Story of the beginning of the Caliphate of ‘Uthmán, may God be well-pleased with him, and his sermon expounding that the doer who exhorts by deeds is better than the speaker who exhorts by words.
The story (told) of ‘Uthmán is that
he mounted the pulpit:
when he obtained the Caliphate,
he made hot haste (to mount it).
(’Twas) the pulpit of the
Chief (Mohammed), which had three steps: Abú Bakr went
and seated himself on
the
second step.
‘Umar, in his reign,
(sat) on the
third step in order to show reverence for Islam
and the (true) Religion.
490. (When) the reign
of ‘Uthmán arrived, he, that man of
praised (blessed) fortune,
went up on to the
top of the throne (pulpit) and seated himself.
Then a person given
to idle meddling
questioned him, saying,
“Those two did not sit in the
Prophet's place:
How, then, have you
sought to be higher than they, when you art inferior to them in rank?”
He replied, “If I tread on the third step, it will be
imagined that I resemble ‘Umar;
(And if) I seek a seat on the second
step, you wilt say, ‘It
is (the seat of) Abú
Bakr, and
(therefore) this one too is
like him.’
495. This top (of the pulpit) is the
place of Mustafá
(Mohammed): no one will imagine that I
am like that
(spiritual) King.”
Afterwards, (seated) in the
preaching-place, that loving man kept
silence till
near the (time of the) afternoon-prayer.
None dared to say “Come
now, preach!”
or to go
forth from the
mosque during that
time.
An awe had settled
(descended)
on high and
low
(alike): the
court and roof
(of the mosque) had
become filled with the Light of God.
Whoever possessed vision was beholding His Light; the blind man too
was being heated
by that
Sun.
500. Hence, by reason of the
heat, the blind man's eye was
perceiving that there
had arisen a
Sun whose strength faileth not.
But this heat (unlike the
heat of the
terrestrial sun) opens the (inward)
eye, that it may see the very substance
of everything heard.
Its heat has (as effect)
a grievous agitation and emotion,
(but) from that glow there comes to the
heart a joyous (sense
of)
freedom, an expansion.
When the blind man is heated by the Light of Eternity, from gladness he says, “I have become seeing.”
You art mightily well drunken, but, O Bu
’l-Hasan, there is a bit of way (to be traversed
ere you attain) to seeing.
505. This is the blind man's portion from the Sun, (and) a hundred such (portions); and God
best knoweth what is right.
And he that
has vision of that
Light—how should the explanation of him (his state)
be a task
(within the capacity) of Bú Síná?
(Even) if it be hundredfold, who (what)
is this tongue that it should move with
its hand the veil of
(mystical) clairvoyance?
Woe to it if it touch the
veil! The Divine sword severs its
hand.
What of the
hand? It (the sword) rends off
even its (the tongue's) head—the head that
from ignorance puts forth
many a head (of pride and self-conceit).
510. I have said this to you, speaking
hypothetically; otherwise, indeed, how far is its hand from
being able to do that!
Materterae si testiculi
essent, ea avunculus esset:
this is hypothetical—“if there
were.”
(If) I say
that between the tongue and the eye
that is free
from doubt there is a
hundred thousand years' (journey),
it is little
(in
comparison with the reality).
Now come, do not despair! When God wills,
light
arrives from
heaven in a single moment.
At every instant
His power causes a hundred influences from the
stars to reach the
(subterranean) mines.
515. The star (planet)
of heaven deletes the darkness; the star of God is
fixed in His
Attributes.
O you that
seekest help, the celestial sphere,
(at a distance) of
five hundred years' journey,
is
in effect nigh unto the earth.
It is (a journey of) three
thousand five hundred years to
Saturn; (yet) his
special property acts
incessantly (upon the earth).
He (God) rolls it up
like a shadow at the return
(of the sun):
in the sun's presence what is (what avails) the length of the
shadow?
And from the pure star like souls replenishment is ever
coming to the stars of
heaven.
520. The outward
(aspect) of those stars is our ruler, (but) our inward
(essence) has become the
ruler of the
sky.
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