115
Since His works are manifested from His essence,
His essence is not manifested from His works.
3
116
The whole universe is exposed to
view by His light,
But how is He exposed to view in the universe ?
4
117
The light of His essence is not contained in phenomena,
For the glory of His majesty is exceeding great.
118
Let reason go, and abide in " The Truth."
The eye of a bat endures not the bright sun.
119
In that place where God's light is
our guide,
What room is there for the message of Gabriel ?
5
120
Though the angels stand hard by the throne,
They reach not the station, ' I am with God.'
6
121
Like as His light utterly burns up the angels,
7
So it burns up reason from head to foot.
122
Reason's light applied to the very
Light of lights,
Is as the eye of the head applied to the sun.
123
When the object
seen is very near to the eye,
The eye is darkened so that it cannot see it.
8
124
This blackness,
9 if you know it, is the light of very Being ;
In the land of darkness is the
well-spring of life.
10
125
Since the dark destroys the light of vision,
Give up looking, for this is no place for looking.
11
126
What connection has the dust with the pure world ?
Its perception is impotence to perceive perception.
12
127
Blackness of face
13 is not divorced from the contingent
In the two worlds ; Allah is all wise.
128
Blackness of face in both worlds is poverty,
14
Blackness is most precious, neither more nor less.
129
What shall I say ? since this
saying is fine,
'A light night that shineth in a dark day.'
15
130
On this place of witnessing which is the light of Epiphany,
16
I have much to say, but not to say it is best.
ILLUSTRATION.
131
If you desire to behold the eye of the sun,
You must make use of another body ;
132
Since the eye of the head has not strength
enough,
You may look on the brilliant sun in the water.
133
Since its brightness shows less brightly therein,
You can bear to look on it for a longer space.
134
Not being
17 is the mirror of absolute Being,
Therein is reflected the shining of " The Truth."
135
When Not being is set opposite to Being,
It catches its reflection in a moment.
136
That Unity is exposed to view in this plurality,
Like as when you count one it becomes many.
137
Though all numbers have one for their starting point,
Nevertheless you never come to the end of them.
138
Forasmuch as Not being in itself is pure,
Therein is reflected ' The hidden treasure.'
139
Read the tradition ' I ivas a
hidden treasure,'
18
That you may see clearly this concealed mystery.
140
Not being is the mirror, the world the reflection, and man
Is as the reflected eye of The unseen Person.
141
You are that reflected eye, and He the light of the eye,
19
In that eye His eye sees His own eye.
20
142
The world is a man and man is a world :
21
There is no clearer explanation than this.
143
When you look well into the root of
this matter,
He is at once seer, seeing eye, and thing seen.
144
The holy tradition
22 has declared this,
And, ' without eye or ear,' demonstrated it.
145
Know the world is a mirror from
head to foot,
23
In every atom are a hundred blazing suns.
146
If you cleave the heart of one drop of water,
A hundred pure oceans emerge from it.
147
If you examine closely each grain of dust,
A thousand Adams may be seen in it.
148
In its members a gnat is like an elephant,
In its qualities a drop of rain is like the Nile.
149
The heart of a barley-corn equals a hundred harvests,
A world dwells in the heart of a millet seed.
150
In the wing of a gnat is the ocean of life,
24
In the pupil of the eye a heaven.
151
What though the corn grain of the heart
25 be small,
It is a station for the Lord of both worlds to dwell therein.
152
Therein are gathered the two worlds,
Sometimes Iblis and sometimes Adam.
26
153
Behold the world mingled together,
Angels with demons, Satan with the archangel.
154
All mingled like unto seed and fruit,
Infidel with faithful, and faithful with infidel.
155
Together are gathered, in
the point of the present,
27
All cycles and seasons, day, month, and year.
156
World without beginning is world without end,
The mission of Jesus falls with the creation of Adam.
28
157
From every point in this
concatenated circle
A thousand forms are drawn ;
158
Every point as it revolves in a
circle
Is now a centre, now a circling circumference.
29
159
If you take one atom link from its place
The entire universe falls to ruin.
160
The whole in a dizzy whirl, and yet no single part
Placing foot beyond the limit of contingency,
161
Phenomenal being
30 holding each one in bondage,
Each is in despair at its particularization from the Whole.
162
You may say each is ever travelling and yet restrained,
Each is ever being unclothed and clothed upon ;
31
163
Each is alway in motion, yet ever at rest,
Never beginning and never ending.
164
Each ever cognizant of his own essence, and for that cause
Ever pressing his way
towards the throne on high.
165
Beneath the veil of each atom is hidden
The heart-ravishing beauty of the Beloved's face !
RULE I.
32
166
You have heard thus much of the universe,
Come, say what you have seen of the universe.
167
What know you of form or of substance ?
What is the next world, and what is this
world ?
168
Say what is Simurg, and what mount Kaf,
33
What heaven and hell, and hades' what ?
169
What is that world which is not seen,
One day whereof equals a year of this
world ?
170
That world, in fine, is not what you see.
Have you not heard the
text,
' What ye see not ? '
34
171
Come, show me what is Jabulca,
35
What that city whose name is Jabulsa.
172
Consider the East along with the West,
For this world contains no more than one of each.
36
173
Come and hear the meaning of
'like unto them;'
37
Hear it from Ibn Abbas, and then know yourself!
174
You are asleep, and this vision of yours is a dream,
All that you see thereby is an illusion.
175
On the morn of the last day, when
you shall awake,
You will know all this to be the baseless fabric of fancy.
176
When the illusion of seeing double is removed,
Earth and heavens will become transfigured.
177
When the true Sun displays his face to you
38
There remains not the light of Venus, moon or sun.
178
Falls one beam of His on the
hard rock,
It is torn to pieces like wool of divers colours.
39
179
Know now is the time that
you have power to act :
What profit is there in knowing, when you are powerless
?
40
180
How shall I tell the tale of ' states
' of heart
41
To you, man, with head downcast and. feet in the mire ?
181
The world
is yours and yet you remain indigent.
Has man ever seen one so pitiable as you are ?
182
Like captives you are confined to
one spot,
Binding your feet with your own helpless hand.
183
You sit like women in the street of ill fortune,
You take no shame to yourself for your ignorance.
184
The valiant of the world are rolling in carnage ;
You, with head wrapped up, put
not forth your foot.
185
How read you the text, " old woman's creed,"
That you hold ignorance to be lawful for you ?
186
Whereas " women are wanting in
intellect and faith,"
42
Why should men choose their road ?
187
If you are a man, come forth and pass on,
Whatever hinders you, pass aside by it.
188
Tarry not day or night at the halting places,
43
Linger not behind your fellow travellers and camels.
189
Like ' The Friend of God,' go seek " The Truth,"
44
Turn night into day and day into night.
45
190
Stars with moon and most brilliant sun
Represent sense, imagination and brilliant reason.
46
191
Turn your face from all these, pilgrim,
Say alway, 'I love not them tliat set.'
192
Like Moses, son of Amran, press onwards in this road,
Till you hear the words, 'Verily I am God.'
47
193
So long as the mount of your being remains
48 before you,
The answer to ' Show me
' is ' Thou shalt not see me.' 49
194
" The Truth," as amber, attracts you like a
straw.
If there were no mount of "
youness," where were the road ?
50
195
When its Lord appears in glory to the mount of existence,
Existence is laid low, even as the dust of the road.
196
The beggar becomes by one attraction a king,
In one instant it makes the mount as a straw.
51
197
Follow the steps of the prophet in his ascension,
Marvel at all the mighty signs.
52
198
Come forth from the dwelling of Umhani,
53
Say only, " Whoso hath seen me hath seen The Truth."
54
199
Forsake the Kaf of the corner of both worlds,
Sit on mount Kaf at " the distance of two lows' lengths."
55
200 " The Truth" will then grant you whatsoever you ask,
And show you all things as they really are.
56
RULE II.
201
To him, whose soul attains the beatific vision,
57
The universe is the book of " The Truth Most High."
202
Accidents are its vowels, and substance its consonants,
And grades of creatures its verses and pauses.
203
Therein every world is a special chapter,
One the chapter Fatihah, another Ikhlas.
204
Of this book the first verse is ' Universal Reason,
58
For that is like the B of Bismillah ;
205
Second comes " Universal Soul," 'the
verse of light,'
59
For that is as a lamp of exceeding light ;
206
The third verse thereof is " Highest
heaven."
60
Read the fourth verse, it is " The throne ;"
61
207
After that are the seven heavenly spheres,
The "
chapter of the seven limbs " answers to these.
62
208
After these, behold the bodies of the four elements,
Whereof each answers to its respective verse.
209
After these come the three kingdoms of nature,
Whose verses you cannot count.
210
The last that came down was the soul of man,
63
And thus the Koran ends with the chapter " Men."
RULE III.
THOUGHTS ON THE HEAVENS.
211
Rest not in bondage in the prison of nature,
Come forth and behold the divine handiwork.
212
Consider the structure of the heavens,
So that you may praise " The Truth "
for His signs.
64
213
Look up and see how the vault of "
highest heaven "
65
Is stretched round about both worlds.
214
Wherefore do they name it " throne of the Merciful ? "
What connection has it with the heart of man ?
66
215
Wherefore are these two continually in motion,
Never for a moment taking rest ?
216
Peradventure the heart is the centre of that
heaven,
Heart the central point and heaven the circumference.
67
217
In the space of one day and night, more or less,
Highest heaven surpasses your circuits, Durvesh !
68
218
Moved by this the other heavenly spheres are circling :
Mark well how they all
move in one direction.
219
From east to west, like a water-wheel,
They are ever hastening, without food or sleep.
220
Each day and night this highest sphere
Makes a complete revolution round the world.
221
Moved by this, the other heavenly spheres
Are revolving in circular orbits in like manner,
222
But contrary to the rotation of the crystalline sphere,
69
These eight lower spheres revolve crookedly.
70
223
The Ecliptic holds the signs of the zodiac,
71
In them is no interval nor any interstice.
224
Aries and Taurus, and Gemini and Cancer,
Are hung upon it with Leo and Virgo.
72
225
Then Libra and Scorpio, then Sagittarius,
Capricorn, and Aquarius, and then the sign Pisces,
226
The fixed stars are one thousand twenty and four,
Who have their stations round about the " throne."
73
227
Of the seventh heaven Saturn is the watchman,
The sixth is the mansion and house of Jupiter,
228
The fifth heaven is the house of Mars,
The fourth of the Sun, adorner of the earth,
229
The third of Venus, the second of Mercury :
The Moon holds its orbit on the
sphere of the Earth.
230
The house of Saturn is in Capricorn and Aquarius,
Jupiter waxes and wanes in Sagittarius and Pisces.
74
231
In Aries and Scorpio is found the place of Mars,
In Leo is the Sun's place of rest ;
232
Like as Venus makes her house in Taurus and
Libra,
So does Mercury abide in Gemini and Virgo.
233
The Moon sees in Cancer a creature akin to herself,
When head becomes tail she assumes the form of a knot.
75
234
The Moon passes through eight and twenty mansions,
76
And then she returns opposite to the Sun.
77
235
Then she becomes like to a crooked palm-branch,
78
By command of the Almighty who is Allwise.
236
If you think on this, as a perfect man,
Assuredly you will say,
' All this is not vain.'
79
237
The words of "The Truth" are clear on this point,
80
That to call this vain is weakness of faith.
238
O
fool, the body of a gnat enshrines wisdom,
81
Then how is there no wisdom in
Mercury and Mars ?
239
Albeit if you look into the roots of this matter,
You see the heavens subject to the Almighty.
82
240
When the astrologer is destitute of religion, and says
That starry influences proceed from the heavenly motions,
83
241
He sees not that
these revolving heavens
Are all under the sway and dominion of " The Truth."
ILLUSTRATION.
242
You may say these heavens are revolving
In the rotation of day and night like a potter's wheel.
243
And thereby every moment the wisdom of the Master
Fashions a new vessel out of water and clay.
244
Whatever exists in time and in space
Proceeds from one master hand, one workshop.
245
The stars, who are of the people of perfection,
84
Wherefore are they always undergoing the defect of setting ?
246
Why are they
continually varying in position,
In place and orbit, in colour and size ?
247
Why are they now in Nadir, now in
Zenith ?
Sometimes in opposition, sometimes in conjunction ?
248
Wherefore again is
the heart of heaven fretted with fire ?
What does it desire that it is always in
a whirl ?
249
All the planets circling round in search of this,
Sometimes above, sometimes beneath the earth ?
250
The elements water, air, fire
and earth
Have taken their station below the heavens ;
251
Each serving diligently in its own appointed place,
Before or behind which it never sets its foot.
252
Though all four are contrary in
their nature and position,
Still one may see them ever united together.
85
253
Inimical are they to each other in essence and form
Yet united into single bodies by fiat of necessity.
86
254
From them is born the three-fold kingdom of Nature,
Minerals, then plants, then animals,
255
Setting up substance in their midst,
87
As Sufis becoming pure from form.
88
256
All at the command and by favour of the Master,
Standing in their places subject to His will,
257
The minerals by His wrath laid low in the dust,
The plants by His favour standing erect,
258
The sexual passion of animals with ardour unfeigned
Preserving their genera, species, and individuals,
259
All confessing the rule of their Master,
Searching out His will day and night !
1 Alluding to the Hadis,
' Think on the mercies of God, not on the essence of God.'
2 Tahsil i hasil, " The Truth "
is more general than His works, and thus demon strating Him from His works is
demonstrating the general and more known from the
particular and less known. And again, knowledge of God is gained by illumination
and intuition, and demonstration of ultimate facts of consciousness is
impossible. L.
3 Aiat, texts, names of God, works or signs of God.
4 The face of " The Truth "
is not displayed till all the illusory phenomena,
which veil it, are annihilated. L. ' But is it unreasonable to confess that we
believe in God not by reason of the nature which conceals him, but by reason
of the supernatural in man which reveals him ?
' Jacobi, quoted in Hamilton's
Metaphysics, I. 40.
5 Gabriel was the "angel of revelation." See Koran, Sura II. 91.
6 This refers to the tradition,
' There are times when I am with God in such
wise that neither highest angel nor prophet apostle can attain thereto.'
7 All phenomena are annihilated in Him. L.
8 The mental bewilderment or darkness which occurs to the mystic is the light of
Absolute Being approaching close to him. L.
9 See a passage of Dionysius, the pseudo-Arcopagite, quoted in Tholuck (Blüthen
sammlung aus der Morgenlandischen Mystik), p. 9 : " Then is he delivered from
all
things seeing or being seen, and dives down into the truly mystical darkness of
ignorance, wherein he closes up all the intellectual apprehensions, and finds
himself
in the utterly impalpable and invisible, being entirely in Him who is beyond all,
and in none else, either himself or another ; being united as to his nobler part
with
the utterly unknown by the cessation of all knowing, and at the same time, in
that
very knowing nothing, knowing what transcends the mind of man." And Blosius
(quoted in Vaughan, I. 290) : " The light is called dark from its excessive
brightness."
10 Alluding to the " water of life " found by the prophet Khizr in the land of
darkness.
11 When the mystic annihilates all phenomena, self included, which veil the face
of " The Truth," and is drawn near to, and united with " The Truth," seer and
seen are identified, and looking is no longer possible.
12 The dust, i.e. the contingent is naught but the reflection in not being of
Necessary Being, which in itself is pure from the stain of contingency and
plurality. Therefore the contingent is impotent to perceive " The Truth "
in the
ordinary way, and its highest degree of perception is to be absorbed in the "
The
Truth," when its eyes are blinded by excess of light, and its vision is uncon
sciousness, inability to be conscious of seeing. L.
13 Blackness of face=nothingness, not being. The contingent is naught but not
being, and its highest perfection is to be conscious of this, aud to annihilate
self by
absorption in " The Truth." L.
14 Referring to the Hadis,
' Poverty is my peace.' Poverty with the Sufis means
self annihilation.
15 This darkness is light, because it shows " The Truth," free from the veil of
plurality. It shines in a day, i. e. the visible world of phenomena, but this
day is
dark because phenomena veil " The Truth." L.
16 Divine Epiphanies, such as that to Moses at the burning bush, and to Mohammad
on the night of his ascension. See couplet 367.
17 'Adm, privation of being, not being. The ' to me on
' of the Eleatics, handed on
to the Sufis through Plato, Plotinus and the Arabian philosophers. See Jami,
Tuhfat- ul-Inrar. Mokamat, I. :
' In its cradle lay with suspended breath
The infant of creation in the sleep of
not being.
The eyes of that Beauty seeing what was not
Beheld the non-existent as existent.
Though he beheld in His own perfections
The beauties of all things and their qualities,
Yet He desired that in another mirror
They might be displayed to His view.'
18 Alluding to the tradition,
' David inquired, saying, O Lord, why hast Thou
created mankind ? God said, I was a hidden treasure, and I desired to become
known, and I created the world in order to be known.'
19 Compare a somewhat similar passage in the Khnindogya
Upanishad, VIII.,
712, quoted in Max Miiller's Hibbert Lectures, 318321. ' Man,' says Lahiji,
'is the eye of the world, whereby God sees his own works.' Compare Hegel. M.
Müller, Hibbert Lectures, 20.
20 Man, being the epitome of all the Divine names and qualities, is the microcosm,
and the world is
' the great man,' because it bears to man,
' the eye of the world,' the relation of a man to one of his members. L. Compare
George Herbert :
' Man is one world, and hath another to attend him.'
21 " My servant draws nigh to me by pious works till I love him, and when I love
him, I am his eye, his ear, his tongue, his foot, his hand, and by me he sees,
hears,
talks, walks, and tastes." L.
22 Through this process of reflection every atom is potentially a mirror of any
and
all the Divine names and qualities, and when any atom puts off its limitation
and
phenomenal character it becomes " the All" L.
23 I.e., absolute Being. L.
24 The heart's core, the drop of black blood in the heart, supposed by Muham
madans to be the principle of life. L.
25 Adam is a manifestation of the Divine beauty, jamal. and Iblis of Divine
majesty and wrath, jalal. L.
26 Compare :
' Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal now does always last.'
Cowley, Davideis, I. 302.
27 The last event in Divine history coincides in point of time with the first.
All
things, whatever the times of their manifestations, are present together in God.
There is no time in God. L.
28 There is one great circle of emanations down to man, and back to God, and
smaller circles caused by each particular emanation having a course of its own,
e.g., universal reason revolves in all particular reasons. Each link is
potentially all, and
hence destruction of one is destruction of all. L.
29 Ta'ayyun, phenomenalization or emanation, evidentiation. See note on couplet
273 and couplet 484.
30 This is an allusion to Koran, Sura L. 14 : " Yet are they in doubt (or being
clothed with, labas), a new creation." Each atom non-existent in itself is being
every moment clothed with a fresh phenomenal efflux from Absolute Being, and
again stripped of it. When it strips off the phenomena] it is united with the
Absolute, and when it again puts it on, it is held back from union and "
travaileth
in bondage." L.
31 These rules are an elaboration of the thesis that knowledge of the Truth is to
be
attained not by sense and reason but by illumination. L.
32 Simurg, a fabulous bird, said to dwell on Mount Kaf, or Caucasus, the type of
Supreme Buing and plurality in Unity.
33 Al'araf or Barzakh, the partition, veil, or
"
barrier " between death and the
resurrection, or between this world and the next, a hades or purgatory, in which
the dead are examined by Munkir and Nakir. Sale, Koran, Prelim. Disc. 55, and Sura
XXIII. 102.
34 Koran, Sura LXIX. 38.
35 Sale, Prelim. Disc. 83, explains these as the celestial and terrestrial
Jerusalem,
Lahiji as the worlds of ideals, and of disembodied spirits. He says one of them
lies in the east, the other in the west. See Gal. iv. 26, and Deutsch, Islam, p.
101.
36 Sense tells us nothing of the unseen worlds. L.
37 See Slane's Ibn Khallikan, i. 89, note. The saying referred to is, "
If I explained
to you the verse,
' God created seven heavens and earths like unto them ' ye would
stone me, or call me unbeliever." See Koran, Sura LXV. 12.
38 The Father of lights. James i. 17.
39 On that day the mountains shall become like carded wool of divers colours.
'
Koran, Sura CI. 4.
40 Man by reason of the universality of his nature, i.e. his comprehending in him
self all the divers names and attributes of " The Truth," is capable of
apprehending
Divine Epiphanies, and attaining to knowledge of " The Truth," and should set
himself
t o do this while his powers are in their prime. L.
41 I.e. ecstatic states in which Divine Epiphanies and visions are displayed to
the
heart. L.
42 There is another tradition, " an old woman's creed is yours." Lahiji says it
is mere bondage, taklid, mechanical religion, cant. Compare 1 Tim. iv. 7,
' old
wives' fables.'
43 Compare Hafiz, Ode I.
44 " And when the night overshadowed him, Abraham saw a star and he said,
' This
is my Lord ;' but when it set, he said,
' I like not gods which set.' And when he saw the moon rising, he said,
' This is my Lord ;
' but when he saw it set, he said,
' Verily, if my Lord direct me not, I shall become one of them that go astray.'
"
Koran, Sura VI. 77.
45 Relax not your efforts at any season. L.
46 Hiss i mushtarak, the koine aisthesis of Aristotle. D 2
47 Alluding to the burning bush (Koran, Sura XXVIII. 31), i.e. till you are
illumined by Divine Epiphanies.
48 The mount, i.e. phenomenal illusive existence, which hides real absolute
Being. L.
49 Alluding to the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. " And when Moses came
at the appointed time, and his Lord spake unto him, he said,
' Lord, show me thy
self, that I may behold thee.' God answered,
' Thou shalt in no wise behold me, but
look towards the mountain, and if it stand firm in its place, then thou shalt
see me.' But wben his Lord appeared with glory in the mount He reduced it to
dust, and
Moses fell on his face in a swoon and was beside himself." Koran, Sura VII. 139.
50 Amber is called Teak raba, attraetor of straws. When your phenomenal
existence, your
' youness,' is swept away, there is no longer any interval between
you and God. L. There is here a play on the word " tui," which means "
firm "
as well as "
youness."
51 The attraction of Divine graces enriches the fakir or beggar (i. e. the man
who
is
' poor in spirit
' and stripped of self), with the wealth of union with the
Absolute. L.
52 I. e. Divine Epiphanies. L.
53 The daughter of Abu Talib, from whose house the prophet started on his
ascension to heaven.
54 This saying is ascribed to Muhammad in the Maksad-i-Aksa. Palmer, 97.
Cf. John xiv. 9. "
55 Afterwards he (Muhammad) approached near until he was at the distance of
two bows' length from Him in heaven." Koran, Sura LIII. 9. Mount Kaf was
the abode of the Simurg, the type of Absolute Being.
56 Alluding to the Hadis,
' Inspiration is a light that descends into the heart and
shows the nature of things as they really are.' The illumined Sufi sees
' things as they
are' when after annihilation of self, fana, he endures and abides (baka) in God.
L.
57 The author here describes the successive " emanations "
of Divinity under the
figure of the successive chapters of the Koran. The Alexandrian doctrine of "
emanations "
intermediate potencies or intelligences by whom God acts on the world of
phenomena
" links between the Divine spirit and the world of matter,"-
seems to have sprung from an amalgamation of the ancient Persian angelology
the Amshaspands, Izads, and Fravâshis, with Greek Ontology, the "
ideas "
of Plato, the logos of Philo, the nous of Plotinus. (See Deutsch. Remains, p.
50, and
Mansel, Gnostic Heresies, p. 26). This doctrine pervades the entire Neoplatonist
philosophy, and the writings of the Gnostics, (see Ueberweg, Greek Philosophy,
I.
224), and re-appears in the systems of the Muhammadan philosophers Al Farabi,
950
A.D., Avenpace, circ. 1118 A.D., and Averroes, circ. 1150 A.D. (Ueberweg, I.
pp. 412 417), and in the Jewish Kabbala.
58 Universal Reason ('akl-i-kull) and Universal Soul (nufs or jan-i-kull) are
translations of the Neoplatonic loyos and pneuma. See ' Aiun-ul-masâil by Abu
Nasr Al
Farabi, and the remarks of Schmolders (Documenta Philosophise Arabum, p. 96).
The ' Aiun-ul-masâil is a summary of Aristotelian metaphysics as interpreted by
the Alexandrian Neoplatonist commentators.
59 Koran, Sura XXIV. 36,
' a light from the oil of a blessed tree.'
60 Koran, Sura VII. 55, 'arsh, or heaven of heavens.
61 Koran, Sura II. 256, the eighth heaven.
62 Sura I., which contains seven divisions, or the seven chapters from
Bakrat to Taubat. Seven heavens are mentioned in the Talmud, and the ' third heaven ' is
mentioned in 2 Corinthians xii. 2. Compare Sura II. 27 : "Into seven heavens
did He fashion it."
63 Nazil,
' coming down,' is the term for the revelation of a verse in the Koran.
64 Or,
' in verses of the Koran.' L.
65 I. e., 'arsh, the ninth heaven.
66 Alluding to the Hadis : " The heart of the believer is the highest heaven." The
'arsh and the heart of man are both theatres of Divine perfections, and the
'arsh, as the less perfect, may be subsidiary to the heart, the more perfect
theatre. L. See
couplet 652.
67 See couplet 796.
68 Alluding to the taw'af, or perambulations of shrines made by Durvveshes. L.
69 According to the Ptolemaic scheme the seven planets with their respective
spheres, "
cycle and epicycle, orb on orb," constitute the solar system. Beyond
this is the eighth sphere, that of the fixed stars, and beyond that the
crystalline, or ninth sphere, to which was attributed a certain ' trepidation
' to account for the
irregularities observed in the motion of the fixed stars. Beyond this was the primum
mobile, the sphere which was at once first moved and the first mover,
communicating
its motion to the lower spheres revolving within it. Beyond the primum mobile was the empyrean. Ptolemy's
Syntaxis Magna was translated into Arabic by
Ishak bin Hossain, under the title Al Megiste, about 800 A.D. Apparently Lahiji
takes the crystalline sphere, charkh i atlas, to be the same as the charkh i
'azam, or
highest sphere.
70 Literally,
' bent as a bow.' The eighth sphere and those beneath it move with
two motions, one east to west like the highest sphere, and secondly west to
east. L.
71 The Ecliptic is also called the ' girdle
' of the ' throne,' or eighth sphere. L.
72 Virgo, Khushah, which also means a bunch of grapes, and is therefore said to
be
hung up. L.
73 The eighth heaven.
74 The " houses "
of the planets are those signs of the zodiac in which they attain
their maximum ascension. L.
75 The points where the moon's orbit cuts the ecliptic are called ' knots,' and
the
portions of her orbit north and south of the ecliptic are called respectively
the
" head " and "
tail of the dragon." L.
76 " And for the moon have we appointed certain mansions, until she change and
return to be like the old branch of a palm tree." Koran, Sura XXXVI. 28. These
anwa, or mansions, are the divisions of the zodiac, through one of which the
moon passes each night.
77 I. e. becomes full. L.
78 I. e. in her last quarter. L.
79 " The course of nature is the art of God." Young, Night Thoughts, IX. 1267.
80 Batil,
' Vain, what is without God.' Istilahat us Suftat, p. 14. Koran,
Sura III. 138
: " Think on the creation of the heavens and the earth. Have we created them
in vain ? "
81 See Koran, Sura II. 24.
82 On the one hand it is wrong to deny the wisdom manifested in the structure of
the heavens, and on the other hand it is equally wrong to say with the
astrologer that they are self moved, and govern things on earth. L.
83 Compare
" The sweet influences of the Pleiades." Job xxxviii. 31.
84 This idea is found in Aristotle. Nicom. Eth. vi. 7. 4. The perfection of a
star
is its ascension, and its defect its setting. L.
85 I.e., in compound bodies. All these are proofs of the entire subjection of all things to
one primal agent,
" The Truth." L.
86 Compare Burke : " From the reciprocal struggle of discordant powers is drawn
out the harmony of the universe."
87 Haiuli, substance, is the Greek He Hyle, explained in
Istilahat us Suffat,
p. 25, as the inward element in things as opposed to the outward form, the hypokei- menon,
' that which underlies,' quod sulstat.
88 When the simple elements are united into compounds, each element drops its own
' form,' and is blended with the others into one common substance. L.
