Additional Notes

I. 1 (note). Cf. the ḥadīs̤: I do not look at your outward forms, but only at your hearts.

II. 14 (note). See also Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 539.

IV. 1. Cf. Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 422, l. 4: Shaikh Aḥmad Ghazzālī relates that his shaikh, i.e. Abū Bakr Nassāj, exclaimed in his prayers, “O God, with what design was I created?” Answer came: “The design was that I might behold myself in the mirror of thy soul, and plant my love in thy heart.”

IV. 7. [Persian phrase omitted]: ‘has converted copper into the Philosophers’ Stone.’ For the derivation of [Arabic word omitted] see Dozy, Supplément, sub voc.

‘Alas! how can there be an act of prostration without an agent?’He said, ‘’Tis an act involving neither method nor perplexity.’

I offered my neck and said to him,‘Sever the agent’s head with Dhū’lfiqār’ (XXVI. 3, note).

The more he plied the sword, the more my head increased,Till there grew from my neck innumerable heads.

(T. 206. 6).

(For the last couplet, cf. XVIII. 2, note.)

According to Abū’l ‘Abbās Dīnavarī (Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 161, l. 18), “The first stage of prayer ([Arabic word omitted]) is to forget self, and the last stage is the effacement of the worshipper in the act of worship without consciousness of worship, and such absorption in the object of worship as precludes return to the subject thereof; this is the state of supreme annihilation” ([Arabic phrase omitted]).

VI. 1 (note). Further definitions of [Arabic word omitted] are found in the Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 10, ll. 18–23; p. 11, ll. 3, 5, 14; p. 102, ll. 14–21; p. 242, l. 5; p. 301, l. 15; p. 303, l. 2.

VI. 2 (note). The words What eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man, are quoted from an ḥadīs̤, which is a mere translation of the passage in I. Corinthians.

VII. 4. [Persian phrase omitted], i.e. with tears.

VIII. 3 (note). Cf. the saying of Ma‘rūf Karkhī (Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 43, l. 1): “Beware lest God behold thee save in the garb of a beggar” ([Arabic phrase omitted]).

(T. reads [Persian phrase omitted], but this is plainly an error.)

IX. 14 (note). Shaikh Abū Sa‘īd ibn Abī’l Khair said: “The veil between man and God is not earth or heaven, not the empyrean ([Arabic word omitted]) or the throne ([Arabic word omitted]); the veil is thy conceit and egoism; when they are removed, thou hast arrived at God” (Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 345, l. 15). See also ibid. p. 147, l. 3, p. 212, l. 21, p. 304, l. 6.

IX. 19. [Persian phrase omitted]: the expression, [Persian phrase omitted], occurs in a speech attributed to Jalālu’ddīn (Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 537, l. 15).

X. 2. The longing for immediate vision of the divine beauty is illustrated by Shu‘aib, to whom, ‘when his cries and wailing and dewy tears passed beyond measure, there came at dawn a voice from Heaven’:^{[322.1][322.2]}

(T. 12. 11ᵃ).

XI. 4. [Persian word omitted]: [Persian phrase omitted], with omitted preposition, may be the correct reading.

XI. 8. The following definition of [Arabic word omitted] is ascribed to Manṣūr Ḥallāj: i.e., as Jāmī paraphrases it, ‘The murīd is he who from the first makes Almighty God the goal of his efforts, and is never satisfied or engrossed by anything until he attains it’ (Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 174, l. 3).

XIII. 15 (note). [Persian word omitted] = ‘clean’ in Turkish.

XIV. 10 (note). [Arabic word omitted]: cf. Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 131, ll. 20–22.

XIV. 11 (note). [Arabic word omitted]: cf. Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 131, ll. 7–11; p. 158, last line.

XV. 16 (note). [Persian phrase omitted]: cf. Dante, Inferno, Canto I. According to Boccacio, the ‘selva selvaggia,’ where the poet lost his way, represents the path of contemplative life: the wild beasts are the sensual passions. But possibly [Persian phrase omitted] here = the World of Ideas (cf. Rosen’s Mas̤navī, p. 154, note 533). Giordano Bruno, allegorising the story of Actaeon, describes Actaeon (the intellect) as letting loose his dogs (thoughts) ‘upon the track of savage beasts in forests wild.’ These ‘savage beasts,’ he continues, are ‘the intelligible kinds of ideal conceptions, which are occult, followed by few, visited but rarely, and which do not disclose themselves to all those who seek them’ (The Heroic Enthusiasts, translated by Williams, Vol. I. p. 91). If this explanation be accepted, we must read with V. [Persian word omitted] in beyt 18.

XVI. 9. [Persian phrase omitted]: cf. the saying, Gnostics ([Arabic phrase omitted]) are the wild beasts of God: in the world they do not associate with mankind (Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 62, l. 8).

XVI. 16. Cf. Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 181, l. 1: ‘The ways to God are more than the number of the stars in heaven, yet I desire one of them and cannot find it’; and again, ‘Be content with the pain of search: what have you to do with finding?’ (ibid. p. 422, l. 2); ‘He is not to be found by search, but the seeker finds him and does not seek until he finds him’ (ibid. p. 83, l. 13).

In the Mas̤navī the heading is: [Persian phrase omitted]. Lévêque (Les Mythes et les Légendes de l’Inde et la Perse, p. 586) quotes from the Avadānas a very similar tale, of which a Brahman is the hero.

XVI. 21. Khwāja Bahā’u’ddīn Naqshband defines [Arabic word omitted] as ‘the fixed determination of the heart to deny all things, whether good or evil, in the pursuit of which (human) hearts are absorbed, except God’ (Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 442, l. 16). For another definition, which, however, is only verbally different, see XXXV. 2, note (Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 434, l. 10).

Without I have long seeking bin,Whilst thou, the while, abid’st within.

Through every broad street and strait laneOf this world’s city, but in vain,

I have enquired. The reason why?I sought thee ill: for how could I

Find thee abroad, when thou, mean space,Hadst made within thy dwelling-place?

XVII. 8. [Persian phrase omitted]: cf. Kor. II. 119.

XVIII. 1. [Persian phrase omitted]: cf. Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 107, ll. 2–5: ‘The Shaikhu’l Islām (Abū Ismā‘īl ‘Abdu’llāh ibn Abī Manṣūr Muḥammad Al-Anṣārī) said: “Spiritual sacrifice ([Arabic phrase omitted]) does not consist in going forth to war that you may be slain, but rather in not disputing with God about your soul ([Persian phrase omitted]), in devoting to him your soul, body, and heart, while you still have them, and in not complaining of any affliction that comes to you from him.”’

XIX. 9. [Persian phrase omitted]: cf. VIII. 5, note.

XX. 1 (note). Cf. the saying of Abū’l Qāsim Naṣrābādī (Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 46, l. 16): “one pull from God is better than (all) the actions of men and jinn” (quoted again, p. 441, l. 15, with the substitution of [Arabic word omitted] for [Arabic phrase omitted]). For a discussion of the whole question see Whinfield’s Mas̤navī, p. 18 seq. While he condemns those who busy themselves about worldly objects, Jalālu’ddīn praises the divine aspiration, ‘göttliche Bestrebung,’ of the saints and prophets (Rosen’s Mas̤navī, p. 133).

XX. 3. It is related of Shamsi Tabrīz (Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 536, l. 9) that when he arrived in the territory of Baghdād, he discovered Auḥadu’ddīn Kirmānī, and asked him what he was doing. “I am beholding the moon,” said he, “in a bowl of water.” “Unless,” replied Shamsu’ddīn, “you have a boil on your neck, why do you not behold it in the sky?” The story is re-told p. 686, l. 17.

XXII. 7. [Persian phrase omitted]: Plotinus, following Plato in the Timaeus, distinguishes the immortal soul, which is derived immediately from God (ἡ ἀρχὴ τῆς ψυχῆς) and the mortal soul, constructed by the offspring of God (ψυχῆς ἄλλο εἶδος), which is ‘subject to terrible and irresistible affections.’ Jalālu’ddīn refers here to the former—τῇ ἑτέρᾳ ψυχῇ τῇ καθαρᾷ (Plotinus, Enneades, II. 3. 9; Jowett’s Plato, Vol. III. p. 653).

XXII. 9. The Arabic proverb is: Every thing returns to its source.

XXII. 10. This metaphor of a divine centre, round which the phenomenal universe revolves, is a favourite with Plotinus (e.g. Enneades, VI. 9. 8). See Rousselot, Les Mystiques Espagnols, p. 105 seq.

XXIII. 5. Cf. the sayings: He is known by none save Himself, and [Arabic word omitted]^[327.1], the knowledge of God’s essence is ignorance (Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 243, ll. 11–12).

XXIII. 6. [Persian phrase omitted]: the reference may be to Kor. XXIV. 35.

XXV. 16. [Persian phrase omitted]: Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 140, l. 20: He is no gnostic ([Arabic word omitted]), who utters the knowledge of divine cognition ([Arabic phrase omitted]) before the worldly.

So Plotinus describes the Soul, which all true lovers desire, as: ἀχρώματον μὲν αὐτήν, ἀχρώματον δὲ καὶ τὴν σωφροσύνην ἔχουσαν (Enneades, I. 6. 5).

XXVIII. 7 (note). Cf. Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 299, ll. 15–18: God endows His servant with part of His own knowledge, and assigns to him suffering in proportion to the knowledge which He has bestowed, in order that he may support that suffering by virtue of knowledge. Cf. Plotinus, Enneades, III. 2. 4.

XXVIII. 8 (note). Cf. the saying: Self is the mother of idols.

XXIX. 5 (note). In the first miṣrā‘ of the passage quoted from the Mas̤navī read, with the Būlāq Edition, [Persian word omitted] for [Persian word omitted].

It seems likely, from the mention of Turkmāns, that the city on the borders of China is here intended.

XXXI. 8. The first miṣrā‘ is a quotation from Kor. LVII. 3.

XXXII. 3 (note). Cf. the saying, there is a window from one heart to another.

XXXIV. 1 (note). Cf. Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 687, ll. 10–20; Plotinus, Enneades, I. 3. 2, I. 6. 2 and 4. According to the proverb: Illusion is the bridge to Reality.

XXXVI. 4 (note). So we find [Arabic word omitted] used adjectivally:

(T. 253. 11).

XXXVI. 15 (note). Cf. Junaid’s definition of Ṣūfiism: to sit for a while without repining (Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 90, l. 20), and the saying of Shaikh ‘Abdu’llāh Balyānī:

(ibid. p. 295, l. 12).

(The iẓāfat of [Persian word omitted] is dropped in scansion.)

XXXVIII. 6. Cf. the anecdote which is told of Shaikh Mufarrij: He was seen by one of his companions on the day of ‘Arafa (9th of Dhū’l Ḥijja) at ‘Arafāt, and by another, on the same day, in his own house, where they spent the whole day together. When these individuals met and communicated to each other what they had seen, they began to quarrel. Said one, “On the day of ‘Arafa he was at ‘Arafāt,” and confirmed it with the oath of divorce. “He was at home all that day,” retorted the other; and he too took the oath of divorce. The disputants went before Shaikh Mufarrij and told him what had passed between them. “You are both in the right,” said he, “and neither of you has divorced his wife.” A great personage relates: “I begged the Shaikh to explain how this could be, since the asseveration of each party seemed to involve the perjury of the other. The Shaikh desired a number of learned men, who were present, to speak on this point, and all did so, but none gave a final or sufficient answer. In the meantime it dawned upon me what the answer was, and, at the Shaikh’s invitation, I spoke as follows: When a saint grows perfect in saintship, in the sense that his spirituality can be clothed in a visible shape, his power becomes absolute: he can show himself in many forms and in divers places simultaneously, just as he wishes. Therefore he may really have been seen in one form at ‘Arafāt and in another form in his own house, and neither party has violated his oath.” Shaikh Mufarrij said: “What you have spoken is the true answer” (Nafaḥātu’l Uns, p. 676, l. 17–p. 677, l. 14).

XXXIX. 11. There is in this couplet an allusion to the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, riding upon an ass. See IV. 9, note.

XXXIX. 12. [Arabic word omitted]: see Kazimirski, Dictionnaire Arabe-Français, under [Arabic word omitted]. Cf. the phrase, [Arabic phrase omitted], a particular period of time.

Footnotes