TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY

I

1. Would that I were aware whether they knew what heart they possessed!

2. And would that my heart knew what mountain-pass they threaded!

3. Dost thou deem them safe or dost thou deem them dead?

4. Lovers lose their way in love and become entangled.

Commentary

1. 'They,' i.e. the Divine Ideas, of which the hearts (of gnostics) are passionately enamoured, and by which the spirits are distraught, and for whose sake the godly workers perform their works of devotion.

'What heart': he refers to the perfect Muḥammadan heart, because it is not limited by stations, Nevertheless, it is possessed by the Divine Ideas, for they seek it and it seeks them. They cannot know that they possess it, for they belong to its essence, inasmuch as it beholds in them nothing except its own nature.

2. 'What mountain-pass they threaded,' i.e. what gnostic's heart they entered when they vanished from mine. 'Mountain-pass' signifies a 'station', which is fixed, in contrast to a 'state', which is fleeting.

3. The Divine Ideas, quâ Ideas, exist only in the existence of the seer; they are 'dead' in so far as the seer is nonexistent.

4. Lovers are perplexed between two opposite things, for the lover wishes to be in accord with the Beloved and also wishes to be united with Him, so that if the Beloved wishes to be separated from the lover, the lover is in a dilemma.

II

1. On the day of parting they did not saddle the full-grown reddish-white camels until they had mounted the peacocks upon them,

2. Peacocks with murderous glances and sovereign power: thou wouldst fancy that each of them was a Bilqís on her throne of pearls.

3. When she walks on the glass pavement ¹ thou seest a sun on a celestial sphere in the bosom of Idrís.

4. When she kills with her glances, her speech restores to life, as tho’ she, in giving life thereby, were Jesus.

5. The smooth surface of her legs is (like) the Tora in brightness, and I follow it and tread in its footsteps as tho’ I were Moses.

6. She is a bishopess, one of the daughters of Rome, unadorned: thou seest in her a radiant Goodness. ²

7. Wild is she, none can make her his friend; she has gotten in her solitary chamber a mausoleum for remembrance.

8. She has baffled everyone who is learned in our religion, every student of the Psalms of David, every Jewish doctor, and every Christian priest.

9. If with a gesture she demands the Gospel, thou wouldst deem us to be priests and patriarchs and deacons.

10. The day when they departed on the road, I prepared for war the armies of my patience, host after host.

11. When my soul reached the throat (i.e. when I was at the point of death), I besought that Beauty and that Grace to grant me relief,

12. And she yielded—may God preserve us from her evil, and may the victorious king repel Iblís!

13. I exclaimed, when her she-camel set out to depart, 'O driver of the reddish-white camels, do not drive them away with her!'

Commentary

1. 'The full-grown camels,' i.e. the actions inward and outward, for they exalt the good word to Him who is throned on high, as He hath said: 'And the good deed exalts it' (Kor. xxxv, 11). 'The peacocks' mounted on them are his loved ones: he likens them to peacocks because of their beauty. The peacocks are the spirits of those actions, for no action is acceptable or good or fair until it hath a spirit consisting in the intention or desire of its doer. He compares them to birds inasmuch as they are spiritual and also for the variety of their beauty.

2. 'With murderous glances and sovereign power': he refers to the Divine wisdom which accrues to a man in his hours of solitude, and which assaults him with such violence that he is unable to behold his personality, and which exercises dominion over him.

'A Bilqís on her throne of pearls': he refers to that which was manifested to Gabriel and to the Prophet during his night journey upon the bed of pearl and jacinth in the terrestrial heaven, when Gabriel alone swooned by reason of his knowledge of Him who manifested Himself on that occasion. The author calls the Divine wisdom 'Bilqís' on account of its being the child of theory, which is subtle, and practice, which is gross, just as Bilqís was both spirit and woman, since her father was of the Jinn and her mother was of mankind.

3. The mention of Idrís alludes to her lofty and exalted rank. 'In the bosom of Idrís,' i.e. under his control, in respect of his turning her wheresoever he will, as the Prophet said: 'Do not bestow wisdom on those who are unworthy of it, lest ye do it a wrong.' The opposite case is that of one who speaks because he is dominated by his feeling, and who is therefore under the control of an influence. In this verse the author calls attention to his puissance in virtue of a prophetic heritage

for the prophets are masters of their spiritual feelings, whereas most of the saints are mastered by them. The sun is joined to Idrís because the sun is his sphere, and the Divine wisdom is described as 'walking' (instead of 'running', etc.) because of her pride and haughtiness, and because she moves in the feelings of this heart and changes from one feeling to another with a sort of absolute power.

4. 'She kills with her glances': referring to the station of passing away in contemplation. 'Her speech restores to life': referring to the completion of the moulding of man when the spirit was breathed into him. She is compared to Jesus in reference to Kor. xxxviii, 72, 'And I breathed into him of My spirit,' or Kor. xvi, 42, 'That We say to it "Be", and it is.'

5. 'Her legs': referring to Bilqís and the glass pavement (Kor. xxvii, 44).

'Is like the Tora in brightness,' because the Tora (Tawrát) is derived from the phrase, [Ar.], 'the stick produced fire.' The four faces of the Tora, namely, the four Books (the Koran, the Psalms, the Pentateuch, and the Gospel), correspond to the fourfold light mentioned in Kor. xxiv, 35.

6. 'One of the daughters of Rome': this wisdom, being of the race of Jesus, is described as belonging to the Roman Empire. 'Unadorned,' i.e. she is of the essence of unification and without any vestige of adornment from the Divine Names, yet there shines from her the 'radiance' of Absolute Goodness, viz. the burning splendours which, if God were to remove the veils of light and darkness, would consume the glories of His face.

7. 'Wild is she, none can make her his friend,' because contemplation of the Essence is a passing away, in

which, as as-Sayyárí ¹ said, there is no pleasure. She is 'wild', inasmuch as noble souls desire to seize her, but she does not show friendship to them, because no relation exists between them and her.

'In her solitary chamber,' i.e. in the heart. Her solitude is her looking on herself, for God says, 'Neither My earth nor My heaven contains Me, but I am contained by the heart of My servant who is a believer'; and since the heart which contains this essential wisdom of the race of Jesus is bare and empty of all attributes, it is like a desert and she is like a wild animal. Then he mentions the marble tomb of the Roman emperors, that such a mausoleum may remind her of death, which is the severance of union, and make her shun familiarity with the created world on account of this severance.

8. The four Books (the Koran, the Psalms, the Tora, and the Gospel) are here indicated by the mention of those who study and expound them. All the sciences comprised in the four Books point only to the Divine Names and are incapable of solving a question that concerns the Divine Essence.

9. If this spiritual being, forasmuch as she is of the race of Jesus, appeals to the Gospel by way of justifying it in anything which men's thoughts have falsely imputed to it, we humble ourselves before her and serve her no less devotedly than do the heads of the Church, because of her majesty and sovereign might.

10. 'Upon the road,' i.e. the spiritual ascension.

11. 'To grant me relief': he means what the Prophet meant by his saying, 'Lo, the breath of the Merciful comes to me from the quarter of al-Yaman.' The writer begs that the world of breaths may continually be wafted from her to him along with the spiritual feelings.

The Arabs refer to this in their poetry, for they speak of giving greetings and news to be delivered by the winds when they blow.

12. 'May God preserve us from her evil!' He refers to the Tradition 'I take refuge with Thee from Thyself'.

'The victorious king,' i.e. thoughts of knowledge and Divine guidance.

'Iblís,' i.e. the thought of becoming one with God, for this is a hard station, and few who attain to it escape from the doctrines of and incarnation. It is the station indicated in the Tradition 'I am his ear and his eye', etc.

13. He says, 'When this spiritual essence desired to quit this noble heart on account of its (the heart's) return from the station denoted by the words, "I have an hour which I share with none save my Lord," to the task imposed upon it of presiding over the phenomenal worlds, for which purpose its gaze is directed towards the Divine Names, the lofty aspiration on which this spiritual essence was borne to the heart, took its departure.' He calls this aspiration 'her she-camel', and the drivers of such aspirations are the angels who approach nearest to God.

III

1. O my two friends, pass by al-Kathíb and turn towards La‘la‘ and seek the waters of Yalamlam,

2. For there dwell those whom thou knowest and those to whom belong my fasting and my pilgrimage and my visit to the holy places and my festival.

3. Never let me forget at al-Muḥaṣṣab of Miná and at al-Manḥar al-A‘lá and Zamzam certain grave matters.

4. Their Muḥaṣṣab is my heart, because of their casting the pebbles, and their place of sacrifice is my soul, and their well is my blood.

5. O camel-driver, if thou comest to Ḥájir, stop the beasts a little while and give a greeting,

6. And address to the red tents on the side of the guarded pasture the salutation of one who longs for you and is distraught.

7. And if they return thy greeting, once more let the East wind bring thy salaam to them; and if they are silent, journey on with thy camels and advance

8. To the river of Jesus, where their riding-camels halted and where the white tents lie beside the river-mouth,

9. And call Da‘d and ar-Rabáb and Zaynab and Hind and Salmá and Lubná, and listen,

10. And ask them whether at al-Ḥalba is She, the limber one who shows thee the radiance of the sun when she smiles.

COMMENTARY

1. 'O my two friends,' i.e. his reason and his faith.

'Al-Kathíb,' the place of contemplation.

'La‘la‘,' the place of bewilderment and amazement, that he may no more be conscious of love and longing.

'The waters of Yalamlam,' i.e. the fountain of life, since water is the source of every living thing.

2. 'Thou knowest': he addresses Faith, not Reason, for knowledge of the Essence and of its attributes is gained solely by means of Faith.

'And those to whom belong,' etc., i.e. the Divine attributes.

'My fasting': he means the quality of being independent of food, as God said, 'Fasting belongs to Me,' i.e. that quality cannot truly be predicated of a man; yet a man has some part in fasting, since it entails abstinence from food and nourishment.

'My pilgrimage,' i.e. a repeated turning towards this pure Essence for the sake of gaining a blessing at every moment from the Divine Names. This pilgrimage and visitation is incessant, though a man is momently going from one Name to another.

'My festival,' referring to the concentration of the mind when all mystical stations and Divine verities are

united therein, just as all sorts and conditions of men assemble at Mecca for one purpose.

3. 'Never let me forget': he alludes to an occasion when he became invested with Divine qualities in the sense of the Tradition 'I am his ear and his eye', and he also calls attention to his having attained by Divine investiture the station which is described in the words 'And thy Lord is not forgetful' (Kor. xix, 65).

'At al-Muḥaṣṣab,' the place where the pebbles are cast. He refers to the verse 'And remember God even as ye remember your fathers, or more reverently' (Kor. ii, 196), i.e. in this place cast the memory of your fathers out of your hearts and mouths.

'At al-Manḥar al-A‘lá,' the place of (spiritual) sacrifice, as the poet says:

'Thou offerest victims, but I offer my life-blood.'

'Zamzam': he means the station of everlasting life.

4. 'Their Muḥaṣṣab': 'their' refers to the Divine verities which descend upon the heart and cast out sensual and devilish thoughts.

'Their place of sacrifice': the story is well known of the youth who mentally offered himself at Miná when he saw the people offering sacrifice, and died on the spot.

5. 'O camel-driver': he addresses the Desire which drives his thoughts to the abode of those whom he loves.

'Ḥájir': ḥijr is the understanding, and the way (to God) is only through faith and contemplation, not through the understanding in respect of its power of reflection but in virtue of its cognition and belief.

'Stop the beasts a little while,' because when the lover first approaches the dwelling-place of his beloved he is dazed and dumbfounded and often swoons; consequently he is apt to break the rules of good manners in greeting her.

6. 'The red tents': the Arabs deem red the most beautiful of all colours, and red tents are reserved for brides.

'On the side of the guarded pasture,' i.e. the tents are

inaccessible except to those who have the right to approach them. He calls the tents qibáb (round tents or domes) because roundness is the first and best of shapes, and he says that the Divine Realities which he loves are in their original home, which is beside God, not beside any phenomenal object, for they belong to 'the world of command'.

7. 'Let the East wind,' etc.: he mentions the East wind particularly, because ṣabá signifies 'inclination' (mayl).

8. 'To the river of Jesus,' i.e. to the ample knowledge manifested in Jesus.

'The white tents': white, because Jesus was born of a virgin.

'Beside the river-mouth,' i.e. this knowledge is approached by the way of Divine allocution and manifestation.

9. He says, 'Call the names of these Divine Realities according to their difference, in order that whichever is yours may respond to you and that thus you may know what is your position in regard to them.'

10. 'Al-Ḥalba,' a quarter of Baghdád. Ḥalba means 'racecourse'. The Divine Realities strive to outstrip one another in haste to reach the phenomena which display their traces and manifest their power. Hence he speaks of 'the limber one', i.e. inclining towards the phenomenal world.

'The radiance of the sun': formerly thou wert in a station of Jesus, but now thou art asking of a station of Idrís, lofty and polar, for to him belongs the fourth heaven.

'When she smiles': he indicates that this is the station of Expansion and that she is with him in joy and beauty (not in awe and majesty).

IV

1. Greeting to Salmá and to those who dwell in the preserve, for it behoves one who loves tenderly like me to give greeting.

2. And what harm to her if she gave me a greeting in return? But fair women are subject to no authority.

3. They journeyed when the darkness of night had let down its curtains, and I said to her, 'Pity a passionate lover, outcast and distraught,

4. Whom desires eagerly encompass and at whom speeding arrows are aimed wheresoever he bends his course.'

5. She displayed her front-teeth and a levin flashed, and I knew not which of the twain rent the gloom,

6. And she said, 'Is it not enough for him that I am in his heart and that he beholds me at every moment? Is it not enough?'

Commentary

1. 'Salmá': he alludes to a Solomonic ecstasy, which descended upon him from the station of Solomon in virtue of a prophetic heritage.

'In the preserve,' i.e. an unattainable station, viz. prophecy, whereof the gate was closed by Muḥammad, the last of the prophets. Solomon's experience of this Divine wisdom in so far as he was a prophet is different from his experience of it in so far as he was a saint, and we share it with him only in the latter case, since our experience of it is derived from the saintship which is the greatest circle.

2. God does nothing of necessity: whatever comes to us from Him is by His favour. The author indicates this Divine Solomonic apparition (nukta) by the term 'marble statues' (i.e. women fair as marble statues). He means that she does not answer by speech, for if she did so her speech would be other than her essence, whereas her essence is single, so that her advent is identical with her speech and with her visible presence and with her hearing; and in this respect all the Divine Realities and Attributes resemble her.

3. 'They journeyed,' etc.: the ascension of the prophets always took place during the night, because night is the time of mystery and concealment.

'The darkness of night,' i.e. the veil of the Unseen let down the curtains of gross corporeal existence, which is the night of this animal organism, throwing a shroud over the spiritual subtleties and noble sciences which it enshrines. These, however, are not to be reached except by journeying through bodily actions and sensual thoughts, and whilst a man is thus occupied the Divine wisdom goes away from his heart, so that on his return he finds her gone and follows her with his aspiration.

4. 'Speeding arrows': he describes this celestial form as shooting his heart, wherever it turns, with the arrows of her glances, as God said, 'Wheresoever ye turn, there is the face of Allah' (Kor. ii, 109).

5. 'She displayed her front-teeth,' etc., i.e. this lover found his whole being illuminated, for 'God is the light of the heavens and the earth' (Kor. xxiv, 35), and the Prophet also said in his prayer, 'O God, put a light into my ear and into my eye,' and after mentioning the different members of his body he concluded, 'and make the whole of me one light,' viz. by the manifestation of Thy essence. Such a manifestation is compared to a flash of lightning on account of its not continuing. The author says that he did not know whether his being was illuminated by the manifestation proceeding from this Divine wisdom, which smiled upon him, or by a simultaneous manifestation of the Divine Essence.

6. 'She said,' etc., i.e. let him not seek me from without and let it satisfy him that I have descended into his heart, so that he beholds me in his essence and through his essence at every moment.

V

1. My longing sought the Upland and my affliction the Lowland, so that I was between Najd and Tiháma.

2. They are two contraries which cannot meet: hence my disunion will never be repaired.

3. What am I to do? What shall I devise? Guide me O my censor, do not affright me with blame!

4. Sighs have risen aloft and tears are pouring over my cheeks.

5. The camels, footsore from the journey, long for their homes and utter the plaintive cry of the frenzied lover.

6. After they have gone, my life is naught but annihilation. Farewell to it and to patience!

Commentary

1. 'The Upland,' referring to God on His throne.

2. 'They are two contraries,' etc.: he says, 'Inasmuch as the spiritual element in man is always governing the body, it can never contemplate that which is uncomposed apart from its body and independently, as some Ṣúfís and philosophers and ignorant persons declare.' Hence the writer says, 'my disunion will never be repaired,' i.e., 'I cannot become united with Him who is pure and simple, and who resembles my essence and reality. Therefore longing is folly, for this station is unattainable, but longing is a necessary attribute of love, and accordingly I cease not from longing.'

3. 'My censor,' i.e. the blaming soul.

5. 'The camels,' i.e. the actions or the lofty thoughts—since, in my opinion, such thoughts belong to the class of actions—on which the good words mount to the throne of God. They 'long for their homes', i.e. for the Divine Names from which they proceeded and by which they are controlled.

6. 'My life is naught but annihilation': he says, 'When the lofty thoughts ascend to their goal I remain in the state of passing away from passing away, for I have gained the life imperishable which is not followed by any opposite.' Accordingly, he bids farewell to patience and to the mortal life, because he has quitted the sensible world.