THE FIRST BOOK
OF THE
HADlQATU' L-HAQIQAT
OR THE
ENCLOSED GARDEN OF THE TRUTH
OF THE
HAKIM ABU' L-MAJD MAJDUD SANA'I OF GHAZNA.
EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY
MAJOR J. STEPHENSON,
Indian Medical Service ; Member of the Royal Asiatic Society, and of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
CALCUTTA :
PRINTED AT THE BAPTIST MISSION PRESS. 1910.
0
101701-7
PREFACE.
Several years ago, on looking up the literature pertaining to the earlier Sufi poets of Persia, I found that there was no European edition or translation, nor even any extended account of the contents of any of the works of Sana'l. Considering the reputation of this author, and the importance of his writings for the history of Sufiism, the omission was remarkable ; and I was encouraged by Dr. E. D. Ross, Principal of the Calcutta Madrasah, to do something towards filling up the blank. The present volume is an attempt at a presen- tation of a part of Sana'i's most famous work, which, it is hoped, may serve to give an idea of his manner of thought not only to Oriental scholars, but also to non- Orientalists who may be interested in the mysticism of Persia.
MSS. of Sana'i's lladtqa are not rare in European libraries ; and a selection of those contained in the British Museum and India Office libraries furnished me with as many as I was able to collate during the time I could devote to this work on the occasion of a recent furlough. My selection of MSS. for collation was, I must confess, somewhat arbitrary ; C I took because it was the oldest of those to which I had access ; H because it also was of respectable age, and fairly well written ; M mainly on account of its being easily legible, this being a consideration, since my time in London was limited, and the British Museum does not allow MSS. to leave the building ; 7 I took because it was written in Isfahan and so might embody a Persian, as distinct from an Indian, tradition of the text; and A was selected because it was stated to be 'Abdu'l-Latif's autograph of his revision of the text. I must here acknowledge my gratitude to the management of the India Office Library for the permission accorded me to take away these two valuable MSS. for collation in the country ; the materials upon which the present text is based would otherwise have been much poorer, and the result even more inconclusive than it is.
Though thus in some degree arbitrary, and restricted to only two collections, I do not think a limited choice of MSS. could have
1V PREFACE.
turned out much more fortunately. It has at least, I think, brought a considerable amount of light to bear on the history of the author's text, especially with regard to the labours of its editor 'Abdu'l- Lafcif in the seventeenth century ; though, as explained in the In- troduction, I am very far from imagining that we have arrived at any close approximation to the author's original. I do not say that a reconstruction of Sana'l's original text is impossible ; though judging merely from the MSS. I have examined, I am inclined to doubt the possibility. The text fell into confusion at a very early date, and it will perhaps only be by prolonged search or by a lucky chance that a future editor will obtain a copy which approximates in any close degree to the original ; though a closer and more prolonged study of the copies we possess would, I have no doubt, give indications as to the place of many lines and passages which in the present edition are almost certainly wrongly placed or have been set apart as home- less. But at the present stage of Oriental studies it is unprofitable to devote to the preparation of a text the same prolonged research which we are accustomed to see in editions of the classical authors of Greece and Rome ; and the labour of scholars in the province of Oriental letters is better expended on a first rough survey of the ground, so much of which remains as yet absolutely unknown ; when a general knowledge of the whole has been obtained, it will be time to return for a thorough cultivation of each individual plot.
In the list of the variant readings I have found it quite impos- sible to indicate the different order of the lines and sections in the several MSS., nor have I as a rule given the variations in the titles of the sections. Otherwise the list is complete.
The translation is as literal as I have been able to make it. The notes are largely taken from the commentaries of 'Abdu'l-Latlf, published along with the text in the Lucknow lithograph (L), and of 'Alau'd-Din, similarly given in the lithograph (B) which I obtained from Bombay. I have utilized all such portions of these comment- aries as appeared to me to be helpful in arriving at an understanding of the text ; matter taken from the commentary in the Lucknow lithograph I have distinguished by the letter L, also used in the list of variants to denote the readings of this lithograph ; similarly the matter of 'Alau'd-Din's commentary is distinguished in the notes by the letter B. Where the note presents a literal translation of the
PREFACE. V
commentaries, I have indicated this by the use of inverted commas ; where my note gives only the general sense of the commentary I have omitted the quotation marks, the source of the note being suffi- ciently indicated by the appropriate letter.
In the fuller explanation of the technicalities of Sufi philosophy I have drawn largely on the first volume of the late E. J. W. Gibb's ' History of Ottoman Poetry," and especially on the second chapter of that work ; where allusions to proper names, etc., are not ex- plained by the commentators, I have often quoted from Hughes 's •' Dictionary of Islam." Quotations from the Qur'an I have usually given in Palmer's translation. Finally, I am myself responsible for the notes in cases where no source is given ; these are usually either in places where the meaning of the text is not easy to grasp, and where nevertheless the commentators, as not infrequently happens, pass over the line without explanation ; or on the other hand such notes refer to matters of common knowledge to Persian scholars, which however may not be familiar to others ; I have added a certain number of such in order, as stated already, to render the work of some use to non-Persianists who take an interest in the philosophies of the East.
Had I been able to devote myself continuously to the work, the number of references from one part of the text to another might have been considerably increased, and the author's meaning probably in many places thus rendered clearer ; I think also, as I have already said, lines and passages that are here doubtless misplaced might have found, if not their original, still a more suitable home. But it has often happened that months, in one case as many as eleven, have elapsed between putting down the work and taking it up again ; and thus all but the most general remembrance of the contents of the earlier parts of the text has in the meanwhile escaped me. I can only say that it seemed better to let the work go out as it is, than to keep it longer in the hope of obtaining a continuous period of leisure which may never come, for a more thorough revision and recasting of the whole.
GOVERNMENT COLLEGE,
LAHORE : June 1908.
ABBREVIATIONS.
L (in the notes) refers to the commentary of 'Abdu'l-Latif. B (in the notes) refers to the commentary of 'Alau'd-Dm. Gibb = A History of Ottoman Poetry, Vol. I, by E. J. W. Gibb, London.
Luzac & Co., 1900. Sale = Sale's Translation of the Qur'an, with notes (several editions ; a
cheap one is published by Warne & Co.). Stein. = Steingass's Persian-English Dictionary. B.Q. =The Burhan-i Qati' (a Persian Dictionary, in Persian).
The scheme of transliteration adopted is that at present sanctioned by the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
The references in the notes to other passages of the work are given accord- ing to the page and line of the Persian text (indicated also in the margin of the translation).
Quotations from the Arabic are indicated by printing in italics.
INTRODUCTION,
Page I. LIFE OF THE AUTHOR . . . . . . vii
II. MANUSCRIPTS AND LITHOGRAPHS . . . . ix
III. HISTORY OF THE TEXT . . . . . . . . xiii
IV. THE COMMENTATORS . . . . . . . . xxi
V. THE Hadiqatu'l-Haqiqat . . .. .. .. xxv
VI. SANA'I'S PREFACE .. .. .. .. xxx
I. — LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.
Abu'1-Majd Majdud b. Adam Sana'i 1 was born at Ghazna, and lived in the reign of Bahramshah (A.H. 512-548, A.D. 1118-1152). Ouseley says of him that he ' ' while yet young became one of the most learned, devout, and excellent men of the age which he adorned. His praise was on every tongue; for, in addition to his accomplish- ments in the Sufi philosophy, he possessed a kind and benevolent heart, delightful manners, and a fine taste for poetry .... Sana! in early life retired from the world and its enjoyments, and the reason for his doing so is supposed to have arisen from the following cir- cumstance.
" He had frequented the courts of kings and princes, and cele- brated their virtue and generous actions. When Sultan Ibrahim of Gha/ni determined upon attacking the infidel idolaters of India, Hakim Sana! composed a poem in his praise, and was hurrying to the court to present it before that monarch's departure. There was at that time in Ghazni a madman known as Lai Khur (the ox-eater) , who often in his incoherent wanderings uttered sentiments and observa- tions worthy of a sounder head-piece ; he was addicted to drinking wine, and frequented the bath. It so happened that Sanai, in passing a garden, heard the notes of a song, and stopped to listen. After some time the singer, who was Lai Khur, addressing the cup-bearer,
1 For the facts contained in the following sketch I am indebted to Sir Gore Ouseley 's " Biographical Notices of the Persian Poets," Lond., Or. Trans. Fund, 1846; Rieu's and Eth6's Catalogues; and Prof. Browne's " A Literary History of Persia," Vol. II.
Vlii INTRODUCTION.
said, ' Saki, fill a bumper, that I may drink to the blindness of our Sultan, Ibrahim.' The Saki remonstrated and said it was wrong to wish that so just a king should become blind. The madman answered that he deserved blindness for his folly in leaving so fine a city as Ghazni, which required his presence and care, to go on a fool's errand in such a severe winter. Lai Khur then ordered the Saki to fill another cup, that he might drink to the blindness of Hakim Sana!. The cup-bearer still more strongly remonstrated against this, urging the universally esteemed character of the poet, whom everyone loved and respected. The madman contended that Sana! merited the malediction even more than the king, for with all his science and learn- ing, he yet appeared ignorant of the purposes for which the Almighty had created him ; and when he shortly came before his Maker, and was asked what he brought with him, he could only produce pane- gyrics on kings and princes, — mortals like himself. These words made so deep an impression on the sensitive mind of the pious philo- sopher, that he secluded himself from the world forthwith, and gave up all the luxuries and vanities of courts.
" Sirajuddin Ali, in his ' Memoirs of the Poets,' says, that in consequence of the sudden impression occasioned by Lai Khur's remarks, Sana! sought instruction from the celebrated Sheikh Yusef Hamdani, whose cell was called the ' Kaabah of Khorasan.'
" It was about this time that Behram Shah offered him his sister in marriage, which honour, however, he gratefully declined, and almost immediately set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medinah. It is to the refusal of the royal bride that he alludes in his Hedlkeh, as an apology to the king, in the following lines : — 'I am not a person desirous of gold or of a wife, or of exalted station ; by my God, I neither seek them nor wish them. If through thy grace and favour thou wouldest even offer me thy crown, I swear by thy head I should not accept it.' ' The account of Sana'i's conversion contained in the foregoing extract is probably, as Browne says, of little historical value.
Sana'! composed the present work after his return from the pilgrimage ; according to most copies he completed it in A.H. 525 (A.D. 1131), though some MSS. have A.H. 534 or 535 (A.D. 1139- 1141).
Sana'l was attacked during his lifetime on account of his alleged unorthodoxy ; but a fatwa was published by the Khalifa's court at
INTRODUCTION. IX
Baghdad, vindicating his orthodoxy against his calumniators. His commentator 'Abdu'l-Latlf in his Preface (v. post.) mentions the suspicions of the various sects on the subject of the Hakim's heresies.
Several dates are given for the Hakim's death. His disciple Muhammad b. 'All al-Raffa (Raqqam), in a preface to the work preserved in one of the Bodleian MSS., gives Sunday, the llth Sha'ban A.H. 525 (A.D. 1131). This date, however, fell on a Thursday ; the llth Sha'ban of the year A.H. 545 (A.D. 1150), which is the date given by Taq! Kashi and the AtaJikada, was, however, a Sunday. Daulat*hah and Haji Khalfa give A.H. 576 (A.D. 1180, 1181). Since the poet completed his Tarlqu't-Tahqiq in A.H. 528, the earliest of the three dates is impossible ; the second would appear to be the most probable.
Besides the Hadiqatu'l-Haqiqat, the first chapter of which is here presented, Sana'! wrote the Tariqu' t-Tahqlq ("Path of Verification"), Gharib-nama ("Book of the Stranger"), Sairu'l-'ibad ila'l-Ma'ad (" Pilgrimage of [God's] servants to the Hereafter"), Kar-nama ("Book of Deeds"), 'Ishq-nama ("Book of Love"), and 'Aql-nama (" Book of Reason "), as well as a Dlwan, or collection of shorter poems in various metres. All these works, with the exception of the Hadiqa and the Dlwan, are said by Prof. Browne, from whom the above list is taken, to be very rare.
II. — MANUSCRIPTS AND LITHOGRAPHS.
I have used the following manuscripts and lithographs in the preparation of the text :—
(1) Br. Mus. Add. 25329. Foil. 298, 7|//x4f//, 15 11. 2f" long, in small Nestalik, with gold headings, dated Safar A.H. 890 (A.D. 1485) [Adam Clarke].
There are marginal additions by two other hands ; f . 1 is on differ- ent paper, by a different and later hand. The letters ^ x r r are often not distinguished, ^ never ; i and *_> are often not dis- tinguished from ,} and «-> ; the small letters are often without dots ; the scribe usually writes the modern undotted ^ with three dots below. There are large omissions as compared with later MSS. and the lithographs.
I denote this MS. by C.
X INTRODUCTION.
(2) Br. Mus. Or. 358. Foil. 317, 6f" x 3f, 17 11. 2" long, in small Nestalik, in two gold-ruled columns, with two 'unvans, ap- parently written in the 16th cent. [Geo. Wm. Hamilton].
There are many marginal additions, mostly by one, a later, hand : the MS. as a whole has been subjected to a great many erasures and corrections. The writing is good, the pointing of the letters fairly complete ; the scribe usually writes ^ and <-> , the ^ rarely appears with three dots below. The MS. contains the prefaces of Raqqam and of Sana'i himself • but, like the preceding, shows omissions as compared with later MSS. and the lithographs.
I denote this MS. by H.
(3) Br. Mus. Add. 16777. Foil. 386, 10f" x 6J", 15 11., 3J" long, in fair Nestalik, with gold-ruled margins, dated A. H. 1076 (A.D. 1665) [Wm. Yule].
This is a clearly written MS., the pointing of the letters usually full, £ and «_> are frequently distinguished by their dots, and the pure ^JN. usually written with three dots below. Erasures are not frequent ; the marginal corrections usually by the original hand. This MS. gives a very large number of divergent readings as compared with the others ; its order is very different from that of the others ; it is, as regards its extent, not so much defective as redundant, long passages appearing twice, and some passages not to be found in any of my other sources are also included. Some of these latter I have found in subsequent chapters of the ttadiqa, and it is possible that a more thorough search might have shown that they are all contained there.
This MS. is denoted by M.
(4) Ind. Off. 918. Ff. 395, 2 coll. each 11. 15 ; Nasta'lik : the last four pp. written by another hand ; 9|" x 5|". Written at Isfahan A.H. 1027 (A.D. 1618) ; occasional short glosses on the margin.
A clearly written and well-preserved MS. , closely related to the following. The letters ^ and ^ are frequently distinguished ; the sign madda is usually omitted.
I denote this MS. by I.
(5) Ind. Off. 923. The description given in the Catalogue is as follows- — " Sharh-i-Hadikah. The revised and collated edition of Sana'i's Hadikah with a commentary and marginal glosses by 'Abd- allatif bin 'Abdallah al-'Abbasi, who is best known by his revised
INTRODUCTION. XI
and annotated edition of Jalal-aldin Rumi's Mathnawi, his comment- aries on the same poem, and a special glossary, Lata'if-allughat (lithogr. Lucknow under title Farhang-i-Mathnawi 1877). He died 1048 or 1049 (A.D. 1638, 1639) in Shahjahan's reign. The present copy, which is the author's autograph, was finished by him 20th Jumada alawwal A.H. 1044 ( = Nov. llth, 1634), and represents an abridgement from a larger commentary of his, the Lata'if al Hada'ik, from which also the glosses are taken (marked tl). According to the dibaca he began the larger work 1040 and completed it 1042 (1630-33) supported by his friend Mir ' Imad-aldin Mahmud al Hamadani, with the takhallus Ilahi, the author of the well-known tadhkirah of Persian poets the Khazina-i-Ganj."
The following is an account of the contents of this MS. First comes a short preface by 'Abdu'l-Lafcif, introducing Sana'i's own preface, which is stated to have been written to the complete collec- tion of his writings ; it is frequently, states 'Abdu'l-Latif , not to be found in copies of his works. After Sana'i's preface comes another, called Rasta-i khiyaban, by 'Abdu'l-Latif, described as a short preface to this writer's commentary ; this concludes with a reference to Ilahi and his share in the work, and two tarikhs by Ilahi, giving A.H. 1040 as the date of its commencement, and 1042 as that of its completion. A few more lines by 'Abdu'l-LatTf introduce the work itself. The original numbering of the folia commences with the text ; there is also a pencil numbering, in English characters, begin- ning with the first preface The poem closes with 59 verses, in the same metre, which form an address to Abu'l- Hasan 'Ali b. Nasir al Grhaznawi , named Biryangar, sent to him at Baghdad, because of the accusations of the traducers of the book. The date of comple- tion of the text is given as A.H. 535 ; and, in a triangular enclosure of gold lines, it is stated that " this honoured copy was completed 20th Jumada al-awwal, 1044 A.H." A few pages at the end, written by the same hand, give an account of how the book was sent to Biryangar at Baghdad, on account of the accusations that were brought against it ; how it was found to be orthodox, and a reply sent to Grhazni.
This MS. I denote by A.
(6) The Lucknow lithograph published by the Newal Kishore Press, dated A.H. 1304 (A.D. 1886). This is an edition of the whole
Xll INTRODUCTION.
work, including prefaces and 'Abdu'l-Latif's commentary. It com- prises 860 pp., of 15 verses to a page ; the paper, as usual, is some- what inferior ; the text is on the whole easily legible, but the same can- not always be said for the commentary, written in the margins and in a much smaller hand. It contains first a list of the titles of all the sections of all the chapters, followed by some verses setting forth the subjects of the ten chapters each as a whole. The ornamental title-page follows, stating that the Hadiqa of Sana' I is here accom- panied by the commentary Lata'ifu'l-B.ada'iq of 'Abdu'l-Latif al- 'Abbasi. On p. 2 begins the ' First Preface ' , called Miratu'l-Hada'iq, by 'Abdu'l-Latif, dated 1038 A. H. ; this is not included in A ; an abstract of it is given later (v. p. xxi). After this comes Sana'i's pre- face with 'Abdu'l-Latif's introductory words, as in A ; this is called the ' Second Preface ' . The ' Third Preface ' , which is 'Abdu'l- Latif's Rasta-i-khiyaban, is here written in the margins of the ' Second Preface '. Then comes the text with marginal commentary, introduced as in A by a few more words from 'Abdu'l-Latif. At the conclusion of the work is the address to Biryangar ; and finally some qit'as on the dates of commencement and completion of the printing of the book.
I denote this lithograph by L.
(7) I obtained from Bombay, from the bookshop of Mirza Muham- mad Shirazi, another lithograph, which comprises only the first chapter of the work accompanied by a copious marginal commentary. Pp. 15 + 4 + 31 + 188, 15 11. to a page; published at Luharu (near Hissar, Punjab) 1290 A.H. (1873 A.D.). The title-page states that this is the commentary on Sana'i's Hadiqa by Nawab Mirza 'Alau'd- Din Ahmad, Khan Bahadur, chief (i^s^j* &^*j*) of Luharu, called 'Ala'i, the scribe being Maulavi Muhammad Ruknu'd-Din of Hissar. Ruknu'd-Din states (p. 2) that he himself was doubtful of many words, and did not understand a number of the verses ; he took his difficulties to 'Ala'i, who explained all ; and " Praise be to God, there never has been such a commentator of the Hadiqa, nor will be ; or if there is, it will be an imitation or a theft from this king of commentators." This reads rather curiously when considered in connection with the fact, to be mentioned hereafter, that the authors have incorporated in their commentary the whole of that of 'Abdu'l- Latif, and that their original contributions to the elucidation of the
INTRODUCTION. xiii
text are of slight value. Ruknu'd-Dm was asked one day by the printers (£>^« ^U.J' jfe) to bring them his copy (^1^) of the Hadiqa on its completion, for printing and publication. Pp. 4 — 10 are occupied by an Arabic preface by Ruknu'd-Din, again in extravagant praise of 'Ala'l and his accomplishments as a com- mentator. There follows (pp. 11 — 14) another title-page, and a short poem by 'Ala'l ; and then (p. 15) a qit'a, giving the dates of com- mencement and completion of the work. Four pages of introduction (pp. 1 — 4) follow, and again with separate paging, 31 pp. of commen- tary on the first 28 pp. of the text, the reason apparently being that the whole of the commentary on these pages could not conveniently be written in the margins. The text comprises 186 pp., and includes (though I cannot find this stated anywhere) only the first book of the complete Hadiqa ; the volume is concluded by some lines of 'AlaT in praise of Muhammad, and a benediction. At the end of the marginal notes on every page is written " ' Ala'l sallamahu ,' ' or " Mauland 'Ala'i sallamahu Alldhu ta'a/a."
III. — HISTORY OF THE TEXT.
Muhammad b. 'All Raqqam informs us, in his preface to the Hadiqa, that while Sana'! was yet engaged in its composition, some portions were abstracted and divulged by certain ill-disposed persons. Further, 'Abdu'l-Latif in his preface, the Miratu'l-Hada''iq, states that the disciples of Sana 'I made many different arrangements of' the text, each one arranging the matter for himself and making his own copy ; and that thus there came into existence many and various arrangements, and two copies agreeing together could not be found.
The confusion into which the text thus fell is illustrated to some extent by the MSS. which I have examined for the purpose of this edition. C shows many omissions as compared with later MSS. ; at the same time there is a lengthy passage, 38 verses, which is not found in any other ; H, though also defective, is fuller than C but evidently belongs to the same family. M contains almost all the matter comprised in 'Abdu'l-Latif's recension, much of it twice over, as has already been mentioned ; and in addition about 300 verses, or altogether 10 folia, which apparently do not of right belong to this first chapter at all ; the first chapter, too, is here divided
xiv INTRODUCTION.
into two chapters. The remaining MSS. and lithographs agree closely with each other and are evidently all nearly related.
The same story, of an early confusion of the text, is even more strikingly brought out if, instead of the omissions and varying extent of the text in the several MSS., we compare the order of the text. Here M startles us by giving us an order totally at variance with that of any other of our sources. There seems to be no reason for this : the arrangement of the subject is not, certainly, more logical : and it would appear that the confusion has simply been due to carelessness at some early stage of the history of the text ; the repetitions, and the inclusions of later parts of the work, point to the same explana- tion. I need only mention the consequent labour and expenditure of time on the collation of this manuscript. C and H agree mostly between themselves in the order of the text, and broadly speaking the general order is the same as that of the later MSS. ; the divergences would no doubt have appeared considerable, but that they are entirely overshadowed by the confusion exhibited by M. I ALB agree closely with each other, as before.
The same confusion is again seen in the titles of the various sections as given in the several MSS. I am inclined to doubt how far any of the titles are to be considered as original ; and it seems to me very possible that all are later additions, and that the original poem was written as one continuous whole , not divided up into short sections as we have it now. At any rate, the titles vary very much in the different MSS. ; some, I should say, were obviously marginal glosses transferred to serve as headings ; in other cases the title has reference only to the first few lines of the section, and is quite inappli- cable to the subject-matter of the bulk of the section ; in other cases again it is difficult to see any applicability whatever. It appears to have been the habit of the copyists to leave spaces for the titles, which were filled in later ; in some cases this has never been done ; in others, through some omission in the series, each one of a number of sections will be denoted by a title which corresponds to that of the next following section in other MSS.
It is then obvious that 'Abdu'l-Latif is right in saying that in the centuries following Sana'i's death great confusion existed in the text of the Hadiqa. This text he claims to have purified and restored, as well as explained by means of his commentary ; and it is his recension
INTRODUCTION. XV
which is given in A, as well as in the Indian lithographs L and B. He says that he heard that the Nawab Mirza Muhammad 'Aziz Kaukil- tash, styled the Great Khan, had, while governor of Gujrat in the year 1000 A.H., sent to the town of Grbaznin a large sum of money in order to obtain from the tomb of Sana'! a correct copy of the Hadiqa, written in an ancient hand ; this copy the Nawab, on his departure on the pilgrimage, had bestowed on the Amir 'Abdu'r- Razzaq Ma'muri, styled Muzaffar Khan, at that time viceroy of that country. 'Abdu'l-Latif, however, being then occupied in journeys in various parts of India, could not for some time present himself before the Amir ; till in A.H. 1035 this chief came to Agra, where 'Abdu'l-Latif presented himself before him and obtained the desire of so many years. This MS. of the Hadiqa had been written only 80 years after the original composition, but the text did not satisfy the editor, and it was besides deficient, both in verses here and there, and also as regards twenty leaves in the middle of the work.
In the year A.H. 1037 'Abdu'l-Latif came to Lahore, where having some freedom from the counterfeit affairs of the world and the deceitful cares of this life, he entered again on the task of editing the text, with the help of numerous copies supplied to him by learned and critical friends. He adopted the order of the ancient MS. before- mentioned, and added thereto such other verses as he found in the later MSS. which appeared to be of common origin, and to harmonize in style and dignity and doctrine, with the text. As to what 'Abdu'l- Latif attempted in his commentary, v. p. xxii post.
So far Abdu'l-Latif 's own account of his work. We can, however, supplement this by a number of conclusions derived from the MSS. themselves.
In the first place, it appears that A is not, as stated in the India Office Catalogue, 'Abdu'l-Latlf's autograph copy. The statement that it is so is apparently based on the fact of the occurrence of the words " harrarahu wa sawwadahu 'Abdu'l-Latif b. ' Abdu' 'llahi 'l- 'Abbdsi," at the end of the editor's few words of introduction to Sana'l's preface ; and again of the occurrence of the words "harrarahu 'Abdu'l-Latif . . . . ki sharih wa musahhih-i in kitdb-i maimunat- nisdb ast," at the end of the few lines of introduction immediately preceding the text. But both these sentences are found in the
XVI INTRODUCTION.
Lucknow lithograph, and therefore must have been copied in all the intermediate MSS. from 'Abdu'l-Latlf's autograph downwards ; the words in each case refer only to the paragraph to which they are appended, and were added solely to distinguish these from Sana'l's own writings.
I cannot find any other facts in favour of the statement that A is the editor's autograph; there are, however, many against it. Thus A is beautifully written, and is evidently the work of a skilled pro- fessional scribe, not of a man of affairs and a traveller, which 'Abdu'l- Latif represents himself as having been. Again, there are occasional explanatory glosses to the commentary, in the original hand ; these would have been unnecessary had the scribe been himself the author of the commentary. The handwriting is quite modern in character and the pointing is according to modern standards throughout ; the late date of A is immediately brought out clearly by comparing it with I (of date 1027 A.H.) or M (of date 1076 A.H.) ; though the supposed date of A is 1044 A.H. it is obviously much later than either of the others. But perhaps the most curious bit of evidence is the follow- ing ; at the top of fol. 116 of the text of A there is an erasure, in which is written y in place of an original reading \), and as it happens this line is one which has been commented on by the editor ; in the margin is a note in a recent hand, — *<x£ Axi^J ^t \) ^l^ ±—> ji£\ j± JL*i <*U|^ o—y •ky.y0 cAj *>\ t^ ^s^y* *' \4^j*» J> which is true, — the commentary certainly presumes a reading jl, but this MS. had originally \) ; the scribe could not therefore have been the com- mentator himself, i.e., 'Abdu'l-Lafcif.
Further, not only is A not 'Abdu'l-Latlf's autograph, but it does not accurately reproduce that autograph. I refer to 34 short passages of Sana'l's text, which in A are found as additions in the margin ; these, though obviously written in the same hand, I regard as subsequent additions from another source by the same scribe, not as careless omissions filled in afterwards ,on comparing the copy with the original. In the first place, the scribe was on the whole a careful writer ; and the mistakes he has made in transcribing the commentary, apart from the text, are few. The omissions of words or passages of commentary, which have been filled in afterwards, are altogether 10 ; of these, two are of single words only ; two are on the first page, when perhaps the copyist had not thoroughly settled down to his
INTRODUCTION. XV11
work ; five are short passages, no doubt due to carelessness ; and one is a longer passage, the whole of a comment on a certain verse, — an ex- ample of carelessness certainly, but explicable by supposing that the scribe had overlooked the reference number in the text indicating that the comment was to be introduced in relation to that particular verse. Roughly speaking, the commentary is of about equal bulk with the text ; yet the omissions of portions of commentary by the copyist are thus many fewer in number and much less in their united extent than the omissions of the text, — supposing, that is, that the marginal additions to the text in A are merely the consequence of careless copying. The reverse would be expected, since owing to the manner of writing,, it is easier to catch up the place where one has got to in a verse composition ; it would seem therefore, as said above, that the comparatively numerous marginal additions to the text are rather additions introduced afterwards from another source than merely careless omissions in copying. In the second place, none of these 34 passages are annotated by 'Abdu'l-Latif ; in all likeli- hood, if they had formed part of his text, some one or more of the lines would have received a comment. The passages comprise, to- gether, 63 verses ; there is only one instance in the First chapter of the Radiqa of a longer consecutive passage without annotation, and in general it is rare (eleven instances only) to find more than 30 consecutive verses without annotation ; usually the editor's com- ments occur to the number of two, three or more on each page of 15 lines. I think, therefore, it must be admitted that the chances would be much against a number of casual omissions aggregating 63 lines falling out so as not to include a single comment of the editor. Thirdly, it is a remarkable fact that of these 34 passages the great majority are also omitted in both C and H, while they are present in both M and I ; to particularize, C omits 30£, H omits 28, both C and H omit 25|, and either C or H or both omit every one of these 34 passages ; while I and M each have all the 34 with one exception in each case ; further, while many of these 34 marginally added pas- sages in A correspond exactly to omissions in H, the corresponding omissions in C may be more extensive, i.e., may include more, in each case, of the neighbouring text.
We must therefore, I think, conclude that after completing the transcription of A the scribe obtained a copy of the Hadiqa of the
XV111 INTRODUCTION.
type of I or M, and filled in certain additions therefrom ; and that 'Abdu'l-Latif's edition did not originally contain these passages.
Let us turn to a consideration of I and its relation to 'Abdu'l- Latif's edition. I is dated A.H. 1027 ; it is, therefore, earlier than 'Abdu'l-Latif's edition of A.H. 1044. As we have seen, A is not 'Abdu'l-Latif's autograph ; but we have, I think, no reason to doubt that it was either copied from that autograph, or at any rate stands in the direct line of descent ; so much seems to be attested by the occurrence of the words " karrarahu lAbdu'l-Latif ...... ", and
by the inscription at the end as to the completion of the book in A.H. 1044, the actual date of the completion of 'Abdu'l-Latif's work. Regarding, then, A as presenting us (with the exception of the marginally added passages) with a practically faithful copy of 'Abdu'l-Latif's own text, we notice a striking correspondence between this text and that of I. As to the general agreement of the readings of the two texts, a glance at the list of variants will be sufficient ; and it is not impossible to find whole pages without a single differ- ence of any importance. The titles also, which as a rule vary so much in the different MSS., correspond closely throughout. The order of the sections is the same throughout ; and the order of the lines within each section, which is also very variable in the various MSS., corres- ponds in I and A with startling closeness. The actual spellings of individual words also, which vary even in the same MS., are fre- quently the same in I and A ; for example, at the bottom of p. r I of the present text the word y or ^y* occurs three times within a few lines. The word may also be written ^ ', (j*^ ; thus while C and M have y. ^y>, H has first ^ and then twice c$y*J I how- ever has first yf and then twice .j^-f, and this is exactly repeated in A. Another example occurs a few lines afterwards (p. rr , 1. l) ; the reading is ^i£~ j^, mar-i shikanj, mar being followed by the izafat ; this I writes as i£*» <^^ ; in A an erasure occurs between jU
and £>-££, doubtless due to the removal of a ^ originally written there as in I.
The above will serve to show the close relation between I and A. or between I and 'Abdu-1-Latif's autograph, of which A is a copy or descendant. But, however close this relationship, 'Abdu'l-Latif cannot actually have used I in the preparation of his revision of the text, or he would certainly have incorporated many of the 34
INTRODUCTION. XIX
passages before alluded to, which are all, with one exception, con- tained in I. These, we have seen, were only added by the scribe of A, and by him only subsequently, from another source, after he had completed his transcription from 'Abdu'l-Latif 's autograph.
The facts, then, are these. There was in existence, before 'Abdu'l-Latlf's time, a tradition, probably Persian, of the order of the text, which he adopted even in detail. This is represented for us by I, written A.H. 1027 at Isfahan ; but I itself is somewhat fuller than the copy of which 'Abdu'l-Latif made such great use. This copy may be called P. Such use, indeed, did 'Abdu'l-Lafcif make of P, that, so far as can be seen, it is only necessary that he should have had P before him, with one or two other copies from which he derived a certain number of variant readings, which he substituted here and there in his own edition for those of P.
We have now brought down the history of the text to A.H. 1044. Not much remains to be said ; A, as we have seen, is quite possibly a direct copy of 'Abdu'l-Latif's autograph, with, however, marginal additions from another source. This other source might be at once assumed to be I, but for the fact that only 33 out of the 34 marginally added passages occur in I ; and it still seems to me at least possible that I was thus used. I, though written at Isfahan, was probably by this time in India, where A, the so-called " Tippu MS.," was cer- tainly written ; at least, that I did come to India may be assumed from its presence in the India Office Library. Again, though it is, I think, impossible that the whole of the 34 passages addsd marginally in A should have been careless omissions of the copyist, one or two might possibly be so, and it is possible that the single line now under discussion may be such an omission, filled in from the scribe's original, not from another source. Finally it is, of course, always possible that the additions were taken from two sources, not one only ; i.e., that while perhaps even 33 were filled in after comparison with I, the single remaining line may have been derived from elsewhere. Though absent in C, it is present in both H and M.
As to the lithographs, both are obviously descendants of A.
The above conclusions may be summarized in the following stemma codicum.
XX
INTRODUCTION. Sana'i's original (534 ?).
\ 0 (890)
\ H (10th cent, A.H.). P (10th cent
M (1076).
. A.H. ?). Other MSS.'used by 'Abdu'i-Latif.
I (1027). ' Abdu'l-Latlf's autograph. (1044)
A as originally written.
\ A with marginal additions. (12th cent. A.H.).
L (1304)
B (1290)
The present text is founded on that of the Lucknow lithograph L, with which have been collated the other texts mentioned above. L is practically a verbatim copy of A, the value of which has been discussed above. Though MSS. of the Hadtqa are not rare, at least in European libraries, I have not met with any in India ; and a con- siderable portion of the first draft of the translation and notes was done on the basis of L and B alone. The Hadiqa is not in any case an easy book, with the exception, perhaps, of a number of the anec- dotes which are scattered through it ; and it was rendered far more difficult by the fact, which I did not recognize for some time, that a very great amount of confusion exists even in the text as it is pub- lished to-day, in the lithographs descended from 'Abdu'l-Latif's recension. There appeared to be frequently no logical connection whatever between successive verses ; whole pages appeared to con- sist of detached sayings, the very meaning of which was frequently obscure ; a subject would be taken up only to be dropped imme-
INTRODUCTION. XXI
diately. I ultimately became convinced that the whole work had fallen into confusion, and that the only way of producing any result of value would be to rearrange it. This I had done, tentatively, for part of the work, before collating the British Museum and India Office MSS. cited above.
When I came to examine the MSS., the wide variations, not only in the general order of the sections to which allusion has already been made, but in the order of the verses within each section, showed me that probably no MS. at the present day, or at any rate none of those examined by me, retains the original order of the author; and I felt justified in proceeding as 1 had begun, altering the order of the lines, and even of the sections, if by so doing a meaning or a logical connec- tion could be brought out. I need not say that the present edition has no claims to represent Sana'i's original; probably it does not represent it even approximately. In some cases there is, I think, no doubt that I have been able to restore the original order of the lines, and so to make sense where before it was wanting ; in other cases this is possible, but I feel less confident ; while in still others the reconstruction, preferable though I believe it to be to the order as found in any single MS., is nevertheless almost certainly a make- shift, and far from the original order. Lastly it will be seen that I have quite failed, in a number of instances, to find the context of short passages or single lines ; it seemed impossible to allow them to stand in the places they occupied in any of the MSS., and I have, therefore, simply collected them together, or in the case of single lines given them in the notes.
IV. — THE COMMENTATORS.
KLwaja 'Abdu'l-Latif b. 'Abdullah al-'Abbasi, already so fre- quently mentioned, explains to us in his Preface, the Miratu'l- Hadd'iq, what he has attempted in his commentary on the Hadiqa. He states that he wras writing in A.H. 1038, in the second year of the reign of the Emperor Shahjahan, that he had already completed his work on Jalalu'd-Dln Rurni's Mathnawl, and that he had in A.H. 1037 settled down to work on the Hadiqa. What he professes to have done for the text of that work has been mentioned in the last section ; the objects he has aimed at in the way of commentary and explanation are the following : —
XXV. INTRODUCTION.
Firstly, he has followed up the references to passages in the Qur'an, has given these passages with their translations, and a state- ment of the sura in which they are to be found. Secondly, the tradi- tions referred to are also quoted. Thirdly, obscure passages have been annotated ; and strange or curious Arabic and Persian words have been explained, after an investigation into their meanings in trustworthy books. Fourthly, certain signs have been used in trans- cribing the text, in order to fix the signification of various letters : thus the ya'i khitabl is denoted by £ subscript, the ycfi majhul simi- larly by jjr*, the ya'i ma'ruf by £«, the Persian «-£ (-1) by »_i, the Arabic *3 by a , and so on. Again the vocalization has been attended to in words which are often mispronounced ; thus ignorant people often substitute fatha for kasra in such words as * khizana ', of which the Qdmus says • " Kh.izana is never pronounced with fatha " ; ' Sharnal', meaning the North wind, should be pronounced with fatha, not kasra, as is often done. The izafat, jazm, and other ortho- graphical signs have often been written in the text ; and finally a glossary of the less known words has been added in the margin- Since it is inconvenient to have text and commentary separate, ** in this copy the whole stability of the text has been dissolved, and the text bears the commentary along with it (<J*" d*- I) *».-> ^ ±£ *i-y _ £ J/el^. \j ^Lc jj:|j, jji ), i.e., text and commentary are intermingled, the commentary not being written in the margin, but each annotation immediately after the word or line to which it applies. These researches the author has also written out separately, and called them " Lata'ifu'l-Hada'iqmin Nafa'isi'l-Daqa'iq." The date is again given as A.H. 1038.
It appears then that the original form of the commentary was not that of marginal notes, as it is presented in A and L ; that it was completed in 1038 A.H., and, in its separate form, was called the Lata'ifu'l-Hada'iq. That this is the name of the commentary we know and possess, seems to have been the opinion of the scholar who prepared the Lucknow lithograph, which is entitled " Sana'l's Hadiqa, with the commentary Lata'ifu'l-Hada'iq."
Besides the preface just considered, there is also another, found in both A and L, called the Rasta-i Khiyaban, written especially, it would seem, as an introduction to the commentary Lo^a'l/it'f- Hada'iq. After dwelling on the unworthiness of the writer, 'Abdu'l-
INTRODUCTION . XX111
Latlf states that the interpretations given by him are not mere expres- sions of private opinion, but are derived from the best Arabic and Persian books ; the emendations of the text are all derived from authentic MSS., and are in accordance with the judgment of discern- ing men; everything has been weighed and discussed by the learned. He does not, however, say that these explanations are the only ones, nor that he has commented on every line that to some people would seem to require it. Though his work may seem poor now while he is alive, it may grow in the esteem of men after his death. The work has been done in the intervals of worldly business, while occupied with affairs of government. There follows a lengthy eulogy of his friend Mir 'Imadu'd-Din Mahmud al-Hamadanl, called Ilahi; two tarikhs by whom close this preface. The first tdrlkh says that the work having been begun in the year 1040, all the correction and revision was completed in 1042 ( ^^^ ,_*«.su^ s.j*i J^^t^* j,j
the second simply gives the date 1040.
These dates evidently cannot refer to the edition and commen- tary as first written ; since we have seen that the text and the Latd'i/u''l-Hadd'iq are referred to by 'Abdu'l-Latif in 1038 as having been completed. It would seem that the editor had either been at work on another, revised and improved edition ; or, as is assumed in the India Office Catalogue (No. 923), on an abridgment of his earlier work. Lastly, we have the date 1044 for the completed work of which A is a copy (see description of contents of A, in Section II, p. xi) ; and this seems to represent the final form of the work, in which the annotations are written in the margin, not, as at first, intermingled in the text.
In the India Office Catalogue the series of events is interpreted somewhat differently. The commentary as it appears in A (and L, the only form, apparently, in which we possess it) is stated to be an abridgement from a larger commentary, the Latd'ifu'l-Hadd'iq; according to the preface (the Catalogue states) the larger work wab begun in 1040 and completed in 1042. It is with diffidence that I venture to question this presentation of the facts ; but A. in the des- cription of which the above statements occur, does not contain the preface called Mirdtu'l-Hadd'iq, and therefore presents no indication that the text and Laid'ifu'l-Hada'iq'had already been completed in
XXIV INTRODUCTION.
1038. That the work done between 1040 and 1042 consisted in the preparation of^the'original Lata'iju'l-Hada'iq is, from the statement of the Miratu'l-Hada'iq, impossible. We have seen, moreover, that the tradition in^India is that the commentary as we have it, as it appears in A and L, is the Lata'ifu'l-Hada'iq itself, and not an abridgement. I do not gather from the India Office Catalogue or elsewhere that two ''commentaries, a larger and a smaller, are actu- ally in existence ; there may be other evidences of their former existence of which I am ignorant, but so far merely as my own knowledge goes, I can see no reason for assuming two commentaries, and would look on the labours of 1040 — 1042 in the light of revision and rearrangement, a work which was perhaps only finally completed in 1044, the date given in A for the completion of the work.
Besides his work on the Hadlqa, 'Abdu'l-Latlf had previously, as has been mentioned, published a revised and annotated edition of Jalilu'd-Din Rumi's MatJmawi, commentaries on the same poem, and a special glossary, the Lata'ifu'l-Lucjhat, lithographed at Luck- now in A.D. 1877 under the title Farhany-i Mathnawl. He died in 1048 or 1049 A.H. (A.D. 1638, 1639).
A general description of the volume containing the other com- mentary which I have used in the preparation of the notes appended to the present translation, has already been given. Of the authors, or author and scribe, Mirza 'Alau'd-Dln Ahmad of Luharu, called 'Ala'i, and Maulavl Muhammad Ruknu'd-Din of Hissar, I know no more than is to be gathered from their prefaces.
Their commentary is of slight value as compared with that of 'Abdu'l-Latlf ; that is to say, that part of it which is original. The commentary is considerably more bulky than ' Abdu'l-Latif's, per- haps between two and three times as extensive ; but it includes, without one word of acknowledgment, the whole of 'Abdu'l-Latif's work. This is, in the great majority of cases, reproduced verbatim ; in some instances a paraphrase of 'Abdu'l-Latif's commentary has been attempted, and in certain of these it is plain that the authors did not understand the sense of what they paraphrased. Of their own work, a certain amount is superfluous, the sense of the text being immediately obvious ; a certain amount is mere paraphrase of Sana'T's word> : and another portion consists in an attempt to read
INTRODUCTION. XXV
mystical meanings into the original in passages which, as it seems, were never intended by the author to bear them. Notwithstanding these facts, I have, as will be seen, quoted freely in my notes from their commentary ; for a certain portion of their work is helpful, and moreover, it seemed to me to be of interest to give in this way a speci- men of present-day Indian thought and criticism in the field of Sufiis- tic philosophy. I cannot, however, leave the subject of Sana'i's commentators without expressing my sorrow that scholars should have existed who were not only capable of such wholesale theft, but even lauded themselves on the results of it ; witness the extravagant praise of 'Ala'l in Ruknu'd-Dln's preface ; and again the words ' Praise be to God ! There has never been such a commentator of the Hadlqa. nor will be ; or if there is, it will be an imitation or a theft from this king of commentators ! ' ' There is also no indication that the volume comprises only one out of ten chapters of the Hadlqa ; it is everywhere implied that the complete Radiqa is presented.
V. — THE HADIQATU'L-HAQJQAT.
The Hadiqatu'l-Haqjqat, or the "Enclosed Garden of the Truth ", commonly called the Hadlqa, is a poem of about 11,500 lines ; each line consists of two hemistichs, each of ten or eleven syllables ; the bulk, therefore, is equal to about 23,000 lines of English ten-syllabled verse. It is composed in the metre which may be represented thus : —
/ / f "/ WW ../•••/ / / / v^W /
- v*r - | w-w- (• -||-w--|w-^-|
The two hemistichs of eacli verse rhyme ; and the effect may there- fore roughly be compared to that of English rhymed couplets with the accent falling on the first (instead of the second) syllable of the line, and, occasionally, an additional short syllable introduced in the last foot.
The chapters of which the Hadlqa consists treat, according to a few lines of verse at the end of the table of contents in the Luek- now edition, of the following subjects ; the First, on the Praise of God, and especially on His Unity ; the Second, in praise of Muham- mad ; the Third, on the Understanding; the Fourth, on Knowledge ; the Fifth, on Love, the Lover, and the Beloved ; the Sixth, on Heed-
XXVI INTRODUCTION.
les.sn.ess ; the Seventh, on Friends and Enemies ; the Eighth, on the Revolution of the Heavens ; the Ninth, in praise of the Emperor Shahjahan ; the Tenth, on the charsfcters or qualities of the whole work. This, however, is not the actual arrangement of the work as presented in the volume itself ; the first five chapters are as already given, but the Sixth concerns the Universal Soul ; the Seventh is on Heedlessness ; the Eighth on the Stars ; the Ninth on Friends and Enemies ; the Tenth on many matters, including the praise of the Emperor. Prof. Browne (Lit. Hist. Persia, vol. ii, p. 318) gives still another order, apparently that of an edition lithographed at Bombay in A.H. 1275 (A.D. 1859).
Sana'l's fame has always rested on his Hadlqa ; it is the best known and in the East by far the most esteemed of his works ; it is in virtue of this work that he forms one of the great trio of Sufi teachers, — Sana'i, 'Attar, Jalalu'd-Din Rumi. It will be of interest to compare some of the estimates that have been formed of him and of the present work in particular.
In time he was the first of the three, and perhaps the most cor- dial acknowledgment of his merits comes from his successor Jalalu'd- Din Ruml. He says :—
' ' I left off boiling while still half cooked ;
Hear the full account from the Sage of Gbazna."
And again —
" 'Afcfcar was the Spirit, Sana'i the two eyes : We walk in the wake of Sana'i and 'Atfcar.'" 'Abdu'l-Lafcif, in his preface called the Miratv'l-Hadd'iq, enters into a somewhat lengthy comparison between Sana'i and Ruml, in which he is hard put to it to avoid giving any preference to one or other. It is interesting to observe how he endeavours to keep the scales even. He begins by adverting to the greater length of the Mathnawi as compared with the Hadlqa, and compares the Hadlqa to an abridgement, the Mathnawi to a fully detailed account. Sana'l's work is the more compressed ; he expresses in two or three verses what the Maulavi expresses in twenty or thirty ; 'Abdu'l-Latif therefore, as it would seem reluctantly, and merelv on the ground of his greater prolixity, gives the palm for eloquence to Jalalu'd-Din.
INTRODUCTION. XXVii
There is the most perfect accord between Sana'l and Rumi ; the substance of their works, indeed, is in part identical. Shall it therefore be said that Rumi stole from Sana'l ? He asks pardon from God for expressing the thought ; with regard to beggars in the spiritual world, who own a stock-in-trade of trifles, bankrupts of the road of virtue and accomplishments, this might be suspected ; but to accuse the treasurers of the stores of wisdom and knowledge, the able natures of the kingdom of truth and allegory, of plagiarism and borrowing is the height of folly and unwisdom.
With regard to style, some suppose that the verse of the Hadiqa is more elevated and dignified than the elegantly ordered language of the Mathnawt. The Hadiqa does indeed contain poetry of which one verse is a knapsack of a hundred dlwans ; nor, on account of its great height, can the hand of any intelligent being's ability reach the pinnacles of its rampart ; and the saying —
' ' I have spoken a saying which is a whole work ;
I have uttered a sentence which is a (complete) diwan,"
is true of the Hadiqa. But if the sense and style of the Maulavf be considered, there is no room for discrimination and distinction ; and, since ' ' Thou shalt not make a distinction between any of His prophets ," to distinguish between the positions of these two masters, who may unquestionably be called prophets of religion, has infidelity and error as its fruit. Who possesses the power of dividing and discriminating between milk and sugar intermingled in one vessel ? 'Abdu'l- Lafcif sums up thus ; "in fine, thus much one may say, that in sobriety the Hakim is pre-eminent, and in intoxication our lord the Maulavi is superior; and that sobriety is in truth the essence of intoxication, and this intoxication the essence of sobriety."
Prof. Browne, however, places the Hadiqa on a far lower level than the Eastern authors quoted above. He says ] : — ' ' The poem is written in a halting and unattractive metre, and is in my opinion one of the dullest books in Persian, seldom rising to the level of Martin Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy, filled with fatuous truisms and pointless anecdotes, and as far inferior to the Mathnawi of Jalalu'd-Din Rumi as is Robert Montgomery's Satan to Milton's Paradise Lost. ' '
1 A Literary History of Persia, Vol. II., p. 319.
XXV111 INTRODUCTION.
It is of course true that to us, at least, the interest of the Hadiqa is largely historical, as being one of the early Persian textbooks of the Sufi philosophy, and as having so largely influenced subsequent writers, especially, as we have seen, the Maulavl Jalalu'd-Din Rumi. Yet I cannot but think that Prof. Browne's opinion, which is doubt- less shared by other scholars, as well as the neglect to which the Had- iqa has been exposed in the West, is due not to the demerits of the original text so much as to the repellent and confused state into which the text has fallen ; and I would venture to hope that the present attempt at a restoration of the form and meaning of a por- tion of the work, imperfect in the highest degree as I cannot but acknowledge it to be. may still be of some slight service to its author's reputation among European Orientalists.
The first Chapter or Book of the Hadiqa, which is here presented, comprises a little more than one-sixth of the entire work. The sub- jects of which it treats may be briefly resumed as follows : —
After an introductory section in praise of God the author speaks of the impotence of reason for the attaining a knowledge of God ; of God's Unity, of God as First Cause and Creator : and delivers more than one attack against anthropomorphic conceptions of God (pp. 1 — 10). After speaking of the first steps of the ascent towards God, for which worldly wisdom is not a bad thing, with work and serenity (pp. 10 — 11), he devotes the next portion of the book to God as Provider, to His care for man through life, the uselessness of earthly possessions, and to God as guide on the road ; but self must first be abandoned (pp. 11 — 16). A fine section on God's incom- prehensibility to man might perhaps come more fittingly at an earlier stage instead of here (pp. 16 — 18). After overcoming self, God's special favour is granted to the traveller on the path ; but we see crookedly, and He alone knows what is best for us ; He has ordered all things well, and what seems evil is so only in appearance (pp. 18 — 25).
The greater part of the book is really concerned with the life and experiences of the Sufi , and especially with continually repeat- ed injunctions as to abandonment of the world and of self ; to be dead to this world is to live in the other. Pp. 25 — 30 are thus con- cerned with poverty in this world, with loss of the self, humility, man's insignificance and God's omnipotence ; pp. 30 — 34 with
INTRODUCTION.
the necessity of continual remembrance of God, of never living apart from Him, and again of dying to the world ; death to the world leads to high position with God. There follows (pp. 34 — 41) a series of passages on the duty of thanksgiving for God's mercies ; His mercy however has its counterpart in His anger, and examples of His wrath are given ; then returning again to the subject of His mercies, the author speaks of God's omniscience, and His knowledge of the wants of His servants ; we must therefore trust in God for all the necessaries of life ; they will be given as long as life is des- tined to last. Two later pages (48 — 50), which are similarly devoted to the subject of trust in God, should probably come here. Pp. 41-48 deal with the Sufi's desire for God, and his zeal in pursuing the path ; various directions for the road are given, especially as regards the abandonment of the world and of self, and fixing the desires on God only ; union with God is the goal. The abandonment of self is again the theme of pp. 50 — 51.
A portion of the book (pp. 51 — 56) is, curiously, here devoted to the interpretation of dreams ; after which the author treats of the incompatibility of the two worlds, again of the abandonment of earth and self, and of the attainment of the utmost degree of annihilation (pp. 56 — 58). There follows a passage on the treatment of school- boys, a comparison with the learner on the Sufi path, and an exhortation to strive in pursuing it (pp. 58 — 60). The next portion of the book (pp. 60 — 67) treats of charity and gifts as a form of renunciation, of relinquishing riches for God's sake ; prosperity is injurious to the soul, and the world must be abandoned ; possessions and friends are useless, and each must trust to himself ; each will find his deserts hereafter, and receive the reward of what he has worked for here.
I Pp. 67 — 80 treat of prayer, the preparation for which consists in purity of heart, humility, and dependence upon God. Prayer must come from the heart ; the believer must be entirely absorbed in his devotions. Prayer must be humble ; the believer must come in poverty and perplexity, and only so can receive God's kindness. A number of addresses to God follow, prayers for help, and humble supplications to God on the part of the author. A few pages (80 — 82) treat of God's kindness in drawing men towards himself, though His ways may appear harsh at first. The progress of the
XXX INTRODUCTION.
believer is described in a strain of hyperbole (pp. 82 — 83) ; and this portion closes with a few sections (pp. 83 — 86) on God's majesty and omnipotence somewhat after the manner of those in the earlier part of the book.
In pp. 86 — 97 the author speaks of the Qur'an, and its excel- lence and sweetness. The letter however is not the essential ; its true meaning is not to be discovered by reason alone. The Qur'an is often dishonoured, especially by theologians, and by professional readers, who read it carelessly and without understanding it. A short section (pp. 97 — 98) on humility and self-effacement follows, and the book is brought to a close by a description of the godlessness of the world before the advent of Muhammad (pp. 98 — 100), which serves to introduce the subject of the Second Chapter.
Though it must be admitted that the author is occasionally obscure, sometimes dull, and not infrequently prosaic, some fine sections and a larger number of short passages of great beauty are contained in this chapter ; I may perhaps be permitted especially to refer to the sections "In His Magnification," pp. 16 — 18. and " On Poverty and Perplexity," p. 74 ; while as characteristic and on the whole favourable passages may be mentioned " On His Omni- science, and His Knowledge of the Minds of Men, "pp. 37 — 39 ; " On the Incompatibility of the Two Abodes," pp. 56 — 58 ; " On inti- mate Friendship and Attachment," pp. 62 — 63 ; and certain of the addresses to God contained in pp. 74 — 77.
VI. — SANA'I'S PREFACE.
The author's Preface to the work, given in A and L. and occu- pying in the latter nearly thirteen closely printed pages, is here given in abstract. It was not, as will appear, written specially as an in- troduction to the Hadlqa, but to his collected works.
After an opening section in praise of God, the author introduces the tradition, " When a son of Adam dies, his activity ceases, except in three things ; a permanent bequest, and knowledge by which men are benefited, and pious sons who invoke blessings on him after his death." Considering these words one day, and reflecting that none of the three conditions was applicable to himself, he became sorrow-
INTRODUCTION. XXXI
ful, and continued for some time in a state of grief and depression. One day while in this condition, he was visited by his friend Ahmad b. Mas'ud, who inquired the cause of his sorrow. The author told him that, not fulfilling any one of the above conditions, he was afraid to die ; possessing not one of these three advocates at court, he would stand without possessions or adornment in the Presence of the Unity. His friend then began to comfort him, saying, ' ' First let me tell you a story." Sana'! replied, ' ' Do so."
Ahmad b. Mas'ud then related how one day a company of women wished to have audience with Fatima, Muhammad's daughter. Muhammad gave permission ; but Fatima, weeping, said, ' ' 0 Father, how long is it since I have had even a little shawl for my head ? and that mantle that I had pieced together in so many places with date-leaves is in pledge with Simeon the Jew. How can I receive them?" But Muhammad said, " There is no help ; you must go." Fatima went ashamed to the interview, and came back in sorrow to her father ; who was comforting her when the rustle of Gabriel's wings was heard. Gabriel looked at Fatima and asked, " What is this sorrow ? Ask the women, then, what garments they had on, and what thou." Muhammad sent a messenger to the women, who returned, and said, " It was so, at the time when the Mistress of Creation bestowed beauty on that assembly, that the onlookers were astounded ; though clothed, they seemed to themselves naked ; and among themselves they were asking ' Whence came this fine linen , and from which shop this embroidery ? What skilful artificers, what nimble- fingered craftsmen ! ' Fatima said. " O my father, why didst thou not tell me, that I might have been glad ? ' He answered, " O dear one, thy beauty consisted in that which was concealed inside thyself."
' By my life," continued Ahmad, " such modesty was allow- able in Fatima, brought up in seclusion ; but here we have a strong and able man of happy fortune, one who is known as a pattern to others in both practice and theory ! Though thou hast considered thyself naked, yet they have clothed thee in a robe from the ward- robe of Eternity. Is it proper for this robe to be concealed, instead of being displayed for the enlightenment of others ? ' And advert- ing to the saying, " When a son of Adam dies, his work is cut short, except in three things," he takes the three one by one. First, a con-
XXX11 INTRODUCTION.
tinning alms ; but ' Every kindness is an alms ; and it is a kindness that thou meet thy brother with a cheerful countenance, and that thou empty thy bucket into the pots of thy brother ; ' that is, alms does not wholly consist in spreading food before a glutton, or giving some worthless thing to a pauper ; it is a truer alms and a more imperish- able hospitality to wear a cheerful countenance before one's friends : " and if others have the outward semblance of alms, thou hast its inward essence ; and if they have set forth a table of food before men, thou hast set forth a table of life before their souls ; so much for what thou sayest, 'I am excluded from a continuing alms! ' "
Ahmad b. Mas'ud then takes up the second point, knowledge that benefits ; and quotes, " We take refuge with God from knowledge which does not benefit ' ' and ' ' Many a wise man is destroyed by his ignorance and his knowledge which does not advantage him." As ex- amples of knowledge that does not benefit he takes the science of metaphysics, a science tied by the leg to desire and notoriety, lying under the opprobrium of ic He who learns the science of metaphysics is a heretic, and ftys in circles in the air ;" as well as of the saying " A science newly born, weak in its credentials, " — " I have perfected it for the sake of heresy, and so peace." Then similarly the science of calculation, a veil which diverts attention from the Truth, a curtain in front of the subtilties of religion ; and the science of the stars, a science of conjectures and the seed of irreligion, for " Whoso credits a soothsayer has become an infidel."" After a tirade against the ordinary type of learned man, he proceeds, " All their falsifyings and terrorizings and imaginings and conjecturings are limited by their own defects ; that philosophy of the law is cherished which is notorious over all the quarters and regions of the world ; there is your ' knowledge that men benefit by ' ! From earth to Pleiades who is there sees any benefit in our doctors ?" He then tells Sana'l that he is master of a more excellent wisdom ; " the poets are the chiefs of speech ; " " the gift of the poets comes from the piety of the parents ; " " verily from poetry comes wisdom ; ' ' and will have none of such sayings as " poetry is of the affairs of Satan.'' '
As to the third part of the tradition, and pious descendants to invoke blessings on him after his death, Ahmad says, ' ' The sons which suffice are thy sons ; what son born in the way of generation
INTRODUCTION. XXXiii
and begetting is dearer than thy sons, or more honoured ? Who has ever seen children like thine, all safe from the vicissitudes of time ? The sons of poets are the poets' words, as a former master has said —
' A learned man never desires son or wife ; Should the offspring of both these fail, the scholar's off- spring would not be cut off. '
A son according to the flesh may be a defilement to a family ; but the son of intelligence and wisdom is an ornament to the household. These sons of yours you cannot disown."
He then asks Sana'! why he has thus become a recluse, and indolent and languid. This languidness is indeed preferable to a total heedlessness and forgetfulness of God, though Mutanabbi has
said —
' ' / have not seen anything of the faults of men like the fail- ure of those who are able to reach the end. ' '
He asks Sana'! not to bring forward the saying, " Laziness is sweeter than honey," but to bestir himself and collect and complete his poet- ical works.
Sana'i tells us that he submitted himself to the advice of his friend, but brought forward the difficulties of house and food, since the work could not be performed friendless and homeless. Ahmad b. Mas'ud thereupon built him a house, gave him an allowance for his maintenance for one year, and sent also a supply of clothing. He was therefore enabled to complete and arrange his writings free from all care and anxiety. The preface ends with the praise of his gene- rous friend.
The First Book of the Hadiqatu'-l-Haqiqat of Sana' 1.
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MERCIFUL, THE COMPASSIONATE. 1
0 Thou who nurtures! the mind, who adornest the body, O Thou who givest wisdom, who showest mercy on the foolish, Creator and Sustainer of earth and time, Guardian and Defender of dweller and dwelling ; dwelling and dweller, all is of Thy creation ; time and earth, all is under Thy command ; fire and wind, water and the firm ground, 5 all are under the control of Thy omnipotence, 0 Thou the Ineffable. From thy throne to earth, all is but a particle of what Thou hast created ; l the living intelligence is Thy swift messenger. a Every tongue that moves within the mouth possesses life for the purpose of praising Thee ; Thy great and sacred names are a proof of Thy bounty and beneficence and mercy. Each one of them is greater than heaven and earth and angel ; they are a thousand and one, and they are ninety-nine ; each one of them is related to one of man's needs, but 10 those who are not in Thy secrets are excluded from them. O Lord, of thy grace and pity admit this heart and soul to a sight of Thy name !
1 L refers to the saying of the Imam Ja'far (great-grandson of
the son of 'All, considered by the Shi'as one of the twelve rightful imams), " This dome (referring to the heavens) is the dome of mankind; but God ha» many domes." The meaning then is, " Let no one think that God's whole creation is comprehended in this one ; and though the living intelligence is one of His swift messengers between His court and this earth, yet He has many others. ' '
2 -jjO clfl* " the intelligence with the soul "; perhaps referring to the Intelligence and the Soul which belong, in Muslim philosophy, to each of the nine Spheres or Heavens : cf. Gibb, p. 44.
Infidelity and faith, both travelling on Thy road, exclaim, He is alone, He has no partner. ' The Creator, the Bounteous, the Powerful is He ; the One, the Omnipotent, — not like unto us is He, the Living, the Eternal, the All-knowing, the Potent, the Feeder of creation, the 15 Conqueror and the Pardoner. He causes movement, and causes rest ; He it is who is alone, and has no partner ; to whatever thing thou ascribest fundamental existence, that thou assertest to be His partner ; beware ! *
Our weakness is a demonstration of His perfection ; His omni- potence is the deputy of His names. Both No and He 3 returned 2 from that mansion of felicity with pocket and purse empty. What is there above imagination, and reason, and perception, and thought, except the mind of him who knows God ? for to a knower of God, wherever he is, in whatever state, the throne of God is as a carpet under his shoe. The seeing soul knows praise is folly, if given to other than the Creator ; He who from earth can create the body. Sand make the wind4 the register of speech, the Giver of reason, the Inspirer of hearts, who calls forth the soul, the Creator of causes ; — generation and corruption, 5 all is his work ; He is the source of all creation, and the place to which it returns ; all comes from Him and all returns to Him ; good and evil all proceeds to Him. He creates the freewill of the good and of the wicked ; He is the Author of the soul, the Originator of wisdom ; He from nothing created thee something ; thou wert of no account, and He exalted thee.
1 B quotes a verse of a certain Sufi, " I am astonished, for why is this enmity between faith and infidelity ? The Ka'ba and the idol- temple are both lighted by the same lamp. ' '
ft ' ' True existence is God ; other existences exist only in an imagined existence. And whatever picture pr conception of God's existence thou form- est, if thou assert that He exists in that way, thou assertest that He has a partner. For God is different from that, nor can anyone understand or imagine at all the mode of existence of His essence." L.
3^A^K the negation and affirmation of His existence. " The mansion of felicity is the plane of the absolute (jjUbf £x>«w ) wherein is neither denial nor affirmation of belief. ' ' L.
* i.e., the breath.
6 £lot*j \g£ the process of transmutation of the simple elements which is ever going on. Cf. Gibb, p. 47.
No mind can reach a comprehension of His mode of being ; the 10 reason and soul know not His perfection. The mind of Intelligence is dazzled by His majesty, the soul's eye is blinded before His per- fection. The Primal Intelligence 1 is a product of His nature, — it He admitted to a knowledge of himself. Imagination lags before the glory of His essence ; understanding moves confined before His nature's mode of being. His fire, which in haughtiness He made His carpet, burnt the wing of reason ; the soul * is a serving-man in 15 His pageant, reason a novitiate in His school. What is reason in this guest- house ? 8 only a crooked writer of the script of God.
What of this intelligence, agitator of trifles ? What of this changing inconstant nature ? When He shows to intelligence the road to Himself, then only can intelligence fitly praise Him. Since Intelligence was the first of created things,4 Intelligence is above all choicest things besides ; yet Intelligence is but one word out of His 20 record, the soul6 one of the foot-soldiers at His door. Love He per- fected through a reciprocal love ; but intelligence He tethered even by intelligence.6 Intelligence, like us, is bewildered on the road to His nature, like us confounded. He is intelligence of intelligence, 3 and soul of soul ; and what is above that, that He is. How through the promptings of reason and soul and senses can one come to know God ? But that God showed him the way, how could man ever have become acquainted with Divinity ?
1 J.t (J&e the Universal Intelligence or pure thought, the first emanation of the First Cause. Cf. Gibb, p. 42.
* ,«•& probably J^f ^AJ Or (Jf «y«^» tne Primal or Universal Soul, which flows from the Universal Intelligence.
3 i.e., the world.
* According to the tradition, The first thing God created was Intelligence, L. That is, in the Muslim philosophy, the Universal Intelligence.
6 As above, the Universal Soul.
8 ' ' The love of the lover is not perfected till he receives the love of the beloved ; then love attains perfection. But reason halts in the valley of sight and proof, and that same proof becomes a shackle for its feet. Hence the difference between love and reason ; love is perfected by love itself, but reason is only bound by reason, and prevented from putting its foot beyond the things of reason, and has no power to perfect itself. But God knows if this is right/' L.
ON THE KNOWLEDGE or GOD.
5 Of himself no one can know Him ; His nature can only be known through Himself. Reason sought His truth, — it ran not well ; impo- tence hastened on His road, and knew Him. l His mercy said, Know me ; otherwise who, by reason and sense, could know Him ? How is it possible by the guidance of the senses ? How can a nut rest firmly on the summit of a dome ? Reason will guide thee, but
10 only to the door; His grace must carry thee to Himself. a Thou canst not journey there by reason's guidance ; perverse like others, commit not thou this folly. His grace leads us on the road ; His works are guide and witness to Him. 0 thou, who art incompetent to know thine own nature, how wilt thou ever know God ? Since thou art incapable of knowing thyself, how wilt thou become a knower of the Omnipotent ? 8 Since thou art unacquainted with the first steps towards a knowledge of Him, how think est thou to conceive of Him as He is ? *
15 In describing Him in argument, speech is a comparison,5 and silence a dereliction of duty. 6 Reason's highest attainment on His road is amazement;7 the people's riches is their zeal for Him.8
1 "Impotence, acknowledging its inability, became the receptacle of divine mercy, and so succeeded in knowing Him ; according to the saying " To be confounded in knowledge is knowledge." B.
2 Had this line stood alone, I should have liked, in view of the next line and the general tenour of the whole, to emend vjti/ «yfc) (for ,JU) j _^**> ),
" reason travels but lamely to His door." See, however, 1. 20 inf., where also reason is styled l+j 8j.
3 L refers to the tradition £j» o»c £aj A^&j «-> t* (•t* ' ' he who knows himself knows his Lord. ' '
* Reading, with HI, .*• j others \ym which makes the line tautological, or (adopting L's suggestion that j_£iiii,La is equivalent to y £*«•») brings in God's ' works ', which are not here under discussion.
6 <Sc. of Him with something else, which is infidelity.
6 Hence the true believer is in a dilemma.
7 Referring to the words spoken, according to tradition, by Muham- mad, " O Lord, increase my amazement at Thee." L.
8 "Till zeal becomes the stock-in-trade and capital of man's nature and character, he cannot claim to be a worshipper of the One, " L ; who also
Imagination falls short of His attributes ; understanding vainly boasts her powers ; the prophets are confounded at these sayings, the saints stupefied at these attributes. He is the desired and lord of reason and soul, the goal of disciple and devotee. ] Reason is 20 as a guide to His existence ; a all other existences are under the foot of His existence. His acts are not bounded by ' inside ' and ' outside' ; His essence is superior to ' how ' and ' why.' Intelligence has not reached the comprehension of His essence ; the soul and heart of reason are dust upon this road ; reason, without 4 the collyrium of friendship with Him, has no knowledge of His divi- nity. Why dost thou instigate imagination to discuss Him ? How shall a raw youth speak of the Eternal ?
By reason and thought and sense no living thing can come to know God. 3 When the glory of His nature manifests itself to reason, it sweeps away both reason and soul. Let reason be invested with 5 dignity in the rank where stands the faithful Gabriel ; yet before all His majesty a Gabriel becomes less than a sparrow through awe ; *
says that ci>«££ may be referred to the Creator, and quotes ' Sa'd is jealous in honour, but I am more jealous in honour than Sa'd, and God than I ' . *.±f ' jealous in honour', being one of the names of God ; so, " but that God's jealousy for His own honour came to help the believer by removing false conceptions, who would keep his place or continue on the straight road, or be preserved from idolatry and infidelity ? ' '
1 Lit. ' traveller,' sc. on the road of God.
2 The meaning, perhaps, being that the function of reason is a sub- ordinate one ; reason is a servant on the road, and can point the way. V. 1. 9. sup. and note ; should the emendation of that line there suggested be adopt- ed, this line would be brought into harmony by reading U or &i for G (which is at best doubtful, CHM having l/o ).
3 Both reading and translation are unsatisfactory, but perhaps less so than the alternative (v. crit. app.) ' by reason and thought and sense no one but God can know God ' ; which L explains, " till reason and thought and sense become the instrument of God, and man the instrument of God's agency, he cannot by reason and thought and sense know God. Then, through God's agency, he comes to know God's nature by the means of reason and the rest. ' '
* The meaning perhaps being that the author will not refuse a certain degree of authority and dignity to reason ; but granting reason even arch- angel's rank, still that is as nothing before God's majesty.
6
reason arriving there bows down her head, the soul1 flying there folds her wing. The raw youth discusses the Eternal only in the light of his shallow sense and wicked soul ; shall thy nature, journeying towards the majesty and glory of His essence, attain to a knowledge of Him ? 10 ON THE ASSERTION OF THE UNITY.
He is One, and number has no place in Him ;a He is Absolute, and dependence is far removed from Him ; not that One which reason and understanding can know, not that Absolute which sense and imagination can recognise. He is not multitude, nor paucity ;8 one multiplied by one remains one. * In duality is only evil and error ; in singleness is never any fault.
15 While multitude and confusion remain in thy heart, say thou ' One ' oj ' Two,' — what matter, for both are the same. Thou, the devil's pasture, know for certain what, and how much, and why, and how ! Have a care ! His greatness comes not from multitude ; His essence is above number and quality ; the weak searcher may
1 i .JA ' the bird ', for ,-A^\ iy» ' the bird of God ', i.e., ' the spirit, the
reasonable soul.'
& " Not that God is numerically one, for numerical unity is circum- scribed and finite, while he is free and pure of circumscription and finity. Ahmad b. Yahya was asked, Is ahad the plural of ahad (the word used for ' One ' in the text, and generally as applied to God). He said, I take refuge with God! ahad has no plural ; and if it has, then it is u-ahid ( ' single ') ; ahad is of its very nature single , to the degree that not even attributes can be discerned ! " L.
8 ' ' Multiplicity has not befallen God on account of the multitudinous emanations that have proceeded from Him by way of manifestation of His essence and names and attributes, nor before the creation could fewness be affirmed. He is that One, which manifests itself as many by interfusion in created existence ; yet multiplicity does not arise in His essence, for real exist- ence is one only, and created existences all exist only in the mind. ' All things are vain but God ! ' Absolute existence flows into and interfuses its own manifestations by emanation. ' There is no existence but God, no being but God ; everything perishes except His face. ' ' L.
4 " The numerical one, in which multiplicity and paucity are (potenti- ally) contained, multiplied Jhowever often by itself, gives one ; how then can that Unity, which cannot be contained in the reason and understanding, mani- festing itself so variously, be of the same nature ? " B.
not ask ' Is it ' or ' Who ' concerning Him. No one has uttered the attributes of the Creator, HE, — quantity, quality, why, or what, who, and where. His hand is power, His face eternity ; ' to come ' 20 is His wisdom,' the descent ' His gift ; l His two feet are the majesty of vengeance and dignity, His two fingers are the effective power of His command and will.2 All existences are subject to His omni- potence ; all are present to Him, all seek Him ; the motion of light 5 is towards light— how can light be separated from the sun ? 3
In comparison with His existence eternity began but the day before yesterday ; it came at dawn, but yet came late.4 How can His working be bounded by eternity ? Eternity without beginning is a houseborn slave of his ; and think not nor imagine that eternity without end (is more), for eternity without end is like to eternity without beginning.
How shall He have a place, in size greater or smaller ? for place 5 itself has no place. How shall there be a place for the Creator of
1 The references are to Qur. 48 : 10, ' The hand of God is abovetheir hands ; ' Qur. 2 : 109, ' Wherever ye turn there is the face of God ; ' Qur. 89 : 23, 'And thy Lord comes with the angels, rank on rank; ' and to the tradition of Muhammad " Our Lord, who is blessed and exalted above all, descends to the lowest heaven every night, at the time when the last third of the night remains, and says, Whoso calls to me, I accept his prayer ; who asks aught of me, I grant it ; and who asks pardon, I pardon him ; until the dawn breaks.' L.
2 The reference is to two traditions ; ' The All-powerful places his feet in it, and it says, Enough, enough, enough,' said of Hell, which never becomes full, nor ceases crying ' Is there any more-? ' God's foot (*i>J) here is ex- plained to be either the number of the wicked whom God has doomed to Hell, ( *^l~» j»*a*) as He has doomed believers to Paradise ; or it may mean ' restraining ' or 'subduing ' ( *J>j - £** ) ; that is, God restrains Hell from asking for more ; or perhaps subdues the boiling of Hell. Cf. ' to put one's
foot on a thing,' cf"0** »5*s &l*»ej. The second tradition is ' The heart of the believer is between two of the fingers of the Merciful, whether He wishes to con- firm it in the faith, or whether He wishes to turn it to error ; ' the two fingers being the two sets of God's attributes, those of awfulness and those of beauty. L.
3 Other existences are compared to the rays of light of a lamp, which have no independent existence apart from the source of light.
* J)t eternity without beginning, opp. to *j|, eternity without end. " With reference to creation it came at dawn, i.e., early, but with reference to God's existence late. ' ' L.
8
place, a heaven for the Maker of heaven himself ? Place cannot attain to Him, nor time ; narration can give no information of Him, nor observation. Not through columns is His state durable ; His nature's being has its place in no habitation.
O thou, who art in bondage to form and delineation, bound by
10 ' He sat upon the throne' ; l form exists not apart from contingencies, and accords not with the majesty of the Eternal. Inasmuch as He was sculptor, He was not image ; ' He sat ' was, not throne, nor earth. Continue calling ' He sat ' from thy inmost soul, but think not His essence is bound by dimensions ; for ' He sat ' is a verse of the Qur'an,a and to say ' He has no place ' is an article of faith. The throne is like a ring outside a door ; 8 it knows not the attributes of
15 Godhead. The word ' speech ' is written in the Book ;4 but shape and voice and form are far from Him ; ' God descends ' is written in tradition, but believe not thou that He comes and goes ; the throne is mentioned in order to exalt it, the reference to the Ka'ba is to glorify it. 6 To say ' He has no place ' is the gist of religion ; 6 shake thy head, for it is a fitting opportunity for praise.7 They pursue Husain with enmity because 'All spoke the word ' He has no place. ' 8
1 i.e., ' relying on a verbal interpretation, imagining a statue,' B. Qur. 20 : 4, ' The Merciful sitteth on his throne ;' and 7 : 52, ' Verily your Lord is God, who created the heavens and earth in six days; and then ascended his throne.' The author continues the subject in the chapter ' On the likening of God,' p. 9, q. v. , and note thereon.
* i.e., eternal as the Qur 'an is eternal. L. 8 i.e., a knocker in the form of a ring.
* i.e., speech is attributed to God in the Qur 'an.
6 i.e., ^fhere God is spoken of as Lord of the Ka'ba the glorification of the Ka'ba is intended.
6 I think the meaning is that a recognition and acceptance of the impli- cations of the saying ' He has no place ' is the essence of the attitude of the truly spiritual believer. L explains the passage to mean that ' He has no place ' is the street (if»f with kaf-i lardbl) of the produce of religion ; this last being the good words and works which rise up to God, and are hence found in the street of ' He has no place.'
7 ' ' Shake the head of praise at this saying, for it is impossible to utter a more excellent. ' ' B.
8 L refers to 'All's saying ' Inquire of me concerning what is under the throne,' but gives none which corresponds to the text, and confesses his in- ability to give a satisfactory explanation of the line.
9
He made an earth for His creation in this form ; behold how He 20 has made a nest for thee ! Yesterday the sky was not, to-day it is ; again to-morrow it will not be, — yet He remains. 1 He will fold up the veil of smoke in front of Him ; — ' On a day we will fold up the heavens ; a breathe thou forth a groan. When the knowers of God 6 live in Him, the Eternal, they cleave ' behold ' and ' He ' in two through the middle. 3
ON GOD AS FIKST CAUSE.*
The course of time is not the mould whence issues His eternal duration, nor temperament the cause of His beneficence ; 6 without His word, time and temperament exist not, as apart from His favour the soul enters not the body. This and that6 both are wanting and 5 worthless ; that and this both are foolish and impotent. ' Old ' and ' new ' are words inapplicable to His essence ; He is, for He consists not of any existences except Himself. His kingdom cannot be known to its limits, His nature cannot be described even to its beginning ; His acts and His nature are beyond instrument and direction, for His Being is above ' Be ' and ' He ' . 7
Before thou wert in existence a greater than thou for thy sake brought together the causes that went to form thee ; in one place 10
1 L says jj is for |»J and B that this again is for ,}rj»i. This seems highly improbable ; I think it stands for Jj^iA.
2 Qur. 21 : 103.
3 " ' Ha ' and ' Hu ' , words which are instruments of praise, and useful as such, for the specification and presentation of Him. But the true ' arif has an abode beyond these, which he cleaves in two and beyond which he passes." L.
* With the exception of H all MSS. and editions used by me have as title Aj VJJkJl .j ' On Holiness,' which is inapplicable. H has f&&)\ .-i JLaj in the red ink used for the headings, followed by JbJjJLJf j , in black, by another hand. I have adopted {•£&)) ^^ with +&3 in the meaning of ' precedenfce, priority,' here precedence in point of time and causation.
6 " His beneficence is not due to His natural disposition, is not something as to which He has no choice ; it is His free choice, He being absolute master as regards His actions. ' // He wills, He does it; and if He wills. He leaves it undone.' ' L.
6 The revolution of time, and natural disposition, or human nature, as the authors of events.
1 ' Be ' the creative word, God's instrument of creation.
10
under the heavens by the command and act of God were the four temperaments prepared; ' their gathering together is a proof of His power ; His power is the draughtsman of His wisdom. He who laid down the plan of thee without pen can also complete it without colours ; within thee, not in yellow and white and red and black, 2 God has pourtrayed His work ; and without thee He has designed
15 the spheres ; of what ? — of wind and water and fire and earth. The heavens will not for ever leave to thee thy colours, — yellow and black and red and white ; 3 the spheres take back again their gifts, but the print of God remains for ever ; 4 He who without colours drew thy outlines will never take back from thee thy soul. By His creative power He brought thee under an obligation, for His grace has made thee an instrument of expression of Himself ; He said, ' I was a hidden
20 treasure ; creation was created that thou mightest know me ; 5 the eye like to a precious pearl through kaf and nun He made a mouth filled with Ya Sin.6
1 The four temperaments which enter into man's nature, in accordance with the preponderance of one or other of which his natural disposition manifests itself.
2 " But in the soul of man, which is incorporeal, not material," L. The colours represent the four humours, yellow bile, phlegm, blood, and black bile, B.
3 V. sup., i.e., thy bodily life.
* i.e., the incorporeal soul remains ; c/. three lines back.
6 ' Me,' ^ , lit. 'I ' : c/. p. 4, 1. 22. ' He ' nom. for accus. The refer- ence is to the tradition according to which God said, ' / was a hidden treasure, and I desired to become known ; and I created creation that I might be known. '
6 Kaf and nun are the letters of the word ' Icun,' ' Be,' by which God crea- ted all things : ya and sin are the names of two letters, of unknown signi- ficance, which stand at the beginning of the 36th sura of the Qur'an, and give their name to the sura ; the sura Ya Sin is held in great honour as being, according to a tradition of Muhammad, 'the heart of the Qur'an.' The mean-
"** ing of this line is not clear to the commentators, who (reading j&j) translate
in various ways ; (a) " made the eye a mouth full of Yasin," eye and mouth resembling each other, one being guarded by a row of teeth, the other by a row of eyelashes, both of which, moreover, resemble the letter sin ( ^ ) in being a row of projections : (&) or, construing similarly, the meaning may be that when the mouth full of teeth is viewed by the eye, the latter by reflection of the precious pearl of the teeth becomes full of Yasin; (c) or " the mouth filled with Yasin was made, through its precious pearls, by the creative word kun, (a delight) to the beholding eye;" (d) or by the eye man may be meant, who
11
Sew no purse and tear not thy veil ; lick no plate and buy not blandishment. l All things are contraries, but by the command of God all travel together on the same road ; in the house of non-existence 7 the plan of all is laid down for all eternity by the command of the Eternal ; four essences, through the exertion of the seven stars, become the means of bodying forth the plan. z Say, The world of evil and of good3 proceeds not except from Him and to Him, nay, is Himself. All objects receive their outline and forms from Him, their material basis as well as their final shape. * Element and material 5 substance, the form and colours clothing the four elements, — all things know as limited and finite, as but a ladder for thy ascent to God.
ON PURITY OF HEART. 6
Then, since the object of desire exists not in anyplace, how canst thou purpose to journey towards Him on foot ? The highroad by which thy spirit and prayers can travel towards God lies in the polishing of the mirror of the heart. The mirror of the heart become^ 10 not free from the rust of infidelity and hypocrisy by opposition and hostility ; the burnisher of the mirror is your steadfast faith ; again, what is it ? It is the unsullied purity of your religion. To him in
is the eye by which God is seen ; as Rumi says ' ' Man is the eye which sees the eternal light. ' ' Among so many I may perhaps add another ; reading
with C j,i^». the meaning may be that through His creative power He made of the eye, in its purity and clearness like a precious pearl, a mouth full of the sura Yasm, i.e., of praise; the eye receives the manifestation of God as revealed in creation, and praises Him.
1 ' Purse ' stands for a lust after the arguments of philosophers and sages ; ' veil ' is belief and faith ; the ' plate ' is that of the denied and pol- luted fragments, that is the sayings, of the so-called wise ; and ' blandish ment ' represents the deceits and decoys of these. L.
2 The influence of the planets on the elements results in the formation of the three classes of natural objects, animal, vegetable and mineral. Cf. Gibb, p. 48.
3 Of darkness and of light, or the present world and that which is to come. L.
4 ' Body ' is compounded of matter, hayule ( ij S\t) ), and form : the compound here is called paikar, the final shape. Cf. Gibb, p. 45.
5 Adopting an emendation of M's title, which is the only one which has any reference to the subject-matter.
12
*
whose heart is no confusion the mirror and the form imaged will not appear as the same thing ; although in form thou art in the mirror, that which is in the mirror is not thou, — thou art one, as the mirror
15 is another. The mirror knows nothing of thy form ; it and thy form are very different things ; the mirror receives the image by means of light, and light is not to be separated from the sun ; — the fault, then, is in the mirror and the eye. '
Whoso remains for ever behind a veil, his likeness is as the owl and the sun. If the owl is incapacitated by the sun, it is because of its own weakness, not because of the sun ; the light of the sun is spread throughout the world , the misfortune comes from the weak- ness of the bat's eye.
20 Thou seest not except by fancy and sense, for thou dost not even know the line, the surface and the point ;a thou stumblest on this road of knowledge, and for months and years remainest tarry- ing in discussion ; but in this matter he utters only folly who does not know the manifestation of God through his incarnation in man. 8 If thou wishest that the mirror should reflect the face, hold it not crooked and keep it bright ; for the sun, though not niggardly of his light, seen in a mist looks only like glass, and a Yusuf3 more beauti- ful than an angel seems in a dagger to have a devil's face. Thy dagger will not distinguish truth from falsehood ; it will not serve thee as a 5 mirror. Thou canst better see thy image in the mirror of thy heart than in thy clay ; break loose from the chain thou hast fettered thy- self with, — for thou wilt be free when thou hast got clear from thy clay ; since clay is dark and heart is bright, thy clay is a dustbin and thy heart a rose-garden. Whatever increases the brightness of thy heart brings nearer God's manifestation of Himself to thee ; because Abu Bakr's purity of heart was greater than others' , he was favoured by a special manifestation. *
1 The fault which occasions this confusion between mirror and object imaged cannot be in the light, which, coming from the sun, is pure and fault-
v less.
2 ' ' Thou knowest not the very elements of geometry and of common knowledge; how then canst thou attain to a knowledge of God, whom thought and sense cannot find out ? " L.
3 Yusuf or Joseph is the type of beauty among Muslims.
+ Referring to the following tradition ; ' ' Said the Prophet (may God
13
ON THE BLIND MEN AND THE AFFAIR OF THE ELEPHANT.' 10
There was a great city in the country of Ghur, in which all the people were blind. A certain king passed by that place, bringing his army and pitching his camp on the plain. He had a large and magnificent elephant to minister to his pomp and excite awe, and to attack in battle. A desire arose among the people to see this monstrous elephant, and a number of the blind, like fools, visited it, 15 every one running in his haste to find out its shape and form. They came, and being without the sight of their eyes groped about it with their hands ; each of them by touching one member obtained a notion of some one part ; each one got a conception of an impossible object, and fully believed his fancy true. When they returned to the people 20 of the city, the others gathered round them, all expectant, so mis- guided and deluded were they. They asked about the appearance and shape of the elephant, and what they told all listened to. One 9 asked him whose hand had come upon its ear about the elephant ; he said, It is a huge and formidable object, broad and rough and spreading, like a carpet. And he whose hand had come upon its trunk said, I have found out about it ; it is straight and hollow in the middle like a pipe, a terrible thing and an instrument of destruction. And he who had felt the thick hard legs of the elephant said, As I have 5 it in mind, its form is straight like a planed pillar. Every one had seen some one of its parts, and all had seen it wrongly. No mind knew the whole, — knowledge is never the companion of the blind ; all, like fools deceived, fancied absurdities.
Men know not the Divine essence ; into this subject the philo- 10 sophers may not enter.
ON THE ABOVE ALLEGORY.2
One talks of ' the foot ' , the other of ' the hand ' , pushing beyond all limits their foolish words ; that other speaks of ' fingers ' and ' change
pour blessings on him and his family and preserve him), O Abu Bakr, God has given thee his greatest blessing. He said, What is his greatest bless- ing ? He replied, Verily God manifests himself to everybody in general, but He manifests himself specially to thee. ' ' L.
1 For a verse translation of this story, see Prof. Browne's ' A Literary History of Persia,' vol. ii., p. 319.
* H's title. That found, with variations, in other MSS., was probably
14
of place ' and ' descending ' , and of His coming as an incarnation. Another considers in his science His ' settling himself ' and ' throne ' 15 and ' couch ' , and in his folly speaks of ' He sat ' and ' He reclined ' , making of his foolish fancy a bell to tie round his neck. ' His face ' says one ; ' His feet ' another ; and no one says to him, ' Where is thy object ?' From all this talk there comes altercation, and there results what happened in the case of the blind men and the elephant.
Exalted be the name of Him who is exempt from ' what ' and 'how' ! the livers of the prophets have become blood.1 Reason
originally a pious annotation in the margin. In A it runs ' On the Istiwa : verily it is in accordance with reason, and its manner unknown ; and belief in it is commanded by authority.' The chapter is an attack upon the anthropo- morphists, whose arguments were drawn from the many allusions in the Qur'an to God's bodily members, His face, hands, feet, etc. : and also especially from the word istawa (infin. istiwa), translated as ' He sat, settled himself ' on the throne, or ' He ascended ' the throne (v. ant. p. 5, 1. 9, sqq.) These passages were a perpetual source of dispute in Islam ; see, on the early dis- putes of the orthodox with the Mu'tazilites on this subject, Macdonald's ' Development of Muslim Theology and Jurisprudence,' p. 145 ; and, for the way in which the istiwa was explained, cf. the creed composed by aJ-Ghazzali, given in the same book, p. 301 ; ' He is seated firmly upon his throne, after the manner which He has said, and in the sense in which he willed a being seated firmly, which is far removed from contact and fixity of location and being established and being enveloped and being removed. The throne does not carry Him, but the throne and those that carry it are carried by the grace of his power, and mastered by his grasp. He is above the throne and the heavens, and above everything unto the limit of the Pleiades, with an above- ness which does not bring Him nearer to the throne and the heavens, just as it does not make Him further from the earth and the Pleiades. ' For Malik b. Anas's dictum upon the istiwa v. op. cit., p. 186.
L furnishes us with an example of the means used in the interpretation of these passages, inasmuch as he translates istiwa as equivalent to istlla, i.e., ' the possession of absolute power ' , and says that the reason why the throne is mentioned (in the passages of the Qur'an where, according to the usual trans- lation, we read that ' God sat upon the throne ') as being that over which God has absolute power, is that the throne is the greatest and mightiest thing of all creation. Sana' I himself , v. text, is content simply to say that the passages are allegories.
1 i.e., the prophets are in deep affliction, because even they have not attained to the heights of the knowledge of God. Cf. p. 3, 1. 18.
15
hamstringed by this saying ; l the sciences of the learned are folded up. All have come to acknowledge their weakness ; woe to him 20 who persists in his folly ! Say, It is allegorical ; depend not on it, and fly from foolish conceptions. The text of the Qur'an — we believe it all ; and the traditions — we admit the whole of them.2
OF THOSE WHO HEED NOT. 10
A discerning man questioned one of the indifferent, whom he saw to be very foolish and thoughtless, saying, Hast thou ever seen saffron, or hast thou only heard the name ? He said, I have it by me, and have eaten a good de*l of it, not once only, but a hundred times and more. Said the wise and discerning man to him, Bravo, 5 wretch! Well done, my friend ! Thou knowest not that there is a bulb as well ! How long wilt thou wag thy beard in thy folly ? 3
He who knows not his own soul, how shall he know the soul of another ? and he who only knows hand and foot, how shall he know the Godhead ? The prophets are unequal to understanding this matter ; why dost thou foolishly claim to do so ? When thou hast 10 brought forward a demonstration of this subject, then thou wilt know the pure essence of the faith ; * otherwise what have faith and thou in common ? thou hadst best be silent, and speak not folly. The learned talk nonsense all ; for true religion is not woven about the
feet of everyone.
ON THE STEPS or ASCENT. 6
Make not thy soul's nest in hell, nor thy mind's lodging in deception ; wander not in the neighbourhood of foolishness and 15
1 i.e. , the declaration of God as infinite and absolute.
2 Sc. ' though we reserve the right of interpreting them as allegories.'
3 Saffron is manufactured from the dried stigmas and part of the style of the saffron crocus, about 4,300 flowers being required to give an ounce of saffron. It has been used as a perfume, a dye, and a medicine, as well as in cookery, e.g., mixed with rice, or in curries. The point seems to be that the man knew nothing of saffron except its ^condition after having been prepared for use.
* Again insisting that to conceive of God aright is the foundation of religion.
6 M's title ; the title, and the number and order of the lines differ con- siderably in the various MSS.
16
absurdities, nor by the door of the house of vain imagining. Abandon vain conceits, that thou mayestfind admission to that court ; for that mansion of eternity is for thee, and this abode of mortality is not thy place ; for thee is that mansion of eternity prepared, — abandon to-day, and give up thy life for to-morrow's sake. This world's evil and good, its deceit and truth, are only for the ignoble among the sons of Adam.
20 To a high roof the steps are many, — why art thou contented with one step ? The first step towards it is serenity, according to the attestation of the lord of knowledge ; l and after it thou comest to the second step, — the wisdom of life, of form and matter. 2
11 Know thou the truth, — that there is not in the world for the off- spring of Adam a better staircase to mount the eternal heaven by, than wisdom and work. The wisdom of life makes strong the mind for both the upper and the lower abode ; strive thou in this path, and although thou do not so in that, 3 yet thou shalt not do amiss. 5 Whoso sows the seed of sloth, sloth will bring him impiety for fruit ; whoso took unto himself folly and sloth, his legs lost their power and his work failed ; I know nothing worse than sloth ; it turns Rustams into cowards. Thou wert created for work, and a robe of honour is ready cut for thee ; why are thou content with tatters ? Why
10 wilt thou not desire those striped garments of Arabia ? Whence wilt thou get fortune and kingdom when thou art idle sixty days a month ? * Idleness in the day, and ease at night, — thou wilt hardly
1 i.e., Muhammad. ' Serenity ' is .JU.,more commonly ' mildness', but v. inf., p. 11,1. 14 sq. The tradition runs, ' Exalted be Thou, we praise Thee for thy serenity (or mildness), then for thy knowledge ; exalted be Thou, we praise Thee for thy clemency, then for thy power.' B.
2 i.e., as I think, ' the wisdom of this world'. I have ventured to read &(a> &ja* for ^U* j &J&. , the reading of the MSS. and lithographs. Of.
t»>Lx -ji •«£**• three lines lower.
3 ' This path,' the path of wisdom and work ; ' that,' the higher spiritual life.
4 ' Counting the nights as equal with the days ; for to the traveller on this road a night is equal to a day, — nay, for the performance of acts of devotion and worship is brighter than the day,' L, who probably sees in the passage an exhortation to strenuous endeavour in the spiritual life, as B, who explains
(1. 3) as 'spiritual wisdom', certainly does. I think, however,
17
reach the throne of the Sasanians. Know that handle of club and hilt of sword are crown and throne to kings who know not the moisture of weeping eyes ; * brft he who wanders about * after money and a meal cringes ignoble and vile before a clenched fist.
Possessing knowledge, possess also serenity 8 like the mountain ; be not distressed at the disasters of fortune. Knowledge without 15 serenity is an unlighted candle, both together are like the bee's honey ; honey without wax typifies the noble, wax without honey is only for burning.4
Abandon this abode of generation and corruption ; 5 leave .the pit, and make for thy destined home ; for on this dry- heap of dust is a mirage, and fire appears as water. The man of pure heart unites the two worlds in one ; the lover makes but one out of all three abodes.6
that the author intended a more earthly form of wisdom and work for so early a step in the ascent.
1 ^(jjf *.;**. j) Jjlif fe*> ^i gloss in L.
2 ^\*l)j£ with gloss in L ^'.i*/
3 Returning to the earlier division of the subject ; ' serenity ', +k». v. sup.
* The intention apparently is to compare knowledge and serenity together to the honey-comb ; and hence I read j^**j c>*i ^a*. for J^AJJ J &&»• jo*
('like honey and the bee'), in the MSS. and lithographed editions; which L explains by saying that ' the comparison of knowledge and serenity to honey and bee comes about through the close connection and dependence between honey and bee. Knowledge being the wax of the unlighted candle, serenity will be the honey, the wax's complement in the honey-comb ; and this may be what is meant by saying that honey without wax Ow«»|j!^ I _j/oj (L ,j|jf gloss on «| rak| ), i-e., typifies the noble-minded, who are above base cares, or free from low anxieties.
6 C'f. p. 2, 1. 6.
6 The line here put at the end of the chapter is evidently out of place where it is found (after p. 11, 1. 9) in the MSS. The two worlds are this and the next ; the three abodes, according to B, are nasut, malakut, and jdbarut, the worlds of mankind, of angels, and of might. The five worlds of the §ufls, also sometimes reckoned as three or two, are five different planes of exist- ence, which loses in true Being as it descends. V. Gibb, pp. 54 — 56. L. however, supposes it possible, from the reduplication of j^ , that by JU jdji is meant the four worlds of nasut, malakut, jabariit, and lahut (Godhead) ; 2
18
20 ON THE PROTECTION AND GUARDIANSHIP OF GOD.
Whoso is fenced around by divine aid, a spider spreads its web
before him ; ' a lizard utters his praise, a serpent seeks to please him.:
12 His shoe treads the summit of the throne ; his ruby lip is the world's
and similarly by Jki* JU.4U* the ten stages of repentance, thanksgiving and patience, fear and hope, poverty and piety, truth and sincerity, considera- tion and contemplation, reflection and deliberation, the acknowledging of the Unity and resignation, love and desire, and the remembering of death. The meaning of the line, he states, lies in the implication of the speed attributed to the traveller. It seems more probably to mean that all con- ditions whatever are alike to the saint and lover, who find heaven every- where. * Lover,' as usual, in its mystical sense.
1 Referring to an incident in the flight of Muhammad and Abu Bakr to Medina ; during the search they took refuge in a cave on the mountain of Abu Qubais near Mecca, in front of which a spider weaved its web. The searchers, supposing that the spider's web indicated that no one had entered the cave for some time, passed on without exploring it. L.
2 L explains these allusions. The lizard is a reference to the story told in Mir Jamalu'd-DIn's Rauzatu'l-Ahbab, on the authority of b. 'Abbas and 'Abdullah b. 'Umar ; that an Arab hunter had caught a lizard, which he was taking home to kill and eat. Passing a number of people, he was told, on enquiring, " This is Muhammad b. 'Abdullah, who claims to be a prophet." He entered the crowd, and addressed Muhammad, " O Muhammad, I swear by LSt and ' Uzza that I will not believe in thee till this lizard believes in thee;" and threw down the lizard before him. As it was running away. Muhammad said, "O lizard, approach." The lizard turned, and in clear Arabic said , " Labbaika wa sa'daika. " Muhammad asked, " Whom dost thou worship ?" It answered, " That God whose throne is in the heavens, whose power is in the earth, whose way is in the sea, whose mercy is in Paradise, and whose torment and punishment is in Hell." Muhammad asked, "Who am I ? " The' lizard answered, "The messenger of God and seal of the prophets ; all who believe in thee shall find felicity and salvation, and all who call thee liar shall perish." The hunter was astonished, and said, " I seek no other sign;" and acknowledged the one God and Muhammad as his messenger.
The snake refers to the story told by traditionists and biographers, that as Muhammad was returning with his army from Tabuk, a large and terrible snake came out into the road. The men were much frightened, and Muhammad himself was careful to keep his camel away from it. The snake went off, and as it did so, raised its head, turned towards them, and lowered its head again. Muhammad said, " This is one of the jinn who came to me and listened to the Qur'an (referring to his journey back from Ta'if, after his
19
fitting ornament ; in his mouth poison becomes sugar ; ' in his hand a stone becomes a jewel.4 Whoso lays his head on this threshold places his foot on the head of things temporal ; wise reason is power- less to explain these things, for all are powerless who come not to this door. I fear that through thy ignorance and folly thou wilt one day 5 be left helpless on Sirafc ; 3 thy ignorance will deliver thee to the fire ; see how it is administering the soporific lettuce * and poppies to thee.
Thou hast seen how in the middle of a morsel of food that one eats there will appear a grain of wheat, which has survived the attack of locust, and bird, and beast, has seen the heat of heaven and the glow of the oven, and remained unchanged under thy millstone. Who preserved it ? God, God. He is a sufficient protector for thee, — 10 for possessions and life and breath ; thou art of His creation, that is
rejection there) ; it came to greet me as we passed its dwelling ; now it greets you, return the salutation." They did so. and Muhammad said, " Love the servants of God, whoever they are."
1 Referring to the story of Muhammad's being given poisoned meat by a Jewess of Khaibar. L also in this connection relates how in the wars of Abu Bakr's caliphate, when Khalid b. Walid was besieging a certain fort, an aged man named 'Abdu'l-Maslh came to treat with him. Khalid seeing some- thing in his hand asked what it was, and was told by 'Abdu'l-Masih that it was poison; which he intended to take in case Khalid 's answer was unsatis- factory, rather than be the bearer of bad news to his people. Khalid asked for it, and on obtaining it, swallowed it ; after remaining in a swoon for an hour, he recovered. L also relates how 'Umar, on receiving a phial of poison from the Roman Emparor, swallowed it in Muhammad's presence without receiving any harm.
2 As in many instances in the lives of the saints. For example, Jalalu'd" Dm Rumi in an assembly of darwlshes took up a handful of earth, and threw it onto the drum of the darwish who was dancing in ecstasy, whereon his drum became full of gold. Says the author of the KatHju'l-Mahjub, "I asked Imam Abu'l-Qasim Qushairi concerning the commencement of his ecstatic ex- periences. He said, ' I one day wanted a stone for the window of my house, and every stone I picked up became a gem.' ' And such things are common in the experiences of the saints. L.
3 The bridge, finer than a hair and sharper than a sword, laid over the midst of hell, over which all must pass after the judgment, and from which the wicked, missing their footing, will slip down into hell.
* ^J>, a herb which induces prolonged sleep, in its medical properties cold and drv. L.
20
enough. If thou procurest dog and chain thou canst overcome the antelope of the desert, and in thy trust and sincere belief in this thou art free from anxiety as regards a maintenance and livelihood : I say to thee, — and with reason and judgment, so that thou mayst not shut the door of thine ear against my words, — Thy trust in dog and 15 chain I see is greater than in the All-hearing and All-seeing ; the light of thy faith, if standing on this foundation, is given over to destruc- tion by a dog and a thing of iron.
THE PARABLE OF THOSE WHO GIVE ALMS.
A certain wise and liberal man gave away so many bags of gold before his son's eyes that when he saw his father's munificence he broke forth into censure and remonstrance, saying, Father, where is
20 my share of this ? He said, 0 son, in the treasury of God ; I have given to God thy portion, leaving no executor and none to divide it with thee, and He will give it thee again.
He is Himself our Provider and our Master ; shall He not suffice us, both for faith and worldly goods ? He is no other than the disposer
13 of our lives ; He will not oppress thee, — He is not of those. To every- one He gives back seventy-fold ; and if He closes one door against thee, He opens ten.
ON THE CAUSE OF OUR MAINTENANCE.
Seest thou not that before the beginning of thy existence God the All- wise, the Ineffable, when He had created thee in the womb gave 5 thee of blood thy sustenance for nine months ? Thy mother nourished thee in her womb, then after nine months brought thee forth : that door of support He quickly closed on thee, and bestowed on thee two better doors, for He then acquainted thee with the breast, — two fountains running for thee day and night ; He said, Drink of these both ; eat and welcome, for it is not forbidden thee. When after two years 10 she weaned thee, all became changed for thee ; He gave thee thy sus- tenance by means of thy two hands and feet, — ' Take it by means of these, and by those go where thou wilt ! ' If He closed the two doors against thee, it is but right, for instead of two, four doors have appeared, — ' Take by means of these, by those go on to victory ; go .seek thy daily bread throughout the world ! '
21
When suddenly there comes on thee thy appointed time, and the things of the world all pass away, and the. two hands and feet fail in their office, to thee in thy helpless state He gives an exchange for these four. Hands and feet are shut up in the tomb, and eight 15 heavens become thy fortune ; eight doors are opened to thee, the virgins and youths of Paradise come before thee, that going joyfully to any door thou wilt thou mayest lose remembrance of this world.
0 youth, hear this saying, and despair not of God's bounty. If God has given thee knowledge of Himself and put belief within thy heart, the robe of honour ' which is to thee like thy wedding-garment 20 He will not take from thee on the day of resurrection. If thou hast neither learning nor gold, yet hast this, thou wilt not be destitute. He will bring thee to glory, — thou shalt not be disgraced ; He will set thee in honour, — thou shalt not be despised. Thy possessions, — 14 give not thy soul to their keeping ; what He has given thee, hold thou fast to that. Thou layest up treasure, — thou shalt not see it again ; if thougavest it to Him, He would give it thee again. Thou puttest gold in the fire, — it burns up the dross ; so He burns thy pure gold ; when He has burnt out the bad, the good He gives to thee ; fortune bends down her head to thee from the skies. The more enduring the 5 benefit afforded by the fire, the kinder on that account is He who kindles the fire ; thou knowest not what is good nor what bad ; He is a better treasurer for thee than thou for thyself. A friend is a ser- pent ; why seekest thou his door ? a the serpent is thy friend ; why fliest thou from it in terror ?
0 seeker of the shell of the pearl of ' Unless ' , lay down clothing and life on the shore of ' Not ' ; 8 God's existence inclines only towards him who has ceased to exist ; n«n-existence is the necessary provision for the journey. Till in annihilation thou lay aside thy cap* thou 10 wilt not set thy face on the road to eternal life ; when thou becomest nothing, thou runnest towards God ; the path of mendicancy leads up
' i.e.., belief, religion (gloss in L).
2 The lino amplifies the preceding, " thou knowest not what is good nor what bad."
* ' Unless ' and ' Not ' to imply affirmation arid negation : i.e.. ' first enter the world of annihilation, that so thou mayest find the jewel of eternal life.' B.
* On the metaphor of the cap cf. p. 57, 1. 5 sqq.
22
to Him. If fortune crushes thee down, the most excellent of Creators will restore thee. Rise, and have done with false fables ; forsake thy ignoble passions, and come hither. '
OF THE RIGHT GUIDANCE.*
15 Every indication of the road thou receivest, 0 darwish, count
it a gift of God, not thine own doing ; He is the cause of the bestowal of benefits, He it is to whom the soul is guided,8 and He its guide. Recognise that it is God's favour guides thee on the path of duty and religion and His ordinance, not thine own strength. He is the giver of the light of truth and instruction, both Guardian of the world and its Observer too. He is kinder than mother and father : He it is who shall guide thee to Paradise.
20 Because of the unbelief of the people He made us our religion ; He made us see clearly in the darkness. See the favour of God the Guider ! for out of all creation He made man His chosen. His majesty needs not saint nor prophet for the enlightening of male or
15 female ; for the guidance of the six princes He made a cat a prophet,
a dog a saint.4 Whoso comes to Him and lends his ear, comes not of
\
I A saying of Mansur Hallaj, who when asked by a certain person to show him the way to God. replied, ' Forsake thy passions, and come hither.' L. 2 The order of the text for a considerable number of pages is here obviously confused. I have tried to bring it somewhat nearer to a logical sequence ; but there are several short passages interspersed which appear to have no connection with this part of the book ; these I have grouped together later.
3 sg&iqjc according to L meaning £jJ|,£.<xI^o ' the thing to which one is guided', and not, as it literally should be, 'guided' ; 'unless it be so con- strued the meaning is not clear ; but God knows best. '
4 L gives the following stories, here condensed, in illustration of this line. The six princes are six of the seven ' Companions of the Cave ' , the seventh being a shepherd's son who joined them under the following circumstances. Decianus was a tyrannical governor of Ephesus, who laid claim to Godhead ; these six princes, sons of rulers of Syria and Yaman, had been sent to do service in his court by their fathers, that they themselves might escape his tyranny. One day two cats fighting together on the roof fell down in front of him ; this so terrified him that he almost lost his senses. The young men, reasoning ' ' How can he be a God who fears a cat ? ' ' fled from the court, and meeting a shepherd, who joined them on hearing their story, were taken by him into a cave. The dog Qitmlr accompanied them, and was endowed with human speech. For their long sleep v. Qur. 18 ; and for the amplifications of the story
23
himself, but His grace leads him ; His grace will guide thee to the end, and then the heavens will be thy slave. Know that it is He who makes the soul prostrate itself, as even through the sun the clouds give bounteous rain.1
[ON THE SURRENDER OF THE SELF.]*
Dost thou desire thy collar of lace to be washed, then first give 5 thy coat to the fuller.3 Strip off thy coat, for on the road to the King's
in the commentators, c/. the notes in Sale. The cat, continues L, was a prophet in the sense of acting as a warning to the six, turning them towards the true God and strengthening their belief in Him ; and the dog of the text is the dog who was their companion in the cave.
Or, says he, the reference may be to the six guests of Shaikh Akhi Farj Zanjani ; who had a cat, which on the arrival of vistors used to mew once for each person, and the servant used accordingly to put one cup for each mew. One day there was one person too many for the number of places set ; whereon the cat came in, smelt at each one, and made urine against one of them. On investiga- tion this one was found to be an unbeliever. This same cat was present one day when a black snake fell into the cauldron where milk and rice were cooking ; the attendant took no notice of the cat's mewing and evident perturbation ; and finally the cat jumped into the cauldron and died. On emptying it, the snake was discovered.
The dog, he continues, may be the one of the following story. Shaikh Najmu'd-Din Kibri of Naishapur was one day discussing with his disciples the story of the Cave and the dog of the sleepers. One of the circle, Shaikh Sa'du' d-DIn Hamawl, chanced to wonder in himself, if in that company there were any one whose companionship could make an impression on a dog (as association with those seven pious men was supposed to have affected their dog). Knowing by his miraculous gifts what was passing in his mind, Shaikh Najmu'd-Din rose and went to the door of the cell ; a dog came up to him and wagged its tail. The Shaikh looked at it, whereon its nature became changed ; it became beside itself, left the city, went to the graveyard, and there rubbed its head on the ground. Wherever it went, subsequently, fifty or sixty dogs accompanied it in silence and great respect. It lived a long time thus, and finally died.
J The comparison is with the clouds prostrating themselves on the earth a -
f ,
rain. ±^. =' abundant rain' ; &»^. = 'liberality.' While the latter is the
appropriate rhyme to the preceding hemistich, probably both senses were present in the author's mind.
* There is no title in the original which fits this section, which appears as part of a long chapter entitled ' Also of the Right Guidance.'
8 i\, ' lace, border, hem or other ornament of gold or silk round the edge or collar of a garment.' (gloss in B c;Ui.»)- L and others read
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gate there are many to tear it. At the first step that Adam took, the wolf of affliction tore his coat : when Cain became athirst to oppress, did not Abel give up his coat and die ? Was it not when Idris ' threw off his coat that he saw the door of Paradise open to
10 him ? When the Friend of God remorselessly tore their garments z from star and moon and sun, his night became bright as day, and the fire of Nimrod became a garden and a rose-bower. Look at Solomon , who in his justice gave the coat of his hope to the fuller ; 8 jinn and men, birds and ants and locusts, in the depth of the waters of the Red Sea, on the tips of the branches, all raised their face to him,
15 all became subservient to his command ; when the lustre of his nature had been burnt in the fire of his soul,4 the heavens laid his body on the back of the wind.5
When the venerable Moses, reared in sorrow, turned his face in grief and pain towards Midi an, in bodily labour he tore off the coat from his anguished heart. For ten years he served Shu'aib,6 till the door of the invisible was opened to his soul. His hand became
for Aww, misled perhaps by J5) which also means ' bow-string '. is used here and in subsequent lines for the garment of borrowed existence and pride and self ; the section thus inculcates the giving up of the world and of self in order to obtain an enduring honour and distinction.
1 A prophet mentioned twice in the Qur' an, and identified with Enoch.
% Of borrowed existence ; and saw the heavenly bodies for what they were. The Friend of God is Abraham ; for the story of how he rebuked the idolatry of his people, and for so doing was thrown by Nimrod into a fire, which was powerless to harm him, see Qur. 6 : 74-82 ; 19 : 42-51 ; 21 : 52-75 and the com- mentators thereon ap. Sale ; and for the Jewish origin of the stories cf. Geiger's ' Judaism and Islam ', Eng. tr., Madras, 1898, pp. 96, sqq.
This example does not seem to be quite on all fours with the preceding and succeeding ; since Abraham is here said to have torn their coats from sun , moon, and stars.
3 The act of renunciation here referred to may be Solomon's slaughter of a thousand mares, which he was inspecting one afternoon, and in doing so forgot the afternoon prayers. In his repentance he slew all the horses, and God there- upon gave him power over the wind, which travelled wheresoever he commanded it.
4 i.e. when he repented.
6 See, for Solomon, Qur. 21 : 81-82 ; 27 : 15-45 ; 38 : 29-39 ; 34 : 11-13. 6 So Jethro is called by the Muslims.
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bright as his piercing eye ; he became the crown on the head of the men of Sinai.1
When the Spirit,2 drawing breath from the spiritual ocean, had 20 received the grace of the Lord, he sent his coat to the cleanser of hearts at the first stage of his journey. He gave brightness to his 16 soul, He gave him kingship, even in childhood. By the Eternal Power, through encouragement in secret and grace made manifest, he lost the self ; the leprous body became dark again through him as the shadow on the earth, the blind eye became bright as the steps of the throne. Whoso like him seeks neither name nor reputation, can produce ten kinds (of food) from one jar. A stone 5 with him became fragrant as musk ; the dead rose to living action and spoke. By his grace life broke forth in the dead earth of the heart ; by his power he animated the heart of the mire.3
When predestined fate had closed the shops, and the hand of God's decree lay in the hollow of non-existence,* the world was full of evil passions, the market full of ruffians and patrols. Then He sent a vicegerent into this world to abolish oppression ; when he 40
1 L supposes the ' men of Sinai ' to be a number of people whom Moses took up the mountain with him that they might observe what happened. This however would seem to be at variance with the Qur'an and commentators, and I should prefer to refer the hemistich to Qur. 3 : 75 and the commentators thereon ; who say (ap. Sale ad loc.) that " the souls of all the prophets, even of those who were not then born, were present on Mount Sinai when God gave the law to Moses, and that they entered into the covenant here mentioned with him; " a story, Sale says, borrowed by Muhammad from the talmudists. I find no reference to it in Geiger.
The ' white hand ' of Moses in the previous hemistich is referred to in Qur. 7: 105. In the line which introduces this passage Moses is called ' Kallm', that is, ' Kallmu'llah ', ' the speaker with God ', as often by the Muslims.
* i.e., of God, that is, Jesus.
3 The miracles of Jesus do not figure largely in the Qur'an ; v. 3 : 43 — 46 and 5 : 112 — 115. The last hemistich refers to 3 : 43. " / will create for you out of clay as though it were the form of a bird, and I will blow thereon and it shall become a bird by God's permission." The commentators state that the bird was a bat. For the circumstances v. Sale note ad loc. ; Hughes, Diet, of Islam, s. v. Jesus Christ, III, The miracles of Jesus ; as also for the raising of the dead. For the miracle of the provision of various kinds of food and the table sent down from heaven, Hughes, I.e., and Sale, note on Qur. 5 : 112.
* Referring to the ' fitrat ', or interval between Jesus and Muhammad. L.
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appeared from mid- heaven,1 fervid2 in soul and pure in body, he wore no coat on the religious path ; then what could he give to the fullers of the land ? 3 When he passed from this mortal state to eternal life he became the ornament and glory of this perishable world.
IN His MAGNIFICATION.
When He shows His Nature to His creation, into- what mirror 15 shall He enter ?* The burden of proclaiming the Unity not every- one bears ; the desire of proclaiming the Unity not everyone tastes. In every dwelling is God adored ; but the Adored cannot be circumscribed by any dwelling. The earthly man, accompanied by unbelief and anthropomorphism, wanders from the road ; on the road of truth thou must abandon thy passions ; — rise, and for- sake this vile sensual nature ; when thou hast come forth from Abode and Life, then, through God, thou wilt see God.5 20 How shall this sluggish body worship Him, or how can Life and Soul know Him ? A ruby of the mine is but a pebble there ; the soul's wisdom talks but folly there. Speechlessness is praise, — enough of thy speech ; babbling will be but sorrow and harm to thee, — have done !
17 His Nature, to one who knows Him and is truly learned, is above ' How ' and ' What ' and ' Is it not ' and ' Why. ' His crea- tive power is manifest, the justice of His wisdom ; His wrath is
1 e>U*»T J.i is ' mid-heaven, a star, the earth.' I have taken J,> ^l^wof in the same sense, reading it without the i/nt'at . the ^ being fully pronounced and followed by the nim-fatha.
2 lit. ' drunk ' , i.e., with the love of God.
3 The elders of his family and tribe, B. The meaning is that he never possessed any ' self ' of which the tribulations he experienced at the hands of his tribe could deprive him.
* i.e., how can He manifest Himself so as to be comprehensible ?
5 The texts insert before the last line a line which runs, ' ' Abode and Life both are Thy servants, Thy stewards and attendants ; " which I take to be a gloss, perhaps of Indian origin, because of the address to God in the second person, and the use of the foreign word Jlj^S'. ' Attendants ' js jU<£ (j»& i.e., those who are in such close attendance that they count their master's breaths, awaiting his orders.
27
secret, the artifice of His majesty.1 A form of water and earth is dazzled by His love, the eye and heart are blinded by His Nature. Reason in her uncleanness, wishing to see Him, says, like Moses, ' Show me ' ; when the messenger* comes forth from that glory, 5 she says in its ear, ' / turn repentant unto thee.''8 Discover then the nature of His Being through thy understanding ! * recite his thousand and one pure names. It is not fitting that His Nature should be covered by our knowledge ; whatever thou hast heard, that is not He. ' Point ' and ' line ' and ' surface ' in relation to His Nature are as if one should talk of His ' substance ' and ' distance ' and ' six surfaces ' ; the Author of those three is beyond place ; the Creator of these three is not contained in time.5 No philosopher 10 knows of imperfection in Him, while He knows the secrets of the invisible world ; He is acquainted with the recesses of the mind, and the secrets of which as yet there has been formed no sketch upon thy heart.
Kdf and nun are only letters that we write , but what is kun ? the hurrying of the agent of the divine decree. If He delays, or acts quickly, it depends not on His weakness ; whether He is angry or placable depends not on His hate. His causation is known to neither infidelity nor faith, and neither is acquainted
1 His creative power, the origin and source of created things, is a result of the justice of His wisdom, and is apparent ; and His wrath is the artifice of His majesty and glory, and is hidden ; outwardly it appears as glory, and in reality it is wrath. So L, but in this case His majesty should be called the artifice of His wrath and not vice versa.
2 *_£>j i.e., ig**;P »~£AJ B, the invisible messenger, Reason.
3 ' In its ear ' = in the ear of that glory. ' ' For the words which Reason says to that glory will necessarily be said in the ear and in secret," L. The reference is to Qur. 7 : 138 sq. " And, when Moses came to our appointment, and his Lord spake unto him, he said, O my Lord, show me, that I may look on thee. He said, Thou canst not see me; but look upon the mountain, and if it remain steady in its place, thou shalt see me ; but when his Lord appeared unto the mountain He made it dust, and Moses fell down in a swoon. And when he came to himself, he said, Celebrated be thy praise ; I turn repentant unto thee, and am the first of those, who are resigned. ' '
* Said ironically ; v. next line.
6 The texts all have cJjji , but ttJj/* seems obviously required.
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15 with His Nature. He is pure of those attributes the foolish speak of, purer than the wise can tell.
Reason is made up of confusion and conjecture, both limping over the earth's face. Conjecture and cogitation are no good guides ; wherever conjecture and cogitation are, He is not. Conjecture and cogitation are of His creation ; 1 man and reason are His newly- ripening plants. Since any affirmation about His Nature is beyond man's province, it is like a statement about his mother by a blind
20 man ;a the blind man knows he has a mother, but what she is like he cannot imagine ; his imagination is without any conception of what things are like, of ugliness and beauty, of inside and outside. In a world of double aspect such as this, it would be wrong that
18 thou shouldst be He, and He thou.8 If thou assert Him not, it is not well ; if thou assert Him, it is thyself thou assertest, not He. If thou know not (that He is) thou art without religion, and if thou assert Him thou art of those who liken Him. Since He is beyond ' where ' and ' when ' , how can He become a corner of thjr thought ? When the wayfarers travel towards Him, they vainly 5 exclaim, 'Behold, Behold!'* Men of hawk-like boldness are as
1 And so must fall immeasurably short" of Him.
2 According to B o*«~jj_>J is equivalent to ^jiU w&.i}J , i.e., ' an affirma- tion about God's nature by a mortal.' But the introductory &€>|j is a difficulty which he does not explain. Hence I have retained ,_£)« for which some texts have c*«.A through assimilation to cu-oj , and have divided the
^
words as *i*«« ^jj (j^J = foreign, external).
3 The full meaning of this and the following lines L explains thus: — "in this world of unreality, with two faces and necessary duality, it would be wrong, with your borrowed existence and without discarding self, to claim unity of existence with God and knowledge of Him. If you assert not His necessary Existence and affirm not His Being in its oneness, it is not well, and you are an unbeliever; whereas if you do this, and assert His Existence, whatever you assert is yourself and not He, for He is above and free from anything you imagine and think. And if you know not that there exists a God, and take reason for guide, you are without religion ; while if you assert it you are an anthro- pomorphist ; for He cannot be designated or described by any description, and however you describe Him you fall into the error of ' likening ' Him."
* Vainly, because He is not there.
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ringdoves in the street, a collar on their necks, uttering ' Where, Where ? ' l
If thou wilt, take hope, or if thou wilt, then fear ; the All- wise has created nothing in vain. He knows all that has been done or will be done ; thou knowest not, — yet know that He will assuage thy pain.2 In the knowledge of Him is naught better than submission, that so thou mayest learn His wisdom and His clemency. Of His wisdom He has given resources to His creatures, the greater to him who has the greater need ; to all He has given fitting resources, for 10 acquiring profit and warding off injury. What has gone, what comes, and what exists in the world, in such wise it was neces- sary ; bring not folly into thy conversation ; look thou with ac- ceptance on His decrees.
ON THE EARNEST STRIVING.
When thou hast passed from Self to being naught, gird up the loins of thy soul and set forth on the road ; when thou standest up 15 with loins girt thou hast placed a crown on thy soul's head. Set then the crown of the advance on the head of thy soul ; let the foot that would retreat be the companion of the mire ; 3 though the thoughtless man laughs at this act, yet the wise chooses no other course.
Whoso turns not his face towards God, all his knowledge and possessions deem thou an idol. Who turns away his face from God's presence, in truth I call not him a man ; a dog is better than a worth- 20 less man who turns away his face, for a dog finds not its prey with- out a search. A dog that lives in ease,4 though it gets fat, is not therefore more useful than a greyhound.
1 £ £ ' Coo, ceo,' the sound of the doves, as well as meaning ' Where, where ? '
* L refers to the reading &f &Jf^ and suggests &jf as equivalent tojl^-j" . he says the rhyme is defective if it be not adopted ; but the rhyme is defective
in any case (•J.vS' and
3 L gloss (under J^) ^ , i.e., the mire is the body, opposed to the soul in the preceding hemistich..
o *
is a place where straw is put for dogs, etc.
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19 He will not take hypocrisy and deceit and lying,1 but looks to a man's belief in the Unity and his sincerity. The eye that is fixed on wisdom chooses the Truth ; the pleasure -regarding eye sees not the Truth. False is what delights the eye ; the Truth enters not among earthy thoughts.4 Infidelity and faith both have their origin in thy hypocritical3 heart ; the path is long because thy foot delays : were it not so, the road to Him is but one step, — be a slave, and 5 thou becomest a king with Him. Know that the different names of the colours are illusory, that thy sustenance is to be sought in the river of the Absolute. Leave off thy talk, and come to the pavilion ; loose thy heavy bonds from off thyself. Perhaps thou hast not tasted the true faith, hast not seen the face of truth^and sincerity ; so that thou thoughtest the mystery was plain to be seen, and things thou sawest plainly have been mysteries to thee. I see in thee no Tightness of belief ; if there were, I would be the true dawn of reli-
10 gion to thee ; — I would have made the path of the true faith plain to thee hadst thou not been a fool and a madman.
[OF THE TRAVELLER ON THE PATH.]*
A man should be like Abraham, that, through God, his shadow may become a shady place ;5 in fear of him8 and by his teaching the universe dares to breathe ; Pharaoh is destroyed by the mighty aid of a Moses whom God assists.
To the wayfarer towards God on the path of love His cheek is 15 the dawn of morning ; (who but He can tear away the veil by day,
1 A* .-sue - the commentators seem to have mistaken the meaning here,
*IX
giving as the equivalent jc o , which means ' an instrument of hitting and
striking ; a wooden sword ' (B.Q.).
2 ' The Truth ' in these lines ( JJA. ) may equally be rendered ' God ' , or ' reality '.
8 Lit. ' of two colours'.
* This chapter can scarcely claim to be more than a series of short passages and single lines, at variance with the context in which they stood, and collected here as having somewhat in common with each other.
6 Perhaps referring to Abraham's being unharmed in Nimrod's fire ; these first three lines speak of the powers given by God to those who seek Him.
6 i.e., the seeker after God.
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or hang the veil by night ?) l His mind is snatched away from bonds of earth ; the spiritual rule of the world is made manifest to him. He treads the Throne under his feet like a carpet ; he is an owl, but bears with him a phoenix. a He becomes lord of this abode and that,5 the loyal slave of God ; the pure Intelligence reveals its face to man, and beautifies his body with its own light. The bounty of 20 God throws its shade over his heart ; then he says, ' How He pro- longs the shadow.' * When his soul feels the touch of God, ' We make the sun ' reveals its face to him.6 The dumb all find tongues when 20 they receive the perfume of life from his soul.
In His path the lovers recite to their souls the verse ' Every creature on the earth is subject to decay ; ' 6 the heavens, and the natural world and its varied colours seem vile to his perception. Whoso is turned away from this wine, for him all its fragrance and colour is destroyed ; so that when with new ear thou shalt hear the shouts 5 of ' He is One, He has no partner,' thou shalt no longer in madness desire the varied colours, even though thy Jesus be the dyer.7 Thou shalt take what thou wilt of the colours, put them into one jar, and bring them out again ; — listen truly, and not in folly ; this saying is not for fools ; — all these deceitful colours the jar of the Unity makes one colour. Then being now of one colour, all has become Him ; 10 the rope becomes slender when reduced to a single strand.3
1 The meaning may be that God is the light of the way, and the last line is possibly a parenthesis, the thought of which was prompted by the preceding.
2 The owl is a bird 'of ill-omen ; the phoenix ( UA> ) is a bird of happy omen, prognosticating a crown to every head it shades.
3 i.e., ' of both worlds.'
* Qur. 25 : 47. ' 'Hast thou not looked to thy Lord, how he prolongs the shadow ? ' '
6 Qur. 25 : 48. ' ' Then we make the sun a guide thereto ; then we contract it towards us with an easy contraction." This and the last quotation are part of a passage descriptive of God's benefits to man.
6 Qur. 55 : 26.
7 »j j*£«»JjC ' thy Jesus' , paraphrased by B as J .l> ^u. ' thy stony heart ' .
8 I suppose the meaning to refer to the simplification of phenomena, — that they are more easily grasped when reduced to unity.
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[ON BEING SILENT.]
The path of religion is neither in works nor words ; there are no buildings thereon, but only desolation. Whoso becomes silent to pursue the path, his speech is life and sweetness ; if he speaks, it will not be out of ignorance, and if he is silent, it will not be from sloth ; when silent, he is not devising frivolity ; when speaking, he scatters abroad no trifling talk.
15 Those fools, the thieves and pickpockets, keep their knowledge to use in highway robbery.1 Thou seest, 0 Master, thouof many words, that thou hadst better have light in thy heart than words ; when thou becomest silent, thou art most eloquent, but if thou speakest, thou art like a captain of war.2 ' Kun ' consists of two letters, both voiceless ; ' Hu ' consists of two letters, both silent.3 Doubt not concerning these words of mine ; open thine eyes, pay heed for a little.
20 There exists the dog,* and the stone ; the stove of the bath, and
21 the slave ; but thou art excellent, like a jewel inside a casket.6 The king uses his silver for his daily needs, but his ruby he keeps for his treasure-house; silver is evil in its own ill-starred nature, the ruby is joyous because it is full of blood within."
The family of Barmak 7 became great through their liberality ; they were, so to say, close companions of generosity. Though fate
1 The ' fools ' are the learned and the philosophers.
2 ij} j^i ' a commander of ten thousand." L and B interpret in this sense, meaning, perhaps, ' blustering inconsequentially ' (B <^U-o *}.A ). Or yj^jJu — ' a patriarch' : B.Q. gives ^LUoJ «X4ixu«o ' a theologian of the Chris- tians,' and so. from the Muslim point of view, a vain babbler.
3 ' Kun ' is ' Be ', the word used at the creation ; ' Hu ' is ' He ', God. lyfe is 'wind, sound, voice, tone'; so fyfc -j 'silent.' The commentators give no real help on this line ; it seems to imply that the mightiest existences and actions do not require speech.
4 The following fragments do not appear to have their place in any of the chapters near which they are found in the texts.
5 " Dog and stone are of His creation, the stone being created for driving off the dog ; and so the stove of the bath and the slave are of His creation, the slave to light the fire of the stove ; but thou, who art of the most excellent of the marvels of God, art like only to a ruby, deposited with care in casket." B.
6 The commentators give no help as to the meaning of the passage.
^ The Barmecides, who attained to great power in the reign of Harunu'r- Rashld.
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pronounced their destruction, their name endures, indestructible as the spirit. The people of this generation, though amiable, are im- 5 pudent as flies and wanton ; in word they are all sweet as sugar, but when it comes to generosity, they tear men's hearts and burn their souls.1
When He had adorned thy soul within thee, He held up before thee the mirror of the light ; till pride made thee quick to anger, and thou lookedst upon thyself with the evil eye.'z
He has balanced day and night by the ruler of his justice, not by chance or at random.8
While Reason digs for the secret, thou hast reached thy goal on 10 the plain of Love.*
The heart and soul of the seeker after God are concealed, but his tongue proclaims in truth,' / am God.'*
THE PABABLE OF THOSE WHO HEED NOT.6
A fool saw a camel grazing, and said, Why is thy form all crook- ed ? Said the camel, In disputing thus thou censurest the sculptor ;
1 This passage occurs shortly after the chapter ' Of the Right Guidance,' and I think is very probably spurious. It seems to be connected with the word &j^. in the last line of that chapter, p. 15, 1. 4, and possibly represents the pious reflections of some reader, noted down by him in the margin of the original or of an early copy, and thence taken up into the text by subsequent copyists.
4 "The Incomparable Creator, after adorning thee inwardly, that is, de- signing thy inward being as He had done thy outward parts, held up before thee a mirror of light, that is, understanding and clear comprehension, by means of which thou mightest come to know good and evil. Then, till pride and self- conceit became natural to thee, He kept thee from lust and anger ; and, until He gave to thee the eye of vanity, He kept thee from being acceptable in thine own eyes," B ; but in adding ' And God knows the truth of the matter,' he does not appear to be very sure of his explanation. In the absence of the proper context interpretation is perhaps impossible ; the lines occur in the texts in ' Again the Parable of the Companions of Indifference,' p. 23.
3 In the middle of the passage which I have called ' On being Silent,' p. 20.
4 In the passage which I have called ' Of the Traveller on the Path,' p. 19. The third person is used in the lines amongst which it occurs ; otherwise it is written in the same sense.
6 At the end of the above passage.
6 A similar title has been used before, p. 10.
3
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15 beware ! Look not on my crookedness in disparagement, and kindly take the straight road away from me. My form is thus be- cause it is best so, as from a bow's being bent comes its excellence. Begone hence with thy impertinent interference ; an ass's ear goes well with an ass's head.1
22 The arch of the eyebrow, though it displease thee, is yet a fit- ing cupola over the eye ; by reason of the eyebrow, the eye is able to look at the sun, and in virtue of the bloom of its strength becomes an adornment to the face. Evil and good, in the estimation of the wise, are both exceeding good ; from Him there comes no evil ; whatever thou seest to come from Him, though evil, it were well 5 thou look on it all as good. To the body there comes its portion of ease and of pain ; to the soul ease is as a treasure secured ; but a twisted snake is over it, the hand and foot of Wisdom are at its side.*
THE PARABLE OF THE EYE or THE SQUINT-EYED.
A squint-eyed son asked his father, O thou whose words are as
a key to the things that are locked up, why saidst thou that a
10 squinter sees double ? I see no more things than there are ; if a
squint-eyed person counted things crookedly, the two moons that
are in the heavens would seem four.
But he who spoke thus spoke in error ; for if a squinter looks at a dome, it is doubled.3
I fear that on the high-road of the faith thou art like the crooked- seeing squinter, or like the fool who senselessly quarrelled with the camel because of God's handiwork. His flawless creation is the
1 A. -«> in a secondary sense, which is also applicable here, means ' a shameless fellow, one who intrudes himself into a place where he has no busi- ness ; a blundering intermeddler. ' So also Ar. jU-=>- <j»lj , cf- Browne, ' ' A Year amongst the Persians," p. 224.
* On the ' twisted snake ' AB have gloss ,*»AJ ; as B in a note ex- plains ^(^i^tt >_y»&f a terrible spirit, i.e., to guard it. The ' hand and foot o Wisdom ' is simply Wisdom, ' a sound, guiding, prudent understanding,' B. The meaning of the last two lines would thus be, that though misfortunes may happen to the body, a serene wisdom will preserve the soul's peace in every condition.
3 \.e.t such a large and obvious thing as a dome.
V -
35
qibla of our understanding ; His changeless nature is the ka'ba of our desire. He has exalted the soul in giving it wisdom ; He has nourished His pardoning mercy on our faults. God well knows 15 your turning to Him ; His wisdom it is which prevents His answer- ing your prayers. Though the physician hears his patient when he begs, he does not give earth to an earth-eater ; and though his soul desire it, how shall He give earth through all his life to him who digs the earth ? How shall His act be without a reason, or His decrees in accordance with thy weak understanding ? 1
There are exceeding many who have drunk the cup of pure poison 20 and have not died of it ; nay, it is life's food to him who from the violence of his disease is wasted to a reed. In His wisdom and jus- tice He has given to all more than all that is requisite ; if the gnat 23 bites the elephant's hide, tell him to flap his ears, — he has a gnat dispeller in them ; if there is a louse, thou hast a. finger-nail ; punish the flea, when it jumps on thee ; though the mountains were full of snakes, fear not, — there are stones and an antidote on the mountain too ; and if thou art apprehensive of the scorpion, thou hast slipper and shoe for it. If pain abounds in the world, everyone has a 5 thousand remedies.
In accordance with his scheme He has suspended together the sphere of intense cold and the globe of fire.'2 The motions of the
1 The texts have ^ Ijj^J. I have however adopted what was appar- ently the original reading of ' Abdu'l-Latlf's edition ; since the commen- tary runs cu-fla. _,«Xftx> ^j x^j ^ ^ ^, %^ Asuf .
2 j&\ according to B is " the globe of fire, an element, the highest of the four, called sometimes the charkh-i-athir ; " so far agreeing with Gibb, p. 46, who discussing Muslim philosophy says: — "The first manifestation of specific form is in the ' Four Elements ' , Fire, Air, Water and Earth. The arrangement of the elemental world is, like that of the ethereal, a series of concentric, spherical layers. As Fire is the lightest and subtlest of the four, its region is the highest, lying within and touching the concave surface of the Sphere of the Moon. In its pure state Fire is colourless and transparent, conse- quently the Sphere of Fire is invisible. ' '
B proceeds, " Zamharir =' intense cold', and the globe o intense cold is the limiting stratum of the air." The sphere of air is the next inside that of fire ; it "is subdivided into three strata (tabaqat). The Sphere of Fire and the highest stratum of the Sphere of Air, though by their own nature stationary, are carried round by the Sphere of the Moon in its revolution. ' ' Gibb. op. cit.
36
body are rendered equable, the coolness of the brain and the warmth of the heart are both moderated ; the liver and heart, by means of the stomach and arteries, send forth water l and air to the body, that through breath and blood the heart by its movement, and the liver by its quiescence, may give the body life.4
10 There is a spiritual kingdom in the universe, and also a temporal power ; above the throne light, and below darkness ; both these principles He bestowed at the creation, when He spread His shadow over His handiwork. The temporal world He has given of His bounty to the body, the spiritual world as a glory to the soul ; that so both inner and outer man may receive food, the body from the lord of this world, the soul from the Lord of the spirit- world ; for through all His creation God keeps a benign grace for the benefit of the noble soul.
15 The acute thinker knows that what He does is well ; it is thou who namest some things evil and some good, otherwise 3 all that comes from Him is pure kindness. Evil comes not into existence from Him ; how can evil subsist with Godhead ? Only the foolish and ignorant do evil ; the Doer of good Himself does no evil. If He gives poison, deem it sweet ; if He shows wrath, deem it mercy.
20 Good is the cupping-glass our mothers apply to us, and good too the dates they give.
AGAIN THE PARABLE OF THOSE WHO HEED NOT.
Dost thou not see how the nurse in the earliest days of its child- 24 hood sometimes ties the little one in its cradle, and at times is ever laying it on her bosom ; sometimes strikes it hard and sometimes soothes it ; sometimes puts it away from her and repels it, some- times kindly kisses its cheek and again caresses it and bears its grief ? 5 A stranger is angry with the nurse when he sees this, and sighs ; he says to it, The nurse is not kind, the child is of little account with
1 i.e., blood, according to the old pathology.
* The arteries being found empty after death, the heart was supposed to be the means for pumping air over the body The liver was thought to be the storehouse of the blood.
8 i.e., were it not for the name,
37
her. How shouldst thou know that the nurse is right ? Such is always the condition of her work.
God too, according to his compact, performs his whole duty towards his slave ; He gives the daily food that is required, some- times disappointment, sometimes victory ; sometimes He sets a jewelled crown upon his head, sometimes He leaves him needy with only a copper.
Be thou contented with God's ordinance ; or if not, then cry 10 aloud and complain before the Qazi , that he may release thee from His decree ! A fool is he who thinks thus ! Whatever it is, — whether misfortune or prosperity, — it is an unmixed blessing, and the evil only transitory. He who brings the world into being with ' Be, and it was,' — how, how shall He do evil to the creatures of the world ? Good and evil exist not in the world of the Word ; l the names ' good ' and ' evil ' belong to thee and to me. When God 15 created the regions of the earth He created no absolute evil ; death is destruction for this one, but wealth for that ; poison is food to this, and death to that.
If the face of the mirror were black like its back, no one would look at it ; the usefulness belongs to the face of the mirror, even though its back be stuffed with jewels. The bright-faced sun is good, be its2 back black or white ; if the peacock's foot were like 20 its feathers, it would shine splendid both by night and day.8
IN PRAISE OF His OMNIPOTENCE.
He is the Pourtrayer of the outward forms of our earthly bodies ; He is the Discerner of the images of our inmost hearts. He is the 25 Creator of existent and non-existent, the Maker of the hand and what it holds. He made a wheel of pure emerald, and on the wheel
apparently in a technical sense ; I cannot say to which, if to any, of the various planes the ^xu* ujlgat corresponds. Perhaps l^2R.i* is the word kun. Cf. infra, p. 25, 1. 12.
2 i.e., the sun's.
3 Meaning, I think, that it would be altogether too gorgeous. The preceding short paragraph is to the effect that things are made for use and benefit, and that God knows best what is required.
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he bound silver jars ;> He caused a candle and candlestick to re- volve in the heavens in the path of the ignoble.2 Before His crea- tion was non-existence ; eternal being belongs to His Essence alone. 5 He made Intelligence proclaimer of His power ; He made matter capable of receiving form. To Intelligence He gave the path of vigilance ; what thinkest thou of Intelligence ?
How can the artist of the pen 3 picture forth in man the image of the Eternal ? Fire and wind and water and earth and sky, and Reason and Spirit above the sky, and the angels in the middle place, wisdom and life and abstract form , — know, that all come into being by command, and the command is God's.
10 He is the origin and root of material things,4 the Creator of bene- ficence , and thanks , and the thankful man. In the high-road from this life to the next He has associated action and power with this world of generation and corruption. In the world of the Word 5 His Omnipo- tence made power pregnant with action, made its place for whatever comes into action, created its product for whatever possesses power.
15 ON THE PROVERBS AND ADMONITIONS ' POVERTY is BLACKNESS OF THE FACE ' (THE RECITAL OF PROVERBS is THE BEST OF DISCOURSES) AND ' THE WORLD is A HOUSE OF DEPARTURE AND CHANGING AFFAIRS AND MIGRATION.'6
Keep thy blackness, thou canst not do without it ; for black- ness admits no change of colour. With blackness of face there goes happiness ; a blushing face seldom causes joy. The scorched
1 The stars in the heavens are compared to the vessels on the wheel used for raising water from the well. — the common ' Persian wheel ' of the East.
2 So that the wicked may see. The sun and moon are the candle, the sky the candlestick, which revolves in [•* , ' the space between heaven and earth.'
3 Perhaps the Primal Intelligence, L. *;|^j inB.Q.= ^L^lxil.
6 Perhaps the word Tcun, ' Be' ; and so the world, or plane, where God's commands issue, and hence possibly equivalent to the 'alam-i-jabarut, * the plane of power.' Cf. p. 24, 1. 13.
6 The title is perhaps made up of glosses. It differs in the various MSS.
In the technical language of the Sufis, says L, poverty, «ft» ? means annihi- lation in God, the union of a drop with the ocean, the last stage of the perfected ones. ' Poverty is blackness of the face in both worlds ' means that the traveller
39
pursuer is black of face before the flame of his heart's desire ; 1 though 20 in tribulation, the ugly Ethiopian finds gladness in his blackness of face ; his gladness comes not from his beauty, his happiness comes from his sweet odour.* Brighter than the splendour of the new moon is the display of the moon of Bilal's shoe ; 3 if thou dost not wish thy heart's secret known, keep thy blackness of face in both worlds, since 26 for him who seeks his desire, day tears the veil and night spreads it.
Withhold thy hand from these vain lusts ; know, desire is poison, and the belly as a snake ; the serpent of desire, if it bite thee, will soon despatch thee from the world.4 For in this path in evil there is good ; the water of life is in the midst of darkness. What sorrow has the 5 heart from blackness ? For night is pregnant with day, and the men who are now imprisoned without food or drink in this old ruin throw aside all instruction 6 when they march proudly in the garden of God.
Everything except God, all that is of earth, is aside from the path of the true faith. Loss of self is the hidden goal of all ; the re- fuge of the pure soul is with the Word.6
becomes entirely annihilated in God, so that — externally, internally, in this world, in the next — he has no existence, and returns to his essential and original non- existence. This is true ' poverty ' ; hence it is said ' When poverty is absolute, that is God.' And till the traveller experiences perfect non-existence, or absolute annihilation, he cannot experience absolute existence, which is eternal life with God. And death from self is the essence of life to God, and absolute life is seen to consist in absolute death. To this degree nothing can attain but the perfect man, who is thus the most perfect of all created things, the object of the creation of the world.
1 Perhaps a reference to the moth and the candle. All texts give «£jj or jjilAj which would require a preposition. A hint of what I take to be the original reading is given in M.
2 Lit. ' odour of musk ' ; but the appropriateness of the hemistich depends on a second meaning of cXi^c^ viz., ' blackness, ink.'
3 Bilal was the negro mu'adhdhin of Muhammad. The reference is to a saying of Muhammad's, " When I went on my night journey to heaven, I heard the sound of the feet of Bilal," B.
* Lit. ' will not cook with thee these colours long. '
6 ^tSttt, with gloss in B, 4>xl£j ^ jJU j (Jxj, 'controversy and imitation.
6 To be transformed from self -and personal existence to non-being and anni- hilation is the hidden goal of all wayfarers ; and the place to which the pure soul returns is the Word, which we may take to be the word kun ; or the confession
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10 0 thou, who hast rolled up the carpet of time, who hast passed beyond the four and the nine,1 pass at one step beyond life and rea- son, that so thou mayst arrive at God's command. Thou canst not see, forasmuch as thou art blind at night ; and in the day too hast but one eye, like the wisdom of fools. I do not speak to thee with wink and nod,2 but in God's way, with mystical significations and allegories.
Till thou pass beyond the false, God is not there ;3 the perfect
15 truth belongs not to this half-display. Know, that as provision for the journey to the eternal world, la khair is your strength and Id shai your gold ;* Id khair is the strength of the rich, as Id shai is the wisdom of the wine-drinkers.
ON THE NEED OF GOD, AND INDEPENDENCE or ALL BESIDE
HIM.6
He is wholly independent of me and thee in his plans ; 6 what matters infidelity or faith to His Independence ? What matters 20 that or this to His Perfection ? Know that God exists in real exist- ence ; in pursuance of His decree and just designs, the Independent seeks thy favours, the Guardian gives thee thanks.7
of the Unity (tauhid) ; or the confession of the Muslim faith (kalima) ; or lastly we may take the Word to be a characterization of the authority of God. L.
1 The four elements, and the nine spheres or heavens.
2 That is, perhaps, by common signs understood among men ; though ^+& and V*j here put in opposition, have much the same primary meaning.
8 Refers to the saying ' All things, except God, are false.' * ' La Kkair,' " there is no good," ' la ghai,' " there is nothing," sc. ex- cept God.
6 The chapter seems to have been mistakenly named ; its theme is rather God's independence of all things.
6 Lit. ' ' of me and thee for His plans, perfection is (an attribute) to His independence." The commentators quote the Quranic verse " Verily God is independent of the worlds ; ' ' and a quatrain whose source is not given : — ' ' The affluent skirt of perfect Love is clear From taint of need of me, of dust the peer ;
Since He Himself is sight and object both, If thou and I enter not there, what fear ?" 1 Or ' praises ' ; i.e., for accepting His guardianship, B.
\.
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The wolf and Yusuf appear to thee to be small and great ; ' but with Him, Yusuf and wolf are the same. What, to His Mercy, 27 matters opposition or help ? What, to His Wrath, are Moses and Pharaoh ? *
Thy service or thy rebellion are an honour or a shame to thee, but with Him the colour of both is the same. What honour has He from Reason, or from the lightning, what greatness from the soul, or the sky ? The soul and the heavens are His creatures. Happy the man who is chosen of Him.
The heavens and He who causes them to revolve are as the mill- 5 stone and the miller ; the supreme Disposer and the obedient Rea- son are as the carver's self and the matter he shapes. The motion of the restless heavens and of the earth is as it were an ant in the mouth of a dragon ; the dragon does not swallow the ant, and the revolution of the unconscious heavens sweeps on. He has imposed its task upon the mill-wheel of misfortune, itself unmindful and closed round by annihilation.3 Think of thy life as an atom in His 10 time.4 His banquet as accompanied by His affliction.5
1 i.e., appear different in size and degree. The wolf was supposed to have torn Joseph to pieces.
2 " What help can Moses give, what does the might of a Pharaoh matter when His Wrath goes forth ? " B.
3 Lit. ' within the foetal membranes of Not.' ' The dragon ' is the same as 'annihilation', cf. Jami, .*» &\\m> 5) »-&$J "The dragon does not swallow the ant because of its excessive insignificance ; and the revolution of the heavens goes on while they are unconscious of their position. As the ant passes into the dragon's mouth, and knows not of its passage into non-existence and destruction, so the revolution of the heavens and the earth they contain passes along, they themselves not knowing that they are in the mouth of the dragon of annihilation. And on the heavens, the millstone of calamity [so called since their revolutions are the cause of terrestrial events], God has imposed their labours, while they, enclosed in the membranes of La, know not what is being effected by themselves." So L, who adds, as an alternative, that the subject in the last line of the text may be ft*, understood. B gives a different ex- planation again.
4 Or, carrying on the metaphor of the ant in the dragon's mouth, per- haps, ' Think of thy life as a grain of corn in His mouth.'
6 i.e., life as inevitably attended by death.
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Thou knowest that thy goblet l has four feet 2 for movement ; yet though thou be persevering in His service thou wilt not reach His path • but by His grace. When will the slave who wishes to attain to God reach Him by means of reason, or by hand and foot ? 3 When will he attain to God, who in his own body attains (only to the recognition of) his hands and feet ? *
15 ON SELF-ABASEMENT AND HUMILITY.
Lowliness befits thee, violence suits thee not ; a naked man frantic in a bee-house is out of place.5 Leave aside thy strength, betake thyself to lowliness, that so thou mayest trample the heights of heaven beneath thy feet ; for God knows that, rightly seen, thy strength is a lie, and thy lowliness truth. If thou layest claim to
20 strength and wealth, thou hast a blind eye and a deaf ear. Thy face and thy gold are red,6 thy coat is of many colours, — then look to find thy honour disgrace, thy peace strife. Come not to God's door in the dust of thy strength, for in this road it is through lowli- ness that thou becomest a hero. This comes not of discharging thy
28 debt, but from bartering thy indigence."7 Look not on His Omni-
1 The goblet holding the wine of life, the body.
2 i.e., hands and feet ; also a metaphor indicating great perplexity, B. 8 i.e., external actions (gloss in B).
* In accordance with B. ' ' Thou who in the knowledge of thine own self canst not arrive at truth, to know fundamentally what thou art, except that thou recognisest thine own hands and feet, how canst thou with this weak power of knowledge know God ? ' ' L in addition to the above suggests ' ' He who arrives at the knowledge of his own nature only by struggles with all his limbs and by excessive labour, how can he, etc. ... ? " The texts, except I, insert as the last line of the chapter ' ' Since even in self-knowledge thou art weak, how then canst thou become a knower of God ? " which has appeared before, in the chapter ' On the knowledge of God ' ; where perhaps this last short para- graph as a whole might suitably be placed.
6 The world compared to a bee-house. ^£, gloss in B a^j^,.
6 i.e., thou art honoured ( «j ±.j*> ) and prosperous.
1 'This' refers perhaps to advancement in the path, which is not merely a matter of conventional rectitude, but is obtained by means of abasement and loss of self. L gives several explanations of the line ; referring ' this ' to lowli- ness, he supposes that the debt is the obligatory services, prayer, fasting, alms, pilgrimage ; humility is not attained thus, but by bartering, and thus turning
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potence with thy impotent eye ; O my master, commit not such an outrage.1
So long as thou art thy own support, clothe thyself, and eat; but if thou art upheld by Him, thou shalt neither sew nor tear.2 All that exists, 0 friend, exists through Him ; thine own existence is as a pretence, — speak not folly. If thou lose thyself, thy dust becomes a mosque ; if thou hold to thyself, a fire-temple :3 if thou hold to thyself, thy heart is hell ; if thou lose thyself, heaven. If 5 thou lose thyself, all things are accomplished : thy selffulness* is an untrained colt. Thou art thou, — hence spring love and hate ; thou art thou, — hence spring infidelity and faith.6 Remain a slave, without lot or portion ; for an angel is neither hungry nor full. Fear and hope have driven away fortune from thee ; when thy self has gone, hope and fear are no more.6
The owl that frequents the palace of the king is a bird of ill- omen, ill-fated and guilty ; when it is contented in its solitude, its 10
to profit, our poverty. Again in the second hemistich ^ji*L«.* cg}'^ rnay be in amplification of, and not in opposition to, ^i^.^ p\j in the first, " This comes not of discharging thy debt, which is a selling of thy poverty, i.e., of thyself." The possibility that the line belongs elsewhere is of course always present where the connection appears difficult or defective.
1 Reading with H, contrary to the rest, as <fU*t^ cannot have the izafat. To accord with the sense of the comments of L and B, we should read .itjf (as most do), and assuming the izafat, trans. ' Make not thus of thyself a lord, with powers of manumission. ' ' ' Imagine not that His absolute Omnipotence can be comprehended or perceived by thy feeble eye ; for that is as if one were to imagine the impossible within his power, as if a slave were to pretend to be a lord, with the power of manumission, and were to expatiate on his power and state," L.
2 "When thou hast hastened to the abode of eternity with God and art united to Him, thou wilt neither gaze with (lit. sew, i.e., fasten upon anything) the eye of desire, nor tear the collar of indigence (sc. in despair). ' ' B.
3 i.e., a worshipping place of the infidel Zoroastrians. Or ' a Jews' Syna- gogue,' or ' a pigsty.'
* _pU used as an abstract noun. I would suggest ' selffulness ' as the oppo- site of ' selflessness.'
5 Cf. p. 1,1. 12 and note ; and for a similar thought p. 29, 1. 15, inf.
6 "When thou passest from thyself into resignation towards God, hope and fear are no more : the grace of God has been bestowed on thee," B.
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feathers are finer than the splendour of the phoenix. Musk is spoilt by water and by fire ; but to the musk-bladder what matters wet or dry ? l What matters, at His door, a Muslim or a fire- worshipper ? What, before him, a fire- temple or a monk's cell ? a Fire- worshipper and Christian, virtuous and guilty, all are seekers, and He the sought.
God's essence is independent of cause ; why seekest thou now
15 a place for cause ? The sun of religion comes not forth by instruc- tion ; the moon goes down when the light of the truth shines out.3 If the holy man is good, it is well for him ; if the king is bad, what is that to us ? To be saved, do thou thyself persevere in good ; why contendest thou with God's decree and predestination ?
In this halt of but a week, to be is not to be, to come is to go. 4 Recite the word ' hastening on' ;5 for in the resurrection the believer
20 calls ' 'Make way ! ' ' Mustafa 6 exclaimed ' How excellent ! ' ; through this the hand of Moses became a moon, the Friend of God grew pitiful ;7 the waw of awwah gave him the sincerity of his faith, the
1 So long as it remains in its native place, that is, it is not liable to harm. The passage is apparently directed against the assumption of a claim to honour with God.
2 i.e., a peculiarly Christian institution.
3 Nor has the theological disputant any honour with God. ' ' The sun of the faith, which is the light of the knowledge and truth of God, shines not forth by disputes and discussion, that is, by exoteric learning; and when the light of the truth appears, the moon, that is the science of externals, disappears." B.
* That is, this life is so fleeting, that things that happen are as if they happened not, and our coming is synchronous with our going.
6 Or, "running on," L5*.~j» ; referring to Qur. 57 : 12. " On the day when thou shall see believers, men and women, with their light running on before them and on their right hand, — ' Glad tidings for you today : gardens beneath which rivers flow, to dwell therein for aye ; that is the grand bliss ! ' " Their light is their belief in the Unity of God, which goes in front of them so that they pass easily over the bridge Sirat, and on their right hands to guide them into Paradise. L.
6 lit. ' the chosen', i.e., Muhammad.
7 ' ' Mustafa said ' Well done ! ' in praise of that light ; through the light Moses' hand became a moon, and the Friend received the honour of 'Verily Abraham was pitiful and clement.'' " Qur. 9: 116; 11: 78, L. The 'light ' however is not mentioned in the text. According to the Muslim theologians the ' white hand of Moses ' was not due to leprosy.
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majesty and beauty of his belief,1 — then when the wdw goes out of awwah there remains but ah, a sigh, — how wonderful ! a A h 29 remains, a memorial of Him ; His religion remains as a manifes- tation of Him.3
Before the trumpet sounds kill thou thyself with the sword of indigence ; if they accept it,4 thou art at rest ; if not, think of what has happened as if it had not been. If thou come small or great to the door of the Absolute,5 or if thou come not at all, what is that to Him ? Shall the day subsist for the sake of the cock ? it will appear 5 at its own time.6 What is thy existence, what thy non-existence to Him '? Many like thee come to His door.
When the fountain of light 7 starts forth, it has no need of any to scourge it on ; yet all this magnificence is but water and earth, — the pure life and soul are there.8 What can the 'Make way ! ' of a
•
1 The middle letter j of tj\ (Ar. ' he was pitiful '), is the first of l»j
' sincerity.'
2 This is a kind of word-play the author is rather fond of. B carries it on thus: — "When waw disappears from awwah, the pitiful, i.e., Abraham, remains as a sigh only. We may say that this sigh, $f ? is of the essence of the affirmation of the light, i.e., his doctrine and belief. For when thou viewest the word af with the eye of truth, thou seest it is composed of a single alif, which denotes one, without companion, and ha, which denotes Huwa, He ; i.e., there is none but He. And this is the essence of the affirmation (of belief). ' '
3 V. note on previous line, the affirmation of the Unity being the essence of His religion.
4 Gloss in B fj jUJ ' thy indigence ' ; or perhaps understand rather ' thy sacrifice of thyself.' ' They,' an indefinite plu., here, as often, = ' the higher powers ' ; or as we might say ' if heaven accepts it.'
5 /jjUiui , ' absence of dependence on anything else' ; cf. p. 26, 11. 18, 19, 21.
6 That is, shall God exist for the sake of, or in dependence on, any of His creatures ? The line occurs eight lines lower in the MSS., but it evidently belongs to this argument and not to the later one.
7 i.e., the sun ; in giving as a gloss ' the light of the Essence of the One,' B seems, as often, to read mystical meanings into the text where they are not intended.
8 There, — with God and not in material things : for A»JJ in a purely adversative sense cf., inter alia, p. 26, 1. 22 ; p. 27, 1. 2.
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handful of straw effect ? His own light alone cries 'Make, way /'' 10 That lamp of thine is thy trust in thyself ; the sun2 comes forth of
himself in brightness, and this flame the cold wind cannot extinguish,
while half a sneeze wrests from that its life.
So then your road lies not in this street ; if there be a road, it
is the road of your sighs. You are all far from the road of
devotion, you are like asses straying for months and years deluded
with vain hopes. Since thou art sometimes virtuous, sometimes 15 wicked, thou fearest for thyself, hast hope in thyself ; but when thy
face of wisdom and of shame3 grows white,4 — go, know thou that
fear and hope are one.
ON THE JUSTICE OF THE PRINCE AND THE SECURITY or HIS
SUBJECTS.
'Umar one day saw a group of boys on a certain road all engaged in play and everyone boasting of himself ; everyone was in haste to 20 wrestle, having duly bared his head in Arab fashion.6 When 'Umar looked towards the boys, fear of him tore the curtain of their glad- ness ; they all fled from him in haste, except 'Abdu'1-lah b. Zubair. 30 'Umar said to him, " Why didst thou not fly from before me ? ': He said, " Why should I fly from before thee, O beneficent one ? Thou art not a tyrant, nor I guilty."
If a prince is pious and just, his people are glad in his justice ; but if his inclination is towards tyranny, he plunges his country in 5 ruin. When thou hast provisioned thyself with justice, thy steed has passed beyond both halting-places.6
1 Cf. sup., p. 28, 1. 19. " When the pure light of God, the Glorious, the Exalted (may my soul and my children and my life be His sacrifice !), shines, no cry of ' Make way ! ' rises from us, who are a handful of base straw ; it is His light that cries ' Make way ! ' ". B.
2 The light of His essence, B.
8 Thy face, which at present displays both these by turns. * J)£JUUM is the equivalent of ^ (&°'J) , J)rj"* •> «^**H «-^ (B.Q.); so = ' when thou findest fortune. '
5 *_o! ferL /cf»J = ' in accordance with the code of propriety ' ? Perhaps corrupt.
6 i.e., this world and the next.
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What matters acceptance or rejection, good or evil, to him who knows his own virtue ? Be virtuous, — thou wilt escape an aching head ; if thou be bad, thou breakest the whole compact. So stand in wonder at His justice that thou losest memory of all else but of Him.1
ON CELEBRATING THE PRAISE OF GOD.a
To call on the name of friends, and the unhappy ones3 of this 10 world, how thinkest thou of it ? It is like calling on old women. Oppression, if He ordain it, is all justice; a life without thought of Him is all wind. He laughs who is brought to tears through Him ; but that heart is an anvil that thinks not on Him. Thou art secure when thou pronouncest His name, — thou keepest a firm footing on thy path ; make thou thy tongue moist, like earth, with remembrance of Him, that He may fill thy mouth, like the rose, with gold.4 He 15 fills with life the soul of the wise man ; the heart of the lover of self He leaves thirsty.6 That thy purpose and judgment may be true, leave not His door at all ; to pay heed to those about us 6 is the act of a thoughtless fool.
CONCERNING THE Pious DISCIPLE AND THE GREAT MASTER.
Ttaurl, by way of obsequiousness and in anxiety to acquire a good reputation, asked an excellent question of Bayazid Bistaml ; 20 weeping, he said, ' ' O Master, tell me, who is unjust ? ' ' His master,
1 The lines following on the story proper seem to form two ' morals', one drawn from 'Umar's justice, and one from the boy's fearlessness, and I have rearranged them accordingly.
2 Two words signifying " to repeat Subhana'l-lah, 'praise be to God, ' " and « ' to repeat la ilaha illa'l-lah, ' there is no God but God. ' ' '
3 ..jsuM (£ = ' unable to speak from emotion or grief, unhappy, unfortu- nate ;' that is, they can do nothing to help you.
4 Referring to the yellow stamens of the wild rose.
6 B takes in an opposite sense ; — " The learned worshippers of outward form and the brainless philosophers (the mercy of God be not on them) He has filled with thoughts of self ; but the heart of the lover who seeks Him he makes thirsty " (i.e., for Himself). If the second hemistich stood by itself, the render- ing would be allowable ; but there is an obvious antithesis, and it seems to be training the sense to take ^L^. as ' thoughts of self,' and a.-su in a bad sense.
6 B explains rather as ' those of lofty station. '
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giving him a draught out of the law, answered him and said, ' ' Unjust is that ill-fated one who for one moment of the day and night in
31 negligence forgets Him : he is not His submissive slave." If thou forget Him for one breath, there is none so shamelessly unjust as thou ; but if thou be present ' and commemorate His name, thy being is lost in the fulfilment of His commands.2 So think upon Him that in thy heart and soul thou lapse not into forge tfulness 5 even for an instant. Keep in mind this saying of that ever- watch- ful traveller on this road, the impetuous lion, ' And worship thou the Lord in prayer as if thou sawest Him ; ' s and if thou do not thus , thou wilt be forced to cry ' Help, help ! ' So worship Him in both worlds, as if thou sawest Him with thine outward eye ; though thine eye sees Him not, thy Creator sees thee.
The commemoration of God exists only in the path of conflict ;
10 it exists not in the assembly of the contemplation :* though remem- brance of Him be thy guide at first, in the end remembrance is naught.5
Inasmuch as the diver seeks pearls in the seas, it is the water too that kills his cry ; 6 in absence the dove calls ' where ? ' — if present,
1 With the presence of the heart (gloss in B).
2 Thou art submerged in acquiescence in His ordinance (gloss in B).
"the lion of repeated attack," is 'All, the fourth caliph The saying attributed to him, which is here referred to, is, " And worship thou
„ . thy Lord as if thou sawest Him ( fc|j3 v^JK ) ; and if thou see Him not, verily
He seeth thee." L quotes also a similar tradition of Muhammad. The trans- lation of the line in the text is not strictly accurate ( ' and thou shalt see Him ' ) ; since however the line is only an adaptation to metre of the tradition referred to, I have kept the original sense.
4 i.e., the contemplation (in the sense of viewing, witnessing) of the divine Essence. ' ' The calling to mind and glorifying of God exists in asceticism and struggles ; it no longer exists when the advance has been made to presence and contemplation," B.
6 lit. ' wind ' . " Though progress in this path is by means of memory nd glorification, yet when thou arrivest at the abode of contemplation (vision, gi>jfcli*/o \ memory no longer exists," B.
6 There is a play on the word *J\ ? which is used for both ' pearls ' and ' water ' , hence the ' too ' . Thus the meaning is that the thing he seeks ( s-jf is the same as that ( v_>f ) which puts an end to his cries when he drowns ;
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why recite ' He ' ? l Those in His presence are rich in His majesty ; weep thou, if absence is thy portion.
Listen to the ringdove's plaint of yearning, — two grains of barley changes it into joy ; but he who seeks the only true contentment, 15 seeks the light of the Unity in the grave.* To him the tomb is the garden of Paradise ; heaven 8 is unlovely in his eyes. Then wilt thou be present, when in the abode of peace thou art present in soul, not in body ; whilst thou art in this land of fruitless search, thou art either all back or all front ;* but when the soul of the seeker has gone forward a few paces out of this land, love seizes the bridle.6 Unbelief 20 is death, religion life, — this is the pith of all that men have said.
Whoso for one moment takes delight in himself, he is imprisoned in hell and anguish for years. Who then shall have this honour and high dignity conferred upon him ? Only he who possesses the princi- 32 pie of Islam ; in loving, and in striving towards that world, one must not talk about one's life ; those who travel on this road know nothing of grief for life and sorrow of soul. When thou hast passed out of this world of fruitless search, then seek thou in that the fountain of life.
CONCERNING THE HOUSE or DECEPTION.
Death6 comes as the key of the house of the Secret ; without 5 death the door of true religion opens not. While this world stays, that is not ; while thou existest, God is not thine. Know, thy soul is
so the seeker crying out after God, is ultimately silenced by what he seeks for, — i.e. , when he arrives at the contemplation of the Essence.
1 9S KM, ( = ' where ? ' ) also represents the sound made by the dove. The implication is as before; religious exercises have no meaning in the presence and vision of God.
2 ' The dove's plaint of love, which is a matter of mimicry, is like the discussions of the philosophers, and not worth two grains of barley ; but the plaint of the perfect knower of God is the utterance of the saying " Die ye before your death," B.
3 i.e., the heaven of common opinion.
* i.e. , the bodily presence is never complete ; thou canst not show more than one side, be present with more than one side of thyself, to anyone at one time.
6 i.e. , takes possession of and guides it.
6 i.e., the annihilation of one's self, not death as commonly spoken of, L. 4
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a sealed casket ; the love- pearl within is the light of thy faith.1 The Past sealed the writing, and delivered it for thee to the Future ; as long as thou shalt depend for thy life upon the revolutions of Time,
10 thou shalt not know what is inside. Only the hand of death shall unloose the binding of the book'2 of God, the Exalted, the Glorious. So long as the breath of man flies not from thee, the morning of thy true faith will not dawn in thy soul's East.
Thou wilt not reach the door of the King's pavilion without experiencing the heat and cold of the world : at present thou knowest naught of the invisible world, canst not distinguish faults from virtues ; the things of that world are not those of sense, are not like
15 the other things of wont. The soul reaches His presence, and is at rest ; and what is crooked then is seen to be straight.
When thou arrivest in the presence of the decree 8 the soul sets forth, and like a bird leaves its cage for the garden ; the horse of re- ligion becomes famih'ar with the verdant meadow.4 Whilst thou livest true religion appears not ; the night of thy death brings forth its day. On this subject a man of wisdom, whose words are as a
20 mufti's decision,5 said, "Through desire and transgression men have gone to sleep; when death shows his face, they awake." All the people of this world are asleep, all are living in a vicious world : the desire that goes beyond this 6 is use and custom, and not religion ;
shell or pearl used as a philtre by women.'
2 The izafat required here by the sense and inserted in several MSS. must be omitted in scansion.
3 The decree of death; the commentators refer to Qur. 89, 28 sq. " 0 thou comforted soul ! return unto thy Lord, well pleaded and well pleased with. And enter amongst my servants and enter my Paradise."
* Reversing in the translation the order of the hemistichs.
5 The reference is to 'All, one of whose reputed sayings, " Men are asleep, and when they die, they awake," is copied from a tradition of Muhammad, L.
6 i.e., perhaps, ' the desire to find more in this world than a vicious place ' ; but the next line begins with <xj^ ' but, on the other hand,' cf. p. 26, 1. 22 ; p. 27,1. 2 ; the sense however is parallel and allows of no adversative meaning. A change in the position of the negative particle ( o-ilj ^j^ do <iu eiot* j +~>j
' (*. or ix£L» ^.j Ai ,5^jj cole j +~») ) would give the adversative sense : — " the
desire that goes beyond this (present world) is not (mere) custom and use, — it is true religion ; but the religion which is only of this life . . . . "
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for the religion which is only of this life is not religion, but empty 33 trifling.
To knock at the door of non-existence is religion and fortune ; knocking little comes of being little.1 He who esteems of small account the substance of this world, say to him, " Look thou on Mustafa and Adam" ;* and he who seeks for increase, say to him, " Look thou on 'Ad and on Qarun ;3 the foot of the one clave to 5 his stirrup, the other lived pierced through with terror ; the Eternal destroyed the foot of the one ;* remorse turned the hand of the other into a reed ; the dire blast falls on 'Ad, the dust of execration is the abode of Qarun.
What harm is it, if from fear of misfortune thou sacrifice thyself like wild rue for the sake of virtue ?5 Inflame not thy cheek before6 the men of the Path ; burn thyself, like wild rue ; thou hast the wisdom 10 and religion of a fool if thou pretendest to eminence before God. Let not man weave a net about himself ; rather the lion will break his cage.7
1 i.e., being weak and worthless, B.
2 i.e. , ' ' thou shalt see the essential perfections of Muhammad and Adam ; for the former constitutes the ultimate stage in the knowledge of the secrets of God, and the latter was the first receptacle of prophecy and the divine light and mysteries, and was the reason for the creation of the phenomenal world ; and both were elected to honour from their holding of small account the sub- stance of the world." So B, who does not seem very sure of his exegetical effort, as he adds " And God knows best." There is a play upon words, {•)&]+$ being both ' to knock little,' and ' to esteem of small account. '
3 According to B the reference is to Shaddad, son of 'Ad ; who " ordered the construction of a terrestrial paradise in the desert of 'Adan (Aden), osten- sibly to rival the celestial one, and to be called Iram after his great grandfather. On going to take possession of it, he and all his people were struck dead by a noise from heaven, and the paradise disappeared " (Hughes, Diet, of Islam s.v. Tram). Qarun is the Korah of the Bible, who was swallowed up in the earth ; to Muslims he is the type of a rich man ; Sana'i seems to refer to some further tradition about him.
4 By hamstringing (gloss in B).
5 dJhA«> — wild rue, of which, and of its seeds, a fumigation against malig- nant eyes is prepared (Stein.), oj^ — misfortune, and, specially, a fatal mis- fortune in consequence of witchcraft (ib.).
6 i.e. , associate not with nor pretend to equality with, B.
7 The ' lion ' is the ' man of the Path ' (gloss in B).
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0 thou, who art sated with thyself,1 — that is hunger ; and thou, who bendest double in penitence, — that is prayer.2 When thou art freed from thine own body and soul, then thou findest isolation8 and eminence. Display not at all thy city-inflaming countenance ; when
15 thou hast done so, go, burn wild rue.* What is that beauty of thine ?6 it is thy lust ; and what is thy wild rue ? it is