The Rose-Garden of Mystery

۲ سؤال

Question 2

🎙Listen on Ganjoor ↗ · read by رضا · vv. 112–112

Second [question]: What kind of thinking is the condition of our way? Why is it now obedience and now sin?

۲ جواب

Answer 2

🎙Listen on Ganjoor ↗ · read by رضا · vv. 113–130

To think on [God's] bounties (ālāʾ) is the condition of the way, but on the essence of the Real it is sheer sin [ḥadīth: 'think on God's bounties, do not think on His essence'].

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads عین for محض.

To think on the essence of the Real is vain: know it as sheer impossibility, the attaining of what is already attained.

Since the signs (āyāt) have been made clear by the essence, His essence does not become clear by the signs.

The whole world is manifest by His light: how should He become manifest by the world?

The light of the essence does not fit into the places of manifestation (maẓāhir), for the glories of His majesty are overpowering.

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

Leave intellect; be ever with the Real: for the bat's eye cannot bear the sun.

In the place where the light of the Real is the guide, what room is there for Gabriel's talk?

Though the angel has nearness to the court, he finds no room in the station of "I have with God [a time]" (lī maʿa llāh) [ḥadīth].

When His light burns the angel's wings [reading malak; the print has falak, 'the sphere'], it burns up intellect entirely, foot and head.

Doubtful reading. Printed فلک, "the sphere"; Whinfield's English, the 1887 Dialogue and, probably, the Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) read ملک, "the angel" (Gabriel, whose wings would burn), followed in the English.

The light of intellect before the most luminous essence is like the eye of the head before the fountain of the sun.

When the thing seen comes close to the seeing eye, the eye is darkened from perceiving it.

Blackness, if you understand, is the light of the essence; within the darkness is the water of life.

Black is nothing but what seizes (qābiḍ) the light of the eye; leave off looking, for this is no place for looking.

Doubtful reading. Printed قایض (or فایض); the Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) has the same shape. Read قابض, "the one that withholds" (the light of sight), as the sense requires.

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

What relation has dust to the pure world? Perception is the inability to attain perception [saying ascribed to Abū Bakr].

The blackness of face (siyah-rūʾī) never parted from the contingent in the two worlds; and God knows best.

'Blackness of face in the two abodes' [ḥadīth: poverty is blackness of face in both worlds] is, for the dervish, the great blackness (sawād-i aʿẓam), neither more nor less.

What can I say, since this point is so fine: a bright night in the middle of a dark day.

In this place of witnessing, where the lights of self-disclosure (tajallī) are, I have words, but it is better not to speak.

تمثیل

Illustration

🎙Listen on Ganjoor ↗ · read by رضا · vv. 131–165

If you want to see the fountain of the sun, you will need another body [to look through].

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads چشم for جرم.

Since the eye of the head has not the strength and endurance, the shining sun can be seen in water.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads دیدن for دید.

Since its brightness shows itself less from it [the water], it adds at once to your perception.

Non-being (ʿadam) is the mirror; Being is absolute; from it the reflection of the Real's shining is seen.

When non-being was set over against Being, a reflection at once appeared in it.

That oneness was made manifest by this multiplicity: when you counted one, it became many.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads یکی چون بر for یکیرا چون.

Though number has one as its beginning, it never has an end.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads نبودش هرگز for هرگزش نبود.

Since non-being was pure in its own essence, the hidden treasure came forth through it into the outward.

Read the ḥadīth "I was a [hidden] treasure" (kuntu kanzan) [ḥadīth qudsī], so that you may see the hidden secret plain.

Non-being is the mirror, the world the reflection, and man is like the eye of the reflected figure, in which the person is hidden.

You are the eye of the reflection and He is the light of that eye: by means of the eye, the eye has seen an eye.

The world became man, and man a world; there is no clearer statement than this.

When you look well into the root of this matter, He is both the seer and the eye and the seeing.

The holy ḥadīth (ḥadīth qudsī) made this plain, and made it evident: "through Me [he] sees and through Me [he] hears" (bī baṣar u bī samʿ) [ḥadīth al-nawāfil] (?).

Doubtful reading. As printed, the second hemistich does not scan in the metre. The Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) reads و بی یبصر و بی یسمع (the ḥadīth's own words, bī yubṣir … bī yasmaʿ, "through Me he sees … hears"), which scans.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads بی یسمع و بی یبصر for بی بصر.

Know the world from end to end as a mirror; in every single atom a hundred suns are hidden.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads تابان for پنهان.

If you split the heart of one drop, a hundred pure seas will come out of it.

If you look truly at every particle of dust, thousands of Adams are manifest in it.

Whinfield's margin. ? ادم.

In its limbs a gnat is the like of an elephant; in its names a drop is like the Nile.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads هم وند for همچند; the Midnapore MS reads اینجا for اسما.

The heart of each grain is a hundred harvests; a world is in the heart of a single millet seed.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads درون for دل.

In a gnat's wing is the room of a world; within the point of the eye [the pupil] is a heaven.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads دریای جانی for درجای.

With all the smallness of the grain of the heart, it is the dwelling of the Lord of the two worlds.

In it both worlds are gathered: now it becomes Iblīs, now Adam.

See the world kneaded all together: the angel in the demon, and Satan in the angel;

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads همه درهم for بهم.

all with one another, together, like seed and fruit: from the unbeliever the believer, and the believer from the unbeliever.

Gathered together, like the point of the present moment (nuqṭa-yi ḥāl), is the whole circle of time, day, month and year.

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

Pre-eternity (azal) has fallen together with the very post-eternity (abad); the descent of Jesus with the bringing-forth of Adam.

From every single point of this linked circle thousands of circles are formed.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads شکل for دور.

From every point, as a circle has come to turn, it is itself the centre and itself the traveller on the circumference.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads یک نقط for نقطه چو.

If you take one atom from its place, the whole world falls into disorder from head to foot.

All are bewildered, and not one part of them has set foot outside the bounds of contingency (imkān).

Determination (taʿayyun) has imprisoned each one; through partness each has become hopeless of the whole.

You would say they are forever journeying and confined, for they are always between putting off and putting on [form].

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads جد اند for حبسند.

All are in motion and forever at rest; neither the beginning of any one is visible, nor its end.

All are always aware of their own essence, and from there have found the way to the [divine] court.

Under the veil of every atom is hidden the soul-increasing beauty of the Beloved's face.

قاعده

Rule

🎙Listen on Ganjoor ↗ · read by رضا · vv. 166–200

You have heard only this word "world": come, tell me, what have you seen of the world?

What have you known of form or of meaning? What is the hereafter, and how is this world?

Doubtful reading. The first letter of دنیی is printed without its loop (it looks like ونیی); the Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) has the same letter-form for د. Read دنیی, "this world".

Say, what is the Sīmurgh, and the mountain Qāf? What are paradise, hell and the Aʿrāf (the Heights) [Q 7:46]?

Which is that world which is not visible, one day of which is a year here? [cf. Q 22:47, 32:5, 70:4]

Whinfield's margin. Other manuscripts reads پنجاه for سال.

This world you have seen is not, after all, the only one: have you not heard, after all, "what you do not see"? [Q 69:39]

Come, show [me] which is Jābalqā; which is the world-city of Jābalsā?

Whinfield's margin. ? چه آن.

Ponder "the easts and the wests" [Q 70:40], since this world has no more than one [east and west].

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

Hear the explanation of "the like of them" [Q 65:12] from Ibn ʿAbbās; then know yourself well.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads بیا بشنو تو این راز for ز; probably H's reading of hemistich 2.

You are asleep, and this seeing is imagination; whatever you have seen is a likeness of it.

At the morning of the resurrection, when you wake, you will know that all this is fancy and supposition.

When the imagining of the squinting eye departs, earth and heaven are changed [Q 14:48].

When the sun of the evident shows you its face, the light of Venus and moon and sun does not remain.

One ray of it falls upon the hard rock, and it becomes like dyed wool, in shreds [cf. Q 101:5, 70:9].

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads چشم for پشم.

Act now, while you are able to act; when you are not able, what use is it, then, that you know?

Doubtful reading. As printed, the first hemistich does not scan in the metre. The Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) reads بدان اکنون (aknūn, "now", for kunūn), which scans.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads بدان اکنون که for بکن; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads انرا for سود.

When I speak of the world of the heart, [what is it] to you, O you with head hanging down and feet in the mud?

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads چه for چو.

The world is yours, and you remain helpless; there is never anyone more deprived than you.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads دیده for نیست.

Like prisoners, sitting in one station, your feet bound by the hand of helplessness;

you have sat, like women, in the lane of misfortune, and are not ashamed of your own ignorance.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads نشسته for نشستی.

The brave of the world are steeped in blood; you, with covered head, do not set foot outside.

Doubtful reading. As printed, the second hemistich does not scan in the metre. The Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) reads بیرون (bīrūn for burūn), which scans.

What have you understood from this "religion of old women", that you hold ignorance permissible for yourself?

Women, since they are deficient in intellect and religion, why should men choose their way?

If you are a man, come out and look; whatever comes before you, pass beyond it.

Doubtful reading. As printed, the second hemistich does not scan in the metre. The Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) reads هر آنچه پیشت آید (har ān-chi pīshat āyad), which scans.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads آی for آ.

Do not rest, day or night, in the stages [of the road]; do not wait upon companion and mounts.

Go like the Friend (Abraham) and seek the Real; turn night to day and day to night.

The star, with the moon and the "greater" sun [Q 6:76-78], are sense, imagination and the more luminous intellect.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads حسن for حس.

Turn your face from all these, O traveller of the road; say always, "I love not those that set" [Q 6:76].

Or, like Moses son of ʿImrān, go on this road until you hear "I am God" [Q 28:30, 20:14].

So long as the mountain of being remains before you, the answer to the word "show me" is "you shall not see Me" [Q 7:143].

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads باکی ست for باقیست; other manuscripts reads صدای for جواب.

Reality is amber, your essence is straw: if the mountain of your you-ness were not, what road [would there be]?

The self-disclosure, when it reaches the mountain of being, makes being, from lowliness, like the dust of the road [Q 7:143].

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads گر رسد for کو.

A beggar becomes a king through a single attraction [of God]; in one moment it brings a mountain down to a straw.

Go, follow the Master into "He made [His servant] journey by night" [Q 17:1]; gaze on all "the greatest signs" [Q 53:18].

Come out of the house of Umm Hāniʾ; speak without restriction the saying "whoever has seen me [has seen the Real]".

Pass from the kāf of the corner of the two worlds; sit in the qāf of nearness, of "two bows' length" [Q 53:9].

The Real will give you whatever you wish; they will show you all things "as they are".

قاعده

Rule

🎙Listen on Ganjoor ↗ · read by رضا · vv. 201–210

For one whose soul is in [the] self-disclosure, the whole world is the book of the Real, the Exalted.

Accidents are its vowel-marks, substance is like its letters; the degrees [of being] are like its verses and its pauses.

Each world in it is like a particular sura: one of them the Fātiḥa, and that other the Ikhlāṣ.

Its first verse came as the Universal Intellect, which is in it like the b of the bismillāh.

Second came the Universal Soul, the Light Verse [Q 24:35], for it became like the lamp in the fullness of light.

The third verse, in which the Throne of the Merciful came [cf. Q 20:5]; recite the fourth, the Verse of the Footstool [Q 2:255].

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads همین for فرو.

After it are the heavenly bodies, in which is the sura of "the seven oft-repeated" [Q 15:87].

Look again at the body of the elements, for each one of them is a manifest sign.

After the element is the body of the three offspring [mineral, plant and animal]: these signs cannot be counted.

At the last the human soul appeared, for at "mankind" the Quran came at last to its seal [Q 114].

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads نازل for پیدا; Here Hammer-Purgstall (1838) inserts couplet 483.

قاعدة فی فکر آلافاق

Rule: thinking on the horizons (the outer world)

🎙Listen on Ganjoor ↗ · read by رضا · vv. 211–241

Do not be a prisoner in the jail of natures; come out and look at the works [of the Maker].

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads ارکان for زندان.

Reflect upon the creation of the heavens [Q 3:190-191], so that you may be praised by the Real in [His] verses.

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

See for once how the Mightiest Throne has come to encompass both worlds.

Why did they name it the Throne of the Merciful? What relation has it to the heart of man?

Why are these two forever in motion, so that they do not take rest for one moment?

Is it not that the heart is the centre of the simple Throne? For this is like the point, and that the encompassing circle.

In a day and a night, more or less, the Throne goes round the whole of you, O dervish (?).

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads کمابیش for کم و بیش; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads رویش for درویش.

Look well for once: why have the round bodies come to be in motion because of it?

From east to west, like a water-wheel, they turn continually, without food or sleep.

In each day and night this mightiest sphere makes a complete circuit round the world.

And from it the other heavens, in the same manner, are turning within the sphere.

But against the turning of the Atlas sphere these eight arched [heavens] turn.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads مشت for هشت.

The Footstool of "the [heaven] of the constellations" [Q 85:1] is evenly proportioned (or: is the equator), having neither disparity nor rifts [Q 67:3, 50:6].

The Ram with the Bull and with the Twins and the Crab are hung upon it, like the Lion and the Ear of Corn (Virgo);

next the Balance and the Scorpion, then the Bow; of the Kid, the Bucket and the Fish the sign is there.

The fixed stars are one thousand and twenty-four, which have their station upon the Footstool.

Doubtful reading. As printed, the first hemistich does not scan in the metre. The Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) reads بیست چارند (bīst chār without the second u), which scans.

In the seventh sphere Saturn is the watchman; the sixth is the place and abode of Jupiter;

the fifth sphere is the place of Mars; in the fourth the world-adorning sun;

Third is Venus, second the place of Mercury; the moon came to dwell in the nearest heaven [cf. Q 37:6].

For Saturn [the houses are] the Kid and the Bucket, and Jupiter again made its beginning and end in the Bow and the Fish;

the Ram with the Scorpion became the place of Mars; the Lion became the resting-place of the sun;

when Venus made the Bull and the Balance its corner, Mercury went into the Twins and the Ear of Corn;

the moon saw the Crab as its own kind; the Tail, like the Head, chose a node.

The moon has twenty-eight mansions; then it comes opposite the sun;

after that it is "like the old palm-stalk" [Q 36:39], by the decree of One Mighty, who is Wise [Q 36:38].

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads علیم for حکیمست.

If you become a perfect man in reflection, you will surely say, "It is not in vain" [Q 3:191].

The word of the Real speaks to this, that to see [it as] vain comes from weakness of certainty [cf. Q 38:27].

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads همین for همی; other manuscripts reads از ظن ظنین for از ضعف یقین.

The being of a gnat holds a perfect wisdom [cf. Q 2:26]: is it not in the being of Mercury and Mars?

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads ای خام for تام.

But when you look into the root of this matter, you see the sphere under the command of the Compeller.

The astrologer, since he has no share in faith, says the effect comes from a strange configuration;

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads ازاین for که.

he does not see that this round sphere is made subject by the command and order of the Real [Q 7:54].

تمثیل

Illustration

🎙Listen on Ganjoor ↗ · read by رضا · vv. 242–259

You might say these revolving heavens are, in their turning day and night, like the potter's wheel,

and every moment the knowing Judge makes from water and clay another vessel.

Whatever is in time and in place is from one master and from one workshop.

The stars, which are all of the people of perfection, why are they every moment in decline and detriment?

All of them, in place, course, colour and shapes, why have they become forever different in state?

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads آخر for گشتند.

Why are they now at the lowest point and now at the summit, sometimes fallen alone and sometimes paired?

Doubtful reading. Printed خصیض, a misprint for حضیض, "perigee" (the lowest point of a planet's course, against اوج, the highest). The Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) has no و before گاه, which makes the second hemistich scan.

From what has the heart of the sphere at last become full of fire? In longing for whom is it, at last, in this pulling to and fro?

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads او اندر for آخر.

All the stars go round upon it on foot, now up, now fallen low.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads وگه نشیب for شیب.

The elements, water and wind and fire and earth, have taken their place beneath the heavens,

each one keeping to its own station, so that it does not set foot one moment backward or forward.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads ملایم for ملازم; the Midnapore MS reads مرکز for منزل; the Midnapore MS reads ذره for لحظه.

Four contraries in nature and in centres, gathered together: has anyone ever seen [this]?

Each one opposed [to the others] in essence and in form, yet become one thing under the rule of necessity.

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

From them came the three offspring: the mineral, then the plant, then the animal.

They have set prime matter in the middle, free of form, like Sufis.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads صافی for فارغ.

All, by the decree, command and justice of the Judge, stand in their place and are made subject.

The mineral has fallen upon the earth from [His] severity; the plant stands upright from [His] love;

the striving of the animal, from sincerity and devotion, is for the preservation of species, genus and individuals.

Doubtful reading. Printed نزوع, "yearning" (?); Whinfield's margin gives Hammer-Purgstall's فروغ, "the radiance", which the Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) also reads (without از).

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads فروع for نزوع.

All have given their assent to the Judge's decree, and day and night have become seekers of the Desired [One].

Doubtful reading. As printed, the second hemistich does not scan in the metre. The Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) reads مر او را (mar ū-rā, "Him", for murād-rā (Whinfield's margin has the same)), which scans.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads مر اورا for مرادرا.

قاعدة الفکر فی آلانفس

Rule: thinking on the souls (the inner world)

🎙Listen on Ganjoor ↗ · read by رضا · vv. 260–287

Look well, for once, at your own origin: the mother's father became in turn a mother [Adam, from whom Eve came] (?).

See the whole world, from end to end, within yourself; whatever comes at the last, see it as first.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads باول for باخر.

At the last the soul of Adam appeared; both worlds became the train (the dependants) of his essence.

Is it not that the final cause, at the last, becomes manifest through its own essence?

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads غایبی for غائی.

"Very unjust" and "very ignorant" [Q 33:72] are the opposite of light, but they are the place of manifestation of very manifestation.

Doubtful reading. As printed, the second hemistich does not scan in the metre. The Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) reads ولیکن (va-līkin for va līk), which scans.

When the back of a mirror is dulled, it shows a person's face from the other side.

The ray of the sun from the fourth of the heavens is not reflected except upon the face of the earth.

You were the reflection of the One the angels worship; for that you became the one the angels bowed to [Q 2:34].

There is a soul from every body before you, and from it a cord tied to you.

For that they have become subject to your command: because the soul of each one is hidden in you.

You are the kernel of the world, for that you are in the middle; know yourself, for you are the soul of the world.

The northern quarter became your dwelling, because the heart is on the left side of the body.

The world of intellect and soul is your capital; earth and heaven are from your shadow.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads پیرایه for سایهٔ.

See that non-being which is the very essence of being; look at the height which is the essence of lowness.

Your natural powers are ten thousand; the voluntary are beyond limit and number.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads حصر for حد.

Each one of them is dependent on instruments: on members, limbs and ligaments.

The physicians have become bewildered in this; they fell short in the anatomy of man.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads حکیمان جهان for اندرین.

No one has found the road to this matter; each one has confessed his own helplessness.

From the Real each one has a portion and a share; the return and the origin of each one is from a Name.

By that Name existing things subsist, and by that Name they are forever in glorification.

At the origin each one had from it a place of issue; at the time of returning it became like a door.

It went out by the door by which it first came in, although in [this] life it wandered from door to door.

For that you have known all the Names [Q 2:31], since you are the form of the reflection of the Named.

The manifestation of power, knowledge and will is through you, O servant blessed with felicity.

You are hearing and seeing, living and speaking; you have subsistence not from yourself but from there.

Hail to a First that came [to be] the very Last; hail to an Inward that came [to be] the very Outward [Q 57:3].

Whinfield's margin. Here Hammer-Purgstall (1838) inserts the couplet repeated at No. 310.

Day and night you are in doubt about yourself; it is better that you do not know yourself.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads چو for تو.

Since the end of reflection is bewilderment, here the discussion of reflection is sealed.