QUESTION 7
| OF what sort is this traveller, who is the wayfarer? |
| Of whom shall I say that he is the Perfect Man? |
Answer
| IF you direct your eyes towards your heart, | |
| You will find your destination within your bosom. | |
| To travel while at rest is: | |
| To travel from one's self to one's self. | |
| None knows here where we are, | 5 |
| That we look so insignificant in the eyes of moon and stars. | |
| Don't seek the end of the journey, for you have no end; | |
| As soon as you reach the end, you lose your soul. | |
| Do not look upon us as ripe, for we are raw, | |
| At every destination we are perfect and imperfect. | 10 |
| Not to reach the end is life; | |
| Immortal life for us lies in constant travelling. | |
| The whole world from the centre of the earth1 to the moon is within our reach, | |
| Time and space are like dust in our path. | |
| Our selves are our centres and pine for manifestation, | 15 |
| For we are waves and rise from the bottom of Being. | |
| Lie in constant ambush against the self, | |
| Fly from doubt to faith and certainty. | |
| The fire and ardour of love are not subject to extinction; | |
| Faith and "sight" have no end. | 20 |
| The perfection of life consists in seeing the Essence, | |
| The way of achieving it is to free oneself from the limits of time and space. | |
| You should enjoy privacy with the Divine Person in such a way, | |
| That He sees you and you see Him.2 | |
| Become illumined by the light of "what you see."3 | 25 |
| Do not wink, otherwise you will be no more. | |
| In His presence, be strong and self-possessed, | |
| Don't merge yourself in the ocean of His Light. | |
| Bestow that perturbation to the mote, | |
| That it may shine in the vicinity of the sun. | 30 |
| So burn. amid the splendour of the Beloved | |
| That you may illumine yourself in public and Him in privacy. | |
| He who "saw" is the leader of the world, | |
| We and you are imperfect; he alone is perfect. | |
| If you do not find him, rise in search of him; | 35 |
| If you find him, attach yourself to him. | |
| Do not allow yourself to be guided by the faqih, shaikh, and mulla,4 | |
| Like fish, do not walk about careless of the hook. | |
| He is a man of the path in matters of State and religion; | |
| We are blind and he is a man of insight. | 40 |
| Like the sun of the morning, | |
| Wisdom shines from every root, of his hair. | |
| The West has set up the rule of democracy, | |
| It has untied the rope from the neck of a fiend. | |
| It does not possess sound without plectrum and musical instruments, | 45 |
| Without a flying machine it does not possess the power of flying. | |
| A desolate field is better than its garden, | |
| A desert is better than its city. | |
| Like a marauding caravan it is active, | |
| Its people are ever busy in satisfying their hunger.5 | 50 |
| Its soul became dormant, and its body awoke; | |
| Art, science and religion all became contemptible. | |
| Intellect is nothing but fostering of unbelief., | |
| The art of the West is nothing but man-killing. | |
| A group lies in ambush against another group, | 55 |
| Such a state of affairs is -sure to lead to disaster. | |
| Convey my message to the West | |
| That the ideal of democracy is a sword out of its sheath: | |
| What a sword that it kills men | |
| And does not make a distinction a between believer and an unbeliever! | 60 |
| If it does not remain in the sheath for a little more time, | |
| It will kill itself as well as the world. |