the vulgar, by the force of their conjunction with these material forms and extreme preoccupation with these corporeal liens, come to be such that they cannot distinguish themselves from these forms or perceive any difference between the two. Well says the Maulavi of Rūm (may God sanctify his secret), in the Masnavi— O brother, thou art wholly thought, For the rest of thee is only bone and muscle : Wherefore it behoves. thee to strive and hide thy self from thy sight,1 and occupy thyself with Very Being, and concern thyself with the " Truth". For the various grades of created things are theatres of His revealed beauty, and all things that exist are mirrors of his perfections. And in this course thou must persevere until He mingles Himself with thy soul, and thine own individual existence passes out of thy sight. Then, if thou regardest thyself, it is He whom thou art regarding; if thou speakest of thyself, it is He of whom thou art speaking. The relative has become the Absolute, and "I am the Truth " is equivalent to " He is the Truth ".2 3 If love of rose or bulbul fill thine heart, Thou are a part; the Truth is all in all. Of my soul's union with this fleshly frame, When I say me", 'tis "Thee" I mean to name. Variant, "hide thyself from the sight of the world.” The saying of Mansur i Hallāj (or Ibn Ilallāj), the Sūfī martyr. Compare the story of the Sufi aspirant who was refused admittance by his Pir till he ceased to speak of (Masnavi, p. 47). me" and called himself "thee" When will this mortal dress be torn away, Merging my soul in His resplendent light, Flash VII ? It is necessary for thee to habituate thyself to this intimate relation in such wise that at no time and in no circumstance thou mayest be without the sense of it, whether in coming or in going, in eating or sleeping, in speaking or listening. In short, thou must ever be on the alert both when resting and when working, not to waste thy time in insensibility [to this relation]—nay, more, thou must watch every breath, and take heed that it goeth not forth in negligence. The years roll on; Thou showest not Thy face, Flash VIII In like manner, as it behoves thee to maintain the said relation continually, so it is of the first importance to develop the quality thereof by detaching thyself from mundane relations and by emancipating thyself from attention to contingent forms; and this is possible only through hard striving and earnest endeavour to expel vain thoughts and imaginations from thy mind; the more these thoughts are cast out and these suggestions checked, the stronger and closer this relation becomes. It is, then, necessary to use every endeavour to force these thoughts to encamp outside the enclosure of thy breast, and that the “Truth” most glorious may cast His beams into thy heart, and deliver thee from thyself, and save thee from the trouble of entertaining His rivals in thy heart. Then there will abide with thee neither consciousness of thyself, nor even consciousness of such absence of consciousness -nay, there will abide nothing save the one God alone. From my brute nature, Lord, deliver me, Purge me of my own sense and ignorance, When poor indeed and dead to self thou'lt need When self has perished naught but God remains, Flash IX Self-annihilation consists in this, that through the overpowering influence of the Very Being upon the inner man there remains no consciousness of aught beside Him. Annihilation of annihilation consists in this, that there remains no consciousness even of that unconsciousness. It is evident that annihilation of annihilation is involved in [the very notion of] annihilation. For if he who has attained annihilation should retain the least consciousness of his annihilation, he would not be in the state of annihilation, because the quality of annihilation and the person possessing such quality are both things distinct from the Very Being, the "Truth" most glorious. Therefore, to be conscious of annihilation is incompatible with annihilation.* While fondness for your "self" you still retain, Yea, while you feel one hair's-breadth of yourself 1 See the passage from Ghazālī in Appendix III. Dadi, brutishness. Some manuscripts read duwi, disease, but this does not suit the rhyme, which in verses with a burden (radif) always precedes it. Scan dădiyi, dissolving long i and lengthening the iṣāfat. 3 Seemingly a Hadith. Poverty, utter annihilation of self (Gulshan i Rāz, 1. 128 and note). So Ghazālī, quoted in Appendix III. 1 Flash X Unification 1 consists in unifying the heart-that is to say, in purifying it and expelling from it attachment to all things other than the "Truth" most glorious, including not only desire and will, but also knowledge and intelligence. In fact, one must quench desire of all things hitherto desired, and cease to will what one has hitherto willed, and also remove from the intellectual vision all concepts and all cognitions, and turn away the mind from all things whatsoever, so that there remains no consciousness or cognition of aught save the "Truth" most glorious. Khwaja ‘Abdullāh Anṣārī said: "Unification is not merely believing Him to be One, but in thyself being one with Him." 2 "Oneness" in pilgrims' phraseology to be free; Learn, then, the highest "station" of the birds,3 Flash XI So long as a man remains imprisoned in the snare of passions and lusts, it is hard for him to maintain this close communion [with the "Truth"]. But from the moment that sweet influence takes effect on him, expelling from his mind the firebrand of vain imaginations and suggestions, the pleasure he experiences therefrom predominates over bodily pleasures and intellectual enjoyments. Then the painful sense of effort passes away, and the joys of contemplation take possession of 1 Tauhid is the Henosis of Plotinus, the becoming one with the "One". 2 This sentence occurs only in the British Museum copy, Add. 16819. Khwāja ‘Abdullah Anṣāri of Herāt, who died 481 A.H., was named the Shaikh of Islam, and is often quoted by Jami in the Nafaḥāt. See Haji Khalfa, i, 235. 3 Alluding to the "Discourse of the Birds and their Pilgrimage to the Simurgh", by Farid-ud-din 'Aṭṭār. "Other" the Heterotes of Plotinus. his mind; he banishes from his heart all alien distractions, and with the tongue of ecstasy murmurs this canticle Like bulbul I'm inebriate with Thee,1 My sorrows grow from memories of Thee, Flash XII When the true aspirant perceives in himself the beginnings of this Divine attraction, which consists in experiencing pleasure whenever he thinks of the "Truth" most glorious, he ought to exert all his endeavours to develop and strengthen this experience, and simultaneously to banish whatever is incompatible therewith. He ought to know, for instance, that even though he should employ an eternity in cultivating this communion, that would count as nothing, and he would not have discharged his duty as he ought. On my soul's lute a chord was struck by Love, Ages would not discharge my bounden debt Flash XIII The essence of the "Truth" most glorious and most exalted is nothing but Being. His 2 Being is not subject to defect or diminution. He is untouched by change or variation, and is exempt from plurality and multiplicity; He transcends all manifestations, and is unknowable and invisible. Every "how" and why" have inade their 1 So in the "Stabat Mater "Fac me cruce inebriari." 2 The Truth" is also the One Real Agent, and therefore has the personal attribute of Will. Religion demands a personal object to worship. Hence Plato in the Timæus calls his Ideal Good "God", and the Latin version of the Nicene Creed substitutes Dominus vivificans for the neuter To Kurion To Zoopoioun of the original. |