VI

1. When they departed, endurance and patience departed. They departed, although they were dwelling in the core of my heart.

2. I asked them where the travellers rested at noon, and I was answered, 'Their noonday resting-place is where the shíḥ and the bán trees diffuse a sweet scent.'

3. Then I said to the wind, 'Go and overtake them, for they are biding in the shade of the grove,

4. And bear to them a greeting from a sorrowful man in whose heart are sorrows because he is separated from his people.'

Commentary

1. 'They departed,' i.e. the Divine Ideas.

'They were dwelling in the core of my heart': the Divine Ideas have no relationship except with their object, which is God; and God dwells in the heart, according to the Tradition 'Neither My earth nor My heaven contains Me, but I am contained in the heart of My servant who believes'. Since, however, no manifestation was vouchsafed to him at this moment, the Ideas, being objects of vision, disappeared, notwithstanding that God was in his heart.

2. 'I asked them,' i.e. the gnostics and the real existences of the past Shaykhs who were my guides on the mystic Way.

'Their noonday resting-place,' etc., i.e. they reposed in every heart where the sighs of longing appeared, for shíḥ denotes inclination (mayl) and bán absence (bu‘d).

3. 'I said to the wind,' i.e. I sent a sigh of longing after them in the hope of causing them to return to me.

'In the shade of the grove,' i.e. amongst the arák trees, whereof the wood is used as a tooth-stick. He refers to the Tradition 'The use of the tooth-stick purifies the mouth and pleases the Lord', i.e. the Divine Ideas are dwelling in the abode of purity.

VII

1. As I kissed the Black Stone, friendly women thronged around me; they came to perform the circumambulation with veiled faces.

2. They uncovered the (faces like) sunbeams and said to me, 'Beware! for the death of the soul is in thy looking at us.

3. How many aspiring souls have we killed already at al-Muḥaṣṣab of Miná, beside the pebble-heaps,

4. And in Sarḥat al-Wádí and the mountains of Ráma and Jam‘ and at the dispersion from ‘Arafát!

5. Dost not thou see that beauty robs him who hath modesty, and therefore it is called the robber of virtues?

6. Our trysting-place after the circumambulation is at Zamzam beside the midmost tent, beside the rocks.

7. There everyone whom anguish hath emaciated is restored to health by the love-desire that perfumed women stir in him.

8. When they are afraid they let fall their hair, so that they are hidden by their tresses as it were by robes of darkness.'

Commentary

1. 'As I kissed the Black Stone,' i.e. when the Holy Hand was outstretched to me that I might take upon it the Divine oath of allegiance, referring to the verse 'Those who swear fealty to thee swear fealty to God; the hand of God is over their hands' (Kor. xlviii, 10).

'Friendly women,' i.e. the angels who go round the throne of God (Kor. xxxix, 75).

2. 'The death of the soul,' etc.: these spirits say, 'Do not look at us, lest thou fall passionately in love with us. Thou wert created for God, not for us, and if thou wilt be veiled by us from Him, He will cause thee to pass away from thy existence through Him, and thou wilt perish.'

3. 'Have we killed,' i.e. spirits like unto us, for the

above-mentioned angels who go round the Throne have no relationship except with pilgrims circumambulating the Ka‘ba.

5. 'Beauty robs him who hath modesty,' since the vision of Beauty enraptures whosoever beholds it.

'The robber of virtues,' i.e. it takes away all delight in the vision of beauty from him who acts at the bidding of the possessor of this beauty; and sometimes the beauteous one bids thee do that which stands between thee and glorious things, inasmuch as those things are gained by means of hateful actions: the Tradition declares that Paradise is encompassed by things which thou dislikest.

6. 'At Zamzam,' i.e. in the station of the life which thou yearnest for.

'Beside the midmost tent,' i.e. the intermediate world which divides the spiritual from the corporeal world.

'Beside the rocks,' i.e. the sensible bodies in which the holy spiritual beings take their abode. He means that these spirits in these imaginary forms are metaphorical and transient, for they vanish from the dreamer as soon as he wakes and from the seer as soon as he returns to his senses. He warns thee not to be deceived by the manifestations of phenomenal beauty, inasmuch as all save God is unreal, i.e. not-being like unto thyself; therefore be His that He may be thine.

7. In the intermediate world whosoever loves these spiritual beings dwelling in sensible bodies derives refreshment from the world of breaths and scents because the spirit and the form are there united, so that the delight is double.

8. When these phantoms are afraid that their absoluteness will be limited by their confinement in forms, they cause thee to perceive that they are a veil which hides something more subtle than what thou seest, and conceal themselves from thee and quit these forms and once more enjoy infinite freedom.

VIII

1. Their abodes have become decayed, but desire of them is ever new in my heart and decayeth not.

2. These tears are shed over their ruined dwellings, but souls are ever melted at the memory of them.

3. Through love of them I called out behind their riding-camels, 'O ye who are rich in beauty, here am I, a beggar!

4. I have rolled my cheek in the dust in tender and passionate affection: then, by the true love which I owe to you, do not make hopeless

5. One who is drowned in his tears and burned in the fire of sorrow with no respite!'

6. O thou who wouldst kindle a fire, be not hasty! Here is the fire of passion. Go and take of it!

Commentary

1. 'Their abodes have become decayed': he says, 'the places of austerities and mortifications, where the Divine Names made works their abode, have become decayed through age and loss of youthful strength.' The word [Ar.] is used in reference to the springtide of human life.

3. 'Behind their riding-camels,' i.e. the powers of youth and the delights of the commencement.

4. 'I have rolled my cheek in the dust,' i.e. desiring to be united with you, for God says, 'Seek access to Me by means of that which I have not,' viz. abasement and indigence.

6. 'Here is the fire of passion,' i.e. in my heart.

IX

1. Flashes of lightning gleamed to us at al-Abraqán, and their peals of thunder crashed between the ribs.

2. Their clouds poured rain on every meadow and on every quivering branch that bends towards thee.

3. The watercourses were flooded and the breeze wafted

perfume, and a ringdove flapped her wings and a twig put forth leaves.

4. They pitched the red tents between rivulets (creeping) like serpents, amongst which were seated

5. Friendly damsels, bright of countenance, rising like the suns, large-eyed, noble, of generous race, and limber.

Commentary

1. 'Al-Abraqán,' i.e. two manifestations of the Essence, one in the unseen and one in the visible world.

'Flashes of lightning,' referring to the variety of forms in the latter manifestation.

'Peals of thunder,' i.e. the Divine converse which followed the manifestation. This is a Mosaic ecstasy, for Moses first saw the fire and afterwards heard God speak. The mention of thunder also signifies that God's speech was a rebuke.

2. 'Their clouds,' i.e. the ecstasies which bring forth the Divine sciences.

'On every meadow,' i.e. the heart of man together with the Divine sciences which it holds.

'On every quivering branch,' i.e. the straight movement which is the growth of man as God says that He created Adam after His own image; and from this station it 'bends', i.e. inclines towards thee that it may instruct thee.

3. He says, 'The valleys of the Divine sciences were flooded, and the world of breaths diffused the sweet scents of the Divine sciences.'

'A ringdove,' i.e. the Universal Soul together with the effect it produces upon the Partial Soul, which appears in the form of the Universal in so far as it possesses the two faculties of knowledge and action.

'A twig,' i.e. that with which the branches are clothed. He refers to the verse 'Take your becoming vesture at every mosque' (Kor. vii, 29), i.e. the everlasting vesture of God, which consists in the various kinds of Divine science and gnosis.

4. 'The red tents,' i.e. the bride-like forms of Divine wisdom.

'Rivulets,' i.e. diverse sciences connected with the works which lead to union with these forms of Divine wisdom.

'Like serpents': cf. Kor. xxiv, 44, 'And amongst them is one who walks on his belly.' He refers to those devout persons who scrupulously examine their food, for by means of pure food which produces strength for the practice of devotion the heart is illuminated and becomes the abode of these forms of Divine wisdom.

5. 'Bright of countenance,' etc., i.e. there is no doubt concerning them, as the Prophet said, 'Ye shall see your Lord as ye see the sun at noonday when no cloud comes between.'

'Noble,' i.e. proceeding from the results of works prescribed by God, unlike the maxims of the philosophers which spring from their own minds.

'Of generous race': [Ar.] is derived from [Ar.]. He means, therefore, that they understand what is imparted to them and perceive its value.

'Limber': although per se they are in the station of equilibrium and inflexibility, yet when they are invoked with longing and humility and love they incline towards the caller, because he is not able to ascend to them.

X

1. She said, 'I wonder at a lover who in conceit of his merits walks proudly among flowers in a garden.'

2. I replied, 'Do not wonder at what thou seest, for thou hast beheld thyself in the mirror of a man.'

Commentary

1. 'Flowers,' i.e. created things.

'A garden,' the unitive station, i.e. his essence.

‘Utba al-Ghulám used to walk proudly and swagger in his gait. 'How should not I do so,' he said to one who found fault with him, 'since He has become my Lord and I have

become His slave?' When a man realizes God in the sense of 'I am His hearing and His sight', this station justifies the attribution to him of whatever is attributed to God.

2. He says, 'I am like a mirror to thee, and in those qualities with which I am invested thou beholdest thyself, not me, but thou beholdest them in my human nature which has received this investiture.'

This is the vision of God in created things, which in the opinion of some is more exalted than the vision of created things in God.