First Volume
A compassionate friend from distant lands came as a guest to Yūsuf al-Ṣiddīq (Joseph the Truthful). They had known each other since childhood. They had long rested on the pillow of familiarity. The guest and Yūsuf spoke about the torment Yūsuf’s brothers had inflicted upon him, and their envy. Yūsuf said, “That envy and torment were chains; and we were lions.
It is no shame for a lion to be bound in chains. We have no complaint about the decree and destiny of Allah. Even though the lion has a chain around its neck, it is still lord over all those who forge chains.” His friend said to Yūsuf, “What state were you in, in the prison and in the well?” Yūsuf replied:
“The moon leaves its full state and returns to its former phase… just like that.” The old moon becomes invisible, then reappears as a crescent, bent double. But in the end, does it not become full again in the sky? The pearl is pounded in the mortar, but its value remains lofty; it is either applied to the eye as medicine, or made into a paste and eaten for the heart’s relief.
They cast the wheat beneath the earth, but later, ears of grain sprouted from the soil. Then they ground it in the mill, its value increased, and it became nourishment that gives life to life. Then, once more, bread is crushed under the teeth; it becomes reason and understanding for the wise.
Afterwards, that life is annihilated in love, and after being sown in the path of the Real (al-Ḥaqq), it yields a harvest that astonishes the farmers. The end of this discourse is endless. Now, begin to recount what that good man said to Yūsuf.
After Yūsuf recounted what he had experienced, he said, “Well… let’s see, what gift have you brought us?” O noble one! To visit friends empty-handed is like going to the mill without wheat. Even Allah, on the Day of Resurrection, will say to the people: “Where is your provision for the Day of Resurrection?
You have come to Us alone, without provision, just as We created you the first time. Come to your senses! What gift do you have for the Day of Resurrection, what have you brought? Or did you think you would not return? Did the appointed time of this day seem vain to you?”
If you deny that you will be His guest, then from this kitchen you can take nothing but dust and ashes. If you do not deny it, then why have you come empty-handed? How will you set foot at the door of that Beloved in such a state? Reduce your eating and sleeping a little, and bring a gift to meet Him. Be among those who sleep little at night and seek forgiveness at dawn.
Be like a child in the womb—move little, so that you may be granted senses that perceive the lights. When you emerge from this world, which is like a womb, you will plunge into a realm vaster than the earth. “Allah’s earth is vast,” they say; that vast realm is the field into which the prophets have entered and plunged. In that vast field, the heart does not feel constricted; a green tree does not become a dry branch there.
Now, the senses are with you. But one day, you will become weary, exhausted, and turned upside down. In sleep, you do not carry your senses; your senses carry you. This fatigue and exhaustion will pass, and you will be freed from distress and hardship. Consider your state in sleep as a taste of the saints (awliyāʾ) not carrying their senses even while awake.
Be stubborn; the saints are the Companions of the Cave (Aṣḥāb al-Kahf). Even if they stand, walk, and travel, they are asleep. Allah makes them act without their own awareness; He turns them to the right and to the left. What is this turning to the right? Good deeds. And turning to the left? That is deeds related to the body and existence.
Both of these states manifest from the prophets, like a voice coming from the mountain. They are unaware of both. The mountain, whether good or evil… returns your voice to you, makes you hear it. But it is unaware of both.
When Yūsuf said, “Come, present your gift,” the guest, ashamed by this request, cried out: “No matter how much I searched for a gift to bring you, I found nothing suitable, nothing worthy. How can I take a grain to the mine, or a drop to the ocean?
Even if I brought you my heart and soul, it would be like bringing cumin to Kirmān. There is no seed in this granary other than your matchless beauty. I deemed it fitting to bring you a mirror as pure as the light of the heart.
O beautiful one, light of the heavens like the sun! As you look into it, you see your own beautiful face. Light of my eyes, I have brought you a mirror; as you look into it and see your face, you will remember me,” he said. He took the mirror from his bosom and presented it. The beautiful are occupied with mirrors.
What is the mirror of existence? Non-existence. If you are not a fool, choose non-existence. Existence can be seen in non-existence. The rich can be generous to the poor. The pure mirror of bread is hunger; tinder is the mirror of flint. Wherever there is non-existence and deficiency… this is a mirror to the beauty of all arts.
If a garment is cut and sewn, can the tailor’s skill be seen? Knots must remain uncarved so that the carpenter may carve and plane them… and from them make something, whether for the essence or for the branch. Where does the skilled bone-setter go? Wherever there is a broken foot. If there were no sick and emaciated, how could the beauty of the art of medicine be seen?
O noble one! If copper were not base and lowly, how could alchemy manifest? Deficiencies are the mirror of the attribute of perfection. That abasement is a mirror to loftiness and grandeur. For certainly, an opposite reveals its opposite. Thus, honey is seen with vinegar (and becomes oxymel).
Whoever sees and understands his own deficiency, though he has nine horses at his side, runs on the path of perfection. One who deems himself perfect cannot fly on the path of the majestic Allah. O proud and misguided one! There can be no worse disease in your soul than deeming yourself perfect.
Until this self-admiration departs from you, much blood will flow from your heart and from your eyes! The disease of Iblīs was his saying, “I am better than Adam.” This sickness is present in every creature. One afflicted with this disease, even if he deems himself lowly, know that he is like pure water with filth beneath it!
If you stir it for the sake of testing, the water immediately becomes turbid, taking on the color of filth. O brave one! The river appears pure and clear to you, but at the bottom of your river, too, there is filth. The wise guide who knows the way is a digger of channels in the gardens of the Universal Soul (Nafs-i kull).
How can the river cleanse itself? Human knowledge is beneficial with knowledge of Allah. Can the hilt of a sword be cut? Go, show this wound to a surgeon. So that no one may see the ugliness of his wound, a fly lands on every wound.
Those flies are your thoughts, your possessions; your wound is the darkness in your states! If a guide applies ointment to that wound, then your pain will heal, your cries and lamentations will cease. When ointment is applied, the wounded one thinks he is healed. But in reality, it is the light of the ointment that has shone there.
Come to your senses, O one with a wounded back, do not turn away from the ointment; and when you are healed, do not say, ‘I healed myself,’ but know that your health is from the ointment!