1. At Dhát al-Aḍá and al-Ma’zimán and Báriq and Dhú Salam and al-Abraqán to the traveller by night
2. Appear flashes of swords from the lightnings of smiling mouths like musk-glands, the odour whereof none is permitted to smell.
3. If war is waged against them, they draw the swords of their glances; and if peace is made with them, they break the bonds of constraint.
4. They and we enjoyed two equal pleasures, for the Beloved has one kingdom and the lover another.
1-2. He says, 'In the station of light and that of the soul's oppression between the two worlds and that of the manifestation of the Essence and that where the ascending spirits find peace appears a terribly beguiling grace which is veiled by the favour of the Beloved.'
3. This verse refers to the Wrath and Mercy of God.
4. 'Equal,' because God created Man after His own image.
'For the Beloved,' etc., i.e. the lover and the Beloved exert a kind of mutual influence upon one another.
1. I am content with Raḍwá as a meadow and a lodging-place, for it has a pasture in which is cool water.
2. May be, those whom I love will hear of its fertility, so that they will take it as an abode and lodging-place.
3. For lo, my heart is attached to them and listens silently whenever the camel-driver urges them on with his chant.
4. And if they call to one another to set out and cross the desert, thou wilt hear its wailing behind their camels.
5. And if they make for az-Zawrá, it will be in front of them, and if they are bound for al-Jar‘á, it will alight there.
6. No fortune is found except where they are and where they encamp, for the bird of Fortune has fledglings in their tribe.
7. Fear for myself and fear for her sake battled with each other, and neither gave way to its adversary.
8. When her splendours dazzle mine eyes, the sound of my sobbing deafens her ears.
1. 'Raḍwá,' with reference to the station of Divine satisfaction.
'A pasture,' i.e. spiritual nourishment.
2. 'Those whom I love,' i.e. gnostics like himself.
4. 'The desert,' i.e. the stations of abstraction.
'Their camels,' i.e. the aspirations journeying away from the body.
5. 'Az-Zawrá,' i.e. the presence of the Quṭb.
'In front of them': he means that he anticipates them in his thoughts and wishes.
'Al-Jar‘á,' i.e. a place where they suffer painful self-mortification.
6. The gnostic seeks only that which is akin to himself.
7. 'Fear for myself,' i.e. fear lest my eyes should be dazzled by the manifestation of my Beloved's glory.
'Fear for her sake,' i.e. fear lest her ears should be deafened by the noise of my sobbing.
1. Whenever we meet to take farewell thou wouldst deem us, as we clasp and embrace, to be a doubled letter.
2. Although our bodies are dual, the eye sees only a single one.
3. This is because of my leanness and his light, and were it not for my moaning, I should have been invisible to the eye.
1-2. The doubled letter is two letters, one of which is concealed in the other. The soul, bidding farewell to the body, says, 'We are in this case, for though we are really two, we appear to be one.' The soul loves the body because all her knowledge of God is gained through her imprisonment in the body and through her making use of it in order to serve God. The author also refers to the verse, 'I am he whom I love and he whom I love is I.'
The mention of 'farewell' indicates a distinction between the qualities which properly belong to the lover and those which properly belong to the Beloved.
3. 'My leanness,' i.e. I am of the spiritual world.
'And his light,' i.e. on account of the intensity of his light his eye cannot perceive either his own radiance or my subtlety.
'And were it not,' etc.: so Mutanabbí says, 'Were it not that I speak to thee, thou wouldst not see me.'
1. They said, 'The suns are in the heavenly sphere.' Where should the sun dwell but in heaven?
2. When a throne is set up, there must be a king to sit erect upon it.
3. When the heart is purged of its ignorance, then must the angel descend.
4. He made Himself master of me and I of Him, and each of us hath possessed the other.
5. My being His property is evident, and my possessing Him is (proved by) His saying, 'Come hither.'
6. O camel-driver, let us turn aside and do not lead the travellers past Dár al-Falak.
7. A house on a river-bank near al-Musanná caused thee to fall sick and did not make thee forget thy sickness.
8. Would that the lord of desire had laid on thee (O my censor!) my pain and the burden of love that was laid on me!
9. For neither Zarúd nor Ḥájir nor Salam is an abode that emaciated thee.
10. From the burning grief of the journey (towards Him) thou wert seeking the rain-clouds of union, but they did not o’ershadow thee.
11. The glory of His sovereignty abased thee, and would that as He abased thee so He had shown fondness towards thee!
12. And oh, would that, since in His pride He refused to show
Himself fond, oh, would that He had emboldened thee to show fondness towards Him!
1. 'The suns are in the heavenly sphere,' i.e. the Divine radiance is in the heart.
2. Cf. Kor. xv, 29, and xx, 4.
3. 'The angel,' i.e. the most sublime spiritual essences.
4. 'He made Himself master of me,' inasmuch as I am limited by Him.
'And I of Him,' inasmuch as the Divine Names are manifested only in contingent being.
5. 'Come hither' (Kor. xii, 23), i.e. in order that the Names may be manifested, which is impossible unless I receive them.
6-7. 'Dar al-Falak,' a convent for pious women at Baghdád on the bank of the Tigris near al-Musanná, which is the residence of the Imám—on whom be peace! The author refers to the heart, because it is the Temple of Divine manifestation.
'Al-Musanná,' the station of the Quṭb, since it was the Caliph's palace.
'To fall sick,' i.e. to fall in love.
'And did not make thee forget thy sickness,' i.e. gave thee no relief.
9. He says that the passion of his soul was not kindled by anything contingent or finite.
11. He says: 'Although thou hadst knowledge of God, that knowledge did not humble thee so much as thou wert humbled by the glory of His manifestation, i.e. thy abasement was due to His glory, not to Himself; hence thy knowledge of Him was imperfect.'
1. I am absent, and desire makes my soul die; and I meet him and am not cured, so ’tis desire whether I am absent or present.
2. And meeting with him creates in me what I never
imagined; and the remedy is a second disease of passion,
3. Because I behold a form whose beauty, as often as we meet, grows in splendour and majesty.
4. Hence there is no escape from a passion that increases in correspondence with every increase in his loveliness according to a predestined scale.
1-4. He is continually tormented, for in the anguish of absence he hopes to be cured by meeting his Beloved, but the meeting only adds to his pain, because he is always moving from a lower state to a higher, and the latter inevitably produces in him a more intense passion than the former did.
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