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DISCOURSES OF RUMI |
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Discourse 21 The Master said: Sharif Pay-sukhta says:
These words are very shameful; they are neither praise of the King nor self-praise. Mannikin, what joy pray does it give you that He should be supremely independent of you? This is not the language of friends, this is the language of enemies. The enemy indeed may say, 'I am indifferent to you and independent.' Now consider the loving and ardent Muslim who when in a state of ecstatic joy addresses that Beloved, that He is independent of him! He would be like a stoker sitting in the baths and saying, 'The Sultan is indifferent and independent of me, a mere stoker, indeed he is indifferent to all stokers.' What joy would such a miserable stoker feel in the thought that the king was indifferent to him? No, the right words for the stoker to speak are the following: 'I was on the roof of the baths. The Sultan passed by. I hailed him. He looked well at me and then passed me by, still looking at me.' Such words might well give joy to that stoker. As for saying, 'The king is indifferent to stokers' -- what sort of praise for the king is that, and what joy does it give the stoker?
Mannikin, what thing indeed will pass within the compass of your thought, except that men are independent of your thought and fancy, and if you relate to them your thoughts they are bored and run away? What thought can there be of which God is not independent? The Verse of Self-sufficiency was revealed with reference to the unbelievers; God forbid that believers should be so addressed! His 'independence' is indubitable, mannikin; but if you have a spiritual state that is worth anything at all, He is not 'independent' of you, according to the degree of your greatness. Shaikh-i Mahalla used to say, 'First see, then converse. Everyone sees the Sultan, but it is the favourite who enjoys converse with him.' The Master said: This is askew and shameful and topsy-turvy. Moses, upon whom be peace, enjoyed converse and afterwards sought to see. Moses' station was the station of converse; the station of Muhammad, God bless him and give him peace, was the station of seeing. How then can the Shaikh's statement be correct at all? The Master said: Someone said in the presence of Shams al-Din Tabrizi, may God sanctify his soul, 'I have established the existence of God by a categorical proof.' On the following morning our Master Shams al-Din said, 'Last night the angels came down and blessed that man, saying, "Praise be to God, he has established the existence of our God! God give him long life! He did no injury to the right of mortals!"' Mannikin, God exists of a certainty; there is no need of a proof to establish His existence. If you do anything at all, establish yourself in some rank and station before Him; otherwise, He exists of a certainty without proof.
Of this there is no doubt. The lawyers are clever men, a hundred per cent competent in their own speciality. But between them and the other world a wall has been built, to preserve their empire of licet and non licet. Did that wall not exist as a veil for them, no one would consult them and their work would be abolished. This is like what our great Master said, God sanctify his great soul: 'The other world is like a sea, and this world is like foam. God most Great and Glorious desired to keep the foam in prosperous order. He therefore set certain people with their backs to the sea so as to keep the foam in order. If they were not occupied with that, men would destroy one another and the foam would inevitably fall into ruin. So a tent was pitched for the King, and he kept certain people occupied in constructing this tent. One says, "If I did not make the tent-rope how would the tent come out right?" Another says, "If I do not make the tent-pin where will they tie the rope?" Everybody knows that these are all servants of that King who will sit in the tent and gaze upon the Beloved. If the weaver gives up weaving and seeks to be a vizier, the whole world will remain naked and bare; so he was given a joy in that craft, so that he is content. Therefore that people was created to keep the world of foam in order, and the world was created for the maintenance of that Saint.' Blessed is he for whose maintenance the world was created, not he for the maintenance of the world. God bestows on every man contentment and happiness in the work that is his, so that if his life should be a hundred thousand years he would still do the same work. Every day his love for that work becomes greater, and subtle skills are born to him in that craft, in which he takes infinite joy and pleasure.
There is one praise for the rope-maker, another for the carpenter who makes the tent-poles, another for the maker of the tent-pins, another for the weaver who weaves the cloth for the tent, another for the saints who sit in the tent and contemplate in perfect delight. Now these people who come to us, if we keep silent they are disgusted and hurt, whilst if we say something it must be appropriate to their attainment. We fret, and they go away and reproach us, saying, 'He is bored with us and runs away.' How should the fuel run away from the cook pot, unless the cook pot runs away? It cannot. So the running away of the fire and the fuel is not running away at all. The truth is, that when he sees that the vessel is weak he withdraws some distance from it; so in reality it is the pot that runs away in every case. Therefore our running away is their running away. We are a mirror: if there is a move in them to run away it appears in us; we run away on their account. A mirror is that in which people see themselves; if they see us as weary, that weariness is theirs. For weariness is an attribute of weakness. Here there is no room for weariness: what has weariness to do? It happened to me in the baths that I showed exceeding submission to Shaikh Salah al-Din, and Shaikh Salah al-Din showed great submission to me. Confronted by that submission, I protested. The thought came into my mind, 'You are carrying submission beyond proper bounds. Submission is better by degrees; first you kiss the hand of the man, then his foot. Little by little you come to a point where it does not show any more, and he has become habituated. Of course he must not be incommoded, matching courtesy with courtesy, when you have habituated him gradually to that submission.' You must behave in the same way with friends and enemies, doing things gradually. For instance with an enemy, first you offer him advice little by little; if he does not heed, you strike him; if he does not heed, you drive him away. God says in the Koran:
The work of the world goes on after this fashion. Do you not see the peace and friendliness of spring? In the beginning it shows warmth little by little, then it becomes greater. Look too at the trees, how little by little they advance; first a smile, then they show their trappings of leaves and fruit, like dervishes and Sufis offering everything, gambling away all that they possess. A man dispatches every task in this world and the next, exaggerating at the beginning of his task. That task is not attainable by him, if his proper way is discipline. It has been said, if a man eats one maund of bread, he should diminish it daily by a dram's weight, gradually. In that way, before a year or two is past he will have brought down that maund to half a maund, reducing it in such a manner that the body does not notice it. So it is with worship, withdrawing into solitude, attending to the service of God, and prayer. If a man prays with his whole heart, when he enters upon the Way of God first for a while he will observe the five prescribed prayers; after that he will add to them ad infinitum. Discourse 22 The root of the matter is that Ibn Chavish should guard against backbiting in regard to Shaikh Salah al-Din. Perchance that would profit him, and these shadows and this overcovering would be removed from him. What does this Ibn Chavish say regarding himself? Men have left their own country, their fathers and mothers, their households and kinsmen and families, and have journeyed from Hind to Sind, making boots of iron until they were cut to shreds, haply to encounter a man having the fragrance of the other world. How many men have died of this sorrow, not succeeding and not encountering such a man! As for you, you have encountered such a man here in your own house, and you turn your back on him. This is surely a great calamity and recklessness. He used to counsel me regarding the Shaikh of Shaikhs Salah al-Haqq wa'l-Din, God perpetuate his rule, that he was a great and mighty man, as was manifest in his face. 'The least thing, from the day I entered the service of our Master, was that I never heard him any day mentioning your name except as Our Master, Our Lord, Our Creator. I never heard him change this expression on a single day.' Is it not his evil ambitions that have now inhibited him? Today he says of Shaikh Salah al-Din that he is nothing. What wrong has Shaikh Salah al-Din ever done him? It is only that, seeing him falling into the pit, he says to him, 'Do not fall into the pit.' This he says out of compassion for him above all other men; and he detests that compassion. For when you do something displeasing to Salah al-Din, you find yourself in the midst of his wrath; and when you are plunged in his wrath, how will you be cleared? But whenever you find yourself shrouded and blackened by the smoke of Hell, and he counsels you saying, 'Do not dwell in my wrath; move from the house of my wrath and anger into the house of my grace and my compassion; for if you do something pleasing to me, you will enter the house of my love and my grace' -- then your heart is cleared of darkness and becomes full of light. He counsels you for your own sake and for your own good; and you impute that compassion and counsel to some ulterior motive. What ulterior motive or enmity should a man like that have towards you? Is it not the case, that whenever you are excited by lasting forbidden drinks, or hashish, or by listening to music, or by some other means, in that hour you are pleased with your every enemy, forgiving him and longing to kiss his hands and feet? In that hour, unbeliever and believer are all alike in your eyes. Now Shaikh Salah al- Din is the very root of this spiritual joy; all the seas of joy are in him. How should he hate any man, or have designs against him? I take pity for God's servants. And even if it were not so, what designs should he have against such as locusts and frogs? How can he, who possesses such empire and grandeur, be compared with these miserable paupers? Is it not the case, that they say that the Water of Life is to be found in darkness? That darkness is the body of the saints, in whom is found the Water of Life. The Water of Life can only be encountered in darkness. If you abhor this darkness and fight shy of it, how will the Water of Life ever come to you? Is it not the case that if you seek to learn sodomy from sodomites, or harlotry from harlots, you cannot learn that unless you put up with a thousand disagreeable things, beatings, and thwarting of your desires? Only so can you attain what you desire, and learn that thing. How then, if you desire to procure eternal and everlasting life, which is the station of the prophets and the saints, and nothing disagreeable ever occurs to you, and you never give up anything, how shall that come to pass? What the Shaikh prescribes for you is the same as what the Shaikhs of old prescribed, that you leave your wife and children, your wealth and position. Indeed, they used to prescribe for a disciple, 'Leave your wife, that we may take her'; and they put up with that. As for you, when he counsels you a simple thing, how is it that you do not put up with that?
What do these people say? They are overcome by blindness and ignorance, not considering how a person, when he loves a youth or a woman, will fawn and grovel and sacrifice all his wealth, seeking somehow to trick her by expending his every effort, if only he may conciliate her, night and day not wearying of this, wearying of all else. Then is the love of the Shaikh and the love of Godless than this? As for him, at the least prescription and counsel and boldness he objects and deserts the Shaikh. Hence it is known that he is no lover or seeker. Were he a true lover and seeker, he would put up with many times what we have described. To his heart, dung would be honey and sugar. Discourse 23 The Master said: I must go to Tuqat, for that region is warm. Although the climate of Antalya is warm, there the majority of the people are Rumis and do not understand our language; though even amongst the Rumis there are people who do understand it. I was speaking one day amongst a group of people, and a party of non-Muslims was present. In the middle of my address they began to weep and to register emotion and ecstasy. Someone asked: What do they understand and what do they know? Only one Muslim in a thousand understands this kind of talk. What did they understand, that they should weep? The Master answered: It is not necessary that they should understand the inner spirit of these words. The root of the matter is the words themselves, and that they do understand. After all, everyone acknowledges the Oneness of God, that He is the Creator and Provider, that He controls every thing, that to Him all things shall return, and that it is He who punishes and forgives. When anyone hears these words, which are a description and commemoration of God, a universal commotion and ecstatic passion supervenes, since out of these words comes the scent of their Beloved and their Quest. Though the ways are various, the goal is one. Do you not see that there are many roads to the Kaaba? For some the road is from Rum, for some from Syria, for some from Persia, for some from China, for some by sea from India and Yemen. So if you consider the roads, the variety is great and the divergence infinite; but when you consider the goal, they are all of one accord and one. The hearts of all are at one upon the Kaaba. The hearts have one attachment, an ardour and a great love for the Kaaba, and in that there is no room for contrariety. That attachment is neither infidelity nor faith; that is to say, that attachment is not confounded with the various roads which we have mentioned. Once they have arrived there, that disputation and war and diversity touching the roads -- this man saying to that man, 'You are false, you are an infidel,' and the other replying in kind -- once they have arrived at the Kaaba, it is realised that that warfare was concerning the roads only, and that their goal was one. For instance, if a bowl had a soul it would be the slave of the fashioner of the bowl and would make love to him. Now as for this bowl which hands have fashioned, some say it should be placed like this on the table; some say the inside of it needs to be washed, some say the outside of it needs to be washed; some say all of it; some say it needs not to be washed at all. The diversity of opinion is confined to these things; as to the fact that the bowl certainly had a creator and fashioner and did not come into existence of itself, on this all are agreed and none has a contrary view. To resume: now all men in their inmost hearts love God and seek Him, pray to Him and in all things put their hope in Him, recognising none but Him as omnipotent and ordering their affairs. Such an apperception is neither infidelity nor faith. Inwardly it has no name. But when the water of apperception flows out of the heart towards the mill-race of the tongue and becomes congealed, it acquires form and expression; there it is given the name of infidelity and faith, good and evil. It is the same with plants growing out of the earth. At first they have no form at all; but when they make their appearance in this world, in the beginning they all look fine and delicate and are white. As they set foot farther into this world they become thick and coarse, and acquire a different colour. When believer and infidel sit together and say nothing by way of expression, they are one and the same. There is no sequestration of thoughts, the heart is a free world. For the thoughts are subtle things, and cannot be judged. 'We judge by outward profession, and God is in charge of men's secret hearts.' God most High uncovers the thoughts in you, not with a hundred thousand labours and efforts are you able to get rid of them. As for the saying that God has no need of any instrument, do you not see how He uncovers those ideas and thoughts in you without any instrument, without any pen, without any pigment? Those thoughts are like birds of the air, and wild deer. Until you catch them and imprison them in a cage, it is not allowable by law to sell them. It is not in your power to sell a bird on the wing; for delivery is a condition of sale, and since it is not in your power, how can you deliver it? Thoughts then, so long as they are in the heart, are without name and token; they cannot be judged either for unbelief or for Islam. Would any judge say, 'In your heart you agreed on this, or you sold thus,' or 'Come, take an oath that in your heart you did not think thus'? No judge would say that, because no one can judge the heart. Thoughts are birds of the air. Once, however, they have been expressed, then immediately they can be judged as belonging to unbelief or Islam, good or evil. There is a world of bodies, a world of ideas, a world of fantasies, a world of suppositions. God most High is beyond all worlds, neither within them nor without them. Consider then how God controls these ideas, forming them without material means, without pen or instrument. As for this fancy or that idea, if you were to tear open the breast and search particle by particle you would never find that thought within it; not in the blood, not in the vein, not above, not below, not in any part whatever would you find it, being immaterial and not in time or space; neither would you find it without the breast. Since His control over these ideas is so subtle as to be without trace, consider how subtle and without trace is He who is the Creator of all these! Just as these physical bodies are gross in relation to the inner ideas of the persons, so these subtle and insubstantial ideas in relation to the subtlety of God are gross bodies and forms.
God most High is not contained within this world of ideas, nor in any world whatsoever. For if He were contained within the world of ideas, it would necessarily follow that he who formed the ideas would comprehend God, so that God would then not be the Creator of the ideas. Thus it is realised that God is beyond all worlds.
All men say, 'We will enter the Kaaba.' Some men say, 'If God wills, we will enter.' Those who use the expression 'if God wills' are the true lovers of God. For the lover does not consider himself in charge of things and a free agent; he recognises that the Beloved is in charge. Hence he says, 'If the Beloved wills, I will enter.' Now the literalists take the Holy Mosque to be that Kaaba to which people repair. Lovers, however, and the elect of God, take the Holy Mosque to mean union with God. So they say, 'If God wills, we will attain Him and be honoured with the sight of Him.' But for the beloved to say 'If God wills' is rare indeed. It is the tale of a stranger, and it requires a stranger to hear and to be able to hear the tale of a stranger. God has certain servants who are beloved and well-loved, and God most High seeks after them, discharging on their behalf all the duties of a lover. Just as the lover would say 'If God wills I will enter,' so God most High says on behalf of that stranger 'If God wills.' If I were to occupy myself with expounding that subtlety, even the saints who have attained God would lose the thread of the discourse. How then is it possible to speak of such mysteries and mystic states to mortal men? 'The pen reached thus far, and then its point broke.' One man does not see a camel on the top of a minaret; how then shall he see the thread of a hair in the mouth of the camel? To resume the former exposition: those lovers who say, 'if God wills,' that is, 'The Beloved is in charge: if the Beloved wills, we will enter the Kaaba' -- such men are absorbed in God. There is no room for other, and the remembrance of other is unlawful. What place is there for other? For until a man has effaced himself, God is not contained there. 'There is none dwelling in the house but God.' The vision He vouchsafed to his Messenger: now this vision is the dreams of lovers and true men of God, and the interpretation of that vision is revealed in the other world. When you see in a dream that you are riding on a horse, you will gain your goal; yet what connexion has the horse with the goal? If you dream that you have been given coins of good currency, the meaning is that you will hear true and good words from a learned man; in what respect does a coin resemble a word? If you dream that you have been hanged on a gibbet, you will become the chief of a people; how does a gibbet resemble chieftainship and leadership? So it is that we have said that the affairs of the world are a dream. 'This world is as the dream of a sleeper': their interpretation in the other world will be quite otherwise, not resembling this. That will be interpreted by a Divine Interpreter, for to Him all things are revealed. Similarly a gardener on entering the orchard looks at the trees. Without seeing the fruit on the branches, he judges this tree to be a date, that a fig, that a pomegranate, that a pear, that an apple. Since the true man of God knows the science of trees, there is no need to wait for the resurrection for him to see the interpretations, what has transpired and what was the issue of that dream. Such a man has seen aforetime what the issue will be, just as a gardener knows aforetime what fruit this branch will surely yield. All things in this world, wealth, wife and raiment, are sought after for something other, they are not sought for themselves. Do you not see that even if you had a hundred thousand dirhams and were hungry and could not find any bread, you would not be able to eat and feed yourself on those dirhams? A wife is for the sake of children, and to satisfy the passion. Clothes are to ward off the cold. In like manner all things are concatenated with God most Glorious: He is sought and desired for His own sake, not for any other thing. For inasmuch as He is beyond all and better than all and nobler than all and subtler than all, how should He be desired for less than Himself? So 'unto Him is the final end'; when they have reached Him, they have reached their entire goal, beyond there is no transcending. This human soul is a forum of doubts and difficulties. By no means can it be rid of doubts and difficulties except it be truly in love; then all its doubts and difficulties vanish. 'Your love for a thing renders you blind and deaf.' When Iblis would not bow down before Adam and opposed the Divine command, he said:
'My essence is of fire, and his essence is of clay. How is it seemly for the higher to bow down before the lower?' When God cursed Iblis on account of this sin and opposition and contending with God and banished him, he said, 'Alas, O Lord! You made all things. This was your tempting me; now you are cursing me and banishing me.' When Adam sinned, God most High expelled him from Paradise. God most High said to Adam, 'O Adam, when I egged you on and urged you to commit that sin why did you not dispute with Me? After all, you had a perfect case. You did not say, "All things proceed from Thee and Thou madest all. Whatever Thou desirest in the world comes to pass, and whatever Thou desirest not will never come to pass." You had such a right and clear and valid case; why did you not argue it?' Adam answered, 'I knew that well, Lord. But I did not forget my manners in Thy presence, and Love did not suffer me to reprove.' The Master said: This sacred law is a watering-place, a fountainhead. It may be likened to the court of a king, wherein are the king's edicts, to command and prohibit, government, equity, justice for nobles and commons. All the edicts of the king are infinite and innumerable, very good and very beneficial, and on them the stability of the world rests. But the status of dervishes and fakirs is one of conversation with the King, and of knowing the science of the Ruler. What is knowledge of the science of the edicts, compared with knowing the science of the Ruler and conversation with the King? There is a vast difference. My companions and their various estates are as a school in which there are many scholars. The headmaster pays each scholar according to his qualification, giving to one ten, one twenty, one thirty. We too dispense our words according to each man's degree and qualification. 'Speak to men according to the degree of their intelligence.' Discourse 24 Every man puts up these sacred edifices with a particular intention: either to display his generosity, or for the sake of fame, or to gain a reward in heaven. God most High should be the true object in exalting the rank of the saints and honouring their tombs and graves. They themselves require not to be honoured, for they are honoured in themselves. If a lamp desires to be placed on high, it desires that for the sake of others, not for its own sake. What matters it to a lamp, whether it is below or above? It is still a lamp shedding light. But it desires that its light should reach others. The sun which is in the height of heaven -- if it were below it would still be the same sun, only the world would remain in darkness. So the sun is on high not for its own sake but for that of others. It follows then that the saints are exalted above and indifferent to such things as 'above' and 'below' and the reverence of men. You yourself, being vouchsafed a fragment of ecstasy and a flash of grace from the other world, in that moment are indifferent to 'above' and 'below' and mastery and leadership, and self too which is nearer to you than all; these things do not enter your mind. So how should the saints, who are the seam and mine and source of that light and ecstasy, be fettered by 'below' and 'above'? Their glorying is in God; and God is independent of 'below' and 'above.' This 'below' and 'above' belongs to us who have feet and heads. The Prophet, God's blessings be upon him, said: 'Do not prefer me above Jonah son of Matthew, in that his ascension was in the belly of the whale while my ascension was in heaven upon the Throne.' He meant, 'Do not assign preferment to me over him, if you prefer me at all, for the reason that his ascension was in the belly of the whale while mine was above in heaven. For God most High is neither above nor below; His epiphany is the same, whether above or below and in the belly of the whale. He is exalted far above 'above' and 'below'; all things are one to Him.' There are many persons who perform works having a different aim, whilst God's purpose is other. God most Glorious desired that the religion of Muhammad, God bless him and give him peace, should be high honoured and spread abroad and should abide for ever and ever. So consider how many commentaries have been made on the Koran, in how manifold volumes. The aim of the writers was to display their own virtuosity. Zamakhshari filled his Kashshaf with so many minutiae of grammar and lexicography and rhetoric in order to display his own learning; but it was also in order that God's purpose might be attained, namely the exaltation of the religion of Muhammad. So all men too are doing God's work, though ignorant of God's aim. God has another purpose for them; He desires that the world should remain in being. They are occupied with their lusts; they gratify their lust with a woman for the sake of their own enjoyment, but the result is the birth of a child. They labour similarly for their own pleasure and enjoyment, and that too is a means of maintaining the order of the world. In reality therefore they are serving God, only they do not act with that intention. In the same way they build mosques at such great expense upon doors and walls and roof, but all with a view to the kiblah. The kiblah is the true aim and object of honour, and its honouring is all the greater for all that that was not their aim. This greatness of the saints is not a formal matter. By Allah, indeed they have an elevation and a greatness, but it is beyond space and time. The dirham is above the copper-piece: what is the meaning of 'above the copper-piece'? From the standpoint of form it is not above. Suppose for instance that you place a silver dirham on the roof, and a gold piece under; assuredly the gold will be superior in all circumstances. Gold is above silver, and ruby and pearl are above gold, whether the one or the other is 'below' or 'above.' Similarly the chaff is 'above' the sieve and the corn remains 'under' it: how should the chaff be 'above' the corn? Assuredly the corn is 'above' though physically it is below. So you speak of the superiority of the corn not from the standpoint of form; in the world of realities, inasmuch as that substance is inherent in it, it is 'above' in all circumstances. Discourse 25 A person entered. The Master said: He is beloved, and humble, this is due to his substance. Similarly if a branch is loaded with fruit, that fruit draws it down; whereas the branch which has no fruit raises its head on high, like the white poplar. When the fruit exceeds bounds, they put props under the branch so that it may not come down altogether. The Prophet, God bless him and give him peace, was extremely humble. All the fruits of this world and the next were gathered upon him, so of course he was humbler than all men. He said, 'No man ever preceded the Messenger of God in making a greeting.' No man was able to precede the Prophet in offering greetings because the Prophet would outstrip him out of extreme humility and so would greet him first. Even supposing that he did not greet the other first, even so he was humble and preceded the other in speaking, for they learned the greeting from him and gave heed to him. All that men of former and latter times possess, they possess it all as a reflection of him, and are his shadow. Though a man's shadow may enter the house before him, in reality the man precedes, though in form the shadow precedes. Grant that the shadow precedes the man, yet it is a derivative of the man. These characteristics are not a product of the present moment; these particles existed from that primeval time in the particles and parts of Adam -- some bright, some half-bright, some dark. In this hour they become apparent, but this splendour and brightness is of aforetime; its particle in Adam was altogether purer and brighter and more humble. Some men look at the beginning, and some men look at the end. These who look at the end are great and mighty men, for their gaze is fixed on the issue and the world beyond. But those who look at the beginning, they are the more elect. They say, 'What need is there for us to look at the end? If wheat is sown at the beginning, barley will not grow at the end, if barley is sown, wheat will not grow.' So their gaze is fixed on the beginning. There are other people still more elect who look neither at the beginning nor at the end, the beginning and the end do not enter their minds; they are absorbed in God. And there are yet other people who are absorbed in worldly things; they look neither at the beginning nor at the end, being exceeding heedless; these are the fodder of Hell. So it is realised that Muhammad was the foundation. 'But for thee I would not have created the heavens.' Every thing that exists, honour and humility, authority and high degree, all are of his dispensation and his shadow, for all have become manifest from him. Even so, whatever this hand does it does in the shadow of the Mind, for the Mind's shadow is over it; though in truth the Mind has no shadow, yet it has a shadow without a shadow, just as 'meaning' has an entity without an entity. Were not the shadow of Mind over a man, all his members would become atrophied; the hand would not grasp in due manner, the foot could not go straight upon the road, the eye would not see anything, whatever the ear heard it would hear awry. So these members in the shadow of Mind perform all their various tasks duly, well and appropriately. In reality all those actions proceed from the Mind; the members are the instrument. In like manner there is a great man, the caliph of his time. He is like the Universal Mind, and the minds of other men are as his members. Whatever they do is in his shadow. If anything crooked issues from them, that is because the Universal Mind has lifted its shadow from his head. So it is that when a man begins to go mad and engages in unseemly activities, everybody realises that reason has departed from his head and no more casts its shadow over him; he is far exiled from the shadow and shelter of Mind. Mind is a congener of the angel. Though the angel has a definite form and feathers and wings while Mind has not, in reality they are one and the same, act the same and are one in nature. One must not regard the form when in reality they act the same. For instance, if you dissolve their form they will all be Mind; nothing outward would remain of feathers and wings. So we realise that they were all Mind, but embodied; they are called embodied intelligences. Similarly a bird may be fashioned of wax complete with feathers and wings, but for all that it is wax. Do you not see that when you melt it, the bird's feathers and wings and head and feet altogether become wax? Nothing whatsoever remains that can be separated out; all turns to wax. So we realise that it is wax, and the bird that was fashioned of wax is the same wax, embodied and having taken on a certain shape but wax nevertheless. Ice likewise is nothing but water; therefore when you melt it it all becomes water. But before it became ice and was still water, you could not take it into your hand and it would not enter the hand; once it was frozen however you could take it in your hand and put it in your skirt. So there is no greater difference than this; the ice is still water, and they are one and the same thing. The situation of man is like this. They took the feathers of an angel, and tied them to the tail of an ass, that haply the ass in the ray and society of the angel might become an angel. For it is possible that he may become of the same complexion as the angel.
So what cause for wonder would it be, if his ass should become a man? God is able to do all things. After all, the child when it is first born is worse than an ass; it puts its hand into filth and carries it to its mouth to lick; the mother beats it and prevents it. The ass at least has some sort of discrimination; when it urinates, it opens its legs so that the urine may not trickle on them. Yet the child, which is worse than an ass, God most High is able to make into a man; if He should make the ass a man, what would be so astounding in that? Before God, nothing is a cause for astonishment. At the resurrection all the members of a man, scattered severally apart, hand and foot and the rest, will speak. The philosophers interpret this allegorically. They say: When the hand 'speaks,' perhaps some sign or token appears on the hand taking the place of speech, such as a scratch or an abscess. It is possible in this sense to say that the hand 'speaks'; it gives information, 'I ate something causing inflammation, so that my hand became like this.' Or the hand is wounded and has become black; men say that the hand 'speaks,' giving information that 'A knife struck me' or 'I rubbed myself against a black pot.' The 'speaking' of the hand and the other members is after this manner, So much for the philosophers. The Sunni theologians say: God forbid! No indeed! On the contrary, this sensible hand and foot will speak, just as the tongue speaks. On the day of resurrection a man will deny, saying, 'I did not steal.' His hand will say, 'Yes, you stole, I took' in plain language. That person will turn to his hand and foot, saying, 'You did not speak of old; how is it that you speak now?' It will say:
'That Person gave me speech who gave everything speech. He gives speech to door and wall, stone and clod. That Creator who gives speech to everyone also gives me speech.' Your tongue causes you to speak; your tongue is a piece of flesh, the hand is a piece of flesh, speech is a piece of flesh. Is the tongue endowed with reason? From what you have seen in plenty, it does not appear impossible to you. Otherwise, the tongue is a pretext with God; when He commanded it to speak it spoke. Whatsoever He commands and decrees, that thing speaks. Words come according to the attainment of a man. Our words are like water which a superintendent of water lets flow. What does the water know, into which plain the superintendent has let it flow, whether into a cucumber-bed, or an onion-bed, or a rose- bed? This I know: that when the water comes in abundance, there the lands are thirsty and extensive, whilst if it comes in small quantity I know that the land is small -- a little orchard, or a tiny courtyard. 'He inculcates wisdom by the tongue of the preachers according to the aspirations of the listeners.' I am a cobbler: the leather is plentiful, but I cut and stitch according to the size of the foot.
In the earth there is an animalcule which lives under the earth and is in darkness. It has no eyes or ears, because in the place where it dwells there is no need for eyes and ears. Since it has no need of eyes, why should it be given them? It is not that God has a scarcity of eyes and ears, or that He is miserly; but He gives in need. A thing given needlessly would turn into a burden. God's wisdom and grace and bounty remove burdens; how should He impose a burden on anyone? For instance, to give a tailor the tools of a carpenter, adze, saw, a file and the rest, and to say 'Take these' -- that would prove a burden to him since he cannot work with them. So He gives a thing according to need, and that is all. Just as those worms live in that darkness under the earth, so there are men who are content and satisfied to dwell in the darkness of this world, having no need of that world and yearning not for the Vision. Of what use to them would be the eye of clairvoyance and the ear of understanding? Their work in this world prospers with the sensible eye which they possess; since they have no design on the other side, why give them the clairvoyance which would be useless to them?
Now this world goes on by reason of heedlessness; if it were not for heedlessness, this world would not remain in being. Yearning for God, recollection of the world to come, intoxication, ecstasy -- these are the architects of the other world. If all these should supervene, we would to a man depart to the other world and would not remain here. God most High desires that we should be here, so that there may be two worlds. So he has appointed two sheriffs, one heedlessness and the other heedfulness, that both houses may remain inhabited. Discourse 26 The Master said: If I appear to be remiss in gratitude and appreciation and offering thanks for the kindnesses and endeavour and support you show me both directly and indirectly, this is not out of arrogance or indifference, or because I do not know what it behoves the recipient of a favour to say and do by way of requital. But I was aware from the purity of your faith that you do those things sincerely for the sake of God; so I leave it to God to thank you Himself, since you have done these things for Him. If I were to concern myself with thanking you and doing you verbal honour and praising you, it would be as though some part of the reward which God is going to give you had already come to you, some part of your recompense had already been paid. Humble attitudes, offering thanks and applause -- these are worldly pleasures. When you have gone to worldly pains, such as the sacrifice of wealth and position, it is better that the recompense should come entirely from God. Therefore I do not offer thanks because the offering of thanks is a worldly matter. No one can eat wealth. Wealth is sought after for other than itself. With wealth horses, servant-girls and slaves are purchased and appointments are sought, so that men praise and applaud them. So it is the world itself that is held in high esteem, and to it the praise and applause is directed. Shaikh Nassaj of Bukhara was a great and spiritual man. The learned and great ones used to come to visit him, kneeling before him. The Shaikh was unlettered. They desired to hear from his tongue the expounding of the Koran and Traditions of the Prophet. He would say, 'I do not know Arabic. You translate the verse of the Koran or the Tradition, so that I may tell you its meaning.' They would translate the verse, and then he would begin to expound and verify it. He would say, 'The Prophet, God bless him and give him peace, was in such and such a situation when he uttered this verse. The circumstances were as follows.' Then he would explain in detail the level of that situation, the ways leading up to it, and how the Prophet ascended to it. One day a descendant of 'Ali was praising in his presence a certain cadi, saying, 'There is no cadi like him anywhere in the world. He does not take bribes. He dispenses justice amongst men without partiality or favour, purely and sincerely for the sake of God.' Shaikh Nassaj replied, 'What you are saying, that he does not take bribes, is certainly a lie. You, a descendant of 'Ali, of the family of the Prophet, God bless him and give him peace, praise and applaud him on the grounds that he does not take bribes. Is this not a bribe? What bribe could be better than this, that you should give such an account of him to his face?' Shaikh al-Islam Tirmidhi once said. 'The reason why Saiyid Burhan al-Din, God sanctify his great soul, expounds truths so well is because he studies the books and secret writings and treatises of the masters.' Someone remarked, 'Well, you also study them. How is it that you do not speak as he does?' Tirmidhi answered, 'He is a man of suffering and striving and godly works.' The man said, 'Why do you not speak of this and mention this? You only repeat what you have read. That is the root of the matter. We speak of that; you too speak of that!' They were not concerned with the other world at all; they had fixed their hearts upon this world entirely. Some had come for the sake of eating bread, some to inspect the bread. They desire to learn these words and then to sell them. These words are like a beautiful bride; if a beautiful maiden is purchased to sell again, how can that maiden love her purchaser or fix her heart on him? Since the pleasure of that merchant is in selling, he is as good as impotent; he buys the girl to sell her, not having the manhood and virility to purchase her for himself. If a fine Indian sword falls into the hands of a hermaphrodite, he takes it in order to sell it; if a Pehlevi bow falls into his hands, that is also in order to sell it since he has not the strength of arm to draw the bow. He desires that bow for the string's sake, and he has not the aptitude for the string. He is in love with the string. When the hermaphrodite sells that, he gives the price of it for rouge and indigo. What else shall he do? Marvellous! When he sells it, what shall he buy better than that? These words are Syriac! Beware, do not say, 'I have understood.' The more you have understood and grasped them, the farther you will be from understanding them. The understanding of this is in not understanding. All your trouble and misfortune and disappointment arise from that understanding. That understanding is a fetter for you; you must escape from that understanding, to be anything at all. You say, 'I filled the sheep-skin from the sea, and the sea could not be contained in my sheep-skin.' This is absurd. Yes, if you say, 'My sheep-skin was lost in the sea,' that is excellent; that is the root of the matter. Reason is excellent and desirable until it brings you to the door of the King. Once you have reached His door, divorce reason; for in that hour reason is a sheer loss to you, a highway robber. When you have reached the King, surrender yourself to Him; you have no use then for the how and the wherefore. For instance, you have an uncut cloth which you want to have cut into a tunic or a cloak. Reason has brought you a tailor. Until that moment reason was fine, for it brought the cloth to the tailor. Now in this very moment reason must be divorced and you must abandon yourself wholly to the control of the tailor. In the same way, reason is fine for the sick man until it brings him to the physician; when it has brought him to the physician, after that reason is no use to him, and he must surrender himself to the physician. Your companions hear your clandestine cries. It becomes evident who of them has something, who has a true substance in him and a responsive soul. Amongst a train of camels, the camel that is in rut becomes evident from his eyes, his manner of walking, his foam and other things.
Though it is the root of the tree that drinks, it becomes evident on the head of the tree, through the branches and leaves and fruit. The tree that does not drink and is withered, how shall it remain concealed? These loud shouts which they utter -- the secret of this is that they understand many words from a single word, from a single letter realise all the overtones. It is like a man who has read the Wasit and the Mutawwal books; as soon as he hears a single word from the Tanbih, inasmuch as he has read its commentary he understands from one problem all the root principles and problems. He offers observations on that single letter as much as to say, 'Underlying this I understand many things and see many things. That is because I have laboured much on that subject, turning night into day, and I have found the treasures.'
The expansion of the breast is infinite. Once that expansive commentary has been read, from a hint a man understands much. He who is still a beginner understands of that word only the meaning of that one word; what inner knowledge and ecstasy should be his? Words come according to the capacity of the hearer. If a man does not draw out, the wisdom also does not come out. According as he draws and sucks, so the wisdom descends. Else he says, 'Amazing! Why do the words not come?' The answer comes, 'Amazing! Why do you not draw?' He who gives you not the power to listen gives neither to the speaker the impulse to speak. In the time of the Prophet, God bless him and give him peace, a certain unbeliever had as a slave a Muslim, a man of true substance. One morning his master ordered him, 'Fetch basins. I am going to the baths.' On the way they went the Prophet, God bless him and give him peace, was praying in the mosque with his Companions. The slave said, 'Master, for God's good sake take this bowl for a moment, so that I may make a couple of genuflections, then I will attend you.' Entering the mosque, he prayed. The Prophet, God bless him and give him peace, came out, and his Companions also came out. The slave remained alone in the mosque. His master waited for him till midmorning, then he shouted, 'Come out, slave!' The slave answered, 'They won't let me go, as the work has got beyond bounds.' The master put his head inside the mosque to see who it was that would not let the slave go. But for a shoe and a shadow he saw nobody; nobody stirred. He said, 'Well, who is it that won't let you come out?' The slave replied, 'The same One who will not suffer you to come in, the very same One whom you do not see.' Man is always in love with the thing which he has never seen nor heard nor understood; night and day he seeks after it. I am the slave of him whom I do not see, who is weary and runs away from what he has understood and seen. It is for this reason that the philosophers deny ocular vision, saying: If you see, it is possible that you will become satiated and weary, and this is not feasible. The Sunni theologians say: It is in the moment when He appears single-coloured. For in every instant He appears in a hundred colours.
If He should reveal Himself a hundred thousand times, not one will resemble another. You also this very moment see God; every instant in His works and acts you see Him multicoloured. Not one act of His resembles another act. In time of gladness is one epiphany, in time of weeping is another epiphany, in time of fear another, in time of hope another. Since the acts of God, and the epiphany of His acts and works, are infinitely various, not one being like another, therefore the epiphany of His Essence is likewise infinitely various as is the epiphany of His acts: judge of that by this analogy. You yourself too, being a part of the Divine omnipotence, every moment take on a different form and are not constant in anyone. There are certain servants of God who proceed from the Koran to God. Others more elect come from God, find the Koran here, and know that God has sent it down.
The commentators say that this refers to the Koran. This too is good; but it can also mean, 'We have placed in you a substance, a seeking, a yearning. We watch over that, not letting it go to waste but bringing it to a definite place.' Once say 'God', then stand firm under all calamities that rain upon you. A certain man came to Muhammad, God bless him and give him peace, and said to him, 'Truly I love you.' The Prophet said, 'Take heed what you say.' The man repeated, 'Truly I love you.' The Prophet said, 'Take heed what you say.' The man said, 'Truly I love you.' The Prophet said, 'Now stand firm, for with my own hand I am going to slay you, woe upon you!' In the time of Muhammad, God bless him and give him peace, a certain man said, 'I do not want this religion. By Allah, take back this religion, for I do not want it. Ever since I entered your religion I have not had peace for a single day. Wealth has gone, wife has gone, child has vanished, respect has vanished, strength has vanished, lust has vanished.' The Prophet answered, 'God forbid! Wherever our religion has gone, it comes not back without uprooting a man and sweeping cleaning his house.'
For it is as one beloved. So long as there remains in you a single trace of self-love, He will not show His face to you and you will not be worthy of union with Him, neither will He give you access to Him. You must become wholly indifferent to yourself and the world, become the enemy of yourself, so that the Friend may show His face. So our religion, in whatsoever heart it lodges, withdraws not its hand from that heart until it brings that heart to God and dissevers it from all that is unlawful. The Prophet, God bless him and give him peace, said to that man, 'For this reason you have not peace and do sorrow, because sorrowing is an evacuation of those first joys'. So long as that thing remains in our stomach, they do not give you anything to eat. At the time of evacuation a man eats nothing; when he has finished evacuating, then he eats food. You too be patient, and grieve; grieving is an evacuation. After the evacuation joy supervenes, a joy which has no sorrow, a rose without a thorn, a wine without crop-sickness. Why, in this world night and day you seek quiet and rest. That cannot be attained in this world; yet not for one instant you give up seeking. Such comfort even as you find in this world is like a lightning-flash which passes and endures not. And then, which lightning is it? Lightning there is full of hail, full of rain, full of snow, full of suffering. For instance, a man has set out for Antalya. He goes towards Caesarea hoping to reach Antalya, and does not abandon his efforts for all that it is impossible for him by this route to reach Antalya. But the man who goes by the Antalyan road, though he is lame and feeble, yet will reach his goal, since that is the end of the road. Inasmuch as no task in this world can be accomplished without suffering, neither likewise any task aimed at the next world, at all events devote this suffering with the next world in view, so that it may not be wasted! 'You say, O Muhammad, take away religion from me, for I cannot find rest. How should our religion let any man go, before it brings him to the goal?' Men tell how a certain teacher out of indigence wore in the winter season a single garment of cotton. By chance the torrent had brought down a bear out of the mountains, carrying it along with its head hidden in the water. The children, seeing its back, cried, 'Teacher, look! A fur coat has fallen into the water, and you are cold. Take it!' The teacher in the extremity of his need and coldness jumped in to catch the fur coat. The bear quickly plunged its claws into him. The teacher was thus caught by the bear in the water. 'Teacher,' the boys shouted, 'either fetch the fur coat, or if you cannot, let it go, and you come out!' 'I am letting the fur coat go,' answered the teacher. 'But the fur coat isn't letting me go. What am I to do?' How should God's ardour let you go? Here is cause for thanks, that we are not in our own hands, we are in God's hands. Even so a child when it is small knows naught but milk and its mother. God most High by no means left the child there; He led it on to eat bread and to play, and in like manner drew it on from there till He brought it to the stage of reason. So too in this worldly state, which is infancy compared with the other world and another kind of breast-God does not leave you there, but brings you thither, so that you may realise that this was infancy and nothing at all. 'I am amazed at a people who are dragged to Paradise in chains and fetters. Take him, and fetter him, and then roast him -- in Paradise, then roast him in union, then roast him in Beauty, then roast him in Perfection.' Fishermen do not drag out a fish all at once. When the hook has entered its throat they draw it a little, so that it may lose blood and become weak and feeble; they let it loose again, then again draw it in, until it becomes altogether weak. When the hook of Love falls into a man's throat, God most High draws him gradually so that those bad faculties and blood which are in him may go out of him little by little. God grasps, and outspreads. 'There is no God but God': that is the faith of the common folk. The faith of the elect is this: 'There is no He but He.' So, a man sees in a dream that he has become king, and is seated on the throne, servants and chamberlains and princes standing around him. He says, 'I must be the king, and there is no king other than I.' This he says in his sleep; when he awakens and sees nobody in the house but himself, then he says, 'I am, and there is nobody other than I.' For this a wakeful eye is necessary; a slumbrous eye cannot see this, for this is not its function. Every sect denies every other sect. These people say, 'We are true and revelation belongs to us, and they are false.' Those people say exactly the same. So the two and seventy creeds deny one another, then say with one accord that all are without revelation. So all are in accord on there being no revelation to any of the others, and agree also that out of the lot of them only one has revelation. There is therefore a need for a believer having discrimination and sagacity to know which one that is. 'The believer is sagacious, discriminating, understanding, intelligent.' Faith is that same discrimination and perception. Someone interjected: Those who do not know are many, and those who know are few. If we are to occupy ourselves with distinguishing between those who do not know and have no true substance and those who do possess that substance, it will be a long business. The Master answered: Though it is true that those who do not know are many, when you know a few you have known them all. In the same way when you have known a single handful of corn, you know all the corn-stacks in the world. If you have tasted a piece of sugar, though halwa is made in a hundred different varieties, from the sugar you have tasted you know that sugar is in the halwa, since you have known the sugar. If a man who has eaten sugar from a sugar-cane (shakh) does not recognise sugar, maybe he has two horns (shakh)! If these words appear repetitious to you, that is because you have not understood the first lesson, so it was necessary for me to say this every day. There was once a teacher, and a boy attended him for three months but did not go beyond 'A has nothing.' The boy's father came and said, 'I don't fail to pay your fees. If there has been any failure, tell me and I will pay more.' The teacher answered, 'The failure was not on your part, but the child doesn't go beyond this point.' He summoned the boy and said, 'Say, A has nothing.' The boy said, 'Has nothing'; he could not say 'A.' The master said, 'You see what the situation is. As he has not passed beyond this point and has not yet learned this, how can I give him a new lesson?' The father said, 'Praise belongs to God, the Lord of all being!' We do not say 'Praise belongs to God, the Lord of all being' because there is a shortage of bread and blessing. Bread and blessing are without limit; but there is no more appetite, and the guests are sated. That is why 'Praise belongs to God' is said. This bread and this blessing do not resemble mundane bread and blessing, since even without appetite you can force yourself to eat mundane bread and blessing as much as you desire. Since it is inanimate, it follows you wherever you drag it; it has no spirit, to withhold itself from the unworthy. Very different is this Divine blessing, which is wisdom. It is a living blessing. So long as you have an appetite and exhibit utter desire, it comes towards you and becomes your food. But when appetite and inclination fail you cannot eat it and consume it by force. It hides its face in the veil and does not show you its face. The Master was telling stories of the miracles of the saints. He said: It is not so wonderful or miraculous for a man to go from here to the Kaaba in a day or a moment. Such a miracle happens also to the simoon: in one day and in one moment the simoon travels wherever it wishes. What is a true miracle is this: that God should bring you from a lowly estate to a high estate, that you should travel from there to here, from ignorance to reason, from the inanimate to life. Just as at first you were earth and you were mineral, He brought you to the vegetable world; then you journeyed from the vegetable world to the world of clotted sperm and foetus, from the clotted sperm and the foetus to the animal world, from the animal world to the world of man. These are the true miracles. God most High brought near to you such a journey. In these stations and ways that you came it never entered your thoughts and imagination that you would come, by which road you came, and how you came and were brought; yet you see most definitely that you have come. Even so you will be brought to a hundred other various worlds. Do not doubt it, and if you are told stories of that, believe them. A bowl of poison was brought as a present to 'Umar, God be pleased with him. 'Of what use is this?' he asked. 'Its purpose,' they told him, 'is this, that when it is not thought in the public interest to kill a man openly, he is given a little of this and then he dies secretly. If it is an enemy who cannot be slain with the sword, with a little of this he may be killed clandestinely.' 'You have brought me a very good thing,' he said. 'Give it to me to drink; for within me is a mighty enemy whom the sword cannot reach. I have no greater enemy in the world than he.' 'There is no need for you to drink it all up in one gulp,' they told him. 'Just a dram is sufficient. This is sufficient for a hundred thousand persons.' 'He too, my enemy, is not one person,' said 'Umar. 'He is an enemy a thousand men strong, and has overthrown a hundred thousand.' Thereupon he seized the cup and quaffed it all at one draught. At once the assembled multitude all became Muslims, crying, 'Your religion is true!' 'You have all become Muslims,' commented 'Umar, 'and this infidel has not yet become a Muslim.' What 'Umar intended thereby was faith. This was not the faith of the common people. He had that faith, and more; indeed, he had the faith of the veracious. He was referring to the faith of the prophets and the elect and absolute certainty. That was what he hoped for. The report of a lion spread abroad through all parts of the world. A certain man, marvelling at the rumour, made for that thicket from a far distance in order to see the lion. For a year he endured the rigours of the road and travelled from stage to stage. When he arrived at the thicket and espied the lion from afar, he stood still and could not advance closer. 'Why,' they said to him, 'you have set forth on such a long road out of love for this lion. This lion has a special quality: anyone who approaches him boldly, and lovingly rubs his hand upon him, is unharmed by the lion, but if anyone is afraid and timorous the lion is enraged against him. Some indeed he attacks, saying, "What is this bad opinion you have of me?" For such a creature you have trudged on for a year. Now you have reached near to the lion why do you stand still? Advance one step more!' Not one had the courage to advance a further step. All said, 'The steps we took hitherto were all easy. We cannot take one step here.' What 'Umar meant by that 'faith' was that step, to take one step in the presence of the lion towards the lion. That step is a great and rare matter, the concern only of the elect and intimate of God. This is the true step; the rest are mere footprints. That faith comes only to prophets, who have washed their hands of their own life. A friend is a delightful thing. For a friend derives strength and life and increase even from the phantom of his friend. How marvellous! Laila's phantom used to give strength to Majnun and became his food. Since the phantom of a profane beloved has such strength and influence as to impart strength to his friend, why should you marvel that the phantom of the true Friend imparts strength to him in presence and absence alike? What place is this for a phantom? That is the very soul of all realities; that is not called phantom. The world subsists on a phantom. You call this world real, because it can be seen and felt, whilst you call phantom those verities whereof this world is but an offshoot. The facts are the reverse. This world is the phantom world, for that Verity produces a hundred such worlds, and they rot and corrupt and become naught, and it produces again a new world and a better. That grows not old, being exempt from newness and oldness. Its offshoots are qualified by newness and oldness, but He who produces these is exempt from both attributes and transcends both. An architect planned a house in his mind, forming the notion that its breadth would be so much, its length so much, its floor so much, its courtyard so much. People do not call that a 'fancy' since this concrete reality is born from the 'fancy' and is an offshoot thereof. But if someone who is not an architect conceives such a notion and idea in his mind, then people certainly call that a 'fancy.' In common parlance men say of one who is not a builder and has not studied building, 'You are fanciful!' Discourse 27 It is better not to question the fakir, for that is as much as to urge and oblige him to invent a lie. For when a materialist questions him, he has to reply. He cannot answer him truthfully, since he is not worthy of or receptive to such an answer, and his mouth and lips are not suitable to take such a morsel. So the fakir must answer him appropriately to his capacity and ruling star, namely by inventing a lie so as to get rid of him, and though everything that the fakir says is true and cannot be a lie, yet in comparison with his former answer and statement and truth that is a lie; except that to the listener it is relatively right, and more than right. A certain dervish had a disciple who used to beg for him. One day out of the yield of his begging he brought some food to his master. The dervish ate the food. That night he experienced nocturnal emission. 'From whom did you bring that food?' he asked the disciple. 'A lovely girl gave it to me,' the disciple answered. 'By Allah,' rejoined the dervish, 'it is twenty years since I had a nocturnal emission. This was the effect of her morsel.' This shows that the dervish must be cautious and not eat the morsel of everyone. For the dervish is delicate; things have their effect on him and become visible, just as a little blackness shows on a clean white gown; as for a black gown which has become black with grime for many years and has lost all whiteness, if a thousand kinds of filth and grease should trickle on it it would not appear on it to the people. This being so, the dervish must not eat the morsel of sinners and those who live on iniquity, and of materialists. For the morsel of such a man has an effect on the dervish, and corrupt thoughts manifest under the influence of that strange morsel -- so that the dervish had nocturnal emission through consuming the food of that girl. Discourse 28 The litanies of the questers and travellers is that they shall be occupied with labour and devotion, and have apportioned their time so that every labour is assigned to its particular time. It is as though they have an overseer who draws them to that specific labour by rule of habit. For example, when such a man rises in the morning, that hour is more apt for worship since the soul is quieter and clearer; every person then does and performs the kind of service which is suitable to him and comes within the scope of his noble soul.
There are a hundred thousand ranks. The purer a man becomes, the higher up he is promoted; the lesser is assigned to a lower rank, for 'Postpone them even as God has postponed them.' This story is inevitably a long one. Whoever abbreviates this story abbreviates his own life and soul, but for God's preservation. As for the litanies of those who have attained union, I speak within the limits of comprehension -- it is so, that in the morning the holy spirits and the pure angels, and those men whom none knows but God (whose names are hidden from men out of exceeding jealousy), come to visit them.
You are seated beside them, and do not see, neither do you hear their speech and greetings and laughter. Yet what is so marvellous in this? When a man is sick and nigh unto death, he sees phantoms of which one sitting beside him has no knowledge, neither hears what they say. Those realities are a thousand times subtler than these phantoms; the latter the average man does not see or hear until he is sick, whilst those realities he will not see before his death and demise. Such visitants, knowing the refined states of the saints and their majesty, and knowing that from earliest morn so many angels and pure spirits have come to wait upon the shaikh, hesitate infinitely; for they must not intervene in the midst of such orisons, lest the shaikh be disturbed. Even so the slaves are present every morning at the door of the king's palace. It is their use that each should have a fixed station, a fixed service, a fixed devotion. Some serve from afar, and the king looks not upon them nor pays heed to them. But the slaves of the king see that a certain one has been in attendance; when the king has departed, his use is that the servants should attend on him from every part, for servitude is no more. 'Take on the characteristics of God' has been realised: 'I am for him hearing and sight' has been realised. This is an extremely majestic station, ineffable indeed; the majesty of it cannot be comprehended by spelling out majesty. Even if a little of its majesty should penetrate, neither the letter m itself would abide, nor pronunciation of the letter m, nor hand, nor aspiration. The whole city is devastated by the hosts of Light.
A camel enters a little house; the house is devastated, but in that ruin there are a thousand treasures.
If I have expounded at such length the station of the travellers, how shall I expound the states of those who have attained? The latter has no end; the former has an end. The end of travellers is attainment; what should be the end of those who have attained to union, union to which there cannot be any separation? No ripe grape becomes again an unripe grape; no mature fruit ever again becomes raw.
By Allah, I will not make it long, I make it short.
Whoever cuts this story short, it is as though he has abandoned the right road and is taking the road to the life-destroying wilderness, saying, 'Such and such a tree is near at hand.' Discourse 29 The Christian al-Jarrah said: A number of the companions of Shaikh Sadr al-Din drank with me, and they said to me, 'Jesus is God, as you assert. We confess that to be the truth; but we conceal and deny it, intending thereby to preserve the Community.' The Master said: The enemy of God has lied! God forbid! These are the words of one drunken with the wine of Satan the misguider, the humiliated, the humiliating, driven from the Presence of God. How could it be that a frail body, fleeing from the Jews' plotting from place to place, whose form was less than two cubits, should be the preserver of the seven heavens, the thickness of each of which is a distance of five hundred years and the thickness of each heaven to the next a distance of five hundred years, and every earth five hundred years, and from each earth to the next five hundred years? And under the Throne a sea whose depth is likewise, that sea the possession of God, reaching up to His ankles, aye, and many times the like of it? How could your reason acknowledge that the disposer and controller of all these is the feeblest of forms? Moreover, before Jesus is He who was the Creator of the heavens and the earth -- glory be to Him, above what the wrongdoers assert! The Christian said: Dust went to dust, and pure spirit to pure spirit. The Master said: If the spirit of Jesus was God, whither departed his spirit? The spirit departs only to its Origin and Creator. If he was himself the Origin and Creator, whither should he depart? The Christian said: So we found it stated, and we took it as our religion. I said: If you find and inherit of the leavings of your father false gold, black and corrupt, you will not change it for gold of sound assay, free of alloy and adulteration. No; you take that gold, saying, 'We found it so.' Or you inherited from your father a paralysed hand; and you found a physic and a physician to mend that paralysed hand. You do not accept, saying, 'I found my hand so, paralysed, and I desire not to change it.' Or you found saline water on a farm wherein your father died and you were brought up, then you were directed to another farm whose water is sweet, whose herbs are wholesome, whose people are healthy; you do not desire to move to that other farm and drink the sweet water, that would rid you of all diseases and ailments. No; you say, 'We found that farm with its saline water bequeathing ailments, and we hold on to what we found.' God forbid! That is not the action or the words of an intelligent man possessed of sound senses. God gave you an intelligence of your own other than your father's intelligence, a sight of your own other than your father's sight, a discrimination of your own. Why do you nullify your sight and your intelligence, following an intelligence which will destroy you and not guide you? Yutash -- his father was a cobbler. Yet when he attained the Sultan's presence and learned the manner of kings and how to be Master of the Sword and the Sultan conferred on him the highest rank, never did he say, 'I found my father a cobbler, so I do not want this post; on the contrary, give me, O Sultan, a shop in the market that I may practise cobbling.' Indeed even a dog, for all its baseness, once it has learned to hunt and become a hunter for the Sultan, forgets what it found its sire and dam doing, skulking in rubbish-heaps and wastelands and craving for carrion. On the contrary, it follows the Sultan's horses and follows after the game. So it is with the hawk: when the Sultan has trained it, it never says, 'We inherited from our fathers desolate haunts in the mountains and the devouring of dead things, so we will not heed the Sultan's drum, neither his game.' If the intellect of the beast holds fast to what it has found better than what it inherited from its parents, it is monstrous and horrible that a man, superior to all the inhabitants of the earth in reason and discrimination, should be less than a beast. We take refuge with God from that! Certainly it is right that he should say that the Lord of Jesus, upon whom be peace, honoured Jesus and brought him nigh to Him, so that whoever serves him has served the Lord, whoever obeys him has obeyed the Lord. But inasmuch as God has sent a prophet superior to Jesus, manifesting by his hand all that He manifested by Jesus' hand and more, it behoves him to follow that Prophet, for God's sake, not for the sake of the Prophet himself. Only God is served for His own sake. Only God is loved; other than God is loved for the sake of God most High. Unto your Lord is the end -- that is, the end that you should love a thing for other than that thing, seek it for other than it, until in the end you come to God and love Him for Himself.
To apply eye-black to the eyes is not the same as blackness of the eyes.' Just as worn-out and ragged clothes conceal the elegance of wealth and grandeur, so excellent clothes and fine raiment conceal the mark and beauty and perfection of fakirs. When the fakir's clothes are in shreds and patches, then his heart is opened. Discourse 30 There is a head which is adorned by a golden cap; and there is a head, the beauty of whose curls is concealed by a golden cap and a jewelled crown. For the curls of the lovely ones attract love; love is the throne-room of the hearts; the golden crown is an inanimate thing, whereof the wearer is the heart's beloved. We sought everywhere Solomon's ring, peace be upon him; we found it in poverty. In this beauteous one likewise took we our repose, and she was pleased with nothing so much as with this. Well, I am a whoremonger; since I was little, this has been my trade. I know that this removes hindrances, this consumes veils; this is the root of all acts of obedience, the rest are mere branches. If you do not cut the throat of a sheep, of what use is it to blow on its trotter? Fasting leads to annihilation, where is the last of all pleasures.
Whatever shop is in the bazaar, or any potion, or merchandise, or trade, the end of the thread of each one of these is the need of the human soul, and that end of the thread is hidden; until the need for those things arises, the end of the thread does not stir or become visible. Similarly with every religion, every faith, every grace, every miracle, all the states of the prophets -- the end of the thread of every one of these is in the human spirit; until the need arises, that end of the thread does not stir or become visible.
The Master said: Is the agent of good and evil one thing or two things? The answer, from the point of view that in the time of hesitation they are in dispute one with the other, is categorically two; for one person cannot be opposed to himself. From the point of view that evil is inseparable from good -- for good is the abandonment of evil, and the abandonment of evil is impossible without evil: that good is the abandonment of evil is proved by the fact that, were it not for the incitement of evil, there would be no abandonment of good -- from this point of view they are not two. The Magians said that Yazdan is the creator of good things and Ahriman is the creator of evil and hateful things. To this we reply that desirable things are not apart from hateful things. The desirable cannot exist without the hateful, since the desirable is the cessation of the hateful, and the cessation of the hateful without the hateful is impossible. Joy is the cessation of sorrow; the cessation of sorrow without sorrow is impossible. So they are one and indivisible. I said: Until a thing passes away, its use does not become manifest. So, until the letters of a word pass away into speech, their use does not reach the listener. Whoever says evil of the gnostic in reality says good of the gnostic; for the gnostic shies away from that quality, blame for which might settle on him. The gnostic is the enemy of that quality; hence, he who speaks evil of that quality speaks evil of the enemy of the gnostic and praises the gnostic; for the gnostic shies away from such a blameworthy thing, and he who shies away from the blameworthy is himself praiseworthy. Things become clear through their opposites.' Hence the gnostic knows that the critic is not really his enemy and his dispraiser. I am as a smiling garden set about by a wall, and on that wall are all kinds of filth and thorns. The passer-by does not see the garden; he sees that wall and its uncleanness, and speaks evil of it. Why then should the garden be angry with him? Except that his evil speaking is to his own detriment; for he must put up with the wall in order to reach the garden. So by finding fault with the wall he remains far from the garden; hence he has worked his own destruction. Therefore the Prophet, God's blessings be upon him, said, 'I laugh as I slay.' That is, 'I have no enemy' -- that he should be angry in chastising him. He kills the unbeliever in one way, so that the unbeliever may not kill himself in a hundred manners. So of course he laughs as he slays.
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