The spirit has no joining or dividing,
But thoughts need both division and uniting.
Pursue what is beyond division now
Through guides, though it won’t quench thirsts anyhow.
Pursue from distance to the origin,
Till manhood’s vein leads you to union.
How could mere reason find that great connection3700
When it is bound by joining and division?
Mohammad counselled us with his insistence:
‘Do not investigate into God’s essence!’
The essence that can be investigated
Is not His essence if the truth is stated.
That’s an imagining, for on this way
To God a million veils stand in the way.
Each man’s attached to one although he reckons
That this veil is in actual fact God’s essence.
The Prophet rebuffed this imagining then,3705
So crazy thinking wouldn’t mislead men.
Such thinking leads some to lack reverence—
God made such men fall headlong then at once.
This means he falls down, but he might still reckon
He has become a most important person.
The drunkard’s situation is unsound
And similar: he can’t tell sky from ground.
Go, contemplate His wonders carefully,
Lose yourself in His awesome majesty.
Seeing His craftsmanship can make you humble,3710
So you won’t talk about Him and be casual:
Ahmad’s ‘I can’t do justice ’ is your answer,
‘For that’s beyond all limits one can measure.’
Zo ’l-Qarnayn went to Mount Qaf and asked, ‘O Mount Qaf, tell me about the majesty of God’s attributes.’ Mount Qaf said, ‘His description is beyond words, for perceptions become annihilated before it.’ Zo ’l-Qarnayn begged, ‘Tell of His craftsmanship which you can perceive and can more easily speak about.’
Zo ’l-Qarnayn went to Mount Qaf and saw there
That it was made of emerald so rare.
Ringing the world, it formed a massive circle—
He was left stunned by that enormous marvel
And asked, ‘You are a mountain, but inform me
What are the others standing near your glory?’
‘These other mountains are my veins, but they3715
Don’t have my power and beauty the same way.
In every town I have a hidden vein;
All regions are tied to them like a chain.
When God wants earthquakes somewhere, he tells me
And I make my veins throb immediately;
With wrath I move the vein for that direction,
The one to which that place has its connection.
When God says, “Stop!” my vein stops at His will;
I also rest though I’m in motion still.’
At rest like salve that acts invisibly3720
And the still mind while we speak rapidly.
Earthquakes, to those whose brains can’t understand
Are only due to vapours in the land.
An ant walking on paper saw the pen writing and praised the pen. Another ant with sharper vision said, ‘Praise the fingers, for I see the skill coming from them.’ A third ant with even sharper vision than the previous two said, ‘I praise the arm for fingers are an extension of the arm,’ and so on …
A small ant saw a pen write on some paper
And told another ant about this later:
‘Such marvellous drawings that fine pen composes
Like basil, beds of lilies, and fine roses.’
‘The finger is the artist here instead
Because it leads the pen,’ the other said.
A third ant said, ‘It is the arm in fact;3725
Those fingers draw strength from it first to act.’
This argument continued in this way
Until a royal ant began to say:
‘The forms do not compose that art seen there,
Since sleep and death both make them unaware.
Form is like clothing or a staff, you’ll find.
Pictures are drawn just by the soul or mind.’
It didn’t know the heart and mind without
God’s changing them would be inert throughout;
If He withdrew His grace for just one moment3730
The wise mind would do stupid things that instant.
When Zo ’l-Qarnayn found Qaf endowed with speech
He asked it, ‘Would you kindly start to teach,
O mystery-knowing, speaking one, and show
To me God’s attributes, so I can know.’
The mountain said, ‘Begone, for that description
Is too enormous for an exposition,
And for the pen to dare to write down data
About it with its nib on scraps of paper.’
He said, ‘So tell a story that is smaller,3735
O lovely, knowing one, about a wonder.’
‘Look in the distance scores of miles away:
With snowy mountains He’s filled that long way
Entirely, mountain after mountain, countless;
The snow’s supply is one that is continuous.
One mountain joins the next one that is found
And snow brings frosty coldness to the ground.
More snowy mountains stretching out for miles;
Each moment from the storehouse come more piles.
King, if this valley had not been thus placed,3740
The heat of hell would have left me effaced.’
View heedless ones as snowy mountains who
Ensure the wise ones’ veils aren’t burned up too.
If not for that snow-forming ignorance,
Mount Qaf would burn from longing’s fire at once.
Fire is an atom of God’s wrath, in place
As scourge to threaten harshly all the base.
Despite such wrath that overpowers, you’ll see
His mercy’s coolness has priority—
Mystic priority beyond description:3745
Have you seen prior and subsequent in union?
If not, that’s due to weakness of your brain—
Next to that huge mine, brains are just one grain.
So blame yourself and not that higher dimension
And its signs—how could clay birds reach their heaven?
The bird flies in the air and can’t rise higher,
For it was nurtured from lust and desire.
Without a ‘yes’ or ‘no’, be stunned today
Until God’s mercy carries you away.
Since you’re not capable of comprehending3750
If you say, ‘Yes!’ you’ll only be pretending.
Say, ‘No!’ and by this ‘No!’ your neck gets cut;
And wrath will slam your window tightly shut.
But if you swoon and fall down on the ground
Then God’s help will arrive from all around.
Once you feel mesmerized and fall unconscious,
You’ll then say with your mystic tongue, ‘Please guide us! ’*
It’s mighty, but when you begin to shake
It may turn soft and moderate for your sake.
The mighty form is for deniers—behind this3755
Once you submit, you will receive His kindness.
The Angel Gabriel showed himself to Prophet Mohammad in his own shape, and when one of his seven hundred wings appeared it covered the horizon, and the sun was covered despite all its radiance.
Mohammad once asked Gabriel, ‘Let me see
The way your form is in reality—
Show me that clearly, so I look at you
The way a spectator would like to view.’
Gabriel said, ‘You can’t bear that spectacle;
For your weak senses it’s impossible.’
‘Show me so that this body witnesses
Ou
r senses’ frailty and sheer helplessness.’
Man’s bodily senses are weak and infirm;3760
Within him, though, his nature’s strong and firm.
The body is like flint and steel—inside
Its attributes can spark fires far and wide.
Fire is produced by flint and steel ingredients,
But then their child, fire, dominates its parents.
The fire inside rules bodies just the same;
It rules the body and can light a flame.
The Abraham-like flame within has power*
With which to overcome a fiery tower.
The Prophet once said enigmatically3765
‘We’re last and first, both simultaneously. ’
This pair’s form’s weak on anvils, yet its store
Of attributes is greater than iron ore.
Man springs from this world in his form, but in
His attributes he is its origin:
A gnat can cause his outward form to spin,*
His inner holds the seven heavens within.
Mohammad asked till Gabriel showed a bit
Of that might which can make huge mountains split.
A single wing spanned East to West—in awē3770
Mohammad swooned due to what he then saw.
Once Gabriel saw him witless due to fear,
He came to hug him like one very dear.
That awe is only the outsider’s ration,
While friends receive for free this kind affection.
When kings are on their thrones before the hordes
Near them are scary guards who hold huge swords—
The combination of guard, sword, and spear,
Which would make even lions shake with fear,
And yells of sergeants with their clubs aloft3775
From fear of which the people’s souls turn soft—
This is all just in order to make known
To passers-by their king’s there on his throne;
The pomp is for the vulgar people’s sake,
So they’re not arrogant then by mistake,
To bring down selfishness in all those people
And stop conceit from scheming up much evil.
The kingdom’s safe from that when there’s a king
Who has the wrath to punish such a thing:
Then those lusts die in souls—awe felt when near3780
The king prevents bad things from happening here.
Yet in the private banquet he’ll go to,
How could there be awe and reprisal too?
There’s mercy and much clemency, not fear;
Other than harp and flute there’s naught to hear.
In war, men bang the drums to drive away;
In leisure with the chosen harps will play.
The masses face account books for failed actions;
Companions of the wine-jug fair attractions.
In wartime helmet and chain mail are best,3785
While silk and music fit one’s peacetime rest.
This discourse could continue out of sight—
Stop now, God knows best guidance that is right.
Mohammad’s senses that were transient sleep;
Under Medina’s soil they’re buried deep,
But wondrous qualities of his that conquer
Are on serenity’s seat and don’t alter.
Bodily attributes are what decline;
The soul’s eternal; that sun will still shine.
It isn’t of the East ; it is unchanging.3790
It isn’t of the West ;* it isn’t fading.
How can one atom mesmerize the sun,
Or moths make candles witless and undone.
Mohammad’s body did decay, so know
That is what bodies have to undergo,
And sickness, pain, and sleep; the soul is free
From any similar kind of quality.
I can’t describe the soul—if I were able
An earthquake would make this entire realm tremble.
Senses seemed shaken temporarily?3795
Its soul’s lion was then sleeping probably.
The lion that’s free from sleep was sleeping then;
It was a meek and scared lion seen by men—
The lion was acting sleepy then instead,
So that the curs thought that he’s virtually dead.
Otherwise who on earth would have the gall
To steal from weaklings even something small?
Mohammad’s body was moved by that vision
And love of Gabriel’s form stirred up his ocean.
The moon’s a giving hand with vision’s light;3800
If it has no hand, that too is all right.
And if Mohammad had spread out his huge wing,
Gabriel would have been left forever swooning.
Mohammad passed the lote tree’s high location*
And broke the limit too of Gabriel’s station.
He said to Gabriel, ‘Follow me and fly!’
‘You go ahead. I can’t,’ was his reply.
Mohammad said, ‘Burner of veils, come here.
I’ve still not reached my zenith in this sphere.’
Gabriel replied, ‘My noble and good friend,3805
My wings will burn beyond my limit’s end.’
This fainting of the favoured in the chosen
Brings such amazement, records are all broken.
Mere fainting in this realm is simply play—
Why won’t you rush to give your soul away?
O Gabriel, though you’re noble and you’re dear,
You’re neither moth nor candle. This is clear:
Once it is lit the candle will invite
And moth-like souls don’t fear being set alight.
Bury this topsy-turvy talk you’ve said—3810
Make lions prey of onagers instead.
Stop up this water-skin of piss you’ve bottled.
Don’t open up the gibberish you’ve prattled.
It’s idle talk and nonsense with no worth
For those whose limbs have never left this earth.
Deal with them; don’t oppose them now, my dear,
Stranger, staying in their home now right here.
Give them what they want; try to satisfy them,
Traveller who’s residing now in their realm.
Until you reach the king and joy one day,3815
Get on with men from Merv, O man from Rayy!*
Moses, you must speak softly now to teach
This era’s pharaoh—speak with gentle speech .*
Pour water over oil that’s boiling hot
And you’ll destroy your trivet and your pot.
Speak softly, but don’t say what isn’t true:
Don’t be false with soft speech whatever you do.
It’s afternoon so cut short this discussing,
You who enlighten men with your juice-pressing.
Tell the clay-eater sugar is much better.3820
Don’t be soft; don’t give clay to harm its eater.
The soul’s speech would have been a mystic garden
If sounds and words were not what it depends on.
Among the sugar canes, the donkey’s head
Leads many to get thorn-pricked where they tread:
From far away they thought that’s what they saw—
Only a head—like bruised rams that withdraw:
The word’s form is that donkey’s head you’re seeing
Within the vines of paradise and meaning.
Hosam, O Light of Truth, bring here instead3825
Inside the mystic melon field that head,
So after it has been skinned by the butcher,
This place might let it grow back in the future.
I make the form and you give that a soul—
No, that’s wrong. You make both parts of the whole.
O sun, in heaven they all praise your name—
Be praise
d on earth forever just the same,
So that in heart and focus the terrestrials,
And in their nature too, join the celestials.
Dualism, polytheism, disunion3830
Will leave—in real existence there’s just union.
When my soul recognizes yours, at last
It brings back that fine union from the past:
Moses and Aaron may be comprehended
Like milk and honey, sweet and nicely blended.
But when it recognizes yet denies,
Denial forms a veil that blocks its eyes.
Many did this and turned from what they’d viewed,
Angering the moon by this ingratitude.
That’s why the bad soul couldn’t recognizē3835
The Prophet’s soul and walked off from the prize.
You’ve read all this. Read ‘They would not leave off. ’*
View stubbornness from infidels who’d scoff:
Before Mohammad’s form’s manifestation
Infidels used as their charm his description:
They said, ‘Someone like this will soon appear.’
Their hearts raced thinking of his face with cheer.
They bowed down, praying, ‘Lord of all mankind,
As soon as you can, show him to our kind!’
So they could ask God for a victory * 3840
In his name, and defeat their enemy.
Whenever frightening wars were started, they
Turned to Mohammad’s help when they could pray.
And when there was a fatal malady,
Mohammad’s name was used as remedy.
On their path his form entered deep inside
Their hearts, their ears, their mouths, all open wide.
His form can’t be what a mere jackal sees—
That was derived from it, like fantasies.
If his form should appear on a wall’s face,3845
Blood would seep from the wall’s heart at that space;
His form’s appearance would leave it so graced
That this wall would be spared from being two-faced.
Two-facedness is its flaw that all can see
Next to pure men’s one-faced sincerity.
As soon as they saw him, wind blew away
Respect and love that they’d shown till that day.
The false coin met with fire and changed in colour
To black. The heart’s one place false coin can’t enter.
False coin would boast of yearning for the touchstonē3850
To throw disciples into doubt when still prone:
The worthless wretch falls in their falsehood’s snare;
This doubt plagues wretched, base men everywhere.
‘If this were not real gold,’ some would enquire,
The Masnavi, Book Four Page 28