Comparison of the true believer's fleeing (from tribulation) and his impatience in affliction to the agitation and restlessness of chick-peas and other pot-herbs when boiling
in the pot, and to their running upwards in order to jump out.
Look at a chickpea in the pot, how it leaps up when it is subjected
to the fire.
4160. At the time of its being boiled, the chickpea
comes up continually
to the top of the
pot and raises a
hundred cries,
Saying, “Why are you setting the fire
on me? Since you bought
(and approved) me,
how are you turning me upside down?”
The housewife goes on hitting it
with the ladle. “No!” says she:
“boil nicely and
don't jump away from one who
makes the fire.
I do not
boil you because
you are hateful to me: nay,
it is that you may
get taste and savour,
So that you
may
become nutriment and mingle with
the (vital) spirit:
this affliction
of
yours is not on account of (your) being
despised.
4165. You,
when green and fresh, were
drinking water in
the
garden: that water-drinking was
for
the sake of this fire.”
His (God's) mercy is prior to His wrath,
to the end that
by (God's) mercy he (the
afflicted person)
may suffer affliction.
His (God's) mercy (eternally) preceded His wrath in
order that the
stock-intrade, (which is)
existence, should come to hand (be acquired);
For, without pleasure, flesh and
skin do not grow; and unless they grow,
what shall the love of the Friend consume?
If, because of that requirement, acts of wrath
come to pass, to the
end that you may give up
that stock-in-trade,
4170. (Yet) again
(afterwards) the Grace
(of God) will
come in order to excuse it (the
act of wrath), saying, “(Now) you have washed yourself (clean) and have leaped
forth from the river
(of tribulation).”
She (the
housewife) says, “O
chickpea, you didst feed in the
springtime: (now)
Pain has become your guest: entertain him well,
That the
guest may return (home), giving thanks (for his entertainment), and may relate your generosity in the presence of the King,
So that the Bestower
of favour may come to
you instead of the favour, and
that all favours may
envy you.
I am Khalíl
(Abraham), and
you art my son:
lay your head before
the knife: lo, I see (in a dream)
that I shall sacrifice you.
4175. Lay your head before (my)
wrath, with heart unmoved,
that I may cut your throat, like
(that of) Ismá‘íl (Ishmael).
I will cut off
your head, but this head is the
head that is immune
from being cut
off and (from)
dying;
Yet your giving yourself up is the object of (God's) eternal purpose: O Moslem, you must seek to give yourself up.
Continue, O chickpea,
to boil in tribulation, that neither existence nor self may remain to you.
If you have (formerly) laughed
in that (earthly) garden, (yet)
you art the rose of the garden
of the spirit and the (spiritual) eye.
4180. If you have been parted from
the
garden of water and
earth, (yet) you have become food in the mouth and have
entered into the living.
Become nutriment and strength
and thoughts! (Formerly)
you wert milk (sap): (now) be a lion
in the jungles!
By God, you grewest from His (God's) attributes in the beginning: go back nimbly and
fleetly into His attributes.
You camest from the cloud and
the
sun and the sky;
then didst you become (diverse)
attributes and ascend to heaven.
You camest in the
form of rain and heat:
you wilt go into the goodly
(Divine) attributes.
4185. You wert a part of the
sun and the cloud and the
stars: you becamest soul and action and speech and thoughts.”
The existence
of the animal arose from
the death of the plant: (hence the command)
“slay me, O
trusty friends” is right.
Since there is such a victory for us
after the checkmate
(of death), (the words) “verily, in my being
slain there is a life” are true.
Action and speech and
sincerity became the food of the angel,
so that by means
of this ladder
he
mounted to heaven,
Just as (when)
that morsel became the
food of Man,
it mounted from (the
state of)
inanimateness and became
possessed of soul.
4190. As regards this topic, a wide
(far-reaching) explanation
will be given in
another place. “The
caravan (of spirits) is incessantly arriving
from heaven, that
they may traffic
(on the earth) and go back again.
Go, then, sweetly and gladly
with free-will, not with bitterness
and loathing, like a thief.
I am speaking
bitter words to
you, in order that I may
wash you (clean) of bitternesses. The
frozen grape is thawed by cold water and lays aside its
coldness and congealment.
4195. When, from (having endured) bitterness (self-mortification), your heart is filled
with blood (like the
grape), then you wilt escape from all bitternesses.
A comparison showing how the
true believer
becomes patient
when he understands the
inward meaning and the beneficial nature of tribulation.
(If) a dog is not (kept)
for hunting, he has no collar:
the raw
and unboiled
is
naught but the insipid.”
The chickpea said, “Since it is so, O lady, I will gladly boil: give me help in verity!
In this boiling you art,
as it were, my architect:
smite me with the skimming spoon, for you smitest very delightfully.
I am as the elephant: beat and brand
my head, that I may
not dream of Hindustán and (its)
gardens;
4200. So that I may yield
myself
(submit) to the
boiling, to the
end
that I may find a way
to that embrace (of the
Beloved);
Because Man, in (the state of) independence, grows insolent and
becomes hostile, like the
dreaming elephant.
When the elephant
dreams of Hindustán,
he
does not hearken
to the driver and displays viciousness.”
(Showing) how the housewife made apologies to the chickpea, and (explaining) the wise purpose in her keeping the chickpea on the boil.
The dame says to it, “Formerly I, like
you, was a part of the earth.
After I had drunk
a (cup of) fiery self-mortification, then I became
an acceptable and worthy one.
4205. For a long while, I boiled
in (the world of) Time;
for another long while, in the pot of
the
body.
By reason of
these two boilings I became
(a source of)
strength to the
senses: I became (animal)
spirit: then I became
your teacher.
(Whilst I was) in the
inanimate state I used to say (to myself), ‘You art running (to and fro in agitation)
to the end that you mayst become
(endued with) knowledge
and spiritual qualities.’ Since I have become
(animal) spirit, now
(let me) boil once more
and pass beyond animality.”
Beseech God continually that you may
not stumble over these deep sayings and that you may arrive
at the (journey's) end,
4210. For many have been
led astray by
the
Qur’án: by (clinging to that rope a
multitude have fallen into the
well.
There is no
fault in the rope,
O perverse man,
inasmuch as you had no desire
for (reaching) the top.
The remainder of the story of the guest of that guest-killing mosque, and his firmness and sincerity.
That high-aspiring stranger
to the town said, “I will sleep in
this mosque at night. O
mosque, if you become my Karbala,
you wilt be the Ka’ba that fulfils
my need.
Hark, give me leave,
O chosen house,
that I may perform a
rope-dance, like Mansur
(Hallaj)!
4215. If in counselling (me) ye have
become (as) Gabriel,
(yet) Khalil (Abraham) will not
crave succour in the
fire’.
Begone, O (you who
art like) Gabriel, for, having been kindled
(with the flame of
love), I, like aloes-wood and ambergris,
am
better (when) burnt.
O Gabriel, although you art helping and guarding (me) like a brother,
(Yet), O brother,
I am eager for
the fire: I am not
that (animal) spirit, that I should
become more and
(then) less.”
The animal spirit is increased by fodder: it (the animal spirit) was a fire and was consumed
like firewood.
4220. Had it not become
firewood, it would
have been fruitful: it would have prospered unto everlasting and would
have caused prosperity.
Know that
this fire is a
burning wind: it is a ray of fire,
not the essence thereof.
Assuredly the essence of
fire is in the aether: on the earth
there is (only)
its
ray and shadow
(reflexion).
Of necessity, the ray, on account of
quivering, does not endure:
it is speedily returning
to its source.
Your stature is normally invariable, (but) your
shadow is now
short, now long.
4225. Inasmuch as no one finds permanence in the ray,
(all) the reflexions return
to (their)
origins.
Hark, close your mouth: Mischief has opened
its lips. Dry up! God best knoweth the right way.
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