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DISCOURSES OF RUMI |
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Discourse 41 We are like a bowl on the surface of the water. The movement of the bowl on the surface of the water is controlled not by the bowl but by the water. Someone said: This statement is of general application. But some people know that they are on the surface of the water, whereas some do not know. The Master said: If the statement were of general application, then the particular specification that 'The heart of the believer is between two fingers of the All-Merciful' would not be correct. God also said:
It cannot be said that this is a general statement. God taught all sciences so what is this particularisation of the Koran? Similarly:
What is this particularisation of the heavens and the earth, since He created all things in general? Undoubtedly all bowls travel on the surface of the water of Omnipotence and the Divine Will. But it is unmannerly to relate to It a despicable thing, such as 'O Creator of dung and farting and wind-breaking'; one only says, 'O Creator of the heavens' and 'O Creator of the minds.' So this particularisation has its significance; though the statement is general, yet the particularisation of a thing is an indication of the choiceness of that thing. The upshot is, that the bowl travels on the surface of the water. The water carries one bowl in such a manner that every bowl gazes upon that bowl. The water carries another bowl in such a manner that every bowl runs away from that bowl instinctively and is ashamed of it. The water inspires them to run away and implants in them the power to run away, so that they say, 'O God, take us farther away from it'; whilst in the former case they say, 'O God, bring us nearer to it.' The person who regards the situation as general says, 'From the standpoint of subjection, both kinds of bowl are equally subject to the water.' In reply one may say, 'If you only saw the grace and beauty and pretty sauntering of this bowl on the water, you would not have had such care for that general attribute.' In the same way a beloved person is a co-partner with all dungs and every manner of filth from the standpoint of existing. But it would never occur to the lover to say, 'My beloved is a co-partner with all manner of filth in the general description that both are bodies contained in a certain space and comprised in the six directions, created in time and subject to decay' and the rest of the general descriptions. He would never apply these terms to the beloved; and anyone who described the beloved in this general manner he would take as an enemy and deem his particular devil. Since therefore you find it in you to regard that general attribute, not being worthy to look upon our particular beauty, it is not proper to dispute with you; for our disputations are commingled with beauty, and it is wrong to disclose beauty to those who are not worthy of it. 'Impart not wisdom to those not meet for it, lest you do wisdom wrong; and withhold it not from those meet to receive it, lest you do them wrong.' This is the science of speculation, it is not the science of disputation. Roses and fruit- blossoms do not bloom in the autumn, for that would be disputation; that is, it would be confronting and competing with the opponent autumn. It is not in the nature of the rose to confront autumn. If the regard of the sun has done its work, the rose comes out in an equable and just atmosphere; otherwise, it draws in its head and retires within its stem. The autumn says to it, 'If you are not a barren branch, confront me, if you are a man!' The rose says, 'In your presence I am a barren branch and a coward. Say whatever you will!'
You, who are Baha' al-Din -- if some old crone without any teeth, her face all wrinkles like the back of a lizard, should come and say, 'If you are a man and a true youth, behold, I have come before you! Behold, horse and the fair one! Behold, the field! Show manliness, if you are a man,' -- you would say, 'God be my refuge! I am no man. What they have told you is all lies. If you are the mate, unmanliness is most comely!' A scorpion comes and raises its sting against your member, saying, 'I have heard that you are a man who laughs and is gay. Laugh, so that I may hear you laugh.' In such a case one would say, 'Now that you have come, I have no laugh and no gay temperament. What they have told you is lies. All my inclinations to laugh are preoccupied with the hope that you may go away and be far from me!' Someone said: You sighed, and the ecstasy departed. Do not sigh, so that the ecstasy may not depart. The Master answered: Sometimes it happens that ecstasy departs if you do not sigh, according to the various circumstances. If that had not been so, God would not have said
Nor would it have been right to display any act of obedience to God; for all display is ecstasy. What you say, you say in order that ecstasy may ensue. So, if someone induces ecstasy, you attend that person in order that ecstasy may ensue. That is like shouting to a sleeper, 'Arise! It is day. The caravan is off.' Others say, 'Don't shout. He is in ecstasy. His ecstasy will start away.' The man says, 'That ecstasy is destruction, this ecstasy is deliverance from destruction.' They say, 'Don't make a confusion, for this shouting hinders thought.' The man says, 'This shouting will make the sleeper think. Otherwise what thinking will he do, whilst he is here asleep? When he has awakened, then he will start to think.' So shouting is of two kinds. If the shouter is above the other in knowledge, his shouting will cause an increase of thought. For since his awakener is a man of knowledge and of wakefulness, when he awakens the other out of the slumber of heedlessness he informs him of his own world and draws him thither. So his thought ascends, since he has been called out of a high estate. When on the contrary the awakener is below the other in intellect, when he awakens him his gaze drops. Since his awakener is lower down, inevitably his gaze drops downwards and his thought goes to the lower world. Discourse 42 Those persons who have made or are in the course of making their studies think that if they constantly attend here they will forget and abandon all that they have learned. On the contrary, when they come here their sciences all acquire a soul. For all sciences are like images; when they acquire a soul, it is as though a lifeless body has received a soul. All knowledge has its origin beyond, transferring from the world without letters and sounds into the world of letters and sounds. In yonder world, speaking is without letters and sounds.
God most High spoke with Moses, upon whom be peace. Well, He spoke not with letters and sounds, with throat and tongue. Letters require a throat and lips in order to be audible; God most High is exalted far above lips and mouth and throat. So prophets in the world without letters and sounds converse with God in a manner that the imaginations of these partial intelligences cannot attain or understand. But the prophets come down from the world without letters into the world of letters, and become children for the sake of these children; for 'I was sent as a teacher.' Now though this mass of people who have remained all the time in letters and sounds do not reach the spiritual states of the prophet, yet they derive strength from him, and wax and grow, and find comfort in him. Similarly the infant, though not knowing and not recognising his mother in detail, yet finds comfort in her and derives strength from her. So too the fruit finds comfort on the branch and becomes sweet and ripe, though knowing nothing of the tree. So with regard to that great saint and his letters and sounds, though the mass of men do not know him and do not attain to him, yet they derive strength from him and are nourished. It is fixed in every soul that beyond reason and letter and sound there is something, a macrocosm. Do you not see how all men have a hankering after the demented and go to visit them? They say, 'It may be that this is in fact that, and true. Such a thing exists; but they have mistaken the place. That thing is not contained within the reason.' But not everything that is not contained in the reason exists. 'Every nut is round, but not every round thing is a nut' is a sign of that. We say: Though such a man has a state which cannot be expressed in words and writing, yet from him reason and spirit derive strength and are nourished. This is not found in these demented ones around whom they circle; those who visit them are not transformed out of their own state and do not find repose in such a man. Even though they may think that they have found repose, that is not what we call repose. Thus, a child parted from his mother finds comfort for a moment in another; that is not what we call comfort, for the child has made a mistake. Physicians say that whatever is agreeable to the temperament and is hankered after by it gives strength to a man and purifies his blood. This is true however only so long as a man is without disease. For instance, chalk is agreeable to the chalk-eater, but we do not say that it is good for his temperament, though he finds it agreeable. The bilious man finds sour things agreeable and sugar disagreeable. But that is no criterion of what is truly agreeable, because such a taste rests upon a distemper. The truly agreeable is what is agreeable to a man in the first place, before he falls sick. For instance, a man has his hand cut or broken and hung in a sling, so that it becomes all crooked. The surgeon makes it straight and sets it in its original place. That is not agreeable to the man, and indeed it pains him, just as much as its being crooked is agreeable to him. The surgeon says, 'First of all it was agreeable to you that your hand was straight, and you found comfort in that. When they made it crooked you felt pain and suffered. Though now its being crooked is agreeable to you, this agreeableness is false and is of no account.' Similarly the spirits in the world of holiness found agreeable the commemoration of God and absorption in God, like the angels. If they fall sick and distempered through connexion with the body, and chalk-eating becomes agreeable to them, the prophet and the saint, who are physicians, say, 'This is not truly agreeable to you. This agreeableness is a lie. Something other is agreeable to you which you have forgotten. What is agreeable to your original and sound temperament is that which was in the first place agreeable to you. This sickness is now agreeable to you; you think this is agreeable, and do not believe the truth.' A gnostic was seated before a grammarian. The grammarian said, 'A word must be one of three things: either it is a noun, a verb, or a particle.' The gnostic tore his robe and cried, 'Alas! Twenty years of my life and striving and seeking have gone to the winds. For I laboured greatly in the hope that there was another word outside of this. Now you have destroyed my hope.' Though the gnostic had in fact attained that word which was his purpose, he spoke thus in order to arouse the grammarian. It is related that Hasan and Husain, God be well pleased with them, once in the state of childhood saw a person who was making his ablutions all wrong and contrary to the law. They desired to teach him to make ablution in a better way. So they came to him and said, 'This tells me that you make your ablutions wrong. We will both make our ablutions before you, then you can see which of the two kinds of ablution accords with the law.' And they both made ablution before him. He said, 'Children, your ablution is very lawful and right and good. My ablution, wretch that I am, was wrong.' The greater the number of guests become, the larger they make the house; the more the furnishings, and the more food prepared. Do you not see that since the stature of a little child is small, his thoughts too, which are as it were guests, are appropriate to the house of his body? He knows nothing apart from milk and his nurse. When he grows older the guests, his thoughts, also increase, and his house of reason and perception and discrimination becomes enlarged. When the guests of passionate love arrive they are too much for the house and demolish the house, and he builds anew. The King's veils and the King's outriders and troops and attendants cannot be contained in his house. Those veils are not appropriate to this door; to accommodate those infinite attendants an infinite station is required. When the King's veils are hung, they provide all brightnesses and remove all coverings, so that the secret things become manifest -- contrary to the veils of this present world, which augment the covering. These veils are the opposite of those veils.
Someone said: These verses were spoken by Qadi Abu Mansur Haravi. The Master said: Qadi Mansr speaks obscurely and is hesitant and variable. But Mansur could not contain himself and spoke out bluntly. The whole world is the prisoner of destiny, and destiny is the prisoner of the beauty; the beauty reveals and does not conceal. Someone said: Recite a page of the Qadi's words. The Master recited, and after that he said: God has certain servants who whenever they see a woman in a chaddur command, 'Raise the veil, so that we may see your face, what manner of person and thing you are. For when you pass by veiled and we do not see, disquietude will ensue, as to how this person was and what she was. I am not the sort of person to be tempted by you and enslaved by you if I see your face. It is a long time now that God has made me innocent and indifferent to you. I am quite secure that if I see you, you will not disturb me and tempt me. It is when I do not see you that I am disturbed, wondering what sort of a person it was.' These men are very different from that other party, the men of carnal passion. If they see the faces of the beautiful, they are captivated by them and become disturbed. So it is better in their case for them not to show their faces, so as not to tempt them. In regard to the spiritualists it is better to show their faces, so that they may be delivered out of temptation. Someone said: In Khvarizm nobody is a lover, because in Khvarizm there are many beautiful women. No sooner do they see a beauty and fix their hearts on her than they see another still better than she, so that she no longer appeals to them. The Master said: If there are no lovers for the beauties of Khvarizm, yet Khvarizm must have its lovers, seeing that there are countless beauties in that land. That Khvarizm is poverty, wherein are countless mystical beauties and spiritual forms. Each one you alight upon and are fixed on, another shows its face so that you forget the former one, and so ad infinitum. So let us be lovers of true poverty, wherein such beauties are to be found. Discourse 43 Saif al-Bukhari went to Egypt. Everyone likes a mirror, and is in love with the mirror of his attributes and attainments, while not knowing the true nature of his face. He supposes the veil to be a face, and the mirror of the veil to be the mirror of his face. As for you, uncover your face, so that you may find me to be the mirror of your face, and that you may know for sure that I am a mirror. A man said: I know for a fact that the prophets and saints are all victims of a false presumption. There is nothing in it but mere pretence. The Master said: Do you say this at random, or do you see and then speak? If it is the case that you see and then speak, vision is certainly proven as existing; indeed, it is the most precious and noblest thing in existence. The proof of the message of the prophets is merely their claim to vision; and that you have acknowledged. Moreover vision manifests only through an object of vision. Vision is a transitive; for vision to take place there must be an object and a subject of vision. The object of vision is the thing sought, and the viewer is the seeker; or the other way round. Your very denial establishes the existence of a seeker and a thing sought, and vision. The God-man relationship is a case where negation necessarily proves the positive. They say, 'That crowd are disciples of that dimwit, and venerate him.' I say: That 'dimwit' of a shaikh is not inferior to a stone and an idol. Those who worship stones venerate and magnify them, and to them direct their hopes and longings, their petitions and needs and tears. The stone neither knows nor feels anything of this. Yet God most High has made stones and idols to be a means to this devotion in them, of which the stones and idols are entirely unaware. A lawyer was once beating a boy. 'Why are you beating him?' he was asked. 'What crime has he committed?' 'You don't know this whoreson,' he answered. 'He spoils everything.' 'What does he do? What sin is he guilty of?' someone demanded. 'He runs away at the moment of emission,' the lawyer replied. 'That is, at the time of friction his phantom runs away, and my emission is nullified.' There is no doubt that the lawyer was in love with the boy's phantom, and the boy was quite unaware of the fact. In the same way these disciples are in love with the phantom of this foolish shaikh, and he was oblivious of their 'banishment' and 'union' and all the phases of their love-life. If misguided and misdirected love for a phantom produces ecstasy, yet it is nothing like the mutual love enjoyed with a real beloved who is aware and wide awake to the lover's condition. Similarly the man who embraces in the dark a pillar, thinking it to be a beloved, weeping and complaining, cannot be compared, in regard to the pleasure he enjoys, with one who is embracing his living and conscious friend. Discourse 44 Everybody on setting out and journeying to a certain place does so with a rational idea in mind: 'If I go there I shall be able to secure many advantages and attend to many affairs, my business will be set in order, my friends will be delighted, I shall defeat my enemies.' Such is the idea he has in mind; but his true objective is something other. He has made so many plans and thought out so many ideas, and not one has turned out according to his desire; for all that he continues to rely upon his own planning and choice.
This is illustrated by the experience of a man who sees in a dream that he has chanced into a strange city where he has no acquaintances; there is no one who knows him and he knows nobody. He becomes bewildered, vexed and sorrowful, regretting and saying to himself, 'Why did I come to this city where I have neither friend nor acquaintance, no one to shake me by the hand and press me on the lip?' On awaking he sees neither city nor people, and realises that all his anguish and sorrow and regret were to no purpose. So he repents of that state he found himself in, realising that it was quite wasted. Next time he falls asleep he sees himself by chance in exactly such a city again, and begins to feel the same sorrow and anguish and regret. He repents of coming to such a city and does not think or remember, 'When I was awake I repented of fretting so and realised that my grief was quite wasted, that it was a dream and to no purpose.' That is exactly how things are. Men have seen a hundred thousand times their intentions and plans coming to nothing; nothing has proceeded in accordance with their desires. But God most High appoints oblivion to take charge of them so that they forget all that has happened, and once more follow their own ideas and wills. God stands between a man and his heart. Ibrahim son of Adham, upon whom be God's mercy, at the time when he was a king had gone out hunting. He galloped in the track of a deer, until he became entirely separated from his soldiers and chanced far away. His horse was covered with sweat and weary, but still he galloped on. When he had passed beyond bounds in that wilderness, the deer suddenly began to speak. Turning back its face, it said, 'You were not created for this. This being was not fashioned out of not-being so that you might hunt me. Even supposing you catch me, what will be the result of that?' When Ibrahim heard these words he cried aloud, and flung himself from the horse. There was no one in that desert apart from a shepherd. Ibrahim entreated him, saying, 'Take from me my royal robes encrusted with jewels, my arms and my horse, and give me your gown of coarse cloth, and tell no one, neither hint to any man what has passed with me.' He put on that rough gown and set out on his way. Now consider what his design was, and what his true objective proved to be! He desired to catch the deer; God most High caught him by means of the deer. So realise that in this world things happen as He wills, that His is the design and that the purpose is subject to Him. Before becoming a Muslim, 'Umar, God be well pleased with him, entered his sister's house. His sister was chanting from the Koran in a loud voice
When she saw her brother she hid the Koran, and became silent. 'Umar bared his sword saying, 'Surely tell me what you were reading and why you hid it, or this very instant I will chop off your head without quarter with the sword!' His sister feared greatly. Knowing his temper when angry and his fearfulness, in terror for her life she confessed, 'I was reading from these words which God most High revealed in this time to Muhammad, God bless him and give him peace.' 'Read on, so that I may hear,' said 'Umar. And she recited the whole of the Sura of Taha. 'Umar became furiously angry, his rage being such that he said, 'If I kill you this instant, that will be a killing of the defenceless. First I will go and cut off his head, then I will attend to you.' In the extremity of his anger, holding a naked sword 'Umar set off for the Prophet's mosque. The chieftains of Quraish, seeing him on the way, exclaimed, 'Ha, 'Umar is after Muhammad. Assuredly if anything is to be done, it will be done in this way.' For 'Umar was a mighty and powerful and manly man; any army he marched against he surely vanquished, exposing their decapitated heads; so much so, that the Prophet declared always, God bless him and give him peace, 'God, succour my religion by means of 'Umar or Abu Jahl.' For those two were famous in his time for strength and manliness and heroism. Afterwards, when 'Umar became a Muslim, he always used to weep and say, 'O Messenger of God, woe for me if you had given Abu Jahl precedence over me and said, "God, succour my religion by means of Abu Jahl or 'Umar." What then would have happened to me! I would have continued in error.' In short, he was on the way, with naked sword, making for the Prophet's mosque. Meanwhile Gabriel, upon whom be peace, revealed to Muhammad, God bless him and give him peace, 'Lo, Messenger of God, 'Umar is coming to convert to Islam. Take him to your bosom.' Just as 'Umar entered the door of the mosque, he saw as clear as clear that an arrow of light flew from Muhammad, upon whom be peace, and pierced his heart. He uttered a loud cry and fell down insensible. Love and passionate attachment manifested in his soul, and he would that he might dissolve into Muhammad in the extremity of his affection, and become effaced. He said, 'Now, Prophet of God, offer me the faith and speak that blessed word, that I may hear.' Having become a Muslim, he said, 'Now, in thanksgiving for having come against you with a naked sword and in expiation therefor, henceforward I will give quarter to no man whom I hear speaking improperly of you. With this sword I will strike his head apart from his body.' Coming out of the mosque, he suddenly encountered his father. His father said, 'You have changed religion.' Immediately he struck off his head, and walked on holding in his hand the bloodstained sword. The chieftains of Quraish, seeing the bloodstained sword, said, 'Well, you promised that you would bring his head. Where is his head?' Said 'Umar, 'Here it is!' One of them said, 'You fetched his head from here?' He answered, 'No. This is not that head. This is of the other side.' Now see what 'Umar proposed, and what God most High designed thereby. So you may realise that all affairs turn out as He desires.
So if they say to you also, 'What have you brought?' Say, 'We have brought the head.' If they say, 'We had seen this head,' say, 'No, this is not that head, this is another head.' The true head is that in which is a secret; otherwise, a thousand heads are not worth a penny. They chanted the following verse.
Abraham said, 'O God, since Thou hast honoured me with the robe of Thy approval and hast chosen me, vouchsafe this distinction to my seed also.' God most High declared:
That is to say, 'Those who are evildoers, they are not worthy of My robe of honour and distinction.' When Abraham realised that God most High extends not His loving care to the evildoers and the insolent, he made a bargain. He said, 'I God, those who believe and are not evildoers -- give them a portion of Thy provision and withhold it not from them.' God most High declared, 'My provision is common to all men, and all men shall have a share of it. All creatures enjoy their portion of the benefits of this guesthouse. But the robe of My approval and acceptance and the honour of ennoblement and distinction are the special portion of the elect and the chosen ones.' The literalists say that what is intended by this 'House' is the Kaaba. For all who take refuge in the Kaaba find security from all mischief; there it is forbidden to hunt for game, there malice may not be done to any man. God most High singled out that House for Himself. That is all perfectly true and excellent; but that is the literal interpretation of the Koran. The spiritualists for their part say that the 'House' is the inward part of a man; that is to say, 'God, free my inward part of temptation and carnal occupations and cleanse it of passions and corrupt and idle thoughts so that no fear may remain in it and security may ensue, so that it may become wholly the locus of Thy revelation, and no demon or devil or temptation may find a way into it.' Just as God most High has appointed meteors to watch over heaven, so as to prevent the accursed Satans from listening to the secrets of the angels, that none may become apprised of their secrets and that they may be far from all mischief. So this means, 'O God, do Thou likewise appoint the guardian of Thy loving care to watch over our inward part, to drive away from us the temptation of the Satans and the tricks of the carnal soul and desire.' Such is the statement of the esotericists and the spiritualists. Every man stirs from his own place. The Koran is a double-sided brocade. Some enjoy one side, and some the other. Both are true, inasmuch as God most High desires that both peoples should derive benefit from it. In the same way a woman has a husband and a suckling child; each enjoys her in a different way. The child's pleasure is in her breast and her milk; the husband's pleasure is in intercourse with her. Some men are infants of the Way; they take pleasure in the literal meaning of the Koran, and drink that milk. But those who have reached years of full discretion have another enjoyment and a different understanding of the inner meanings of the Koran. Abraham's station and place of prayer is a certain spot in the environments of the Kaaba where the literalists say two inclinations of prayer must be performed. This is excellent indeed, by Allah. But according to the spiritualists Abraham's station means you should cast yourself into the fire for God's sake, and bring yourself to this station by toiling and labouring in God's way, or nigh this station. A man has then sacrificed himself for the sake of God; that is to say, his self is no more of moment in his sight and he has ceased to tremble for himself. To perform two inclinations of prayer at Abraham's station is excellent; but let it be such a prayer that the standing is performed in this world, and the bowing in the other world. The meaning of the Kaaba is the heart of the prophets and the saints, which is the locus of God's revelation. The physical Kaaba is a branch of that. If it were not for the heart, of what use would the Kaaba be? The prophets and the saints have wholly forsaken their own desire, and are following the desire of God. So whatever He commands, that they do. To whomsoever God denies His loving care, be it even father or mother, to them they are indifferent; indeed in their eyes such a one is an enemy.
All that I say is a comparison, it is not a likeness. Comparison is one thing, and likeness is another. God most High has likened His Light to a lamp for the sake of comparison; the saints are likened to the glass of that lamp, also for the sake of comparison. God's Light is not contained in phenomenal being and space; how then should it be contained in a glass and a lamp? How should the orients of the Lights of Almighty God be contained in the heart? Yet when you seek after it, you find it in the heart; not as being a receptacle wherein that Light resides, but that you find that Light radiating from that place. In the same way you discover your image in the mirror; yet your image is not in the mirror, only when you look in the mirror you see yourself. When things appear unintelligible and are enunciated by means of a comparison, then they become intelligible; and when they become intelligible, they become sensible. Thus, you may say that when a man closes his eyes he sees wonderful things and observes sensible forms and shapes; when he opens his eyes he sees nothing. No man considers this intelligible or believes in it; but when you state the comparison then it becomes realised. How is this? It is like a man who sees in a dream a hundred thousand things, of which it is not possible that in his waking state he should see a single one. Or it is like an architect who conceives inwardly a picture of a house, complete with breadth and length and shape: this does not appear intelligible to anyone. But when he draws the plan of the house on paper, then it becomes visible; and being given definite form it becomes intelligible in every detail to anyone looking at it. Being intelligible, the architect then proceeds to build the house according to that design, and the house becomes sensible. Thus it is realised that all unintelligibles become intelligible and sensible through use of a comparison. So it is that they say that in the other world books will fly, some into the right hand and some into the left. There too are the angels, the Throne, Hell and Heaven, the Balance, the Reckoning, and the Book: none of these can be realised save through the propounding of a comparison. Though in the present world there is no likeness to any of these things, yet through comparison they become certified. The comparison of those things in this world is the following. By night all men sleep, cobbler alike and king, judge and tailor, and all the rest. From all of them their thoughts take wing, and no thought remains to any one of them. Then at dawn it is as though the blast of Israfil's trumpet brings to life the atoms of their bodies; the thoughts of each one of them, like the books in the next world, fly headlong towards each man without any mistake being made -- the tailor's thoughts to the tailor, the lawyer's thoughts to the lawyer, the blacksmith's thoughts to the blacksmith, the oppressor's thoughts to the oppressor, the thoughts of the just to the just. Does any man sleep through the night as a tailor and by day rise as a cobbler? No; for that was his work and preoccupation before, and he becomes occupied with that again. From this you may realise that the like obtains in the other world too, and that this is not absurd; in this world it actually happens. So if a man, by employing this comparison, reaches the end of the thread, he contemplates and sniffs out in this world all the circumstances which prevail in the other world; all are uncovered to him, so that he comes to realise that all things are comprised in God's omnipotence. Many are the bones you can see mouldering in the grave, yet enjoying a sweet repose and a drunken sleep, fully aware of that enjoyment and intoxication. These are no idle words, for men say, 'May the dust lie sweet on him!' If the dust had no awareness of sweetness, how would men say such a thing?
The comparison of this is actual in the world of sensible phenomena. Thus, two persons are sleeping on one mattress. One sees himself in the midst of a banquet, a rose-garden, Paradise; the other sees himself in the midst of snakes, the guardians of Hell, scorpions. If you investigate as between the two, you will see neither the one nor the other. Why then should it be thought so surprising that the parts of some men even in the tomb experience pleasure and repose and intoxication, whilst some are in pain and torment and agony, yet you can see neither this nor that? Hence it is realised that the unintelligible becomes intelligible through the use of a comparison. Comparison does not resemble likeness. Thus, the gnostic gives the name 'spring' to relaxation and happiness and expansion, and calls contraction and sorrow 'autumn': what formal resemblance is there between happiness and the spring, sorrow and the autumn? Yet this is a comparison without which the intellect cannot conceive and grasp that meaning. So it is that God most High declares:
God here has related faith to light and unbelief to shadows, or He has related faith to a delightful shade and unbelief to a burning and merciless sun boiling the brain. Yet what resemblance is there between the brightness and subtlety of faith and the light of this world of ours, or between the sordidness and gloom of unbelief and the darkness of our world? If any man falls asleep during the time when we are speaking, that slumber is not out of heedlessness but security. Thus, a caravan is travelling along a difficult and dangerous road in a dark night; they drive on in fear, lest harm should befall them from the enemy. As soon as the voice of a dog or a cock reaches their ears and they have come to the village they are carefree, and stretch out their legs and sleep sweetly. On the road, where there was no sound or murmur, they could not sleep for fear; in the village, where security obtains, for all the barking of dogs and crowing of cocks they are carefree and happy and fall asleep. Our words too come from habitation and security; they are the sayings of prophets and saints. When the spirits hear the words of their familiar friends they feel secure and are delivered from fear; for from these words is wafted to them the scent of hope and felicity. In like manner a man travelling along on a dark night in a caravan in the extremity of his fear thinks every moment that thieves have mingled with the caravan. He desires to hear the words of his fellow travellers, and to recognise them by their words. When he hears their words he feels secure. 'Say: O Muhammad, recite!' Because your essence is subtle, the glances do not attain you; when you speak, they discover that you are the familiar friend of their spirits and feel secure, and are at peace. So speak!
A certain creature inhabiting cornfields on account of its extreme smallness is invisible; but when it makes a sound, then people see it by means of the sound. That is, men are utterly immersed in the cornfield of this world, and your essence, because it is extremely subtle, is invisible. So speak, that they may recognise you. When you wish to go to a certain place, first your heart goes and sees and informs itself of the conditions prevailing there; then your heart returns and draws your body along. Now all these other men are as bodies in relation to the saints and the prophets, who are the heart of this world. First they journeyed to the other world, coming out of their human attributes, the flesh and the skin. They surveyed the depths and heights of that world and this and traversed all the stages, so that it became known to them how one must proceed on that way. Then they came back and summoned mankind, saying, 'Come to that original world! For this world is a ruin and a perishing abode, and we have discovered a delightful place, of which we tell you.' Hence it is realised that the heart in all circumstances is attached to the heart's beloved, and has no need to traverse the stages, no need to fear highwaymen, no need of the mule's packsaddle. It is the wretched body which is fettered to these things.
Wherever you are and in whatever circumstances you find yourself, strive always to be a lover, and a passionate lover at that. Once love has become your property you will be a lover always, in the grave, at the resurrection, and in Paradise for ever and ever. When you have sown wheat, wheat will assuredly grow, wheat will be in the stook, wheat will be in the oven. Majnun desired to write a letter to Laila. He took a pen in his hand and wrote these verses.
Your image dwells in my sight, your name is never off my tongue, your memory occupies the depths of my soul, so whither am I to write a letter, seeing that you go about in all these places? The pen broke, and the page was torn. Many a man there is whose heart is full of these words, only he cannot express them in terms of speech though he is a lover in quest and longing for this. This is not surprising, and this is no impediment to love; on the contrary, the root of the matter is the heart, and yearning and passion and love. Even so a child is in love with milk and from it derives succour and strength; yet the child cannot describe or define milk or give expression to it, saying, 'What pleasure I find in drinking milk and how weak and anguished I become through not drinking it,' for all that his soul is desirous and ardent for milk. The grown man on the other hand, though he describe milk in a thousand ways, yet finds no pleasure and takes no delight in milk. Discourse 45 What is the name of that youth? Saif al-Din ('Sword of the Faith'). The Master said: One cannot see a sword when it is in a scabbard. That man is truly the Sword of the Faith who fights for the faith and whose endeavours are wholly in God's cause, who reveals rectitude from error and distinguishes truth from falsehood. But first he fights with himself and improves his own character: 'Begin with yourself.' Likewise he directs all his moral counsels to himself, saying, 'After all, you are also a man. You have hands and feet, ears and understanding, eyes and a mouth. The prophets and saints too, who attained felicity and reached their goal -- they also were men and like me had reason and a tongue, hands and feet. Why then were they vouchsafed the way? Why was the door opened to them, and not to me?' Such a man boxes his own ears and night and day fights with himself, saying, 'What did you do, and what motion proceeded from you, that you are not accepted?' So he continues, until he becomes the Sword of God and the Tongue of Truth. For example, ten persons desire to enter a house. Nine find the way, and one remains outside and is not given the way. Certainly this person reflects inwardly and laments, saying, 'Why now, what did I do that they did not let me in? What lack of manners was I guilty of?' That man must attribute the fault to himself and recognise himself as remiss and lacking in manners. He should not say, 'This is what God does with me; what can I do? Such is His will; had He willed, He would have vouchsafed the way.' Such words are tantamount to abusing God and drawing the sword against God; in that sense he would be a Sword Against God, not the Sword of God. God most High is far too exalted to have kith and kin. He has not begotten, and has not been begotten. No man has ever found the way to Him save through servanthood. God is the All-sufficient; you are the needy ones. It is not feasible for you to say of the person who has found the way to God, 'He was more God's kin, more His familiar, more connected with Him than I.' So nearness to God is not to be attained save through servanthood. He is the Giver Absolute; He filled the skirt of the sea with pearls, He clothed the thorn in the raiment of the rose, He bestowed life and spirit upon a handful of dust, all out of pure disinterest and without any precedent. All the parts of the world have their share from Him. When a person hears that in a certain city there lives a generous man who bestows mighty gifts and favours, he will naturally go there in the hope of enjoying his share of that man's bounty. Since therefore God's bountifulness is so renowned and all the world is aware of His graciousness, why do you not beg of Him and hope to receive from Him a robe of honour and a rich gift? You sit in indolence saying, 'If He wills, He will give to me'; and so you importune Him not at all. The dog, which is not endowed with reason and comprehension, when it is hungry and has no bread comes up to you and wags its tail as if to say, 'Give me bread, I have no bread and you have bread.' That much discrimination it possesses. After all, you are not less than a dog, which is not content to sleep in the ashes and say, 'If he wills, he will give me bread of himself,' but entreats and wags its tail. So do you wag your tail, and desire and beg of God; for in the presence of such a Giver, to beg is mightily required. If you have no good fortune, ask for good fortune from One who is not niggardly, One who possesses great wealth. God is mightily nigh unto you. Every thought and idea that you conceive, thereto God is closely attached, for it is He who gives being to that idea and thought and presents them to you. Only He is so exceeding near that you cannot see Him. What is so strange in that? In every act you perform your reason is with you and initiates that action; yet you cannot see your reason. Though you see its effect, yet you cannot see its essence. For instance a man went to the baths and became hot. Wherever he may be as he goes round the baths, the fire is with him and he feels hot through the effect of the heat of the fire; yet he does not see the fire itself. When he comes out of the baths and sees the fire actually, and knows that people become hot through fire, he realises that the heat of the baths also came from the fire. The human being is also a huge bath, having within itself the heat of reason and spirit and soul. But when you depart from heat and proceed to the other world, then you see actually the essence of the reason and behold the essence of the soul and the spirit. You realise then that this cleverness was determined by the heat of the reason, those fallacies and pretences were derived from the soul, and life itself was the effect of the spirit. So you see precisely the essence of all three; but so long as you are in the bath you cannot see the fire sensibly, except through its effect. Take similarly the case of a man who has never seen running water. He is flung into water with his eyes bandaged. Something wet and soft strikes against his body, but he does not know what it is. When his eyes are unbandaged then he knows precisely that that was water. In the first place he knew it by its effect, now he sees its actual essence. Therefore beg of God, and demand what you need of Him, for your petition will not be in vain.
We were in Samarqand, and the Khvarizmshah had laid siege to Samarqand and deployed his army to the attack. In that quarter dwelt an exceedingly beautiful girl, so lovely that there was none the match of her in all the city. I heard her saying, 'O God, how canst Thou hold it allowable to deliver me into the hands of evildoers? Well I know that Thou wilt never permit that, and on Thee I rely.' When the city was sacked and all its inhabitants were taken into captivity, the maidservants of the woman were also taken into captivity. But she suffered no hurt; for all her extreme beauty, no man so much as cast eyes on her. From this you may realise that whosoever has once committed himself to God has become secure from all harm and remained in safety, and that the petition of no man in His presence was ever in vain. A certain dervish had taught his son, that whatever he asked for, his father would say, 'Ask it of God.' When he wept, and asked that thing of God, then that thing would be brought to him. The years passed thus. Then one day the child chanced to be alone in the house, and presently he hankered for some pottage. In the accustomed way he said, 'I want some pottage.' Suddenly a bowl of pottage materialised out of the unseen world, and the child ate to repletion. When his father and mother returned they said, 'Don't you want anything?' The child answered, 'I just asked for pottage and ate.' His father said, 'Praise be to God, that you have got so far and your confidence and reliance upon God has grown so strong!' When the mother of Mary bore Mary, she vowed to God to dedicate her to the House of God and not to do anything for her; she left her in a corner of the Temple. Zachariah demanded to look after the child. Everyone requested to do the same. A dispute sprang up between them. Now in that time it was the custom that each party to a dispute should throw a stick into water; the one whose stick floated was deemed to prevail. It so happened that Zachariah's lot was the right one. They said, 'He has the right.' So every day Zachariah brought food to the child, and always found the very match of it in the corner of the mosque. He said, 'Mary, after all I am in charge of you. Whence do you get this?' Mary said, 'Whenever I feel the need of food, whatever I request God most High sends to me. His bounty and compassion are infinite; whosoever relies on Him, his trust is not in vain.' Zachariah said, 'O God, since Thou allowest every man's need, I also have a desire. Do Thou grant it me, and give me a son who shall be Thy friend, who without my prompting shall consort with Thee and be occupied with obedience to Thee.' God most High brought John into being, after his father was bent and feeble, and his mother too, who had not borne any child whilst she was young, being now of great age again had her course and became pregnant. From this you may realise that all these things are but an occasion for the display of God's omnipotence; that all things are of Him, and that His decree is absolute in all things. The believer is he who knows that behind this wall there is Someone who is apprised of all our circumstances, one by one, and who sees us though we see Him not; of this the believer is certain. Contrary is the case of him who says, 'No, this is all a tale,' and does not believe. The day will come when God will box his ears; then he will be sorry, and will say, 'Alas, I spoke evil and erred. Indeed, all was He; and I denied Him.' For instance, you know that I am behind the wall, and you are playing the rebeck. Undoubtedly you attend and do not stop, for you are a rebeck player. Prayer is not ordained so that all the day you should be standing and bowing and prostrating; its purpose is, that it is necessary that that spiritual state which possesses you visibly when you are at prayer should be with you always. Whether sleeping or waking, whether writing or reading, in all circumstances you should not be free from God's hand, so that They continue at their prayers will apply also to you. So that speaking and keeping silent, that sleeping and eating, that being enraged and forgiving -- all those attributes are the turning of a water-mill which revolves. Undoubtedly this revolving of the mill is by means of the water, because it has made trial of itself also without any water. So if the water-mill considers that turning to proceed from itself, that is the very acme of foolishness and ignorance. Now this revolving takes place within a narrow space, for such are the circumstances of this material world. Cry unto God, saying, 'O God, grant to me, instead of my present journey and revolving, another revolving which shall be spiritual; seeing that all needs are fulfilled by Thee, and Thy bounty and compassion are universal over all creatures.' So represent your needs constantly, and never be without the remembrance of Him. For the remembrance of Him is strength and feathers and wings to the bird of the spirit. If that purpose is wholly realised, that is Light upon Light. By the remembrance of God, little by little the inward heart becomes illumined and your detachment from the world is realised. For instance, just as a bird desires to fly into heaven, though it does not reach the heaven, yet every moment it rises farther from the earth and outsoars the other birds. Or for instance, some musk is in a box, and the lid of the box is narrow; you insert your hand into the box but cannot extract the musk, yet for all that your hand becomes perfumed, and your nostrils are gratified. So too is the remembrance of God: though you do not attain the Essence of God, yet the remembrance of Almighty God leaves its mark on you, and great benefits are procured from the recollection of Him. Discourse 46 Shaikh Ibrahim is a noble dervish; when we see him, we are reminded of our beloved friends. Our Master Shams al-Din, who was greatly favoured by God, used always to say to the dervishes 'Our Shaikh Ibrahim,' relating him to himself. Divine favour is one thing, and personal effort is something other. The prophets did not attain the degree of prophethood through personal effort; they found that felicity through Divine favour. But it is the way of the prophets, that whoso attains that station lives a life of personal effort and virtue; that moreover is for the sake of the common people, that they may put reliance on them and their words. For the gaze of ordinary men does not penetrate into the inward heart. They see only externals; and when the common folk follow after the external, through the mediumship and blessing of the external they find the way to the internal. After all, Pharaoh too made a great personal effort in the way of bounty and charity and the dissemination of good; but since the Divine favour was not present, inevitably his obedience and personal effort and beneficence had no lustre and all his generous actions remained hidden. Similarly a military commander in charge of a fortress is kind and generous to the people in that fortress. His object is to throw off allegiance to the king and to become a rebel. Inevitably his beneficence is without all worth and lustre. Nevertheless one cannot entirely deny God's favour to Pharaoh. It may be that God most High favoured him secretly, causing him to be rejected for a good purpose. For a king is both vengeful and gracious; he both bestows robes of honour and consigns to prison. The spiritualists do not deny God's favour to Pharaoh altogether. The literalists however consider him to be a man wholly rejected; and that is beneficial, for the proper maintenance of external proprieties. The king puts a man on the gallows, and he is hung up in a high place in the presence of the assembled people. He could also suspend him indoors, hidden from the people, by a low nail; but it is necessary that the people should see and take warning, and that the execution of the king's decree and the carrying out of his order should be visible. After all, not every gallows consists of wood. High rank and worldly fortune are also a gallows, and a mighty high one. When God most High desires to chastise a man, he bestows on him high rank in the world and a great kingdom, as in the cases of Pharaoh and Nimrod and the like. All those eminent positions are as a gallows on which God most High puts them, so that all the people may gaze upon it. For God most High declares, 'I was a hidden treasure, and I desired to be known': that is to say; 'I created all the world, and the object of all that was to reveal Myself, now gracious, now vengeful.' God is not the kind of king for whom one herald is sufficient. If every atom in the world should become a herald, they would be yet incapable of proclaiming His qualities adequately. So all men day and night are forever revealing God; except that some are aware and know that they are revealing Him, whilst some are unaware. Whichever the case may be, the revelation of God is certain. It is like when a prince orders a man to be beaten and taught a lesson. The victim shouts and screams; yet both are manifesting the prince's authority. Though the man being punished shouts with the pain, everyone realises that both beater and beaten are under the prince's authority; through both of them the prince's authority is clearly revealed. The man who acknowledges God is revealing God continually; the man who denies God is also revealing God. For it is unimaginable to establish a thing without denial; moreover it would be wholly without pleasure and relish. Thus, a controversialist proposes a motion at a meeting; if there is no one to oppose him and to say 'I do not agree' what does his affirmation amount to, and what savour is there in his point? For affirmation is pleasant only in the face of negation. In the same way this world too is a meeting for the declaration of God. Without a proposer and an opposer the meeting would lack all lustre. Both serve to declare God. The brothers attended on the Commandant. The Commandant flew into a rage against them, saying, 'What are you all doing here?' They answered, 'We do not jabber and crowd together in order to annoy anyone. We do this to help one another to carry our burdens patiently and to assist one another.' In the same way people gather together at a wake; their object is not to drive Death away, but to console the bereaved party and to make him forget his grief. 'The believers are as it were a single soul.' The dervishes are in the situation of a single body; if one of the members feels pain, all the other parts are distressed. The eye gives up its seeing, the ear its hearing, the tongue its speaking; all assemble in that one place. The condition of true friendship is to sacrifice oneself for one's friend, to plunge oneself into tumult for the friend's sake. For all are directed towards one and the same thing; all are drowned in one and the same sea. That is the effect of faith, and the condition of Islam. What is the load which they carry with their bodies compared with the load which they carry with their souls?
When the believer sacrifices himself to God, why should he give a thought to distress and danger, to hand and foot? Since he is travelling to God, what need has he of hands and feet? God gave you hands and feet that you might travel from Him to these parts; but when you are travelling to Him who fashions feet and hands, if you lose control of your hands and stumble on your feet, and like Pharaoh's sorcerers go without hands and feet, what cause for grief is that?
And God knows best. Discourse 47 God most High wills both good and evil, but only approves the good. For He said, 'I was a hidden treasure, and I desired to be known.' God most High undoubtedly wills to command and to prohibit. Commandment is only valid when the person commanded is by nature averse to what he is commanded to do. One does not say, 'Hungry one, eat sweetness and sugar': if these words are said, that is called not a commandment but a benefaction. Prohibition too does not rightly apply in the case of a thing which the man dislikes on his own account. One does not say, 'Don't eat the stone, don't eat the thorn': if these words were said, that would not be called a prohibition. For commandment to do good and prohibition against evil rightly to apply one cannot dispense with a soul desiring evil. To will the existence of such a soul is to will evil. But God does not approve of evil, otherwise He would not have commanded the good. This is parallel to the case of a man who desires to teach: he desires that the pupil should be ignorant, for one cannot teach except when the pupil is ignorant. To desire a thing is to desire the prerequisites of that thing. But the teacher does not approve of the pupil's ignorance, otherwise he would not teach him. Again, the doctor desires that people should be ill, since he desires to practise his medicine; and he cannot display his medical skill unless people are ill. But he does not approve of people being ill, otherwise he would not attend them and treat them. Similarly the baker desires that people should be hungry, so that he may ply his trade and earn his living; but he does not approve of their being hungry, otherwise he would not sell bread. For the same reason commanders and cavalry desire that their king should have an opponent and an enemy; otherwise their manly virtue and their love for the king would not be manifested, and the king would not muster them, not having need of them. But they do not approve of the king's opponent, otherwise they would not fight. Similarly a man desires the provocations to evil within himself, because God loves him who is grateful, obedient and god fearing, and that is not possible without the existence of those provocations within himself; and to desire a thing is to desire its prerequisites. But he does not approve of those provocations, for he struggles hard to banish these things from himself. Hence it is realised that God wills evil in one way, and does not will it in another way. The opponent says, 'God does not will evil in any way whatever.' That is impossible, that He should will a thing and not will its prerequisites. Amongst the prerequisites of God's commandment and prohibition is this headstrong soul in man which by nature longs for evil, and by nature runs away from good. The prerequisites of such a soul are all the evils that exist in this material world. Did God not will these evils, He would not have willed the soul; and if He did not will the soul, He would not will the commandment and prohibition which are attached to the soul. If however God had approved those evils, He would not have issued commandments and prohibitions to the soul. This proves that evil is willed for the sake of something other. The opponent then says, 'If God wills all good, and amongst such good things is the averting of evil, therefore He desires the averting of evil' -- and evil cannot be averted unless evil exists. Or he says, 'God wills faith' -- and faith cannot exist except after unbelief, so that unbelief is a prerequisite of faith. The upshot is that the willing of evil is only reprehensible when it is willed for its own sake; when it is willed for the sake of some good, then it is not reprehensible. God most High has said:
There is no doubt that retaliation is evil, being a destruction of the edifice of God most High. But this is a partial evil, whereas the guarding of the people from killing is a total good. To will the partial evil for the sake of willing the total good is not reprehensible; whilst the partial abandonment of God's will, whilst approving total evil, is reprehensible. This is like the mother who does not desire to chide her child, because she is regarding the partial evil; whereas the father approves of chiding the child, having regard to the total evil, to nip the trouble in the bud. God most High is All-pardoning, All-forgiving, Terrible in retribution. Does He will that different epithets should be true of Him or not? The answer cannot be other than 'yes.' Now He cannot be All-pardoning and All-forgiving without the existence of sins; and to will a thing is to will its prerequisites. Similarly He has commanded us to be forgiving, and He has commanded us to make peace and ensue it; and this commandment has no meaning without the existence of enmity. This is paralleled by the pronouncement of Sadr al-Islam, that God most High has commanded us to earn and to acquire wealth, because He has said
Now it is impossible to expend money except by means of money; therefore it is a commandment to acquire money. When a man says to another man, 'Arise and pray,' he thereby commands him to perform the ritual ablution, and to acquire water and all the prerequisites. Gratitude is a hunting and a shackling of benefits. When you hear the voice of gratitude, you get ready to give more. When God loves a servant He afflicts him; if he endures with fortitude, He chooses him; if he is grateful, He elects him. Some men are grateful to God for His wrathfulness and some are grateful to Him for His graciousness. Each of the two classes is good; for gratitude is a sovereign antidote, changing wrath into grace. The intelligent and perfect man is he who is grateful for harsh treatment, both openly and in secret; for it is he whom God has elected. If God's will be the bottom reach of Hell, by gratitude His purpose is hastened. For outward complaining is a diminution of inward complaining. Muhammad said, peace be upon him, 'I laugh as I slay.' That means, 'My laughing in the face of him who is harsh to me is a slaying of him.' The intention of laughter is gratitude in the place of complaining. It is related that a certain Jew lived next door to one of the Companions of God's messenger. This Jew lived in an upper room, whence descended into the Muslim's apartment all kinds of dirt and filth, the piddle of his children, the water his clothes were washed in. Yet the Muslim always thanked the Jew, and bade his family do the same. So things continued for eight years, until the Muslim died. Then the Jew entered his apartment, to condole with the family, and saw all the filth there, and how it issued from his upper room. So he realised what had happened during the past years, and was exceedingly sorry, and said to the Muslim's household, 'Why on earth didn't you tell me? Why did you always thank me?' They replied, 'Our father used to bid us be grateful, and chided us against ceasing to be grateful.' So the Jew became a believer.
For this reason God has mentioned in the Koran His prophets and those of His servants who were righteous, and thanked them for what they did unto Him who is All-powerful and All-forgiving. Gratitude for sucking the breast is a blessing. Though the breast be full, until you suck it the milk does not flow. Someone asked: What is the cause of ingratitude, and what is it that prevents gratitude? The Master answered: The preventer of gratitude is inordinate greed. For whatever a man may get, he was greedy for more than that. It was inordinate greed that impelled him to that, so that when he got less than what he had set his heart upon his greed prevented him from being grateful. So he was heedless of his own defect, and heedless also of the defect and adulteration of the coin he proffered. Raw and inordinate greed is like eating raw fruit and raw bread and raw meat; inevitably it generates sickness and begets ingratitude. When a man realises that he has eaten something unwholesome, a purge becomes necessary. God most High in His wisdom makes him suffer through ingratitude so that he may be purged and rid of that corrupt conceit, lest that one sickness become a hundred sicknesses.
That is to say: We made provision for them from whence they had never reckoned, namely the unseen world, so that their gaze shrinks from beholding the secondary causes, which are as it were partners to God. It was in this sense that Abu Yazid said, 'Lord, I have never associated any with Thee.' God most High said, 'O Abu Yazid, not even on the night of the milk? You said one night, "The milk has done me harm." It is I who do harm, and benefit.' Abu Yazid had looked at the secondary cause, so that God reckoned him a polytheist and said, 'It is I who do harm, after the milk and before the milk; but I made the milk for a sin, and the harm for a correction such as a teacher administers.' When the teacher says, 'Don't eat the fruit,' and the pupil eats it, and the teacher beats him on the sole of his foot, it is not right for the pupil to say, 'I ate the fruit and it hurt my foot.' On this basis, whoso preserves his tongue from ascribing partners to God, God undertakes to cleanse his spirit of the weeds of polytheism. A little with God is much. The difference between giving praise and giving thanks is that thanks are given for benefits received. One does not say, 'I gave thanks to him for his beauty and his bravery.' Praisegiving is more general. Discourse 49 A certain person was leading the prayers, and he chanted:
By chance a Bedouin chieftain was present. He gave the chanter a good box on the ears. In the second genuflection he chanted:
The Bedouin exclaimed, 'Ha, that slap has taught you better manners!' Every moment we receive a slap from the unseen world. Whatever we propose to do, we are kept away from it by a slap and we take another course. As the saying goes, 'We have no power of our own, it is all a swallowing up and a vomiting.' It is also said, 'It is easier to cut the joints than to cut a connexion.' The meaning of 'swallowing' is descending into this lower world and becoming one of its people; the meaning of 'vomiting' is dropping out of the heart. For instance, a man eats some food and it turns sour in his stomach, and he vomits it. If that food had turned sour and he had not vomited it, it would have become a part of the man. Even so a disciple courts and dances service so as to find a place in the heart of the shaikh. Anything issuing from the disciple (God be our refuge!) which displeases the shaikh and is cast forth out of his heart is like the food which the man eats and then vomits. Just as that food would have become a part of the man, and because it was sour he vomited it and cast it forth, so that disciple with the passage of time would have become the shaikh, and because of his displeasing conduct he cast him out of his heart.
In that wind of indifference the atoms of the ashes of those hearts are dancing and making lament. If they are not so, then who ever conveyed these tidings and who is it that every moment anew brings these tidings? And if the hearts do not perceive their very life to consist in that burning up and spurning to the wind, how is it that they are so eager to be burned? As for those hearts which have been burned up in the fire of worldly lusts and become ashes, do your hear any sound or see any lustre of them?
'Right well I know the rule of God's providing man's daily bread. It is no rule of mine to run about hither and thither to no purpose and to exert myself needlessly. Truly, when I renounce all thought of silver and food and raiment and the fire of lust, my daily portion will come to me. But when I run after those daily portions, the quest of them pains and wearies me and distresses me; if I sit in my own place with patience, that will come to me without pain and distress. For that daily portion is also seeking after me and drawing me; when it cannot draw me it comes to me, just as when I cannot draw it I go after it.' The upshot of these words is this: occupy yourself with the affairs of the world to come, that the world itself may run after you. The meaning of 'sitting' in this context is sitting in application to the affairs of the world to come. If a man runs, when he runs for the sake of the world to come he is truly seated; if he is seated, if he is seated for the sake of the present world he is running. The Prophet, upon whom be peace, said, 'Whosoever makes all his cares a single care, God will suffice him as to all his other cares.' If a man is beset by ten cares, let him choose the care for the world to come and God most High will put right for him those other nine cares without any effort on his part. The prophets cared nothing for fame and daily bread. Their only care was to seek God's approval; and they attained both daily bread and fame. Whosoever seeks God's good pleasure, such men in this world and the next will be with the prophets and be their bedfellows.
What place indeed is there for this, seeing that they are sitting with God Himself? 'I sit with him who remembers Me.' Did God not sit with him, the yearning for God would never enter his heart. The scent of the rose never exists without the rose; the scent of musk never exists without the musk. There is no end to these words; if there were an end to them, yet they would not be as other words.
The night and darkness of this world passes away, and the light of these words every moment becomes clearer. Even so the night of the life of the prophets departed, peace be upon them, yet the light of their discourse departed not and came not to an end, nor ever will. People said about Majnun, 'If he loves Laila, what is so strange in that, seeing that they were children together and went to the same school?' Majnun said, 'These men are fools. What pretty woman is not desirable?' Is there any man whose heart is not stirred by a lovely woman? Women are the same. It is love by which a man's heart is fed and finds savour; just as the sight of mother and father and brother, the pleasure of children, the pleasure of lust -- all kinds of delight are rooted in love. Majnun was an example of all lovers, just as in grammar Zaid and 'Amr are quoted.
'This world is as the dream of a sleeper.' This world and its delights is as though a man has eaten a thing whilst asleep. So for him to desire worldly needs is as if he desired something whilst sleeping and was given it; in the end, when he is awake, he will not be profited by what he ate whilst asleep'. So he will have asked for something whilst asleep, and have been given it. 'The present is proportionate to the request.' Discourse 50 Someone said: We have got to know all the circumstances of man one by one, and not so much as a single hair-tip of his temperament and nature, his hot and cold humours, has escaped our notice. Yet it has not become known, what thing it is in him that will survive. The Master said: If the knowledge of that were attainable merely out of what other men have said, there would not be any necessity for such varied labours and efforts, and no one would put himself to such pains and sacrifice himself to the enquiry. Thus to illustrate: a man comes to the sea, and sees nothing but salt water, sharks and fishes. He says, 'Where is this pearl they speak about? Perhaps there isn't any pearl.' How should the pearl be attained merely by looking at the sea? Even were he to measure out the sea cup by cup a hundred thousand times, he will never find the pearl. A diver is needed to discover the pearl, and even then not every diver: a diver who is both lucky and nimble. These sciences and arts are like measuring the ocean with a cup. To find the pearl calls for a different kind of approach. Many a man there is, adorned with every skill, wealthy and handsome to boot; yet this vital quality is not in him. Many a man there is who is outwardly a wreck, who has neither good looks nor elegance of speech nor eloquence, yet there is in him that vital element which is immortal. It is by that element that man is ennobled and honoured, and by means of that he is superior to all other creatures. Leopards and crocodiles, lions and the rest of creatures, all have their peculiar skills and accomplishments; but that vital element which will survive for ever is not in them. If a man discovers that element, he has attained the secret of his own pre-excellence; if not, he remains without portion of that pre-excellence. All these arts and accomplishments are like setting jewels on the back of a mirror. The face of the mirror is destitute of them. The face of the mirror must be crystal clear. He who has an ugly face is eager for the back of the mirror, for the face of the mirror tells out every dark secret. He who has a handsome face seeks the face of the mirror with all his soul, for the face of the mirror displays his own comeliness. A friend of Joseph of Egypt came to him from a far journey. Joseph asked, 'What present have you brought for me?' The friend replied, 'What is there that you do not possess and of which you are in need? But inasmuch as nothing exists more handsome than you, I have brought a mirror so that every moment you may gaze in it upon your own face.' What is there that God most High does not possess and of which He is in need? It is necessary to bring before God most High a heart mirror-bright, so that He may see His own face in it. 'God looks not at your forms, nor at your deeds, but at your hearts.'
'A city in which you find everything that you desire, handsome people, pleasures, all that the natural man craves for, ornaments of every kind, but you find not one intelligent man there. Would that it had been the very opposite of this!' That city is the human being. If there be in him a hundred thousand accomplishments but not that essential element, better it were that that city were in ruins. But if that essential element is there, though there be no outward ornament, that matters not; his secret heart must be well furnished. In every state whatsoever his secret heart is occupied with God; and that outward preoccupation hinders not his inward occupation. In the same way, in whatever state a pregnant woman finds herself, at peace or at war, sleeping or eating, the child in her womb grows all the time and receives strength and sensation, whilst the mother is wholly unaware of that. Man too is carrying that secret.
But God most High does not leave him in sin and foolishness. Out of the physical human burden, companionship and concord and a thousand familiar friendships come. If out of that secret which man is carrying friendships and acquaintanceships also come, what is there so strange in that? What things will rise out of him after death? The secret heart must be well furnished. For the secret heart is like the root of a tree; though it is hidden, its influence is apparent on the tips of the branches. If a branch or two is broken, when the root is firm they will grow again; but if the root is damaged, neither bough nor leaf remains. God most High said, 'Peace be upon thee, Prophet!' That is to say, 'Peace is upon thee and upon everyone who is thy congener.' If this had not been the intention of God most High, Muhammad would not have countered Him and said, 'Upon us and upon all God's righteous servants.' For if 'peace' had been intended solely for him, he would not have assigned it to righteous servants; meaning, 'That peace which Thou gavest me rests on me and on all righteous servants who are my congeners.' So too the Prophet said at the time of making ablution, 'Prayer is not perfect save with this ablution.' The meaning is not that ablution specifically, otherwise it must follow that no man's prayer would ever be perfect; the condition of the soundness of the prayer would be solely the Prophet's ablution. The true intention is, that whoever performs the like of this ablution, his prayer is perfect. Similarly it may be said, 'This is a bowl of pomegranate flowers.' What does that mean? Does it mean, 'These only are pomegranate flowers'? No indeed; it means, 'This is the like of pomegranate flowers.' A countryman came to town and became the guest of a townsman. The townsman brought him halwa, which the countryman ate with gusto. The countryman said, 'O townsman, night and day I have learned to eat carrots. Now that I have tasted halwa, the pleasure of eating carrots has shrunk away in my eyes. Now I shall not find halwa every time, and that which I formerly had has become unattractive to my heart. What am I to do?' When the countryman has tasted halwa, thereafter he yearns after the town; for the townsman has carried his heart away, so willy-nilly he comes looking for his heart. Some men there are who, when they give greeting, the smell of smoke comes from their greeting. Some there are who, when they give greeting, the smell of musk comes from their greeting. It is the man with sensitive nostrils who smells the odour. A man must make trial of his friend, that in the end he may not have cause to regret. This is God's rule also: 'Begin with yourself.' If the self makes claim to servanthood, do not accept its claim without making trial of it. In the act of ablution men first convey the water to the nose, and then they taste it; they are not satisfied simply to look at it. For it may be that the appearance of the water is perfectly good, but the taste and smell of it are infected. This is an examination to test the purity of the water. Then, after the test has been completed, men apply the water to their faces. Whatever you keep hidden in your heart, be it good or evil, God most High makes it manifest in you outwardly. Whatever the root of a tree feeds on in secret, its effect becomes manifest in the bough and the leaf.
God most High also says:
If everyone is not to see into your thoughts, what colour are you going to make your face?
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