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3506-3555

  • This deliberation is for the purpose of teaching you that you must seek (God) slowly without (any) break.
  • A little rivulet which is moving continually does not become defiled or grow fetid.
  • From this deliberation are born felicity and joy: this deliberation is the egg, fortune is like the birds (hatched from the egg).
  • How should the bird resemble the egg, O obstinate one, though it is produced from the egg?
  • Wait till your limbs, like eggs, hatch birds ultimately (at the Resurrection)! 3510
  • Though the serpent's egg resembles the sparrow's egg in (outward) likeness, the distance (between them) is far.
  • Again, though the seed of the quince resembles the seed of the apple, recognise the differences, O honoured (sir).
  • Leaves are of the same colour to look at, (but) fruits, every one, are of a diverse sort.
  • The leaves, (namely) the bodies, are similar, but every soul lives with a (different) produce (which it yields).
  • In the bazaar the people go (about their business) all alike, (but) one is in glee and another sorrowful. 3515
  • Even so in death: we go all alike, (but) half of us are losers and (the other) half are (fortunate as) emperors.
  • How Bilál, may God be well-pleased with him, died rejoicing.
  • When Bilál from weakness became (thin) as the new-moon, the hue of death fell upon Bilál's face.
  • His wife saw him (in this state) and cried, “Oh, sorrow!” Then Bilál said to her, “Nay, nay! (Say), ‘Oh, joy!’
  • Until now I have been in sorrow from living: how shouldst thou know how delightful death is, and what it is (in reality)?”
  • He was saying this, and at the very moment of saying it his countenance was blooming with narcissi, rose-leaves, and red anemones. 3520
  • The glow of his face and his eye full of radiance were giving testimony to (the truth of) his words.
  • Every black-hearted one was regarding him as black (and despising him); (but) why is the man (pupil) of the eye black?
  • The man (spiritually) blind is black-faced, (but) the Man of the (inward) eye (the Seer) is the mirror for the Moon.
  • Who in the world, indeed, sees the man of your (inward) eye except the Man of piercing sight?
  • Since none but the Man of the eye beheld it, who, then, but he attained to (knowledge of) its (essential) colour? 3525
  • Therefore all except him (the Seer) are imitators (without immediate knowledge) in regard to the attributes of the sublime man of the eye.
  • His (Bilál's) wife said to him, “(This is) the parting, O man of goodly qualities.” “Nay, nay,” said he, “’tis the union, the union (with God).”
  • The wife said, “To-night thou wilt go to a strange country, thou wilt become absent from thy family and kindred.”
  • “Nay, nay,” he replied; “contrariwise, to-night in sooth from a strange country my spirit is coming home.”
  • She said, “Where shall we behold thy face?” He answered, “In God's chosen circle.” 3530
  • His chosen circle adjoins you, if you look upward, not downward.
  • In that circle the Light from the Lord of created beings is gleaming like the bezel in the circle (of the seal-ring).
  • “Alas,” she said, “this house has been ruined.” “Look on the moon,” said he, “do not look on the cloud.
  • He has ruined it in order that He may make it more flourishing: my kinsfolk were numerous and the house was (too) small.
  • The (Divine) wisdom in ruining the body by death.
  • Formerly, like Adam, I was imprisoned in grief; now East and West are filled with my spirit's progeny. 3535
  • I was a beggar in this dungeon-like house; (now) I have become a king: a palace is needed for a king.”
  • Truly, palaces are the place for (spiritual) kings to take their pleasure in; for him that is (spiritually) dead a grave is a sufficient house and dwelling.
  • To the prophets this world seemed narrow: like kings, they went into (the world of) spacelessness.
  • To the (spiritually) dead this world appears splendid: its external (aspect) is large, but in reality it is narrow.
  • If it were not narrow, for what reason is this lamentation? Why has every one become (more) doubled (bowed with affliction) the more he lived in it? 3540
  • When during the time of sleep the spirit is freed (from this world), behold how it rejoices in that place (to which it goes)!
  • The wicked man is (then) delivered from the wickedness of his nature, the prisoner escapes from thoughts of confinement.
  • This very wide earth and heaven becomes exceedingly narrow at the time of lying down (to sleep).
  • It (the world) is an eye-bandage (a spell that blinds the eye): (it is) wide (in appearance), and (in reality) mighty narrow: its laughter is weeping, its glory is entirely shame.
  • Comparison of this world, which is wide in appearance and narrow in reality, (to a bathroom), and comparison (of the next world) to sleep, which is the (means of) release from this narrowness.
  • (This world is) like a bath-room which is very hot, (so that) you are distressed and your soul is melted (with anguish). 3545
  • Although the bath-room is broad and long, your soul is distressed and fatigued by the heat.
  • Your heart does not expand (you feel no relief) till you come out: what advantage, then, is the spaciousness of the room to you?
  • Or (it is) as though you should put on tight shoes, O misguided one, and go into a wide desert.
  • The spaciousness of the desert becomes narrow (distressing); that desert and plain becomes a prison to you.
  • Whoever sees you from afar says, “He blooms like a fresh anemone (he is cheerful and happy) in that desert”; 3550
  • He does not know that you, like the wicked, are outwardly in the rose-garden, (while) your soul is in lamentation.
  • Your sleep is to put those shoes off, for (then) your soul is free from the body for a while.
  • To the saints, O reader, sleep is a kingdom, as (it was to) the Men of the Cave in this world.
  • They (sleep and) dream, and no (physical) sleep is there; they go into nonexistence, and no (material) door (is there).
  • “(The body is) a narrow house, and the soul within is cramped: He (God) ruined it in order that He might make a royal palace. 3555