A king got angry with his boon companion
And was about to make him food for carrion:
He drew his sword out to make this man pay,2935
To strike him since he dared to disobey.
No one there had the nerve to intervene
By interceding, all except one keen
To try, one called Emad al-Molk, who mattered,
Privileged with intercession like Mohammad.
He sprang up and prostrated hurriedly;
The king put down his sword immediately:
‘If he’s the Devil, I’ll forgive,’ he said,
‘If he’s done evil, I’ll conceal instead.
I’m satisfied now that you have stepped in,2940
Even if he’s caused damage with his sin.
I’d end a million rages all at once
For you have that much worth and excellence.
I never will reject your intercession,
Since your appeal is mine as well for certain.
Even if he’d made earth and sky collide,
I would have spared him since you’re on his side.
If every atom had appealed instead,
But not you, that would not have saved his head.
And we don’t place on you an obligation,2945
Rather we show you glory, boon companion.
You didn’t do this; it was really me.
Your attributes are inside me, you see.
And in this action you are not the actor,
For you are born through me and not the mother.’
It’s like ‘when you just threw you did not throw ’;*
Like foam you give yourself to the wave’s flow.
You’ve turned to ‘no ’; settle next to ‘except ’.*
You’re both prince and the prisoner that is kept.
You didn’t give it; that King did of course.2950
Only He is. God knows best the right course.
That boon companion who fled anger’s blow
Was angry with the intercessor though.
He ended then his friendship; on the street
He’d turn to face a wall so they’d not meet.
He left his intercessor, cut all ties.
People began to gossip in surprise,
Saying, ‘If he’s not mad, why did he end
All contact with his saviour and good friend?
He saved him. He would then have been beheaded.2955
He should be humble now and feel indebted.
He’s done the opposite and got so mad,
Resenting the best friend he’s ever had.’
Someone reproached him, saying: ‘Why do you
Treat badly one you should feel grateful to?
That special friend has saved your life—his crime
Is sparing your beheading at that time.
If he’d done evil, you still shouldn’t leave him;
He actually was good to you—believe him.’
He said, ‘For the king’s sake life’s easily given—2960
Why should he intercede and be so driven?
Mohammad said, “I had with God time others
Could not have too, though also Prophet brothers. ”
Apart from that King’s blows I want no mercy,
And I do not seek any other sanctuary.
I have negated others, for at stake
Is serving that King, one chance I must take.
If the King should behead me now in anger,
He will then give me sixty more lives after.
My work’s to gamble with my head, be selfless;2965
My King’s work’s to bestow life on the headless.’
Kudos to heads chopped off by the king’s hand;
Shame on those who give others head and hand.
The night the king has made pitch-black displays
Disdain for thousands of the bright Eid days.
Seers of the king have circumambulation
Beyond grace, unbelief, wrath, and religion.
It is beyond words, so it can’t be written,
For it is hidden more than all things hidden.
Those names and words, despite being praised, have all2970
Been made through human beings visible.
‘He taught the names ’* led Adam to the light,
But not through words and letters that we write.
The moment Adam turned terrestrial,
It lowered names that were celestial,
For they donned veils of letters and sounds spoken,
So in this world their meanings could be open.
Although from one view speech is a revealer,
From others it’s a veil and a concealer.
Abraham replies to Gabriel when he asks him, ‘Do you have any needs?’ by saying, ‘Needs from you? No.’
‘I’m Abraham in this age and he’s Gabriel;2975
I don’t want him as guide when I’m in trouble.’
He didn’t learn from Gabriel due respect,
The latter had asked Abraham’s request:
‘Do you want something? Can I help some way?
If not, then I will quickly rush away.’
Abraham said, ‘No, go away now, please.
I’ve vision; I loathe intermediaries.’
Linking believers, that emissary
Is in this world as intermediary.
If all could hear divine communication,2980
Why would we have words, sounds, and revelation?
Although he is effaced in God and selfless,
My case is more refined, so don’t neglect this.
His action is the same as the king’s action,
But good appears bad in my rare affliction:
What to most men is the most perfect grace,
Is wrath to those in a much higher place.
The former must endure much pain and anguish,
So that they can perceive this and distinguish,
For intervening words, O Cave Companion,* 2985
Are thorns to somebody who has reached union.
Pain, grief, and patience are all prerequisites
To go beyond all words, for purest spirits.
But some have just grown deafer and don’t hear,
While others soared up to a higher sphere.
This grief is like the water of the Nile:
Water to blessed ones, bloodbath for the vile.
You’re more blessed if you see the destination:
If more crop’s seen that sparks more cultivation,
For sowing in this world will lead the way2990
To bigger harvests on the Final Day.
No contract was made for its own sake, was it?
Contracts are for being placed to make a profit.
There’s no denier, if you should look closely,
Who was denying for denial’s sake only—
It was to conquer foes in jealousy
Or self-display or for supremacy.
Supremacism has its own desire:
Forms that lack meaning never can inspire.
You ask, ‘Why are you doing this? Shed light.’ 2995
Because the form is oil, the meaning light.
Why ask: ‘What is the point?’ Why’s that unknown
If forms are for their own form’s sake alone?
Asking about the point is a good question;
‘Why?’ is wrong though for any other reason.
If it is only for its own sake, then
Why do you wish to know its point, good men?
It therefore isn’t wise, but a mistake
To think all things are here for their own sake.
If there’s no God, why are things ordered clearly?3000
If there is one, then can His acts be empty?
No one draws on the bathhouse walls for mere fun:
Rightly or wrongly there must be a reason.
Moses asks God, ‘Why did You create creatures and destroy them’ and the arr
ival of the answer.
Moses once asked God, ‘Master of the Reckoning,
You made these forms, so why are You now wrecking?
You made the male and female pairs so gorgeous,
So why do you destroy them? For what purpose?’
‘I know your question’s not from heedlessness,
Or unbelief or lust and greediness,
Otherwise I’d chastise you straight away 3005
And make sure that for this you’ll later pay.
What you seek rather is for comprehension
Of secrets of subsistence through my action,
So you can teach the everyday men and
Make them less raw once they all understand.
Intentionally you asked so you can show
To those who don’t know, though you clearly know.’
Questioning is half of knowledge—this is true
But it’s not something all outsiders do.
From knowledge, question and response arose— 3010
From soil and water grow both thorn and rose.
From knowledge, guidance and perdition grew:
Bitter and sweet fruit both need moisture, too.
Acquaintance leads to love and hate as well;
Rich food gives strength, but makes some men unwell.
Moses became a foreigner who seeks it,
So he could tell those unaware the secret:
Let’s make ourselves seem like outsiders, too,
And draw the answers as the strangers do.
Ass sellers turn to rivals and start fighting3015
When they seek the same contract sealed in writing.
God carried on, ‘O wisdom’s own possessor,
Since you asked you can hear from Me the answer.
Now cultivate seeds in the soil, O Moses,
So you as well might truly do this justice.’
Once Moses had completed all his sowing
And the corn ears completed all their growing,
He grabbed a scythe to cut them down, and then
A voice from the Unseen reached him again:
‘Why do you reap what you yourself have sown? 3020
You cut it down once it has fully grown.’
‘I raze it once it’s finished all its growth,
For there are grains and straw: this corn has both.
The grain does not belong in barns, and I know
That straw is not appropriate for the silo;
It is unwise to mix them carelessly:
Winnowing’s therefore a necessity.’
‘From whom did you acquire this knowledge to
Prepare a threshing floor the way you do?’
‘You gave me the discernment,’ Moses said. 3025
‘So how can I, your God, lack this, instead?
While pure souls are found in creation, there
Are muddy souls too that are far from fair.’
Shells are not all the same grade; it is known
While some hold pearls, others hold just a stone.
To manifest both good and bad’s a must
Just as with wheat and straw, as we’ve discussed.
The world’s creation’s is so truth’s revealed,
So that our wisdom’s gold won’t stay concealed.
‘I was a hidden treasure ’ 3030 * shows it best:
Don’t lose your essence, but be manifest.
Explanation that the animal soul and particular intellect and imaginings and fancies are like buttermilk while the everlasting spirit is like the butter hidden in it.
In falsehood your pure essence has been placed;
Hidden in buttermilk is butter’s taste—
Falsehood’s your body, which will rot away;
The truth is your pure soul, which should hold sway.
For years the body’s buttermilk’s revealed,
While the soul’s butter stays within, concealed,
Until God sends a Prophet—he’s the one
Who shakes the buttermilk inside the churn,
All so that it gets shaken properly, 3035
So I might learn ‘I’ was concealed from ‘me’,
Or till one of His slave’s communications
Enters the ears which seek God’s inspirations.
God’s speech is kept by the believer’s ear ,
For theirs are linked to the inviter here,
Just as the children’s ears keep what their mothers
Tell them before they learn to speak to others;
If the child doesn’t have a working ear,
It will be mute because it cannot hear.
The deaf have always been mute like this, brother;3040
The children talk if they can hear their mother.
Deafness and dumbness are deficiencies,
Blocking knowledge from entering in with ease.
God speaks without being taught thus previously;
His attributes have no deficiency.
And one like Adam, for whom God was tutor
Without a medium like a nurse or mother.
And Jesus, who spoke all that God was teaching—
As soon as he was born he started speaking,*
To rebuff all the whispers of suspicion3045
That maybe he was born from fornication.
Shaking was needed for this to set in,
To find the butter hidden deep within—
In buttermilk it seemed that none remained;
Buttermilk’s label claims that it’s contained:
The shell appears like it exists to you;
The root seems to decay from your own view.
The buttermilk’s not formed the butter yet—
Don’t use it till it does. Avoid regret.
Shake it between your hands methodically3050
Until it shows the content you can’t see.
The Eternal’s proof is in the form that dies;
The cupbearer is known by drunkards’ cries.
Another parable on this matter.
The banner’s lion’s playful movements show
The ways in which the winds behind it blow:
If those winds moving it weren’t really there,
How could drawn lions leap up in the air?
You can detect the east wind through its motion
From the west wind; thus it tells of what’s hidden.
The body’s like the lion on the banner: 3055
Thought moves it at each moment in some manner.
Thought from the East is like the eastern breeze,
Thought from the West the west wind with disease.
Thought from the East is different to the West’s,
Though both are winds the body manifests.
The moon’s inert as is its eastern side;
The heart’s East is the soul of souls inside.
The East of that sun which shines deep inside
Has as its shell the sun you see outside,
For when the body dies, it then is clear3060
That for it day and night will not appear,
Yet when the inner sun is perfect, night
And day aren’t needed for it to see light.
In dreams the sun and moon come to your vision
Without them being seen on the horizon.
Learn to discern, since our sleep is death’s brother ,
The difference between one and the other.
If some say that is just a branch of this one,
Blind and uncertain followers, don’t listen:
In sleep the image of a state appears,3065
Which won’t if you’re awake for twenty years.
You seek interpretations endlessly,
Rushing towards the wise ones desperately:
‘Tell me this dream’s true meaning!’ you appeal.
It’s base to say it’s just derived, unreal.
This is a plain man’s sleep while the elect ones’
Is the root of all privilege and selectio
ns.
Just elephants when sleep bears them away
Will dream of India, seeing as by day;
Donkeys won’t dream of India, since they’ve never3070
Felt exiled living far away from India.
One needs an elephant-like soul that’s strong
To go through dreams to India before long;
Through yearning, that strong elephant remembers,
At night its recollection then forms pictures.
‘Remember God! ’* is not for all and sundry.
‘Return! ’* is not meant for just anybody.
Don’t lose hope! Be an elephant—if you
Are not one, change to one without ado.
Behold all of the alchemists who’re found3075
In heaven, hear each moment their work’s sound.
In the celestial realm they all design;
They’re busy working for your sake and mine.
If you don’t see such ones of the elect,
Night-blind one, feel instead now their effect
On your perception as you live below:
Observe how from your own soil new plants grow.
Ebrahim-e Adham was of their number;
In sleep he could see spread before him India.
He broke apart his chains and then demolished3080
His kingdom naturally, before he vanished.
A sign of seeing India is that one
Leaps up from sleep as if insane, undone,
And buries any plans that still remain,
And bursts apart each link of one’s own chain.
The Prophet said of God’s light: ‘In one’s breast
The sign of God’s light that is manifest
Is turning from delusion’s realm so firmly
And also shunning joy’s realm resolutely.’
O my pure friend, listen to this narration;3085
It gives Mohammad’s saying’s explanation.
Story about the prince to whom the true kingdom showed itself and then ‘on the day when a man shall flee from his brother, father, and mother’* became the reality of his experience: he saw the kingdom of the dust pile of the childlike, from the game of ‘castle-taking’, where the child that is victorious climbs the dust pile and boasts, ‘The castle is mine!’ The other children envy him: ‘Dust is the pastime of youths.’ When that prince escaped the bondage of colours, he said, ‘I call these coloured earthly pieces the same as that worthless dust, not gold, satin, and brocade. I have escaped from the brocade and have attained the Oneness.’ God said: ‘We gave judgement when he was a youth.’* God’s guidance does not require seniority in age. None can have an opinion on the capacity to receive in the face of ‘Be! And it is.’*
The Masnavi, Book Four Page 23