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Secrets and Mystries

Translated
from the original Persian with
introduction and notes
by
Reynold A. Nicholson

Content

Prologue
Showing that the system of the universe originates in the...
Showing that the life of the Self comes from forming...
Showing that the Self is strengthened by Love
Showing that the Self is weakened by asking
Showing that when the Sell is strengthened by Love its...
A tale of which the moral is that negation of the Self is...
To the effect that Plato, whose thought has deeply...
Concerning the true nature of poetry and the reform of...
Showing that the education of the self has three stages :...
Setting forth the inner meanings of the names of Ali
Story of a young man of Merv who came to the saint Ali...
Story of the bird that was faint with thirst
Story of the diamond and the coal
Story of the Sheikh and the Brahmin, followed by a...
Showing that the purpose of the Muslims 's like is to...
Precepts written for the Muslimss of India by Mir Naj«t...
Time is a sword
An invocation
Dedication To The Muslim Community
PRELUDE: Of the Bond between Individual and Community
That the Community is made up of the Mingling of...
THE PILLARS OF ISLAM
Concerning Muslim Freedom and the Secret of the Tragedy of...
That since the Muhammadan Community is Founded upon Belief...
That the Country is not the Foundation of the Community
That the Organization of the Community is only Possible...
That in Times of Decadence Strict Conformity is Better...
That the Maturity of Communal Life Derives from Following...
That a Good Communal Character Derives from Discipline...
That the Life of the Community Requires a Visible Focus,...
That True Solidarity Consists in Adopting a Fixed Communal...
That the Expansion of Communal Life Depends upon...
That the Perfection of communal Life is Attained when the...
That the Continuance of the Species Derives from...
That the Lady Fatima is the Perfect Pattern of Muslim...
Address to the Veiled Ladies of Islam
Summary Of The Purport Of The Poem
The Author’s Memorial To Him Who Is A Mercy To All...

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That the organization of the community is only possible though law, and that the law of the Muhammadan Community is the Quran

When a community forsakes its Law
Its parts are severed, like the scattered dust.
The being of the Muslim rests alone
On Law which is in truth the inner core
Of the Apostle’s faith. A rose is born
When its component petals are conjoined
By Law; and roses, being likewise bound
By Law together, fashion a bouquet.
As sound controlled creates a melody
So, when control is absent, dissonance
Results. The breath we draw within our throat
Is but a wave of air which, in the reed
Being constricted, blows a tuneful note.
Knowest thou what thy Law is, wherein lies
Beneath yon spheres the secret of thy power?
It is the living Book, that wise Quran
Whose wisdom is eternal, uncreate.
The secrets of the fashioning of life
Are therein written; instability
Is firmly established by its potency.
Undoubted and unchanging are its words,
Its verses to interpretation not
Beholden; in its strength the raw desire
Acquires maturity, the bowl fears not
To dash against the rock. It casts away
The shackling chains, and leads the free man forth
But brings the exultant captor unto woe.
The final message to all humankind
Was borne by him elect of God to be
A mercy unto every living thing;
By this the worthless unto worth attains,
The prostrate slave lifts up his head on high.
Having by heart this message, highwaymen
Turned guides upon the road, and by this book
Were qualified high masters of the rolls;
Rude desert-farers through one lantern’s glow
A hundred revelations to their brain
In every science won. So he, whose load
The mountain’s massive shoulders could not bear,
Clove by his might the power of the spheres.
See how the capital of all our hopes
Is lodged securely in our children’s breasts!
The weary wanderer in the wilderness
Unwatered, eyes aflame in the hot sun,
His camel nimbler than the agile deer,
Its breath as fire, when he would look to sleep
Casting him down bencath some shady palm,
Then with the dawn awake, the caravan
Clanged to departure, ever journeying
Through the wide prairies, unfamiliar
With roof and door, stranger to fixed abodes—
When his wild heart responded vibrantly
To the Quran’s warm glow, its restless waves
Sank to the calm of a sequestered pearl.
Reading the lesson of its verses clear
He who had come a slave went forth from God
A master. Now upon his instrument
New melodies imperial were heard;
Jamshid’s high throne he trampled underfoot;
Cities sprang up out of the dust he trod,
A hundred bowers blossomed from his rose.
O thou, whose faith by custom is enslaved,
Imprisoned by the charms of heathendom,
Thou who hast torn thy heritage to shreds
Treading the highway to a hateful goal,
If thou wouldst live the Muslim life anew
This cannot be, except by the Quran
Thou livest. See the Sufi in his garb
Of mystic minstrelsy, his heart inflamed
By the fierce fervour of Iraqi’s verse!
Little do his wild ecstasies accord
With the austere Quran; the dervish cap
And mat of reeds replace the crown and throne;
His boasted poverty rich tribute takes
Secured on many a hermitage endowed.
The preacher, with his wealth of anecdote
And wordy legend, little has to tell
If truth, for all his fine grandiloquence;
Khatib and Dailami are on his lips,
In every week Tradition he delights,
The little met with, and the insecure.
It is thy duty to recite the Book,
And therein find the purpose thou dost seek.

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That the Organization of the Community is only...

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