1. In the valley-curve between the two stony tracts is the trysting-place. Make our camels kneel, for here is the journey's end.
2. Do not seek (any other spot) and do not call after this, 'O Báriq! O Ḥájir! O Thahmad!'
3. And play as friendly full-breasted damsels played, and pasture as shy gazelles pastured
4. In a meadow whose flies sang and hummed and a warbling bird there answered them joyously.
5. Soft were its sides and soft its breeze, and the clouds were flashing and thundering,
6. And the raindrops were descending from the crevices of the clouds like tears shed by a passionate lover because he is parted from her he loves.
7. And drink the pure essence of its wine with its intoxication, and listen rapturously to a singer who chanteth there:
8. 'O the pure wine that in Adam's time related concerning the Garden of Eden an authentic tradition!
9. Verily, the fair women scattered it from the water of their mouths like musk and the virgins bestowed it on us without stint.'
1. 'In the valley-curve between the two stony tracts,' i.e. in the place where Divine favours are bestowed on the soul which is the locus of an Essential manifestation.
'The trysting-place,' referring either to the station of Faith or to God's taking a covenant from the souls of mankind.
'The journey's end,' i.e. the mystery of everlasting life.
2. 'Do not seek,' etc., in accordance with the Tradition, 'There is no mark beyond God.'
3. 'And play,' etc., referring to the various states of this gnostic in which he is transported from one Divine Name to another. 'Full-breasted damsels' and 'shy gazelles' refer to the abstruse sciences of pure unification.
4. 'In a meadow,' i.e. the Divine Presence, together with the Holy Names contained in it.
'Flies,' i.e. subtle spirits.
'A warbling bird,' i.e. the human soul, in respect of the forms with which it is endued in every sphere and station.
5. 'Were flashing and thundering,' in reference to the two states, viz. contemplation and interlocution Cf. Kor. ii, 206, and the Tradition, 'God was in a dense cloud; there was no air above Him or below Him.'
6. 'The raindrops,' i.e. manifold sorts of Divine knowledge.
7. 'The pure essence of its wine,' i.e. spiritual meanings and Divine sciences, which fill the heart with delight.
'A singer,' i.e. the voice produced by the universal praise; the human soul hears it in its essence and is enraptured.
8. 'The Garden of Eden,' i.e. this wine is derived from the Presence which comes to dwell in the souls of gnostics at the time of nurture.
9. 'The fair women,' i.e. the Divine Names.
'From the water of their mouths,' i.e. from the station of speech and expression.
'The virgins,' i.e. from the station of shame, referring to contemplation.
1. O ancient temple, there hath risen for you a light that gleams in our hearts.
2. I complain to thee of the deserts which I crossed, where I let my tears flow unchecked,
3. Taking no joy in rest at dawn or dusk, continuing from morn to morn and passing from eve to eve.
4. Truly, the camels, even if they suffer from footsoreness, journey by night and make haste in their journey.
5. These beasts of burden carried us to you with eager desire, though they did not hope to attain thereby.
6. They traversed wildernesses and wellnigh rainless lands, impelled by passion, but they did not therefore complain of fatigue.
7. They did not complain of the anguish of love, and ’tis I who complain of fatigue. Indeed, I have claimed something absurd.
1. 'O ancient temple,' i.e. the gnostic's heart which contains the reality of the Truth.
'There hath risen for you,' etc., i.e. the light in the heart (which is the centre of the body) seeks to rise from its source and convey to the members of the body the Divine realities. In this station a man sees by God, hears by God, speaks by God, and moves by God.
2. 'The deserts which I crossed,' i.e. the mortifications and austerities which I suffered.
4. 'The camels,' i.e. the aspirations. He means that they do not cease from seeking, although exhausted by the difficulty of their quest. They are exhausted because the proofs supplied by the understanding are unable to lead them to the Divine reality.
7. 'I have claimed something absurd,' i.e. I pretend to love God, while complaining of distress and fatigue, yet these 'beasts of burden', viz. my acts and thoughts which I control and govern, make no complaint.
1. Between an-Naqá and La‘la‘ are the gazelles of Dhát al-Ajra‘,
2. Grazing there in a dense covert of tangled shrubs, and pasturing.
3. New moons never rose on the horizon of that hill
4. But I wished, from fear, that they had not risen.
5. And never appeared a flash from the lightning of that fire-stone
6. But I desired, for my feeling's sake, that it had not flashed.
7. O my tears, flow! O mine eye, cease not to shed tears!
8. O my sighs, ascend! O my heart, split!
9. And thou, O camel-driver, go slowly, for the fire is between my ribs.
10. From their copious flow through fear of parting my tears have all been spent,
11. So that, when the time of starting comes, thou wilt not find an eye to weep.
12. Set forth, then, to the valley of the curving sands, their abode and my death-bed—
13. There are those whom I love, beside the waters of al-Ajra‘—
14. And call to them, 'Who will help a youth burning with desire, one dismissed,
15. Whose sorrows have thrown him into a bewilderment which is the last remnant of ruin?
16. O moon beneath a darkness, take from him something and leave something,
17. And bestow on him a glance from behind yonder veil,
18. Because he is too weak to apprehend the terrible beauty,
19. Or flatter him with hopes, that perchance he may be revived or may understand.
20. He is a dead man between an-Naqá and La‘la‘.'
21. For I am dead of despair and anguish, as though I were fixed in my place.
22. The East Wind did not tell the truth when it brought cheating phantoms.
23. Sometimes the wind deceives when it causes thee to hear what is not (really) heard.
1. 'Between an-Naqá and La‘la‘,' etc., i.e. between the hill of white musk; on which is the vision of God, and the place of frenzied love for Him, are diverse sorts of knowledge connected with the stations of abstraction.
2. 'In a dense covert of tangled shrubs,' i.e. the world of phenomenal admixture and interdependence.
3. 'New moons,' i.e. Divine manifestations.
4. 'From fear,' i.e. from fear that the beholder might pass away in himself from himself, and that his essence might perish, whereas his object is to continue subsistent through God and for God; or from fear that he should imagine the manifestation to be according to the essential nature of God in Himself (which is impossible), and not according to the nature of the recipient. The former belief, which involves the comprehension of God by the person to whom the manifestation is made, agrees with the
doctrine of some speculative theologians, who maintain that our knowledge of God and Gabriel's knowledge of Him and His knowledge of Himself are the same. How far is this from the truth!
5. 'A flash from the lightning of that fire-stone,' i.e. an inanimate, phenomenal, and earthly manifestation.
9. 'O camel-driver,' i.e. the voice of God calling the aspirations to Himself.
'The fire,' i.e. the fire of love.
10-11. He says that his eyes have been melted away by the tears which he shed in anticipation of parting.
12. 'To the valley of the curving sands,' i.e. the station of mercy and tenderness.
'My death-bed,' because the Divine mercy causes him to pass away in bewilderment.
13. 'Beside the waters of al-Ajra‘': because this mercy is the result of painful self-mortification.
14. 'One dismissed,' i.e. one who has come to himself again after contemplation, according to the tradition that God says, after having shown Himself to His servants in Paradise, 'Send them back to their pavilions.'
16. 'A darkness,' i.e. the forms in which the manifestation takes place.
'Take from him something,' etc., i.e. take from him whatever is related to himself, and leave whatever is not related to himself, so that only the Divine Spirit may remain in him.
21. 'For I am dead of despair and anguish,' i.e. I despair of attaining the reality of that which I seek, and I grieve for the time spent in a vain search for it.
'As though I were fixed in my place,' i.e. I cannot escape from my present state, inasmuch as it is without place, quantity, and quality, being purely transcendental.
22. 'Cheating phantoms,' i.e. the similes and images in which God, who has no like, is presented to us by the world of breaths.
1. May my father be the ransom of the boughs swaying to and fro as they bend, bending their tresses towards the cheeks!
2. Loosing plaited locks of hair; soft in their joints and bends;
3. Trailing skirts of haughtiness; clad in embroidered garments of beauty;
4. Which from modesty grudge to bestow their loveliness; which give old heirlooms and new gifts;
5. Which charm by their laughing and smiling mouths; whose lips are sweet to kiss;
6. Whose bare limbs are dainty; which have swelling breasts and offer choice presents;
7. Luring ears and souls, when they converse, by their wondrous witchery;
8. Covering their faces for shame, taking captive thereby the devout and fearing heart;
9. Displaying teeth like pearls, healing with their saliva one who is feeble and wasted;
10. Darting from their eyes glances which pierce a heart experienced in the wars and used to combat;
11. Making rise from their bosoms new moons which suffer no eclipse on becoming full;
12. Causing tears to flow as from rain-clouds, causing sighs to be heard like the crash of thunder.
13. O my two comrades, may my life-blood be the ransom of a slender girl who bestowed on me favours and bounties!
14. She established the harmony of union, for she is our principle of harmony: she is both Arab and foreign; she makes the gnostic forget.
15. Whenever she gazes, she draws against thee trenchant swords, and her front teeth show to thee a dazzling levin.
16. O my comrades, halt beside the guarded pasture of Ḥájir! Halt, halt, O my comrades,
17. That I may ask where their camels have turned, for I have plunged into places of destruction and death,
18. And scenes known to me and unknown, with a swift camel which complains of her worn hoofs and of deserts and wildernesses,
19. A camel whose flanks are lean and whose rapid journeying caused her to lose her strength and the fat of her hump,
20. Until I brought her to a halt in the sandy tract of Ḥájir and saw she-camels followed by young ones at al-Uthayl.
21. They were led by a moon of awful mien, and I clasped him to my ribs for fear that he should depart,
22. A moon that appeared in the circumambulation, and while he circumambulated me I was not circumambulating anyone except him.
23. He was effacing his footprints with the train of his robe, so that thou wouldst be bewildered even if thou wert the guide tracing out his track.
1. 'My father,' i.e. Universal Reason.
'The boughs,' i.e. the Attributes which bear Divine knowledge to gnostics and mercifully incline towards them.
2. 'Locks of hair,' i.e. hidden sciences and mysteries. They are called 'plaited' in allusion to the various degrees of knowledge.
'Soft,' in respect of their graciously inclining to us.
'In their joints and bends,' in reference to the conjunction of real and phenomenal qualities.
3. 'Trailing skirts,' etc., because of the loftiness of their rank.
'Clad in embroidered garments,' etc., i.e. appearing in diverse beautiful shapes.
4. 'Which from modesty,' etc., referring to the Tradition, 'Do not bestow wisdom except on those who are worthy of it, lest ye do it a wrong,' since contemplation is not vouchsafed to everyone.
'Old heirlooms,' i.e. knowledge demonstrated by proofs derived from another.
'New gifts,' i.e. knowledge of which the proof is bestowed by God and occurs to one's own mind as the result of sound reflection.
8. 'Covering their faces for shame,' i.e. they are ashamed to reveal themselves to those whose hearts are generally occupied with something other than God, viz. the ordinary believers described in Kor. ix, 103.
9. 'Teeth like pearls,' i.e. the sciences of Divine majesty.
10. 'Experienced in the wars,' etc., i.e. able to distinguish the real from the phenomenal in the similitudes presented to the eye.
11. 'From their bosoms,' i.e. from the Divine attributes.
'New moons,' i.e. a manifestation in the horizon.
'Which suffer no eclipse,' i.e. they are not subject to any natural lust that veils them from the Divine Ideas.
13. 'A slender girl,' i.e. the single, subtle, and essential knowledge of God.
14. 'She established the harmony of union,' i.e. this knowledge concentrated me upon myself and united me with my Lord.
'Arab,' i.e. it caused me to know myself from myself.
'Foreign,' i.e. it caused me to know myself from God, because the Divine knowledge is synthetic and does not admit of analysis except by means of comparison; and since comparison is impossible, therefore analysis is impossible; whence it follows that synthesis also is impossible, and I only use the latter term in order to convey to the reader's intelligence a meaning that is not to be apprehended save by immediate feeling and intuition.
'Forget,' i.e. his knowledge and himself.
15. 'A dazzling levin,' i.e. a manifestation of the Essence in the state of beauty and joy.
16. 'O my comrades': he means his understanding and his faith.
17. 'Their camels,' i.e. the aspirations which carry the sciences and subtle essences of man to their goal.
18. 'A swift camel,' i.e. an aspiration in himself.
19. 'Whose rapid journeying,' etc., i.e. this aspiration was connected with many aspects of plurality which disappeared in the course of its journey towards Unity.
20. 'In the sandy tract of Ḥájir,' i.e. a state which enabled me to discriminate between phenomena and prevented me from regarding anything except what this state revealed to me.
'She-camels followed by young ones,' i.e. original sciences from which other sciences are derived.
21. 'A moon of awful mien,' i.e. a manifestation of Divine majesty in the heart.
23. 'His footprints,' i.e. the evidences which He adduced as a clue to Himself.
'The train of his robe,' i.e. His uniqueness and incomparability.
'So that thou wouldst be bewildered,' i.e. our knowledge of Him is ignorance and bewilderment and helplessness. He says this in order that gnostics may recognize the limits of their knowledge of God.
1. In the tamarisk groves of an-Naqá is a flock of qaṭá birds over whom Beauty has pitched a tent,
2. And in the midst of the deserts of Iḍam are camels which graze beside them and gazelles.
3. O my two friends, stop and beg speech of the relics of an abode which has become ruined after them,
4. And mourn for the heart of a youth who left it on the day when they departed, and weep and wail.
5. Perchance it may tell whither they were bound, to the sands of the guarded pasture or to Qubá.
6. They saddled the camels and I knew not whether ’twas from my heedlessness or because mine eye was dull.
7. ’Twas neither that nor this, but ’twas only a frenzy of love which overwhelmed me.
8. O thoughts that fled and dispersed in pursuit of them like the bands of Sabá!
9. I hailed every wind that blows, crying, 'O North wind O South wind! O East wind!
10. Have ye any knowledge of what I feel? Anguish hath befallen me on account of their departure.'
11. The East wind gave me its news delivered by the gilt plants which received it from the hill-flowers,
12. Saying, 'Whosoever is sick of the malady of passion, let him be diverted by the tales of love.'
13. Then it said, 'O North wind, tell him the like of what I have told him, or something more wonderful.
14. Then do thou, O South wind, relate the like of what I have related to him or something more sweet.'
15. The North wind said, 'I have a joy which the North wind shares with the South wind:
16. Every evil is good in the passion which they inspire, and my torment is sweetened by their approval.'
17. To what end, therefore, and on what ground and for what cause dost thou complain of the sorrow and sickness?
18. And when they promise you aught, you see that its lightning gives a false promise of rain.
19. The Invisible fashioned on the sleeve of the cloud a golden embroidery of the lightning's splendour,
20. And its tears poured from it upon the middle of its cheek-balls and kindled a fierce flame.
21. She is a rose that springs up from tears, a narcissus that sheds a marvellous shower.
22. And when thou wouldst fain gather her, she lets down, to conceal herself, a scorpion-like tress on each side of her temples.
23. The sun rises when she smiles. O Lord, how bright are these bubbles on her teeth!
24. Night appears when she lets fall her black, luxuriant, and tangled hair.
25. The bees compete with one another whenever she spits. O Lord, how sweet is that coolness!
26. And whenever she bends she shows to us a (fruitful) branch, or when she gazes her looks are drawn swords.
27. How long wilt thou talk amorously at the sand-hill of Ḥájir, O son of al-‘Arabí, to the coy beauties?
28. Am not I an Arab? and therefore I love the fair women and am fond of the coy beauties.
29. I care not whether my passion rises with me or sets, if only she be there.
30. Whenever I say 'Will ye not?' they say, 'Wilt not thou?' and whenever I say, 'May not I?' they say, 'He refuses.'
31. And whenever they go to the upland or to the lowland, I cross the desert in haste to search for them.
32. My heart is the Sámirí of the time: as often as it sees the footprints it seeks the golden one that was turned to gold.
33. And whenever they rise or set, it goes like Dhu ’l-Qarnayn in quest of the means (of reaching them).
34. How oft did we cry out in hope of union! How oft did we cry out in fear of parting!
35. O sons of az-Zawrá, this is a moon that appeared among you and set in me.
36. By God, it is the source of my grief. How often do I exclaim behind it, 'Alas!'
37. Woe is me, woe is me for a youth who, whenever a dove warbles, is made to vanish!
1. 'In the tamarisk groves,' etc., i.e. in the grove of the white hill are sciences which are the offspring of veracity, in reference to the proverb, 'More veracious than the qaṭá:
2. 'The deserts of Iḍam,' i.e. the stations of abstraction and isolation.
'Camels,' i.e. sciences with which our souls are familiar.
'Gazelles,' i.e. abstruse sciences.
3. 'O my two friends,' i.e. his understanding and his faith.
5. 'The sands of the guarded pasture,' referring to the endurance of anguish caused by separation in a station remote from phenomenal being and inaccessible.
'Qubá,' i.e. the station of repose, for the Prophet used to alight there every Sabbath.
6. 'The camels,' i.e. the aspirations on which our hearts ride.
7. '’Twas only a frenzy of love,' etc., i.e. my preoccupation with love for Him veiled me from Himself.
13-14. The East wind bestows on him the knowledge of 'God created Adam after His own image', the South wind bestows on him the knowledge of the companions of the right hand (Kor. lvi, 89), and the North wind bestows on him the knowledge of the favourites of God (Kor. lvi, 87), which is the station between prophecy and saintship and is attained only by the nonpareils, of whom al-Khaḍir is one, as the Koran bears witness. Abú Ḥamid (al-Ghazálí) denies the existence of this station, because he never reached or knew it, and he imagines that those Saints who advance beyond the rank of the ṣiddíqs have fallen into prophecy and have acted irreverently, but such is not the case. The station to which I refer lies between the position of the ṣiddíq and that of the Prophet. It is indicated by the mystery which made an impression on the heart of the greatest ṣiddíq, Abú Bakr.
16. When the lover passes away from his own desire, every evil becomes good to him, because it is the will and desire of his Beloved.
18. 'Its lightning gives a false promise of rain': a manifestation of the Essence produces nothing in the heart, inasmuch as it cannot be apprehended or confined by any phenomenal object. In this respect it differs from the manifestation in forms in the world of similitudes, for the seer apprehends the form of that which is manifested to him and interprets it.
19. 'On the sleeve of the cloud,' referring to Kor. ii, 206.
The cloud is the heart which clothes, i.e. contains, God. The sleeve represents the hand which takes the pledge of fealty to Him. The author describes a manifestation of the Essence behind the veil of phenomena, a manifestation due to the fact profoundly realized by a servant of God, that God created Adam in His image.
20. 'And its tears,' etc., i.e. diverse sorts of evidentiary knowledge poured into the gardens of the Divine hearts and produced an overwhelming sense of awe and majesty.
21. 'A narcissus,' i.e. a vision that imparts incomprehensible knowledge.
23. 'The sun rises,' i.e. sciences appear which are connected with the Quṭb and upon which the universe depends.
24. She reveals to the hearts of gnostics mysterious love.
25. When this gnostic feels in himself a Divine realization so that he attains to the station indicated in the Tradition, 'I am his ear and his eye,' his speech becomes pure Truth and absolute Revelation, and the hearts of his disciples receive from him knowledge in the same way as the bees receive honey from God (Kor. xvi, 70).
26. As the winds sway the bough, so the gnostic's aspiration causes God to incline mercifully towards him.
27. 'At the sand-hill of Ḥájir,' i.e. the white hill, well-known to the Ṣúfís, on which it is impossible for anyone to set foot. He says, 'Why dost thou not occupy thyself with making ready for the gifts bestowed by this high station, in order that no thought of "the coy beauties", i.e. contemplation and bewilderment, may occur to thee?'
28. He answers: 'The beauties which I seek are the offspring of the original fiat whence we came forth. I am an Arab and therefore I love the coy beauties, i.e. do not blame me for acting as I am prompted by what in me is original and real.'
29. 'I care not,' etc., i.e. I am not limited by stations and degrees, but only by her, so that wherever she is I am.
30. When I say to the mediums and veils, 'Will you not consider my case with her, that perchance I may win of
her such delight as other ecstatics have enjoyed?' they answer: 'Wilt not thou consider our faces how they are turned towards thee and veiled from her?' i.e. secondary causes are merely an affliction and probation through which you must pass, but if you remain with them you will receive nothing except what their being can give, and you will be veiled from the object of your desire.
'May not I?' i.e. may not I attain to my Beloved?
'He refuses,' i.e. he excludes those who seek him by means of secondary causes. God is known only by means of God. The scholastic theologian says: 'I know God by that which He created,' and takes as his guide something that has no real relation to the object sought. He who knows God by means of phenomena, knows as much as those phenomena give to him and no more.
31. 'They go to the upland,' i.e. the Divine realities reveal themselves in imaginary bodies as Gabriel appeared in the form of Diḥya.
'To the lowland,' i.e. they reveal themselves, like the spirits of the prophets, in earthly bodies of the intermediate world.
32. 'As often as it sees the footprints,' etc.: cf. Kor. xx, 96. He says: 'There is in me an aspiration with which I revive those whom I regard with favour, and those whose growth is symmetrical, and those whose form is erect (I mean in the earthly pilgrimage), and those whose hearts are prepared to receive the overflowing grace of the spirit; and I breathe into them something of that which I have gained from that footprint, and they are revived thereby and are under my care.' He refers to the class of saints who have renounced the powers of 'control' which God bestowed upon them, for one who abides with the Primal Realities is more perfect in knowledge than one who is veiled by such Divine gifts. Abú Yazíd (al-Bisṭámí) said: 'It is not I whom they are touching, but it is a robe in which God clothed me: how, then, should I hinder them from that which belongs to another?' Whoever sees the
robe of honour which God conferred on the Black Stone, and knows the stone, will know what I mean. This was the station of Abú Yazíd and of my Shaykh, Abú Madyan.
34. How often did we beg for power over the spiritual states, so that we might rule them without fear of losing them!
35. 'O sons of az-Zawrá': az-Zawrá is a name of Baghdád, which is the residence of the Quṭb in the visible world. The author refers to those who are in the presence of the Quṭb and under his ægis.
'A moon,' etc., i.e. an essential manifestation which appeared among you through the existence of the Quṭb, and vanished in me, i.e. it is my inward being and mystery. He makes himself to be one of the nonpareils.
36. 'Behind it,' although it is within himself, indicating that it is not circumscribed, but that it is with him in the category of additionals, as the Prophet said, 'O Lord, let me increase in knowledge.'
37. 'A dove,' i.e. the spirits of the intermediate world, the bearers of the inspiration that comes at the tinkling sound which is like the noise of a chain when it strikes a rock. They cause this heart to vanish, even as they themselves vanish on hearing that sound. Hence the Prophet said that this manner of inspiration was the most grievous to him, and he used to pass away from his senses, and wrap himself until it departed, after he had understood its meaning. A portion of this belongs to his (spiritual) heirs.
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