How a philosopher showed disbelief at the recitation of (the text), “if your water shall have sunk into the ground.”

1633. A teacher of Qur’án-recitation was reading from the page of the Book, “(if) your water (shall have) sunk into the ground:

1634. (that is, if) I stop the water from (reaching) the spring, And hide the water in the depths, and make the springs dry and a place of drought,

1635. Who shall bring the water to the spring again except Me who have no like, the Gracious, the Glorious?”

1636. A contemptible philosopher and logician was passing beside the school at that moment.

1637. When he heard the verse (of the Qur’án), he said in disapproval, “We bring the water (back) with a mattock;

1638. With strokes of the spade and (with) the sharpness of the axe we bring the water up from below.”

1739. At night he fell asleep and saw (in dream) a lion-hearted man (who) gave (him) a blow on the face and blinded both his eyes,

1640. And said, “O wretch, if you are speaking the truth, bring up some light with an axe from these two springs of vision.”

1641. At (dawn of) day he jumped up and found (he had) two blind eyes: from both his eyes the overflowing light had vanished.

1642. If he had moaned and asked pardon (of God), the departed light would have appeared (again) through (God's) kindness;

1643. But (the power of) asking pardon, also, is not in (our) hands: the savour of repentance is not the dessert of every inebriate.

1644. The wickedness of (his) actions and the disastrousness of (his) denial (of the Truth) had barred the way of repentance to his heart.

1645. His heart became in hardness as the face of a rock: how should repentance cleave it for sowing?

1664. Whence have they fetched those garments (fair qualities)? (They have derived) all of them from One who is Bounteous and Merciful.

1665. Those graces are the signs of a Witness: they are the footprints of a man devoted to (God's) service.

1666. (None but) that person that has seen the King is gladdened by the sign; when one has not seen Him, there is no recognition.

1667. The spirit of that one who at the time of Am not I (your Lord)? saw his Lord and became beside himself and intoxicated.

1668. He (that spirit) knows the scent of the wine because he drank it (before); when he has not drunk it, he cannot scent it.

1669. For Wisdom is like a stray camel: like a go-between, it guides (those who find and recognise it) to (the presence of) kings.

1670. You behold in dream a person of pleasing countenance, who gives you a promise and a sign.

1671. That your desire will come to pass; here is the sign—such and such a person will meet you to-morrow.

1672. One sign is that he will be riding; one sign is that he will clasp you to his breast;

1673. One sign is that he will smile before you; one sign is that he will fold his hands in your presence;

1674. One sign is that when the morrow comes you will not tell this dream to any one, though you would fain do so.

1675. Concerning that (last-mentioned) sign, He (God) said to the father of Yahyá (John the Baptist), “Thou shalt not begin to speak at all till three days (have passed).

1676. For three nights keep silence as to thy good and ill: this will be the sign that Yahyá will come (be born) to thee.

1677. During three days do not breathe a word, for this silence is the sign of (the fulfilment) of thy purpose.

1678. Beware! do not thou speak of this sign, and keep this matter hidden in thy heart.”

1679. He (the person dreamed of) will sweetly tell these signs to him (the dreamer). What are these signs (alone)? (He will tell him) a hundred signs besides.

1680. This (which follows) is the sign that you will gain from God the (spiritual) kingdom and power that you are seeking.

1681. That you weep continually in the long nights, and that you are always ardent in supplication at the hour of dawn;

1682. That, in the absence of that (which you seek), your day has become dark; (that) your neck has become thin as a spindle;

1683. And what you have given in alms (is) all that you possess, (so that) your belongings (are entirely bestowed in charity) like the alms of those who gamble all away;

1684. (That) you have given up your belongings and sleep and the (healthy) colour of your face, and sacrificed your head (life) and become as (thin as) a hair;

1685. (That) you have sat—how often!—in the fire, like aloes-wood; that you have gone—how often!—to meet the sword, like a helmet.

1686. A hundred thousand such acts of helplessness are habitual to lovers (of God), and (their number) cannot be reckoned.

1687. After you have had this dream at night, the day breaks; through hope thereof your day becomes triumphant.

1688. You have turned your eye to left and right, (wondering) where is that sign and those tokens. 1689. You are trembling like a leaf (and saying), “Alas, if the day depart and the sign come not to pass!” 1690. You are running in street and market and into houses, like one that should lose a calf.

1691. (Somebody asks), “Is it good (news), Sir? Why are you running to and fro? Who belonging to you is it that you have lost here?”

1692. “It is good (news),” you tell him, “but none may know my good (news) except myself.

1693. If I tell it, lo, my sign is missed, and when the sign is missed, the hour of death is come.”

1694. You peer into the face of every rider: he says to you, “Do not look at me like a madman.”

1695. You say to him, “I have lost a friend; I have set out to seek him.

1696. May thy fortune be lasting, O rider! Have pity on lovers and excuse (them).”

1697. When you have made search (and your) looking has been in earnest—earnest endeavour does not fail: so the Tradition has come down (from the Prophet).

1698. Suddenly comes a blessed rider; then he clasps you very closely to his breast.

1699. You become senseless and fall to vaunting (ecstatically); the ignorant (uninitiated) man says, “Here is fraud and hypocrisy.”

1700. How does he see what this enthusiasm in him (the enraptured person) is? He knows not (who it is) with whom that is the sign of union.

1701. This sign concerns (only) him that has seen (before): how should the sign appear to the other one?

1702. Every moment that a sign was coming from Him, a (new) spirit was coming into that person's spirit.

1703. Water has reached the helpless fish. These signs are (those mentioned in the text) those are the signs of the Book.

1704. Hence the signs which are in the prophets are peculiar to (known exclusively by) him who is a friend (knower and lover of God).

1705. Our King (God) has given permission, (saying), “Commemorate Allah”: He saw us in the fire and gave us light.

1716. He has said, “Although I far transcend your commemoration (of Me), (and although) the pictorial ideas (of human speech) are not suitable to Me.

How Moses, on whom be peace, took offence at the prayer of the shepherd.

1720. Moses saw a shepherd on the way, who was saying, “O God who choosest (whom Thou wilt),

1721. Where art Thou, that I may become Thy servant and sew Thy shoes and comb Thy head?

1722. That I may wash Thy clothes and kill Thy lice and bring milk to Thee, O worshipful One;

1723. That I may kiss Thy little hand and rub Thy little foot, (and when) bedtime comes I may sweep Thy little room,

1724. O Thou to whom all my goats be a sacrifice, O Thou in remembrance of whom are my cries of ay and ah!”

1725. The shepherd was speaking foolish words in this wise. Moses said, “Man, to whom is this (addressed)?”

1726. He answered, “To that One who created us; by whom this earth and sky were brought to sight.”

1727. “Hark!” said Moses, “you have become very backsliding (depraved); indeed you have not become a Moslem, you have become an infidel.

1728. What babble is this? what blasphemy and raving? Stuff some cotton into your mouth!

1748. He (the shepherd) said, “O Moses, thou hast closed my mouth and thou hast burned my soul with repentance.

1749. ”He rent his garment and heaved a sigh, and hastily turned his head towards the desert and went (his way).

How the high God rebuked Moses, on whom be peace, on account of the shepherd.

1750. A revelation came to Moses from God— “Thou hast parted My servant from Me.

1751. Didst thou come (as a prophet) to unite, or didst thou come to sever?

1752. So far as thou canst, do not set foot in separation: of (all) things the most hateful to Me is divorce.

1753. I have bestowed on every one a (special) way of acting: I have given to every one a (peculiar) form of expression.

1754. In regard to him it is (worthy of) praise, and in regard to thee it is (worthy of) blame: in regard to him honey, and in regard to thee poison.

1755. I am independent of all purity and impurity, of all slothfulness and alacrity (in worshipping Me).

1756. I did not ordain (Divine worship) that I might make any profit; nay, but that I might do a kindness to (My) servants.

1757. In the Hindoos the idiom of Hind (India) is praiseworthy; in the Sindians the idiom of Sind is praiseworthy.

1758. I am not sanctified by their glorification (of Me); ’tis they that become sanctified and pearl-scattering (pure and radiant).

1759. I look not at the tongue and the speech; I look at the inward (spirit) and the state (of feeling).

1760. I gaze into the heart (to see) whether it be lowly, though the words uttered be not lowly,

1761. Because the heart is the substance, speech (only) the accident; so the accident is subservient, the substance is the (real) object.

1762. How much (more) of these phrases and conceptions and metaphors? I want burning, burning: become friendly with that burning!

1763. Light up a fire of love in thy soul, burn thought and expression entirely (away)!

1764. O Moses, they that know the conventions are of one sort, they whose souls and spirits burn are of another sort.”

1765. To lovers there is a burning (which consumes them) at every moment: tax and tithe are not (imposed) on a ruined village.

1766. If he (the lover) speak faultily, do not call him faulty; and if he be bathed in blood, do not wash (those who are) martyrs.

1767. For martyrs, blood is better than water: this fault (committed by him) is better than a hundred right actions (of another).

1768. Within the Ka‘ba the rule of the qibla does not exist: what matter if the diver has no snow-shoes?

1769. Do not seek guidance from the drunken: why dost thou order those whose garments are rent in pieces to mend them?

1770. The religion of Love is apart from all religions: for lovers, the (only) religion and creed is—God.

1771. If the ruby have not a seal (graven on it), ’tis no harm: Love in the sea of sorrow is not sorrowful.

How the (Divine) revelation came to Moses, on whom be peace, excusing that shepherd.

1772. After that, God hid in the inmost heart of Moses mysteries which cannot be spoken.

1773. Words were poured upon his heart: vision and speech were mingled together.

1774. How oft did he become beside himself and how oft return to himself! How oft did he fly from eternity to everlastingness! 1775. If I should unfold (his tale) after this, ’tis foolishness (in me), because the explanation of this is beyond (our) understanding;

1776. And if I should speak (thereof), ’twould root up (men's) minds; and if I should write (thereof), ’twould shatter many pens.

1777. When Moses heard these reproaches from God, he ran into the desert in quest of the shepherd.

1778. He pushed on over the footprints of the bewildered man, he scattered dust from the skirt of the desert.

1779. The footstep of a man distraught is, in truth, distinct from the footsteps of others:

1780. (At) one step, (he moves) like the rook (straight) from top to bottom (of the chessboard); (at) one step he goes crossways, like the bishop;

1781. Now lifting his crest like a wave; now going on his belly like a fish;

1782. Now writing (a description of) his state on some dust, like a geomancer who takes an omen by drawing lines (on earth or sand).

1783. At last he (Moses) overtook and beheld him; the giver of glad news said, “Permission has come (from God).

1784. Do not seek any rules or method (of worship); say whatsoever your distressful heart desires.

1785. Your blasphemy is (the true) religion, and your religion is the light of the spirit: you are saved, and through you a (whole) world is in salvation.

1786. O you who are made secure by God doeth whatso He willeth, go, loose your tongue without regard (for what you say).

1787. ”He said, “O Moses, I have passed beyond that: I am now bathed in (my) heart's blood.

1788. I have passed beyond the Lote-tree of the farthest bourn, I have gone a hundred thousand years' journey on the other side.

1789. Thou didst ply the lash, and my horse shied, made a bound, and passed beyond the sky.

1790. May the Divine Nature be intimate with my human nature— blessings be on thy hand and on thine arm!

1791. Now my state is beyond telling: this which I am telling is not my (real) state.”

1792. You behold the image which is in a mirror: it is your (own) image, it is not the image of the mirror.

1793. The breath which the flute-player puts into the flute—does it belong to the flute? No, it belongs to the man (the flute-player).

1794. Take good heed! Whether you speak praise (of God) or thanksgiving, know that it is even as the unseemly (words) of that shepherd.

1795. Though your praise is better in comparison with that, yet in relation to God it too is maimed (feeble).

1796. How often will you say, when the lid has been raised, “This was not what they were thinking (it was)!”

1797. This acceptance (by God) of your praise is from (His) mercy: it is an indulgence (which He grants), like (the indulgence granted in the case of) the prayers of a woman suffering from menorrhagia.