The Rose-Garden of Mystery

۴ سؤال

Question 4

🎙Listen on Ganjoor ↗ · read by رضا · vv. 312–312

"How is the traveller? Who is the wayfarer? Whom shall I call the complete (perfect) man?"

۴ جواب

Answer 4

🎙Listen on Ganjoor ↗ · read by رضا · vv. 313–316

Next you said, "Who is the traveller on the road?" One who has become aware of his own origin.

Know his journeying as a journey of unveiling, from the contingent toward the necessary, by leaving the very deficiency.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads غین و for عین.

The traveller is he who passes quickly; he becomes clear of himself, as fire of smoke.

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

He goes through the stages, the reverse of the first journey, until he becomes the Perfect Man.

قاعدة

Rule

🎙Listen on Ganjoor ↗ · read by رضا · vv. 317–338

First know how he came into existence, so that the Perfect Man was born.

He appeared in the phases of the mineral; then, from the spirit "attributed" [to God, cf. Q 15:29], he became knowing.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads اطواری for اطوار.

Then he made a motion from power; after that he became, from the Real, possessed of will.

In childhood he opened up his perception of the world, and in him the whisperings of the world became actual.

When the particulars were set in order in him, he found the way from the compound to the universals.

Anger appeared in him, and appetite; and from them arose avarice and greed and arrogance.

The blameworthy qualities came into act; he became worse than wild beast and demon and brute.

This is the lowest point of the descent, for it became opposite the point of unity.

From the acts, multiplicity became without end; by this it became opposite the beginning.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads شد for گشت.

If he becomes bound in this snare, in going astray he is lower than the cattle [Q 7:179].

But if a light comes to him from the world of the soul, by the overflowing of attraction or by the reflection of proof,

his heart becomes the confidant of the grace of the Real; he goes back by the road on which he came.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads نور for لطف.

By attraction or by certain proof he finds a road to certain faith.

He makes one return from the sijjīn of the wicked; he turns his face toward the ʿilliyyūn of the righteous [Q 83:7, 83:18].

Through repentance he takes on that quality at that moment, and becomes one of the chosen [cf. Q 3:33] among the children of Adam.

Doubtful reading. Printed دار اصطفی, "the house of choosing" (?); the Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) reads در اصطفی, "in the choosing" (without ز before اولاد).

He becomes clean of blameworthy acts, like the prophet Idrīs in the fourth heaven [cf. Q 19:57].

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads آید بر for در.

When he finds deliverance from evil qualities, he becomes, like Noah, possessed of life through that.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads نباتی for حیاتی.

His partial power no longer remains in the whole; like the Friend (Abraham) he becomes possessed of trust.

[His] will is joined to the good pleasure of the Real; he goes, like Moses, into the greatest gate.

He finds release from his own knowledge; like Jesus the prophet he becomes heavenly.

He gives [his] being up to plunder all at once, and goes up behind Aḥmad into the Ascension.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads درولی for پیٔ.

When the last point reaches the first, there neither angel nor one sent [as prophet] finds room [cf. the hadith "I have a time with God in which no angel brought near nor prophet sent has room"].

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads اندمی for آنجا.

تمثیل

Illustration

The Prophet came as the sun, the saint as the moon, which turns to face [it] in "I have [a time] with God".

Prophecy is clear in its own perfection; sainthood is manifest in it, not hidden.

Sainthood must stay concealed in the saint; in the Prophet it shows itself openly.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads نماند for نماید.

When the saint, by following, became [his] companion, he became the Prophet's intimate in sainthood.

From "If you love [God, follow me]" he finds the way to the private chamber of "God will love you" [Q 3:31].

In that house of retreat he becomes the beloved, and is drawn wholly to the Real.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads یکبارگی for یکبارهگی.

In respect of meaning the saint is a follower [of the Prophet]; in the lane of meaning the saint is a worshipper (?).

The saint's work reaches its completion only at the moment when the end turns back once more to [join] the beginning.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads انگه for وقتی.

۴ جواب تتمه

Answer 4, continued

The complete man is one who, out of [his] completeness, does with [all his] mastery the work of a slave.

Then, when he has cut through the distance, the Real sets on his head the crown of vicegerency.

Whinfield's margin. Other manuscripts reads پوید for ببرید.

He finds a subsistence, and after passing away his end goes back once more to the beginning.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads از بعد for بعد; the Midnapore MS reads ره for او.

He makes the law his inner garment, and the way his outer cloak.

Know that the reality is the station of his very essence; he is ever between unbelief and faith.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads شده جامع for بود دایم.

Described by praiseworthy traits, known for knowledge, renunciation and godfearing.

All [things] are with him, yet he is far from all of them, hidden beneath domes of veiling [cf. the hadith "My saints are beneath My domes"].

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads از for زین; Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads سر for ستر.

تمثیل

Illustration

The whole kernel of the almond is spoiled if you scrape it from its shell while it is unripe.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads بشکافی for بخراشی.

But once it has ripened it is good with the shell; [and then] if you take out its kernel, you throw the shell away.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads بی for پوست.

The law is the shell, the reality the kernel; between this and that is the way.

A flaw on the traveller's road is a defect in the kernel; once his kernel has ripened, it is fine without the shell.

When the knower is joined to his own certainty, the kernel is ripe, and the shell breaks.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads وسیله for رسیده.

His being does not remain in this world; he has gone out, and never comes back.

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

But if, with the shell, it receives the sun's warmth, it makes one more cycle in this mode of existence.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads تابد for یابد.

It becomes a tree, from water and from earth, whose branch passes beyond the seventh heaven.

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

It brings forth that same seed again, one become a hundred by the decree of the Compeller.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads اید for آرد.

As the journey of the grain went into the line of the tree, from the point [came] a line, and from the line another circle.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads خطی for خط.

When the traveller has become complete in the circle, the last point reaches the first once more.

Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads دور for سالک.

Once more he becomes like the compass, [back] at that work which was in hand at first.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads بر for درکار.

When he has cut the distance once and for all, the Real sets on his head the crown of vicegerency.

This is not transmigration; for in respect of meaning these are manifestations within the very self-disclosure.

[Arabic:] They have asked and said, "What is the end?" And it was said, "It is the return to the beginning."

قاعده

Rule

Prophecy had its appearance from Adam; its perfection came in the being of the Seal [Q 33:40].

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

Sainthood remained until it set out on its journey; like the point, it made another circle in the world.

Its complete manifestation will be in the Seal [of the saints]; through him the circle of the world will be made complete.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads یابد for گردد.

The beings of the saints are like limbs to him, for he is the whole and they are as parts.

Since he has a complete kinship with the Master, from him a universal mercy comes forth into the open.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads یابد for دارد.

He becomes the leader of both worlds, and the vicegerent among the children of Adam.

تمثیل

Illustration

When the sun's light parted from night, there came for you dawn, sunrise and noon.

Once more, from the turning of the revolving sphere, decline, afternoon and sunset appeared.

The light of the Prophet is the greatest sun, appearing now from Moses, now from Adam.

If you read the history of the world, you will know the degrees one by one.

From the sun, at every moment, a shadow appeared, which became a rung for the ascension of religion.

The time of the Master became the line of noon, for he was chosen [and purified] of shadow and darkness.

Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads وقت for خط; the Midnapore MS reads بود for شد; the Midnapore MS reads که از هر for که او; the Midnapore MS reads بود for شد.

On the line of noon an upright stature has no shadow, before or behind, left or right.

When he took his stand on the path of the Real, he kept his stature upright by the command "So stand firm" [Q 11:112].

He had no shadow, for that has darkness: how fine! light of God, the shadow of God.

Whinfield's margin. Other manuscripts reads ندارد for دارد?.

His qibla lies between east and west, because he is drowned in the midst of light [cf. Q 24:35].

When Satan became a Muslim at his hand, the shadow became hidden beneath his feet [cf. the hadith "my devil has submitted"].

All degrees are beneath his step; the being of those made of earth is from his shadow.

From his light sainthood became shadow-spreading; the wests became equal to the easts.

For every shadow that came to be at first, at the last another came to stand opposite.

Now every learned man of the community stands opposite a messenger in prophecy [cf. the hadith "the learned of my community are like the prophets of the Children of Israel"].

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

Since the Prophet was the most perfect in prophecy, he is necessarily more excellent than every saint.

In the Seal sainthood became wholly manifest; at the first point, too, the last came to its seal.

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

Through him the world becomes full of safety and security; plant and animal find life through him.

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

Not one unbelieving soul remains in the world; true justice becomes wholly manifest.

He is aware, from the secret of oneness, of the Real (?); in him the absolute Face shows itself.