The entire section is extra-ordinary in itself. but here I have scooped out a few lines (which really aren’t a few) from sub-sections, the ones I love to read over and over again! ( a few lines donot do justice, I believe)
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In every atom slumbers the might of the self.
The form of existence is an effect of the self,
Whatsoever thou seest is a secret of the self.
It revealed the universe of Thought.
A hundred words are hidden in its essence:
Like the rose, it lives by bathing itself in blood.
For the sake of a single rose it destroys a hundred rose gardens
And makes a hundred lamentations in quest of a single melody.
For one sky it produces a hundred new moons,
And for one word a hundred discourses.
The pencil of the self limned a hundred to‐days
In order to achieve the dawn of a single morrow.
Its flames burned a hundred Abrahams
That the lamp of one Muhammad might be lighted.
The self rises, kindles, falls, glows, breathes,
Burns, shines, walks, and flies.
The spaciousness of Time is its arena,
Heaven is a billow of the dust on the road.
When a drop of water gets the self’s lesson by heart,
It makes its worthless existence a pearl
When the mountain loses its self, it turns into sands
And complains that the sea surges over it;
The wave, so long as it remains a wave in the sea’s bosom,
Makes itself rider on the sea’s back.
Because the earth is firmly based on its self,
The captive moon goes round it perpetually.
The being of the sun is stronger than that of the earth:
Therefore is the earth fascinated by the sun’s eye.
The glory of the red birch fixes our gaze,
The mountains are enriched by its majesty
Its raiment is woven of fire,
Its origin is one self-assertive seed.
When Life gathers strength from the self,
The river of Life expands into an ocean.
An ideal higher than Heaven
Life is preserved by purpose:
Because of the goal its caravan-bell tinkles.
Life is latent in seeking,
Its origin is hidden in desire.
Desire sets the heart dancing in the breast,
And by its glow the breast is made bright as a mirror.
From the flame of desire the heart takes life,
And when it takes life, all dies that is not true
The object of science and art is not knowledge,
The object of the garden is not the bud and the flower.
Science is an instrument for the preservation of Life,
Science is a means of invigorating the self.
Science and art are servants of Life,
Slaves born and bred in its house.
Rise, O thou who art strange to Life ‘s mystery,
Rise intoxicated with the wine of an ideal:
An ideal shining as the dawn,
A blazing fire to all that is other than God;
An ideal higher than Heaven –
Winning, captivating, enchanting menʹs hearts,
A destroyer of ancient falsehood,
Fraught with turmoil, and embodiment of the Last Day.
We live by forming ideals,
We glow with the sunbeams of desire!
Self is strengthened by Love
The luminous point whose name is the self
Is the life‐spark beneath our dust.
By Love it is made more lasting,
More living, more burning, more glowing
Its nature gathers fire from Love,
Love instructs it to illumine the world.
Love fears neither sword nor dagger,
Love is not born of water and air and earth.
Love makes peace and war in the world,
Love is the Fountain of Life,
Love is the flashing sword of Death.
The hardest rocks are shivered by Loveʹs glance:
Love of God at last becomes wholly God.
Learn thou to love, and seek a beloved:
Seek an eye like Noahʹs, a heart like Jobʹs!
Transmute thy handful of earth into gold,
Kiss the threshold of a Perfect Man!
Like Rumi, light the candle
And burn Rum in the fire of Tabriz!
By love of him the heart is made strong
And earth rubs shoulders with the Pleiades.
The soil of Najd was quickened by his grace
And fell into a rapture and rose to the skies.
In the Muslim ʹs heart is the home of Muhammad,
All our glory is from the name of Muhammad.
Eternity is less than a moment of his time,
Eternity receives increase from his essence.
He slept on a mat of rushes,
But the crown of Chosroes was under his peopleʹs feet.
He chose the nightly solitude of Mount Hira,
And he founded a state and laws and government.
He passed many a night with sleepless eyes
In order that the Muslims might sleep on the throne of Persia.
In the hour of battle, iron was melted by the fash of his sword;
In the hour of prayer, tears fell like rain from his eye.
When he prayed for Divine help, his sword answered “Amen”
And extirpated the race of kings.
He instituted new laws in the world,
He brought the empires of antiquity to an end.
With the key of religion he opened the door of this world:
The womb of the world never bore his like.
In his sight high and low were one,
He sat with his slave at one table.
The daughter of the chieftain of Tai was taken prisoner in battle
And brought into that exalted presence;
Her feet in chains, unveiled,
And her neck bowed with shame.
When the Prophet saw that the poor girl had no veil,
He covered her face with his own mantle.
We are more naked than that lady of Tai,
We are unveiled before the nations of the world.
In him is our trust on the Day of Judgement,
And in this world too he is our protector.
Both his favour and his wrath are entirely a mercy:
That is a mercy to his friends and this to his foes.
We belong to the Hijaz and China and Persia,
Yet we are the dew of one smiling dawn.
We are all under the spell of the eye of the
cup bearer from Makkah,
We are united as wine and cup.
He burnt clean away distinctions of lineage,
His fire consumed this trash and rubble.
We are like a rose with many petals but with one perfume:
He is the soul of this society, and he is one
We are the secret concealed in his heart:
He spake out fearlessly, and we were revealed.
The song of love for him fills my silent reed,
A hundred notes throb in my bosom.
How shall I tell what devotion he inspires?
A block of dry wood wept at parting from him.
The Muslimʹs being is where he manifests his glory:
Many a Sinai springs from the dust on his path.
My image was created by his mirror,
My dawn rises from the sun of his breast.
My repose is a perpetual fever,
My evening hotter than the morning of Judgment Day:
He is the April cloud and I his garden,
My vine is bedewed with his rain.
It sowed mine eye in the field of Love
And reaped a harvest of vision.
“The soil of Medina is sweeter than both worlds:
Oh, happy the town where dwell the Beloved!”
I am lost in admiration of the style of Mulla Jami:
“Muhammad is the preface to the book of the universe:
All the worlds are slaves and he is the Master.”
Be a lover constant in devotion to thy beloved,
That thou mayst cast thy nose and capture God.
Sojourn for a while on the Hira of the heart.
Abandon self and flee to God.
Strengthened by God, return to thy self
And break the heads of the Lat and Uzza of sensuality.
By the might of Love evoke an army
Reveal thyself on the Faran of Love,
That the Lord of the Ka‘ba may show thee favour
And make thee the object of the text, “Lo, I
will appoint a vicegerent on the earth.”
Self is weakened by asking
O thou who hast gathered taxes from lions,
Thy need hath caused thee to become a fox in disposition.
Thy maladies are the result of indigence:
This disease is the source of thy pain.
It is robbing thine high thoughts of their dignity
And putting out the light of thy noble imagination.
Quaff rosy wine from the jar of existence!
Snatch thy money from the purse of Time!
Like Omar, come down from thy camel!
Beware of incurring obligations, beware!
By asking, poverty is made more abject;
By begging, the beggar is made poorer.
Asking disintegrates the self
And deprives of illumination the Sinai bush of the self.
Do not scatter thy handful of dust;
Like the moon, scrape food from thine own side!
Albeit thou art poor and wretched
And overwhelmed by affliction,
Seek not thy daily bread from the bounty of another,
Seek not water from the fountain of the sun,
Lest thou be put to shame before the Prophet
On the Day when every soul shall be stricken with fear.
Pray God for courage! Wrestle with Fortune!
Do not sully the honour of the pure religion!
He who swept the rubbish of idols out of the Ka‘ba
Said that God loves a man that earns his living.
Woe to him that accepts bounty from anotherʹs table
And lets his neck be bent with benefits!
That noble youth walks under heaven
With his head erect like the pine.
Are his hands empty? The more is he master of himself.
Do his fortunes languish? The more alert is he.
A whole ocean, if gained by begging is but a sea of fire;
Sweet is a little dew gathered by oneʹs own hand.
Be a man of honour, and like the bubble
Keep the cup inverted even in the midst of the sea!
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Drink the old wine
Oh, if thou hast the coin of poesy in thy purse,
Rub it on the touchstone of Life!
Clear‐seeing thought shows the way to action,
As the lightning‐flash precedes the thunder.
It behoves thee to meditate well concerning literature,
It behoves thee to go back to Arabia:
Thou must needs give thine heart to the Salma of Araby,
That the morn of the Hijaz may blossom from the night of Kurdistan.
Thou hast gathered roses from the garden of Persia
And seen the springtide of India and Iran:
Now taste a little of the heat of the desert,
Drink the old wine of the date!
Lay thine head for once on its hot breast.
Yield thy body awhile to its scorching wind!
For a long time thou hast turned about on a bed of silk:
Now accustom thyself to rough cotton!
For generations thou hast danced on tulips
And bathed thy cheek in dew, like the rose:
Now throw thyself on the burning sand
And plunge in to the fountain of Zamzam!
How long wilt thou fain lament like the nightingale?
How long make thine abode in gardens?
O thou whose auspicious snare would do
honour to the Phoenix,
Build a nest on the high mountains,
A nest embosomed in lightning and thunder,
Loftier than eagle’s eye,
That thou mayst be fit for Life’s battle,
That thy body and soul may burn in Lifeʹs fire!
Education of the self has three stages: obedience, self‐control, and divine vicegerency
- Obedience
Service and toil are traits of the camel,
Patience and perseverance are ways of the camel.
Noiselessly he steps along the sandy track,
He is the ship of those who voyage in the desert.
Every thicket knows the print of his foot:
He eats seldom, sleeps little, and is inured to toil.
He carries rider, baggage, and litter:
He trots on and on to the journeyʹs end,
Rejoicing in his speed,
More patient in travel than his rider,
Thou, too, do not refuse the burden of Duty:
So wilt thou enjoy the best dwelling place,
which is with God.
Endeavour to obey, O heedless one!
Liberty is the fruit of compulsion.
By obedience the man of no worth is made worthy;
By disobedience his fire is turned to ashes.
Whoso would master the sun and stars,
Let him make himself a prisoner of Law!
The air becomes fragrant when it is
imprisoned in the flower‐bud;
The perfume becomes musk when it is
confined in the ‐navel of the muskdeer.
The star moves towards its goal
With head bowed in surrender to a law.
The grass springs up in obedience to the law of growth:
When it abandons that, it is trodden underfoot.
To burn unceasingly is the law of the tulip.
And so the blood leaps in its veins
Drops of water become a sea by the law of union,
And grains of sand become a Sahara.
Since Law makes everything strong within,
Why dost thou neglect this source of strength?
O thou that art emancipated from the old Custom,
Adorn thy feet once more with the same fine silver chain!
Do not complain of the hardness of the Law,
Do not transgress the statutes of Muhammad!
2. Self‐Control
Be a man, get its halter into thine hand,
That thou mayst become a pearl albeit thou art a potterʹs vessel.
He that does not command himself
Becomes a receiver of commands from others.
So long as thou hold’st the staff of “There is no god but He,”
Thou wilt break every spell of fear.
One to whom God is as the soul in his body,
His neck is not bowed before vanity.
Fear finds no way into his bosom,
heart is afraid of none but Allah.
Whoso dwells in the world of Negation
Is freed from the bonds of wife and child.
He withdraws his gaze from all except God
And lays the knife to the throat of his son.
Though single, he is like a host in onset:
Life is cheaper in his eyes than wind.
The profession of Faith is the shell, and prayer
is the pearl within it:
The Moslem’s heart deems prayer a lesser pilgrimage.
In the Muslimʹs hand prayer is like a dagger
Killing sin and forwardness and wrong.
Fasting makes an assault upon hunger and thirst.
And breaches the citadel of sensuality.
The pilgrimage enlightens the soul of the Faithful:
It teaches separation from oneʹs home and
destroys attachment to oneʹs native land;
It is an act of devotion in which all feel
themselves to be one,
It binds together the leaves of the book of religion.
Almsgiving causes love of riches to pass away
And makes equality familiar;
It fortifies the heart with righteousness,
It increases wealth and diminishes fondness for wealth.
All this is a means of strengthening thee:
Thou art impregnable, if thy Islam be strong.
Draw might from the litany “O Almighty One!”
That thou mayst ride the camel of thy body.
- Divine Vicegerency
He makes every raw nature ripe,
He puts the idols out of the sanctuary.
Heart‐strings give forth music at his touch,
He wakes and sleeps for God alone.
He teaches age the melody of youth
And endows every thing with the radiance of youth.
To the human race he brings both a glad message and a warning,
He comes both as a soldier and as a marshal and prince.
He is the final cause of “God taught Adam the names of all things,”
He is the inmost sense of “Glory to Him that
transported His servant by night.”
His white hand is strengthened by the staff,
His knowledge is twined with the power of a perfect man.
When that bold cavalier seizes the reins,
The steed of Time gallops faster.
His awful mien makes the Red Sea dry,
He leads lsrael out of Egypt.
At his cry, “Arise,” the dead spirits
Rise in their bodily tomb, like pines in the field.
His person is an atonement for all the world,
By his grandeur the world is saved.
His protecting shadow makes the mote
familiar with the sun,
His rich substance makes precious all that exists.
He bestows life by his miraculous actions,
He renovates old ways of life.
Splendid visions rise from the print of his foot,
Many a Moses is entranced by his Sinai.
He gives a new explanation of Life,
A new interpretation of this dream.
His hidden life is being Life’s mystery,
The unheard music of Life’s harp.
Nature travels in blood for generations
To compose the harmony of his personality.
Appear, O rider of Destiny!
Appear, O light of the dark realm of Change!
Illumine the scene of existence,
Dwell in the blackness of our eyes!
Silence the noise of the nations,
Imparadise our ears with thy music!
Arise and tune the harp of brotherhood,
Give us back the cup of the wine of love!
Bring once more days of peace to the world,
Give a message of peace to them that seek
battle!
It is to thee that we owe our dignity
And silently undergo the pains of life.
Setting forth the inner meaning of the names of Ali
Ali is the first Muslim and the King of men,
In Loveʹs eyes Ali is the treasure of the Faith.
Devotion to his family inspires me with life
So that I am as a shining pearl.
Like the narcissus, I am enraptured with gazing:
Like perfume, I am straying through his pleasure garden.
If holy water gushes from my earth, he is the source;
If wine pours from my grapes, he is the cause.
I am dust, but his sun hath made me as a mirror:
Song can be seen in my breast.
From Aliʹs face the Prophet drew many a fair omen,
By his majesty the true religion is glorified
His commandments are the strength of Islam:
All things pay allegiance to his House.
The Apostle of God gave him the name Bu Turab;
God in the Koran called him “the Hand of Allah.”
Every one that is acquainted with Lifeʹs mysteries
Knows what is the inner meaning of the names of Ali.
The dark clay, whose name is the body—
Our reason is ever bemoaning its iniquity.
On account of it our sky‐reaching thought
plods over the earth;
It makes our eyes blind and our ears deaf.
It hath in its hand a two‐edged sword of lust:
Travelersʹ hearts are broken by this brigand.
Ali, the Lion of God, subdued the bodyʹs clay
And transmuted this dark earth to gold.
Murtaza, by whose sword the splendour of
Truth was revealed,
Is named Bu Turab from his conquest of the body.
Man wins territory by prowess in battle,
But his brightest jewel is mastery of himself.
Whosoever in the world becomes a Bu Turab
Turns back the sun from the west;
Whosoever saddles tightly the seed of the body
Sits like the bezel on the seal of sovereignty:
Here the might of Khyber is under his feet,
And hereafter his hand will distribute the water of Kauthar.
Through self‐knowledge, he acts as Godʹs Hand,
And in virtue of being Godʹs Hand he reigns over all.
His person is the gate of the city of the sciences:
Arabia, China, and Greece are subject to him.
If thou wouldst drink clear wine from thine own grapes,
Thou must needs wield authority over thine own earth.
To become earth is the creed of a moth:
Be a conqueror of earth; that alone is worthy of a man.
Thou art soft as a rose. Become hard as a stone,
That thou mayst be the foundation of the wall of the garden!
Build thy clay into a Man,
Build thy Man into a World!
Unless from thine own earth thou build thine own wall or door,
Someone else will make bricks of thine earth.
O thou who complainest of the cruelty of Heaven,
Thou whose glass cries out against the injustice of the stone,
How long this wailing and crying and lamentation?
How long this perpetual beating of thy breast?
The pith of Life is contained in action,
To delight in creation is the law of Life.
Arise and create a new world!
Wrap thyself in flames, be an Abraham!
To comply with this world which does not
favour thy purposes
If the world does not comply with his humour,
He will try the hazard of war with Heaven;
He will dig up the foundations of the universe
And cast its atoms into a new mould.
He will subvert the course of Time
And wreck the azure firmament.
By his own strength he will produce
A new world which will do his pleasure.
If one cannot live in the world as beseems a man,
Then it is better to die like the brave.
He that hath a sound heart
Will prove his strength by great enterprises.
ʹTis sweet to use love in hard tasks
And, like Abraham, to gather roses from flames.
The potentialities of men of action
Are displayed in willing acceptance of what is difficult.
Mean spirits have no weapon but resentment.
Life has only one law.
Life is power made manifest,
And its mainspring is the desire for victory.
Mercy out of season is a chilling of Lifeʹs blood,
A break in the rhythm of Lifeʹs music.
Whoever is sunk in the depths of ignominy
Calls his weakness contentment.
Weakness is the plunderer of Life,
Its womb is teeming with fears and lies.
Its soul is empty of virtues,
Vices fatten on its milk.
O man of sound judgment, beware!
Strength is the twin of Truth;
If thou knowest thyself, strength is the Truth‐revealing glass.
Life is the seed, and power the crop:
Power explains the mystery of truth and falsehood.
A claimant, if he be possessed of power,
Needs no argument for his claim.
Falsehood derives from power the authority of truth,
And by falsifying truth deems itself true.
Esteem thyself superior to both worlds!
Gain knowledge of Lifeʹs mysteries!
Be a tyrant! Ignore all except God!
O man of understanding, open thine eyes, ears, and lips!
If then thou seest not the Way of Truth, laugh at me!
Precepts written for the Muslims of India by Mir Najat Nakshband, who is generally known as Baba Sahrai
O thou that hast grown from earth, like a rose,
Thou too art born of the womb of self!
Do not abandon self! Persist therein!
Be a drop of water and drink up the ocean
Glowing with the light of self as thou art,
Make self strong, and thou wilt endure.
Thou gettʹst profit from the trade,
Thou gainʹst riches by preserving this commodity.
Thou art being, and art thou afraid of not‐being?
Dear friend, thy understanding is at fault.
Since I am acquainted with the harmony of Life.,
I will tell thee what is the secret of Life –
To sink into thyself like the pearl,
Then to emerge from thine inward solitude;
To collect sparks beneath the ashes,
And become a flame and dazzle menʹs eyes.
Go, burn the house of forty yearsʹ tribulation,
Move round thyself! Be a circling flame!
What is Life but to be freed from moving
round others
And to regard thyself as the Holy Temple?
Beat thy wings and escape from the attraction of Earth:
Like birds, be safe from falling.
O thou that seekest to acquire knowledge,
I say oʹer to thee the message of the Sage of Rum:
“Knowledge, if it lie on thy skin, is a snake;
Knowledge, if thou take it to heart, is a friend.”
hast drawn thy substance from the snow of philosophy,
The cloud of thy thought sheds nothing but hailstones.
Kindle a fire in thy rubble,
Foster a flame in thy earth!
The Muslimʹs knowledge is perfected by spiritual fervour,
The meaning of Islam is Renounce what shall pass away.
When Abraham escaped from the bondage of
“that which sets,”
He sat unhurt in the midst of flames.
Thou hast cast knowledge of God behind thee
And squandered thy religion for the sake of a loaf.
Thou art hot in pursuit of antimony,
Thou art unaware of the blackness of thine own eye.
Seek the Fountain of Life from the swordʹs edge,
And the River of Paradise from the dragon’s mouth,
Demand the Black Stone from the door of the house of idols,
And the musk‐deerʹs bladder from a mad dog,
But do not seek the glow of Love from the knowledge of today,
Do not seek the nature of Truth from this infidelʹs cup!
Long have I been running to and fro,
Learning the secrets of the New Knowledge:
Its gardeners have put me to the trial
And have made me intimate with their roses.
Roses! Tulips, rather, that warn one not to smell them –
Like paper roses, a mirage of perfume.
Since this garden ceased to enthrall me
I have nested on the Paradisal tree.
Modern knowledge is the greatest blind –
Idol‐worshipping, idol‐selling, idol making!
Shackled in the prison of phenomena,
It has not overleaped the limits of the sensible.
It has fallen down in crossing the bridge of Life,
It has laid the knife to its own throat.
Its fire is cold as the flame of the tulip;
Its flames are frozen like hail.
Its nature remains untouched by the glow of Love,
It is ever engaged in joyless search.
Love is the Plato that heals the sicknesses of the mind.
The mindʹs melancholy is cured by its lancet.
The whole world bows in adoration to Love,
Love is the Mahmud that conquers the Somnath of intellect.
Modern science lacks this old wine in its cup,
Its nights are not loud with passionate prayer.
Thou hast misprized thine own cypress
And deemed tall the cypress of others.
Like the reed, thou hast emptied thyself of self
And given thine heart to the music of others.
O thou that beggʹst morsels from an otherʹs table,
Wilt thou seek thine own kind in anotherʹs shop?
The Muslimʹs assembly‐place is burned up by the lamps of strangers,
His mosque is consumed by the sparks of monasticism.
When the deer fled from the sacred territory of Makkah,
The hunterʹs arrow pierced her side.
The leaves of the rose are scattered like its scent:
O thou that has fled from the self, come back to it!
O trustee of the wisdom of the Quran,
Find the lost unity again!
We, who keep the gate of the citadel of Islam,
Have become unbelievers by neglecting the watchword of Islam.
The ancient Sakiʹs bowl is shattered,
The wine‐party of the Hijaz is broken up.
The Kaʹba is filled with our idols,
Infidelity mocks at our Islam.
Our Shaykh hath gambled Islam away for love of idols.
And made a rosary of the zunnar.
Our spiritual directors owe their rank to their white hairs
And are the laughing‐stock of children in the street;
Their hearts bear no impress of the Faith
But house the idols of sensuality.
Every long‐haired fellow wears the garb of a dervish –
Alas for these traffickers in religion!
Day and night they are traveling about with disciples,
Insensible to the great needs of Islam.
Their eyes are without light, like the narcissus,
Their breasts devoid of spiritual wealth.
Preachers and Sufis, all worship worldliness alike;
The prestige of the pure religion is ruined.
Our preacher fixed his eyes on the pagoda
And the mufti of the Faith sold his verdict.
After this, O friends, what are we to do?
Our guide turns his face towards the wine‐house.
