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1
622-671

  • There is a good answer to this; if you hearken, you will relinquish unbelief and incline towards the (true) religion.
  • Remorse and humility occur at the time of illness: the time of illness is wholly wakefulness (of conscience).
  • At the time when you are becoming ill, you pray God to forgive your trespass;
  • The foulness of your sin is shown to you, you resolve to come back to the (right) way; 625
  • You make promises and vows that henceforth your chosen course (of action) will be nothing but obedience (to God):
  • Therefore it has become certain that illness gives to you conscience and wakefulness.
  • Note, then, this principle, O thou that seekest the principle; every one who suffers pain has caught the scent (thereof):
  • The more wakeful any one is, the more full of suffering he is; the more aware (of God) he is, the paler he is in countenance.
  • If you are aware of His jabr (compulsion), where is your humility? Where is your feeling of (being loaded with) the chain of His jabbárí (almightiness)? 630
  • How should one make merry who is bound in chains? When does the captive in prison behave like the man who is free?
  • And if you consider that your foot is shackled (and that) the king's officers are sitting (as custodians) over you,
  • Then do not act like an officer (tyrannously) towards the helpless, inasmuch as that is not the nature and habit of a helpless man.
  • Since you do not feel His compulsion, do not say (that you are compelled); and if you feel it, where is the sign of your feeling?
  • In every act for which you have inclination, you are clearly conscious of your power (to perform it), 635
  • (But) in the act for which you have no inclination and desire, you make yourself a necessitarian, saying, “This is from God.”
  • The prophets are necessitarians in regard to the works of this world, (while) the infidels are necessitarians in regard to the works of the next world.
  • To the prophets the works of the next world are (a matter of) freewill; to the foolish the works of this world are (a matter of) freewill,
  • Because every bird flies to its own congener: it (follows) behind, and its spirit (goes) before, (leading it on).
  • Inasmuch as the infidels were congeners of Sijjn (Hell), they were well-disposed to the prison (sijn) of this world. 640
  • Inasmuch as the prophets were congeners of ‘Illiyyín (Heaven), they went towards the ‘Illiyyín of spirit and heart.
  • This discourse hath no end, but let us (now) relate the story to its completion.
  • How the vizier made the disciples lose hope of his abandoning seclusion.
  • The vizier cried out from within, “O disciples, be this made known to you from me,
  • That Jesus hath given me a such-like message: ‘Be separated from all friends and kinsfolk.
  • Set thy face to the wall, sit alone, and choose to be secluded even from thine own existence.’ 645
  • After this there is no permission (for me) to speak; after this I have nothing to do with talk.
  • Farewell, O friends! I am dead: I have carried my belongings up to the Fourth Heaven,
  • In order that beneath the fiery sphere I may not burn like firewood in woe and perdition,
  • (But) henceforth may sit beside Jesus at the top of the Fourth Heaven.”
  • How the vizier appointed each one of the amírs separately as his successor.
  • And then he summoned those amírs one by one and conversed with each (of them) alone. 650
  • He said to each one, “In the religion of Jesus thou art the vicar of God and my khalífa (vicegerent),
  • And those other amírs are thy followers: Jesus hath made all of them thy assistants.
  • Any amír who lifts his neck (in rebellion), seize him and either kill him or hold him captive;
  • But do not declare this whilst I am alive: do not seek this supreme authority until I am dead.
  • Until I am dead, do not reveal this: do not lay claim to sovereignty and dominion. 655
  • Here is this scroll and the ordinances of the Messiah: recite them distinctly, one by one, to his people.”
  • Thus he spoke to each amír separately, (saying), “There is no vicar in the religion of God except thee.”
  • He honoured each, one by one, (in this way): whatever he said to that (amír) he also said to this.
  • To each he gave one scroll: every one was purposely the contrary of the other.
  • The text of those scrolls was diverse; all were (different), like the letters from alif to yá. 660
  • The rule (laid down) in this scroll was contrary to the rule in that: we have already explained (the nature of) this contradiction.
  • How the vizier killed himself in seclusion.
  • After that, he shut the door for other forty days (and then) killed himself and escaped from his existence.
  • When the people learned of his death, there came to pass at his grave the scene of the Resurrection.
  • So great a multitude gathered at his grave, tearing their hair, rending their garments in wild grief for him,
  • That only God can reckon the number of them—Arabs and Turks and Greeks and Kurds. 665
  • They put his (grave's) earth on their heads; they deemed anguish for him to be the remedy for themselves.
  • During a month those multitudes over his grave made a way for blood from their eyes (shed tears of anguish).
  • How the people of Jesus—on him be peace!—asked the amírs, “Which one of you is the successor?”
  • After a month the people said, “O chiefs, which of (the) amírs is designated in his place,
  • That we may acknowledge him as our religious leader instead of him (the vizier), and give our hands and skirts into his hand?
  • Since the sun is gone and has branded us (left the brand of sorrow in our hearts), is not a lamp the (only) resource in his stead? 670
  • Since union with the beloved has vanished from before our eyes, we must needs have a vicar as a memorial of him (i.e. one who will recall him to our memory).