For you we hide them to give you protection,
So why persist, blasé, with your transgression?
Learn from your ancestor: Adam descended 325
Down to the trial hall when he had offended.
He saw the Knower of all mysteries
Then stood and begged forgiveness without cease.
He sat contrite on dirt eventually,
Yet didn’t try evading destiny.
He said, ‘We’ve sinned, Lord, ’* not another sound
On seeing guards were standing all around.
He viewed the guards soul-like, invisible;
Their maces reached as high as possible.
‘Be ant-like when near Solomon,’ they said, 330
‘Or else this mace will break in two your head!’
Stand where you see the truth and far from lies;
For men the best of guardians are your eyes.
Others’ advice gives blind men purity,
But when alone they’re soiled repeatedly.
Human, you don’t lack vision now, but when
Destiny turns eyes blind, you’ll lack it then.
It’s only very seldom, isn’t it,
For one who sees to fall inside a pit?
But for the blind this isn’t very rare— 335
It’s in the blind man’s nature to fall there.
He falls in filth, not knowing what it was:
‘Do I smell or is something else the cause?’
If someone sprays some musk on him, of course
He’ll think he is himself its sweet smell’s source.
O man with vision, your eyes therefore function
As guarding parents giving you protection,
Especially the heart’s eye, for that pair
Which see just sensually cannot compare.
‘The highwaymen were lurking where I walked; 340
They tied my tongue in knots in case I talked.
A horse with chained legs can’t trust easily—
This is a heavy chain, so pardon me!’
O heart, these words are broken up and stuttering—
They’re pearls, God’s jealousy the mill that’s crushing.
Though pearls be ground to tiny bits, they can
Be used for eyes as tutty still, good man.
For being broken, pearl, don’t start lamenting;
When ground up you will be illuminating.
Speech must be broken up at first, beforē 345
God, who is needless, fixes it once more.
Though wheat is broken up and ground for bread,
‘Look here! A perfect loaf!’ will soon be said.
‘Since your crime’s also been exposed, O lover,
You too, get broken! Don’t try painting over.
Adam’s elect descendants all admit:
“We have done wrong! ”* as they acknowledge it.
Make your plea and don’t argue or debate
Like Satan, that hard-nosed, cursed reprobate.
If you think he succeeded through that action 350
Then try and be contentious and as stubborn.
Abu Jahl asked for proof a miracle
From our great Prophet—he was terrible—
Abu Bakr though did not insist; instead
“This face speaks naught but truth,” is what he said.
So how can someone like you ever be
Fit to test someone loved as much as me.’
A denier tells Ali, ‘If you are sure of God’s protection, throw yourself from the top of this building,’ and Ali answers him.
A man who did not worship God one day
Turned his head to the great Ali to say,
While standing on a high roof, ‘O wise person, 335
Are you now conscious of your God’s protection?’
‘Yes, He’s the guard, though He is self-sufficient;
Ever since I was born He’s been consistent.’
‘Then throw yourself down from this roof for me—
Rely on God’s protection totally!
Your certainty will be displayed this way;
This proof for your faith will be clear as day.’
‘Be quiet and begone!’ that man was told,
‘So that your life’s not pawned for being so bold.
How should a slave be fit to test out God? 360
Does this not strike you as the least bit odd?
How can slaves out of curiosity
Possess the gall to test God, fool? Tell me!
Only God has the right, and He’ll prepare
More tests for slaves each moment, so beware!
The real belief within we’ve been concealing.
Did Adam tell God, “I have tested you
With all my sins and flaws in order to
Witness, dear King, the clemency You’ll show.” 365
Who could attempt this ever? Do you know?
Your intellect is so confused this time
That your excuse is much worse than your crime.
Who do you think you are to ever try
To test the one who raised up the whole sky?
You even can’t tell good from bad—first test
Yourself before you try to test the rest.
Once you have tested first yourself, no longer
Will you desire to ever test another.
On learning you’re a sugar grain, you’ll seē 370
The sugar house is where you’re meant to be.
No need to test God to know you belong—
God won’t send sugar somewhere plainly wrong.
The One who has all knowledge will not send
His chief to be a doorman, my good friend.
Intelligent men won’t throw jewels in
A toilet bowl with urine still within.
A knowing sage won’t send his wheat away
Into a barn that’s used to store just hay.’
If a disciple tests his master, hē 375
Is asinine, as everyone will see.
If you test out the sacred things, then you,
Doubting man, will yourself be tested too.
Your impudence and ignorance at most
Will be then shown, but he won’t be exposed.
If a dust mote should ever try to weigh
A mountain, its scale pans will break away,
For he weighs with his own mind, and a man
Of God can’t ever fit a measuring-pan—
Intellect’s scales can’t bear his weight, so hē 380
Smashes them into bits dramatically.
To test him is presuming you’ve more power
Than such a king, above whom none can tower.
What power do pictures have to think they can
Test their own painter—they’re drawn by that man!
If they’re aware of tests, is it not true
That these tests are what the same artist drew?
What are these pictures worth? It’s no doubt less
Than pictures that his knowledge can possess.
When the temptation comes to test, bad luck 385
Has visited you and your neck’s been struck.
On feeling this temptation, do not wait
But turn to pray to God and then prostrate.
Soak your prostration spot with tears and pray:
‘God, free me from this doubting mind today!’
That moment when you seek to test is not good;
Your faith’s prayer-house is then filled up with brushwood.
Story about ‘The Furthest Place of Worship in Jerusalem’ * and carob brushwood, and David’s resolution before the time of Solomon to build that house of worship.
When David’s firm resolve to build from rock
The Furthest Worship-House took a big knock,
God said to him, ‘Announce across the land 390
You’ve given up—it won’t be by your hand.
It’s not in Our decree that you erect
This worship-house, though you’re of the elect.’
David said, ‘Knower of the mysteries,
Explain my sin for You to tell me “Cease!” ’
‘Without sin, you’ve spilled blood and now you pay
The price for the oppressed’s blood in this way,
For countless people have been stupefied
By your voice and have consequently died!
Much blood was spilled by your voice when you’d sing— 395
It moves the soul and pleases everything.’
David said, ‘I was overwhelmed by You,
Drunken with hands tied, what could I then do?
Is it not true that when they are repentant
Overwhelmed ones are deemed as non-existent ?’
‘This overwhelmed one is in fact negated
Relatively to Me,’ the Lord then stated.
‘The one who’s left himself behind is best
Among all humans, and the loftiest,
Next to God’s attributes annihilated,400
Though it’s subsistence if the truth is stated.
Spirits are under His control; you’ll see
Appearances are subject equally.’
God said, ‘One overwhelmed in Our grace will
Not be compelled, possessing a free will.’
The end of his free will is also clear:
It will be lost completely over here.
One with free will has no delight within him
Unless he’s fully rid of egotism.
The world can offer food that most would treasure, 405
His joy will come though from being rid of pleasure.
Such pleasures won’t affect him when he’s tried
Spiritual pleasures and grown satisfied.
Explanation of ‘the Believers are brothers’ * and ‘the truly learned are like one soul’, especially the unity between David, Solomon, and the other Prophets, for if you reject one of them, your faith in no Prophet will be perfect—this is a sign of the unity, that if you destroy one house among a thousand, all of them will be destroyed, and not a single wall will be left standing, for ‘We do not distinguish between any of them’ * and ‘An allusion suffices the intelligent’. This is much more than an allusion.
‘Although it won’t be built by you,’ God said,
‘Your son will soon erect that house instead.
His work is your work, great king of the sages—
Believers have bonds outside time and ages.’
They’re numerous and yet their faith is one,
Many bodies, although in soul they’re one.
Beasts’ intellects and souls are lower than 410
The different kinds that are possessed by Man,
And yet beyond men’s souls there is the soul
Of God’s Friends with divine breath for their role.
Animal souls lack union, so don’t seek
It from a spirit that is much too weak.
If one eats food, the other won’t be sated;
If one bears loads, the other won’t be weighted.
One’s happy with the other one’s demise,
Then, jealous of what they own, quickly dies.
The souls of dogs and wolves are all divided, 415
The souls of lions of God, though, are united.
I used the plural ‘souls’, since one is many
When soul is in relation to the body,
Just as the sunlight seems to multiply
In separate courtyards to the human eye.
All of the rays are really one—it’s proved
When separating walls are all removed,
For if they’re gone, Mohammad told us all:
‘Believers then are like a single soul.’
This discourse raises problems now, my son, 420
Since it is only a comparison.
There is a world of differences between
A lion and a brave man whom you’ve seen;
When one compares the two though, you would say
They are as one in gambling life away,
Because that brave man does resemble it,
But doesn’t match exactly every bit—
No form exactly matches with another
In this world, as you quickly will discover.
I’ll raise an inexact match nonetheless 425
To spare your mind confusion and distress:
A lamp is lit in every house at night,
So one can see in darkness through its light.
Light is the soul, lamp body, and the latter
Requires a wick and other kinds of matter;
The lamps with six wicks, for six bodies, need
As their foundation both to sleep and feed.
They can’t survive when lacking food and sleep,
And neither with them both, but this gets deep:
They cannot last without a wick and oil, 430
But with them they still aren’t reliable—
Their light’s a cause and will expire, my friend.
How can they last when daylight brings their end?
And human senses cannot last, since they
Are naught next to the light of Judgement Day.
The senses’ light and souls of fathers here
Don’t die like grass or fully disappear:
Like stars and moonbeams which still shine at night,
They are effaced by day in sunshine’s light,
The way the flea’s sting disappears the moment 435
A snake has bitten you—that bite’s more potent.
A naked man jumped in a lake to flee
The danger posed by a big bumble bee;
The bee just hovered over him and when
He raised his head above, it stung him then.
The lake is zekr , the bee in this example
Is your remembrance of some other people;
Inside zekr ’s waters hold your breath, be strong,
Leave thoughts and the temptation to do wrong.
You’ll then acquire pure water’s nature, sō 440
You will be filled with it from head to toe.
That nasty bee flees water, and now you,
Just like the water, terrify it too.
If you wish, leave the water now you can—
Boast water’s nature too within, good man.
Those who have fled this world aren’t naught; I’ve said
They’re steeped now in God’s attributes instead.
You could explain this by comparison
With stars and their relation to the sun.
If you want a Qur’anic verse, then read 445
‘They’ll be brought to Our presence ’* —so take heed!
There’s no negation when brought to Our presence ;
With certainty observe the soul’s subsistence.
Souls blocked from this subsistence just feel torture;
Souls which attain are free from any barrier.
I’ve shown this lamp of sensual perception;
It is for animals—don’t seek its union.
Unite your soul with those of mystic searchers
Travelling the path instead—their souls are nurturers.
Your hundred lamps, whether or not they burn, 450
Are separate from each other, not as one.
That’s why men go to war with one another,
Though Prophets never fight against a brother.
The Prophets’ light comes from the sun, but sensual
Light we possess comes from a smoking candle.
The latter dies, the former in the morning
Shines bright again—one’s snuffed, one keeps on burning.
The animal soul stays alive through food,
Dies with what’s bad in it as well as good.
If such a lamp goes finally out one night, 455
Why should the neighbour’s house as well lose light?
The neighbour’s house stays bright, so you can see
The houses’ sensual lamps shine separately.
The animal soul is intended here,
Not the divine soul. Let this be quite clear.
When the new moon splits darkness suddenly
At night, light fills each window equally.
Light in a hundred homes is one. To test,
Watch if one’s light does not fade with the rest.
So long as the bright sun is shining light, 460
It is a guest at every home in sight.
And when the soul’s sun sets, without a doubt
The light in all its houses will go out.
They’re not the same—it’s an analogy:
It guides you, but it robs your enemy.
That vile one’s like a spider and he’ll spin
A veil of webs that stinks although it’s thin.
With his own web he blocked the light by day;
He made his seeing eyes turn blind this way.
Steer with a horse’s neck and you’ll succeed, 465
But rub its leg and you’ll be kicked. Take heed!
Don’t ride a wild one with no bridle on.
Heed intellect and faith, then journey on.
Don’t view the rest as weak and as inferior.
Destroy the self with patience on this venture!
Remainder of the story about the building of the Furthest Place of Worship in Jerusalem.
When Solomon began the new construction—
Pure like the Kaaba, Mina-like perfection* —
In it much splendour could be easily found,
Not bland like other buildings seen around.
Each rock cut for that building audibly470
Said right from the beginning, ‘Please take me! ’
Just as with Adam’s body, light shone out
From all of the cement. And then, without
Someone to carry them, rocks would arrive,
And all the doors and windows came alive.
God says the wall of paradise is not
Ugly and lifeless like the walls we’ve got;
Just like the body’s wall, they are aware—
The house is living, for the king’s in there.
Pure water, trees, and fruit—yes, all of them 475
Have conversations with those in that realm,
Since paradise was not made from material
But actions and intentions in its people.
This building is from lifeless clay and water;
That building lives through dutiful surrender.
The first looks like its source with imperfections,
The second like its source—knowledge and actions.