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5
1239-1263

  • Learn these ways of acting from the Friend of God (Abraham), who first renounced his father,
  • That in the presence of God you may become (one of those who) hate for God's sake, lest the jealousy of (Divine) Love take offence at you. 1240
  • Until you recite “(There is) not (any god)” and “except Allah,” you will not find the plain track of this Way.
  • Story of the lover who was recounting to his beloved his acts of service and loyalty and the long nights (during which) their sides heave up from their beds and the long days of want and parching thirst; and he was saying, “I know not any service besides these: if there is any other service (to be done), direct me, for I submit to whatever thou mayst command, whether to enter the fire, like Khalíl (Abraham), on whom be peace, or fall into the mouth of the leviathan of the sea, like Jonah, on whom be peace, or be killed seventy times, like Jirjís (St George), on whom be peace, or be made blind by weeping, like Shu‘ayb, on whom be peace; and the loyalty and self-sacrifice of the prophets cannot be reckoned”; and how the beloved answered him.
  • A certain lover in the presence of his beloved was recounting his services and works,
  • Saying, “For thy sake I did such and such, in this war I suffered (wounds from) arrows and spears.
  • Wealth is gone and strength is gone and fame is gone: on account of my love for thee many a misfortune has befallen me.
  • No dawn found me asleep or laughing; no eve found me with capital and means.” 1245
  • What he had tasted of bitters and dregs he was recounting to her in detail, point by point,
  • Not for the sake of reproach; nay, he was displaying a hundred testimonies of the trueness of his love.
  • For men of reason a single indication is enough, (but) how should the thirst (longing) of lovers be removed thereby?
  • He (the lover) repeats his tale unweariedly: how should a fish be satisfied with (mere) indication (so as to refrain) from the limpid water?
  • He (the lover), from that ancient grief, was speaking a hundred words in complaint, saying, “I have not spoken a word.” 1250
  • There was a fire in him: he did not know what it was, but on account of its heat he was weeping like a candle.
  • The beloved said, “Thou hast done all this, yet open thine ear wide and apprehend well;
  • For thou hast not done what is the root of the root of love and fealty: this that thou hast done is (only) the branches.”
  • The lover said to her, “Tell me, what is that root?” She said, “The root thereof is to die and be naught.
  • Thou hast done all (else), (but) thou hast not died, thou art living. Hark, die, if thou art a self-sacrificing friend!” 1255
  • Instantly he laid himself at full length (on the ground) and gave up the ghost: like the rose, he played away his head (life), laughing and rejoicing.
  • That laughter remained with him as an endowment unto everlasting, like the untroubled spirit and reason of the gnostic.
  • How should the light of the moon ever become defiled, though its light strike on everything good and evil?
  • Pure of all (defilements) it returns to the moon, even as the light of the spirit and reason (returns) unto God.
  • The quality of purity is an endowment (settled) on the light of the moon, though its radiance is (falling) on the defilements of the way. 1260
  • Malignity does not accrue to the light of the moon from those defilements of the way or from pollution.
  • The light of the sun heard (the call) Return! and came back in haste to its source.
  • No disgrace remained with it from the ashpits, no colour remained with it from the rose-gardens.