Maḥmūd Shabistarī · d. 720/1320 or c. 740/1339–40
The Rose-Garden of Mystery
گلشن راز
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6. If knower and known are one
۶ سؤال
Question 6
agar maʿrūf u ʿārif dhāt-i pāk-ast
chi sawdā dar sar-i īn musht-i khāk-ast
If the known and the knower are the pure Essence, what passion is this in the head of this handful of dust?
۶ جواب
Answer 6
makun bar niʿmat-i ḥaqq nā sipāsī
ki tu ḥaqq rā ba-nūr-i ḥaqq shināsī
Do not be ungrateful for the favour of the Real, for you know the Real by the light of the Real.
juz ū maʿrūf u ʿārif nīst dar-yāb
va-līkin khāk mī yābad zi khvar tāb
Understand: none but He is known and knower; and yet the earth receives warmth from the sun.
ʿajab nabvad ki dārad dharra ummīd
havā-yi tāb-i mihr u nūr-i khvurshīd
It is no wonder that the mote has hope, a longing for the sun's warmth and the light of the sun.
ba-yād āvar maqām-i ḥāl-i fiṭrat
k-az ānjā bāz dānī aṣl-i fikrat
Call to mind the station of the state of primordial nature, so that from there you may know again the origin of thought.
alastu bi-rabbikum īzad chirā guft†
ki būd ākhir ki ān sāʿat balī guft
Why did God say "Am I not your Lord?" [Q 7:172] Who was it, after all, that said "Yes" in that hour?
Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads کرا for چرا.
dar ān rūzī ki gil-hā mī sirishtand
ba-dil dar fayḍa-yi īmān nivishtand
On that day when they were kneading the clays, they wrote the outpouring (?) of faith in the heart.
Doubtful reading. Printed فیضه (?), "outpouring"; Whinfield's margin gives Hammer-Purgstall's قصه, "the story", which the Lahore lithograph (1347/1928–29) also reads.
Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads قصه for فیضه.
agar ān nāma-rā yak rah bi-khvānī
har ān-chīzī ki mī-khvāʾī bi-dānī
If you read that letter once, you will know whatever you wish.
tu bastī ʿaqd-i ʿahd-i bandagī dūsh
valī kardī ba-nādānī farāmūsh
You tied the bond of the covenant of servanthood last night, but you forgot it out of ignorance.
kalām-i ḥaqq ba-dān gasht-ast munzal
ki bā yādat dihad ān ʿahd-i avval
The word of the Real was sent down for this: to bring that first covenant back to your memory.
agar tu dīdaʾī ḥaqq rā ba-āghāz
dar īnjā ham tavānī dīdanash bāz
If you saw the Real at the beginning, here too you can see Him again.
ṣifātash rā bibīn imrūz īnjā
ki tā dhātash tavānī dīd fardā
See His attributes today, here, so that tomorrow you may see His essence.
Whinfield's margin. The Midnapore MS reads ذاتش را for ذاتش.
v-agar-na ranj-i khvud ḍāyiʿ ma-gardān
burū bi-nyūsh lā yahdī zi Qurʾān
And if not, do not let your pains go to waste: go and listen to 'He does not guide' in the Quran [cf. Q 28:56, 'You do not guide whom you love; God guides whom He will'].
تمثیل
Illustration
na-dārad bāvarat akmah zi alvān
agar ṣad sāl gūʾī naql u burhān
The one born blind will not believe you about colours, though you speak transmitted proof and demonstration for a hundred years.
safīd u zard u surkh u sabz u kāhī
ba-nazd-i ū na-bāshad juz siyāhī
White and yellow, red, green and straw-colour: to him there is nothing but black.
nigar tā kūr-i mādar-zād-i bad-ḥāl
kujā bīnā shavad az kuḥl-i kaḥḥāl
See whether the wretched man blind from birth will ever be made to see by the oculist's collyrium.
khirad az dīdan-i aḥvāl-i ʿuqbā
buvad chūn kūr-i mādar zād dunyā
Intellect, when it comes to seeing the states of the hereafter, is like a man of this world born blind.
varā-yi ʿaql ṭawrī dārad insān
ki bi-shnāsad ba-dān asrār-i pinhān
Beyond intellect the human being has a stage by which he knows the hidden secrets.
Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads بدان سر for بدان.
ba-sān-i ātash andar sang u āhan
nihāda -st īzad andar jān u dar tan
As fire is in flint and steel, God has placed [it] in the soul and in the body.
chu bar-ham ūftād ān sang u āhan
zi-nūrash har du ʿālam gasht rawshan
When that flint and steel strike together, both worlds are lit by its light.
az ān majmūʿ paydā gardad īn rāz
chu bi-shnīdī burū bā khvud bi-pardāz
From that union this secret becomes clear; now that you have heard, go, attend to yourself.
Whinfield's margin. Hammer-Purgstall (1838) reads و با خویش for با خود.
tuʾī tu nuskha-yi naqsh-i ilāhī
bi-jū az khvīsh har chīzī ki khvāhī
You yourself are the copy of the divine image; seek in yourself whatever you desire.
Persian: Whinfield's edition (London 1880), public domain, transcribed from the archive.org page images. Whinfield's English: 1880, public domain. Transliteration, English and glosses: AI (Claude), marked; † marks a hemistich whose reading does not scan. How this text was established.