الهنء العيش الذى يهنئ الرجل أى يربو وينفع فى البدن واللام فى لاهل الدير للتبيين والدير مكان النصارى وقد رأيت كتابا صنف فى بيان الديور وكم هنا للتكثير والتمييز محذوف أى كم مرة وكم منصوبة المحل على المصدرية بدليل التمييز وبها متعلق بسكروا والهاء للمدامة وما شربوا أى أهل الدير منها أى من المدامة ولكنهم ه-موا أى عزموا على الشرب وما شربوا واعلم ان أهل الدير عبارة عن أرباب المعارف الالهية وأصحاب المحبة الربانية والسكر بالمدامة عبارة عن التكيف بكيفية لذتها التى هى وجدان المعرفة الحقيقية وقد علمت ان أرباب الاشواق والصادقين من العشاق ماتوا وهم مشتاقون الى مشاهدة الجمال والشيخ رضى الله عنه من هذا القبيل الا أن يكون تسمه عند مفارقة الدنيا ناشئا عن الوصول الى ادراك المشاهدة التى هى مطلوبه وذلك عندما أنشد أروم وقد طال المدى منك نظرة • وكم من دماء دون مر ماى طلت وتبسم فعند ذلك استدل أهل العرفان انه أدرك مرامه من الرحمن واعلم ان هنيئا منصوب على اتصال من محذوف أى دام شرابهم هنيئا واعلم ان كثيرا من أرباب المحبة قد تلا عبوا بذكر الديور فى أشعارهم الغرامية ومن ذلك قول عبد الله بن المعتز سقى الجزيرة ذات الطل والشجر • ودير عبدون هطال من المطر يا طالما نبهتنا للصبوح بها • ف ى غرة الفجر والعصفور لم يطر أصوات رهبان دير فى صلاتهم • سود المدارع نعارين فى السحر • مزنرين على الاوساط قد جعلوا • على الرؤس أكاليلا من الشعر
Al-hanʾ is the living that “agrees with” a man, that is, that grows and benefits in the body. The lām in li-ahl al-dayr is for specification (tabyīn). Al-dayr (the monastery) is the place of the Christians; I have seen a book composed setting out the monasteries. Kam here is for multiplicity, and the tamyīz (specifier) is omitted, that is, “how many times.” Kam is in the accusative position as a verbal noun, as the specifier shows. Bihā is connected to sakirū, and the hāʾ [refers] to the wine. Wa-mā sharibū, that is, the people of the monastery; minhā, that is, of the wine; wa-lākinnahum hammū, that is, they resolved to drink and did not drink. Know that ahl al-dayr (the people of the monastery) stands for the masters of divine gnosis (maʿārif) and the people of lordly love, and intoxication by the wine stands for becoming qualified by the quality of its pleasure, which is the finding (wijdān) of true gnosis. You know that the masters of longing and the sincere among the lovers died while longing for the witnessing of Beauty, and the Shaykh, God be pleased with him, is of this sort. [That holds] unless his smile at leaving this world arose from reaching the perception of the witnessing that was his desire. That was when he recited: “I seek, though the span has grown long, a glance from you; / and how much blood has been shed short of my goal!” and smiled. At that the people of ʿirfān (gnosis) inferred that he had attained his aim from the All-Merciful. Know that hanīʾan is in the accusative […] from an omitted [element], that is, “may their drink continue wholesome.” Know that many of the masters of love have played with the mention of monasteries in their amorous poems. Among that is the saying of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muʿtazz: “May al-Jazīra, [land] of dew and trees, / and Dayr ʿAbdūn be watered by a pouring rain! / How often there roused us for the morning draught, / at the first light of dawn, when the sparrow had not yet flown, / the voices of the monks of a monastery at their prayers, / black-robed, crying out at daybreak, / girded with zunnārs about their waists, having set / crowns of hair upon their heads.”