The Rose-Garden of Mystery

سؤال ۱۵

Question 15

[Question:] Idol, girdle and Christianity in this street are all unbelief; if not, say what they are.

جواب ۱۵

Answer 15

[Answer:] The idol here is the place where love and oneness (waḥdat) appear; to bind on the girdle is the knot of service.

Since unbelief and faith both stand by being, the affirmation of oneness (tawḥīd) becomes the very worship of idols.

Since things are the places where being appears, among them the idol too is one, after all.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads شد for باشد.

Think well, O man of intellect: in respect of being, the idol is not false.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads معنی for هستی.

Know that God Most High is its creator; whatever proceeds from the Good is good.

Being, wherever it is, is pure good; if there is evil in it, that comes from another.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads شرست for شریست.

If the Muslim knew what the idol is, he would know that religion is in idol-worship.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads دین for چیست.

If the polytheist were aware of the idol, how would he be astray in his religion?

He saw nothing in the idol but outward creation; for that reason he became, under the law (sharʿ), an unbeliever.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads از for در.

You too, if you do not see the hidden Real (ḥaqq) in it, are not called a Muslim under the law.

By rosary and prayer and reciting the Quran through, this unbeliever will never become a Muslim.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS omits this couplet.

He has grown weary of figurative Islam to whom real unbelief has become manifest.

Within every body a soul is hidden; beneath unbelief a faith is hidden.

Unbelief is ever glorifying the Real; He said, "There is no thing [but glorifies Him]" [Q 17:44]: what room is there here for objection?

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads حق اوست for حقست.

What am I saying? I have strayed far from the road. "Say: God! then leave them" [Q 6:91].

Who adorned the idol's face with such beauty? Who would become an idol-worshipper if the Real did not will it?

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads از for ار.

He Himself did, He Himself spoke, He Himself was; He did well, spoke well, and was well.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads گردد for کرد; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads نیکو for نکو.

See one, say one, know one: in this the root and branch of faith are sealed.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads اصل for ختم.

It is not I who say this; hear it from the Quran: "There is no disparity in the creation of the Merciful" [Q 67:3].

اشارت بزنار

Indication: the girdle

[Indication: the girdle.] The tying of the girdle is the sign of service; I looked, and saw the root of every matter.

Those who have knowledge rely, in everything, only on its first assignment (vaḍʿ-i avval, its original sense).

Bind your waist like men, manfully; enter the company of "Fulfil My covenant" [Q 2:40].

On the steed of knowledge, with the polo-stick of worship, carry off the ball of felicity from the field.

For this work you were created, though many were created.

Knowledge is like the father and deeds are the mother; states (aḥvāl) are like the darling of the eye (qurrat al-ʿayn, the child).

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) omits و.

Without a father there is no human being, no doubt of it; in the world there is no more than one Messiah.

Let go of idle tales, ecstatic utterances and extravagant claims, fancies of light and the means to miracles.

Your miracle lies in worshipping the Real; besides that [all] is pride, hypocrisy, conceit and self-existence.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads مستیست for هستیست.

In this, everything that is not of the chapter of poverty (faqr) is all a means of gradual luring to ruin (istidrāj) and of [God's] stratagem.

From Iblīs the accursed, who bears no witness [of faith], thousands of wonders that break the customary order proceed.

Doubtful reading. As printed, the first hemistich does not scan in the metre. The Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) reads لعین (laʿīn, "accursed", for laʿnatī), which scans.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads لعین for لعنتی; the Midnapore MS reads پیدا for صادر; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads حرف for خرق.

Now he comes to you from the wall, now from the roof; now he sits in the heart, now in the limbs.

He knows your hidden states; he brings into you depravity, unbelief and rebellion.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) omits در; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) omits و.

Iblīs has become your imam and you are behind him; but how will you reach him in these [things]?

If your miracles lie in showing off yourself, you are a Pharaoh, and this is a claim to godhead.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads نیست for خدائیست.

One who has true acquaintance with the Real never shows himself off.

Your face is wholly turned to creatures. Beware! Do not let yourself be caught in this malady.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads بد for درین.

When you sit with the common people you are transformed into a beast (maskh); a beast? nay, at one stroke you sink lower still (faskh).

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads نسخ for فسخ.

May you have no dealings at all with the common people, lest you be suddenly turned upside down from your original nature (fiṭrat).

You have wasted your precious life in vain; will you not say in what work such a life is spent?

They have named confusion "composure" (jamʿiyyat); they have made an ass their leader. What a beard!

Leadership has now fallen to the ignorant; by this the people have all fallen into a bad state.

Look how the one-eyed Antichrist (Dajjāl) has sent a sample [of himself] into the world.

Know the sample again, O man of feeling: know [it as] his ass, whose name is Jassās.

Doubtful reading. Printed جساس (Jassās, the ass of the Antichrist?); Whinfield's margin gives the Midnapore MS's خباس (?), and the Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) reads خناس, "the one who slinks back" (cf. Q 114:4).

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) omits دان; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads گشت for هست; the Midnapore MS reads خباس ? for جساس.

All these asses, of a kind with that ass, have become out of ignorance the forerunners of that ass.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads بین for این; the Midnapore MS reads در for هم.

When the Master [the Prophet] told of the end of time, in many places he gave signs of this matter.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads بیان for نشان.

See now how the blind and deaf have become shepherds, and the sciences of religion have all gone up to heaven.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) omits this couplet.

No gentleness or modesty remains among [people]; no one is ashamed of ignorance.

All the states of the world are upside down; if you have intellect, look how it is.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads چگونه for چون.

One who belongs to the chapter of cursing, banishment and loathing, [because] his father was good, is now the shaykh of the age.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads دقت است for مقتست.

Khiḍr killed that wicked son whose father, with his grandfather, was righteous [Q 18:74, 80].

Now, you ass, you have taken for your shaykh an ass who is in asininity a greater ass than you.

Since he "does not know a cat from a mouse" (?), how will he purify your inmost heart (sirr)?

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) omits أ; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads کرده اند for گرداند.

If a son bears the mark of his own father, what shall I say? It is then "light upon light" [Q 24:35].

A son of good judgement and good fortune is like the fruit, the cream of the tree's inmost secret.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads سرو for سر.

But how shall one become a shaykh of religion who does not know good from bad, bad from good?

Discipleship was learning the knowledge of religion, kindling the lamp of religion from light.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads جان for نور.

Did anyone ever learn knowledge from the dead? Did anyone ever light a lamp from ashes?

It turns in my heart, in this matter, to bind the girdle about my own waist;

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads همین آید کز for گردد بدین.

not in the sense that I have no fame: yes, I have it, but I am ashamed of it.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads هیبت ندارم for عارم.

Since my partners in this matter are base, my obscurity is better than fame by far.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads adds او for after شهرت.

Then again an inspiration came from the Real: do not cavil at [God's] wisdom on account of a fool.

If there were no scavenger in the kingdoms, all creatures would fall into perdition.

Kinship of kind is, after all, the cause of union; so the world has come about, and God knows best.

But flee the company of the unworthy; if you want worship, shun custom.

Custom and worship do not come together; you worship? Then pass beyond custom.

اشارت بترسائی

Indication: Christianity

[Indication: Christianity.] By Christianity (tarsāʾī) I saw [that] the aim is stripping bare (tajrīd); I saw [it as] release from the noose of imitation (taqlīd).

The holy court of oneness (waḥdat) is the cloister (dayr) of the soul, which is the nest of the Sīmurgh of subsistence (baqāʾ).

This work became manifest through the Spirit of God [Jesus], who came into being from the Holy Spirit.

Within you too there is a soul from God, in which there is a sign of the Holy Spirit.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads از قدوس اندر for از روح القدس در.

If you find release from the self (nafs) of the human nature (nāsūt), you enter the holy life of the divine nature (lāhūt).

Whoever becomes stripped bare like an angel goes up, like the Spirit of God, to the fourth heaven.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads ازچون شد for ملک شد.

تمثیل

Illustration

The suckling child is confined beside its mother in the cradle;

when it has come of age and become a man for the journey, if it is a man it becomes its father's companion.

The elements are to you like the lower mother; you are the child, and your father is the higher fathers.

For this ʿĪsā said at the time of his ascent: I am setting out for my Father on high.

You too, dear soul (jān-i pidar), go to your Father; your companions have gone out: go out [too].

Doubtful reading. Whinfield prints پدر four times; the Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) reads بدر, "out", twice in the second hemistich ("your companions have gone out: go out"), followed in the English.

If you want to become a bird in flight, throw the carrion-world before the vultures.

Give this treacherous world to the base; carrion may be given to none but the dogs.

What is lineage? Seek what is akin [to you]; turn your face to the Real and give up lineage.

Whoever has sunk in the sea of non-being, "there are no ties of lineage" [Q 23:101] has become the coin of his moment.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads حال for وقت.

Every relation that has come about from lust yields nothing but pride and arrogance.

If there were no lust between [people], all lineages would become a tale.

When lust set to work between them, one became a mother and the other a father.

I do not say who mother or father is, for you must live with them in honour.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads بحرمت for بعزت.

You have named one deficient "sister", and given one envious the title "brother".

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads القب for لقب.

You call your own enemy "child"; you call a stranger to yourself "kinsman".

Just tell me, what is the maternal uncle, the paternal uncle? What do they yield but pain and grief?

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads ما for تا.

The companions who are with you on the road are companions, brother, for the sake of jest.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) omits the ی; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads منزل for هزل.

If for one moment you sit in the street of earnestness, what shall I tell you of what you will see of them?

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads یک سو for یکدم.

It is all tale and spell and fetter; by the Master's soul, these things are mockery.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads پند for بندست.

Manfully free yourself, like men; but let no one's right go to waste.

If you leave neglected one fine point of the law (sharʿ), you will be idle of religion in both worlds.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads شود for شوی.

Take care, do not neglect the rights of the law; but keep watch over yourself as well.

From the needle comes nothing but the stuff of grief; leave it behind, like ʿĪsā son of Maryam.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads زر و زن for سوزن.

Become a ḥanīf [pure in faith], free of every bond of the schools; enter the cloister (dayr) of religion like a monk.

As long as there are others and otherness in your sight, even in a mosque that is the very cloister.

When the garment of otherness rises from before you, the very form of the cloister becomes a mosque for you.

I do not know in what state you are; put off the contrariness of the self (nafs), and you are saved.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads inserts از for after خلاف.

Idol, girdle, Christianity and the church-bell all point to giving up reputation (nāmūs).

If you want to become a chosen servant, make yourself ready for truthfulness and sincerity.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads کرده for گردی.

Go, take yourself out of your own way; at every instant take up faith anew.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads برد for برو; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads adds در for after لحظه.

Since inwardly your self (nafs) is an unbeliever, do not be content with this outward Islam.

Make faith new in yourself every instant: become a Muslim, become a Muslim, a Muslim.

Many a faith is born from unbelief; that is not unbelief from which faith increases.

Leave hypocrisy, the wish to be heard of, and reputation; cast off the patched cloak (khirqa) and bind on the girdle.

Like our elder (pīr), be unique in unbelief; if you are a man, give your heart manfully;

be stripped bare of every affirming and denying, and give your heart at once to the young Christian.

اشارت ببت و ترسابچه

Indication: the idol and the young Christian

[Indication: the idol and the young Christian.] The idol and the young Christian are a light manifest, that has its places of manifestation in the faces of idols.

He makes all hearts his own [lit. bound to him]; at times he becomes the singer, at times the cupbearer.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads وساقی for وثاقی.

Bravo the minstrel who, with a sweet melody, sets fire to the harvest of a hundred ascetics!

Bravo the cupbearer who, with one cup, makes two hundred seventy-year-olds beside themselves!

If he comes to the mosque at dawn, he does not leave one man in it awake.

If he goes into the Sufi lodge, drunk from the night, he turns the Sufi's spell into a tale.

If he enters the college (madrasa), like a veiled drunkard, the jurist becomes helpless and hung over from him.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads رود for شود.

From love of him the ascetics have become helpless, and wanderers from house and home.

He made one a believer and the other an unbeliever; he filled the whole world with tumult and trouble.

The tavern has been made to flourish by his lip; the mosques have been filled with light by his cheek.

All my work was made easy by him; through him I found release from the unbelieving self (nafs).

My heart had a hundred veils from its own knowledge, from conceit, arrogance, deception and supposing.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads ابلیس for تلبیس.

That idol came in at my door at dawn and woke me from the sleep of heedlessness.

By his face the seclusion of the soul became bright; through him I saw what, after all, I am.

When I cast a glance at his fair cheek, a sigh rose from the midst of my soul.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads خویش for خوبش; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads بیان for میان.

He said to me: O cheat and hypocrite, your life has come to an end in name and reputation.

See from whom knowledge, asceticism, pride and supposing have held you back, O unripe one!

To look upon my face for half an hour is worth a thousand years of obedience.

In short, the face of that world-adorner showed me to myself from head to foot.

The face of my soul turned black with shame for my lost life and days of idleness.

When that moon whose face is like the sun saw that I had cut off hope from my own soul,

he filled a measure and gave it to me, and from its water fire fell into me.

Now, he said, with the wine without colour or scent wash away the figures on the tablet of being.

When I had drunk that measure clean, I fell from drunkenness upon the dust.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) omits را; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads هستی for مستی.

Now I am neither non-existent in myself nor existent; I am neither sober nor hung over nor drunk.

At times, like his eye, I have a merry head; at times, like his curl (zulf), I am in fire.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads مشوش for در اتش.

At times, from my own nature, I am in the stoke-hole of the bath-furnace (gulkhan); at times, from his face, I am in the rose-garden.