The Rose-Garden of Mystery

🎙Listen on Ganjoor ↗ · read by رضا · vv. 1–33

In the name of Him who taught the soul to think, and lit the lamp of the heart from the light of the soul.

By His grace both worlds became bright; by His outpouring the dust of Adam became a rose-garden.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads زنورش for زفضلش.

The Mighty One, who in the twinkling of an eye brought forth the two worlds from the kāf and the nūn [of kun, "Be!": Q 36:82].

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads پدید for برون.

When the qāf of His power breathed upon the Pen, it struck thousands of images on the tablet of non-being.

From that breath both worlds came into view; from that breath the soul of Adam was made manifest.

In Adam this intellect and discernment appeared, so that by it he came to know the root of all things.

When he saw himself a determined individual, he reflected: "What, then, am I?"

He made a journey from the part toward the whole, and from there passed back again to the world.

He saw the world as a thing of relative (posited) existence, like the unit become current through the numbers.

The world of command and the world of creation came about in a single breath: in the very moment it came, it went back again.

Yet in that place there is no coming and going: going, when you look, is nothing but coming.

Things returned to their own root; all became one thing, hidden and manifest.

Exalted is God, the Eternal, who in a single breath makes the beginning and the end of the two worlds!

Here the world of command and the world of creation became one: the one became many, and the many became few.

All this appearance of otherness comes from your imagining, as the point becomes a circle from the speed of its turning.

It is one line from the first to the last, on which the creatures of the world have become travellers.

On this road the prophets are like camel-drivers, the guides and leaders of the caravan.

And of them our lord has become the chief; he is the first and he the last in this work.

The One (aḥad) became manifest in the mīm of Aḥmad; in this circle the first came to be the very last.

From Aḥmad to aḥad the difference is one mīm; a whole world is drowned in that one mīm.

Whinfield's margin. Omitted by Hammer-Purgstall (1838).

In him the end of this road was reached; with him the stage became "I call to God" [Q 12:108].

His heart-expanding station is the gathering of gathering (jamʿ al-jamʿ); his soul-increasing beauty is the candle of candles.

Doubtful reading. Whinfield prints شمع شمعست, "the candle of candles"; his margin gives the Midnapore MS's جمعست, and the Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) reads شمع جمعست, "the candle of the gathering".

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads جمعست for شمعست.

He went before, and all the hearts behind; the hands of the souls have grasped his skirt.

On this road the saints, behind and before, again give tidings of their own stages.

When they became aware of their own limit, they spoke of the known (maʿrūf) and the knower (ʿārif).

One, from the sea of oneness, said "I am the Real" (anā l-ḥaqq); another spoke of nearness and distance and the voyage of the boat.

One who had attained outward knowledge gave tidings from the dryness of the shore.

One brought up the pearl and became a target; another left it and stayed beside the shell.

One spoke this word again of the part and the whole; another began from the eternal and the originated.

One spoke of the tress, the mole and the down; he made plain wine, candle and the beautiful one (shāhid).

One spoke of his own being and of supposing [the self]; another was drowned in the idol and the girdle (zunnār).

Since their words fell according to their stages, they became difficult to the understandings of men.

For anyone who is bewildered in this matter, knowing it becomes a necessity.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads باشدش for میشود.