1. O doves that haunt the arák and bán trees, have pity! Do not double my woes by your lamentation!
2. Have pity! Do not reveal, by wailing and weeping, my hidden desires and my secret sorrows!
3. I respond to her, at eve and morn, with the plaintive cry of a longing man and the moan of an impassioned lover.
4. The spirits faced one another in the thicket of ghaḍá trees and bent their branches towards me, and it (the bending) annihilated me;
5. And they brought me divers sorts of tormenting desire and passion and untried affliction.
6. Who will give me sure promise of Jam‘ and al-Muḥaṣṣab of Miná? Who of Dhát al-Athl? Who of Na‘mán?
7. They encompass my heart moment after moment, for the sake of love and anguish, and kiss my pillars,
8. Even as the best of mankind encompassed the Ka‘ba, which the evidence of Reason proclaims to be imperfect,
9. And kissed stones therein, although he was a Náṭiq (prophet). 1 And what is the rank of the Temple in comparison with the dignity of Man?
10. How often did they vow and swear that they would not change, but one dyed with henna does not keep oaths.
11. And one of the most wonderful things is a veiled gazelle, who points with red finger-tip and winks with eyelids,
12. A gazelle whose pasture is between the breast-bones and the bowels. O marvel! a garden amidst fires!
13. My heart has become capable of every form: it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
14. And a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Ka‘ba and the tables of the Tora and the book of the Koran.
15. I follow the religion of Love: whatever way Love's camels take, that is my religion and my faith.
16. We have a pattern in Bishr, the lover of Hind and her sister, and in Qays and Lubná, and in Mayya and Ghaylán.
1. 'O doves,' i.e. the influences of holiness and purity.
3. 'I respond to her,' i.e. I repeat to her what she says to me, as God said to the soul when He created her, 'Who am I?' and she answered, 'Who am I?' referring to her qualities, whereupon He caused her to dwell four thousand years in the sea of despair and indigence and abasement until she said to Him, 'Thou art my Lord.'
4. 'Faced one another,' because love entails the union of two opposites.
'In the thicket of ghaḍá trees,' i.e. the fires of love.
'Branches,' i.e. flames.
'Annihilated me,' in order that He alone might exist, not I, through jealousy that the lover should have any existence in himself apart from his beloved.
6. 'Jam‘,' i.e. union with the loved ones in the station of proximity, which is al-Muzdalifa.
'Al-Muḥaṣṣab,' the place where the thoughts which prevent lovers from attaining their object of desire are cast out.
'Dhát al-Athl,' referring to the principle, for it is
the principle in love that thou shouldst be the very essence of thy Beloved and shouldst disappear in Him from thyself.
'Na‘mán,' the place of Divine and holy bliss
7. 'For the sake of love and anguish,' i.e. in order to inspire me with passion.
'And kiss my pillars' (properly, kiss over the lithám or veil covering the mouth), i.e. he is veiled and unable to behold them except through a medium. The 'pillars' are the four elements on which the human constitution is based. 1
10. 'One dyed with henna': he refers to sensual influences, such as descended on the soul when God addressed it and said, 'Am not I your Lord?' (Kor. vii, 171), and received from it a promise and covenant. Then it did not faithfully keep the station of unification, but followed other gods. No one was exempt from this polytheism, for every one said, 'I did' and 'I said', at the time when he forgot to contemplate the Divine Agent and Speaker within him.
11. 'A veiled gazelle,' i.e. a Divine subtlety veiled by a sensual state, in reference to the unknown spiritual feelings of gnostics, who cannot explain their feelings to other men; they can only indicate them symbolically to those who have begun to experience the like.
'With red finger-tip': he means the same thing as he meant by 'one dyed with henna' in the last verse.
'And winks with eyelids,' i.e. the speculative proofs concerning the principles of gnostics are valid only for those who have already been imbued with the rudiments of this experience. Gnostics, though they resemble the vulgar outwardly, are Divines inwardly.
12. 'Whose pasture,' etc., as ‘Alí said, striking his breast, 'Here are sciences in plenty, could I but find people to carry them (in their minds).'
'A garden amidst fires,' i.e. manifold sciences which, strange to say, are not consumed by the flames of love in his breast. The reason is, that these sciences are produced by the fires of seeking and longing, and therefore, like the salamander, are not destroyed by them.
13. 'My heart has become capable of every form,' as another has said, 'The heart (qalb) is so called from its changing (taqallub),' for it varies according to the various influences by which it is affected in consequence of the variety of its states of feeling; and the variety of its feelings is due to the variety of the Divine manifestations that appear to its inmost ground. The religious law gives to this phenomenon the name of 'transformation'.
'A pasture for gazelles,' i.e. for the objects of his love.
'A convent for Christian monks': inasmuch as he makes the loved ones to be monks, he calls the heart a convent.
14. 'A temple for idols,' i.e. for the Divine Realities which men seek and for whose sake they worship God.
'The pilgrim's Ka‘ba,' because his heart is encompassed by exalted spirits.
'The tables of the Tora,' i.e. his heart is a table on which are inscribed the Mosaic sciences that have accrued to him.
'The book of the Koran,' because his heart has received an inheritance of the perfect Muḥammadan knowledge.
15. 'I follow the religion of Love,' in reference to the verse 'Follow me, then God will love you' (Kor. iii, 29).
'Whatever way Love's camels take,' etc., i.e. 'I accept willingly and gladly whatever burden He lays upon me. No religion is more sublime than a religion based on love and longing for Him whom I worship and in whom I have faith'. This is a peculiar prerogative of Moslems, for the station of perfect love is appropriated to Muḥammad beyond any other prophet, since God took him as His beloved.
16. He says, 'Love, quâ love, is one and the same reality to those Arab lovers and to me, but the objects of our love
are different, for they loved a phenomenon, whereas I love the Essential.' 'We have a pattern in them,' because God only afflicted them with love for human beings like themselves in order that He might show, by means of them, the falseness of those who pretend to love Him and yet feel no such transport and rapture in loving Him as deprived those enamoured men of their reason and made them unconscious of themselves.
1. At Dhú Salam and the monastery in the abode of al-Ḥimá, are gazelles who show thee the sun in the forms of marble statues.
2. Therefore I watch spheres and serve in a church and guard a many-coloured meadow in the spring.
3. And at one time I am called the herdsman of the gazelles in the desert, and at another time I am called a Christian monk and an astrologer.
4. My Beloved is three although He is One, even as the (three) Persons (of the Trinity) are made one Person in essence.
5. So be not displeased, O friend, that I speak of gazelles that move round the marble statues as 'a shining sun',
6. Or that I use metaphorically the necks of the gazelles, the face of the sun, and the breast and wrist of the white statue,
7. Just as I have lent to the branches (spiritual) endowments and to the meadows moral qualities, and to the lightning laughing lips.
1. 'Dhú Salam': a station to which submission is rendered on account of its beauty.
'The monastery,' referring to a Syrian ecstasy.
'The abode of al-Ḥimá,' that which surrounds the most inaccessible veil of Divine glory.
'Gazelles,' i.e. forms of Divine and prophetic wisdom which descend upon his spirit.
'Marble statues,' i.e. sorts of knowledge with which neither reason nor lust is connected; hence he makes them inanimate.
2. 'I watch spheres,' i.e. the spiritual states in which these sorts of knowledge revolve, like the sun.
'And serve in a church,' because marble effigies are found in churches.
'And guard,' etc.: the meadows where these gazelles pasture are the scenes of devotional acts and Divine morals; they are described as 'many-coloured', i.e. adorned with the Divine realities, and spring-like, because that which is new and fresh is more delightful to the soul.
3. He refers to his ever-changing spiritual states, which bring with them manifold Divine influences and sciences. Although the spiritual experiences vary, the Divine substance remains one. This is the 'transformation' of which Muslim speaks in the chapter on Faith. Those who worship God in the sun behold a sun, and those who worship Him in living things see a living thing, and those who worship Him in inanimate objects see an inanimate object, and those who worship Him as a Being unique and unparalleled see that which has no like.
4. He says, 'Number does not beget multiplicity in the Divine substance, as the Christians declare that the Three Persons of the Trinity are One God, and as the Koran declares (xvii, 110): "Call on God or call on the Merciful; howsoever ye invoke Him, it is well, for to Him belong the most excellent Names."' The cardinal Names in the Koran are three, viz. Allah and ar-Raḥmán and ar-Rabb, by which One God is signified, and the rest of the Names serve as epithets of those three.
6. 'Necks,' indicating the Light, as in the Tradition 'The muezzins shall be the longest-necked of mankind on the Day of Resurrection'.
'The face of the sun,' as in the Tradition 'Ye shall see your Lord as ye see the sun'.
'The breast and wrist of the white statue,' as in the Tradition which mentions the breast and fore-arm of the Almighty.
7. 'The branches,' i.e. the souls distraught by the majesty of God and turned away by love from the consciousness of their personality and from the contemplation of their phenomenal nature.
'The meadow,' i.e. the station of union in which God has placed them.
'Moral qualities,' i.e. the scented breaths of Divine Mercy, viz. the goodly praise of the kind mentioned in the Tradition 'Even as Thou dost praise Thyself'.
'The lightning,' i.e. a manifestation of the Divine Essence.
'Laughing lips,' as God is said in the Tradition to rejoice at the repentance of His servant, or to laugh.
1. A ringdove wailed and a sad lover complained, and he was grieved by her trilling note and complaint.
2. Tears flowed from their eyes in distress for her complaint, and ’twas as tho’ they (the tears) were fountains.
3. I responded to her in the bereavement caused by the loss of her only child: one who loses an only child is bereaved indeed.
4. I responded to her, while Grief walked between us; she was invisible, but I was clearly seen.
5. In me is a burning desire, from love of the sandy tract of ‘Álij, where her tents are and the large-eyed maidens,
6. With murderous glances, languishing: their eyelids are sheaths for glances like swords.
7. I did not cease to swallow the tears proceeding from my malady and to conceal and guard my passion from those who blame me,
8. Until, when the raven's croak announced their departure, separation exposed the desire of a sorrow-stricken lover.
9. They journeyed continuously through the night, they cut the nose-rings of their camels, so that they (the camels) moaned and cried under the litters.
10. I beheld the pangs of death at the time when they loosed the camels’ reins and tied their saddle-girths.
11. Oh! separation together with love's pain is mortal, but love's sorest pain together with meeting is light.
12. None blames me for desiring her, for she is beloved and beautiful wherever she may be.
1. 'A ringdove,' i.e. the Universal Spirit, born of God and breathed into Man. She is described as having a collar (ring), in reference to the covenant which He laid upon her.
'A sad lover,' i.e. the partial spirit which is in Man.
'Her trilling note,' i.e. the sweet melodies calling him to union with her. This union is the first resurrection at death.
2. 'From their eyes': he refers to the partial spirits. 'Her complaint': the Universal Spirit, which is the father of the partial spirits, longs for them even more than they long for her.
3. 'Her only child,' i.e. the special quality which distinguishes her from all things else, viz. her unity, whereby she knows the unity of Him who brought her into being. The loss of it consists in her not knowing what it is and in its not being plainly discerned by her.
4. 'She was invisible,' for she does not belong to the world of expression and exposition.
5. 'The sandy tract of ‘Álij,' i.e. the subtleties of the acquired or analytic sciences. ‘Álij refers to the striving after good works.
'Her tents,' the veils which conceal these sciences.
'The large-eyed maidens,' i.e. the sciences which descend upon the solitary recluse.
6. 'With murderous glances,' i.e. they cause him to pass away from his own personality.
'Languishing,' i.e. they incline towards the solitary. The term 'glances' indicates that they are sciences of contemplation and revelation, not of faith and mystery, and that they proceed from the manifestation of forms.
7. He refers to a state of concealment which is characteristic of the Malámatís. 1
9. 'They journeyed continuously': since the object sought is infinite, the return from it is also a journey towards it. There is no migration except from one Divine Name to another.
'They cut the nose-rings of their camels,' on account of the violent haste with which they travelled.
11. 'Meeting,' a kind of presence in which there is no passing away.
12. He says, 'The aspirations and desires of all seekers are attached to Her, yet She is essentially unknown to them hence they all love Her, yet none blames another for loving Her. Similarly, every individual soul and the adherents of every religion seek salvation, but since they do not know it they are also ignorant of the way that leads to it, though everyone believes that he is on the right way. All strife between people of different religions and sects is about the way that leads to salvation, not about salvation itself. If anyone knew that he was taking the wrong way, he would not persevere in his error.' Accordingly the author says that She manifests Herself everywhere, like the sun, and that every person who beholds Her deems that She is with him in Her essence, so that envy and jealousy are removed from their hearts.
1. He saw the lightning in the east and he longed for the east, but if it had flashed in the west he would have longed for the west.
2. My desire is for the lightning and its gleam, not for the places and the earth.
3. The east wind related to me from them a tradition handed down successively from distracted thoughts, from my passion, from anguish, from my tribulation,
4. From rapture, from my reason, from yearning, from ardour, from tears, from my eyelid, from fire, from my heart,
5. That 'He whom thou lovest is between thy ribs; the breaths toss him from side to side'.
6. I said to the east wind, 'Bring a message to him and say that he is the enkindler of the fire within my heart.
7. If it shall be quenched, then everlasting union, and if it shall burn, then no blame to the lover!'
1. He refers to the vision of God in created things, viz. the manifestation in forms, and this causes him to cleave to phenomena, because the manifestation appears in them.
'The east,' i.e. the place of phenomenal manifestation.
'If it had flashed in the west,' i.e. if it had been a manifestation of the Divine essence to the lover's heart, he would have longed for that purer manifestation in the world of purity and mystery.
2. He says, 'I desire the forms in which the manifestation takes place only in so far as they are a locus for the manifestation itself.'
3. The world of breaths communicated to me the inward meaning of these phenomenal forms.
4. 'Rapture' (literally, 'intoxication,' sukr): the fourth degree in the manifestations. The first degree is dhawq, the second shurb, and the third riyy.
'From my reason,' because intoxication transports the reason and takes away from it whatever it has.
5. 'The breaths,' etc., i.e. the overwhelming awe inspired by this manifestation produces in him various ecstasies.
7. He says, 'If the awful might of this manifestation shall be veiled through the permanence of the Divine
substance, then the union will be lasting; but if the manifestation be unchecked, it will sweep away all that exists in its locus, and those who perish are not in fault.' This is the saying of one possessed and mastered by ecstasy.
1. They left me at al-Uthayl and an-Naqá shedding tears and complaining of the fire (that consumed me).
2. My father be the ransom of him for whose sake I melted with anguish! My father be the ransom of him for whose sake I died of fear!
3. The blush of shame on his cheek is the whiteness of dawn conversing with the redness of eve.
4. Patience decamped and grief pitched tents, and I lie prostrate between these two.
5. Who will compose my distracted thoughts? Who will relieve my pain? Guide me to him! Who will ease my sorrow? Who will help a passionate lover?
6. Whenever I keep secret the torments of desire, my tears betray the flame within and the sleeplessness.
7. And whenever I say, 'Give me one look!' the answer is, 'Thou art not hindered but for pity's sake.'
8. It cannot be that one look from them will avail thee. Is it aught but the glimpse of a levin that flashed?
9. I am not forgetting the time when the camel-driver, wishing for separation and seeking al-Abraq, urged them on.
10. The ravens of separation croaked at them—may God not preserve a raven that croaked!
11. The raven of separation is only a camel which carried away the loved ones with a swift wide-stepping pace.
1. He laments the departure of his companions, viz. the spiritual angelic beings who suffer no natural bondage, whilst he is left a prisoner in this body, occupied with governing it and prevented from wandering freely through the celestial spheres.
'Al-Uthayl,' his natural constitution.
'An-Naqá,' his body.
2. 'My father,' i.e. the Highest Spirit which is his real father in the world above and his phenomenal mother in the world below.
'Of him for whose sake I melted with anguish': he refers to the Divine mystery contained in his heart.
'Of fear,' i.e. fear of the radiance of the Divine majesty.
6. The love that is revealed is stronger and more passionate, for there is no good in a love that is ruled by reason.
7. God in His mercy veils the splendours of His face from His creatures.
8. The more the Beloved looks on thee, the more is thy anguish increased. Vision is possible only in moments of ecstasy.
9. 'The camel-driver,' i.e. the voice of God calling those exalted spiritual beings to ascend towards Him.
'Separation,' i.e. their departure from the phenomenal world.
'Al-Abraq,' the place where God is manifested in His essence.
10. 'The ravens of separation,' i.e. considerations affecting his phenomenal existence, which hinder him from the ascent to God.
11. 'A camel,' i.e. the ravens of separation are really a man's aspirations, since aspiration bears him aloft and unites him with the object of his search.
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