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3450-3499

  • But when you carry this burden well, the burden will be removed and you will be given (spiritual) joy. 3450
  • Beware! Do not carry that burden of knowledge for the sake of selfish desire (but mortify yourself), so that you may behold the barn (store-house) of knowledge within (you),
  • So that you may mount the smooth-paced steed of knowledge, (and that) afterwards the burden may fall from your shoulder.
  • How wilt thou be freed from selfish desires without the cup of Hú (Him), O thou who hast become content with no more of Hú than the name of Hú?
  • From attribute and name what comes to birth? Phantasy; and that phantasy shows the way to union with Him.
  • Hast thou ever seen a subject that shows without (the existence of) an object that is shown: unless there is the road, there can never be the ghoul (which entices travelers to stray from the road). 3455
  • Hast thou ever seen a name without the reality (denoted by the name)? Or hast thou plucked a rose (gul) from the (letters) gáf and lám of (the word) gul?
  • Thou hast pronounced the name: go, seek the thing named. Know that the moon is on high, not in the water of the stream.
  • If thou wouldst pass beyond name and letter, oh, make thyself wholly purged of self.
  • Like (polished) iron, lose the ferruginous colour; become in thy ascetic discipline (like) a mirror without rust.
  • Make thyself pure from the attributes of self, that thou mayst behold thine own pure untarnished essence, 3460
  • And behold within thy heart (all) the sciences of the prophets, without book and without preceptor and master.
  • The Prophet said, “Amongst my people are some who are one with me in nature and aspiration:
  • Their spirits behold me by the same light by which I am beholding them.”
  • Without the two Sahíhs and Traditions and Traditionists; nay, (they behold him) in the place where they drink the Water of Life.
  • Know the secret of “In the evening I was a Kurd”; read the mystery of “In the morning I was an Arab.” 3465
  • And if you desire a parable of the hidden knowledge, relate the story of the Greeks and the Chinese.
  • The story of the contention between the Greeks and the Chinese in the art of painting and picturing.
  • The Chinese said, “We are the better artists”; the Greeks said, “The (superiority in) power and excellence belongs to us.”
  • “I will put you to the test in this matter,” said the Sultan, “(and see) which of you are approved in your claim.”
  • When the Chinese and the Greeks presented themselves, the Greeks were more skilled in the knowledge (of the art of painting).
  • (Then) the Chinese said, “Hand over to us a particular room, and (let there be) one for you (as well).” 3470
  • There were two rooms with door facing door: the Chinese took one, the Greeks the other.
  • The Chinese requested the King to give them a hundred colours: then that excellent (king) opened the treasury.
  • Every morning, by (his) bounty, the colours were dispensed from the treasury to the Chinese.
  • The Greeks said, “No tints and pictures are proper for our work, (nothing is needed) except to remove the rust.”
  • They shut the door and went on burnishing: they became clear and pure like the sky. 3475
  • There is a way from many-colouredness to colourlessness: colour is like the clouds, and colourlessness is a moon.
  • Whatsoever light and splendour you see in the clouds, know that it comes from the stars and the moon and the sun.
  • When the Chinese had finished their work, they were beating drums for joy.
  • The King entered and saw the pictures there: that (sight) was robbing him of his wits and understanding.
  • After that, he came towards the Greeks: they drew up the intervening curtain. 3480
  • The reflexion of those (Chinese) pictures and works (of art) struck upon these walls which had been made pure (from stain).
  • All that he had seen there (in the Chinese room) seemed more beautiful here: ’twas snatching the eye from the socket.
  • The Greeks, O father, are the Súfís: (they are) without (independent of) study and books and erudition,
  • But they have burnished their breasts (and made them) pure from greed and cupidity and avarice and hatreds.
  • That purity of the mirror is the attribute of the heart (which) receives the infinite form. 3485
  • That Moses (the perfect saint) holds in his bosom the formless infinite form of the Unseen (reflected) from the mirror of his heart.
  • Although that form is not contained in Heaven, nor in the empyrean nor the earth nor the sea nor the Fish,
  • Because (all) those are bounded and numbered—(yet is it contained in the heart): know that the mirror of the heart hath no bound.
  • Here the understanding becomes silent or (else) it leads into error, because the heart is with Him (God), or indeed the heart is He.
  • The reflexion of every image shines unto everlasting from the heart alone, both with plurality and without. 3490
  • Unto everlasting every new image that falls on it (the heart) is appearing therein without any veil.
  • They that burnish (their hearts) have escaped from (mere) scent and colour: they behold Beauty at every moment without tarrying.
  • They have relinquished the form and husk of knowledge, they have raised the banner of the eye of certainty.
  • Thought is gone, and they have gained light: they have gained the throat (core and essence) and the sea (ultimate source) of gnosis.
  • Death, of which all these (others) are sore afraid, this people (the perfect Súfís) are holding in derision. 3495
  • None gains the victory over their hearts: the hurt falls on the oyster-shell, not on the pearl.
  • Though they have let go grammar (nahw) and jurisprudence (fiqh), yet they have taken up (instead) the (mystical) self-effacement of (spiritual) poverty (faqr).
  • Ever since the forms of the Eight Paradises have shone forth, they have found the tablets of their (the Súfís') hearts receptive.
  • They who dwell in God's seat of truth are higher than the Throne and the Footstool and the Void.
  • How the Prophet, on whom be peace, asked Zayd, “How art thou to-day and in what state hast thou risen?” and how Zayd answered him, saying, “This morning I am a true believer, O Messenger of Allah.”