GULSHAN-I RÂZ

گلشن راز

The Mystic Rose Garden

SHEIKH MAHMÛD SHABISTARI

Edited by: Dr. Necati Aksu
 

QUESTION III.

288

What am I ? tell me what " I " means ?

What is the meaning of " Travel into yourself ?" 1

ANSWER III.

289

Again you question me, saying, " What am I ? "
Give me news of myself as to what " I " means.

290

When Absolute Being has to be indicated

Men use the word " I " to express it.

291

When " The Truth " is set in evidence in a phenomenon
You express it by the word " I," 2

292

"I" and " you " are the accidents 3 of Very Being.
The lattices of the niches of the lamp of Necessary Being. 4

293

Know bodies and spirits are all the One Light,
Now shining from mirrors-, now from torches.

294

You say " The word ' I ' in every connection"
" Indicates the reasonable soul of man ;"

295

But as you have made human intellect your guide,
You do not know your ' self ' from one of your parts,

296

Go, master, and know well your ' self,'
For fatness does not resemble an empty tumour. 5

297

" I " and " you " are higher than body and soul,
For both body and soul are parts of " me."

298

The word " I " is not limited to man,
So that you should say it means only the soul. 6

299

Straightway lift yourself above time and space, 7

Quit the world and be yourself a world for yourself. 8

300

By the imaginary line of the H of the " He " 9
Are produced two eyes at the time He looks forth. 10

301

But there remain not in the midst pilgrim or road,
When this H of the " He " is joined to the H in Allah.

302

Necessary Being is as Heaven and Hell as contingent,

" I " and " you " are the Hades veil between them. 11

303

When this veil is lifted up from before you, 12

There remains not the bond of sects and creeds.

304

All the authority of the law is over this " I " of yours,
Since that is bound to your soul and body. 13

305

When " I " and "you " remain not in the midst,
What is mosque, what is synagogue, what is fire temple ?

306

Phenomenal being is as the dot on 'ayn,
When 'ayn is clear, gliayn becomes 'ayn. 14

307

The journey of the pilgrim is two steps and no more,
Although it is beset by divers perils.

308

One step is the passing out from that H of " He," 15

The second is passing over the field of existence.

309

In this holy vision plurality and individuals are one, 16

Like one which pervades all numbers.

310

You are that plurality which becomes very Unity 17

You are that Unity which becomes very plurality.

311

A man may know this mystery when he passes forth
From the part, and travels up to the whole.

1 Alluding to the Hadia ' Whoso knows himself knows his Lord.' Introrsum ascen dere has been the watchword of mystics in all ages.

2 Absolute Being in regard of its remoteness from relations and attributes is not indicated in any phenomenon, but in regard of its accidental connexion with the visible universe it is indicated by the phenomenon ' man's self,' ' I ' and ' you.' L.

3 'Ariz, a logical accident. Risalah Shamsiyah (translated by Sprenger), page 7. The one Light shines with many rays through the lattices of various personalities. L.

4 Alluding to Koran, Sura XXIV. 35 : ' Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth, and the likeness of His light is as a lamp, wherein is a torch, and the torch in a glass, and the glass shining as a star with the oil of a blessed tree." Bodies are likened to mirrors, and spirits to torches.

5 Fatness, i.e. the real knowledge gained by illumination, is not like the empty puffed up conceit of intellect. L.

6 ' I ' and ' You ' are the theatres of Absolute Being in its entirety, whereas body and soul are exponents of single Divine attributes only. L.

7 This is a very favourite precept of mystical philosophers and theologians. Seethe passages from St. Augustine, Tauler, Swedenborg, Silesius, Schelling, and Schleier macher, quoted in Hansel's Bampton Lectures, p. 250. It amounts to this, that to know the infinite man must himself be infinite (ib, p. 58).

8 Here begins the answer to the second clause of the question. It is to become annihilated (fani) in your ' self,' and enduring (baki) in God. L.

9 Huwiyat, ' Ipseity.' (Sprenger, Hisalah ShamsiyaTi, p. 7.) Hu, He=God; Yahu = Jehovah (Shea's Dabistan, III. 222, note).

10 Alluding to the form of the round H, The "looking" is explained by the passage from Jami quoted in the note to couplet 134. The H of Huwiyat (Divine Ipseity) is the phenomenon manifesting absolute Being in the visible universe. Thus we have duality ' I ' and ' He,' but this duality is only imaginary, and vanishes as soon as ' I ' and ' He ' are united by mystical union in Allah. Compare couplet 142. L.

11 ' I ' is the phenomenon displaying Absolute Being in its entirety, its jamal, or beauty, as well as its jalal, or terror and evil. Hence it is as a veil or wall of partition between Heaven, the analogue of necessary and good being, and Hell contingent and evil being. L.

12 The Sufis call whatever opposes perfect union with the Divinity a " veil." See a saying of Junaid quoted in his life in Nafhat ul uns, p. 92.

13 It is only in consequence of man's phenomenal extrusion from Divinity, and his individual personality embracing evil as well as good tendencies, that the law is needed to restrain him. L.

14 Phenomenal being is compared to the diacritical point on the letter 'ayn (eye or essence), which converts it into the letter ghayn (cloud or darkness). When 'ayn is freed from this dot, ghayn, the cloud of phenomenal being, is sublimated into 'ayn, Divine Essence. L.

15 I.e. (1) passing by self-annihilation (fana) back to Absolute Being from phenomenal being, and (2) enduring (baka) in mystical union with Absolute Being, and with Him being in turn manifested in plurality. "They say the road is two steps, severing and uniting; You are united to the ' Friend,' when severed from self." L.

16 I. e., In the vision of the illumined and perfected Sufi. L.

17 In virtue of man's 'journey to God ' he is plurality in Unity, and in virtue of his 'journey with God from God ' he is carried down again into plurality. L.