GULSHAN-I RÂZ

گلشن راز

The Mystic Rose Garden

SHEIKH MAHMÛD SHABISTARI

Edited by: Dr. Necati Aksu
 

QUESTION VI.

414

If knower and known are both the One pure essence,

What are the aspirations in this handful of dust ? 1

ANSWER II.

415

Be not thankless for the grace of " The Truth,"
For it is by the light of " The Truth " that you know " The Truth : " 2

416

Besides Him is no knower or known, Be sure,

Nevertheless the dust draws heat from the sun. 3

417

It is not strange that the motes of dust have hope, 4

And desire for the sun's heat and light.

418

Call to mind the state and circumstance of your creation,
For thence will you learn the root of your thought.

419

To whom said God, ' Am not I your Lord ? ' 5

Who was it who then answered ' Yea ? '

420

On that day when He ' kneaded the clay,' 6

He wrote by grace the faith on the heart.

421

If you will read forthwith that writing, 7

You will understand whatsoever you desire.

422

Last night you tied the knot of the " covenant of service," 8
But have now forgotten it through ignorance ;

423

And therefore the word of " The Truth " was sent down 9

To recall to your mind that primeval covenant.

424

If you have seen " The Truth " at the beginning,
You may see Him again in this place.

425

In this place behold His attributes to-day,
That you may behold His essence to-morrow. 10

426

And if you cannot, yet be not cast down,
Go, hearken to the text ' Thou canst not direct.' 11

 

ILLUSTRATION. 12

427

He that is horn blind believes not what you say of colours,
Though you show him instances and proofs for a century.

428

White and yellow and red and dark and light green
Are to him naught but darkest black.

429

See the evil plight of one blind from his birth,
Can he ever gain sight from the physician's eye salve ?

430

Reason cannot see the state of the world to come,
As a man born blind cannot see things in this world.

431

But in addition to reason man has a certain faculty, 13

Whereby he perceives hidden mysteries.

432

Like fire in flint and steel,

God has placed this faculty in man's soul and body ;

433

When that flint and steel are struck together, 14

The two worlds are illumined by the flash !

434

From that collision is this mystery made clear,
Now you have heard it, go and attend to your Self.

435

Your Self is a copy made in the image of God, 15
Seek in your Self all that you desire to know. 16

1 What is the cause of the love and ardour for knowledge of" The Truth " seen in man ? L.

2 Having no real existence of your own, it is only by the communicated existence and knowledge of God that you know Him. L.

3 Just as man draws his ardour for knowledge of " The Truth," from " The Truth." L.

4 Motes are only seen in the sunbeams, just as the phenomena men are manifested by the shining of " The Truth." L.

5 " And when the Lord drew forth their posterity from the loins of Adam, and took them to witness against themselves, saying, Am not I your Lord ? they answered, Yea." Koran, Sura VII. 171. Knowledge of God was thus one of the essential properties implanted in man at his first origin. L.

6 Alluding to the Hadis : " He kneaded the clay of Adam forty days."

7 I. e. the innate knowledge engraved on the heart at creation. L.

8 The creature when fresh from the Divine hand, undefiled by plurality, knew and confessed its dependence on " The Truth ." L.

9 I. e. in the mouths of the prophets.

10 I. e. in the world to come. This is addressed only to ordinary men, for saints and ' knowers ' attain the world to come in this present world. L.

11 " Verily thou canst not direct whom thou wilt, but God directeth whom he pleaseth." Koran, Sura XXVI [I. 56. It is not every one who has power to see and know " The Truth " in this life. L.

12 Those who are void of the capacity for knowledge of God, and who are not ' illumined ' by Divine grace, are like men born blind. The religious faculty is wanting in them. They have nothing but reason to rely on. L.

13 ' Faculty,' taur, literally mode, manner, condition, state, action. It is evoked, says Lahiji, by love and desire of knowledge of " The Truth," and ends, when exposed to the favourable conditions of the Sufi ' progress,' in Divine illumination. The leading principle of all mysticism is that independently of reason man possesses an inward sense or faculty an ' inner light,' or an intuition, which under certain conditions conveys to him a knowledge of God by direct apprehension, in a manner similar to the evidence of the senses. Hugo of St. Victor names it the ' Eye of Intelligence.' Vaughan, I. 134.

14 The striking together of the flint and steel means the Sufi progress, the purify ing the heart from the stain of ' other.' By this collision the flame of love is kindled which burns up the Sufi's phenomenal being, and shows him his true ' self an integral portion of " The All." L.

15 Similarly, Bernard of Clairvaux taught that each soul contains a copy of the ideas in the Divine mind, so that the pure in heart, in proportion as they have cleansed the internal mirror, must in knowing themselves also know God. Vaughan, I. 3J-. Compare the Hadis : " He created Adam in His own image," and, " He who knows himself knows his Lord." L.

16 I. e. in your real self, after you have died to your phenomenal self, and live eternally again in " The Truth." Compare Max Miiller, Ilibbert Lectures, 375. "The (Brnhman's) highest knowledge was expressed in the words tat tvam, 'thou art It' ; thou thyself, thy own true Self, that which can never be taken from thee ; when everything else that seemed to be thine for a time disappears ; when all that was created vanishes again like a dream, thy own true Self belongs to the Eternal Self; the Atman or Self within thee is the true Brahman, from whom thou wast estranged for a time through birth and death, but who receives thee back again as soon as thou returnest to Him or to It."