(Masnavi Book 4: 14) Comparison of the Prophet ﷺ and the Moslem saints to the Ark of Noah

Exposition of the Hadíth, “The parable of my community is the parable of the Ship (Ark) of Noah: whoso shall cleave to it is saved, and whoso shall hold back from it is drowned.”

On this account the Prophet said, “I am as the Ship (Ark) in the Flood of Time.

I and my Companions are as the Ship of Noah: whoso clings (to us) will gain (spiritual) graces.”

540. When you are with the Shaykh you are far removed from wickedness: day and night you are a traveller and in a ship.

You are under the protection of a life-giving spirit: you are asleep in the ship, you are going on the way.

Do not break with the prophet of your days: do not rely on your own skill and footsteps.

Lion though you are, you are self-conceited and in error and contemptible when you go on the way without a guide.

Beware! Do not fly but with the wings of the Shaykh, that you may see (receive) the aid of the armies of the Shaykh.

545. At one time the wave of his mercy is your pinion, at another moment the fire of his wrath is your carrier.

Do not reckon his wrath to be the contrary of his mercy: behold the oneness of both (these qualities) in the effect.

At one time he will make you green like the earth, at another time he will make you full of wind, and big.

He gives the quality of inorganic things to the body of the knower (of God), in order that gay roses and eglantines may grow on it;

But he (the Shaykh) alone sees (them), none sees but he: Paradise yields no scent but to the

purified brain.

550. Empty your brain of disbelief in the Friend, that it may feel sweet odours from the rose- garden of the Friend;

So that you may feel the scent of Paradise from my Friend, as Mohammed the scent of the

Merciful (God) from Yemen.

If you stand in the rank of those who make the (spiritual) ascension, not-being (self- naughtedness) will bear you aloft, like Buráq.

It is not like the ascension of a piece of earth (an earthly being) to the moon; nay, but like the

ascension of a cane to sugar.

It is not like the ascension of a vapour to the sky; nay, but like the ascension of an embryo to rationality.

555. The steed of not-being (self-naughtedness) became a goodly Buráq: it brings you to

(real) existence, if you are non-existent (self-naughted).

Its hoof brushes the mountains and seas till it puts the world of sense perception behind.

Set your foot into the ship and keep going quickly, like the soul going towards the soul's Beloved. (With) no hands and no feet, go to Eternity in the same fashion as that in which the spirits sped

from non-existence.

If there had not been somnolence (dullness and inattention) in the hearer's hearing, the veil of logical reasoning would have been torn asunder in the discourse.

560. O Heaven, shower pearls on his (the Shaykh's) rede! O World, have shame of (be abashed by) his world!

If you wilt shower (pearls), your substance will become (increased in splendour) hundredfold: your inorganic (matter) will become seeing and speaking.

Therefore you wilt have scattered a largesse for yours own sake, inasmuch as every stock of

thine will be centupled.