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6
1083-1132

  • When I beheld thee I beheld myself: blessings on that mirror goodly in its ways!
  • When I beheld thee, the absurd became actual for me: my spirit was submerged in the Glory.
  • When I beheld thee, O Spirit of the world, verily love for this (earthly) sun fell from mine eye. 1085
  • By thee mine eye was endowed with lofty aspiration: it looks not on the (earthly) garden save with contempt.
  • I sought light: verily I beheld the Light of light. I sought the houri: verily (in thee) I beheld an object of envy to the houri.
  • I sought a Joseph comely and with limbs (white as) silver: in thee I beheld an assembly of Josephs.
  • I was (engaged) in searching after Paradise: from every part of thee a Paradise appeared (to me).
  • In relation to me this is praise and eulogy; in relation to thee this is vituperation and satire, 1090
  • Like the praise given to God by the simple shepherd in the presence of Moses the Kalím—
  • ‘I will seek out Thy lice, I will give Thee milk, I will stitch Thy shoon and lay them before Thee.’
  • God accepted his vituperation as an expression of praise: if thou also have mercy, ’twill be no marvel.
  • Have mercy upon the failure of (our) minds (to comprehend thee), O thou who art beyond (all) understandings and conceptions.”
  • O lovers, new fortune has arrived from the old World that makes (all things) new, 1095
  • From the World that is seeking a remedy for them that have no remedy: hundreds of thousands of wonders of the (present) world are (contained) in it.
  • Rejoice, O people, since the relief has come; be glad, O people: the distress is removed.
  • A Sun went into the hut of the new-moon, making urgent demands and saying, “Refresh us, O Bilál!
  • From fear of the foe thou wert wont to speak under thy breath: (now), to his confusion, go up into the minaret and speak (aloud).”
  • The announcer of glad news is shouting in the ear of every sorrowful one, “Arise, O unlucky man, and take the road to fortune. 1100
  • O thou that art in this prison and amidst this stench and these lice, beware lest any one hear! Thou hast escaped (from prison): be silent!”
  • How shouldst thou keep silence now, O my beloved, when a drummer has appeared from the root of every hair (in thy body)?
  • The jealous foe has become so deaf (that) he says, “Where is the sound of all these drums?”
  • The fresh sweet basil is touching his face, (but) in his blindness he says, “What is this annoyance?”
  • The houri is nipping his hand and drawing (him towards her): the blind man is distraught and says, “Wherefore is he (some one) hurting me? 1105
  • What is this (painful sense of) having my hand and body pulled hither and thither? I am asleep, let me sleep awhile.”
  • He whom thou seekest in thy slumbers, this is He! Open thine eye, (thou wilt see) ’tis that auspicious Moon.
  • Tribulations were (laid) more (heavily) upon (His) dear ones because the Beloved showed more coquettishness towards the beauteous (lovers).
  • He sports with the beauteous ones in every path; sometimes, too, he throws the blind into frenzy.
  • For a moment He gives Himself to the blind, so that a great uproar arises from the street of the blind. 1110
  • Story of Hilal, who was a devoted servant to God. (He was) possessed of spiritual insight and (in his religion) was not a mere imitator (of others). He had concealed himself in (the disguise of) being a slave to (God's) creatures, not from helplessness but for good reason, as Luqmán and Joseph and others (did, who were slaves) in appearance. He was a groom in the service of a certain Amír, and that Amír was a Moslem, but (spiritually) blind. “The blind man knows that he has a mother, but he cannot conceive what she is like.” If, having this knowledge, he show reverence towards his mother, it is possible that he may gain deliverance from blindness, for (the Prophet has said that) when God wills good unto a servant (of His) He opens the eyes of his heart, that He may let him see the Invisible (World) with them.
  • Since you have heard some of the (excellent) qualities of Bilál, now hear the story of the emaciation of Hilál.
  • He was more advanced than Bilál in the Way (to God): he had mortified his evil nature more.
  • (He was) not a backslider like you, for at every moment you are farther back: you are moving away from the state of the (precious) pearl towards the state of the (worthless) stone.
  • ’Tis like the case of the guest who came to a certain Khwája: the Khwája inquired concerning his days and years.
  • He asked, “How many years hast thou lived, my lad? Say (it) out and don't hide (it) away but count up (correctly).” 1115
  • He replied, “Eighteen, seventeen, or sixteen, or fifteen, O adoptive brother.”
  • “(Go) backward, backward,” said he, “O giddy-headed one”; “keep going back usque ad cunnum matris tuae!” [“(Go) backward, backward,” said he, “O giddy-headed one”; “keep going back until (you return to) your mother’s vagina!”]
  • Story in exposition of the same topic.
  • A certain man begged an Amír to give him a horse: he said, “Go and take that grey horse.”
  • He replied, “I don't want that one.” “Why not?” he asked. “It goes backward and is very restive,” said he;
  • “It goes back, back very hard in the direction of its rump.” He replied, “Turn its tail towards home!” 1120
  • The tail of this beast you are riding, (namely), your carnal soul, is lust; hence that self-worshipper goes back, back.
  • O changer, make its (carnal) lust, which is the tail, to be entirely lust for the world hereafter.
  • When you bind its lust (and debar it) from the loaf, that lust puts forth its head from (is transformed into) noble reason.
  • As, when you lop off a (superfluous) branch from a tree, vigour is imparted to the well-conditioned branches.
  • When you have turned its (the carnal steed's) tail in that direction, if it goes backward, it goes to the place of shelter. 1125
  • How excellent are the docile horses which go forward, not backward, and are not given over to restiveness,
  • Going hot-foot, like the body of Moses the Kalím, to which (the distance) to the two seas (was) as the breadth of a blanket!
  • Seven hundred years is the duration of the journey on which he set out in the path of Love, (the journey that lasted) for an age.
  • Since the aspiration (that carried him) on his journey in the body is (as immense as) this, his journey in the spirit must be (even) unto the highestParadise.
  • The kingly cavaliers sped forward in advance (of all); the boobies unloaded (their beasts of burden) in the stable-yard. 1130
  • Parable.
  • ’Tis like (the tale of) the caravaneers (who) arrived and entered a village and found a certain door open.
  • One (of them) said, “During this spell of cold weather let us unload (alight) here for a few days.”