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5
744-793

  • Therefore thou hast become one of the ten Friends to whom the glad tidings were given, and hast been made pure like sterling gold.
  • (This is) to the end that communion may be made perfect; for a man is united with that one whom he has made his friend. 745
  • He is with him in this world and in that (other) world; and this is the (meaning of) the Hadíth of sweet-natured Ahmad (Mohammed),
  • (Who) said, ‘A man is with him whom he loves’: the heart is not severed from its object of desire.
  • Do not sit in any place where there is a trap and bait: O thou who regardest (others) as weak, go, consider (what becomes of) those who regard (others) as weak.
  • O thou who regardest the weak as weak (and at thy mercy), know this, (that) there is a hand above thy hand, O youth.
  • Thou art weak (thyself) and thou regardest (others) as weak. Oh, wonderful! Thou art at once the prey and the hunter in pursuit (of the prey). 750
  • Be not (one of those described in the Verse) before and behind them (We will set) a barrier, so that thou canst not see the enemy, though the enemy is manifest.
  • The greed of hunting makes (one) oblivious of being a prey: he (the hunter) tries to win hearts (though) he has lost his own.
  • Be not thou inferior to a bird in (thy) seeking: (even) a sparrow sees (what is) before and behind.
  • When it approaches the grain (bait), at that moment it turns its head and face several times to front and rear,
  • (As though to say), ‘Oh, I wonder whether there is a fowler in front of me or behind, so that for fear of him I should abstain from this food.’ 755
  • Do thou see behind (thee) the story of (what happened to) the wicked; see before (thee) the death of (many a) friend and neighbour,
  • Whom He (God) destroyed without (using) any instrument: He is close to thee in every circumstance.
  • God inflicted torment (on them), and there is no mace or hand (employed): know, then, that God is one who deals justice (inflicts chastisement) without hands.
  • He who was saying, ‘If God exists, where is He?’ was confessing on the rack (of pain) that ’tis He (God).
  • He who was saying, ‘This is far-fetched and marvellous’ was shedding tears and crying, ‘O Thou who art nigh!’ 760
  • Since he has deemed it necessary to flee from the trap, (’tis strange that) the trap for thee is in fact stuck fast to thy (gaudy) feathers.
  • I will tear out the pin of this ill-fated trap: I will not suffer bitter grief for the sake of (indulging) a desire.
  • I have given thee this answer (which is) suitable to thy understanding: apprehend (its meaning) and do not avert thy face from seeking.
  • Snap this cord, which is greed and envy: remember (the text) on her neck a cord of palm-fibres.”
  • The reason why Khalíl (Abraham), on whom be peace, killed the crow, indicating (thereby) the subjugation of certain blameworthy and pernicious qualities in the disciple.
  • There is no end and completion to this discourse. O Friend of God, why didst thou kill the crow? 765
  • Because of the (Divine) command. What was the wisdom of the (Divine) command? A small part of the mysteries thereof must (now) be shown.
  • The cawing and noisy cry of the black crow is ever asking for (long) life in this world.
  • Like Iblís, it (the crow) besought the holy and incomparable God for bodily life till the Resurrection.
  • He (Iblís) said, “Grant me a respite till the Day of Retribution.” Would that he had said, “We repent, O our Lord.”
  • Life without repentance is all agony of spirit: to be absent from God is present (instant) death. 770
  • Life and death—both these are sweet with (the presence of) God: without God the Water of Life is fire.
  • Moreover, ’twas from the effect of the (Divine) curse that in such a Presence he was requesting (long) life.
  • To crave of God aught other than God is (merely) the supposition of gain, and (in reality) it is entire loss;
  • Especially (to desire) a life sunk in estrangement (from God) is to behave like a fox in the presence of the lion,
  • (Saying), “Give me longer life that I may go farther back; grant me more time that I may become less.” 775
  • (The result is) that he (such an one) is a mark for the (Divine) curse: evil is that one who seeks to be accursed.
  • The goodly life is to nourish the spirit in nearness (to God); the crow's life is for the sake of eating dung.
  • (The crow says), “Give me more life that I may be ever eating dung: give me this always, for I am very evil-natured.”
  • Were it not that that foul-mouthed one is a dung-eater, he would say, “Deliver me from the nature of the crow!”
  • Prayer.
  • O Thou who hast transmuted one clod of earth into gold, and another clod into the Father of mankind, 780
  • Thy work is the transmutation of essences and (the showing of) munificence; my work is mistake and forgetfulness and error.
  • Transmute mistake and forgetfulness into knowledge: I am all choler, make me patience and forbearance.
  • O Thou who makest nitrous earth to be bread, and O Thou who makest dead bread to be life,
  • O Thou who makest the distracted soul to be a Guide, and O Thou who makest the wayless wanderer to be a Prophet,
  • Thou makest a piece of earth to be heaven, Thou givest increase in the earth from the stars. 785
  • Whosoever makes the Water of Life to consist of (the pleasures of) this world, death comes to him sooner than to the others.
  • The eye of the heart (the inward eye) that contemplated the (spiritual) firmament perceived that here (in the sensible world) is a continual alchemy.
  • The harmonious cohesion of the patched garment, (which is) the body, without being stitched (together), is (owing to) the transmutation of essences and (to) an all-embracing elixir.
  • From the day when thou camest into existence, thou wert fire or air or earth.
  • If thou hadst remained in that condition, how should this (present) height have been reached by thee? 790
  • The Transmuter did not leave thee in thy first (state of) existence: He established a better (state of) existence in the place of that (former one);
  • And so on till (He gave thee) a hundred thousand states of existence, one after the other, the second (always) better than the beginning.
  • Regard (all change as derived) from the Transmuter, leave (ignore) the intermediaries, for by (regarding) the intermediaries thou wilt be come far from their Origin.