English    Türkçe    فارسی   

2
152-201

  • 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.
  • Their numbers are in the likeness of waves: the wind will have brought them into number (into plurality from unity). 185
  • The Sun, which is the spirits, became separated (broken into rays) in the windows, which are our bodies.
  • When you gaze on the Sun's disk, it is itself one, but he that is screened by (his perception of) the bodies is in some doubt.
  • Separation (plurality) is in the animal spirit; the human spirit is one essence.
  • Inasmuch as God sprinkled His light upon them (mankind), (they are essentially one): His light never becomes separated (in reality).
  • O my comrade on the way, dismiss thy weariness for a moment, that I may describe a single mole (grain) of that Beauty. 190
  • The beauty of His state cannot be set forth: what are both the worlds (temporal and spiritual)? The reflexion of His mole.
  • When I breathe a word concerning His beauteous mole, my speech would fain burst my body.
  • Like an ant, I am so happy in this granary that I am dragging a burden too great for me.
  • How the explanation of the (inner) meaning of the tale was stopped because of the hearer's desire to hear the superficial form of it.
  • When will He who is envied by Light allow me to tell that which is obligatory and ought to be told?
  • The sea casts foam in front (of it) and makes a barrier: it draws back and after drawing back flows in (again). 195
  • Hear what has interfered (hindered my exposition) at the present time: methinks the hearer's mind has wandered elsewhere.
  • His thoughts have turned to the Súfí guest: he is sunk up to the neck (wholly absorbed) in that business.
  • (Therefore) it behoves me to go back from this discourse to that story in order to describe what happened (to him).
  • O dear friend, do not fancy the Súfí is the (external) form (which you behold): how long, like children, (will you be content) with walnuts and raisins?
  • Our body is (as) walnuts and raisins, O son; if you are a man, relinquish these two things; 200
  • And (even) if you do not relinquish them (by your own act), the grace of God will enable you to pass beyond the nine tiers (of Heaven).