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5
901-950

  • Because the august owner of the Heart is a buyer of damaged goods in our bazaar.
  • Seek the owner of the Heart, if thou art not soulless: become a congener of the Heart, if thou art not an adversary of the (spiritual) Sultan.
  • (But) that one whose hypocrisy pleases thee, he is (only) thy saint, (he is) not the elect of God.
  • Whosoever lives in accordance with thy disposition and nature seems to thy (carnal) nature to be a saint and a prophet.
  • Go, renounce sensuality in order that the (spiritual) scent may be thine and that the sweet ambergris-seeking organ of smell may be thine. 905
  • Thy brain (organ of smell) is corrupted by sensual indulgence: to thy (olfactory) sense musk and ambergris are unsalable.
  • This discourse hath no bound, and (meanwhile) our gazelle is running to and fro in flight in the stable.
  • The remainder of the Story of the gazelle in the donkey-stable.
  • During (many) days the sweet-navelled male gazelle was in torment in the donkey-stable,
  • Like a fish wriggling in the death-agony from (being kept on) dry ground, (or like) dung and musk tortured (by being kept) in the same box.
  • One donkey would say to his neighbour, “Ha! this wild fellow has the nature of kings and princes. Hush!” 910
  • And the other would mock, saying, “By (constant) ebb and flow he has gained a pearl: how should he sell cheaply?”
  • And another donkey would say, “With this fastidiousness (of his), let him recline on the imperial throne!”
  • A certain donkey became ill with indigestion and was unable to eat; therefore he gave the gazelle a formal invitation (to dine).
  • He (the gazelle) shook his head, (as though to say), “Nay, begone, O such-and such: I have no appetite, I am unwell.”
  • He (the donkey) replied, “I know that you are showing disdain, or holding aloof in regard for your reputation.” 915
  • He (the gazelle) said to himself, “That (which you offer me) is your food, whereby your limbs are revived and renewed.
  • I have been familiar with a (beauteous) pasture, I have reposed amongst (rivulets of) clear water and meadows.
  • If Destiny has cast me into torment, (yet) how should that goodly disposition and nature depart (from me)?
  • If I have become a beggar, (yet) how should I have the face (impudence and greed) of a beggar? And if my (bodily) raiment become old, (yet) I am (spiritually) new.
  • I have eaten hyacinth and anemone and sweet basil too with a thousand disdains and disgusts.” 920
  • He (the donkey) said, “Yes; boast and boast and boast away! In a strange country one can utter many an idle brag.”
  • He (the gazelle) replied, “Truly my navel (musk-gland) bears (me) witness: it confers a (great) favour (even) on aloes-wood and ambergris.
  • But who will hearken to (perceive) that? (Only) he that hath the (spiritual) sense of smell. ’Tis taboo for the donkey addicted to dung.
  • The donkey smells donkey's urine on the road: how should I offer musk to (creatures of) this class?”
  • Hence the Prophet, (who was always) responsive (to the Divine command), spake, the parable, “Islam is a stranger in this world,” 925
  • Because even his (the true Moslem's) kinsfolk are fleeing from him, though the angels are in harmony with his essence.
  • The people deem his (outward) form homogeneous (with theirs), but they do not perceive in him that (spiritual) fragrance.
  • (He is) like a lion in the shape of a cow: behold him from afar but do not investigate him!
  • And if you investigate, take leave of the cow, (which is) the body; for that lion natured one will tear the cow to pieces.
  • He will expel the bovine nature from your head, he will uproot animality from the animal (soul). 930
  • (If) you are a cow, you will become a lion (when) near him; (but) if you are glad to be a cow, do not seek to be a lion.
  • Commentary on “Verily I saw seven fat kine which seven lean kine devoured.” God had created those lean kine with the qualities of hungry lions, to the end that they might devour the seven fat ones with avidity. Although (only) the forms of those kine were shown as phantoms in the mirror of dream, do thou regard the reality!
  • The Lord of Egypt saw in dream, when the door of his inward eye was opened,
  • Seven fat kine, exceedingly well-nourished: the seven lean kine devoured them.
  • The lean ones were lions within; else they would not have been devouring the (fat) kine.
  • The man of (holy) works, then, is human in appearance, but in him is concealed a man-eating lion. 935
  • He (the lion) heartily devours the (carnal) man and makes him single: his dregs become pure if he (the lion) inflict pain upon him.
  • By that one pain he is delivered from all dregs: he sets his foot upon Suhá.
  • How long wilt thou speak (caw) like the ill-omened crow? (Let me return to the parable and ask), “O Khalíl, wherefore didst thou kill the cock?”
  • He replied, “(Because of) the (Divine) command.” “Tell (me) the wisdom of the (Divine) command, that I may glorify that (wisdom) punctiliously.”
  • Explaining that the killing of the cock by Abraham, on whom be peace, signifies the subdual and subjugation of certain blameworthy and pernicious qualities in the heart of the disciple.
  • He (the cock) is lustful and much addicted to lust, intoxicated by that poisonous insipid wine. 940
  • Had not it (lust) been (necessary) for the sake of procreation, O executor, Adam for shame of it would have made himself a eunuch.
  • The accursed Iblís said to (God) the Dispenser of justice, “I want a powerful snare for this prey.”
  • He (God) showed to him gold and silver and herds of horses, saying, “By means of this thou canst seduce mankind.”
  • He (Iblís) cried “Bravo!” but let his lip drop sourly: he became wrinkled and sour like a lemon.
  • Then God offered to that fallen one gold and jewels from His goodly mines, 945
  • Saying, “Take this other snare, O accursed one.” He replied, “Give more than this, O most excellent Helper.”
  • (Then) He gave him oily and sweet (viands) and costly sherbets and many silken robes.
  • He (Iblís) said, “O Lord, I want more assistance than this, to bind them with a cord of palm-fibre.
  • In order that Thy intoxicated (devotees), who are fierce and courageous, may manfully burst those bonds,
  • And that by means of this snare and (these) cords of sensuality Thy (holy) man may be separated from the unmanly, 950