story of that knotted curl,
It is a chain leading mad lovers captive.
765 Last night I spoke straightforwardly of that stately form,^74d
But the tip of the curl replied, “Conceal it.”
Thence crookedness prevailed over straightness,
And the enquirer's path was twisted awry.
By that curl all hearts are enchained,^74e
By that curl all souls are borne to and fro.
A hundred thousand hearts are bound on every side,
No heart escapes from the yoke thereof.
If He shakes aside those black curls of His
No single infidel is left in the world.
770 If He leaves them continually in their place,
There remains not in the world one faithful soul.
That spider's web of His is spread as a net to ensnare,
In wantonness He puts it aside from off His face.⁷⁵
If His curls were shorn, what harm were it?
If night were destroyed, would not day be increased?
As He plunders the caravan of reason,
With His own hands He binds it with knots.^75a
That curl is never at rest for a moment,
Now it brings morning and now evening.
775 With His face and His curl He makes day and night,
Sporting with them in marvellous fashion.^75b
The clay of Adam became leavened at the moment
When it caught the perfume of that amber scented curl.^75c
My heart holds of that curl an ensample,^75d
So that it too cannot rest for a moment.
Therefore every moment must I begin my work afresh,^75e
And pluck my heart out of my bosom.
Therefore is my heart troubled by that curl,
Because it veils my burning heart from His face.

780 The cheek in this place is the theatre of Divine beauty,
And the down signifies the vestibule of Almightiness.
His cheek scores a line through beauty,
Saying “without me is no comeliness of face.”^76a
The down is a verdant growth in the spirit world
Therefore is it named the “mansion of life.”^76b
With the blackness of His curl turn day into night,
In His down seek the well-spring of life.
Like Khizr the prophet in a “hidden place”^76c
Like His down, quaff the water of life.^76d
785 If you see His face and His down, of a surety
You will know plurality and unity every whit.^76e
From the curl you learn the affair of this world,
In the down you read at large the “the hidden secret.”
If one sees the down on His face,
Yet my heart sees His face in that down.^76f
His cheek is as the “seven verses,”^76g
Every letter whereof is an ocean of mysteries.
Hidden beneath each hair on that cheek
Are a thousand oceans of mysteries from the unseen world.
790 See the heart is the “throne of God on the water,”⁷⁷
The down on the cheek is the adornment of souls.

On that cheek the point of His mole is single,
It is a centre which is the basis of the circling circumference.
From that centre is drawn the circle of the two worlds,
From that centre Adam's heart and soul.
Because of that mole the heart is bleeding sore,
For it is a reflection of the point of the black mole,^77b
Like His mole the state of the heart is black blood,
For there is no way of escape from that station.
795 Plurality finds not entrance into Unity,
There are no two points in the root of Unity.^77c
I know not if His mole is the reflection of my heart,
Or my heart the reflection of the mole on that fair face.
If my heart springs from the reflection of His mole,
Or if the reflection of my heart is seen in that place.^77d
If my heart is in His face, or that mole in my heart,
This dark secret is hidden from me.
If this heart of mine be the reflection of that mole,
Why are its states so various?^77e
800 Sometimes it is sick like His intoxicating eye,
Sometimes fluttering like His curl.
Sometimes gleaming as a moon like that face,
Sometimes dark like that black mole.
Sometimes it is a mosque, sometimes a synagogue,
Sometimes a hell, sometimes a heaven.
Sometimes exalted above the seventh heaven,
Sometimes sunken below ‘this mound’ of earth.
After devotion and asceticism it becomes again
Addicted to wine, lamp and beauty.

805 What meaning attaches to wine, torch, and beauty?
What is assumed in being a haunter of taverns?⁷⁸

Wine, torch, and beauty are epiphanies of Verity,
For it is that which is revealed under all forms soever.
Wine and torch are the transport and light of the ‘knower,’
Behold ‘The Beauty’ for it is hidden from none.^78a
Here wine is the lamp-shade, torch the lamp,
And Beauty the beam of the light of spirits.
By Beauty were kindled sparks in the heart of Moses,
His wine was the fire, and his torch the burning bush.^78b
810 Wine and torch are the soul of that flashing light,
Beauty signifies that ‘greatest of signs.’^78c
Wine, torch, and beauty, all are present,
Neglect not to embrace that Beauty.
Quaff the wine of dying to self, and for a season
Peradventure you will be freed from the dominion of self.
Drink wine that it may set you free from yourself,
And may conduct the being of the drop to the ocean.⁷⁹
Drink wine, for its cup is the face of “The Friend,”
The cup is His eye drunken and flown with wine.
815 Seek wine without cup or goblet,
Wine is wine-drinker, cupbearer is winecup.^79a
Drink wine from the cup of “the face that endures,”^79b
The text “their Lord gave them to drink” is its cupbearer.^79c
Pure wine is that which gives you purification
From the stain of existence at the time of intoxication.
Drink wine and rid yourself of coldness of heart,
For a drunkard is better than the self-righteous.
The man who dwells far from the portals of “The Truth,”
For him the veil of darkness is better than the veil of light.^79d
820 Thus Adam found a hundred blessings from darkness,^79e
And Iblis was eternally cursed through the light.
Though the mirror of the heart be polished,^79f
What profit is it when only self is seen on its face.
When a ray from His face falls upon the wine,
Many forms are seen on it as it were bubbles.⁸⁰
World and spirit world are seen on it as bubbles,
Its bubbles are to the saints as veils.
Universal Reason is dazed and beside itself at this,
Universal Soul is reduced to slavery.^80a
825 The whole universe is as His winehouse,
The heart of every atom as His winecup.^80b
Reason is drunken, angels drunken, soul drunken,
Air drunken, earth drunken, heaven drunken.
The heavens giddy with this wine are reeling to and fro,
Desiring in their heart to smell its perfume.
The angels drinking it pure from pure vessels,
Pour the dregs of their draught upon this world.^80c
The elements becoming light-headed from that draught
Fall now into the fire, now into the water.
830 From the scent of its dregs which fell on the earth,
Man ascends up till he reaches heaven.
From its reflection the withered body becomes a living soul,^80d
From its heat the frozen soul is warmed to life and motion.
The creature world is ever dizzy therewith,
From house and home ever wandering astray.
One from the scent of its dregs becomes a philosopher,^80e
One from seeing the colour of the pure wine a traditionist.^80f
One from half a draught becomes righteous,
One from quaffing a cupful becomes a lover.
835 Yet another swallows at one draught
Cup, winehouse, cupbearer and wine drinker.
He swallows them all, yet his mouth remains open.
Well done, O ocean heart, O mighty wine bibber!⁸¹
He drinks up existence at one draught,
And obtains release from affirmations and negations.
Freed from dry devotions and empty rites,
He grasps the skirt of the ancient of the winehouse.^81a

To be a haunter of taverns is to be freed from self,
Self-regard is paganism, even if it be in righteousness.^81c
840 They have brought you news from the tavern
That unification is shaking off relations.^81d
The tavern is of the world that has no similitude,
It is the place of lovers that reck not.
The tavern is the nest of the bird of the soul,
The tavern is the sanctuary that has no place.
The tavern-haunter is desolate in a desolate place,
In his desert the world is as a mirage.^81e
This desert has no end or limit,
No man has seen its beginning or its end.
845 Though you wander about in it for a hundred years,
You will find there neither yourself, nor ‘other.’
They that dwell therein are headless and footless,
They are neither faithful nor infidels.
The wine of alienation from self has got into their heads,
They have renounced alike evil and good.
Each has drunk wine without lips or palate,
Each has cast away thought of name and fame,
Talk of marvels, of visions, and ‘states,’
Dreams of secret chambers, of lights, of signs.⁸²
850 All through the smell of these dregs have they cast away,
Through tasting this self-annihilator they are lying drunken.
Pilgrim's staff, and cruse, and rosary, and dentifrice,
All have they given as ransom for these dregs.
Falling and rising again in the midst of water and clay,^82a
Shedding blood from their eyes for tears.
Now raised by intoxication to the world of bliss,
Exalting their necks as racers.
Now with blackened faces beholding the wall,
Now with reddened faces impaled on the stake.^82b
855 Now in the mystic dance of joy in The Beloved,
Losing head and foot like the revolving heavens.
In every strain which they hear from the minstrel
Comes to them rapture from the unseen world.
The mystic song is not those mere words and sound,
For in every note thereof lies a precious mystery.
Putting from off their head their tenfold cloak,^82c
Being abstracted from every colour and smell;
And washing off in that pure well racked wine,
All colour, black and green and blue.
860 Drinking one cup of that pure wine,
And thence becoming “Sufis” cleansed from qualities;
Sweeping the dust of dung-heaps from off their souls,
Telling not a hundredth part of what they see,
Grasping the skirts of drunkards flown with wine,
Wearied of teachership and discipleship.⁸³
What are devotion and piety? What hypocrisy are these?
What are teachership and discipleship? What bonds are these?^83a
If your face be still set on great and small,^83b
Idols, girdles and Christianity are meet for you.^83c

865 Idols, girdles and Christianity in this discourse
Are all infidelity; if not, say what they are.

Here idol is the evidence of love and unity,
Girdle is the binding of the bond of obedience.
Since infidelity and faith are both based on Being,
Idol-worship is essentially Unification.^83d
Since all things are the manifestors of Being,
One amongst them must be an idol.
Consider well, O wise man,
An idol as regards its real being is not vain.^83e
870 Know that God Most High created it,
And whatever comes from the Good is good.
Being is purely good in whatever it be,
If it also contains evil, that proceeds from ‘other.’⁸⁴
If the Musulman but knew what is faith,
He would see that faith is idol-worship.
If the polytheist only knew what idols are,
How would he be wrong in his religion?
He sees in idols naught but the visible creature,^84a
And that is the reason that he is legally a heathen.
875 You also, if you see not “The Truth” hid in the idols,
In the eye of the law are not a Musulman.
By telling beads and saying prayers and reading the Koran
The heathen becomes not a Musulman.
That man is disgusted with superficial faith,
To whom the true infidelity has once been revealed.
Within every body is hidden a soul,
And within infidelity is hidden true faith.
Infidelity is ever giving praise to “The Truth;”
The text, “All things praise God,” proves it. Who can gain- say it?^84b
880 What am I saying? I have gone astray from the road?^84c
“Leave them, and after all that is revealed, say, God,”^84d
Who adorned the face of the idol with such beauty?
Who became an idol-worshipper, unless “The Truth” willed it?
It is He that made, He that said, He that is,^84e
Made good, said good, is good.
See but One, say One, know but One,
In this are summed up the roots and branches of faith.
It is not I who declare this; hear it from the Koran,
“There is no distinction in the creatures of the Merciful.”⁸⁵

885 The knotted girdle is the emblem of obedience.
I have looked and seen the origin of every thing,
For the wise man finds no trustworthy information
As to anything except in its original usage.^85a
Gird your loins, like a valiant man, with manliness,
Join the band who “fulfil my covenant.”^85b
With the horse of knowledge and the bat of obedience
Bear off from the field the ball of good fortune.
For this duty did God create you,
Albeit He created many creatures besides you.^85c
890 Knowledge is as a father, practice a mother
Of mystic states which are “a joy of the eyes.”^85d
Doubtless, there is no mortal man but has a father,^85e
There was never but one Messiah in the world.^85f
Cast aside vain tales, and mystic states and visions,
Dreams of lights, and marvels of miracles.^85g
Your miracles are comprised in “Truth” worship,^85h
All besides is pride, vain glory and illusion of existence.
In this path whatever is not of poverty of spirit
Is but being puffed up and seeking our own glory.⁸⁶
895 By cursed Iblis, who witnesses not verity,
Are wrought thousands of miracles.
Now he approaches from the wall, now from the roof,
Now he dwells in your heart, now in your body.
He knows all the hidden counsels of your heart,
He works in you unbelief, and transgression and sin.
Iblis is the Imám, and you his followers,^86a
But how can you rival him in his miracles?
If your miracles are wrought only in self-ostentation,
You are a Pharaoh, to wit, one arrogating divinity.
900 But he who has fellowship with “The Truth”
Is never one who vaunts himself.
All your regard is set on creatures; Beware
That you fall not into captivity of this disease.^86b
If you consort with the base, you become an animal;
Nay, not an animal, but at once a stone.^86c
Flee from connection with the base,
Lest you fall headlong from your natural rank.
You have wasted your precious life in trifling,
You think not of what use is such a life as yours.
905 They call it peace when it is confusion,
They take an ass for their guide—see his beard!^86d
The leadership having now devolved on fools,
All men have fallen on evil days.
See the one-eyed Dajjal,⁸⁷ in what way
He is sent into the world as an ensample.
See this ensample, O man of sense!
Know him for the ass whose name is Jassás.
See all these asses in the toils of that ass,
Being the forerunners in ignorance of that ass.
910 When our lord told the story of the latter days,
In several places he signified this matter.
See now how there are blind and gluttons,
All knowledge of the faith has departed to heaven.
There remain not in the midst courtesy and modesty,
None have shame for their ignorance.
The whole condition of the world is upset;
If you are wise, see in what state it is.
One who is accursed and banned and hated
Is now Shaikh of the age, because his father was good.
915 Yet that wicked son was slain by Khizr,^87a
Because his father and grandfather were good.
O ass, now you have chosen for your Shaikh
An ass who is more ass-like than yourselves.
For as much as “he knows not cat from mouse,”^87b
How will your secret be purified through him?
If the son shows a trace of his father,
What shall I say? Verily he is light upon light.
If the son be of good judgment and fortune,
He is as fruit, the cream and perfection of the tree.
920 But how can he be Shaikh of the faith,
Who knows not good from evil, evil from good?
Discipleship is learning the knowledge of the faith,
Kindling with light the lamp of the heart.
Did ever one learn knowledge from the dead?
Was ever lamp lighted from ashes?
For this cause my mind is resolved on this,
To gird my loins with the Magian girdle.⁸⁸
Not for this cause that I may gain fame,
That I have, but am ashamed of it.^88a
925 Since my rival is base for this cause,
My obscurity is preferable to his fame.
Again an inspiration came to me from “The Truth,”
“Cavil not at Wisdom because of a fool.”^88b
If there were no sweepers in the world,
The world would be buried in dust.
After all, the bond of genus connects us all—
So goes the world, Allah is all-wise.
Nevertheless flee from the society of the base,
If you seek to be a true servant abandon form;^88c
930 Form accords not with true obedience,
Practise true obedience, and abandon form.

In Christianity the end I see is purification from self,^88d
Deliverance from the yoke of bondage.^88e
The blessed portal of Unity is the sanctuary of the soul,
Which is the nest of the Everlasting—the Simurg.
This doctrine was taught by God's spirit (Jesus),
Who proceeded from the Blessed Spirit.⁸⁹
Also by God is placed in you a soul,
Wherein is a sample of the Blessed Spirit.
935 If you find release from the carnal mind of humanity,
You will obtain entrance to the life of Divinity.
Every man who is purified as angels are pure
Will ascend with God's spirit to the fourth heaven.

The infant that sucks the breast is confined
At his mother's side in a cradle.
But when he is grown up and able to travel,
If he is manly he goes with his father.
The elements are to you as your mother after the flesh,
You are an infant, and your father is the Father on high.^89b
940 For this cause said Jesus at the time of His ascension,
“I go unto my Father which is on high.”^89c
You too, O soul of your Father, turn to your Father,
Your companions are gone, go forth too.
If you desire to take wing as a bird,
Cast the carrion world to the vultures.
Give to the base the treacherous world,
It is not meet to give carrion but to dogs.^89d
What matters relationship? Seek your real friend,
Set your face towards “The Truth,” forsake relations.⁹⁰
945 For him who is drowning in the sea of not being,
The text “no relation”^90a is the coin of his state.
Every relationship that arises from lust
Yields no issue but pride and high-mindedness.
If lust remained not in the midst,
All relations would become an empty tale.
When lust is doing its work in the midst,
One becomes a father, another a mother.
I say not what your father and mother are,
For it behoves you to regard them with reverence.
950 The deficient in sense is called sister,^90b
The envious is named brother.
Your own enemy is called your son,^90c
And a stranger your kinsman.
Say then who are your paternal and maternal uncles,
What proceeds from them but pain and wrinkles?
The companions who are with you on the mystic path,
O brother, are also companions in foolish jesting.^90d
If you sit in the street of their pleasantry,
What good can I say you see of them?
955 All relations are a fairy tale, a spell, a bond,
By the soul of the prophet they are naught but a delusion.
With manliness deliver yourself like a valiant man,
But yet make not vain the truth of any.^90e
If one atom of the law be neglected,
You will be excluded from the faith in both worlds.
Beware! Omit not the duties of the law,
But at the same time have regard to yourself.
From gold and women⁹¹ comes naught but store of pain,
Abandon them as Jesus abandoned Mary.
960 Be a “true believer,”^91a and forsaking the bond of sects,
Enter the cloister of faith as a Christian monk.^91b
While “other” and “others” are set before your eyes,
Though you be in a mosque, it is no better than a Christian cloister.
When the vesture of “other” passes out of sight,
The cloister becomes to you as a mosque.^91c
I know not in what religious state you are,
Cast out your adversary the flesh, that you may escape.
Idols, girdles, Christianity and church bells
All indicate the renouncing of name and fame.
965 If you would become a faithful servant,
Prepare yourself in faithfulness and sincerity.
Go, take yourself out of your own road,
Every moment renew your faith.
While infidelity dwells in your inmost soul,
Be not satisfied with this outward Islam.
Of yourself every moment renew your faith,
Be a believer, Be a believer, Be a believer!
Verily faith is born of infidelity,
That is not infidelity from which faith is increased.
970 Abandon study to be seen and heard of men,
Cast off the Durvesh cloak, bind on the Magian girdle.
Be as our Magian sage in pure infidelity,
If you are a man, give your heart to manliness.
Purge yourself from affirmations and negations,
Give your mind wholly to the young Christian.

Idols and young Christians are the Light made manifest,
For it finds its exponent in the idol's face.
It leads captive all hearts,
It is now the minstrel,—now the cupbearer.
975 What a minstrel is he who by one sweet melody
Burns up the garners of a hundred devotees!^92a
What a cupbearer is he who by a single cup
Makes drunken two hundred men of threescore and ten!
If he enters the mosque at early dawn,
He leaves not a single wakeful man therein.^92b
If he enters the cloister drunken at night,
He makes Sufis' stories an empty tale.
If he enters the college as a veiled drunkard,
The professor becomes helplessly drunken.
980 From love to him devotees lost their heads,
And became outcasts from house and home.
He makes one faithful, another an infidel,^92c
He fills the world with tumult and wrong.
Taverns have been edified by his lips,
Mosques have been illumined by his cheek.^92d
All my desire has been accomplished through him,
Through him I gained deliverance from infidel lust.
My heart was hid from knowledge of itself by a hundred veils,
By pride and vanity and self conceit and illusion.
985 That fair idol entered my door at early morn,
And wakened me from the sleep of negligence.
By his face the secret chamber of my soul was illumined.
Thereby I saw what I myself really am.
When I cast a look on his fair face
I heaved a sigh of wonder from my soul.
He said to me, “O Pharisee and hypocrite,
“Thy life has been spent in seeking name and fame,
“Behold this knowledge, devotion, self seeking and illusion,
“From what have they kept thee back, O laggard!
990 “To cast one glance on my face for half a moment,
“Is worth a thousand years of devotion.”
In fine the face of that world-adorner
Was disclosed and unveiled before my eyes.
The face of my soul was blackened with shame
To think of my life lost and my wasted days.
But when that moon, whose face was as the sun,
Saw that I had cast away hope from my soul,
He filled a goblet and gave it me to drink,⁹³
And from that draught fire was kindled within me.
995 “Now,” quoth he, “with this wine, tasteless and odourless,^93a
“Wash from thee the writing on the tablet of Being.”
When I had drained that pure draught to the last drop
I fell beside myself on the bare dust.
Now I neither exist in myself, nor do I not exist,
I am not sober, not sick, not drunken.
Sometimes like his eye I am joyful,
Sometimes like his curls I am fluttering.
Sometimes by force of nature I am lying on ashes,
Sometimes at a look from him I am in the rose garden.^93b

1000 From that rose garden I have plucked this posy,
Which I have named “the mystic rose garden.”
Therein the roses of hearts' mystery are blooming,
Whereof none has told heretofore.
Therein the tongues of the lilies are all vocal;
The eyes of the narcissus are all far-seeing.
Regard each one with the eyes of the heart
Till your doubts have vanished from before you.
Behold traditional and rational and mystic verities,
Ranged in clear order with knowledge of minutiæ.
1005 Seek not with captious eyes to find blemishes,
For then the roses will turn to thorns in your sight.
Ingratitude is a mark of ignorance,
But knowledge of truth lies in gratitude.
I hope that when the noble⁹⁴ calls me to mind,
He may say of me, “Mercy be upon him.”
I conclude and end with my own name,
“O Allah, grant me a ‘Lauded’ end.”^94a

As before stated (p. v., note), the metre is Hexameter Hazaj Catalectic; the last foot may be fa'úlun as well as mafá'íl. (Blochmann, Persian Prosody, p. 31.) Though written in the classical period, the poem contains many pre-classic forms, e.g. ◌ before the nominative, l. 755; the kasra of the izâfat lengthened to ◌, l. 832; the preposition ◌ with the izâfat, l. 38; ◌ as the sign of the genitive, l. 554; pronominal affixes separated from their verb, l. 443; the preposition ◌ placed after its noun, to which ◌ is prefixed, l. 109. Contractions are frequent, e.g. bagzasht, l. 28; bastad, l. 61; nanháda, l. 161; nabwad, l. 142; tust for tu ast, l. 269; batar for badtar, l. 323; bŭd for búd, l. 914; arni for arini, l. 193; alastub rabbakum, l. 419; ta'allallá, l. 13. The tashdid of words like ◌, and ◌ is dropped if the metre requires it. (Blochmann, p. iv.) The tashdid is added ob metrum in ◌, l. 821; and, if the readings in the text are correct, to ◌ in l. 706, and to ◌ and ◌ in lines 144 and 403. But this is doubtful. (See Blochmann, p. 9.) In l. 385 the izâfat after mute ?? is not sounded. (Lumsden, Persian Grammar, ii. 249.) In l. 84 and l. 320 ?? is treated as a mute ??. In l. 368 and l. 552 ◌ is treated as an alif i waçl. (Blochmann, p. 13.) Blochmann says ◌ doubled by an affixed izâfat or yae tankir should not be marked with hamza, but the MSS. of this poem mark it with hamza or with tashdid, as in l. 703; or leave it unmarked, as in ll. 642 and 336. (See Lumsden, ii. 247). Note that hamza is often used when ◌ is a single vowel, e.g. ll. 3 and 435. This, according to Blochmann, is its only correct use with ◌. Line 347 will not scan as it stands, but the MSS. offer no alternative reading for ◌. Probably ◌ here is not sounded, as in ◌, l. 305, and ◌, l. 544. The MSS. generally insert the hamza, indicating an izâfat or yae tankir, after mute ??, but sometimes omit it, as in l. 456.