Parable of Man's being contented with (the goods of) this world, and his greed in seeking (them) and his indifference to the high and blessed estate of the spiritual who are his congeners (and are) crying, “Oh, would that my people might know!”
1045. A dog saw a blind
beggar in the street,
and was rushing at him
and tearing his cloak. We have
(already) related
this, but it is
repeated (here) once again in
order to strengthen (the effect of) the story.
The blind man said to it
(the dog), “Why,
at
this moment your
friends are hunting and seeking prey on the mountain.
Your kinsfolk are catching onagers in the mountains: you are catching blind men in the streets.”
O recalcitrant
Shaykh, abandon
this imposture: you art (like) briny water, having gathered
some blind men (around
thee),
1050. (As though
implicitly you wert) saying,
“These are my disciples, and I am (like) briny
water: they drink
of me and become blind.”
Sweeten your water with the esoteric Sea:
do not make
the foul water a snare
for these blind
ones.
Arise, behold the lions
of God who catch the
onager: how art thou,
like a dog, catching the blind with a (display of) hypocrisy?
What onager
(do they catch)? They are far from hunting aught but the Beloved. They all are lions and
lion-catchers and intoxicated with
the
Light (of God).
In contemplation of the chase and hunting of the King, they have abandoned the chase and have become dead
in bewilderment.
1055. The Friend has taken
them, like a dead bird,
that (by means of them)
He may hunt down their congeners.
The dead bird is
compelled (deprived
of
volition) in respect of
being united or separated:
you
have read (the Hadíth), “The heart
is between two
fingers (of the Merciful God).”
Every one that
has fallen a prey to His dead
bird (will perceive), when
he sees (the truth),
(that)
he has fallen a prey to the King.
Whoever turned his head away from this dead
bird never
gained the hand of that Hunter. It (the
dead bird) says,
“Do not regard
my being a carcase: see the King's love (shown) in preserving me.
1060. I am not a carcase: the King has killed me: my appearance
has become like
(that of)
the dead.
My former motion
was by means of wing and
pinion: now my motion
proceeds from the hand
of the (Divine) Judge.
My perishable motion
has gone forth from
my skin: now my
motion is
everlasting, since it proceeds from Him.
If any one move crookedly
(misbehave) in the presence
of my motion, I will kill him miserably,
(even) though he is the Símurgh.
Beware! If you art
(spiritually) alive,
do
not deem me dead; if you art
a (devoted) slave (of
God), regard
me (as being)
in the hand of the King.
1065. Jesus, by his grace, made the
dead to be living: I am in the
hand of the
Creator of
Jesus.
How should I remain dead
in the grasp of God?
Likewise, do not hold this to be possible in (the case of) the hand of ‘Jesus.’
I am ‘Jesus’; but every one
that has gained life
from (been revived by) my breath
will remain unto everlasting.
He (the dead man) was made living by Jesus, but died
again. Happy is he that gave up his life to
this ‘Jesus.’
I am the
staff in the hand of my ‘Moses’: my ‘Moses’ is hidden,
while I am
visible in presence.
1070. For the true believers I become a bridge across the sea; for Pharaoh, again, I become
a dragon.”
O son, do not
regard this staff
alone, for the staff would not be like this without
the hand of God. The
waves of the
Flood too were a staff which,
from being
aggrieved, devoured
the pomp of the votaries of magic.
If I should
enumerate the staves of God,
I should tear to pieces (expose and
confound) the
hypocrisy of
these followers
of Pharaoh;
But leave
them to browse
on this sweet poisonous grass
for a few days.
1075. If there
be not the power and dominion of Pharaoh, whence shall Hell
obtain nutriment?
Fatten him, then kill him, O Butcher; for the
dogs in Hell are without food.
If there were
no adversary and
enemy in the world, then the anger in
men would die. That anger is Hell: it needs
an adversary that
it may live; else Mercy
would kill it.
Then clemency
would remain without any vengeance or evil: then how would the perfection of
Kingship be (manifested)?
1080. Those disbelievers have made a laughing-stock of the parables
and clear exposition of them
that glorify (God).
Make (them) a laughing-stock, if you wishest (O disbeliever): how long wilt
you live, O carcase,
how long?
Rejoice, O lovers (of God), in supplication at this same door, for it is opened today. Every pot-herb, (such as) garlic
and caper, has a different bed in
the
garden.
Each with
its own kind
in its own bed drinks
moisture (is watered)
for the purpose of becoming mature.
1085. Thou, who art a saffron-bed, be saffron and do not mix with the others.
Drink the water, O saffron, that
you mayst attain to maturity: you art saffron, you wilt
attain to that halwá (sweetmeat).
Do not put your muzzle into the bed of turnips, for it (the
turnip) will
not
agree with you in nature
and habit.
You art planted in one bed, it (the turnip) in another bed, because God's
earth is spacious, Particularly that earth
(the unseen world) where, on account
of
its breadth, demon
and genie are
lost in their journey.
1090. In (seeking to measure) those seas and deserts and mountains imagination and fancy fail entirely.
In (comparison with)
the deserts
thereof, this desert (the material world) is like a
single hair in a full sea.
The still water
whose course is hidden
is fresher and sweeter
than running
brooks,
For, like
the (vital) spirit and the
(rational) soul, it has within itself
a hidden course
and a moving foot.
The auditor is
asleep: cut short (conclude) the
address: O preacher, do not draw this picture
on water.
1095. Arise, O
Bilqís, for it is a keen (busy
and lucrative) market: flee from these vile wretches who ruin (the spiritual) trade.
O Bilqís, arise now with free-will, ere
Death appear in his sovereign might.
After that, Death will pull your ear (torment thee) in such wise that
you wilt come in agony, like a
thief to the magistrate.
How long
wilt you be (engaged
in) stealing shoes from these
asses? If you art
going to steal,
come and steal a ruby!
Thy sisters have gained
the kingdom of
everlasting life; you have won the kingdom of misery.
1100. Oh, happy he
that escaped from this kingdom, for
Death makes this kingdom
desolate. Arise, O
Bilqís! Come, behold for once the
kingdom of the Sháhs and Sultans
of the (true) Religion.
He (such a king)
is seated inwardly (in
spirit) amidst
the rose-garden
(of union with God);
outwardly (in the
body) he is acting
as
a hádí amongst his friends.
The garden is going
with him wherever he
goes, but it is (always) being
concealed from the
people.
The fruit is making
entreaty, saying,
“Eat of me”; the Water of Life is come, saying,
“Drink of me.”
1105. Make a circuit of
heaven without wing and pinion, like the sun and like
the
full-moon and like
the
new moon.
You wilt be moving,
like the spirit,
and
(there will be) no foot;
you wilt be eating a hundred dainties, and
(there
will be) none chewing
a morsel.
Neither will the
leviathan, Pain, dash against
your ship, nor will ugliness appear in you from
dying. You wilt be
sovereign, army, and
throne, all together:
you wilt be both the fortunate and Fortune.
(Even) if you art
fortunate and a powerful monarch,
(yet) Fortune is other than thou:
one day
Fortune goes,
1110. And you art
left destitute like
beggars. Be you
yours own fortune,
O elect one!
When you art yours own fortune, O man of Reality,
then how wilt thou,
who art Fortune, lose yourself?
How wilt you lose yourself, O man with goodly qualities, when your Essence has become your kingdom and riches?
The rest of the story of Solomon, on whom be peace: how he built the Farther Mosque (the Temple of Solomon) by instruction and inspiration from God, (given to him) for wise purposes which He (only) knows; and how angels, demons, genies, and men lent visible aid.
(God said) “O Solomon, build the
Farther Mosque,
the
army of Bilqis
has come into
(has adopted)
the (ritual) prayer.”
When he laid the foundation of that Mosque, genies and men came and threw
themselves into the
work,
1115.One party from
love, and another company
unwillingly, just as God’s servants (do)
in the way
of
obedience (to Him).
The folk (of
the
world) are (like) demons,
and desire is the chain
dragging them to
shop and crops.
This chain is (the
result) of
being afraid (of poverty)
and crazed (with worldliness): do not regard these folk as unchained.
It drags them
to earning and hunting; it drags them
to the mine and the
seas.
It drags them to good and to evil:
God has said, “On her neck a cord of palm-fibre.
1120. We have put
the cordon their
necks: We have made the
cord (to consist)
of their natural dispositions.
There is none ever, (be he) defiled or (be he)
recovered (from
foul disease), but his
fortune is on his neck
Your greed for
evil-doing is like fire: the live coal (the evil deed)
is (made) pleasing by the
fire’s pleasing hue.
The blackness of the
coal is hidden
in the fire: when the fire is gone,
the blackness
becomes
evident.
By your greed
the black coal
is made live:
when the greed
is gone, that vicious coal remains.
1125. At that (former)
time the coal
appeared to be
live; that was not (owing
to)
the goodness of (your)
action: it was (owing to)
the
fire of greed.
Greed had embellished your
action: greed
departed, and your
action was left in squalor
(Only) one who
is
foolish will think ripe
(and
sweet) the ghawla which the ghouls deck out
(describe as being attractive).
When his soul
makes trial (of it), its teeth
are blunted by the experiment.
From vain desire,
the
reflexion (distorting influence) of the
ghoul, (which is)
greed, was causing the trap
to appear a (delicious) berry, though in
truth it was unripe.
1130. Seek greed
(seek to be
eager)
in the practice
of religion and in
good works: they
are
(still) beautiful, (even)
when the greed (eagerness)
remains not.
Good works are beautiful (in themselves), not through the re flexion of any other thing: if the glow of greed is gone, the glow of good remains;
(But) when the
glow of greed is gone from worldly work, of the
red-hot coal (only)
the black
ashes are left.
Folly excites greed
(for amusement) in children, so that from
gleefulness of heart
they ride a cock-horse
When that evil greed of his is gone from the child, he begins to laugh at the other children,
1135. Saying, “What was I doing? What
was I seeing in this?” From the
reflexion of greed
the vinegar appeared to be honey.
That edifice of the
prophets was (raised) without
greed (self-
interest); hence the
splendours (of its renown) increased so uninterruptedly.
Oh, many a mosque have the noble (prophets) erected,
but “the Farther 1osque”
is not its name.
The grandeur which at every
moment accrued
to
the Ka’ba— that
(grandeur) was (derived) from
the acts done in
pure de voti
on by Abraham.
The excellence
of that mosque (which
the
prophets build)
is
not from earth
and stone, but
(because) there is no greed or enmity in its builder.
1140. Their Books are not as the books of others, nor their mosques nor their means of livelihood nor their houses and homes,
Nor their observance of respect
nor their anger
nor their chastisement
nor their slumber
nor their
reasoning nor their discourse.
To each one of them belongs a
different glory: (in
each of them) the bird, their spirit, flies
with a different wing.
The heart is trembling at mention of their
(high) estate: their actions are the qibla (to which we turn for guidance) of our actions.
The eggs laid by their bird (spirit) are golden: at midnight
their spirit has beheld the dawn.
1145. Whatsoever I say with (all) my soul in praise of the company (of the prophets), I have depreciated (them): I have become a disparager
of
the company.
O ye noble.
(seekers of
God), build “the Farther
Mosque,” for
Solomon has returned—and
peace
(be with you)!
And if the
demons and genies refuse
this (service)’,
the
angels will drag them all
into bondage. (If)
the demon once
make a false step on account of
deceit and hypocrisy, the
whip comes
(down) on his head like lightning.
Become like Solomon, in
order that your demons
may hew stone for your palace.
1150. Be devoid, like Solomon,
of
thoughts which tempt to evil-doing and of fraud,
that genie and demon may obey
your command.
This heart is your seal—and
take heed lest the seal fall a prey to the demon!
(For) then the demon
possessing the seal will always exercise the sway of
Solomon over
you:
beware (of him), and peace (be with thee)!
O heart, that
sway of Solomon is notabrogated
: in your head and inmost
consciousness is one that exercises the sway of
Solomon.
The demon too exercises the sway of Solomon
for
a time, but
how should every weaver weave
satin?
1155. He (the
weaver of
common cloth) moves his hand like his (the
satin-weaver’s)
hand, but there is a good
difference between
the two of them:
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