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4
3621-3670

  • The carnal soul is a follower of Pharaoh: beware, do not satisfy it, lest it remember its ancient infidelity.
  • Without the glowing heat of the fire (of mortification) the carnal soul will never become goodly: hark, do not beat the iron till it has become like live coals.
  • Without hunger the body makes no movement (towards God): ‘tis cold iron thou art beating. Know (this for sure)!
  • Though it weep and wail most piteously, it will never become a true believer. Take heed!
  • It is like Pharaoh: in (the time of) famine it lays its head before Moses, as he (Pharaoh) did, making supplication; 3625
  • (But) when it has been freed from want, it rebels (once more) when the donkey has cast off his load, he kicks.
  • So, when its business has gone forward (prosperously), it (the carnal soul) forgets its sighs and lamentations.
  • The man who lives in a city (many) years, as soon as his eye goes asleep,
  • Beholds another city full of good and evil, and his own city comes not into his memory at all,
  • So that (he should say), “I have lived there (so many years); this new city is not mine: here I am (only) in pawn.” 3630
  • Nay, he thinks that in sooth he has always lived in this very city and has been born and bred in it.
  • What wonder (then) if the spirit does not remember its (ancient) abodes, which have been its dwelling-place and birthplace aforetime,
  • Since this world, like sleep, is covering it over as clouds cover the stars? —
  • Especially as it has trodden so many cities, and the dust has not (yet) been swept from its perceptive faculty,
  • Nor has it made ardent efforts that its heart should become pure and behold the past; 3635
  • That its heart should put forth its head (peep forth) from the aperture of the mystery and should see the beginning and the end with open eye.
  • The diverse modes and stages of the nature of Man from the beginning.
  • First he came into the clime (world) of inorganic things, and from the state of inorganic things he passed into the vegetable state.
  • (Many) years he lived in the vegetable state and did not remember the inorganic state because of the opposition (between them);
  • And when he passed from the vegetable into the animal state, the vegetable state was not remembered by him at all,
  • Save only for the inclination which he has towards that (state), especially in the season of spring and sweet herbs— 3640
  • Like the inclination of babes towards their mothers: it (the babe) does not know the secret of its desire for being suckled;
  • (Or) like the excessive inclination of every novice towards the noble spiritual Elder, whose fortune is young (and flourishing).
  • The particular intelligence of this (disciple) is derived from that Universal Intelligence: the motion of this shadow is derived from that Rose-bough.
  • His (the disciple's) shadow disappears at last in him (the Master); then he knows the secret of his inclination and search and seeking.
  • How should the shadow of the other's (the disciple's) bough move, O fortunate one, if this Tree move not? 3645
  • Again, the Creator, whom thou knowest, was leading him (Man) from the animal (state) towards humanity.
  • Thus did he advance from clime to clime (from one world of being to another), till he has now become intelligent and wise and mighty.
  • He hath no remembrance of his former intelligences (souls); from this (human) intelligence also there is a migration to be made by him,
  • That he may escape from this intelligence full of greed and self-seeking and may behold a hundred thousand intelligences most marvellous.
  • Though he fell asleep and became oblivious of the past, how should they leave him in that self-forgetfulness? 3650
  • From that sleep they will bring him back again to wakefulness, that he may mock at his (present) state,
  • Saying, “What was that sorrow I was suffering in my sleep? How did I forget the states of truth (the real experiences)?
  • How did not I know that that sorrow and disease is the effect of sleep and is illusion and phantasy?”
  • Even so this world, which is the sleeper's dream: the sleeper fancies that it is really enduring,
  • Till on a sudden there shall rise the dawn of Death and he shall be delivered from the darkness of opinion and falsehood. 3655
  • (Then) laughter at those sorrows of his will take possession of him when he sees his permanent abode and dwelling-place.
  • Everything good or evil that thou seest in thy sleep will be made manifest, one by one, on the Day of the (Last) Congregation.
  • That which thou didst in this sleep in the (present) world will become evident to thee at the time of awaking.
  • Take care not to imagine that this (which thou hast done) is (only) an evil action committed in this (state of) sleep and that there is no interpretation (thereof) for thee.
  • Nay, this laughter (of thine) will be tears and moans on the Day of interpretation, O oppressor of the captive! 3660
  • Know that in the hour of thy awakening thy tears and grief and sorrow and lamentation will turn to joy.
  • O thou that hast torn the coat of (many) Josephs, thou wilt arise from this heavy slumber (in the form of) a wolf.
  • Thy (evil) dispositions, one by one, having become wolves will tear thy limbs in wrath.
  • According to (the law of) retaliation, the blood (shed by thee) will not sleep (remain unavenged) after thy death: do not say, “I shall die and obtain release.”
  • This immediate retaliation (which is exacted in the present world) is (only) a makeshift: in comparison with the blow of that (future) retaliation this is a (mere) play. 3665
  • God hath called the present world a play because this penalty is a play in comparison with that penalty.
  • This penalty is a means of allaying war and civil strife: that one is like a castration, while this one resembles a circumcision.
  • Explaining that the people of Hell are hungry and make lamentable entreaty to God, saying, "Cause our portions to be fat and let the provender reach us quickly, for we can endure no more."
  • This discourse hath no end. (God said), “Hark, O Moses, let those asses go to the grass,
  • That they may all be fattened by that goodly fodder. Hark, (let them in), for We have wrathful wolves.
  • We surely know the plaintive cry of Our wolves: We make these asses a means of livelihood for them. 3670