{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_61724/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_61724","id":"gutenberg_61724","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61724","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Poetry","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana, 1207-1273","Mevleviyeh","Sufi literature"],"text":"Transcriber\u2019s Notes\n\nObvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations\nin hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and\npunctuation remains unchanged.\n\nThe footnotes are located at the end of the book.\n\nItalics are represented thus _italic_.\n\n\n\n\n TR\u00dcBNER\u2019S\n\n ORIENTAL SERIES.\n\n\n\n\n EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY\n BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO., PAUL\u2019S WORK\n AND CHANDOS STREET, LONDON\n\n\n\n\n THE MESNEV\u012a\n\n (USUALLY KNOWN AS THE MESNEV\u012aYI SHER\u012aF, OR HOLY MESNEV\u012a)\n\n OF\n\n MEVL\u0100N\u0100 (OUR LORD) JEL\u0100LU-\u2019D-D\u012aN, MUHAMMED, ER-R\u016aM\u012a.\n\n BOOK THE FIRST.\n\n _TOGETHER WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND ACTS\n OF THE AUTHOR, OF HIS ANCESTORS, AND\n OF HIS DESCENDANTS_;\n\n Illustrated by a Selection of Characteristic Anecdotes,\n\n AS COLLECTED BY THEIR HISTORIAN,\n\n MEVL\u0100N\u0100 SHEMSU-\u2019D-D\u012aN AHMED, EL EFL\u0100K\u012a, EL \u2018\u0100RIF\u012a.\n\n _TRANSLATED, AND THE POETRY VERSIFIED_,\n\n BY\n\n JAMES W. REDHOUSE, M.R.A.S., ETC.\n\n LONDON:\n TR\u00dcBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL.\n 1881.\n\n [_All rights reserved._]\n\n\n\n\n\u201cMathnaoui ou Methnevi (in Persian and Turkish: _Mesnev\u012b_). C\u2019est le\nnom d\u2019un des plus fameux Livres de l\u2019Orient, compos\u00e9 en vers Persiens\nsur un grand nombre de diff\u00e9rentes mati\u00e8res de Religion, d\u2019Histoire, de\nMorale, et de Politique.\n\n\u201cIl a \u00e9t\u00e9 compos\u00e9 par Gelaleddin Mohammed, fils de Mohammed, Al Balkhi,\nAl Konoui, environ l\u2019an 600 de l\u2019Hegire.\n\n\u201cLes surnoms de Balkhi et de Konoui sont donn\u00e9s \u00e0 cet Auteur, parce\nqu\u2019il \u00e9tait natif de la ville de Balkh en Khorassan, et qu\u2019il vint\ns\u2019\u00e9tablir ensuite dans celle de Cogni en Natolie.\n\n\u201cCe fut dans cette m\u00eame ville qu\u2019il institua un ordre de Derviches plus\nspirituels que les autres, lesquels on appelle ordinairement Mevlevis,\nqui font leur Capital de l\u2019ouvrage de leur Maistre, auquel ils ne\nportent gu\u00e8res moins de respect qu\u2019 \u00e0 l\u2019Alcoran. C\u2019est pourquoi on\ndonne aussi souvent au Mathnaoui le surnom de Mevlevi.\n\n\u201cIl y a un grand nombre de Commentaires Persiens et Turcs sur ce\nLivre, dont la po\u00e9sie est estim\u00e9e si excellente, que tous ses vers en\nsont cit\u00e9s, comme autant de sentences.\u201d\u2014_D\u2019Herbelot_, Biblioth\u00e8que\nOrientale.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n PAGE\n TRANSLATOR\u2019S PREFACE vii\n\n _SELECTED ANECDOTES._\n\n CHAP.\n I. Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Veled, Sult\u0101nu-\u2019l-\u2018Ulem\u0101 3\n\n II. Seyyid Burh\u0101nu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Sirr-D\u0101n 13\n\n III. Mevl\u0101n\u0101 Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Muhammed 18\n\n IV. Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Tebr\u012bz\u012b 99\n\n V. Sheykh Sal\u0101hu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Fer\u012bd\u016bn 110\n\n VI. Cheleb\u012b Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Hasan 113\n\n VII. Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-Din, Sult\u0101n Veled 122\n\n VIII. Cheleb\u012b Em\u012br \u2018\u0100rif 126\n\n IX. Genealogical 132\n\n\n _THE MESNEV\u012a--BOOK I._\n\n PREFACE i\n\n INTRODUCTION.--PLAINT OF THE REED-FLUTE 1\n\n TALE\n I. The Prince and the Handmaid 4\n\n II. The Oilman and the Parrot 19\n\n III. The Jewish King, Persecutor of Christians 25\n\n IV. Another Jewish King, Persecutor of Christians 55\n\n V. The Lion and the Beasts 67\n\n VI. The Greater (Spiritual) Warfare 101\n\n VII. The Merchant and the Parrot 114\n\n VIII. The Harper 139\n\n IX. The Poor Scenite Arab and his Wife 165\n\n X. Patience and Perseverance 212\n\n XI. The Lion\u2019s Hunt 218\n\n XII. Joseph and the Mirror 228\n\n XIII. The Prophet\u2019s Amanuensis 234\n\n XIV. The Chinese and Roman Artists 248\n\n XV. Zeyd\u2019s Inspiration 254\n\n XVI. \u2018Ali\u2019s Forbearance 270\n\n CONCLUSION 289\n\n\n\n\nTRANSLATOR\u2019S PREFACE.[1]\n\n\nThe historian El Efl\u0101k\u012b was a disciple of Cheleb\u012b Em\u012br \u2018\u0100rif, a\ngrandson of the author of the Mesnev\u012b. \u2018\u0100rif died in A.D. 1320; but\nas the dates of \u2018\u0100rif\u2019s successors are carried down to A.H. 754 (A.D.\n1353), when Efl\u0101k\u012b\u2019s collection of anecdotes was completed, the\nhistorian must have outlived this last date. As a disciple of the Em\u012br\n\u2018\u0100rif, he was a dervish of the order named Mevlev\u012b, as being followers\nof the rule and practices of Mevl\u0101n\u0101 Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, er-R\u016bm\u012b, commonly\nknown in English literature as \u201cthe dancing dervishes,\u201d expressed by\nAmericans: \u201cwhirling dervishes.\u201d The dervishes of the order do not all\ndance or \u201cwhirl.\u201d Some are musicians, and some singers or chanters, who\nmay, however, be occasional dancers also.\n\nEfl\u0101k\u012b\u2019s work gives a sufficiency of dates to fix the principal events\nthat he commemorates. His dates do not agree exactly with those found\nin other historians. They are, however, sufficiently near for general\npurposes not of a chronologically critical nature. They commence with\nA.H. 605 (A.D. 1208), and thus cover a period of 145 years dated,\nbesides another 30 years of the lifetime of Jel\u0101l\u2019s grandfather\nundated, who was a noble of such high standing and of so great a\nreputation for learning and sanctity at Balkh, that the king gave him\nhis only daughter in marriage, unsolicited. His mother was also a\nprincess of the same royal house with his wife.\n\nThis royal house was the one known in history as that of\n_Kh\u2019\u0101rezm-sh\u0101h_ or the Kharezmians. They were overthrown, and Balkh\n(the ancient Bactra, or Zariaspa), their capital, destroyed, by Jeng\u012bz\nKh\u0101n in A.D. 1211. A remnant of their kingdom was continued for twelve\nyears longer by the last of the line, who died, at once a fugitive and\nan invader, in Azerb\u0101yj\u0101n, in a battle fought against the combined\nforces of Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor.\n\nJel\u0101l\u2019s family claimed descent from Ab\u016b-Bekr, a father-in-law and\nthe first successor of Muhammed, the lawgiver of Isl\u0101m. One of the\ndescendants of Ab\u016b-Bekr was among the conquerors of the ancient\nBactria, when it was first brought under Muslim rule, in about A.D.\n650, under the Caliph \u2018\u016athm\u0101n; and his children had maintained a\nprominent position in that country, possessed of great wealth, until\nthe time immediately preceding the irruption of Jeng\u012bz.\n\nJel\u0101l was the youngest of three children, two being sons, born of the\nprincess, his mother, in Balkh. The eldest, a daughter, was already\nmarried, and remained behind with her husband, when her father and\nbrothers left their native city some time between A.D. 1208 and\n1211, in which latter year they were at Bagd\u0101d. There is no further\nmention of Jel\u0101l\u2019s elder brother. Jel\u0101l was five years old when they\nleft Balkh. By way of Bagd\u0101d they went to Mekka, thence to Damascus,\nand next to Erzinj\u0101n, in Armenia; thence to Larenda, in Asia Minor.\nJel\u0101l\u2019s mother was still with the party. He was now eighteen years old;\nand was married, at Larenda, to a lady named Gevher (Pearl), daughter\nof a certain Lala Sherefu-\u2019d-D\u012bn of Samarqand, in A.D. 1226.[2] She\nbore him two sons there, \u2018Al\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn (afterwards killed in a tumult\nat Qonya) and Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn Sult\u0101n Veled, through whom the succession\nof the house was continued. She appears to have died rather young;\nfor Jel\u0101l afterwards married another lady of Qonya, who outlived him,\nand by whom he had two other children, a son and a daughter. (See\nAnecdotes, Chap, iii., No. 69, for a variant.)\n\nAfter the birth of Sult\u0101n Veled at Larenda, Jel\u0101l\u2019s father was invited\nto Qonya by the Selj\u016bqi king, \u2018Al\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn Kayqub\u0101d, where he founded\na college, and where he died in A.D. 1231. The king built a marble\nmausoleum over his grave, with this date inscribed on it. The king\nhimself died, five years later, in A.D. 1236.\n\nAt his father\u2019s death, Jel\u0101l went to Aleppo and Damascus for several\nyears to study, and then returned to Qonya, where he was appointed\nprofessor of four separate colleges. His reputation for learning and\nsanctity became very great.\n\nBut before this journey to Damascus, he appears to have paid a visit to\nLarenda. For, a former pupil of his father\u2019s at Balkh, who had become\na great saint and anchoret, came to Qonya to seek Jel\u0101l, and was the\ncause of his returning from Larenda to the capital.\n\nThis was the Sheykh and Seyyid Burh\u0101nu-\u2019d-D\u012bnn, who became Jel\u0101l\u2019s\nspiritual teacher for some time. The dates given do not agree in the\nvarious branches of Efl\u0101k\u012b\u2019s compilation; for he here gives a period of\nnine years\u2019 spiritual study at Qonya under Burh\u0101n.\n\nAfter Burh\u0101n\u2019s instructions and departure from Qonya to Qaysariyya,\nwhere he died, and after Jel\u0101l\u2019s studies at Aleppo and Damascus, with\nhis subsequent return to Qonya and appointment to the four colleges,\nanother great saint came to visit Jel\u0101l at this latter city. This\nwas Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn of Tebr\u012bz, for whom Jel\u0101l conceived a very great\nfriendship. He is mentioned in the Mesnev\u012b several times in very high\nterms. He appears to have been exceedingly aggressive and domineering\nin his manner. This roused a fierce animosity against him, which at\nlength broke out in a tumult. Jel\u0101l\u2019s eldest son, \u2018Al\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn, was\nkilled or mortally hurt in this disturbance. The local police seized\nShemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn in consequence, and he was never again seen alive by\nhis friends. Jel\u0101l went himself to Damascus, in hopes that he might\nhave been sent away, or have got away, privately. But the effort was\nfruitless. Later traditions cause his corpse to have been recovered and\nburied at Qonya, differing, however, as to the place of interment.\n\nWhen Jel\u0101l found that he required assistance in conducting all the\nvarious duties that fell on him, he selected first for that office his\nformer fellow-student-, Sheykh Sal\u0101hu-\u2019d-D\u012bn Fer\u012bd\u016bn, surnamed Zer-K\u016bb\n(the Goldbeater), from his business. He assisted Jel\u0101l for about ten\nyears, and died in A.D. 1258.\n\nJel\u0101l now took as his assistant his own favourite pupil, Hasan\nHus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, surnamed the son of Akh\u012b-Turk, through his being\ndescended from some man of celebrity of the name or designation\nof Akh\u012b-Turk. There appears to have been a large family of very\ninfluential men residing at Qonya and other towns of Asia Minor, all\ncalling themselves Akh\u012b, and distinguished as Akh\u012b Ahmed, Akh\u012b Eshref,\n&c. The word \u201cAkh\u012b\u201d is Arabic, and signifies \u201cmy brother.\u201d It may also\nmean \u201cone related to a brother,\u201d as a servant, slave, client, &c., of\nsome prince, &c.; or of some dervish \u201cbrother\u201d of some religious order.\nIndeed, these very numerous individuals named Akh\u012b, may have been each\na \u201cbrother\u201d of such a fraternity or fraternities, or even of some\nindustrial guild.\n\nTen years after Hus\u0101m was taken as his assistant by Jel\u0101l, this latter\nwas called to his rest in December A.D. 1273; and was buried in his\nfather\u2019s mausoleum, leaving Hus\u0101m as his successor. But meanwhile, at\nHus\u0101m\u2019s suggestion, and with himself as the first amanuensis thereof,\nthe Mesnev\u012b had been composed, in six volumes, books, or parts, by\nJel\u0101l. The second volume was commenced in A.D. 1263. There had been an\ninterval of two years between the completion of the first and this,\ncaused by Hus\u0101m\u2019s grief at the death of his wife. The whole work is\nstated to contain twenty-six thousand six hundred and sixty couplets. A\nseventh volume or book has been also attributed to the Mesnev\u012b, to make\nup the number to that of the \u201cseven planets;\u201d some say it was composed\nor collected by Sult\u0101n Veled. The anecdotes of Efl\u0101k\u012b make mention of\nmany hundreds of odes composed also by Jel\u0101l.\n\nHe is said to have instituted his peculiar order of dervishes, with\ntheir special dress, the Indian garb of mourning, in memory of his\nmurdered friend, Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn of Tebr\u012bz; and to have adopted the\nuse of instrumental music, the flute, the rebeck, the drum, and the\ntambourine, with singing or chanting, as an accompaniment to the holy\ndance, on account of the lethargic nature of the \u201cRomans.\u201d As a child\nis tempted to take a salutary medicine by the exhibition of a little\njam or honey, so Jel\u0101l judged that the \u201cRomans\u201d might be tempted to\na devotional love for God through the bait of sweet sounds addressed\nto their outward senses. Dancing or twirling by dervishes was of much\nolder date, as will be recollected in one of the tales of the Arabian\nNights.\n\nHus\u0101m died in A.D. 1284, just ten years after his teacher Jel\u0101l; whose\nson, Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Sult\u0101n Veled, succeeded Hus\u0101m as chief of the\norder, and died in A.D. 1312. His son, Cheleb\u012b Em\u012br \u2018\u0100rif, succeeded\nhim, and passed away in A.D. 1320; two of his half-brothers becoming\nchiefs of the order after him in succession.\n\nEfl\u0101k\u012b informs us that he undertook the compilation of his work at\nthe express desire of his spiritual teacher, Cheleb\u012b Em\u012br \u2018\u0100rif.\nThe preface gives the year A.H. 710 (A.D. 1310) as that of its\ncommencement, and the colophon at the end mentions A.H. 754 (A.D. 1353)\nas the date of its completion. He thus spent forty-three years in his\nlabour of love. The copy used for the present translation was written\nin A.H. 1027 (A.D. 1617), and belongs to the library of the India\nOffice, being No. 1670. It is a quarto volume of 291 numbered folios\nof two pages each folio, and twenty-three lines in each page. It is\nsubdivided into a preface, of two folios, and ten chapters of very\ndifferent lengths, thus:\n\n 1. Acts of Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn Veled, Sult\u0101nu-\u2019l-\u2018Ulem\u0101 14 folios.\n\n 2. Acts of Seyyid Sirr-D\u0101n, Burh\u0101nu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Termiz\u012b 5 \u201d\n\n 3. Acts of Mevl\u0101n\u0101 Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Muhammed 155 \u201d\n\n 4. Acts of Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Tebr\u012bz\u012b 23 \u201d\n\n 5. Acts of Sheykh Sal\u0101hu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Zer-K\u016bb 11 \u201d\n\n 6. Acts of Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Khal\u012bfa of God 14 \u201d\n\n 7. Acts of Mevl\u0101n\u0101 Bah\u0101\u2019u-l\u2019Alcoran-D\u012bn, Sult\u0101n Veled 13 \u201d\n\n 8. Acts of Cheleb\u012b Em\u012br \u2018\u0100rif 45 \u201d\n\n 9. Acts of Cheleb\u012b Em\u012br \u2018\u0100b\u012bd, &c. 6 \u201d\n\n 10. Genealogical 2 \u201d\n \u2014-\n Total 288\n\nThe work contains many hundreds of anecdotes, related to Efl\u0101k\u012b by\ntrustworthy reporters, whose names are generally given, and a few\nfor which he vouches himself as an eyewitness. Every anecdote is\nthe account of a miracle wrought by the living or the dead; or is\nthe narrative of some strange or striking event. It is, in fact, a\nspecies of the Acts of the Apostles of the Mevlev\u012b dervish fathers,\nand is a rare specimen of what fervid religious enthusiasm can invent\nor exaggerate, pious credulity can believe, and confiding ignorance\naccept. In these days of Christian \u201cSpiritualism,\u201d let not the reader\nbe over-shocked at learning that Muslim \u201cSaints,\u201d lovers of their\nCreator, and beloved by Him in return, hold themselves and are held by\ntheir dervish brethren to be the successors and spiritual inheritors of\nthe prophets, from Adam to Muhammed; that, in virtue of this spiritual\ncommunion with God, they know all the secrets and mysteries of heaven\nand earth, and not only suspend or overrule the laws of nature at their\nwill, but also deal out death or disease by their anger, health or\nprosperity by their blessing; the whole in strict accordance, however,\nwith the eternal will and foreknowledge of Him by whom alone all things\nare made.\n\nThe anecdotes translated are chosen as being characteristic of various\npoints of dervish credence or assertion. Most of them inculcate\nsome moral truth or point of practical wisdom. A few will be found,\nhowever, to go far beyond the credible; and one or two, unless totally\nmisunderstood by the translator, are simply and grossly blasphemous.\nThese last are here given as specimens of the exaggerated dervish\ndoctrines which cause the orthodox among the \u2018Ulem\u0101[3] of Isl\u0101m to hold\nall such quasi-religious associations to be more or less heterodox.\n\nThe dervishes of Isl\u0101m appear to be a kind of Gnostics. They style\nthemselves Poor, Impassioned, Adepts, and Perfect. In many respects\ntheir doctrines correspond with those of Buddha, Pythagoras, and Plato,\nmaking all souls that are destined to salvation to be emanations\nfrom the divine Light or Glory of God, in which they will be again\ncongregated; and all those doomed to perdition to have been formed\nout of the Fire of His wrath, to which also they will eventually be\nconsigned.\n\nIt is but too patent to the translator that he is bound to sue for the\nkind indulgence of a critical public, in offering them the present\nvolume in verse. He has no claim to being a poet himself; and had never\npractised the art of metrical composition until very lately. Sensible\nhimself to the earnestness of thought and beauty of diction imbedded\nin the writings of the great poets of Isl\u0101m, and keenly aware of the\ncondition of dry bones to which literal prose translation almost always\nreduces a songster\u2019s numbers, he has preferred to clothe his author\nin a presentable garb, though it be but a crumpled wrap, rather than\nexhibit him to readers of taste as a mangled mass, stripped of all\nbeauty, and in great measure divested even of cognisable form, through\nthe conflict of dictions and diversities of ideas.\n\nHe is in the position of the raindrop sung by Sa\u2019d\u012b (see Chap, iii.,\nNo. 14, of the Anecdotes), and mentioned of old by Chardin, Addison,\nand Sir William Jones. May the thoughts in the Mesnev\u012b be the gems that\nwill make his effort acceptable to the British public. At most, he\nis but the diver who risks extinction in the hope that he may have a\nchance to offer an acceptable pearl of price to those for whom he has\nworked:\u2014\n\n \u201cA raindrop, from a cloud distilled,\n At sea\u2019s expanse with tremor filled,\n Mused: \u2018Where the main rolls, am I aught?\n In ocean\u2019s presence, sure, I\u2019m naught.\u2019\n Itself, thus eyed with scorn profound,\n In oyster\u2019s bosom nurture found.\n Time\u2019s wheel wrought changes manifold;\n Rich pearl of price the raindrop\u2019s told.\n Meek modesty its prize received;\n By naught\u2019s gate ent\u2019ring, worth achieved.\u201d\n\n KILBURN PRIORY, LONDON. 1880.\n\n\n\n\n SELECTED ANECDOTES\n\n FROM THE WORK ENTITLED\n\n THE ACTS OF THE ADEPTS\n\n (MEN\u0100QIBU \u2019L \u2018\u0100RIF\u012aN),\n\n BY\n\n SHEMSU-\u2019d-D\u012aN AHMED, EL EFL\u0100K\u012a.\n\n\n\n\n THE ACTS OF THE ADEPTS.[4]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\n _Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Veled, Sult\u0101nu-\u2019l-\u2018Ulem\u0101_ (_The Beauty of the Religion\n of Isl\u0101m, Son, Sultan of the Doctors of the Law_).\n\n\n1.\n\nThe king of Khur\u0101s\u0101n,[5] \u2018Al\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn Muhammed, Khurrem-Sh\u0101h, uncle of\nJel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn Muhammed Kh\u2019\u0101rezm-Sh\u0101h, and the proudest, as he was the\nmost handsome man of his time, gave his daughter, Melika\u2019i-Jih\u0101n (Queen\nof the World), as to the only man worthy of her, to Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn\nHuseyn, el Khat\u012bb\u012b, of the race of Ab\u016b-Bekr.\n\nAn ancestor of his was one of the original Muslim conquerors of\nKhur\u0101s\u0101n. He was himself very virtuous and learned, surrounded with\nnumerous disciples. He had not married until then; which gave him many\nan anxious and self-accusing thought.\n\nHe himself, the king, the king\u2019s daughter, and the king\u2019s Vaz\u012br were\nall four warned in a dream by the Prince of the Apostles of God\n(Muhammed) that he should wed the princess; which was done. He was then\nthirty years old. In due course, nine months afterwards, a son was born\nto him, and was named Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn Muhammed. He is commonly mentioned\nas Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn Veled.\n\nWhen adolescent, this latter was so extremely learned that the family\nof his mother wished to raise him to the throne as king; but this he\nutterly rejected.\n\nBy the divine command, as conveyed in the selfsame night, and in an\nidentical dream, to three hundred of the most learned men of the\ncity of Balkh,[6] the capital of the kingdom, where he dwelt, those\nsage doctors unanimously conferred upon him the honorific title of\nSult\u0101nu-\u2019l-\u2018Ulem\u0101, and they all became his disciples.\n\nSuch are the names and titles by which he is more commonly mentioned;\nbut he is also styled Mevl\u0101n\u0101yi Buzurg (the Greater or Elder Master).\nMany miracles and prodigies were attributed to him; and some men were\nfound who conceived a jealousy at his growing reputation and influence.\n\n\n2.\n\nIn A.H. 605 (A.D. 1208) he, Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn Veled, began to preach\nagainst the innovations of the king and sundry of his courtiers,\ndeclaiming against the philosophers and rationalists, while he pressed\nall his hearers to study and practise the precepts of Isl\u0101m. Those\ncourtiers maligned him with the king, calling him an intriguer who\nhad designs on the throne. The king sent and made him an offer of the\nsovereignty, promising to retire elsewhere himself. Bah\u0101 answered that\nhe had no concern with earthly greatness, being a poor recluse; and\nthat he would willingly leave the country, so as to remove from the\nking\u2019s mind all misgivings on his score.\n\nHe accordingly quitted Balkh, with a suite of about forty souls,\nafter delivering a public address in the great mosque before the king\nand people. In this address he foretold the advent of the Moguls to\noverturn the kingdom, possess the country, destroy Balkh, and drive out\nthe king, who would then flee to the Roman land, and there at length\nbe killed.\n\nSo he left Balkh, as the prophet (Muhammed) had fled from Mekka to\nMed\u012bna. His son Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn was then five, and the elder brother,\n\u2018Al\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn, seven years old.\n\nThe people everywhere on his road, hearing of his approach or\nforewarned in dreams of his coming, flocked to meet him and do him\nhonour. Thus he drew near to Bagd\u0101d. Here he was met by the great\nSheykh Shah\u0101bu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, \u2018Umer, Suherverd\u012b, the most eminent man of the\nplace, deputed by the Caliph Musta\u2019zim to do him honour. He became the\nguest of the Sheykh.\n\nThe Caliph sent him a present of three thousand sequins, but he\ndeclined the gift as being money unlawfully acquired. He also refused\nto visit the Caliph; but consented to preach in the great mosque after\nthe noon service of worship on the following Friday, the Caliph being\npresent. In his discourse he reproached the Caliph to his face with his\nevil course of life, and warned him of his approaching slaughter by the\nMoguls with great cruelty and ignominy. The Caliph again sent him rich\npresents in money, horses, and valuables, but he refused to accept them.\n\nBefore Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn quitted Bagd\u0101d, intelligence was received there of\nthe siege of Balkh, of its capture, and of its entire destruction, with\nits twelve thousand mosques, by the Mogul army of five hundred thousand\nmen commanded by Jeng\u012bz in person (in A.H. 608, A.D. 1211). Fourteen\nthousand copies of the Qur\u2019\u0101n were destroyed, fifteen thousand students\nand professors of the law were slain, and two hundred thousand adult\nmale inhabitants led out and shot to death with arrows.\n\nBah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn went from Bagd\u0101d to Mekka,[7] performed the greater\npilgrimage there, proceeding thence to Damascus, and next to Malatia\n(Melitene, on the Upper Euphrates), where, in A.H. 614 (A.D. 1217),\nhe heard of the death of Jeng\u012bz. The Selj\u016bq\u012b Sultan, \u2018Al\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn\nKeyqub\u0101d, was then sovereign of the land of Rome (R\u016bm, _i.e._, Asia\nMinor), and was residing at S\u012bw\u0101s (Sebaste). In A.H. 620 (A.D. 1223)\nSultan Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, the dispossessed monarch of Kh\u2019\u0101rezm (Chorasmia)\nwas killed in a battle fought by him in Azerb\u0101yj\u0101n (Atropatene) against\nthe Sultans of Rome, Syria, and Egypt, when his forces were totally\ndefeated. And thus ended that great dynasty, after ruling about a\nhundred and forty years.\n\nBah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn went from Malatia and remained four years near Erzinj\u0101n\n(the ancient Aziris, on the Western Euphrates), in Armenia, at a\ncollege built for him by a saintly lady, \u2018Ismet Kh\u0101t\u016bn. She was the\nwife of the local sovereign, Melik Fakhru-\u2019d-D\u012bn. She and her husband\nboth died, and then Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn passed on to Larenda (in Cataonia),\nin Asia Minor, and remained there about seven years at the head of a\ncollege, the princess Melika\u2019i-Jih\u0101n, his mother, being still with him.\n\nHere it was that his younger son, Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn Muhammed, the future\nauthor of the Mesnev\u012b, attained to man\u2019s estate, being then eighteen\nyears old; when, in A.H. 623 (A.D. 1226), he married a young lady named\nGevher Kh\u0101t\u016bn, daughter of the Lala Sherefu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, of Samarqand. She\ngave birth in due course to Jel\u0101l\u2019s eldest son, \u2018Al\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn.\n\nThe king had now returned to his capital, Qonya (the ancient Iconium).\nHearing of Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn\u2019s great learning and sanctity, the king sent\nand invited him to the capital, where he installed him in a college,\nand soon professed himself a disciple. Many miracles are related as\nhaving been worked at Qonya by Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn, who at length died there\non Friday, the 18th of Reb\u012b\u2019u-\u2019l-\u0101khir, A.H. 628 (February A.D. 1231).\nThe Sultan erected a marble mausoleum over his tomb, on which this date\nis recorded. Many miracles continued to occur at this sanctuary. The\nSultan died also a few years later, in A.H. 634 (A.D. 1236).\n\n(After the death of Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn Veled, and the acquisition of still\ngreater fame by his son Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, who received the honorific title\nof Khud\u0101vendg\u0101r--_Lord_--the father was distinguished from the son,\namong the disciples, by the customary title of Mevl\u0101n\u0101 Buzurg--_the\nGreater or Elder Master_. The traditions collected by Efl\u0101k\u012b, relating\nto this period, vary considerably from one another on minor points\nof date and order of succession, though the main facts come out\nsufficiently clear.)\n\n\n3.\n\nJel\u0101l\u2019s son, Sult\u0101n Veled, related to Efl\u0101k\u012b that his father Jel\u0101l used\nfrequently to say, \u201cI and all my disciples will be under the protection\nof the _Great Master_, my father, on the day of resurrection; and under\nHis guidance we shall enter the divine presence; God will pardon all of\nus for His sake.\u201d\n\n\n4.\n\nIt is related that when the _Great Master_ departed this life, his son,\nJel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, was fourteen years old. (This is apparently a copyist\u2019s\nerror for \u201ctwenty-four.\u201d Jal\u0101l is said to have been born in A.H.\n604--A.D. 1207.) He married when seventeen (or eighteen); and often\ndid he say in the presence of the congregation of his friends, \u201cThe\n_Great Master_ will remain with me a few years. I shall be in need of\nShemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn of Tebr\u012bz (the capital of Azerb\u0101yj\u0101n); for every prophet\nhas had an Ab\u016b-Bekr, as Jesus had His apostles.\u201d\n\n\n5.\n\nShortly after the death of the Great Master Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn Veled, news\nwas received by the Sultan \u2018Al\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn of Qonya of the arrival of\nSultan Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn Kh\u2019\u0101rezm-Sh\u0101h on the borders of Asia Minor. The\nSultan went and prayed at the tomb of the deceased saint, and then\nprepared to meet the Kh\u2019\u0101rezmians, who were in the neighbourhood of\nErzenu-\u2019r-R\u016bm (Erzen of the Romans, the ancient Arzes, now Erzerum).\nScouts brought in the intelligence that the Kh\u2019\u0101rezmians were very\nnumerous; and great anxiety prevailed among the Sultan\u2019s troops. He\nresolved to see for himself.\n\nHe put on a disguise and set out with a few followers, on fleet horses,\nfor the Kh\u2019\u0101rezmian camp. They gave out that they were nomad Turks of\nthe neighbourhood, their ancestors having come from the Oxus; that\nlatterly the Sultan had withdrawn his favour from them; and that,\nin consequence, they had for some time past been looking for the\nKh\u2019\u0101rezmian advent. This was reported to the king, Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, who\nsent for them and received them kindly, giving them tents and assigning\nthem rations.\n\nDuring the night King Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn began to reflect that every one had\nhitherto spoken well of Sultan \u2018Al\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn, and a doubt arose in his\nmind in consequence respecting the story of these newcomers, especially\nas he learned that the Sultan was on his march to meet him. Consulting\nwith the Prince of Erzenu-\u2019r-R\u016bm, further perquisition was postponed\nuntil the morrow.\n\nBut at midnight the deceased saint of Qonya, Bah\u0101-Veled, appeared\nin a dream to Sultan \u2018Al\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn, and warned him to fly at once.\nThe Sultan awoke, found it was a dream, and went to sleep again. The\nsaint now appeared a second time. The Sultan saw himself seated on his\nthrone, and the saint coming to him, smiting him on the breast with his\nstaff, and angrily saying, \u201cWhy sleepest thou? Arise!\u201d\n\nNow the Sultan did arise, quietly called his people, saddled horses,\nand stole away out of the camp. Towards morning King Jel\u0101l caused\nguards to be placed round the tents of the strangers to watch them. But\nafterwards, when orders were given to bring them to the king\u2019s presence\nto be questioned, their tents were found to be empty. Pursuit was\nattempted, but in vain.\n\nAfter an interval the two armies came into collision. The Sultan of\nQonya was victorious. From that time forward, whenever difficulties\nthreatened, he always betook himself to the shrine of the saint, Bah\u0101\nVeled, who always answered his prayers.\n\n(As Sultan Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn Kh\u2019\u0101rezm-Sh\u0101h has already been stated to have\ndied in battle in Azerb\u0101yj\u0101n in A.D. 1223, whereas the saint of Qonya\ndid not die until A.D. 1231 eight years afterwards, the discrepancy of\nthat date with the present anecdote is irreconcilable.)\n\n\n6.\n\nThe Great Master, Bah\u0101 Veled, used to say that while he himself\nlived no other teacher would be his equal, but that when his son,\nJel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, should succeed him at his death, that son of his would\nequal and even surpass him.\n\n\n7.\n\nSeyyid Burh\u0101nu-\u2019d-D\u012bn Term\u012bz\u012b[8] is related to have said that one night\nthe door of the mausoleum of Bah\u0101 Veled opened of itself, and that a\ngreat glory shone forth from it, which gradually filled his house, so\nthat no shadow fell from anything. The glory then gradually filled the\ncity in like manner, spreading thence over the whole face of nature. On\nbeholding this prodigy the Seyyid swooned away.\n\nThis vision is a sure indication that the whole human race will one day\nown themselves the disciples of the descendants of the great saint.\n\n\n8.\n\nBefore he quitted Balkh, Bah\u0101 Veled one day saw a man performing his\ndevotions in the great mosque in his shirt sleeves, with his coat upon\nhis back. Bah\u0101 reproved him, telling him to put on his coat properly\nand decently, then to continue his devotions. \u201cAnd what if I will\nnot?\u201d asked the man in a disdainful tone. \u201cThy dead-like soul will obey\nmy command, quit thy body, and thou wilt die!\u201d answered Bah\u0101. Instantly\nthe man fell dead; and crowds flocked to become disciples to the saint\nwho spoke with such power and authority.\n\n\n9.\n\nWhen Sultan \u2018Al\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn had fortified Qonya, he invited Bah\u0101 Veled\nto mount to the terraced roof of the palace, thence to survey the\nwalls and towers. After his inspection, Bah\u0101 remarked to the Sultan,\n\u201cAgainst torrents, and against the horsemen of the enemy, thou hast\nraised a goodly defence. But what protection hast thou built against\nthose unseen arrows, the sighs and moans of the oppressed, which\noverleap a thousand walls and sweep whole worlds to destruction? Go\nto, now! strive to acquire the blessings of thy subjects. These are a\nstronghold, compared to which the walls and turrets of the strongest\ncastles are as nothing.\u201d\n\n\n10.\n\nOn one occasion Sultan \u2018Al\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn paid a visit to Bah\u0101 Veled. In\nlieu of his hand the latter offered the tip of his staff to be kissed\nby the Sultan, who thought within himself: \u201cThe proud scholar!\u201d Bah\u0101\nread the Sultan\u2019s thoughts as a seer, and remarked in reply thereto:\n\u201cMendicant students are bound to be humble and lowly. Not so a Sultan\nof the Faith who has attained to the utmost circumference of the orbit\nthereof, and revolves therein.\u201d\n\n\n11.\n\nA certain Sheykh Hajj\u0101j, a disciple of Bah\u0101 Veled and one of God\u2019s\nelect not known to the herd of mankind, quitted the college after the\ndecease of his teacher, and betook himself to his former trade of a\nweaver, therewith to gain an honest livelihood. He used to buy the\ncoarsest brown bread of unsifted flour, mash this up with water, and\nbreak his fast with this sop alone. All the rest of his earnings he\nsaved up until they would reach to two or three hundred piastres. This\nsum he would then carry to the college, and place it in the shoes of\nhis teacher\u2019s son, Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, the new rector. This practice he\ncontinued so long as he lived.\n\nAt his death a professional washer was appointed to perform the last\nablution for Sheykh Hajj\u0101j. In the execution of his office the washer\nwas about to touch the privities of the deceased, when the defunct\nseized his hand with so strong a grip as to make him scream with pain\nand fright. The friends came to rescue him, but they were unable to\nrelease the imprisoned hand. They therefore sent word to Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn\nof what had occurred. He came and saw, knew the reason, and whispered\ninto the ear of the deceased man: \u201cThe poor simpleton has been\nunaware of the high station of thy sanctity. Pardon his unintentional\ntransgression for my sake.\u201d Immediately the poor washer\u2019s hand was\nreleased; but three days afterwards he was himself washed and borne\nlifeless to his grave.\n\n\n12.\n\nThe Sultan had a governor of his childhood still living, the Em\u012br\nBedru-\u2019d-D\u012bn Guhert\u0101sh, commonly known as the Dizd\u0101r (Castellan), whom\nhe held in great esteem. One day, as Bah\u0101 Veled was lecturing in the\nmosque, in presence of the Sultan and his court, he suddenly called\nupon the Dizd\u0101r to recite any ten verses of the Qur\u2019\u0101n, saying he would\nthen expound them to the congregation. The Dizd\u0101r had been admiring\nthe eloquence of the preacher\u2019s expositions. Upon this sudden call,\nwithout the slightest hesitation and without ever having committed them\nto memory, he recited the first ten verses of chapter xxiii., \u201cThe\nbelievers have attained to prosperity,\u201d &c., which Bah\u0101 forthwith\nexplained in such a manner as to draw down the plaudits of the\nassembly. The Dizd\u0101r, with the Sultan\u2019s permission, went to the foot of\nthe pulpit and declared himself a disciple to Bah\u0101. \u201cThen,\u201d said the\npreacher, \u201cas a thank-offering for this happy event, do thou build and\nendow a college where my descendants shall teach their disciples after\nme.\u201d The Dizd\u0101r did so, and richly endowed it. This is the college\nwhere Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn afterwards lived. When the Dizd\u0101r died he left all\nhis possessions to enrich the foundation. (See chap. iii. No. 69.)\n\n\n13.\n\nThe Sultan had a dream (something like one of Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s). He\nsaw himself with a head of gold, a breast of silver, a belly of brass,\nthighs of lead, and shanks of tin. Bah\u0101 Veled explained the dream as\nfollows:\u2014\u201cAll will go well in the kingdom during thy lifetime. It will\nbe as silver in the days of thy son; as brass in the next generation,\nwhen the rabble will get the upper hand. Troubles will thicken during\nthe next reign; and after that the kingdom of Rome will go to ruin, the\nhouse of Selj\u016bq will come to an end, and unknown upstarts will seize\nthe reins of government.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\n _Seyyid Burh\u0101nu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Sirr-D\u0101n, el Muhaqqiq, el Huseyn\u012b, of the\n posterity of Y\u0101-S\u012bn_ (_Muhammed_).[9]\n\n\n(He is called Seyyid, the \u201c_Syud_\u201d of our East India authorities, for\nthe reason that he was a descendant of the prophet, of whom Y\u0101-S\u012bn is\none of the titles, as it is also the name of the thirty-sixth chapter\nof the Qur\u2019\u0101n, at the head of which the two letters stand which form\nthe name. Burh\u0101nu-\u2019d-D\u012bn means _The Proof of the Religion_; Sirr-D\u0101n\nsignifies _The Confidant_, one who possesses a knowledge of a secret\nor secrets, a mystery or mysteries. Muhaqqiq is one who verifies, who\nprobes the truth; and Huseyn\u012b indicates that the Seyyid was of the\nbranch of Huseyn, the younger of the two sons of F\u0101tima, Muhammed\u2019s\nonly child that left posterity.)\n\n\n1.\n\nSeyyid Burh\u0101nu-\u2019d-D\u012bn was popularly known by the name of Sirr-D\u0101n\nat Balkh, Bukh\u0101r\u0101 (Alexandria Oxiana?), and Term\u012bz. His discourse\nwas continually running upon the subjects of spiritual and mental\nphenomena, of the mysteries of earth and of heaven.\n\nWhen Bah\u0101 Veled quitted Balkh, the Seyyid went to Term\u012bz, and there\nsecluded himself as a hermit. After a while again he began to lecture\nin public on the significations of knowledge. Suddenly, one morning,\nthat of Friday the 18th of Reb\u012b\u2019u-\u2019l-\u0101khir, A.H. 628 (February, 1231\nA.D.), he cried out most bitterly, in a flood of tears, \u201cAlas! my\nmaster has passed away from this tabernacle of dust to the abode of\nsincerity!\u201d His words and the date were noted down, and, on inquiry,\nafter his arrival in Qonya, were found to correspond exactly with the\nmoment of Bah\u0101 Veled\u2019s decease.\n\n\n2.\n\nFor forty days the disciples at Term\u012bz mourned for the death of the\ngreat teacher. At the end of that period the Seyyid said: \u201cThe son of\nmy master, his successor, Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn Muhammed, is left alone and is\nwishing to see me. I must go to the land of Rome and place myself at\nhis service, delivering over to him the trust which my teacher confided\nto my safe-keeping.\u201d\n\n\n3.\n\nWhen the Seyyid reached Qonya, Bah\u0101 Veled had been dead about a year,\nand Jel\u0101l had gone to Larenda. The Seyyid applied himself for several\nmonths to devotional seclusion in one of the mosques of Qonya; after\nwhich he sent off a letter to Jel\u0101l by the hands of two mendicants,\nsaying: \u201cCome and meet this stranger to thee at the resting-place of\nthy father, for Larenda is not a place of permanency for thee. From\nthat hill (on which Bah\u0101\u2019s mausoleum was built) a fire will shower down\non the city of Qonya.\u201d\n\nAfter reading this epistle Jel\u0101l returned to Qonya with all possible\ndespatch. There he went at once to visit the Seyyid, who came forth\nfrom the mosque to receive him. They embraced. They now entered into\nconversation on various subjects. So delighted was the Seyyid with\nthe expositions set forth by Jel\u0101l that he kissed the soles of his\nfeet, and exclaimed: \u201cA hundredfold hast thou surpassed thy father\nin all knowledge of the humanities; but thy father was versed also\nin the mysteries of mute reality and ecstasy. From this day forward\nmy desire is that thou shouldest also acquire that knowledge,--the\nknowledge possessed by the prophets and the saints, which is entitled\n_The Science of Divine Intuition_--the science spoken of by God (in\nQur\u2019\u0101n xviii. 64): \u2018We have taught him a science from within us.\u2019 This\nknowledge did I acquire from my teacher; do thou receive it from me, so\nthat thou mayest be the heir to thy father in spiritual matters as well\nas in things temporal. Thou wilt then be his second self.\u201d\n\nJel\u0101l complied with all the Seyyid pressed upon him. He took the Seyyid\nto his college, and for nine years received instruction from him. Some\naccounts make it appear that Jel\u0101l first became the Seyyid\u2019s disciple\nat this time; but others go to show that Bah\u0101 Veled gave Jel\u0101l as a\npupil to the Seyyid at Balkh, and that the Seyyid used now and then\nto carry Jel\u0101l about on his shoulders, like as is practised by the\nnursing-tutors--_lala_--of children. (Compare chap. iii., Nos. 6 and 8.)\n\n\n4.\n\nHus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn told us that Jel\u0101l had informed him of the following\noccurrence:\u2014\n\nThe Seyyid once arrived at a certain city in Khur\u0101s\u0101n named\nS\u0101m\u0101nek. The chief people went forth to meet him and show him\nhonour, all excepting the Sheykhu-\u2019l-Isl\u0101m of the place (the local\nvice-chancellor). Nevertheless the Seyyid went to pay his respects to\nthe legal functionary. The latter went barefoot to the door of the\nhouse to meet the Seyyid, whose hand he kissed, and to whom he offered\nexcuses for his seeming lack of courtesy.\n\nIn reply, the Seyyid said to him: \u201cI am come to inform you that, on\nthe 10th day of next month, Ramaz\u0101n, you will have occasion to go\nforth to a hot-bath. On your way thither you will be assassinated by\nthe emissaries of the _Old Man of the Mountain_. This I communicate to\nthee, that thou mayest set thy affairs in order, and repent thee of thy\nsins.\u201d\n\nThe Sheykhu-\u2019l-Isl\u0101m fell at the Seyyid\u2019s feet, wailing; but the latter\nremarked: \u201cThis is of no avail. Events are in God\u2019s hands, and He has\nso ordered it. Still, as thou showest so much contrition, I may add,\nfor thy consolation, that thou wilt die in the faith, and shalt not be\ncut off from the divine mercy and grace.\u201d\n\nAnd so it happened as thus predicted. The assassins took his life on\nthe very day foretold by the Seyyid.\n\n(The stronghold, Alam\u016bt, of the _Old Man of the Mountain_, was stormed\nby forces sent against it by Helag\u016b, grandson of Jeng\u012bz, in about the\nyear A.H. 654 (A.D. 1256). The last prince of the dynasty was sent to\nChina, and there put to death by the emperor; and thus these detestable\nscourges of humanity were at length suppressed.)\n\n\n5.\n\nAfter a certain time the Seyyid asked permission of Jel\u0101l to go for a\nwhile to Qaysariyya (C\u00e6sarea), but Jel\u0101l could not spare him. So he\nremained at Qonya still.\n\nSomewhat later a party of friends took the Seyyid out for a ride\namong the vineyards. The thought occurred to him that, without saying\nanything to anybody, he might now easily abscond and get away to\nQaysariyya. Scarcely had he conceived this vagabond idea than his beast\nreared with him, threw him, and broke his leg. His friends raised\nhim, set him again on his horse, and conducted him to a neighbouring\ncountry-house to which Jel\u0101l had also come.\n\nOn seeing Jel\u0101l the Seyyid exclaimed to him, \u201cIs this the proper way\nto reward your teacher--to break his leg?\u201d Jel\u0101l at once ordered the\nSeyyid\u2019s boot to be removed, and saw that his foot and toes were\ncrushed. He now passed his hands along the injured limb and blew on it.\nThe limb was at once restored whole. Jel\u0101l now granted permission, and\nthe Seyyid forthwith proceeded to Qaysariyya.\n\n\n6.\n\nWhen the time was come that the Seyyid should die, he told his servant\nto prepare for him an ewer of warm water, and to go. The water was made\nready, placed in the Seyyid\u2019s room, and the servant went forth. The\nSeyyid called after him: \u201cGo and proclaim that the stranger Seyyid has\ndeparted to the other world.\u201d He then bolted the door, that none should\nenter to him.\n\nThe servant, however, had his curiosity excited by those words, and\nwent back to the door, to listen and to see what might happen. Through\na chink he saw his master perform an ablution, arrange his dress, lie\ndown on his couch, and cry out: \u201cAll ye angels, saints, and heavens,\nwho have at any time intrusted to me a secret, come to me now and\nreceive back your charges. Ye are here all present.\u201d\n\nHe then recited the following hymn:\u2014\n\n \u201cGod, my beloved, darling God, adored, to me incline;\n My soul receive; intoxicate, release poor me distraught.\n In Thee alone my heart finds peace; it fire with love divine;\n Take it unto Thyself; to it both worlds are naught.\u201d\n\nThese were the Seyyid\u2019s last words, ere he yielded up his spirit.\nThe servant carried the news to the Seyyid\u2019s friends, who gathered\ntogether, carried him forth, and buried him.\n\nA mausoleum was raised over his grave by a rich and powerful disciple.\nThe departed saint would not allow a cupola to stand. Twice the dome\nwas shaken down by earthquakes, and in a dream the Seyyid himself\nforbade its third edification.\n\nAfter the usual forty days of mourning, a letter was sent to Jel\u0101l, who\nat once journeyed from Qonya to Qaysariyya, and prayed at the tomb of\nhis deceased teacher, returning home again afterwards.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\n _Mevl\u0101n\u0101 Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn Muhammed, the Revered Mystery of God upon\n Earth._[10]\n\n\n1.\n\nJel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn is related to have been born at Balkh on the 6th of\nReb\u012b\u2019u-\u2019l-evvel, A.H. 604 (29th September 1207).\n\nWhen five years old, he used at times to become extremely uneasy and\nrestless, so much so that his attendants used to take him into the\nmidst of themselves.\n\nThe cause of these perturbations was that spiritual forms and shapes\nof the absent (invisible world) would arise before his sight, that is,\nangelic messengers, righteous genii, and saintly men--the concealed\nones of the bowers of the True One (spiritual spouses of God), used to\nappear to him in bodily shape, exactly as the cherubim and seraphim\nused to show themselves to the holy apostle of God, Muhammed, in the\nearlier days, before his call to the prophetic office; as Gabriel\nappeared to Mary, and as the four angels were seen by Abraham and Lot;\nas well as others to other prophets.\n\nHis father, Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn Veled, the Sult\u0101nu-\u2019l-\u2018Ulem\u0101, used on these\noccasions to coax and soothe him by saying: \u201cThese are the Occult\nExistences. They come to present themselves before you, to offer unto\nyou gifts and presents from the invisible world.\u201d\n\nThese ecstasies and transports of his began to be publicly known and\ntalked about; and the affectionately honorific title of Khud\u0101vendg\u0101r,\nby which he is so often mentioned, was conferred upon him at this time\nby his father, who used to address him and speak of him by this title,\nas \u201cMy Lord.\u201d\n\n\n2.\n\nHis son, Sultan Veled, related that there was a paper in the\nhandwriting of his father, Bah\u0101 Veled, which set forth that at Balkh,\nwhen Jel\u0101l was six years old, he was taking the air one Friday, on the\nterraced roof of the house, and reciting the Qur\u2019\u0101n, when some other\nchildren of good families came in and joined him there.\n\nAfter a time, one of these children proposed that they should try and\njump from thence on to a neighbouring terrace, and should lay wagers on\nthe result.\n\nJel\u0101l smiled at this childish proposal, and remarked: \u201cMy brethren, to\njump from terrace to terrace is an act well adapted for cats, dogs, and\nthe like, to perform; but is it not degrading to man, whose station is\nso superior? Come now, if you feel disposed, let us spring up to the\nfirmament, and visit the regions of God\u2019s realm.\u201d As he yet spake, he\nvanished from their sight.\n\nFrightened at Jel\u0101l\u2019s sudden disappearance, the other children raised\na shout of dismay, that some one should come to their assistance;\nwhen lo, in an instant, there he was again in their midst; but with\nan altered expression of countenance and blanched cheeks. They all\nuncovered before him, fell to the earth in humility, and all declared\nthemselves his disciples.\n\nHe now told them that, as he was yet speaking to them, a company of\nvisible forms, clad in green raiment, had led him away from them, and\nhad conducted him about the various concentric orbs of the spheres, and\nthrough the signs of the Zodiac, showing him the wonders of the world\nof spirits, and bringing him back to them so soon as their cries had\nreached his ears.\n\nAt that age, he was used not to break his fast more often than once in\nthree or four, and sometimes even seven, days.\n\n\n3.\n\nA different witness, a disciple of Jel\u0101l\u2019s father, related that Bah\u0101\nVeled frequently affirmed publicly that his Lord, Jel\u0101l, was of exalted\ndescent, being of the lineage of a king, and also of an hereditary\nsaint.\n\nHis maternal grandmother was a daughter of the great Im\u0101m\nEs-Sarakhs\u012b[11] (died at Damascus A.H. 571, A.D. 1175), who was of the\nlineage of the Prophet. The mother of Es-Sarakhs\u012b was descended from\nthe Caliph \u2018Al\u012b; and Jel\u0101l\u2019s paternal grandmother was a daughter of the\nKing of Kh\u2019\u0101rezm, who resided at Balkh.\n\nJel\u0101l\u2019s paternal great-great-grandmother, also, the mother of Ahmed,\nEl-Khat\u012bb\u012b, grandfather of Jel\u0101l\u2019s father, was a daughter of a king\nof Balkh. These particulars establish that Jel\u0101l was well descended\non both sides, in a mundane and in a spiritual sense. The well-known\nproverb--\n\n \u201cHereditary disposition ever insinuates itself,\u201d\n\nproved fully true in his most illustrious case.\n\n\n4.\n\nWhen Jel\u0101l was seven years old, he used every morning to recite the\nvery short chapter, cviii., of the Qur\u2019\u0101n--\n\n\u201cVerily we have given unto thee the abounding good. Therefore, do thou\nperform thy devotions unto thy Lord, and slaughter victims. Verily, he\nwho evil entreateth thee is one who shall leave no issue after him.\u201d\n\nHe used to weep as he recited these inspired words.\n\nSuddenly, God one day vouchsafed to appear to him visibly. On this he\nfainted away. Regaining consciousness, he heard a voice from heaven,\nthat said\u2014\n\n\u201cO Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn! By the majesty (jel\u0101l) of Our glory, do thou\nhenceforward cease to combat with thyself; for We have exalted thee to\nthe station of ocular vision.\u201d\n\nJel\u0101l vowed, therefore, out of gratitude for this mark of grace, to\nserve the Lord to the end of his days, to the utmost of his power; in\nthe firm hope that they who followed him would also attain to that high\ngrade of favour and excellence.\n\n\n5.\n\nTwo years after the death of his father, Jel\u0101l went from Qonya to Haleb\n(Aleppo) to study. (This account is altogether subversive, as to time\nand date, of that already given in chap. ii. No. 3.)\n\nAs he was known to be a son of Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn Veled, and was also an apt\nscholar, his professor showed him every attention.\n\nOthers were offended, and evinced their jealousy at the preference thus\naccorded to him. They complained to the governor of the city that Jel\u0101l\nwas immoral, as he was in the habit, each night, of quitting his cell\nat midnight for some unknown purpose. The governor resolved to see and\njudge for himself. He therefore hid himself in the porter\u2019s room.\n\nAt midnight, Jel\u0101l came forth from his room, and went straight to the\nlocked gate of the college, watched by the governor. The gate flew\nopen; and Jel\u0101l, followed at a distance by the governor, went through\nthe streets to the locked city gate. This, too, opened of itself; and\nagain both passed forth.\n\nThey went on and came to the tomb of Abraham (at Hebron, about 350\nmiles distant), the \u201cFriend of the All-Merciful.\u201d There a domed edifice\nwas seen, filled with a large company of forms in green raiment, who\ncame forth to meet Jel\u0101l, and conducted him into the building.\n\nThe governor hereupon lost his senses through fright, and did not\nrecover until after the sun had risen.\n\nNow, he could see nothing of a domed edifice, nor one single human\nbeing. He wandered about on a trackless plain for three days and three\nnights, hungry, thirsty, and footsore. At length he sank under his\nsufferings.\n\nMeanwhile, the porter of the college had given intelligence of the\ngovernor\u2019s pursuit after Jel\u0101l. When his officers found that he did not\nreturn, they sent a numerous party of guards to seek him. These, on the\nsecond day, met Jel\u0101l. He told them where they would find their master.\nThe next day, late, they came up with him, found him to be nearly dead,\nand brought him home.\n\nThe governor became a sincere convert, and a disciple to Jel\u0101l for ever\nafter.\n\n(A parallel tale is told of Jel\u0101l\u2019s fetching water from the Tigris for\nhis father by night when he was a little child at Bagdad. There, too,\nall the gates opened to him of themselves.)\n\n\n6.\n\nIt is related that the Seyyid Burh\u0101nu-\u2019d-D\u012bn was often heard to narrate\nthat, when Jel\u0101l was a child, the Seyyid was his governor and tutor.\nHe had often taken Jel\u0101l up on his shoulder, and so carried him to the\nempyrean. \u201cBut now,\u201d he would add, \u201cJel\u0101l has attained to such eminence\nof station that he carries me up.\u201d These sayings of the Seyyid were\nrepeated to Jel\u0101l, who confirmed them with the remark: \u201cIt is quite\ntrue; and a hundredfold more also; the services rendered to me by that\nman are infinite.\u201d\n\n\n7.\n\nWhen Jel\u0101l went to Damascus to study, he passed by S\u012bs in Upper\nCilicia. There, in a cave, dwelt forty Christian monks, who had a great\nreputation for sanctity, but in reality were mere jugglers.\n\nOn the approach of Jel\u0101l\u2019s caravan to the cave, the monks caused a\nlittle boy to ascend into the air, and there remain standing between\nheaven and earth.\n\nJel\u0101l noticed this exhibition, and fell into a reverie. Hereupon, the\nchild began to weep and wail, saying that the man in the reverie was\nfrightening him. The monks told him not to be afraid, but to come down.\n\u201cOh!\u201d cried the child, \u201cI am as though nailed here, unable to move hand\nor foot.\u201d\n\nThe monks became alarmed. They flocked around Jel\u0101l, and begged him to\nrelease the child. After a time, he seemed to hear and understand them.\nHis answer was: \u201cOnly through the acceptance of Isl\u0101m by yourselves,\nall of you, as well as by the child, can he be saved.\u201d\n\nIn the end they all embraced Isl\u0101m, and wished to follow Jel\u0101l as his\ndisciples. He recommended them, however, to remain in their cave, as\nbefore, to cease from practising jugglery, and to serve God in the\nspirit and in truth. So he proceeded on his journey.\n\n\n8.\n\nJel\u0101l remained seven years, or four years, at Damascus; and there he\nfirst saw his great friend Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn of Tebr\u012bz, clothed in his\nnoted black felt and peculiar cap. Shems addressed him; but he turned\naway, and mixed in the crowd. Soon afterwards, he returned to Qonya by\nway of Qaysariyya. At this latter place, under the guiding supervision\nof his spiritual teacher, the Seyyid Burh\u0101nu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Jel\u0101l fasted\nthree consecutive periods of forty days each,[12] with only a pot of\nwater and two or three loaves of barley bread. He showed no signs of\nsuffering. Burh\u0101n now pronounced him perfect in all science, patent and\noccult, human and spiritual. (Compare chap. ii. No. 3.)\n\n\n9.\n\nIn the year A.H. 642 (A.D. 1244), Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn of Tebr\u012bz came to Qonya.\n\nThis great man, after acquiring a reputation of superior sanctity\nat Tebr\u012bz, as the disciple of a certain holy man, a basket-maker by\ntrade, had travelled about much in various lands, in search of the best\nspiritual teachers, thus gaining the nickname of Perenda (the _Flier_,\n_Bird_, &c.).\n\nHe prayed to God that it might be revealed to him who was the most\noccult of the favourites of the divine will, so that he might go to him\nand learn still more of the mysteries of divine love.\n\nThe son of Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn Veled, of Balkh, was designated to him as\nthe man most in favour with God. Shems went, accordingly, to Qonya;\narriving there on Saturday, the 26th of Jem\u0101d\u00e0-\u2019l-\u0101khir, A.H. 642\n(December A.D. 1244). He engaged a lodging at an inn, and pretended\nto be a great merchant. In his room, however, there was nothing but a\nbroken water-pot, an old mat, and a bolster of unbaked clay. He broke\nhis fast once in every ten or twelve days, with a damper soaked in\nbroth of sheep\u2019s trotters.\n\nOne day, as he was seated at the gate of the inn, Jel\u0101l came by, riding\non a mule, in the midst of a crowd of students and disciples on foot.\n\nShemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn arose, advanced, and took hold of the mule\u2019s bridle,\naddressing Jel\u0101l in these words: \u201cExchanger of the current coins of\nrecondite significations, who knowest the names of the Lord! Tell me:\nWas Muhammed the greater servant of God, or B\u0101yez\u012bd of Best\u0101m?\u201d\n\nJel\u0101l answered him: \u201cMuhammed was incomparably the greater--the\ngreatest of all prophets and all saints.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen,\u201d rejoined Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, \u201chow is it that Muhammed said: \u2018We have\nnot known Thee, O God, as Thou rightly shouldest be known,\u2019 whereas\nB\u0101yez\u012bd said: \u2018Glory unto me! How very great is my glory\u2019?\u201d\n\nOn hearing this question, Jel\u0101l fainted away. On recovering his\nconsciousness, he took his new acquaintance home with him. They were\ncloseted together for weeks or months in holy communications.\n\nJel\u0101l\u2019s disciples at length became impatient, raising a fearful and\nthreatening tumult; so that, on Thursday, the 21st of Sheww\u0101l, A.H. 643\n(March A.D. 1246), Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn mysteriously disappeared; and Jel\u0101l\nadopted, as a sign of mourning for his loss, the drab hat and wide\ncloak since worn by the dervishes of his order.\n\nIt was about this time, also, that he first instituted the musical\nservices observed by that order, as they perform their peculiar\nwaltzing. All men took to music and dancing in consequence. Fanatics\nobjected, out of envy. They said Jel\u0101l was gone mad, even as the chiefs\nof Mekka had said of old of the Prophet. His supposed malady was\nattributed to the malefic influence of Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn of Tebr\u012bz.\n\n\n10.\n\nThe widow of Jel\u0101l, Kir\u0101 (_or_ Gir\u0101) Kh\u0101t\u016bn, a model of virtue, the\nMary of her age, is related to have seen, through a chink in the door\nof the room where he and Shems were closeted in spiritual communion,\nthat the wall suddenly opened, and six men of majestic mien entered by\nthe cleft.\n\nThese strangers, who were of the occult saints, saluted, bowed, and\nlaid a nosegay at the feet of Jel\u0101l, although it was then in the depth\nof the midwinter season. They remained until near the hour of dawn\nworship, when they motioned to Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn to act as leader on the\noccasion of the service. He excused himself, and Jel\u0101l performed the\noffice. The service of worship over, the six strangers took leave, and\npassed out by the same cleft in the wall.\n\nJel\u0101l now came forth from the chamber, bringing the nosegay in his\nhand. Seeing his wife in the passage, he gave her the nosegay, saying\nthat the strangers had brought it as an offering to her.\n\nThe next day, she sent her servant, with a few leaves from her\nnosegay, to the perfumers\u2019 mart of the city, to inquire what might be\nthe flowers composing it, as she had never seen their like before.\nThe merchants were all equally astonished; no one had ever seen such\nleaves. At length, however, a spice merchant from India, who was then\nsojourning in Qonya, saw those leaves, and knew them to be the petals\nof a flower that grows in the south of India, in the neighbourhood of\nCeylon.\n\nThe wonder now was: How did these Indian flowers get to Qonya; and in\nthe depth of winter, too?\n\nThe servant carried the leaves back, and reported to his lady what he\nhad learnt. This increased her astonishment a hundredfold. Just then\nJel\u0101l made his appearance, and enjoined on her to take the greatest\ncare of the nosegay, as it had been sent to her by the florists of\nthe lost earthly paradise, through those Indian saints, as a special\noffering.\n\nIt is related that she preserved them as long as she lived, merely\ngiving a few leaves, with Jel\u0101l\u2019s express permission, to the Georgian\nwife of the king. If any one suffered with any disease of the eyes,\none leaf from that nosegay, applied to the ailing part, was an instant\ncure. The flowers never lost their fragrance or freshness. What is musk\ncompared with such?\n\n\n11.\n\nTo prove that man lives through God\u2019s will alone, and not by\nblood, Jel\u0101l one day, in the presence of a crowd of physicians and\nphilosophers, had the veins of both his arms opened, and allowed them\nto bleed until they ceased to flow. He then ordered incisions to be\nmade in various parts of his body; but not one drop of moisture was\nanywhere obtainable. He now went to a hot bath, washed, performed an\nablution, and then commenced the exercise of the sacred dance.\n\n\n12.\n\nOne of Jel\u0101l\u2019s disciples died, and there was a consultation among his\nfriends as to whether he should be buried in a coffin or without one.\n\nAnother disciple, after Jel\u0101l had been consulted, and had told them\nto do as they pleased, made the observation that it would be better to\nbury their relative without a coffin. On being asked why, he answered:\n\u201cA mother can better nurse her child, than can her child\u2019s brother. The\nearth is the mother of the human race, and the wood of a coffin is also\nthe earth\u2019s child; therefore, the coffin is the man\u2019s brother. Man\u2019s\ncorpse should be committed, then, not to a coffin, but to mother earth,\nhis loving, affectionate parent.\u201d\n\nJel\u0101l expressed his admiration for this apposite and sublime doctrine,\nwhich, he said, was not to be found written in any then extant book.\n\nThe name of the disciple who made this beautiful remark was\nKer\u012bmu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, son of Begh-T\u012bm\u016br.\n\n\n13.\n\nMany of the chief disciples of Jel\u0101l have related that he himself\nexplained to them, as his reasons for instituting the musical service\nof his order, with their dancing, the following reflections:\u2014\n\n\u201cGod has a great regard for the Roman people. In answer to a prayer\nof the first Caliph, Ab\u016b-Bekr, God made the Romans a chief receptacle\nof His mercy; and the land of the Romans (Asia Minor) is the most\nbeautiful on the face of the earth. But the people of the land were\nutterly void of all idea of the riches of a love towards God, and of\nthe remotest shade of a taste for the delights of the inner, spiritual\nlife. The great Causer of all causes caused a source of affection to\narise, and out of the wilderness of causelessness raised a means by\nwhich I was attracted away from the land of Khur\u0101s\u0101n to the country of\nthe Romans. That country He made a home for my children and posterity,\nin order that, with the elixir of His grace, the copper of their\nexistences might be transmuted into gold and into philosopher-stone,\nthey themselves being received into the communion of saints. When I\nperceived that they had no inclination for the practice of religious\nausterities, and no knowledge of the divine mysteries, I imagined\nto arrange metrical exhortations and musical services, as being\ncaptivating for men\u2019s minds, and more especially so for the Romans,\nwho are naturally of a lively disposition, and fond of incisive\nexpositions. Even as a sick child is coaxed into taking a salutary,\nthough nauseous medicine, so, in like manner, were the Romans led by\nart to acquire a taste for spiritual truth.\u201d\n\n\n14.\n\nAs an instance of the great value attached to the poetry of Jel\u0101l, the\nfollowing anecdote is related:\u2014\n\nShemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn Hind\u012b, (Prince of Sh\u012br\u0101z in the province of Fars,\nSouthern Persia), wrote a flattering letter to the renowned poet,\nSheykh Sa\u2019d\u012b, of Sh\u012br\u0101z (who lived A.H. 571-691, A.D. 1175-1291, and\nwas consequently a contemporary of Jel\u0101l\u2019s), begging him to select the\nbest ode, with the most sublime thoughts, that he knew of as existing\nin Persian, and to send it to him, for presentation to the great Kh\u0101n\nof the Moguls (who then ruled over nearly all Asia).\n\nIt so happened that the ode by Jel\u0101l had just become known at Sh\u012br\u0101z,\nwhich commences:\u2014\n\n \u201cDivine love\u2019s voice each instant left and right is heard to sound,\n We\u2019re bound for heaven. To witness our departure who\u2019ll be found?\u201d\n\nThis ode had captivated the minds of all the men of culture in the\ncity; and this ode Sa\u2019d\u012b selected, wrote it out, and sent it to the\nprince, with the remark: \u201cA monarch, of auspicious advent, has sprung\nup in the land of Rome, from whose privacy these are some of the\nbreathings. Never have more beautiful words been uttered, and never\nwill be. Would that I could go to Rome, and rub my face in the dust\nunder his feet!\u201d\n\nThe prince thanked Sa\u2019d\u012b exceedingly, and sent him valuable presents in\nreturn. Eventually, Sa\u2019d\u012b did go to \u201cRome,\u201d arrived in Qonya, and had\nthe gratification to kiss the hand of Jel\u0101l. He was well received in\nthat city by the dervish circle.\n\nThe prince was himself a disciple of Sheykh ... \u2019d-D\u012bn, of Bakharz (in\nKhur\u0101s\u0101n, about midway between T\u016brsh\u012bz and Her\u0101t), to whom he sent\na copy of the ode, to learn what the Sheykh would think of it. All\nthe learned men of Bakharz assembled round the Sheykh. He read the\node attentively, and then burst out into exclamations of the wildest\ndelight and most fervid admiration, rending his garments, and acting\nas though mad. At length he calmed down and said: \u201cO wonderful man! O\nthou champion of the Faith! Thou pole of the heavens and of the earth!\nVerily, thou art a wonderful Sultan, who hast appeared on earth! In\ngood sooth, all the Sheykhs of bygone ages who were seers, have been\nfrustrated in not having seen this man! They would have supplicated the\nLord of Truth to allow them to meet him! But it was not to be; and this\nmercy will last until the end of time, as has been sung:\u2014\n\n \u201cA fortune, by the men of ancient times in dreams long sought,\n Has been vouchsafed to modern men; without their efforts caught.\u201d\n\n\u201cOne ought to put on ironed shoes, and take in hand an ironed staff, to\nset out at once and visit this great light. I make it a legacy to all\nmy friends to do so without the least delay, if they have the means\nand the strength, so as to achieve the happiness and secure the honour\nof making the acquaintance of this prince, so obtaining the grace and\nfavour of hearing him. His father, Bah\u0101 Veled, and his ancestors, were\ngreat Sheykhs and most illustrious; their great progenitor having been\nthe first Caliph, Ab\u016b-Bekr, the glorious Confirmer of the truth spoken\nby the Apostle of God. I am myself old and infirm, unequal to the\nfatigues of travel. Otherwise, I would have walked, not on the soles of\nmy feet, but on the tips of my great toes, to visit that eminent man.\u201d\n\nThe Sheykh\u2019s eldest son, Muzahhiru-\u2019d-D\u012bn, was there present. To him\nthe Sheykh addressed himself, saying: \u201cMy son, I do hope that thy eyes\nwill behold this sacred visage; and, if God so will, convey to him my\nsalutation and my respects.\u201d\n\nAfter the death of the old man, his son went to Rome, had the felicity\nto see Jel\u0101l, and presented his father\u2019s message. He returned to\nBakharz; but it is said that a son of his lies buried at Qonya.\n\n\n15.\n\nKir\u0101 Kh\u0101t\u016bn, the widow of Jel\u0101l, is reported to have related to a\nfriend that there was in their household a candlestick of the height\nof a man, before which Jel\u0101l used to stand on foot the night through,\nuntil daydawn, studying the writings of his father.\n\nOne night, a company of the genii, dwellers in the college where Jel\u0101l\nand his wife lived, appeared to her in a body, to complain of the\ngreat inconvenience and suffering to which they were subjected by this\npractice of Jel\u0101l\u2019s, and saying: \u201cWe can put up with it no longer. Take\ncare, lest we do a mischief to some one in the college.\u201d\n\nThe lady reported this complaint of the genii to her husband. He merely\nsmiled, and took no further notice of the matter for several days.\n\nAt the end of that time, however, he spoke of it, and told his wife\nto trouble herself no more about the threat of the genii, as he had\nconverted them all. They had become disciples of his, and would\ncertainly do no harm to any friend or dependent of their teacher.\n\n\n16.\n\nIt was related by one of the chief of Jel\u0101l\u2019s disciples, a butcher by\ntrade, a trainer of dogs for the chase, and a purveyor of horses of\nthe best kind, which he used to sell to princes and grandees at high\nprices, that, at a certain time, Jel\u0101l was much exercised by visions\nfrom the spiritual world, so that for forty days he was as though\nbeside himself, passing through the streets with his head bare, and his\nturban twisted round his neck.\n\nAfter that, he came suddenly one day, bathed in perspiration, to the\nbutcher, and said he wanted a certain unbroken horse to be saddled\nfor him immediately. The butcher, with the help of three stable-men,\nmanaged with the utmost difficulty to saddle the horse and bring him\nout. Jel\u0101l mounted him without opposition, and set off in a southerly\ndirection. The butcher asked whether he should accompany him, and Jel\u0101l\nreplied: \u201cGive me your prayers and holy good wishes.\u201d\n\nIn the evening Jel\u0101l returned covered with dust. The poor horse, though\nof gigantic frame, was reduced to mere skin and bone, being nearly\nbroken-backed with fatigue.\n\nThe next day he came again, and asked for another horse, better than\nthe one of yesterday, mounted it, and rode off. He returned at the hour\nof sunset devotions, and this horse also was reduced to a pitiable\ncondition. The butcher dared not offer a word of remonstrance.\n\nOn the third day he came again, mounted a third horse, and returned\nas before, at sunset. He sat down now in the most composed manner\npossible, and called out cheerily: \u201cGood news! Glad tidings, O ye of\nthe Faith! That dog of hell has gone back to his pit of fire!\u201d\n\nThe butcher was too much astonished at his manner to feel any\ninclination to inquire what these words might mean; but a certain\nnumber of days afterwards, a large caravan came into Qonya from Syria,\nand brought news that the Mogul army had besieged Damascus, and had\nreduced it to straits.\n\nHelaw Khan (Holagu, Helagu) had taken Bagdad in A.H. 655 (A.D.\n1257-58). Two years later, A.H. 657 (A.D. 1259-60), he advanced against\nAleppo and Syria, sending his general, Ketbuga, against Damascus with\na numerous army. He laid siege to the city. But the inhabitants\nwitnessed, with their very own eyes, that Jel\u0101l came and joined himself\nthere to the forces of Isl\u0101m. He inflicted defeat on the Mogul forces,\nwho were compelled to retreat, totally frustrated.\n\nThe butcher was overjoyed at this welcome intelligence, and went\nforthwith to communicate the news to Jel\u0101l. The latter smilingly\nreplied: \u201cYes, yes! Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn was the horseman who obtained a\nvictory over the enemy, and showed himself a Sultan in the eyes of the\npeople of Isl\u0101m.\u201d On hearing this, his disciples rent the air with\ntheir shouts of joy and triumph, and the townspeople of Qonya decked\nout and illuminated the city, holding public rejoicings.\n\nThis miracle of power became noised abroad, and everywhere Jel\u0101l\u2019s\nfriends and adherents were transported with ecstasy at its occurrence.\n\n\n17.\n\nOn one occasion a rich merchant of Tebr\u012bz came to Qonya. He inquired of\nhis agents there who was the most eminent man of learning and piety in\nthe city, as he wished to go and pay his respects to him. He remarked\nto them: \u201cIt is not merely for the sake of making money that I travel\nabout in every country on earth; I desire also to make the acquaintance\nof every man of eminence I can find in each city.\u201d\n\nHis correspondents told him that the Sheykhu-\u2019l-Isl\u0101m of the capital\nhad a great reputation for learning and piety, and that they would\nbe proud to present him to that celebrated luminary. Accordingly, he\nselected a number of rarities from among his store, to the value of\nthirty sequins; and the party set out to visit the great lawyer.\n\nThe merchant found the dignitary lodged in a great palace, with guards\nat the gate, crowds of servants and attendants in the courtyard, and\neunuchs, pages, grooms, ushers, chamberlains, and the like, in the\nhalls.\n\nTurning to his conductors, he expressed some doubt as to whether they\nhad not, by mistake, brought him to the king\u2019s palace. They quieted\nhis fears, and led him into the presence of the great fountain of\nlegal erudition. He felt a very great dislike for all he saw; and he\nremarked to his friends: \u201cA great lawyer is never anything the worse\nfor possessing a clear conscience. A physician may himself indulge in\nsweetmeats; but he does not prescribe them to a patient suffering with\nfever.\u201d\n\nHe now offered his presents; and then inquired of the great lawyer\nwhether he could solve a doubt under which he was then labouring.\nThis he stated as follows:\u2014\u201cOf late, I have been sustaining a series\nof losses. Can you indicate a way by which I may escape from that\nunfortunate position? I give, every year, the fortieth part of my\nliable possessions to the poor; and I distribute alms besides, to the\nextent of my power. I cannot conceive, therefore, why I am unfortunate.\u201d\n\nOther remarks he made also to the same effect. They appeared to be\nlost on the great luminary, who affected to be otherwise preoccupied.\nAt length the merchant took leave without obtaining a solution to his\ndifficulty.\n\nThe day following he inquired of his friends whether there did not\nchance to be, in the great city, some poor mendicant of exemplary\npiety, to whom he might offer his respects, and from whom he might,\nhaply, learn what he longed to know, together with advice that would be\nof service to him. They answered: \u201cJust such a man as thou describest\nis our Lord, Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn. He has forsaken all pleasures, save only\nhis love towards God. Not only has he given up all concern for worldly\nmatters, he has also renounced all care as to a future state. He passes\nhis nights, as well as his days, in the worship of God; and he is a\nvery ocean of knowledge in all temporal and spiritual subjects.\u201d\n\nThe Tebr\u012bz merchant was enchanted with this information. He begged to\nsee that holy man, the bare mention of whose virtues had filled him\nwith delight. They accordingly conducted him to the college of Jel\u0101l,\nthe merchant having privately furnished himself with a rouleau of fifty\nsequins in gold as his offering to the saint.\n\nWhen they reached the college, Jel\u0101l was sitting alone in the\nlecture-hall, immersed in the study of some books. The party made their\nobeisances, and the merchant felt himself completely overpowered at the\naspect of the venerable teacher; so that he burst into tears, and could\nnot utter a word. Jel\u0101l addressed him, therefore, as follows:\u2014\n\n\u201cThe fifty sequins thou hast provided as thy offering are accepted. But\nbetter for thee than these are the two hundred sequins thou hast lost.\nGod, whose glory be exalted, had determined to visit thee with a sore\njudgment and a heavy trial; but, through this thy visit here, He hath\npardoned thee, and the trial is averted from thee. Be not dismayed.\nFrom this day forth thou shalt not suffer loss; and that which thou\nhast already suffered shall be made up to thee.\u201d\n\nThe merchant was equally astonished and delighted at these words; more\nso, however, when Jel\u0101l proceeded with his discourse: \u201cThe cause and\nreason of thy bygone losses and misfortunes was, that, on a certain\nday thou wast in the west of Firengist\u0101n (Europe), where thou wentest\ninto a certain ward of a certain city, and there sawest a poor Fireng\u012b\n(European) man, one of the greatest of God\u2019s cherished saints, who was\nlying stretched out at the corner of a market-place. As thou didst pass\nby him, thou spattest on him, evincing aversion from him. His heart\nwas grieved by thy act and demeanour. Hence the visitations that have\nafflicted thee. Go thou, then, and make thy peace with him, asking his\nforgiveness, and offering him our salutations.\u201d\n\nThe merchant was petrified at this announcement. Jel\u0101l then asked\nhim: \u201cWilt thou that we this instant show him to thee?\u201d So saying, he\nplaced his hand on the wall of the apartment, and told the merchant\nto behold. Instantly, a doorway opened in the wall, and the merchant\nthence perceived that man in Firengist\u0101n, lying down in a market-place.\nAt this sight he bowed down his head and rent his garments, coming away\nfrom the saintly presence in a state of stupor. He remembered all these\nincidents as facts.\n\nImmediately commencing his preparations, he set out without delay, and\nreached the city in question. He inquired for the ward he wished to\nvisit, and for the man whom he had offended. Him he discovered lying\ndown, stretched out as Jel\u0101l had shown him. The merchant dismounted\nfrom his beast, and made his obeisance to the prostrate Fireng\u012b\ndervish, who at once addressed him thus: \u201cWhat wilt thou that I do? Our\nLord Jel\u0101l suffereth me not; or otherwise, I had a desire to make thee\nsee the power of God, and what I am. But now, draw near.\u201d\n\nThe Fireng\u012b dervish then clasped the merchant to his bosom, kissed him\nrepeatedly on both cheeks, and then added: \u201cLook now, that thou mayest\nsee my Lord and Teacher, my spiritual Master, and that thou mayest\nwitness a marvel.\u201d The merchant looked. He saw the Lord Jel\u0101l immersed\nin a holy dance, chanting this hymn, and entranced with sacred music:\u2014\n\n \u201cHis kingdom\u2019s vast and pure; each sort its fitting place finds\n there;\n Cornelian, ruby, clod, or pebble be thou on His hill.\n Believe, He seeks thee; disbelieve, He\u2019ll haply cleanse thee fair;\n Be here a faithful Ab\u016b-Bekr; Fireng\u012b there; at will.\u201d\n\nWhen the merchant happily reached Qonya on his return, he gave the\nsalutations of the Fireng\u012b saint, and his respects, to Jel\u0101l; and\ndistributed much substance among the disciples. He settled at Qonya,\nand became a member of the fraternity of the Pure Lovers of God.\n\n\n18.\n\nJel\u0101l was one day passing by a street, where two men were quarrelling.\nHe stood on one side. One of the men called out to the other: \u201cSay\nwhat thou will; thou shalt hear from me a thousandfold for every word\nthou mayest utter.\u201d\n\nHereupon Jel\u0101l stepped forward and addressed this speaker, saying: \u201cNo,\nno! Whatsoever thou have to say, say it to me; and for every thousand\nthou mayest say to me, thou shalt hear from me one word.\u201d\n\nOn hearing this rebuke, the adversaries were abashed, and made their\npeace with one another.\n\n\n19.\n\nOne day, a very learned professor brought all his pupils to pay their\nrespects to Jel\u0101l.\n\nOn their way to him, the young men agreed together to put some\nquestions to Jel\u0101l on certain points of Arabic grammar, with the\ndesign of comparing his knowledge in that science with that of their\nprofessor, whom they looked upon as unequalled.\n\nWhen they were seated, Jel\u0101l addressed them on various fitting subjects\nfor a while, and thereby paved the way for the following anecdote:\u2014\n\n\u201cAn ingenuous jurist was once travelling with an Arabic grammarian, and\nthey chanced to come to a ruinous well.\n\n\u201cThe jurist hereupon began to recite the text (of Qur\u2019\u0101n xxii. 44):\n\u2018And of a ruined well.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe Arabic word for \u2018well\u2019 he pronounced \u2018b\u012br,\u2019 with the vowel long.\nTo this the grammarian instantly objected, telling the jurist to\npronounce that word with a short vowel and hiatus--bi\u2019r, so as to be in\naccord with the requirements of classical purity.\n\n\u201cA dispute now arose between the two on the point. It lasted all the\nrest of the day, and well on into a pitchy dark night; every author\nbeing ransacked by them, page by page, each sustaining his own theory\nof the word. No conclusion was arrived at, and each disputant remained\nof his own opinion still.\n\n\u201cIt so happened in the dark, that the grammarian slipped into the\nwell, and fell to the bottom. There he set up a wail of entreaty: \u2018O\nmy most courteous fellow-traveller, lend thy help to extricate me from\nthis most darksome pit.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe jurist at once expressed his most pleasurable willingness to\nlend him that help, with only one trifling condition--that he should\nconfess himself in error, and consent to suppress the hiatus in the\nword \u2018bi\u2019r.\u2019 The grammarian\u2019s answer was \u2018Never.\u2019 So in the well he\nremained.\u201d\n\n\u201cNow,\u201d said Jel\u0101l, \u201cto apply this to yourselves. Unless you will\nconsent to cast out from your hearts the \u2018_hiatus_\u2019 of indecision\nand of self-love, you can never hope to escape from the noisome pit\nof self-worship,--the well of man\u2019s nature and of fleshly lusts.\nThe dungeon of \u2018Joseph\u2019s well\u2019 in the human breast is this very\n\u2018self-worship;\u2019 and from it you will not escape, nor will you ever\nattain to those heavenly regions--\u2018the spacious land of God\u2019\u201d (Qur\u2019\u0101n\niv. 99, xxix. 56, xxxix. 13).\n\nOn hearing these pregnant words, the whole assembly of undergraduates\nuncovered their heads, and with fervent zeal professed themselves his\nspiritual disciples.\n\n\n20.\n\nThere was a great and good governor (apparently) of Qonya, of the name\nof Mu\u2019\u012bnu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, whose title was the Perw\u0101na (moth or fly-wheel, viz.,\nof the far-distant Mogul Emperor, resident at the court of the king).\nHe was a great friend to the dervishes, to the learned, and to Jel\u0101l,\nwhose loving disciple he was.\n\nOne day, a company of the dervishes and learned men united in extolling\nthe Perw\u0101na to the skies, in Jel\u0101l\u2019s presence. He assented to all they\nadvanced in that respect, and added: \u201cThe Perw\u0101na merits a hundredfold\nall your eulogiums. But there is another side to the question, which\nmay be exemplified by the following anecdote:\u2014\n\n\u201cA company of pilgrims were once proceeding towards Mekka, when the\ncamel of one of the party fell down in the desert, totally exhausted.\nThe camel could not be got to rise again. Its load was, therefore,\ntransferred to another beast, the fallen brute was abandoned to its\nfate, and the caravan resumed its journey.\n\n\u201cEre long the fallen camel was surrounded by a circle of ravenous wild\nbeasts,--wolves, jackals, &c. But none of these ventured to attack him.\nThe members of the caravan became aware of this singularity, and one of\nthem went back to investigate the matter. He found that an amulet had\nbeen left suspended on the animal\u2019s neck; and this he removed. When he\nhad retreated to a short distance, the hungry brutes fell upon the poor\ncamel, and soon tore him piecemeal.\u201d\n\n\u201cNow,\u201d said Jel\u0101l, \u201cthis world is in an exactly similar category with\nthat poor camel. The learned of the world are the company of pilgrims,\nand our (Jel\u0101l\u2019s) existence among them is the amulet suspended round\nthe neck of the camel--the world. So long as we remain so suspended,\nthe world will go on, the caravan will proceed. But so soon as the\ndivine mandate shall be spoken: \u2018O thou submissive spirit, come thou\nback to thy Lord, content and approved\u2019 (Qur\u2019\u0101n lxxxix. 27-8), and we\nbe removed from the neck of the world-camel, people will see how it\nshall fare with the world,--how its inhabitants shall be driven,--what\nshall become of its sultans, its doctors, its scribes.\u201d\n\nIt is said that these words were spoken a short time before Jel\u0101l\u2019s\ndeath. When he departed this life, not much time elapsed ere the\nSultan, with many of his great men of learning and nobles, followed him\nto the grave, while troubles of all kinds overwhelmed the land for a\nseason, until God again vouchsafed it peace.\n\n\n21.\n\nDuring one of his expositions, Jel\u0101l said: \u201cThou seest naught, save\nthat thou seest God therein.\u201d\n\nA dervish came forward and raised the objection that the term\n\u201ctherein\u201d indicated a receptacle, whereas it could not be predicated of\nGod that He is comprehensible by any receptacle, as this would imply a\ncontradiction in terms. Jel\u0101l answered him as follows:\u2014\n\n\u201cHad not that unimpeachable proposition been true, we had not proffered\nit. There is therein, forsooth, a contradiction in terms; but it is\na contradiction in time, so that the receptacle and the recepted may\ndiffer,--may be two distinct things; even as the universe of God\u2019s\nqualities is the receptacle of the universe of God\u2019s essence. But,\nthese two universes are really one. The first of them is not He; the\nsecond of them is not other than He. Those, apparently, two things\nare in truth one and the same. How, then, is a contradiction in terms\nimplied? God comprises the exterior and the interior. If we cannot\nsay He is the interior, He will not include the interior. But He\ncomprises all, and in Him all things have their being. He is, then, the\nreceptacle also, comprising all existences, as the Qur\u2019\u0101n (xli. 54)\nsays: \u2018He comprises all things.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe dervish was convinced, bowed, and declared himself a disciple.\n\n\n22.\n\nJel\u0101l was one day seated in the shop of his great disciple the\nGoldbeater, Sal\u0101hu-\u2019d-D\u012bn; and was surrounded by a circle of other\ndisciples, listening to his discourse; when an old man came rushing in,\nbeating his breast, and uttering loud lamentations. He entreated Jel\u0101l\nto help him in his endeavours to recover his little son, a child seven\nyears old, lost for several days past, in spite of every effort made to\nfind him.\n\nJel\u0101l expressed his disapprobation at the extreme importance the old\nman appeared to attach to his loss; and said: \u201cMankind in general have\nlost their God. Still, one does not hear that they go about in quest\nof Him, beating their breasts and making a great noise. What, then,\nhas happened to thee so very particular, that thou makest all this\nfuss, and degradest thyself, an elder, by these symptoms of grief for\nthe loss of a little child? Why seekest thou not for a time the Lord\nof the whole world, begging assistance of Him, that peradventure thy\nlost Joseph may be found, and thou be comforted, as was Jacob on the\nrecovery of his child?\u201d\n\nThe old man at once followed Jel\u0101l\u2019s advice, and begged forgiveness of\nGod. Just then, news was brought him there that his son had been found.\nMany who were witnesses of these circumstances became devoted followers\nof Jel\u0101l.\n\n\n23.\n\nJel\u0101l was one day lecturing, when a young man of distinction came in,\npushed his way, and took a seat higher up than an old man, one of the\naudience.\n\nJel\u0101l at once remarked: \u201cIn days of yore it was the command of God,\nthat, if any young man should take precedence of an elder, the earth\nshould at once swallow him up; such being the divine punishment for\nthat offence. Now, however, I see that young men, barely out of\nleading-strings, show no respect for age, but trample over those in\nyears. They have no dread of the earth\u2019s swallowing them up, nor any\nfear of being transformed into apes.[13] It happened, however, that one\nmorning the Victorious Lion of God, \u2018Al\u012b, son of Ab\u016b-T\u0101lib, was hasting\nfrom his house to perform his devotions at dawn in the mosque of the\nProphet. On his way, he overtook an old man, a Jew, who was going in\nthe same direction. The future Caliph, out of innate nobility and\npoliteness of nature, had respect for the Jew\u2019s age, and would not pass\nhim, though the Jew\u2019s pace was slow. When \u2018Al\u012b reached the mosque, the\nProphet was already bowed down in his devotions, and was about to chant\nthe \u2018_Gloria_;\u2019 but, by God\u2019s command, Gabriel came down, laid his hand\non the Prophet\u2019s shoulder, and stopped him, lest \u2018Al\u012b should lose\nthe merit attaching to his being present at the opening of the dawn\nservice; for it is more meritorious to perform that early service once,\nthan to fulfil the devotions of a hundred years at other hours of the\nday. The Prophet has said: \u2018The first act of reverence at dawn worship\nis of more value than the world and all that is therein.\u2019\n\n\u201cWhen the Apostle of God had concluded his _worship_, offered up his\n_customary prayers_, and recited his usual _lessons_ from the Qur\u2019\u0101n,\nhe turned, and asked of Gabriel the occult cause of his interruption at\nthat time. Gabriel replied that God had not seen fit that \u2018Al\u012b should\nbe deprived of the merit attaching to the performance of the first\nportion of the dawn worship, through the respect he had shown to the\nold Jew he had overtaken, but whom he would not pass.\n\n\u201cNow,\u201d remarked Jel\u0101l, \u201cwhen a saint like \u2018Al\u012b showed so much respect\nfor a poor old misbelieving Jew, and when God viewed his respectful\nconsideration in so highly favourable a manner, you may all infer how\nHe will view any honour and veneration shown to an elderly saint of\napproved piety, whose beard has grown grey in the service of God, and\nwhose companions are the elect of their Maker, whose chosen servant he\nis; and what reward He will mete out in consequence. For, in truth,\nglory and power belong to God, to the Apostle, and to the believers, as\nGod hath Himself declared (Qur\u2019\u0101n lxiii. 8): \u2018Unto God belongeth the\npower, and to the apostle, and to the believers.\u2019\n\n\u201cIf then,\u201d added he, \u201cye wish to be prosperous in your affairs, take\nfast hold on the skirts of your spiritual elders. For, without the\nblessing of his pious elders, a young man will never live to be old,\nand will never attain the station of a spiritual elder.\u201d\n\n\n24.\n\nOne day Jel\u0101l took as his text the following words (Qur\u2019\u0101n xxxi.\n18):\u2014\u201cVerily, the most discordant of all sounds is the voice of\nthe asses.\u201d He then put the question: \u201cDo my friends know what this\nsignifies?\u201d\n\nThe congregation all bowed, and entreated him to expound it to them.\nJel\u0101l therefore proceeded:\u2014\n\n\u201cAll other brutes have a _cry_, a _lesson_, and a _doxology_, with\nwhich they commemorate their Maker and Provider. Such are, the\n_yearning cry_ of the camel, the _roar_ of the lion, the _bleat_ of the\ngazelle, the _buzz_ of the fly, the _hum_ of the bee, &c.\n\n\u201cThe angels in heaven, and the genii, have their doxologies also, even\nas man has his doxology--his _Magnificat_, and various forms of worship\nfor his heart (or mind) and for his body.\n\n\u201cThe poor ass, however, has nothing but his _bray_. He sounds this bray\non two occasions only: when he desires his female, and when he feels\nhunger. He is the slave of his lust and of his gullet.\n\n\u201cIn like manner, if man have not in his heart a doxology for God, a\ncry, and a love, together with a secret and a care in his mind, he is\nless than an ass in God\u2019s esteem; for He has said (Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 178):\n\u2018They are like the camels; nay, they are yet more erring.\u2019\u201d He then\nrelated the following anecdote:\u2014\n\n\u201cIn bygone days there was a monarch, who, by way of trial, requested\nanother sovereign to send him three things, the worst of their several\nkinds that he could procure; namely, the worst article of food, the\nworst dispositioned thing, and the worst animal.\n\n\u201cThe sovereign so applied to sent him some _cheese_, as the worst food;\nan Armenian slave, as the worst-dispositioned thing; and an ass, as the\nworst of animals. In the superscription to the epistle sent with these\nofferings, the sovereign quoted the verse of Scripture pointed out\nabove.\u201d\n\n\n25.\n\nOn a certain day, the Lord Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn went forth to the country\nresidence of the saint Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, riding on an ass. He remarked:\n\u201cThis is the saddle-beast of the righteous. Several of the prophets\nhave ridden on asses: as Seth, Ezra, Jesus, and Muhammed.\u201d\n\nIt so chanced that one of his disciples was also mounted on an ass.\nThe creature suddenly began to bray; and the rider, annoyed at the\noccurrence, struck the ass on the head several times.\n\nJel\u0101l remonstrated: \u201cWhy strike the poor brute? Strikest thou him\nbecause he bears thy burden? Returnest thou not thanks for that thou\nart the rider, and he the vehicle? Suppose now, which God forbid,\nthat the reverse were the case. What wouldst thou have done? His cry\narises from one or the other of two causes, his gullet or his lust.\nIn this respect, he shares the common lot of all creatures. They are\nall continually thus actuated. All, then, would have to be scolded and\nbeaten over the head.\u201d\n\nThe disciple was abashed. He dismounted, kissed the hoof of his ass,\nand caressed him.\n\n\n26.\n\nOn a certain occasion, one of his disciples complained to Jel\u0101l of the\nscantiness of his means and the extent of his needs. Jel\u0101l answered:\n\u201cOut upon thee! Get thee gone! Henceforward, count me not a friend of\nthine; and so, peradventure, wealth may come to thee.\u201d He then related\nthe following anecdote:\u2014\n\n\u201cIt happened, once, that a certain disciple of the Prophet said to\nhim: \u2018I love thee!\u2019 The Prophet answered: \u2018Why tarriest thou, then?\nHaste to put on a breastplate of steel, and set thy face to encounter\nmisfortunes. Prepare thyself, also, to endure straitness, the special\ngift of the friends and lovers (of God and His Apostle)!\u2019\u201d\n\nAnother anecdote, also, he thus narrated: \u201cA Gnostic adept once\nasked of a rich man which he loved best, riches or sin. The latter\nanswered that he loved riches best. The other replied: \u2018Thou sayest not\nthe truth. Thou better lovest sin and calamity. Seest thou not that\nthou leavest thy riches behind, whilst thou carriest thy sin and thy\ncalamity about with thee, making thyself reprehensible in the sight of\nGod! Be a man! Exert thyself to carry thy riches with thee, and sin\nnot; since thou lovest thy riches. What thou hast to do is this: Send\nthy riches to God ere thou goest before Him thyself; peradventure, they\nmay work thee some advantage; even as God hath said (Qur\u2019\u0101n lxxiii.\n20): \u2018And that which ye send before, for your souls, of good works,\nshall ye find with God. He is the best and the greatest in rewarding.\u201d\n\n\n27.\n\nIt is related that one day the Perw\u0101na, Mu\u2019\u012bnu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, held a great\nassembly in his palace. To this meeting were collected together all the\nDoctors of the Law, the Sheykhs, the men of piety, the recluses, and\nthe strangers who had congregated from various lands.\n\nThe chiefs of the law had taken their places in the highest seats. The\nPerw\u0101na had had a great desire that Jel\u0101l should honour the assembly\nwith his presence. He had a son-in-law, Mejdu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, governor to the\nyoung princes, the sons of the king. This son-in-law of his was a\ndisciple of Jel\u0101l\u2019s, and a man of very eminent qualities, with great\nfaith in his teacher. He offered to go and invite Jel\u0101l to the meeting.\n\nHereupon, the arch-sower of doubts and animosities in the human breast\nspread among the chiefs of the law, there present, the suspicion that,\nif Jel\u0101l should come, the question of precedence would arise: \u201cWhere\nshould he be seated?\u201d They all agreed that they were themselves in\ntheir proper places, and that Jel\u0101l must find a seat where he could.\n\nMejdu-\u2019d-D\u012bn delivered the Perw\u0101na\u2019s courteous message to his teacher.\nJel\u0101l, inviting Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn and others of his disciples to accompany\nhim, set out for the Perw\u0101na\u2019s palace. The disciples went on a little\nahead, and Jel\u0101l brought up the procession.\n\nWhen Hus\u0101m entered the apartment of the Perw\u0101na, all present rose to\nreceive him, making room for him in the upper seats. Lastly, Jel\u0101l made\nhis appearance.\n\nThe Perw\u0101na and other courtiers crowded forward to receive Jel\u0101l\nwith honour, and kissed His Lordship\u2019s blessed hands with reverence,\nexpressing regret that he had been put to inconvenience by his\ncondescension. He returned compliment for compliment, and was shown\nupstairs.\n\nOn reaching the assembly room, he saw that the grandees had occupied\nthe whole of the sofa, from end to end. He saluted them, and prayed\nfor God\u2019s grace to be showered upon them; seating himself then in the\nmiddle of the floor. Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn immediately rose from his seat,\ndescended from the sofa, and took a place by the side of Jel\u0101l.\n\nThe grandees of the assembly now arose also, excepting those who, in\nspite and pride, had formed the confederacy mentioned above. These kept\ntheir seats. Some of them were of the greatest eminence in learning;\nand one, especially, was not only very learned, but also eloquent,\nwitty, and bold.\n\nHe, seeing what had taken place, and that all the men of rank had\nquitted the sofa, to seat themselves on the floor, asked in a jocose\nmanner: \u201cWhere, according to the rules of the Order, is the chief seat\nin an assembly?\u201d\n\nSome one answered him: \u201cIn an assembly of the learned, the chief seat\nis in the middle of the sofa, where the professor always sits.\u201d Another\nadded: \u201cWith recluses, the cell of solitude is the chief seat.\u201d A third\nsaid: \u201cIn the convents of dervish brethren, the chief seat is the lower\nend of the sofa, where, in reality, people put off their shoes.\u201d\n\nAfter these remarks, some one present, as an experiment, asked Jel\u0101l,\nsaying: \u201cIn your rule and opinion, where is the chief seat?\u201d His\nanswer was: \u201cThe chief seat is that where one\u2019s beloved is found.\u201d The\ninterrogator now asked: \u201cAnd where is your beloved?\u201d Jel\u0101l replied:\n\u201cThou must be blind, not to see.\u201d\n\nJel\u0101l then arose, and began to sing. Many joined; and the singing\nbecame so enthusiastic, that the nobles rent their garments.\n\nIt so happened that, after Jel\u0101l\u2019s death, this interlocutor of his went\nto Damascus, and there became blind. Friends flocked to visit him, and\nto condole with him. He wept bitterly, and cried aloud: \u201cAlas, alas!\nwhat have I not suffered? That very moment, when Jel\u0101l gave me that\nfatal answer, a black veil seemed to fall down over my eyes, so that\nI could not distinguish objects clearly, or their colours. But I have\nhope and faith in him, that, out of his sublime generosity, he will yet\ntake pity on me, and pardon my presumption. The goodness of the saints\nis infinite; and Jel\u0101l himself hath said: \u2018Despair not because of one\nsin; for the ocean of divine mercy accepteth penitence.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe foregoing incident is also related with the following variation:\u2014\n\nShemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn of Tebr\u012bz had just then returned to Qonya, and was among\nthose who accompanied Jel\u0101l to the Perw\u0101na\u2019s palace, sitting down near\nhim on the floor. When the question was put: \u201cWhere is your beloved?\u201d\nJel\u0101l arose, and cast himself on the breast of Shems. That occurrence\nit was that made Shems, from that time forward, a man of mark in all\nQonya.\n\n\n28.\n\nThere was in Qonya a great physician, of eminence and ability, who used\noccasionally to visit Jel\u0101l.\n\nOn one of those days, Jel\u0101l requested him to prepare seventeen\npurgative draughts by a certain time, propitious for taking medicine,\nas that number of his friends required them.\n\nWhen the specified time came, Jel\u0101l went to the physician\u2019s house, and\nreceived the seventeen draughts. He immediately began, and, in the\nphysician\u2019s presence, drank off the whole seventeen in succession,\nthence returning home.\n\nThe physician followed him there, to render the assistance he felt sure\nwould be wanted. He found Jel\u0101l seated as usual, in perfect health, and\nlecturing to his disciples. On inquiring how he felt, Jel\u0101l answered,\nin the words so often repeated in the Qur\u2019\u0101n (ii. 23, &c.): \u201cBeneath\nwhich rivers flow.\u201d The physician recommended Jel\u0101l to abstain from\nwater. Jel\u0101l instantly ordered ice to be brought and broken up small.\nOf this he swallowed an inordinate quantity, while the physician looked\non.\n\nJel\u0101l then went to a hot-bath. After bathing, he began to sing and\ndance; continuing in those exercises three whole days and nights,\nwithout intermission.\n\nThe physician declared this to be the greatest miracle ever wrought\nby prophet or by saint. With his whole family, and with many of the\ngreatest in the medical profession, he joined himself to the multitude\nof Jel\u0101l\u2019s disciples of the most sincere.\n\n\n29.\n\nThe Perw\u0101na is related to have said publicly, in his own palace, that\nJel\u0101l was a matchless monarch, no sovereign having ever appeared in any\nage like unto him; but that his disciples were a very disreputable set.\n\nThese words were reported to them, and the company of disciples were\ngreatly scandalised at the imputation. Jel\u0101l sent a note to the\nPerw\u0101na, of which the following is the substance:\u2014\n\n\u201cHad my disciples been good men, I had been their disciple. Inasmuch as\nthey were bad, I accepted them as my disciples, that they might reform\nand become good,--of the company of the righteous. By the soul of my\nfather, they were not accepted as disciples, until God had made Himself\nresponsible that they would attain to mercy and grace, admitted among\nthose accepted of Him. Until that assurance was given, they were not\nreceived by me, nor had they any place in the hearts of the servants of\nGod. \u2018The sons of grace are saved; the children of wrath are sick; for\nthe sake of Thy mercy, we, a people of wrath, have come to Thee.\u2019\u201d\n\nWhen the Perw\u0101na had read and considered these words, he became still\nmore attached to Jel\u0101l; arose, came to him, asked pardon, and prayed\nfor forgiveness of God, distributing largely of his bounty among the\ndisciples.\n\n\n30.\n\nAnother great and good man once observed: \u201cJel\u0101l is a great saint and a\nsovereign; but he must be dragged forth from among his disciples.\u201d This\nwas reported to Jel\u0101l, who smiled, and said: \u201cIf he can!\u201d\n\nSoon afterwards he added: \u201cWhy, then, is it that my followers are\nlooked upon with spite by the men of the world? It is because they\nare beloved of God, and favourably regarded by Him. I have sifted all\nmankind; and all have fallen through my sieve, excepting these friends\nof mine. They have remained. My existence is the life of my friends,\nand the existence of my friends is the life of the men of the world,\nwhether they know this, or whether they ignore it.\u201d\n\n\n31.\n\nThere was a young merchant, whose house was near Jel\u0101l\u2019s college, and\nwho had professed himself a sincere and ardent disciple.\n\nHe conceived a desire and intention to make a voyage to Egypt; but his\nfriends tried to dissuade him. His intention was reported to Jel\u0101l, who\nstrictly and rigorously prohibited his undertaking the voyage.\n\nThe young man could not divest himself of his desire, and had no peace\nof mind; so one night he clandestinely stole away, and went off to\nSyria. Arrived at Antioch, he embarked in a ship, and set sail. As\nGod had willed, his ship was taken by Fireng\u012b pirates. He was made\nprisoner, and was confined in a deep dungeon, where he had a daily\nportion of food doled out to him, barely sufficient to keep his body\nand soul together.\n\nHe was thus kept imprisoned forty days, during which he wept bitterly,\nand reproached himself for having been disobedient to the injunction of\nJel\u0101l; saying: \u201cThis is the reward of my crime. I have disobeyed the\ncommand of my sovereign, following after my own evil propensity.\u201d\n\nPrecisely on the night of the fortieth day, he saw Jel\u0101l in a dream,\nwho addressed him, and said: \u201cTo-morrow, to whatever questions these\nmisbelievers may ask thee, do thou return the answer: \u2018I know.\u2019 By that\nmeans shalt thou be released.\u201d He awoke bewildered, returned thanks to\nHeaven, and sat down in holy meditation, awaiting the solution of the\ndream.\n\nShortly, he saw a company of Fireng\u012b people come to him, with whom was\nan interpreter. They asked him: \u201cKnowest thou aught of philosophy, and\ncanst thou practise therapeutics? Our prince is sick.\u201d His answer was:\n\u201cI know.\u201d\n\nThey immediately took him out of the pit, led him to a bath, and\ndressed him in a handsome vestment of honour. They then conducted him\nto the residence of the sick man.\n\nThe young merchant, inspired of God, ordered them to bring him seven\nfruits. These he prepared with a little scammony, and made the whole\ninto a draught, which he administered to the patient.\n\nBy the grace of God, and the intercession of the saints, his treatment\nwas crowned with success, after two or three visits. The Fireng\u012b prince\nrecovered; and by reason that the favour of Jel\u0101l was upon that young\nmerchant, though he was utterly illiterate, he became a philosopher.\nJel\u0101l assisted him.\n\nWhen the Fireng\u012b prince had entirely recovered his health, and had\narisen from his sick-bed, he told the young merchant to ask of him\nwhatsoever he might wish. He asked for his freedom, and for leave to\nreturn home, that he might rejoin his teacher. He then related all that\nhad befallen him;--his disobedience, his vision, and the assistance of\nJel\u0101l. The whole audience of Fireng\u012bs, without sight of Jel\u0101l, became\nbelievers in him, and wooers of him.\n\nThey set the young merchant free, and allowed him to depart, bestowing\non him rich presents and a bountiful outfit.\n\nOn his arrival at the metropolis, before going to his own house, he\nhastened to pay his respects to Jel\u0101l. On beholding the sacred features\nfrom afar, he threw himself on the earth, embraced Jel\u0101l\u2019s two feet,\nkissed them, rubbed his face upon them, and wept. Jel\u0101l raised him,\nkissed both his cheeks, and said: \u201cIt was a narrow escape through thy\ncuring the Fireng\u012b prince. Thou didst abscond; but henceforward, do\nthou remain at home, and occupy thyself in earning what is lawful. Take\ncontentment as thy exemplar. The sufferings of the sea, the commotion\nof the ship, the calamity of captivity, and the darkness of the\ndungeon, are so many evils. Contentment is a very blessing from God.\u201d\n\n\n32.\n\nJel\u0101l one day was going from his college into the town, when by chance\nhe met a Christian monk, who made him an obeisance. Jel\u0101l asked him\nwhich was the elder, himself or his beard. The monk replied: \u201cI am\ntwenty years older than my beard. It came forth that number of years\nlater.\u201d Jel\u0101l answered him: \u201cThen I pity thee. Thy young beard has\nattained to maturity, whereas thou hast remained immature, as thou\nwast. Thou art as black, and as weak, and as untutored as ever. Alas\nfor thee, if thou change not, and ripen not!\u201d\n\nThe poor monk at once renounced his rope girdle, threw it away,\nprofessed the faith of Isl\u0101m, and became a believer.\n\n\n33.\n\nA company of black-habited ones (Christian priests or monks) chanced\nto meet Jel\u0101l one day, as they came from a distant place. When his\ndisciples espied them afar off, they expressed their aversion from them\nby exclaiming: \u201cO the dark-looking, disagreeable things!\u201d\n\nJel\u0101l remarked: \u201cIn the whole world, none are more generous than they\nare. They have given over to us, in this life, the faith of Isl\u0101m,\npurity, cleanliness, and the various modes of worshipping God; while,\nin the world to come, they have left to us the everlasting abodes of\nparadise, the large-eyed damsels, and the pavilions, as well as the\nsight of God, of which they will enjoy no share; for God hath said\n(Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 48): \u2018Verily God hath made both of them forbidden things\nto the misbelievers!\u2019 They walk in darkness and misbelief, willingly\nincurring the torments of hell. But, let only the sun of righteousness\nrise upon them suddenly, and they will become believers.\u201d\n\nBeing now come near enough, they all made their obeisances to Jel\u0101l,\nentered into conversation with him, and professed themselves true\nMuslims. Jel\u0101l now turned to his disciples, and added: \u201cGod swallows\nup the darkness in the light, and the light in the darkness. He also\nmakes in the darkness a place for the light.\u201d The disciples bowed, and\nrejoiced.\n\n\n34.\n\nA certain well-known disciple related that, on one occasion, Jel\u0101l and\nhis friends went forth to the country-seat of Hus\u0101m, and there held a\ngrand festival of holy music and dancing until near daybreak. Jel\u0101l\nthen left off, to give his followers a little rest.\n\nThey dispersed about the grounds; and the narrator took a seat in a\nspot from whence he could see and observe Jel\u0101l. The others all fell\nasleep; but he occupied himself with reflections on the miracles\nperformed by various of the prophets and of the saints. He thought to\nhimself: \u201cI wonder whether this holy man works miracles. Of course he\ndoes; only, he keeps the fact quiet, to avoid the inconveniences of\nnotoriety.\u201d\n\nHardly had the thought crossed his mind, when Jel\u0101l called him by name.\nOn his approaching Jel\u0101l, the latter stooped, picked up a pebble from\nthe earth, placed it on the back of his own hand, and said to him:\n\u201cHere, take this; it is thy portion; and be thou one of the thankful\u201d\n(Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 141).\n\nThe disciple examined the pebble by the light of the moon, and saw that\nit was a large ruby, exceedingly clear and brilliant, not to be found\nin the treasuries of kings.\n\nUtterly astounded, he shrieked out, and swooned away; awaking the whole\ncompany with his shout; for he was a very loud-voiced man. On recovery,\nhe told the others what had occurred. He also expressed to Jel\u0101l his\ncontrition for the temerity of his reflections.\n\nJel\u0101l told him to carry the stone to the queen, and to mention how he\nhad become possessed of it. The queen accepted it, had it valued, and\ngave to him a hundred and eighty thousand pieces of silver in return,\nbesides rich gifts. She also distributed presents to all the members of\nthe fraternity.\n\n\n35.\n\nA certain sheykh, son of a sheykh, and a man of great reputation for\nlearning, came to Qonya, and was respectfully visited by all the people\nof eminence residing there.\n\nIt so happened that Jel\u0101l and his friends were gone that day to a\nmosque in the country; and the new-comer, offended at Jel\u0101l\u2019s not\nhasting to visit him, made the remark in public: \u201cHas Jel\u0101l never heard\nthe adage: \u2018The newly-arrived one is visited\u2019?\u201d\n\nOne of Jel\u0101l\u2019s disciples chanced to be present, and heard this remark.\nOn the other hand, Jel\u0101l was expounding sublime truths in the mosque\nto his disciples, when suddenly he exclaimed, \u201cMy dear brother! I am\nthe newly-arrived one, not thou. Thou and those like thee are bound to\nvisit me, and so gain honour to yourselves.\u201d\n\nAll his audience were surprised at this apostrophe; wondering to whom\nit was addressed. Jel\u0101l then spake a parable: \u201cOne man came from\nBagd\u0101d, and another went forth out of his house and ward; which of the\ntwo ought to pay the first visit to the other?\u201d\n\nAll agreed in opinion that the man from Bagd\u0101d ought to be visited\nby the other. Then Jel\u0101l explained, thus: \u201cIn reality, I am returned\nfrom the Bagd\u0101d of _nulliquity_, whereas this dearly beloved son of a\nsheykh, who has come here, has gone forth from a ward of this world. I\nam better entitled, therefore, to be visited than is he. I have been\nhymning in the Bagd\u0101d of the world of spirits the heavenly canticle: \u2018I\nam the Truth,\u2019 since a time anterior to the commencement of the present\nwar, ere the truth obtained its victory.\u201d The disciples expressed their\nconcurrence, and rejoiced exceedingly.\n\nBy and by, the sheykh\u2019s son was informed of this wonder. He at once\narose, went on foot to visit Jel\u0101l, uncovered his head, and owned\nthat Jel\u0101l was right. He further declared himself Jel\u0101l\u2019s disciple,\nand said: \u201cMy father enjoined me to put on ironed sandals, taking an\niron-shod staff in my hand, and go forth in quest of Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn,\nsince it is a duty of all to visit and reverence him who has spoken\nthe truth and reposes on the truth. But the majesty of Jel\u0101l is a\nhundredfold greater than what my father explained to me.\u201d\n\n\n36.\n\nJel\u0101l once commanded one of his attendants to go and arrange a certain\nmatter. The attendant answered: \u201cGod willing.\u201d\n\nUpon this, Jel\u0101l was wroth, and shouted to him: \u201cStupid, garrulous\nfool!\u201d The attendant fainted and foamed at the mouth.\n\nThe disciples interceded. Jel\u0101l expressed his forgiveness; and the\nattendant recovered.\n\n\n37.\n\nOn the occasion of a grand religious commemoration at the house of\nthe Perw\u0101na, in the presence of the Sultan Ruknu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, this monarch\nwas taken unwell, and the exercises were suspended, only, one of the\ndisciples continued to sing and shout.\n\nThe Sultan remarked: \u201cHow ill-behaved is that man! Does he pretend to\nbe more ecstatic than his teacher Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn?\u201d\n\nJel\u0101l heard this, and answered the king: \u201cThou art unable to withstand\nan attack of fever. How then canst thou expect a man devoured with an\nenthusiasm that threatens to swallow up even heaven itself, to calm\ndown on a sudden?\u201d\n\nWhen the disciples heard this, they set up a shout; and the Sultan,\nafter himself witnessing one or two of the mighty signs wrought by\nJel\u0101l, made his obeisance to him, and became a disciple.\n\n\n38.\n\nIt has been related by some that the final overthrow of the rule of the\nSelj\u016bq\u012b dynasty in Asia Minor (in A.H. 700, A.D. 1300), was in this\nmanner:\u2014\n\nThe Sultan Ruknu-\u2019d-D\u012bn had adopted Jel\u0101l as his (spiritual) father.\nAfter a while, he held a great dervish festival in the palace. But,\nabout that period, a certain Sheykh B\u0101ba had created for himself a\ngreat name in Qonya, and certain intriguers had led the king to visit\nhim.\n\nIt was shortly after that visit that the king held the revival in\nhonour of B\u0101ba in the Hall of the Bowls.\n\nThe sheykh was met and introduced in state by the court officials, and\nwas then installed on the throne, with the Sultan seated on a chair by\nhis side. Jel\u0101l now made his appearance, saluted, and took his seat\nin a corner of the hall. Portions of the Qur\u2019\u0101n were recited, and\nexhortations were delivered, with hymns.\n\nThe Sultan then turned to Jel\u0101l, and spoke: \u201cBe it known to the Lord\nJel\u0101l, to the Doctors of the Law, and to the grandees, that I have\nadopted the Sheykh B\u0101ba as my (spiritual) father, who has accepted me\nas his dutiful and affectionate son.\u201d\n\nAll present shouted their approval, and prayed for a blessing on\nthe arrangement. But Jel\u0101l, burning with divine jealousy, instantly\nexclaimed (in words traditionally related of the prophet, Muhammed):\n\u201cVerily, Sa\u2019d is a jealous man; but I am more jealous than Sa\u2019d; and\nGod is still more jealous than I am.\u201d To this he further added: \u201cSince\nthe Sultan has made the sheykh his father, we will make some other our\nson.\u201d So saying, he gave his usual religious shout of ecstasy, and\nstalked out from the assembly.\n\nHus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn related that he saw the Sultan, when Jel\u0101l thus quitted\nthe presence, turn pale, as though shot with an arrow.\n\nThe grandees ran to stop Jel\u0101l; but he would not return.\n\nA few days afterwards, the officers of state adopted the resolution to\ninvite the Sultan to go to another city, that they might take measures\nto get rid of Sheykh B\u0101ba. The Sultan now went to consult Jel\u0101l, and\nask for his blessing before setting out. Jel\u0101l advised him not to go.\nThe matter had, however, been officially promulgated, and there was no\npossibility to alter arrangements.\n\nOn arriving at the other town, the Sultan was conducted to a private\napartment, and forthwith strangled with a bowstring. Ere his breath\nfailed, he invoked the name of Jel\u0101l.\n\nAt that moment Jel\u0101l was at his college, lost to consciousness in the\nenthusiasm of a musical service. Suddenly, he put his two forefingers\ninto his two ears, and ordered the trumpets and chorus to join in. He\nthen shouted vociferously, and recited aloud two of his own odes, of\nwhich one commences thus:\n\n \u201cMy words were: \u2018Go not; I\u2019m thy friend; the world is rife\n With threats of dire destruction; I\u2019m the Fount of Life.\u2019\u201d\n\n * * * * *\n\nWhen the service was over, the disciples requested Jel\u0101l\u2019s son, Sultan\nVeled, to inquire of his father what all this might signify. In reply,\nhe merely put off his cloak, and said aloud: \u201cLet us perform the\nservice for the burial of the dead.\u201d\n\nHe acted as Precentor in the service, and all present joined in.\nThen, without waiting for his son to put any question, he addressed\nthe assembly, saying: \u201cYea, Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn and my friends! They have\nstrangled the poor Sultan Ruknu-\u2019d-D\u012bn. In his agony, he called on me,\nand shrieked. God had so ordained. I did not wish his voice to ring in\nmy ears, and interrupt my devotions. He will fare better in the other\nworld.\u201d\n\n(There is a serious anachronism in the foregoing account. Sultan\nRuknu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, whose name was Suleyman son of Key-Khusrew, was put to\ndeath by order of the Mogul emperor Abaqa Kh\u0101n, in A.H. 664 (A.D.\n1265), thirty-six years before the final extinction of the dynasty by\norder of Q\u0101z\u0101n Kh\u0101n, between Abaqa and whom no less than four emperors\nreigned. Besides this, Jel\u0101l himself died in A.H. 672 (A.D. 1273),\ntwenty-seven years before the last of the Selj\u016bq\u012b sovereigns, Key-Qub\u0101d\nson of Fer\u0101murz son of Key-K\u0101wus, was slaughtered, together with all\nliving members of the race. Historians differ much respecting the names\nand order of succession of the last sovereigns of the dynasty; and the\npresent anecdote shows how confused had become on the spot the legend\nof these puppets. Ruknu-\u2019d-D\u012bn caused his own brother to be poisoned,\nas he had become jealous of the favour shown to that brother by the\nMogul emperor. His own death was the reward of that act.)\n\n\n39.\n\nOne day, in lecturing on self-abasement and humility, Jel\u0101l spake a\nparable from the trees of the field, and said: \u201cEvery tree that yields\nno fruit, as the pine, the cypress, the box, &c., grows tall and\nstraight, lifting up its head on high, and sending all its branches\nupwards; whereas all the fruit-bearing trees droop their heads, and\ntrail their branches. In like manner, the Apostle of God was the most\nhumble of men. Though he carried within himself all the virtues and\nexcellencies of the ancients and of the moderns, he, like a fruitful\ntree, was more humble, and more of a dervish, than any other prophet.\nHe is related to have said: \u2018I am commanded to show consideration\nto all men, to be kind to them; and yet, no prophet was ever so\nill-treated by men as I have been.\u2019 We know that he had his head\nbroken, and his teeth knocked out. Still he prayed: \u2018O our Lord God,\nguide Thou my people aright; for they know not what they do.\u2019 Other\nprophets have launched denunciations against the people to whom they\nwere sent; and certainly, none have had greater cause to do so, than\nMuhammed.\u201d\n\n \u201cOld Adam\u2019s form was moulded first of clay from nature\u2019s face;\n Who\u2019s not, as mire, low-minded\u2019s not true son of Adam\u2019s race.\u201d\n\nIn like manner, Jel\u0101l also had the commendable habit to show himself\nhumble and considerate to all, even the lowest; especially so to\nchildren, and to old women. He used to bless them; and always bowed to\nthose who bowed to him, even though these were not Muslims.\n\nOne day he met an Armenian butcher, who bowed to him seven times. Jel\u0101l\nbowed to him in return. At another time he chanced upon a number of\nchildren who were playing, and who left their game, ran to him, and\nbowed. Jel\u0101l bowed to them also; so much so, that one little fellow\ncalled out from afar: \u201cWait for me until I come.\u201d Jel\u0101l moved not away,\nuntil the child had come, bowed, and been bowed to.\n\nAt that time, people were speaking and writing against him. Legal\nopinions were obtained and circulated, to the effect that music,\nsinging, and dancing, are unlawful. Out of his kindly disposition,\nand love of peace, Jel\u0101l made no reply; and after a while all his\ndetractors were silenced, and their writings clean forgotten, as though\nthey had never been written; whereas, his family and followers will\nendure to the end of time, and will go on increasing continually.\n\n\n40.\n\nJel\u0101l once wrote a note to the Perw\u0101na, interceding for a disciple who\nhad been involved in an act of homicide, and had taken refuge in the\nhouse of another.\n\nThe Perw\u0101na demurred; saying it was a very grave matter, a question of\nblood. Jel\u0101l thereupon facetiously replied: \u201cA homicide is popularly\ntermed \u2018a son of \u2018Azr\u0101\u2019\u012bl (the angel of death).\u2019 Being such, what on\nearth is he to do, unless he kill some one?\u201d\n\nThis repartee so pleased the Perw\u0101na, that he pardoned the culprit, and\npaid himself to the heirs of the slain man the price of his blood.\n\n\n41.\n\nJel\u0101l one day went forth and preached in the market. Crowds collected\nround him. But he continued until night fell around him; so he was at\nlength left alone.\n\nThe dogs of the market-place now collected in a circle about him,\nwagging their tails and whining.\n\nSeeing this, Jel\u0101l exclaimed: \u201cBy the Lord, the Highest, the Strongest,\nthe All-Compelling One, besides whom none is high, or strong, or\npowerful! These dogs comprehend my discourse, and the truths I expound.\nMen call them dogs; but henceforward let them not be so termed. They\nare of the family of the \u2018_Seven Sleepers_.\u2019\u201d[14]\n\n\n42.\n\nThe Perw\u0101na much wished Jel\u0101l to give him private instruction at his\npalace; and requested Jel\u0101l\u2019s son, Sultan Veled, to intercede for him\nin the matter; which he did.\n\nJel\u0101l replied to his son: \u201cBah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn! He cannot bear that\nburden.\u201d This was thrice repeated. Jel\u0101l then remarked to his son:\n\u201cBah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn! A bucket, the water of which is enough for forty,\ncannot be drained by one.\u201d\n\nBah\u0101 made the reflection: \u201cHad I not pressed the matter, I had never\nheard this wonderful saying.\u201d\n\n\n43.\n\nAt another time, the Perw\u0101na, through Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn, requested Jel\u0101l to\ngive a public lecture to all the men of science of the city, who were\ndesirous to hear him.\n\nHis answer was: \u201cA tree laden with fruit, had its branches bowed down\nto the earth therewith. At the time, doubts and gainsayings prevented\nthe gardeners from gathering and enjoying the fruit. The tree has now\nraised its head to the skies, and beyond. Can they hope, then, to pluck\nand eat of its fruit?\u201d\n\n44.\n\nAgain, the Perw\u0101na requested Jel\u0101l himself to instruct him and give him\ncounsel.\n\nAfter a little reflection, Jel\u0101l said: \u201cI have heard that thou hast\ncommitted the Qur\u2019\u0101n to memory. Is it so?\u201d \u201cI have.\u201d \u201cI have heard that\nthou hast studied, under a great teacher, the J\u0101mi\u2019u-\u2019l-Us\u016bl, that\nmighty work on the \u2018Elements of Jurisprudence.\u2019 Is it so?\u201d \u201cIt is.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen,\u201d answered Jel\u0101l, \u201cthou knowest the Word of God, and thou knowest\nall the words and acts reported of His Apostle. But thou settest them\nat naught, and actest not up to their precepts. How, then, canst thou\nexpect that words of mine will profit thee?\u201d\n\nThe Perw\u0101na was abashed, and burst into tears. He went his way; but\nfrom that day he began to execute justice, so as to become a rival of\nthe great Chosroes. He made himself the ph\u0153nix of the age, and Jel\u0101l\naccepted him as a disciple.\n\n\n45.\n\nA company of pilgrims arrived one year at Qonya from Mekka, on their\nway home elsewhere. They were taken in succession to visit all the\nchief men of rank and learning in the capital, and were received with\nevery demonstration of respect.\n\nAt last they were conducted to Jel\u0101l also, in his college. On seeing\nhim seated there, they all screamed out and fainted away.\n\nWhen they were recovered, Jel\u0101l began to offer excuses, saying to them:\n\u201cI fear you have been deceived, either by an impostor, or by some\nperson resembling me in feature. There are men who strongly resemble\none another.\u201d\n\nThe pilgrims one and all objected: \u201cWhy talks he thus? Why strive to\nmake us doubt our eyes? By the God of heaven and earth, he was with us\nin person, habited in the very dress he now wears, when we all assumed\nthe pilgrim garb at Mekka. He performed with us all the ceremonies of\nthe pilgrimage, there and at \u2018Araf\u0101t.[15] He visited with us the tomb\nof the Prophet at Med\u012bna; though he never once ate or drank with us.\nNow he pretends that he does not know us or we know him.\u201d\n\nOn hearing this declaration, Jel\u0101l\u2019s disciples were transported with\njoy, a musical festival ensued, and all those pilgrims became disciples.\n\n\n46.\n\nA certain rich merchant of Qonya, a disciple, as was his wife, of\nJel\u0101l\u2019s, went to Mekka one year for the pilgrimage.\n\nOn the day when the victims are slaughtered, the lady had a dish of\nsweetmeat prepared, and sent some of it in a china bowl to Jel\u0101l, to\nbe eaten at dinner. She made the request that, when he partook of the\nfood, he would favour her absent husband with his remembrance, his\nprayers, and his blessing.\n\nJel\u0101l invited his disciples to the feast; and all ate of the lady\u2019s\nsweetmeat to repletion. But the bowl still remained full.\n\nJel\u0101l then said: \u201cOh, he too must partake of it.\u201d He took the bowl,\nascended to the terraced roof of the college with it, returning\nimmediately empty-handed. His friends asked him what he had done with\nthe bowl and the food. \u201cI have handed them,\u201d said Jel\u0101l, \u201cto her\nhusband, whose property they are.\u201d The company remained bewildered.\n\nIn due course of time, the pilgrims from Qonya returned home from\nMekka; and out of the baggage of the merchant, the china bowl was\nproduced, and sent in to the lady, who was much astonished at sight of\nit. She inquired of her husband how he had become possessed of that\nidentical dish. He replied: \u201cAh! I also am at a loss to know how it\nhappened. But, on the eve of the slaughter of the victims, I was seated\nin my tent, at \u2018Araf\u0101t, with a company of other pilgrims, when an arm\nprojected into the tent, and placed this dish before me, filled with\nsweetmeat. I sent out servants to see who had brought it to me; but\nno one was found.\u201d The lady at once inferred the truth, and guessed\nwhat had happened. Her husband was more and more astonished at such\nmiraculous power.\n\nNext day, husband and wife went to Jel\u0101l, stood bare-headed before him,\nwept for joy, and related what had occurred. He answered:\n\n\u201cThe whole thing is the effect of your trust and belief. God has merely\nmade use of my hand as the instrument wherewith to make manifest His\npower.\u201d\n\n\n47.\n\nJel\u0101l was accustomed to go every year for about six weeks to a place\nnear Qonya, called \u201c_The Hot Waters_,\u201d where there is a lake or marsh\ninhabited by a large colony of frogs.\n\nA religious musical festival was arranged one day near the lake, and\nJel\u0101l delivered a discourse. The frogs were vociferous, and made his\nwords inaudible. He therefore addressed himself to them, with a loud\nshout, saying: \u201cWhat is all this noise about? Either do you pronounce\na discourse, or allow me to speak.\u201d Complete silence immediately\nensued; nor was a frog ever once heard to croak again, so long as Jel\u0101l\nremained there.\n\nBefore leaving, he went to the marsh, and gave them his permission to\ncroak again now as much as they pleased. The chorus instantly began.\nNumbers of people, who were witnesses of this miraculous power over\nthe frogs, became believers in Jel\u0101l, and professed themselves his\ndisciples.\n\n\n48.\n\nA party of butchers had purchased a heifer, and were leading her away\nto be slaughtered, when she broke loose from them, and ran away, a\ncrowd following and shouting after her, so that she became furious, and\nnone could pass near her.\n\nBy chance Jel\u0101l met her, his followers being at some distance behind.\nOn beholding him, the heifer became calm and quiet, came gently\ntowards him, and then stood still, as though communing with him mutely,\nheart to heart, as is the wont with saints; and as though pleading for\nher life. Jel\u0101l patted and caressed her.\n\nThe butchers now came up. Jel\u0101l begged of them the animal\u2019s life, as\nhaving placed herself under his protection. They gave their consent,\nand let her go free.\n\nJel\u0101l\u2019s disciples now joined the party, and he improved the occasion\nby the following remarks:\u2014\u201cIf a brute beast, on being led away to\nslaughter, break loose and take refuge with me, so that God grants it\nimmunity for my sake, how much more so would the case be, when a human\nbeing turns unto God with all his heart and soul, devoutly seeking\nHim. God will certainly save such a man from the tormenting demons of\nhell-fire, and lead him to heaven, there to dwell eternally.\u201d\n\nThose words caused such joy and gladness among the disciples that a\nmusical festival, with dancing, at once commenced, and was carried on\ninto the night. Alms and clothing were distributed to the poor singers\nof the chorus.\n\nIt is related that the heifer was never seen again in the meadows of\nQonya.\n\n\n49.\n\nA meeting was held at the Perw\u0101na\u2019s palace, each guest bringing his\nown waxlight of about four or five pounds\u2019 weight. Jel\u0101l came to the\nassembly with a small wax-taper.\n\nThe grandees smiled at the taper. Jel\u0101l, however, told them that their\nimposing candles depended on his taper for their light. Their looks\nexpressed their incredulity at this. Jel\u0101l, therefore, blew out his\ntaper, and all the candles were at once extinguished; the company being\nleft in darkness.\n\nAfter a short interval, Jel\u0101l fetched a sigh. His taper took fire\ntherefrom, and the candles all burnt brightly as before. Numerous were\nthe conversions resulting from this miraculous display.\n\n\n50.\n\nOne day, the poet-laureate, Q\u0101ni\u2019\u012b, came to visit Jel\u0101l at his college.\nHe was the very Kh\u0101q\u0101n\u012b[16] of the age, and was accompanied by a crowd\nof noble admirers.\n\nAfter much conversation, Q\u0101ni\u2019\u012b remarked that he did not like the\nwritings of the poet San\u0101\u2019\u012b,[17] and Jel\u0101l inquired the reason. The\npoet-laureate replied: \u201cSan\u0101\u2019\u012b was not a Muslim.\u201d Again Jel\u0101l asked why\nhe had formed that opinion; and Q\u0101ni\u2019\u012b replied: \u201cHe has quoted passages\nfrom the Qur\u2019\u0101n in his poetry, and has even used them as his rhymes.\u201d\n\nJel\u0101l hereupon rebuked him most severely, as follows:\u2014\n\n\u201cDo hold thy peace. What sort of a Muslim art thou? Could a Muslim\nperceive the grandeur of that poet, his hair would stand on end, and\nhis turban would fall from his head. That Muslim, and thousands such\nas he,--such as thee,--out of this lower world, and out of the land of\nspirits, would become real Muslims. His poetry, which is an exposition\nof the mysteries of the Qur\u2019\u0101n, is so beautifully embellished, that\none may apply to it the adage: \u2018We have drawn from the ocean, and we\nhave poured out again into the ocean.\u2019 Thou hast not understood his\nphilosophy; thou hast not studied it; for thou art a Q\u0101ni\u2019\u012b (Follower\nof one who is satisfied). The vicars of God have a technology, of which\nthe rhetoricians have no knowledge. Hence these truths appear to be\nimperfect, because men of crude minds are prevented from comprehending\nthem. Though thou hast no part in the lot of the recondite mysteries\nof the saints, it does not thence follow that thou shouldest deny\ntheir position, and so place thyself in a position where destruction\nmay be brought down upon thee. On the contrary, shouldest thou fix thy\nfaith upon them, and act with true sincerity, thou shalt find in the\nday of judgment no heavy burden on thy shoulders. In lieu thereof, a\nburden-bearer will be present at thy side,--a refuge, who will prove\nthy most earnest intercessor.\u201d\n\nStruck with these words, the poet-laureate arose, uncovered, begged\nforgiveness, confessed contrition for his disrespect, and became one of\nJel\u0101l\u2019s disciples.\n\n\n51.\n\nA disciple of Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn wished to make a vow never to do an act\nnot expressly authorised by the Canon Law of Isl\u0101m. For the purpose of\nadministering the oath to him, instead of the Qur\u2019\u0101n, a copy of the\nIl\u0101h\u012b-n\u0101ma (Divine Hymns) of the philosopher San\u0101\u2019\u012b was placed on a\nlectern, covered over with a cloth, and tendered as \u201cthe Book\u201d on which\nhe was to swear.\n\nJust then, Jel\u0101l came into the room, and asked what was going on.\nHus\u0101m replied: \u201cOne of my disciples is going to make a vow against\nbacksliding. We shrank from swearing him on the Qur\u2019\u0101n, and have\ntherefore prepared a copy of the Il\u0101h\u012b-n\u0101ma for the occasion.\u201d\n\nJel\u0101l observed: \u201cIndeed! Why, the Il\u0101h\u012b-n\u0101ma would draw down on a\nforswearer a more severe chastisement than the Qur\u2019\u0101n itself. The\nWord of God is but milk, of which the Il\u0101h\u012b-n\u0101ma is the cream and the\nbutter!\u201d\n\n\n52.\n\nWhen Adam was created, God commanded Gabriel to take the three most\nprecious pearls of the divine treasury, and offer them in a golden\nsalver to Adam, to choose for himself one of the three.\n\nThe three pearls were: _wisdom_, _faith_, and _modesty_.\n\nAdam chose the pearl of _wisdom_.\n\nGabriel then proceeded to remove the salver with the remaining two\npearls, in order to replace them in the divine treasury. With all his\nmighty power, he found he could not lift the salver.\n\nThe two pearls said to him: \u201cWe will not separate from our beloved\nwisdom. We could not be happy and quiet away from it. From all\neternity, we three have been the three compeers of God\u2019s glory, the\npearls of His power. We cannot be separated.\u201d\n\nA voice was now heard to proceed from the divine presence, saying:\n\u201cGabriel! leave them, and come away.\u201d\n\nFrom that time, wisdom has taken its seat on the summit of the brain of\nAdam; faith took up its abode in his heart; modesty established itself\nin his countenance. Those three pearls have remained as the heirlooms\nof the chosen children of Adam. For, whoever, of all his descendants,\nis not embellished and enriched with those three jewels, is lacking of\nthe sentiment and lustre of his divine origin.\n\nSo runs the narrative reported by Hus\u0101m, Jel\u0101l\u2019s successor, as having\nbeen imparted to him by the latter.\n\n\n53.\n\nA certain flute-player named Hamza, much beloved by Jel\u0101l, happened\nto die. Jel\u0101l sent some of his disciples to array the defunct in his\ngrave-clothes. He himself followed them to the house of the deceased.\n\nOn entering the room, Jel\u0101l addresses the dead body: \u201cMy dear friend\nHamza, arise!\u201d Instantly, the deceased arose, saying: \u201cLo, here I am!\u201d\nHe then took his flute, and for three whole days and nights a religious\nfestival was kept up in his house.\n\nAbove a hundred Roman misbelievers were thereby converted to the faith\nof Isl\u0101m. When Jel\u0101l left the house, life departed from the corpse also.\n\n\n54.\n\nAmong the disciples there was a hunchback, a devout man, and a player\non the tambourine, whom Jel\u0101l loved.\n\nOn the occasion of a festival, this poor man beat his tambourine and\nshouted in ecstasy to an unusual degree. Jel\u0101l was also greatly moved\nin the spirit with the holy dance.\n\nApproaching the hunchback, he said to him: \u201cWhy erectest thou not\nthyself like the rest?\u201d The infirmity of the hunch was pleaded. Jel\u0101l\nthen patted him on the back, and stroked him down. The poor man\nimmediately arose, erect and graceful as a cypress.\n\nWhen he went home, his wife refused him admittance, denying that he\nwas her husband. His companions came, and bare witness to her of what\nhad happened. Then she was convinced, let him in, and the couple lived\ntogether for many years afterwards.\n\n\n55.\n\nIt was once remarked to Jel\u0101l, with respect to the burial service for\nthe dead, that, from the earliest times, it had been usual for certain\nprayers and Qur\u2019\u0101nic recitations to be said at the grave and round the\ncorpse; but, that people could not understand why he had introduced\ninto the ceremony the practice of singing hymns during the procession\ntowards the place of burial, which canonists had pronounced to be a\nmischievous innovation.\n\nJel\u0101l replied: \u201cThe ordinary reciters, by their services, bear witness\nthat the deceased lived a Muslim. My singers, however, testify that he\nwas a Muslim, a believer and a lover of God.\u201d\n\nHe added also: \u201cBesides that; when the human spirit, after years of\nimprisonment in the cage and dungeon of the body, is at length set\nfree, and wings its flight to the source whence it came, is not this an\noccasion for rejoicings, thanks, and dancings? The soul, in ecstasy,\nsoars to the presence of the Eternal; and stirs up others to make proof\nof courage and self-sacrifice. If a prisoner be released from a dungeon\nand be clothed with honour, who would doubt that rejoicings are proper?\nSo, too, the death of a saint is an exactly parallel case.\u201d\n\n\n56.\n\nOne of Jel\u0101l\u2019s chief disciples related that, when he first began to\nstudy under that teacher, a company of pilgrims from Mekka came to\nQonya, and among them was a very handsome young man of this latter\ncity, son to one of the chief professors there.\n\nThis young man brought rich presents to Jel\u0101l, and gifts for the\ndisciples, relating to the latter the following adventure:\u2014\n\n\u201cWe were travelling in the desert of Arabia, and I chanced to fall\nasleep. The caravan went on without me. When I awoke, I found myself\nalone in the trackless sands. I knew not which way to turn. I wept\nand lamented for a considerable time, took a direction at hazard, and\nwalked until I was thoroughly exhausted.\n\n\u201cTo my surprise and joy I espied a large tent at a distance, with a\ngreat smoke rising by it. I made for the tent, and there encountered a\nmost formidable-looking personage, to whom I related my misadventure.\nHe bid me welcome, asked me in, and invited me to rest myself. Within\nthe tent I observed a large kettle, full of fresh-cooked sweetmeat of\nthe finest kind, and a plentiful supply of cool clear water.\n\n\u201cMy wonder was great. I asked my host what these preparations might\nmean, and he answered: \u2018I am a disciple of the great Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn\nof Qonya, son of Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn of Balkh. He is used to pass by here\nevery day. I have therefore pitched this tent for him, and I prepare\nthis food. Perchance, he may honour and bless me with his presence,\npartaking of hospitality here.\u2019\n\n\u201cAs he yet spake, in walked Jel\u0101l. We saluted; and he was begged to\npartake of the food. He took a little morsel, no larger than a filbert,\ngiving me some also. I fell at his feet, and told him I was from\nQonya on pilgrimage, and had missed the caravan by falling asleep.\n\u2018Well,\u2019 answered he, \u2018as we are fellow-townsmen, be of good cheer.\u2019\nHe then bade me close my eyes. I did so; and on opening them again I\nfound myself in the midst of my companions of the caravan. I am now\ncome here, on my return home in safety, to offer my thanks for that\nmiraculous kindness, and to profess myself a disciple of the holy man.\u201d\n\n\n57.\n\nA man of great learning came once to visit Jel\u0101l. By way of a test, he\nasked Jel\u0101l two questions: \u201cIs it correct to speak of God as \u2018_a living\nsoul_?\u2019 since God hath said (Qur\u2019\u0101n iii. 182): \u2018Every living soul shall\ntaste death!\u2019\u201d and: \u201cIf one ought not to call God \u2018a living soul,\u2019 what\ndid Jesus mean when he said (Qur\u2019\u0101n v. 116): \u201bThou knowest what is in\nmy soul, but I know not what is in Thy soul\u2019?\u201d The second question was:\n\u201cCan God properly be called \u2018a thing\u2019? If He can be so called, what is\nthe signification of His word (Qur\u2019\u0101n xxviii. 88): \u2018Every thing shall\nperish, save His cause\u2019?\u201d\n\nJel\u0101l immediately replied: \u201c\u2018But I know not what is in Thy soul\u2019 means\n_in Thy knowledge_, _in Thy absentness_, or, as we seers say, _in\nThy secrecy_. Thus the passage would be paraphrased: _Thou knowest\nwhat is in my secrecy; but I know not what is in the secret of Thy\nsecrecy_; or, as \u2018_the people of heart_\u2019 would put it: _Thou knowest\nwhat issues from me in the world; but I know not the secret of what\nissues from Thee in the world to come._ It is quite proper to speak\nof God as \u2018a thing;\u2019 for He hath said (Qur\u2019\u0101n vi. 19): \u2018What thing is\ngreatest in testimony? Say thou: \u201cGod;\u201c\u2019 _i.e._, God is the greatest\nthing in testimony; \u2018God will be a witness between me and you in the\nday of the resurrection.\u2019 The signification of the passage \u2018Every thing\nshall perish\u2019 is: _every created thing shall perish_; not the Creator,\n_i.e._, \u2018save He.\u2019 The thing excepted from the general category is\n\u2018He.\u2019 But God knows best.\u201d\n\nThe man of learning instantly professed himself a disciple, and\ncomposed a panegyric on Jel\u0101l.\n\n\n58.\n\nThe legend goes that Jel\u0101l made a practice of seeing the new moon of\nthe Arabian new year, and always uttered the following prayer on seeing\nit:\u2014\u201cO our Lord God! Thou art the Past-eternal One, the Future-eternal\nOne, the Ancient One! This is a new year. I beg of Thee therein\nsteadfastness to withstand the lapidated Satan,[18] and assistance\nagainst the rebellious spirit (within me); also, occupation in what\nwill approximate me to Thee, and an avoidance of what might elongate me\nfrom Thee. O God! O the All-merciful One, the All-compassionate One!\nThrough Thy mercy, O Most-compassionate of the merciful ones! O thou\nLord of majesty and of honour!\u201d\n\n\n59.\n\nIt is related that Jel\u0101l cured one of his disciples of an intermittent\nfever by writing down the following invocation on paper, washing off\nthe ink in water, and giving this to the patient to drink; who was,\nunder God\u2019s favour, immediately relieved from the malady:\u2014\u201cO Mother of\nthe sleek one (a nickname of the tertian ague)! If thou hast believed\nin God, the Most Great, make not the head to ache; vitiate not the\nswallow; eat not the flesh; drink not the blood; and depart thou out of\nSo-and-So, betaking thyself to some one who attributes to God partners\nof other false gods. And I bear witness that there is not any god save\nGod, and I testify that Muhammed is His servant and apostle.\u201d\n\n\n60.\n\nOne day Jel\u0101l paid a visit to a great Sheykh. He was received with\nthe utmost respect, and seated with the Sheykh on the same carpet,\nboth together falling into ecstatic heart-communion with the world of\nspirits.\n\nA certain dervish was there present also, who had repeatedly performed\nthe pilgrimage at Mekka. The dervish addressed Jel\u0101l, and inquired:\n\u201cWhat is poverty?\u201d Jel\u0101l returned no answer; and the question was\nthrice repeated.\n\nWhen Jel\u0101l took his leave, the great Sheykh accompanied him to the\nstreet door. On his return to his room, he reprimanded the dervish\nseverely for his insolent intrusion on the guest; \u201cespecially,\u201d said\nthe Sheykh, \u201cas he fully answered thy question the first time thou\nputtest it.\u201d The dervish, surprised, asked what the answer had been.\n\u201cThe poor man,\u201d said the Sheykh, \u201cwhen he hath known God, hath his\ntongue tied. That is being a real dervish; who, when in the presence\nof saints, speaks not; neither with the tongue, nor with the heart.\nThis is what is signified by (Qur\u2019\u0101n xlvi. 28): \u2018Hold ye your peace.\u2019\nBut now, prepare thyself for thy end. Thou art struck by a shaft from\nheaven.\u201d\n\nThree days later, the dervish was met by a gang of reprobates, who\nattacked and killed him, carrying off every thing he had about him.\n_Salve fac nos, Domine!_\n\n\n61.\n\nIn the days of Jel\u0101l there was in Qonya a lady-saint, named\nFakhru-\u2019n-Nis\u0101 (the Glory of Women). She was known to all the holy men\nof the time, who were all aware of her sanctity. Miracles were wrought\nby her in countless numbers. She constantly attended the meetings at\nJel\u0101l\u2019s home, and he occasionally paid her a visit at her house.\n\nHer friends suggested to her that she ought to go and perform the\npilgrimage at Mekka; but she would not undertake this duty unless she\nshould first consult with Jel\u0101l about it. Accordingly she went to see\nhim. As she entered his presence, before she spoke, he called out to\nher: \u201cOh, most happy idea! May thy journey be prosperous! God willing,\nwe shall be together.\u201d She bowed, but said nothing. The disciples\npresent were puzzled.\n\nThat night she remained a guest at Jel\u0101l\u2019s house, conversing with him\ntill past midnight. At that hour he went up to the terraced roof of\nthe college to perform the divine service of the vigil. When he had\ncompleted that service of worship, he fell into an ecstasy, shouting\nand exclaiming. Then he lifted the skylight of the room below, where\nthe lady was, and invited her to come up on to the roof also.\n\nWhen she was come, he told her to look upwards, saying that her wish\nwas come to pass. On looking up, she beheld the Cubical House of\nMekka in the air, circumambulating round Jel\u0101l\u2019s head above him, and\nspinning round like a dervish in his waltz, plainly and distinctly, so\nas to leave no room for doubt or uncertainty. She screamed out with\nastonishment and fright, swooning away. On coming to herself, she\nfelt the conviction that the journey to Mekka was not one for her to\nperform; so she totally relinquished the idea.\n\n\n62.\n\nJel\u0101l was once standing at the edge of the moat round the city of\nQonya, when a company of students, undergraduates of one of the\ncolleges in the neighbourhood, seeing him, agreed to try him by asking\nthe question: \u201cOf what colour was the dog of the Seven Sleepers?\u201d\n\nJel\u0101l\u2019s immediate, unpremeditated answer was: \u201cYellow. A lover is\nalways yellow (sallow); as am I; and that dog was a lover.\u201d The\nstudents bowed to him, and all became disciples.\n\n\n63.\n\nThe Superior of the monks of the monastery of Plato was an old man,\nand was held in the very highest esteem for his learning in all\nConstantinople and Firengist\u0101n, in S\u012bs, J\u0101nik, and other lands. (S\u012bs\nwas capital of the kingdom of Lower Armenia, and J\u0101nik was the\nsecondary \u201cRoman Empire\u201d of Trebizond.) From all those lands did\ndisciples flock to learn wisdom from him.\n\nThis Superior related the following anecdote:\u2014\n\n\u201cOne day, Jel\u0101l came to the monastery of Plato, situated at the foot\nof a hill, with a cavern therein, from whence issued a stream of\ncold water. Jel\u0101l entered the cavern, and proceeded to its farther\nextremity. The Superior remained at the cavern\u2019s mouth, watching for\nwhat might happen. For seven whole days and nights Jel\u0101l remained\nthere, seated in the midst of the cold water. At the end of that period\nhe came forth from the cavern, and walked away, singing a hymn. Not the\nslightest change was apparent in his features, nor in his eyes.\u201d\n\nThe Superior made oath that all he had read about the person and\nqualities of the Messiah, as also in the books of Abraham and Moses,\nwere found in the person of Jel\u0101l, as well as the grandeur and mien of\nthe prophets, as set forth in books of ancient history, and far more\nbesides.\n\n\n64.\n\nShemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn of Tebr\u012bz once asserted, in Jel\u0101l\u2019s college, that\nwhosoever wished to see again the prophets, had only to look on Jel\u0101l,\nwho possessed all their qualifications; more especially of those to\nwhom revelations were made, whether by angelic communications, or\nwhether in visions; the chief of such qualities being serenity of mind\nwith perfect inward confidence and consciousness of being one of God\u2019s\nelect. \u201cNow,\u201d said he, \u201cto possess Jel\u0101l\u2019s approbation is heaven;\nwhile hell is to incur his displeasure. Jel\u0101l is the key of heaven. Go\nthen, and look upon Jel\u0101l, if thou wish to comprehend the signification\nof that saying \u2018_the learned are the heirs of the prophets_,\u2019 together\nwith something beyond that, which I will not here specify. He has more\nlearning in every science than any one else upon earth. He explains\nbetter, with greater tact and taste, as also more exhaustively, than\nall others. Were I, with my mere intellect, to study for a hundred\nyears, I could not acquire a tenth part of what he knows. He has\nintuitively thought out that knowledge, without being aware of it, in\nmy presence, by his own subtlety.\u201d\n\n\n65.\n\nOne of the greatest teachers of Qonya was one day giving a lecture\non a terraced roof, when suddenly he heard the sound of a lute. He\nexclaimed: \u201cThese lutes are an innovation on the prophetic usages. They\nmust be interdicted.\u201d\n\nForthwith, the form of Jel\u0101l appeared before him, and answered: \u201cThat\nmust not be.\u201d On this the teacher fainted away.\n\nWhen he regained his consciousness, he sought to make his peace with\nJel\u0101l, by sending an apology and a recantation to him, through the\nmedium of Jel\u0101l\u2019s son, Sultan Veled; but Jel\u0101l would not accept them.\nHe answered: \u201cIt would be easier to convert seventy Roman bishops to\nIsl\u0101m, than to clear away from the mind of that teacher the stains of\nhate, and so set him on the right road. His soul is as foul as the\npaper on which children practise their writing exercises.\u201d\n\nAt length, however, he allowed himself to be appeased by his son;\nso that he permitted the teacher, with his pupils, to constitute\nthemselves his disciples.\n\n\n66.\n\nJel\u0101l one day addressed his son, saying: \u201cBah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn, dost thou\nwish to love thy enemy, and to be loved of him? Speak well of him, and\nextol his virtues. He will then be thy friend; and for this reason: In\nlike manner as there is a road open between the heart and the tongue,\nso also is there a way from the tongue to the heart. The love of God\nmay be found by hearing His _comely names_. God hath said: \u2018O My\nservants, take ye heed that ye often commemorate Me, so that sincerity\nmay abound.\u2019 The more that sincerity prevails, the more do the rays of\nthe light of truth shine into the heart. The hotter a baker\u2019s oven is,\nthe more bread will it bake; if cool, it will not bake at all.\u201d\n\n\n67.\n\nSultan Veled, Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn, is said to have recounted of his father,\nJel\u0101l, this saying: \u201cA true disciple is he who holds his teacher to be\nsuperior to all others. So much so, that, for instance, a disciple of\nB\u0101yez\u012bd of Best\u0101m was once asked whether B\u0101yez\u012bd or Ab\u016b-Han\u012bfa was the\ngreater, and he replied that his teacher, B\u0101yez\u012bd, was the greater.\n\u2018Then,\u2019 said the questioner, \u2018is B\u0101yez\u012bd the greater, or is Ab\u016b-Bekr?\u2019\n\u2018My teacher is the greater.\u2019 \u2018B\u0101yez\u012bd or Muhammed?\u2019 \u2018B\u0101yez\u012bd.\u2019 \u2018B\u0101yez\u012bd\nor God?\u2019 \u2018I only know my teacher; I know no other than him; and I know\nthat he is greater than all others.\u2019\n\n\u201cAnother was asked the last question, and his reply was: \u2018There is no\ndifference between the two.\u2019 A third was asked it also, and he replied:\n\u2018It would require a greater one than either of the two to determine\nwhich of them is the greater.\u2019\n\n\u201cAs God does not walk in this world of sensible objects, the prophets\nare the substitutes of God. No, no! I am wrong! For if thou suppose\nthat those substitutes and their principal are two different things,\nthou hast judged erroneously, not rightly.\u201d\n\n\n68.\n\nSultan Veled is reported to have said: \u201cMy grandfather, the Great\nMaster, used to recommend to his disciples to honour his son Jel\u0101l\nexceedingly, as one of noble extraction and exalted pedigree, of an\neternal descent in the past; since the mother of his mother was the\ndaughter of the Im\u0101m Sarakhs\u012b, a descendant from Huseyn, son of \u2018Al\u012b,\nand grandson of the Prophet.\u201d\n\n\n69.\n\nSultan Veled is also reported to have said: \u201cMy father told his\ndisciples that I was seven, and my brother \u2018Al\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn eight years\nold, when the Dizd\u0101r Bedru-\u2019d-D\u012bn Guhert\u0101sh had us circumcised at\nQara-His\u0101r.\u201d (See chap. i., No. 12.)\n\nHe is also reported to have declared: \u201cWhen the Sultan invited my\ngrandfather to Qonya, a year passed, and then the Em\u012br M\u016bsa invited my\ngrandfather to Larenda, and took my father to be his own son-in-law;\nso that I was born in that town.\u201d (See chap. i., No. 2. The account\nnow given here is at variance with that mentioned in the preface,\nwhich makes \u2018Al\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn and Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn to have been born at\nLarenda before Jel\u0101l and his father went to Qonya. Moreover, their\nmother, Gevher Kh\u0101t\u016bn, is there said to have been the daughter of Lala\nSherefu-\u2019d-D\u012bn of Samarqand. Is that an alias of the Em\u012br M\u016bsa of the\npresent anecdote; or did Jel\u0101l marry two ladies of Larenda at different\ntimes? There are several difficulties here. Sultan Veled puts only one\nyear as the difference of age between himself and his elder brother. If\nthe daughter of the Em\u012br M\u016bsa was the mother of both these brothers,\nJel\u0101l\u2019s stay at Larenda must have been of about two years at least. If\nthey were by different mothers, and born, the one before, the other\nafter Bah\u0101 Veled\u2019s settling at Qonya, there must have been a greater\ndifference in their ages. Jel\u0101l\u2019s age at his marriage is also variously\nstated. These discrepancies show that the anecdotes were collected from\ntraditions of various sources, long after the events recorded.)\n\n\n70.\n\nSultan Veled is said to have related that one day, two Turks,\nlaw-students, brought to Jel\u0101l an offering of a few lentils, excusing\nthe paucity of the gift, as the result of their poverty. Jel\u0101l\nthereupon narrated the following anecdote:\u2014\n\n\u201cGod revealed to Mustafa (Muhammed) that the believers should\ncontribute of their possessions, for the service of God, as much as\nthey could spare. Some brought the half, some the third part; Ab\u016b-Bekr\nbrought the whole of what he possessed. Thus a large treasure was\ncollected, of money, beasts, and arms, for God\u2019s service.\n\n\u201cA poor woman, too, brought three dates and a cake of bread--all she\nhad on earth.\n\n\u201cThe disciples smiled. Mustafa perceived their action, and said that\nGod had showed him a vision, which he desired to tell to them. They\nall begged he would favour them with the recital. He therefore thus\nproceeded:\n\n\u201c\u2018God hath removed the veils from before me. And lo, I saw that the\nangels had placed in one scale of a balance the whole of your very\nliberal offerings together, and in the other scale the three dates and\none cake of this poor woman. The latter scale was preponderant; its\ncontents outweighed all the rest.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe disciples bowed, thanked the prophet, and inquired the hidden\nexplanation of this mystery. He answered: \u2018This poor woman has parted\nwith her all, whereas my disciples have kept back a part of their\npossessions. Proverbs say: \u201cThe generous one is generous out of what\nhe possesses,\u201d and, \u201cA little, in the eyes of the Most Great, is\nmuch.\u201d You put into the earth a single date-stone, intrusting it to\nGod. He makes that stone become a tree, which yields fruits without\nnumber; because the stone was confided to Him. Therefore, let your\nalms be given to the poor, and to God\u2019s servants, as a trust committed\nunto God. For it is said: \u201cAlms fall first into God\u2019s hand, before\nreaching the hands of the poor;\u201d and again: \u201cAlms for the poor and the\ndestitute.\u201d\u2019\n\n\u201cThe poor of Mekka and Med\u012bna, refugees and auxiliaries, shouted their\nadmiration as they heard these words.\u201d\n\nWhen the two Turkish students heard this anecdote related, they\nprofessed themselves disciples of Jel\u0101l.\n\n\n71.\n\nWhen Jel\u0101l was quite young, he was one day preaching on the subject of\nMoses and Elias (Qur\u2019\u0101n xviii. 59-81). One of his disciples noticed\na stranger seated in a corner, paying great attention, and every now\nand then saying: \u201cGood! Quite true! Quite correct! He might have been\nthe third one with us two!\u201d The disciple surmised that the stranger\nmight be Elias. (Elias is believed by Muslims to be always visible\nsomewhere, but that people know him not. Did they recognise him, they\ncould obtain from him a knowledge of the secret of eternal life, which\nhe possesses.) He therefore seized hold of the stranger\u2019s skirt, and\nasked for his spiritual aid. \u201cOh,\u201d said the stranger, \u201crather seek\nassistance from Jel\u0101l, as we all do. Every occult saint of God is the\nloving and admiring friend of him.\u201d So saying, he managed to disengage\nhis skirt from the disciple\u2019s hold, and instantly disappeared. The\ndisciple went to pay his respects to Jel\u0101l, who at once addressed him,\nsaying: \u201cElias, and Moses, and the prophets, are all friends of mine.\u201d\nThe disciple understood the allusion, and became more and more devoted\nat heart to Jel\u0101l than he even was before.\n\n\n72.\n\nIt is related that when the burial service was about to be performed\nover the corpse of Jel\u0101l, the precentor gave a shriek, and swooned\naway. After a while, he recovered, and then performed his office,\nweeping bitterly.\n\nOn being asked the cause of his emotion, he answered: \u201cAs I stood\nforward to perform my office, I perceived a row of the most noble of\nspiritual saints of the spiritual world, as being present, and as being\nengaged in reciting the prayers for the dead over the departed one.\nThose angels of heaven wore robes of blue (the mourning of some sects\nof Muslims), and wept.\u201d\n\nFor forty days, that precentor and others daily visited Jel\u0101l\u2019s grave.\n\n\n73.\n\nAt Damascus, when a young student, Jel\u0101l was frequently seen by\nothers to walk several arrow-flights\u2019 distance in the air, tranquilly\nreturning to the terraced roof on which they were standing.\n\nThose fellow-pupils were among his earliest believers and disciples.\n\n\n74.\n\nA friend of Jel\u0101l\u2019s once took leave of him at Qonya, and went to\nDamascus. On his arrival there, he found Jel\u0101l seated in a corner of\nhis room. Asking for an explanation of this surprising phenomenon,\nJel\u0101l replied: \u201cThe men of God are like fishes in the ocean; they pop\nup into view on the surface here and there and everywhere, as they\nplease.\u201d\n\n\n75.\n\nJel\u0101l once met a Turk in Qonya, who was selling fox-skins in the\nmarket, and crying them: \u201cDilku! Dilku!\u201d (Fox! Fox! in Turkish.)\n\nJel\u0101l immediately began to parody his cry, calling out in Persian: \u201cDil\nk\u016b! Dil k\u016b!\u201d (Heart, where art thou?) At the same time he broke out\ninto one of his holy waltzes of ecstasy.\n\n\n76.\n\nIn the time of Sultan Veled (A.D. 1284-1312), a young man, of the\ndescendants of the Prophet, and son of the guardian of the holy\ntomb of Muhammed at Med\u012bna, came to Qonya with a company of his\nfellow-descendants, belonging to that city. He was presented to Sultan\nVeled, and became his disciple.\n\nHe wore a most singular head-dress. One end of his turban hung down\nin front to below his navel; while the other end was formed into the\n_sheker-\u0101v\u012bz_[19] of the Mevlev\u012b dervishes.\n\nWhen they had become somewhat intimate, Sultan Veled asked him how it\nhappened that he wore the _sheker-\u0101v\u012bz_ of the Mevlevis, when nobody\nelse but those dervishes wear it, in imitation of their founder, Jel\u0101l.\n\nThe young man explained that his family were descended from the\nProphet. That the Prophet, on the night of his ascension to heaven,\nafter seeing God and many mysteries, had returned a certain distance,\nand, as is well known, then went back to intercede with God for his\npeople. He now perceived, on the pinnacle of God\u2019s throne, the ideal\nportrait of a form, so beautiful, that he had not hitherto witnessed\nanything so charming among the angels and inhabitants of heaven.\n\nAfter contemplating the lovely vision, in amazement, for some time,\nMuhammed was able to notice that the ideal form wore on its head a\n_sheker-\u0101v\u012bz_. He asked Gabriel what that ideal portrait might portend,\nwhich was so attractive in its beauty as to surpass all the wonders he\nhad witnessed in all the nine heavens. \u201cIs it the portrait of an angel,\na prophet, or a saint?\u201d Gabriel replied: \u201cIt is the portrait of a\npersonage of the descendants of Ab\u016b-Bekr, who will appear in the latter\ndays among the people of thy Church, and will fill the whole world\nwith the effulgence of the knowledge of thy mysteries. To him will God\nvouchsafe a precedency, and a pen, and a breath, such that kings and\nprinces will profess themselves his disciples; and he will be a most\npure upholder of thy religion, being, in every respect, the counterpart\nof thyself in aspect and in morals. His name will be Muhammed, as is\nthine; and his surname will be Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn. His words will explain\nthy sayings, and will expound thy Qur\u2019\u0101n.\u201d\n\nOn his return home, the Prophet adopted the form of turban he had seen\nworn in that ideal portrait, making one end hang down a span in front,\nand binding the other end behind into a _sheker-\u0101v\u012bz_.\n\n\u201cFrom that day to this,\u201d said the young man, \u201cthe fathers of our family\nhave followed that fashion, so adopted by the Prophet; and we continue\nto do so too.\u201d\n\nIt is said that when Ab\u016b-Bekr heard this narrative from the Prophet,\nrespecting his great descendant that was thus foretold, he gave the\nwhole of his possessions to the Prophet, to be expended in God\u2019s cause.\n\nWhen Muhammed died, Ab\u016b-Bekr wept long and bitterly. But the Prophet\nappeared to him, and consoled him by saying: \u201cOne day I will reappear\namong my people from out of the collar of one of thy race.\u201d\n\nThe young man continued: \u201cFrom that time onwards, our family were on\nthe outlook for the manifestation of the holy personage whose ideal\nportrait the Prophet so saw. Thank God that I have witnessed the\nrealisation of their hope.\u201d\n\nThe Qonya pilgrims published this communication to all the disciples\nthere present.\n\n\n77.\n\nIn the days of Sultan Veled, a great merchant came to Qonya to visit\nthe tomb of Jel\u0101l. He offered many rich gifts to Sultan Veled, making\npresents also to the disciples. He related to them many anecdotes of\nadventures encountered by him in his travels, such as the following:\u2014\n\nHe once went to K\u012bsh and Bahreyn in quest of pearls and rubies. \u201cAn\ninhabitant told me,\u201d said he, \u201cthat I should find some in the hands of\na certain fisherman. I went to him, and the fisher showed me a chest,\ncontaining pearls of inestimable value, such as impressed me with\nastonishment. I asked him how he had collected them; and he told me,\ncalling God to witness, that he, his three brothers, and his father,\nwere formerly poor fishermen. One day they hooked something that gave\nthem immense trouble before they could bring it to land.\n\n\u201cThey now found they had captured a \u2018Lord of the Waters,\u2019 also named a\n\u2018Marvel of the Sea,\u2019 as is commonly known.[20]\n\n\u201cWe wondered,\u201d said he, \u201cwhat we could do with the beast. We wept for\nthe ill fortune that had brought us such a disappointment. The creature\nlooked at us as we spoke. Suddenly my father cried out: \u2018I have it! I\nwill put him on a cart, and exhibit him all over the country at a penny\na head!\u2019\n\n\u201cThrough the miraculous power of Him who has endowed man with speech\nand His creatures with life, the beast broke forth and exclaimed: \u2018Make\nme not a staring-block in the world, and I will do anything you may\nwish of me, so as to suffice for you and your children for many years\nto come!\u2019\n\n\u201cOur father answered: \u2018How should I set thee free, when thou art so\nstrange and unparalleled a creature?\u2019 The beast replied: \u2018I will make\nan oath.\u2019 Our father said: \u2018Speak! Let us hear thy oath.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe beast now said: \u2018We are of the faith of Muhammed, and disciples of\nthe holy Mevl\u0101n\u0101. By the soul of the Mevl\u0101n\u0101, the holy Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn of\nRome, I will go, and I will return.\u2019\n\n\u201cOur father fainted away with astonishment. I, therefore, now asked:\n\u2018How hast thou any knowledge of him?\u2019 The beast replied: \u2018We are a\nnation of twelve thousand individuals. We have believed in him, and he\nfrequently showed himself to us at the bottom of the sea, lecturing and\nsermonising to us on the divine mysteries of the truth. He brought us\nto a knowledge of the true faith; so that we continually practise what\nhe taught us.\u2019\n\n\u201cOur father instantly told him he was free. He went back, therefore,\ninto the water, and was lost to sight. But two days later he returned,\nand brought with him innumerable pearls and precious stones. He asked\nwhether he had been true and faithful to his promise; and on our\nexpressing our satisfaction on that score, he took an affectionate\nfarewell from us.\n\n\u201cWe were thus raised from the depths of poverty to the pinnacle of\nwealth. We became merchant princes, and our slaves are the great\nmerchants of the earth. Every dealer who wishes for pearls and rubies\ncomes to us. We are known as the _Sons of the Fisherman_. Our father\nwent to Qonya, and paid his respects to the Mevl\u0101n\u0101.\n\n\u201cThrough his narrative, I formed the design, now carried into effect,\nto visit the son of that great saint.\u201d\n\nThis wonderful narrative has been handed down ever since in the mouths\nof the merchants of Qonya.\n\n\n78.\n\n(The following appears to be an account of one of the first visits\nof the Perw\u0101na to Jel\u0101l, to whom he subsequently became so devotedly\nattached.)\n\nOne of the most eminent among the men of learning in Qonya was visited\nby the Perw\u0101na. The learned man held forth eloquently on several\nexalted themes, and then informed the Perw\u0101na that he had, the night\nbefore, been taken up into the highest heaven, and had there learnt\nmany mysteries. He said that he there saw Jel\u0101l hold a higher station\nof proximity to God than any other saint, as he stood on a level with\nGod\u2019s throne.\n\nA day or two later, the Perw\u0101na, filled with reverence for Jel\u0101l\u2019s\nunequalled sanctity, went and paid him a visit with the utmost\ndeference. Before the Perw\u0101na could broach any subject of conversation,\nJel\u0101l said to him: \u201cMu\u2019\u012bnu-\u2019d-D\u012bn! the vision related to you by your\nlearned friend is quite true in the main facts, though I never saw him\nthere at any time.\u201d He then extemporised the following ode:\u2014\n\n \u201cFellow-visitant wert thou? Then say what thou sawest there last\n night.\n \u2019Twixt my heart and inspiring loved darling what passed in thy sight?\n And if thou, in thy dream, with thy eyes sawest my beautiful love,\n Tell us then, in the earrings he wore there what jewels were wove.\n If with me thou be fellow in coat, as in thoughts and in creeds,\n Let us hear the details of that ragged old mendicant\u2019s weeds.\n If thou poverty\u2019s son be, and unspoken mysteries hear,\n Thou\u2019lt recount all the words that were thought by my silent compeer,\n If thou\u2019st learnt whence the source of mankind and of souls did\n proceed.\n Since the source was but one, what then means all this search, all\n this greed?\n And if thou hast not seen any place of his form and face free,\n Say then what, in the thoughts of his lovers, that face and form be.\n And if I head the lists of those lovers, as thou seemest to say,\n Tell us, What are those lists? What his messages, words, answers?\n Pray!\u201d\n\nA musical service was then got up, this ode being chanted during its\nperformance. The Perw\u0101na was so utterly bewildered by this incident,\nthat he could say nothing. He therefore rose, bowed, and took his leave.\n\n\n79.\n\nOne day, it is said, the Prophet (Muhammed) recited to \u2018Al\u012b in private\nthe secrets and mysteries of the \u201cBrethren of Sincerity\u201d (who appear to\nbe the \u201cFreemasons\u201d of the Muslim dervish world), enjoining on him not\nto divulge them to any of the uninitiated, so that they should not be\nbetrayed; also, to yield obedience to the rule of implicit submission.\n\nFor forty days, \u2018Al\u012b kept the secret in his own sole breast, and bore\ntherewith until he was sick at heart. Like a pregnant woman, his\nabdomen became swollen with the burden, so that he could no longer\nbreathe freely.\n\nHe therefore fled to the open wilderness, and there chanced upon a\nwell. He stooped, reached his head as far down into the well as he was\nable; and then, one by one, he confided those mysteries to the bowels\nof the earth. From the excess of his excitement, his mouth filled with\nfroth and foam. These he spat out into the water of the well, until he\nhad freed himself of the whole, and he felt relieved.\n\nAfter a certain number of days, a single reed was observed to be\ngrowing in that well. It waxed and shot up, until at length a youth,\nwhose heart was miraculously enlightened on the point, became aware of\nthis growing plant, cut it down, drilled holes in it, and began to play\nupon it airs, similar to those performed by the dervish lovers of God,\nas he pastured his sheep in the neighbourhood.\n\nBy degrees, the various tribes of Arabs of the desert heard of this\nflute-playing of the shepherd, and its fame spread abroad. The camels\nand the sheep of the whole region would gather around him as he piped,\nceasing to pasture that they might listen. From all directions,\nnorth and south, the nomads flocked to hear his strains, going into\necstasies with delight, weeping for joy and pleasure, breaking forth in\ntransports of gratification.\n\nThe rumour at length reached the ears of the Prophet, who gave orders\nfor the piper to be brought before him. When he began to play in the\nsacred presence, all the holy disciples of God\u2019s messenger were moved\nto tears and transports, bursting forth with shouts and exclamations\nof pure bliss, and losing all consciousness. The Prophet declared that\nthe notes of the shepherd\u2019s flute were the interpretation of the holy\nmysteries he had confided in private to \u2018Al\u012b\u2019s charge.[21]\n\nThus it is that, until a man acquire the sincere devotion of the\nlinnet-voiced flute-reed, he cannot hear the mysteries of the Brethren\nof Sincerity in its dulcet notes, or realise the delights thereof; for\n\u201cfaith is altogether a yearning of the heart, and a gratification of\nthe spiritual sense.\u201d\n\n \u201cTo whom, alas, the pangs my love for thee excites, to breathe?\n My sighs, like \u2018Al\u012b, I\u2019ll to some deep well\u2019s recess bequeathe.\n Perchance some reeds may spring therefrom, its brink to overgrow;\n Those reeds may moaning flutes become, and so betray my woe.\n Who hear will say: \u2018Be silent, flutes! We\u2019re not love\u2019s confidants;\n To that sweet tyrant make excuse for us and for those plants!\u2019\u201d\n\n\n80.\n\nOne of Jel\u0101l\u2019s disciples possessed a slave girl of Roman origin,\nwhom Jel\u0101l had named Sidd\u012bqa (after Muhammed\u2019s virgin wife \u2018\u0100\u2019isha).\nOccasionally she had miraculous visions. She used to see aureolas of\nheavenly light, green, red, and _black_. Various of the angels used to\nvisit her, and souls of the departed.\n\nHer master was vexed at her being so favoured above himself. Once\nhe was visited by Jel\u0101l, and expressed his chagrin to him on the\nsubject. Jel\u0101l replied: \u201cTrue! There is a heavenly light resides in the\npupils of some eyes. These occasionally mislead a few with visions of\nbeauteous form, with which they fall in love. Others they preserve in\nchastity, and lead them to their adored Maker. Others, again, they may\nlead to take delight in exterior objects, so as to cast their eyes on\nevery pretty face they see, while the wife at home is curtained away\nfrom her husband. Thus, whenever God opens a way to any one, appearing\nto him, and showing him glimpses of the hidden world, he is apt to\nbecome entranced therewith, and to lose all power of further progress,\nsaying to himself: \u2018How greatly in favour am I!\u2019 Others, in short, use\nevery endeavour; but nothing is vouchsafed to them in visions, until\nthey be favoured with a special sight of God Himself, and they be\nadmitted to a near approach unto Him.\u201d\n\nThe girl\u2019s master was comforted, and bowed to his teacher, whose\ndisciples then broke out into a holy service of psalmody and dancing.\n\n\n81.\n\nThere was once a wise monk in the monastery of Plato, who was on very\nfriendly terms with Jel\u0101l\u2019s grandson \u2018\u0100rif. He was very aged, and used\nto be visited by the dervishes of his neighbourhood, to whom he was\nvery polite, and towards whom he exhibited great confidence; so much so\nthat, one day, some of them inquired of him how he had found Jel\u0101l, and\nwhat he had thought of him.\n\nThe monk replied to them: \u201cWhat do you know of him, as to who or\nwhat he was? I have seen signs and miracles without number worked by\nhim. I became his devoted servant. I had read in the gospel and in\nthe prophets the lives and the works of the saints of old, and I saw\nthat he compassed them all. I therefore had faith in the truth of his\nreality.\n\n\u201cOne day he came here, conferring on me the honour of a visit. For\nforty days he shut himself up in ecstatic seclusion. When at length\nhe came forth from his privacy, I laid hold of his skirt, and said to\nhim: \u2018God, in His holy scripture hath said (Qur\u2019\u0101n xix. 72): \u201cAnd there\nis none of you but shall come to it (hell-fire).\u201d Now, since it is\nincontestable that all shall come to the fire of hell, what preference\nis there in Isl\u0101m over our faith?\u2019\n\n\u201cFor a little time he made no answer. At length, however, he made a\nsign towards the city, and went away in that direction. I followed\nafter him leisurely. Near the city, we came to a bakehouse, the oven of\nwhich was being heated. He now took my black cassock, wrapped it in his\nown cloak, and threw the bundle into the oven. He then withdrew for a\ntime into a corner, sunk in meditation.\n\n\u201cI saw a great smoke come out of the oven, such that no one had the\npower of utterance. After that, he said to me: \u2018Behold!\u2019 The baker\nwithdrew the bundle from the oven, and assisted the saint to put on his\ncloak, which had become exquisitely clean; whereas my cassock was, as\nit were, branded and scorched, so as to fall in pieces. Then he said:\n\u2018Thus shall we enter therein, and thus shall you enter!\u2019\n\n\u201cThat selfsame moment I made my bow to him and became his disciple.\u201d\n\n\n82.\n\nThe reason why the Mesnev\u012b was written is related to have been the\nfollowing:\u2014\n\nHus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn learnt that several of the followers of Jel\u0101l were\nfond of studying the Il\u0101h\u012b-n\u0101ma of San\u0101\u2019\u012b, the Hak\u012bm, and the\nMantiqu-\u2019t-Tayr of \u2018Att\u0101r, as also the Nas\u012bb-n\u0101ma of the latter.\n\nHe therefore sought and found an opportunity to propose that Jel\u0101l\nshould indite something in the style of the Il\u0101h\u012b-n\u0101ma, but in the\nmetre of the Mantiqu-\u2019t-Tayr; saying that the circle of friends would\nthen willingly give up all other poetry, and study that alone.\n\nJel\u0101l immediately produced a portion of the Mesnev\u012b, saying that God\nhad forewarned him of the wishes of the brethren, in consequence of\nwhich he had already begun to compose the work. That fragment consisted\nof the first eighteen couplets of the introductory verses:\u2014\n\n \u201cFrom reed-flute hear what tale it tells,\n What plaint it makes of absence\u2019 ills,\u201d &c.\n\nIt is of the metre _Remel_, hexameter contracted:\n\n- \u203f - - \u2502 - \u203f - - \u2502 - \u203f - \u2551 - \u203f - - \u2502 - \u203f - - \u2502 - \u203f - \u2551\n\nJel\u0101l frequently mentions Hus\u0101m as the cause of the work\u2019s having been\nbegun and continued. In the fourth book he addresses him in the opening\ncouplet:\u2014\n\n \u201cOf Truth, the light; of Faith, the sword; Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn aye be;\n Above the lunar orb has clomb my Mesnev\u012b, through thee.\u201d\n\nAnd again the sixth book has for its opening verse the following\napostrophe:\u2014\n\n \u201cO thou, Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, my heart\u2019s true life! Zeal, for thy sake,\n I feel springs up in me sixth book hereby to undertake.\u201d\n\nOften they spent whole nights at the task, Jel\u0101l inditing, and Hus\u0101m\nwriting down his inspirations, chanting it aloud, as he wrote it, with\nhis beautiful voice. Just as the first book was completed, Hus\u0101m\u2019s wife\ndied, and an interval ensued.\n\nTwo years thus passed without progress. Hus\u0101m married again; and in\nthat year, A.H. 662 (A.D. 1263), the second book was commenced. No\nother interval occurred until the work was brought to a conclusion. The\nthird couplet of the second book mentions Hus\u0101m in these terms--\n\n \u201cWhen thou, of Truth the light, Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, thy courser\u2019s rein\n Didst turn, descending earthward from the zenith\u2019s starry plain.\u201d\n\nThe third, fifth, and seventh books have similar addresses to Hus\u0101m in\ntheir opening verses. His name is also mentioned cursorily in the third\ntale of the first book.\n\n\n83.\n\nOn the death of Jel\u0101l, a party of zealots went in a body to the\nPerw\u0101na, explaining to him that the new practices of music and dancing,\nintroduced by Jel\u0101l, were innovations altogether contrary to the\ncanonical institutes, and begging him to use his utmost endeavours to\nsuppress them.\n\nThe Perw\u0101na called on the learned Mufti of Qonya, Sheykh Sadru-\u2019d-D\u012bn,\nand consulted him on the subject. The Mufti\u2019s answer was: \u201cDo nothing\nof the kind. Listen not to such biased suggestions. There is an\napostolical saying to this effect: \u2018A laudable innovation, introduced\nby a perfect follower of the prophets, is of the same nature with the\ncustomary practices of the prophets themselves.\u2019\u201d The Perw\u0101na resolved,\ntherefore, to do nothing towards suppressing Jel\u0101l\u2019s institutions.\n\n\n84.\n\nA certain great man, who esteemed Jel\u0101l, was nevertheless shocked that\nhe should, with all his learning and piety, sanction the use of music\nand dancing.\n\nHe had occasion to visit Jel\u0101l, who at once addressed him as\nfollows:\u2014\u201cIt is an axiom in the sacred canons that a Muslim, if\nhard pressed, and in danger of death, may eat of carrion and other\nforbidden food, so that the life of a man be not sacrificed. This rule\nis admitted and approved by all the authorities of the law. Now, we\n_men of God_ are exactly in that position of extreme danger to our\nlives; and from that danger there is no escape, save by song, by music,\nand by the dance. Otherwise, through the awful majesty of the divine\nmanifestations, the bodies of the saints would melt away as wax, and\ndisappear like snow under the beams of a July sun.\u201d\n\nThe personage thus addressed was so struck with the earnestness of\nJel\u0101l\u2019s manner, and the cogency of his reasoning, that he became\nconvinced, and thenceforward was a defender and upholder of Jel\u0101l\u2019s\ninstitutions, so that these formed, as it were, the very nourishment\nof his heart. Many of the learned followed his example, and joined\nthemselves to Jel\u0101l\u2019s followers and disciples.\n\n\n85.\n\nK\u0101l\u016bm\u0101n and \u2018Aynu-\u2019d-Devla were two Roman painters. They were\nunrivalled in their art of painting portraits and pictures. Both were\ndisciples of Jel\u0101l.\n\nK\u0101l\u016bm\u0101n one day narrated that in Constantinople, on a certain tablet,\nthe portraits of the Lady Meryem and of Jesus were painted, in such\nstyle as to be matchless. From all parts of the world artists came\nand tried their best; but none could produce the equal of those two\nportraits.\n\n\u2018Aynu-\u2019d-Devla undertook, therefore, to journey to Constantinople,\nand see this picture. He made himself an inmate of the great church\nof Constantinople for a whole year, and served the priests thereof in\nvarious ways.\n\nOne night, then, he spied his opportunity, took the tablet under his\narm, and absconded with it.\n\nOn reaching Qonya, he paid his respects to Jel\u0101l, who inquired of him\nwhere he had been. He narrated to Jel\u0101l all that had occurred with the\ntablet, which he exhibited.\n\nJel\u0101l found the picture exceedingly beautiful, and gazed on it long\nwith the utmost pleasure. He then spake as follows:\u2014\n\n\u201cThese two beautiful portraits complain of you, saying that you are\nnot a faithful admirer of theirs, but are an untrue lover.\u201d The artist\nasked: \u201cHow?\u201d Jel\u0101l replied: \u201cThey say they are not supplied with food\nand rest. On the contrary, they are kept sleepless every night, and\nfasting every day. They complain: \u2018Aynu-\u2019d-Devla leaves us, sleeps\nhimself all night, and takes his meals by day, never remaining with us\nto do as we do!\u2019\u201d\n\nThe artist remarked: \u201cFood and sleep are to them impossibilities.\nNeither have they speech, with which to say anything. They are mere\nlifeless effigies.\u201d\n\nJel\u0101l now replied: \u201cThou art a living effigy. Thou hast acquired a\nknowledge of various arts. Thou art the handiwork of a limner whose\nhand has framed the universe, the human race, and all things on earth\nand in heaven. Is it right that thou forsake Him, and enamour thyself\nof an insignificant lifeless effigy? What profit is there in these\nportraits? What advantage can accrue to thee from them?\u201d\n\nTouched by these reproaches, the artist vowed repentance of his sin,\nand professed himself a Muslim.\n\n\n86.\n\nWhen the time of Jel\u0101l\u2019s death drew near, he cautioned his disciples\nto have no fear or anxiety on that account; \u201cfor,\u201d said he, \u201cas the\nspirit of Mans\u016br[22] appeared, a hundred and fifty years after his\ndeath, to the Sheykh Fer\u012bdu-\u2019d-D\u012bn \u2018Att\u0101r, and became the Sheykh\u2019s\nspiritual guide and teacher, so, too, do you always be with me,\nwhatever may happen, and remember me, so that I may show myself to you,\nin whatever form that may be;--that I may always belong to you, and\never be shedding in your breasts the light of heavenly inspiration. I\nwill simply remind you now that our dear Lord, Muhammed, the Apostle\nof God, said to his disciples: \u2018My life is a blessing unto you, and my\ndeath will be a blessing unto you. In my life I have guided you, and\nafter my death I will send blessings on you.\u2019\u201d\n\nJel\u0101l\u2019s friends shed tears all, and broke out into sighs and\nlamentations; but bowed their heads in reverence.\n\nIt is said that he gave directions to get ready his grave-clothes, and\nthat his wife, Kir\u0101 Kh\u0101t\u016bn, began to wail, tearing her clothes, and\nexclaiming: \u201cO thou light of the world, life of the human race; unto\nwhom wilt thou commit us? Whither wilt thou go?\u201d\n\nHe answered her: \u201cWhither will I go? Verily, I shall not quit your\ncircle.\u201d She then asked: \u201cWill there be another like unto thee, our\nLord? Will another become manifest?\u201d He replied: \u201cIf there be, he\nwill be I.\u201d After a while he added: \u201cWhile in the body, I have two\nattachments; one, to you; the other, to the flesh. When, by the grace\nof the unique Spirit, I become disembodied,--when the world of unbodied\nspirits, unity, and singleness, shall appear, my attachment to the\nflesh will become attachment to you, and I shall then have but one sole\nattachment.\u201d\n\n\n87.\n\nWith his last breath Jel\u0101l recommended to Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn to lay him in\nthe upper part of his tomb, so that he might be the first to rise at\nthe last day.\n\nAs he lay in his extreme sickness, there were earthquakes for seven\ndays and nights, very severe, so that walls and houses were overthrown.\nOn the seventh occasion, all his disciples were alarmed. He, however,\ncalmly remarked: \u201cPoor earth! it is eager for a fat morsel! It shall\nhave one!\u201d\n\nHe then gave his last instructions to his disciples, as follows:\u2014\u201cI\nrecommend unto you the fear of God, in public and in private;\nabstemiousness in eating and in sleeping, as also in speaking;\nthe avoidance of rebelliousness and of sin; constancy in fasting,\ncontinuous worship, and perpetual abstinence from fleshly lusts;\nlong-suffering under the ill-treatment of all mankind; to shun the\ncompanionship of the light-minded and of the common herd; to associate\nwith the righteous and with men of worth. For verily \u2018_the best of\nmankind is he who benefiteth men_,\u2019[23] and \u2018_the best of speech is\nthat which is short and to the purpose_.\u2019\u201d[24]\n\n\n88.\n\nThe following is a prayer taught by Jel\u0101l, on his deathbed, to one of\nhis friends, to be used whenever affliction or care might weigh upon\nhim:\u2014\n\n\u201cO our Lord God, I breathe but for Thee, and I stretch forth my\nspirit towards Thee, that I may recite Thy doxologies abundantly,\ncommemorating Thee frequently. O our Lord God, lay not on me an ailment\nthat may make me forgetful to commemorate Thee, or lessen my yearning\ntowards Thee, or cut off the delight I experience in reciting the\nlitanies of Thy praise. Grant me not a health that may engender or\nincrease in me presumptuous or thankless insolence. For Thy mercy\u2019s\nsake, O Thou Most-Merciful of the compassionate. Amen.\u201d\n\n\n89.\n\nA friend was seated by Jel\u0101l\u2019s pillow, and Jel\u0101l leaned on that\nfriend\u2019s bosom. Suddenly a most handsome youth appeared at the door of\nthe room, to the utmost astonishment of the friend.\n\nJel\u0101l arose and advanced to receive the stranger. But the friend was\nquicker, and quietly asked his business. The stranger answered: \u201cI am\n\u2018Azr\u0101\u2019\u012bl, the angel of departure and separation. I am come, by the\ndivine command, to inquire what commission the Master may have to\nintrust to me.\u201d\n\nBlessed are the eyes that can perceive such sights!\n\nThe friend was near fainting at this answer. But he heard Jel\u0101l call\nout: \u201cCome in, come in, thou messenger of my King. Do that which thou\nart bidden; and, God willing, thou shalt find me one of the patient.\u201d\n\nHe now told his attendants to bring a vessel of water, placed his two\nfeet therein, and occasionally sprinkled a little on his breast and\nforehead, saying: \u201cMy beloved (God) has proffered me a cup of poison\n(bitterness). From his hand I drink that poison with delight.\u201d\n\nThe singers and musicians now came in, and executed a hymn, while the\nwhole company of friends wept, and sobbed loudly.\n\nJel\u0101l observed: \u201cIt is as my friends say. But, were they even to pull\ndown the house, what use? See my panting heart; look at my delight. The\nsun sheds a grateful light on the moth. My friends invite me one way;\nmy teacher Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn beckons me the other way. Comply ye with the\nsummoner of the Lord, and have faith in Him. Departure is inevitable.\nAll being came out of nothing, and again it will be shut up in the\nprison of nullity. Such is God\u2019s decree from all eternity; and, to\ndecree belongeth unto God, the Most High, the All-Great!\u201d\n\nHis son Sultan Veled had been unremitting in his attentions. He wept\nand sobbed. He was reduced to a shadow. Jel\u0101l therefore said to him:\n\u201cBah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn, my son, I am better. Go and lie down a little. Rest\nthyself, and sleep awhile!\u201d\n\nWhen he was gone, Jel\u0101l indited his last ode; thus:\u2014\n\n \u201cGo! head on pillow lay; alone, in peace, me leave,\n Loved tyrant, plague by night, while all around thee grieve.\n That peerless beauty (God) has no need kind care to show;\n But, sallow lovers, ye must patient faith still know.\n Perplexity is ours to bear; \u2019tis his to own hard heart;\n Shed he our blood; what sin? He\u2019ll not pay murder\u2019s smart.\n To die\u2019s hard, after all; but remedy there\u2019s none;\n How, then, to crave a remedy? The evil\u2019s done.\n Last night, in dream, a warder, from my love\u2019s abode,\n Made sign to me, and said: \u2018This way! Hold thou my lode.\u2019\u201d\n\n * * * * *\n\n\n90.\n\nIt is related that, after his death, when laid on his bier, and while\nhe was being washed by the hands of a loving and beloved disciple,\nwhile others poured the water for the ablution of Jel\u0101l\u2019s body, not one\ndrop was allowed to fall to the earth. All was caught by the fond ones\naround, as had been the case with the Prophet at his death. Every drop\nwas drunk by them as the holiest and purest of waters.\n\nAs the washer folded Jel\u0101l\u2019s arms over his breast, a tremor appeared to\npass over the corpse, and the washer fell with his face on the lifeless\nbreast, weeping. He felt his ear pulled by the dead saint\u2019s hand, as\nan admonition. On this, he fainted away, and in his swoon he heard a\ncry from heaven, which said to him: \u201cHo there! Verily the saints of\nthe Lord have nothing to fear, neither shall they sorrow. Believers die\nnot; they merely depart from one habitation to another abode!\u201d\n\n\n91.\n\nWhen the corpse was brought forth, all the men, women, and children,\nwho flocked to the funeral procession, smote their breasts, rent their\ngarments, and uttered loud lamentations. These mourners were of all\ncreeds, and of various nations; Jews and Christians, Turks, Romans, and\nArabians were among them. Each recited sacred passages, according to\ntheir several usages, from the Law, the Psalms, or the Gospel.\n\nThe Muslims strove to drive away these strangers, with blows of fist,\nor staff, or sword. They would not be repelled. A great tumult was\nthe result. The Sultan, the Heir-Apparent, and the Perw\u0101na all flew\nto appease the strife, together with the chief Rabbis, the Bishops,\nAbbots, &c.\n\nIt was asked of these latter why they mixed themselves up with the\nfuneral of an eminent Muslim sage and saint. They replied that they had\nlearnt from him more of the mysteries shrouded in their scriptures,\nthan they had ever known before; and had found in him all the signs and\nqualities of a prophet and saint, as set forth in those writings. They\nfurther declared: \u201cIf you Muslims hold him to have been the Muhammed of\nhis age, we esteem him as the Moses, the David, the Jesus of our time;\nand we are his disciples, his adherents.\u201d\n\nThe Muslim leaders could make no answer. And so, in all honour, with\nevery possible demonstration of love and respect, was he borne along,\nand at length laid in his grave.\n\nHe had died as the sun went down, on Sunday, the fifth of the month\nJum\u0101da-l-\u0101khir, A.H. 672 (16th December A.D. 1273); being thus\nsixty-eight (lunar) years (sixty-six solar years) of age.\n\n\n92.\n\nSultan Veled is reported to have related that, shortly after the death\nof his father, Jel\u0101l, he was sitting with his step-mother, Jel\u0101l\u2019s\nwidow, Kir\u0101 Kh\u0101t\u016bn, and Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, when his step-mother saw the\nspirit of the departed saint, winged as a seraph, poised over his,\nSultan Veled\u2019s, head, to watch over him.\n\n\n93.\n\nJel\u0101l had a female disciple, a saint, named Niz\u0101ma Kh\u0101t\u016bn, an intimate\nfriend of his wife\u2019s.\n\nNiz\u0101ma formed the design to give a spiritual party to Jel\u0101l, with\nan entertainment for his disciples. She possessed nothing but a\nThevr (_or_ Sevr)[25] veil, which she had destined to be her own\nwinding-sheet.\n\nShe now ordered her servants to sell this veil, and so procure the\nnecessaries for the projected feast. But, that same morning, Jel\u0101l\ncame to her house with his disciples, and, addressing her, said:\n\u201cNiz\u0101ma Kh\u0101t\u016bn, sell not thy veil; to thee it is a piece of necessary\nfurniture. Lo! we are come to thy entertainment.\u201d\n\nHe and his disciples remained with her, engaged in spiritual exercises,\nthree whole days and nights.\n\n\n94.\n\nAfter Jel\u0101l\u2019s death, K\u012bg\u0101t\u016b Kh\u0101n, a Mogul general, came up against\nQonya, intending to sack the city and massacre the inhabitants. (He was\nemperor from A.H. 690 to 696, A.D. 1290-1294.)\n\nThat night, in a dream, he saw Jel\u0101l, who seized him by the throat, and\nnearly choked him, saying to him: \u201cQonya is mine. What seekest thou\nfrom its people?\u201d\n\nOn awaking from his dream, he fell on his knees and prayed for mercy,\nseeking also for information as to what that portent might signify. He\nsent in an ambassador to beg permission for him to enter the city as a\nfriendly guest.\n\nWhen he arrived at the palace, the nobles of Qonya flocked to his\ncourt with rich offerings. All being seated in solemn conclave, K\u012bg\u0101t\u016b\nwas suddenly seized with a violent tremor, and asked one of the\nprinces of the city, who was seated on a sofa by himself: \u201cWho may the\npersonage be that is sitting at your side on your sofa?\u201d The prince\nlooked about, right and left; but saw no one. He replied accordingly.\nK\u012bg\u0101t\u016b answered: \u201cWhat? How sayest thou? I see by thy side, seated, a\ntall man with a grisly beard and a sallow complexion, a grey turban,\nand an Indian plaid over his chest, who looks at me most pryingly.\u201d\n\nThe prince sagaciously suspected forthwith that Jel\u0101l\u2019s shade was there\npresent by his side, and made answer: \u201cThe sacred eyes of majesty alone\nare privileged to witness that vision. It is the son of Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn\nof Balkh, our Lord Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, who is entombed in this land.\u201d\n\nThe Kh\u0101n replied: \u201cLast night I saw him in my dream. He went nigh\nchoking me, and told me Qonya is his possession. Now, prince, thee\nI call my adoptive father; and I entirely forego my intention to\ndevastate this city. Tell me; has that holy man any son or descendant\nalive here?\u201d\n\nThe prince told him of Bah\u0101 Veled, now Sheykh of the city, and the\npeerless saint of God. K\u012bg\u0101t\u016b expressed the wish to go and visit the\nSheykh. The prince conducted him and his suite of nobles to Sultan\nVeled. They all declared themselves his disciples, and assumed\nthe dervish turban. Bah\u0101 recounted to the Kh\u0101n the history of his\ngrandfather\u2019s expulsion from Balkh, and of all that followed. The Kh\u0101n\noffered him royal presents, and accompanied him on a visit of reverence\nto the shrine of the deceased saint.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\n _Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn Tebr\u012bz\u012b, Muhammed son of \u2018Al\u012b son of Melik-d\u0101d._\n\n\n1.\n\nShemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn of Tebr\u012bz was surnamed the Sultan of Mendicants, the\nMystery of God upon earth, the Perfect in word and deed. Some had\nstyled him the Flier, because he travelled about so much; and others\nspoke of him as the Perfect One of Tebr\u012bz.\n\nHe went about seeking for instruction, human and spiritual. He had\nvisited many of the chief spiritual teachers of the world; but he\nhad found none equal to himself. The teachers of all lands became,\ntherefore, pupils and disciples to him.\n\nHe was always in quest of the beloved object of the soul (God). His\ncorporeal frame he habited in coarsest felt, shrouding his eminent\ngreatness from all eyes in what are really the jewelled robes of\nspirituality.\n\nAt Damascus it was, where he was then studying, that he first saw\nJel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn by chance in a crowded market-place; but Jel\u0101l, who was\nat that time a student also, avoided him.\n\nUltimately, he was led to Qonya in Jel\u0101l\u2019s traces, and first arrived\nthere at dawn, on Saturday, the twenty-sixth of Jum\u0101da-\u2019l-\u0101khir, A.H.\n642 (28th November, A.D. 1244), Jel\u0101l being then professor at four\ncolleges there. They met as is related in a former chapter (chap. iii.\nNos. 8, 9).\n\nAt the end of three months\u2019 seclusion together, passed in religious,\nscientific, and spiritual disquisitions and investigations,\nShemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn became satisfied that he had never met Jel\u0101l\u2019s equal.\n\n\n2.\n\nWhen Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn was quite worn out by a series of divine\nmanifestations and the consequent ecstasies, he used to break away,\nhide himself, and work as a day-labourer at the water-wheels of the\nDamascus gardens, until his equanimity would be restored. Then he would\nreturn to his studies and meditations.\n\nIn his supplications to God, he was constantly inquiring whether there\nwas not in either world, corporeal and spiritual, one other saint\nwho could bear him company. In answer thereto, there came at length\nfrom the unseen world the answer, that the one holy man of the whole\nuniverse who could bear him company was the Lord Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn of Rome.\n\nOn receiving this answer, he set out at once from Damascus, and went in\nquest of his object to the land of Rome (Asia Minor).\n\n\n3.\n\nCheleb\u012b Em\u012br \u2018\u0100rif related that his father, Sultan Veled, told him that\none day, as a trial and test, Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn requested Jel\u0101l to make him\na present of a slave. Jel\u0101l instantly went and fetched his own wife,\nKir\u0101 Kh\u0101t\u016bn, who was as extremely beautiful as virtuous and saintlike,\noffering her to him.\n\nTo this act of renunciation Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn replied: \u201cShe is my most\nesteemed sister. What I want is a youth to wait on me.\u201d Jel\u0101l thereupon\nproduced his own son, Sultan Veled, who, he said, would be proud to\ncarry the shoes of Shems, placing them before him for use when required\nfor a walk abroad. Again Shems objected: \u201cHe is as my son. But,\nperhaps, you will supply me with some wine. I am accustomed to drink\nit, and am not comfortable without it.\u201d\n\nJel\u0101l now took a pitcher, went himself to the Jews\u2019 ward of the city,\nand returned with it full of wine, which he set before Shems.\n\n\u201cI now saw,\u201d continued Sultan Veled in his recital, \u201cthat\nShemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, uttering an intense cry, rent his garment, bowed down to\nJel\u0101l\u2019s feet, lost in wondering admiration at this implicit compliance\nwith the behests of a teacher, and then said: \u2018By the truth of the\nFirst, who had no beginning, the Last, who will have no end, there\nnever has been, from the commencement of creation, and there never,\nuntil the end of time, will be, in the universe of substance, a lord\nand master, heart-captivating and Muhammed-like, as thou art.\u2019\u201d\n\nHe now bowed down again, declared himself a disciple to Jel\u0101l,\nand added: \u201cI have tested and tried to the utmost the patient\nlong-suffering of our Lord; and I have found his greatness of heart to\nbe totally unlimited by any bounds.\u201d\n\n\n4.\n\nJel\u0101l is reported to have said: \u201cWhen Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn first came, and I\nfelt a mighty spark of love for him lighted up in my heart, he took\nupon himself to command me in the most despotic and peremptory manner.\n\n\u201c\u2018Study,\u2019 said he, \u2018the writings of thy father.\u2019 For a while I studied\nnothing else. \u2018Keep silent, and speak to no one.\u2019 I ceased from all\nintercourse with my fellows.\n\n\u201cMy words were, however, the food of my disciples; my thoughts were the\nnectar of my pupils. They hungered and thirsted. Thence, ill feelings\nwere engendered amongst them, and a blight fell upon my teacher.\n\n\u201cHe came to me another day as I was, by his command, studying the\nwritings of my father. Thrice he called out to me: \u2018Study them not.\u2019\nFrom his sacred features the effulgence of spiritual wisdom streamed. I\nlaid down the book, and never since have I opened it.\u201d\n\n\n5.\n\nJel\u0101l is said to have related that Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn forbade him to study\nany more the writings of his father, Bah\u0101 Veled, and that he punctually\nobeyed the injunction.\n\nBut one night he dreamt that he was in company with a number of\nfriends, who were all studying and discussing with him those very\nwritings of Bah\u0101 Veled.\n\nAs he woke from his dream, Shems was entering the room with a severe\nlook. Addressing Jel\u0101l, he asked: \u201cHow hast thou dared to study that\nbook again?\u201d Jel\u0101l protested that, since his prohibition, he had never\nonce opened his father\u2019s works.\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d retorted Shems, \u201cthere is a study by reading, and there is also\na study by contemplating. Dreams are but the shadows of our waking\nthoughts. Hadst thou not occupied thy thoughts with those writings,\nthou wouldst not have dreamt about them.\u201d\n\n\u201cFrom that time forward,\u201d remarked Jel\u0101l, \u201cI never again busied myself\nwith my father\u2019s writings, so long as Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn remained alive.\u201d\n\n\n6.\n\nJel\u0101l is related to have informed his disciples that Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn was\na scholar in every science known to man, and also a great alchemist;\nbut that he had renounced them all, to devote himself to the study and\ncontemplation of the mysteries of divine love.\n\n\n7.\n\nShemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn was one day sitting with his disciples, when the public\nexecutioner passed by. Shems remarked to those around him: \u201cThere goes\none of God\u2019s saints.\u201d\n\nThe disciples knew the man, and told Shems that he was the common\nheadsman. Shems replied: \u201cTrue! In the exercise of his calling, he put\nto death a man of God, whose soul he thus released from the bondage\nof the body. As a recompense for this kind act of his, the saint\nbequeathed to him his own saintship.\u201d\n\nOn the following day the executioner relinquished his office, vowed\nrepentance, came to Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, made his bow, and professed himself\na disciple.\n\n\n8.\n\nSheykh Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn was originally a young man who showed great\nrespect and humility towards Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, to whom he rendered\nservices of every kind.\n\nOne day Shems said to him: \u201cHus\u0101m, this is not the way. Religion is a\nquestion of money. Give me some coin, and offer your services to the\nLord; so, peradventure, thou mayest rise in our order.\u201d\n\nHus\u0101m at once went forth to his own house, collected all his own\nvaluables and money, with his wife\u2019s jewels, and all the provisions\nof the house, brought them to Shems, and laid them at his feet. He\nfurthermore sold a vineyard and country-seat he possessed, bringing\ntheir price also to his teacher, and thanking him for having taught him\na duty, as also for having deigned to accept so insignificant a trifle\nfrom his hand.\n\n\u201cYes, Hus\u0101m,\u201d said Shems, \u201cit is to be hoped that, with God\u2019s grace,\nand the prayers of the saints, thou wilt henceforth attain to such\na station, as to be the envy of the most perfect men of God, and be\nbowed down to by the _Brethren of Sincerity_. It is true that God\u2019s\nsaints are not in want of anything, being independent of both worlds.\nBut, at the outset, there is no other way to test the sincerity of\none we love, and the affection of a friend, than to call upon him to\nsacrifice his worldly possessions. The next step is, to summon him to\ngive up all that is not his God. No disciple who wishes to rise, has\never made progress by following his own devices. Advancement is earned\nby rendering service, and by spending in God\u2019s cause. Every pupil who\nsacrifices possessions at the call of his teacher, would also lay down\nhis life, if needs were. No lover of God can retain both mammon and\nreligion.\u201d\n\nShems then restored to Hus\u0101m the whole of his goods, keeping back only\none piece of silver. Nine times as much more did he bestow upon Hus\u0101m\nfrom first to last; and, as the results of all things are in God\u2019s\nhands, so did Hus\u0101m at length become the ruler of God\u2019s saints, and\nJel\u0101l made him the keeper of God\u2019s treasury. He it was who wrote down\nthe twenty-four thousand six hundred and sixty couplets contained in\nthe six books of the Mesnev\u012b.\n\n\n9.\n\nShemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn left Qonya, at the end of his first visit, on Thursday,\nthe twenty-first day of the month of Shawwal, A.H. 643 (14th March,\nA.D. 1246), after a stay of about sixteen months.\n\nHe returned to Damascus; and his departure left Jel\u0101l in a state of\ngreat uneasiness and excitement. (Compare a conflicting date given in\nNo. 13, further on.)\n\n\n10.\n\nShemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn was one day at Bagd\u0101d, and entered one of the palaces\nthere. A eunuch who saw him enter, without being himself visible, made\na sign to a slave to go and drive away the mendicant.\n\nThe slave drew his sword, and raised it to strike; but his arm\nwithered, and fell palsied.\n\nThe eunuch then motioned to another slave to execute the commission;\nand he, too, became similarly incapacitated.\n\nShems then went away of himself, and none dared to pursue him. Two days\nlater, the eunuch died also.\n\n\n11.\n\nJel\u0101l\u2019s father, Bah\u0101 Veled, had a disciple, who, for some reason,\ngave offence to Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn; the latter, in punishment, inflicted a\ndeafness on both the disciple\u2019s ears.\n\nAfter a time, Shems pardoned the offender, and restored his hearing.\nBut the man bore him a grudge in his heart, nevertheless. One day,\nShems said to him: \u201cFriend, I have pardoned thee; wherefore art thou\nstill cast down? Be comforted.\u201d Notwithstanding this, his rancour\nremained.\n\nOne day, however, he met Shems in the midst of a market. Suddenly, he\nfelt a new faith glow within him, and he shouted out: \u201cThere is no god\nsave God; Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn is the apostle of God.\u201d\n\nThe market-people, on this, raised a great hubbub, and wished to kill\nhim. One of them came forward to cut him down; but Shems uttered so\nterrific a shout, that the man at once fell down dead. The rest of the\nmarket-people bowed, and submitted.\n\nShems now took the disciple by the hand, and led him away, remarking to\nhim: \u201cMy good friend, my name is Muhammed. Thou shouldest have shouted:\n\u2018Muhammed is the apostle of God.\u2019 The rabble will not take gold that is\nnot coined.\u201d\n\n\n12.\n\nOne beautiful moonlight night, Jel\u0101l and Shems were together on the\nterraced roof of the college, and all the inhabitants of Qonya were\nsleeping on their housetops.\n\nShems remarked: \u201cSee all these poor creatures! They are dead to every\nsense of their Creator on this beautiful night of God\u2019s decree. Wilt\nthou not, Jel\u0101l, of thy infinite compassion, wake them up, and let them\ngain a share in the shower of blessings of this night?\u201d\n\nThus appealed to, Jel\u0101l faced toward Mekka, and offered up this prayer\nto God: \u201cO Thou Lord of heaven, and of earth, for the love of Thy\nservant Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, vouchsafe wakefulness to this people.\u201d\n\nImmediately a black cloud gathered from the unseen world. Thunders\nand lightnings burst forth; and so heavy a rain fell, that all the\nsleepers, catching up what clothing they could find, quickly took\nrefuge in their houses below. Shems smiled at the saintly joke, and\nwas greatly amused.\n\nWhen daylight dawned, the disciples gathered round, numerous as the\nraindrops of that shower; and Shems related to them the story, with the\nfollowing remarks:\u2014\n\n\u201cHitherto, all the prophets and saints have ever sought to hide from\nvulgar eyes the miraculous powers they have possessed, so that none\nshould be aware of the fact. But now, our Lord and Master, Jel\u0101l, has\nbeen so successful in secretly following up the path of mystic love,\nthat his miraculous powers have hitherto escaped the searching eyes of\neven the chiefest of God\u2019s elect, even as it hath been said: \u2018Verily,\nGod hath saints of whom no man knoweth.\u2019\u201d\n\n\n13.\n\nKimiy\u0101 Kh\u0101t\u016bn, the wife of Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, was a very beautiful, and\nalso a very virtuous, woman. One day, however, it so happened that,\nwithout his permission or knowledge, the grandmother of Sultan Veled,\nand her attendant ladies, took Kimiy\u0101 with them for an outing to the\nvineyards of the city.\n\nAs chance would have it, Shems came home while she was still away. He\nasked for her, and was informed where she had gone, and with whom. He\nwas exceedingly annoyed at her absence.\n\nKimiy\u0101 had scarcely returned home, ere she began to feel unwell. Her\nlimbs stiffened like dry firewood, and became motionless. She continued\nscreaming and moaning for three days, and then gave up the ghost, in\nthe month of Sha\u2019b\u0101n, A.H. 644. (December, A.D. 1246. But compare a\nconflicting date given in No. 9, further back.)\n\n\n14.\n\nIt is related that, a second time, Shems and Jel\u0101l shut themselves\nup for a whole six months in Jel\u0101l\u2019s room at the college, without\npartaking of meat or drink, and without the entrance of a single\nindividual to interrupt them, or either of them coming forth, Sultan\nVeled and one other disciple alone excepted.\n\n\n15.\n\nShemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn was extremely bitter in his preachings and lectures\nto the learned auditory who used to gather around him in Qonya. He\nlikened them to oxen and asses. He reproached them with being further\nthan ever astray from the path of living love, and taxed them with the\npresumption of supposing themselves the equals of B\u0101yez\u012bd of Best\u0101m.\n\nHe once went to Erzen-of-Rome (Erzr\u016bm), the prince of which city had a\nson so extremely stupid, though very handsome, that he could be taught\nnothing, or next thereto.\n\nShems let no one know who or what he was; but opened a school for\nchildren. Inquiries were made by the prince, and Shems undertook to\ninstruct the child, and enable him, in one month, to recite the whole\nQur\u2019\u0101n by heart.\n\nHe kept his promise. The young prince acquired, further, during the\nsame period, a beautiful handwriting, and sundry other accomplishments.\n\nIt began to be suspected, now, that he was a saint in disguise. He\ntherefore quietly slipped away from that city.\n\n\n16.\n\nThere is a tradition that Jel\u0101l one day called his son Sultan Veled,\ngave him a large sum of money, and bade him go, with a suite of the\ndisciples, to Damascus, and request Shems to return to Qonya.\n\nJel\u0101l told his son that he would find Shems in a certain inn, playing\nat backgammon with a young Fireng\u012b (European, Frank), also one of God\u2019s\nsaints. Sultan Veled went, found Shems exactly so occupied, and brought\nhim back to Qonya, the Fireng\u012b youth returning to his own country,\nthere to preach Jel\u0101l\u2019s doctrines, as his vicar.\n\nSultan Veled walked the whole way from Damascus to Qonya, at the\nstirrup-side of Shems, as a groom walks by the side of a prince\u2019s\ncharger. The whole city went forth to receive them. Jel\u0101l and Shems\nembraced each other. Jel\u0101l became more than ever devoted to his\nfriend; and his disciples resented his neglect of them, as they had\ndone before. Not long afterwards, the dolorous event occurred that\nterminated the life of Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn.\n\n\n17.\n\nThe Vaz\u012br of Qonya had built a college. On its completion, he gave a\ngreat entertainment, in the college, of religious music and dancing,\nall the learned men of the city being present.\n\nThe Qur\u2019\u0101n was first recited in its entirety; after which, the holy\nwaltzing began. The Vaz\u012br and Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn both joined in the dance.\nSeveral times they came into collision; or, the Vaz\u012br\u2019s skirt swept\nagainst Shems\u2019s person, as he observed no caution in his gyrations.\n\nJel\u0101l expressed great indignation at this want of courtesy and\nreverence for his guest and friend. He took Shems by the hand, to\nlead him away. The grandees present essayed to appease him, but their\nentreaties were of no avail. The police of the Sultan were therefore\nsent for; and when they arrived, they instantly seized Shems, led him\nforth a prisoner with every mark of indignity, and put him to death\nwithout further inquiry or formality.\n\n\n18.\n\nCheleb\u012b Em\u012br \u2018\u0100rif related, as informed by his mother, F\u0101tima Kh\u0101t\u016bn,\nthat when Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn was thus made a martyr, his executioners threw\nhis corpse down a well.\n\nSultan Veled saw Shems in a dream, and was informed by him where the\nbody would be found. Sultan Veled went therefore at midnight with some\nfriends, recovered the corpse, washed it, and privately buried it in\nthe college grounds, by the side of the founder.\n\n\n19.\n\nForty days after the disappearance of Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Jel\u0101l, wishing to\nappease his own sorrow, and quell the mutinous spirit that had broken\nout among the disciples, appointed Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn his local deputy, and\nset out to seek Shems at Damascus for the third time. All the learned\nmen of Syria became his disciples, and he was absent about a year, more\nor less.\n\nThe Sultan and the nobles grew impatient at this long absence, and\nwrote him an urgent petition, begging him to return to Qonya. With this\nrequest he complied.\n\nNaturally, he had failed to find Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn in the flesh at\nDamascus; but he had found within himself what was still greater. He\nwent to the lodging of Shems, and wrote on the door, with red ink:\n\u201cThis is the station of the beloved one of Elias, on whom be peace!\u201d\n\nIt is said that the body of Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn disappeared, and that he was\nburied by the side of Jel\u0101l\u2019s father, Sultan Bah\u0101 Veled the Elder.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\n _Sheykh Sal\u0101hu-\u2019d-D\u012bn[26] Fer\u012bd\u016bn, surnamed Zer-K\u016bb_ (_Goldbeater_).\n\n\n1.\n\nSheykh Sal\u0101hu-\u2019d-D\u012bn was originally a fellow-disciple with Jel\u0101l, as\npupils to Seyyid Burh\u0101nu-\u2019d-D\u012bn. He afterwards became a goldbeater, as\nhis parents were poor.\n\nAfter a while, when Jel\u0101l\u2019s reputation became great, Sal\u0101h went and\npaid him his respects. Jel\u0101l knew how highly Burh\u0101n had esteemed Sal\u0101h,\nwhen his pupil. He therefore received him in a very friendly manner,\nand their intercourse became warmly renewed.\n\nOne day, after the murder of Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, and the return of Jel\u0101l\nfrom Damascus, he sent for Sal\u0101h, and appointed him his own assistant\nin the government and instruction of the disciples, presenting him also\nto the king in that capacity.\n\n\n2.\n\nJel\u0101l\u2019s first royal protector, \u2018Al\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn Keyqub\u0101d, was now dead,\nand his son, Gay\u0101su-\u2019d-D\u012bn Key-Khusrev, reigned in his stead.\n\nThe monarch one day made a feast in the vineyards, and went forth into\nthe fields for a walk, alone. He picked up a young snake, carried it\nindoors, placed it in a gold box, sealed this up, and then rejoined his\ncourtiers.\n\nTo those attendants the king exhibited the sealed packet, as\nhaving just then been privately received from the Qaysar[27] of\nConstantinople with a message to this effect: \u201cIf your religion of\nIsl\u0101m be the true faith, some one of your wise men will be able to\nsee into this packet without breaking its seals, and to tell what it\ncontains.\u201d\n\nThe king then called upon his ministers to prove their loyalty to him,\nand their faithfulness to their religion, by solving this riddle. None\nof them was able.\n\nThe packet was now sent round in succession to all the eminent teachers\nand theologians of the city; but none could unravel the enigma.\n\nAt last it was brought to Jel\u0101l, as Sheykh Fer\u012bd\u016bn and he were sitting\ntogether. Jel\u0101l invited Fer\u012bd\u016bn to tell them the contents of the\npacket; and he immediately replied: \u201cIt is not a dignified act in the\nking to imprison a young snake in a gold box, sealing this up as a\npacket, and then tempting his courtiers, ministers, and learned men\nwith a false pretence. A saint, however, knows not only the solution of\nso paltry a trick as this, but is also aware of every thought in the\nking\u2019s heart, and every secret of earth and heaven.\u201d\n\nWhen this answer was reported to the king, he came to the college,\nand professed himself a disciple, remarking: \u201cIf the disciples of\nShemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn possess such power, and work such miracles, how great\nmust have been the sanctity of the murdered martyr.\u201d\n\nFer\u012bd\u016bn acted for ten years as assistant to Jel\u0101l.\n\n\n3.\n\nF\u0101tima, the daughter of Sheykh Sal\u0101hu-\u2019d-D\u012bn Fer\u012bd\u016bn, was married to\nSultan Veled, Jel\u0101l\u2019s son. Jel\u0101l used to teach her to read the Qur\u2019\u0101n\nand other books.\n\nJel\u0101l used to call F\u0101tima his _right eye_; her sister Hediyya, his\n_left eye_; and their mother, Lat\u012bfa Kh\u0101t\u016bn, _the personification of\nGod\u2019s grace_.\n\nWhen F\u0101tima\u2019s marriage was solemnised, all the angels of heaven were\npresent, and wished the young couple all happiness.\n\nShe was a saint, and continually worked miracles. She fasted by day and\nwatched by night, tasting food only once in three days. She was very\ncharitable to the poor, the orphans, and the widows, distributing to\nthem food and raiment.\n\nSheykh Fer\u012bd\u016bn died on New Year\u2019s Day, A.H. 657 (28th December, A.D.\n1258).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\n _Cheleb\u012b Hus\u0101mu-\u2019l-Haqqi-wa-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Hasan, son of Muhammed, son of\n Hasan, son of Akh\u012b-Turk,[28] related to Esh-Sheykhu-\u2019l-Mukerrem._[29]\n\n\n1.\n\nOn the death of Sheykh Fer\u012bd\u016bn, Cheleb\u012b Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn was appointed by\nJel\u0101l his assistant in place of the deceased saint. For another ten\nyears these two spiritual friends worked together in perfect unity\nas Superior and Assistant. Hus\u0101m was surnamed \u201cthe Juneyd and the\nB\u0101yez\u012bd[30] of the age,\u201d \u201cthe Key of the Treasuries of God\u2019s throne,\u201d\n\u201cthe Trustee of the Treasures on earth,\u201d and \u201cGod\u2019s next Friend in the\nWorld.\u201d\n\n\n2.\n\nHus\u0101m once made his obeisance to Jel\u0101l, and related to him that, when\nthe disciples recited the poetry of the Mesnev\u012b, and became entranced,\nhe had himself seen a company of invisible ones, armed with clubs and\nscimitars, keeping guard over them. If any one did not listen to those\nsacred words with reverence and believing, the clubs and swords were\nbrought into play, and he was hurled into the pit of hell-fire. Jel\u0101l\nconfirmed, as being a fact, all Hus\u0101m had related.\n\n\n3.\n\nHus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn was very eloquent, pious, and God-fearing. He would\nnever use the water, even, of the college, for drink or for ablutions;\nbut always brought his water from his own home for those purposes. He\ndistributed, to the very last farthing, the whole of the revenues of\nthe college among the disciples.\n\n\n4.\n\nSultan Veled and his friends went one day to Hus\u0101m\u2019s garden. Some of\nthe disciples felt a desire to eat of some honey, but had said nothing\non the subject. Hus\u0101m read their thoughts. He therefore ordered his\ngardener to bring some new honeycomb from a certain hive. More, and\nmore, and still more comb was brought, until all were satisfied; still,\nthe hive was yet full. When they left his garden, Hus\u0101m sent the hive\nwith them; and for a long time it supplied all their wants.\n\n\n5.\n\nA severe drought afflicted Qonya and its environs. Prayers for rain\nwere publicly offered without avail.\n\nRecourse was now had to Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, who was begged to intercede for\nthe people, and to pray for rain.\n\nHe first went to Jel\u0101l\u2019s tomb, there performed his devotions to God,\nand then put up the prayer for rain, his disciples weeping as they\nchanted \u201cAmen.\u201d\n\nClouds now began to collect and lower; shortly after which an abundance\nof rain was vouchsafed.\n\n\n6.\n\nNot only were all the revenues of the college, arising from its\nendowments, committed by Jel\u0101l to the sole administration of Hus\u0101m,\nbut, whatever gifts and contributions were offered by princes and\nfriends, in money or in kind, they were all consigned to his care, to\naugment the resources of the general fund. Jel\u0101l\u2019s family, and also\nhis son, though often pinched, fared as the disciples.\n\n\n7.\n\nThe disciples were both surprised and scandalised, at one time, by\nHus\u0101m\u2019s publicly speaking very much in praise of certain individuals\nwho bore an extremely bad character, while he disparaged certain others\nwho were noted for their pious lives.\n\nThey complained to Jel\u0101l; but he confirmed what Hus\u0101m had said, and\nremarked to them: \u201cGod looks only to man\u2019s heart. Those seemingly lewd\nfellows are really God-loving saints, while those outwardly pious\nlivers are merely inward hypocrites.\u201d\n\n\n8.\n\nOne day Hus\u0101m was lecturing. Suddenly he beckoned to one of the\ndisciples, and told him to go with all speed to the royal palace, ask\nto see the queen, give her his greeting, and say to her: \u201cInstantly\nquit this apartment thou art in, if thou wouldest avoid impending\ndestruction, the result of God\u2019s decree.\u201d\n\nThe queen believed his word, and at once removed to another part of\nthe palace. The apartment was speedily stripped of its furniture; and\nscarcely had the last loads been removed, when, with a loud crash, the\nbuilding fell in. Her faith in his miraculous power was thenceforward\nincreased a hundredfold.\n\n\n9.\n\nA certain Sheykh died at Qonya, who was rector of two different\ncolleges. The prince who was the trustee of both, elected to nominate\nHus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn as rector of one of them; and a great entertainment was\nprepared by the prince for the occasion.\n\nJel\u0101l was informed of the arrangement, and he expressed the intention\nto bear himself Hus\u0101m\u2019s carpet to his new college, and himself\nspreading it for Hus\u0101m in his new seat.\n\nA certain brawler, a kinsman of Hus\u0101m\u2019s, Akh\u012b Ahmed by name, was of\nthe company; and he had felt nettled at Hus\u0101m\u2019s appointment. He came\nforward, snatched away Hus\u0101m\u2019s carpet, gave it to one of his companions\nto cast out of the building, and exclaimed: \u201cWe will not suffer this\nfellow to be installed here as Sheykh.\u201d\n\nGreat confusion ensued. Several nobles of the Akh\u012b clan, who were\npresent, drew their swords and knives, a scene of blood appearing to be\nabout to commence.\n\nJel\u0101l now addressed the crowd, reproaching them for such behaviour. He\ntold them that their family and college would not prosper, but that the\nMevlev\u012b order, founded by himself, and his lineal posterity would go on\never steadily increasing. He then related the following anecdote:\u2014\n\n\u201cA certain Sheykh from Samarqand, Ab\u016b-\u2019l-Lays by name, went on his\ntravels for about twenty years, with a view to study, partly at Mekka.\nAt length he set out on his return home, whither his reputation, as\nwell as numerous disciples, had preceded him.\n\n\u201cArrived at the outskirts of his native place, he went to the riverside\nto perform an ablution. There he found a number of women, occupied\nwith laundry work. From among these, one old woman advanced, looked at\nhim attentively, and then exclaimed: \u2018Why, if here isn\u2019t our little\nAb\u016b-\u2019l-Lays come back again! Go quickly, girls, and carry the news to\nour family.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe Sheykh returned forthwith to his party of fellow-travellers, and\ngave orders for their beasts to be at once reloaded for an immediate\nreturn to Damascus. On being questioned as to his reason for this\nsudden change of intention he answered: \u2018My people still think of me\nas \u201d_little Ab\u016b-l-Lays_,\u201d and will treat me with familiar indignity\naccordingly, esteeming me of small account, and thereby committing a\ngrievous sin; for it is an incumbent duty on all to honour the learned\nand the wise. To respect them is to show reverence to the apostle of\nGod, and to revere him is to serve the Creator.\u2019\n\n\u201cNow, the truth was that, when a child, his father had always called\nhim \u2018little Ab\u016b-\u2019l-Lays.\u2019 But strangers would not so understand that\nterm of endearment; they would think it one of too free and easy\nfamiliarity, and as likely to draw down on the city and its inhabitants\nthe divine displeasure. It was not consistent with true affection to\nallow the possibility of such a visitation to occur.\u201d\n\nHaving delivered himself of this constructive reprimand, Jel\u0101l left\nthe college barefoot, and in high dudgeon. The chief people came after\nhim to intercede, but he would not be pacified. Their intervention\nwas declined, and he refused to be reconciled with the broiler,\nAkh\u012b Ahmed. He would not consent to go near that offender, who died\nsoon afterwards; though most of his sons, relatives, and even his\nfellow-revellers, became disciples of Jel\u0101l\u2019s.\n\nThe Sultan would have caused him to be put to death at once; but Jel\u0101l\nwould not permit that.\n\nAkh\u012b Ahmed was never again allowed to show himself at any public\nreception, and was shunned by all, like the wandering Jew.\n\nEventually, Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn was appointed rector of both the colleges in\nquestion; and Ahmed\u2019s son, Akh\u012b \u2018Al\u012b, was a disciple of Sultan Veled.\n\n\n10.\n\nJel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn was of the school of Ab\u016b-Han\u012bfa; but Hus\u0101m belonged to\nthat of Sh\u0101fi\u2019\u012b.[31] He thought of joining the Hanef\u012b school, out of\ndeference to his teacher. Jel\u0101l, however, recommended him to remain\nwhat he had always been, and to strive to inculcate to all the doctrine\nof divine love, as set forth by Jel\u0101l.\n\n\n11.\n\nAfter Jel\u0101l\u2019s death, his widow, Kir\u0101 Kh\u0101t\u016bn, suggested to her stepson,\nSultan Veled Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn, that he ought to have succeeded his father\nas Rector of the fraternity, and not Hus\u0101m.\n\nSultan Veled answered that it had been his father\u2019s bequest that Hus\u0101m\nshould succeed, that he himself had sworn the oath of fealty to Hus\u0101m,\nand that Hus\u0101m was now become a kind of spiritual beehive, through the\nincessant and multitudinous visitations of angelic ministers sent to\nhim with messages from on high.\n\n\n12.\n\nHus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn had a gardener, whose name was Sheykh Muhammed. About\nfour years after Jel\u0101l\u2019s death, Hus\u0101m had reason to reprimand the\ngardener, who took offence at this, and went away to another garden,\nresolved never to return to Hus\u0101m\u2019s service.\n\nAs he sat reflecting, he fell asleep. In his dreams he saw Jel\u0101l coming\ntowards him, with an executioner by his side, who held up an axe. Jel\u0101l\nordered the executioner to cut off Muhammed\u2019s head, as the punishment\nfor his having offended Hus\u0101m.\n\nThis was done; and Muhammed saw his own head fall off, and his own\nblood flow. He knew that he was dead.\n\nAfter a while he saw Jel\u0101l return, pick up Muhammed\u2019s decapitated head,\nplace it in proper junction with the neck of the corpse, and utter the\nexclamation: \u201cIn the name of God, with God, from God, and to God.\u201d\nMuhammed saw himself instantly alive again, felt very penitent, threw\nhimself at Jel\u0101l\u2019s feet, and cried out piteously.\n\nHe now awoke and arose. No one was in sight. All traces of blood had\nvanished, and no sign of a wound was discernible on his neck. In all\nspeed he returned to Hus\u0101m\u2019s garden, and resumed his work with alacrity.\n\nBut now he saw Hus\u0101m approaching, who said to him: \u201cWell, Sheykh\nMuhammed! Until Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn chastised thee, thou wert no Muslim, and\nwert given over to stiffneckedness. Had not I interceded for thee, thou\nhadst been dead to all eternity, shut out from every hope of heaven.\u201d\n\nMuhammed protested his sincere repentance, became a dervish, and\nprofessed himself a disciple.\n\n\n13.\n\nWhen Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn had faithfully executed for ten years, as a just and\nwise steward, all his duties as successor to Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, he one day\nwent, with his companions and disciples, to visit the shrine of his\npredecessor.\n\nAs he drew near to the mausoleum, information was brought to him that\nthe gilt crescent surmounting the cupola had fallen down.\n\nOn the moment, Hus\u0101m felt himself to be stricken. He asked for an\nexamination of dates to be made, and found that ten years previously\nJel\u0101l had departed this life. He therefore said to those around him:\n\u201cLead me back home. The time for my dissolution is at hand.\u201d\n\nHe was conducted to his chamber, where, a few days later, on Thursday,\nthe twenty-second of Sha\u2019b\u0101n, in the year A.H. 683 (4th November, A.D.\n1284), he breathed his last exactly at the time when the gilt crescent\nwas replaced over Jel\u0101l\u2019s tomb, and the works brought to a close.\n\n\n14.\n\nShortly after the death of Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, the widow of Jel\u0101l, Kir\u0101\nKh\u0101t\u016bn, too, departed this life, and was buried by the side of her\nhusband.\n\nAs her corpse was being borne towards its last resting-place, the\nprocession passed through one of the gates of the town. Here, the\nbearers found themselves arrested by some unseen power, so that they\ncould not move, hand or foot. This singular effect lasted for about\nhalf an hour.\n\nHer stepson, Sultan Veled, with the other mourners, struck up a hymn,\nand commenced a holy dance. Soon after this, the bearers recovered the\nuse of their limbs, and found themselves able to proceed. All now went\nwell, and the interment was completed.\n\nThat same night, a holy man of the fraternity saw Kir\u0101 Kh\u0101t\u016bn in heaven\nnear to her husband.[32] He inquired of her concerning the arrestation\nof the funeral. She informed him thus: \u201cThe day previous, a man and a\nwoman had been stoned to death at that gate for the sin of adultery. I\ntook compassion on them, interceded for their forgiveness, and obtained\nfor them admittance to paradise. My preoccupation in their cause was\nthe reason of the delay met with by the funeral procession.\u201d\n\n\n15.\n\nOne day, while Jel\u0101l was yet living, Satan appeared in person to\nHus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, and complained bitterly of the torments inflicted on him\nby the continuous pious exercises of Jel\u0101l. He said that such was his\ndeep reverence for Jel\u0101l and his followers, that he dared not attempt\nto seduce one of them; and that, had he known that, of the seed of\nAdam, so holy a race of men were to spring, he never would have tempted\nthe father of mankind. He further added: \u201cI entertain a hope that the\nkindness of heart of his sons will lead them to intercede with Jel\u0101l\nfor me, and so obtain my eventual release and salvation.\u201d\n\nHus\u0101m related this occurrence to Jel\u0101l, who smiled, and said: \u201cThere\nis reason to hope that he need not despair. God forbid that he should\ndespair!\u201d\n\n\n16.\n\nWhenever the grandees of Qonya entertained a desire to have an audience\nof the Sheykh Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn of Tebr\u012bz, during his lifetime, they used\nto request Hus\u0101m to beg Jel\u0101l to intercede for them with Shems, and so\nobtain for them the desired interview.\n\nJel\u0101l and Hus\u0101m used to tax those nobles for this favour, according to\ntheir means and circumstances.\n\nOn one occasion the Grand Vaz\u012br solicited an audience, and was taxed\nat forty thousand pieces of silver; which, after much chaffering, was\nreduced to thirty thousand.\n\nAt his audience with Shems, the Vaz\u012br was so charmed with the mysteries\nrevealed to him, that, on his return therefrom, he voluntarily sent the\nten thousand pieces of silver to Hus\u0101m, which had been abated from the\nsum originally fixed.\n\nThese monies were always expended by Hus\u0101m, as he saw fit, in relieving\nthe necessities of the holy community, and the families of Jel\u0101l, the\nGoldbeater, and their various dependants.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\n _The Sultan of them who attain to the Truth, in whom are manifested\n the mysteries of Positive Knowledge, Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019l-Haqqi-wa-\u2019d-D\u012bn,[33] El\n Veled._\n\n\n1.\n\nWhile Sultan Veled was yet a child, his father, Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, was once\ndiscoursing on the miracle of the rod of Moses, which swallowed up the\nrods and other engines of Pharaoh\u2019s magicians, related to have been\nin such quantities as to form seventy camel-loads, and yet that staff\nbecame no thicker or longer than before.\n\nTurning to Sultan Veled, his father asked how this could be, and to\nwhat it could be likened for the sake of illustration.\n\nThe child at once replied: \u201cIn a very dark night, if a lighted taper\nbe brought into a large room or hall, it instantly devours all the\ndarkness, and yet remains a little taper.\u201d\n\nJel\u0101l jumped up from his seat, ran to his son, took the child to his\nbosom, kissed him with effusion, and then said: \u201cMay God bless thee, my\nchild! Verily, thou hast strung a pearl of the very first water on the\nstring of illustration.\u201d\n\n\n2.\n\nSultan Veled\u2019s elder brother, \u2018Al\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn, was killed in the tumult\nfor which the police authorities of Qonya put to death the Sheykh\nShemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn of Tebr\u012bz. Sultan Veled ruled the dervish community, in\nroom of his father (after the death of Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn), for many years\n(from A.H. 683 to 712, being twenty-nine lunar years). He composed\nthree volumes of poetry in couplets, like the Mesnev\u012b (hence styled\n_Mesneviy\u0101t_, Mesnevian Poems), and a volume (_D\u012bw\u0101n_) of odes in the\nArabian style, arranged in the alphabetical order of their rhymes.\n\n\n3.\n\nIt is related that when Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn was in his last illness, Sultan\nVeled came to visit him. Finding the sickness was unto death, he began\nto wail and lament, asking what would become of himself after the\nremoval of so dear a friend and so able a director.\n\nHus\u0101m collected himself, and, leaning on Sultan Veled, sat up. He then\naddressed the latter thus: \u201cBe of good cheer, and let not thy heart\nbe dismayed through my departure in the body. In another form, I will\never be near thee still. Thou shalt never be in need of counsel from\nanother. In all difficulties and troubles that may beset thee, I will\nalways be present, and in the visions of the night will I solve every\ndoubt, and direct thee in each matter, whether it relate to the spirit\nand religion, or whether it pertain to the flesh and mundane affairs.\nWhenever thou shalt receive counsel in this manner, know of a surety\nthat it is I who suggest it to thee--it will be none other than I\nmyself. I will show myself to thee in thy visions; and I will be thy\ncounsel and thy guide.\u201d\n\nSultan Veled was the first who narrated his dreams in his poems. Seek\nthem there; there shalt thou find them consigned.\n\n\n4.\n\nOne day a great man asked Sultan Veled whether God ever speaks to His\nservant--man.\n\nThis inquirer had frequently had the idea to send an offering to Sultan\nVeled; but had hesitated between a gift of money and one of Indian\nmuslins.\n\nSultan Veled answered his inquiry thus: \u201cGod does certainly speak to\nHis servants. And as to the method by which He addresses them, I will\nrelate to thee an anecdote.\u201d\n\n\u201cThere was in Balkh a preacher, who was also one of God\u2019s most precious\nsaints. He had many disciples, who loved him dearly. I heard him once\nsay, during one of his discourses: \u2018Long hath God spoken to you in\nwords; but you will not hearken to Him. This conduct is strangely\nimproper on the part of obsequious servants. In God\u2019s name, therefore,\nI warn you that you ought to hearken to God\u2019s words, and yield\nobedience to His commands.\u2019\n\n\u201cJust then, a dervish in the congregation stood up, and begged that\nsome one would bestow on him a handkerchief.\n\n\u201cA merchant, who was seated in a corner of the mosque, thrice conceived\nthe resolve to give the dervish a handkerchief; but thrice he failed to\ncarry that design into effect.\n\n\u201cThat merchant now rose, and, addressing the preacher, said: \u2018Sir, how\ndoes God speak to His servants? Pray explain this, that the method may\nbe known unto us.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe preacher answered: \u2018For one handkerchief, God does not speak more\nthan three times!\u2019\n\n\u201cThe merchant was petrified. He cried aloud, and cast himself at the\nfeet of the preacher. What he had thrice resolved to do, and had not\nperformed, he now carried out, giving a handkerchief to the dervish,\nand professing himself a disciple to the preacher.\u201d\n\n\u201cNow,\u201d added Sultan Veled, \u201cI say unto thee, O grandee, do thou also\nhearken unto the words of God. Give the Indian handkerchiefs, and\ndistribute also the money. When thou shalt have hearkened to the words\nof God, He will listen also to that which thou mayest say unto Him. All\nthou mayest ask of Him, God will give thee; and whatsoever thou seekest\nof Him, thou shalt find.\u201d\n\nForthwith that grandee became a sincere convert and disciple. Similar\nmiraculous works of Sultan Veled are beyond all count.\n\n\n5.\n\nSultan Veled died on Saturday, the tenth day of Rejeb, A.H. 712 (11th\nNovember, A.D. 1312). He had as many as a dozen children by his wife\nF\u0101tima, daughter of the Sheykh Sal\u0101hu-\u2019d-D\u012bn Fer\u012bd\u016bn, the Goldbeater;\nbut they all died in infancy, immediately after birth, or ere they were\nsix months old. At length, on a Monday, the eighth day of the month\nof Z\u016b-\u2019l-Qa\u2019da, A.H. 670 (6th May, A.D. 1272), his son and successor,\nCheleb\u012b Em\u012br \u2018\u0100rif, was born.\n\nSoon after his birth, or when only a few months old, the Em\u012br \u2018\u0100rif, at\nthe invitation of his grandfather, Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, and in the hearing\nof a numerous circle of assembled friends, thrice pronounced, audibly\nand distinctly, God\u2019s great name. His grandfather prophesied thence\nthat he would be a very great saint, and would sit in the seat of his\nown successorship, after his father Sult\u0101n Veled. The Em\u012br \u2018\u0100rif lived\nabout fifty years, surviving his father, however, but the short term of\neight or nine summers.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\n _Cheleb\u012b Em\u012br \u2018\u0100rif, Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn._\n\n\n(Ninety pages of the volume by Efl\u0101k\u012b give more than two hundred\nanecdotes of the acts and miracles, of various kinds, of this\nillustrious grandson of Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, the teacher and friend of the\nauthor, who vouches as an eyewitness for the truth and correctness of\nsome of the narratives.\n\nThe Em\u012br \u2018\u0100rif passed the far greater portion of his life in travelling\nabout to various cities in central and eastern Asia Minor, and\nnorth-western Persia, countries then subject to the great Kh\u0101ns,\ndescendants of Jeng\u012bz. He appears to have been of a more energetic or\nbellicose character than his father, and to have ruled with vigour\nduring his short Rectorship.)\n\n\n1.\n\nOn the last day but one of the period of the greater pilgrimage at\nMekka, the eve of the Festival of Sacrifices, the ninth of the month of\nZ\u016b-\u2019l-Hijja, A.H. 717 (11th February, A.D. 1318), the Em\u012br \u2018\u0100rif, and\nthe historian Efl\u0101k\u012b, his disciple, were together at Sult\u0101niyya, in the\nnorth of Persia, the new capital of the great western Mogul empire.\n\nThey were visiting at the convent of a certain Mevlev\u012b dervish, named\nSheykh Suhr\u0101b,[34] with sundry of the friends and saints, all of whom\nwere engaged in the study of different books, at about the hour of\nmidday, excepting \u2018\u0100rif, who was enjoying a _siesta_.\n\nSuddenly, \u2018\u0100rif raised his head, and gave one of his loud,\nawe-inspiring shouts, which caused all present to tremble. Without a\nword, however, he again composed himself to sleep.\n\nWhen he at length fully roused himself, and finally woke up from his\nsleep, Sheykh Efl\u0101k\u012b ventured to inquire what it was that had disturbed\nhim.\n\nHe answered: \u201cI had gone in the spirit to pay a visit to the tomb of\nmy great-grandfather, when there I saw the two Mevlev\u012b dervishes,\nN\u0101siru-\u2019d-D\u012bn and Shuj\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn Chan\u0101q\u012b, who had seized each other\nby the collar, and were engaged in a violent dispute and struggle. I\ncalled out to them to desist; and two men, with one pious woman, being\nthere present, saw me.\u201d\n\nEfl\u0101k\u012b at once made a note of this narrative, putting down the date and\nhour of the occurrence.\n\nSome time afterwards, \u2018\u0100rif returned to the land of Rome, and went to\nthe town of L\u0101dik (_Laodic\u00e6a Combusta_, not far from Qonya); and there\nthey met the above-named N\u0101siru-\u2019d-D\u012bn. In the presence of all the\nfriends, \u2018\u0100rif asked N\u0101sir to relate to them the circumstances of his\nquarrel with Shuj\u0101\u2018.\n\nN\u0101sir replied: \u201cOn the eve of the Festival of Sacrifices, I was\nstanding at the upper end of the mausoleum, when Shuj\u0101\u2019 came there, and\ncommitted an unseemly act, for which I reprehended him. He immediately\ncollared me, and I him; when suddenly, from the direction of the feet\nof the holy Bah\u0101 Veled, the voice of \u2018\u0100rif was heard shouting to us,\nand made us tremble. In awe thereat, we immediately embraced each\nother, and bowed in reverence. That is all I know of the matter.\u201d\n\n\u2018\u0100rif then addressed Efl\u0101k\u012b, and said: \u201cPray relate to our friends what\nthou knowest thereof, that they may be edified.\u201d\n\nEfl\u0101k\u012b now produced his memorandum-book, and showed the entry he had\nmade, with the date. The friends marvelled at this, and rejoiced\nexceedingly, their spirits being refreshed with an influence from the\ninvisible world.\n\n\u2018\u0100rif then said: \u201cBy the soul of my ancestor, I dislike exceedingly\nto make a display of any miraculous power. But, now and then, for the\nedification of my disciples, such scenes will slip out. Then Efl\u0101k\u012b\ntakes note thereof.\u201d\n\nSuch miracles are known by the names of \u201cmanifestations,\u201d and \u201cekstasis\nof the spirit.\u201d\n\nWhen Qonya was reached, three friends, one a lady, bore testimony to\nhaving seen \u2018\u0100rif at the tomb on that day, and to their having heard\nhim shout.\n\n\n2.\n\n\u2018\u0100rif\u2019s last journey was from L\u0101renda to Aq-Ser\u0101y (on the road to\nQonya). In the latter place he remained about ten days; when, one\nnight, he laid his head on his pillow, and wept bitterly, continuously\nmoaning and sobbing in his sleep.\n\nIn the morning his friends inquired the cause. He said he had seen a\nstrange dream. He was seated in a vaulted chamber, with windows looking\non to a garden as beautiful as paradise, with all kinds of flowering\nshrubs and fruit-bearing trees, beneath the shade of which the youths\nand maidens of heaven were walking and disporting themselves. Melodious\nvoices were also heard. In one direction he noticed a flower-garden,\nand there he saw his grandfather, Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn. He wondered at his\nappearance; when lo, Jel\u0101l looked towards him, and beckoned him to\napproach. On his drawing near, Jel\u0101l asked him what had brought him\nthere; and then added: \u201cThe time is come; the end of thy term. Thou\nmust come to me.\u201d\n\nIt was from joy and delight at this kind invitation of his grandfather,\nthat \u2018\u0100rif had wept and sobbed.\n\nHe then said: \u201cIt is time for me to make my journey to heaven,--to\ndrink of the cup of God\u2019s might.\u201d\n\nTwo days later, they continued their journey towards Qonya, and \u2018\u0100rif\nshowed some slight symptoms of indisposition. These daily grew more\nsevere. He reached Qonya. One morning he came out of his house, and\nstood in the gateway of his great-grandfather\u2019s mausoleum, silent, in\nthe midst of his disciples. It was Friday, the last day of the month of\nZ\u016b-\u2019l-Qa\u2019da, A.H. 719 (13th January, A.D. 1320).\n\nThe orb of the sun rose like a disk of gold, careering over the azure\nvault from an impulse given to it by the bat of God\u2019s decree. It\nattained the altitude of a lance-length. \u2018\u0100rif contemplated it, and\nsmiled. Shortly afterwards, he spoke as follows:\u2014\n\n\u201cI am tired of this lower world, and have no wish to remain beneath\nthe sun, surrounded with dust and misery. The time is come for me to\ntrample on the stars that encircle the pole, mounting beyond the sun,\nto occupy myself with the mysteries of the heavenly choir, and to be\nentirely delivered from the instabilities of this world of change.\u201d\n\nHis disciples burst into tears, and he continued--\n\n\u201cThere is no remedy hereto, but to die. During life, my pleasure has\nbeen to journey and wander about, in outward space, and in inward\nself-exploration. For idle spirits come into the world of material\nforms to contemplate the marvels of the horizons, and the wonders of\nmen\u2019s minds,--to acquire knowledge, and attain to certainty. Through\nthe gravity of the body I have been impeded in the investigation, and\nI shall not be able to travel again. Let me, then, wend my way to the\nfuture state, for here below I have no real companion. My only anxiety\nis, to be with my father and grandfather. How long shall I be severed\nfrom them in this world of suffering? I long to behold my grandfather,\nand I will certainly depart.\u201d\n\nHe then cried aloud. After which he slowly returned to his chamber, and\nthere continued to moan.\n\nHe managed to crawl, as well as he could, to the congregational\nservice of worship of that Friday at noon. Thence he proceeded to the\nmausoleum, kissed the shrine, sang a hymn, performed a holy dance, and\nuttered ecstatic cries. He then laid himself down at full length on the\nfloor, under which he is now buried, and said: \u201cWhere the man falls,\nthere let him be interred. Bury you the deposit of my corpse in this\nspot.\u201d\n\nThat day was as though the last judgment were at hand. A tempest arose;\nall creation, mortal and immortal, seemed to be groaning.\n\nThe day following, Saturday, the traces of his malady were but too\nvisible in \u2018\u0100rif\u2019s features. He strove to battle with it, and to\nconverse, as if he were in perfect health.\n\nHis sickness lasted about five and twenty days. On the twenty-second of\nZ\u016b-\u2019l-Hijja there was a violent shock of earthquake.\n\nThere was then in Qonya a certain saint, commonly known as \u201c_the\nStudent_,\u201d a successor of the legist Ahmed. In his youth he had made\nhimself a great reputation for learning, in all its branches. But, for\nforty years, he had been paralysed, and had never risen from his seat,\nsummer or winter. He was well versed in all mysteries, and now began to\nsay: \u201cThey are taking away the lamp of Qonya! Alas, the world will go\nto utter confusion! I, too, will follow after that holy man!\u201d\n\nShocks followed after shocks of the earthquake; and \u2018\u0100rif exclaimed:\n\u201cThe hour of departure is at hand! See, the earth yawns for the\nmouthful it will make of my body. It shows signs of impatience for its\nfood!\u201d\n\nHe then asked: \u201cLook! what birds are these that are come here?\u201d His\neyes remained fixed for a time on the angelic visions which he now saw.\nFrom time to time he would start, as though about to fly. The assembled\ndisciples, men and women, wept bitterly. But he again spoke, and said--\n\n\n\u201cSheykhs, be not troubled! Even as my descent into this world was for\nthe regulation of the affairs of your community, so is my existence\nof equal advantage to you, and I will at all times be with you, never\nabsent from you. Even in the other world will I be with you. Here\nbelow, separation is a thing unavoidable. In the other world there is\nunion without disrupture, and junction without a parting. Let me go\nwithout a pang. To outward appearance, I shall be absent; but in truth,\nI shall not be away from you. So long as a sword is in its sheath, it\ncuts not; but, when it shall be drawn, you shall see its effects. From\nthis day forward, I dash my fist through the curtain that veils the\ninvisible world; and my disciples shall hear the clash of the blows.\u201d\n\nAs he spake these words, his eldest son, Sh\u0101h-Z\u0101da, and his own\nhalf-brother, Cheleb\u012b \u2018\u0100bid, entered the room. Sheykh Efl\u0101k\u012b asked him\nwhat commands he had to give for them. \u2018\u0100rif replied: \u201cThey belong to\nthe Lord, and have no longer a relation to me; He will take care of\nthem.\u201d\n\nEfl\u0101k\u012b now asked: \u201cAnd what are your wishes with respect to me, your\nmost humble servant?\u201d The answer was: \u201cDo thou remain in the service\nof the mausoleum. Forsake it not. Go not elsewhere. That which I have\ncommanded thee to do, as to collecting in writing all the memoirs\nof my ancestors and family, that do thou in all diligence until its\ncompletion. So mayest thou be approved of the Lord, and blessed by His\nsaints.\u201d\n\nAll wept.\n\n\u2018\u0100rif now recited some verses; pronounced thrice the holy name of God,\nwith a sigh; recited some more verses; and then, between the noon and\nafternoon hours of worship, having recited two short chapters of the\nQur\u2019\u0101n, he departed, in peace and rejoicing, to the centre of his\nexistence, on Tuesday, the twenty-fourth day of Z\u016b-\u2019l-Hijja, A.H. 719\n(5th February, A.D. 1320). Unto God be all glory, now and for ever!\n\nHe was buried on the 25th, where he had himself indicated, by the side\nof his grandfather. His half-brother \u2018\u0100bid succeeded him.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\n _Genealogy of Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, R\u016bm\u012b._\n\n\nOn his father\u2019s side, the remote ancestor of Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, during\nIsl\u0101mic times, was Ab\u016b-Bekr, the dearest and most faithful friend of\nMuhammed the Arabian lawgiver, and his successor in the government of\nthe community of Isl\u0101m, as the first of the long line of Caliphs.\n\nLike Muhammed himself, Ab\u016b-Bekr was of the tribe of Quraysh, which\nclaims descent, through Ishmael, from Abraham, the chosen Friend of\nGod, and Father of the faithful. The stem of Ab\u016b-Bekr\u2019s branch of the\ntribe unites with that of Muhammed in Murra, ancestor to Muhammed in\nthe seventh degree, and to Ab\u016b-Bekr in the sixth.\n\nAb\u016b-Bekr was, furthermore, one of Muhammed\u2019s fathers-in-law, as his\ndaughter \u2018\u0100\u2019isha was the Prophet\u2019s only virgin bride.\n\nA son or grandson of Ab\u016b-Bekr is said to have been among the Arabian\nconquerors of Khur\u0101s\u0101n during the caliphate of \u2018Uthm\u0101n (Osm\u0101n), about\nA.H. 25 (A.D. 647), and to have settled at Balkh (the capital of the\nancient Bactria), where his family flourished until after the birth of\nJel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn.[35]\n\nAt an uncertain period subsequent to A.H. 491 (A.D. 1097), a daughter\nof one of the Kh\u2019\u0101rezmian kings of Central Asia was given in marriage\nto Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn\u2019s great-great-grandfather, whose name is either not\nmentioned by Efl\u0101k\u012b, or I have missed it. She gave birth to Jel\u0101l\u2019s\ngreat-grandfather, Ahmed, surnamed El-Khat\u012bb\u012b (as being, apparently, a\nson or descendant, or a client, of a public preacher, Khat\u012bb).\n\nNothing more is mentioned of Ahmed by Efl\u0101k\u012b, than that he had a son\nHuseyn, surnamed Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, who married a daughter of a certain\nKhurrem-Sh\u0101h, King of Khur\u0101s\u0101n, and became grandfather, by her, to\nthe author of the Mesnev\u012b. His son, Muhammed, surnamed Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn,\nstyled Sult\u0101nu-\u2019l-\u2018Ulem\u0101, and commonly known as Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn Veled, or\nshorter as Bah\u0101 Veled, appears also to have married a lady, by whom he\nhad three children, a daughter and two sons.\n\nBah\u0101 Veled\u2019s eldest child, his daughter, was married off, and remained\nat Balkh, when Bah\u0101 Veled, his mother, and two sons left it, a year\nor so before it was taken and devastated by Jeng\u012bz Kh\u0101n in A.H. 608\n(A.D. 1211). His elder son is not again mentioned by Efl\u0101k\u012b after\ntheir departure from Balkh. Neither is the mother of his children\nonce mentioned. But his own mother, the princess, was alive, and was\nstill with him in about A.D. 1230; after which, she too is not again\nmentioned.\n\nBah\u0101 Veled\u2019s youngest child, his most celebrated son Muhammed, surnamed\nJel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Mevl\u0101n\u0101, Khud\u0101vendg\u0101r, and R\u016bm\u012b, the principal personage\nof these memoirs, the founder of the order of the Mevlev\u012b dervishes,\nand author of the Mesnev\u012b, had four children, three boys and a girl,\nby two wives. His eldest son was killed in the broil that caused the\nmurder of his father\u2019s friend Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn of Tebr\u012bz. His youngest son\nis not taken further notice of; but his daughter was married off to a\nlocal prince, and left Qonya.\n\nHis second son, and eventually his successor as Principal or Abbot\nof his order, was named Muhammed, and surnamed Bah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn. He is\ncommonly known as Sultan Veled.\n\nSultan Veled had six children, a boy and two girls by his wife F\u0101tima,\ndaughter of Sheykh Fer\u012bd\u016bn the Goldbeater, and three boys, of whom two\nwere twins, by two slave women. The daughters married well, and all his\nsons, or three of them, succeeded him as Abbot, one after the other.\nThe eldest was M\u012br \u2018\u0100rif (Cheleb\u012b Em\u012br \u2018\u0100rif), the second was named\n\u2018\u0100bid, the third Z\u0101hid, and the fourth W\u0101hid.\n\nCheleb\u012b Em\u012br \u2018\u0100rif, the eldest, and Efl\u0101k\u012b\u2019s patron, had two sons and\na daughter. His eldest son, Em\u012br \u2018\u0100lim, surnamed Sh\u0101h-z\u0101da, succeeded\neventually to the primacy after his uncles. With him, Efl\u0101k\u012b\u2019s memoir\nis brought to a close.\n\nSuch was the natural line of this dynasty of eminent men. But Efl\u0101k\u012b\nhas also given the links of a spiritual series, through whom the\nmysteries of the dervish doctrines were handed down to and in the line\nof Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn.\n\nIn the anecdote No. 79, of chapter iii., the account is given of the\nmanner in which the prophet Muhammed confided those mysteries to his\ncousin, son-in-law, and afterwards his fourth successor, as Caliph,\n\u2018\u0100l\u012b son of Ab\u016b-T\u0101lib, the \u201cVictorious Lion of God.\u201d\n\n\u2018\u0100l\u012b communicated the mysteries to the Im\u0101m Hasan of Basra, who died in\nA.H. 110 (A.D. 728); Hasan taught them to Hab\u012bb the Persian,[36] who\nconfided them to D\u0101w\u016bd of the tribe of Tayyi\u2019,--Et-T\u0101\u2019\u012b (mentioned by\nD\u2019Herbelot, without a date, as Davud Al Thai; he died A.H. 165, A.D.\n781).\n\nD\u0101w\u016bd transmitted them to Ma\u2019r\u016bf of Kerkh (who died A.H. 200, A.D.\n815); he to Sirr\u012b the merchant of damaged goods (Es-Saqat\u012b?; died\nA.H. 253, A.D. 867); and he to the great Juneyd (who died in about\nA.H. 297--A.D. 909). Juneyd\u2019s spiritual pupil was Shibl\u012b (died A.H.\n334, A.D. 945); who taught Ab\u016b-\u2018Amr Muhammed, son of Ibr\u0101h\u012bm Zajj\u0101j\n(the Glazier), of N\u012bsh\u0101p\u016br (who died in A.H. 348--A.D. 959); and his\npupil was Ab\u016b-Bekr, son of \u2018Abdu-\u2019ll\u0101h, of T\u016bs, the Weaver, who taught\nAb\u016b-Ahmed (Muhammed son of Muhammed, El-Gaz\u0101l\u012b (who died A.H. 504--A.D.\n1110)), and he committed those mysteries to Ahmed el-Khat\u012bb\u012b, Jel\u0101l\u2019s\ngreat-grandfather, who consigned them to the Im\u0101m Sarakhs\u012b (who died in\nA.H. 571--A.D. 1175).\n\nSarakhs\u012b was the spiritual teacher of Jel\u0101l\u2019s father Bah\u0101 Veled, who\ntaught the Seyyid Burh\u0101nu-\u2019d-D\u012bn Term\u012bz\u012b, the instructor of Jel\u0101l. He\nagain passed on the tradition to Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn of Tebr\u012bz, the teacher\nof Jel\u0101l\u2019s son, Sultan Veled, who himself taught the Em\u012br \u2018\u0100rif.\n\nAt the same time that the mysteries were thus being gradually\ntransmitted to Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn and his successors by these links, they\nwere also being diffused in thousands of other channels, and are at\nthis day widely diffused over the world of Isl\u0101m, which daily boasts of\nits living saints and their miracles. These latter are perhaps not less\nveracious than those continually blazoned forth by the Church of Rome,\nand by its Eastern sisters. We, too, have our spiritualists. Credulity\nwill never forsake mankind and prodigies will never be lacking for the\ncredulous to place faith in. There is much that is human in man, all\nthe world over.\n\n\n\n\n THE\n\n BOOK OF THE MESNEV\u012a\n\n OF\n\n MEVL\u0100N\u0100 JEL\u0100LU-\u2019d-D\u012aN, MUHAMMED, ER-R\u016aM\u012a,\n\n OF QONYA.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nThis is the book of the Rhymed Couplets (Mathnaw\u012b, Mesnev\u012b). It\ncontains the roots of the roots of the roots of the (one true) Religion\n(of Isl\u0101m); and treats of the discovery of the mysteries of reunion\nand sure knowledge. It is the Grand Jurisprudence of God, the most\nglorious Law of the Deity, the most manifest Evidence of the Divine\nBeing. The refulgence thereof \u201cis like that of a lantern in which is\na lamp\u201d[37] that scatters beams more bright than the morn. It is the\nparadise of the heart, with springs and foliage. One of those springs\nis \u201cthe fount named Salsab\u012bl\u201d[38] by the brethren of this religious\norder (of mystical devotees known as the _Mevlev\u012b_ or _Dancing\nDervishes_); but, by saints and the miraculously endowed, it is called\n\u201cthe Good Station\u201d[39] and \u201cthe Best Resting-place.\u201d[40] The just shall\neat and drink therein, and the righteous shall rejoice and be glad\nthereof. Like the Egyptian Nile, it is a beverage for the patient, but\na delusion to the people of Pharaoh and to blasphemers; even as God,\nwhose name be glorified, hath said: \u201cHe misleads therewith many, and\nHe guides therewith many; but He misleads not therewith (any), save\nthe wicked.\u201d[41] It is a comfort to men\u2019s breasts, an expeller of\ncares. It is an exposition of the Qur\u2019\u0101n, an amplification of spiritual\naliments, and a dulcifier of the disposition; written \u201cby the hands\nof honorable scribes,\u201d[42] who inscribe thereon the prohibition: \u201cLet\nnone touch it save the purified.\u201d[43] It is (a revelation) \u201csent down\n(from on high) by the Lord of (all) the worlds,[44] which vanity\napproacheth not from before, nor from behind,\u201d[45] which God watches\nover and observes, He being \u201cthe best as a Preserver,\u201d[46] and \u201cthe\nMost Compassionate of the merciful ones,\u201d[47] unto whom pertain (many)\ntitles, His utmost title being God, whose name be exalted.\n\nWe have been brief in (stating) this little; for a little is an index\nto much, and a mouthful may point out a pond, as a handful may serve as\na sample for a whole threshing-floor, however large.\n\nThus saith the feeble servant, in need of the mercy of God, whose\nname be extolled, Muhammed son of Muhammed son of Huseyn, of (the\ncity of) Balkh,[48] of whom may God accept it: \u201cI have exerted\nmyself to enlarge this book of poetry in rhyming couplets, which\ncontains strange and rare narratives, beautiful sayings, and recondite\nindications, a path for the devout, and a garden for the pious, short\nin its expressions, numerous in their applications. This have I done\nat the instance of my lord and master, my trust, and as the soul in\nmy body, the moral store of my to-day and my morrow, the Sheykh Hasan\nson of Muhammed son of Hasan, commonly known by the appellation of\nAkh\u012b-Turk (my brother Turk), a chief of the knowing ones (Gnostics?),\na leader of right direction and sure knowledge, a helper of the human\nrace, a confidant of men\u2019s hearts and minds, a charge of God among His\ncreatures, His pure one among His reasoning servants, (a compendium\nof) His commandments to His Prophet, of His mysteries with His chosen\none, a key to the treasures of the throne, a custodian of the riches\nof the extended earth, a man of excellencies, a sharp sword for the\nseverance of truth and religion (from falsehood and blasphemy),[49] the\nB\u0101yez\u012bd[50] of the age, the Juneyd[51] of the period, the true friend\nson of a true friend son of a true friend, may God be pleased with him\nand with them, originally from the town of Urmiyya,[52] and related to\nthe venerated Sheykh,[53] as he himself expressed it: \u2018I was a Kurd\none evening, and was an Arabian in the morning.\u2019[54] May God sanctify\nhis spirit, and the spirits of his successors! Blessed is such a\npredecessor; blessed are such successors! He was descended from a line\non which the sun had cast its lustrous mantle, and personal nobility\nsuch that the stars shed their lights around it. May their courtyard\never be a centre to which the sons of saints will turn, and a temple\nof hopes about which embassies of spotless men will circulate. May it\nnot cease to be thus while a constellation rises and a sparkling orb\nappears above the horizon in the east; so that it may be a thing held\nto by those who are possessed of insight, the godly, the spiritual,\nthe heavenly, the celestial, the men of light, who keep silence and\nobserve, who are absent though present, who are kings clothed in rags,\nthe nobles of nations, endowed with virtues, the lights of guidances.\nAmen, O Lord of (all) the worlds. And this is a prayer not to be\nrejected; for it is a prayer joined in by all the good. And glory be\nto God in His unity. And may God pronounce blessings on our lord,\nMuhammed, and on his family and kin, the good, the clean!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n THE BOOK OF THE MESNEV\u012a.\n\n\n IN THE NAME OF GOD,\n\n THE ALL-MERCIFUL, THE VERY-COMPASSIONATE.\n\n\n PROEM. The Reed-Flute.\n\n From reed-flute[55] hear what tale it tells;\n What plaint it makes of absence\u2019 ills:\n\n \u201cFrom jungle-bed since me they tore,\n Men\u2019s, women\u2019s, eyes have wept right sore.\n My breast I tear and rend in twain,\n To give, through sighs, vent to my pain.\n Who\u2019s from his home snatched far away,\n Longs to return some future day.\n I sob and sigh in each retreat,\n Be\u2019t joy or grief for which men meet. 5\n They fancy they can read my heart;\n Grief\u2019s secrets I to none impart.\n My throes and moans form but one chain,\n Men\u2019s eyes and ears catch not their train.\n Though soul and body be as one,\n Sight of his soul hath no man won.\n A flame\u2019s the flute\u2019s wail; not a breath,\n That flame who feels not, doom him death.\n The flame of love, \u2019tis, prompts the flute,\n Wine\u2019s ferment, love; its tongue not mute. 10\n The absent lover\u2019s flute\u2019s no toy;\n Its trills proclaim his grief, his joy.\n Or bane, or cure, the flute is still;\n Content, complaining, as you will.\n It tells its tale of burning grief;\n Recounts how love is mad, in brief.\n The lover lover\u2019s pangs best knows;\n As ear receives tongue\u2019s plaint of woes.\n Through grief, his day is but a dawn;\n Each day of sorrow, torment\u2019s pawn. 15\n My days are waste; take thou no heed,\n Thou still are left; my joy, indeed.\n Whole seas a fish will never drown;\n A poor man\u2019s day seems all one frown.\n What boot from counsel to a fool?\n Waste not thy words; thy wrath let cool.\n Cast off lust\u2019s bonds; stand free from all.\n Slave not for pelf; be not greed\u2019s thrall.\n Pour rivers into one small gill,\n It can but hold its little fill. 20\n The eye\u2019s a vase that\u2019s ne\u2019er content;\n The oyster\u2019s filled ere pearl is sent.[56]\n The heart that\u2019s bleeding from love\u2019s dart,\n From vice of greed is kept apart.\n Then hie thee, love, a welcome guest;\u2014\n Physician thou to soothe my breast.\n Thou cure of pride and shame in me;\n Old Galen\u2019s skill was nought to thee!\n Through love, this earthly frame ascends\n To heaven; a hill, to skip pretends. 25\n In trance of love, Mount Sinai shakes,\n At God\u2019s descent; \u2018and Moses quakes.\u2019[57]\n Found I the friend on whom I dote,\n I\u2019d emulate flute\u2019s dulcet note.\n But from my love, while torn away,\n Unmeaning words alone I say.\n The spring is o\u2019er; the rose is gone;\n The song of Philomel is done.\n His love was all; himself, a note.\n His love, alive; himself, dead mote. 30\n Who feels not love\u2019s all-quick\u2019ning flame,\n Is like the bird whose wing is lame.\n Can I be quiet, easy, glad,\n When my delight\u2019s away? No! Sad.\n Love bids my plaint all bonds to burst.\n My heart would break, with silence curst.\n A mirror best portrays when bright;\n Begrimed with rust, its gleam grows slight.\n Then wipe such foul alloy away;\n Bright shall it, so, reflect each ray.\u201d 35\n\n Thou\u2019st heard what tale the flute can tell;\n Such is my case; sung all too well.\n\n\nI.\n\nThe Prince and the Handmaid.\n\n A prince there was, long since in time it is.\n Of Church and State the power and wealth were his.\n The chase on horse one day to follow, bent;\n With pompous courtier-train afield he went.\n A handmaid[58] fair was wand\u2019ring near a grove.\n Her he espied, and straightway fell in love.\n His heart was snared; her form its cage, its stall.\n He lavished gold; and made her thus his thrall.\n But now, behold the wayward spite of fate!\n The maid fell sick, this prince\u2019s joy to bate. 5\n\n An ass had Hodge; no saddle to the fore.\n A saddle bought; a wolf straight Jacky tore.\n A jug had Dick; the well, alas, was dry.\n The well then filled; the jug was broke hard by.\n\n Now leeches called the prince, from left, from right.\n \u201cTwo lives,\u201d quoth he, \u201cdepend upon your might.\n My health is naught; she\u2019s life of life to me.\n I\u2019m sad at heart; my sov\u2019reign balm is she.\n Who finds a remedy to save her life,\n Much gold, with jewels, his; and thanks more rife.\u201d 10\n\n All promised marvels; each, to use his skill;\n To search the case; to ease the maiden\u2019s ill.\n \u201cEach one of us has Jesu\u2019s[59] healing power.\n Of all their ills we cure men every hour.\u201d\n Through pride, \u201cGod willing\u201d said they not, I trow.[60]\n Man\u2019s nothingness, in them the Lord would show.\n That is to say--to leave out this good word\n Is sin; said by mere rote, it will not please the Lord,\n How many shrink from tonguing it aloud,\n Whose hearts each action with \u201cGod willing\u201d shroud. 15\n\n The doctors now prescribe full many a drug.\n In vain they ponder, vain their shoulders shrug.\n The maid a very skeleton became;\n The prince\u2019s tears their want of skill did blame.\n With oxymel, through fate, did bile increase;\n E\u2019en almond oil ran dry where rubbed as grease.\n Lax myrobalans act as nutgalls first;\n As naphtha feeds a fire, drinks brought but thirst.\n\n The prince no sooner saw their art was vain,\n Than barefoot sped, heaven\u2019s _worship-house_[61] to gain. 20\n The holy altar, there, he bowed before;\n With flood of tears he bathed its sacred floor.\n Then, heart-relieved with sorrow\u2019s fierce outbreak,\n \u2019Mid praise and blessing, thus his suit he spake:\n \u201cTo Thee, whose meanest gift is world-wide sway,\n Who know\u2019st each secret wish, why need I pray?\n Our refuge art Thou in our every need;\n We\u2019ve erred again; do Thou in mercy lead.\n \u2019Tis Thy behest, to whom all thoughts are known,\n That man with words approach Thy awful throne.\u201d 25\n\n His humble supplication proffered so,\n Sweet mercy\u2019s fount at once did overflow.\n His tears undried, deep slumber on him fell,\n And heavenly-dulcet tones he heard thus tell:\n \u201cGlad tidings, prince, to thee this day I bring:\n Next daydawn at thy gate a guest shall ring;\n A heav\u2019n-sent stranger, versed in healing art,\n In him have faith; he\u2019s true in speech and heart.\n Imagine not his treatment magic\u2019s spell;\n God\u2019s power alone can make thy maiden well.\u201d 30\n\n The promised hour at hand, the daydawn broke;\n The sunbeams paled the stars; the prince awoke.\n An outlook sought he, whence to watch the way,\n And first th\u2019 expected stranger to survey.\n One he espied of most majestic mien,\n Of radiance mild,--as sun, dark clouds between;\n Or moon at full;--so seem\u2019d he from afar.\n Mere fancy\u2019s pictures ever objects mar.\n Things non-existent often frenzy paints;\n We see mankind deluded over feints. 35\n Their peace, their war, not seldom for a sham;\n Their pride, their shame, some sorry epigram.\n But visions, such as blessed saints entrance,\n Reflections are from heaven\u2019s inhabitants.\n\n The semblance by our prince seen in his swoon,\n The features wore that now in flesh are shown.\n The prince, in lieu of ushers, forward came,\n To meet the heaven-sent guest, in his own name.\n Their trains one column formed from mingling bands;\n Their hearts united, fettered not their hands. 40\n The prince: \u201cWould thou\u2019dst my soul enslaved; not she!\n But here below effect a cause must see.\n Be my Muhammed! I thy \u2018Umar stand,\n With girded loins awaiting thy command.\u201d\n\n Pray God to grant thee ever meek respect;\n The puffed-up fool\u2019s remote from Heaven\u2019s elect.\n A shameless monarch to himself\u2019s a curse,\n A firebrand to his realm; nay, even worse.\n\n Food in the wilderness by God was sent;\n Food without toil, food gratis, without stint. 45\n Some graceless scoffers out of Moses\u2019 host\n Dared to demand the onions, lentils lost.[62]\n Such toilless food then ceased to fall from Heaven;\n To dig, to sow, to reap, in lieu is given.\n Fresh suit, much later, Jesus made; God willed;\n Again food rife became; men\u2019s dishes filled.\n That food\u2019s a gift from Heaven is clearly said,\n In Jesu\u2019s prayer: \u201cGive us our daily bread.\u201d[63]\n Men\u2019s bold presumption Heaven again incensed,\n When basketsful to beggars were dispensed. 50\n Jesus proclaimed the miracle would last;\u2014\n That food would never lack as in the past.\n Men doubted, asked for more to store away;\n They trusted not God\u2019s word for bread each day.\n Importunate those suitors, full of greed;\n Heaven\u2019s gate of mercy closed against their breed.\n\n Withheld is rain when alms have ceased to flow;\n Where fornication reigns, black death will grow.\n Whatever grief and sorrow\u2019s on us sent,\n Of wickedness and guilt\u2019s a punishment. 55\n The hardened sinner, who his God offends,\n A ruthless robber is; he spoils his friends.\n He who is shameless in his words and deeds,\n Despair from disappointment is his meed.\n\n Yon orbs of heaven obey their Maker\u2019s word;\n The holy angels meekly serve the Lord.\n The sun\u2019s eclipse is but a check to pride;\n E\u2019en Satan\u2019s fall presumption caused to tide.\n Return we now the sequel to attest,\n Of what befell our prince with his new guest. 60\n\n His circling arms the welcome form embraced,\n And, lover-like, with joy his neck enlaced.\n Kisses bestowed he on his hand and brow;\n Hoped kindly he\u2019d fared well from home till now.\n His health and welfare asking, led him in.\n \u201cIts own reward is patience,\u201d thought he then.\n Patience at first is bitter; but at length\n Its fruit is sweet. It gives us heart\u2019s content.\n\n Then he aloud: \u201cA gift from God thou\u2019rt come,\n The proverb\u2019s pith: \u2018By patience overcome.\u2019 65\n This meeting\u2019s the reward of all my prayer;\n Thou\u2019lt solve the riddle of my dark despair.\n Th\u2019 expounder, thou, of all my soul\u2019s desires,\n Thou\u2019lt extricate me from despond\u2019s deep mires.\n Be welcome, then; a very friend in need;\n Hadst thou delayed, my case were sad indeed.\n Prince of physicians! Who\u2019d not welcome thee,\n Deserves rejection. Do his eyes not see?\u201d\n\n Urbanity\u2019s requirements thus bested,\n Our prince the stranger to a chamber led. 70\n The maiden\u2019s tale and case he there unfolds.\n The patient, next, unveiled, the guest beholds.\n Complexion, pulse, _egesta_, all are seen;\n Disposing causes, symptoms, sought, I ween.\n Then he: \u201cThe remedies till now adduced,\n Have detrimental been, no good produced.\n The case has been from first misunderstood.\n Protect us, Heaven! A blundering brotherhood!\u201d\n\n He saw her trouble; thence divined her ill.\n Her secret kept he; hidden held it still. 75\n The sickness was not caused by bile or spleen.\n The scent of perfume\u2019s better smelt than seen.\n He traced her suffering to a mind oppressed;\n Her body sound, her soul a wish suppressed.\n Her hesitations made him guess her love;\n The symptoms plain,--her heart was sick, poor dove!\n\n A lover\u2019s smart is not from fleshly pine;\n A probe is love; it sounds hearts\u2019 depths, divine.\n Let love proceed from this or other cause,\n It matters not; heavenward it mortals draws. 80\n However well we strive love to portray,\n We blush thereat, when love our hearts doth sway.\n Words make most matters plain and manifest;\n But love unspoken speaks whole volumes best.\n When pen took up from zeal the writing trade,\n In love\u2019s description, oh! such blots it made!\n Our wits in love\u2019s affairs stand sore perplexed;\n Love only can elucidate love\u2019s text.\n\n The sun alone can well explain the sun.\n Wilt see\u2019t expounded? Turn to him alone. 85\n A shade, \u2019tis true, of him gives some small hint;\n The shining sun surpasses all comment.\n A shade, like evening chitchat, sends to sleep,\n From sun\u2019s effulgence does full knowledge leap.\n That day-orb, still, each eve sets, here below;\n The soul-sun, God, shines in eternal glow.\n \u2019Mong things extern that orb has not a peer;\n But mock suns we can make, our nights to cheer.\n On heart unless the soul-sun cast a ray,\n No thought, no picture can its sheen portray. 90\n Can mind His glorious essence comprehend?\n His presence, then, to image who\u2019ll pretend?\n\n Of poet\u2019s verse when God\u2019s the holy theme,\n Its minished head the sun may hide, \u2019twould seem.\n At mention of His name each breast must find,\n A duty \u2019tis His grace to call to mind.\n The breath of life He to this body gave,\n With Him to reunite, should mercy save.\n These years I\u2019ve conversed with Him. Life serene!\n One repetition more! O blissful scene! 95\n How pleasant heaven and earth their smiling hold!\n He offers soul, mind, eye, a hundredfold!\n\n Beyond my strength, O try me not these days!\n My reason \u2019d fail to falter forth Thy praise.\n The song of man, when uninspired by Thee,\n Mere fulsome, flattering trash is seen to be.\n Bid me describe, whose every nerve is seared,\n A lover\u2019s woe, whom mistress never cheered.\n His lonesomeness, the anguish of his breast,\n Not here I\u2019ll paint; elsewhere it may be best. 100\n He cries: \u201cO succour me; I faint, I pant;\n And quickly; lest delay the dagger plant!\u201d\n\n The Mystic[64] true relieves each moment\u2019s need;\n \u201cTo-morrow\u201d \u2019s not a point in his pure creed.\n Art not persuaded so? The proverb scan:\n \u201cDelay\u2019s the thief of time;\u201d say: \u201cbane of man.\u201d\n Love\u2019s sweetest favours are conferred by stealth;\n Its darksome hints are treasured mines of wealth.\n The tale\u2019s most pleasant to a lover\u2019s ears,\n That tells of joys he\u2019s tasted, ills he fears. 105\n\n Speak, meddler, then, in plain, unvarnished guise;\n No subterfuge employ; deal not in lies.\n The veil tear off, dissimulation lost:\n \u201cWhen unadorned, beauty\u2019s adorned the most.\u201d\n Should my sweet love unveil\u2019d her charms display,\n Thy smirks and smiles would all be borne away.\n Thy suit prefer; use moderation still:\n A blade of grass ne\u2019er overturns a hill.\n The sun that lights and warms this nether world,\n If brought too near, had all to ruin hurled. 110\n Seek not to sow dissension in the earth;\n Vaunt not the Sun of Tebr\u012bz\u2019[65] holy birth.\n Contention\u2019s never-ending. Better far,\n Commit to memory this wordy war.\n\n The guest, convinced that love had caused her ill,\n Proceeded next the prince\u2019s mind to still.\n \u201cThese chambers clear of every mortal soul;\n Leave me alone the patient to control.\n No prying ear may linger in the hall;\n I\u2019ve things to ask may not be heard by all.\u201d 115\n\n The place was cleared; no soul remained within,\n Save leech and patient; other, none was seen.\n In gentlest tones he asked: \u201cWhere was thy home?\n For each town\u2019s folk a different cure must come.\n What friends, what family hast left behind,\u2014\n Companions, playmates, who to thee were kind?\u201d\n On pulse his finger. He then, one by one,\n Inquired anew each point, omitting none.\n\n So he whose foot is wounded with a thorn,\n Upon his knee doth take the limb that\u2019s torn. 120\n With needle\u2019s point he seeks the intrusive dart;\n Not finding it, from lip he soothes the smart.\n\n If thorn in foot is thus a task to find,\n Judge what must be a rankling pang of mind.\n Could every chance observer spy those ills,\n Where\u2019d be the cankering care, the grief that kills?\n Boys place a thorn beneath an ass\u2019s tail;\n The cure Ned knows not; jumping\u2019s no avail.\n Whisking\u2019s still worse; it deeper drives the dart.\n \u2019Tis reason\u2019s task to ease the burning smart. 125\n The ass, if sharper grow the throbs and pains,\n Kicks, plunges, rolls, his hide with gore bestains.\n\n Our doctor\u2019s mind, by art full well prepared,\n With gentle measures sought the ill he feared.\n Once more, with tact, he bids fresh memories come,\n And leads the maid again to talk of home.\n The spring once tapped, the stream began to flow;\n She told th\u2019 inquirer much he wished to know.\n He lends his ear as she each scene displays;\n His finger notes her pulse, as on she strays; 130\n To learn if any name should raise a start,\n And thus betray the secret of her heart.\n Anew he mentions every friend, each place;\n Repeated such as gave of hope a trace.\n He asked: \u201cOn quitting, thou, thy native town,\n Where first was it thy guardians set thee down?\u201d\n\n A place she named, and on to others passed;\n Nor blush, nor pulse gave sign, or notice massed.\n Of lords and citizens she gave report,\n Of festivals, and seats of gay resort. 135\n Town after town, house after house, by name,\n She spoke about; no blush, no throb still came.\n Her pulse retained its normal ebb and flow.\n Till Samarqand\u2019s name made her cheeks to glow,\n Her pulse beat high, her colour went and came;\n Of goldsmith youth she there had been the flame.\n This point drawn forth,--this secret once confessed,\n More easily our leech the sequel guessed.\n \u201cO maiden, let me know this youth\u2019s abode.\u201d\n \u201cAt Holywell, near Bridge-end\u2019s public road.\u201d 140\n\n \u201cI knew,\u201d said he, \u201cat once, thy case was such.\n Now trust me. Thee to serve I will do much.\n Make thyself happy. Cast away all care,\n As showers cheer meadows, thee I\u2019ll greatly spare.\n I\u2019ll prove thy guardian angel; never fear;\n Thy father\u2019s place I\u2019ll take;--thy burden bear.\n Tell not this secret unto mortal soul,\n However much the prince may thee cajole.\n Keep safe this knowledge in thy own heart\u2019s core;\n So mayest thou, lass, thy lover see once more. 145\n Our holy Prophet\u2019s sacred maxim \u2019twas:\n \u2018Who keeps his secret, speedy success has.\u2019\n The seed to earth committed sure must be,\n Ere field or garden\u2019s pride men may it see.\n If gold and silver were not hard to find,\n How could they grow?[66] They soon would be out-mined.\u201d\n\n The good physician\u2019s soothing words perceived,\n Our maiden\u2019s mind from carking care\u2019s relieved.\n Some promises are truly meant, sincere;\n Others are merely made to cheat the ear. 150\n A good man\u2019s promise is a gem of price;\n Rely not on the words of sons of vice.\n\n Our doctor, now, with subtle speech and wiles,\n The maiden\u2019s grief had turn\u2019d to sunny smiles.\n He leaves her then; seeks out the prince; and tells\n The news he\u2019d learnt, the source of all her ills.\n \u201cWhat\u2019s now to do?\u201d the prince\u2019s care inquired;\n \u201cDelay is dangerous; patience may grow tired.\u201d\n The doctor then: \u201cSend for him; come he must,\n From his far home to fill some post of trust. 155\n Invite him here; a dress of honour give;\n On him shower gold; new life \u2019twill make him live.\u201d\n The prince assented; took the doctor\u2019s plan;\n Thought it was sound and wise from such a man.\n Two trusty messengers he quickly sent,\n Sedate, fair-spoken, loved where\u2019er they went.\n To Samarqand they journeyed, prompt and sure.\n The goldsmith found; the prince\u2019s message bore.\n \u201cGreat man of art, the marvels of thy skill,\n Are viewed with rapture, or with envy still. 160\n Our prince has need of thee, his mint to guide;\n For none like thee is heard of, far and wide.\n This dress of honour, yonder gold he sends;\n Requests thou\u2019lt come, and be his best of friends.\u201d\n\n The gold and dress of honour won his heart;\n Good-bye to home he said, with them to start.\n He travels joyous; thinks his luck is great;\n And never dreams of what\u2019s to be his fate.\n An Arab charger proudly bore him on;\n He recked not at what price all this was won. 165\n O fatuous fool! Thou hastest to thy doom.\n The post thou dream\u2019st of, soon will be thy tomb.\n His fancy webs of power and fame did weave;\n Death\u2019s angel thundered: \u201cCome, and all this leave!\u201d\n\n Arrived betimes at his long journey\u2019s end,\n The doctor led him to the prince, his friend.\n Most nobly was he there received in turn.\n One trims the lampwick, still, to make it burn.\n The prince addressed him; bade him welcome there;\n Mint-master nam\u2019d him, treasurer, and mayor. 170\n Our doctor once again his counsel gave:\n \u201cThe damsel to this youth for service leave.\n United to him, she\u2019ll her health regain;\n Love\u2019s fever will subside with absence\u2019 pain.\u201d\n\n The prince bestows the sick one on her mate.\n United were the two in solemn state.\n Six months they feasted on love\u2019s joys so sweet;\n The handmaid\u2019s health from day to day more meet.\n\n The doctor, now, a potion mixed for him.\n His health declines; he every day grows slim. 175\n The coin that passes much from hand to hand\n Soon loses currency, has no demand.\n So he, when beauty no more graced his cheek,\n Began to lack worth with the handmaid sleek.\n All love that\u2019s built on outer skin-deep charms,\n Is not true love. At length shame \u2019tis that warms.\n Would it were shame alone that pricks him now!\n He\u2019d not been victimised and brought thus low.\n His eyes pour forth two streams of bitter tears;\n His altered features the worst foe he fears. 180\n\n The peacock\u2019s enemy his plumage call.\n The monarch bleeds whose splendours neighbours gall.\n The musk-deer for the musk-pod still is slain;\n His blood for that alone the ground will stain.\n The marten for its fur is trapped, surprised,\n And strangled. Kings its pelt have prized.\n The elephant, sagacious creature, dies,\n For iv\u2019ry pierced with weapons as he flies.\n\n \u201cHe who slays me for what I leave behind,\n Reflects not: \u2018Blood that\u2019s spilt demands its kind.\u2019 185\n To-day \u2019tis I; to-morrow \u2019twill be thou;\n Who\u2019ll be most loser? \u2019Tis not I, all know.\n The shadow of a wall, \u2019tis true, is wide;\n The sun revolves; the shadow\u2019s turn\u2019d aside.\n The world\u2019s a mountain; all our works, a voice;\n Our voice goes forth; its echo has no choice.\u201d\n Reflecting thus, the goldsmith breath\u2019d his last;\n The handmaid\u2019s love and grief behind her cast.\n\n A dead mate\u2019s love can never more be shown;\n A dead mate\u2019s voice will never more be known; 190\n Love for the living, in the heart and eyes,\n Will ever spring; the dead no more can rise.\n One Living is there, death that never knows;\n Love Him! The life from Him alone still flows.\n Love Him, whom saints and prophets all have loved;\n Through whom alone we all have lived and moved.\n Say not thou canst not to His throne approach;\n He\u2019s gracious. His rich grace bears no reproach!\n\n The goldsmith\u2019s death through lethal drugs, be sure,\n Was not from hope, or fear, or baser lure. 195\n The doctor kill\u2019d him, not to please our prince;\n Him some divine suggestion did convince.\n The story of the child by angel slain[67]\n Cannot be fully grasped by minds too plain.\n A saint that acts on Heaven\u2019s high behest,\n Can never do amiss; \u2019tis always best.\n He who can pardon, he may also doom;\n He\u2019s God\u2019s vicegerent; acts in Heaven\u2019s room.\n As Ishma\u00ebl beneath his father\u2019s knife,[68]\n Do thou for such a prince lay down thy life; 200\n Thus may thy soul, in future blessed abode,\n Muhammed-like, in peace be with thy God.\n His lovers joyful are, most, when they slay\n Their worldly joys with their own hands, as play.\n\n Our prince took not the goldsmith\u2019s life through lust.\n Chase such suspicion from thy mind thou must.\n Imagine not he\u2019d stoop to mortal sin.\n Can holy saint have tainted heart within?\n The trial of the fire, and of the flame,\n Is but to cleanse pure gold from every blame. 205\n So too, temptation on us all is sent,\n To part the good from those of bad intent.\n Had he not acted thus by God\u2019s command,\n No prince, a wolf he\u2019d been, rav\u2019ning the land.\n From lust, greed, foul caprice, his soul was free;\n So did God will, whate\u2019er the cause may be.\n Elias sank his ship in full design;[69]\n That wreck to future blessings was the sign.\n Moses was shock\u2019d thereat, with all his skill\n And inspiration. Thou must needs judge ill. 210\n A blood-red rose call not by murder\u2019s name;\n Just retribution see thou do not blame.\n Had righteous blood been shed by him as naught,\n Blasphemer were I to extol him aught.\n Praise of the wicked God with horror views;\n The good contemn all flatterers of sin\u2019s crews.\n Our prince was kind and virtuous, wise and just,\n A man God-fearing, and in God\u2019s full trust.\n A victim put to death by such a friend,\n Is slain in error, or for some wise end. 215\n Did not our God mean mercy in His wrath,\n How could the Lord of Mercies thunder forth?\n A child may tremble at the lancet\u2019s smart;\n His mother knows there\u2019s healing in the dart.\n It may half kill him, but restores sound life;\n So God\u2019s great mercies far surpass our strife.\n Men judge of what they see by what they think.\n From judging justice, men of sense will shrink. 219\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\nThe Oilman and the Parrot.\n\n\n An oilman there was, who a parrot possessed,\n Soft-voiced, and green-coated; could talk with the best.\n The oilshop her charge when the man was away;\n The customers coaxed she the whole live-long day.\n Her speech was quite human, her words full of sense,\n In all parrot-tricks she was void of offence.\n\n One day the man popped out, on bus\u2019ness intent;\n The parrot, as usual, had charge while he went.\n A cat, as it chanced, of a mouse in full chase\n Bounced into the shop. This poor Poll could not face. 5\n From perch away flew she; took refuge on shelf;\n Some jars she knocked over; the oil spread itself.\n\n The master returning, first sat himself down,\n As lord of the manor; the shop was his own.\n The oil-pools he spied, and then Polly\u2019s wet coat;\n A blow on the head made her feathers drop out.\n\n In silence some days Polly brooded, from grief;\n The oilman\u2019s bereft of his wits, to be brief.\n He plucked at his beard; he heaved a deep sigh;\n \u201cAlas!\u201d then, he shrieked out, \u201cday\u2019s darkened on high 10\n My hand, would it withered had, ere I\u2019d struck Poll;\n I\u2019ve silenced her prattle that always was droll!\u201d\n His alms now he showers on each passing scamp,\n In hopes Poll her chatter \u2019d get back by some tramp.\n Three days and three nights in this guise did he pass,\n Despair at his heart, like a lorn lovesick lass;\n Incessantly sobbing and sighing, his word\n Was: \u201cPray now, will speech e\u2019er return to my bird?\u201d\n\n A bare-headed mendicant happened to pass;\n Whose scalp was close shaved, smooth and shining as glass. 15\n At once our Poll-parrot her silence forswore,\n Screamed after the mendicant: \u201cPoor head! Sore! Sore!\n Old bald-pate! old bald-pate! What is it thou\u2019st done?\n Upset some one\u2019s oil jar? The oil is\u2019t all gone?\u201d\n The passers-by smiled all at Polly\u2019s mistake,\n \u2019Tween bald-head and bare-head no diff\u2019rence to make.\n\n So thou, my dear friend, think thyself not a saint;\n A quean to a queen bears resemblance, but faint.\n Mankind on this point in great error still stands;\n Th\u2019 elect of the Lord are ignored on all hands. 20\n The equals of prophets acknowledged they be;\n Of saints they\u2019re the brethren, as all men agree.\n Fools say: \u201cThe elect are but human, you see;\n To eat and to sleep they\u2019re constrained, just as we.\u201d\n\n Through blindness they miss the real point of the strife,\n The diff\u2019rence between them\u2019s immense all through life.\n The wasp and the bee eat and drink from the fields;\n The one stings, the other sweet honey still yields.\n The deer of both sorts browse the same mountain\u2019s side;\n The one gives rich musk; dung the other; go, hide. 25\n The canes of two species in one land may grow;\n Quite empty that one; from this, sugar will flow.\n By thousands, examples of pairs thus are known,\n Which differ as much as does cheese from the moon.\n Our bread, in one case, turns to dirt in our meat;\n Another produces the mind, God\u2019s own seat.\n His food the one man swells with envy and greed;\n By like means another gains virtue indeed.\n One soil is productive; one barren and salt;\n One angel\u2019s in heaven; the other\u2019s at fault. 30\n In form, many pairs may appear as though one,\n Clear water is sometimes as hard as a stone.\n Excepting the taster by practice, who knows\n The wholesome from unwholesome water that flows?\n\n Supposing saints\u2019 miracles tricks, magic-wrought,\n They fancy them both the result of deep thought.\n Magicians, at bidding of Pharaoh, did cast\n Their wands down, to Moses\u2019 rod as a repast.\n From his rod to their wands a chasm there must be;\n From his act to theirs we an interval see. 35\n God\u2019s curse on their witchcraft and devilish art!\n His blessing on Moses, who chose the best part!\n\n To me, like as apes are man\u2019s miscreants all;[70]\n To speak of them causes me, straight, sick to fall!\n Whatever men practise, apes will copy still;\n Our actions they mimic; of thought they know _nil_.\n They cunningly do what they\u2019ve seen that man did;\n The reason they seek not; from them that is hid.\n A man acts from reason; an ape from mere whim.\n Perdition may seize all such actors, and him! 40\n The hypocrite[71] worships[72] as aping the saint,\n For form\u2019s sake, or worse. His religion\u2019s mere feint.\n In pilgrimage, worship, and fasting, and alms,[73]\n Believers and hypocrites vie, as in psalms.\n Believers shall win in the last judgment day;\n The hypocrites then shall receive their due pay.\n The two are contending one great game of deeds,\n As factions of Mervites and R\u0101zites[74] with creeds.\n They each shall go there, where their party shall stand;\n And each shall be classed as their actions demand.[75] 45\n\n Just style these \u201cBelievers\u201d their hearts fill with glee;\n But dub them all \u201cHypocrites,\u201d rage then thou\u2019lt see.\n The first one\u2019s ashamed of the last one\u2019s true self;\n This last-named\u2019s a plague to the first, like an elf.\n\n No virtue in mere words or letters is found;\n \u201cBeliever\u201d\u2019s a word in itself but a sound.\n If \u201cHypocrite!\u201d cast in their teeth be at last,\n As scorpion\u2019s sting to their souls it clings fast.\n If \u201cHypocrite\u201d\u2019s name be not product of hell,\n So bitter at all times why does its sound tell? 50\n This name\u2019s great repulsion is not in its form;\n The bitter it smacks of is not from a corm.\n The word\u2019s but a vase; \u2019tis its sense is the wine;\n The sense of a book in the title may shine.\n\n Sweet lakes and salt seas do we find here on earth;\n The barrier between them: \u201cThus far; go not forth!\u201d\n They both, in their origin, flow from one source;\n Look not at their severance; it\u2019s matter of course.\n The touchstone\u2019s the test by the which thou must try\n If gold be quite pure, or debased with alloy. 55\n The touchstone of conscience, where planted by God,\n What\u2019s certain, what\u2019s doubtful, makes plain without nod.\n A fishbone that sticks in the throat of a man\n No ease ever gives till it\u2019s coughed out again.\n In ten thousand mouthfuls should one bone be found,\n As soon as perceived, it\u2019s spit out on the ground.\n\n Perception of things mundane guides here below;\n Religion\u2019s keen sense leads where God\u2019s glories glow.\n The health of his senses man asks of the leech;\n Religion\u2019s sound sense from the Lord we beseech.[76] 60\n For healthy perceptions, our frame must be sound;\n Religion\u2019s enjoyments through suff\u2019rings are found.\n The health of the soul\u2019s through a waste of the flesh,\n But after much searching it builds up afresh.\n\n How blest is the soul that, for love of its God,[77]\n Has flung away wealth, health, e\u2019en life, as a sod!\n Has pulled down its house a hid treasure to find,\n And built it again from that treasure refined!\n Who cuts off the streamlet to clear out its bed;\n Then turns on the water with which it is fed! 65\n Who gashes his skin to extract the spear-head!\n (The skin may now heal, for the irritant\u2019s fled.)\n Who wrecks a strong castle to drive out the foe,\n Then rears it still stronger, to hold evermo\u2019!\n\n The will of Almighty God who shall control?\n These sentences written are parables all.\n Sometimes in one way, in another sometimes,\n Religion confuses before it sublimes.\n Not terror, bewilderment, loathing, dismay;\n But ecstacy, rapture, love, come into play. 70\n In trance of love fixed, one contemplates the Lord,\n Another, self losing, unites with his God.\n Observe the rapt features of that one, of this;\n Perchance by such watching thy soul may gain bliss.\n\n Too numerous demons in human form walk;\n Beware, then, with whom thou engagest in talk.\n The fowler his whistle may ply in the field,\n To lure the poor birds, saying: \u201cCome and be killed.\u201d\n Each songster conceives \u2019tis the voice of its mate,\n Descends from the air, and meets with its fate. 75\n The sinner, in pious cant, uses a wile,\n To trap the unwary who ponders no guile.\n The upright deal faithfully, truly, in trust;\n The wicked imagine but fraud and distrust.\n A lion of wool is a beggar\u2019s device;[78]\n Musaylama\u2019s named Muhammed in a trice.[79]\n Musaylama liar, deceiver we know,\n Muhammed was faithful in weal and in woe.\n The wine of God\u2019s love was the food of his soul.\n The wine that inebriates dash from thy bowl. 80\n\n\n\n\nIII.\n\nThe Jewish King, Persecutor of the Christians.[80]\n\n\n A certain Jewish King, in savage, brutal scenes,\n From hate of Jesus, persecuted Nazarenes.\n \u2019Twas Jesu\u2019s age, when he the Gospel first did teach;\n In Jesus, Moses, and in Moses, Jesus preach.\n\n That King God made squint-eyed; things straight he could not see.\n A King and squint-eyed? Ah! that one the two should be!\n\n A master once a squint-eyed slave commanded so:\n \u201cCome here; that bottle from its shelf, go, fetch me; go.\u201d\n The squint-eye straightway asked: \u201cWhich, master, of the two?[81]\n The case explain; clear up the doubt, and truly show.\u201d 5\n His master answered: \u201cTwo there\u2019s not; there is but one;\n Put off thy strabism; with stupidity have done.\u201d\n \u201cGood master,\u201d quoth he, \u201cchide me not; \u2019tis nature\u2019s fault.\u201d\n The master quick rejoined: \u201cLook now; break one; halt! halt!\u201d\n As soon as one was broken, both were gone from sight.\n Poor squint-eye nearly lost his wits in childish fright.\n There was but one; his eyes were cause that he saw two.\n The one away, the other consequently was gone too.\n\n Desire or rage, at times, makes people double see.\n The mind\u2019s distortion brings the eyes perverse to be. 10\n From passion\u2019s mists our reason ever blinded lies.\n The heart its clouds sends up; the mind\u2019s eye\u2019s vision flies.\n The judge to taking bribes who basely bends himself,\n Can never well discern the right and wrong, from pelf.\n Our King through Israelitish rancour grew so blind,\n As nothing to distinguish in his rage of mind.\n By thousands, faithful seekers of God\u2019s will he slew.\n \u201cVouchsafe us help, O God of Moses, Jesus too!\u201d\n\n He had a Vaz\u012br, brigandlike for craft and force.\n In knavish stratagems he had no peer; of course. 15\n He whispered to the King: \u201cThese Christians, as in hives,\n All keep their faith a mystery, to save their lives.\n To kill them thus is profitless. Give breathing-time,\n Religion can\u2019t be smelt out just like musk or thyme.\n A secret \u2019tis, well wrapped in many folds of guile.\n In outward show, as friends, perfidiously they smile.\u201d\n The King, with grimace fierce: \u201cWhat have we then to do?\n What remedy proposest thou to make them rue?\n I will not leave alive one Christian in the land,\n Whose faith is shown to all, or in his bosom banned.\u201d 20\n\n The Vaz\u012br to him: \u201cKing, my hands and ears cut off;\n My nose and lips the same. Give orders; let them scoff.\n Unto the gallows send me; I\u2019ll of all be seen.\n Then let an intercessor plead,--some prince,--your queen.\n Let all this happen where some spacious public place\n May let all see, that all may know of my disgrace.\n Then drive me forth; away from thee in exile sent;\n And they\u2019ll receive me, under feint of sorrow bent.\n \u2018In secret,\u2019 I\u2019ll pretend, \u2018a Christian I\u2019m at heart;\n Call God to witness how my faith has worked my hurt. 25\n The King a knowledge gained of zeal in me that burned;\n Its flame to put out quite, his anger on me turned.\n I strove to hide my faith, my leaning to keep hid;\n Affected still to be, think, act, just as he bid.\n Suspicion crossed his mind; my secret he espied;\n All I could plead for nothing went; he said I lied.\n \u201cThy specious words,\u201d quoth he, \u201care needles in a loaf;[82]\n My eye, as through a glass, sees all thy thoughts; thou oaf!\n No curtain of thy trickeries can veil thy faith from me;\n I\u2019m proof against thy knaveries; thy cunning I can see.\u201d 30\n Were not the faith of Jesus the refuge of my heart,\n He\u2019d not have mutilated me in this sad sort.\n For love of Jesus, head and life I will lay down;\n All persecution suffer to gain a martyr\u2019s crown.\n My life I will not grudge to lose for Jesus\u2019 sake.\n His faith I hold from point to point without mistake.\n I dread his doctrine\u2019s fall to uninstructed guides.\n The truth from their bad teaching still to ruin glides.\n Thanks be to God, to Jesus thanks, who me have made\n A teacher perfect of the faith so free from shade. 35\n The Jew and Judaism I have forsworn in sooth;\n About my loins the sacred cord[83] I wear; \u2019tis truth.\n This age the age of Jesus is; O men, give ear!\n His doctrine take to heart; nought else have you to fear.\u2019\u201d\n\n The Vaz\u012br having laid this plot before the King,\n All shame and scruple vanished; \u2019twas a perfect thing.\n In presence of the public, nose, ears were cut off.\n The rabble wondered greatly; now\u2019s the time to scoff.\n He fled unto the Christians; begged them him to hear;\n And straightway set up preaching; saintlike was he there. 40\n\n The Christians soon with one accord accepted him,\n In multitudes they round him flocked, all meek and prim.\n The Gospel\u2019s holy words, the prayer, the cord, he\u2019d preach;\n The mysteries of all of these to them he\u2019d teach.\n To outward view a guide to sanctity was he;\n In very truth, a trap and fowler\u2019s whistle; see.\n Of such effect his wiles, disciples were deceived;\n From Jesu\u2019s teaching fell, and in this cheat believed.\n It is so. Often does the flesh, for selfish end,\n Intrude itself across the soul\u2019s most fervent trend. 45\n Meek virtue was not what they sought to gain the most;\n Of him they learned to ferret out new sins, and boast.\n Hair-splitting casuists, point by point they sin dissect;\n They grow too wise; \u2019twixt rose and garlic links detect.\n Of such avail\u2019s the subtle cunning of these men,\n That honest teachers oft are made to swerve by them.\n\n The Christian folk in him their confidence thus place.\n Gregarious, like sheep, \u2019s the mob of every race.\n A gen\u2019ral favourite was he; all loved him well;\n Christ\u2019s vicar called they him; as who the truth could tell. 50\n This cursed Antichrist, so full of fraud and wile!\n Grant help, O God! \u2019Tis Thou alone canst curb such guile.\n The devil\u2019s snares are spread abroad in tempting guise,\n Their baits are various; we, like birds, shut fast our eyes.\n If saved from one, another tempts; we thither stray;\n Like hawks and eagles, heinous sins make us their prey.\n Thou shieldest us, O gracious God! But ever still,\n With froward hearts and minds we counteract Thy will.\n\n This world\u2019s a granary, of which we steal the corn.\n The wheat is there all garnered; we it spoil in scorn. 55\n We take no heed of future life in what we do;\n Sly mice still help us to consume the fruits that grow,\n Those mice a road have found to reach our winter store.\n Through their inroads our victual spoils; it is no more.\n First stop mouse-holes; make safe thy granary, O man!\n Thy wheat then garner safely; winter\u2019s at our van.\n\n Give ear to what he\u2019s said, the Lord\u2019s own Chief of Chiefs:[84]\n \u201cNo perfect worship\u2019s needed, save in war\u2019s reliefs.\u201d[85]\n If mice there be not to destroy our garnered meeds,\n Where is our wheat, the fruit of fifty summers\u2019 deeds? 60\n To shreds all nibbled lie the products of our days;\n No stores accumulate for provend on our ways.\n\n How many sparks of fire from flint and steel have flown!\n How many hearts, like tinder, make those sparks their own!\n But in the dark some thief his finger presses there;\n And ev\u2019ry train puts out that has been lighted here.\n Extinguished if those sparks were not, a flame would rise;\n A burning light be kindled, flashing \u2019yond the skies.\n A thousand snares are laid to catch our tripping feet;\n But, Lord, if us Thou shield, harm never shall us meet. 65\n If but Thy grace will guide us, lead us on our way,\n No thief can steal our peace of mind, our light of day.\n\n Each night Thou settest free the soul from trap of flesh,\n To scan and learn the hidden records of Thy wish.[86]\n Each night the soul is like a bird from cage set free,\n To wander. Judge and judgment, then, it does not see.\n By night the pris\u2019ner loses sense of bars, of chains;\n By night the monarch knows no state, no pomp retains;\n The merchant counts no more, in sleep, his gains and loss;\n The prince and peasant, equal, on their couches toss. 70\n\n The Gnostic[87] is so e\u2019en by day, when wide awake;\n For God hath said: \u201cLet quietude care of him take.\u201d[88]\n Asleep to all the things of earth by night, by day,\n As pen in writer\u2019s hand he doth his guide obey.\n Whoever sees not in the lines the writer\u2019s hand,\n May fancy \u2019tis the pen alone has all command.\n Of this, the Gnostic\u2019s privilege, a trace \u2019d suffice\n To rob of sleep and reason vulgar souls of ice.\n His spirit wanders in the groves of th\u2019 absolute.\n His soul is easy; body, still, calm, quiet, mute. 75\n The two absolved from greed, lust, sense, care, fear also;\n Each, like a bird uncaged, is free; roams to and fro.[89]\n Should he, birdlike, be whistled back to trap of sense,\n Again he sinks, the slave of every vile pretence.\n\n When light of dawn paints bright the blushing sky with red,\n Ere orb of day comes forth as bridegroom from his bed,\n Shrill chanticleer, as though it were last judgment\u2019s trump,\n Calls back to consciousness the sleepers. Up they jump.\n The souls return their bodies to inhabit, then;\n Each body fraught with thoughts, and words, and deeds again. 80\n\n The soul turned loose, without the body\u2019s cares or ken,\n Attests the truth: \u201cSleep is death\u2019s brother,\u201d[90] to all men.\n But lest it should escape, and not come back at call,\n A tether to it\u2019s bound; it\u2019s not quite free withal.\n\n It must come back by day from roaming where it wills,\n The cares of life to bear;--a burthen that soon kills.\n O! Would, O God, Thou\u2019d keep my soul in Thy own hand,\n As Sleepers in the Grotto;[91] Noah\u2019s ark once to land!\n Then had I \u2019scaped the tempest waking thoughts aye raise;\n My mind, eyes, ears, had rested; all my task Thy praise! 85\n Sev\u2019n Sleepers?--Many are there of them in this world,\n Before, behind me, right and left; they\u2019re round me hurl\u2019d!\n My \u201cCave\u201d[92] art Thou; my \u201cMate\u201d art Thou; O God, my friend!\n Men\u2019s eyes and ears are sealed; they know not where they wend.\n\n A Caliph asked of Layl\u00e0: \u201cArt thou really she\n For whom poor Majn\u016bn went distracted? For I see,\n Than other beauties thou art not so passing fair.\u201d\n Said she: \u201cBe silent! Thou\u2019rt not Majn\u016bn; nor his pair.\u201d\n\n A man awake is sound asleep; more, he can\u2019t be.\n His watchfulness is worse than sleep; how should he see? 90\n Our souls, if not awake to God\u2019s most holy truth,\n Are not awake. We\u2019re slaves to them. The greater ruth!\n The soul all day is buffeted by fancy\u2019s whims;\n Of loss or profit, life or death, as frenzy swims.\n No peace enjoyed; no dignity remains in hand;\n No vigour to attempt a flight to heaven\u2019s strand.\n Asleep is he who\u2019s slave to every sordid wish;\n Who begs of fancy; parleys with it, even. Pish!\n\n A demon in his sleep he sees; an angel deems.[93]\n Through lust he swoons with sensual pleasure as he dreams. 95\n His seed he sows in sandy, salt, and desert land;\n And wakes to find no harvest\u2019s ripened to his hand.\n A headache, with a beating heart, is all he feels;\n \u201cAlas!\u201d he sobs, \u201cthat treach\u2019rous gnome! My whole frame reels!\u201d\n\n A bird flies in the air; its shadow flits on earth;\n A second bird it seems to be, though nothing worth.\n Some simpleton runs after it; to catch it tries;\n Himself tires out; meanwhile the creature safely flies.\n The fool still knows not \u2019tis a shadow he pursues,\n Its substance where to seek he has no power to muse. 100\n He shoots his arrows at the fleeting, mocking shade;\n His quiver emptied, he returns; no booty made.\n\n Our life\u2019s our quiver. When our years are vainly spent\n In chasing phantoms, grief will one day have its vent.\n Let God\u2019s protection mercifully on us rest,\n All fancies and all phantoms stand at once confest.\n God\u2019s servants are His shadows here below on earth;\n To this world dead, but living in a second birth.\n To their skirts cling; from them thy soul\u2019s nutrition seek.\n So may\u2019st thou \u2019scape the perils of this scene\u2019s last week. 105\n The holy text of: \u201cHow He stretcheth forth the shade!\u201d[94]\n Of saints gives notice. Them his glory doth pervade.\n Without their guidance venture not to thread this maze;\n Like Ab\u2019ram answer: \u201cFading things do not me please!\u201d[95]\n In days of trouble, consolation\u2019s sun seek out.\n The skirts of \u201cTebr\u012bz\u2019 Sun\u201d will wipe out care, no doubt.[96]\n Know\u2019st not the road to that good man, and grief survene?\n Inquire of his and my friend, great Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn.[97]\n\n While on thy way, should envy seize thee by the throat,\n Know, Satan\u2019s sin was envy; malice made him gloat. 110\n He envied Adam\u2019s rise to such sublime estate.\n He wars with all who\u2019re good, through envy and through hate.\n No mountain-pass as this life\u2019s progress is so steep;\n Let envy not increase thy load; thou canst but creep.\n The flesh a hot-bed is of envy and of strife.\n These soil the soul; for envy\u2019s bane of mortal life.\n Should envy seek thy soul to kill, invoke the Lord,\n The God of mercy thee can save, with His true Word.\n \u201cMake clean My house, ye two,\u201d did Ab\u2019ram\u2019s God once say.[98]\n His house our frame; a house of glory, though of clay. 115\n Should envy fill thy breast \u2019gainst one that envies not,\n Foul stains ensue; thy heart\u2019s impure; all good\u2019s forgot.\n Prostrate thyself, then, at the feet of holy men;\n Cast dust upon thy head, God\u2019s pardon to attain.\n\n The Vaz\u012br of our Jewish king was envy\u2019s self;\n His nose and ears he sacrificed, as \u2019twere but pelf,\n In hopes the sting of envy \u2019d find an easy way,\n To pour the selfsame wounds he \u2019d open lay.\n His nose, from envy, in the air, who carries high,\n His ears and nose to envy \u2019d give without a sigh. 120\n The nose the organ is by which we trace a scent;\n The scent then guides to where the odour finds its vent.\n Who has no sense of smell is truly _minus_ nose,\n Its odour we should trace to where religion blows.\n To scent religion\u2019s fragrance, not returning thanks,\n Ingratitude is. Nose to lose merit such pranks.\n Be grateful, thou; and venerate all grateful men;\n Abase thyself; a champion be of theirs. Amen.\n Be not a cut-throat, like that Vaz\u012br, of men\u2019s faith;\n Seek not to turn believing souls from what God saith. 125\n That Vaz\u012br seemed a pastor of the truth, in sham;\n As one who bitter aloes mixed in sweet plum jam.\n\n Some men of sense discernment used, his ways to scan,\n His honied phrases smacked to them of knavish plan.\n Refined truisms, double-meaning, he\u2019d deal out,\n Like syrup into which some mortal poison\u2019s put.\n\n Be thou not caught with knavery\u2019s fairly-spoken word;\n A hidden meaning it may have. Be on thy guard.\n Of evil-minded men the speech is never good;\n Their hearts are dead and putrid; life cannot there brood. 130\n A man\u2019s an offset from a man, by nature\u2019s law,\n As sure as cake of bread is bread, and not mere straw.\n\n God\u2019s Lion,[99] \u2018Ali, saith: \u201cAll words in folly made,\n As weeds on dunghills, crowd apace; as quickly fade.\u201d[100]\n He who would rashly, thoughtlessly, repose thereon,\n Begrimed will be, befouled, befooled, and spat upon.\n He that gives vent to wind, mere wind, is bound to wash;\n His worship else is vain; pollution doth it quash.[101]\n\n The Vaz\u012br\u2019s talk was all: \u201cBe diligent in pray\u2019r.\u201d\n His acts proclaimed aloud: \u201cOf duty never care.\u201d 135\n\n In surface silver\u2019s white and glittering to the eye;\n With friction, hands and purse it soils, though e\u2019er so dry.\n A fire is jocund to the view; its flame may please.\n But venture not too near it; black is its surcease.\n The lightning flashes brightly, shining as it flies;\n But oft, alas, it strikes man blind, or dead he lies.\n Be wise betimes; for \u201che that\u2019s void of common sense,\n Is like the ox with yoke on neck.\u201d So \u2018Al\u012b,--Hence!\n\n For six years was the Vaz\u012br absent from the king;\n Disciple seemed of Jesu\u2019s faith; bad news to bring. 140\n Their hearts and faith the people all pinned on to him;\n At his command they every one would change each whim.\n His purpose all the time was fraud and gross deceit;\n He pondered naught but wiles, to compass their defeat.\n By secret message, with the king he held converse.\n The king to him fair gratulations sent, diverse.\n\n A missive came to him at length: \u201cMy faithful son,\n \u2019Tis time my heart was set at rest. What hast thou done?\u201d\n His answer was: \u201cThe thing\u2019s prepared; have patience yet;\n The Christian folk to puzzle soon, we\u2019ll not forget.\u201d 145\n\n The Christians portioned were, for purposes of war,\n In legions twelve; to each, a captain void of fear.\n The men of every legion to their captain bound\n By ties of trust and confidence, in each heart found.\n These legions and those captains twelve, to that bad man\n Had yielded up their every thought;--as mankind can.\n Should he command to die, not one of them would fail\n To give his life right joyfully,--without one wail.\n\n A volume he prepared in name of each of them;\n The matter of these registers not all the same. 150\n The style of every one was in a different guise;\n From end to end each book\u2019s contents were forgeries.\n In one, the pangs of hunger mortified the flesh;\n With penitence, with fasting made, and prayer, to clash.\n A second taught that fasting did no good at all;\n That charity, beneficence, was all in all.\n A third explained: \u201cThy fasting,--charity itself,\u2014\n Syntheism[102] is. With God, thou deifiest thyself.\n To trust with resignation\u2019s all religion\u2019s plan.\n In weal and woe are springs to trap the soul of man.\u201d 155\n A fourth declared: \u201cFaith without works is truly dead.\n Alone is service valued; faith\u2019s a sin to dread.\u201d\n A fifth laid down: \u201cThe Law\u2019s commands and warnings all\n Are not for practice; they\u2019re mere symbols of man\u2019s fall.\n By showing us man\u2019s weakness, God is made more strong;\n The decalogue this purpose serves; the rest\u2019s all wrong.\u201d\n The sixth, again: \u201cFor man to talk of weakness here,\n Ingratitude is, simply; God\u2019s grace is so clear;\n Think, now, how wonderful is man; how great; how wise;\n \u2019Tis God has made him thus; to thank Him in us lies.\u201d 160\n A seventh suggests: \u201cLeave power and weakness unto Me;\n They\u2019re idols, both, as also are all things ye see.\u201d\n An eighth contends: \u201cPut not thy light behind a shade.\n Let all men see thy light; to glad their eyes \u2019twas made.\n Removed from sight if \u2019tis, an evil thence will loom.\n Thou, too, wilt be removed at midnight from the groom.\u201d\n A ninth expounds: \u201cPut out the light; thou\u2019lt have more joy.\n The sense of sight is one: joy\u2019s feelings, many; boy.\n Put out the light. The sense of touch thou may\u2019st then use.\n The bride is timid; in the dark she\u2019ll not refuse. 165\n Renunciation of the world\u2019s a very farce.\n Renounce. The world, and more, thou\u2019lt dream of in thy trance.\u201d\n A tenth assures: \u201cThat which the Lord hath given to man,\n God hath made pleasant to the eyes. Deny, who can.\n Take what is thine. Avert thee not; \u2019tis folly still\n To take to groaning, moaning, when all\u2019s at thy will.\u201d\n Another yet: \u201cForsake all things thou hast possessed.\n Retention of them by thee baseness is, confessed.\n How many roads diverse traced for their feet men deem;\n Each one to one sole \u201cchurch\u201d the only road doth seem. 170\n If way there were secure, for hitting out the truth,\n The Jews and Magi surely \u2019d not missed it, forsooth.\u201d\n Again another: \u201cMoral food makes heart to live.\n We see this clearly; every hour a proof doth give.\n Enjoyments sensuous, fleshly, when to fade they haste,\n Leave no result behind; they\u2019re desert mirage, waste.\n Regret\u2019s their only issue, grief for loss of time;\n A bankrupt\u2019s stock; their commerce gives no gain, no prime.\n Pursuit of them has never ended in success;\n Dire failure still must be the fruit of recklessness. 175\n Distinguish thou betimes the foolish from the wise;\n The end of each scan well; \u2019tis there the difference lies.\u201d\n And still one more: \u201cTrue wisdom strive thou to find out.\n True wisdom\u2019s not the fruit of noble birth. Poor lout!\n Each \u2018church\u2019 has had in view to gain a happy end.\n But one and all have failed and could but fail. God send!\n To palm off jugglers\u2019 tricks is not true wisdom\u2019s part,\n Or man had never seen so many faiths take start.\u201d\n And one again: \u201cTrue wisdom thou hast surely found.\n Thou knowest men of wisdom;--wisdom\u2019s safest ground. 180\n Be manful. Let not men by fraud make mock of thee.\n Thy own path choose; turn not from it for aught thou see.\u201d\n To one he said: \u201cThy unity is all in all;\n Besides thee, aught existence never had, nor shall.\u201d\n One volume taught: \u201cThe universe is unity.\n Who teaches two exist, is but a squint-eye, he.\u201d\n The last gave out: \u201cA hundred really are but one.\u201d\n Unless a madman, whom could have such doctrines won?\n\n In them these paradoxes fitly found their place,\n In words and sense his doctrines lacked all claim to grace. 185\n Each volume was the antithesis of the next;\n If one was honey, poison was the other\u2019s text.\n Wouldst thou escape his honey and his poison too,\n Forsake thou not the holy word of scripture true.\n\n Twelve volumes thus were writ with fraudulent research,\n By that Vaz\u012br, the hidden foe of Jesu\u2019s church.\n Jesu\u2019s one-mindedness for him had no perfume;\n The wine of Jesu\u2019s jar no _bouquet_ to his grume.\n A many-coloured garment washed in that pure wine,\n As snowy white comes out, and clear as is sunshine. 190\n Not faded or plain-coloured, such as gives offence;\n But clear as crystal water, in which fishes glance.\n Dry land, chameleon-like, gay-coloured scenes displays;\n But fishes dry land shun; they love clear water\u2019s sprays.\n\n What is the fish, and what the water, in my tale,\n That they should symbolise God\u2019s kingdom on small scale?\n Whole shoals of fishes, great and small, the water\u2019s realm,\n In adoration mute, with praise to God o\u2019erwhelm.\n\n What showers of bounty from God\u2019s outstretched hand\n Have made the seas with pearls of price to deck the strand! 195\n What brilliant suns of brightest goodness must have shone,\n Ere clouds and sea could have produced the matchless stone![103]\n What rays of wisdom poured on water and on land\n Ere earth could nourish seed, yield corn to our demand!\n The earth, a faithful trustee, gives back what we sow,\n No fraud, embezzlement, in its trust do we know.\n This faithfulness to trust arises, with time\u2019s run,\n From generous warmth infused by glow of justice\u2019 sun.\n Whene\u2019er God\u2019s symbol quickening summer back doth bring,\n The mysteries of the earth straight from her bosom spring.\n\n Th\u2019 All-Bountiful, who gave to senseless earth, of grace,\n This faithfulness, trustworthiness, in every place, 200\n In mercy plans forth inorganic matter\u2019s course.\n In wrathful wisdom\u2019s counsel blinds man to its source.\n Our hearts and souls have not the grace to understand.\n To whom address me? Not one ear\u2019s at my command!\n Who lends his ear, shall also quickly find an eye.\n Whose ear\u2019s, like stone, to counsel deaf, shall surely die.\n\n Of wond\u2019rous power is God possessed. What\u2019s magic\u2019s skill!\n Miraculous works He enacts. Where\u2019s witchery\u2019s spell!\n To sing His praise in me a want of feeling shows.\n It proves I breathe. To breathe, to live, breaks true love\u2019s\n laws. 205\n In His existence let my being sink, quite lost.\n To be, is to be blind and blear-eyed at the most.\n If blind I were not, swooned, unconscious should I be.\n The Sun of Glory\u2019s might and power then could I see.\n Were not my sight grown blear, through weeping in my dreams,\n Had I stood, ice-like, frozen, \u2019neath His mercy\u2019s beams?\n\n Just like his king, this Vaz\u012br was shortsighted seen.\n The Ancient, \u2019twas, of Days, he wrestled \u2019gainst, I ween.\n Th\u2019 Almighty One, who with one breath, one word, did bring\n Ten thousand worlds from naught to join in being\u2019s ring. 210\n\n Ten thousand worlds, besides, disclose themselves to sight,\n If thou direct thy vision towards the God of Light.\n In man\u2019s esteem the world is vast, without an end;\n With Power Infinite compared, a grain of sand.\n The world\u2019s around the soul a dismal prison-den.\n Arise! Escape! Regain the fields at large! Be men!\n The world is finite; He is infinite. Confide!\n Earth\u2019s forms and qualities God\u2019s essence from us hide.\n\n The million spears of Pharaoh, vaunting in his might,\n By Moses\u2019 wand were broken in th\u2019 appointed night. 215\n And many sons of skill, for healing science famed,\n By Jesu\u2019s curing halt, lame, blind, deaf, mad, were shamed.\n How many poets, orators, great men of note,\n By word of the Illiterate One[104] were shown to dote.\n For love of our Almighty God, the Lord of all,\n Who would not die, a stock, a block, we needs must call.\n Dead heart of stone if He but touch with love\u2019s live coal,\n A magnet straight becomes, no longer quits the pole.[105]\n Plume not thyself as one endowed with cunning guile;\n The meek more surely draw rich gifts from Heaven\u2019s smile. 220\n\n How many treasure-hiders, treasure-seekers, here,\n Have been derided, laughed to scorn, by that All-Seer!\n What art thou, man? Canst thou in thought with Him compare?\n What\u2019s the whole earth? A blade of grass, His might to dare?\n\n A woman, once, through foul adultery\u2019s sin estranged,\n By God, in punishment, to Venus\u2019 star was changed.[106]\n From woman into Venus? Sure, that change was sad.\n To dust and ashes turn. Less shame in this. Art mad?\n Thy soul it is must lift thee to heaven\u2019s highest home;\n The flesh can but consign thee deep to hell\u2019s dark dome. 225\n Thyself it is that dooms thee to that woful fate;\n The angels\u2019 envy art thou, here, in man\u2019s estate.\n Consider, then, this doom; revolve it in thy mind;\n That woman\u2019s change, compared with this, was joy, thou\u2019lt find.\n\n To push ambition\u2019s course beyond the stars thou\u2019st sought?\n Refused hast thou first Adam to adore, as naught?[107]\n But seed of Adam art thou, O degenerate man!\n Why wilt thou then as glory count dark shame\u2019s foul ban?\n Why proudly vaunt thou\u2019lt conquer all this teeming earth?\n Why fondly fancy rumor \u2019ll sound thy passing worth? 230\n\n Should winter\u2019s snow in heaps encumber all earth\u2019s soil,\n One gleam of summer\u2019s sun the frigid cloak will foil.\n So, too, that Vaz\u012br\u2019s scheme of fraud, nor his alone,\n Reduced to nothing was by one word from God\u2019s throne.\n\n Such crafty wiles as these He changes into weal;\n As poisons by His power receive the gift to heal.\n What doubtful was, becomes confest, at His decree;\n True love springs up, where hatred plotted was to be.\n He safely carries through the fire His chosen friend;[108]\n The fear of death He maketh peace of mind to lend. 235\n Through Him are treasures hid beneath the ruin\u2019s waste;\n Thorns roses yield; our bodies joys of soul foretaste.\n By workings of the pang of love for Him I burn;\n Though sophistlike I rave, \u2019tis unto Him I turn.\n\n Another stratagem the Vaz\u012br next conceived;\n From public life withdrew, and solitude achieved.\n Admiring followers all were fain to mourn his loss;\n For forty days, and more, in cell he bore his cross.\n Their yearning for him grew more fierce from day to day;\n They missed his good example, words, and zeal to pray. 240\n They grieved that he in solitude should vex his flesh;\n Their sympathies clung round him every day afresh.\n \u201cWithout our teacher we\u2019re a pastorless poor flock;\n Blind beggars without staff to guide us to our nook.\n For mercy\u2019s sake, for love of God, have pity now;\n No longer us deprive of consolation\u2019s show.\n We\u2019re infants all, and thou our feeder, tutor thou,\n Protection shed around; forsake us not just now.\u201d\n\n His answer was: \u201cMy spirit\u2019s present with you, friends.\n But issue from this hermitage my power transcends.\u201d 245\n The captains twelve, of legions, intercession made;\n His grieved disciples raised a wail, a serenade:\n \u201cGreat evil\u2019s lighted on us! Ah! Beloved One!\n We\u2019re orphans made; our parent, thou, away art gone!\n Raise not such pretext; push us not to our wit\u2019s end.\n We sob and sigh; we beat our breasts. Do comfort send!\n Thou\u2019st pampered, spoilt us with thy wondrous eloquence;\n With doctrine from thy lips our souls cannot dispense.\n Torment us not, for God\u2019s sake! Pity on us take!\n Be kind! This day, \u2018To-morrow\u2019 say not; to us wake! 250\n Our hearts are rapt in thee; no heart in us remains.\n Heartless and spiritless are we, poor bankrupt swains!\n Like fishes out of water, so we writhe and gasp.\n The dam break down; let flow the stream; avert death\u2019s grasp!\n Thou art the very paragon, the ph\u0153nix of the age.\n Heaven\u2019s mercy, save us; or, we perish, we enrage!\u201d\n\n To them he thus: \u201cO men of little sense, take heed;\n You foolishly are seeking elsewhere what you need.\n Your ears stop up with wool; list not to speech of man;\n The mote that blinds your eyes cast out. Then, see you can. 255\n With cotton in your outward ears, you\u2019ll plainly hear\n The still small voice of conscience, drowned now by your fear.\n All outward sense discard; all thought, reflection flee;\n And straight you\u2019ll hear, within, God\u2019s voice: \u2018Come unto Me.\u2019\n So long as with chitchat you keep yourselves awake,\n Communion with the angels you in sleep forsake.\n Our words and acts make up our outward habitudes;\n Our inward man\u2019s our converse with infinitudes.\n Our senses barren are; they come of barren soil;\n Our soul, like Jesus, walks the sea without turmoil. 260\n Our outer man\u2019s a barren wilderness, I ween;\n The inner man, \u2019tis, sounds the depths of the Unseen.\n If all our life be spent in chase of mundane things,\n Our paths must lead o\u2019er wastes, o\u2019er hills, o\u2019er ocean springs.\n The Fount of Life,[109] where shall we find in such a course?\n Death\u2019s billows how avoid, and how escape remorse?\n The desert\u2019s moving sandhills are our schemes and plans.\n Life-rills are abnegation, self-denial, man\u2019s.\u201d\n\n Him answered his disciples: \u201cMaster, grieve us not.\n Fresh sorrow, through pretences, add not to our lot. 265\n Such heavy burden to endure we\u2019ve not the power.\n Poor suffering weaklings we, in sad affliction\u2019s hour.\n The heavens appear to raise themselves all vastly high;\n But true sublimity\u2019s God\u2019s attribute. We sigh.\n The food of every bird He gives in providence;\n He says whose figs devoured shall be these ten days hence.\n Who \u2019d give, in lieu of mother\u2019s milk, to infants, bread,\n Would kill them with improper food before them spread.\n But when their teeth are grown, and deck their little mouths,\n Themselves will ask for bread; milk suits not then their growths. 270\n The unfledged chick is yet for flight all unprepared;\n Attempting it, he falls a prey to puss, poor bird!\n His wings well pinioned, he soars high in breezy air;\n Needs no encouragement; his instinct leads him there.\n Each howling imp is stilled at sound of thy sole voice;\n And words from thee are utmost joy to all our race.\n Our ears are gladdened as they catch thy tongue\u2019s converse,\n Each desert grows a garden, when thou\u2019rt freshness\u2019 source.\n With thee amongst us, earth a foretaste gives of heaven,\n Thou\u2019rt our delight, from morn to eve our longed-for leaven. 275\n Without thee, day\u2019s refulgence we cannot employ,\n If thou art present, every care is turned to joy.\n High station, true, may be attained by charlatan;\n But moral worth alone gives eminence to man.\u201d\n\n To them, now, he replied: \u201cYour prayer \u2019s of no avail.\n My counsel take and ponder. Naught else shall prevail.\n If I\u2019m a trusted man, my word is not a lie,\n E\u2019en though I\u2019d say that black is white, or earth is sky.\n If I\u2019m perfection, who the perfect\u2019s word denies?\n If I am otherwise, why all this fuss and noise? 280\n Forth from my solitude to come I\u2019m not designed.\n I\u2019m communing with God; to His will I\u2019m resigned.\u201d\n\n They still insisted: \u201cVaz\u012br, that we\u2019ll not deny,\n But our remonstrance is a truly piteous cry.\n We weep our eyes out through our grief thee not to see,\n With sighs our hearts burst, vainly looking out for thee.\n An infant quarrels not with its attentive nurse;\n And yet it weeps, through knowing not what\u2019s good from worse.\n We are thy harps. The plectrum\u2019s stroke is from thy hand.\n \u2019Tis thus we moan; smit by thy cunning harpist wand. 285\n Like flutes of reed, our utterances are through thee found;\n Or mountain vale, our echo\u2019s but child of thy sound.\n Or as chess-players, striving in their dubious game;\n Our \u2018check\u2019 and \u2018mate\u2019 are from thee, man of mighty name.\n What are we,--can we be? \u2019Tis thou\u2019rt our life of life,\n So long as thou\u2019rt among us. If not, all is strife.\n We\u2019re naught;--we\u2019re nothings. All our being is in thee.\n Existence\u2019 very self by thy frail form we see.\n We\u2019re lions, true; but stand on vanes of weathercocks,\n Our twists and twirls, our starts, our jumps, are from\n wind\u2019s shocks. 290\n These lions\u2019 movements are in sight; the winds unseen.\n The Great Unseen, th\u2019 Almighty One, \u2019s behind the screen.\n Our moving wind, our very being from thee springs.\n Existence, else, were vain, not sheltered \u2019neath thy wings.\n \u2019Tis thou hast taught us, nothings, valued life to prize;\n \u2019Twas thou that made us, erring, lovers of th\u2019 Allwise.\n Take not from us the savour sweet of thy good gifts,\n Thy cup, thy wine, thy relish, absence from us lifts.\n But shouldst thou still refuse, who to repine \u2019d have heart?\n Can pictures of the painter\u2019s hand complain, and art? 295\n No notice of us take; from us avert thy face;\n But ne\u2019er deride the claims of thy prevailing grace.\n We were not; prayers from us arose not to thy ear;\n Thy grace alone \u2019twas sought us out; thou drewest near.\n Before the artist and his brush, the picture\u2019s null;\n Like unborn babe in mother\u2019s womb, till time be full.\n Before almighty power creation stands in wait,\n As canvas \u2019fore the needle \u2019broiderer\u2019s hand may mate.\n A demon here, an angel there, or man, is bid\n To be; now joy, now sorrow, rises up amid. 300\n We have no hand to move; defend ourselves we can\u2019t.\n We have no breath, no speech to pray for aid in want.\u201d\n\n The Qur\u2019\u0101n ponder this my verse to understand.[110]\n There God hath said: \u201cThou threwst not, when thou threwst\u201d\n the sand.[111]\n Although we shoot an arrow swiftly to its mark,\n The bow, the arrow, we ourselves, are from God\u2019s ark.\n There\u2019s no compulsion here, though God can all compel.\n \u2019Tis not complaint, if I of God\u2019s compulsion tell.\n All our complaints of our felt needs are indices. 305\n If shame we feel, of our freewill a sign it is.\n Without choice were we, there \u2019d be no pretext for shame.\n Why blush and hang the head, cast down the eyes so tame?\n What doth a master in disciple always chide?\n Why teacheth he in Providence still to confide?\n Shouldst thou assert God carelessly makes us to act,\u2014\n That sun of verity He hides in mists of fact,\u2014\n An answer I will give,--just lend thy ear to me;\n Forsake all blasphemy,--of God\u2019s faith ever be:\n \u201cThe longings, the regrets, that every sick man feels, 310\n Awakings are of conscience. Sickness this reveals.\n The moment man is ailing,--prisoner to bed sent,\n He counts his sins, he asks for grace, vows to repent.\n He sees the wickedness of all he\u2019s said and done;\n He promises, in future, errant ways to shun.\n \u2018If but I\u2019m spared,\u2019 he says, \u2018I never will sin more;\n I\u2019ll righteousness ensue, all trespasses abjure.\u2019\n By this thou seest that sickness is not all an ill.\n \u2019Tis but a time for waking conscience good to will.\n\n Know then the aphorism, O seeker after truth,\u2014\n Whoe\u2019er thou be, to whom scent of it may give ruth: 315\n \u2018The man that\u2019s most awake, with most of pain will reel;\n The more his conscience pricks, more sorely sad he\u2019ll feel!\u2019\n If thou wert really conscious God \u2019tis thee compels.\n What need to feel ashamed;--to utter frightful yells?\n Thou art not so; thou feelest not a captive\u2019s chain;\n Thou know\u2019st thou\u2019rt free to act, or from each act abstain.\n Whoever saw a captive sporting in his bonds?\n Whoever heard of prisoners acting vagabonds?\n Hast thou had fetters fastened on to both thy feet?\n Hast e\u2019er beheld kings\u2019 guardsmen resting in thy seat? 320\n Then be not thou to others hard as jailer man.\n Obduracy befits not him a king may ban.\n Compulsion since thou feel\u2019st not, make it not pretext.\n Say\u2019st that thou feel\u2019st it? Where\u2019s the proof? Show us it next.\n In every act to which thou inclination hast,\n Thou know\u2019st thyself free agent: what thou willst, thou dost.\n If any case arise thy will, thy wish, to brave,\n Straightway compulsionist thou art: \u2018God so would have.\u2019\u201d\n\n The prophets were compulsionists to this world\u2019s string.\n Miscreants are compulsionists towards heaven\u2019s King. 325\n The prophets chose the better part, futurity;\n The foolish choose the worse, the world\u2019s fatuity.\n Each bird will flock with birds of its own feather still;\n The cock well knows his mate, and follows where she will.\n Miscreants are the brood of hell, to which they go;\n The goods of worldly life they choose. Then be it so.\n The prophets are of race from heaven deriving birth;\n To heaven they tend with heart and soul while here on earth.\n \u2019Twould never end the branches of this theme to count.\n So let us sip again from our old story\u2019s fount. 330\n\n Within his cell ensconced, the Vaz\u012br answer gave:\n \u201cDisciples mine, my firm resolve from me receive.\n To me a very strict commandment Jesus spake:\n \u2018From friends and kin of every class seclusion seek.\n Thy face set tow\u2019rds a wall; sit in some cell apart,\n Forsake thyself; forgetfulness cast o\u2019er thy heart.\u2019\n Permission\u2019s thus denied with men to hold discourse.\n I\u2019ve naught to say; with mortals more I\u2019ll not converse.\n Good-bye, my friends! Adieu! You\u2019ll never see me more,\n My journey\u2019s unto heaven; there I\u2019ve laid my store. 335\n Th\u2019 empyrean beneath, so long as I have strayed,\n Like firewood in a furnace have I wept; still prayed.\n Henceforward I shall sit on Jesu\u2019s own right hand,\n In highest heaven enthroned, blest Paradise\u2019s strand.\u201d\n\n The legion-captains now he called to him apart;\n But one by one, in secret, counsels to impart.\n To ev\u2019ry one he said: \u201cSuccessor thee I name,\n The faith of Jesus to uphold and keep from shame.\n All other captains thy commands will have to hear;\n \u2019Tis Jesus thus appoints thee others\u2019 loads to bear. 340\n Should any one against thee neck rebellious raise,\n Him kill, imprison, or in exile end his days.\n But while I live divulge not what to thee I\u2019ve told,\n Keep secret till my death this charge thou hast to hold.\n Let no one know till then \u2019tis thou art chosen out,\n Proclaim not thou thyself a king or prince devout.\n Behold this scroll; take, study it; thyself instruct,\n \u2019Tis Jesu\u2019s doctrine pure; from this His Church construct.\u201d\n\n Thus one by one their minds prepared were to be chief:\n \u201c\u2019Tis thou\u2019rt the chosen one; all else would be a thief.\u201d 345\n He named them each successor; made them so to feel.\n Whate\u2019er he told to one, to each did he reveal.\n He gave to each a volume, writ from end to end;\n No two alike; each different, and hard to blend.[112]\n Their doctrines various, of every changing hue;\n Diverse in sense, as objects\u2019 forms exposed to view.\n Their precepts and commands a very maze of guile,\n Their sentiments impossible to reconcile.\n\n The Vaz\u012br now delayed another forty days;\n Then slew himself,--set free his soul from earth\u2019s affrays. 350\n The people, hearing of his death, were sorely grieved;\n Around his corpse collected; eyes, ears, scarce believed.\n With many bitter moans to sorrow they gave vent;\n Their breasts they beat, their hair they tore, their clothing rent.\n To count their multitudes is in God\u2019s power alone;\n Turks, Arabs, Kurds, and Romans,[113] men of every zone.\n They scattered o\u2019er their heads the dust from his last home;\n To mourn for him was balm, all ills to overcome.\n They wept. Their bitter, briny tears they shed in floods;\n His grave a pool; those tears, as streamlets from the woods. 355\n To lose him was a grief unspeakable that fell\n On rich and poor, on high and low, too sad to tell.\n\n A month of mourning past, the people sought to know\n Whom he\u2019d appointed in his place their way to show.\n Whom must we recognise successor to our saint?\n Into whose hands commit the task of our restraint?\n He was a sun of light; his fire hath turned to fume,\n A candle now we need our darkness to illume.\n Our friend is gone,--is lost to our inquiring eyes.\n A substitute we seek,--memorial we may prize. 360\n Our rose is withered;--rosebush leaves all blown away,\n Which vase holds now the rose-scent in its perfumed clay?\u201d\n\n God is invisible to weakly mortal sight,\n His prophets are a need, to guide His Church aright.\n No! That\u2019s not right! That phrase is sadly incorrect.\n A prophet\u2019s one with God; not two. Think well! Reflect!\n They are not two; they\u2019re one. Thou blind materialist!\n With God they\u2019re one; their forms but make Him manifest.\n Thou seest the form alone; thy two eyes are at fault.\n Look with thy soul; thou\u2019lt see as God from heaven\u2019s vault. 365\n Thy two sights will united be straightway in one,\n When thou behold\u2019st the Light of God\u2019s eternal throne.\n\n Set up ten burning candles in one selfsame place,\n A separate body, each, diffuses light and grace.\n Their powers combine in one, to brighten that retreat;\n Distinction now there\u2019s none; one light alone we meet.\n Count out a hundred apples, quinces, pears, or plums;\n When mashed together, all their juice, their pulp, their scums.\n Things spiritual division, number, parts, know not,\n They split not into fractions, form no separate lot. 370\n\n \u2019Tis sweet when friends with friends together come and meet.\n Trust then the spirit. \u201c\u2019Tis the letter kills\u201d--repeat.\n Thy body mortify; thy flesh consume with pains.\n Behind it hid thou\u2019lt find God\u2019s unity--thy gains.\n If thou the body vex not,--bring not low betimes,\n The flesh will thee destroy, my friend, in fiery flames.\n The flesh it is that shows itself to human heart;\n The flesh it is demands asceticism\u2019s sharp smart.\n\n We simple were; one essence was the source of all.\n Nor head, nor foot had we; one pristine lot did fall. 375\n One substance held us; we were clear as is the sun;\n No knots or gnurs within us, free as water\u2019s run.\n On taking fleshly form, that simple essence, then,\n Became divided, split, like shadows in each glen.\n Make low the hills and hillocks, level make the plain;\n No shadow\u2019s left; the whole becomes one scene again.\n\n With pleasure I\u2019d this matter clearer put, and joy.\n But tender consciences I seek not to annoy.\n Abstruser points there are, as keen as sword in fight.\n If reason\u2019s shield thou hast not, refuge take in flight. 380\n My arguments contest not, unless well prepared.\n Sharp blade will cut; it pities not; no life is spared.\n I sheathe my sword of argument,--will not make assault.\n Lest muddlers read me wrong, and say \u2019tis I\u2019m at fault.\n\n We come now back again, to follow up our tale,\n To keep our faith with readers, feminine and male;\n And say again, the people rose up as one man,\n Demanding who should work out our dead Vaz\u012br\u2019s plan.\n\n One legion-captain forward came, out of the twelve,\n That grieving people\u2019s furrowed field anew to delve. 385\n Said he: \u201cBehold! successor am I to the saint.\n In Jesu\u2019s stead I\u2019m regent, by his own constraint.\n You see this scroll. \u2019Tis evidence of what I say:\n The dead Vaz\u012br\u2019s successorship is mine to-day!\u201d[114]\n A second captain started up, as from ambush;\n Contested all those words; his own claim then did push.\n Forth from his bosom he another scroll produced,\n And then the people\u2019s wrath flamed high; not soon reduced.\n The other captains, too,--each his own train at back,\u2014\n Unsheathed their swords, and threatened both their skulls\n to crack. 390\n Then each one of the twelve, his sword and scroll in hand,\n Upon the others set, like baited bull on brand.\n The slain were strewn in heaps of many hundred men,\n Their heads were piled in pyramids, by thousands ten.\n Their blood was shed in torrents, flowing on the plain.\n The dust arose in clouds through this commotion vain.\n The seeds of discord sown by that knave\u2019s treacherous hand,\n Had now produced their harvest, fatal to the land.\n The nuts he cracked were skulls; their kernels, human brains.\n The bodies slain through him held precious souls in chains. 395\n\n Be killed, or die, as in thy lot may be decreed.\n So with pomegranates, apples, when sliced up at need.\n The sweet and sound are prized, and straightway put to use;\n The sour and rotten cast away, worthless refuse.\n A word with sense and meaning\u2019s ever eloquent;\n Bald nonsense is laughed down in scorn or merriment.\n Thou fool, materialist! Think closer: look to sense.[115]\n The spirit \u2019tis gives value; words are mere pretence.\n Prefer the company of those who spirit seek.\n So mayst thou grace attain,\u2014\u201cGod\u2019s servant be,\u201d[116] and meek. 400\n\n A life without a soul or spirit in our frame,\n Like wooden sword in sheath, were but a senseless name.\n Within its sheath while kept, of value it may seem;\n When drawn, \u2019tis only fit for matchwood, men will deem,\n Arm not thyself with wooden sword in battle\u2019s day.\n Examine well thy weapon, if thou \u2019d have fair play.\n Shouldst find thy sword of wood, another seek forthwith;\n If adamant it prove to be, then join thy kith.\n\n The truest swords are found in th\u2019 arm\u2019ry of the saints.\n Their converse is to thee a balm for all complaints. 405\n The wise have ever said, with uniform accord:\n \u201cMost truly wise was he, \u2018the Mercy of the Lord.\u2019\u201d[117]\n\n Dost buy a pomegranate? A burst fruit still elect.\n The crack reveals its grains; thou seest they\u2019ve no defect.\n E\u2019en so, good friend, blest be the man whose mouth reveals\n The heart-thought pearls their casket, his pure soul, conceals.\n But inauspicious is the opening tulip\u2019s crack;\n This patent makes to all that its heartcore is black.\n The burst pomegranate is a sunny orchard\u2019s pride.\n So speech of worthy men may waft thee to truth\u2019s side. 410\n Society with saints no doubt\u2019s of great avail;\n To piety it leads; \u201cGod\u2019s fear shall never fail.\u201d[118]\n Thou wast a very rock, a worthless pebble stone;\n By saints\u2019 communion fined, a pearl of price thou\u2019st shone.\n Then love the saints. Their love plant deeply in thy heart.\n The pure of mind alone deserve a pure love\u2019s part.\n Court not despair; hope ever springs in human breast.\n Seek not the dark; the Sun of Light shines full confest.\n The spirit ever leads to haunts of holy men;\n The flesh would cast thee in the pit of sin again. 415\n Beware! Feed thou thy soul with love from holy ground.\n Make haste! Seek means of grace from one who grace has found.\n Petition make! Seize hold upon the skirts of saints.\n Through them thou\u2019lt learn how God his favour grants.\n The Gospel names the name of Ahmed;[119] he the last,\n As chief of prophets;--purity\u2019s bright ocean, vast.\n His lineaments, his virtues, ways of matchless good;\n With notice of his wars, his fasts, and eke his food,\n Some Christian folks, on mention of that sacred name,\n And this recital of his qualities and fame, 420\n A merit to acquire, were wont to kiss the book,\n To bow with reverence deep, humility in look.\n That folk in all the troubles we\u2019ve related now\n Were safe; nor bloodshed, nor foul faction did them know.\n Secured were they from scrolls, sword, captains, and Vaz\u012br,\n In name of Ahmed Mustaf\u00e0 they\u2019d trust, not fear.\n Descendants, numerous in race, they left behind;\n Their faith in Ahmed they a tower of strength did find.\n But other Christian folks to him refused to bow.\n The blessed name of Mustaf\u00e0 they deemed too low. 425\n Requital brought them punishment for this offence;\n A prey they fell unmourned to that Vaz\u012br\u2019s pretence.\n Their false creed, with their tribes, was quickly brought to end,\n Through those twelve lying volumes his deceit had penn\u2019d.\n The name of Ahmed, thus, a friend is proved, of might;\n Of light by day a pillar, shelt\u2019ring cloud by night.\n A castle inexpugnable, a stronghold safe,\n As he himself was Trusty,[120] though his foes might chafe.\n How fatal the disasters pictured here above,\n The fruit of foul duplicity\u2019s pretended love. 430\n\n\n\n\nIV.\n\nAnother Jewish King, Persecutor of Christians.\n\n\n A second Jewish king, descendant of the first,\n To persecute the Christians showed hate\u2019s fiercest thirst.\n If information\u2019s sought about this wicked king,\n That chapter of the Qur\u2019\u0101n read: \u201cHeaven\u2019s Girdle-Ring.\u201d[121]\n A sorry rite it was the first had introduced;\n With cruel zeal this wicked rite the last abused.\n\n The introducer of a rule that tends to ill,\n Draws on his head deep curses, morn and even, still.\n The good decease; their bright example serves as guide;\n The wicked soon decay; their name all men deride. 5\n The children of those sinners, till the trump of doom,\n Are cursed as soon as born; no lot more full of gloom.\n\n How many springs burst forth, one salt, the other sweet;\n Their savour changes, while the days and nights compete.\n The good are promised their inheritance aloft,\n Of waters sweet;[122] in Scripture mentioned oft and oft.[123]\n The seeker\u2019s wish, if rightly we consider it,\n A scintillation is of flame from holy writ.\n No flame exists apart from body whence it burns;\n Where\u2019er the burning body hies, the flame, too, turns. 10\n A window-light will wander all around a room;\n Because the rising sun to sunset tends, and gloom.\n That which to any constellation\u2019s stars pertains,\n Must move with it, rise, set, south, as its place ordains.\n\n The man who under Venus\u2019 influence was born\n Is joyous, amorous, ambitious, with greed torn.\n If Mars his planet be, his temper\u2019s bellicose;\n War, scandal, litigation,--these he most does choose.\n\n But other stars there are, the planets, seven, beside;\n And unto men from them nor good, nor ills betide. 15\n Revolving in another firmament than they,\n Above the spheres that bear the orbs of night and day.\n Bright through the moral splendour lent them by the Lord;\n Not bound together quite, nor yet in disaccord.\n The man whose soul is influenced by one of those,\n Like meteors, still shall drive away the spirit\u2019s foes.\n His disposition feeleth not the rage of Mars;\n He temporises;--meekly acts in prosperous wars.\n His light\u2019s triumphant;--darkness it shall never know.\n Between two fingers holdeth he the truth, I trow. 20\n\n The truth doth shed a shining light on human souls,\n Received by heaven\u2019s favourites, in special ghostly strolls.\n Illumined with that light, as spangles deck a bride,\n They turn their souls to God, contemning all beside.\n Who feels not keenly love\u2019s great soul-compelling might,\n Is portionless of spangles from truth\u2019s flashing light.\n\n All _parts_ must ever share the nature of their _whole_,\n As nightingale pours out unto one rose its soul.\n Whatever _property_ may qualify a _thing_\n Externally, man\u2019s qualities are mind\u2019s offspring. 25\n\n From purity, rich colours rise, good qualities;\n Stains,--moral, or as dyes,--from gross impurities.\n\n \u201c_God\u2019s Baptism_\u201d is the name of all that\u2019s good in man;\n \u201c_The curse of God_,\u201d of all that\u2019s evil in our plan.[124]\n In which of these two seas our streamlets may subside,\n They but return into the source from whence their tide.\n From mountain-tops, swift torrents rushing down apace.\n From men\u2019s frames, love-inspired souls, anon the race.\n\n The counsel hear, that now, this Jewish dog did take.\n Beside a fire a hideous idol he did make, 30\n And proclamation ran: \u201cWhoever \u2019d save his soul,\n This idol worships; or in fire he\u2019s burnt to coal.\u201d[125]\n Thus having made his hate an idol to himself,\n A second idol straightway he invents, this elf.\n\n The mother of all idols is our fleshly pride.\n They\u2019re dragons; this, the egg of cockatrice\u2019s bride.\n The flesh is flint and steel; our pride is but its spark.\n That pride pervades the flesh as fecundation\u2019s mark.\n Can moisture quench the latent spark in flint and steel?\n Can man be safe while flesh and pride he lives to feel; 35\n In flint and steel we know that fire is still alive.\n No water\u2019s of avail that fire from them to drive.\n With water we put out a fire when burning bright;\n The spark in flint and steel is safe from water\u2019s might.\n\n From flint and steel of flesh what burnings still ensue!\n Their sparks, the blasphemies of Christian and of Jew!\n If water in the jug and pitcher come to end,\n On wellspring we must draw, a fresh supply to send.\n Our idol is the muddy dregs left in our jug;\n The flesh the sewer from whence it filters, spite of plug. 40\n The graven idol (fed from blackest sewer tide\n In flesh, its graver), was as fountain by wayside.\n The inward idol, pride, the filthy jug\u2019s black slush;\n The prurient flesh, the source from which it had its gush.\n\n A hundred potters\u2019 pitchers one small stone can break;\n And spill the cooling water drawn our thirst to slake.\n To smash an idol, too, quite easy may appear;\n Not easy to root out the flesh; too hard, I fear.\n\n Would see the picture of the flesh, inquiring youths?\n Description read of hell, with seven yawning mouths.[126] 45\n\n From each soul\u2019s flesh comes forth a special mode of guile.\n Each guile, a whirlpool ready Pharaoh\u2019s hosts to spoil.\n In Moses, and in Moses\u2019 God, seek refuge then.\n Abandon not God\u2019s faith for Pharaohs and their men.\n The one true God adore; in Ahmed\u2019s faith believe.\n Thy soul and body save,--from Ab\u016b-Jahl retrieve.[127]\n The Jew a Christian mother to that idol brought.\n An infant in her arms; the fire with blazes fraught.\n \u201cFall down and worship;\u201d cried he, \u201csenseless stock adore;\n The fire shall then not harm thee, now, nor evermore.\u201d 50\n That mother was a woman firm in true belief;\n And thence disdained prostration, though \u2019t should give relief.\n\n They snatched her infant; next, they dashed it in the flame.\n The mother\u2019s spirit quailed to see this deed of shame.\n Though not herself, to save her infant, she\u2019d bow down.\n But lo! a miracle! The babe cried: \u201cLet alone!\n Uninjured am I here. Come in. Be not dismayed.\n \u2019Tis cool and pleasant. Cease to feel of fire afraid;\u2014\n Mere blinding bandage to the eyes;--naught but a veil.\n God\u2019s mercy\u2019s here revealed,--made manifest. All hail! 55\n Come in, my mother, dear. The truth thou shalt record.\n Thou\u2019lt here perceive how saints hold converse with the Lord.\n Come in; and witness water blazing high, as fire.\n This is a world where flame like water is;--not dire.\n Come. Look on miracles for blessed Abr\u2019am wrought;[128]\n Whose furnace changed to gardens, out of firewood brought.\n Death then I underwent, when I was born of thee.\n The fear of death swept o\u2019er me, ere my eyes could see.\n With birth I \u2019scaped from prison, narrow, dark, and drear;\n Emerging to a world, vast, radiant, bright, and clear. 60\n Alas! that world, you see, is but a second womb.\n Joy, comfort, happiness, are found beyond the tomb.\n Within this fire a realm of wonders lies around;\n Each atom\u2019s here a Jesus;--balm to heal each wound.\n This world I\u2019m in\u2019s reality;--not merely form.\n The scene I\u2019ve left\u2019s all vanity;--food for the worm.\n Come in, my mother; quick! Seize this auspicious hour.\n Come in! Let opportunity not \u2019scape thy pow\u2019r.\n Come in; come in; in name of parent\u2019s tenderness.\n Come in! This fire has no devouring ruthlessness. 65\n Come in! Thou\u2019st witnessed all that Jewish dog can move.\n Come in! The grace and power of God Almighty prove.\n \u2019Tis from my love for thee I thus so much insist;\n From pleasure felt by me, for thee I\u2019ve fear dismissed.\n Come in; come in! And others call, to follow thee.\n The Great King here His bounteous table\u2019s spread for me.\n Come in; come in! All of you, saints of God, elect!\n Resigned ones![129] Faith\u2019s cup of martyrdom select!\n Come in! Flock in; in crowds; as moths around a light!\n This year has tens of thousands springs; but not one night.\u201d 70\n\n Thus loudly cried the infant from its bed of flame.\n Th\u2019 assembled crowds all heard it. All were seized with shame.\n A sudden holy impulse urged them to obey.\n In crowds those men and women cast their lives away.\n No force was needed;--no compulsion;--all was love;\n For bitterness is sweet to all whom love doth move.\n To such a point it came that guards and soldiers, all,\n Were fain to cry: \u201cWithhold! The fire is more than full!\u201d\n\n The Jewish king at sight of all this love and zeal,\n Was shamed,--was thunderstruck; his wicked heart did reel. 75\n He saw that faith can give the lover\u2019s ardent flame.\n Self-sacrifice is naught in true devotion\u2019s name.\n Thank God! Beelzebub was conquered in that Jew.\n Thank God! \u2019Twas Satan\u2019s self these darksome deeds did rue.\n The shame he sought to bring upon the cheeks of some,\n A hundredfold was heaped on his own head at home.\n He thought from others\u2019 shame the veiling leaf to tear;\n He saw them safe, his own foul nakedness laid bare.\n\n A ribald fellow once, by lewdest mob sustained,\n Called railing out on Ahmed. Wry his mouth remained. 80\n He then came begging pity, in the Prophet\u2019s trace:\n \u201cForgive, Muhammed, who\u2019rt endued with wisdom\u2019s grace.\n For want of knowing better, insolent I was.\n \u2019Tis I that merit scorn and mockery. Alas!\u201d\n\n When God decides to humble any sinner, proud,\n A demon stirs this last t\u2019 insult some man of God.\n And he whom God elects to cloak where \u2019tis he halts,\n Has grace bestowed on him to cover others\u2019 faults.\n Should favour from the Lord in mercy reach a man,\n Humility is given him; to pray \u2019s part of his plan. 85\n\n How blessed are the eyes that smart with sorrow\u2019s brine!\n How blessed is the heart inflamed with love divine!\n Contrition\u2019s tears are ever hallowed by heaven\u2019s smile.\n The latter end of all things man should scan awhile.\n Wherever water flows, the fields are fresh and green.\n Tears followed are by grace;--as all the prophets ween.\n Then imitate the water-wheel, that groans and weeps.[130]\n By prayers, and moans, and tears, a man his heart pure keeps.\n Wouldst thou shed tears? Feel pity, when thou meetest woe.\n Wouldst mercy find? Show mercy, when men bow them low. 90\n\n The Jewish king reproached the fire: \u201cO raging thing!\n Thy all-destructive might, where is it? Where\u2019s thy sting?\n If thou wilt not consume, what quality hast thou?\n Or has my fortune veered; and with it, thy dread glow?\n Thou sparest not thy worshippers, the Magian race.\n Whence comes it; these who spurn thee, Christians, meet with grace?\n Thou never wast, O fire, for patience noted here.\n Why burn\u2019st thou not? What is there? Hast thou lost thy power?\n Is this eye-binding?[131] Is it, rather, reason\u2019s blind?\n How is\u2019t thy flames consume not all their hated kind? 95\n Bewitched thee have they? Or is\u2019t magic natural?\n Or is\u2019t my fortune wills that thou turn prodigal?\u201d\n\n To him the fire: \u201cO miscreant! I\u2019m still the same.\n Come in and try, thou, how thou\u2019lt find my smallest flame.\n My nature, as my substance, has not suffered change.\n Outside my nature\u2019s limit I\u2019ve no power to range.\n At door of Turkman\u2019s tent the savage household dogs\n Do wag their tails before a guest, and crouch like logs.\n But should a stranger pass by, near the guarded tent,\n Him then those dogs assail, with lion-like intent. 100\n Less than a dog I\u2019m not, in service to my Lord.\n Than Turkman less, there\u2019s none, in rights, upon earth\u2019s sward.\u201d\n\n When fire thy body injures, and inflicts some harm;\n Remember, its consuming power can also warm.\n And when a fire thus serves thee, acts some needful part,\n Reflect! Those qualities thou seest did God impart.\n Art injured, \u2019haps? Fall down; entreat the Lord with prayer.\n The hurtful power was given by Him in gracious care.\n Should He so will, each injury a blessing is.\n Chained captives find their freedom by a word of His. 105\n\n Fire, air, earth, water, all are servants of their God.\n I, thou, them lifeless deem. He knows they live and plod.\n In presence of the great Creator fire must still\n Its service do; and, lover-like, work out His will.\n Thou strikest flint on steel; fire instantly leaps forth.\n \u2019Tis by commandment of the Lord it thus takes birth.\n Strike not together, thou, the flint and steel of lust.\n For, male and female like, they\u2019ll generate; they must.\n\n The flint and steel are means. Far higher raise thy look.\n With reason thou\u2019rt endowed. Go; read the holy book. 110\n One means comes from another means; and cause from cause.\n Without a means or cause, no means from self e\u2019er rose.\n The means by which all prophets\u2019 miracles are wrought,\n Of higher order are than earthly means; no doubt.\n Man\u2019s mind can compass how these latter act, and when;\n The former hidden are from all but prophet\u2019s ken.\n These former \u2019tis that give the latter power to act;\n And rarely, that, their normal action, counteract.\n\n A means a rope is, by the help of which we reach;\n And in this worldly pit by means each reaches each. 115\n Around its coiling cylinder the well-rope\u2019s wound.\n To shut our eyes to this would blind indeed be found.\n The ropes by means of which results are seen to steer,\n In this our world, deem not they\u2019re moved by star or sphere;\n Lest thou become confused and giddy like a wheel;\u2014\n Take fire, consume, like tinder, sparks of shame to feel.\n\n The air becomes a fire at times by God\u2019s decree.\n Both air and fire run wild with joy, His means to be.\n The streams of mercy, the consuming fires of wrath,\n Thou\u2019lt see, my son, are both from God. Look well, forsooth. 120\n Were not the wind aware of God\u2019s almighty power,\n How had it ever blown the blast of \u2018\u0100d\u2019s[132] last hour?\n Around his Muslims H\u016bd a saving circle drew.\n The wind within that mystic circuit softly blew.\n While all that were beyond were dashed to pieces soon.\n Like chaff before the breeze, their limbs around were strewn.\n\n Shayb\u0101n the shepherd, too, a circle round his fold\n Was used to draw; whate\u2019er the season, hot or cold;\n On Fridays, when, at midday\u2019s sacred hour of praise,\n He to a congregation hied; lest wolf should seize. 125\n No wolf was ever known to break the holy spell;\n Nor sheep to stray beyond; each knew the limit well.\n\n To wind, to wolf, to sheep, and lusts of every one,\n The circle traced by saint a barrier was, like stone.\n To Gnostic, so likewise, the harmless gale of death\n Blows mild and gentle, summer-breezes-like on heath.\n And fire was fangless; could not Abraham offend.\n How should it hurt him? Was he not God\u2019s \u201cChosen Friend\u201d?\n\n The pious man burns not in fire of fleshly lust.\n But sinners still consumed are upon earth\u2019s crust. 130\n The Red Sea waves, all raging by divine command,\n The host of Israel knew; but Pharaoh\u2019s armies drown\u2019d.\n The earth, again, wide gaping at Jehovah\u2019s word,\n Did Korah and his wealth devour; but Moses spared.[133]\n\n In Jesu\u2019s hand, warmed with his breath, the fictile clay\n As living birds arose, spread wing, and flew away.[134]\n Thy lauds and praises, too, breath from thy frame account.\n Sincerity them vivifies; to heaven they mount.\n\n The rock of Sion danced at sight of Moses\u2019 God[135]\n As perfect cenobite; its faults were all removed. 135\n What wonder if a hill should dance and saint become?\n Was not great Moses\u2019 self a clod of clay and loam?\n\n The Jewish king now manifested great surprise.\n These things, he said, were mockeries, mere patent lies.\n His councillors conjured him more sedate to be;\n And not to push his hardihood to rash degree.\n These councillors he fettered, into prison cast;\n Injustice to injustice adding, first and last.\n\n A shout was heard from heaven when matters reached that point:\n \u201cJew dog! Prepare for vengeance from on high! Aroynt!\u201d 140\n The fire then blazed amain; its flames lapped all around.\n It slew and burnt the mob of Jews from off the ground.\n Their origin was hell, from whence their souls had come;\n Their goal was also hell; to it they now went home.\n The Jewish race is hellish; many proofs are shown.\n Parts are they of a whole accursed; as is well known.\n Their nature hellish; all their joy God\u2019s saints to burn.\n Their fire recoiled upon themselves. \u2019Twas justice\u2019 turn.\n For them, who were, by nature, children born of wrath,\n The lowest depths of hell were fittest cells, forsooth. 145\n A mother ever yearneth after her own child;\n A dam is ever followed by her offspring wild.\n\n Though true that water may enclosed be in a tank,\n The air will it absorb. \u2019Twas thence to earth it sank.\n Air sets it free; direct, restores it to its source,\n By little and by little. None perceive its course.\n\n So, too, our breath, in manner like, steals soul away,\n By little and by little, from this house of clay,\n In words of praise, ascending to God\u2019s holy throne,\n From us to where He reigns;--as known to Him alone. 150\n\n Our breathings rise on wings of true sincerity,\n The offerings of our hearts to all eternity.\n We then receive rewards for those poor words of praise,\n In tenfold showers of mercy from th\u2019 Ancient of Days.\n And we are still constrained to utter songs of thanks,\n That man should so be raised above th\u2019 angelic ranks.\n This rising and descending alternates for aye.\n The Lord forbid that I should fail therein one day!\n We\u2019re drawn, we are attracted, so to love the Lord;\n As we were first instructed, firm to trust His word. 155\n\n Each man will turn his eyes in hope towards the place,\n Where he has tasted joy some former day of grace.\n The pleasures of each kind are most with their own kin;\n As part must share with whole its qualities, its sin.\n Things needs must be assigned unto a common class,\n If aught they have in common; two will form a race.\n Thus bread and water are not human at the first;\n But human they become, through hunger and through thirst.\n In form they have no tie with us of human kind;\n But through a special link they kindred with us find. 160\n\n If pleasure, then, we find in what\u2019s not of our race,\n Be sure there\u2019s some connection through which this takes place.\n If that connection but resemblance be in shape,\n It will not last; it\u2019s for a time; it must escape.\n\n \u2019Tis true that birds find pleasure in a whistle\u2019s note;\n But then they fancy \u2019tis their mate\u2019s, on whom they dote.\n And if a thirsty man take pleasure in his wine,\n He tastes the lees, and loathes. To water he\u2019ll incline.\n A pauper may amused be with counterfeited coin;\n But take this to the mint; defaced \u2019twill be, in fine. 165\n Then be not thou misled with gilded counterfeit;\n Delusion will thee plunge headlong into hell\u2019s pit.\n\n\n\n\nV.\n\nThe Lion and the Beasts.\n\n\n Kal\u012bl\u2019 and Dimna\u2019s book relates a charming tale,[136]\n From which males may a moral draw;--and eke, female.\n\n Within a shelter\u2019d vale, four-footed game in droves,\n Were kept in tremor by a lion from its groves.\n So frequently had he borne victims off from thence,\n The vale a prison had become in every sense.\n\n A consultation held, they fair proposals state,\n To satisfy the lion\u2019s hunger by a rate;\n But on condition that he rapine lay aside,\n And not prolong disquiet in that valley wide. 5\n\n The lion gave consent, if they\u2019d perform their part;\n Remarking: \u201cI\u2019ve a victim been to wily art.\n Man persecutes me with his deadly stratagems;\n The snake and scorpion sting me;--rancour\u2019s true emblems.\n But worse than any man, in venom and in spleen,\n The fleshly lust within me traitor\u2019s always been.\n But I\u2019ve grown wary. Has not Ahmed said: \u2018Rely!\n Believers are not twice caught by the selfsame lie?\u2019\u201d[137]\n Their answer was: \u201cO most sagacious, knowing guide,\n Thy caution pray dismiss; decree of God abide. 10\n Suspicion, caution, ever is corroding ill.\n Put trust in Providence; and God thy maw will fill.\n Strive not with Providence, however strong thou be;\n Lest Providence should take offence, and war with thee.\u201d\n\n He answered them: \u201cSure! Sure! Trust Providence we must.\n His prophets in the Lord have always placed their trust.\n To trust in God, and yet put forth our utmost skill,\n The surest method is, to work His holy will.\n The Prophet plainly said to his disciple train:\n \u2018Put trust in God, and bind thy camel\u2019s shank amain.\u2019[138] 15\n Remember the old saw: \u2018The friend of God must work.\u2019[139]\n Through trust in God, neglect not ways and means, O clerk.\u201d\n\n Abashed they were not; answer thus they promptly made:\n \u201cTo gain aught from the poor is fraud; a trick of trade.\n There is no gain so good as trust placed in the Lord.\n What more praiseworthy than to build upon His word?\n How many flee _this_ danger, falling into _that_!\n From fryingpan leaps one, to light in fire right pat.[140]\n Man plans a stratagem; in it is caught himself.\n That which he took for health, he finds is death itself. 20\n He locks his door when treason\u2019s lurking in his house.\n So Pharaoh deemed he\u2019d danger shun ere it should rouse.\n How many thousand infants did he doom to death;\n While Moses, whom he feared, his own roof was beneath.\n Our eyes afflicted are with various kinds of ills.\n Then go and make them blind, by seeing God \u2019tis wills.\n God\u2019s sight of providence is keener than men\u2019s eyes.\n By seeing with His sight, thou\u2019lt find all thou wilt prize.\n An infant, that can neither grasp nor walk as yet,\n Takes seat upon his father\u2019s neck, and runs. Sweet pet. 25\n Some seasons past, he scarcely gains some strength of limb;\n When sorrow fastens on him;--sharp, and ghastly grim.\n The hearts of men, before they gain or power or wealth,\n Decline away from duty, pleasures seek by stealth.\n And since by God\u2019s decree from paradise they\u2019re rent,\n They prisoners become to rage, lust, discontent.\n We are the household of that Householder, whose word\n Thus spake: \u2018Creation\u2019s all as children of the Lord.\u2019[141]\n He that doth send the fattening rain upon the earth,\n In mercy, too, can feed His creatures from their birth.\u201d 30\n\n The lion thus replied: \u201c\u2019Tis true. But still, the Lord\n A ladder sets before our feet to be explor\u2019d.\n Step after step we have to mount unto the roof.\n Th\u2019 idea of compulsion\u2019s quite devoid of proof.\n Two feet thou hast. Then why thyself hold to be lame?\n Two hands also. Why maimed account thyself in name?\n Whene\u2019er a master puts a spade in hand of slave,\n He has no need to speak; the act expression gave.\n Our hands just so are given; spades they are to us.\n Think out this problem well; it needs not any fuss. 35\n When thou hast laid this unction to thy soul amain,\n In duty\u2019s path to lay down life thou\u2019lt count as gain.\n Those symbols indices are, whence are secrets known.\n Responsibility\u2019s from thee withdrawn; work shown.\n Thou\u2019rt surely burdened. Borne also most truly art.\n Recipient; hence accepted;--fully on His part.\n Recipient be of God\u2019s command; content thou\u2019lt be.\n Seek unto Him; and to Him joined thyself thou\u2019lt see.\n To strive to give thanks power provides this to perform.\n Allege compulsion. Gratitude\u2019s ground thou\u2019lt deform. 40\n Thanks for thy powers the power of thanks tenfold expands.\n Take favour for compulsion. Power will leave thy hands.\n Compulsion dost affirm? That\u2019s sleeping by the way.\n Go not to sleep until thou\u2019st fairly won the day.\n Sleep not, Compulsionist! Thou man, with folly rife!\n Until thou reach the goal, the fruitful Tree of Life.\n The cool breeze there will rustle through its leaves profuse,\n Each moment scattering fruits for food and future use.\n Compulsion\u2019s creed is sleep among the highwaymen;\n Unseasonable bird is mercilessly slain.[142] 45\n If thou at God\u2019s signs carp and peck, so finding fault,\n Though man thou count thyself, \u2019tis womanlike assault.\n The little sense thou hadst has really taken flight;\n A head that has no brains is tail turn\u2019d round to sight.\n Ungrateful men are ever cursed of God on earth;\n And after death are flung to hell-fire\u2019s vengeful hearth.\n If thou repose thy trust in God\u2019s almighty pow\u2019r,\n Sow first thy seed; and then, await the harvest hour.\u201d\n\n The beasts a clamour raised; they would not be repressed:\n \u201cThey who on means depend, are urged by greed confessed. 50\n The millions upon millions, man and womankind,\n Are pinched by want; they suffer need; they food scarce find.\n By millions and by millions, since creation\u2019s day,\u2014\n Insatiate dragons,--they their gaping jaws display.\n A crowd of would-be wise men stratagems invent,\n Enough to upset mountains, could they give them vent.\n So God himself described in His most holy book\n Their arts: \u2018By which they\u2019d tear away the hills.\u2019[143] Just look.\n Except the lot decreed by Providence of yore,\n By hunting or by toiling none can swell his store. 55\n Device of man, his plans, shall all be brought to naught.\n God\u2019s dispensations sole will stand, with wisdom fraught.\n Strive not then, man of sense; except good name to leave.\n Exertion\u2019s a delusion. Out! Thou sottish knave!\u201d\n\n A simpleton one morning rushing came in haste,\n Where Solomon his court of justice then had placed.\n His cheeks were blanched, his lips were blue; effects of fright.\n Said Solomon to him: \u201cWhat ails thee? Say aright.\u201d\n Him answer\u2019d that poor wretch: \u201cThe angel, Lord, of death,[144]\n Upon me fixed, just now, a look that stopped my breath.\u201d 60\n Said Solomon: \u201cWhat wilt thou I should do for thee?\u201d\n He answered: \u201cThat the wind may now commanded be[145]\n To carry me away forthwith to Hind\u016bst\u0101n.\n Perchance by fleeing thither, save my life I can.\u201d\n\n See how mankind do shun the garb of poverty.\n Hence they\u2019re a prey to greed and dire necessity.\n This fear of poverty is like that man\u2019s dismay,\n Its Hind\u016bst\u0101n, remark, is greed and grasping\u2019s sway.\n\n So Solomon the wind commanded, him, forthwith,\n To bear to Hind\u016bst\u0101n; and land him near some frith. 65\n\n Another day as Solomon his court did hold,\n Death\u2019s angel came; the king to him the matter told:\n \u201cThy wrathful look, the other day, upon that man,\n Has driven him his home to quit for Hind\u016bst\u0101n.\n Didst thou in wrath survey the pious man that way,\n That he might wander forth a waif, like sheep astray?\n Or was thy look\u2019s intent, so dreadful to behold,\n His soul to separate from its corporeal fold?\u201d\n\n To him replied the angel: \u201cKing of sprites and men!\n His fancy him misled; he\u2019ll ne\u2019er do so again. 70\n \u2019Twas not in anger then that I did look on him;\n \u2019Twas wonder him to see here, looking hale and prim.\n For God had me commanded: \u2018Go this very day,\n And take his soul in Hind\u016bst\u0101n, his debt to pay.\u2019\n In wonder, then, I said within myself: \u2018Had he\n A hundred wings, in Hind\u016bst\u0101n he could not be.\u2019\n But going, still, by God\u2019s command, to Hind\u016bst\u0101n,\n Him there I found, and took his soul with my own hand.\u201d\n\n So thou, good reader, understand, the things of earth\n \u2019Tis God ordains. Reflect. \u2019Twas written ere his birth. 75\n From whom to flee? From self? Oh! That\u2019s absurd!\n From whom to steal? From God? Worse, worse! No word!\n\n The lion now remarked: \u201cThe words you speak are true.\n But just consider how the prophets, saints, ensue.\n What they have wrought hath God blessed, made to prosper still;\n Their joys and griefs, their sufferings, pains, were by His will.\n Their stratagems dictated by their God were, all.[146]\n \u2018Who comes of gentle blood, will gentle words let fall.\u2019[147]\n Their traps have taken angels with the baits they placed.\n Their seeming slips and faults were all by wisdom traced. 80\n Exert thyself, O man; put shoulder to the wheel,\n The prophets and the saints to imitate in zeal.\n Exertion\u2019s not a struggle against Providence.\n \u2019Twas Providence enjoined it,--made it our defence.\n Blasphemer may I be, if ever single man\n Bestowed in vain one effort to fulfil God\u2019s plan.\n Thou hast no broken bones; why bind thy limbs in splints?\n Have patience yet awhile; then laugh; we\u2019re not mere flints.\n It is a bad investment to seek worldly gain.[148]\n Whose hope is placed in heaven never shall see pain.[149] 85\n The stratagems employed for worldly gain are vile,\n But stratagems for gaining heaven are worth our while.\n Blest stratagem is that which bursts a prison door.\n Curst stratagem is one that spreads a dungeon floor.\n The world\u2019s a dungeon. We are all in prison here.\n Burst, then, thy prison gate, and free thyself from fear.\n What is the world? Unmindful of our God to be;\n Not gold or silver, wife or children, things we see.\n The wealth we hold at service of our God is blest.\n \u2018The riches of the just are pure,\u2019 Ahmed confess\u2019d. 90\n The water from a leak is danger to a ship;\n The sea beneath her keel is just what makes her skip.\n Great Solomon despised wealth, sway, with all his heart.\n With countless treasures poor he named himself. Best part!\n An empty jar will float upon a raging sea,\n The air that fills it will not let it sunken be.\n Th\u2019 afflatus of true poverty man\u2019s soul will buoy.\n Above the troubles of the world he rides. Ahoy!\n Should all earth\u2019s boundless riches by him be possessed;\n The whole is viewed in his pure sight as naught at best. 95\n Close then the inlet to thy heart; seal it with love;\n First filling it with wisdom\u2019s spirit from above.\n Endeavour is from God; so sickness, and its balm.\n He vainly strives who would deny this truthful psalm.\u201d\n\n Of this complexion, many proofs the lion brought;\n No answer those compulsionists in dispute sought.\n The fox, the deer, the hare, and eke the sly jackal,\n Were fain to quit compulsion\u2019s cause, for good and all.\n\n A treaty they concluded with the forest king,\n That he, by this concession, should not lose a thing. 100\n His daily ration ready always should be found;\n And he should have no cause to trespass on their ground.\n Lots they would cast among themselves from day to day.\n On whom the lot should fall, he\u2019d be the lion\u2019s prey.\n\n But lo, at length the lot upon the hare did light.\n He found it very hard, and wailed his awful plight.\n The other beasts remarked: \u201cWe each have had our turn;\n And none of us refused th\u2019 agreement to confirm.\n By breach of faith on us fresh infamy bring not.\n Begone forthwith; the lion must not be forgot.\u201d 105\n\n The hare replied: \u201cDear friends, a respite to me grant.\n A stratagem I\u2019ll plan, and cheat this grim tyrant.\n My wily plan shall save the souls of all alive;\n And safety heirloom be your children shall derive.\n Thus every prophet\u2019s promised to his sect, at least,\n Salvation from the doom o\u2019erhanging man and beast.\n They found a ready way to \u2019scape beyond the spheres,\n So soon as to reflect they turned their minds from fears.\n Man sees another\u2019s eye is but a wee, wee thing;\n He knows how great a service can th\u2019 eye\u2019s pupil bring.\u201d 110\n\n The beasts in answer: \u201cJackass! Prate to us no more.\n Consider. Thou\u2019rt a hare; a beast of no great store.\n What talk is this? Thy betters ne\u2019er have used such speech.\n They never would have dared to think as thou dost preach.\n It must be thou\u2019rt o\u2019erweening, or our fate\u2019s at hand.\n For otherwise, pretensions such as thine can\u2019t stand.\u201d\n\n To them as a rejoinder puss spoke: \u201cMy dear friends,\n My inspiration\u2019s God\u2019s; small means effect great ends.\n The wisdom God hath taught the little honey-bee,\n You do not find possessed by lion, or by me. 115\n We see its cells arranged, with liquid sweetness filled,\n The portals of such art to open God hath willed.\n Then see the silkworm, how it\u2019s taught by God to spin.\n Have elephants the power to draw out threads so thin?\n The earthy Adam was by God taught all our names.[150]\n His knowledge was the admiration of heaven\u2019s frames.\n Th\u2019 angelic choir were silenced; they knew not so much.\n The fiend be cursed. He\u2019d not confess the fact was such.\n That fasting hermit of six hundred thousand years[151]\n Became the new-born babe\u2019s dire muzzle,--source of tears. 120\n Lest it should suck the milk religion\u2019s teachings give,\u2014\n Lest it should soar on high around heaven\u2019s towers, and live,\u2014\n The learning of external sense a muzzle lies,\u2014\n The milk of truth sublime\u2019s denied to all its cries.\n But God hath planted in man\u2019s heart a precious pearl.\n Nor seas, nor skies, such gem enclose within their whirl!\n How long of form thy talk--form-worshipper--vain man?\n Cannot thy senseless soul cast off form\u2019s deadening ban?\n Did human form alone suffice a man to make,\n Ahmed and Ab\u016b-Jahl were one in grade, in stake. 125\n A painting on a wall may show the human form.\n But look and see what lacks, the figure to inform.\n \u2019Tis life it wants, and soul;--the pretty-looking thing!\n Ask for its life. No! No! Though portrait of a king.\n The heads of all earth\u2019s lions bowed down meek and low,\n When God the Seven Sleepers\u2019[152] dog applauded. How!\n To call it dog, to charge it with defect of race,\n No harm can do it; God in heaven hath given it place.\n \u2019Twas not the pen prescrib\u2019d the qualities of form;\n Th\u2019 Omniscient, the Just, \u2019twas, made it multiform. 130\n Th\u2019 Omniscient, the Just, a Spirit is, All-Blest;\n Him no place holds; He\u2019s not before, behind, east, west.\n He influences matter from His high abode;\n But heaven of heavens cannot contain the Spirit\u2019s mode.\u201d\n\n That theme is endless. Let us then just turn away.\n Let\u2019s ask about the hare; hear what he has to say.\n Sell off thy ass\u2019 ears; with the price a fresh pair buy.\n An ass\u2019s ears will never understand this cry.[153]\n Go to. Examine well the hare\u2019s most foxy wile,\u2014\n The subtle stratagem that did the lion foil. 135\n\n Wisdom\u2019s the seal by which great Solomon did rule.\n The whole world\u2019s but a frame, and wisdom is its soul.\n Hence \u2019tis, by wisdom\u2019s spell, as clay on potter\u2019s wheel,\n The seas, the hills, the plains, are made man\u2019s power to feel.\n The lion, tiger, leopard, dread him as does mouse;\n The shark, the crocodile, he follows to their house.\n The demon and the fairy, both constrained to flight,\n Have hid themselves from him,--are only seen by night.\n The human being has his foes hid every side.\n A prudent man by caution may in safety bide. 140\n Those hidden foes,--the hideous, and the fair as well,\u2014\n By day and night affect his heart with charm and spell.\n\n Thou enterest a river, just to have a bathe;\n A hidden thorn may pierce thy foot, bared of its swathe.\n Thou seest it not. \u2019Tis hid at bottom of the stream.\n Thou feel\u2019st it in thy foot; thou knowest it\u2019s not a dream.\n Plagues, troubles, fears, and cares, of various degree,\n All spring from many sides, and fix themselves in thee.\n Bear all with patience; slowly thou\u2019lt experience gain.\n Thou\u2019lt recognise the truth; the dark will be made plain. 145\n At length thou\u2019lt scout the vagaries of learned men,\n And take unto thyself, as patterns, saints of ken.\n\n The beasts on second thoughts resolved to hear puss out.\n \u201cExplain,\u201d said they, \u201cwhat \u2019tis thou\u2019dst have us set about.\n Let\u2019s hear; \u2019tis with the lion we shall have to do.\n Set forth thy plan; let\u2019s see what stratagem\u2019s in view.\n Deliberation\u2019s ever wisdom\u2019s truest friend;\n Two heads than one are better,--lead to safer end.\n The prophet spake: \u2018O ruling judge, ere thou decide,\n Take counsel; for \u2019tis said: \u201cIn councillors confide.\u201c\u2019\u201d 150\n\n The hare objects: \u201cA secret\u2019s not for ev\u2019ry clod.\n Odd even is at times; and sometimes even\u2019s odd.\n Too closely with a mirror shouldst thou converse hold,\n From prudery it umbrage takes, grows dull; the scold.\n On matters three, allow not oft thy lips to speak:\n First, going; gold, next; third, the path thou hast to seek.\n These all have sundry enemies and deadly foes,\n Who\u2019ll lie in ambush, each, if he thy purpose knows.\n If thou \u2018Adieu\u2019 to only one or two shouldst call,\n Remember: \u2018Two\u2019s a secret; three is none at all.\u2019 155\n If fast together thou shouldst bind birds, two or three,\n They\u2019ll quiet lie on earth, nor strive themselves to free.\n Men hold it best to ask for counsel in wide terms.\n Beware; and wrangle not with perverse pachyderms.\n The Prophet covertly men\u2019s counsel used to seek.\n His answer he\u2019d obtain; his purpose did not leak.\n He\u2019d speak in parables, and so convey his wish,\n That foes might hear, but not suspect its purport. Pish!\n He\u2019d ferret out in answers all he wished to learn;\n And still not give an inkling of his thought\u2019s real turn.\u201d 160\n\n Enough we\u2019ve said of this. Now turn we to our tale.\n By puss the lion\u2019s held right hungry in the vale.\n And so it was; the hare his counsel did conceal;\n He would not let his comrades learn how he would deal.\n Some hours he now let pass before he took his leave;\n Then to the lion went, their honour to retrieve.\n\n He found the brute impatient, chafing at delay,\n From hunger\u2019s pangs fierce howling, tearing every spray;\n And roaring in his rage: \u201cI knew it so would be!\n Those vile, time-serving rascals! Thus they worry me! 165\n They\u2019re plausible, smooth-speaking, bland, calm, mild; and still\n They\u2019ve cheated me! Alas! Who will be cheated, will!\n A too complaisant prince most foully is let in!\n Who sees no farther than his nose, none heeds a pin!\u201d\n\n The path is smoothed beneath which lurks a deadly trap.\n A missive\u2019s filled with compliments; all mere clap-trap.\n Bland messages, smooth words, are but a hook or snare.\n Civility\u2019s a sandbank; life\u2019s bark\u2019s oft wrecked there,\n The sand from which a spring of water\u2019s seen to flow\n Is rare to find. Go, seek such. Where? I do not know. 170\n\n Yes, yes! Be sure that sand\u2019s a holy man of God,\n Unto himself lost, rapt, in union with his Lord.\n Religion\u2019s crystal waters flow from him apace;\n Disciples thence are edified and grow in grace.\n A worldling is a sandbank, void of moisture quite,\n On which you may make shipwreck, lose all chance of light.\n Seek wisdom, then, from wisdom\u2019s sons, the pure of mind;\n So mayest thou learn the way salvation\u2019s port to find.\n\n A seeker after wisdom, is, of wisdom, fount.\n \u201cHumanities\u201d he shuns; them, he does trash account. 175\n A memory replete with holy Qur\u2019\u0101n\u2019s lore\n A \u201chidden tablet\u201d is;[154] its mind is wisdom\u2019s store.\n If man begin as pupil to good common sense,\n He\u2019ll end by being teacher,--mind, his audience.\n Man\u2019s mind declares, as Gabriel to Ahmed there,[155]\n \u201cOne step beyond due limit leaves me ashes sere.\n Go forward, man of God; leave me; I know my place.\n To every one\u2019s not given to see God face to face.\u201d\n\n Whoever, out of sloth, endeavour\u2019s path shall quit,\n And patience lose, compulsion\u2019s creed must needs admit. 180\n Whoe\u2019er affirms compulsion, brings woe on himself,\n Until his troubles to the grave conduct the elf.\n\n The Prophet said: \u201cMy mission, \u2019s truth to preach to man.\n Much trouble will surround it during my life\u2019s span.\u201d\n Compulsion\u2019s but the setting of a broken bone,[156]\n Or binding of a muscle, torn, asunder gone.\n Thou hast not broke thy leg in travelling God\u2019s path.\n Why put thy leg in splints? Cast off the idle swath.\n He that shall really lose a leg in God\u2019s just fight,\n To him Bur\u0101q shall come, a chariot of light.[157] 185\n Religion\u2019s carrier was he; carried then he\u2019ll be.\n God\u2019s precepts he accepted; accepted now is he.\n The Great King\u2019s orders has he bravely carried out.\n Henceforward he\u2019s a herald;--shall God\u2019s judgments shout.\n The planets until now may have affected him;\n Above the planets now he rests, and rules their trim.\n\n If forms material find much honour in thy sight,\n Thou\u2019lt doubt the truth of writ: \u201cThe moon clave,\u201d left and\n right.[158]\n Renew thy faith at heart, not merely with mouth\u2019s gust,\n O hypocrite, who covertly dost worship lust. 190\n While lust is dominant, faith cannot be so strong;\n For lust\u2019s a bolt to close the door, lest faith should throng.\n The virgin text of God explain not thou away;\n Reform thyself; deform not what the Lord doth say.\n As suits thy lusts thou comments makest on God\u2019s Qur\u2019\u0101n.\n Vile, as by thee perverted, is its sense, base man.\n Thy case resemblance has with one of silly fly,\n Who once upon a time himself thought very high.\n Intoxicated was he, though he\u2019d sipp\u2019d no wine.\n Like sunbeam\u2019s mote he saw himself most gaily shine. 195\n He\u2019d heard of noble falcons scorning lure and cage;\n And straightway dubbed himself the ph\u0153nix of the age.\n\n Our fly on scrap of straw, in pool from ass\u2019s ease,\n Had poised himself, as though a sailor on the seas.\n Then cried: \u201cLo! I\u2019ve called forth a sea and ship at will.\n Long since I \u2019ve had a notion, pleasure\u2019s cup to fill.\n Behold a sea and ship of which I captain am,\n Imbued with naval science, bold as any ram.\u201d\n\n Imagination thus had conjured up a sea.\n To him it boundless seemed, dwarfing credulity. 200\n Compared with him it was a truly boundless pool.\n When people see with their own eyes, call them not fool.\n His universe was measured by his power of sight.\n To such an eye such pool a sea was. He was right.\n\n A false interpreter of scripture is such fly.\n His fancy is the urine pool on which straws ply.\n If flies in fancy thus explain the things they see,\n By fortune\u2019s freaks, in turn, a ph\u0153nix each may be.\n He\u2019s less than fly, of whom this tale example lends;\n His soul unworthy is ev\u2019n of the frame it tends. 205\n Just like the hare who\u2019d lion undertake to fight,\n How should his soul remain in his poor carcase, slight?\n\n The lion growled in tones of anger and of rage:\n \u201cMy ear it was bewrayed me; war my foes did wage.\n Compulsionists\u2019 false wiles placed bandage on my eyes.\n Their wooden swords it was that stung my skin, like flies.\n Henceforward I\u2019ll not list to such cajoleries,\u2014\n Of elves and demons, in the wilderness, mere cries.\n Tear, rend them; O my heart, pay no regard to them.\n Strip off their skins; there\u2019s naught beneath; mere stratagem.\u201d 210\n\n When words deceitful are employed as wraps for guile,\n They\u2019re bubbles on the water, only last a while.\n Such words are merely shell; th\u2019 intent their kernel is;\u2014\n Or coloured portraiture of man; no life is his.\n A shell may often cover kernel of foul smell.\n A kernel sound can well afford to lose its shell.\n\n If mind be pen; if page be water, in thy hands;\n Be not surpris\u2019d when all that\u2019s written quick disbands.\n On water \u2019tis to write, t\u2019 expect good faith from bail.\n Regret must follow. Shrug your shoulders. What avail! 215\n\n Man with desires is oft puffed up, and wishes vain.\n Put out desire; you\u2019ll find Jehovah\u2019s endless reign.\n His messages are peace, and sweet to pious soul;\n For He alone\u2019s eternal, free from change, and whole.\n\n Men\u2019s prayers for kings and princes change full oft in tone.\n The prayers of saints and prophets call on God alone.\n Th\u2019 existence of earth\u2019s sovereign\u2019s empty pomp and pride,\n The glories of a prophet in his God abide.\n The names of kings on coins are used a little while;\n The name of Ahmed there is ever seen to smile.[159] 220\n That name of Ahmed covers all the prophets still;[160]\n As hundred, when \u2019tis said, ninety includes as well.\n\n Reflections such as these would never have an end.\n So turn we through our hare and lion\u2019s tale to wend.\n\n The hare but slowly towards the lion took his way.\n Wiles in his brain he hatched; weighed what he had to say.\n Procrastination served him his design to fill;\n He\u2019d secrets, one or two, the royal mind to still.\n\n How many worlds there are that hang on wisdom\u2019s worth.\n How vast an ocean wisdom! Compasses the earth. 225\n A shoreless ocean is the subtle mind of man\n A fearless diver sounds its depths; as who else can?\n Our bodies drift about in mind\u2019s strong eddies still,\n Like basins on the water, at the stream\u2019s sole will.\n Until they fill, they float like bowls, on ocean\u2019s brink;\n And, like the bowls, when full, they cannot choose but sink.\n\n The wind\u2019s invisible; a world without, we see.\n Our bodies are the waves or drops of that vast sea.\n Whatever means our bodies seek to grasp, anon,\n A billow drives it far; no sooner seen than gone. 230\n\n Until our hearts perceive the Giver of all good,\n The swiftly-flying bolt shot far from o\u2019er the flood,\n They hold their coursers to be lost; and out of spite,\n They push their roadsters hastily, as thoughts invite.\n They hold their coursers to be lost; and all the while\n Like noble courser, roadster\u2019s borne them many a mile.\n They now begin to wail, distress\u2019d, and ask the way.\n They knock at ev\u2019ry door they see, they beg, they pray:\n \u201cThe stealer of our courser was a little child.\n What horse is this, my master? Seems it not too wild?\u201d 235\n \u201cO yes, a horse it is; but not the horse you want.\n Come to your senses, man; to some one else go chant.\u201d\n\n The soul is void of patency and fellowship.\n Thou, like a wine-jar, full within, hast parched lip.\n How shouldst thou e\u2019er distinguish red from green or brown,\n When these are all the colours unto thee well known?\n And when thy mind is dazed by colour\u2019s magic round,\n All colour\u2019s lost in one bright light diffused around.\n Those colours, too, all vanish from our view by night.\n We learn from this, that colour\u2019s only seen through light. 240\n\n The sense of colour-seeing\u2019s not from light distinct.\n So, too, the sudden rainbow of our mind\u2019s instinct.\n From sunlight, and the like, all outer colours rise;\n The inward tints that mark our minds, from God\u2019s sunrise.\n The light that lights the eye\u2019s the light that\u2019s in the heart.\n Eye\u2019s light is but derived from what illumes that part.\n The light that lights the heart\u2019s the light that comes of God,\n Which lies beyond the reach of sense and reason, clod!\n\n By night we have no light; no colour can we see.\n Thus, light we learn by darkness, its converse. Agree! 245\n A seeing of the light, perception is of tints;\n And these distinguished are through darkness\u2019 gloomy hints.\n Our griefs and sorrows were by God first introduced,\n That joy to sense apparent thence should be reduced.\n Occult things, thus, by converse, grow apparent, all.\n Since God has no converse, apparent He can\u2019t fall.\n Sight first saw light, and then the colours saw.\n From converse converse stands forth, as Frank from Negro.\n By converse of the light, distinguish we the light;\n A converse \u2019tis that converse shows unto our sight. 250\n The light of God no converse has in being\u2019s bound;\n By converse, then, man has not its distinction found.\n Our eyes cannot distinguish God, decidedly;\n Though He distinguish Moses and the Mount from thee.\n\n Form and ideal, gnat and lion, word and sense,\n Sound of the voice and thought, learnst thou by dissidence,\n The words and sounds take rise from exercise of thought.\n The sea of thought is where? Of this thou knowest naught.\n Words, as thou seest, rise as waves upon the sea.\n The sea of thought thou knowest great, immense to be. 255\n The waves of thought arise, by breath of knowledge raised;\n They take the forms of words, of sounds, which ear has seized.\n Through words have forms arisen, and passed away again;\n As waves still lose themselves beneath the ocean\u2019s main.\n From realm of formlessness, existence doth take form;\n And fades again therein: \u201cTo Him we must return.\u201d[161]\n Each moment, then, for thee death and return await,\n As Ahmed hath declared: \u201cLife\u2019s transitory.\u201d[162] Wait!\n Thoughts, bolts are, shot by God into the air like dust.\n Whose thoughts can reach to God, through densest air of lust? 260\n\n The world\u2019s renewed each moment, though we still remain\n In ignorance that permanence can change sustain.\n Life, like a river, ceaselessly, is still renewed;\n And apes persistency, in forms by change subdued,\n Through fleetness it puts on continuity\u2019s shape;\n Like squib when \u2019tis revolved in dark by boy with tape.\n A flash of flame, through motion\u2019s necessary speed,\n Appears unto our eyes a fire of size, indeed.\n Its length and its extension, through quickness of fact,\n Appear to be effects of God\u2019s creative act. 265\n A student of this mystery, a doctor of great skill,\n Is our Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn,[163] whose praises books would fill.\n\n The lion, now enraged with hunger\u2019s gnawing pain,\n Perceived the hare was coming, bounding o\u2019er the plain.\n All carelessly, in confidence, he frisking came,\n The lion all the while growled, gnashed his teeth from shame.\n No consciousness of fault was visible, no fear;\n But confidence, sure sign his conscience he felt clear.\n\n When he\u2019d reached hearing range, the lion him addressed\n In tones of wrath: \u201cThou demon, insolent, possessed! 270\n Know I\u2019m a lion; elephants my prey I make.\n The tigers, spotted pards, by me are caused to quake.\n A petty hare am not I, slighted thus to be,\n Or see my just dominion spurned by likes of thee.\n Cast off assumed prim innocence, awake to fact;\n Thou hear\u2019st the lion\u2019s roar; forget not thus the pact.\u201d\n\n The hare replied: \u201cGramercy! Hear my poor excuse.\n Let me explain. Your Majesty will ne\u2019er refuse.\u201d\n\n The lion now: \u201cExcuse? Thou basest of the base!\n Is this the time to pay thy court? A pretty case! 275\n Unseasonably crowing cock art thou! Reprieved?\n Excuse from simpleton can never be received.\n A simpleton\u2019s excuse is worse than was his fault.\n Excuse of ignorance were science to assault.\n Excuse from thee, thou hare, were quite devoid of sense.\n Take thou me not for hare; with me strive not to fence.\u201d\n\n The hare to him: \u201cO prince! Have pity on the weak!\n Lend ear unto the tales of them who justice seek.\n Thankoffering let it be for thy august estate.\n Poor supplicant like me, thou\u2019lt not drive from thy gate. 280\n Great river like, thy boons stream aye through all canals;\n Each flower that decks thy hair in price rich pearls excels.\n The sea is not dried up by yielding showers of rain.\n Thy ease will not decrease by lessening of my pain.\u201d\n\n The lion then: \u201cMy clemency I show to those\n Who\u2019ve it deserved. \u2019Tis stature rules the length of clothes.\u201d\n\n The hare: \u201cGive ear. Should I of grace unworthy prove,\n I\u2019m at thy feet. My life is thine, I cannot move.\n At morning\u2019s early hour I set out for thy court.\n Companion had I with me. True, the way is short. 285\n That second hare I speak of, food was for thy maw;\n By lot selected, as the pact lays down the law.\n Upon the road, a lion on us onslaught made.\n The savage, strange invader, rendered us afraid.\n I remonstrated with him; told him our intent;\n Said we were coming here; by treaty were we sent.\n\n He answered: \u2018Prate not to me. Treaty such as this\n No value has. I\u2019m king. He a usurper is.\n Thy paltry king and thee I\u2019ll quickly rend in two,\n If thou and thy companion will not with me go.\u2019 290\n I craved of him permission, him to leave awhile,\n Till I could come and tell thee of his claim and guile.\n He granted leave; but kept my fellow as a pledge;\n Saying otherwise he\u2019d kill me, as his privilege.\n We strove to coax and pacify the sturdy brute.\n \u2019Twas no avail. My mate he\u2019d keep; me he\u2019d depute.\n My comrade three times was in bulk more full than I;\n More plump, more sleek, more toothful. Dare I tell a lie?\n Henceforward, through that lion, who can come this way?\n The case is so. I\u2019ve told thee truly all my say. 295\n From hence, for evermore, thy ration\u2019s lost, forsooth.\n The truth I speak to thee. Unpleasant oft is truth.\n Wouldst thou thy ration have, arise and clear the way.\n Come on. I\u2019ll guide. Let\u2019s see, then, who shall win the day.\u201d\n\n The lion now: \u201cIn God\u2019s name! Come! Where is the beast?\n Go thou before, if thou speak truth. Take heed at least.\n I\u2019ll treat him as he merits, and a hundred such.\n But should this prove a lie, thou\u2019lt rue it very much.\u201d\n\n The hare set out in front, so acting as a guide,\n That he might lead the lion as he should decide. 300\n A well there was not far off, which the hare had seen.\n This pit he destined for the lion\u2019s last death-scene.\n They journeyed thus, the two, towards the well in haste,\n The scheming, plotting hare\u2019s fell stratagem to taste.\n\n A stream of water freely bears the chaff away;\n But how it undermines a mountain\u2019s hard to say.\n All single-handed, Moses,--Red Sea at command,\u2014\n Can drown pursuing Pharaoh\u2019s vast ungodly band.\n A gnat, by God\u2019s behest, a Nimrod may annul;\n Its feeble wings may burst the sutures of his skull.[164] 305\n\n The doom of him who acts on what a foe adjusts,\n Is like the end of one his envier who trusts.\n The punishment of Pharaoh\u2019s listening to Haman,[165]\n Resembles Nimrod\u2019s, who faith pinned upon Satan.[166]\n\n A foe who talks in friendly guise, a false game plays;\n He vaunts the bait; but be thou sure, a trap he lays.\n His proffered sugarcandy poison will conceal.\n His seeming kindly offices are treachery\u2019s veil.\n Should God ordain thy fall, thy sight will blinded be;\n \u2019Twixt friend and foe the difference thou\u2019lt fail to see. 310\n Since thus it is, betimes betake thyself to prayer;\n Fast, supplicate, entreat thee gracious God to spare.\n Thus pray: \u201cO Thou, to whom all secrets well are known,\n Crush not Thy trusting servant \u2019neath sore trial\u2019s stone.\n If doglike acts I\u2019ve acted, Thou who lions formest,\n O let not loose upon me lions Thou informest.\n O Lord of mercy, Pardoner of sin, All-just,\n Upon me vengeance wreak not, or succumb I must.\n Cause not Thy pleasant waters me to burn like fire;\n Let not the fiery furnace form of stream acquire. 315\n If Thou me madden with the vials of dismay,\n Thou\u2019lt make nonentities the parts of things to play.\u201d\n\n What\u2019s madness? \u2019Tis a bandage to the eye of faith.\n A stone we see as pearl, an island as a frith.\n What\u2019s madness? False to judge of every stick and straw.\n To seek the violet\u2019s perfume in hip and haw.\n\n One day, when Solomon a camp had formed afield,\n The birds all flocked around him, homage due to yield.\n They found he spake their language, all their secrets knew.\n With pleasure, birds of every kind about him flew. 320\n The birds with Solomon all left their _twit-twit-twee_,\n And spake a tongue articulate; as one might see.\n\n Synglottism is a link, a very potent spell;[167]\n Among mere strangers, man\u2019s a captive in a cell.\n How many Turks and Hind\u016bs synglottise with us;\n How many pairs of each are strange as incubus!\n A synglottist is then a man\u2019s another self;\n But syncardism, than synglottism\u2019s much closer, elf.\n Besides our words, our signs, our written characters,\n From hearts, there rise by hundreds mute interpreters. 325\n\n The birds about their secrets one by one communed;\n About their knowledge, sciences, and voices tuned.\n To pay their court to Solomon their notes they raised;\n Revealed their capabilities; skill of each praised.\n Not out of pride and vanity; excess \u2019twould seem;\n But solely to please Solomon, gain his esteem.\n\n So slaves that seek for favour at a master\u2019s hand\n Exert themselves to name the talents they command.\n But if they feel ashamed of one would them purchase,\n Straightway they\u2019re sick, halt, deaf, or something still\n more base. 330\n\n The turn then came for hoopoe\u2019s setting forth his skill,\n To say what he could do, what office he could fill.\n Said he: \u201cO King, one little talent\u2019s all I own.\n I\u2019ll tell it in few words; succinctness is a crown.\u201d\n\n Said Solomon: \u201cLet\u2019s hear it. What then is thy skill?\u201d\n The hoopoe answered: \u201cThis.--I perch where\u2019er I will.\n From my seat I look down like plumbline on the ground,\n And see if hidden water under it is found;\n Where is it; at what depth; what are its qualities;\n Whence takes its rise; from rock, sand, clay\u2019s varieties. 335\n O Solomon, whene\u2019er thou send\u2019st thy armies forth,\n Me call to mind; my skill is surely notice worth.\u201d\n\n To him replied then Solomon: \u201cEsteemed good friend,\n Thee I will name Purveyor-General on land.\n Whene\u2019er my troops go forth, through sandy deserts sent,\n With them thou\u2019lt journey; so, ne\u2019er will be water scant.\u201d\n\n The crow on hearing this with jealousy was stung.\n Addressing Solomon, he said: \u201cThis bird a lie has sung.\n His insolence is great to boast thus to the king.\n Such falsehood\u2019s quite disgusting. Who\u2019s heard such a thing? 340\n Had he possessed this very wonderful insight,\n Would he be caught in springes barely out of sight?\n He cannot see those traps beneath a little mound;\n So caught he is, and caged. High dudgeon thence is found.\u201d\n\n Said Solomon: \u201cO hoopoe, true is this remark.\n A gulp of vanity has set thee raving, stark.\n How is it thou\u2019rt so tipsy early in the day,\n To come and prate of things so far out of the way?\u201d\n\n The hoopoe then replied: \u201cGreat King, against poor me,\n For love of God, believe not all my foes\u2019 false plea. 345\n If untruth I have spoken,--cannot prove my tale,\u2014\n I cast myself before thee; kill me without fail.\n The crow denies the rule of Providence on earth;\n With all his cunning, he\u2019s a miscreant from birth.\u201d\n\n Of miscreants\u2019 defects, if any one in us\n Exist, it\u2019s sure to spread,--a plague-spot cancerous.\n\n A snare man may detect in every lust of flesh,\n If God\u2019s decree will not he fall into its mesh.\n By God\u2019s decree our reason ceases clear to see,\n As moon, when darkened all, can hide the sun from me. 350\n Whoever dares deny God\u2019s ruling providence,\n \u2019Tis Providence decrees his blindness, want of sense.\n\n The Father of Mankind, Lord Nomenclator first,[168]\n In every nerve possess\u2019d a vein of knowledge nursed.\n He knew the names of all things, right, without default.\n From first to last his mind could hold them from revolt.\n Whatever name he gave, that name endured unchanged.\n If he said: \u201cThis thing\u2019s active,\u201d slothful it ne\u2019er ranged.\n He knew at first who was believer in God\u2019s word.\n He from the first, too, knew the miscreant toward his Lord. 355\n\n From one who knows them well, of things seek thou the fames,\n And mystery of the symbol: \u201cGod taught him the names.\u201d[169]\n The name of everything, with us, is what it seems;\n With God, the name of everything, what He it deems.\n By Moses was his staff a simple rod proclaimed;\n By its Creator, God, a dragon was it named.\n \u2018Umer[170] idolater was classed by each array;\n God him believer called upon creation\u2019s day.\n What is by man termed seed upon this transient heath,\n Impressed by God was with the seal: \u201cFather of death.\u201d[171] 360\n In realm of nullity that seed received a form,\n Existent with its God; nor less, nor more; a worm.\n Result thereof sprung forth the essence of our name\n With the Creator, who will be our final aim.\n He each one names according to his last estate,\n Not with respect to that which is but passing fate.\n\n So soon as mind of man with light has gained its strength,\n It spies the soul, and mysteries of every name, at length.\n When man perceives therein the kingdom of truth\u2019s rays,\n He falls in adoration, worships, spends his days. 365\n That Adam\u2019s praise, whose blessed name we\u2019re proud to bear,[172]\n Should I recite till judgment-day, would not end there.\n\n Decree of Providence so willed, with all his lore,\n One single prohibition known, cost him right sore.\n He asked: \u201cWas prohibition laid, joy to prevent;\n Or can, by gloss, evasion unto it be lent?\u201d\n To his mind, explanation having been inferred,\n His appetites, perplexed, to taste the wheat preferred.[173]\n A thorn the foot of Eden\u2019s gardener thus rent.\n A thief the chance perceived, the garden robbed, and went. 370\n Amazement o\u2019er, the gardener\u2019s himself again.[174]\n He saw the thief had carried off th\u2019 unguarded train.\n He sobbed aloud: \u201cMy God, I\u2019ve deeply sinned;\u201d and sighed:\n \u201cA darkness came, and from the road I turn\u2019d aside.\u201d\n\n Decree of God was thus a cloud the sun to veil.\n A lion, dragon, were a mouse beneath that bale.\n When judgment\u2019s needed, should I not detect a snare,\n Not I alone am blind, my weakness others share.\n Blest he, whose steadfast feet have never gone astray!\n Who waywardness has shunned, and taught his tongue to pray! 375\n\n Should God\u2019s decree encompass thee with blackest night,\n The same decree will readily help set thee right.\n Should Providence at times thy life to menace seem,\n \u2019Twas Providence that gave it, can prolong its gleam.\n Should life\u2019s events appear to threaten every way,\n God can in heaven prepare a home for thee to stay.\n What \u2019tis thou tremblest at, a special favour count,\n Designed to bring thee safe to Zion\u2019s holy mount.\n\n And now we turn again from morals,--they\u2019ve no end,\u2014\n To see how fares it with our lion and his friend. 380\n\n They came to where the well was. Here the lion saw\n The hare his pace had slackened, backward \u2019gan to draw.\n At this he remonstrated: \u201cWhat art thou about!\n Come forward still. The enemy we must find out.\u201d\n\n The hare replied: \u201cI have no power to move a foot.\n From fear I faint. I tremble; courage has ebbed out.\n Thou seest how pale my face; like ashes I\u2019ve become;\n An indication sure of fear, most troublesome.\n God hath the countenance the mind\u2019s true index named.\n The adept keeps his eye on countenance enchained. 385\n A face\u2019s colour tell-tale is, like tinkling bell.\n A horse\u2019s neigh of other steeds\u2019 approach will tell.\n A sound from anything attention brings to pass;\n \u2019Tis thus we know the creak of door from bray of ass.\n The Prophet said, no point of character t\u2019 asperse:\n \u2018Enigma is a man until he\u2019s heard converse.\u2019\n The colour in man\u2019s face makes known how stands the heart.\n Compassion take on me; thy sympathy impart.\n Enjoyments sensual give man a rosy face;\n The fame of pale-faced men reports good sense and grace. 390\n I feel within me what makes all my joints seem weak;\n It\u2019s borne away my colour, strength, and power to speak.\n It casts down whomsoe\u2019er it chances to attack;\n As tempest uproots trees it meets upon its track.\n I\u2019m subjected to that by which both men and beasts\n Are turned to stocks and stones;--to say the very least.\n They are but parts; that thing a universal is.\n It makes men\u2019s faces pale; gives ashiness where \u2019tis;\n As long as nature mournful is, or full of glee;\u2014\n As long as fields now verdant, naked then we see. 395\n The sun each morning rises, joying in his course;\n At eve sinks down again, and goes from bad to worse.\n The planets circulating, each within its sphere,\n Are subject to _immersion_ when the sun they near.\n The moon in splendour far excels each tiny star.\n But near its change it dwindles almost to a hair.\n The very earth, that in firm steadfastness doth sit,\n When subject to an earthquake, shakes as in a fit.\n How many regions in the world, encroaching sands\n Have changed from gardens into bare and sterile lands. 400\n The air, that with its breezes gives new life to all,\n When Providence ordains, brings pestilence and thrall.\n Sweet water\u2019s running stream, a very source of life,\n In pond confined, turns fetid, black, and poison-rife.\n The fire, so arrogant when fed with breezes long,\n With one puff is extinguished by a breath too strong.\n The sea, now boisterous with waves and swelling tide,\n At times is like a mirror, shrinking from land\u2019s side.\n The sky, revolving night and day, is never still;\n The seven planets like, it works its Maker\u2019s will. 405\n Those planets, too, in apogee and perigee,--what not,\u2014\n Auspicious, inauspicious are in several lot.\n Thyself consider;--little part, of universals mixed;\u2014\n And thou\u2019lt divine the state of all extended, fixed.\n Since universals are by no means free from toil,\n How should a petty part escape from trouble\u2019s moil?\n A part, too, that\u2019s compound of every opposite,\u2014\n Of fire, and air, and water; adding earth its mite.\n If sheep from wolf should flee, there\u2019s really wonder none;\n To see them herd together \u2019d \u2019stonish every one. 410\n Life springs from concord of th\u2019 ingredient opposites.\n And death results when discord their pact disunites.\n God\u2019s mercy hath appointed every lion\u2019s mate;\n And unto each wild ass a fit associate.\n But since the world in trouble prison-like offends,\n What wonder that all\u2019s transient,--that all suffering ends?\u201d\n\n \u2019Twas thus the hare the lion tricked with specious lies;\n And added: \u201cHence the reason why I cannot rise.\u201d\n The lion answered: \u201cI see naught to cause thy fear.\n Point out to me the object seems to thee so drear.\u201d 415\n\n The hare then: \u201cIn this well thy foe takes his repose.\n His stronghold is this pit, where he\u2019s secure from woes.\n A wise man hides himself at bottom of a well;\n For \u2019tis in solitude heart\u2019s choicest raptures dwell.\n Seclusion\u2019s gloom is easier borne than wrongs from men.\n Who craves a victor\u2019s mercy, saves his life just then.\u201d\n\n The lion muttered: \u201cOnward come. My arm is strong.\n Go look. At home is he? He\u2019ll not live long.\u201d\n The hare: \u201cAlas! Already I\u2019ve endured his gaze.\n Take me unto thy breast. My mind is all amaze. 420\n From off thy back, most potent lord and prince,\n I\u2019ll look down in the well. I\u2019ll neither blink nor wince.\u201d\n\n The lion took him on his back without more fuss.\n So, under this protection to the well went puss.\n They both looked down; and in the water there\n Reflection shadowed forth a lion and a hare.\n The lion saw his own shape in the water shine:\n \u201cAnother lion,\u201d thought he, \u201cwith fat hare on chine.\u201d\n His foe he fancied, thus, that in the well he\u2019d spied.\n The hare he set down safely; in leapt he with pride. 425\n\n He thus fell in the pit he had for others dug.\n Iniquity will visit those who drink out of her mug.\n Iniquity\u2019s a pit into which tyrants fall.\n Such is the firm conviction of our wise men all.\n The wickeder a man, the deeper does he sink.\n So justice wills; and so, the wrong\u2019d will doubtless think.\n\n O thou who in thy might injustice dost commit,\n For thy own self a pit thou diggest; our tale to wit.\n Thou weavest round thyself a web, as does silkworm;\n Thou\u2019lt not escape unless to justice thou conform. 430\n Look not upon the weak as quite without a friend.\n Reflect; \u2019tis said: \u201cWhen God\u2019s help comes.\u201d[175] Where\u2019s then\n thy end?\n If thou\u2019rt an elephant in strength, the weak will flee\n To his Protector. Then the Lord\u2019s wrath shalt thou see.\n Whenever wrong\u2019s weak victim on his God doth call,\n A clamour rises from the ranks in heaven\u2019s hall.\n If with his blood, in pride, thou stain thy teeth just now,\n The toothache shall avenge him; dentist\u2019s victim thou.\n\n The lion saw himself reflected in the well.\n Through blindest rage himself from foe he could not tell. 435\n He thought his own reflection was his hated foe,\n And slew himself while seeking on him to work woe.\n\n So tyrant, when thou seest injustice in the world,\n Thyself behold. Those deeds thy banner have unfurled.\n Thine are included with them in God\u2019s just decree.\n Thy rage, greed, lust\u2019s reward most certainly thou\u2019lt see.\n They are thy very self; in them thou art condemned.\n Thou judgest them; in selfsame manner thou\u2019rt contemned.\n In thy own acts thou seest not the sin thou work\u2019st;\n Or otherwise thy own self\u2019s foe thou\u2019dst be from first. 440\n It is thyself against whom thou mak\u2019st thy attack;\n Just as the lion took the hare upon his back.\n If thou\u2019d sound deep to bottom of the moral well.\n Thyself thou\u2019dst find there; thy own acts would plainly tell.\n\n The lion at the bottom found out who was there.\n Let him as likeness serve of many who are here.\n Whoe\u2019er beats out the teeth of weaker than himself,\n Commits the lion\u2019s error;--springs upon himself.\n\n O thou who loath\u2019st a mole upon thy neighbour\u2019s cheek,\n Reflect. \u2019Tis but an image. Thy own features seek. 445\n Believers are as mirrors; each sees self in each.\n So said the Prophet. His words to us truth may teach.\n\n Thou wearest spectacles, of blue, or red, or green;\n And thence thou judgest all is tinged with that sheen.\n If thou wilt use a window glazed with coloured glass,\n Thou may\u2019st expect the sun will seem of that same class.\n If thou\u2019rt not mad, thou\u2019lt know the colour is thy own.\n Thyself call evil. Henceforth others leave alone.\n\n Believers see with eye of faith,--the light of God.\n How else to them were visible all things\u2019 synod? 450\n If thou examine things with hell-fire in thy heart,\n How canst thou see distinct the good and bad apart.\n Seek by degrees to drown that fire in holy light.\n So shalt thou, sinner, soon, thy weakness change for might.\n\n And do Thou, Lord, asperge from mercy\u2019s cleansing stream,\n To change the fire of sin to light of faith supreme.\n The ocean\u2019s waters are a mere drop in Thy hand;\n The streams of mercy, fire of wrath, at Thy command.\n If Thou so will, the fire a pleasant stream may be.\n And at Thy word, a lake a fiery pit we\u2019d see. 455\n From Thee spring our devotions, supplications, prayers.\n \u2019Tis Thou deliverest the victims from their slayers.\n Without our supplication, Thou entreaty gavest.\n The stores of Thy great mercy for all men Thou savest.\n\n The hare, for his deliverance, jubilant set out,\n To join his fellows, scattered in their homes about.\n He saw the lion prone at bottom of the well;\n Then rapidly went back his stratagem to tell.\n He clapped his hands for joy at his escape from death,\n Exuberant as plant sprouts from the earth beneath. 460\n Its stalk and leaf break forth from prison underground.\n It rears itself apace, makes friends with th\u2019 air around.\n The leaves burst from the stem, and spread themselves abroad;\n Until by growth a tree, whose grace all men applaud.\n It now expands in thanks for favours of the Lord;\n Each leaf, flower, fruit intones a hymn of praise, like bard.\n \u201cThou, Giver of all good things, nourishedst my root.\n And madest me become a strongly growing shoot.\u201d\n\n Our souls, shut up in prison in our frames of clay,\n So break forth into raptures when they\u2019re called away. 465\n They dance for very joy, from love of God Allwise,\n When, like full moon perfected, they in glory rise.\n Material beings, thus, their dance perform, and souls.\n Ask not of them the subject of their hyperboles.\n\n The hare had lodged the lion in a dungeon safe.\n More shame for lion was it, hare should make him chafe.\n Just so a shame it is, and subject for surprise,\n The state in which he\u2019s left, who Fakhru-\u2019d-D\u012bn would rise.[176]\n O, he\u2019s a lion, sure, at bottom of a well.\n His pride of flesh the hare that cast him down to hell. 470\n His pride, the hare, at large, disporting as it will;\n Himself down in the pit. O, what a bitter pill!\n\n The lion-slaying hare now scampered to his friends,\n Exclaiming: \u201cGood news bring I; let joy know no ends!\n Good news! Good news! Festivities bring into play!\n The hell-cat\u2019s gone to hell, from which he came our way.\n Good news! Good news! That foe to all our lives, and peace.\n Has had his teeth extracted, through our Maker\u2019s grace.\n He who so many crushed with paw of tyranny,\n Like rubbish has been swept by death\u2019s broom clean away.\u201d 475\n\n A convocation now was held by all the beasts,\n Hilarity and joy enlivened all their breasts.\n About the hare, as candle, they, moths-like, all flocked.\n All their respects presented; none were found who mocked.\n They all declared: \u201cThou art an angel by heaven sent\n (Angel of death, however, he to lion went).\n Whatever thou may\u2019st be, our souls thy sacrifice!\n Thou\u2019st triumphed. For such prowess praise will not suffice.\n Our God it was endowed thee with such wondrous skill.\n May God be praised! Deliverance is by His will. 480\n Pray, tell us all about it. How was such thing done?\n How couldst thou compass to deceive th\u2019 experienced drone?\n Relate in full. \u2019Twill comfort give to all our souls.\n Detail the facts; balm will they be for bygone doles.\n Recount at length; for, ah, how many tyrannies\n Did we not suffer from him, who now stark dead lies!\u201d\n\n Quoth he: \u201cMost venerable Sirs! God\u2019s grace did all.\n What could a hare accomplish without Him at call?\n He strength of purpose gave me,--light from heaven above.\n That light it was that nerved me in my every move. 485\n God granteth crowning grace, to further cause of truth,\n \u2019Tis God also who sends vicissitudes on earth.\n He, \u2019tis, alternately, who parties makes prevail.\n Now mere opinionists, now men of light avail.\n If then, in turn, thou now thyself find uppermost,\n Why let hypocrisy, presumption, make thee boast?\u201d\n\n Joy not o\u2019er great prosperity. It does not last.\n Airs give not thou thyself; thou\u2019rt but a passing guest.\n They whose eternal kingship lasts beyond all times,[177]\n Who sing God\u2019s praise beyond the seven spheres and climes, 490\n They more endure than transient reigns of kings\u2019 short rolls.\n They are the never-failing feeders of men\u2019s souls.\n\n If thou the pleasures of the world short time forego,\n Eternal bliss may compensate th\u2019 imbroglio.\n Know that this nether world but for a period lasts.\n T\u2019 abandon it, eternal rest to man forecasts.\n Give ear. Forsake all mundane ease, all earthly rest;\n Then will thy soul enjoy heaven\u2019s cup with double zest.\n Cast thou the carcase vile of earthly pomp to dogs.\n The cup of mere surmise reject; the soul it clogs. 495\n\n\n\n\nVI.\n\nThe Greater (Spiritual) Warfare.\n\n\n Great Princes all! We\u2019ve killed our dread external foe.\n Within us, still, a worse than he remains, I trow.\n To slay this inner foe is not the task of mind;\n Our moral lion\u2019s not destroyed by tricks refined.\n\n Our flesh, a hell; that hell a fiery dragon is.\n Whole oceans can\u2019t extinguish those fierce flames of his.\n Earth\u2019s seven oceans all were lost within his maw;\n His raging fires would still burn high, to mankind\u2019s awe.\n Pitcoal, hard-hearted miscreants; these are its food;[178]\n They sink within it, miserable, abject brood. 5\n Withal, its craving hunger ne\u2019er will be appeased,\n Until the voice of God cry unto it: \u201cArt eased?\u201d\n \u201cEased?\u201d will it answer; \u201cNo; not yet awhile by far;\n Behold my flame, my fury,--burning, fiery roar.\u201d\n It swallows down a universe in its fell mood;\n And instantly shrieks out: \u201cMore food! More food! More food!\u201d\n God, from nubiquity,[179] His foot will stamp on hell.\n Then will it cease to burn: \u201cHe willed, and it befell!\u201d[180]\n\n Our fleshly lusts in us are but a part of hell;\n Parts have the qualities of their universal. 10\n The foot of God alone can stamp out hell\u2019s alarms.\n Who else but God supreme to bend such bow has arms?\n Straight arrows serve alone to be shot from a bow;\n But lust\u2019s distorted spring shoots crooked arrows too.\n Be thou in mind upright as arrow straight for bow.\n A bow will not shoot straight, unless the arrow\u2019s so.\n\n We\u2019ve fought our fight and conquered in our outward strife.\n Now turn we our attention to the inner life.\n We\u2019ve done with outer warfare, lesser as it is;\n And as the Prophet, wage the greater warfare, his. 15\n We put our trust in God; from Him we ask for aid;\n With His assistance faith can move a mountain staid.\n To rout an armed foe is nothing very fresh;\n A lion true is he who conquers his own flesh.\n To illustrate this truth, give ear unto a tale,\n That thou of these few words the moral mayest inhale.\n\n From C\u00e6sar[181] an ambassador to \u2018Umer came,[182]\n Through deserts far-extending, from Mad\u012bna\u2019s fame.[183]\n He asked: \u201cWhere is the palace of the Caliph, men;[184]\n That I to it may lead my cavalcade, my train?\u201d 20\n The people answered: \u201cThou\u2019lt no Caliph\u2019s palace find,\n Our Caliph\u2019s sole pavilion\u2019s his enlightened mind.\n Through his \u2018_Commandership_\u2019 his fame to Rome has come;[185]\n But like our other poor, a hut\u2019s his ample home.\n How shouldst thou see _that_ palace, brother, stranger, guest,\n When in thy mind\u2019s eye thou a beam hast, unconfessed?\n Cast out that beam; make clear thy eye from every mote\n Then mayst thou entertain the hope to see his cote.\u201d\n\n Whoever shall his heart cleanse from all passions\u2019 bale,\n Will soon perceive therein a court and presence hale. 25\n When Ahmed\u2019s heart was cleansed of evil\u2019s fire and smoke,[186]\n Whichever way he turned, God\u2019s countenance bespoke.[187]\n So long as man keeps company with evil thought,\n How can he understand God\u2019s countenance in aught?\n He that a window\u2019s pierced from heart towards heaven\u2019s recess,\n Sees in each mote a ray from Sun of Righteousness.[188]\n God shines apparent in the midst of other things,\n As moon in majesty among the stars\u2019 twinklings.\n\n Place thou two finger-tips upon thy two eyeballs.\n What seest thou now of all the world? Darkness befalls. 30\n Thou seest it not; but that the world exists, thou\u2019lt trust.\n Our vices are the finger-tips of fleshly lust.\n Thy finger-tips remove; _instanter_, as before,\n Thou lookest around and seest whate\u2019er thou wilt explore.\n His people asked of Noah where righteousness might be.\n He said: \u201cLo, there! With muffled heads you cannot see.\n You\u2019ve wrapped your cloaks in folds about your heads and eyes.\n Your sense of sight cannot see what before you lies.\u201d\n\n The world\u2019s eye man is; all the rest\u2019s mere skin and shell.\n A real eye\u2019s he who strives his \u201cFriend\u201d to see right well.[189] 35\n Unless we see our Friend, \u2019twere better we were blind,\n A friend that is not constant\u2019s better out of mind.\n\n When Rome\u2019s ambassador had heard those words so wise,[190]\n His eager curiosity began to rise.\n He sought for \u2018Umer with redoubled zeal and zest;\n But in so doing lost his horse, and eke his chest.\n He wandered everywhere to seek the Caliph out.\n Like one distracted asked each passer-by his route.\n \u201cIs\u2019t possible,\u201d he said, \u201cthat such a man there be,\n When like the soul to sight invisible is he?\u201d 40\n\n He sought for him as though he \u2019d been his truant slave,\n But: \u201cHe who seeks shall find\u201d \u2019s a very well-known stave.\n A desert-Arab woman saw he at the last,\n Who told him \u2018Umer, then, beneath date-palm slept fast.\n Beneath a date-palm! Far from mankind\u2019s busy plod.\n That date-palm\u2019s shadow shaded the Shadow of God![191]\n\n He went towards the tree; a station took afar;\n He saw \u2018Umer; a fit of trembling showed his fear.\n On that ambassador did awe and dread alight.\n While o\u2019er his heart there stole a sense of sweet delight. 45\n Two feelings, love and dread, by nature opposites,\n Were mingled in his bosom by some occult rites.\n He thought within himself: \u201cI\u2019ve many princes seen;\n In sovereign presence I have ever welcome been.\n This fit of awe and trembling\u2019s very strange to me;\n And yet without dismay this man I cannot see.\n I\u2019ve been in forests where the lions make their lair;\n I\u2019ve met them face to face; yet knew not what was fear.\n In battle I\u2019ve been, oft; in thickest of the fight.\n My arm\u2019s upheld our cause, when in most desperate plight. 50\n Wounds have I dealt, received, that threatened life to take,\n Among the brave, the bravest; my heart knew no quake.\n This man is weaponless, supine upon the ground.\n Why then this tremor? It my every limb has bound.\n A ghostly awe is this; it\u2019s not a mortal fear.\n Most certainly it\u2019s not a dread of this man here.\n\n He who fears God has admonition of the Lord;\n Both men and demons stand in awe of his mere word.\u201d\n Mute he remained in reverential attitude,\n Till \u2018Umer woke from his trance of beatitude. 55\n\n Profound obeisance and grave salutation made,\n As said the Prophet: \u201cFirst, salute; then, embassade.\u201d\n The Caliph answered: \u201cAnd on thee be peace! Draw near;\u201d\n Assured him of protection; bade him put off fear.\n \u201cFear not\u201d a word of comfort is to trembling soul;\n A generous tribute \u2019tis, when strong with weak condole.\n Men set at ease the object whom they wish to raise,\u2014\n Relieve his heart from palpitation; bid fears cease.\n But unto one who feels no dread how say: \u201cFear not\u201d?\n What lesson\u2019s this thou givest to one whose lesson\u2019s got? 60\n\n So \u2018Umer put at ease that much perturbed man;\n And calmed his wavering mind, as noble hearts best can.\n To him he then addressed some subtle words of sense,\n Set forth the attributes of God,--man\u2019s best defence,\n Declared the goodness of the Lord to all who trust\n In Him alone; the rank they gain in trance combust.\n\n Saint\u2019s ecstasy springs from a glimpse of God, his pride.\n His station\u2019s that of intimate. He\u2019s bridegroom; God is bride.[192]\n A bride\u2019s veiled graces are not seen by groom alone;\n Her unveiled charms solely to him in private shown. 65\n In state she first appears before the people all;\n Her veil removed, the groom alone is at her call.\n Entranced are many Gnostic worshippers, I ween;\n Few gain admission to the presence-chamber scene.\n\n \u2018Umer told all the stations passed through by his soul;\u2014\n Its flights, fights, tribulations, ere it was made whole.\n He spoke of times when flight of time\u2019s of no account;\n Of Holiness\u2019s station, glorious to recount.\n He talked of atmospheres in which his righteous soul\n Had soared to seek fresh conquests of devotion\u2019s whole. 70\n Its every flight had been beyond th\u2019 horizon scant;\n Beyond the hope, or e\u2019en desire, of aspirant.\n\n He found a willing list\u2019ner in the stranger guest,\n Whose mind was framed t\u2019 investigate such mysteries blest.\n The teacher was perfection; novice full of zeal;\n Like clever jockey on a steed with lightning heel.\n He found his scholar apt, of great capacity.\n So good seed sowed in fertile soil sagacity.\n\n Th\u2019 ambassador now asked: \u201cOf true believers Prince!\n How can a soul from heaven come down to earth\u2019s province;\u2014 75\n How can so great a bird be cooped up in a cage?\u201d\n\n He answered: \u201cGod speaks words of power, most sage.\n Those words, addressed to nothings without eyes or ears,\n Set them in motion. Like a ferment, fruit it bears.\n Those words no sooner spoken, quick those nothings all\n In motion put themselves, and reach existence\u2019 hall.\n Or He commands these beings, creatures of His own;\n And they return to nothing, whence He them had drawn.\n He speaks unto the flowers; they forthwith burst in bloom.\n His voice the flint hears; lo, it\u2019s a cornelian stone. 80\n A spell He laid on matter; spirit it became.\n By charm from Him the sun sprang forth, a lambent flame.\n If He but whisper words of awe, the sun again\n Is seized with darkness of eclipse, like night amain.\n What is\u2019t He says, by which the teeming eye of cloud\n Sheds forth its tears, as drops from water-skin unsewed?\n\n What incantation to the earth addresses He,\n To make it produce cattle,--whose hides used may be?\n The hesitations of each puzzled child of thought\n Arise from some enigma by which God\u2019s him caught. 85\n On horns of a dilemma is he fixed, poor man.\n \u2018Shall I do this,\u2019 says he, \u2018when \u2019ts opposite I can?\u2019\n From God, too, is the power to make selection\u2019s choice\n Of two solutions. One is taken, through inward voice.\n Wouldst thou be always free from hesitation, fool?\n Stuff not thy mind\u2019s ear tight with doubt\u2019s dull cotton-wool;\n That thou mayst solve the riddles God may set for thee;\u2014\n That thou mayst understand the full of mercy free.\n Then shall thy heart receive His inspiration\u2019s gift,\u2014\n A power of speaking from an inward impulse\u2019 drift. 90\n The ear and eye of soul are organs not of sense;\n The ears of sense and mind are not like soul\u2019s, intense.\n The word \u201c_compulsion_\u201d puts me out of humour quite.\n Who hath not love of God, compulsion\u2019s slave\u2019s, by right.\n This union\u2019s based on truth (compulsion is too proud);\n It is a glimpse of sunshine breaking through a cloud.\n Be it compulsion. Man\u2019s compulsion it is not;\u2014\n Not the compulsion of browbeating from a sot.\n Compulsion\u2019s felt by them, my very worthy friend,\n Whose eyes of faith, ope\u2019d in their hearts, on God attend. 95\n The absent and the future patent are to them;\n To speak about the past is what they most contemn.\n Election and compulsion, theirs, are not the same.\n As dewdrops in the oyster-shell rare pearls became.[193]\n Outside, they\u2019re dewdrops, solely, whether great or small;\n Inside they\u2019re pearls of price, whose value knows no fall.\n Such men by nature are just like the musk-deer\u2019s pod;\n It\u2019s fed with blood of artery, musk it yields, through God.\n Ask not how \u2019tis that outward blood can change like this;\n Becoming musk when in the pod secreted \u2019tis. 100\n Ask not how copper vile, by wise alchemist\u2019s art,\n Is changed to gold when solved by elixir in part.[194]\n Election and compulsion, fancies both, in thee;\n But when by saints they\u2019re viewed, God\u2019s glory may they be.\n Upon the table, bread\u2019s a lifeless, senseless mass;\n When taken in man\u2019s mouth, the soul it joins, in class.\n On table transubstantiation takes not place;[195]\n The soul it is transforms it, nourished by God\u2019s grace.\n Such is the soul\u2019s great power; most perspicacious man,\n So long as that soul life and power retain can. 105\n A human being, mass of mingled flesh and blood,\n Moved by the Lord, can cleave hill, dale, mine, and sea\u2019s flood.\n The strength of strongest man can merely split a stone;[196]\n The Power that informs man\u2019s soul can cleave the moon.[197]\n If man\u2019s heart but untie the mouth of mystery\u2019s sack,\n His soul soon soars aloft beyond the starry track.\n If heaven\u2019s mystery divulged should, \u2019haps, become,\n The whole world \u2019twould burn up, as fire doth wood consume.\u201d\n\n Let\u2019s contemplate the acts of God, the deeds of men;\n Know, men\u2019s deeds do exist. This truth is patent, then. 110\n If men\u2019s deeds be not in this nether world of ours,\n Say not thou unto others: \u201cWhy these deeds of yours?\u201d\n God\u2019s act it is through which those deeds of ours arise;\n Our acts are but the sequels of God\u2019s agencies.\n\n The letter, or the spirit, \u2019tis, our reason weighs.\n But both at once it cannot comprehend always.\n Examining the spirit, letter we neglect;\n At one time forwards, backwards we cannot prospect.\n If thou straight forward look at any point of time,\n Thou canst not backwards see, whatever be the clime. 115\n Our souls not taking in the letter, spirit too,\n How could they e\u2019er create these predicates, one, two?\n God comprehendeth all things;--all things doth ensue;\n One act\u2019s no hindrance, with Him, other acts to do.\n\n The reason Satan gave: \u201cSince Thou hast tempted me,\u201d[198]\n The scheming demon strove to hide his sin, we see.\n His trespass Adam owned: \u201cAgainst ourselves we\u2019ve sinned.\u201d[199]\n God\u2019s act he, like as we, then left not out of mind.\n Through shame the act of Satan Adam secret kept.\n Self-accusation\u2019s fruit, in consequence, he reaped. 120\n Repentance shown by Adam, God in mercy said:\n \u201cIn thee \u2019twas I created, sin thou hast displayed.\n Was it not My decree and providence that thou,\n In asking pardon, shouldst the tempter disavow?\u201d\n Said Adam: \u201cThee I feared; most bitter shame I felt.\u201d\n God added: \u201cIt was I who gave thee shame heartfelt.\u201d\n\n Consideration he who shows considered is;\n So he who brings the sugar, share of cake is his.\n For whom, then, benefits, but practisers of good?[200]\n Keep pleased thy friend. Offend him; see what ensue would. 125\n One sole example study,--instance of this law,\u2014\n Compulsion and election\u2019s difference to draw.\n \u201cThere is a hand that shakes from palsy or from fear.\n Another hand also thou shakest when thou\u2019rt near.\n Know: God it is creates the movement in them both;\n And yet there\u2019s no resemblance in their motions loth.\n Thou\u2019rt sorry that thou shakedst that man\u2019s hand anon,\n When thou seest him annoyed at what thou\u2019st just now done.\u201d\n\n A question \u2019tis of judgment; judgment shrewdness is,\n Until some weakness intervene to mar all this. 130\n A question, now, of judgment as to corals, pearls,\n Is not the same as one about the soul, you churls.\n A question of the soul\u2019s another matter quite;\n The wine that feeds the soul comes not from grapes, black, white.\n\n When any matter is a question of judgment,\n \u2018Umer with Ab\u016b-Jahl\u2019s in one predicament.\n \u2018Umer gave up his judgment; rested on his soul.\n \u2019B\u016b-Jahl received this name through lack of self-control.[201]\n In sense and reason Ab\u016b-Jahl a master was;\n But as to soul, in ignorance he fell, alas! 135\n Of sense and reason questions are cause and effect;\n But miracles and wonders show soul is a fact.\n Enlightenment of soul, whatever it may see.\n By quibbles of school logic cannot silenced be.\n\n We now return again our tale to take in hand,\n Though certainly we\u2019ve never left it out of mind.\n\n In ignorance, our souls are in God\u2019s prison chained.\n In wisdom, by God\u2019s help, their liberty\u2019s regained.\n In sleep, God\u2019s lethargy it is in which we sink.\n Awake, we\u2019re in God\u2019s hands, whatever we may think. 140\n In weeping, we are clouds from which His mercy flows.\n In laughter, we\u2019re the flash with which His lightning glows.\n In anger, we\u2019re reflections of the wrath of God.\n In amity, the mirrors of His favour\u2019s nod.\n What are we in this world? All tortuous and bent.\n There is not one upright, straightforward, innocent.\n\n C\u00e6sar\u2019s ambassador no sooner \u2018Umer heard,\n Than light broke on his heart; at which he stroked his beard.\n All questions and all answers from his mind went quite;\n All sense of right and wrong had vanished from his sight. 145\n He\u2019d found the source; what need, then, of the streams?\n To gather further wisdom, pondering on the means,\n He said: \u201c\u2018Umer, pray tell me what\u2019s the end and use\n Of shutting up that thing of light in darkness\u2019 house?\n How can clear water be expected from black mud?\n Why then is the pure soul combined with flesh and blood?\u201d\n He answered: \u201cMost important question hast thou raised.\n A sense, a spirit, by the letter paraphrased.\n The free, the jocund spirit prisoner thou\u2019st made;\n As though the mind, the air, could into letter fade. 150\n Thou hast done this for explanation\u2019s sake,\u2014[202]\n Thou, who beyond the explanation place wouldst take.\n How should the man in whom the explanation\u2019s gleamed,\n Not yet distinguish what\u2019s to me so clearly beamed?\n Ten thousand explanations are there, each of which\n Is most momentous,--than ten thousand others, rich.\n With that, thy speech, now compoundly particular,\n A universal explanation were,--no bar.\n Thou art a partial,--seekest explanation still;\n Why set thyself, then, to deny th\u2019 universal? 155\n Unless thy speech contain some use, propound it not;\n And if it have, objection quit; give what thou\u2019st got.\n\n Thanks are incumbent upon every mortal\u2019s head;\n Contention and sour looks are surely no one\u2019s bread.\n If to put on sour looks, of thankfulness sign be,\n Then vinegar the sweetest-spoken thing we\u2019d see.\n If vinegar desire to hearts a way to find,\n It oxymel becomes, with honey sweet combined.\n True, verse is not best vehicle for sense abstract.\n It\u2019s like a sling; one\u2019s never certain how \u2019t will act.\u201c 160\n\n Th\u2019 ambassador his senses lost with this one cup\n Of wine spiritual. His mission he gave up.\n O\u2019erwhelmed with wonder at the power of God, he fell.\n He came ambassador; now sovereign was, as well.\n\n A river overflooded constitutes a lake.\n Some grains, when sown in earth, a field of corn can make.\n When eaten, bread assimilated is by man,\n That bread inanimate takes life, and reason can.\n When wood or candle is made victim unto fire,\n Its substance dark becomes a source of light entire. 165\n Black _stibium_, a stone, when placed in human eye,\n Expands the power of vision, objects can descry.\n Good luck to him who\u2019s saved from his own fleshly self,\n And has become a parcel of some living elf.\n Alas for him, who, living, sits among the dead.\n He\u2019s dead himself, his life from out of him has fled.\n\n If thou take refuge in the Qur\u2019\u0101n, God\u2019s own book,\n With spirit of Muhammed thou\u2019lt soon exchange look.\n The Qur\u2019\u0101n is the essence of all prophets right.\n They were the whales who swam in ocean of God\u2019s might. 170\n If thou canst read or not, the Qur\u2019\u0101n take to heart,\n The saints and prophets study; they were as thou art.\n Read thou it carefully; read, mark, digest its tales;\n Thy soul, like bird in cage, will long to break its rails.\n The bird shut up, imprisoned in a little cage,\n That seeks not to get out, is ignorant, not sage.\n\n The souls who\u2019ve freed themselves from cages of the flesh,\n Are worthy fellow-travellers with prophets, fresh.\n Their voices they lift up, religion to impart:\n \u201cThe way of sure deliverance is here. Take heart! 175\n Religion hath us saved from fleshly cages, sure.\n No other way is there, salvation to secure.\n You then upon yourselves will chastisements inflict,\n That you may be delivered from the world\u2019s respect.\u201d\n\n Respect of mortal man a heavy fetter is;\n Within religion\u2019s path the gravest bond is this.\n Consider well this tale, ingenuous young friend; 179\n \u2019Twill teach thee many lessons may thy morals mend.\n\n\n\n\nVII.\n\nThe Merchant and the Parrot.\n\n\n A merchant there was, who a parrot did own;\n Confined in a cage, wisest bird in the town.\n This merchant to journeying made up his mind\n To fair Hind\u016bst\u0101n, there some rich wares to find.\n From generous motives, to each of his slaves,\n To male, and to female, some gift to bring craves.\n He made them all tell him what best they would like;\n And promised to bring it, most gentlemanlike.\n He said to the parrot: \u201cPoll! Poll! With the rest,\n From Hind I must bring thee what thou mayst like best.\u201d 5\n\n The parrot replied: \u201cSure, thou\u2019lt see parrots there,\n To them pray impart how it is that I fare.\n Inform them, a parrot who loves them all well,\n By thee\u2019s kept confined, close shut up in a cell.\n He sends you his love, and his very best wish;\n Desiring from you wise advice, parrotish.\n He fears he may pine, through longing to see\n His dear absent friends,--die in foreign countree.\n He asks if it is altogether thing fit,\n That he should be caged, while you on the trees sit. 10\n If this is the way in which true friends should act;\n Leave him in his cage, while you forests affect.\n He wishes you\u2019d call to your mind your lost friend,\n When drinking your bumpers, ere fieldward you wend.[203]\n\n \u2019Tis sweet to be thought of by far-away dame,\n One\u2019s sweetheart, whose love\u2019s set one\u2019s heart in a flame.\n While you are disporting with those you love best,\n He\u2019s eating his heart out; grief gives him no rest.\n One bumper you\u2019ll drink for the love of poor Poll,[204]\n If only you wish him your love to extol. 15\n Or, thinking of him who\u2019s in slavery kept,\n Your bowl\u2019s whole contents dash to earth, as though wept.\n O where is the promise, and where is the oath,\n Th\u2019 engagements sworn to him by sugarsome tooth?[205]\n If absence of his came from truancy\u2019s pranks,\n You\u2019ve set your forgetfulness \u2019gainst his sin\u2019s ranks.\n The ills you inflict out of spite and disdain\n Are sweet to your lover, he does not complain.\n Your petulance prized is beyond fairy gifts;\n Your vengeance most dear is; his hope it uplifts. 20\n No soul can imagine what pleasure is felt,\n Or grace seen, in all the fell blows you have dealt.\n Your wrath is thus sweet; how much more so your grace!\n If mourning so grieve, what from feast would take place?\n He weeps; but he hopes you\u2019ll believe not his tears;\n And, out of affection, not lessen his fears.\n He loves your great kindness, your anger as well.\n He equally dotes on those opposites fell.\n The thorn escape should he, and visit the rose,\n He\u2019d warble as nightingale, moved by love\u2019s throes. 25\n Most wondrous this bird\u2019s strangest use of his bill;\n With thorns, as with roseleaves, he would his mouth fill.\n Not nightingale this; fiery dragon it is;\n All wrongs seem to him, through his love, purest bliss.\n He loveth a rose, and himself is a rose.\n He loveth himself; and seeks love for its woes.\u201d\n\n Just so is the soul. Its tale, just parrot\u2019s tale.\n O where is the One to whom all souls make wail?\n Where is the man, feeble, who\u2019s yet innocent?\n His heart, Solomon and his whole armament. 30\n When he, with tears bitter, is heard to complain,\n The seven vaults of heaven re-echo the strain.\n In anguish he groans; God, in mercy, him hears.\n His cry is: \u201cO Lord!\u201d And God wipes off his tears.\n Abasement in him, is by God highly prized.\n His blasphemies, o\u2019er other men\u2019s faith are raised.[206]\n Each instant, in soul, he ascends to heaven\u2019s gate;\n His mitre\u2019s with crowns capped, of infinite state.[207]\n His frame\u2019s here on earth; his pure soul with the Lord\n In heaven\u2019s highest sphere, above man\u2019s thought or word. 35\n A heaven such as this thou contemplatest not;\n Thou every moment imaginest--what?\n With him \u201c_where_\u201d and \u201c_nowhere_\u201d are quite equal felt.\n To angels the \u201c_four rivers_\u201d seem a mere belt.[208]\n\n Break off we this theme. Let\u2019s discuss other things.\n Cease trifling. \u201c\u2019Tis God who knows best\u201d sense\u2019s rings.[209]\n Let\u2019s seek to inquire how it fares with our friends,\u2014\n The merchant, his parrot. Who is\u2019t understands?\n\n The former had promised, at latter\u2019s request,\n To give to the birds of far Hind his bequest. 40\n So when he had reached that land, greatly renowned\n In wooded retreat, flock of parrots he found.\n He stopped his beast, cried out, at top of his voice,\n That message his Polly had made, as his choice.\n One bird of the flock, he saw, then took to quake,\n Fell prone to the earth; no more breath seemed to take.\n The merchant regret felt for what he had done,\n Exclaiming: \u201cAlas! The poor bird I\u2019ve slain, lone!\n That creature was surely related to Poll;\n Two bodies; one soul; just as is magic doll. 45\n Why did I deliver that fatal message?\n I\u2019ve killed a collateral of Poll\u2019s lineage!\u201d\n\n The tongue, by itself, acts just like flint and steel.\n A word from it, fire-like, we scathing can feel.\n Strike not, then, so rashly, fire\u2019s sparks from thy tongue,\n In message or talk, feeble hearers among.\n The night is pitch dark; strewn around, cotton beds.\n Amongst beds of cotton, \u2019tis, sparks one most dreads.\n He sins who, unmindful of dire consequence,\n Lets fall spoken spark,--fires a whole world, immense. 50\n One rash word may set an assembly ablaze.\n Molehills into mountains, and higher, it can raise.\n\n In basis, our souls would appear Jesus-like.\n To kill, to resuscitate, words are godlike.\n If lifted could be from our souls the dark veil,\n Each word of each soul would with miracles trail.\n\n Dost wish to speak always to men with sweet words?\n Have patience. Impatience must not fret the cords.\n \u2019Tis patience beloved is by all men of sense.\n Impatience a fault is, of children, intense. 55\n Who patience exhibits shall mount to heaven\u2019s dome.\n Impatience who showeth, tastes wrath that\u2019s to come.\n\n A saint is not hurt, whate\u2019er else may betide,[210]\n To swallow fell poison should he once decide.\n He\u2019s whole, and he\u2019s sound; strict diet\u2019s his rule.\n Poor students are healthy in fever\u2019s dread school.\n The Prophet has cautioned: \u201cBrave though you may be,\n Commit not mad rashness, howe\u2019er the foe flee.\u201d\n\n Within thee\u2019s a Nimrod. Approach not the fire.\n Approach it thou must? To be Abr\u2019am aspire. 60\n A swimmer thou art not;--nor seaman by trade;\n From headstrongness strive not the deep sea to wade.\n From fire Abr\u2019am brought forth a fresh-plucked red rose.\n A diver, from sea-bottom, pearls\u2019 store can choose.\n A saint handles earth, turns it straightway to gold.\n A sinner, by touch, to earth turns this;--behold.\n A just man\u2019s accepted of God, the Most High.\n His deeds are the works of God\u2019s hand, still. Eigh! Eigh!\n Th\u2019 imperfect one\u2019s hand is aye Satan\u2019s foul limb;\n Responsible rests he, howe\u2019er he may climb.[211] 65\n To him wisdom\u2019s self\u2019s but a mere misguidance.\n Th\u2019 imperfect man\u2019s science is crass ignorance.\n Whatever as cause acts, as cause counted is;\n A perfect man\u2019s blasphemy\u2019s pure faith, my quiz.[212]\n Rash combatant, fight\u2019st thou on foot \u2019gainst horseman!\n Thy point thou\u2019lt not carry;--as sure as thou\u2019rt man.\n\n So, Egypt\u2019s magicians, in old Pharaoh\u2019s days,\n Contended \u2019gainst Moses; and rashly, always.\n At length they owned Moses superior was;\n Men honour, revere him, who most of power has. 70\n They said to him, then: \u201cCommand \u2019s thine! See! Purely!\n \u2018Thy rod cast down\u2019 first.[213] This thy wish is; surely.\u201d\n He answered: \u201cNay, nay! First cast ye down your wands.\n Produce to our sight the tricks ye\u2019ve in your hands.\u201d\n The honour thus paid was a slur on their faith,\n Removing contention from out of their path.\n When they had perceived what was thus due to him,\n They error acknowledged, though somewhat too dim.\n\n The \u201cperfect man\u201d \u2019s free both to eat and to speak.[214]\n If thou art \u201cimperfect,\u201d eat, speak not, in freak. 75\n Thou art but an ear. He\u2019s a tongue;--not like thee.\n To ear was addressed God\u2019s word: \u201cSilent be.\u201d[215]\n\n A newly-born infant, still sucking the breast,\n Is speechless some while. He\u2019s all ear, at the best.\n His lips to keep closed he has, for a set time;\n To speak till he learns,--words to frame and to chime.\n If ear he lend not, he\u2019ll not learn common sense;\n Becomes laughingstock;--folly shows, most immense.\n If hearing he have not, deaf being at root,\n He mute must remain; no tongue has he, to boot. 80\n Since, then, we must listen, before we can speak,\n Lend ear to thy teachers, to guide thee who seek.\n A room should be entered, as rule, through its door.\n Effects ever seek where thou seest their cause\u2019 spoor.\n The speech that has need to be heard by no ear,\n The voice is of God; it\u2019s to us ever near.\n Inventor is He. From no one has He learnt.\n Of all, He\u2019s the stay; not a prop does He want.\n All others require, as in speech, so in deed,\n From others, instruction; they all patterns need. 85\n\n If thou art not negligent,--hear\u2019st what\u2019s been said,\n Adopt dervish frock; go and weep in homestead.\n Himself Adam saved from all blame by his tears.\n So tears run wherever repentance appears.\n To weep, Adam came down to this nether world;\n To sigh, moan, and groan; far from sweet Eden hurled,\n From paradise shut out, from heaven driven down,\n Like schoolboy in fool\u2019s-cap, his great sin to drown.\n\n If thou\u2019rt seed of Adam;--if from his loins sprung;\n Like him, do thou seek for God\u2019s pardon, whilst young. 90\n With burnings of heart, and with moisture of eyes,\n As sun and as rain, do thou sorrow\u2019s fruit raise.\n Of all the rich solace, what knowest thou of tears?\n Thou beggest still for bread, like a blind man, with leers.\n Thy stomach make void of foul greed\u2019s lust for bread.\n Thy heart thou\u2019lt find filled with deep love for Godhead.\n Thy infant soul wean from the gross milk of greed,\n Then teach it to join, next, in angel\u2019s pure creed.\n So long thou remainest in darkness and thrall,\n A bantling of Satan thou art, out at call. 95\n\n The morsel that brings a pure light to the soul\n Is earned by endeavour; not begged with a bowl.\n Should oil, upon trimming, extinguish a lamp,\n Not oil may we name it; \u2019tis water; \u2019tis damp.\n The honestly-earned morsel, wisdom imparts;\n Gives softness to souls, and a warmness to hearts.\n If thou be aware that from thy morsel spring\n Heartburnings and hate, know it\u2019s not a blest thing.\n Hast wheat ever sown, and reaped barley instead?\n Hast known colt of ass from a mare in birth bred? 100\n A morsel, when eaten, \u2019s a seed; its fruit, thought.\n A morsel, when swallowed, \u2019s a sea pearls has brought.\n From good, honest morsels come, taken in mouth,\n Good works, and firm strivings to shun the soul\u2019s drought.\n Reflections, though true, we\u2019ll now bring to an end.\n To merchant and parrot\u2019s tale ear we will lend.\n\n Our merchant his trading had quickly despatched,\n Then homeward he turned; with joy housedoor unlatched.\n To ev\u2019ry male slave a rare present he brought;\n For each of his handmaids some gift he had bought. 105\n The parrot him questioned: \u201cWhat news bringest thou me?\n And whom hast thou seen? What\u2019s been said? Tell. Let\u2019s see.\u201d\n The merchant him answered: \u201cI\u2019m sorry for that.\n I\u2019d rather my hand eat, than tell it thee;--flat.\n In thoughtlessness, folly, ah! why did I prate\n About thy fool\u2019s message, until \u2019twas too late?\u201d\n\n The parrot then asked: \u201cWhat\u2019s this fuss all about?\n What\u2019s caused tribulation? Let\u2019s hear it right out.\u201d\n The merchant now said: \u201cI told all thy sad grief\n To flock of green parrots;--so like thee, their chief. 110\n Of them, one, affected with thy tale of woe,\n Heart-broken, a gasp gave, expired, and fell low.\n I conscience-struck was for the words I had said.\n But what is the use? A word breathed can\u2019t be stayed.\u201d\n\n A spoken word\u2019s arrow swift shot from a bow,\n It can\u2019t be recalled, whate\u2019er we may do.\n An arrow once shot off will never come back.\n At source, inundation alone can have check.\n An outlet once found, there\u2019s no stoppage for it.\n A world is then ruined, through lack of quick wit. 115\n Act, consequence little dreamt of may produce.\n The progeny\u2019s far \u2019yond our power to reduce.\n\n The work of one Maker \u2019s this universe all.\n Our acts\u2019 consequences to our accounts fall.\n Jack shoots off an arrow;--directs it to Jill.\n The arrow poor Jill hits;--straightway does her kill.\n If only it wound her, for great length of time\n It tortures. Pain\u2019s God\u2019s work; wherever the clime.\n Should Jack, at that moment, expire from his fright,\n To plague her Jill\u2019s wound would not cease, day or night. 120\n If from the effect of great pain, then, she die,\n Remote cause is Jack, still, of her misery.\n Account he must render for those pangs of hers.\n Although they\u2019re God\u2019s acts, man to man them refers.\n And so propagation, seed-sowing, and all;\n Effects of them operate. God\u2019s sole, the call.\n\n A saint acquires powers, most astounding, from God.[216]\n The flying bolt he can avert with a nod.\n The door can be shut between cause, consequence,\n On saint\u2019s reclamation, by God\u2019s prescience. 125\n He makes said unsaid, from beginning to end.\n Hence, neither does skewer burn, roast to coal trend.[217]\n From every mind that has knowledge of fact,\n Remembrance effaced is, though brains may be racked.\n Of this, dost thou proof require, most worthy friend,\n The text read: \u201cWhat verse We annul, or We mend.\u201d[218]\n Again: \u201cThey my warning made you to forget.\u201d[219]\n By these is oblivion\u2019s great power \u2019fore us set.\n\n To make us remember, forget, they power have.\n They\u2019ve hearts subjugated o\u2019er creation\u2019s wave. 130\n Whene\u2019er dull forgetfulness blinds eye of man,\n No act can he do, howe\u2019er wide his scan.\n Dost dare, thou, great saints to make laughingstock?[220]\n To words of the Prophet give heed, silly block.\n Earth\u2019s lords have dominion o\u2019er bodies of clay.\n Enlightened saints rule hold o\u2019er hearts;--their own sway.\n All acts are fruits, doubtless, of experience.\n Man, then, is but pupil. All\u2019s, else, mere pretence.[221]\n I\u2019ll close now this subject; much more I might say;\n Prevented I am by the rules I obey. 135\n\n Remembrance, forgetfulness, both are of God.\n Support and aid, too, must depend on His nod.\n Of thoughts, God, men\u2019s good and bad souls voids, each night,\n By millions. Since this has seemed good in His sight.\n By day, their hearts fill with their thoughts all, again,\n Those oystershells He fills with rich pearls amain.\n He knows all the thoughts that here trouble our frames.\n \u2019Tis He that gives guidance to souls in their games.\n\n Thy talent, thy judgment, unto thee are given,\n That means thou may\u2019st have to redeem thy fallen leaven. 140\n The goldsmith\u2019s rich art\u2019s not by weaver possessed,\n By jocund vein here, there another\u2019s distressed.\n Though mind\u2019s frame and talents endowments are, all,\n They seem to a foe mere machines for his thrall.\n When sleep is departed, thoughts, talents return,\n One\u2019s foe so comes back, has of war one more turn.\n With dawn, all our thoughts, all our talents, awake,\n As erst, good or bad; ere repose we could take.\n So carrier pigeons, wherever they\u2019ve been,\n Return to their homes, quit the woodlands all green. 145\n We see, thus, that all things revert to their source.\n Parts ever must go shares in whole\u2019s intercourse.\n\n So soon as our bird heard that parrot\u2019s sad state,\n A shudder he gave, fainted, grew stiff as slate.\n The merchant, on seeing this, seized with dismay,\n Himself dashed to earth; wished he\u2019d been far away.\n His clothes rent in sorrow; his beard he plucked out;\n And moaned, in distress wildly sobbing, throughout:\n\n \u201cMy parrot, why, dearest, thus broken of heart?\n Dead art thou, now, really? So fain to depart? 150\n Poor pet! Darling bird! With thee, hours I could talk.\n My sweetheart! My second self! Loved was thy walk.\n Alas for poor Polly! Where\u2019s now his sly chat?\n Alas, my companion! How shall I bear that?\n Had Solomon seen a green parrot like mine,\n What pleasure had he felt in other birds\u2019 line?\n Dear prattler, in whose words I took such delight!\n And then, thus to leave me, with naught in my sight!\n Thy tongue to me dearer than gold\u2019s wealth untold;\n At sound of thy sweet voice my joy was tenfold.\u201d 155\n\n O tongue! Thou\u2019rt a fire, and also a cornstack![222]\n My patience, the cornstack! Hark! How its flames crack!\n My soul doth, in secret, of thee complain sore;\n But whate\u2019er thou wishest, it does evermore.\n O tongue: Thou\u2019rt a treasure, beyond all earth\u2019s price!\n And yet thou\u2019rt a plague, that\u2019s not always too nice!\n A whistle art thou, birds decoying afield.\n A solace to love\u2019s wayward, fitful, spoilt child.\n To men thou\u2019rt all darkness, and blasphemy\u2019s bale;\n To saints, guide, companion too, through this dark vale. 160\n Thou\u2019rt pitiless! Pity on me take, awhile.\n Thy bow thou hast strung, on poor me to work guile.\n Thou hast taken my bird; thou hast flustered my soul.\n So cruel why be? Why delight take so foul?\n An answer pray give; or else, deal out justice;\n Or hope let me have to taste joy\u2019s chalice.\n My dawn! Thou dispellest my deep\u2019ning darkness.\n My light! Day with thee is all sunshine brightness.\n Alas! That swift bird, boldly soaring, of mine,\n My lowest fall plumbed, traced my lineage divine. 165\n The ignorant, wooers of trouble are, all.\n \u201cI swear,\u201d down to \u201cmisery\u201d read, thou poor thrall.[223]\n From misery free made me thy countenance.\n From spume, so the clear stream of thy assistance.\n Regret is a nursing of phantoms by day.\n Neglect, stern realities drives not away.\n A zeal for the truth is in God, there\u2019s no doubt.\n The heart, with God\u2019s will, is constrained to burst out.\n He\u2019s zeal, Who is \u201cother,\u201d far, than all things else,[224]\n Beyond all praise, laud, blessing, thanks, in heart\u2019s pulse. 170\n Alas! my hot tears have become briny lake,\u2014\n An offering worthy my lost idol\u2019s sake.\n My parrot! My wise bird! My starling art thou!\n Interpreter, reader of thoughts, secrets, thou.\n All daily events, results, just or unjust,\n By Him ordained were, as I know, from the first.\n The Parrot, inspired, who by voice of man spoke,\n Existed ere dawn of existence first broke.\n That Parrot is plainly within thyself felt;\n Around thee His motto is ev\u2019rywhere spelt. 175\n Art joyful? From Him, know, all joys here do spring.\n Art wronged? Thou submittest. Thou\u2019rt under His wing.\n O thou, who for body dost injure thy soul,\n Thy proud flesh to pamper, dost wrong to thy whole.\n I, too, am in flames. Who, then, seeks burning brand,\n The trash to consume of conceit from the land?\n That which is once burnt cannot blaze out again.\n Select flaming brand, living fire choose, amain.\n Alas! Lackaday! What has thus come to me?\n My full moon in clouds why thus hidden to be? 180\n I scarcely can breathe; with deep sorrow heart burns;\n Male-lion-like, grief all kind condolence spurns.\n He who in his senses has thus become drunk,\n How fierce would he rage, if in cups he were sunk.\n A lion in heat, he, despising all bounds;\n No forest would hold him, nor dense jungle-grounds.\n\n Of rhymes do I dream? \u2019Tis my love orders me[225]\n Of love still to dream;--swain devoted to be:\n \u201cThyself make thou happy. Rhymes leave, now, alone.\n The rhyme I seek, thou art. I love thee, my own. 185\n What\u2019s rhyme, that thou turnest thy thoughts thitherward?\n Mere bramble on wall, hedging round our vineyard.\n I care not for words, for asseverations;\n My time if I pass in these sweet delusions.\n Suggestion there is, one, kept secret from men.\n To thee I\u2019ll impart. Thou keep\u2019st secrets, like pen.\n Suggestion occult, Abr\u2019am knew not one jot.\n One secret, that Gabriel as yet conceives not.\n One mystery, to Jesus that never was known,\n In jealousy God spake to me all alone.\u201d[226] 190\n\n What do we with tongue? We affirm; we deny.\n I\u2019m no affirmation; denial am I.\n In impersonality, person I find.\n In ungenerosity, goodness of mind.\n Earth\u2019s potentates slaves are of their own slaves\u2019 will.\n All mortals, mere corpses of dead corpses, still.\n Kings, subject are here to their own subjects\u2019 whim.\n Man\u2019s drunk with those intoxicated of him.\n The hunter of birds them entraps in his toils,\n Himself is then pounced on, despite of his foils. 195\n A beauty makes prey of the men soft of heart.\n Sweethearts fall the victims of false lover\u2019s dart.\n If lover thou see, know, a sweetheart he\u2019s, too,\n \u2019Tis but a relation. Each one\u2019s one of two.\n If thirst seeks for water in this wide domain,\n The water, on its side, the thirst courts again.\n\n Should any one love thee, do thou silent be.\n Thy ear claims he then, thou attentive should\u2019st be.\n The torrent bank up that threats dire overflow;\n Or ravage \u2019twill make of the lands down below. 200\n What care I if cities in ruins should fall,\n In ruins we treasures find dear to us all.\n Man merged in God, most entirely is drowned\n As wave of a sea, soul but goes a set round.\n Is bottom of that sea preferred more, or top?\n Is God\u2019s shaft desired more, or shield, it to stop?\n By doubts and by fears thou\u2019lt piecemeal be torn, heart.\n If thou well distinguish from joy, sorrow\u2019s smart.\n Desir\u2019st thou to taste, then, true happiness, joy?\n \u2019Tis not thine to choose. Beauty ever\u2019s most coy. 205\n Each spangle of beauty\u2019s star outshines the moon.\n To wreck a whole world\u2019s naught to beauty\u2019s full moon.\n What is it we\u2019re good for? To sacrifice self.\n Then hasten, my good friend, to offer thyself.\n A lover\u2019s whole life is but self-sacrifice;\n He wins not a heart, save his own heart\u2019s the price.\n A heart I once courted with soft blandishment;\n With pretexts was put off, most magniloquent.\n I said my heart brimful was quite with her love;\n Said she: \u201cHold thy tongue, now; that theme let\u2019s not move.\u201d 210\n What have you been doing, you two eyes of mine?\n Why saw you that cruel one? Left me to pine?\n Presumptuous man! Didst thou hold her so cheap,\n Because, by her kindness, made easy thy sleep?\n What\u2019s easily got in this world, \u2019s easy spent.\n A child will give jewels at cake\u2019s allurement.\n With love I\u2019m o\u2019erwhelm\u2019d, now, of such a sad sort,\n That ancients and moderns to it are all sport.\n\n I\u2019ve made short my story; details are not given.\n \u2019Twould otherwise scorch heart and tongue\u2019s whole joint leaven. 215\n When I may say \u201clip,\u201d I mean \u201cmargin of sea;\u201d\n When \u201cNo!\u201d you may take its true sense \u201cYes!\u201d to be.\n My sourness of looks by much sweetness is caused.\n By words\u2019 multitude, silence strict I\u2019ve imposed.\n My sweetness I\u2019ll hide, in this world, in the next.\n As veil, austere features I\u2019ve firmly annexed.\n My secrets to shield from the ken of all ears,\n One out of a hundred, alone, here appears.\n\n The world is right jealous, for reason that best:\n God first jealous was, long before all the rest.[227] 220\n He\u2019s soul. The two worlds His august body form.[228]\n The body, through soul must receive good or harm.\n Whoso in his worship turns truly to God,\n Foul shame \u2019twould be for him to bow to faith\u2019s rod.\n Whoever\u2019s a keeper of wardrobe to king,\n Brings loss to his sovereign by petty trading.\n With potentate, whoso, by grade, council holds,\n If placed as a guard at a gate, roundly scolds.\n Admitted to honour by kissing of hands,\n To stoop, kiss the foot, degradation now stands. 225\n To kiss foot of sovereign\u2019s a great honour, sure.\n Compared with hands-kissing, ignominy pure.\n A king would be jealous of servant so base\n His foot who should kiss, when his hand was the place.\n God\u2019s jealousy wheat is on full threshing-floor;\n Man\u2019s jealousy, chaff blown away out of door.\n Know: Jealousy rise doth take, still, in our God;\n Man\u2019s jealousy budded from that noble rod.\n\n Let\u2019s quit that deep subject; take up plaint and wail,\n Against the great hardship of love\u2019s chastening flail.[229] 230\n I cry, for that He loves to hear all my cries.\n My moans, lamentations, are what He enjoys.\n How should I cease wailing at His fell caprice?\n I\u2019m not of His darlings, nor in His service.\n How should I not be, in my soul, black as night?\n Deprived of His look, sweetness, warmth, and mild light.\n All his disagreements are pleasant to me.\n My life I\u2019d give up, sacrifice I would be.\n I love all my anguish; I dote on my pain,\n So long as it pleases my heart\u2019s treasured swain. 235\n My sorrow\u2019s my eyes\u2019 choicest collyrium;\n My tears are as pearls from deep-sea tedium.\n Tears poured forth by lovers at His adored feet,\n Are pearls; though we\u2019re used them as tears to misgreet.\n My soul\u2019s Soul\u2019s the tyrant of whom I complain.\n Complaint I make not. I describe but my pain.\n My heart but pretends it has been too much hurt;\n Excuse is this merely. I smile at such blurt.\n\n Do justice now, God, of all justice the fount!\n Thou sittest in justice\u2019 seat; threshold I count. 240\n From chief seat to threshold! How far raised above!\n Where stand \u201c_we_\u201d and \u201c_I_\u201d in the sight of our love?[230]\n O Thou who art free, quite from \u201c_I_\u201d and from \u201c_we_,\u201d\n Thou heart\u2019s-joy of all men and women that be;\n Where men and where women join, One art Thou, Sole!\n Where units appear, Thou\u2019rt the sum of the whole!\n This \u201c_I_\u201d and this \u201c_we_\u201d Thou\u2019st ordained for Thy state;\n That psalms, hymns, and lauds may still rise to Thy gate.\n When \u201cI\u201d and when \u201cwe\u201d shall unite both in One,\n Absorbed they\u2019ll be in Thy essence alone. 245\n Existencies, potencies, all rise from Thee.\n Denial and potency, Thou\u2019rt from these free.\n Can eye now behold Thee as truly Thou art?\n Can heart Thy love picture, and smiles, e\u2019en in part?\n\n The heart that\u2019s a slave to a love or a smile\n Can never be worthy to see Thee awhile.\n Engrossed he that\u2019s now with pleasure and pain,\n Can he, by these accidents, live o\u2019er again?\n Green pastures of love, in their infinitude,\n More fruits yield than care, and than beatitude. 250\n Love\u2019s far above these evanescent two states;\n Without spring and autumn, its verdant estates.\n\n Pay beauty\u2019s high toll, Beauty, on Thy sweet face;\n Set forth lover\u2019s torments with all due preface.\n That archness of look of my coquettish Swain\n Anew has my heart fired with love\u2019s brand of pain.\n I gave Him permission to pour out my blood.\n I spoke of permission. He fled me for good.\n Why fleest thus, always, the groans of complaint?\n Why pourest Thou suffering\u2019s floods on the faint? 255\n O Thou, whom each morn, as it dawns in the East,\n Has found, like the sun, full prepared for a feast,\n What cause have I furnished for all this sad pain,\n O Thou, whose lips sweeter than sugar remain?\n Thou ever new life givest to this old world;\n The prayer hear of one whom from life Thou hast hurled!\n For heaven\u2019s sake, quit talking of spring\u2019s roses red,\n And think of the nightingale banished their bed.\n My eagerness grows not from joy, or from grief;\n My senses cajoled will not be by whim\u2019s thief. 260\n My state is just one very often not seen;\n Contest not; truth\u2019s ever victorious been.\n Think not my state that of all these common men;\n Be not benefactor, to tyrannise then.\n If kindness and tyranny, joy, grief, are new;\n All new things must die. God inherits.[231] That\u2019s true.\n \u2019Tis dawn. O of dawn Thou who art the sole cause!\n Excuse for me make to Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn\u2019s laws.[232]\n Excuses for angels and souls Thou canst see;\n Thou art the soul\u2019s life; coral\u2019s shine is from Thee.[233] 265\n From Thy light have sprung men and brightness of dawn.[234]\n We\u2019re all aided by Thee, Thou cup of wine drawn.\n Why does Thy gift keep me in constant suspense;\u2014\n Thy spiritual wine, that still charms ev\u2019ry sense.\n A beggar from me\u2019s wine in fermentation!\n Spheres lessons take from me in revolution!\n With me wine gets drunk; I get not drunk with it.\n From me body grows; I spring thence not one bit.\n We\u2019re bees, all of us; and our bodies, the wax;\n With it we build cells to conceal our dark tracks. 270\n\n These considerations would grow longer still.\n We\u2019ll turn to our merchant. We left him so ill.\n He thus, lamentations, sad groans, sadder moans,\n Shot forth, with sighs, burning;--grieved hearts\u2019 crater-stones.\n Complaints, contradictions, petitions, like words,\n Now literal, then keen metaphors, sharp as swords.\n The drowning, \u2019tis known to each one who breath draws,\n To save threatened life, will, though vain, grasp at straws;\n In hopes that some aid to his rescue will come,\n He struggles, he flounders, he thinks of his home. 275\n His sweetheart takes pleasure his struggles to see;\n An effort\u2019s more noble than despondency.\n A bridegroom is, surely, not quite free from cares.\n His moans we expect not. Pain\u2019s not what he fears.\n The reason this, why the Lord\u2019s blest scripture says:\n \u201cEach day He\u2019s engaged in some one of His ways.\u201d[235]\n Therefore thou, my dear son, thyself still exert\n Until thy last breath. Seek not toil to avert.\n Then, at the last moment, the time may have come,\n When favor \u2019ll be shown thee for all thou hast done. 280\n How much, and how long, strives the soul of each man,\n The king\u2019s at the window;--hear, see all, he can.\n\n Our merchant the parrot cast out from his cage.\n The parrot flew up; on a tree took high stage.\n The bird that was thought dead, now swift flew away.\n His course like the sun\u2019s from the morn to midday.\n\n The merchant sore marvelled at his flying bird;\n Could not understand it; thought: \u201cWhat has occurred?\u201d\n Then cried, looking upwards: \u201cCome, pretty Poll mine!\n Relate all about this freak strangest of thine. 285\n What was that bird\u2019s game, there, of whom then thou spokest?\n What trick was \u2019t he played? Grief in me thou awokest.\u201d\n\n The parrot him answered: \u201cHe taught me the trick.\n He came and said: \u2018Free thyself now. Up! Be quick!\u2019\n No sooner had sounded thy voice in his ears,\n He, as was agreed on, fell dead, it appears.\n As much as to say, here, to me in my cage:\n \u2018Thou death counterfeit; so thou savest thy old age.\u2019\u201d\n\n Become thou but grain; thou\u2019lt be pecked up by birds.\n A flower make thyself; all the children go thirds. 290\n Thy grain hidest thou? Thou\u2019rt naught else but brick-trap.\n Thy flower shuttest up? Thou\u2019rt a weed on house-top.\n His beauty whoever may offer for sale,\n Invites many troubles his heart to assail.\n Hopes, fears, wraths, and jealousies strike him at once;\n As rain on his head pours in winter;--the nonce.\n All sorts of opponents, by jealousy moved;\n With them, even friends joy to see him so proved.\n Whoever may put off to sow seed in spring,\n Ignores the true value of time\u2019s swiftest wing. 295\n Let each one take refuge in mercy of God,\n Who grace manifold on our souls has bestowed.\n Then shalt thou find shelter, when shelter thou needest.\n Fire\u2019s, water\u2019s protection thou\u2019lt have, as thou heedest.\n It was not the sea alone Noah, Moses, saved.\n Nor sea alone was it, their foes that ingraved.\n It was not the fire that stood Abr\u2019am in stead,\n Till God conquered Nimrod by gnat in his head.\n It was not the mountain that called John to it, 300\n And drove back pursuers with huge rocks that hit.\n It cried: \u201cHither, John; refuge come take with me.\n Thy life I will save from foe\u2019s sharp sword. Come; see.\u201d\n\n \u201cAdieu, master dear; I\u2019m now off to my home.\n May\u2019st thou, too, be free, when the judgment shall come.\n Good-bye, my kind master; compassion thou\u2019st shown.\n From tyranny\u2019s chains, now, through thee, have I flown.\u201d\n He gave to our merchant some words of advice.\n Then flew away, shouting: \u201cGood-bye! Very nice!\u201d\n The merchant a \u201cSafe journey\u201d augured to him.\n Then thought: \u201cUseful lesson I\u2019ve learned, and trim. 305\n His doings may serve as a pattern for me.\n I\u2019ll imitate him. Better teacher can\u2019t be.\n My soul is not, sure, inferior to his.\n See how souls should act, to gain heavenly bliss.\u201d\n\n The body\u2019s a cage and a thorn to the soul.\n Hence, seldom are body and soul wholly whole.\n The body says: \u201cI\u2019ll follow where thou mayest lead.\u201d\n The soul answers: \u201cNay! Thy desire\u2019s all I heed.\u201d\n The body then argues: \u201cThere\u2019s none like to thee,\n Thou\u2019rt perfect, kind, beautiful, good as needs be.\u201d 310\n The soul now demurs: \u201cThis and next worlds are thine.\n All hearts to the feast hasten, where thou\u2019rt to shine.\u201d\n The body then says: \u201c\u2019Tis a time for delight.\u201d\n And soul responds quick: \u201cSeason, sure, to bedight.\u201d\n\n When body sees crowds, throngs, profess love for it,\n Control of self loses, in teeth takes the bit,\n It does not reflect how the thousands and more,\n Itself like, has sin brought to ruin\u2019s grim shore.\n The bait of gross flattery is always found sweet.\n Therewith be not caught. Lurid fire\u2019s \u2019neath its greet. 315\n Its sweetness is present; its flame\u2019s not forecast;\n Its smoke of destruction will burst forth at last.\n Say not: \u201cI\u2019ll ne\u2019er listen to flatterer\u2019s tale;\n They\u2019re sordid, its motives;--like \u2018sprat to catch whale.\u2019\u201d\n A lampoon should thy panegyrist indite\n Against thee in public, thy rest\u2019s disturbed quite.\n Thou knowest it was spoken in sheer angry spleen,\n When he in some wish unsuccessful had been.\n The barb of it rankles, still, in thy heart\u2019s core,\n The price paid for flattery, \u2019tis, makes thee feel sore. 320\n Long, long shalt thou feel the deep wound it inflicts.\n It stimulates pride; all the soul it infects.\n Man shows not how sweet flattery is to his soul.\n The instant he\u2019s lampooned, he\u2019s lost self-control.\n\n Thus, pill or draught taken to combat disease,\n A long time, indeed, you\u2019re thence robbed of all ease.\n And if you eat sweetmeats, their tastes are soon lost.\n Nor one, nor the other, is worth half the cost.\n Duration they have not; effects they produce.\n By contraries, contraries all we deduce. 325\n As hidden effect of a diet of sweets,\n By long incubation, boils break out, or gleets.\n\n The flesh, with praise pampered, a Pharaoh becomes.\n The flesh, mortified, due submission assumes.\n A servant to all be; princely power be forgot.\n Submit to cuffs, ball-like; like bat, batter not.\n So soon, otherwise, as thee fortune forsakes,\n Thy flatterers will turn. \u2019Tis greed only, them makes.\n The throngs of gross flatterers, who sang loud thy praise.\n Will shake their heads, shout out: \u201cPoor de\u2019il! What a craze!\u201d 330\n On seeing thee, then, as thou wanderest about,\n They cry: \u201cCursed hobgoblin! From grave he\u2019s come out!\u201d\n\n Like beardless, vain boy they\u2019ve addressed as \u201cMy Lord,\u201d\n To work on his vanity, fair fame defraud,\n In vice when he\u2019s nurtured, his beard thickly grown,\n E\u2019en Satan would blush a pact with him to own.\n \u2019Tis men Satan seeks out, to work them mischief.\n Thee he\u2019ll never seek; worse than him, thou, a thief.\n So long as thou\u2019rt man, Satan follows thy track.\n He tempts thee to drain manhood\u2019s lees, still, and wrack. 335\n When thou\u2019rt become devil, just like to himself,\n He flees thee in fright; leaves thee quite to thyself.\n All they who before refuge took in thy power,\n With horror fly from thee, in this thy fallen hour.\n\n Our words are mere lies, all tergiversations.[236]\n Without the divine grace, they\u2019re sheer delusions.\n Without grace of God, holy aid from His saints,\n Best \u201crecord\u201d of man must be blots and complaints.[237]\n O God! Thy grace, sole, \u2019tis sustains us as men.\n Another to name with Thee suits not a pen. 340\n To servants, sound judgment Thou\u2019st kindly vouchsafed.\n This gift made the means, we\u2019ve from error escaped.\n\n One drop from the sea of Thy knowledge, does us\n With omniscience, surely, make confluous.\n That drop have I gathered up in my soul\u2019s trust.\n Do Thou save it, Lord, from lust\u2019s soil and sin\u2019s gust.\n Sin\u2019s soil, oh! permit not that drop to absorb!\n Those gusts forbid Thou more to lessen its orb!\n True, Thou art All-Powerful, and Thy gracious will\n Could force them to yield it back, grace to fulfil. 345\n A drop, lost in air, dispersed in the soil,\n Is still, through Thy providence, safe from despoil.\n Become it, or others, a nonentity,\n Thy beck can them summon to new entity.\n How many diverse still combine to form one.\n Thou givest the word, they part, each to its zone.\n Each moment, from naught fresh creations still come,\n In flocks and in crowds. \u2019Tis Thou makest them a home.\n\n Each night, in profound sleep our consciousness sinks;\n Becomes non-existent;--waves on seashore\u2019s brinks. 350\n When morning afresh dawns, they wake up anew,\n Like fish in the sea, plashing drops, falling dew.\n\n In autumn, the leaves see. They quit, then, the trees;\n Like scattered battalions, they fly with the breeze.\n The rook, in robes sable, as mourner acts, chief;\n In wood and field croaks for his much-deplored leaf.\n Command from Thee goes forth;--Thou, true Forest-King;\n Nonentity gives back each late stolen thing.\n O Death! Thou restorest, now, the whole prey of thine;\n The leaves, flowers, and fruits, in their due season shine. 355\n\n Consider, my friend, in thyself; now, awhile,\n The spring and the autumn thou in thee seest smile.\n Look thou that thy heart be green, yield its good fruits\n Of righteousness, purity,--heaven\u2019s best recruits.\n Through garlands of verdure thy rough branches hid;\n With bloom in profusion, hills, plains, all tumid.\n\n These words of mine come from the Spirit supreme,\n To call to mind heaven\u2019s everlasting grand scheme.\n Thou smellest a perfume of flowers. Flowers are not yet;\n Thou dreamest fermentation, though wine is not set. 360\n That odour will draw thee to where the flowers grow,[238]\n The joys of sweet paradise, \u201cwhere rivers flow.\u201d[239]\n Of hope it perfume is that leads our souls on;\n As hope led forth Jacob in quest of his son.[240]\n Bad tidings and fearful cost Jacob his sight.\n Reunion, in hope, to him brought back the light.\n If thou\u2019rt not a Joseph, a Jacob be yet.\n As he did, weep, mourn; joy, like him, thou shalt get.\n If thou art not Sh\u012br\u012bn, thou may\u2019st Ferh\u0101d be;[241]\n And if not Layl\u00e0 dear, Majn\u016bn\u2019s ravings see.[242] 365\n Accept the advice of old Gazna\u2019s sage, wise.[243]\n To thee, ever, new life from old life may rise:\n \u201cTo give one\u2019s self airs, requires, first, a fair face;\n If beauty thou hast not, run not thou that race.\u201d\n An ugly face ugly is, all the world round.\n A blind eye\u2019s affliction, where\u2019er it be found.\n In presence of Joseph, no coquetries use.[244]\n But humble thyself; soft entreaties infuse.\n\n The parrot had death simulated, as prayer.\n Do thou to pride die; thou mayest so live for e\u2019er. 370\n From Jesus a breath may, then, blow upon thee;\n Transform thee to what he was, what thou mayest be.\n A stone will not blossom because it is spring.\n As earth make thyself; flowers around thee may cling.\n For years thou a stone \u2019st been; lay this well to heart.\n Try patience a short time; \u2019twill give a fresh start. 373\n\n\n\n\nVIII.\n\nThe Harper.\n\n\n Hast heard, perchance, there was in days of good \u2018Umer\n A minstrel talented, whose harpings moved the sphere?\n The nightingales all wept in transports at his voice,\n One pleasure made men\u2019s hearts a hundredfold rejoice.\n His song enchanted every gathering where he went,\n Applause as thunder broke forth, to his heart\u2019s content.\n Like voice of Isr\u0101f\u012bl, whose trump on judgment day,[245]\n Will wake the dead to life, his made the saddest gay.\n Dear friend to Isr\u0101f\u012bl he was, and mendicant;\n His notes made plumes to sprout on hide of elephant. 5\n\n Some day will Isr\u0101f\u012bl attention pay to moans.\n Their souls he will recall to old and putrid bones.\n The prophets, likewise, all, musicians are on hearts.\n Disciples hence expire with joy by fits and starts.\n Our outward ears the strains hear not which thence proceed;\n Those ears, in many ways, degraded are indeed.\n\n Mankind the songs of fairies never hear at all,\n They are not versed in fairies\u2019 ways, their voices small.\n \u2019Tis true, the chants of fairies\u2019 sounds are of this world;[246]\n But songs sung by men\u2019s hearts are far above them hurled. 10\n Both men and fairies pris\u2019ners are in earthly cage.\n Both, too, are thralls of sinful ignorance\u2019s rage.\n Read thou the text: \u201cO fairy troop,\u201d in book of God.[247]\n Consider, too: \u201cCan ye pass out?\u201d Who holds the rod?\n\n The inward hymn that\u2019s sung by all the hearts of saints\n Commences: \u201cO component parts of that thing NOT.\u201d[248]\n Now since they take their rise in this NOT, negative,\n They put aside the hollow phantom where we live.\n\n Ye putrid corpses, wrapt in rank corruption\u2019s cloth,\n Our everlasting souls are free from birth and growth. 15\n Were I but to recite one stave from their blest song,\n All living souls would rise out from their tombs among.\n Lend ear attentively; that may not distant be;\n As yet, however, leave\u2019s not given to tell it thee.\n\n The saints are Isr\u0101f\u012bls of this our passing time.\n The spiritually dead through them live life sublime.\n Our souls mere corpses are; their graves, our bodies\u2019 crowds.\n At voice of saint do they arise, clothed in their shrouds.\n They say: \u201cThis voice has in it something to be feared.\n To raise the dead, God\u2019s voice alone has power, we\u2019ve heard. 20\n We were all dead, and unto earth had we returned.\n The voice of God we\u2019ve heard; our prisons we have spurned.\u201d\n\n The voice of God without, also within the vail,\n Can give the gift to all, it gave to Mary: \u201cHail!\u201d\n O ye whose death was not that which attacks the flesh,\n At sound of the Beloved\u2019s voice ye\u2019ve risen afresh.\n That voice the Bridegroom\u2019s voice most truly was, \u2019tis said,\n Although \u2019twas from the lips of His servant, Ahmed.\n God said to him: \u201cThy tongue, thy eye, thy ear, I am;\n All thy contentment, anger, thoughts, \u2019tis I undam. 25\n Go on; \u2018By Me he hears, by Me he sees;\u2019 that\u2019s thee;\n Thou art the head; thou holdest the place of Head\u2019s trustee.\n In ecstasy, since thou art \u2018He the Lord\u2019s who is,\u2019[249]\n I will be thine; for see, \u2019tis said: \u2018The Lord is his.\u2019\n Now will I say to thee: \u2018Thou art;\u2019 and now; \u2018I am.\u2019\n What I may say\u2019s as clear as is the sun in heaven.\n Wherever I may shine an instant in a lamp,\n A world of doubts I solve; on all My seal I stamp.\n The darkness which the sun could never yet illume,\n By magic of My breath grows bright as peacock\u2019s plume. 30\n Wherever gloom may reign as undisturbed night,\n When shone upon by Me, like noonday\u2019s forthwith bright.\u201d\n\n \u2019Twas He who taught to Adam ev\u2019ry thing\u2019s true name,\n Through Adam to mankind imparted He the same.\n Take thou enlightenment from Adam or the Lord.\n Draw wine as thou mayest list from jar or from the gourd.[250]\n The distance is not great between the gourd and jar.\n The gourd is not, like thee, made drunk by grape\u2019s nectar.\n Draw water from the brook, or from a pitcher\u2019s mouth;\n The brook is still the source whence pitcher\u2019s filled; forsooth. 35\n\n Seek light as listest; whether from the moon or sun.\n The moon derives her sheen from daystar\u2019s golden tun.\n Imbibe what light thou canst from any twinkling star.\n The Prophet said: \u201cStars are all my disciples.\u201d Hear![251]\n He further said: \u201cHow happy they who see my face,[252]\n And happy they who look on them in their own place.\u201d\n He said: \u201cGood luck to all who have the happy chance[253]\n To look on my disciples,--mirrors of my glance.\u201d\n If thou by taper\u2019s aid proceed to light a lamp,\n The eye that sees its light, perceives the taper\u2019s stamp. 40\n If one lamp from another should be lighted; well!\n The light received from this, has come from that one\u2019s cell.\n And so, if through a thousand wicks the light should pass,\n Who sees the last enjoys the gift of all the mass.\n The light of this last lamp\u2019s as pure as is the whole;\n No difference is there. And thus \u2019tis with the soul.\n The light diffused by teachers in these latter days,\n No other is than what was shown by earlier rays.\n\n Our Prophet said: \u201cThe breathings of the Lord your God,[254]\n In these your days of pilgrimage, on all sides prod. 45\n Your ears and minds lend ye to all signs of the times;\n Perchance ye may inhale those breathings in these climes.\u201d\n\n One breathing came and found you. Straightway it was gone.\n To all who sought, new life it gave. It then had done.\n Another breathing\u2019s come. Be ye not unprepared.\n Ye may not let it go by. Something must be shared.\n It found your souls on fire. \u2019Tis thence they cease to burn.\n Your souls it found all corpses. Life it made return.\n Your fiery souls by it all quickly were puffed out.\n Dead souls of yours by it began aloud to shout. 50\n Their present calm, and this vivacity\u2019s from heaven;\n Resembling not the turbulence by which man\u2019s driven.\n One breathing from the Lord, when blown on earth and air,\n Ill qualities converts straight into all that\u2019s fair.\n For fear lest any breathing such as this thee shake,\n Read thou the text: \u201cThey shunned the task to undertake.\u201d[255]\n Had not \u201cthey shrunk from it,\u201d where now would\u2019st thou have been?\n Had they not feared, would\u2019st thou this grade have ever seen?\n But yesterday an opening gleamed for better things;\n Till greed for fleshly morsels stopped the way of kings. 55\n\n For sake of some such morsel Luqm\u0101n was made bail.[256]\n The time\u2019s now that for Luqm\u0101n morsel\u2019d not avail.\n The troubles we endure are all for morsel\u2019s sake.\n Be Luqm\u0101n. Thou\u2019lt extract the thorn that makes thee ache.\n A thorn or chafing hurt not Luqm\u0101n\u2019s horny hand.\n Through greed thou lackest the discipline made him so bland.\n The thing thou thoughtest a date-palm, know, is but a thorn.\n Ungrateful, uninformed thou art, now, as when born.\n The soul of Luqm\u0101n was a vineyard of the Lord.\n Why then into his soul did thorn pierce like a sword? 60\n\n Thorn-eating camel, truly, is this world of ours,\n Ahmed, then, came and mounted;--him that camel bears.\n O camel, on thy back thou bearest a vase of rose.\n On thee from thence have sprouted rosebuds, as God knows.\n Thy tastes thee lead to camel-thorn and wastes of sand.\n To thee the thorn\u2019s a rose; the wilderness, rich land.\n\n O thou who in such quest hast wandered up and down,\n How long wilt thou contend rose-garden\u2019s sandy down?\n Thou canst not now extract the thorn from thy sore foot.\n With that blind eye of thine, how wilt thou see its root? 65\n A man whose vast desires the world could not contain,\n Is sometimes by one thorn\u2019s point sent to death\u2019s domain.\n\n Now Ahmed came; a tender, kind companion, he.\n \u201cSpeak to me, O Humayr\u0101,\u201d said he, \u201cspeak to me.\u201d[257]\n Put thou thy shoe, Humayr\u0101, quick into the fire.[258]\n The rocks will rubies turn, from his feet\u2019s blood in mire.\n This Humayr\u0101\u2019s a woman\u2019s name, the poet\u2019s love.\n Such is the Arab custom. Soul is meant. Now move.\n That Soul\u2019s no need to fear from being named as girl.[259]\n Of sex, as male or female, that Soul has no twirl. 70\n That Soul is far above sex, accident, and mood.\n That Soul is not man\u2019s darling, made of flesh and blood.\n That Soul is not the life that grows from cakes of bread;\n That\u2019s sometimes of one mind, and other then instead.\n Of good is He the worker, good He is also.\n From goodness separate, no goodness e\u2019er will flow.\n\n If thou\u2019rt made sweet through sugar, it may happen still,\n That sugar none thou find, to sweeten thee at will.\n But if thou sweet become, like sugar, through good heart,\n This sweetness from thy sugar never will depart. 75\n\n How can a lover find love\u2019s nectar in himself?\n That question passes comprehension, my good elf.\n Man\u2019s finite reason disbelieves love\u2019s potent sway.\n Himself he yet esteems endowed with head to-day.\n He\u2019s clever, and he\u2019s knowing, _nil_ he\u2019s not; anon.\n Until an angel\u2019s nothing,[260] he\u2019s a sheer demon.\n In word and act a man may be a friend of ours;\n But when it comes to heart and mind, he huffs and lours.\n If he from _esse_, reach not _posse\u2019s_ state, he\u2019s _nil_;\n And willingly;--unwillingly, we may worlds fill. 80\n The Soul, our God, \u2019s perfection. Perfect is His \u201ccall.\u201d[261]\n His Ahmed used to say: \u201cEnsoul us, O Bil\u0101l![262]\n Lift up thy voice, O Bil\u0101l,--thy harmonious voice.\n Put forth the breath that I infused at thy heart\u2019s choice.\n The breath that \u2019twas made Adam lose all consciousness;\n While all the hosts of heaven, too, felt their helplessness.\u201d\n\n That Ahmed, Mustaf\u00e0, at one blest sight stood lost.[263]\n His wedding-night it was. Dawn-worship it him cost.[264]\n He woke not from the sleep his blessed vision shed.\n Dawn-worship he o\u2019erslept; the sun shone overhead. 85\n On that, his wedding-night, in presence of his bride,\n His sainted soul kissed hands, high honour\u2019s fullest tide.\n\n Both love and soul are occult, hidden and concealed.\n If God I have \u201cbride\u201d named, let it stand fault repealed.\n I silence would have kept, from fear of love\u2019s caprice,\n If for a moment only, I\u2019d been granted grace.\n But He still said: \u201cSay on. The word is not a fault.\n It\u2019s naught but the decree there should appear default.\n It\u2019s shame to him who only sees another\u2019s faults.\n What fault is noticed by the Soul safe from assaults?\u201d 90\n A fault it is to eyes of creatures ignorant.\n But not with God the Lord, our Maker benignant.\n E\u2019en blasphemy is wisdom with th\u2019 Omnipotent;[265]\n Attributed to mortals, mortal sin patent.\n If one sole fault be found amidst a hundred truths,\n \u2019Tis like a stick that\u2019s used to prop sweet flowers\u2019 growths.\n Both will be surely weighed in justice\u2019 equal scales;\n For, like the soul and body, both are pleasant tales.\n The saints have therefore said, for sweet instruction\u2019s sake:\n \u201cThe bodies of the pure with souls just balance make.\u201d 95\n\n Their words, their selves, their figures, whate\u2019er these may be,\n Are all Soul Absolute, without a trace to see.\n Sworn enemy is Body to their spiritual life,\n Just as one game of backgammon, with names full rife.[266]\n The body goes to earth; is soon reduced to clay;\n The soul endures like salt, and suffers no decay.\n The salt, than which Muhammed far more sapid is;\n From \u201cAttic salt\u201d that\u2019s found in each _dictum_ of his.\n That Attic salt\u2019s an heirloom, heritage from him;\n His heirs are here with thee. Seek unto them _passim_. 100\n They\u2019re sitting in thy presence. What\u2019s in front of thee?\n Thy soul demands thy care. Where can thy forethought be?\n\n If thou still be in doubt, and not sure of thyself,\n Thou\u2019rt slave unto thy body; soul thou hast not, elf.\n Behind, before, above, below, stands body\u2019s shade.\n The soul has no \u201cdimensions;\u201d clearly it\u2019s displayed.\n Lift thy eyes, dear Sir, in glorious light of God;\n That thou be not accounted most shortsighted clod.\n Thou nothing knowest or carest about, save grief and joy;\n Thou nothing, by mere nothings hemmed in, man or boy. 105\n To-day\u2019s a day of rain. Yet journey thou till night;\n Not on account of downpour, but because it\u2019s light.\n\n One day did Mustaf\u00e0 go to the burial-ground.\n The Prophet at a funeral, his friend\u2019s, was found.\n At filling in the grave he lent a helping hand;\n A living seed he planted in that holy land.\n The trees thereof are emblems,--cypress, fir, or yew;\n Their boughs are hands in prayer uplifted,--if men knew.\n They many lessons inculcate to men of sense,\n He who hath ears to hear may thence draw inference. 110\n A contemplative mind from them new secrets culls.\n The heedless are amused with what men\u2019s reason dulls.\n With tongue-shaped leaves and finger-twigs they us address;\n From inmost heart of earth they publish mysteries.\n As ducks dive into water, they plunge into earth.\n Like rooks they were, now peacocks, gay in their new birth.\n The winter shuts them up, as prisoners, in its ice.\n Black rooks then, bare; as peacocks spring bids them arise.\n God makes them look like dead in winter\u2019s frozen reign,\n But with returning spring wakes them to life again. 115\n Dull atheists contend this is a story old,\n And ask why we to God attribute it, so bold.\n They say these alternations ever thus were seen.\n The world of old, they think, as \u2019tis, has ever been.\n In spite of their contention, in breasts of His saints\n Has God at all times reared rich gardens free from feints.\n\n Each flower that yields to sense agreeable perfume,\n Speaks volumes to saint\u2019s heart with its mysterious tongue.\n Each perfume from a flower rubs atheist\u2019s nose in dirt;\n Although he rush about, and boundless nonsense spirt. 120\n An atheist\u2019s like a chafer clinging to rosebud,\n Or like a nervous patient tortured by drum\u2019s thud.\n He makes himself as fussy as each touting wight;\n But shuts his eyes to flashes of conviction\u2019s light.\n He shuts his eyes perversely, with them will not see.\n The saint, on other hand, \u2019s clear-sighted certainly.\n\n The Prophet, when returned home from the funeral,\n Found \u2018\u0100\u2019isha was waiting, him to welcome all.\n So when her eyes fell on him, just as in he came,\n She him approached, and on him hand placed; gentle dame. 125\n She touched his turban, cloak and coat, his sleeves and shoes,\n His hair and beard, his face and hands, peering for news.\n He asked her what she sought with so much eager zeal.\n She answered him: \u201cTo-day of rain there\u2019s fallen a deal.\n I\u2019m lost in wonderment to feel thou art not wet;\n No dampness is there here. I marvel still more yet.\u201d\n He asked: \u201cWhat veil worest thou God\u2019s service to fulfil?\u201d[267]\n She answered: \u201cI a plaid of thine threw o\u2019er my frill.\u201d\n He said: \u201cThat plaid it was for which the Lord, to thee,\n My lady pure, a shower caused visible to be. 130\n That shower was not of raindrops from the clouds that fall;\n A shower of mercy \u2019twas; its cloud and sky, His call.\u201d\n\n [\u201cIn regions of the soul so many skies are there![268]\n They issue their commands to spheres of earth and air.\n The ups and downs in spirit\u2019s path form quite a class;\n So many hills to climb; so many seas to pass.\u201d]\u2014_San\u0101\u2019\u012b._\n The unseen world has other clouds, and other skies;[269]\n Its sun is different; its water God supplies.\n Its rain proceeds from other clouds than does our own.\n God\u2019s mercy \u2019tis that forms that rain when it pours down. 135\n Those rains are never seen, save by the eyes of saints.\n Mere men \u201cby new creation puzzled,\u201d[270] judge them feints.\n\n One rain there is that nourishment brings in its track;\n Another rain also that works a whole world\u2019s wreck.\n The rain of spring does wonders in the garden\u2019s fold;\n The rain of autumn chills like ague\u2019s shivers cold.\n The spring rain nourishes whate\u2019er it falls upon.\n Autumnal showers but bleach and shrivel; all turns wan.\n Thus is it with the cold, the wind, and eke the sun;\n They\u2019re means from which such different phases seem to run. 140\n In things invisible the same rule still holds good;\n Advantage, loss, annoyance, fraud, affliction\u2019s flood.\n The words of saints are like the vernal breeze in power;\n They cause sweet flowers to open in man\u2019s bosom bower.\n And like the rains of spring on herbage of the field,\n They raise in pious hearts a harvest of rich yield.\n If thou shouldst see a trunk that\u2019s blighted, dead, and dry,\n Attribute not this state to quickening air\u2019s supply.\n The air still quickens, though dead stumps feel not its power.\n \u2019Tis only what\u2019s alive, that freshens by a shower. 145\n\n The Prophet gave advice: \u201cFrom breezes cool, in spring,[271]\n Your bodies cover not; they\u2019re invigorating.\n Allow them, then, full play; they\u2019ll give your sinews strength.\n See how, with them, the trees are clothed with leaves, at length.\n Beware, however; autumn\u2019s chills ye must not court.\n They\u2019re fatal to men\u2019s lives; the trees they strip, in short.\u201d\n\n Traditionists report the Prophet\u2019s blessed words;\n But there they have stopped short; they add naught afterwards.\n The whole class, ignorant of application\u2019s call,\n The mountain have discerned; its mines they have missed, all. 150\n\n The autumn chill, with God, is fleshly lust and pride;\n The vernal breeze, the spirit, wisdom, sense to guide.\n Of wisdom, in thy head, a glimmering thou hast;\n Seek then for perfect wisdom; be to it steadfast.\n Thy partial stock from thence completed thou wilt bring.\n On neck of flesh completed wisdom put, as ring.[272]\n\n Thou seest now, applied, the breeze of spring is he,\n Who, perfect in himself, men perfect helps to be.\n From words of his take care thou close not up thy ear.\n Thy faith they will confirm; religion fruit will bear. 155\n Reproachful, or in praise, hear all he has to say;\n From thee the fires of hell they\u2019ll help to turn away.\n Reproaches, admonitions, life will bring at last\n If faith they but confirm, flesh in subjection cast.\n By admonition is the heart encouraged to good deeds;\n And by reproaches is the soul kept back from evil\u2019s meeds.\n Upon the heart of teacher clings dark sorrow\u2019s pall,\n If one twig from heart\u2019s garden\u2019s seen away to fall.\n\n Good \u2018\u0100\u2019isha, the gem of honour\u2019s casket wide,\n Then asked the Prophet (who\u2019s of both the worlds the Pride): 160\n \u201cO thou who of all creatures every essence art,\n What was the reason rain this day has played its part?\n Was it a rain of mercy, such as sometimes falls;\n Or was it as a menace justice fitly calls?\n Was it a vernal rain, dispensing benefits;\n Or was it an autumnal shower, to dig grave pits?\u201d\n\n He answered: \u201c\u2019Twas a sprinkle, sent to soothe our care,\u2014\n That fruit inherited by all who Adam share.\n Should man remain exposed for long to care\u2019s fierce flame,\n \u2019Twould work him wrack and ruin, crush his mortal frame.\u201c 165\n\n The world would go to ruin in a little while;\n Man\u2019s greed would get the upper hand, did he not smile.\n The prop of this wide world is heedlessness, my son;\n And thoughtfulness on earth below\u2019s a curse, when won.\n For thoughtfulness belongs unto the upper world;\n Triumphant here below, all\u2019s soon to ruin hurled.\n This thoughtfulness a sun is; greed\u2019s a mass of ice.\n This thoughtfulness is water; greed, the filth of vice.\n So from the upper world scant tricklings are sent down,\n That greed and envy may not ruin every town. 170\n If those scant tricklings were to prove a copious rill,\n Defects and talents both would cease our soil to till.\n Let\u2019s leave these moralisings; they would have no end.\n So go we back to seek the minstrel, our old friend.\n\n That minstrel\u2019s talent had been rare; the world he\u2019d charmed.\n At sound of his sweet voice, imagination \u2019d swarmed.\n Each heart, birdlike, began to flutter in its cage;\n Surprise enchained men\u2019s minds when his notes threw the gage.\n\n But now he was grown old; long years he\u2019d passed on earth.\n Like falcon chasing gnats, he\u2019d little cause for mirth. 175\n His back was double bent, like belly of wine-jar;\n His brows above his eyes with crupper-straps on par.\n His voice, the former joy of all who might it hear,\n Was now cracked, out of tune, uncouth, none could it bear.\n His tones, that might have made dame Venus mad with rage,[273]\n Were now like donkey\u2019s brayings in his sinking age.\n\n What is there beautiful that goes not to decay?\n Where is the roof that will not ruin be one day?\n Unless it be the words of saint[274] from God; they\u2019ll last\n \u2019Till echoes of his voice shall sound in judgment blast. 180\n He is the inner joy that glads our inner man;\n The source from whom our beings rose when time began.\n He is the amber draws the motes of thought and speech;\n He gave the means to measure revelation\u2019s reach.\n\n Our minstrel in old age felt poverty\u2019s sure pinch.\n No money could he earn; bread, not enough for finch.\n He prayed: \u201cO God, long life and full to me Thou\u2019st given,\n To worthless sinner Thou hast shown foretaste of heaven.\n I\u2019ve slighted Thy commandments seventy years and more,\n Not one day hast Thou let me pangs of want feel sore. 185\n No longer can I earn; I\u2019m now Thy household guest;\n I\u2019ll harp for love of Thee, Thou giver of my feast.\u201d\n\n His harp on shoulder slung, he went, in quest of God,\n To burial-ground of Yathrab;[275] sat down on the sod.\n Said he: \u201cI\u2019ll ask of God the hire of my harpstrings;\n For He accepts the heart\u2019s most humble outpourings.\u201d\n He harped awhile, and then he laid him down and wept.\n His harp his pillow was; upon a grave he slept.\n\n With sleep his soul was freed from prison and from pain,\n The harp and harper both were now made young again. 190\n His soul, free, wandered forth, exempt from all dull care,\n In spacious fields of heaven, the soul\u2019s park, light as air.\n There he began to warble, merry as a lark:\n \u201cO that I here might dwell without a care to cark!\n How joyous I should be in such a paradise;\n These sweet ethereal fields breathe balm, and myrrh, and spice.\n I\u2019d wander all about; no need of feet or wings.\n All sweets I\u2019d feast on; lips and teeth were useless things.\n My mind at rest, from all care free, I\u2019d ever roam.\n The angels I\u2019d not envy in their heavenly home. 195\n With bandaged eyes I\u2019d survey realms without an end;\n All sorts of flowers I\u2019d gather, yet not soil my hand.\n Like duck in pond, down deep I\u2019d plunge in honey lake.[276]\n In Job\u2019s own fount I\u2019d bathe, in wine I\u2019d revel make.\n For Job with wine from heaven was cleansed in every pore;\n From head to foot he came forth healed, without a sore.\u201d\n\n If these poor rhyming verses covered heaven\u2019s vast vault,\n They\u2019d not tell half a tithe, they still would be at fault.\n The sum of heavenly joys I find an endless theme;\n My heart is far too narrow to embrace its scheme. 200\n The world I would enclose in my poor poem\u2019s fold,\n Has lent my thoughts the wings that make their flight so bold.\n Were but that world in sight; its road, were it but known;\n Few souls would here remain, were but its glories shown.\n Commandment has been given: \u201cThou shalt not covetous be.\u201d\n The thorn from out thy foot is drawn; thy thanks let\u2019s see.\n \u201cMy Lord! My God!\u201d loud cried our minstrel in that place,\n Those glorious realms of mercy, boundless shores of grace.\n\n About that time the Lord on \u2018Umer slumber sent.\n He could not keep awake; beneath sleep\u2019s burden bent. 205\n With wonder thought he \u2019twas unprecedented: \u201cSee!\n This sleep\u2019s divinely ordered; purpose there must be.\u201d\n His head he bowed; sleep bound him fast; a dream he saw,\n A voice from God he heard,--for him a sacred law.\n\n God\u2019s voice the real source is of every cry and sound;\n The only voice, in fact; all other\u2019s echo found.\n Turks, Kurds, and Persians, Arabs, all have understood\n That voice most wonderful,--of lip and ear no mood.\n\n What say I? No! Not merely Turks and Persians all,\n The very rocks and trees have answered to that call. 210\n Each moment\u2019s clearly heard: \u201cAm I not, then, your Lord?\u201d[277]\n Ideas and essences became \u201cthings\u201d at His word.\n Had they not answered: \u201cYes, Thou art our God, O Lord,\u201d\n From out of nothing straight that answer \u2019d come, in word!\n\n About what\u2019s here been said respecting stocks and stones,\n Let\u2019s hear what tell tradition\u2019s most veracious tones.\n We\u2019ll find related there how various rocks and trees,\n Both understood and spoke, as human being sees.\n\n A post in his own house, at Mustaf\u00e0\u2019s retreat,\n Sent forth a sob of grief, like heart in sorrow\u2019s heat, 215\n As he his sermon preached, surrounded by his flock,\n So that the moan was heard by old and young; no mock.\n Disciples one and all were petrified, perplexed,\n And marvelled what might make its wooden heart so vexed.\n\n The Prophet put the question: \u201cWhat may be thy need?\u201d\n The column answered: \u201cProphet, grief my heart makes bleed.[278]\n Against me, in thy sermon, thou\u2019st been used to lean;\n A pulpit now thou\u2019st mounted; far from me thou\u2019rt seen.\u201d\n The Prophet said: \u201cThou most affectionate of posts!\n Good fortune thee attend, sent by the Lord of Hosts! 220\n If thou so wish, thou mayst become a fruitful palm;\n And men from east and west sing of thy dates in psalm.\n Or God may thee transplant to realms of paradise;\n Where as a cedar thou eternally mayst rise.\u201d\n It answered: \u201cI elect what ne\u2019er will know decay.\u201d\n Lend ear, O heedless man! Hast thou less sense than they?\n That post was forthwith buried, like a corpse of clay,\n In hopes of resurrection at the judgment day.\n Thou hence mayst learn that any whom the Lord doth call,\n Breaks straightway with the things of this our earthly ball. 225\n Whoe\u2019er receives a mission from the Lord his God,\n Forsakes the world, himself prepares the path to plod.\n\n Who\u2019s not received the gift of knowledge from above,\n Will ne\u2019er believe a stock could sigh and moan for love.\n He may pretend to acquiesce; not from belief;\n He says: \u201c\u2019Tis so,\u201d to \u2019scape a name much worse than thief.\n All they who\u2019re not convinced that God\u2019s \u201cBe\u201d is enough,\n Will turn away their face; this tale they\u2019ll treat as \u201cstuff.\u201d\n\n By thousands are confessing Muslims, men of mark,\n By doubt most sadly haunted; faith they\u2019ve not, one spark. 230\n Conformity with them is founded on surmise,\n And all their heart and conscience quieted with lies.\n \u2019Tis Satan sows the seed of doubting in their breast,\n Like blind men they will fall into the pit at last.\n\n Mere reasoners are cripples, propped on wooden leg;\n And, like such cripple, often falling as they beg.\n How different\u2019s a pillar of our holy creed!\n As mountain he is steadfast; faith his living meed.\n A blind man\u2019s leg\u2019s his staff; upon it he must lean,\n Or he will risk to fall at full length on the green. 235\n A knight is he who sole has routed hosts of foes;\n Wise leader then becomes of liegemen\u2019s ranks through woes.\n Those blind men find their way by trusting to a staff.\n They lean upon a creature; their sight is in a gaff.\n For, otherwise, they\u2019d be far-seeing; they\u2019d be kings;\n As \u2019tis, they\u2019re blind, they\u2019re corpses,--lifeless,\n senseless things.\n The blind can never sow, and surely never reap;\n They cannot edify; their talent they must keep.\n If \u2019twere not for God\u2019s mercy, favour, and free grace,\n Their staff of reason \u2019d snap; they \u2019d fall prone on\n their face. 240\n\n That staff\u2019s a weapon made for quarrelling and fight;\n Then break it up in pieces, man of feeble sight!\n That staff was given thee, to help thee on thy way;\n With it men\u2019s faces strikest thou, angry, ev\u2019ry day.\n\n What\u2019s this you\u2019re doing, blind ones? What are you about?\n Some constables call in, to calm this frightful rout.\n Fall down, and Him entreat, who furnished you with staff.\n Look well, and see what signs your weapon may engraff.\n\n Consider Moses\u2019 miracle; reflect on Ahmed\u2019s too.\n One\u2019s staff became a serpent; one\u2019s post chose what is true. 245\n From that staff came a serpent; from this post, loud moan.\n Five times a day for praise we hear the crier\u2019s tone.\n This trouble otherwise had been a senseless suit;\n So many miracles, so very little fruit.\n\n What\u2019s reas\u2019nable the mind can easily allow,\n No need\u2019s there then for miracle, for tide to ebb and flow.\n The plan of miracles unreasonable count;\n But know it is accepted; faith it does not daunt.\n\n Just like as demons, and as wild beasts, out of dread\n Of man, fled to the wilds, when envy reared its head, 250\n So, out of dread of miracles by prophets wrought,\n Do cavillers take refuge in sophisms of thought.\n In name, they\u2019re Muslims; and, by virtue of their wiles,\n We can\u2019t know what they are; their faces are all smiles.\n Precisely as false-coiners on their metal base\n A coat of silver put, the sovereign\u2019s name then trace,\n In word, God\u2019s unity confessed, and holy law,\n Their hearts are like the poison-grain in sweet kickshaw.\n Not Venus will convince a sophist in debate;\n But true religion speaks, confutes his postulate. 255\n His body\u2019s like a stock, his spirit\u2019s but a stone.\n Howe\u2019er he contradict, them God directs alone.\n In words, mayhap, he may detect a hitch or two;\n But his own soul and body witness God is true.\n\n Some stones were held in hand by Ab\u016b-Jahl one day.[279]\n Said he to Muhammed: \u201cWhat hold I here? Now say.\n Since thou\u2019rt a prophet, tell: What hold I in my hand?\n The secrets of high heaven thou claimest to command.\u201d\n\n Said Muhammed: \u201cHow can\u2019st suppose I should not tell?\n The things themselves shall speak. I\u2019m truthful; they\n know well.\u201d 260\n Said Ab\u016b-Jahl: \u201cThis last pretension\u2019s harder still.\u201d\n To him replied the Prophet: \u201cThey\u2019ll obey God\u2019s will.\u201d\n\n From out of his closed hand a chorus now burst forth;\n Confession of God\u2019s unity; His Prophet\u2019s worth:\n \u201cThere is no god but God,\u201d the stones distinctly sang;\n \u201cMuhammed is God\u2019s prophet,\u201d also clearly rang.\n\n When Ab\u016b-Jahl this heard, he cast the stones away,\n In anger from his hand, as then he dared to say:\n \u201cMost surely no magician ever was like thee.\n Magicians\u2019 chief art thou; crown on their heads thou\u2019lt be.\u201d 265\n\n May dust alight upon his head, blind miscreant!\n \u2019Twas Satan closed his inward sight;--cursed recusant.\n\n Now turn we once again to hear the minstrel\u2019s tale,\n For all this time he\u2019s waiting; anxious, wan, and pale.\n The heavenly voice the Caliph called: \u201cHo! \u2018Umer! Ho!\n Our servant\u2019s want relieve; set thou him free from woe.\n A servant whom we hold in very high esteem,\n In public burial-ground, go, visit; him redeem.\n From out the public treasury do thou extract\n Seven hundred golden sequins, with due care and tact. 270\n To him deliver them; and say: \u2018O man of good,\n For present needs let this suffice; \u2019twill give thee food.\n Thy harpstrings\u2019 hire it is. Go hence; and when \u2019tis done,\n Do thou again come hither; look for me alone.\u2019\u201d\n\n At sound of that dread voice did \u2018Umer now awake,\n And straight himself disposed that task to undertake.\n Towards the burial-ground he turned his steps amain,\n The money in his breast, to seek the stranger, fain.\n He walked about the ground, right, left, and everywhere.\n No second soul was seen; the minstrel only there. 275\n\n Thought he: \u201cThis cannot be my quest.\u201d So, off again\n He wandered; still no other offered; this was plain.\n He said within himself: \u201cThe Lord of servant spake,\n Devout, approved, accepted, loved for God\u2019s own sake.\n An ancient minstrel this. Of God can he be loved?\n Some mystery is here. Hail, riddle, by God moved!\n Once more he wandered o\u2019er the spacious burial-ground,\n As lion seeking for his prey goes round and round.\n Convinced at length no other was there choice to make,\n He thought: \u201cWhen I\u2019m in doubt, light from above I take.\u201d 280\n Respectfully he then approached the sleeping guest.\n A sneezing seized him. Straight the harper woke from rest.\n\n When \u2018Umer he espied, he marvelled, sore amazed;\n And rose to go away. Fear\u2019s tremor held him dazed.\n He thought: \u201cO Lord, have mercy Thou on me!\n This magistrate austere no harper \u2019ll kindly see.\u201d\n\n Now \u2018Umer him considered; saw he was afraid;\n His cheeks all pale and wan; looks, modest as a maid;\n Then said: \u201cFear not! From me seek not to go away;\n Good tidings from on high to thee I bring this day. 285\n Of thee the Lord hath spoken in terms of highest praise.\n The heart of \u2018Umer\u2019s moved to love thee and thy lays.\n Be seated, then, by me, as friend by side of friend;\n While I to thee impart the message God doth send.\n The Lord doth thee salute; thy welfare doth inquire;\n Trusts thou\u2019st supported well all thy afflictions dire.\n This trifle sends for present needs, as harpstrings\u2019 worth.\n When it is spent, come here again, and fear not dearth.\u201d\n The old man trembled as he heard those words so kind;\n His finger in astonishment he bit;--near lost his mind. 290\n Then cried aloud: \u201cO God! Thou all-unequalled One!\n In my old age I sink for shame; this mercy I\u2019ve not won.\u201d\n\n A torrent, now, of tears, he shed, in anguish deep;\n His harp then dashed to pieces. Why it longer keep?\n He thus apostrophised it: \u201cO thou source of ill!\n Thou\u2019st barred me from heaven\u2019s path, as highwaymen who kill.\n My blood thou\u2019st sucked these seventy years, thou thing of shame!\n Through thee I\u2019m rendered vile in eyes of men of fame.\n O Lord, Most Merciful! Thou giver of all good!\n My past life pardon, squandered ill, in heedless mood!\u201d 295\n\n Man\u2019s life\u2019s a gift of God. Alas! How few will think!\n The value of each moment\u2019s great, so near death\u2019s brink.\n I\u2019ve spent my life, not thinking how the moments fly.\n I\u2019ve sung and harped as though a man should never die.\n Alas! that I in singing songs of mirth and glee,\n Entirely had forgot that death would visit me.\n Alas! that shrillest notes have set my ears in flames,\n And scorched my heart to shamelessness! Sad names!\n Alas! the gamut\u2019s intervals were heard all night.\n The day has dawned; the caravan passed with the light. 300\n My God! Help, help! Me save from him who cries for help!\n Protection I implore from self;--I, who thus yelp!\n I never shall obtain my right, except through craft.\n For craft is german more to me than self ingraft.\n By craft this self itself doth rear across my way.\n Beyond my craft myself I see, when craft\u2019s at bay.\n Just like as when a man is telling gold with thee.\n Alone it thou considerest,--self thou dost not see.\n So did the harper weep, and loudly did complain.\n His sins he numbered up, committed in life\u2019s train. 305\n\n To him then \u2018Umer: \u201cThis contrition deep of thine\n Is proof thou sober art, though grief thy heart entwine.\n Thy worldly journey\u2019s over, other path now take;\n For this sobriety\u2019s a sin thou must forsake.\n Sobriety\u2019s a virtue in the road thou\u2019st trod.\n The past and future both are curtains hiding God.\n Set fire to both of them! How long wilt thou remain\n Partitioned up by diaphragms like a reed cane?\n So long as reed has diaphragms, it\u2019s not our friend;\n With lips and voice of ours its notes it cannot blend. 310\n So long as thou goest round the house, thou waverer art;[280]\n But when thou\u2019st entered, then full ease reigns in thy heart.\n O thou, whose knowledge of full knowledge is not half,\n Contrition is, with thee, worse than thy fault, mooncalf.\n Thou\u2019rt contrite for the past. On what occasion\n Wilt thou contrition feel for this contrition?\n At one time worshipper thou wert of notes of harp;\n And now, like lover, thou\u2019dst kiss sighs and moans so sharp.\u201d\n\n Like mirror, \u2018Umer having thus reflected truth,\n The harper\u2019s heart received enlightenment, forsooth. 315\n He, spirit-like, became relieved of moan and smile.\n His old mind took its leave, his new heart was docile.\n Amazement fell upon him, stupor bathed each sense,\n Ecstatic trance then followed, earth and sky flew hence.\n A yearning and a longing past description.\n As I cannot explain; try thy perception.\n Such ecstasy, such words, beyond all mood and tense;\n Immersion total in God\u2019s glorious effulgence.\n Immersion such, escape therefrom impossible;\n That sea henceforth to him became impassable. 320\n\n Our partial wisdom\u2019s not part of omniscience,\n Until God\u2019s promptings come its promptings to enhance.\n But when our souls are made those impulses to feel,\n That sea in waves straight rises, under which we reel.\n\n The story of the harper and his state now ends;\n Both harper and that state have grown to be our friends.\n The harper sealed his mouth from any further song.\n We, too, will leave his tale half told; it is too long.\n\n In order to attain to his high state of bliss,\n Had one a hundred lives, they might be staked for this. 325\n Be thou, then, like a falcon, ever on the wing,\n To catch that gnat, thy soul; sunlike, for ever sing.\n He casts himself, for love, from highest heaven\u2019s height;\n If flagons empty, he with wine fills them, so bright.\n\n O spiritual Sun, transfuse Thou life to all.\n A new life give, O God, to this our earthly ball.\n Into the frames of men both life and soul infuse\n From out Thy hidden world, as water dost diffuse.\n\n The Prophet has informed us that, for warning\u2019s sake,\n Two angels evermore sweet invocation make: 330\n \u201cO God, dispensers bless! Do Thou them feed and tend!\n Give them ten thousandfold for every mite they spend!\n But hoarders, O our Lord God, in this lower scene,\n Do Thou afflict with loss,--no profit intervene!\u201d\n\n How many hoardings better than dispensings are!\n Save in God\u2019s service, wealth of God spend not. Take care!\n So mayst thou get in recompense a hundredfold.\n So mayst thou \u2019scape the punishment of sins untold.\n Men offered up their camels as a sacrifice;\n In hopes their swords \u2019gainst Mustaf\u00e0 would do service. 335\n Seek thou the will of God from him who has it learnt;\n Not into every soul has God\u2019s will been inburnt.\n The Prophet\u2019s words forewarned those sons of heedlessness,\n That all such offerings are a heap of worthlessness.\n In war with God\u2019s apostle, chiefs of Mekka all\n Such sacrifices offered, ghostly aid to call.\n\n Just like the unjust steward, who, as justice due,\n The treasure of his lord bestowed on rebel crew.\n He falsely pictured to himself he\u2019d justice wrought,\n With public money spent, the poor to terms he\u2019d brought. 340\n Such justice from such culprit, what could it effect?\n His lord, to anger moved, excuses did reject.\n\n Hence is it, every Muslim, fearing he may stray,\n In his devotions begs: \u201cLead Thou us in right way.\u201d[281]\n Their substance to dispense suits men of generous mood.\n A lover\u2019s ready gift\u2019s his life for his love\u2019s good.\n Dispense thou food for God\u2019s sake; food thou\u2019lt surely have.\n Lay down thy life for love of God; thy life thou\u2019lt save.\n\n We see the trees here shed their leaves at God\u2019s command.\n Without their toil or trouble, other leaves He\u2019ll send. 345\n Shouldst thou, dispensing much, one day be found in want,\n The Lord will not forsake thee; His supply\u2019s not scant.\n Whoever sows, must empty storehouses of grain;\n His fields will yield him richly tenfold heaps of gain.\n But he who\u2019s left his corn in garners, to be used,\n Mules, horses, mice, and accidents have it reduced.\n\n This world\u2019s a negative; the positive seek thou.\n All outward forms are cyphers; search, the sense to know.\n Lay down thy wretched life before th\u2019 uplifted sword;\n New life thou\u2019lt purchase, never-ending, of the Lord. 350\n But if thou do not know, well, how to quit this scene,\n To me, then, lend thy ear; this tale for thee I mean.\n\n In days of old there was a Caliph, as is said,\n Whose generosity H\u0101tim T\u0101y\u012b \u2019d dismayed.[282]\n His fame for liberality went through the land;\n All poverty, all want, relieved was at his hand.\n The very sea went dry through his dispensing zest;\n And rumours of his benefits spread east and west.\n A fruitful cloud of rain was he to this our race;\n In turn, the object he of God\u2019s surpassing grace. 355\n So large his gifts, that seas and mines were out of date.\n Still fame brought caravans of suitors to his gate,\n His courts and halls the temples of the indigent.\n The noise had gone abroad how largely he had spent.\n The Persian, Roman, Turk, and Arab, all were there,\n And all admired his liberalities so rare.\n A Fount of Life was he, a very sea of gift.\n All nations profited,--in praise their voice did lift. 359\n\n\n\n\nIX.\n\nThe Poor Scenite Arab and his Wife.\n\n\n An Arab woman once thus to her husband spake,\n Insisting strongly he\u2019d of these words notice take:\n \u201cHow very poor we are! What hardships have we borne!\n The whole world lives in pleasures; we\u2019re the butt of scorn!\n We have no bread; for condiment we\u2019ve grief and cares.\n Jug, pitcher we possess not; drink we naught but tears.\n By day, our only raiment\u2019s scorching solar heat;\n Our bedclothes in the night, the moon\u2019s rays pale and sweet.\n The disk of Luna we may well imagine bread.\n Our hands we lift to heaven; keen hunger\u2019s pangs we dread. 5\n E\u2019en mendicants feel shame at our dire poverty.\n Our days are dark as night, through drear adversity.\n Our kindred, as all strangers, sight of us now shun.\n Just like the wandering Jew, for fear we should them dun.[283]\n When I would borrow half a handful of lentils,\n The neighbours wish me dead; their wrath on me distils.\n Amongst us Arabs pride is felt in war and gifts,\n Among those very Arabs thou\u2019rt devoid of shifts.\n What need of war have we? We\u2019re wounded; we are slain;\n The dart of want has pierced us through and through with pain. 10\n What need of faults, O sinless one? We\u2019re in hell-fire!\n What solace have we? Overwhelmed with deep desire!\n What gifts have we to give? We silent beggars sit!\n Could we but seize a gnat, its throat we\u2019d straightway slit!\n If guest should come to us, as sure as I\u2019m alive,\n When he was sunk in sleep, to strip him we would strive.\u201d\n Such grumblings, and as follows, going on all day,\n She made her husband wish her fifty miles away:\n \u201cUnbroken destitution\u2019s brought us both to straits.\n My heart burns for our sorrows; hope\u2019s gleam ne\u2019er awaits. 15\n How long are we to suffer torture such as this?\n With hunger\u2019s agony, like coals of fire we hiss.\n Should any stranger guest come unexpectedly,\n What shame we\u2019d feel him to receive dejectedly.\n If any visitor should pass our way this eve,\n Unless we eat his sandals, what food can we give?\u201d\n\n \u201cHence \u2019tis the wise have said in proverb, rendered free\n \u2018A guest should never go where he\u2019ll not welcome be.\u2019\n Who\u2019d wish to be the guest confiding of a man,\n Who\u2019ll strip thee to the skin, bare, gladly, if he can? 20\n Unhappy in himself, can he thee happy make?\n He can impart no light; deep gloom\u2019s his only stake.\n Not feeling gladsome in himself, with others met,\n He cannot yield to them what he has not as yet.\n Suppose a man ophthalmic start as oculist;\n Of granite-dust alone will his eye-salves consist.\n So \u2019tis with all in times of misery and need;\n Let no one, then, come blindly to our house to feed.\u201d\n\n Hast never seen reality of famine near?\n Look well at us; thou\u2019lt see effects of food too dear. 25\n Our outward look is black, like dark pretender\u2019s heart.\n This lacks enlightenment, though his exterior\u2019s smart.\n He has no hope of God, nor any good to show,\n Though more than Seth or Adam he pretend to know.\n Ev\u2019n Satan unto him no trace of self has shown,\n And yet he claims to be a Vicar of God\u2019s own.[284]\n Some Gnostic terms he uses as a plagiarist,\n That he may lead the people as though secretist.\n A critic, \u2019sooth, is he; complains of B\u0101yez\u012bd;[285]\n Whereas Yez\u012bd himself would blush at his bald creed.[286] 30\n Of heavenly bread and table, nothing has he known;\n The barest bone to him, vile dog, God has not thrown.\n He pompously proclaims: \u201cMy table have I spread;\n Vicegerent\u2019s son, God\u2019s Vicar, here am I indeed!\n Then welcome, all ye simpletons! Come in; Come in!\n From table of my bounty fill yourselves within.\u201d\n For years he dupes them with \u201cTo-morrow\u2019s\u201d promise still.\n The arrant arch-deceiver, whose \u201cTo-morrow\u2019s\u201d _nil_.\n\n A long time is required to sound a human mind,\n To find out what defects may lurk the mask behind. 35\n A buried treasure is there under body\u2019s wall?\n Or is it hole of serpent, toad, or scorpion, all?\n At length when \u2019tis discovered, impostor is he,\n His pupil\u2019s life is wasted; what use then to see?\n\n But on some rare occasion, pupil of great parts\n Will come to the impostor, profit by his arts.\n He comes with good intention to the lecture-hall,\n Expects a guiding soul; he finds a carcase; all.\n As when, in dead of night, one does not know the east,[287]\n To offer one\u2019s devotion\u2019s licit, turning west. 40\n Pretenders carry famine in their heart of hearts.\n We suffer only want of bread for our repasts.\n Why, then, pretender-like, should we our want disguise?\n Why, for appearance\u2019 sake, our soul, too, bastardise?\n\n The woman\u2019s husband answered: \u201cPray now, silence keep!\n Our life is most part o\u2019er. What\u2019s left us but to weep?\u201d\n\n \u201cThe wise man cares not for a little more or less.\n These both will pass away, like torrent\u2019s waywardness.\n A torrent may be clear, or muddy, black as ink.\n It will not last. Why then should we about it think?\u201d 45\n\n \u201cWithin this world what millions, living creatures all,\n A life of joy still lead, quite free from let or fall.\n A dove is always cooing praises to the Lord,\n Upon a tree, so long as day may light afford.\n A nightingale sings hymns, God\u2019s name to bless alway.\n For unto Thee he trusts, Who hearest us when we pray.\n A falcon, when he sits upon a royal fist,\n No longer stoops to carrion, wherewith to subsist.\n And so from gnat to elephant like state we find,\n They all depend on God, the best of feeders\u2019 kind.\u201d 50\n\n \u201cAll those anxieties that fall on us like darts,\n Are but the vapours, tempests, of our human hearts.\n Those cares are like a sickle, made to cut us down.\n This is a fact, though we are slow the truth to own.\n Our ev\u2019ry suffering, here, a portion is of death.\n This part of death, then, drive away whilst thou hast breath.\n If from this part of death thou findst thou canst not run;\n Thou\u2019rt sure whole death will follow, as the light the sun.\n If thou canst learn to think this part of death is sweet,\n Thou knowest that God will make its whole thy tastes to meet. 55\n Our troubles are the heralds of our death to come.\n Turn not thy face away from herald, as do some.\u201d\n\n \u201cWhoever leads a joyous life finds death severe.\n And he who\u2019s slave to body, mars his soul\u2019s career.\n When sheep come home from pasture in the meadows green,\n The fattest ones are slaughtered, soon as they are seen.\n The night is spent, the morn is come, my bosom friend,\n When wilt thou bring thy grumbling gossip to an end?\n Once thou wert young, and more content a hundredfold;\n Then covetous becamest, though thyself art gold. 60\n A fruitful vine thou wert; a blight\u2019s come over thee;\n Thy fruit will never ripe, \u2019twill shrivel on the tree.\n Sweet fruit, with flavour, give, thy inward worth to prove.\n Thou backwards shouldst not walk, as ropemakers all move.\n Thou art my helpmate fond; and fellow-workers all,\n Of one mind still should be, or their joint work must fall.\n A pair should ever be conformable in aim.\n A pair of shoes examine; pair of boots, the same.\n If one boot of a pair be too small for the foot,\n The pair is useless; vain, the other\u2019s size to moot. 65\n One boot is small; the other, \u2019haps, too large is found.\n Hast ever known a lion consort with a hound?\n Two packs upon a camel equipoise require;\n The one must not be half, the other bale entire.\n I choose the road that leads straight to contentment\u2019s door,\n Why takest thou the path to sin and misery\u2019s floor?\u201d\n The woman\u2019s husband, suffering, but resigned still,\n Thus spake unto his wife, to calm her restive will.\n\n The woman raised a shout: \u201cO man of simple mind!\n I will no longer listen to thy words, though kind. 70\n Talk not to me of claims, pretensions, and such stuff.\n I care not one pin\u2019s point for pride and flimsy fluff.\n Why preach so loud of sentiment and honour\u2019s call?\n Just look at our condition. Shame upon thee fall!\n Pride certainly is wrong; much worse in beggars\u2019 camp.\n The day is cold and snowy; all our clothing\u2019s damp.\n What nonsense and frivolity thy weak pate doles!\n And all the while thy tent, like cobweb, \u2019s full of holes.\n Where didst thou learn contentment\u2019s rule to make thy pride?\n Has thy contentment taught thee shame from men to hide? 75\n The Prophet has declared: \u2018Content a treasure is.\u2019\n But what knowest thou of treasure? Suffering\u2019s all thy bliss.\n Contentment\u2019s but a water-reservoir that leaks.\n Do hold thy tongue, thou plague; and cease these foolish freaks.\n Thou namest me thy helpmate; lower, pray, thy tone.\n I\u2019m fellow unto justice; mate to knavery, none.\n Since thou equality with lords and princes claimest,\n Why suck the blood of locusts that by chance thou maimest?\n Thou fightest for a bone with dogs in this debate.\n How shall I not complain, with hunger at our gate? 80\n Don\u2019t look at me contemptuously, and all askance.\n Lest I tell all my mind, thy baseness to enhance.\n Thou holdest thyself much wiser than poor soul like me.\n Hast ever found me wanting sense to make thee see?\n Think not to fall upon me, wolf-like, unawares,\n O thou at whose great wisdom woman\u2019s folly stares!\n The wisdom thou so holdest superior to all,\n Not wisdom is; but serpent\u2019s, scorpion\u2019s, deadly gall.\n A foe may God prove ever to thy drivelling guile!\n So mayst thou turn out weaker than weak woman\u2019s wile! 85\n Thou art both snake and snake-catcher, in one combined.\n A serpent-charming serpent! Arab\u2019s pride enshrined!\n\n Did crows but realise their ugliness supreme,\n As white as snow they\u2019d change, through rage and arrant shame.\n A charmer sings a charm against a snake, his foe;\n The snake charms him in turn; hence follows boundless woe.\n Were not his trap a charm prepared by the snake,\n Would he become the victim of some small mistake?\n The charmer first is caught in toils of greed and lust.\n And sees not \u2019tis the snake has charmed him, bound him fast. 90\n The snake addresses him: \u2018O charmer! See now! Look!\n Thy own work thou perceivest, my wiles hast mistook.\n Thou charmest in God\u2019s name to make me thy bond-slave,\n And lead me captive, make me sport for fool and knave.\n The name of God it is that holds me fast enchained;\n That name thou usest as my trap. Art not soft-brained?\n That name will one day vengeance on thee for me take.\n In fear of that dread name, I, soul and body, quake.\n He\u2019ll either take thy life with poison-fang of mine;\n Or, like me, unto prison He will thee consign!\u2019\u201d 95\n Thus spake the woman bitterly unto her spouse,\n Whole volumes would not hold the words that she let loose.\n\n He answered her: \u201cMy wife! Art woman? Art thou mad?\n \u2018My poverty\u2019s my pride.\u2019[288] Reproach me not when sad.\n Possessions, wealth, are but a cap the scalp to hide.\n The scaldheads or baldpates alone in caps confide.\n Whoever\u2019s hair has grown in curls or tresses full.\n Is always proud when he his cap away can pull.\n A man of God resembles precious sense of sight.\n Our eyes should not be bandaged, or we can\u2019t see right. 100\n\n The dealer who exposes slaves free from defects,\n Strips off the useless cloak that hides all ill effects.\n Were they not sound, would he the sheltering mantle strip?\n Nay! Contrary! With clothing he\u2019d their vices clip,\n And say as an excuse: \u2018He\u2019s timid; she\u2019s shamefaced,\n And shrinks from being here bare of vestments placed.\u2019\u201d\n\n \u201cA man of wealth may full of sundry vices be.\n His riches are his mantle; none his failings see.\n Men all are covetous; their greed \u2019tis blinds them all,\n One touch of fellow-feeling binds them as one ball. 105\n But should a poor man say what\u2019s precious more than gold\n His saying is not heeded by the world so cold.\u201d\n\n \u201cThe functions of a dervish far transcend thy ken.\n The aim of mendicancy\u2019s folly to most men.\n True dervishes retire away from wealth and power.\n Their bread the Lord, majestic, furnishes each hour.\n Our God is just. When had it happened that the just\n Have acted with injustice towards the poor who trust?\n To one, all blessings God gives, favours, luxuries;\n Another one, at will, with coals of fire He tries. 110\n Who doubts that God thus acts with uncontrolled will,\n His portion be the fire of tribulation still.\u201d\n\n \u201c\u2018My poverty\u2019s my pride\u2019 is not an empty word,\n Therein are hid a thousand blessings well assured.\n In anger, imprecations thou hast cast on me.\n I am a humble suitor; snake-catcher thou\u2019dst see.\n If e\u2019er a snake I catch, I still extract its fangs,\n That harm may never follow, when its head one bangs.\n Those fangs are enemies to every serpent\u2019s life,\n When I extract them, then, I make him free from strife.\u201d 115\n\n \u201cI never will submit to spell of lust and greed.\n For cov\u2019tousness I\u2019ve conquered. Its maw I\u2019ll not feed.\n Thank God that greed is not among my sins, at least.\n Contentment fills my heart;--a true, perpetual feast.\n Thou lookest at the crown of pear-tree full of fruit,\n Come down from that idea; no good will it boot.\n In raising up thyself, thou giddy hast become;\n \u2019Tis not the house that reels; thy brain\u2019s grown troublesome.\u201d\n\n \u201cOnce Ab\u016b-Jahl saw Ahmed; spitefully he said:\n \u2018Thou ugly portraiture from Ban\u016b-H\u0101shim bred!\u2019 120\n Said Ahmed: \u2018True thou\u2019st spoken, most veracious man;\n Thy words are worthy credit, let who cavil can!\u2019\n Then Ab\u016b-Bekr saw him, said he was a sun\n Of perfect beauty; east, west, everywhere he\u2019d run.\n To him, too, Ahmed answered: \u2018Thou hast spoken true,\n O upright man, set free from all the nine spheres\u2019 clew.\u2019\n The company assembled marvelled at these words,\n And asked: \u2018How can two contraries be what accords?\u2019\n Said Ahmed then: \u2018A mirror am I, polished bright.\n Both Turk and Hind\u016b see in me reflection\u2019s light.\u2019\u201d 125\n\n \u201cO wife! If ever thou hast thought me covetous,\n Come forth from such idea,--too preposterous.\n That which thou takest for greed is heaven\u2019s mercy, sure.\n And how can greed and mercy both at once allure?\n Make trial of true poverty, but for one day, or two.\n Thou\u2019lt find therein true riches, with contentment, too.\n Be patient with our poverty, and banish grief;\n For poverty\u2019s a crown bestowed by our great Chief.\n Put off sour looks and see, how many thousand souls,\n Through sweet contentment are as happy as the fowls. 130\n See other thousands, also, drinking dregs of grief:\n It permeates their being, as sugar scents roseleaf.\u201d\n\n \u201cAlas! Thou wast a treasure valued by my heart!\n I loved to pour my soul forth in thy ears apart!\n A kind of milk is speech; its teat the soul,--or gland.\n To make it freely flow requires a loving hand.\n If but the hearer listen, hang upon his lips,\n The speaker, though a corpse, grows eloquent, ne\u2019er trips.\n Attentive audiences still confer the powers,\n To stutterers and stammerers, to speak for hours. 135\n If strangers should break in upon my privacy,\n My womenkind retire, from mere delicacy.\n But if my visitor be confidant and kin,\n They come forth freely, play about with gladsome din.\n Whatever best they know, of work, or play, or jest,\n They do and say, for show, before a welcome guest.\n What use of sound of harp, of bass or treble notes,\n For deaf or senseless ear, that on no music dotes?\u201d\n\n \u201cOur God has made the earth, the sky, and all between;\n His light, and eke His fire, upon that stage is seen. 140\n The Lord without a purpose gave not musk its scent.\n For odour \u2019twas, not for diseased nostrils, meant.\n The earth He stretched forth, and fixed as man\u2019s abode.\n The heavens He upreared to be by angels rode.\n Th\u2019 inferior creature, man, \u2019s at strife with all on high;\n He bids for every place he sees, for all he\u2019ll sigh.\u201d\n\n \u201cDear wife! Chaste, modest matron! Art thou well prepared\n Into the tomb to sink, ere thy doomed hour\u2019s declared?\n Were I to fill the earth with pearls of countless price,\n Thy daily bread thee failing, could they thee entice? 145\n Then cease from all contention, strive not \u2019gainst the Lord,\n Or separation from thee will be my last word.\n What taste have I for strife, contention, or annoy,\n When even in peacemakings I\u2019ve no longer joy?\n Be quiet! Hold thy peace! Or, by the Lord of life,\n I\u2019ll quit this tent for ever; thou\u2019lt not be my wife!\n Much better to walk barefoot than with shoe too small!\n The toil of travel\u2019s sweeter than strife in one\u2019s wall!\u201d\n\n She knew, thence, he was angered;--will had of his own;\n She burst in tears. Was ever woman tearless known? 150\n Quoth she: \u201cI\u2019d never thought from thee such words to hear;\n Far different had I hoped; knew not I\u2019d aught to fear.\u201d\n She made herself most servile, thing of small amount;\n Remarked: \u201cThy humble servant am I; so me count.\n My soul and body, all I have, \u2019s at thy command;\n Sole arbiter art thou; dispose; I\u2019ll not withstand,\n If I of poverty impatiently complained,\n Not for myself, for thee, was our sad lot disdained.\n In all afflictions thou our remedy hast been;\n I grieve to see thee want; my anguish thence grows keen. 155\n Dear, darling spouse! For thee was all my deep dismay;\n My sighs and moans for thee came into bitter play.\n I call my God to witness, in my heart and mind,\n I\u2019m ready life to lay down, if thou\u2019rt so inclined.\n O that thy heart,--the life with which my soul\u2019s endued,\u2014\n Could trace aright the channel by my thoughts pursued!\n If merely through suspicion thou art vexed with me,\n My life I value not; breath,--body\u2019s naught! Just see.\n I scorn all gold and silver, count them less than dirt,\n If they to thee bring anguish. No! I\u2019m no such flirt. 160\n Thine is the only picture painted on my heart;\n And canst thou talk of leaving me, from home depart?\n Discard me, if thou wilt. Thou hast the right and power,\n O thou for whose divorce excuse I make each hour!\n Recall to mind the time when I thy idol was,\n And thou, priest-like, didst worship me! Alas! Alas!\n My heart I cultivated just as thou desiredst.\n Thou thoughtest \u2019twas fond. I knew thou it with love inspiredst.\n\n Like potherbs o\u2019er the fire, thou addedst what thou wouldst,\n Sharp vinegar, or honey. What thou wishedst, thou couldst. 165\n If blasphemy I\u2019ve uttered, lo, I faith profess!\n My life is in thy hands; but, be not pitiless!\n I wot not thou wouldst prove imperious, like a king;\n So, like an ass turned loose, before thee took my fling.\n Thy pardon now I crave. Let me know joy again!\n Contention I forswear, repentance I maintain.\n With sword and winding-sheet I fall at my lord\u2019s feet;\n Should he decapitate me, death to me\u2019ll be sweet.\n Thou\u2019st talked of separation;--bitter, worse than gall;\n Do what thou will with me, that hideous word recall. 170\n In thee, for me, a pleader ever will be found;\n If I be mute, thou\u2019lt still hear intercession\u2019s sound.\n My potent advocate is, in thyself, thy heart;\n Relying upon that, I dared to sin, with art.\n Have mercy slily,--see thy grace thyself not, Lord!\n To me far sweeter than a honeycomb full stored!\u201d\n\n Thus pleaded she; in coaxing, wheedling terms, with skill.\n Her tears rolled down in streams, fast coursing at her will.\n Her weeping and her sighs were past endurance felt,\n Whose features, tearless, e\u2019en his heart of steel could melt. 175\n That shower precursor was of lightning\u2019s vivid gleam,\n Whose flash lit in his breast a fire, with pity\u2019s beam.\n She, of whose beauty was a slave her husband still,\n A double spell exerted through entreaty\u2019s thrill.\n\n One, whose least coolness sets man\u2019s heart in flames,\n By turning supplicant a twofold witchery claims.\n If he, whose pride at times pain causes to thy mind,\n To supplication stoop, thou\u2019lt small resistance find.\n He, whose fierce tyranny our bleeding hearts most grieves,\n By tendering excuses, us excuseless leaves. 180\n \u201cIs goodly made to man\u201d[289] \u2019s a text from God\u2019s own word;\n As truth made manifest, is by man ever heard.\n God, too, therein decreed: \u201cthat he with her may dwell;\u201d[290]\n Whence Adam\u2019s love for Eve survived lost Eden\u2019s dell.\n A hero man may be, a Hercules to grieve,\n But slave to woman\u2019s will is he, without reprieve.\n He, to whose words the universe has all bowed down,[291]\n Was he who sang: \u201cHumayr\u0101, speak to me!\u201d Life\u2019s crown![292]\n\n Of fire and water, fire is quelled through water\u2019s wet;\n Still, water boils through fire, when in a cauldron set. 185\n The cauldron, like a veil, those lovers keeps apart;\n And water\u2019s influence no longer cools fire\u2019s heart.\n To outward show, as water, thou mayst rule thy wife;\n In stern reality, thou cleavest to her,--thy life.\n This attribute, humanity must own its force:\n \u201cMan quails to sensual love,\u201d which springs from failing\u2019s source.\n The Prophet hath declared that woman, over sage,\n Despotic power e\u2019er wields, and over men of age;\n That fools the upper-hand o\u2019er women still maintain, 190\n Because they\u2019re harsh, gross, senseless, careless to cause pain.\n No gentleness, no pity, faith, or ruth have they;\n In that a bestial nature o\u2019er them holds its sway.\n Humanity \u2019tis claims, for self, love, charity;\n While lusts and rage are marks of bestiality.\n Fair woman is a ray from out the sun of Truth;\n Not loved? A creator; not created, forsooth.[293]\n The husband, now, contrition felt for what he\u2019d said,\n As sinner, at death\u2019s door, repents of evil deed.\n Thought he: \u201cI have assailed the life of my life\u2019s life;\n I\u2019ve plagued and broke the heart of my dear darling wife!\u201d 195\n\n When God decrees an ill, man\u2019s judgment falls asleep.\n And perspicacity knows not which way to leap.\n The doom of ill struck home, man straight feels deep regret;\n Propriety outraged, he turns to mourn and fret.\n\n Addressing, then, his wife, he said: \u201cMy shame is great!\n I\u2019ve acted as a heathen, ah! I\u2019m ready to entreat!\n \u2019Gainst thee I\u2019ve trespassed, prithee, pardon to me grant;\n Upon me vengeance wreak not, root not up the plant!\n An infidel, however old, if he confess his sin,\n And make amends, God\u2019s sheepfold opes and takes him in. 200\n Thy heart is full of pity, goodness, kindness, grace;\n All being, eke nonentity, \u2019s in love with thy sweet face.\n True faith, e\u2019en blasphemy, adores thy majesty;\n With that elixir all to gold turns instantly.\u201d\n\n In Moses and in Pharaoh parables we see.\n \u2019Twould seem that Moses\u2019 faith was right; Pharaoh\u2019s sin\u2019s fee.\n By day would Moses pray unto the Lord of Hosts;\n At midnight Pharaoh, too, bewailed his impious boasts,\n And said: \u201cThou, Lord, this yoke upon my neck didst lay;\n Were\u2019t not for yoke imposed, the egotist who\u2019d play? 205\n \u2019Tis Thou\u2019st enlightened Moses\u2019 mind, of Thy free grace;\n And hence hast left me blindly groping on my face.\n The countenance of Moses Thou\u2019st lit up, like day;\n My heart, like moon eclipsed, Thou\u2019st darkened with dismay.\n My star was never brighter than the full-faced moon;\n When darkened with eclipse, it surely sets too soon.\n True, kings and princes sound my praises in their routs;\n My star eclipsed, the rabble raise their clamorous shouts:\n With cleavers, marrowbones, tongs, pokers, hideous \u2019larm,\n They seek to fright some monster; really, shame all charm. 210\n Alas for Pharaoh, with those fearful yells and noise!\n Alas his \u2018Lord Supreme,\u2019[294] drowned in that discord\u2019s voice!\n Both I and Moses servants are of Thee, our King;\n Like woodman\u2019s axe on tree, Thy wrath on me takes swing.\n Some boughs Thou loppest, to plant. They quickly grow again.\n Some others but as firewood burn, or moulder on the plain.\n What can the bough, to cope with axe\u2019s severing edge?\n Can bough resist, return the blow, as blacksmith\u2019s sledge?\n I call on Thy omnipotence! Thy axe withhold!\n Thy mercy manifest! These wrongs set right! Behold!\u201d 215\n\n Then to himself did Pharaoh think: \u201cO wondrous thing!\n All night I\u2019ve prayed \u2018Good Lord\u2019 to heaven\u2019s Almighty King!\n In secret I\u2019m humility, a very worm!\n But when I Moses meet, how greatly changed my form!\n Base coin, if tenfold gilded o\u2019er with finest gold,\n Upon the fire when cast, its baseness all behold!\n Are not my heart and body wholly in his hand?\n Why brain me, flay me, thus? So cunning, soft, and bland!\n Commandest Thou me to flourish? As cornfield I\u2019m green.\n Decreest Thou me to wither? Straight I\u2019m sallow seen. 220\n One day I\u2019m bright as full moon; next, as eclipse dark.\n But is not this of all God\u2019s works the constant mark?\n \u2018Be, and it is!\u2019[295] A bat that drives man on, His laws!\n Of entity, nonentity, that course is cause!\n Th\u2019 uncoloured being stained with colour\u2019s various tinge,\n One Moses \u2019gainst another\u2019s certain to impinge.\n If th\u2019 unconditioned state, that was, should e\u2019er return,\n With Moses Pharaoh, then, may live in peace; not burn.\u201d\n\n Does doubt invade thy bosom from this subtle theme?\n Think! When was colouredness exempt from doubt extreme? 225\n The wonder is how colour rose from hueless source;\n How colour, huelessness, in ceaseless warfare course!\n\n The origin of oil is water. This is known.\n Then why are oil and water foes, as may be shown?\n From water oil\u2019s created by mysterious power;\n \u2019Gainst water why does oil rise up, and war, each hour?\n The rose springs from a thorn; thorns, from the rose.\n In open warfare are these two. Why? What suppose?\n Or is this seeming warfare all a cunning sham,\n Like donkey-dealers\u2019 wordy strife, some dupe to flam? 230\n \u2019Tis neither this nor that. \u2019Tis puzzle for the wise.\n The treasure\u2019s to be sought; the ruin\u2019s \u2019fore our eyes.[296]\n That which thou deemest the treasure\u2019s naught but vanity.\n By deeming it a treasure, makest thou it to flee.\n Thy deemings and thy thoughts build up a pile too fair;\n For treasure never lurks where buildings crown the air.\n \u201c_To edify_\u201d means: \u201c_Being_, _warfare eke_, _to sow_.\u201d\n Nonentity is shamed with entity\u2019s false show!\n Not entity \u2019tis calls for aid. It is the void\n For restitution asks,--encroachments would avoid! 235\n Think not \u2019tis thou wouldst flee non-entity\u2019s fell grip;\n Nonentity encroachment dreads from thy short trip.\n Apparently, it thee invites unto its breast;\n But really, it repels; club-like is its protest.\n Know then, dear friend, that Pharaoh\u2019s shrink from Moses\u2019 call\n Was, really, like a wrong shoe on one\u2019s foot. That\u2019s all.\n\n Opinions are agreed \u2019mongst philosophic folk:\n \u201cThe sky\u2019s an eggshell; in it lies this globe, as yolk.\u201d\n\n A questioner once asked: \u201cHow rests this little ball\n Within the circumambient spheres, without a fall? 240\n \u2019Tis like a lamp hung up to vault of high-pitched dome;\n It never sinks below, nor soars above its home.\u201d\n\n To him one wise man answered: \u201cBy attraction\u2019s force,\n On all sides equal poised, it\u2019s kept from all divorce.\n Just as an iron ball would centrally be hung,\n If loadstone vault there were to hold it freely swung.\u201d\n\n A caviller objected: \u201cHow should heaven\u2019s pure vault,\n Attracting to itself, this vile black ball exalt?\n Say rather it repels with equal force all round.\n The earth thus rests amidst air\u2019s tides that hold it bound.\u201d 245\n\n Thus is it by repulsion from the souls of saints,\n The Pharaohs of each age are fixed in error\u2019s taints.\n Repelled, then, they are from this world and the next;\n In neither have they portion;[297] shunned are they, and vexed.\n From God\u2019s anointed ones dost thou draw back in heart?\n Know, thy existence grieves them, frets them, makes them smart.\n They\u2019re like the amber, then. When chafed, it shows its power.\n The mote of thy existence quick they\u2019ll force to cower.\n If they conceal that power,--exert it not for thee,\n All thy docility will turn to pride. Thou\u2019lt see. 250\n E\u2019en as the bestial quality, in man aye found,\n Unto its human yokemate[298] slave and serf is bound.\n This human element, too, in saints\u2019 hands, my friend,\n Is pliant, like the bestial; to their wish they\u2019t bend.\n\n By true faith, Ahmed called the world, his docile sons,\n To table spread: \u201cSay: \u2018Servants mine!\u2019\u201d Thus God\u2019s text runs.[299]\n\n Thy mind\u2019s a camel-driver; thou, the camel, still,\n Urged by decree: \u201cCommand!\u201d[300] it drives thee as it will.\n God\u2019s saints are minds of minds. Men\u2019s minds, beneath their sway,\n Are camels, too. And thus the lengthening series play. 255\n Look unto them, then, if the truth thou\u2019dst fully know;\n A pilot is the life of thousands, here below.\n But what are pilots? Camel-drivers what? Still seek\n Thou one whose eye looks on the sun, and feels not weak.\n The world\u2019s plunged, nailed, in thickest pitchy dark of night;\n For day to break, it wants the rise of God\u2019s sunlight.\n\n Behold a sun for thee, in mote contained and hid;\n A rampant lion, clad in pelt of gentlest kid.\n Behold a hidden sea, beneath a blade of grass.\n Beware! Tread not thereon in doubt. Thou sink\u2019st, alas! 260\n Doubt and incertitude, when felt in pious breast,\n Are mercies from on high; a leader gives them rest.\n A prophet \u2019s sole and solitary in the world.\n Sole; but within him bears a thousand systems furled.\n As though by magic, the vast universe he makes\n Around himself revolve, who smallest compass takes.\n The fools saw him alone; thence judged him some weak thing!\n Weak can he ever be who\u2019s upheld by the King?\n Those fools thought: \u201cHe\u2019s a man. He\u2019s really nothing more.\u201d[301]\n Alas, for fools! They\u2019re void of common sense in store. 265\n\n The prophet S\u0101lih\u2019s camel was, in form, a beast;[302]\n His people her hamstrung; \u2019twas ignorance, at least.\n They cut her off from water; drink they her refused.\n Ungrateful such return for meat and drink they\u2019d used!\n \u201cGod\u2019s camel\u201d drank the water brought as dew by mists.\n God\u2019s water they held back from God. Monopolists!\n Thus S\u0101lih\u2019s camel, as of saint the fleshly form,\n Became an ambush;--sinners\u2019 ruin thence would storm!\n Upon that sinning race what dreadful judgment fell!\n \u201cGod\u2019s camel and her drink\u201d[303] the text is, us to tell. 270\n God\u2019s vengeance, as pursuer, sought from that vile crew\n The price of her shed blood, a country\u2019s whole space through.\n\n The soul to S\u0101lih\u2019s like; his camel is the flesh;\n The soul communes with God; the flesh pines in want\u2019s mesh.\n Good S\u0101lih\u2019s soul was safe from effort of their whim;\n His camel felt the blow they dared not aim at him.\n No hurt could fall on S\u0101lih\u2019s soul,--that priceless gem,\u2014\n Such holy emanation was not sport for them.\n The soul unto the flesh is joined, by God\u2019s decree,\n That it may be afflicted,--trials made to see. 275\n Who hurts a body hurts also its soul, no doubt;\n The life-blood in that vase from being\u2019s fount was brought.\n God enters in relation with material form,\n That He may be asylum to each earthborn worm.\n No man can inlet find to injure soul of saint;\n An oyster-shell is crushed; its pearl escapes attaint.\n Then serve the camel; that is, list to saint in flesh;\n And with his righteous soul thou\u2019lt serve one Lord afresh.\n\n When S\u0101lih saw the evil deed they\u2019d foully wrought,\n In three days\u2019 time a judgment from his God he sought. 280\n \u201cThree days from hence,\u201d said he, \u201caffliction will befall;\n Of which, three signs precursors shall be. You\u2019ll see, all.\n The colour of your faces shall be changed to view;\n Complexions various shall be seen in each of you.\n Upon the first day, saffron\u2019s hue shall be their tinge;\n The second, scarlet red each countenance shall fringe;\n And on the third, as black as coal shall be each face;\n Upon which ensuing, God\u2019s wrath shall then take place.\n If sign of me you ask for truth of what I say,\n Observe the path that camel\u2019s foal shall take to-day; 285\n Then strive to catch it. If you can, by chance, succeed;\n Good. If not, hope is gone;--from bow the arrow\u2019s freed!\u201d\n\n No one of them the camel\u2019s foal could overtake.\n It fled among the hills,--was lost to sight. Heartache!\n E\u2019en so the soul, when once its prison bars are burst,\n Unto the Lord of Grace its winged flight takes first.\n The prophet then: \u201cThe threatened judgment now must storm;\n All hope\u2019s gone by;--dead as that camel\u2019s lifeless form.\n Still, if, by coaxing, you her foal can win back here,\n In calm tranquillity, from whence it\u2019s fled through fear, 290\n With its return of confidence you may be saved;\n But otherwise, despair and gnash your teeth, depraved!\u201d\n\n His threat they heard; dejected were at its import.\n Their looks sank downcast;--sad anxiety\u2019s resort.\n The first day came; they saw each visage jaundiced o\u2019er;\n And thence, in fell dismay, they laments uttered, sore.\n Their scarlet skins, the second day, told plainer still,\n Time for repentance was but short, and hope was _nil_.\n The blackened faces, on the third day, clearly told\n The prophet\u2019s threat was strictly true. Their blood ran cold. 295\n\n Thus being brought to quit their menaces and scowls;\n Upon their knees, hams, breasts, they crouched like roosting fowls.\n This cringing posture has that abject, trembling crew,\n In holy writ, inspired, dubbed \u201ccrouching;\u201d[304] and \u2019tis true.\n (Kneel, thou, at times when by instructors thou art taught,\n And when thou\u2019rt warned that \u201ccrouching\u201d \u2019s with abjection fraught.)\n In hopeless expectation God\u2019s blow to ensue,\n The countryside entire within their homes withdrew.\n\n The prophet S\u0101lih left his cell to view the town.\n Enveloped in a smoke and blaze he saw it drown! 300\n Low, moaning noise he heard proceed from its remain;\u2014\n Sighs, as it were, and sobs;--he sighers sought in vain!\n Those sighs were fitful cracklings of their burning bones;\n Those sobs, the hissings of their blood, in clots, on stones!\n\n On hearing these sad sounds the prophet burst in tears;\n Responsive to those moans, he groaned.--No listening ears!\n The dead he then addressed: \u201cO people, chid in vain!\n How often \u2019gainst you to the Lord I\u2019ve wept, with pain!\n The Lord me answered: \u2018Patience have with their misdeeds;\n To them give counsel still; not long will last those needs!\u2019 305\n Remark I made: \u2018With such misdeeds will counsel count?\n As milk, kind counsel flows from love\u2019s unsullied fount!\u2019\n The untold wrongs you\u2019d heaped upon my patient head\n Had curdled milk of counsel in my bosom\u2019s stead.\n The Lord replied: \u2018A grace I\u2019ll now on thee bestow;\n I\u2019ll soothe the wounds inflicted by their rancour\u2019s bow.\u2019\n With that, God made my heart as tranquil as of yore;\n Swept clean away the cobwebs of your paltry score.\u201d\n\n \u201cAgain I proffered counsel to you, sage and safe;\n In parables soft couched, with words that might not chafe. 310\n Once more that milk flowed, mixed with honey, from my lips;\n The dulcet tones were tempting, not like stinging whips.\n Alas! Within your ears they all to venom turned;\n Because, like poisonous plants, your nature goodness spurned.\n Why do I weep? You\u2019ve burnt the substance of all grief;\n Like bone in throat, ye obstinate, you\u2019ve choked relief!\n Ought any to lament when grief is laid in bier?\n Man justly tears his hair, his head if broke by spear!\u201d\n\n With that, reproachfully upon himself he turned,\n And cried: \u201cThose fellows were not worth the tears they spurned. 315\n Recite not wrongfully, O master of address,\n The text: \u2018How will I grieve[305] o\u2019er crew that none should\n bless!\u2019\u201d\n Still, in his eyes and heart more briny tears he found,\n A pity, really motiveless, in him \u2019d ta\u2019en ground.\n As summer-rain he wept, through feeling ill at ease;\n A summer-rain, quite cloudless, from compassion\u2019s seas.\n His conscience smote him sore: \u201cWhy weepest thou, man of sense?\n Are they of tears fit objects,--men of violence?\n What motive for thy tears? Say. Grievest thou for their acts?\n Mournest thou th\u2019 extinction of their merciless, vile pacts? 320\n Or is\u2019t, perchance, their hearts, corrupt, gangrened, thou\u2019dst weep?\n On their empoisoned tongues, so adderlike, thou\u2019dst keep?\n Those tails and fangs is\u2019t, are the objects of thy grief?\n Their scorpion claws and sting that thou regrettest in chief?\n Contentiousness, foul mockery, rude violence?\n Thank God, instead, who\u2019s checked their boastful insolence!\n Their hands were evil; evil were their feet, their eyes;\n Their peace, their friendship, as their wrath, were all unwise.\n From rule of meek obedience, customs handed down,\n They\u2019d swerved;--to follow mere devices of their own. 325\n They wished not for a teacher, asses obstinate;\n Their own ideas alone they\u2019d stoop to cultivate.\n God therefore sent His servants, smoke and fire to wit,\n From heaven, the miscreants to chase to dire hell-pit.\u201d\n\n Behold the damned and blessed, thus, in one scene conjoined;\n Between them is \u201ca great gulf fixed by none o\u2019erclimbed.\u201d[306]\n Those \u201csons of fire\u201d and \u201clight\u201d together seemed immixed;\n But barrier impassable \u2019tween them was fixed.\n The mine\u2019s rich golden ore in soil imbedded lies;\n But really separated, far as eagle flies. 330\n Like pearls and jet beads in one row of necklace ranged;\n A motley company, like inn\u2019s chance guests, oft changed.\n Or like an estuary, half soft, sweet to drink,\n Most palatable water, clear, bright as moon\u2019s twink;\n The other half salsuginous, wormwood and gall,\n Foul, black as ink, and fetid, shocks the senses all.\n These dash together; now this, now that, uppermost;\n Their waves a turmoil make, as though by tempest tost.\n That show of fierce collision\u2019s made by matter\u2019s form;\n In truth, the spirits \u2019tis that compacts make, or storm. 335\n When gentle waves, in friendship\u2019s reign, roll gracefully,\n Contention quits each breast, all goes on merrily.\n With rough war\u2019s hideous billows, (mark the altered scene!)\n All love is straight renounced; dire hate\u2019s to supervene.\n Affection coaxes rancour to subside, appeased;\n Because its origin\u2019s in reason fixed, soon pleased;\n While raging anger stirs up thoughts of bitter strife.\n For how can man be tranquil, when the stake\u2019s his life?\n\n Our outward eye discerns not pure from tainted hearts;\n Futurity\u2019s small lattice oped, the curtain parts. 340\n The eye of true sagacity distinct can see;\n This other eye, \u2019tis, fails;--is ne\u2019er from error free.\n How many seeming pleasures, fair, as sugar sweet,\n Have poison lurking in them, death to all they meet!\n Men of discernment know them surely by mere smell;\n And others find them out, though late, when tasted, fell.\n That taste\u2019s enough; ejected are they; swallowed, not;\n Although the fiend may urge, with: \u201cEat, while hot!\u201d\n Again some others find in throat they firmly stick;\n And others yet are vexed with intestinal prick. 345\n Still others by sharp purgings find they\u2019ve done amiss;\n Indulgence of the palate\u2019s changed to pangs their bliss.\n Again there are some suffer after months or years;\n And others pay the penalty within the tomb, with tears.\n E\u2019en should there chance a respite, granted in the grave,\n At resurrection\u2019s trump, disclosure naught will save.\n\n Each plant, each honied morsel, in this lower sphere,\n A term has, fixed, him to affect who tastes the cheer.\n What ages of submission to sun\u2019s influence,\n E\u2019er ruby can acquire ripe tinge, bright effulgence!\n The salad cress is ready in a month or two; 350\n The rose requires some years before it shows its hue.\n To this end has the Lord, whose name be ever blessed,\n In holy writ declared: \u201cAppointed term.\u201d[307] We\u2019ve cessed.\n Hast thou this heard? Read, mark, and learn with diligence!\n Life\u2019s water is it. Hast thou drunk? Health spring from thence!\n Those _words_ thou mayst consider life\u2019s fount, if thou list;\n Their _sense_ it is important thou shouldst not have missed.\n\n One other theme, my friend, fix firmly in thy mind.\n \u2019Tis patent as thy soul; as subtle thou\u2019lt it find. 355\n At times as venomous as adder\u2019s fatal fang;\n At times as healthful as the food from heaven that sprang.\n Now lethal; now again remedial, by God\u2019s will.\n At one time blasphemy; then, holy rapture\u2019s thrill.\n Thus will it, now, be fatal to a human soul;\n And then, again, a remedy for all that\u2019s foul:\n \u201cThe juice of unripe grapes is sour, as is well known;\n But when the fruit has ripened, sweet and fragrant grown,\n In wine-jar when fermented, nauseous and unclean;\n When vinegar, again, most wholesome is it seen.\u201d 360\n\n If saint a poison swallow, wholesome it will prove;\n But if disciple taste it, death will him remove.\n \u201cLord, grant unto me,\u201d was the prayer of Solomon,\n \u201cThe power and kingdom solely (not to Abaddon);\n This favour grant not unto other after me!\u201d[308]\n Which reads like envy. Such, however, it can\u2019t be.\n Put not, in heart, construction that must disagree\n Upon those words so read: \u201cto other after me.\u201d\n He saw a thousand dangers in the sway conferred;\n Saw that earth\u2019s empire is a snare to be abhorred; 365\n A danger to one\u2019s life, one\u2019s faith, one\u2019s inner self;\n Such trial has no equal on the whole world\u2019s shelf.\n E\u2019en Solomon sagacity did much require,\n To shield him from mistakes in all his vast empire.\n The wondrous power he wielded could alone suffice,\n To quell rebellion\u2019s perils, rising in a trice.\n So when he rested from due ordering his wide realm,\n He felt that other kings misrule might overwhelm.\n Then interceded he: \u201cThis rule, this much-prized flower,\n Vouchsafe to none, save with the selfsame power. 370\n To whom Thou mayest it grant upon these very terms,\n He\u2019s Solomon, he is myself, my sway confirms.\n He\u2019ll not come after me, he\u2019ll reign with me indeed;\n With me and in me, free from rival\u2019s dreaded meed.\u201d\n\n This to expound appeared a duty paramount;\n Return we, and our tale of man and wife recount.\n\n A sequel to that incident \u2019tween man and wife\n Is looked for by the mind of him who\u2019s watched their life.\n The incident of man and wife recounted here\n Of each man\u2019s soul and flesh the parable is, clear. 375\n The wife the flesh is; man\u2019s the soul; he\u2019s wisdom, too;\n They\u2019re emblems also of all good and evil, true.\n The two, of need, existing in this earthly home,\n By day and night at war are;--always quarrelsome.\n The wife requires her various household garniture,\n Her bed and board, her comfort, and her furniture.\n The flesh, like woman, to be gratified still seeks;\n Submissive sometimes; oft would play ambitious freaks.\n The soul has no idea, itself, of such instinct;\n But seeks to muse upon its love for God, distinct. 380\n Existence is the secret of their constant war;\n The form in which \u2019tis waged thou\u2019rt now about to hear.\n Had psychic indication proved sufficient sign,\n Material creation \u2019d been a useless coin.\n\n Is love for God thy thought, aim, wish, design, intent?\n To forms of worship, fasting, thou wilt yield assent.\n The gifts and little presents interchanged by friends,\n Are not their love\u2019s pure essence. Signs they are, not ends.\n Mere outward witnesses, that simply testify\n Th\u2019 affection\u2019s feelings. These the heart, \u2019tis, sanctify. 385\n For all men know that kindnesses bestowed by hand\n Are proofs of sympathy. Mind can this comprehend.\n\n A witness may speak falsely; also, may speak truth;\n Is sometimes drunk, with wine; sometimes, is urged by ruth.\n When wine is drunk, intoxications supervene;\n Its vapours rise into the head, erst so serene.\n Behold yon hypocrite! He fasts; he worships, prays;\n That he a man of God may seem. He\u2019s not. Mere ways!\n\n Results of outward actions are of outward kind,\u2014\n The signs of what is inward, working on the mind. 390\n Grant unto us, O Lord, discernment to perceive\n What sign is true, which meant fond mortals to deceive!\n Suppose not that the senses with discernment plod;\n Discernment is the inner, gracious gift of God!\n Effect not being visible, we look to cause.\n We know that kindred moves to friendship, by fixed laws.\n But him, who judges by the light of God\u2019s own truth,\n Effect and cause no longer hold a slave, forsooth.\n When love for God is lighted in the human heart,\n It fiercely burns; it suffers not effect\u2019s dull smart. 395\n No sign of love does it require to seek for, there;\n For love is love\u2019s own sign, giv\u2019n from the highest sphere.\n\n Details there are, far more, to make this theme complete.\n If wished for, each can find them. They\u2019re not obsolete.\n Sense must be gathered from material, outward form;\n Some sense is patent; some is hard to find, difform.\n The indication\u2019s feeble;--tree and water see;\u2014\n How different, apparently, their natures be!\n\n Let\u2019s leave now all these words,--cause, nature, sign;\u2014\n And turn we to our Arab and his wife benign. 400\n\n The husband said: \u201cI\u2019ve now abandoned all dispute.\n All rule is in thy hands; thy power is absolute.\n Whatever thou ordain, submissive thou\u2019lt me find;\n Its good or bad results shall not weigh on my mind.\n I\u2019m non-existent; save, that by thee I must move;\n A lover; therefore am I deaf and blind, through love.\u201d\n\n His wife him answered: \u201cIs this all in kindness meant?\n Or dost thou seek by craft my plans to circumvent?\u201d\n He swore: \u201cBy God; who knows the secrets of each heart;\n Who hath created Adam free from treacherous art; 405\n Who, in three cubits\u2019 stature unto him dispensed,\n The mysteries of all decrees, all souls, condensed:\n Whatever is to be, to all eternity,\n To Adam taught, with every name of Deity,\n So that the very angels wearied under him,\n As he them taught, but ever gained by each maxim!\u201d\n\n The revelations Adam made to them were vast;\n Had never been disclosed before, from first to last.\n The compass, spacious, of his all-inclosing mind\n Far wider was than heaven of heavens a grasp could find. 410\n\n The Prophet hath declared God made him clearly know:\n \u201cI\u2019m not contained, not held; by aught above, below,\n On earth, in heaven, above the heavens, I am not held.\n This know, then, thou also, My friend, as though beheld.\n But, wonderful! Believer\u2019s heart can Me contain!\n If Me thou\u2019dst seek, there look for Me, with might and main!\u201d[309]\n His words were: \u201cSeek within My servants. There thou\u2019lt meet\n The paradise of My aspect. Thou most discreet!\u201d[310]\n The heaven of heavens, with all its wondrous wide extent,\n At sight of Adam\u2019s glory into tremors went. 415\n The marvellous expanse of heaven\u2019s a stretch extreme.\n But what is matter, all, when spirit is the theme!\n\n Each angel made remark: \u201cUntil this very hour\n I had a certain knowledge of the wide earth\u2019s bower.\n Much duty I\u2019ve performed upon its soil, down there.\n Surprise I\u2019ve felt, not small, attachment so to bear.\n For what was my attachment to that ball of clay;\u2014\n I, that am moulded from the glorious light of day?\n What was my strong affection? I\u2019m light; darkness, earth!\n Can light and darkness mingle;--live in jocund mirth? 420\n O Adam! Now it\u2019s clear! My love was mere instinct;\n In that the earth material gave for thee, succinct!\n Thy earthly body here was wove out of its clay;\n Thy spirit, pure, created was beyond the realm of day!\n The honour which we, spirits, have received through thee,\n Before all worlds had sparkled, by divine decree!\n When we were on the earth, we inattentive were;\n And little recked the treasure trusted to its care!\n When orders were received to quit the earth, and mount,\n We felt regret to change; knew not on what account. 425\n We thought of reasons for the shift, and question made:\n \u2018O Lord! Who then shall take our place when we\u2019re thus bade?\n Wilt Thou exchange our praise and service here below,\n For mere lip-homage from a worm Thee will not know?\u2019\n An answer from the Lord, benign, did we receive:\n \u2018What you allege is somewhat many might deceive.\n Each word upon your tongues is surely out of place,\n As lisping talk of son to sire, without preface.\n Your rash objections would deserve to be chastised,\n But that I have decreed that mercy\u2019s higher prized. 430\n Behold, O angels! Since you\u2019ve made confusion strange,\n In you henceforth I\u2019ve placed a sense of doubt and change!\n Since you demur, and I refrain from chastisement,\n None can gainsay my mercy; none may raise comment.\n A hundred mothers, fathers, meet not My decree!\n Each soul that\u2019s born a zero is compared to Me!\n Their love is but the froth; My love, the sea of love!\n Froth comes and goes; the ocean none remove.\n More I may say. For, in this earthly oyster-shell\n There\u2019s naught but froth of froth, of froth of froth to tell!\u2019\u201c 435\n\n\n The Lord thus spake;--the Lord, that sea of purity!\u2014\n He spake not by conjecture;--truth\u2019s own entity!\n What I here state is said in love\u2019s humility.\n The Lord is He to whom I fly,--sole Deity!\n If thou wouldst put to test what I have here set forth,\n First prove thy test. Make truly sure it\u2019s trouble\u2019s worth.\n Cloak not thy secret thoughts. So may my thoughts be known.\n Propose whate\u2019er thou list; within my power, \u2019tis shown.\n Thy heart conceal not. I\u2019ll lay bare my heart of hearts;\n Accept all, of acceptance worthy, thy mind starts. 440\n That I may do whatever lies within my power,\n Do thou observe my heart\u2019s condition in its bower.\n\n The wife observed: \u201cA very sun of good is risen;\n Through whom a gladsome world\u2019s enlarged from want\u2019s sad prison.\n Vicegerent of th\u2019 All-Merciful, Caliph of God,\n Fair Bagd\u0101d\u2019s city prides itself to kiss his rod.\n If unto him thou have recourse, a prince thou\u2019lt be.\n Why, then, to misery cleave, such as we hourly see?\n Companionship with fortune\u2019s minions brings good luck;\n Where\u2019s an elixir like their power, my dearest duck? 445\n Ahmed\u2019s esteem raised Ab\u016b-Bekr such a height;\n For once confirming Ahmed\u2019s word, \u2018Faithful\u2019 he\u2019s hight!\u201d\n\n The man demurred: \u201cHow can I gain access at court?\n Without an introduction, how find sure passport?\n Connection we must seek; or else invent excuse.\n No artizan can work without his tools. The deuce!\n Thus Mejn\u016bn, when he\u2019d heard by chance from passing wight,\n His Layl\u0101 was an invalid (which caused him fright),\n Exclaimed: \u2018Alas! Without excuse I cannot go!\n And if I visit not the sick one, I\u2019m all woe! 450\n Would that I were physician, with his healing art;\n Then could I see my Layl\u0101; none would dare me thwart!\u2019\n And now he cries: \u2018I have it! I\u2019ve a right to go!\n No bashfulness shall keep me from her portico!\u2019\n Had bats but eyes, with which to see and find their way,\n They\u2019d fly about, disport themselves, jocund, by day.\u201d\n\n The wife replied: \u201cThe Caliph\u2019s public pageant is\n For all who introduction lack; their griefs are his.\n To be, and have a grief, is introduction sure.\n Thus poverty and lowliness work their own cure.\u201d 455\n\n He still objected: \u201cShall I fall in love with want,\n That I may urge my need as matter for some grant?\n E\u2019en then, a witness credible I should require\n T\u2019 attest my indigence, when almoners inquire.\n Point out for me a witness; not mere words and wiles;\n That so the sovereign\u2019s favour may be won, and smiles.\n For, otherwise, a mere pretext, without a proof,\n In justice\u2019 court would fail, and bring reproof.\n A witness credible is, then, _sine qu\u00e2 non_.\n For suitor\u2019s plea to stand, proof it must rest upon.\u201d 460\n\n His wife rejoined: \u201cThe witness thou requir\u2019st to bring,\n Must, by some shrewd contrivance, from thy prospects spring.\n Rain-water\u2019s all we have in store within our hut,\n Estate, possessions, wealth, lie in our water-butt.\n A little pot of water shalt thou bear with thee,\n As offering to the Caliph. This present from me;\n And say: \u2018No other wealth on earth do I possess.\n To Arabs of the desert, water\u2019s happiness!\n The Caliph\u2019s treasury is full of gems and gold;\n A pot of water such as this, its coffers do not hold! 465\n What is this pot? It is an emblem of our lives!\n The water in it, matchless virtue of our wives!\n Accept, then, gracious prince, this little pot from me;\n And out of all God\u2019s gifts repay its value, free!\u2019\n That pot\u2019s five lips are emblems of our senses. Sure!\n Keep them all clean; so may thy honour, too, be pure!\n The pot will then relation keep with ocean\u2019s wave;\n And I, perchance, advantage from that ocean have.\n If clean thou carry it before the sovereign\u2019s eyes,\n He may be pleased therewith;--buy it from mere surprise. 470\n The pot will, then, of water never lacking be;\n My little water-pot shall suffice thee and me.\n Close tight its lips, and bear it full from our supply.\n A holy text \u2019tis says: \u2018From lust close every eye.\u2019[311]\n His beard, his moustache, both, will swell with joy at this.\n For prince supreme like him, my offering\u2019s not amiss.\u201d\n\n Thou, woman, didst not know that there, in Bagd\u0101d\u2019s midst,\n A Tigris flowed with water, sweet as honey.--Didst?\n A very ocean is it, rapid in its course;\n With boats and ships, with fishers\u2019 hooks, both fine and coarse. 475\n Go then, good man! The Caliph thee his state shall show!\n Thou\u2019lt comprehend the text: \u201cBeneath which rivers flow.\u201d[312]\n Thus, likewise, are our intellects, our thoughts, our sense;\n A drop compared with God\u2019s boundless omniscience!\n\n The husband now chimed in: \u201cYes! Plug the pot\u2019s mouth tight.\n Thou\u2019st hit the very offering;--useful, good, and right!\n Sew it up carefully in case of felt, threefold.\n Our Caliph\u2019s breakfast-water[313] shall it be;--so cold!\n No other water\u2019s like it in this world of ours;\u2014\n It\u2019s heaven\u2019s pure ambrosia, \u2019still\u2019d from vernal showers! 480\n Poor cits know none but waters hard and bitter all;\u2014\n Whence various maladies, with blindness, them befall!\u201d\n\n The bird that lives where salt-marsh noisome airs exhales,\n Knows naught of joys pure water gives, and spicy gales!\n So thou, good man, who dwelledst \u2019midst the desert\u2019s waste,\n Hadst never seen a Tigris, known Euphrates\u2019 taste!\n As he, again, not yet from worldly cares set free,\n Is ignorant of ecstasy, of rapture\u2019s glee;\n Or, having heard thereof as tales from men of old,\n Knows them as names alone, in storybooks oft told; 485\n Child\u2019s A, B, C; as taught to every lisping elf;\n But whose real meaning\u2019s hidden from the teacher\u2019s self.\n\n Our Arab man now takes that water-pot in charge.\n By day and night he travels;--load not over large!\n Anxiety fast holds him, lest the pot should break;\n Most watchfully he guards it from misfortune\u2019s freak.\n His wife spends all her days in prayers on his behalf;\n Her worship o\u2019er, she adds: \u201cLord! shield my better half!\n Secure our pot of water from all thievish hands!\n Send it may prove a pearl in sea of Bagd\u0101d\u2019s lands! 490\n My husband, true, is shrewd; and know\u2019s what he\u2019s about;\n But pearls have enemies, we trow, in every rout!\n What is a pearl? A drop from fount of life sent down;[314]\n A drop from non-existence,--whence all substance known!\u201d\n\n Those prayers\u2019 reward,--as guerdon of her sighs and tears;\u2014\n His care\u2019s requital, watchfulness, and constant fears;\u2014\n Their pot reached Bagd\u0101d safe from robbers\u2019 grip;\n Secure from shock of stone, from chance of fall or slip.\n A city, there, he sees, with every blessing filled;\n Where craving mortals ply each art, as they are skilled. 495\n Each moment, here or there, some extra-lucky wight,\n His object gains, receives from court what glads his sight!\n To Muslims, Unbelievers, equal grace is doled,\n Like rain and sunshine. Not so paradise, we\u2019re told!\n One set of men he sees arrayed in honour\u2019s robes;\n Another set endure, through hope and fear, sharp probes.\n As gentle, or as simple, prince or worm, pismire,\n All are alive, as though last trump\u2019s notes them inspire!\n The worldly, in apparel sumptuous to behold;\n The godly, all immersed in transports clearly told! 500\n The hopeless have become as though their hopes were fair;\n The hopeful show enjoyment of fruition\u2019s share!\n\n A voice proclaimed: \u201cCome forward, all ye sons of want!\u201d\n Beneficence seeks beggars, as for gifts they pant.\n Beneficence hunts up for beggars and for need,\n As beauty seeks her mirror, with a special greed.\n A pretty face is charming in its mirror seen;\n Beneficence gleams lovely through want\u2019s chilly sheen.\n God hath enjoined in holy writ: \u201cBy forenoon\u2019s glare!\u201d[315]\n \u201cMuhammed, chide not thou too much at beggar\u2019s prayer!\u201d[316] 505\n\n A beggar is a mirror wherein bounty shines.\n Dull not that mirror, then, with breath of anger\u2019s whines!\n The beggar \u2019tis shows forth what charity achieves;\n A charitable man for this those wants relieves.\n A beggar, then, \u2019s a mirror of th\u2019 Almighty\u2019s grace;\n And whoso\u2019s with the Lord, therein sees his Lord\u2019s face.\n\n He that hath love for other than the Lord of all,\n Is dead at heart,--not living;--shadow on a wall!\n Whoe\u2019er adopts God\u2019s poverty, without false show,\n Secures the prize of God\u2019s rich pleasure here below! 510\n Who puts on sham of poverty deserves no bread.\n (Bones are not given to effigies of dogs. They\u2019re dead!)\n His want craves pelf; \u2019tis not the love of God he\u2019d seek.\n Lay not thy bounty at the feet of one too sleek.\n\n A landshark is a mendicant for mere pelf\u2019s sake.\n He\u2019s fish in form; but will not to the water take.\n Domestic fowl is he; not eagle of free air.\n With Lot he sips of wine; God\u2019s water\u2019s his despair.\n He loves his God, if but his God will grant him wealth;\n But nothing cares for God\u2019s mere grace;--for spirit\u2019s health. 515\n Should he conceive th\u2019 idea of love for God alone,\n God\u2019s essence he\u2019d deny, God\u2019s attributes disown.\n Man\u2019s fancy is a creature;--born with mortal lot.\n God was not born. His scripture says: \u201cNor was begot.\u201d[317]\n The man in love with self, and with his fancy\u2019s freak,\n Can never be a lover who to God will seek.\n Were fancy\u2019s lover true, and free from crafty guile,\n His fancy\u2019s tropes had led him to the truth erewhile.\n\n That _dictum_ would require a commentary, full,\n But fear withholds me. Prejudice will have its pull! 520\n Old prejudice, quite purblind to the truth, I see,\n A hundred phantoms conjures up to frighten me.\n Not every man has heard aright the still small voice;\n Not every bird\u2019s a fig-pecker, that sweets rejoice;\n How then a bird that\u2019s dead,--turned putrid long ago;\u2014\n A man of prejudice, all sightless, eyeless, so!\n A painted fish cares not for water, or for land.\n Soap to a blackamoor is one, or tar, in hand.\n\n Shouldst thou depict a portrait overwhelmed with grief,\n Would grief or joy be felt, though shown in strong relief? 525\n The picture would look sorrowful;--no sorrow feel;\n Or smiling happiness;--without gay laughter\u2019s peal.\n The joy or grief depicted by a pencil\u2019s art,\n Is naught but simulated;--knows nor thrill, nor smart.\n\n Lugubrious countenances are for our behoof;\n That we may be reminded not to court reproof.\n And beaming visages are not without their use,\n If they recall us from mere form to sense occluse.\n The various effigies we see in this bath-house,[318]\n Disguised in draperies, are dolls;--blind fools to chouse. 530\n So long as thou\u2019rt outside, naught else but clothes thou\u2019lt see.\n Undress thyself. Come in; and see the nude, the free.\n There\u2019s no admission granted to a bath, while dressed.\n But clothes, the body, this, the soul, leave all unguessed.\n\n Our Arab man, from far in desert\u2019s sandy waste,\n Has reached at length the walls of Bagd\u0101d,--home of taste.\n The guards, the officers, on duty at the gate,\n Received him with politeness, kindness delicate.\n Without a question asked, his case they\u2019d understood.\n Their charge was to show kindness first, ere asked for food. 535\n So they addressed him thus: \u201cHo, thou, good Arab prince!\n Whence comest thou? How fares it? Straight thy wish evince!\u201d\n\n He answered: \u201cPrince I am, if you to me be kind;\n But if you me contemn, I\u2019m naught in my own mind.\n Your aspects indicate you\u2019re men of wealth and rank;\n Your speech and smiles betoken breeding, noble, frank.\n Mere sight of your kind features salve is to the eyes;\n Your looks alone enrich;--gold in your voices lies.\n Each one of you expression is of God\u2019s own grace;\n In Caliph\u2019s bosom nurtured, favoured with high place; 540\n That you, in turn, dispense th\u2019 elixir of support,\n And brighten longing eyes by words of kind import.\n I am a stranger, poor, come from the desert\u2019s sands,\n In hopes some favour to obtain from sovereign hands.\n The rumour of his goodness fills the wilderness;\n Each atom in its wastes blooms thence in joyfulness.\n In search of wealth have I approached his capital;\n Now I\u2019m arrived, I burn with pleasures optical.\n E\u2019en as the lass in search of bread at baker\u2019s shop,\n Struck with his \u2018prentice\u2019 beauty, swooned;--a lifeless drop! 545\n Or like the saunterer for air in royal park,\n Who lost his heart to one he met, gay as a lark!\n Or like the desert merchant drawing from a well\n What he thought water, was entranced by Joseph\u2019s spell!\n Again, as Moses hasted for a coal of fire,\n And found the burning bush, that led him to empire!\n Or Jesus, who escaped his foes with one fleet bound,\n And found himself then landed where the sun goes round![319]\n An ear of corn it was that baited Adam\u2019s trap.[320]\n But thence himself became the source of mankind\u2019s sap! 550\n The falcon stoops to earth enticed by luring fate;\n He there meets man\u2019s good teaching, soars to princely state.\n A child is sent to school to teach him learning\u2019s prize,\n In hope of toys and treats he studies till he\u2019s wise.\n On leaving school he sits in seat of law or power;\n He paid his schoolpence then;--he\u2019s now lord of the hour!\n So Abb\u0101s[321] sallied forth to war, with fierce intent,\n To put Muhammed down,--Isl\u0101m to circumvent.\n Defender of the Faith, till death, he then became;\n The Caliphate was destined, in his line, to fame! 555\n So am I come, in hopes at this court to advance;\n Though at its gate as yet, I feel I\u2019ve every chance.\n In quest of bread am I; as offering, water bring.\n The hope of bread sets wide heaven\u2019s portals at one swing.\n \u2019Twas bread that drove out Adam from his paradise;\n \u2019Tis bread will gain me entrance where my hopes take rise.\n From bread, from water, both, as angels, far I stroll;\n And, following the spheres, around this centre roll!\n Without an object none will toil on earth, you see,\n Save true and godly lovers. They\u2019re from motives free!\u201d 560\n\n Th\u2019 Infinite\u2019s lovers finite\u2019s worshippers are not.\n Who seek the finite lose th\u2019 Infinite, as we wot.\n When finite with the finite falls in love, perforce,\n His loved one soon returns to her infinite source.\n A beard that puts itself into another\u2019s grasp,\n In lather\u2019s smothered; emblem of a weak mind\u2019s gasp.\n He\u2019s not his own lord; cannot guide his own affairs;\n He does but what he\u2019s told; where\u2019er he\u2019s bid, repairs.\n\n Would\u2019st sin with woman? Choose, at least, one that is free.\n Would\u2019st rob and steal? Let pearls and jewels be thy fee. 565\n A slave obeys a master; has himself no will;\n The scent is all the rose\u2019s; thorns show no such skill.\n A slave may not attain to wish that he may form;\n His toil is vain, his trouble profitless;--poor worm!\n Shall hunter snare a shadow? Where were then his food?\n A shadow\u2019s not a substance;--can do no one good.\n A foolish hunter seized the shadow of a bird!\n The fowl, on tree securely perched, not one foot stirred;\n But, wondering, thought: \u201cWhat is the stupid fool about?\n Demented, sure; his little wit he\u2019s let ooze out!\u201d 570\n\n But if thou thinkest finite\u2019s of th\u2019 Infinite born;\n And sayest: \u201cFor love of rose, do honour to the thorn;\u201d\n Consider: finite unto Infinite\u2019s not joined.\n Or what need of the prophets? They\u2019ve not scripture coined.\n The prophets have been sent to link the two in one.\n If they\u2019re not two, but one, what have the prophets done?\n But let that be. Th\u2019 inquiry has no useful end.\n The day is waning; let us to our tale attend.\n\n The Arab now his little pot of water showed.\n As seed to earth, he it on Caliph\u2019s court bestowed; 575\n And said: \u201cPresent my offering at the sovereign\u2019s feet,\n If beggar save his king from want, it\u2019s surely meet.\n The water\u2019s fresh; the little jar green-glazed and new;\n Filled from a pool replenished by the rain and dew.\u201d\n On hearing this the guards were laughing in their sleeves;\n But still, as precious, took the jar;--polite court-reeves!\n The Caliph\u2019s kindly nature, active, well-informed,\n To kindness had each member of his court reformed.\n For as the sovereign is, so will his subjects be.\n The azure vault of heaven makes green the earth;--you see. 580\n\n A king\u2019s a reservoir; his servants are his mains,\n Through whom his bounty flows, to swell his subjects\u2019 veins.\n The stream, if flowing from a tank all sweet and pure,\n Each main distributes bounty, courtesy;--be sure.\n But should the reservoir prove foul and nauseous, then,\n The mains can flow with naught but venom, like a fen.\n The mains can only what they get convey around.\n Remember this. We\u2019re treading now on solid ground.\n\n A sovereign\u2019s goodness is an unembodied soul,\n That permeates the clay of human frame, its goal. 585\n It is the mind, the all-informing, well-derived,\n That brings the body into discipline, where hived.\n Love is a wanton, restless, reckless of control,\n That drives the man to madness; passion does extol;\n But goodness is a stream as sweet as Fount of Life;\n Its pebbles are all pearls, all jewels, beauteous, rife.\n\n Whichever be the science makes a teacher famed,\n His scholars\u2019 minds with that will surely be inflamed.\n A jurist\u2019s pupils study principles of law,\n If but their mental principles be free from flaw. 590\n A lawyer\u2019s prentice over subtle cases pores;\n The principles, with him, are most unwelcome bores.\n A syntax-teacher rears a host of grammar\u2019s sons,\n With whom his syntax passes for the sun of suns.\n A teacher who inculcates abnegation\u2019s creed,\n Surrounds himself with pupils free from lust and greed.\n But at the hour of death, of science\u2019s long roll,\n The art of poverty\u2019s what most behoves man\u2019s soul.\n\n A syntax-teacher, once, was mounted in a boat,\n Who to the skipper turned, as soon as e\u2019er afloat, 595\n And asked: \u201cHast studied syntax?\u201d \u201cNo indeed,\u201d quoth he.\n The teacher then: \u201cThy life\u2019s half-wasted! Dost thou see?\u201d\n The skipper felt heart-broken at this pert remark;\n But, for the moment, held his peace;--wise man\u2019s bulwark.\n The wind arose; the bark was sorely tempest-tossed;\n The skipper then addressed the teacher, sickness-crossed:\n \u201cKnowest thou the swimmer\u2019s art, good friend? With speed reply.\u201d\n \u201cNay,\u201d said the teacher, \u201cthat\u2019s an art the schools decry.\u201d\n The skipper now remarked: \u201cThy whole life\u2019s gone to waste.\n The ship must go to pieces. Water salt thou\u2019lt taste. 600\n With syncope, not syntax, now we\u2019ll have to deal.\n With syncope, from water comes nor hurt, nor weal,\n The sea bears on its surface bodies of the dead;\n But living men it drowns; them sinks, as though of lead.\n So soon as thou\u2019lt be dead to every human art\n To thee eternity its secrets will impart.\n Thou hitherto hast deemed us mortals asses all;\n Now thou thyself, as ass on ice, must have a fall.\n Although thou be the very Plato of the age,\n Thou\u2019st still to learn that time, the world, is but a page.\u201d 605\n\n This tale about the syntax-teacher we\u2019ve tacked on,\n To show the grammar dissolution turns upon.\n All syntax, grammar, jurisprudence, law, and art,\n Thou\u2019lt find, my friend, of knowledge is but a small part.\n Our little learning is the Arab\u2019s water-pot.\n In Caliph, of God\u2019s wisdom we\u2019ve an emblem got.\n We bring our pot of water to great Tigris\u2019 stream.\n If we ourselves not asses call, us asses deem.\n The Arab of our tale excusable was,--troth;\n He knew not of a Tigris. Where\u2019s the Arab doth? 610\n Had he, as we, known Tigris\u2019 stream, and all its store,\n His water-pot had never travelled to its shore;\n Had he become aware of what a Tigris meant,\n Arrived at Bagd\u0101d, he\u2019d his pot to fragments sent.\n\n The Caliph, when he saw that pot, and heard that tale,\n The vase had filled with golden sequins, like a bale,\n Our Arab thus to free from poverty\u2019s rude grasp;\u2014\n A robe of honour, too; and presents for his clasp,\n He ordered. Then the whole unto the guards were sent,\n With kindliest injunctions, fruit of good intent: 615\n \u201cThat all unto that Arab man be safely given,\n Whose journey home by Tigris\u2019 arrowy stream be driven.\n By land he came; he\u2019d travelled all the way on foot;\n But Tigris\u2019 stream may bear him back a shorter route.\u201d\n\n Our Arab in a boat was placed at river\u2019s side;\n The stream he saw, admired, bowed low, lost all his pride;\n Exclaiming: \u201cWondrous goodness of the sovereign will!\n Th\u2019 acceptance of my water-pot more wondrous still!\n How could that sea of wealth my drop deign to accept,\n And largely thus to recompense the trifle kept?\u201d 620\n\n Know now, my friend, this world\u2019s one mighty water-pot,\n With wisdom and with beauty teeming; as all wot.\n One drop, however, \u2019tis, from ocean of His grace,\n Whose fulness cannot be confined in any place.\n That treasure latent was. Through fulness it burst forth,\n More glorious than the heavens became thenceforth the earth.\n The latent treasure, pouring out its riches great,\n The earth made kinglike, clothed with more than regal state.\n One little branch canal from th\u2019 ocean of God\u2019s grace,\n Thus overwhelms this mighty water-pot of space. 625\n\n They who see God are ever rapt in ecstasy;\n And raptured, hold that water-pot mere fallacy.\n O thou! envy of whom is to that pot a stone!\n Though fractured by the shock, the pot yields sounder tone.\n The pot is cracked; but, still, its water is not spilt;\n The crack\u2019s the very source through which it\u2019s sounder built.\n The jar\u2019s each single particle\u2019s in dance and revery,\n Though unto man\u2019s poor wisdom this seems foolery.\n The pot, the world, all it contains, are lost to view.\n Consider well this fact! God knows it\u2019s simply true. 630\n\n If thou canst grasp this meaning, thou\u2019rt like falcon strong.\n Beat, then, the pinions of thy thoughts. Be hawk, ere long.\n Thought\u2019s pinions are bemired in thee, and heavy move;\n Because thou feedest on clay; clay\u2019s bread to thee, I\u2019ll prove.\n As flesh, bread is but clay. Trust not thereon for strength;\n Or thou\u2019lt remain, claylike, within the earth at length.\n\n Dost hunger? What art thou, then, but a dog?\n Fierce, ill-affected, raging; lusts thy vitals clog!\n And when with food thou\u2019rt filled, polluted straight becomest.\n Thou losest strength and sense; mere stock, thou sleep\n welcomest. 635\n So, being doglike or a stock, senseless, impure,\n How canst thou progress make in path of virtue, sure?\n Whatever \u2019tis thou huntest, dog thou art, in sooth.\n Feed not, then, thus, the dog of lust\u2019s voracious tooth.\n When dogs are satisfied, obedience they forswear;\n To follow up the game they one and all forbear.\n\n His want it was disposed the Arab of our tale,\n To travel till he\u2019d reached the Caliph\u2019s courtly vale.\n We\u2019ve shown the bounty of that sovereign merciful,\n Shed on the Arab\u2019s wretchedness, most plentiful. 640\n\n Whate\u2019er a lover says, the sentiment of love\n Shines through his words, if but thoughts towards his mistress rove.\n Discourses he on law, love furnishes the theme;\n Throughout his labouring periods, love\u2019s the enthymeme.\n Should blasphemy rise to his lips, of faith it smacks.\n Doubt, when by him expressed, shows confidence\u2019s knacks.\n The spume that rises from the sea of his pure heart\n Partakes the nature of its source, truth\u2019s counterpart.\n We must esteem such spume as foam of mountain-rill;\u2014\n Upbraiding from a lip beloved is worshipped still. 645\n Attention we pay not to harsh words issuing thence;\u2014\n The features we adore divest them of offence.\n However strange such utterances, they all seem true;\n The stranger they appear, to sense they lend more cue.\n\n If sugar we should cast in mould to look like bread,\n Then eat it, we the sugar taste. Form\u2019s of no stead.\n Should true believer golden idol light upon,\n Will he for worship set it up, anon, anon?\n Nay! To the fire he\u2019ll quickly it in wrath consign,\n And strip it of the form that makes it sin\u2019s foul sign. 650\n The gold, abstracted from the idol\u2019s form, is pure.\n That form it is corrupts,--can men to sin allure.\n The gold\u2019s an essence fixed, produced by nature\u2019s God;\n The idol stamp is transitory;--soon downtrod.\n Thou for one flea to flames thy bed wouldst never give;\n For one musquito\u2019s hum, not wish to cease to live.\n If form-entrapped thou be, idolater thou art!\n Eschew mere form; attend to essence, as thy part.\n Art bound on pilgrimage? Seek other pilgrims out;\u2014\n Be they from Hind, from Tatary, or Hadramout. 655\n Peer not into their features; look not at their skins.\n Inquire their thoughts, their hearts;--if these be free of sins.\n A negro findest thou one with thee in faith and creed?\n Him deem a white;--thy brother is he in thy need.\n\n Our tale is told. Its ups and downs are manifold.\n Like lovers\u2019 thoughts, it\u2019s wandering, unconnected, bold.\n Commencement it has none;--eternity\u2019s its sign;\u2014\n Still less conclusion;--so, eternity\u2019s design.\n Or, rather, it\u2019s like water;--every drop, so rich,\n Commencement is, and end;--yet shows not which is which. 660\n\n But, God forbid! Our story\u2019s not a fable. See!\n Its narrative\u2019s a point concerns both me and thee!\n A gnostic, in possession of his wits and sense,\n Repeats not what is past;--he bides the present tense.\n\n The Arab, his poor pitcher, Caliph, all, observe,\n Ourselves are. \u201cHe shall swerve whom God shall cause to swerve!\u201d[322]\n Our Arab, know, \u2019s the mind; his wife, our lusts and greed.\n These two are tenebrous; the mind\u2019s the torch they need.\n Now hear whence has arisen the ground of their dispute:\n Th\u2019 infinite finites holds, of various attribute;\u2014 665\n Parts finite;--not parts infinite of th\u2019 infinite,\n Like scent of rose,--part infinite of definite.\n The verdure\u2019s beauty infinite is, as a part;\n The cooing of the dove\u2019s as infinite, in logic art.\n But go we not too far afield for sorts and kinds;\n Or poor disciples ne\u2019er will slake their thirsting minds.\n\n Dost doubt? Art racked with difficulties? To excess?\n Have patience. \u201cPatience is the key of all success!\u201d[323]\n Be abstinent. Let not thy crowding thoughts run wild.\n Thoughts lions are, and antelopes. Mind\u2019s forest; child! 670\n\n The prime of remedies is abstinence, we know.\n And scratching irritates the itch;--as leeches show.\n Of treatment medical the base is abstinence.\n Therefore be abstinent. Show strength of mind and sense.\n Accept my counsel. Lend an ear as I advise;\n In golden earrings, counsel\u2019s pearls shall be thy prize.\n Be thou as slave to this, my cunning goldsmith-art;\n I\u2019ll teach thee how to soar beyond the stars\u2019 bright chart.\n Know, first of all, creation\u2019s minds are manifold,\n As are its forms;--from Alpha to Omega told. 675\n From this variety, disorder seems to rise;\n Though, in true sense, to unity the series hies.\n In one sense, they\u2019re discordant; other, in accord;\n They now as folly, now as wisdom, pass a word.\n The day of judgment will to each assign its place;\n All men of wisdom yearn to see that day of grace.\n\n He who, as blackamoor, is steeped in sin\u2019s dark dye,\n In that dread day shall gulp dishonour\u2019s foulest lye.\n The wretch whose countenance beams not bright as the sun,\n Shall strive in vain behind the densest veil to run. 680\n If, like some thorns, his stem display no single rose,\n That springtide will prove fatal to his safe repose.\n But he that blooms from head to foot with righteous deeds,\n With joy shall welcome spring\u2019s awakening of those meads.\n\n The useless thorn desires the nipping wintry blast,\n To lay all low and simplify the flowery vast;\n That so, all beauty cloaked, all squalor hid, the same,\n All glorious hues, all hideous sights, be rendered tame.\n The leaf\u2019s fall to such thorn more grateful is than spring;\n The ruby and the flint are one in tithesman\u2019s ring. 685\n True, that the gardener\u2019s eye in winter knows the thorn;\n But what is one eye\u2019s scrutiny to general scorn!\n\n The vulgar public is, as \u2019twere, one witless wight;\n Each star\u2019s a clipping of the moon, in its fond sight.\n Not so great men of wisdom, radiant with troth,\n They shout with joy: \u201cGood tidings! Spring breaks into growth!\u201d\n\n Unless the flowers blossom on the fertile trees,\n How can the fruit be gathered, honey store the bees?\n The flowers blow and fade; the fruit begins to swell.\n So, when our bodies die, our souls in glory dwell. 690\n The fruit\u2019s reality; the flower is but a sign;\n The flower\u2019s the harbinger; the fruit, the true design.\n The flower blown and past, the fruit then comes in sight;\n The first must perish ere the other can see light.\n Unless a loaf be broke, no nutriment it yields;\n Until the grapes are crushed, no cup of wine man wields.\n So drugs, to prove a solace to the sufferer\u2019s ache,\n Together must be blended, rolled in one smooth cake. 694\n\n\n\n\nX.\n\nPatience and Perseverance under a Teacher.\n\n\n Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, Light of the Truth, take up, my friend,\n A sheet, that thou a Teacher\u2019s virtues mayst append.\n True, thou\u2019rt not strong; thy frame is delicate, at best;\n But thou\u2019rt the sun that lights my thoughts to their safe nest.\n Thou art both lamp and lantern, all in one. Dost see?\n Guide to my heart\u2019s behests, clue to my wish,--thou\u2019rt he.\n Their thread is in thy hand; thy guidance can it shift;\n The pearls upon it strung are gems, thy soul\u2019s free gift.\n\n Write down the qualities by which a Teacher\u2019s known.\n Select thy Teacher first; then, follow all he\u2019s shown. 5\n A Teacher\u2019s summer\u2019s glow; cold winter, crowd terrene;\n The rabble\u2019s darkness self; the Teacher, moon serene.\n\n Young Fortune have I named my Teacher, for the nonce;\u2014\n Young Fortune, truth\u2019s real Teacher; vigorous at once.\n An ancient Teacher he; commencement he ne\u2019er had;\n A solitary pearl;--all peerless, never sad.\n Increase of age gives wine fresh strength, as well is known;\n Especially truth\u2019s wine, that flows from God\u2019s high throne.\n Select a Teacher, then. Without such, travel\u2019s vain;\n The way is dangerous,--beset with evil\u2019s train. 10\n\n By well-known road, though travelled many times before,\n Without a guide to venture, opens peril\u2019s door.\n How then an unknown path thou ne\u2019er hast followed yet?\n Go not alone, without a guide;--act not in fret.\n Unless thy Teacher be at hand to lead thee right,\n The clamours of the demons surely thee\u2019ll affright.\n Those demons will mislead thee, into danger cast;\n More clever ones than thou have lost their wits at last.\n\n Learn from the Prophet\u2019s words the error of their ways;\n How Satan led them far astray in bygone days. 15\n From off the track to all that\u2019s good he them misled;\n Them carried off; them rendered blind, by vain thoughts fed.\n Behold their bones, their skeletons, along the road!\n Take warning thence. Drive not thy beast with maddening goad!\n Dismount; and to the rightful path safe lead him back,\n Where guides abound,--experienced travellers dot the track.\n Leave not thy beast; his rein loose not thou from thy hand.\n His inclination is to wander o\u2019er the land.\n One moment only leave him carelessly to roam;\n Towards the pastures he at once will rush, all foam. 20\n Thy beast is not a friend to travelling by the road.\n How many muleteers through this have lost a load!\n Know\u2019st not the way? Observe which path thy beast would take,\n And follow the reverse. Secure this will thee make.\n \u201cConsult thou them;\u201d[324] but then, do not what they advise;\n For he who them opposes not, to ruin hies.\n Lend not thyself to lust and fancy\u2019s every wind;\n For these are what lead men astray; to God\u2019s truth blind.\n There\u2019s nothing in the world that better curbs the lusts,\n Than holy company. Protected, he who trusts. 25\n\n The Prophet said to \u2018Ali: \u201cCousin, list to me.\n The \u2018Lion of the Truth\u2019[325] art thou; a hero. See!\n Trust not too much, however, to thy courage, sole;\n Confide, much rather, on God\u2019s arm to keep thee whole.\n Put faith in aid from His divine, omniscient mind,\n That never can be baffled by disputant blind.\n His shadow on the earth is what keeps it in place;\n His spirit, sunbird-like, soars in supernal space.\n Were I to speak His praises until judgment day,\n No end, no interruption, would admit my say. 30\n Himself He\u2019s veiled in man, as sun behind a cloud.\n This seek to comprehend. God knows what mysteries shroud.\n The sun He is;--the sun of spirit, not of sky;\n By light from Him man lives;--and angels eke, forby.\n Then, \u2018Ali, of all service man can offer here,\n Do thou choose trust in God, dependence firm, sincere.\n Each man betakes himself some special worship to;\n And each some special friend selects, without ado.\n Do thou take refuge in God\u2019s wisdom, full, divine;\n He\u2019ll foil the secret foe that would thee undermine. 35\n Of all the modes of worship, this choose thou, the best;\n Thou\u2019lt distance all competitors, the prize thou\u2019lt wrest.\n Thy Teacher having chosen thus, obedience yield,\n Implicit; even as Moses journeying o\u2019er that field.[326]\n Whate\u2019er events betide, beware, and question not;\n For fear thy guide should turn, and drive thee from the spot.[327]\n Should He destroy a ship,[328]--no murmur from thy mouth;\n Should He an infant choke,[329]--let slip no word uncouth.\n\n God hath declared his hand is like the hand of God,\n By saying: \u2018God\u2019s right hand above all hands doth plod.\u2019[330] 40\n God\u2019s hand it is that kills him; makes him living, too.\n But what is living? The everlasting spirit. Lo!\n Whoever journeys, now and then, this road alone,\n The prayers of saints it is leads him to safety\u2019s zone.\n A saint\u2019s protection is not less than angel\u2019s aid;\n His help is God\u2019s right hand, when all is truly said.\n Now, if an absent saint have such portentous power,\n A present Teacher\u2019s honour sure must higher tower.\n If for the absent tempting viands are prepared,\n For present guests what may not largely be outshared? 45\n The varlet who to serve his lord is present there,\n Must rank before the absentee, for goodly fare.\n Thus, having Teacher chosen, be not too thin-skinned,\n Nor wishy-washy, to a muddy puddle kinned.\n For every buffet, see thou do not umbrage take:\n How can a mirror polished be, unless it bear a shake?\u201d\n\n Hear now this pregnant tale narrators have preserved;\n A practice it relates in Qazw\u012bn much observed:\n Upon the breast, the arms, the bladebones, and the like,\n With needle\u2019s point and indigo, tattooed designs they strike. 50\n\n A certain Qazw\u012bn bully to an artist hied,\n To have a brave design imprinted on his hide.\n The artist first inquired what pattern he\u2019d select.\n The man a lion rampant thought he must elect;\n And said: \u201cMy luck resides in Leo,--lion-sign;\n Depict thou then a lion, deep-blue stained, benign.\u201d\n The artist then demanded where he\u2019d wish it done;\n Our man replied: \u201cBetween my bladebones it enthrone.\u201d\n\n The artist then began to ply his needles\u2019 train;\n The Qazw\u012bn bully bellowed, smarting with the pain. 55\n The artist he addressed: \u201cMost clever man of skill,\n Thou\u2019lt drive me mad. What picture works me so much ill?\u201d\n Said he: \u201cA lion\u2019s form is what thou didst enjoin.\u201d\n \u201cO yes!\u201d replied the bully. \u201cWhat part dost thou coin?\u201d\n The artist: \u201cAt the tail have I commenced this time.\u201d\n Our man: \u201cO never mind the tail, designer prime!\n Your lion\u2019s tail has whacked me on my rump so hard,\n That I\u2019ve no power to breathe, nor such pain disregard.\n Allow thy lion to remain without a tail;\n Thy needles have unnerved me with their sharp assail.\u201d 60\n\n The artist then began upon another part,\n And worked his instruments. They soon induced new smart.\n The patient screamed again: \u201cWhat member limnest thou now?\u201d\n Our artist answered: \u201c\u2019Tis the lion\u2019s ear, I trow.\u201d\n His man replied: \u201cO leave him without ears this time;\n An earless lion\u2019s not so bad. Cut short the rhyme.\u201d\n\n Anew the artist on a part assayed his hand.\n Afresh the bully interfered, by pain unmanned.\n \u201cWhat part art now at work on? Say, my worthy friend!\u201d\n \u201cO,\u201d said the artist, \u201cnow his body I append.\u201d 65\n \u201cLeave out his body!\u201d gasped the suffering Qazw\u012bn man;\n \u201cThe pain\u2019s unbearable. Make short work, as thou can.\u201d\n\n The artist now quite lost his wits, as well he might;\n He scratched his head; sought how to mend his plight;\n Dashed all his needles, indigo, design, to earth;\n In anger saying: \u201cWhat the plague\u2019s come now to birth?\n A lion tailless, headless, bodiless, who\u2019s seen?\n God such a lion ne\u2019er created, sure, I ween!\u201d\n Have patience, thou too, brother, with thy needle\u2019s smart.\n So shalt thou \u2019scape the sting of conscience in thy heart. 70\n They who have conquered,--freed themselves from body\u2019s thrall,\n Are worshipped in the spheres, the sun, the moon, stars, all.\n Whoever\u2019s killed pride\u2019s demon in his earthly frame,\n The sun and clouds are slaves, to do his bidding, tame.\n His heart can lessons give of flaming to the lamp;\n The very sun not equals him in ardent vamp.\n For God hath said, in speaking of the scorching sun,\n These words: \u201cIt swerved from them.\u201d[331] It had new course to run.\n\n The sharpest thorns are welcome, as the roseleaf soft,\n To finite who to th\u2019 Infinite can soar aloft. 75\n What signifies to glorify the Lord of heaven;\n To humble self to dust; with meekness, pride to leaven?\n What use to learn to formulate God\u2019s unity;\n What use to bow one\u2019s self before the Deity?\n Wouldst shine as brilliantly in sight of all?\n Annihilate thy darksome self,--thy being\u2019s pall.\n Let thy existence in God\u2019s essence be enrolled,\n As copper in alchemist\u2019s bath is turned to gold.\n Quit \u201cI\u201d and \u201cWe,\u201d which o\u2019er thy heart exert control.\n \u2019Tis egotism, estranged from God, that clogs thy soul. 80\n\n\n\n\nXI.\n\nThe Lion\u2019s Hunt, in Company.\n\n\n A lion, wolf, and fox together went to hunt;\n Among the hills, in quest of game, they turned their brunt.\n By mutual help and aid, they hoped to make the field\n Too hot for other animals not under union\u2019s shield.\n Co-operating with each other, they surmised,\n A heavy bag they each would make of what each prized.\n\n \u2019Tis true, the noble lion felt of this ashamed.\n Still, he politely showed towards them his spirit tamed.\n A king feels inconvenienced by throngs of troops;\n But out of kindness makes them share his warlike swoops. 5\n The sun would feel ashamed, did stars with him appear;\n \u2019Tis generous in the sun to grace the starry sphere.\n \u2019Twas God\u2019s command to Ahmed still: \u201cWith them consult.\u201d[332]\n True, they gave no advice; no counsel did result.\n Upon the balance barley\u2019s weighed, as well as gold;\n But barley, thence, has not acquired gold\u2019s value told.\n The spirit with the flesh is fellow-traveller now;\n A dog has sometimes charge of palace-yard below.\n\n The company, then, set out for the woods amain,\n As followers of the lion\u2019s majesty, and train. 10\n A mountain-ox, an ibex, next a hare, they took;\n Since fortune smiled on them in each succeeding nook.\n A lion\u2019s followers on the plain of strife and war,\n Of food, by day or night, shall know no want, no bar.\n\n Their prey they carried from the hills into the plain;\n Or dead, or sorely wounded;--bleeding, or clean slain.\n The wolf and fox were moved to pitch of keen desire,\n To see the prey shared out with justice by their sire. 15\n The shade of their cupidity caught Leo\u2019s eye,\n He understood their confidence, their longing\u2019s dye.\n Whoe\u2019er has insight to the hearts and minds of men,\n Knows at a glance what\u2019s passing under his sharp ken.\n Beware, O heart, thou ever-fond one, in his sight,\n Thy secret to betray,--thy wish to bring to light!\n He knows it all, though ignorance he may pretend;\u2014\n His smile is but a veil thy aim to comprehend.\n\n The lion, having measured all their secret thought,\n Made no remark; he knew how they could both be bought; 20\n Within his breast revolved their fitting punishment:\n \u201cI\u2019ll show you, my fine fellows, what\u2019s by _lion_ meant.\n My pleasure\u2019s, for you both, what you should seek to know;\n Not calculate beforehand what I may bestow.\n Your every thought should but reflect my sovereign will,\n And thankfully await what I may give you still.\n Have pictures aught to say to guide the artist\u2019s hand?\n His cunning \u2019tis decides what portrait shall expand.\n So all your paltry surmise of my royal mind\n An insult is,--an arrogance,--that must be fined. 25\n \u2018They who conceive an evil thing of God\u2019[333] are cursed;\n And if I spare you, justice will be clean reversed.\n To rid the world of scandal, I must end your lives;\n Your story shall a moral point; whoe\u2019er contrives.\u201d\n With this he smiled again most grimly on the pair.\n Trust not a lion\u2019s smile, all ye to live who care.\n The riches of the world are smiles of Providence;\n They make men proud, and lead them to their fate prepense.\n Through poverty and suffering we may escape\n The trap that riches bait; and so avoid the scrape. 30\n\n The lion now addressed the wolf: \u201cShare out the spoil.\n Do justice to us all. Thou\u2019rt versed in cunning\u2019s foil.\n Be thou my factor. Carve the game as may be fit.\n So shalt thou honour win from all who see thy wit.\u201d\n The wolf then: \u201cRoyal Sir, the mountain-ox is thine.\n Thou\u2019rt great; the ox is large and fat; let none repine.\n The ibex is my share. As I, so it\u2019s the mean.\n And thou, O fox, shalt have the hare. \u2019Tis not too lean.\u201d\n\n The lion interposed: \u201cWolf! What is this thou\u2019st said?\n I present; and to talk of \u2018thou\u2019 and \u2018I,\u2019 so staid! 35\n What rubbish is a wolf, to deem himself a judge\n In presence of a lion, who\u2019ll soon make him budge?\n Come hither, ass! Thyself alone it is thou\u2019st sold!\u201d\n With this he tears the wolf to pieces, all too bold.\n\n He saw the wolf had not one grain of common sense;\n So stripped him of his hide, his life, his brain so dense.\n Then said: \u201cSince sight of me chased not all thought of self\n From thee, death by my paw was due, thou wretched elf!\n Thyself thou shouldst have vanquished in my presence dread.\n Not having done so, thou\u2019rt now numbered with the dead.\u201d 40\n\n \u201cAll perisheth, except His counsel\u201d \u2019s holy writ.[334]\n If we\u2019re not of \u201cHis counsel,\u201d life cannot us fit.\n He that will lose his life for God\u2019s sake, hath it still;\n \u201cAll perisheth\u201d hath then no power his soul to kill.\n He\u2019s of th\u2019 excepted; not of those to perish doomed.\n For, who\u2019s excepted, saved is he. His spring hath bloomed.\n But he that, in God\u2019s court, of \u201cme\u201d and \u201cthee\u201d shall prate,\n Will be cut off;--far banished from the heavenly gate.\n\n A man once came and gaily knocked at a friend\u2019s door.\n The other asked: \u201cWho\u2019s there? Is this a threshing-floor?\u201d 45\n \u201c\u2019Tis I,\u201d said he. \u201cO then thou straight mayest go away.\n \u2019Tis dinner-time. Mature, not crude, must be who\u2019d stay.\n Thou\u2019rt thou? Most crude thou art; by rawness\u2019 self estranged.\n By fire of trial those crude humours must be changed.\n \u2019Tis fire matures the crude. Let absence be the fire,\n Shall purge thee of thyself, burn out all selfish mire.\u201d\n\n Away he went in anguish; travelled a whole year;\n Saw not his friend; so pined with yearning, anxious fear;\n Matured his soul with suffering\u2019s searching throes and pains.\n Then sought the door from whence he\u2019d been repulsed, again. 50\n He knocked anew,--his heart with many fears oppressed,\n Lest from his lip some word unwelcome drop confessed.\n\n Within, the question\u2019s heard: \u201cWho knocks at my street door?\u201d\n He answered: \u201cThy own second self;--though all too poor.\u201d\n The invitation followed: \u201cLet myself walk in.\n My cot\u2019s too small for two selves to find room therein.\n The thread\u2019s not double in a needle\u2019s single eye.\n As thou\u2019rt now single, enter. Room thou\u2019lt find. Pray, try!\u201d\n The thread and needle have relation, each to each;\n For needle\u2019s eye a camel\u2019s far beyond all reach. 55\n How shall a camel ever be so fine and slim\n Unless long fasting his redundant flesh should skim?\n The hand of God is wanted, then, to make it pass;\u2014\n The God who by His word creates both man and grass.\n Impossibilities are possibles to Him;\n The stubbornest is docile when His will curbs whim.\n The blind from birth, the leper, e\u2019en the dead, arise,\n Whole, sound, whene\u2019er th\u2019 Omnipotent \u201cCome forth\u201d but cries.\n E\u2019en non-existence, death of death, at His command,\n Starts into life, compelled by His supreme demand. 60\n\n Recite, my friend: \u201cEach day He\u2019s busied with a work:\u201d[335]\n And know, He\u2019s never idle, unemployed to lurk.\n His smallest daily toil,--a work like pleasure still,\u2014\n Is to send forth three armies, bound to work His will.\n One, from the loins of spheres the elements to stir;\n So that all plants may vegetate, from moss to fir.\n One, from the wombs of mothers to earth\u2019s surface prone,\n That male and female may increase, not lie like stone.\n The third hence wends its way to sepulchre\u2019s dread bourn,\n There to receive, at length, reward; and joy, or mourn. 65\n Leave we this theme;\u2014\u2019tis endless,--never would have done.\n Let\u2019s see, now, how the friends enjoyed themselves alone.\n\n Our host invites his guest to enter, free from scorn:\n \u201cThou\u2019rt welcome, self of mine! We\u2019re not like rose and thorn.\n Our thread is single,--free from knots and tangle; done,\n As \u2018Be,\u2019 though duplex as to form, in sense is one.\u201d\n That \u201cBe\u201d \u2019s a rope, of power collective, to the end\n That nullity may be united to a friend.\n Thus duplex means are wanted, for appearances;\n Though, in effect, one means there be of all that is. 70\n The biped, as the quadruped, goes but one road.\n The one-edged knife, the two-edged shears, make one inroad.\n\n Observe yon pair of bleachers at their daily toil.\n Apparently, they differ, combat, as they moil.\n The one\u2019s for ever wetting cloths in their stream\u2019s tide,\n The other dries them just as fast in hot noontide.\n The first, again to soak the scarce-dried cloths makes haste;\n As though in opposition to his partner\u2019s waste.\n But, in reality, the two have but one aim:\n Co-operation\u2019s what they jointly, both proclaim. 75\n\n Each prophet, every saint, has his especial rite;\n But, as all tend to God, they\u2019re one, multipartite.\n Sleep overcomes alike the followers of all creeds;\n As water makes all mills to turn and grind, at needs.\n The water flows from upwards, down upon the mill;\n Its flowing through the trough is but man\u2019s wants to fill.\n No sooner has man\u2019s need been fully satisfied,\n He turns the water off;--straight in its bed it\u2019s tied.\n\n To teach men wisdom, stream of speech flows through the mouth;\n But spirit hath another course, far less uncouth. 80\n Without a voice or repetition it rolls on,\n As through elysium, streams;--flowers springing aye, anon.\n O Lord! Do Thou vouchsafe to my weak, erring soul\n To see the realm where, voiceless, spirit thoughts may stroll,\n That so my mind, in glee, on foot or head, may wing\n Its flight to the far bourn that parts from nothing, thing,\n Careering o\u2019er the boundless fields of ecstasy,\n Where fancy joins reality in entity.\n Far-reaching more\u2019s nonentity than fancy\u2019s stretch;\n And thus, his fancy is a source of woe to wretch. 85\n Then, being\u2019s narrower far than fancy\u2019s power of wing;\n E\u2019en as the full moon wanes, till it becomes a string.\n The world of matter and its forms is narrower still;\n A prison all too strait for mind to have its will.\n Plurality and composition are the cause;\n Our senses these alone can comprehend, and pause.\n Beyond our senses lies the world of unity.\n Desirest thou unity? Beyond thy senses fly!\n Divine command, \u201cBe!\u201d was one act; two-lettered word;\n Of grave import, though short, sprung from all being\u2019s Lord. 90\n But leave we this, and turn to see how fares it now,\n With our acquaintances, wolf, fox, and lion;--trow.\n\n The lordly lion \u2019d torn poor wolf\u2019s head from his tail,\n That so two heads there might not be for one avail.\n \u201cOn them We vengeance took\u201d[336] \u2019s a well-known sacred text;\n Wherefore, poor wolf, not quash thyself, when lion\u2019s next?\n\n The lion turned, then, to the fox, and bade him share\n The prey they\u2019d seized; that they might make a meal, not spare.\n The wily fox, low bowing with a reverence meet,\n Said: \u201cSire, the ox your share is, for your breakfast treat. 95\n The ibex, then, will suffice for your midday lunch,\n To serve as stop-gap in the interval of munch.\n The hare a light repast will furnish ere you sleep;\n The royal paunch from indigestion\u2019s pains \u2019twill keep.\u201d\n The lion answered: \u201cWell said, fox. Thou\u2019rt justice\u2019 self.\n Who taught thee with such judgment rare to portion pelf?\n Where didst thou learn to do full justice with great art?\u201d\n Said he: \u201cMy Lord, to teach me was that dead wolf\u2019s part.\u201d\n\n The lion thus replied: \u201cFor us much love thou\u2019st shown.\n Take thou all three unto thyself, as very own. 100\n Good fox! Thou\u2019st given up thyself entire, for us.\n Why should I injure thee? Thou\u2019rt I myself. No fuss!\n Myself am thine; the prey is thine; all,--every bit.\n Exalt thy head above the spheres. For that thou\u2019rt fit.\n Thou\u2019st taken warning from that wretched, selfish wolf.\n No longer fox art thou, my lion, my own self!\n A wise head ever lessons learns from others\u2019 ills,\u2014\n Who sees his neighbours victims fall, knows what them kills.\u201d\n\n The fox now thanked his stars a hundred, thousandfold,\n For that the lion first the wolf to share had told; 105\n And reasoned: \u201cHad he given me first his high command\n To share the prey, my life I had not kept in hand.\n Then praise to Him who \u2019th placed me low in this world\u2019s scale,\n To follow after mightier ones when they regale.\u201d\n\n So have we heard God\u2019s judgments wrought in ages past\n On people of the eld;--set forth as mountains fast,\n That we may learn from them,--the wolves of early days.\n Then let us, as the fox, glean wisdom from those lays.\n \u201cGod\u2019s people sanctified\u201d \u2019s the title on us cast,\n By God\u2019s own Prophet, truthful witness, and the last. 110\n The bones, the skeletons of all those old-world wolves,\n Consider well, ye readers;--think upon yourselves.\n Who\u2019s wise will from his heart cast out all fond conceits\n Of greatness, when he hears of \u2018\u0100d\u2019s[337] and Pharaoh\u2019s feats.\n Unless he warning take from what on others fell,\n Men shall a moral draw from his case, sad to tell.\n\n Cried Noah: \u201cYe stiff-necked race! I am not I, indeed.\n My self I\u2019ve sacrificed; of God\u2019s love have I need.\n From every fleshly sense and wish I\u2019m severed, quite.\n God is my light, my mind, my visual organ\u2019s site. 115\n I am not I. The breath I breathe is God\u2019s own breath.\n Whoe\u2019er gainsays this word, blasphemes, courts his own death.\n Within my form of fox there lurks the lion\u2019s power;\n Against this feeble fox \u2019tis useless now to lower.\n Unless you lay aside scorn for my fox\u2019s form,\n You\u2019ll hear the lion growl more fierce than raging storm.\u201d\n\n If Noah had not possessed the mighty aid of God,\n Could he a world have upside down turned with a nod?\n Within his form whole herds of lions, as one paw,\n Lay hid. A fire was he; the world a stack of straw. 120\n That misled straw refused to pay its tithe to him.\n Fire flashed. Forthwith the straw in smoke and flames sank grim.\n\n Whoe\u2019er \u2019gainst the hidden lion in saint\u2019s form\n Upraise the voice of pride, like to our wolf, base worm,\n Shall, like that wolf, be torn by lion piecemeal quite;\n The text: \u201cOn them we vengeance took\u201d he shall recite.[338]\n A stroke shall lay him low, as wolf by lion\u2019s paw.\n A madman must he be who\u2019d rush in lion\u2019s maw.\n O that the stroke had fallen upon the body frail;\n And that the heart and faith had \u2019scaped! \u2019Twere vast avail! 125\n Upon this point I feel my strength must all give way.\n How shall I tell the secrets of this mystic play?\n Just like the fox, do you yourselves deny in all.\n In lion\u2019s presence raise no cavil, or you\u2019ll fall.\n Relinquish thoughts of \u201cI\u201d and \u201cWe\u201d when \u201cHe\u201d \u2019s afield.\n The kingdom is the Lord\u2019s; to God the kingdom yield.\n The straight way enter all, like paupers as you are.\n The lion and the prey will both fall to your share.\n\n God is a spirit pure. All-Glorious is His name!\n He hath no need of praise, of honour, glory, fame! 130\n All these, and all besides, whatever may befall,\n Upon His servants He bestows. He\u2019s Lord of all!\n God hath no envy, wish, desire for creatures\u2019 ruths;\n And blessed is he who takes to heart this truth of truths.\n \u2019Twas He created both worlds;--all their pomp and pride.\n Shall He desire what He hath made in His own tide?\n Keep, then, your hearts pure in the sight of God the Lord,\n That you may never be ashamed of thought or word.\n He knows the secrets, aims, desires of all your hearts;\n They\u2019re patent to Him, as a hair in milk at marts. 135\n Whoever hath a breast cleansed from all thoughts of guile,\n His breast a mirror is, where heavenly truths will smile.\n Its secrets are all known to God;--its every part;\n \u201cBeliever\u2019s heart\u2019s the mirror of believer\u2019s heart.\u201d\n He tries our metal on the touchstone of His law.\n The fine, the base, He will distinguish, without flaw.\n Our talents being tried by His omniscient skill,\n What\u2019s good, what\u2019s bad, will sure appear, plain, by His will. 139\n\n\n\n\nXII.\n\nJoseph and the Mirror.\n\n\n The kings of yore a custom had, so I\u2019ve been told,\n Of course thou\u2019st heard it;--must remember it, of old,\n On their left hand their champions took their usual place;\n Because the heart is on the left of body\u2019s space.\n Their chancellor and scribes stood on their right hand all;\n In that the writer\u2019s art to the right hand doth fall.\n Before their face the holy teachers stood erect,\u2014\n The mirrors of the soul;--than mirror more correct.\n Their breasts they\u2019ve polished with the acts of thought and praise,\n That, mirror-like, they catch each image facts may raise. 5\n Each object born in nature with a lovely mien\n Should always have a mirror set to catch its sheen.\n A beauteous face enamoured is with mirror\u2019s glance;\n Heart\u2019s piety\u2019s the polish best the soul can chance.\n\n A friend of tried sincerity came from afar,\n And guest became with trusty Joseph;--free from bar.\n They had been friends before, in childhood\u2019s artless days;\n Had leant their elbows on one cushion, in their ways.\n\n His brethren\u2019s envy and wrong-dealing touched upon,\n Said Joseph: \u201c\u2019Twas a chain. It bound a lion. \u2018Non! 10\n Disgrace affects not lions, if with chains they\u2019re bound.\n With God\u2019s decree I quarrel not;--it\u2019s always sound.\n A lion with a chain around his lordly neck,\n Is still the lord of them who forged the chain as check.\u201d\n The friend asked: \u201cHow wert, in the well, the prison, cast?\u201d\n Said Joseph: \u201cAs the moon in wane and change at last.\u201d\n\n At change, the new moon\u2019s bent in two, a poor weak thing,\n But ripens to the full apace, night\u2019s matchless king.[339]\n Pearls in a mortar pounded are, by chance, sometimes;\n Still, they\u2019re esteemed a joy to glad eyes in all climes. 15\n Then, grains of wheat are cast into the lowly earth;\n But golden ears thence spring, a source of glee and mirth.\n These, too, are ground to dust in mill;--vile as to show;\n Increased in value, thence, bread it becomes, we know.\n Again \u2019tis crushed between the teeth; to chyme it turns,\n And feeds the mind, the thoughts, the soul;--in wisdom burns.\n The soul, in turn, is subject to the stress of love;\n New miracles, as seen, \u201cthe sowers marvel\u201d[340] prove.\n But truce to these reflections; let us follow now\n The words of Joseph\u2019s friend. \u2019Tis worth while these to know. 20\n\n That conversation closed, said Joseph to his guest:\n \u201cWhat gift, my friend, hast brought in token of thy zest?\u201d\n\n To go with empty hands and visit friends long missed,\n Is like a man who goes to mill without his grist.\n E\u2019en God will ask His creatures in the judgment day:\n \u201cWhat offerings have you brought to meet your Maker? Say!\n \u2018Alone, and empty-handed? Is it thus you come?\n E\u2019en as We first created you? Gifts left at home?\u2019[341]\n What have you brought as timely offerings in your hands?\n What are the gifts with which you\u2019d grace your new life\u2019s lands? 25\n Or, was it that you\u2019d no belief in this return?\n Our promise of this day by you was laughed to scorn?\n If you denied thus the hope to be My guest,\n Then dust and ashes wait you in My realm, at best.\n If you did not deny it, whence your empty hands?\n How come you to a friend\u2019s gate, scorning just demands?\u201d\n\n Put by a little from thy daily meat and drink,\n So shalt thou have a store for offerings\u2019 binding link.\n \u201cSleep little\u201d when thou art of those \u201cwho lay them down.\u201d[342]\n \u201cOf mornings,\u201d be of them who \u201cask for pardon\u2019s crown.\u201d[343] 30\n Give signs of life, though slight;--as babes do in the womb;\n So may God grant thee inward light to cheer thy tomb.\n And when thou \u2019scapest from dark and narrow prison there,\n Then mayst thou soar from earth beyond the realms of air.\n \u201cThe spacious land of God\u201d \u2019tis named in holy writ,[344]\n The land to which the prophets all have gladly flit.\n The heart is never lonesome in that vast abode;\n Its green trees never wither, frosts no leaves corrode.\n If now thou load thyself with sensual burden\u2019s weight,\n Fatigued and jaded, faint thou\u2019lt prove beneath their freight. 35\n\n In sleep thou bearest no burden; borne thou art, instead.\n Fatigue is thence recruited;--strength regains its head.\n Know then, thy sleep\u2019s a foretaste of what is to come,\n From the rapt state of saints arriving at their home.\n The saints were well prefigured by the \u201cSleepers Seven.\u201d[345]\n \u201cTheir sleep,\u201d \u201ctheir stretchings,\u201d \u201ctheir awaking,\u201d\n lead to heaven.\n Without the least exertion on their parts by acts,\n The \u201cright and left-hand registers\u201d draw them by facts.\n The \u201cright-hand register\u201d \u2019s the record of good deeds;[346]\n The \u201cleft-hand register\u201d \u2019s the list of fleshly greeds.[347] 40\n But both of these abolished are in case of saints.\n To them such things are but as echo dies and faints.\n Though good and evil may their echoes round thee peal,\n The echoing mountain hears them not in the ordeal.\n\n Now Joseph once again inquired: \u201cWhat offering bringest?\u201d\n His friend, ashamed of urgent pressing, sighed. Thou singest?\n Said he: \u201cFull many offerings have I sought and seen;\n But none was worthy of thee; or I much misween.\n How could I bring a diamond to its native mine;\n Or add a drop of water to a sea of brine? 45\n Shall I to K\u0101sh\u0101n cummin bring, whence it is drawn,[348]\n By offering up my life and soul to beauty\u2019s fawn?\n I know no rarity that\u2019s not surpassed by thee;\n Thy loveliness the rarity men nowhere see.\n The fittest present, then, I\u2019ve found, a mirror is.\n And this I\u2019ve brought; unsullied, bright, refulgent \u2019tis.[349]\n Therein thou\u2019lt contemplate thy beauteous, matchless face,\n As beaming as the sun that decorates sky\u2019s space.\n A mirror have I brought, thou charming, witching one;\n In it admire thyself; and think of me, when gone.\u201d 50\n\n The mirror now he drew from underneath his skirt.\n A mirror is, to beauty, with attractions girt.\n In non-existence\u2019 mirror if existence gleams,\n Present this mirror to it, thou, as best beseems.\n In non-existence mirrored, being we may see;\n As wealthy men their wealth may show by beggars\u2019 glee.\n The hungry man\u2019s the mirror best shows what is bread.\n And tinder mirrors flint and steel\u2019s gleam, quickly spread.\n Wherever want, defect, is seen, beauty\u2019s most prized.\n The mirror of perfection\u2019s then best realised. 55\n\n If clothes grew, ready cut and sewn, to meet our needs,\n Where\u2019d be the use of tailor\u2019s art, to fashion weeds?\n The unhewn trunk is needed, for the carver\u2019s skill,\n And carpenter, to cut out thence his frames, his thill.\n The surgeon hastens to the couch where suffering lies;\n Where limbs are broken, there his bandages he ties.\n Were there no patient, malady, no fever, ache,\n Could art sublime, the medical, its marvels make?\n If humble brass and copper were not to be found,\n Th\u2019 alchemist\u2019s stone could not to gold transmute them round. 60\n\n Defect is thus the mirror whence perfection\u2019s seen;\n And vileness is the foil to show off grandeur\u2019s sheen.\n By contrast does each opposite its fellow show,\n Sweet honey by sharp vinegar we best can know.\n The man who sees and feels his imperfections sore,\n Exerts himself to cure them quickly all the more.\n And he\u2019ll ne\u2019er take his flight towards heaven\u2019s eternal King,\n Who holds at heart the thought that he\u2019s a perfect thing.\n\n No worse disease exists, to taint the human mind,\n Than self-conceit, that paints its owner gold refined. 65\n How many bitter tears has not the vain to shed,\n Ere arrogance can be expelled, and pride be dead!\n The malady of Satan,--self-conceit:\u2014\u201cI\u2019m best,\u201d[350]\n Exists in germ in every panting human breast.\n These fancy they have mortified themselves throughout.\n Take them to be pure streams; their filth seek in the grout.\n\n Just stir them up a little, for a trial\u2019s sake;\n Thou\u2019lt see their mud discolour all the water\u2019s lake.\n There\u2019s ooze at bottom of the pond,--be sure of that,\u2014\n However clear the surface of the dull dead flat. 70\n Our greatest teacher is endowed with fair device.\n He digs a conduit in the very soil of vice.\n How can he make the water of that conduit pure?\n All human wisdom\u2019s but one spark from God\u2019s vast store.\n Does sword inflict a wound in its own handle,--blade?\n Find me a surgeon who shall cure a gash so made.\n Where wound exists, the flies will ever flock amain,\n To hide its hideousness from sight, and lull the pain,\n Those flies the symbols are of man\u2019s vain, baseless thoughts;\n The wound they cover over\u2019s ignorance high-wrought. 75\n \u2019Tis only when the teacher salve applies with skill,\n The throes are quieted that shoot across man\u2019s will.\n He then imagines that his wound is healing fast.\n Effect this is of cunning used, that salve to cast.\n O man, whose back is galled, accept his salve with thanks.\n Thy solace thence arises; not from thy own pranks. 78\n\n\n\n\nXIII.\n\nThe Prophet\u2019s First Amanuensis.\n\n\n There was a scribe,[351] before \u2018Uthm\u0101n[352] had filled that post,\n Most diligent in noting revelation\u2019s host.\n Whatever text the Prophet had to promulgate\n On parchment did this scribe trace all its terms of fate.\n\n The splendour of those inspirations filled his soul.\n His mind became enlightened, as a glowing coal.\n The substance of that wisdom from the Prophet came.\n The silly scribe imagined \u2019twas his genius\u2019 flame:\n \u201cThe texts the Prophet promulgates with rare effect,\n Appear _verbatim_ in my mind, without defect.\u201d 5\n\n The Prophet was aware of this egregious sin.\n The wrath of God descended from high heaven\u2019s welkin.\n The scribe renounced his office, and his faith at once.\n Religion\u2019s fiercest foe he stood now, for the nonce.\n The Prophet questioned him: \u201cBenighted, wretched man!\n If light there be in thee, whence this thy darkest plan?\n Hadst thou a fountain of God\u2019s truth been, verily,\n This turbid stream had never flowed thence, heavily.\u201d\n\n Not caring to expose his scribe to all his friends,\n The Prophet held his peace, to watch th\u2019 adventure\u2019s ends. 10\n The scribe\u2019s heart hardened more and more as time rolled on.\n Repentance he felt not; his pride grew thereupon.\n He sighed. His sighs were not the signs of contrite heart;\n But tokens sure that justice made him feel its smart.\n God caused his pride to weigh more heavy than a chain.\n How many thus are fettered; none can heal their pain.\n His blasphemy and pride held him in iron grip;\n His very sighs he felt constrained to stifle on his lip.\n He cried: \u201c\u2018The iron collars they\u2019re compelled to wear;\u2019[353]\n There\u2019s naught but iron collars; these are all we bear! 15\n \u2018Behind them is a barrier; but We\u2019ve bound their eyes.\u2019[354]\n So that they see not what\u2019s before, behind those ties.\u201d\n\n The barrier so upreared appears a level plain;\n He knows not \u2019tis a bourn that checks him like a chain.\n Thy witness is a barrier, bars sight of the Lord;\n Thy teacher is a veil, shuts out God\u2019s holy word.\n How many infidels, oh! long faith to possess!\n Their pride, their honour, stands between them and success.\n That barrier, unseen, \u2019s than iron firmer still.\n An axe can hew through iron; not through stubborn will. 20\n A bond of iron may be broken by due means;\n A moral bond is what holds firmest, where it leans.\n\n A bee, a wasp, may sting one to the very quick;\n Yet may the same be warded by precaution\u2019s trick.\n But what\u2019s to do when sting is in our very selves?\n The pain is then most biting, deeper far it delves.\n Unwillingly has leaped this subject from my mind.\n I fear \u2019twill leave despair in many, deep behind.\n Despair thou not; take consolation to thy soul;\n And cry to that Deliverer who can make thee whole: 25\n \u201cThou Lover of forgiveness! Pardon to me grant!\n Physician of the soul! Relieve my direful want!\u201d\n\n Such counsel wise drove mad that erring sinner, quite.\n Think not of him. \u2019Twill tire thy mind beyond respite.\n My friend! This counsel tells with equal force on thee.\n It flows through all the saints, though transient thou it see.\n Within the house a gleam of light has been espied.\n This light comes from a neighbour\u2019s lamp, with oil supplied.\n Give thanks for it. Be not puffed up. Snort not, good man!\n To me lend ear. Presumption chase to utmost span. 30\n Alas! that this most transient ray of dubious light,\n The nations has seduced from God\u2019s sole path of right.\n I\u2019ll be the very slave of him, who, at each stage,\n Will not suppose the goal \u2019tis of his pilgrimage.\n How many stages are there must be left behind,\n Before the traveller reach the home he bears in mind.\n Although the iron may glow red, the colour\u2019s not\n Its own; \u2019tis but reflection of the fire that\u2019s hot.\n A window or a house with light may be suffused;\n But still, the source of light is in the sun, diffused. 35\n Each wall, each gate, may cry amain: \u201cI shine! I shine!\n I have no need of other\u2019s light. \u2019Tis mine! \u2019Tis mine!\u201d\n But then the sun demurs: \u201cO thing of little sense!\n So soon as I shall set, thy darkness will be dense!\u201d\n The plants may think their verdure\u2019s all their very own.\n So fresh, so green; so pleasant every flower full-blown.\n But then again the summer season makes comment:\n \u201cWhen I am past, your present charms will soon be spent.\u201d\n\n A beauty\u2019s lovely body prides itself as fair.\n Her spirit, having hid itself within its lair, 40\n Remarks: \u201cThou dunghill! Wherefore all this silly pride?\n Thou bloomest but a day or two, while I preside.\n Thy affectation, vanity, \u2019s too vast for me.\n But stay till I depart: then straightway thou shalt see.\n Thy lovers then shall loathe thy charms, adored before.\n To worms, and toads, and snakes they\u2019ll fling thee, as cheap store.\n Thy stench shall make him hold his nose in deep disgust,\n Who lately in thy presence would have licked the dust.\u201d\n\n Reflections from the spirit are the tongue, the eye, the ear.\n Accessions from the fire steam\u2019s bubbles \u2019tis upbear. 45\n E\u2019en as the soul\u2019s reflection on the body acts,\n Reflection from th\u2019 inspiring saints my soul impacts.\n When my soul\u2019s life shall quit my soul, alack-a-day!\n My soul shall lifeless be, like mortal soulless clay.\n \u2019Tis therefore that I cast myself down in the dust,\n That earth may witness bear for me before th\u2019 All-Just.\n\n In day of judgment, \u201cwhen the earth shall quake with fear,\u201d[355]\n Earth shall itself bear witness to my prayerful tear.\n Command shall issue: \u201cLoud proclaim the acts thou\u2019st seen.\u201d\n The earth, the rocks, a tongue shall find, to tell what\u2019s been. 50\n Philosophers deny this, in their pride of mind;\n But tell them: \u201cDash your heads against a wall, ye blind!\u201d\n The speech of earth, of water, and of plastic clay,\n Is audible unto the ears of saints that pray.\n Philosophers who will deny God\u2019s saving grace,\n Are strangers to the powers of saints\u2019 inspired race.\n He holds that inclination, working on man\u2019s brain,\n Gives rise to heated phantasy\u2019s legerdemain.\n True, his own blasphemy and lack of firm belief\n Have raised in him denial\u2019s phantom, reason\u2019s thief. 55\n Philosophers deny the devil does exist;\n While they themselves his sport are, in his cursed fist.\n Hast never seen the devil? Look at thy own self!\n Who\u2019d paint his forehead blue, unless deceived by elf?[356]\n Whoever hath a doubt or trouble in his mind,\n In secret\u2019s a philosopher, as you may find.\n He wears the outward semblance of belief; but then,\n Anon and ever his philosophy claims pen.\n Beware, all ye believers! In you lurks this germ;\n Within yourselves lies latent vile deception\u2019s sperm. 60\n The two and seventy sects are all within your hearts,[357]\n And only wait a chance to play their fatal parts.\n\n Whoever hath the bud of faith grown in his breast,\n As aspen-leaf must tremble, lest it be supprest.\n Thou laughest at the devil in thy foolish pride;\n Thyself thou hast imagined sin\u2019s stern deicide.\n But when thy soul shall manifested be to all,\n Sad sighs and moans shall rise from those who\u2019re seen to fall.\n Exhibitors of base coin in this world below\n Smile now; the touchstone yet is hidden in form\u2019s glow. 65\n\n O Veiler of men\u2019s sins! Lift not Thy veil from us![358]\n In day of trial be our Helper, gracious!\n Adulteration now contends with purest coin;\n The gold awaits the day of trial to rejoin.\n It slily thinks in its mute way, without ado:\n \u201cAwait a little, false ones! Trial comes! Soho!\n For was not Satan\u2019s self, in ages long gone by,\n Of light an angel, Prince of Powers, a galaxy,\n Until he envied Adam in his froward heart?\n And then he fell, an outcast from heaven\u2019s high rampart. 70\n\n The son of Beor, Balaam, in the world\u2019s esteem,\n Was equal unto Moses. So all men did deem.\n To him alone was homage paid by high and low;\n His prayers were reckoned medicine for every woe.\n To Moses he opposed himself, in foolish pride.\n The Scripture tells us how most miserably he died.[359]\n Of Balaams, and of Satans, in this world of ours,\n Some manifest, some secret, troops come at all hours.\n God granteth them celebrity within their spheres,\n That they may witness bear against their own compeers. 75\n Then, both are elevated on a gallows high,\n As warning unto others who for honours sigh.\n They both were covetous of homage and applause;\n And both received due punishment through God\u2019s just laws.\n\n Thou, man, perchance, the idol of some crowd mayst be.\n For God\u2019s sake, then, beware thou transgress not as he.\n And setting up thyself against a better man,\n Thou come to grief, and bring to wreck thy every plan.\n The tales of \u2018\u0100d[360] and Tham\u016bd[361] have the moral clear,\n That saints of God, and righteous men, are held more dear. 80\n Those signs, and swift destruction overwhelming them,\n Proclaim aloud the power that saints around does hem.\n\n As brutes are slain that man may live a life of ease,\n So men are slaughtered when they sin \u2019gainst God\u2019s decrees.\n For, what is wisdom? \u2019Tis th\u2019 omniscience divine.\n Man\u2019s wisdom is but folly, set against that mine.\n The brutes are timid, shun man\u2019s presence everywhere;\n Though man, in numbers, yields to them within this sphere.\n Their blood may lawfully be shed for needs of man;\n Because they lack th\u2019 ennobling spark of reason\u2019s scan. 85\n The brute is held of low degree on this our earth;\n As being weighed against great man\u2019s superior worth.\n What value will attach to thee, thou arrant fool,\n If, like an ass, thou spite the lords of reason\u2019s school?\n The ass, that renders service meet unto his lord,\n Men slay not. \u2019Tis the wild ass does them chase afford.\n The ass reaps naught of recompense for merit due;\n Yet, when he errs, fell punishment awaits him, true.\n If man, then, go astray, much more he\u2019s worthy blame;\n Most justly shall chastisement visit him with shame. 90\n The blood of misbelievers righteously is shed,\n With sword and arrow, like wild ass on mountain fed.\n Their wives and children fall a prey to victor\u2019s hand;\n In that they lack true wisdom, cursed of God they stand.\n The reasonable creature fleeing reason\u2019s Lord,\n Renounces reason, brute becomes, calls for the sword.\n\n H\u0101r\u016bt, M\u0101r\u016bt,[362] two angels famed throughout the earth,\n Through pride and insolence lost paradise for dearth.\n They trusted in the wondrous power they held of old;\n As though a buffalo \u2019gainst lion should wax bold. 95\n His horns are mighty weapons, fearful to the foe;\n The lion tears him piecemeal; horns but work him woe.\n Had he as many horns as hedgehog quills, all o\u2019er,\n They\u2019d help him not; the lion still would him o\u2019erpow\u2019r.\n\n The hurricane roots up the forest trees amain;\n While pliant reeds from it no injury sustain.\n The fury of the blast hurts not their supple ease.\n Of strength, then, boast thee not, man. Seek wrath to appease.\n The axe is nothing daunted, seeing boughs of trees;\n But, one by one, hews through them all; their end foresees. 100\n The axe sets not its trenchant edge to lop off leaves;\n \u2019Tis not the silky down of thistles that it cleaves.\n A flame is not abashed, though many thorns collect;\n Whole herds of sheep can never butcher\u2019s knife deflect.\n To inward idea\u2019s power the outward sign must yield.\n That power, \u2019tis, makes revolve the heavens\u2019 vast starry field.\n The sphere, the circling firmament, consider now.\n What makes it turn? A force that rest will not allow.\n The movements of our bodies have no other source;\u2014\n The soul it is originates all vital force. 105\n The circulation of the air\u2019s from an idea;\n The millstone turns by water from the fields\u2019 area.\n The ebb and flow of tides, breath drawn, again expired,\n Whence all? \u2019Tis life compels, diffused through all, respired.\n The spirit \u2019tis decides what words our pen shall write;\n Or peace, or war, or anything our minds indite.\n To right, to left we go, e\u2019en as the spirit wills;\n A rose, a thorn,--the spirit says which place it fills.\n\n Our God it was who sent this vital air in blasts,\n Like breath of dragons, to destroy old \u2018\u0100d\u2019s[363] outcasts. 110\n While to the faithful it gave peace, and health, and strength;\n In gentle zephyrs softly breathing whole days\u2019 length.\n The Prophet hath assured us God\u2019s the soul of all.\n The Lord\u2019s the ocean whence the rills of spirit fall.\n The strata of the heavens and earth, with all therein,\n Are merely straws afloat on waves where powers begin.\n They dance about, are carried here and there by turns;\n Their movement\u2019s from the waves that power divine still churns.\n Decrees this they shall be at rest? At once they\u2019re flung\n Aside upon the shore, there to decay like dung. 115\n Wills it that they be tossed about on waves high-flown?\n They\u2019re but the leaves of autumn by the wild winds blown.\n Now turn we from this subject, most engaging still,\n To learn about those angels, victims of self-will.\n The sins of all mankind were known to them as sure;\n No wickedness escapes the glance of spirits pure.\n In anger at such baseness they were moved to scorn;\n Their own defect was hidden from their sight, heaven-born.\n\n An ugly man once saw his face in looking-glass.\n He turned away enraged with that reflecting mass. 120\n So, when one self-conceited sees another\u2019s fault,\n A flame from hell is lighted in his bad heart\u2019s vault.\n \u2019Tis pride inflames him;--holy zeal he dubs it straight;\n Not conscious of the vanity that makes his freight.\n A zeal for holiness by other tokens shines;\n And lights a fire by which to ashes earth declines.\n\n God said to them: \u201cIf you both shine with virtue\u2019s ray,\n No notice take of man\u2019s backslidings from its way.\n Give thanks and praises, rather, you\u2019re not made like them.\n Lusts of the flesh, concupiscence, soil not your stem. 125\n Had I imposed upon you that great burden, sore;\n The heavens would not have been your home for evermore.\n The chastity that decks your spirit-nature now,\n Reflection is of purity that lights My brow.\n Know, this is but a quality you hold from Me.\n So shall th\u2019 accursed one not make you slaves to be!\u201d\n E\u2019en as the Prophet\u2019s scribe, with self-importance puffed,\n Imagined holy wisdom\u2019s light shone as he\u2019d stuffed.\n Himself he fancied equal of prophetic quire;\n His raven croak as their sweet song he dared admire. 130\n He who sets up to write the notes of every bird,\n Knows not th\u2019 inspiring springs within their bosom stirred.\n Could man acquire the note of nightingale so sweet,\n Would he have learnt as well its love the rose to meet?\n Should he achieve a notion of that love\u2019s intent;\n \u2019Twould be mere surmise, like deaf man\u2019s from lips\u2019 consent.\n Such deaf man once was made aware by some kind friend,\n That next door dwelt an invalid near to his end.\n The poor man thought within himself: \u201cI\u2019m deaf as stone,\n How can I hope to comprehend this neighbour\u2019s tone? 135\n More \u2019specially as sick men speak so very low.\n Still, go I must; mere decency demands my bow.\n When I advance, he\u2019ll me address,--his lips will move.\n From thence I\u2019ll glean a notion, may not quite false prove.\n I\u2019ll ask him how he feels to-day, \u2019mid so much pain.\n He\u2019ll answer surely: \u2018Thank you; better in the main.\u2019\n Reply I will: \u2018Most happy! How\u2019s the appetite?\u2019\n He\u2019ll answer: \u2018Pretty good, if chicken-broth invite.\u2019\n I\u2019ll say: \u2018Good! Good! And what are you allowed to drink?\n Who is your doctor?\u2019 He\u2019ll respond, as one may think. 140\n Then I\u2019ll remark: \u2018With so much talent at command,\n You can\u2019t do better. Soon I hope to see you stand.\n I\u2019ve had experience of his skill; I know his worth;\n With him as guide, you\u2019ll not go wrong.\u2019 So forth.\u201d\n\n Thus having got his fancied answers all by heart,\n He goes to see the sick man; deftly plays his part.\n On asking: \u201cHow are you?\u201d the patient says: \u201cNear dead.\u201d\n The deaf man straight rejoins: \u201cOf that I\u2019m very glad.\u201d\n The sufferer felt insulted by this joy expressed.\n The deaf one had surmised,--had failed in what he\u2019d guessed. 145\n He now inquired the diet: \u201cOh! It\u2019s poison all!\u201d\n Complained the sick man. \u201cGlad to hear it,\u201d he let fall.\n Still more the patient wondered. \u201cWho attends you, pray?\u201d\n Asked Deafy; \u201cwhose advice is\u2019t leads you on your way?\u201d\n \u201cDeath tracks my hours!\u201d said he; \u201cpray leave me now to rest.\u201d\n The other answered: \u201cBetter can\u2019t be found; he\u2019s best.\u201d\n The visitor retired, quite pleased with his rich art;\n And offered thanks for having played so kind a part.\n The sick man, on the contrary, was all on fire:\n \u201cWhence comes this malice? Who has roused his soul to ire?\u201d 150\n So, turning in his mind the matter o\u2019er and o\u2019er,\n A message he determines that shall pay the score.\n Just so, a man who\u2019s eaten ill-digesting food,\n Can have no rest till it\u2019s ejected, well and good.\n Long-suffering is thy better part, reject it not;\n With patience, thou shalt find soft words best heal a plot.\n But our sick man found no such solace for his mind;\n He called the deaf one \u201cAss,\u201d and \u201cFool,\u201d and \u201cSot,\u201d and \u201cBlind.\u201d\n Said he: \u201cI\u2019ll serve him out; I\u2019ll pay him what\u2019s his due!\n Till then, my spirit will his hateful visit rue! 155\n A visit to the sick\u2019s for consolation\u2019s sake;\n His visit I abhor, his insults I\u2019ll not take.\n He\u2019s wished to gloat on foe laid prostrate at his feet;\n Some joy to gather thence his secret hate to greet.\u201d\n\n How many pious men there are, to outward view,\n Reward of joy in heaven, as object, who pursue.\n At heart they\u2019re sinners still, despite the show they make.\n Alas! Hypocrisy for righteousness they take!\n Just as our deaf man thought he\u2019d done a friendly act;\n And yet, withal, had vexed his neighbour, as a fact. 160\n He soothed his soul by thinking: \u201cKindly part I\u2019ve played!\n I\u2019ve acted as a neighbour! Sorrow I\u2019ve allayed!\u201d\n Whereas, in truth, a fire he\u2019d lighted for himself;\n And his sick neighbour\u2019s heart inspired with vengeful elf.\n\n Beware the fires you kindle by such acts as this!\n Beware offence to give, while proffering a kiss!\n The Prophet said one was a hypocrite, he knew:\n \u201cGo, worship, friend; thy act\u2019s no worship, as I trew!\u201d\n For fear lest we should trespass, even as we pray,\n Our worship has the prayer: \u201cLord, guide us in Thy way!\u201d[364] 165\n \u201cPermit not Thou, O God, that my devotion\u2019s act\n Be counted erring hypocrite\u2019s unwelcome pact!\u201d\n\n The surmise of our deaf man wide was of the mark.\n A ten years\u2019 friendship \u2019twould have wrecked! Beware such spark!\n Man\u2019s judgment, friend, that\u2019s based on sense\u2019s treacherous sand,\n Can never be compared with revelation\u2019s wand.\n Hast ear to hear? Hast mind to recognise the truth?\n Know, then, thy moral ear is deaf to godly sooth!\n The first who followed sense, and reason--as he thought--\n Instead of God\u2019s true light, the devil was, we\u2019re taught. 170\n He judged: \u201cThe fire more noble is than sordid earth;\n From fire was I created; clay gave Adam birth.\n The stock from whence it springs decides each kind of fruit;\n From darkness Adam\u2019s sprung; light at my birth did suit.\u201d\n\n The Lord replied: \u201c\u2019Tis not a question of descent.\n Pre-eminence is here the prize of righteous bent.\n \u2019Tis not a heritage of worldly wealth to share.\n Why talk of ancestry? Heart\u2019s qualities declare.\n The heritage we\u2019ve now to give is prophecy;\n The heirs thereto are they whose spirits hate a lie. 175\n The son of Ab\u016b-Jahl believed, and saved his soul;[365]\n A son of Noah rebelled; became perdition\u2019s goal.[366]\n The son of earth was made resplendent as the moon;\n Thou, son of fire, begone, disgraced, cursed, none too soon!\u201d\n\n Investigations, reasonings, on days of cloud,\n By night, in darkness, guide the doubting crowd;\n But, when the sun shines,--when God\u2019s temple\u2019s clearly seen,\n No doubt remains which way to turn one\u2019s face, I ween.\n The temple hidden, its direction quite unknown,\u2014\n Then use thy judgment. God this method\u2019s kindly shown.[367] 180\n\n Whene\u2019er you hear a note of God\u2019s truth-warbling bird,[368]\n You straightway seize its literal sense, just as \u2019tis heard.\n You then use suppositions of your darksome mind,\n And form, through wrong conclusions, guesses worse than blind.\n The saints use terms of technical significance,\n Unknown to worldly reasoners\u2019 crass ignorance.\n The language of the bird you learn, as to its notes;\n But clean destroy its sense; as sure as fancy dotes.\n\n E\u2019en as the sick man of our tale, saints\u2019 hearts are grieved;\n Though, like the deaf man, you suppose you\u2019ve good achieved. 185\n The scribe of writ inspired had all its text by heart;\n Then thought himself inspired;--would play a prophet\u2019s part.\n The Prophet, warbler-like, smote him with powerful wing;\n He forthwith sank to blind despair, through conscience\u2019 sting.\n So \u2019tis with you. Perversely, or with vain surmise,\n You would interpret words descended from the skies.\n Like H\u0101r\u016bt, and like M\u0101r\u016bt, well you\u2019ve learnt the tune\n They sang of old in pride: \u201cWe\u2019re God\u2019s elect,\u201d jejune.\n You pray for grace on all the sins of wicked men;\n You curse your own foul egotism, greed\u2019s hungry ken. 190\n Beware lest God\u2019s just jealousy break forth amain,\n And smite you to the earth, ne\u2019er more to rise again.\n\n Those angels owned, in words: \u201cTo rule is Thine, O God.\n Without Thy strong protection, safety\u2019s soon downtrod.\u201d\n Such were their lip-words. But their hearts\u2019 rebellious pride,\n With foolish boasting, thought: \u201cNo harm can us betide.\u201d\n They never ceased to brood on vanities thus framed,\n Till fire of arrogance burst forth from breasts inflamed;\n Then proclamation made: \u201cO elemental men!\n How little have ye known the range of angel\u2019s ken. 195\n We\u2019ll weave dense curtains o\u2019er the sky\u2019s revolving face;\n Descending then to earth, we\u2019ll there our temple place.\n We\u2019ll justice distribute, and worship we\u2019ll commend,\n Returning every night to heaven, whence we descend.\n So shall we be admired by all who dwell on earth,\n And fill the world with gladness, safety, peace, and mirth.\u201d\n Alas! Such fancy\u2019s false! Earth cannot heaven be;\n Their difference is radical, as all may see! 199\n\n\n\n\nXIV.\n\nThe Chinese and Roman Artists.\n\n\n Give ear to this advice from one who\u2019s well informed:\n \u201cLay down your head where\u2019er by wine you\u2019ve been transformed.\u201d\n Whene\u2019er a drunken man reels forth from tavern door,\n A laughingstock he\u2019s made by urchin and by boor.\n Now here, now there, he lurches, stumbling on his road;\n Falls in the mire; is mocked and jeered, scorned as a toad.\n The children of the neighbourhood his steps surround,\n Unconscious what is wine\u2019s hilarity profound.\n\n So are all people children, round the saints of God;\n 5 None adults are, save they who\u2019ve cast off passion\u2019s clod.\n \u2019Twas said: \u201cThe world\u2019s a toy, a plaything; and men all\n Are infants.\u201d[369] These are God\u2019s words. True in sense they fall.\n No child but loves his toys, his playthings, games, and sports;\n By cultivation of the mind man sense imports.\n\n Man\u2019s love for worldly things is like child\u2019s love for toys;\n The child and man, in these, repeat each other\u2019s joys.\n The child, in play, performs the very selfsame part,\n He\u2019ll act when grown a hero, learnt debating art.\n Men\u2019s quarrels are the same as those fought out by boys;\n They\u2019re senseless, reasonless; they squabble for mere toys. 10\n Their weapons are but wooden swords, as used in play;\n Their objects are not worth a thought, by night or day.\n They mount their hobby-horses, ride about on sticks;\n Declaring \u2019tis Bucephalus, Eclipse, that kicks.\n \u2019Tis they who bear a burden, pack-horse-like, or ass;\n Their vanity converts them into horsemen\u2019s mass.\n\n So let it be till that day when God\u2019s riders shall,\n On steeds of fire, transcend the seventh heaven\u2019s rolling ball.\n \u201cThe spirit and the angels mount unto their God.\u201d[370]\n The spheres shall shake, when under saintly footsteps trod. 15\n Whereas the raff of mankind mount their own coat-tails;\n Imagining they\u2019re horsemen, prancing as ship sails.\n\n The Lord hath said: \u201cImagining\u2019s of no avail.\u201d[371]\n Imagination\u2019s steed to scale heaven\u2019s heights must fail.\n Imagination\u2019s best is but a choice of doubts;\n Man ne\u2019er disputes about the sun, whate\u2019er the whim he flouts.\n The time will come, he\u2019ll see what wretched screw he rides;\n That which he deemed a courser\u2019s but his own shanks\u2019 sides.\n His senses, thoughts, and reasonings, he then will find,\n Are but the infant\u2019s hobby,--pa\u2019s cane, more refined. 20\n\n The wisdom of the saints is what bears them aloft.\n The science of the worldly is their load;--how oft!\n The wisdom of the heart sustains and elevates;\n But knowledge sensuously acquired as burden rates.\n \u2019Tis God hath said: \u201cAn ass with volumes for his load.\u201d[372]\n So knowledge is a burden, when not of God\u2019s code.\n All science not received from word of God direct,\n Hath no endurance; paint it is; our eyes detect.\n\n Still, if man bear his burden well, he\u2019s recompensed;\n His burden is removed; ease to him is dispensed. 25\n See, then, you bear not science\u2019 load from fleshly lust;\n Lest you should suffer inwardly fatigue,--disgust;\n But mount the agile steed of sacred lore divine;\n So shall the burden on your back at once decline.\n Unless you drink His cup, how \u2019scape from fleshly lust?\n O you, who, in His name, content are with the Just!\n When from His name and attributes some inkling\u2019s born,\n This inkling points the road to union one fair morn.\n Thou\u2019st never known a guide, but some one must be led;\n And when no road is travelled, gnome can\u2019t dog man\u2019s tread. 30\n Thou\u2019st never heard a name, but indicates a thing;\n A flower thou\u2019st never plucked from verbal _rosa_\u2019s ding.\n Hast thou pronounced a name? Straightway the thing ensue.\n The moon seek in the sky;--not in lake-waters, blue.\n But wouldst thou cast aside all names and words, as vain,\n Thyself, then, purge of self. Abstraction thou shalt gain.\n Wouldst be a sword? Cast off soft iron\u2019s yield refined;\n By discipline the mirror burnish of thy mind.\n Discharge thyself of every particle of self;\n So shalt thou see thyself pure, free from soil of pelf. 35\n Within thy heart thou\u2019lt see the wisdom of the saints,\n Without a book, a teacher, or professor\u2019s plaints.\n\n The Prophet said: \u201cThat man is one of my true flock,\n Whose heart and mind are hewn from my own calling\u2019s rock.\n His soul perceives me through the selfsame holy light\n That unto me reveals his soul serenely bright.\n Reports, traditions, chains of evidence, are lost;\n When soul communes with soul, minds freely can accost.\u201d\n This riddle solve: \u201cA Kurd I last night was, by birth;\n And then, this morning, Arab am, by afterbirth.\u201d[373] 40\n If one, sincere, a Kurdish boor was overnight,\n Sincerity an Arab made him by daylight.\n Example seekest of science springing in the heart?\n This contest heed of Chinaman and Roman\u2019s art.[374]\n\n The Chinese urged they had the greater painter\u2019s skill.\n The Romans pleaded they of art the throne did fill.\n The sovereign heard them both; decreed a contest fair;\n Results the palm should give the worthiest of the pair.\n\n The parties twain a wordy war waged in debate;\n The Romans\u2019 show of science did predominate. 45\n The Chinamen then asked to have a house assigned\n For their especial use; and one for Rome designed,\n Th\u2019 allotted houses stood on either side one street;\n In one the Chinese, one the Roman, artists meet.\n\n The Chinese asked a hundred paints for their art\u2019s use;\n The sovereign his resources would not them refuse.\n Each morning from the treasury rich colours\u2019 store\n Was served out to the Chinese till they asked no more.\n The Romans argued: \u201cColour or design is vain;\n We simply have to banish soil and filth amain.\u201d 50\n They closed their gate. To burnish then they set themselves;\n As heaven\u2019s vault, simplicity filled all their shelves.\n Vast difference there is \u2019twixt colours and not one.\n The colours are as clouds; simplicity\u2019s the moon.\n Whatever tinge you see embellishing the clouds,\n You know comes from the sun, the moon, or stars in crowds.\n\n At length the Chinamen their task had quite fulfilled.\n With joy intense their hearts did beat, their bosoms thrilled.\n The sovereign came, inspected all their rich designs,\n And lost his heart with wonder at their talents\u2019 signs. 55\n He then passed to the Romans, that his eyes might see.\n The curtains were withdrawn, to show whate\u2019er might be.\n The Chinese paintings all, their whole designs in full,\n Reflected truly were on that high-burnished wall.\n Whatever was depicted by the Chinese art\n Was reproduced by mirrors, perfect every part.\n\n Those Romans are our mystics;--know, my worthy friend;\n No art, no learning; study, none;--but gain their end.\n They polish well their bosoms, burnish bright their hearts,\n Remove all stain of lust, of self, pride, hate\u2019s deep smarts. 60\n That mirror\u2019s purity prefigures their hearts\u2019 trust;\n With endless images reflections it incrust.\n\n The formless Form the thousand thousand hidden forms\n Flashed in his breast on Moses\u2019 heart, like mirrored storms.\n That Form, \u2019tis true, the heaven of heavens cannot contain;\n Nor all the space between the zenith and the main.\n These numbered are, and limited within their bounds;\n The mirror of the heart is boundless in its rounds.\n\n Here, reason stands aghast, O erring child of sense;\n The heart\u2019s with God,--the heart is God,--boundless, immense! 65\n From all eternity, the figures of all things,\n Unnumbered, multitudinous, gleam in heart\u2019s wings.\n To all eternity each new-created form\n In heart of saint reflected is, most multiform.\n His polished heart is cleansed from being\u2019s soiling stain;\n And at each moment contemplates fresh beauty\u2019s train.\n The outward gilt, the shell, of science they despise;\n The banner of real certitude floats where they rise.\n They\u2019ve thought abandoned; light and life they\u2019ve truly found;\n Their breasts and hearts are filled with love\u2019s inspiring sound. 70\n\n Death, that dread thing of which all mankind stand in fear,\n Is laughed and mocked at by the saints, when it draws near.\n No man has power to dominate their tranquil minds.\n The shell may injured be; the pearl harm never finds.\n The rhetor\u2019s art, the jurist\u2019s skill, they set at naught;\n But poverty, abasement, to themselves they\u2019ve taught.\n The scenes of all eight paradises[375] are consumed\n In that full blaze with which their holy heart\u2019s illumed.\n They\u2019re more exalted than the heavens and what\u2019s beyond;\n Their place is in the court of love divine, all-fond. 75\n\n\n\n\nXV.\n\nZeyd\u2019s Inspiration.\n\n\n The Prophet asked one morn of Zeyd, in tender tone,[376]\n \u201cHow art thou, dear disciple, faithful to the bone?\u201d\n \u201cI\u2019m pious;--a believer,\u201d Zeyd replied; and he\n Inquired again: \u201cWhat proof of faith resides in thee?\u201d\n He said: \u201cWhole days I\u2019ve burnt with parching fever\u2019s thirst;\n By night I\u2019ve watched; with love\u2019s sweet pangs my heart\u2019s nigh burst.\n Thus have I traversed days\u2019 and nights\u2019 enduring space,\n As point of spear through shield makes way in war\u2019s embrace.\n For, in love\u2019s view, the church of faith one body is;\n Ten million years, one instant, are alike, when His. 5\n The past eternity and future join in one;\n Though reason cannot compass how the marvel\u2019s done.\u201d\n\n The Prophet then: \u201cBring forth some souvenir from thence,\n Shall satisfy all men of judgment and of sense.\u201d\n Said Zeyd: \u201cAs men behold the sky above their heads,\n So I survey the heavens, and all their flowery meads.\n Eight paradises,[377] seven deep hells,[378] are in my view,\n As patent as the idol to its silly crew.\n Apart, and one by one, I can discern all men,\n As wheat and barley well are known to miller\u2019s ken. 10\n I see who\u2019s heavenward bound, who takes the other road;\n As men distinguish fish from snake in walks abroad.\u201d\n\n \u2019Tis thus that saints, within the bounds of present life,\n See who\u2019ll be blessed, who cursed, when tried in judgment\u2019s strife;\n Before each soul contracts the sins will cause its shame;\n While yet in mother\u2019s womb,--while yet without a name.\n The wretch is he conceived for wretchedness\u2019 sad thirst.\n Each soul is marked for future bliss or woe, at first.[379]\n The body, as a mother, bears within a soul.\n Death\u2019s but the throes that launch the spirit to its goal. 15\n Departed souls are all agog at each fresh birth,\n To see what class the new-born enters in its mirth.\n The blacks presume \u2019twill prove to be of their dark gang;\n The pale-faced Romans hope they\u2019ll profit by the pang.\n But when the little stranger shows itself at last,\n No room remains for doubt; the question\u2019s judged and cast.\n The new-born black is borne in triumph by its kind;\n The rosy-cheeked fair bantling\u2019s claimed by Roman mind.\n Until its birth the child\u2019s a riddle to all men.\n Who knows an unborn infant\u2019s rare sage in this glen. 20\n Unless, mayhap, he see with light divine\u2019s blest aid;\n For this can penetrate through densest shell e\u2019er made.\n The life-conveying fluid\u2019s colourless and clear;\n But living men their various shades of colour bear.\n The soul sustains complexions in our mortal frames,\n Until our halves material find rest from their games.\n But turn we now away to other subjects, high;\n For fear events should leave us to regret and sigh.\n\n \u201cWhen settling-day \u2018brings forth the colour of each face,\u2019[380]\n Mankind are separated sharply, race from race. 25\n Within the womb nor Turk, nor Hind\u016b, yet is seen;[381]\n So soon as born, all, high and low, know what to ween.\n As in the day of judgment all men all will know,\n So now to me each man and woman forms a show.\n Say: Shall I all declare; or shall I hold my peace?\u201d\n To this the Prophet in reply made motion: \u201cCease.\u201d\n \u201cHa! Prophet of the Lord! I\u2019ll tell that secret, all!\n To men I will declare the deeds of that dread hall!\n Permit me to tear off the veil that hides it now;\n My heart shall light the world as sun in midday glow. 30\n I will eclipse that lamp, by giving out more light.\n I will set plainly forth the thorn and fig-tree right.\n Th\u2019 events of judgment day I\u2019ll lay before all men.\n I\u2019ll separate the gold from spurious coin, as then.\n They of the left hand shall be maimed to public view,[382]\n And all shall then the fruits of misbelief eschew.\n I will expose the seven pits of wrath divine,[383]\n By aid of light from truth\u2019s great luminary\u2019s shine.\n I\u2019ll rend away the rags that veil the wicked\u2019s shame.\n I\u2019ll sound the trump, that all may hear the Prophet\u2019s name. 35\n Hell, heaven, the gulf between, I\u2019ll set before men\u2019s eyes,\n That misbelievers may be warned of error\u2019s dyes.\n The fountain of \u2018Kawthar\u2019 shall throw its highest jet;[384]\n Its rush shall greet their ears, its spray their faces wet.\n They who will flock around it, burning with fierce thirst,\n I\u2019ll make apparent unto all, from last to first.\n Their shoulders jostle \u2019gainst my shoulders in the crowd;\n Their shrieks are sounding in my ears, as thunder loud.\n While heaven\u2019s citizens, rejoicing with delight,\n Hug one another lovingly, to glad my sight. 40\n They visit one another\u2019s thrones, high rapture\u2019s seats;\n They kiss each other fondly; each all others greets.\n My ears grow deaf through listening to those cries of grief,\n And sorrow\u2019s anguish from the lips where sin sat chief.\n These are slight indications; much more could I say;\n I pause; the Prophet\u2019s wearied; cease from speech I may.\u201d\n\n Thus spake the Prophet\u2019s servant, in delirious guise.\n The Prophet shook his collar,--sign of deep surprise.\n Then spake: \u201cRein in thy steed! He risks to run away!\n Reflected Truth declares: \u2018God blushes not.\u2019[385] Heyday! 45\n The mirror\u2019s fallen out from its protecting case!\n A mirror and a balance never truth debase!\n A mirror and a balance never facts conceal,\n Although some one be hurt by what they do reveal!\n The mirror and the balance tests are of my rule;\n Though for a thousand years thou serve it\u2019s strict formule.\n Hide not the truth from thought of deep respect for me.\n Show forth the whole, in full. Deficiency mayn\u2019t be.\n What is\u2019t that tells thee: \u2018Play not, joke not with the truth?\u2019[386]\n The mirror, balance, God,--who smites falsehood with truth! 50\n Sure, God hath raised me up for that one sole intent,\n That through me truth be preached unto its full extent.\n Were this not so, what value\u2019s in me, valued friend?\n Did I become instructor, only good to mend?\n But shut thy mirror tight within its felten sack,\n If Sion\u2019s miracle\u2019s repeated in thy track.\u201d\n\n Said Zeyd: \u201cCan man e\u2019er grasp beneath his feeble arm\n The sun of truth, eternal luminary, warm?\n \u2019Twould burst his grasp asunder; all his wiles were vain,\n Though madness he should add to reason in his brain!\u201d 55\n\n Replied the Prophet: \u201cOn thy eye thy finger place;\n The world is straight deprived of all the sun\u2019s bright face!\n A finger-tip suffices to blot out the moon;\n A symbol, this, of God\u2019s great sin-effacing boon.\n A point can cover up a whole world with its shade;\n The sun can be eclipsed by what\u2019s a mere monade.\n Shut close thy lips. Consider now the mighty sea.\n By God\u2019s command the ocean man\u2019s meek slave must be.[387]\n Ev\u2019n as the fountains Selsab\u012bl and Zenjab\u012bl[388]\n Are given for use of angels, Michael, Isr\u0101f\u012bl.[389] 60\n The rivers four of paradise are at our beck;\n Not by our merit, but by God\u2019s constraining check.\n Where\u2019er we will, they flow, obedient to our call;\n Like magical effect, magician\u2019s docile thrall.\n So also are our eyes, those founts of sentient beams,\n Subservient to our will, whichever way it streams.\n As we direct, they look; see what\u2019s like adder\u2019s sting;\n Or notice facts that to our minds their warnings bring.\n If so we will, they scrutinise objectiveness;\n As we desire, they lend themselves to study dress. 65\n By our direction, universals are their bound;\n If so we wish, they prisoners are in partials\u2019 ground.\n Each of the senses five acts thus but as a spout,\n To bring unto the mind that which it cares about.\n Whichever way the heart directs them forth to stroll,\n They turn, and glean a harvest for its pleasure sole.\n The hands and feet are servants to the heart\u2019s request,\n As Moses\u2019 rod obedient was to his behest.\n At heart\u2019s desire, the feet begin the nimble dance,\n Or seek advantage, or avoid some sore mischance. 70\n The heart commands, the hands to calculations fall;\n Should it prefer, they write a book or treatise small.\n A hand there is, \u2019twould seem, within these hands of ours;\n A hidden hand, that moves the body\u2019s wondrous powers.\n If that incites, this wages battle with the foe;\n Should that induce, this aids a friend to stand tiptoe.\n It pushes; straightway spoon\u2019s plunged into soup;\n It wills; a ponderous club forthwith attacks some group.\n What is it that the heart says to them all by turns?\n Most wonderful accord! Most marvellous alterns! 75\n The ancient seal of Solomon the heart has found!\n With that alone it guides the senses o\u2019er their ground.\n Externally, five senses serve its high command;\n Internally, five faculties obey its hand.\n Ten senses, thus, seven organs, wait upon its wants;\n Besides a host of minor servants, confidants.\n As Solomon thou sittest, O heart! Thou reignest supreme!\n On fairy and on demon, set thy seal, thy scheme.\n In this thy realm be upright; practise thou no fraud;\n No demon, then, shall rob thee of thy seal, thy gaud.[390] 80\n The world shall learn thy name, shall practise all thy rites;\n Time and eternity remain thy perquisites.\n But should a demon carry off thy seal, perchance,\n Thy reign is o\u2019er; thy fortune loses all advance.\n Thenceforward vain regret shall canker in thy breast,\n Until the day thou\u2019rt called to thy account at last.\n Unless thy heart renounce all selfish use of wit,\n By mirror and by balance canst thou be held quit?\u201d\n\n Luqm\u0101n the sage, in presence of his noble lord,[391]\n Among the slaves and servants was a mere byword. 85\n The lord one day commanded; straight some slaves were sent\n To gather fruit from orchard for his throat\u2019s content.\n With them did Luqm\u0101n go, as parasite to feast,\n Brimful of wisdom, black as night, a negro beast.\n Their labour o\u2019er, the slaves lay down to rest awhile;\n The fruit they tasted, tasted still, consumed the pile.\n Returning home, on Luqm\u0101n the whole blame they laid;\n His lord was angered mightily at what they said.\n Luqm\u0101n inquired the cause of this estrangement keen.\n The lord gave vent in loud abuse to his roused spleen. 90\n Said Luqm\u0101n: \u201cLord, I swear by God\u2019s most holy name,\n Dishonest servant ne\u2019er can hope for aught but blame.\n Make proof of us. \u2019Tis easy. Lord thou art of all.\n Command. We\u2019ll drink our fill of water hot as gall.\n Then make us run about within the meadow\u2019s bound.\n On horseback thou, on foot we, \u2019ll all trudge quickly round.\n Thou soon shalt witness sights to show \u2018the milk who spilt.\u2019\n Hearts\u2019 secrets\u2019 Great Revealer will disclose the guilt.\u201d\n\n Their lord so ordered. Scalding water soon was sought.\n Each had to drink his fill, as hot as could be brought. 95\n Then all were made to run as fast as they could tear,\n All up and down the meadow, as their legs could bear.\n Now lo! What happens? Sickness on them, each, soon falls;\n To vomit they\u2019re constrained, with starting of eyeballs.\n The stolen fruit contained within their stomach\u2019s sack,\n The water\u2019s stimulus compelled them to give back.\n When Luqm\u0101n\u2019s turn was come to cast up his accounts,\n Clear water was the only issue from his founts.\n Luqm\u0101n\u2019s philosophy this trial could evolve;\n God\u2019s wisdom far abstruser riddles will resolve. 100\n \u201cThe day when our hearts\u2019 secrets shall be all revealed,\u201d\n Man\u2019s secret foe in ambush shall not lie concealed.\n Hell\u2019s victims, then, shall taste of scalding water\u2019s pang;\n And all veils be torn off from sins they overhang.\n Hell-fire\u2019s decreed to be the lot of misbelief;\n Since fire the ordeal is by which stones come to grief.\n\n How often have we spoken to those hearts of stone,\n In softest accents of advice! They would hear none!\n To foulest ulcer, sharpest remedy\u2019s applied.\n The teeth of dogs alone are fit for ass\u2019s hide. 105\n \u201cFilth to the filthy\u201d is philosophy right sound.\n \u201cBirds of a feather flock together\u201d goes its round.\n What mates soever for thyself thou choose at last,\n Their habits and their qualities acquire thou fast.\n Wouldst glory have? To glory must thou raise pretence.\n Wouldst it reject? Think well; and take thy road from thence.\n Wouldst find a way out of this dismal dungeon vile?\n Submit to God; bow down in worship with a smile.\n Again we\u2019ll turn. Again we\u2019ll hear what Zeyd may say;\n What road he\u2019ll follow, on his steed, in reason\u2019s way. 110\n When reason sets itself t\u2019 expose the faults of men,\n It pulls aside the veils that hide them from our ken.\n God sometimes wills that actions should concealed remain,\n Drives reason\u2019s drum away, forbids its noisy strain.\n\n Loose not thy tongue alone; it bridle; hidden\u2019s best.\n Let each be happy in his own opinion\u2019s zest.\n God wills that they who might despair to win His grace,\n Shall persevere, not slacken, in their worship\u2019s pace\n That they may seek a hopeful one, and him ensue;\u2014\n In his society may follow worship\u2019s clue. 115\n God wishes that His peace should light upon us all;\n That His salvation should embrace good, bad, great, small.\n That princes and that captives all should turn their face,\n In hope and fear, up heavenward, looking for His grace.\n\n That hope and fear are nourished by a curtain\u2019s shade.\n \u2019Tis through uncertainty that hope and fear invade.\n But tear away that veil; where then are hope and fear?\n \u2019Tis veiledness lends interest to landscapes drear.\n Upon a river\u2019s bank a youth, who chanced to spy\n A fisherman at work, guessed: \u201cSolomon, surely![392] 120\n If he it be, why here, in secret and alone?\n If not, whence come those features, fit to grace a throne?\u201d\n So he remained in doubt, \u2019twixt two opinions tossed,\n Till Solomon recovered all the power he\u2019d lost.\n\n The foul usurping demon fled the royal state;\n The king\u2019s avenging sword pursued and sealed his fate.\n The signet-ring of power once more on royal hand,\n The demons and the fairies flocked to his command.\n Mankind came crowding to his court, by levee swelled;\n Among them came the youth who\u2019d that opinion held. 125\n He saw the signet-ring. This sufficed. Doubt was past.\n No room was left for surmise. All was clear at last.\n\n Opinion may be formed of what\u2019s behind a veil.\n Conjecture lends its aid where knowledge \u2019gins to fail.\n Conjecture\u2019s potent when the subject\u2019s hid from view.\n Let it be visible; no surmise can we brew.\n Although the sky of light is not without its rain,\n The earth of darkness, too, produces plants and grain.\n I love that text: \u201cThey who believe what is not seen.\u201d[393]\n Thence have I closed my eyes, the body\u2019s windows keen. 130\n But should I cleave the firmament with my swift glance,\n Could I exclaim: \u201cPerceivest thou a flaw, perchance?\u201d[394]\n To scrutinise what\u2019s hid behind the darkness\u2019 screen,\n Each man his method chooses; guesses what\u2019s between.\n A certain space of time confusion reigns supreme.\n The robbers hang the magistrates by their own scheme,\n Until at length a chief, blessed with a genius rare,\n Springs up to serve his servants; all their troubles share.[395]\n\n To render secret service is a thing beloved.\n To hide a service rendered adds to what\u2019s approved. 135\n What\u2019s he, commends his king with lies before his face,\n And in his absence needs lament his lack of grace?\n\n The warden of a castle on the marches laid,\n Far from his sovereign, distant from much-needed aid,\n Defends his post with valour from beleaguering foe,\n Disdains to be bought over, scorns the tempter\u2019s moe.\n His station\u2019s on a frontier, no eye sees him act;\n To duty true, he honestly fulfils his pact.\n Then in his monarch\u2019s presence honours due he gains,\n Above the brave men fighting in the royal trains. 140\n More merit\u2019s in a little secret service given,\n Than in much more performed when by an eye it\u2019s driven.\n\n Man\u2019s faith and piety on earth are prized of God.\n But after death professed, less value have than clod.\n The absent and the hidden being thus the best,\n The silent mouth and sealed lip surpass the rest.\n Then boast not, brother; whatsoever thou hast done,\n God knows thy merits; will requite them every one.\n The sun requires no other witness but his face.\n Man has a greater. God\u2019s his witness. Vast the grace! 145\n If I proclaim it not, how many are prepared\n To witness to each fact! God, angels, men, full wared.\n \u201cGod will bear witness, angels, and all they who\u2019ve known,\u201d[396]\n That: \u201cLord there is no other, save th\u2019 Eternal One.\u201d[397]\n\n When God himself our witness is, who\u2019ll angels need,\n That they should share, participate, in His sole deed?\n Unless it be that, as the fervent, blazing sun,\n Pours forth such beams no mortal eye can look upon.\n Just like the bat, man cannot bear full light of day;\n So, in despair, he seeks the darkness, shuns noon\u2019s ray. 150\n\n Thus, like us, know, the angels are a loving crew,\n Who bask in beams of heaven\u2019s Sun, beyond our view.\n They say: \u201cOur light we have received from a sun;\n As substitutes we shine upon the weak, outrun.\u201d\n As new-born moon, or five days old, or at the full,\n Each angel has his rank, degree, place, wonderful.\n His glorious wings in pairs, two, three, and even, four;[398]\n So that his beams are doubled, trebled, fourfold, more.\n Just like the grades that mark the various human minds,\n Do differences vast exist in angels\u2019 kinds. 155\n Thus every man\u2019s companion-angel\u2019s like himself,\n Or good, or bad, or high, or low, as china, delf.\n When weak-eyed mortals cannot look upon the sun,\n They have to seek for taper\u2019s aid, ere they may run.\n The Prophet hath declared: \u201cStars, my disciples are;\n They\u2019re lights to them who seek; though devils they may scare.\u201d\n If every man had strength, and faculty of sight,\n To look straight at the sun, trust him alone for light,\n What need were for the stars, or lamps, of feeble ray,\n To help them on their path, in quest of source of day? 160\n\n The moon declares to man, as do the clouds, the shade,\n \u201cI, too, \u2019d been human, but for revelation made.[399]\n Like you, I had been darksome, as within, without.\n But revelation gave me sunlight, shade to rout.\n Compared with the sun, I\u2019m darksome as a cloud;\n Compared with men\u2019s dark bosoms, I may well be proud.\n I shed a feeble light, that men may bear my beams,\n He cannot look upon the sun\u2019s too ardent streams.\n I\u2019ve mixed with honey vinegar; made oxymel;\n A remedy to bring to man\u2019s diseases fell.\u201d 165\n\n Art rid of thy disease, my friend? Then set aside\n The vinegar. Rejoice thy soul with honey\u2019s tide.\n When freed from lusts, the heart of man in full health shines.\n God said: \u201cThe Merciful on heaven\u2019s high throne reclines.\u201d[400]\n God rules the heart direct, free from all means to aid,\n So soon as it is purged from dross that low it laid.\n We\u2019ll now go back to Zeyd, and proffer him advice;\n We\u2019ll warn him not to risk dishonour, paltering\u2019s price.\n\n Thou shalt not Zeyd now find; he\u2019s surely run away,\n He\u2019s clean absconded by the door; had naught to say. 170\n Had\u2019st thou been Zeyd, like him thou\u2019dst lost been in a maze;\n As stars die out when sunlight sets the skies ablaze.\n E\u2019en as no track points out where was galaxy\u2019s place;\n Thou\u2019lt find no signs of Zeyd, no footstep, sign, or trace.\n\n Our senses falter, all our reasoning is lost,\n In splendour of the wisdom of th\u2019 All-Ruling Ghost.\n Men\u2019s senses, and their reasons, must be shut within,\n \u201cIn waves when all before us to appear begin.\u201d[401]\n When night returns, the sky again a court appears,\n The hidden stars shine forth, and mark the rolling years. 175\n The senseless dead unto, will God their wits restore;\n In circles, like attendants, Him they\u2019ll stand before.\n They\u2019ll foot the dance, they\u2019ll spread their hands, they\u2019ll\n shout His praise;\n They\u2019ll sing their song: \u201cThou, Lord, us from the dead didst raise.\u201d\n Their mortal skins and bones they\u2019ll shake off in the earth;\n On angel-wings they\u2019ll ride, and whirlwind-dust call forth.\n Their course they\u2019ll take from nullity to entity,\n In judgment day, ungrateful, grateful laity.\n\n Why turn away thy head, pretend not to have seen?\n Hast thou not, first, in nullity, a truant been? 180\n In nullity, so firm thou settedst down thy foot,\n And ask\u2019dst: \u201cWho shall remove me when I\u2019ve taken root?\u201d\n Dost thou not see the wondrous works of God\u2019s high will?\n How He it is who \u201cleads thee by thy forelock\u201d still?[402]\n He draws thee into states, conditions, turns of weal,\n That never entered in thy mind to seek with zeal.\n\n Nonentity obedient is to His command.\n Of demon, and of Solomon, He rules the hand.\n A demon can contrive \u201cthe trays of fishpond size.\u201d[403]\n He dares not make refusal these to organise. 185\n Contemplate now thyself in agony of fear;\n And know, nonentity, too, quakes His wrath to hear.\n Thou stretchest forth thy hand to seize preferment\u2019s place;\n From fear of thee, some soul itself must quick efface.\n All else but love of God, the Truest and the Best,\n Though sweet to thought, is but a snare to break thy rest.\n What\u2019s all thy effort worth? Thou hast to die at last;\n Put out thy hand and grasp the cup of life right fast.\n\n Men fix their eyes on what is dust and ashes, death;\n Refuse belief in what is life and healthful breath. 190\n Exert thyself. Reduce thy doubts from ten to nine.\n Employ the night. Thou sleepest. Night\u2019s not so supine.\n Employ the night to seek the everlasting day,\n Increase in knowledge. Wisdom \u2019tis shall light thy way.\n Though night be dark, and darkness be of woe the doom,\n Much good is in it. Fount of Life\u2019s in land of gloom.[404]\n\n How can a mortal hope to raise his head from sleep,\n When seeds of slothfulness are all he cares to reap?\n The dead man\u2019s sleep\u2019s the body-snatcher\u2019s open door.\n Householders slumber, robbers rifle every floor. 195\n Thou knowest not who are thy foes around thee placed.\n The imps of hell are enemies to man high graced.\n\n The fire\u2019s the foe of water and of water\u2019s brood;\n As water\u2019s foe to fire, and drowns it in a flood.\n To water, and its cousins all, the fire swears death;\n To fire shall water never quarter give, or breath.\n \u2019Tis water puts the fire out; and the reason\u2019s plain;\n The fire has mission to destroy the water\u2019s strain.\n\n And then, the fire\u2019s the heat of passion\u2019s baneful lusts.\n And lust, the root of frailty, sin, misdeeds, mistrusts. 200\n Material, outer fire, \u2019s by water soon put out;\n The fire of lust may carry man to hell, no doubt.\n No water can avail to quench the flames of lust;\n For lust is hell-born. Torments end not; last they must.\n Religion\u2019s light, alone, can quench lust\u2019s fiercest flame,\u2014\n The light that can put out the Syntheist\u2019s wicked game.[405]\n What can extinguish fire of sin, save light of God?\n My master, see that Abr\u2019am\u2019s light be ne\u2019er downtrod;\n That from the fire of lust, by inner Nimrod fanned,[406]\n Thy body may escape; not be, as firewood, banned. 205\n The lust of man\u2019s desires cannot be driven forth;\n But may resisted be, reduced to what it\u2019s worth.\n So long as thou shalt fuel pile upon that flame,\n Canst thou expect the fire will die away and tame?\n So soon as fuel is withheld, a fire goes out;\n Through piety is lust brought down, and put to rout.\n Shall that sweet face e\u2019er blacken through sin\u2019s dismal smoke,\n That\u2019s brightened by such sheen as virtue must invoke?\n\n A conflagration raged in days of great \u2018Umer,\n Stones were devoured therein, as firewood in the air.[407] 210\n The buildings it consumed, and left whole households waste;\n The nests and nestlings were destroyed;--last trump\u2019s foretaste.\n One half Med\u012bna fell a prey to ruthless flame,\n Whereat th\u2019 aqueous element might well feel shame.\n Whole cisterns were exhausted in the combat wild;\n And vinegar was added. Hope was thus beguiled.\n The fire grew fiercer under stimulus of strife;\n Extension gave it wings, success infused new life.\n\n The people now came flocking to the Caliph\u2019s gate,\n In marvel, that, through water, fire would not abate. 215\n He told them that the fire burnt by divine command;\n That all those flames arose from their too frugal hand:\n \u201cWhat use are water, vinegar? Distribute bread;\n Eschew cold avarice, if by me you\u2019ll be led.\u201d\n They answered: \u201cWide our doors stand open every day,\n We\u2019ve ever lavish been; almsgiving is our play.\u201d\n\n \u2018Umer replied: \u201cIn form and custom, bread you\u2019ve given.\n But not from love of God. You\u2019re hands to dole were driven.\n \u2019Twas pride and ostentation led to your display;\n Not charity, not pity, sense of duty, say. 220\n Your riches are your seed. Cast not such seed to waste.\n Place not a sword in robber\u2019s hand with senseless haste.\n Distinction make \u2019twixt friend and foe to truth divine;\n Seek out God\u2019s saints, and leave them not to starve, to pine.\n You\u2019ve spent your stuff upon your cherished kindred sole,\n And fancied stupidly you\u2019d followed God\u2019s law whole.\u201d 223\n\n\n\n\nXVI.\n\nAli\u2019s Forbearance.\n\n\n From \u2018Al\u012b may we learn sincerity of meeds.\n \u201cGod\u2019s Lion\u201d we may hold free from all gross misdeeds.\n In fight he\u2019d conquered one who\u2019d earned a hero\u2019s crown.\n His sword he\u2019d swiftly raised, his victim to hew down.\n That champion spat in \u2018Al\u012b\u2019s face, to mark disdain;\n The face of one, the Prophet\u2019s pride, all saints\u2019 chieftain.\n He spat upon a face to which the moon bowed low,\n And offered adoration in the temple\u2019s show.\n\n That instant \u2018Al\u012b dropped his sword, high poised in air,\n And left the spitter harmless;--action debonnair. 5\n This raised the foe\u2019s astonishment; called forth his awe.\n That pardon, that forgiveness, grew not from war\u2019s law.\n\n He said to \u2018Al\u012b: \u201cThou thy sword hadst raised to slay.\n Why hast thou dropt it now,--prolonged my forfeit day?\n What hast thou seen, surpassing prowess of my arm,\n That thus thou hast repented,--left me free from harm?\n What may it be has calmed the fury of thy breast,\n Which as the lightning gleamed, and straightway sank to rest?\n What didst thou see, that, by reflection on me cast,\n A spark has leapt to life in my despairing breast? 10\n What was thy vision, far above the world of fact,\n Than life far sweeter, whence my life receives new pact?\n For bravery, \u2018God\u2019s Lion\u2019 art thou justly named.\n For kindness, I now know, thou art too little famed.\n For generosity, thou\u2019rt Moses\u2019 cloud divine,\n From which poured forth the quails and manna, as from mine!\u201d\n\n The clouds rain wheat. Man, then, by labour and by skill,\n Reduces this to food, when finely ground in mill.\n But Moses\u2019 cloud, more generous far, with open hand,\n Sent down in plenty food prepared, by God\u2019s command. 15\n For them who ate at Providence\u2019s table, free,\n God\u2019s mercy was displayed;--a banner all could see.\n For forty years that daily bread--abounding grace--\n Failed not. Fond expectation\u2019s utmost stretch took place.\n But satisfaction followed not. The thankless crew\n Demanded \u201cleeks and onions;\u201d as of old they knew.[408]\n\n Ye who are Ahmed\u2019s people, graced beyond compare,\n Are promised spiritual blessings till last judgment\u2019s blare.\n Whoever says, at heart: \u201cMy trust is in the Lord,\u201d[409]\n God\u2019s promise: \u201cHim I\u2019ll feed,\u201d will find a faithful word.[410] 20\n Without a twist accept this promise, as is meet;\n You\u2019ll find it in your mouth as milk and honey sweet.\n To twist a term, and so deny gift\u2019s incidence,\n Is to invent a cloak to change the word\u2019s true sense.\n To think th\u2019 expression\u2019s wrong sad weakness shows of mind;\n Wisdom divine\u2019s a kernel; human reason, rind.\n Twist then thyself; change not the sense of words divine;\n Conceive thy nose at fault; chide not the sweet woodbine.\n\n O \u2018Al\u012b! Thou who mind and eye entirely art!\n Relate a little of the knowledge in thy heart. 25\n Thy calmness is a sword that cleaves our minds in twain;\n The fountain of thy wisdom makes us whole again.\n Speak out! I know these mysteries are Jehovah\u2019s own;\n To kill without a sword\u2019s a power of God well known.\n He is Creator, without limbs and without tools;\n The Giver of all blessings, copious as sea\u2019s pools.\n How many kinds of wine are savoured by our souls,\n While eye and ear perceive not whence the wave that rolls!\n\n Pray tell us, \u2018Al\u012b,--falcon, soaring in heaven\u2019s heights,\u2014\n What didst thou see that instant, to forego thy rights? 30\n Thy eyes have learnt to catch seraphic visions\u2019 gleam;\n Around thee, all unconscious are, as in a dream.\n Thou seest the moon, all brightly shining in the sky;\n We see but darkness, clouds above us seem to fly.\n Thou seest three moons together, shining bright, outspread;\n While three of us are scarcely sure one\u2019s overhead.\n All three have eyes and ears fixed on thee, in suspense,\n In keenest expectation. I\u2019m stone of offence.\n\n \u201cIs this a spell to witch the eyes? Is it the truth?\n To me thou art a wolf; I\u2019m Joseph to thee, sooth. 35\n Though worlds there may be, eighteen thousand globes, and more;\n Not every eye has power to witness all their store.\n Disclose thy secret, \u2018Al\u012b,--God\u2019s own \u2018Chosen One!\u2019[411]\n How many \u2018judges\u2019 errors\u2019 work God\u2019s will alone!\n Pray tell me what, just now, has been revealed to thee;\n Or I\u2019ll disclose the vision I\u2019ve been made to see.\n If thou the secret keep, I will declare its sense,\n Moon-like, on me thy knowledge shines, with light intense.\n But if the moon\u2019s bright disk break forth from \u2019neath the cloud,\n Poor midnight travellers safely, then, pursue their road. 40\n They then are safe from error, risk no wandering vain;\n Protection of the moonlight shields from terror\u2019s chain.\n The mutely-teaching promptings of the silvery moon,\n If couched in words, would homewards guide us doubly soon.\u201d\n\n Thou art \u201cthe Gate;\u201d the Prophet, \u201cScience\u2019 City\u201d is,[412]\n Thou art the ray that beams from lustrous sun of his.\n Then open, Gate! Unfold thyself to those who seek!\n Let rind of science overgrow their minds, all meek.\n Stand open, Gate! Thou portal of God\u2019s mercy sure!\n Thy court\u2019s the court of Him \u201cwho hath no peer,\u201d secure![413] 45\n True, every breath and atom\u2019s watching to get in.\n But if kept closed, who\u2019d say there is a gate to win?\n Unless the Keeper open wide the portal\u2019s wing,\n No soul would dream an entry were an easy thing.\n E\u2019en when the gate is opened, lo! surprise is felt.\n Hope and desire are scared; each suitor\u2019s heart must melt.\n As one who finds a treasure in a ruined maze,\n Seeks evermore for ruins;--treasures are his craze.\n Unless a man receive a pearl from beggar\u2019s hand,\n He\u2019ll never venture pearls from beggars to demand. 50\n For years, should mere opinion wander up and down,\n It never will outpass the rents of its torn gown.\n Until a fragrance strike thy nostrils from above,\n Thou\u2019lt follow thy own nose, but never meet thy love.\n\n Thus spake that new-converted warrior in surprise;\n Expressing wonder, such as words may symbolise.\n Then added: \u201cO! Command, of Faithful Church thou Prince.[414]\n That as a babe a spirit new I may evince.\u201d\n The planets seven o\u2019er every unborn babe keep watch,\n Each for a stated period, ere its birth\u2019s despatch. 55\n When life\u2019s infused into the nascent atom\u2019s form,\n The sun takes charge, as watcher o\u2019er the feeble worm.\n The babe its life derives from Sol\u2019s all-quickening rays.\n That radiant orb\u2019s the fount of life\u2019s all-wondrous ways.\n The other planets help to modify its limbs;\n Each, when the sun has life infused, then onward climbs.\n What is the channel of connection with the sun,\n Discovered in the womb by f\u0153tus ere\u2019t can run?\n Deep-hidden from our senses, many an occult road\n Leads to the sun in heaven, and needs nor whip, nor goad. 60\n One road, by which gold draws its nutriment from thence;\n Another, whence the ruby\u2019s colour grows intense.\n A road, by which the garnet gathers igneous glow;\n A path, pursued by lightning to the horseshoe low.\n A channel, through which fruits their ripeness draw, select;\n A track, for wit to flow, and senseless form inject.\n\n \u201cDeclare, thou falcon, with thy glistening plumage, bright,\u2014\n Our chief\u2019s companion, on his gauntlet sitting, light;\u2014\n Make known, thou ph\u0153nix-hunting bird of prey,\u2014\n Thou conqueror of foes,--sole,--clear of troops\u2019 array. 65\n A nation in its millions, one sole man art thou.\n Speak! Speak! I cast myself upon thy mercy now!\n Instead of anger, what has moved thee to relent,\u2014\n To proffer to a foe forgiveness transcendent?\u201d\n\n To him made \u2018Al\u012b answer: \u201cFor the truth I fight.\n God\u2019s servant am I. Slave I\u2019m not to fleshly might.\n \u2018God\u2019s lion\u2019 I\u2019ve been named; not \u2018Ravening Wolf of Lust;\u2019\n My actions are the proof my faith is in the Just.\n God is the Archer. I\u2019m His bow;--and arrow, too.\n He is the Smiter. I\u2019m the weapon;--sword, bamboo. 70\n \u2018Thou castedst not, when stones thou castedst in the fight.\u2019[415]\n God is the Warrior mighty. I\u2019m dust in His sight.\n Thought of myself I\u2019ve banished, wholly, from my path.\n Save God, all else as naught I hold;--a mower\u2019s swath.\n I\u2019m but a shadow;--shadow cast by Sun of Truth.\n Door-keeper am I;--veil, I\u2019m not, to hide His sooth.\n I\u2019m a sword. My trenchancy\u2019s union with God.\n In battle, life I give. I slay not whom\u2019s downtrod.\n Blood does not soil the blade I wield in righteous cause;\n Nor gusts of passion raise a craving for applause. 75\n A straw I\u2019m not. A mountain am I;--firm, staid, fast.\n No whirlwind can remove me with its tearing blast.\n \u2019Tis sticks and straws, alone, are driven by the storm.\n Their nature is to move;--to every breath conform.\n The gust of anger, breath of lust, and blast of greed,\u2014\n Each agitates the man not anchored in Truth\u2019s creed.\n Firm mountain am I. God it is that firmness gives.\n Were I a straw, His whirlwind is the force that drives.\n A breath from God alone has power to move my soul.\n My love for God\u2019s the motive o\u2019er me has control. 80\n Their anger rules e\u2019en kings. My anger is my slave.\n My wrath I\u2019ve bridled;--bitted;--leave, it aye must crave.\n My anger\u2019s stifled by reflection\u2019s strong embrace.\n God\u2019s wrath to me\u2019s a message of His pardoning grace.\n My roof\u2019s a ruin, true; but light pours through the rent.\n I\u2019m dust. But from my soil flowers blow, and yield sweet scent.\n\n \u201cJust cause if I perceive, with foes when waging war,\n I make no scruple, but my sword from blood debar.\n For God\u2019s sake do I love. Such is my fame with men.\n My hate\u2019s in Truth\u2019s sole cause. I\u2019m raging lion then. 85\n My generosity springs all from love of God.\n For God\u2019s sake, too, I\u2019m parsimonious as clod.\n I\u2019m avarice, munificence, to one sole end.\n I\u2019m God\u2019s in all things. To myself I ne\u2019er attend.\n That which I do, for God\u2019s sake flows; not from schedule.\n \u2019Tis not a guess, an inference;\u2014\u2019tis sight\u2019s safe rule.\n I\u2019ve no occasion to investigate, to seek.\n God\u2019s prompting\u2019s what I follow, docile, meek.\n\n \u201cIs soaring my vocation? Heaven\u2019s my pinions\u2019 goal.\n Do I revolve? My centre\u2019s fixed in highest shoal. 90\n If load I carry, I well know where this is due.\n I\u2019m but a moon; a Sun before me gives the cue.\n I\u2019ve no desire for converse with material things.\n An ocean flows not from a meadow brook\u2019s scant springs.\n I frame discourse to suit the feeble minds of men.\n This system has no fault; it met our Prophet\u2019s ken.\n\n \u201cI\u2019m free from prejudice; accept a free man\u2019s oath.\n Against one free man, crowds of slaves possess no truth.\n By law, in canon of Isl\u0101m, the word of slaves\n No value has, as evidence;--the chain depraves. 95\n Ten thousand slaves may witness bear in court of law;\n Their testimony weighs not in the scales one straw.\n The slave to passion bondsman is, in sight of God.\n He\u2019s lower than the captive \u2019neath taskmaster\u2019s rod.\n A slave may be enfranchised by his owner\u2019s word;\n Lust\u2019s victim, though freeborn, dies bound with strongest cord.\n The slave to passion cannot loose his heavy chain.\n God\u2019s mercy, special grace, can set him free again.\n He\u2019s fallen into a pit, unfathomed, bottomless.\n His own sin this. Compulsion \u2019tis not, fate, nor cess. 100\n Into a pit he\u2019s cast himself, for which my mind\n Cannot imagine sounding-line, its depth to find.\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s useless to continue further in this strain.\n Not hearts alone, but rocks, may weep at folly\u2019s train.\n If men\u2019s hearts break not, \u2019tis that they are harder still,\n Through carelessness, preoccupation, sloth, ill-will.\n They\u2019ll break and bleed one day, when tears will not avail.\n Be contrite, then, before repentance\u2019 sighs must fail.\n Since slavish testimony\u2019s not accepted there,\n His word alone is valid who from lust is clear. 105\n The Lord\u2019s Commissioned One\u2019s a valid witness. See!\n Because, from all eternity, from slavery\u2019s stain he\u2019s free.\n I, too, am free. Wrath cannot bind my soul with chains.\n God\u2019s attributes, alone, have power to rule my brains.\n\n \u201cCome in, thou. Grace of God hath set thy spirit free.\n A flint thou wert. Rich pearl henceforward shalt thou be.\n Thou\u2019rt plucked from blasphemy\u2019s vast thorny desert sands.\n A flowering shrub henceforth in faith\u2019s rich garden lands.\n Thou art become myself; I, thee; beloved friend!\n Thou\u2019rt Al\u012b. Can I \u2018Al\u012b slay? May heaven forfend! 110\n Thy past transgression rank\u2019s as highest virtue\u2019s deed.\n In twinkling of an eye heaven\u2019s bounds thou mayest outspeed.\n\n \u201cHow blest is the transgression pardoned of the Lord!\n The rose, from thorny stem, He calls forth at a word!\n Remember \u2018Umer\u2019s guilt,--his murderous design[416]\n Against the Prophet! This brought him to faith benign.\n Was\u2019t not to practise magic Pharaoh called his priests?\n The grace of God converted them to saints from beasts.\n Had they not been magicians, he not obstinate,\n They\u2019d ne\u2019er been made assemble, truth excogitate. 115\n How would they e\u2019er have seen the staff, the miracles?\n Your sin proved your conversion, reprehensibles!\n\n \u201cThe Lord can far remove our state of deep despair,\n Our sin can change to righteousness; foulness to fair.\n God can our worst offences purge away, make clean;\n Imputing virtue to us, spite of vice\u2019s mien.\n For this is Satan chased away with igneous bolts;[417]\n His proud inflation bursts in twain, from envy\u2019s jolts.\n He strives to multiply the direful load of sin,\n That, under its dead weight, he man in hell may pin. 120\n And when he finds unrighteousness as service told,\n His torment is redoubled, heartache twenty-fold.\n\n \u201cCome in! A door I\u2019ve opened for thy entrance, wide.\n Thou spattest on me. I reply with favour\u2019s tide.\n On him who injured me I benefits bestow;[418]\n My head I lay before the feet of friends, below;\n Thou mayest conceive what gifts I hold in store for them,\n My faithful servants;--treasures, thrones, and diadem.\n I\u2019m such a man that whoso strives to shed my blood\n Forgiven is, and overwhelmed with favour\u2019s flood. 125\n The Prophet quiet notice whispered to my slave,\n The day would come when he to take my life would crave.\n Me, also, he informed, through revelation\u2019s voice,\n That I should die, smote by a hand of my own choice.\n That servant begged and prayed for instant death\u2019s release,\n So he\u2019d be spared from sin so heinous,--love\u2019s decease.\n But I replied: \u2018Since \u2019tis decreed that by thy hand\n My life be ta\u2019en, why should I seek a countermand?\u2019\n Before me prone he fell, this prayer he warmly made:\n \u2018Hew me in twain! For love of God, let me persuade! 130\n Pray save me from so vile, so villainous, a fate.\n Remorse for ever as its prey will hold my hate.\u2019\n\n \u201cAgain I firmly answered him,--decidedly:\n \u2018No counsel will avail. Pen\u2019s mark must needs apply.\n I bear no grudge against thee in my inmost soul;\n I hold thee not responsible for deed so foul.\n Thou\u2019rt but the instrument, \u2019tis God that strikes the blow!\n How can I chide His instrument,--His arrow\u2019s bow?\u2019\n\n \u201cHe asked: \u2018Why, then, this sentence sternly passed on me?\u2019\n My answer was: \u2018God knows the germ of His decree! 135\n Should He find fault with what results from His resolve,\n From reprehension\u2019s self He can a heaven evolve.\n He hath a right to take exception to His deed.\n He\u2019s Lord of grace. But Lord of wrath, also! Take heed!\n He\u2019s Prince of all within this sphere of new events.\n He\u2019s Arbiter of all;--of kingdoms, as of tents.\n If He see fit to break the weapon of His will,\n The broken tool still hastens His word to fulfil.\n\n \u201cThe mystery of His word: \u2018We abrogate, annul,\u2019[419]\n Remember, straight is followed by: \u2018We better cull.\u2019[420] 140\n Whatever law the Lord hath abrogated yet,\n Is but a weed plucked up;--a rose blooms where \u2019twas set.\n The night He promulgates; day\u2019s work refrains from act.\n Consider! Mind becomes like inorganic fact.\n Again, night disappears; the light of day is spread;\n And nature shows its marvels; reason wakes from dead.\n With darkness comes the sleep that locks our reason fast,\n But spirits know not darkness; life\u2019s stream still goes past.\n Is\u2019t not that mind\u2019s refreshed in darkest hours of night?\n Its silence \u2019tis gives birth to every voice of light.\u201d 145\n\n By contraries are contraries brought forth to view,\n From out of darkness was the light created new.\n The Prophet\u2019s wars have brought about the peace that reigns;\n These tranquil latter days the fruits are of his pains.\n How many heads lay low beneath that hero\u2019s blows,\n That peace might be enjoyed by faith\u2019s true yoke-fellows!\n\n \u2019Tis thus the gardener prunes away the surplus twigs,\n That fruitful boughs may prosper, yield their loads of figs.\n Sagacity roots out all weeds from cultured space.\n The orchard, thence, new vigour finds, and blooms apace. 150\n A wise physician will extract a tooth decayed,\n To give relief from pain to his beloved maid.\n\n How much increase grows out of decrease here below.\n The martyr gains eternal life by death in show.\n Man, fed by bread, cuts down the harvest corn when ripe;\n \u201cPartakes the blessing joyfully,\u201d[421] with drum and pipe.\n When brutes are slaughtered with due sense of wisdom\u2019s law,\n Man\u2019s life is nurtured;--learning, science, vigour draw.\n If man be slaughtered, see what woes from thence arise.\n Compare the two;--their difference you\u2019ll recognise. 155\n\n The vegetable world lives by God\u2019s sun and rain,\n God\u2019s care takes charge of it. His care is not in vain.\n The slaughtered beasts have food and drink as well as those.\n They die, because they\u2019ve throats. Those have no life to lose.\n\n Withhold thy hand in season, man of little sense!\n That so thy food suffice. Thy life\u2019s thy recompense.\n Thou art as fruitless as the barren willow-branch,\n Because thy honour\u2019s sacrificed mere bread to scranch.\n If thy brute nature will not practise abstinence,\n Administer the remedy. Bring it to sense. 160\n If thou wouldst cleanse thy garments--free them from all soil,\u2014\n Despise not thou the bleacher, nor his useful toil.\n If greed of food have fractured abstinence in thee;\n Lay hold on Him who fractures heals. From self get free.\n No sooner shall the fracture be by Him fast bound,\n New union will take place,--the broken part grow sound.\n If thou hadst made the fracture, it would thee invite\n To make it whole again,--the sundered bones unite.\n Thou canst not? Thence we see, the right is His to break\n Who can unite the fractured limb--make strong whatever\u2019s weak. 165\n Who knows to mend hath privilege a cloth to tear.\n Who knows to sell, to buy hath also learnt, \u2019tis clear.\n He may disturb a house, and turn it upside down,\n Who can arrange it better than the whole wide town.\n If God destroy one creature in His boundless might,\n By thousands He creates, and brings again to light.\n\n Had He not set a punishment for each offence,\n Or had not said: \u201c_Lex talionis_ is life\u2019s fence,\u201d[422]\n Who\u2019d had audacity, of his own will,\n To put to death a man who should another kill? 170\n He knows each creature by His power endued with sight.\n And He\u2019s aware a slayer does but work His might.\n If His command be set on mortal\u2019s head to slay,\u2014\n Albeit his own child,--he must the word obey.\n Go! Stand in fear! Blame not, too much, the bad!\n Know, thou art equally a slave with him who\u2019s mad!\n\n The eye of Adam fell upon a demon foul,\n Him viewed with proud disdain, with haughty scowl.\n His self-esteem, his egotistic pride him drove,\n With smile sarcastical, the cursed imp to reprove. 175\n God\u2019s wrath was roused. He him addressed: \u201cHo! Adam! Ho!\n Hast thou no insight into mysteries of woe?\n If I tear fiercely off a hide from heels to head,\n A mountain I can also wrench from its firm stead.\n A hundred Adams of their fig-leaves I can strip;\n A thousand demons into true believers whip.\u201d\n\n In terms contrite and meek was Adam\u2019s answer couched:\n \u201cForgive, Lord God! I stand reproved! My fault\u2019s avouched!\n Henceforth, I vow, I never will repeat such fault.\n Repentance I profess. Do Thou forego assault.\u201d 180\n\n O Answerer of prayer! In mercy guide us right!\n Our knowledge, as our riches, null is in Thy sight!\n Lead not astray a heart enlightened by Thy grace![423]\n Turn from us every evil threatening to take place![424]\n Reprieve our souls from judgment merited, severe!\n Repel us not from out the fold of saints, sincere!\n More bitter is there naught than severance from Thee.\n Without Thy shelter, naught but anguish can we see.\n Our minds\u2019 accomplishments impede our hearts\u2019 advance.\n Our flesh the deadly enemy that wrecks our souls\u2019 best chance. 185\n Our hands, like robbers, seize on all our feet may earn.\n Unless Thou prove our refuge, life\u2019s not worth concern.\n If we perchance escape with life from danger\u2019s snares.\n Our fears and anguish make it prey to carking cares.\n Should not our souls in union be with Thee, O Lord,\n Eternal tears our eyes will blind, and mad discord.\n A way shouldst Thou not open, lost must be our souls.\n Without Thy presence, life is death;--all smiles are scowls.\n Shouldst Thou find fault with service rendered unto Thee,\n Thy chiding\u2019s merited, no doubt; as all may see. 190\n If Thou be discontented with the sun and moon,\n Or if Thou call the cypress \u201chunchback,\u201d \u201cmacaroon,\u201d\n Or if Thou say the skies and spheres are all too low,\n Or find the mines, the seas, a paltry puppet-show,\n All this, compared with Thy perfections, is the truth.\n Thine is the kingdom; Thine the power to mend all ruth.\n Thou art removed from danger, as from nullity.\n To non-existences Thou givest being. Why?\n\n He who makes all things grow, can make them wither, too.\n For He can all repair, as He can ruin woo. 195\n Each autumn, vegetation dwindles by His will;\n Again \u2019tis He calls forth the flowers in dale, on hill.\n His voice is heard: \u201cCome forth, ye withered ones, anew;\n Once more put on your beauty,--charm each mortal\u2019s view.\u201d\n\n Narcissus\u2019 eye was blinded; lo! its twinkle\u2019s seen.\n The reed, that down was mowed, becomes sweet music\u2019s queen.\n We are but creatures. To create we have no power.\n Our weakness we confess. Contentment\u2019s our best dower.\n We\u2019re things of flesh. The flesh to vanity unites.\n Unless Thou call us, we become rebellious sprites. 200\n From Satan we escape, because Thou\u2019st paid a price;\n And bought our souls, to set us free from vice.\n\n Thou art the Guide of all who live upon the earth.\n Without his staff and guide, what is a blind man worth?\n Besides Thee, all that\u2019s goodly, all that shocks our sense,\n Is fatal unto man,--consuming fire intense.\n If any seek the fire, to make thereof a shield,\n A Magian he becomes, of Zoroaster\u2019s yield.\n All else besides the Lord is vain, and of no worth.\n The mercies of our God, a bounteous rain, poured forth. 205\n\n Now turn again to \u2018Al\u012b and his destined foe.\n His great forbearance contemplate; this wretch\u2019s woe.\n He made remark: \u201cMy murderer\u2019s before my eyes,\n All day and night. No anger towards him in me lies.\n Death is to me as sweet as life;--as my own self;\n My death and resurrection, two sides of one shelf.\n A deathless death\u2019s a welcome change to loving heart;\n A lifeless life has been its present counterpart.\u201d\n\n Death to appearance, life is,--in the main;\n Externally a loss;--intrinsically, gain. 210\n Within its mother\u2019s womb a child\u2019s lot is to roam.\n It has to blossom in the world, as ocean\u2019s foam.\n I have a wish, a longing, towards the world of doom;\n But God forbids: \u201cCast not your lives away,\u201d in gloom.[425]\n All prohibition\u2019s but a bar from what is loved;\n No prohibition\u2019s needed from a thing reproved.\n A grain with bitter kernel, still more bitter rind,\n Full prohibition carries in itself, we find.\n\n The fruit of death is savoury, in my esteem.\n Nay more. \u201cThe slain do live\u201d a blessed text must seem.[426] 215\n Then slay me, O my trusty friends, without reproach.\n My death is life eternal. Let it, then, approach.\n In death I\u2019ll find my love. My dearest friends, adieu!\n How long shall I be barred from darling interview?\n Unless our separation be from one we mourn,\n Why should we say: \u201cForsooth, to Him we shall return?\u201d[427]\n \u2019Tis only he returns, who comes back to his home.\n Our true return\u2019s from severance to union\u2019s dome.\n That servant once again appealed and begged: \u201c\u2018Al\u012b!\n Put me to death, that sin so heinous I may flee! 220\n My life\u2019s at thy behest; forthwith pour out my blood!\n So shall my soul escape the burden of crime\u2019s brood.\u201d\n\n Then \u2018Al\u012b answered: \u201cShould each sun-mote take a knife,\n Or sword draw, with design to sacrifice thy life,\n One single hair\u2019s-breadth could they not, yet, take effect,\n Since Providence decrees \u2019tis thou must work that act.\n But sorrow not! Thy intercessor I will be!\n Lord of my soul am I;--not slave to fleshly fee.\n My body frail no value has now in my sight;\n From flesh when liberated shall my soul feel light. 225\n The dagger and the sword may take root in my limbs.\n Death\u2019s but a banquet; wounds, a flower that graceful climbs.\u201d[428]\n\n Now, who can thus despise his body in his heart,\n And yet feel greed for empire, or for pontiffs part?\n He strove, \u2019tis evident, upon the judgment seat,\n To set a good example to all future great;\n To breathe a righteous spirit into monarchs\u2019 breasts;\n Make sure that goodly fruit come from their deeds and gests.\n\n The Prophet\u2019s high endeavour, Mekka to subdue,\n Had no foundation in a lust for revenue. 230\n He had refused the treasures of the lofty spheres;\n On day of trial shut his heart to hopes and fears.\n To catch a glimpse of him the blest angelic train\n Had crowded heaven\u2019s bounds full as they could contain;\n In dainty guise, to honour him themselves arrayed;\n He took no note. On God alone his thoughts were stayed.\n His heart was filled with sense of his great Maker\u2019s grace.\n The angels, or the prophets, there could find no place.\n He said: \u201cI\u2019m he whose eyes swerved not;\u201d no crow, I! See![429]\n \u201cThe Limner is my love; from juice of vine I\u2019m free.\u201d[430] 235\n The treasures of \u201cthe spheres,\u201d their \u201canimating souls,\u201d\n As rubbish were accounted, driven by breeze that rolls.\n What, then, would Mekka weigh,--the Persian, Syrian lands,\u2014\n That he should covet them, spoil make them for his bands?\n Suspicion such as this springs from a jaundiced mind.\n It judges by itself;--all, tinged as self must find.\n\n Green spectacles who sets upon his foolish nose,\n To view the sun, will find him green, we must suppose.\n Take off the spectacles, the source of colour\u2019s tinge,\n He straightway sees aright. Now, nature\u2019s hues impinge. 240\n A horseman had stirred up the dust in clouds, not faint.\n A distant looker-on supposed the dust a saint.\n Thus Satan saw a dust; and cried: \u201cThis son of earth\n Excites in me much envy, hatred, malice, wrath.\u201d\n\n If thou, too, so observe God\u2019s saints with envy\u2019s eyes,\n Be sure thy vision\u2019s tainted. Satan\u2019s hatching lies.\n Thou obstinate! Art not one of that hell-hound\u2019s sons?\n Then, whence this heritage of hate\u2019s foul orisons?\n \u201cI am no hound, God\u2019s Lion am I. God I love.\n I\u2019m \u2018Lion of the Truth.\u2019 Mere form I aye reprove.\u201d 245\n A lion of the world may hunt for prey and spoil.\n A lion of eternity, death\u2019s freedom from turmoil.\n In death he sees a hundred thousand modes of life.\n So, mothlike, death he courts; his candle, murderer\u2019s knife.\n To court grim death\u2019s a collar round the true man\u2019s neck.\n This was the text proposed, that wrought recusant\u2019s wreck.\n God\u2019s word revealed hath said: \u201cO men of human race!\n Death to the faithful is a blessing, and a grace.\u201d[431]\n A love of gain is innate in the human breast.\n To court death\u2019s doubtless profit, is to wish the best. 250\n Then, O ye stiff-necked people, do, for honour\u2019s sake,\n The wish for speedy death upon your tongues\u2019 ends take.\n\n No recusant was found who dared to lisp that prayer,\n When thus Muhammed put it as the truth\u2019s assayer.\n He knew that should they venture that ordeal to prove,\n In all the world no recusant would thenceforth move.\n They all preferred to pay their tribute for their lives,\n And begged: \u201cO lamp of truth, destroy us not, our wives!\u201d[432]\n\n How many more examples could be pointed out!\n But, if thou seest the truth, give me thy hand. Quit doubt. 255\n Forsake thy dunghill. Enter our abode of bliss.\n From darkness thee to guide, a light shines o\u2019er th\u2019 abyss.\n Shake off all hesitation. Enter heaven\u2019s gate.\n Avoid the pit that\u2019s bottomless! Be not too late!\n\n The Prince of all Believers thus addressed that chief,\n In tones serenest: \u201cKnow, that in our contest brief,\n When thou didst spit upon me, giving scorn its vent,\n My choler was aroused;--to wreck my patience went.\n Half warmed with zeal for God, half stirred with anger\u2019s fire,\n Unholy partnership was formed \u2019twixt truth and ire. 260\n Thou wast designed and fashioned by a hand divine.\n To God dost thou belong;--no creature art of mine.\n Defacement of God\u2019s work should be by God\u2019s decree;\n To break God\u2019s pitcher, man a stone of God should see.\u201d\n\n The Magian heard. The light flashed on his heart and soul.\n The clouds of misbelief, as fog, away did roll.\n He spake: \u201cThe seed of wrongfulness is what I\u2019ve sown.\n Thou\u2019rt altogether different from what I\u2019ve known.\n Thou art a balance, with an equitable soul;\n Or rather, index art thou, of just balance-bowl. 265\n Thou art become my kith and kin,--my brother true;\n Thou art a ray to light the path I shall pursue.\n The slave I have become of that fair Source of light,\n From whence thou hast derived the beam that charms my sight.\n The slave of every billow of that glorious Sea,\n That casts such pearls ashore, as I admire in thee.\n Teach me to formulate the motto of thy creed;\n For, henceforth thou\u2019rt my guide, of whom I stand in need.\u201d\n\n Full fifty of his household,--of his stock and race,\n With zealous love the noble law of Isl\u0101m did embrace. 270\n Thus \u2019twas, the hero, by decisive wisdom\u2019s stroke,\n Averted death from many, slavery\u2019s fetters broke.\n The sword of wisdom\u2019s sharper than the finest steel;\n Its words more efficacious than an army\u2019s wheel.\n\n\n\n\nXVII.\n\nConclusion.\n\n\n Alas! By one poor morsel, tasted through a sin,\n The fount of thought\u2019s congealed; heart\u2019s blood diluted thin.\n One grain of wheat has cast eclipse o\u2019er sun of mind,\n As \u201cdragon\u2019s tail\u201d doth dull the full moon, when inclined.[433]\n Behold! How delicate is thought! One mite of clay,\n From full-moon glory, it reduced to disarray.\n The bread of life, received, digested, gives man power.\n Material bread excites distrusts, contentions, sour.\n\n The thorn, while green, cropped by the camel, far from fords,\n Not only pleasure gives, but nutriment affords. 5\n That selfsame thorn, grown dry and void of juicy sap,\n If ventured on by starving beast in desert gap,\n His palate and his lips will puncture, blood make flow;\n As if conserve of roses should with daggers glow.\n\n The word of life\u2019s the green, the tender, juicy thorn.\n Material become, it\u2019s dry, as hard as horn.\n And thou, poor flesh, expectant of the living word,\n Bitest at the word material, dreaming not of sword;\u2014\n Snappest at the hard, unyielding _dictum_, with fond zest;\n And findest it horny, flinty, irksome to digest. 10\n It has become a stone. It wounds; it draws forth blood.\n Then shun it, human camel. Seek it not for food.\n\n Words are most foully mixed with troubling thoughts of earth.\n The water\u2019s muddy. Close the spring whence it comes forth.\n Until the Lord, again, shall make it clear and sweet;\u2014\n Shall purify the inky stream, as He deems meet,\u2014\n Shall patience add to wish,--not haste and oversight,\u2014\n Wait thou contentedly. God best knows what is right. 14\n\n\n THE END.\n\n\n PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.\n EDINBURGH AND LONDON.\n\n\n\n\n FOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] For the incidents and dates mentioned in this preface, see the\nvarious chapters of the Anecdotes.\n\n[2] He must have been born in about A.D. 1204 or 1205, to have been\nfive years old when the family left Balkh. In 1226 he would, therefore,\nbe twenty-one or twenty-two years of age. But see Anecdotes, Chap, i.,\nNo. 2, &c.\n\n[3] The \u201c_\u2018Ulem\u0101 of Isl\u0101m_\u201d are _the Learned_ Doctors of Law and\nDivinity; their chief is the Lord Chancellor. They are ignorantly\nspoken of as \u201c_priests_\u201d and \u201c_clergy_\u201d by Europeans. There are no\n\u201c_priests_\u201d in Isl\u0101m. The \u2018Ulem\u0101 may be likened to the Jewish Rabbis.\nThey often have followed, and do follow, all kinds of trades.\n\n[4] There is an allusion in the word \u2018Arif\u012bn (Adepts) to the name of\nEfl\u0101k\u012b\u2019s patron, the Chelebi Em\u012br \u2018Arif (well-knowing).\n\n[5] Eastern Persia.\n\n[6] The ancient _Bactra_, sometimes called _Zariaspa_, the capital of\nBactria.\n\n[7] Incorrectly written Mecca by Europeans.\n\n[8] Of Term\u012bz (Tirmez), on the north bank of the Oxus, near to Balkh.\n\n[9] The two letters Y\u0101 and S\u012bn heading the thirty-sixth chapter of the\nQur\u2019\u0101n are said to stand for the words, Y\u0101 ins\u0101n, _O man!_ as Muhammed\nis there addressed.\n\n[10] The truly eminent author of the Mesnev\u012b.\n\n[11] From the city of Sarakhs in Khur\u0101s\u0101n.\n\n[12] Had Dr. Tanner, the forty days\u2019 faster at New York, heard of these\nperformances?\n\n[13] As related of certain Sabbath-breaking Jews, in Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 61.\n\n[14] Qur\u2019\u0101n xviii. 8, &c.\n\n[15] The mount where the victims are slaughtered by the pilgrims.\n\n[16] The great Persian poet Kh\u0101q\u0101n\u012b, born at Shirw\u0101n, died and was\nburied at Tebr\u012bz A.H. 582 (A.D. 1186).\n\n[17] San\u0101\u2019\u012b, of Gazna in Afg\u0101nist\u0101n, surnamed \u201cthe Wise,\u201d or \u201cthe\nPhilosopher,\u201d died and was buried at the place of his birth, A.H. 576\n(A.D. 1180).\n\n[18] \u201c_Satan, the Lapidated One_,\u201d is the chief title of the accursed\none. Muslims believe that the \u201cshooting stars\u201d are missiles cast by\nangels at demons who attempt to approach heaven for eavesdropping\npurposes.\n\n[19] I have not met with an explanation of this word in any Persian\ndictionary. Literally it signifies _sugar-hanging_. In the Bah\u0101ri-\u2018Ajem\nalone is it mentioned, with a distich from H\u0101fiz; but it is left\nunexplained.\n\n[20] Apparently a \u201c_merman_\u201d is intended.\n\n[21] This is a much more poetical account of the origin of the\nreed-flute than the pagan Greek myths of Orpheus and his lyre, Pan and\nhis pipe, for which no reasons are assigned.\n\n[22] Mans\u016br, son of \u2018Amm\u0101r, thus mentioned by D\u2019Herbelot: \u201cScheikh des\nplus consid\u00e9r\u00e9s parmi les Musulmans. On le cite au sujet d\u2019un passage\ndu chapitre Enfathar de l\u2019Alcoran (lxxxii.), o\u00f9 Dieu est introduit\nfaisant ce reproche aux hommes: _Qu\u2019est-ce qui vous rend si orgueilleux\ncontre votre ma\u00eetre qui vous fait tant de biens?_ (v. 6). Ce Scheikh\ndisait: Quand Dieu me fera ce reproche, je lui repondrai: _Le sont\nces biens et ces graces m\u00eames que vous me faites, qui me rendent si\nsuperbe._\u201d As Sheykh \u2018Att\u0101r lived about A.H. 600, Mans\u016br must have died\nabout A.H. 400 (A.D. 1020). He is mentioned in No. 51, p. 68, of the\n_Nafah\u0101tu-\u2019l-Uns_.\n\n[23] Khayru \u2019n n\u0101si, men yenfa\u2019u \u2019n n\u0101sa.\u2014_Arabic Proverb._\n\n[24] Khayru \u2019l kel\u0101mi, qas\u012bruhu \u2019l muf\u012bdu.\u2014_Arabic Proverb._\n\n[25] _Thevr_ is the name of a tribe of Arabians, and of two hills, one\nat Mekka, the other at Med\u012bna; but the explanation of the term \u201c_a\nThevr_ or _Sevr veil_\u201d I have not met with.\n\n[26] Saladin of European writings. The words mean: _the Fitness of the\nReligion_ (of Isl\u0101m).\n\n[27] The Muslim world knows but one _Qaysar_ (C\u00e6sar), the Emperor of\nRome (Old or New), which title is now borne by the Emperor of Austria.\n\n[28] I have not met with any notice of Akh\u012b-Turk.\n\n[29] _The Honoured Elder_; by which Ab\u016b-Bekr is probably intended; but\nsee a note to the Preface of the Mesnev\u012b.\n\n[30] Juneyd and B\u0101yez\u012bd of Best\u0101m were two great doctors of mysticism;\nthe latter died in A.H. 234 or 261 (A.D. 848 or 874), and the former in\nA.H. 297-8 (A.D. 909-10).\n\n[31] These are two of the four orthodox schools of Isl\u0101m; they differ\nin certain details. There are reputed to be seventy-two schismatic or\nheretical sects.\n\n[32] This anecdote directly contradicts the foolish idea, so common in\nEurope, that, in the religious system of Isl\u0101m, women are held to have\nno souls, and no hope of paradise.\n\n[33] The Beauty of the Truth and of the Religion (of Isl\u0101m).\n\n[34] Europeanised Armenians have made this into _Zohrab_, as their own\nfamily name.\n\n[35] A genealogy is given in the Turkish preface to my copy of\nthe Mesnev\u012b, which traces the descent of Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn Muhammed\nfrom Ab\u016b-Bekr in ten degrees, as follows:\u2014\u201cJel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, son of\nBah\u0101\u2019u-\u2019d-D\u012bn, son of Huseyn, son of Ahmed, son of Mevd\u016bd, son of\nS\u0101bit (Th\u0101bit), son of Museyyeb, son of Mutahhar, son of Hamm\u0101d, son\nof \u2018Abdu-\u2019r-Rahm\u0101n, son of \u2018Ab\u016b-Bekr.\u201d Now, Abdu-\u2019r-Rahm\u0101n, the eldest\nof all the sons of Ab\u016b-Bekr, died and was buried at Mekka in A.H. 53\n(A.D. 672), and Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn was born at Balkh in A.H. 604 (A.D.\n1207). Between these two there are nine degrees of descent given, for a\nperiod of 535 years, or 66 years for each life after the birth of the\nnext link. This alone suffices to show that the genealogy is not to be\ndepended on. Supposing the names given to be true, many other links\nmust be missing; as many, probably, as those given.\n\n[36] Hab\u012bb the Persian, a wealthy man, converted to Isl\u0101m by one word\nfrom Hasan of Basra, whose devoted disciple he became. He died A.H. 106\n(A.D. 724).\n\n[37] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxiv. 35.\n\n[38] Qur\u2019\u0101n lxxvi. 18.\n\n[39] Qur\u2019\u0101n xix. 74.\n\n[40] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxv. 26.\n\n[41] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 24.\n\n[42] Qur\u2019\u0101n lxxx. 15.\n\n[43] Qur\u2019\u0101n lvi. 78.\n\n[44] Qur\u2019\u0101n lvi. 79.\n\n[45] Qur\u2019\u0101n xli. 42.\n\n[46] Qur\u2019\u0101n xii. 64.\n\n[47] Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 150.\n\n[48] Balkh, to the south of the west part of the Upper Oxus, is\nin latitude 36\u00b0, 48\u2032 N., longitude 67\u00b0, 4\u2032 E. from Greenwich. It\nrepresents the ancient _Bactra_, otherwise called _Zariaspa_.\n\n[49] Hus\u0101mu-\u2019l-Haqqi-wa-\u2019d-D\u012bn, his full title of honour. (See\nAnecdotes, chap. vi.)\n\n[50] B\u0101yez\u012bd or Ab\u016b-Yaz\u012bd, of Best\u0101m, in Khur\u0101s\u0101n, Persia, latitude\n36\u00b0, 25\u00b4 N., longitude 55\u00b0, 0\u00b4 E., a celebrated teacher and saint among\nthe mystics of Isl\u0101m, died A.H. 261, A.D. 874 (though A.H. 234, A.D.\n848, has also been mentioned by some). His name was Tayf\u016br, son of\n\u2018Is\u00e0, son of \u0100dam, son of Sur\u016bsh\u0101n, a Zoroastrian who embraced Isl\u0101m.\n\n[51] Juneyd, surname of Ab\u016b-\u2019l-Q\u0101sim Sa\u2019\u012bd son of \u2018Ubayd, entitled\nSultan of the S\u016bf\u012b Community, a saint who died at Bagdad in A.H. 287\n(A.D. 900).\n\n[52] Urmiyya, on the lake of that name, south-west from Tebr\u012bz, the\ncapital city of Azerb\u0101yj\u0101n, the north-west province of Persia.\n\n[53] The expression of: \u201c_The venerated Sheykh_,\u201d might, perhaps, at\nfirst, be thought to indicate the Caliph Ab\u016b-Bekr, the Sheykh _par\nexcellence_, as he and his successor \u2018Umer (Omar) were designated \u201c_the\ntwo Sheykhs_,\u201d from each being a father-in-law to Muhammed, whereas\nthe third and fourth caliphs, \u2018Uthm\u0101n (Osm\u0101n) and \u2018Al\u012b, were his\nsons-in-law. If this supposition were correct, Jel\u0101l and Hus\u0101m would\nhave been descended from the same remote ancestor. The commentators,\nhowever, I am informed, name a certain \u201cSeyyid Ab\u016b-\u2019l-Wef\u0101, the Kurd,\u201d\nas being intended. Particulars as to his individuality and history have\nnot, unfortunately, reached me.\n\n[54] I have not met with an explanation of this expression, which is\nagain introduced in Tale xiv., distich 40.\n\n[55] The _reed-flute_ is the sacred musical instrument of the Mevlev\u012b\ndervishes, commonly known as the _Dancing Dervishes_, from their\npeculiar religious waltz to the sound of the reed-flute, &c., with\noutstretched arms and inclined head, in their special public services\nof commemoration. They love the reed-flute as the symbol of a sighing\nabsent lover.\n\n[56] There is a poetical Eastern notion that pearls are formed in the\noysters by dewdrops or raindrops falling into them at a certain season.\n\n[57] Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 139, where the words are: \u201c_And Moses fell down,\nswooning._\u201d\n\n[58] In Isl\u0101m a free person cannot legally be bought and sold.\n\n[59] By way of hyperbole, a clever physician is always compared to\nJesus, in his miraculous healing powers, by Muslims.\n\n[60] Qur\u2019\u0101n xviii. 23, teaches: \u201cSay not, \u2018I will do so and so,\u2019 unless\n(thou add): \u2018God willing.\u2019\u201d\n\n[61] Divine service in Isl\u0101m is entirely worship and praise. It is\nerroneous to talk of Muslims saying their prayers. Praise, laud, and\nglory is what they are bound to offer. Prayer is voluntary; and is\nprohibited, unless in some duly authorised form as a _collect_.\n\n[62] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 58.\n\n[63] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 114.\n\n[64] The word \u201cs\u016bf\u012b,\u201d used in the original, is probably the Greek\n\u03c3\u03bf\u03c6\u03cc\u03b9, but is explained as meaning, literally, \u201c_clad in woollen_,\u201d\nfrom \u201cs\u016bf,\u201d _wool_. Metaphorically, in common use, it means: _a pious\nman_.\n\n[65] The holy Sheykh Shemsu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, of Tebr\u012bz, is meant; who was a\nfriend of the author for many years, visiting Qonya at intervals, where\nhe was put to death (in A.D. 1262?). See the \u201cAnecdotes,\u201d Chap. iv.;\nespecially No. 17.\n\n[66] It was generally believed in bygone days that gems and metals grew\nand ripened in their mines.\n\n[67] The story is in Qur\u2019\u0101n xviii. 73. The angel was disguised as a\nservant to Moses. The passage says: \u201cAnd they two proceeded until they\nmet a boy; and he slew him.\u201d\n\n[68] With Muslims, Ishma\u00ebl was to have been sacrificed; not Isaac. The\nQur\u2019\u0101n xxxvii. 98-111, relates the story, but gives no name to the\n\u201cboy.\u201d Commentators supply it, by tradition.\n\n[69] A continuation of the story from Qur\u2019\u0101n xviii. 70. Some\ncommentators make Elias the servant of Moses on the occasion. There is\na tale in one of the essayists of last century,--the \u201cSpectator,\u201d if\nI rightly remember,--that gives these two adventures and others; the\nangel at last explaining to his companion the secret causes of all his\nactions.\n\n[70] In its true sense, the word \u201cmiscreant\u201d signifies _one who holds\nan erroneous belief_. We corruptly say now: _an infidel_.\n\n[71] \u201cHypocrites,\u201d in Isl\u0101m, form a faction. They profess the faith\nopenly, but inwardly they hate or despise it.\n\n[72] The Muslims \u201cworship\u201d God in their appointed devotions. If they\n\u201cpray\u201d also, subsequently, this is a voluntary act.\n\n[73] \u201cWorship, fasting, alms, and pilgrimage\u201d are the four acts by\nwhich a Muslim outwardly attests his faith. \u201cWorship,\u201d five times\ndaily; \u201cfasting,\u201d one month yearly; \u201cpilgrimage,\u201d at Mekka, once, as a\nduty, in a lifetime; \u201calms,\u201d whenever property of a certain amount is\npossessed.\n\n[74] \u201cMervites and R\u0101zites,\u201d citizens of Merv and Rey (Rhages), two\ngreat Persian cities in former days, now in ruins. Merv is at present\na Turkman camping-ground, aimed at by Russia as a halting place on the\nroad to Her\u0101t and India. Rey, the Rhages of the book of Tobit, not far\nfrom Tihr\u0101n, the Sh\u0101h\u2019s present capital of Persia. The two parties were\nlike Ireland\u2019s Orangemen and Ribbonmen of our time.\n\n[75] Heaven and Hell; the \u201csheep\u201d and the \u201cgoats.\u201d\n\n[76] The original has \u201cthe Darling;\u201d the highest title given to\nMuhammed by Muslims is _God\u2019s Darling_; which is not found in the\nQur\u2019\u0101n.\n\n[77] The original has \u201cits dear one;\u201d God is _the dear one_ of mystics.\n\n[78] A _woollen lion_ is a toy made and sold or exhibited by mendicants.\n\n[79] Musaylama was a prince of Naja, who gave himself out as a prophet,\nand wrote to Muhammed, proposing that they should divide Arabia between\nthem. His epistle began: \u201cMusaylama, the Apostle of God, to Muhammed,\nthe Apostle of God.\u201d Muhammed\u2019s answer commenced with: \u201cMuhammed, the\nApostle of God, to Musaylama the liar.\u201d He was eventually defeated and\nslain in battle, in the eleventh year of the Hijra after Muhammed\u2019s\ndecease; when all Arabia submitted to Isl\u0101m. He was killed by Wahshi,\nthe Ethiopian slave who, in the battle of \u2018Uhud, had formerly driven\nthe selfsame javelin through the body of Hamza, Muhammed\u2019s uncle.\nWahshi lived long after these events, in Syria. He used to say that,\nas a pagan, he had slain one of the best of men, and, as a Muslim,\none of the worst. When Mekka was taken, he was proscribed; but he got\naway safely. Not long afterwards, he made his submission, and Muhammed\nforgave him, as he did others in analogous circumstances.\n\n[80] Who are intended by this Jewish squint-eyed king, and his\nself-sacrificing, treacherous Vaz\u012br?\n\n[81] It is a common belief in the East that squint-eyed people see\ndouble.\n\n[82] Needles, or pins, are hidden in bread that is given to a dog or\nother beast in order to destroy it.\n\n[83] The rope worn by monks, like the Brahmin\u2019s sacred thread, is\nsupposed by Muslims to be worn by all Christians.\n\n[84] Muhammed.\n\n[85] In time of immediate danger during war the \u201cService of Fear\u201d is\nenjoined instead of the usual form of worship.\n\n[86] In visions.\n\n[87] The original word, _conversant_, like our \u201cAdept\u201d and\n\u201c_Illuminato_,\u201d is applied by the mystics to themselves. It is a trace\nof the old Gnosticism.\n\n[88] Being given in Persian, I cannot quote chapter and verse for the\noriginal Arabic.\n\n[89] Like lunatics, they are supposed to be heedless of all things\naround them.\n\n[90] _Sleep is Death\u2019s brother_ is an ancient Arabian proverb.\n\n[91] The Seven Sleepers; mentioned in Qur\u2019\u0101n xviii. 8-25.\n\n[92] Muhammed\u2019s \u201cCave-Mate\u201d was Ab\u016b-Bekr, who was his sole companion on\nquitting Mekka at the Emigration or \u201cFlight.\u201d They concealed themselves\nin a cave; and Muhammed remarked: \u201cGod is the third in our little\nparty.\u201d Hence the title of \u201cCave-Mate,\u201d applied to Ab\u016b-Bekr.\n\n[93] A species of nightmare in the form of a lascivious dream.\n\n[94] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxv. 47.\n\n[95] Qur\u2019\u0101n vi. 76.\n\n[96] See \u201cAnecdotes,\u201d Chap. iv.\n\n[97] See his name as an honorific title in a note to the author\u2019s\npreface; and in the \u201cAnecdotes,\u201d Chap. vi.\n\n[98] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 119.\n\n[99] \u201c_The Lion of God_,\u201d so called from his courage and strength.\nSh\u012br-Ali, Hayder-Ali, are among the forms of the title.\n\n[100] One of the sayings attributed to him and become proverbial.\n\n[101] In Persian, empty promises and boastings are also called \u201cwind.\u201d\nHence, the poet suggests ablution to cleanse from such;--mental\nablution.\n\n[102] \u201c_Syntheism_\u201d is the correct rendering of the \u201c_shirk_\u201d of Isl\u0101m.\n\u201c_Polytheism_\u201d is very incorrect. Dualists (Magians) and Trinitarians\n(Christians) are _Syntheists_, but they are not polytheists in a\ncorrect sense.\n\n[103] An allusion to the idea that a pearl is a raindrop caught and\nnourished by an oyster.\n\n[104] \u201cThe Illiterate Prophet,\u201d or, rather, \u201cthe Gentile Prophet,\u201d\nreputed barbarous and illiterate by the Jews and Christians, is one of\nMuhammed\u2019s highest titles.\n\n[105] The original here uses the simile of a certain \u201c_cunning bird_,\u201d\nknown also as the \u201c_Truth-calling bird_,\u201d that hangs by a claw and\ncalls all night: _haqq! haqq!_ (Truth! Truth!).\n\n[106] Such is an eastern myth. Poets call the planet Venus the\n\u201c_Harpist of the Spheres_.\u201d\n\n[107] In Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 32, God commands the angels to fall down in\nadoration to Adam, when first created. Ibl\u012bs, Satan, alone refused,\nthrough pride and envy.\n\n[108] In Qur\u2019\u0101n iv. 124, Abraham is called the _Chosen Friend_ of God;\nand in xxi. 69, the story is mentioned of his being saved from the fire\ninto which he was cast by Nimrod.\n\n[109] _The Fountain of Life_, or _Water of Life_, is imagined to take\nits rise in a land of darkness beyond the limits of the inhabited earth.\n\n[110] In the original I have not found it possible to feel sure\nwhere the break should be made from the remonstrance to the poet\u2019s\nreflections. Much of what precedes seems addressed to God; but Eastern\nhyperbole is wide.\n\n[111] Qur\u2019\u0101n viii. 17. Muhammed cast sand at the foe in two battles,\nBadr and Hunayn.\n\n[112] This account of the Vaz\u012br\u2019s various forged books is an allusion\nto the various Gospels and Epistles, canonical and spurious, that\nsprang up in the early Christian Church.\n\n[113] The Roman conquest of Greece, Asia Minor, and Syria completely\neffaced from the Eastern mind all recollection of previous actors on\nthose scenes. Even \u201cAlexander the Great\u201d is to them \u201c_Alexander the\nRoman_,\u201d like our Jel\u0101lu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, \u201c_Er-R\u016bm\u012b_.\u201c\n\n[114] An allusion to the contests of the bishops of Rome,\nConstantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, &c., &c.\n\n[115] The mystics of Isl\u0101m call God and the spirit _the sense_, of\nwhich material existences are the outward expression; as we say: \u201d_The\nletter and the spirit_.\u201c The constant play of the original on these\nwords is lost in the version.\n\n[116] An allusion to Qur\u2019\u0101n xviii. 12; not a verbal quotation.\n\n[117] A grammatical variant of Qur\u2019\u0101n xxi. 107. Muhammed is meant.\n\n[118] An allusion to Qur\u2019\u0101n xlix. 3; not a quotation.\n\n[119] In Qur\u2019\u0101n lxi. 6, is the assertion that Jesus, in the Gospel,\nforetold the advent of Muhammed by the name of Ahmed. This is generally\nexplained as a translation of \u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u03b9\u03ba\u03bb\u03b9\u03c4\u03cc\u03c2, misread for \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03ac\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2\nin John xiv. 26. The two words have very much the same meaning:\n_much-praised_, _most laudable_, _laudatissimus_. Muhammed is mentioned\nby many names, forty, fifty, sixty; some say a thousand.\n\n[120] Muhammed gained the name of Trusty, El-Em\u012bn (Al-Am\u012bn), long\nbefore he declared himself commissioned to call his countrymen to\nacknowledge the unity of God, the resurrection, judgment, and future\nlife.\n\n[121] Qur\u2019\u0101n, chap. lxxxv., the name of which literally means \u201d_the\nTowers_,\u201d but is also applied to the _Signs of the Zodiac_. These\nChristians were the people of Nejr\u0101n in south-western Arabia; their\npersecutor Dh\u016b-Nuw\u0101s, a Jew, king of Yaman, some time before Muhammed.\n\n[122] \u201cGardens beneath which rivers flow\u201d is a frequently recurring\nexpression in the Qur\u2019\u0101n. Some have special names.\n\n[123] See Qur\u2019\u0101n xxxv. 29: \u201cThen we caused\u201d thee \u201cto inherit the\nScripture.\u201c\n\n[124] In Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 132, Isl\u0101m is termed \u201d_God\u2019s Baptism_.\u201cIn ii. 156,\nand again in vii. 42, and xi. 21, \u201cGod\u2019s curse\u201d is invoked on sinners.\n\n[125] This is the story alluded to in Qur\u2019\u0101n lxxxv., quoted above. In\ntraditions, Dh\u016b-Nuw\u0101s was the name of the Jewish king of Yaman, who\nburnt the Christians of Nejr\u0101n in a fiery trench on their refusing to\nforsake their faith. The idol is imaginary; from Nebuchadnezzar.\n\n[126] Qur\u2019\u0101n xvi. 41; xxxvii. 72; xl. 76; speaks of the \u201cGates of\nHell;\u201d and a commentary to the last says they are held to be seven.\n\n[127] Ab\u016b-Jahl was a surname given by Muhammed to one of his most\ninveterate enemies of the Quraysh, killed at Badr. The word means:\n\u201c_Father of Ignorance_,\u201d and here indicates _fleshly pride_. He had\nformerly borne the surname of Ab\u016b-\u2019l-Hakem, which means: _Father of the\nArbitrator_.\n\n[128] In Qur\u2019\u0101n xxi. 69, is related the miracle by which Abraham was\nsaved from the fire into which he was cast by Nimrod for his refusal to\nworship an image.\n\n[129] The word \u201c_Muslim_,\u201d whence the corruption _Moslem_, means, in\nArabic, \u201c_one who acquiesces in the truth and will of God_.\u201d As such,\nMuslims have existed under every dispensation.\n\n[130] The creaking, leaky water-wheel, the Persian wheel, is well known\nin the East.\n\n[131] \u201c_Eye-binding_\u201d is a name for sorcery. The spectator is supposed\nto have his sight _spell-bound_, so as not to see what is really done.\n\n[132] \u2018\u0100d, a pre-Semitic, perhaps Turanian, people in south-eastern\nArabia, often mentioned in the Qur\u2019\u0101n. They refused to believe the\nprophet H\u016bd (supposed to be _Heber_), and were destroyed, lxix. 6-7, by\nan eight days\u2019 tempest.\n\n[133] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxiii. 76, &c.\n\n[134] Qur\u2019\u0101n iii. 43.\n\n[135] Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 139.\n\n[136] Kal\u012bla and Dimna is the Arabic version of P\u012blp\u0101y\u2019s fables.\n\n[137] This proverb is given in Freytag\u2019s \u201c_Proverbia Arabica_,\u201d ii. p.\n488, n. 278, as an answer from Muhammed to a foe twice made prisoner.\n\n[138] Equivalent to tethering a horse. Cromwell\u2019s: \u201cKeep your powder\ndry.\u201c\n\n[139] The original says: \u201d_The earner is God\u2019s friend._\u201c\n\n[140] The original has: \u201d_Flees the snake, and meets a dragon._\u201c\n\n[141] The words as given in the original, in Arabic, are not in the\nQur\u2019\u0101n.\n\n[142] A cock that crows out of season, in the night.\n\n[143] Qur\u2019\u0101n xiv. 47.\n\n[144] \u2018Azr\u0101\u2019\u012bl, the angel of death, who takes men\u2019s souls.\n\n[145] Solomon is related in the Qur\u2019\u0101n xxi. 81, and xxxiv. 11, to have\npossessed power over the wind.\n\n[146] In Qur\u2019\u0101n iii. 47, and viii. 30, God is styled \u201d_the best of\nstratagem-makers_.\u201c\n\n[147] I do not find this proverb in Freytag\u2019s \u201d_Proverbia_.\u201c\n\n[148] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 15.\n\n[149] See Qur\u2019\u0101n xlviii. 29; lix. 8; and lxxiii. 20.\n\n[150] In Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 29, the account of this is given. Compare Gen. ii.\n19.\n\n[151] Was Satan this very old hermit? His successful temptation\nwas the muzzle. The original says \u201d_calf_,\u201c where I have said\n\u201d_babe_;\u201c--meaning Adam, when first created. Instructed by God, he\nnamed all things, which the angels were unable to do, and so were\nsilenced.\n\n[152] The story of the dog of the Sleepers is told in Qur\u2019\u0101n xviii.\n17-21.\n\n[153] The Persian name for the hare is \u201d_ass-ear_;\u201chence the pun.\n\n[154] The \u201chidden tablet\u201d of God\u2019s decrees; mentioned in Qur\u2019\u0101n lxxxv.\n22.\n\n[155] At the \u201cextreme lote-tree\u201d in the highest heaven, on the night of\nthe ascension. Gabriel could go no further. Muhammed went on, to God\u2019s\npresence.\n\n[156] The word that signifies \u201ccompulsion\u201d also means \u201creduction\u201d in a\nsurgical sense, and \u201calgebra\u201d mathematically.\n\n[157] \u201cBur\u0101q\u201d is the name of the angelic steed on which Muhammed\nmounted to heaven in his night journey. Not found in the Qur\u2019\u0101n.\n\n[158] \u201cThe moon clave\u201d in twain as a sign of the near approach of the\nday of judgment. Qur\u2019\u0101n liv. 1.\n\n[159] Muhammed\u2019s name is put on most Muslim coins.\n\n[160] Muhammed is held to be the supplement of all the prophets.\n\n[161] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 151.\n\n[162] Not in Freytag\u2019s \u201c_Proverbia_.\u201c\n\n[163] See note in the Author\u2019s Preface, and Chapter vi. in the\nAnecdotes.\n\n[164] The commentators on Qur\u2019\u0101n xxi. 69, mention Nimrod\u2019s gnat.\n\n[165] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxviii. 5, mentions Haman with Pharaoh.\n\n[166] He is said to have believed Satan rather than Abraham.\n\n[167] The translator has ventured to coin the expressions\n\u201d_synglottism_,\u201c \u201d_synglottist_,\u201c and \u201d_syncardism_\u201c as specimens of a\nwhole class used in Persian.\n\n[168] A title designating Adam,--who named all things.\n\n[169] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 29.\n\n[170] Omar.\n\n[171] A very doubtful clause; it may be rendered: \u201d_Thou art with me._\u201c\n\n[172] Adam, in most languages, has come to signify _man_.\n\n[173] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 33, mentions merely a \u201d_caulescent plant_;\u201c\u201cwheat\u201d is\none of several glosses by commentators, like our \u201capple.\u201d\n\n[174] Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 22, makes Adam confess sin with contrition, together\nwith Eve, thereby meriting God\u2019s eventual pardon.\n\n[175] Qur\u2019\u0101n cx. 1.\n\n[176] Evidently the name of a rival.\n\n[177] These are sainted spiritualists, true and pious dervishes.\n\n[178] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 22, and lxvi. 6, say \u201cmankind and rocks.\u201c\n\n[179] Another word coined to meet the requirements of the original.\n\u201d_Ubiquity_\u201c is the converse of \u201d_nubiquity_.\u201d _Nulliquity_ might be\nused.\n\n[180] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 111, and seven other places.\n\n[181] \u201cC\u00e6sar\u201d is the Roman Emperor, the Qaysari-R\u016bm. Other Qaysar there\nis not.\n\n[182] To write this name _Omar_ is incorrect.\n\n[183] Medina is the usual incorrect spelling of this name.\n\n[184] The Arabian title is Khal\u012bfa; of which Caliph is a corruption.\n\n[185] \u201c_Commander of the Believers_\u201d is his usual title. \u201cRome\u201d is the\nLower Empire.\n\n[186] Muhammed\u2019s heart is believed to have been cleansed by an angel.\n\n[187] \u201cGod\u2019s countenance\u201d means also, in Arabic, _God\u2019s cause_.\n\n[188] God is this \u201csun;\u201d the \u201cmotes\u201d are all created objects.\n\n[189] The \u201cFriend\u201d is God, the Gnostic\u2019s \u201c_darling_.\u201d\n\n[190] \u201cRome\u201d in Asia means the Lower Empire and Asia Minor; or, for the\nlast few centuries, the Ottoman Empire.\n\n[191] \u201cShadow of God on earth\u201d is an Eastern title of royalty.\n\n[192] These two propositions give the pith of the doctrine held\nand inculcated by the mystics and spiritualists of Isl\u0101m: \u201c_He\u2019s\nbridegroom; God is bride._\u201c\n\n[193] This First Book of the Mesnev\u012b was written before the B\u016bst\u0101n of\nSa\u2019d\u012b. The myth of the dewdrop and pearl is much more ancient.\n\n[194] The date of the poem will be recollected; who disbelieved alchemy\nthen?\n\n[195] Here is a beautiful and true application of the idea of\n\u201d_transubstantiation_.\u201c\n\n[196] The original mentions Ferh\u0101d, a kind of Persian D\u00e6dalus, by his\ntitle of \u201d_Mountain-Excavator_.\u201c(See Tale vii. dist. 365.)\n\n[197] Qur\u2019\u0101n liv. 1.\n\n[198] Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 15, and xv. 39. At the fall, Satan accused God of\ntempting him; whereas Adam confessed his sin, and did not accuse Satan.\n\n[199] Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 22.\n\n[200] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxiv. 26.\n\n[201] \u2019B\u016b is often used as a contraction for Ab\u016b. Ab\u016b-Jahl (_Father\nof Ignorance_) was a nickname (see Tale iv. dist. 48, note) given by\nMuhammed to \u2018Amr, son of Hish\u0101m, a chief of the Quraysh, his bitter\nenemy, formerly entitled Ab\u016b-\u2019l-Hakem (_Father of the Arbitrator_). He\nwas killed, a pagan, in the battle of Badr, in the second year of the\nHijra, A.D. 624.\n\n[202] The word rendered by \u201cexplanation\u201d here, means also\n_information_, and _use_, _advantage_, _profit_, _benefit_, &c.\n\n[203] Literally, \u201cyour morning cup,\u201d drunk at dawn ere leaving a house.\n\n[204] Asiatics drink \u201cto the love\u201d of a friend; not \u201cto his health.\u201d\n\n[205] The parrot is known by the title \u201cSugar-eating.\u201d\n\n[206] A shade of an explanation to this very hazardous saying of the\nS\u016bf\u012b Gnostics is found in Qur\u2019\u0101n xvi. 108: \u201cWhoever denieth God after\nhe hath believed, except him who shall be compelled against his will,\nand whose heart continueth steadfast in the faith, shall be severely\nchastised.\u201d\n\n[207] The dervish orders call their peculiar cap a \u201cmitre\u201d or \u201ccrown\u201d\n(_t\u0101j_).\n\n[208] The \u201cfour rivers\u201d of Paradise, of water, milk, wine, and honey.\nQur\u2019\u0101n xlvii. 16.\n\n[209] Qur\u2019\u0101n iii. 31; and numerous other places.\n\n[210] This section purports to have been suggested by the following\ncouplet from \u2018Att\u0101r:\u2014\n\n \u201cO heedless child of lust, weep thou tears of blood.\n If a saint eat poison, honey-like \u2019tis food.\u201d\n\nThe original expression for \u201csaint,\u201d here, is: \u201ca man of heart.\u201d\n\n[211] Canonical \u201cresponsibility\u201d falls on all of sane mind and adult\nage.\n\n[212] See note to dist. No. 33 of the present poem.\n\n[213] Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 112, &c.\n\n[214] By a \u201c_perfect man_\u201d a saint is intended; as by \u201cimperfect,\u201d here\nand before, an ordinary mortal is depicted.\n\n[215] Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 203; xlvi. 28. By \u201cear\u201d and \u201ctongue\u201d a learner and a\nteacher are symbolised.\n\n[216] A hazardous assertion. See Anecdotes, Chap, iii., Nos. 2, 5, 7,\n&c.\n\n[217] A proverbial expression, like: \u201cAll\u2019s well that ends well.\u201c\n\n[218] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 100.\n\n[219] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxiii. 112.\n\n[220] Also Qur\u2019\u0101n xxiii. 112.\n\n[221] The \u201d_pupil_\u201c of the eye; in Persian called \u201d_the manikin_;\u201c in\nArabic, \u201d_the man_.\u201cThese both allude to the small image of ourselves\nseen reflected in the pupil.\n\n[222] This rhapsody is mystical, like the Song of Solomon. A \u201ctongue\u201d\nis a teacher, informant; a prophet; and, apparently, even God himself.\n\n[223] Qur\u2019\u0101n xc. 1-4.\n\n[224] \u201cOther,\u201d as opposed to self; also opposed to \u201cwe two\u201d in the case\nof lovers; it is a term much used in Eastern poetry and philosophy.\n\n[225] The poet\u2019s \u201c_beloved_\u201d appears, here, to be God.\n\n[226] Allusion appears to be made to Qur\u2019\u0101n xxi. 107.\n\n[227] This section is stated to be a gloss upon the following apostolic\ntradition: \u201cVerily, Sa\u2019d is really jealous; but I am more jealous than\nhe, and God than I. Out of His jealousy hath He made all excesses\nsinful; whether of outer or of the inner man.\u201d This Sa\u2019d, son of\n\u2018Ub\u0101da, was a disciple of Muhammed, and the most munificent man in\nMad\u012bna. He embraced the faith before the Hijra. See An-Naw\u0101w\u012b, p. 274,\nl. 5.\n\n[228] The \u201ctwo worlds,\u201d spiritual and material, future and present.\n\n[229] The poet\u2019s \u201clove,\u201d is still God. This section purports to be an\nexcursus on the following distich of the poet San\u0101\u2019\u012b, who died A.H. 576\n(A.D. 1180):\u2014\n\n \u201cWhy leavest thou thy guild, its rules or faith or sin?\n Why quittest thou thy mistress, be she plump or thin?\u201d\n\n\n[230] Reflections on God\u2019s unity, and the plurality of created being.\n\n[231] Qur\u2019\u0101n xix. 41, &c.\n\n[232] Anecdotes, Chap. vi.\n\n[233] \u201cLife\u201d and \u201ccoral,\u201d in Persian \u201cj\u0101n\u201d and \u201cmerj\u0101n.\u201d\n\n[234] Men from moral, dawn from material light.\n\n[235] Qur\u2019\u0101n lv. 29.\n\n[236] This section purports to be a dissertation on the dictum: \u201cWhat\nGod wills, is.\u201d\n\n[237] Man\u2019s \u201crecord\u201d is the register of his thoughts, words, and deeds,\nkept by angels, to be produced in the last judgment.\n\n[238] The same word in Persian, _b\u016b_, signifies \u201codour\u201d and \u201chope.\u201d The\nthing hoped for becomes a distant, odoriferous flower.\n\n[239] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 23, and forty places in all.\n\n[240] Jacob is said to have wept himself blind on losing Joseph; the\nsmell of his son\u2019s coat, when refound, later, restored him.\n\n[241] Ferh\u0101d was Sh\u012br\u012bn\u2019s lover. (See Tale 6, distich 107, note.)\n\n[242] Majn\u016bn, in story, went mad for love of Layl\u00e0.\n\n[243] The \u201cSage of Gazna\u201d is the poet San\u0101\u2019\u012b, already mentioned in the\nnotes to the present tale, distich 230.\n\n[244] Joseph is held to have been most superlatively beautiful.\n\n[245] Isr\u0101f\u012bl is the angel who will blow the last trump, twice. At the\nfirst, all living will die; at the second, all the dead will rise to be\njudged. His voice is the most musical among all those of the angels.\n\n[246] Our word \u201cfairy\u201d is connected with the Persian \u201c_per\u012b_,\u201d used\nhere by the poet instead of the Arabic \u201c_jinn_,\u201d whence our \u201cgenie.\u201d\n\n[247] Qur\u2019\u0101n lv. 33.\n\n[248] That is, it would appear: _Individuals created out of nothing_.\n\n[249] That is: _The Lord is with him who strives on the Lord\u2019s side_.\n\n[250] A dried gourd, a calabash, is commonly used as a wine-decanter.\n\n[251] An apostolic tradition.\n\n[252] Also an apostolic tradition.\n\n[253] Another apostolic tradition.\n\n[254] The traditionary saying of Muhammed, of which this section is an\namplification, is the following:\u2014\u201cVerily your Lord hath, in your time,\nsundry breathings; lo, then, turn ye towards them.\u201d\n\n[255] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxxiii. 72. When all things had declined responsibility,\nAdam voluntarily accepted it; was tempted; and fell. Had they not\nshrunk, man would not have been the sinner or the saint that he is.\n\n[256] Luqm\u0101n\u2019s story may be read in D\u2019Herbelot, _voce_ \u201cLocman.\u201d\n\n[257] Arabian poets sing of women; often imaginary. In Persia, this is\nconsidered very immodest. In Persian poetry, a boy, imaginary also,\nis always assumed to be the beloved object. Muhammed so addressed his\nyouthful wife, \u2018\u0100\u2019isha. Humayr\u0101 means Rosina,\u2014_little rosy-cheeks_. See\nalso No. 9, distich 184.\n\n[258] A horseshoe, as a charm, with an absent one\u2019s name on it, placed\nin the fire, is supposed to exercise a magical influence over him, and\nmake him come there in all speed, even though his feet bleed from his\nhaste.\n\n[259] That \u201cSoul\u201d is God, the \u201c_animus mundi_.\u201d\n\n[260] Through humility.\n\n[261] The \u201ccall\u201d of God is the call to divine service, the _\u2018Adh\u0101n_\n(_ez\u0101n_).\n\n[262] Bil\u0101l, a negro, was the first caller to divine service. He was an\nearly convert, a slave, then \u2018Ab\u016b-Bekr\u2019s freedman; then Mu\u2019edhdhin.\n\n[263] Mustaf\u00e0, _Chosen_, _Elect_, is one of Muhammed\u2019s titles.\n\n[264] The night of his marriage with Safiyya, after the capture of\nKhaybar, in the seventh year of the Hijra, as he was returning to\nMed\u012bna. That night has a special name, based on this circumstance: _the\nnight of the early morning halt_ (laylatu \u2019t-ta\u2019r\u012bs).\n\n[265] An explanation of this wild expression were much to be desired.\nDoubtless there is one.\n\n[266] There are seven different Persian games of backgammon. The\nsecond of the seven, the one mentioned by the poet, is called \u201cPlus\u201d\n(_Ziy\u0101d_). At each throw of the dice, one is added, arbitrarily, to\neach number shown on the two, ace becoming deuce, &c. The poet likens\nthe body to this supposititious number, the soul alone being real.\n\n[267] In performing her devotions, a Muslimess has to veil herself,\neven at home, as though she were abroad in public.\n\n[268] These four lines are quoted from San\u0101\u2019\u012b, for comment.\n\n[269] This section and the next two form a comment on San\u0101\u2019\u012b.\n\n[270] Qur\u2019\u0101n l. 14. The \u201cnew creation\u201d is the resurrection.\n\n[271] The tradition, in prose, is as follows, quoted by the poet: \u201cTake\nye advantage of the coolness of spring; it invigorates your bodies, as\nit acts on plants. Avoid ye also the cold of autumn; it acts on your\nframes as it acts on vegetation.\u201d\n\n[272] Prisoners and fugitive slaves have iron rings or a kind of wooden\npillory fastened round their necks to prevent flight or insubordination.\n\n[273] Venus, the musician, who inhabits the planet. See Tale iii.,\ndist. 223.\n\n[274] Muhammed.\n\n[275] The original name of Med\u012bna,\u2014_Jatrippa_.\n\n[276] Qur\u2019\u0101n xlvii. 17.\n\n[277] Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 171.\n\n[278] Tradition relates that at first, Muhammed used to pronounce his\nsermon seated on the floor in the midst of his congregation, with his\nback against a certain wooden pillar. The congregation increasing, he\nwas obliged to adopt the use of a raised platform, a kind of pulpit, so\nas to be seen and heard of all. The deserted pillar is the one spoken\nof.\n\n[279] This is a traditionary legend.\n\n[280] The circumambulation of the \u201cHouse of God\u201d at Mekka, is one of\nthe ceremonies of a pilgrimage, &c.\n\n[281] Qur\u2019\u0101n i. 5.\n\n[282] H\u0101tim T\u0101y\u012b is the proverbial prince of Arabian generosity. Many\nanecdotes are current respecting him. His full name was H\u0101tim, son of\n\u2018Abdu-\u2019ll\u0101h, son of Sa\u2019d, of the tribe of Tayyi\u2019. For instances of\nhis generosity, as handed down by tradition from a time shortly prior\nto the promulgation of Isl\u0101m, see Mr. Clouston\u2019s \u201c_Arabian Poetry for\nEnglish Readers_,\u201d p. 406; London, 1881; Tr\u00fcbner & Co., Ludgate Hill.\nBut H\u0101tim lived and died before the Caliphs ruled. He, too, was a poet.\n\n[283] Qur\u2019\u0101n xx. 97, makes the wandering Jew, S\u0101mir\u012b, who produced the\ngolden calf, to shun every one, saying, \u201cTouch me not!\u201d\n\n[284] Vicar of God is one of the Caliph\u2019s titles. This \u201cpretender\u201d must\nhave been some particular adversary of the poet\u2019s. The satire is bitter.\n\n[285] B\u0101yez\u012bd of Best\u0101m, in Persia, an early Gnostic saint; died A.D.\n874 (A.H. 261).\n\n[286] Yez\u012bd, second Caliph of Damascus, persecutor of Husayn, son of\nthe fourth Caliph \u2018Ali.\n\n[287] The original naturally mentions the \u201cqibla\u201d of Isl\u0101m; not the\n\u201ceast,\u201d as used in Christian churches.\n\n[288] \u201cMy poverty\u2019s my pride\u201d is a saying traditionally attributed to\nMuhammed.\n\n[289] Qur\u2019\u0101n iii. 12, mentions several things \u201cmade goodly to man.\u201c\n\n[290] Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 189, relates the creation of a helpmate for Adam.\n\n[291] Muhammed.\n\n[292] For Humayr\u0101, see a note in No. 8, dist. 69.\n\n[293] Yet Europe still pretends to believe that Isl\u0101m has denied the\npossession of a soul by woman!\n\n[294] Qur\u2019\u0101n lxxix. 24. So Pharaoh is there said to have styled himself.\n\n[295] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 3, &c.\n\n[296] Not Easterns only have a superstition about treasures hid in\nruins.\n\n[297] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxii. 11.\n\n[298] Man has a triple nature, vegetative, bestial, and human.\n\n[299] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxxix. 54.\n\n[300] Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 142, &c.\n\n[301] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxxiv. 42.\n\n[302] Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 75; xi. 65-70; xxvi. 142-158. S\u0101lih was sent to the\ntribe of Tham\u016bd, troglodytes who dwelt in the valleys about half-way\nbetween Med\u012bna and the Gulf of Akaba.\n\n[303] Qur\u2019\u0101n xci. 13.\n\n[304] Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 76, 89; xi. 70, 97; xxix. 36.\n\n[305] Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 91.\n\n[306] Qur\u2019\u0101n lv. 20.\n\n[307] Qur\u2019\u0101n vi. 2, 60.\n\n[308] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxxviii. 34.\n\n[309] Not textually from the Qur\u2019\u0101n.\n\n[310] Not textually from the Qur\u2019\u0101n.\n\n[311] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxiv. 30.\n\n[312] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 23, &c.\n\n[313] Rich Muslims everywhere break their fast in Ramaz\u0101n with water\nfrom the well of Zemzem, in Mekka, if possible.\n\n[314] A pearl is believed to be a special dewdrop, caught by a special\noyster, and thence brought to perfection by a special providence. (See\nSa\u2019d\u012b\u2019s ode at the end of translator\u2019s preface.)\n\n[315] Qur\u2019\u0101n xciii. 1.\n\n[316] Qur\u2019\u0101n xciii. 10.\n\n[317] Qur\u2019\u0101n cxii. 3.\n\n[318] The world.\n\n[319] The belief is that Jesus was not crucified, but was caught up to\nthe fourth heaven, that of the sun, where he will live until he comes\nagain in glory.\n\n[320] The belief is that Adam plucked an ear of corn, the forbidden\nfruit, in paradise.\n\n[321] Abb\u0101s, Muhammed\u2019s uncle, ancestor of the Abb\u0101s\u012b Caliphs.\n\n[322] Qur\u2019\u0101n li. 9.\n\n[323] Von Hammer, in his History of the Ottoman Empire, so entirely\nmisunderstood this beautiful Arabian proverb, \u201c_Es sabru mift\u0101hu \u2019l\nfaraj_,\u201d as to read \u201c_farj_\u201d (pudendum), for \u201c_faraj_\u201d (success);\nand cloaked his blunder by the remark: \u201cToo pungent for literal\ntranslation.\u201d\n\n[324] Qur\u2019\u0101n iii. 153.\n\n[325] \u2018Ali\u2019s title is \u201cThe victorious Lion of God.\u201d\n\n[326] This journey is recounted in Qur\u2019\u0101n xviii. 64-81.\n\n[327] Qur\u2019\u0101n xviii. 69.\n\n[328] Qur\u2019\u0101n xviii. 70.\n\n[329] Qur\u2019\u0101n xviii. 73.\n\n[330] Qur\u2019\u0101n xlviii. 10.\n\n[331] Qur\u2019\u0101n xviii. 16.\n\n[332] Qur\u2019\u0101n iii. 153.\n\n[333] Qur\u2019\u0101n xlviii. 6.\n\n[334] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxviii. 88.\n\n[335] Qur\u2019\u0101n lv. 29.\n\n[336] Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 132.\n\n[337] See Tale iv., dist. 121.\n\n[338] Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 132. See note, p. 224.\n\n[339] In Semitic and Muslim lore the moon is \u201che,\u201d the sun \u201cshe.\u201c\n\n[340] Qur\u2019\u0101n xlviii. 29.\n\n[341] Qur\u2019\u0101n vi. 94.\n\n[342] Qur\u2019\u0101n li. 17.\n\n[343] Qur\u2019\u0101n li. 18.\n\n[344] Qur\u2019\u0101n iv. 99.\n\n[345] Qur\u2019\u0101n xviii. 8-21.\n\n[346] Qur\u2019\u0101n lxix. 19.\n\n[347] Qur\u2019\u0101n lxix. 25.\n\n[348] The Persian equivalent of our \u201d_carrying coals to Newcastle_.\u201d\n\n[349] A metallic mirror, formerly much used.\n\n[350] Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 11.\n\n[351] I have failed to discover the name and history of the individual\nhere used to point a moral by our great poet. Ibnu-Hish\u0101m and Nawaw\u012b do\nnot mention him.\u2014_Translator._\n\n[352] Osm\u0101n.\n\n[353] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxxvi. 7.\n\n[354] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxxvi. 8.\n\n[355] Qur\u2019\u0101n xcix. 1.\n\n[356] In allusion to the Brahminical marks used in India.\n\n[357] The heterodox sects of Isl\u0101m are commonly said to be seventy-two.\n\n[358] \u201c_The Veiler_,\u201d _i.e._, of sin, is one of \u201cthe most comely names\u201d\nof God, but is not found in the Qur\u2019\u0101n. \u201c_Y\u0101 Satt\u0101r!_\u201d\n\n[359] Some of the commentators hold that Qur\u2019\u0101n vii. 174, alludes to\nthe opposition of Balaam to Moses and the Israelites.\n\n[360] See Tale iv. dist. 121; and xi. 112.\n\n[361] See Tale ix. 266.\n\n[362] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 96.\n\n[363] See Tale iv. dist. 121.\n\n[364] Qur\u2019\u0101n i. 5.\n\n[365] \u2019Ikrima, son of Ab\u016b-Jahl, embraced Isl\u0101m at sea, as he fled from\nMekka at its capture by Muhammed. He returned and was pardoned.\n\n[366] Qur\u2019\u0101n xi. 44, 45.\n\n[367] This is a canon of Isl\u0101m. If a worshipper has no means of knowing\nthe direction of \u201cGod\u2019s House\u201d at Mekka, he may face in any direction\nhe judges most probable, and so perform his worship.\n\n[368] The Prophet.\n\n[369] Qur\u2019\u0101n vi. 32; xxix. 64; xxx. 6; xlvii. 38; lvii. 19.\n\n[370] Qur\u2019\u0101n lxx. 4.\n\n[371] Qur\u2019\u0101n x. 37.\n\n[372] Qur\u2019\u0101n lxii. 5.\n\n[373] See, in the author\u2019s own preface, his eulogistic mention of\nSheykh Hus\u0101mu-\u2019d-D\u012bn, p. iii., where this saying is also given.\n\n[374] By \u201cRoman,\u201d in the East, is meant what Europeans incorrectly name\n\u201cGreek.\u201d Since Alexander of Macedon\u2019s time, no \u201cGreeks\u201d have existed.\nTheir very memory is lost in Asia, and Alexander himself is styled\nthere \u201c_the Roman_.\u201d\n\n[375] Commonly, in Isl\u0101m, eight paradises, or, properly, eight mansions\nof Paradise, are reported, mentioned, and believed. Baydh\u0101v\u012b, in\nQur\u2019\u0101n ii. 23, gives only seven, and one of those is wrong. Guided\nby him, however, I have corrected this, and verified the others,\nbesides finding the eighth. Their names, then, are as follows:--1.\n_Jennatu-\u2019l-Khuld_, the Paradise (garden) of Eternal Duration;\n2. _Jennatu \u2018Aden_, the Garden of Eden; 3. _Jennatu-\u2019l-Firdaws_,\nthe Garden of Paradise; 4. _Jennatu-\u2019l-Me\u2019v\u00e0_, the Garden of the\nAbode; 5. _Jennatu-\u2019n-Na\u2019\u012bm_, the Paradise of the Pleasantness; 6.\n_D\u0101ru-\u2019s-Sel\u0101m_, the Home of Security; 7. _D\u0101ru-\u2019l-Maq\u0101ma_, the\nHouse of Sojourn; 8. _\u2019Illiy\u016bn_, the Sublime Heights. Baydh\u0101v\u012b has\n_D\u0101ru-\u2019l-Khuld_ for _Jennatu-\u2019l-Khuld_; but that is one of the names of\nHell, as occurring in Qur\u2019\u0101n xli. 28. There is also a _D\u0101ru-l-Qar\u0101r_,\nHome of Permanence, mentioned in Qur\u2019\u0101n xl. 42; but it applies to Hell\nand Heaven, as does the _D\u0101ru-\u2019l-Baq\u0101_, Home of Duration, commonly\nused, but not found in the Qur\u2019\u0101n.\n\n[376] Zeyd, son of H\u0101ritha and father of Us\u0101ma, the freedman and\nadopted son of Muhammed, one of his most devoted disciples.\n\n[377] For the eight paradises, see Tale xiv. dist. 74, p. 253.\n\n[378] The seven hells are:--1. Jahannam; 2. Latz\u0101; 3. Hutama; 4. Sa\u2019\u012br;\n5. Jah\u012bm; 6. H\u0101wiya; 7. Saqar. All these names for Hell occur in the\nQur\u2019\u0101n.\n\n[379] This is predestination indeed. But does not our \u201cvessels of\nwrath\u201d come to about the same thing, at least in some opinions?\n\n[380] Qur\u2019\u0101n iii. 102.\n\n[381] \u201cTurk and Hind\u016b\u201d is synonymous with \u201c_fair and dark_.\u201d\n\n[382] \u201cThey of the left hand,\u201d Qur\u2019\u0101n lix. 8; xc. 18.\n\n[383] \u201cThe seven pits of hell\u201d are named respectively: Jahannam, Latz\u0101,\nHutama, Sa\u2019\u012br, Jah\u012bm, H\u0101wiya, and Saqar, as above mentioned, p. 254,\nnote 3.\n\n[384] \u201cAl-Kawthar,\u201d Qur\u2019\u0101n cviii. 1, is variously explained, but\nprobably means: _the great multitude_, scil., _of mankind_; not \u201ca\nfountain.\u201d\n\n[385] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 24.\n\n[386] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 231; and, indirectly, in many texts.\n\n[387] Qur\u2019\u0101n xvi. 4; xl. 23.\n\n[388] Qur\u2019\u0101n lxxvi. 17, 18.\n\n[389] Michael is mentioned in Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 92; Gabriel is also there\nmentioned, and in two other places; but no other angels by name.\n\n[390] Solomon was robbed of his seal by a genie, and temporarily\ndeprived of his kingdom.\n\n[391] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxxi. 12. _Lokman_, the commonly received orthography,\nis doubly erroneous; the first vowel of the name is _u_, the Italian\n_u_, the French _ou_, the _oo_ of our words _foot_, _good_, _wood_;\nnot of _coot_, _moot_, _root_. Our _q_ is, historically, the only true\nrepresentative of the Phoenician letter that equally gave rise to the\nHebrew \u05e7, to the old Greek Q, to the Latin Q, and to the Arabic \u0642; as\nmay be seen by comparing the letters in the last element of the Arabian\nnumeral alphabet, \u0642\u0631\u0634\u062a, with the Hebrew _Koph_, _Resh_, _Schin_, _Tau_;\nwith the Greek Q = 90, \u03a1 = 100, \u03a3 = 200, \u03a4 = 300; and with the Latin Q,\nR, S, T. The proof is still more conclusive by comparing, in order, the\nwhole alphabets, as to positions, names, shapes, values in sound, and\nnumeral values.\n\n[392] Solomon, when deprived of his kingdom, became a fisherman.\n\n[393] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 2. Our: \u201c_Credo, quia impossibile._\u201d\n\n[394] Qur\u2019\u0101n lxvii. 3.\n\n[395] Muhammed is reported to have said: \u201cThe prince of a people is\ntheir servant.\u201d This may be compared with Matt. xx. 26 and 27.\n\n[396] Qur\u2019\u0101n iii. 16.\n\n[397] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 256.\n\n[398] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxxv. 4.\n\n[399] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxi. 108.\n\n[400] Qur\u2019\u0101n xx. 4.\n\n[401] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxxvi. 53.\n\n[402] Qur\u2019\u0101n xi. 59.\n\n[403] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxxiv. 12.\n\n[404] See the Translator\u2019s \u201cTurkish Poetry\u201d (p. 32 or 45), 1879;\npublished by Tr\u00fcbner & Co., Ludgate Hill, London, E.C.\n\n[405] Qur\u2019\u0101n ix. 32; lxi. 8. The expression \u201cpolytheist,\u201d generally\nused by translators to render the meaning of the Arabic \u201c_mushrik_,\u201d is\nnot correct; to attribute one \u201cpartner\u201d to God is as much \u201c_shirk_\u201d as\nto attribute many. See note in p. 36, Tale iii.\n\n[406] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxi. 68, 69, alludes to this.\n\n[407] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 22; lxvi. 6.\n\n[408] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 58.\n\n[409] Qur\u2019\u0101n ix. 130, &c.\n\n[410] Qur\u2019\u0101n lxv. 2.\n\n[411] \u2018Aliyyu-\u2019l-Murtadz\u0101--\u201c_in whom_ (God) _is well pleased_\u201d--is the\nchiefest of the titles of \u2018Al\u012b, Prince of Princes, Captain-General of\nSaints.\n\n[412] Muhammed is reported to have declared: \u201cI am the City of Science,\nand \u2018Al\u012b is the Portal thereof;\u201d alluding to the heavenly secrets he\nhad intrusted to the latter, for communication to the worthy. See\nAnecdotes, chap, iii., No. 79.\n\n[413] Qur\u2019\u0101n cxii. 4.\n\n[414] \u201cCommander of the Faithful;\u201d but \u201cCommander of _the Believers_\u201d\nwould be more correct.\n\n[415] Qur\u2019\u0101n viii. 17.\n\n[416] \u2018Umer swore he would kill Muhammed, and went to execute his\ndesign. Arrived at the house of his own sister, who was already a\nsecret Muslim, he heard chanted the twentieth chapter of the Qur\u2019\u0101n,\nand was immediately converted. He then went to Muhammed, and publicly\nprofessed the faith.\n\n[417] The shooting stars.\n\n[418] Shanfar\u00e0 says: \u201cThe most excellent is he who confers a favour.\u201d\n\n[419] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 100.\n\n[420] Idem.\n\n[421] Qur\u2019\u0101n iii. 163, 164.\n\n[422] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 175.\n\n[423] Qur\u2019\u0101n iii. 6.\n\n[424] Qur\u2019\u0101n xxv. 66.\n\n[425] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 191.\n\n[426] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 149.\n\n[427] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 151.\n\n[428] All Muslim poets speak of wounds as \u201cflowers.\u201d\n\n[429] Qur\u2019\u0101n liii. 17. There is a pun here. The Arabic for \u201cswerved\u201d\nand the Persian for \u201ca crow,\u201d are identical in orthography,\u2014_z\u0101g_.\nMuhammed has been called by other Persian poets: \u201cThe nightingale of\nthe garden of _m\u00e0 z\u0101g_;\u201d which really means \u201cswerved not,\u201d but may be\nrendered: \u201cwe, the crows.\u201d\n\n[430] The \u201cLimner\u201d is, here, God, of course. He was intoxicated with\nlove, not wine.\n\n[431] Qur\u2019\u0101n ii. 88.\n\n[432] These were the Christian Arabs of Nejr\u0101n. They sent an embassy to\nMuhammed at Medina. He proposed to them a trial by invocation of God\u2019s\ncurse on the liars, their wives, and children. He uttered it; they\nshrank, and accepted submission to him, on condition of paying tribute.\n\n[433] The \u201c_canda draconis_\u201d was the \u201cdescending node,\u201d one of the\necliptical points. The \u201cforbidden fruit,\u201d in Isl\u0101m, is held to have\nbeen _wheat_.","title":"The Mesnevi","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":127046}