How Abú Yazíd (Bistámí) announced the birth of Abu ’l-Hasan Kharraqání—may God sanctify the spirit of them both—(many) years before it took place, and gave a detailed description of his outer and inner characteristics; and how the chronologers wrote it down for the purpose of observation.
Have you
heard the story
of
Báyazíd—what he saw beforehand of the
(spiritual) state of Bu
’l- Hasan?
One day that sultan of piety was passing with his disciples
(on the
way) towards the open
country and the plain.
Suddenly there came to him, in the
district of Rayy, a
sweet scent from
the direction of
Kháraqán.
1805. On the spot he uttered the
lamentable cry of one who is yearning,
and sniffed the scent from the breeze.
He was inhaling the sweet
scent lovingly:
his soul
was tasting wine
from the breeze.
When “sweat” appears on the
outside of a pot that is full of icy water,
It has been
turned into
water by the coldness
of the air: the moisture has not
escaped
from the inside of the pot.
The scent-bearing
breeze became
water for him; for him too the water
became pure wine.
1810. When the marks of intoxication appeared in him, a disciple questioned him concerning that breath (Divine afflatus);
Then he asked him, “(What
are) these sweet ecstasies which are
beyond the pale of the five
(senses) and the six (directions)?
Thy face is becoming now red
and now yellow
and now white: what is the
(good) hap and the
glad tidings?
You art inhaling scent, and no flowers
are visible: doubtless it is
from the Unseen and
from the
garden of the Universal.
O you who
art the desire of every one who
(wilfully) follows his
own desire (for God), you
to whom there is (coming) at every moment a message and
letter from the
Unseen,
1815. You to whose (spiritual)
organ of smell there is coming
at every moment, as to Jacob,
balm from a Joseph,
Spill upon us one drop from that pitcher, give us one word that smells of that garden.
We are not accustomed, O (you who
art the) beauty of
(spiritual) majesty,
that you shouldst
drink alone while
our
lips are dry.
O nimble, nimbly-rising traverser of Heaven, spill upon us one draught of that which you have
drunk.
There is no other Master
of the Revels in the
world except
you: O king, look (with
favour) on the boon-companions!
1820. How is it possible
to quaff this wine underhand (in secret)?
Certainly wine is the exposer of man.
He may disguise and conceal
the scent, (but)
how will he hide his intoxicated eye? In sooth this is not a scent that
thousands of
veils will keep
hidden in the
world.
The desert and plain are filled with its pungency. What (of the) plain? for it has passed even beyond
the nine spheres (of
Heaven).
Do not daub the head of the
jar with mortar, for indeed this naked
one does not
admit of covering.
1825. Show kindness: O you
who knowest and canst
tell the mystery, declare that which
your falcon (thy spirit)
has made its prey.”
He said, “A
marvellous scent is come to me,
even as (a
scent came) for the
Prophet's sake
from
Yemen;
For Mohammed said, ‘The
scent of God
is coming
to
me from Yemen, (wafted) on the hand
of the zephyr.’”
The scent of Rámín is coming from the soul of Wís; the scent of God, too,
is
coming from Uways.
From Uways and from Qaran a wondrous scent
made the Prophet
drunken and full of
rapture.
1830. Since Uways had passed away from
himself, that
earthly one (Uways) had become
heavenly.
The myrobalan conserved in sugar—its bitter taste is not (retained) any more.
(Similarly) the (spiritual) myrobalan that is freed from egoism has (only)
the
appearance of myrobalan, (but) not the flavour.
This topic has no end.
Return (to the story),
that (we may see) what
that holy man (Báyazíd)
said, (moved) by inspiration from the World Unseen.
The words of the Prophet, may God bless and save him, “Verily, I feel the Breath of the Merciful (God) from the direction of Yemen.”
He (Báyazíd)
said, “The
scent of a friend is coming
from this quarter,
for a (spiritual) monarch
is coming into this village.
1835. After such and
such a number of
years a king will be
born
(here): he will pitch a tent
above the heavens.
His face will be coloured with roses from the rosery of God: he will surpass me in station.”
(The disciple asked), “What is his name?” He replied,
“His name is Bu ’l- Hasan,” and described his features—his eyebrows and chin;
He described his height
and his complexion and his figure and spoke in detail of his locks
of hair and his face.
He also declared his spiritual features—his qualities and the way (he should follow in his religion)
and his (spiritual) rank and estate.
1840. The bodily
features, like the
body (itself), are
borrowed (transient): set
not your heart on them, for they are lasting (only) one hour.
The features of the
natural (animal)
spirit also are perishable: seek the
features of that spirit which
is
above the sky.
Its body is on the earth,
like a lamp, (but)
its
light is above the
Seventh Roof
(of heaven). Those rays of the sun are in the house, (but)
their orb is in the Fourth Dome (of heaven).
The form of the
rose is (placed)
beneath the nose for idle pleasure's sake,
(but) the scent
of the rose is
on the roof
and palace of the
brain.
1845. A man asleep sees terror (dreams
of something which terrifies him) at
Aden: the reflexion thereof
appears as sweat on his body.
The shirt
(of Joseph) was in Egypt
in the keeping of one
exceedingly careful (of
it): (the land of)
Canaan was
filled with the (sweet) scent
of that shirt.
Thereupon they wrote
down the (predicted) date: they adorned
the
spit with the
meat for roasting.
When the right time
and date arrived,
that (spiritual) king was born and
played the dice of
empire.
After those years (had
passed), Bu
’l-Hasan appeared
(in the world) after the death
of
Báyazíd.
1850. All his dispositions, (whether
in the way) of withholding
tenaciously or bestowing liberally, proved
to be
such as that (spiritual) king (Báyazíd)
had foretold.
His (Báyazíd's) guide is “the guarded
tablet.” From what is it guarded? It is guarded from
error. The inspiration of God is not (like) astrology or geomancy or dreams—and
God best knoweth
what is right.
The Súfís
in explaining
(their doctrine) call it (the Divine inspiration) the inspiration of the heart, in
order to disguise (its
real nature) from the vulgar.
Take it to be the inspiration of the
heart, for it
(the heart) is the
place where He is seen: how should there be error when the
heart is aware
of Him?
1855. O true
believer, you have become seeing by the light of God: you have become secure from
error and inadvertence.
The reduction of the allowance of God’s food for the soul and heart of the Súfí .
How should a Súfí be grieved on account
of poverty? The very essence of poverty
becomes his nurse and his food,
Because Paradise
has grown from thing
disliked, and Mercy is the
portion of one who is helpless and broken.
He that haughtily
breaks the heads (of people), the mercy of God
and His creatures
cometh not towards him.
This topic has no end, and that youth (the slave) has been deprived of strength by the reduction of
his bread-allowance.
1860. Happy is the Súfí whose daily bread is reduced:
his bead becomes
a pearl, and he
becomes the Sea.
Whosoever has become acquainted with that choice
(spiritual) allowance, he has become worthy
of approach (to the
Presence) and of (Him
who is) the Source of
(every) allowance.
When there is a reduction of that spiritual allowance, his spirit
trembles on
account of its reduction;
(For) then he knows
that a fault has been
committed (by
him) which has ruffled
the jasmine-bed
of (Divine) approbation,
Just as (happened when) that person
(the slave), on
account of the deficiency of his
crop, wrote a letter to the owner of the harvest.
1865. They brought
his letter to the lord of justice: he read the letter and returned
no answer.
He said, “He has no care but for (the loss of)
viands: silence,
then, is the best
answer to a fool. He has no care at all for separation (from me) or union
(with me): he is confined
to the branch (the derivative); he does
not seek the
root (the fundamental) at all.
He is a fool and
(spiritually) dead in egoism,
for because of his anxious care for
the branch he has
no leisure for
the root.”
Deem the skies and
the earth to be an
apple that appeared
from the tree of Divine Power.
1870. You art as a worm in the midst of the apple
and art ignorant of the tree
and the gardener.
The other worm’ too is in the apple, but its spirit is outside, bearing the banner aloft.
Its (the
worm’s) movement splits the apple
asunder: the apple
cannot endure that shock. Its movement has
rent (all) veils: its form is
(that of) a worm,
but its reality is a dragon. The
fire that first darts
from (the impact of)
the steel puts forth
its
foot very
feebly.
1875. Cotton is its nurse
at first,
but
in the end it carries its flames up to the aether. At
first, man is in bondage
to
sleep and food; ultimately he is higher than
the
angels. Under the protection of cotton and sulphur matches his flame and light rises above Suhá He illuminates the dark world: he
tears the iron
fetter (in pieces) with a needle.
Though the fire too is
connected with the
body, is ‘it not
derived from the spirit and the spiritual?
1880. The body has no share in that glory: the body is as a drop of water in comparison with the sea of the spirit.
The days of the
body, are increased
by the spirit: mark
what. becomes
of the body when the
spirit goes (from it).
The range of
your body is an ell or
two, no more:
your spirit is a
maker of swift flights to heaven. In the spirit’s imagination, O prince, it is (but) half a step to Baghdad and Samarcand.
The fat (white) of
yours eye is two
dirhems in weight: the light of its
spirit (reaches) to the lofty
region of the sky.
1885. The light sees in
dream without this eye: without this light what would the eye be but ruined?
The spirit is unconcerned with
the heard and moustache of the
body, but without the spirit the body is a carcase and vile.
Such is the magnificence of the animal spirit: advance farther, behold the human spirit.
Pass beyond
Man and (logical) disputation unto the shore of the
sea of the spirit of Gabriel.
After that, the, spirit of Ahmad (Mohammed) will bite
your lip (kiss
you lovingly), and
Gabriel will creep back in
fear of you,
1890. And will say, “If I come one bow’s length towards you,
I shall be instantly consumed.”
How the slave was indignant because no reply to his letter arrived from the king.
Truly this
desert has no head or foot (top or
bottom). That youth, (being) without a reply to his letter, is aggrieved
And says, “Oh, it is a
wonder. How did the king give me no
reply? Or (perchance) the carrier
of the letter behaved treacherously because of the torment (of envy),
And concealed
the letter and
did not show
it to the king; for he was a hypocrite
and (like) a piece
of water
beneath straw.
I will write another letter
by way of test and seek another
accomplished messenger.”
1895. That heedless man ignorantly puts
the blame on the
Amir and the steward and
the letter-carrier.
Never does he go round
about (inspect) himself and
say, “I have acted perversely, like the idolater in (turning
away from’ the
true) religion.”
No comments:
Post a Comment