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2
135-184

  • A petty thief carried off a snake from a snake-catcher and in his folly was accounting it a prize. 135

  • The snake-catcher escaped from the snake's bite; the man who had robbed him was miserably killed by the snake.

  • The snake-catcher saw him (dead); then he recognised him and said, “My snake has emptied him of life.

  • My soul was desiring of Him (God) in prayer that I might find him and take the snake from him.

  • Thanks to God that that prayer was rejected: I thought ’twas loss, but it has turned out to be gain.”

  • Many are the prayers which are loss and destruction, and from kindness the Holy God is not hearing them. 140

  • How the companion of Jesus, on whom be peace, entreated Jesus, on whom be peace, to give life to the bones.

  • A certain foolish person accompanied Jesus (on his way). He espied some bones in a deep-dug hole.

  • He said, “O companion, (teach me) that exalted Name by which thou makest the dead to live;

  • Teach (it) me, that I may do good and by means of it endow the bones with life.”

  • Jesus said, “Be silent, for that is not thy work: ’tis not meet for thy breath and speech,

  • For it wants breath purer than rain and more piercing in action than the angels. 145

  • (Many) lifetimes were needed that the breath might be purified, so that he (its owner) was entrusted with the treasury of the Heavens.

  • (Suppose that) thou hast grasped this rod firmly in thy hand: whence will accrue to thy hand the cunning of Moses?”

  • He said, “If I am not one to pronounce (such sacred) mysteries, do thou pronounce the Name over the bones.”

  • Jesus cried, “O Lord, what are these hidden purposes (of Thine)? What is (the meaning of) this fool's inclination (to engage) in this fruitless work?

  • How has this sick man no care for himself? How has this corpse no care for (spiritual) life? 150

  • He has left (uncared for) his own dead (soul) and seeks to mend (revive) the dead (bones) of a stranger.”

  • God (answered and) said, “The backslider seeks backsliding: the thistle that has grown (in him) is the retribution for (consequence of) his sowing.”

  • He that sows the seed of thistles in the world, be warned not to look for him in the rose-garden.

  • If he take a rose in his hand, it becomes a thistle; and if he go to a friend, he (the friend) becomes a snake.

  • The damned wretch is an elixir which transmutes into poison and snakes; (his elixir is) contrary to the elixir of the God-fearing man. 155

  • How the Súfí enjoined the servant to take care of his beast and how the servant said, “Lá hawl.”

  • A Súfí was wandering round the world till one night he became a guest at a monastery (for Súfís).

  • He had a beast (ass): he tied it in the stable, (while) he (himself) sat at the top of the dais with his friends.

  • Then he engaged with his friends in (mystical) meditation: the presence of a friend (of God) is (like) a book (which is open) before (one).

  • The Súfí's book is not (composed of) ink of letters (letters written with ink): it is naught but a heart white as snow.

  • The scholar's provision is (consists of) pen-marks (written letters and words). What is the Súfí's provision? Footmarks. 160

  • He (the Súfí) stalks the game, like a hunter: he sees the musk-deer's track and follows the footprints.

  • For some while the track of the deer is (the) proper (clue) for him, (but) afterwards ’tis the navel (musk-gland) of the deer that is his guide.

  • When he has given thanks for (having been favoured with knowledge of) the track and has traversed the way, of necessity by means of that track he arrives at a goal.

  • To go one stage (guided) by the scent of the musk-gland is better than a hundred stages of (following) the track and roaming about.

  • The heart that is the rising-place of the moonbeams (of Divine light) is for the gnostic (the means of revelation indicated by the words) its doors shall be opened. 165

  • To you it is a wall, to them it is a door; to you a stone, to (those) venerated ones a pearl.

  • What you see plainly in the mirror—the Pír sees more than that in the brick.

  • The Pírs are they whose spirits, before this world existed, were in the Sea of (Divine) bounty.

  • Before (the creation of) this body they passed (many) lifetimes; before the sowing they took up (harvested) the fruit (produce).

  • They have received the spirit before (the creation of) the form; they have bored the pearls before (the creation of) the sea. 170

  • (Whilst) consultation was going on as to bringing mankind into existence, their spirits were in the Sea of (Divine) Omnipotence up to the throat.

  • When the angels were opposing that (creation of man), they (the Pírs) were secretly clapping their hands (in derision) at the angels.

  • He (the Pír) was made acquainted with the (material) form of every existent being, before this Universal Soul became fettered (by materiality).

  • Before the (creation of the) heavens they have seen Saturn, before the (existence of) seeds they have seen the bread.

  • Without brain and mind they were full of thought, without army and battle they gained victory. 175

  • That immediate intuition (intuitive knowledge) in relation to them is thought; else, indeed, in relation to those who are far (from God) it is vision.

  • Thought is of the past and future; when it is emancipated from these two, the difficulty is solved.

  • The spirit has beheld the wine in the grape, the spirit has beheld thing (entity) in nothing (nonentity);

  • It has beheld every conditioned thing as unconditioned, it has beheld the genuine coin and the alloyed before (the existence of) the mine;

  • Before the creation of grapes it has quaffed wines and shown the excitements (of intoxication). 180

  • In hot July they (the Pírs) see December; in the sunbeams they see the shade.

  • In the heart of the grape they have seen the wine; in absolute faná (privation of objectivity) they have seen the object.

  • The sky is draining draughts from their circling cup, the sun is clad in cloth of gold by their bounty.

  • When you see two of them met together as friends, they are one, and at the same time (they are) six hundred thousand.