Story of the man who had an allowance from the Police Inspector of Tabriz and had incurred debts in expectation of that allowance, since he was unaware of his death. The gist is that his debts were paid, not by any living person, but by the deceased Inspector, as has been said, “He that died and found peace is not dead: the dead one is the man dead among the living.”

3014 - A certain dervish, who was in debt, came from the outlying provinces to Tabriz.

3015 - His debts amounted to nine thousand pieces of gold. It happened that in Tabriz was Badru’din ‘Umar.

3016 - He was the Police Inspector, at heart he was an ocean: every hair’s tip of him was a dwelling-place of Hatím.

3017 - Hatím, had he been, would have become a beggar to him and laid his head and made himself the dust of his feet.

3018 - If he had given an ocean of limpid water to a thirsty man, such was his generosity that he would be ashamed of that gift;

3019 - And if he had made a mote a place of sunrise, that would to his lofty aspiration to be an unworthy action.

3020 - That poor stranger came in hope of him, for to poor strangers he was always a kinsman and relative.

3021 - That poor stranger was familiar with his door and had paid innumerable debts from his bounty.

3022 - In reliance upon that generous he ran into debt, for the man was confident of his donations.

3023 - He had been made reckless by him and eager to incur debts in hope of that munificent sea.

3024 - His creditors looked sour, while he was laughing happily, like the rose, on account of that garden of generous souls.

3025 - When his back is warmed by the Sun of the Arabs, what does he care for the moustache of Bu Lahab ?

3026 - When he has a covenant and alliance with the rain-cloud, how should he grudge water to the water-carriers ?

3027 - How should the magicians who were acquainted with God’s Hand bestow hands and feet upon these hands and feet ?

3028 - The fox that is backed by those lions will break the skulls of the leopards with his fist.

How Jafar, may God be well-pleased with him, advanced alone to capture a fortress, and how the king of the fortress consulted as to the means of repelling him, and how the vizier said to the king, “Beware ! Surrender and do not be so foolhardy as to hurl yourself upon him; for this man is aided and possesses in his soul a great collectedness from God,” etc.

3029 - When Jafar advanced against a certain fortress, the fortress to his dry palate a single gulp.

3030 - Riding alone, he charged up to the fortress, so that they locked the fortress-gate in dread.

3031 - No one dared to meet him in battle: what stomach has the ship’s crew with a leviathan ?

3032 - The king turned to his vizier, saying, “What is to be done in this crisis, Counsellor ?”

3033 - He replied, “that you should bid farewell to pride and cunning, and come to him with sword and shroud.”

3034 - “Why,” said the king, “is not he a single man alone ?” He replied, “Do not look with contempt on the man’s loneliness.

3035 - Open your eye: look well at the fortress: it is trembling before him like quicksilver.

3036 - He sits on the saddle; his nerve is just as unshaken as if an East and West were accompanying him.

3037 - Several men rushed forward, like Fidai's, and flung themselves into combat with him.

3038 - He felled each of them with a blow of his mace headlong at the feet of his steed.

3039 - God’s action had bestowed on him such collectedness that he was attacking a people single-handed.

3040 - When mine eye beheld the face of that emperor, plurality vanished from my sight.”

3072 - “I am not contained in the heavens or in the void or in the exalted intelligences and souls;

3073 - I am contained, as a guest, in the true believer’s heart, without qualification or definition or description,"

3074 - To the end that by the mediation of that heart above and below may win from Me sovereignties and fortune.

3075 - Without such a mirror neither Earth nor Time could bear the vision of My beauty.

3076 - I caused the steed of mercy to gallop over the two worlds: I fashioned a very spacious mirror.

3077 - From this mirror at every moment fifty wedding-feasts: hearken to the mirror, but do not ask to describe it.”

3096 - The business of love is to make that window, for the breast is illumined by the beauty of the Beloved.

3097 - Therefore gaze incessantly on the face of the Beloved ! This is in your power. Hearken, O father !

3098 - Make a way for yourself into the innermost parts: banish the perception that is concerned with other.

Return to the Story of the man who incurred debts and his coming to Tabriz in hope of the favour of the Inspector of Police.

3106 - The poor stranger, afflicted with fear on account of his debts, set out on the way to that Abode of Peace.

3107 - He went to Tabriz and the rose-garden district: his hope was reclining on roses.

3108 - From the glorious imperial city of Tabriz darted light upon light on his hope.

3109 - His spirit was laughing for that orchard of men and the fragrant breeze from Joseph and the Egypt of union.

3110 - He cried, “O cameleer, let my camel kneel for me: my help is come and my need is flown.

3111 - Kneel down, O my camel ! All goes well: truly, Tabriz is the place where princes alight.

3112 - Graze, O my camel, round the meadows: truly Tabriz is for us the most excellent source of bountifulness.

3113 - O camel-driver, unload the camels: it is the city of Tabriz and the district of the rose-garden.

3114 - This garden has the splendour of Paradise: this Tabriz has the brilliance of Heaven.

3115 - At every moment of time joy-enkindling odours diffused by the Spirit from above the empyrean upon the inhabitants of Tabriz.”

3116 - When the poor stranger sought the Inspector’s house, the people told him that the loved one had passed away.

3117 - “The day before yesterday,” they said, “he removed from this world: man and woman is pale for the calamity that has overtaken him.

3118 - That celestial peacock went to Heaven, when the scent of Heaven reached him from invisible messengers.

3119 - Although his shadow was the refuge of people, the Sun rolled it up very quickly.

3120 - He pushed off his boat from this beach the day before yesterday: the Khwaja had become sated with this house of sorrow.”

3121 - The man shrieked and fell senseless: you would say that he too had given up the ghost on the heels.

3122 - Then they threw julep and water on his face: his fellow-travellers wept and bewailed his plight.

3123 - He remained unconscious till nightfall, and then his soul returned, half-dead, from the Unseen.

How the poor stranger was informed of the Inspector’s death and begged God to pardon him for having relied upon a created being and having rested his hopes upon the bounty of a created being; and how he remembered the blessings he had received from God, and turned to God and repented of his sin: “then those who disbelieve equal.”

3124 - When he came to his senses, he said, “O Maker, I am a sinner: I was setting my hopes on creatures.

3170 - What is the soul that you should make a support of it ? God will make you living by His love.

3171 - Ask of Him the life of love and do not ask for the soul: ask of Him that provision and do not ask for bread.

3183 - The whole sum of pictured forms is a reflection in the water of the river: when you rub your eye, all of them are really He.

3184 - Again, his reason said, “Abandon this seeing double: vinegar is grape-syrup and grape-syrup is vinegar.

3185 - Since, from defect, you have called the Khwaja ‘other’, be ashamed before the jealous King, O man of double sight.

3186 - Do not suppose the Khwaja, who has passed beyond the ether, to be homogeneous with these mice of darkness.

3187 - Regard the Khwaja as spirit; do not regard him as gross body: regard him as marrow,

3188 - do not regard him as bone. Do not look at the Khwaja with the eye of Iblís the accursed, and do not relate him to clay.

3190 - This resembles the reflections; but it is not a reflection, it is the appearance of God in the likeness of a reflection.

3194 - When a man sees the reflection of apples in this river, and the sight of them fills his skirt with apples,

3204 - To praise and glorify the Perfect Man is to glorify God: the fruit is growing out of the essential nature of this tray.

3205 - Apples grow from this basket in fine variety: it is no harm if you bestow on it the name ‘tree.’

3115 - Do not say ‘two,’ do not know ‘two,’ and do not call ‘two’: deem the slave to be effaced in his master.

3116 - The Khwaja likewise is negated and dead and checkmated and buried in the Khwaja’s Creator.

3119 - When you see two you remain deprived of both sides: a flame falls on the touchwood, and the touchwood is gone.”

Parable of the man who sees double. like the stranger in the town of Kash, whose name was ‘Umar. Because of this they passed him on from one shop to another. He did not perceive that all the shops were one in this respect that they would not sell bread to Umar.“Here I will repair my error, ‘I made a mistake: my name is not Umar.’ When I recant and repair my error in this shop, I shall get bread from all the shops in the town; but if, without repairing my error, I still keep the name ‘Umar and depart from this shop, I am deprived and seeing double, for I have deemed these shops to be separate from each other.”

3220 - If your name is ‘Umar, nobody in the town of Kash will sell you a roll of bread for a hundred dángs.

3221 - When you say at one shop, “I am ‘Umar: kindly sell bread to this ‘Umar,”

3222 - If he had not been seeing double, he would have replied, “There is no other shop”;

3223 - He will say, “Go to that other shop: one loaf from that is better than fifty from this.”

3224 - And then the illumination produced by not seeing double would have shot upon the heart of him of Kash, and ‘Umar would have become ‘Alí.

3225 - This says, from this place to that baker, “O baker, sell bread to this ‘Umar”;

3226 - And he too, on hearing ‘Umar, withholds bread and sends to a shop some way off,

3227 - Saying, “Give bread to this ‘Umar, O my partner,” that is, “apprehend the secret from my voice.”

3228 - He also will pass you on from there, “Listen, ‘Umar is come to get some bread.”

3229 - When you have been ‘Umar in one shop, go and do not expect to obtain bread in all Kashan.

3230 - But if you have said in one shop, “Alí,” obtain bread from this place without being passed on and without trouble.

3247 - This topic is endless. The poor stranger wept exceedingly: he was heart-broken by grief for the Khwaja.

How the bailiff sought subscriptions in all parts of the city of Tabriz, and how a small amount was collected, and how the poor stranger went to visit the Inspector’s tomb and related this tale on his grave by the method of concentrating the mind on prayer, etc.

3248 - The calamity of his debts became notorious, and the bailiff was distressed by his grief.

3249 - He went round the city to collect subscriptions and everywhere, in hope, he told all that had happened;

3250 - That devoted beggar obtained by means of begging no more than a hundred dinars.

3251 - The bailiff came to him and took his hand and went to the grave of that very wonderful generous man.

3299 - I recklessly incurred debts nine thousand pieces of gold: where are you, that these dregs may become clear ?

3300 - Where are you, that laughing like the garden you may say, ‘Receive that and ten times as much from me’ ?

3301 - Where are you that you may make me laughing and show favour and beneficence as lords ?

3302 - Where are you, that you may take me into your treasury and make me secure from debt and poverty ?

3303 - I am saying continually, ‘Enough !’ and you, my bounteous friend, replying, ‘Accept this too for my heart’s sake.’

3304 - How can a world be contained under the clay ? How should a Heaven be contained in the earth ?

3305 - God forbid ! You are beyond this world both in your lifetime and at the present hour.

3306 - A bird is flying in the atmosphere of the Unseen: its shadow falls on a piece of earth.

3307 - The body is the shadow of the shadow of the shadow of the heart: how is the body worthy of the rank of the heart ?

3308 - A man lies asleep: his spirit is shining in Heaven, like the sun, while his body is in bed.

3309 - His spirit is hidden in the Void, like the fringe: his body is turning to and fro beneath the coverlet.

3324 - I am nine thousand dinars in debt and have no resources: there are a hundred dinars, from this subscription.

3325 - God has withdrawn you and I am left in agony: I am going in despair, O you whose dust is sweet !

Return to the Story of the bailiff and the poor debtor: how they turned back from the Khwaja’s grave, and how the bailiff saw the Khwaja in a dream, etc.

3518 - This goodly episode is endless. When the poor stranger turned back from the Khwaja’s grave,

3519 - The bailiff took him to his house and handed over to him the purse of a hundred dinars.

3520 - He fetched delicacies for him and told him stories, so that from the hope a hundred roses blossomed in his heart.

3521 - He opened his lips to relate the ease which he had experienced after difficulty.

3522 - Midnight passed, and narrating: sleep transported them to the meadow where the spirit feeds.

3523 - On that night the bailiff dreamed that he saw the blessed Khwaja on the high-seat in the palace.

3524 - The Khwaja said, “O excellent bailiff, I have heard what you said, point by point,

3525 - But I was not commanded to answer, and I dare not open my lips without being directed.

How the Khwaja disclosed to the bailiff in his dream the means of paying the debts incurred by the friend who had come; and how he indicated the spot where the money was buried, etc.

3533 - Now hear the bounty for my new guest. I foresaw that he would arrive,

3534 - And I had heard the news of his debt; I packed up two or three jewels for him,

3535 - Which are the full payment of his debt, and more: in order that the heart of my guest should not be wounded.

3536 - He owes nine thousand of gold: let him discharge his debt with some of these.

3537 - There will be a great many of them left over: let him expend and include me too in a benediction.

3538 - I wished to give them with my own hand: these assignments are written in such-and-such a note-book.

3539 - Death, however, did not allow me time to hand over to him secretly the pearls of Aden.

3540 - Rubies and corundums for his debt are in a certain vessel on which his name is written.

3541- I have buried it in a certain vault: I have shown solicitude for my ancient friend.

3558 - He sprang up from sleep, snapping his fingers, now singing love-songs and now making lament.

3559 - The guest said, “In what mad fits are you ? O bailiff, you have risen intoxicated and merry.

3560 - I wonder what you dreamed last night, O exalted one, that you cannot be contained in city or desert.

3561 - Your elephant has dreamed of Hindustan, for you have fled from the circle of your friends.”

3562 - He replied, “I have dreamed a mad dream: I have beheld a sun in my heart.

3563 - In my dream I saw the wakeful Khwaja, who gave up his life for vision.

3564 - In my dream I saw the Khwaja, the giver of things desired, one man like a thousand if any affair happened.”

3565 - Drunk and beside himself, he continued to recount in this fashion till intoxication bereft him of reason and consciousness.

3566 - He fell at full length in the middle of the room: a crowd of people gathered round him.

3567 - When he came to himself, he said, “O Sea of bliss, O You who has stored forms of consciousness in unconsciousness,

3568 - You have stored wakefulness in sleep; You have fastened a dominion over the heart to the state of one who has lost his heart.

3569 - You conceal riches in the lowliness of poverty; You fasten the necklace of wealth to the iron collar of poverty.”

3581 - Within the cow-like body there is a prince, a treasure deposited in a ruin,

3582 - To the end that an old ass, Iblís to wit, may flee from that precious and may see the cow and not the king.

Ya Ali Madad