(789) From the day when you came into existence, you were fire or air or earth.

(790) If you had remained in that condition, how should this height have been reached by you ?

(791) The Transmuter did not leave you in your first existence: He established a better existence in the place of that;

(792) And so on till a hundred thousand states of existence, one after the other, the second better than the beginning.

(793) Regard from the Transmuter; leave the intermediaries, for by the intermediaries you will become far from their Origin.

(794) Wherever the intermediaries increase, union is removed: the intermediaries are less; the delight of union is greater.

(795) By knowing the intermediaries your bewilderment is diminished: your bewilderment gives you admission to the Presence.

(796) You have gained these lives from deaths: why have you averted your face from dying in Him ?

(797) What did you lose from those deaths that you have clung to life, O rat ?

(798) Since your second is better than your first, therefore seek to die, and worship the Transmuter.

(800) From inanimateness unconsciously towards plant life, and from vegetation towards life and tribulation;

(801) Again, towards reason and goodly discernments; again, towards outside of these five senses and six directions.

(802) These footprints extend as far as the shore of the Ocean; then the footprints disappear in the Ocean;

(808) Come, O crow, give up this soul ! Be a falcon; be self-sacrificing in the presence of the Divine transmutation.

(809) Take the new and surrender the old, for every “this year” of yours is superior to three “last years.”

Story of Muhammad Khwárizmsháh who took by war the city of Sabzawár, where all are Ráfizís (extreme Shí‘ites). They begged him to spare their lives, he said, “I will grant security as soon as you produce from this city a man named Abu Bakr and present him to me.”

(845) Muhammad Alp Ulugh Khwárizmsháh marched to battle against Sabzawár, full of refuge.

(846) His troops reduced them to straits; his army fell to killing the foe.

(847) They prostrated themselves before him, crying, “Mercy ! Make us your thralls, spare our lives !

(848) Whatever you require of tribute or presents will come to you from us with increase at every fixed time.

(850) He replied, You will not save your lives from me unless you bring an Abu Bakr into my presence.

(851) Unless you bring to me as a gift from your city one whose name is Abu Bakr, O people who have fled,

(853) They offered him many sacks of gold, saying, “Do not demand an Abu Bakr from a city like this.

(854) How should there be an Abu Bakr in Sabzawár, or a dry sod in the river ?”

(855) He averted his face from the gold and said, “O Magians, unless you bring me an Abu Bakr as an offering,

(856) It is of no avail. I am not a child that I should stand dumbfounded by gold and silver.”

(857) Unless you prostrate yourself, you will not escape, O wretch, if you traverse the mosque on your séant.

(858) They dispatched emissaries, where in this desolate place an Abu Bakr was.

(859) After three days and three nights, during which they made haste, they found an emaciated Abu Bakr.

(860) He was a wayfarer and, on account of sickness, had remained in the corner of a ruin, in utter exhaustion.

(861) He was lying in a ruined nook. When they espied him, they said to him hurriedly,

(862) “Arise ! The Sultan has demanded you: by you our city will be saved from slaughter.”

(863) He replied, “If I had the foot or any arrival, I myself would have gone by my own road to my destination.

(864) How should I have remained in this abode of my enemies ? I would have pushed on towards the city of my friends.”

(865) They raised the corpse-bearers’ board and lifted our Abu Bakr.

(866) The carriers were taking him along to Khwárizmsháh, that he might behold the token.

(867) Sabzawár is this world, and in this place the man of God is wasted and good for-nothing.

(868) Khwárizmsháh is God Almighty: He demands from this wicked folk the heart.

(869) The Prophet said, “He does not regard your form: therefore in your devising seek you the owner of the Heart.”

(870) I regard you through the owner of the Heart, not because of the marks of prostration and the giving away of gold.”

(871) Since you have deemed your heart to be the Heart, you have abandoned the search after those who possess the Heart.

(872) The Heart into which if seven hundred like these Seven Heavens should enter, they would be lost and hidden.

(873) Do not call such fragments of heart as these “the Heart”: do not seek an Abu Bakr in Sabzawár !

(875) Whosoever has his dwelling-place in six directions God doth not look upon him except through the mediation of him.

(877) Without him God does not bestow bounty on any one. I have told one sample of the possessor of union.

(878) He lays His gift on the palm of his hand, and from his palm dispenses it to those who are the objects of His mercy.

(879) The unity of the Universal Sea with his palm is unqualified and unconditional and perfect.

(880) A unity that is not containable in words— to speak of it was a vain task, so farewell.

(881) O rich man, you bring a hundred sacks of gold, God will say, “Bring the Heart, O you that are bent.

(882) If the Heart is pleased with you, I am pleased; and if it be averse to you, I am averse.

(883) I do not regard you, I regard that Heart: bring it, O soul, as a gift to My door !

(885) It is the mother and father and origin of the creatures: oh, blest is that one who knows the Heart from the skin.

(886) You will say, “Lo, I have brought You a heart”: He will say to you, “Qutú (The world) is full of these hearts.

(887) Bring the Heart that is the Qutb of the world and the soul of the soul of the soul of the soul of Adam.”

(888) The Sultan of hearts is waiting expectantly for that Heart full of light and goodness.

(889) You may wander days in Sabzawár; you will not find a Heart like that by careful observation.

(890) Then you will lay upon a bier the corrupt heart, whose soul is rotten, to carry Yonder,

(891) And say, “I bring You a heart, O King: there is no better heart than this in Sabzawár.”

(892) He will answer you, saying, “O audacious man, is this a graveyard that you should bring a dead heart here ?

(893) Go, bring the Heart that is kingly, from which is the security of the Sabzawár of existence.”

(896) For it is a falcon, while this world is the city of the crow;

(902) Seek the owner of the Heart, if you are not soulless: become a congener of the Heart, if you are not an adversary of the Sultan.

(907) This discourse has no bound, and our gazelle is running to and fro in flight in the stable.

The remainder of the Story of the gazelle in the donkey-stable.

(833) A hunter captured a gazelle: the merciless man put it into a stable.

(834) Like oppressors, he made a stable full of cows and donkeys the prison of the gazelle.

(835) The gazelle, wild with terror, was fleeing in every direction: at night he poured straw before the donkeys.

(836) By hunger and appetite, every cow and donkey was devouring the straw, sweeter than sugar.

(837) Now the gazelle would run in fright from side to side, now it would turn its face away from the smoke and dust of the straw.

(838) Whosoever is left with his opposite, they have deemed that punishment as death,

(839) So that Solomon said, “Unless the hoopoe makes a respectable excuse for his absence,

(840) I will kill him or inflict upon him a torment, a torment severe beyond calculation.”

(841) Listen, what is that torment, O trusted ? To be in a cage without your same kind.

(842) O Man, you art in torment on account of this body: the bird, your spirit, is imprisoned with one of another kind.

(843) The spirit is a falcon, and the properties are crows: it has painful brands from the crows and owls.

(908) During days the sweet-navelled male gazelle was in torment in the donkey-stable,

(909) Like a fish wriggling in, the death-agony from dry ground, dung and musk tortured in the same box.

(913) A certain donkey became ill with indigestion and was unable to eat; therefore he gave the gazelle a formal invitation.

(914) He shook his head, “Nay, Begone, O such-and such: I have no appetite, I am unwell.”

(915) He replied, “I know that you are showing disdain, or holding aloof in regard for your reputation.”

(916) He said to himself, “That is your food, whereby your limbs are revived and renewed.

(917) I have been familiar with a pasture; I have reposed amongst clear water and meadows.

(918) If Destiny has cast me into torment, how should that goodly disposition and nature depart ?

(919) If I have become a beggar, how should I have the face of a beggar ? And if my raiment becomes old, I am new.

(920) I have eaten hyacinth and anemone and sweet basil too with a thousand disdains and disgusts.”

(921) He said, “Yes; boast and boast and boast away ! In a strange country one can utter many an idle brag.”

(922) He replied, “Truly my musk gland bears witness: it confers a favour on aloes-wood and ambergris.

(923) But who will listen to that ? He that has the sense of smell. It is taboo for the donkey addicted to dung.

(924) The donkey smells donkey’s urine on the road: how should I offer musk to this class ?”

(925) Hence the Prophet, responsive, spoke, the parable, “Islam is a stranger in this world,”

(926) Because even his (the true Moslem’s) kinsfolk are fleeing from him, though the angels are in harmony with his essence.

(927) The people deem his form homogeneous, but they do not perceive in him that fragrance.

(928) Like a lion in the shape of a cow: behold him from afar but do not investigate him !

(929) And if you investigate, take leave of the cow, the body; for that lion natured one will tear the cow to pieces.

(930) He will expel the bovine nature from your head; he will uproot animality from the animal.

(931) You are a cow, you will become a lion near him; if you are glad to be a cow, do not seek to be a lion.

Commentary on “Truly I saw seven fat cows which seven lean cows devoured.” God had created those lean cows with the qualities of hungry lions, to the end that they might devour the seven fat ones with avidity. Although the forms of those cows were shown as phantoms in the mirror of dream, do you regard the reality !

(932) The Lord of Egypt saw in dream, when the door of his inward eye was opened,

(933) Seven fat cows, exceedingly well-nourished: the seven lean cows devoured them.

(934) The lean ones were lions within; else they would not have been devouring the cows.

(935) The man of works, then, is human in appearance, but in him is concealed a man-eating lion.

(936) He heartily devours the man and makes him single: his dregs become pure if he inflicts pain upon him.

(937) By that one pain he is delivered from all dregs: he sets his foot upon Suha.

(938) How long will you speak like the ill-omened crow ? “O Khalíl, wherefore didst you kill the cock ?”

(939) He replied, “The command.” “Tell the wisdom of the command, that I may glorify that punctiliously.

Explaining that the killing of the cock by Abraham, signifies the subdual and subjugation of certain blameworthy and pernicious qualities in the heart of the disciple.

(940) He is lustful and much addicted to lust, intoxicated by that poisonous insipid wine.

(941) Had not lust been for the sake of procreation, O executor, Adam for shame of it would have made himself a eunuch.

(942) The accursed Iblís said to the Dispenser of justice, “I want a powerful snare for this prey.”

(943) He showed to him gold and silver and herds of horses, saying, “By means of this you can seduce mankind.”

(944) He cried “Bravo !” but let his lip drop sourly: he became wrinkled and sour like a lemon.

(945) Then God offered to that fallen-one gold and jewels from His goodly mines,

(946) Saying, “Take this other snare, O accursed one.” He replied, “Give more than this, O most excellent Helper.”

(947) He gave him oily and sweet and costly sherbets and many silken robes.

(948) He said, “O Lord, I want more assistance than this, to bind them with a cord of palm-fibre.

(949) In order that Your devotees, who are fierce and courageous, may manfully burst those bonds,

(950) And that by means of this snare and cords of sensuality Your man may be separated from the unmanly,

(951) I want another snare, O Sovereign of the throne— a mighty cunning snare that will lay men low.”

(952) He brought and placed before him wine and harp: thereat he smiled faintly and was moderately pleased.

(953) He sent a message to the eternal Foreordainment of perdition, saying, “Raise dust from the bottom of the sea of temptation.

(954) Is not Moses one of Your servants ? He tied veils of dust on the sea.

(955) The water retreated on every side: from the bottom of the sea a dust shot up.”

(956) When He showed unto him the beauty of women that was prevailing over the reason and self-restraint of men,

(957) Then he snapped his fingers and began to dance, crying, “Give me as quickly as possible: I have attained my desire.”

(958) When he saw those languorous eyes which make the reason and understanding unquiet,

(959) And the loveliness of that fascinating cheek on which this heart burns like rue-seed,

(960) Face and mole and eyebrow and lip like cornelian, it was as though God shone forth through a subtle veil.

(961) He deemed that coquetry and light springing gait to be like the revelation of Divine glory through a thin veil.

Commentary on “We created Man in the best proportion, then We reduced him to the lowest of the low”; and on “And to whomsoever We grant long life, We cause him to relapse in constitution.”

(962) The beauty personified in Adam, to whom the angels bow down, is afterwards deposed, like Adam.

(963) It cries, “Alas, after existence non-existence !” He says, “Your crime is this, that you have lived too long.”

(964) Gabriel, dragging it by the hair, leads it away, saying, “Leave this Paradise and the company of the fair ones.”

(965) It says, “What is this abasement after exaltation ?” He replies, “That is a gift, and this is judgement on you.”

(966) “O Gabriel, you bowed down with your soul: why are you now driving me from Paradise ?

(967) My robes are flying from me in tribulation, like leaves from the date-palm in the season of autumn.”

(968) The countenance whose splendour was moon-like becomes with old age like the back of the Libyan lizard;

(969) And the fair head and crown that once were radiant become ugly and bald at the time of old;

(970) And the tall proud figure, piercing the ranks like a spear-point, in old age is bent double like a bow.

(971) The colour of red anemone becomes the colour of saffron; his lion-like strength becomes as the courage of women.

(972) He that used to grip a man in his arms by skill, they take hold of his arms at the time of departure.

(973) Truly these are marks of pain and decay: every one of them is a messenger of death.

(1028) The dust is whirling in the air, as a minaret: how should the dust rise aloft of itself ?

(1029) You see the dust on high, O infirm: not the Wind itself, except through knowledge given by induction.

Ya Ali Madad