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5
1428-1452

  • You craved all and you lost all: this foolish flock are the prey of wolves.
  • Having heard a form (of words), you have become its expounder, (though) ignorant of (the meaning of) your words— like parrots.
  • The instruction given by a Shaykh to disciples, or by a prophet to a people, who are unable to receive the Divine lesson and have no familiar acquaintance with God, may be compared with the case of a parrot which has no such acquaintance with the (inward) form of a man, so that it should be able to receive instruction (directly) from him. God most High holds the Shaykh in front of the disciple, as the mirror (is held) in front of the parrot, while He (Himself) dictates from behind the mirror, saying, “Do not move thy tongue to hasten it (the Revelation); it is naught but an inspiration that is inspired (by God).” This is the beginning of an endless problem. When the parrot, which ye call the image, moves its beak in the mirror, the movement is not (made) by its own volition and power: it is the reflexion of the (movement made in) articulation by the parrot outside, which is the learner; not the reflexion of (the movement made by) the Teacher behind the mirror; but the external parrot's articulation is controlled by the Teacher. This, then, is (only) a comparison, not a (complete) similitude.
  • A parrot sees its reflexion (image) facing it in the mirror. 1430
  • The teacher is concealed behind the mirror: that sweet-tongued well-instructed man is talking.
  • The little parrot thinks that these words uttered in low tones are spoken by the parrot in the mirror.
  • Therefore it learns (human) speech from one of its own kind, being unaware of the cunning of that old wolf.
  • He is teaching it behind the mirror; otherwise (it would not talk, for) it does not learn except from its congeners.
  • It (really) learned to talk from that accomplished man, but it is ignorant of his meaning and mystery. 1435
  • It received speech, word by word, from Man; (but) what should the little parrot know of Man except this?
  • Similarly, the disciple full (of egoism) sees himself in the mirror of the Shaykh's body.
  • How should he see Universal Reason behind the mirror at the time of speech and discourse?
  • He supposes that a man is speaking; and the other (Universal Reason) is a mystery of which he is ignorant.
  • He learns the words, but the eternal mystery he cannot know, for he is a parrot, not a boon-companion. 1440
  • Likewise, people learn the note of birds, for this speech (of birds) is an affair of the mouth and throat;
  • But (all are) ignorant of the birds' meaning, except an august Solomon of goodly insight.
  • Many learned the language of (true) dervishes and gave lustre therewith to the pulpit and assembly-place.
  • Either nothing was bestowed upon them except those (formal) expressions, or at last (the Divine) mercy came and revealed the (right) way.
  • A mystic saw a bitch big with young, in whose womb the young were barking. He remained in amazement, saying, “The reason of a dog's barking is to keep watch (against strangers): to bark in the mother's womb is not (for the purpose of) keeping watch; and, again, barking may be a call for help, or its cause may be a desire for milk, etc.; and there is no such purpose in this case.” When he came to himself, he made supplication to God—and none knoweth the interpretation thereof except Allah. Answer came: “It represents the state of a party who pretend to (spiritual) insight and utter (mystical) sayings without having come forth from the veil (of materiality) and before the eyes of their hearts have been opened. Thence neither to themselves do strength and support accrue, nor to their hearers any guidance and right direction.”
  • During a chila (forty days' religious seclusion), a certain man dreamed that he saw a bitch big with young on a road. 1445
  • Suddenly he heard the cry of puppies: the puppies were in the womb, invisible.
  • The yelps astonished him exceedingly: (he wondered) how the puppies called out in the womb.
  • Puppies howling in the womb—“has any one,” (he thought), “ever seen this in the world?”
  • When he sprang up from his dream and came to himself, his perplexity was increasing at every moment.
  • During the chila there was none by whom the knot should be untied except the Presence of God Almighty and Glorious. 1450
  • He said, “O Lord, on account of this difficulty and debate I am deprived of recollection (dhikr) of Thee during the chila.
  • Loose my wings, that I may soar and enter the garden of recollection and the apple-orchard (of gnosis).”