Description of the lover-killing mosque and of the death-seeking reckless lover who became a guest there.

3922- Lend ear to a story, O well-conducted man! There was a mosque on the outskirts of the city of Rayy.

3923- No one ever slept the night there but on the same night (he died) from terror (and) his children became orphans.

3924- Many the naked (destitute) stranger that went into it (at nightfall) and went at dawn, like the stars, into the grave.

3925. Make thyself very attentive to this (tale)! The dawn is come, cut short thy slumber!

3926- Every one used to say that in it there were fierce Jinnís who killed the guests with blunt swords.

3927- Another would say, “It is the magic and talisman, for this enchantment is the foe and enemy of life.”

3928- Another would say, “Put an inscription (notice) conspicuously on its door—‘O guest, do not stay here.

3929- Do not sleep the night here, if you want to live; otherwise, death will unmask an ambush for you in this place.’”

3930. And another would say, “Bolt (the door) at night, (and when) a heedless person comes, do not admit him.”

3931- How the guest came into the mosque. (So it continued) till a guest arrived at nightfall who had heard that marvellous rumour.

3932- He was testing (it) in order to put (it) to the proof, for he was very valiant and surfeited with life.

3934- Let the bodily form go: who am I (in reality)? Is not the (bodily) figure of small account when I am enduring for ever?

3937- Since God said, ‘Desire death, O ye that are sincere,’ I am sincere: I will lavish my soul upon this (I will sacrifice my life for this object).”

How the people of the mosque blamed the lover-guest for (his intention of) sleeping the night there and threatened him.

3938- The people said to him, “Beware! Do not sleep here, lest the Taker of the soul pound thee like the dregs of sesame-grain.

3941- To whomsoever that mosque gave lodging for a single night, poisonous death came to him at midnight.

The lover's reply to those who chid him.

3946- He said, “O sincere advisers, I have become unrepentantly weary of the world of life.

3947- I am an idle vagabond, seeking blows and desiring blows: do not seek rectitude from the vagabond on the road.

3948- (I am) not the vagabond who in sooth is a seeker of provender: I am the reckless vagabond (who is) the seeker of death.

3949- (I am) not the vagabond who gets small money into his palm, (but) the nimble vagabond who would cross this bridge (to the world hereafter).

3950- Not the one who cleaves to every shop; nay, but (the one who) springs away from (phenomenal) existence and strikes upon a mine (of reality).

3951- Death and migration from this (earthly) abode has become as sweet to me as leaving the cage and flying (is sweet) to the (captive) bird.

3952- The cage that is in the very midst of the garden, (so that) the bird beholds the rose-beds and the trees,

3953- (While) outside, round the cage, a multitude of birds is sweetly chanting tales of liberty:

3954- At (the sight of) that verdant place neither (desire for) food remains to the bird in the cage, nor patience and rest,

3955- (But) it puts out its head through every hole, that perchance it may tear off this fetter from its leg.

3956- Since its heart and soul are (already) outside like this, how will it be when you open the cage?”

How the guest answered them and adduced the parable of the guardian of the cornfield who, by making a noise with the tomtom, sought to drive away from the cornfield a camel on whose back they were beating the big kettle-drum of (Sultan) Mahmúd.

4089- A boy, who was the guardian of a cornfield, used to beat a tomtom in order to keep off the birds,

4090- So that the birds, at (the sound of) the tomtom, were scared away from the field, and the field became safe from evil birds.

4091- When the Sultan, the noble King Mahmúd, pitched a great tent in that neighbourhood as he passed on the way

4092- is With an army like the stars of heaven (in number), numerous and victorious, one that pierces the ranks (of the enemy) and takes possession of empire.

4093- There was a camel that carried the kettle-drum: ’twas a Bactrian (camel), going in front (of the army) like a cock:

4094- Day and night he (the driver) used loudly to beat the big kettle-drum and the (ordinary) drum on its back in returning (from an expedition) and in setting out.

4095- That camel entered the cornfield, and the boy beat his tom--tom to protect the corn.

4096- An intelligent man said to him, ‘Don't beat the tomtom, for he (the camel) is well-seasoned by the drum; he is accustomed to it.

4097- What is thy little tomtom, child, to him, since he carries the Sultan's drum twenty times the size?’

4098- I am a lover, one who has been sacrificed to Naught: my soul is the band-stand for the drum of tribulation.

4102- I am done with pomp and ostentation. ‘Say, come ye’: He (the Beloved) said to my soul, ‘Come.”

4186- The existence of the animal arose from the death of the plant: (hence the command) “slay me, O trusty friends” is right.

4187- Since there is such a victory for us after the checkmate (of death), (the words) “verily, in my being slain there is a life” are true.

4197- The chickpea said, “Since it is so, O lady, I will gladly boil: give me help in verity!

4198- In this boiling thou art, as it were, my architect: smite me with the skimming spoon, for thou smitest very delightfully.

4200- So that I may yield myself (submit) to the boiling, to the end that I may find a way to that embrace (of the Beloved);

The remainder of the story of the guest of that guest-killing mosque, and his firmness and sincerity.

4212- That high-aspiring stranger to the town said, “I will sleep in this mosque at night.

4213- O mosque, if thou become my Karbala, thou wilt be the Ka’ba that fulfils my need.

4214- Hark, give me leave, O chosen house, that I may perform a rope-dance, like Mansur (Hallaj)!

Commentary on the Tradition of Mustafá (Mohammed), on whom be peace, that the Qur’án hath an exterior (sense) and an interior (sense), and that its interior (sense) hath an interior (sense).

4244- Know that the words of the Qur’án have an exterior (sense), and under the exterior (sense) an interior (sense), exceedingly overpowering;

4245- And beneath that inward (sense) a third interior (sense), wherein all intellects become lost.

4246- The fourth interior (sense) of the Qur’án none hath perceived at all, except God the peerless and incomparable.

4247- In the Qur’án do not thou, O son, regard (only) the exterior: the Devil regards Adam as naught but clay.

4248- The exterior (sense) of the Qur’án is like a man's person, for his features are visible, while his spirit is hidden.

4249- A man's paternal and maternal uncles (may see him) for a hundred years, and of his (inward) state not see (so much as) the tip of a hair.

4284- The Qur’an is proclaiming till the Resurrection- “O people devoted to ignorance,

4287- I am the Word of God and subsistent through the (Divine) Essence; I am the Food of the soul of the soul. And (I am) the Jacinth of purity.

4288- I am the Sunlight that hath fallen upon you, but I have not become separate from the Sun.

4289- Lo, I am the Fountain of the Water of Life, that I may deliver the lovers (of God) from death.

Parable of the foal's refusing to drink the water because of the bawling of the grooms.

4292- As he has said in his discourse, the foal and its mother were drinking the water.

4293- Those persons (the grooms) were bawling incessantly at the horses, “Come on! Hey, drink!”

4294- (The noise of) that bawling reached the foal: it was lifting its head and refusing to drink.

4295- Its mother asked, “O foal, why art thou always refusing to drink this water?”

4296- The foal said, “These people are bawling: I am afraid of the occurrence of their shouts.

4297- Therefore my heart is trembling and jumping: dread of the occurrence of the outcry is coming on me.”

4298- The mother said, “Ever since the world existed, there have been busybodies of this sort on the earth.”

4299- Hark, do your own business, O worthy man: soon will they tear their beards (in sorrow).

4300- The time is restricted, and the abundant water is flowing away: (drink) ere, through being parted (from it), you fall to pieces.

4301- There is a famous conduit, full of the Water of Life: draw the Water, in order that verdure may grow up from you.

4302- We are drinking the water of Khizr from the river of the speech of the saints: come, O heedless thirsty man!

4303- If you do not see the water, artfully after the fashion of the blind bring the jug to the river, and dip it in the river.

4304- Forasmuch as you have heard that there is water in this river-bed, (go and try): the blind man must practise conformity.

4305- Carry down to the river the water-skin that has thoughts of the water, so that you may find your water-skin heavy.

4306- When you have found it heavy, you will be led to infer (the truth): at that moment your heart is delivered from dry conformity.

4307- If the blind man does not see the river-water ocularly, yet he knows, when he finds the jug heavy,

4308- That some water has gone from the river into the jug; for this (jug) was light, and (now) it has become heavy and swollen with water;

4318- Let us also, like that foal, drink the water of the stream; let us pay no regard to the evil suggestions of the railer.

The remainder of the story of the guest in the guest-killing mosque.

4321- Relate what appeared in the mosque to that self-sacrificing valiant man, and what he did.

4322- He slept in the mosque, (but) where (how) in sooth had he sleep? How should a submerged man sleep in the river?

4345- Now hear the tale of the terrible cry, by which that good-fortuned man was not dismayed.

4346- He said, “How should I fear? for this is the drum of the Festival. Let the drum fear, since blows belong to it.

4352- The time has come for me, like Haydar (‘Alí), to seize a kingdom, or to quit the body.”

4353- He sprang up and shouted, “O prince, lo, here am I: if thou art a man, come on!”

4354- At his voice that talisman instantly was shattered: the gold poured down, diverse sorts, in every direction.

4355- So much gold poured down that the youth feared lest, from its abundance, it might block the doorway.

4356- Afterwards that ready lion (valiant man) rose up, and till dawn he was carrying out the gold,

4357- And burying it and coming (back) to it once more with sack and bag.

4358- That self-devoting one laid by (great) stores thereof, to the confusion of (in despite of) the timidity of the backsliders.

4359- (The thought that) this (is) external (material) gold has occurred to the mind of every blind, God-forsaken gold-worshipper.

4362- Nay, (’tis) the gold stamped with the Divine stamp, (the gold) which does not become obsolete, (but) is everlasting;

4365. That mosque was the candle, and he (the guest) was the moth: that man of moth-like nature gambled himself away (sacrificed himself).

4371- He is the tree of Moses and filled with radiance: come, now, call him the Light, do not call him fire.

4764- Go to the graveyard, sit awhile in silence, and behold those eloquent silent ones.

STORY

How the lover found his beloved; and a discourse showing that the seeker is a finder, for he who shall do as much good as the weight of an ant shall see it (in the end).

4780- (It happened) that for seven years that youth was (engaged) in search and seeking: from (cherishing) the phantasy of union he became like a phantom.

4781- (If) the shadow (protection) of God be over the head of the servant (of God), the seeker at last will be a finder.

4782- The Prophet said that when you knock at a door, at last a head will come forth from that door.

4783- When you sit (wait) on the road of a certain person, at last you will see also the face of a certain person.

4784- When, every day, you keep digging the earth from a pit, at last you will arrive at the pure water.

4798- The whole world, east and west, obtained that light, (but) whilst thou art in the pit it will not shine upon thee.

4803- Since he (the lover) was patiently knocking at a door, at last one day he obtained a meeting in private.

4804- From fear of the night-patrol he sprang by night into the orchard: (there) he found his beloved, (radiant) as candle and lamp.

4805. At that moment he said to the Maker of the means (by which he had attained to his desire), “O God, have mercy on the night-patrol!

4806- Unbeknown (to me), Thou hast created the means: from the gate of Hell Thou hast brought me to Paradise.

4807- Thou hast made this affair (dread of the night-patrol) a means, to the end that I may not hold (even) a single thorn in contempt.”

4808- In (consequence of) the fracture of a leg God bestows a wing; likewise from the depths of the pit He opens a door (of escape).

4809- (God said), “Do not consider whether thou art on a tree or in a pit: consider Me, for I am the Key of the Way.”

4810. If you wish (to read) the rest of this tale, seek (it), O my brother, in the Fourth Book.

Part - 3 Complete.

Ya Ali Madad.