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4
3041-3090

  • The (only) one that possessed speech without being taught is God, whose attributes are separated (exempt) from infirmities,
  • Or one like Adam whom God instructed without the screen (mediation) of mother and nurse and necessaries,
  • Or the Messiah (Christ) who, through being taught by the Loving (God), at his birth came speaking into the world,
  • For the purpose of repelling the suspicion as to his birth (and proving) that he was not born of fornication and wickedness.
  • A (great) shaking was required in the effort that the buttermilk might render back that butter from its (inmost) heart. 3045
  • The butter in the buttermilk is (invisible) like non-existence; the buttermilk has raised its banner (has become manifest) in existence.
  • That which seems to you to be (really) existent is (mere) skin, while that which seems to have perished—that (in reality) is the root.
  • The buttermilk has not (yet) taken (the form of) butter and is old: lay it (in store) and do not squander it till you pick out (the butter from it).
  • Hark, turn it knowingly from hand to hand (side to side), that it may reveal that which it has hidden;
  • For this perishable (body) is a proof of the everlasting (spirit): the maundering of the intoxicated is a proof of (the existence of) the Cupbearer. 3050
  • Another parable on the same subject.
  • The gambols of the lion on the banner are indicative of winds concealed (from view).
  • If there were not the movement of those winds, how would the dead lion leap into the air?
  • By that (means) you know whether the wind is the east-wind or the westwind: this (movement of the lion) is the explanation of that occult matter.
  • This body is like the lion on the banner: thought is causing it to move continually.
  • The thought that comes from the east is (as) the (refreshing) east-wind, and that which (comes) from the west is (as) the west-wind fraught with pestilence. 3055
  • The east of this wind of thought is different; the west of this wind of thought is from Yonder side.
  • The moon is inanimate, and its east is inanimate: the heart's east is the soul of the soul of Soul.
  • The east of that Sun which illumines the inward part—the sun of day is (only) the husk and reflexion thereof;
  • For when the body is dead (and) without the (vital) flame, neither day nor night appears to it;
  • But though it (the flame) be not (there), (yet) when this (spiritual Sun) is (present) in perfection, it (the Sun) maintains itself intact without night and day, 3060
  • Just as the eye, without moon and sun, sees moon and sun in dream.
  • Since our sleep is the brother of death, O such and such, know (the difference of) that brother from this brother.
  • And if they tell thee that that is the branch (derivative) of this, do not hear (believe) it, O follower of authority, without (having) certain knowledge.
  • During sleep thy spirit is beholding the representation of a state (of things) which thou wilt not behold, whilst thou art awake, in twenty years,
  • And thou art running, for (whole) lifetimes, to the sagacious (spiritual) kings in quest of the interpretation thereof, 3065
  • Saying, “Tell (me), what is the interpretation of that dream?” To call such a mystery a “branch” is currishness.
  • This is the sleep of the vulgar; but truly the sleep of the elect is the root of (their) privilege and election.
  • There must needs be the elephant, in order that, when he sleeps supinely, he may dream of the land of Hindustán.
  • The ass does not dream of Hindustán at all: the ass has never journeyed from Hindustán to a foreign country.
  • There is need of the elephant-like and very robust spirit, that in sleep it may be able to go speedily to Hindustán. 3070
  • Because of desire the elephant remembers Hindustán; then by night that remembrance of his takes form.
  • (The worship commanded in the text) Remember ye Allah is not a (devotional) work (that is within the reach) of every rascal; (the command) Return thou is not (a fetter) on the foot of every reprobate.
  • But still do not thou despair, be an elephant; and if thou art not an elephant, be in quest of transmutation.
  • Behold the alchemists of Heaven; hear at every moment the sound (of the words that come) from the (spiritual) makers of the philosophers' stone.
  • They are designers in the celestial atmosphere; they are workers for me and thee. 3075
  • If thou dost not see the musky-bosomed people, behold this touch (laid upon thee), O night-blind (purblind) one.
  • At every moment the touch is (laid) upon thy apprehension: behold the plants ever springing up anew from thy earth!
  • Of this (sort) was Ibráhím son of Adham, who beheld in sleep, without veil, the unfolding of the spiritual Hindustán.
  • (Therefore), of necessity, he burst the (worldly) chains asunder and dashed his kingdom to pieces and disappeared.
  • The sign of beholding Hindustán is that he (who beholds it) starts up from sleep and becomes mad. 3080
  • He will scatter dust upon (worldly) plans and will burst the links of the chains (that bind him),
  • Even as the Prophet said of the (Divine) light, that the sign thereof in (men's) breasts
  • Is that he (who hath the light) withdraws from the abode of delusion and also turns back from the abode of joy.
  • For the exposition of this hadíth of Mustafá (Mohammed), hearken to a tale, O sincere friend.
  • Story of the prince to whom the true kingdom displayed itself, (so that the realities of) "on the Day when a man shall flee from his brother and his mother and his father" became the object of his immediate experience; (and he saw that) the kingdom of this earth-heap of the childish (is like the game) called "castle-taking," (in which) the child that gains the victory mounts upon the earth-heap and says boastfully, "The castle belongs to me," while the other children envy him; for (to play with) earth is the pastime of boys. When the prince was delivered from the bondage of colours, he said, "I say that these coloured pieces of earth (earthly gauds) are just the same vile earth; I do not call them gold and satin and brocade: I have been delivered from this brocade (aksún) and have gone to that which is simple (yaksún)." (God hath said), "And We bestowed wisdom upon him whilst he was yet a boy"; it needeth not the passing of (many) years for (any one to receive) the guidance of God: none speaks of the capacity to receive in (connexion with) the Power of Be, and it is.
  • A certain king had a young son, adorned with excellence within and without. 3085
  • He dreamed that suddenly that son died: the pure (pleasure) of the world was changed, for the king, to dregs.
  • His water-skin (eye) was dried up by the heat of the fire (of anguish), for because of the glow of the fire his tears remained not.
  • The king became so full of smoke and grief that sighs were finding no way (of entrance) into him.
  • He was about to die, his body became inert; (but) his life had been left (for completion): the king awoke.
  • From awaking, there came to him a joy which he had not experienced in (all) his life; 3090