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1
2701-2750

  • For the testimony that consisted of talk and show was (ever) invalidated before that Supreme Judge.
  • He requires truth (veracity) as witness to his (the indigent man's) state, so that his (inner) light shall shine forth (and proclaim his indigence) without any words of his.”
  • How the Arab carried a jug of rain-water from the midst of the desert as a gift to the Commander of the Faithful at Baghdád, in the belief that in that town also there was a scarcity of water.
  • The wife said, “When with all thy might thou dost (endeavour to) rise up entirely purged of self-existence—that is veracity.
  • We have the rain-water in the jug: ’tis thy property and capital and means.
  • Take this jug of water and depart, make it a gift and go into the presence of the King of kings. 2705
  • Say, ‘We have no means except this: in the desert there is nothing better than this water.’
  • If his treasury is full of splendid merchandise, (yet) he will have no water like this: ’tis rare.”
  • What is that jug? Our confined body: within it is the briny water of our senses.
  • O Lord, accept this jar and jug of mine by the grace of “God hath purchased (from the believers their lives and wealth in return for Paradise).”
  • (’Tis) a jug with five spouts, the five senses: keep this water pure (and safe) from every filth, 2710
  • That there may be from this jug a passage to the sea, and that my jug may assume the nature of the sea,
  • So that when you carry it as a gift to the King, the King may find it pure and be its purchaser;
  • (And) after that, its water will become without end: a hundred worlds will be filled from my jug.
  • Stop up its spouts and keep it filled (with water) from the jar (of Reality): God said, “Close your eyes to vain desire.”
  • His (the husband's) beard was full of wind (he was puffed up with pride): “Who (thought he) has such a gift as this? This, truly, is worthy of a King like him.” 2715
  • The wife did not know that in that place (Baghdád) on the thoroughfare there is running the Tigris (whose water is) sweet as sugar,
  • Flowing like a sea through the city, full of boats and fishing-nets.
  • Go to the Sultan and behold this pomp and state! Behold the senses of (those for whom God hath prepared gardens) beneath which the rivers flow!
  • Our senses and perceptions, such as they are, are (but) a single drop in that pure river.
  • How the Arab's wife sewed the jug of rain-water in a felt cloth and put a seal on it because of the Arab's utter conviction (that it was a precious gift for the King).
  • “Yes,” said the husband, “stop up the mouth of the jug. Take care, for this is a gift that will bring us profit. 2720
  • Sew this jug in felt, that the King may break his fast with our gift,
  • For there is no (water) like this in all the world: it is naught but pure wine and the source of pleasures (to the taste).”
  • (This he said) because they (people like him) are always full of infirmity and half-blind from (drinking) bitter and briny waters.
  • The bird whose dwelling-place is the briny water, how should it know where to find in it the clear (and sweet) water?
  • O thou whose abode is in the briny spring, how shouldst thou know the Shatt and the Jayhún and the Euphrates? 2725
  • O thou who hast not escaped from this fleeting caravanseray (the material world), how shouldst thou know (the meaning of) “self-extinction” and (mystical) “intoxication” and “expansion”?
  • And if thou knowest, ’tis (by rote, like the knowledge) handed down to thee from father and grandfather: to thee these names are like abjad.
  • How plain and evident to all children are abjad and hawwaz, and (yet) the real meaning is far away (hard to reach).
  • Then the Arab man took up the jug and set out to journey, carrying it along (with him) day and night.
  • He was trembling for the jug, in fear of Fortune's mischiefs: all the same, he conveyed it from the desert to the city (Baghdád). 2730
  • His wife unrolled the prayer-rug in supplication; she made (the words) Rabbi sallim (Save, O Lord) her litany in prayer,
  • Crying, “Keep our water safe from scoundrels! O Lord, let that pearl arrive at that sea!
  • Although my husband is shrewd and artful, yet the pearl has thousands of enemies.
  • Pearl indeed! ’Tis the water of Kawthar: ’tis a drop of this that is the origin of the pearl.”
  • Through the prayers and lamentation of the wife, and through the husband's anxiety and his patience under the heavy burden, 2735
  • He bore it without delay, safe from robbers and unhurt by stones, to the seat of the Caliphate (the Caliph's palace).
  • He saw a bountiful Court, (where) the needy had spread their nets;
  • Everywhere, moment by moment, some petitioner gained (and carried away) from that Court a donation and robe of honour:
  • ’Twas like sun and rain, nay, like Paradise, for infidel and true believer and good folk and bad.
  • He beheld some people arrayed (with favour) in the sight (of the Caliph), and others who had risen to their feet (and were) waiting (to receive his commands). 2740
  • High and low, from Solomon to the ant, they (all) had become quickened with life, like the world at the blast of the trumpet (on the Day of Resurrection).
  • The followers of Form were woven (entangled) in pearls, the followers of Reality had found the Sea of Reality.
  • Those without aspiration—how aspiring had they become! and those of high aspiration—to what felicity had they attained!
  • Showing that, as the beggar is in love with bounty and in love with the bountiful giver, so the bounty of the bountiful giver is in love with the beggar: if the beggar have the greater patience, the bountiful giver will come to his door; and if the bountiful giver have the greater patience, the beggar will come to his door; but the beggar's patience is a virtue in the beggar, while the patience of the bountiful giver is in him a defect.
  • A loud call was coming (to his ears): “Come, O seeker! Bounty is in need of beggars: (it is needy) like a beggar.
  • Bounty is seeking the beggars and the poor, just as fair ones who seek a clear mirror. 2745
  • The face of the fair is made beautiful by the mirror, the face of Beneficence is made visible by the beggar.
  • Therefore on this account God said in the Súra Wa’d-Duhá, “O Mohammed, do not shout at (and drive away) the beggar.”
  • Inasmuch as the beggar is the mirror of Bounty, take care! Breath is hurtful to the face of the mirror.
  • In the one case, his (the giver's) bounty makes the beggar manifest (causes him to beg), while in the other case he (the giver), (without being asked), bestows on the beggars more (than they need).
  • Beggars, then, are the evidentiary sign of God's bounty, and they that are with God are (united with) the Absolute Bounty; 2750