English    Türkçe    فارسی   

4
1846-1895

  • The shirt (of Joseph) was in Egypt in the keeping of one exceedingly careful (of it): (the land of) Canaan was filled with the (sweet) scent of that shirt.
  • Thereupon they wrote down the (predicted) date: they adorned the spit with the meat for roasting.
  • When the right time and date arrived, that (spiritual) king was born and played the dice of empire.
  • After those years (had passed), Bu ’l-Hasan appeared (in the world) after the death of Báyazíd.
  • All his dispositions, (whether in the way) of withholding tenaciously or bestowing liberally, proved to be such as that (spiritual) king (Báyazíd) had foretold. 1850
  • His (Báyazíd's) guide is “the guarded tablet.” From what is it guarded? It is guarded from error.
  • The inspiration of God is not (like) astrology or geomancy or dreams—and God best knoweth what is right.
  • The Súfís in explaining (their doctrine) call it (the Divine inspiration) the inspiration of the heart, in order to disguise (its real nature) from the vulgar.
  • Take it to be the inspiration of the heart, for it (the heart) is the place where He is seen: how should there be error when the heart is aware of Him?
  • O true believer, thou hast become seeing by the light of God: thou hast become secure from error and inadvertence. 1855
  • The reduction of the allowance of God’s food for the soul and heart of the Súfí .
  • How should a Súfí be grieved on account of poverty? The very essence of poverty becomes his nurse and his food,
  • Because Paradise hath grown from things disliked and Mercy is the portion of one who is helpless and broken.
  • He that haughtily breaks the heads (of people), the mercy of God and His creatures cometh not towards him.
  • This topic hath no end, and that youth (the slave) has been deprived of strength by the reduction of his bread-allowance.
  • Happy is the Súfí whose daily bread is reduced: his bead becomes a pearl, and he becomes the Sea. 1860
  • Whosoever has become acquainted with that choice (spiritual) allowance, he has become worthy of approach (to the Presence) and of (Him who is) the Source of (every) allowance.
  • When there is a reduction of that spiritual allowance, his spirit trembles on account of its reduction;
  • (For) then he knows that a fault has been committed (by him) which has ruffled the jasmine-bed of (Divine) approbation,
  • Just as (happened when) that person (the slave), on account of the deficiency of his crop, wrote a letter to the owner of the harvest.
  • They brought his letter to the lord of justice: he read the letter and returned no answer. 1865
  • He said, “He hath no care but for (the loss of) viands: silence, then, is the best answer to a fool.
  • He hath no care at all for separation (from me) or union (with me): he is confined to the branch (the derivative); he does not seek the root (the fundamental) at all.
  • He is a fool and (spiritually) dead in egoism, for because of his anxious care for the branch he hath no leisure for the root.”
  • Deem the skies and the earth to be an apple that appeared from the tree of Divine Power.
  • Thou art as a worm in the midst of the apple and art ignorant of the tree and the gardener. 1870
  • The other worm’ too is in the apple, but its spirit is outside, bearing the banner aloft.
  • Its (the worm’s) movement splits the apple asunder: the apple cannot endure that shock.
  • Its movement has rent (all) veils: its form is (that of) a worm, but its reality is a dragon.
  • The fire that first darts from (the impact of) the steel puts forth its foot very feebly.
  • Cotton is its nurse at first, but in the end it carries its flames up to the aether. 1875
  • At first, man is in bondage to sleep and food; ultimately he is higher than the angels.
  • Under the protection of cotton and sulphur matches his flame and light rises above Suhá.
  • He illuminates the dark world: he tears the iron fetter (in pieces) with a needle.
  • Though the fire too is connected with the body, is ‘it not derived from the spirit and the spiritual?
  • The body hath no share in that glory: the body is as a drop of water in comparison with the sea of the spirit. 1880
  • The days of the body are increased by the spirit: mark what becomes of the body when the spirit goes (from it).
  • The range of thy body is an ell or two, no more: thy spirit is a maker of swift flights to heaven.
  • In the spirit’s imagination, O prince, ‘tis (but) half a step to Baghdad and Samarcand.
  • The fat (white) of thine eye is two dirhems in weight: the light of its spirit (reaches) to the lofty region of the sky.
  • The light sees in dream without this eye: without this light what would the eye be but ruined? 1885
  • The spirit is unconcerned with the beard and moustache of the body, but without the spirit the body is a carcase and vile.
  • Such is the magnificence of the animal spirit: advance farther, behold the human spirit.
  • Pass beyond Man and (logical) disputation unto the shore of the sea of the spirit of Gabriel.
  • After that, the, spirit of Ahmad (Mohammed) will bite thy lip (kiss thee lovingly), and Gabriel will creep back in fear of thee,
  • And will say, “If I come one bow’s length towards thee, I shall be instantly consumed.” 1890
  • How the slave was indignant because no reply to his letter arrived from the king.
  • Truly this desert hath no head or foot (top or bottom). That youth, (being) without a reply to his letter, is aggrieved
  • And says, “Oh, ‘tis a wonder. How did the king give me no reply? Or (perchance) the carrier of the letter behaved treacherously because of the torment (of envy),
  • And concealed the letter and did not show it to the king; for he was a hypocrite and (like) a piece of water beneath straw.
  • I will write another letter by way of test and seek another accomplished messenger.”
  • That heedless man ignorantly puts the blame on the Amir and the steward and the letter-carrier. 1895