XVI
PRECEPTS WRITTEN FOR THE MUSLIMS OF INDIA BY MIR NAJAT NAKSHBAND, WHO IS GENERALLY KNOWN AS BÿBÿ SHARÿ'S102
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 | 1390 |
Glowing with the light of Self as thou art, | |
Make Self strong, and thou with endure. | |
Thou gett'st profit from the trade, | |
Thou gain'st riches by preserving this commodity. | |
Thou art Being, and art thou afraid of not-being? | 1395 |
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; | 1400 |
To collect sparks beneath the ashes, | |
And become a flame and dazzle -men's eyes. | |
Go, burn the house of forty years' tribulation, | |
Move round thyself! By a circling flame | |
What is Life but to be freed from moving round others | 1405 |
And to regard thyself as the Holy Temple ? | |
Beat thy wings and escape from the attraction of Earth: | |
Like birds be safe from failing. | |
Unless thou art a bird., thou wilt do wisely | |
Not to build thy nest on the top of a cave. | 1410 |
O thou that seekest to acquire knowledge, | |
I say o'er to thee the message of the Sage of Rum:103 | |
"Knowledge, if it lie on thy skin, is a snake; | |
Knowledge, if thou take it to heart, is a friend." | |
Hast thou heard how the Master of Rum | 1415 |
Gave lectures on philosophy at Aleppo? | |
Fast in the bonds of intellectual proofs, | |
Drifting o'er the dark and stormy sea of understanding; | |
A Moses unillumined by Love's Sinai, | |
Ignorant of Love and of Love's passion. | 1420 |
He discoursed on Scepticism and Neoplatonism, | |
And strung many a brilliant pearl of - metaphysics. | |
He unravelled the problems of the Peripatetics, | |
The light of his thought made clear whatever was obscure. | |
Heaps of books lay around and in front of him, | 1425 |
And on his lips was the key to all their mysteries. | |
Shams-i-Tabriz, directed by Kamal,104 | |
Sought his way to the college Of Jalauddin Rumi | |
And cried out, "What is all 'this noise and babble ? | |
What are all these syllogisms and judgements and demonstrations?" | 1430 |
"Peace, O fool!" exclaimed the Maulvi, | |
"Do not laugh at the doctrines of the sages. | |
Get thee out of my college! | |
This is argument and discussion; what hast thou to do with it ? | |
My discourse is beyond thy under standing. | 1435 |
It brightens the glass of perception! | |
These words increased the anger of Shams-i-Tabriz | |
And caused a fire to burst forth from his soul. | |
The lightning of his look fell on the earth, | |
And the Slow of his breath made the dust spring into flames. | 1440 |
The spiritual fire burned the intellectual stack | |
And clean consumed the library of the philosopher. | |
The Maulvi, being a stranger to Love's miracles | |
And unversed in Love's harmonies, | |
Cried, "How didst thou kindle this fire, | 1445 |
Which hath burned the books of the philosophers ?" | |
The Sheikh answered, "O unbelieving Muslim, | |
This is vision and ecstasy: what hast thou to do with it ? | |
My state is beyond thy thought, | |
My flame is the Alchemist's elixir," | 1450 |
Thou 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 Muslim's knowledge is perfected by spiritual fervour, | 1455 |
The meaning of Islam is Renounce what shall pass away. | |
When Abraham escaped from the bondage of "that which sets,"105 | |
He sat unhurt in the midst of flames.106 | |
Thou hast cast knowledge of God behind thee | |
And squandered thy religion for the sake of a loaf. | 1460 |
Thou art hot in pursuit of antimony, | |
Thou art unaware of the blackness of thine own eye. | |
Seek k the Fountain of Life from the sword's edge. | |
And the River of Paradise from the dragon's mouth. | |
Demand the Black Stone from the door of the house of idols. | 1465 |
And the musk-deer's 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 infidel's cup! | |
Long have I been running to and fro, | |
Learning the secrets of the New Knowledge | 1470 |
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 | 1475 |
1 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 over leaped the limits of the sensible. | 1480 |
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, | 1485 |
It is ever engaged in joyless search. | |
Love is the Plato that heals the sicknesses of the mind:107 | |
The mind's melancholy is cured by its lancet. | |
The-whole world bows in adoration to Love, | |
Love is the Mahmud that conquers the Somnath of intellect.108 | 1490 |
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. | 1495 |
And given thine heart to the music of others, | |
O thou that begg'st morsels from an other's table. | |
Witt thou seek thine own kind in another's shop? | |
The Muslim's assembly-place is burned up by the lamps of strangers, | |
His mosque is consumed by the sparks of monasticism. | 1500 |
When the deer fled from the sacred territory of Mecca, | |
The hunter's arrow pierced her side.109 | |
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 Koran, | 1505 |
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 Saqi's bowl is shattered, | |
The wine-party of the Hijaz is broken up. | 1510 |
The Ka'ba is filled with our idols, | |
Infidelity mocks at our Islam. | |
Our Sheikh hath gambled Islam away for love of idols. | |
And made a rosary of the zunnar.110 | |
Our spiritual directors owe their rank to their white hairs | 1515 |
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! | 1520 |
Day and night they are travelling 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; | 1525 |
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. | 1530 |