They call a falcon that returns again to the king a "doğan" (falcon). The falcon that loses its way is a blind falcon. One falcon lost its way, fell into a ruin, and remained among the owls. It was from the light of riḍā (contentment with God's decree), it was all light from head to toe; but the sergeant of qadar (divine decree) and qadar (destiny) blinded its eyes; threw dust into its eyes, led it astray, and made it fall among the owls in the ruin.
Not only did it fall apart from the king, but it also ended up among the owls. Not only did it fall apart from the king, but the owls began to strike its head and pluck its beautiful wings. Among the owls, a commotion arose: “Come to your senses; the falcon has come to take your place and home.” Like neighborhood dogs, all of them, angry and fierce, swarmed upon the poor falcon and began to pull at its cloak.
The falcon said, “Am I worthy of the owls? I have given away hundreds of such ruins to the owls. I do not wish to stay here, I want to return to the king. Do not worry or harm yourselves. I will not stay here, I will go to my homeland. This ruin may seem pleasant to your eyes, but not to me. The place I take pride in is the king’s arm.”
The owl, however, said, “The falcon is resorting to trickery to drive you from your home and hearth. He intends to separate us from our homeland and drive us from our nests by deceit. This deceiver pretends to be satisfied, but by Allah, he is worse than all the greedy. Out of his greed, he eats mud as if it were molasses. Do not let the bear catch your tail. To lead simple ones like us astray, he speaks of the king and the king’s hand.
Can a mere little bird ever associate with the king? If you have even a little sense, do not listen to this talk. Is he of the king’s kind, or of the vizier’s kind? Can garlic ever be eaten with almond halva? His claim that the king is searching for him with his men is also a trick, a ruse. This is an unacceptable delusion. This is an impossible statement, a trap set to deceive fools! Whoever believes this, believes out of foolishness.
What connection could a weak little bird have with the king? If even the lowest owl struck its brain, would help come to it from the king? Where is it?” they said. The falcon replied: “If even one of my feathers is plucked, the king will uproot the very foundation of the owl’s nest. Who is the owl? If even a falcon hurts me, breaks my heart, or torments me,
The king, at every ascent and descent, makes heaps from the heads of falcons, raises hills. My guardian is his grace. Wherever I go, the king is behind me. My image is in the king’s heart. He cannot be without me. When the king lets me fly, I soar in the heights of the heart like his radiance. I fly like the moon and the sun, passing through the veils of the sky.
The illumination of intellects is from my thought; the creation of the heavens is for my sake. I am such a falcon that even the Ḥumā (a mythical bird of fortune) admires me. Who is the owl to know my secret? The king opened the prison for my deliverance, freed hundreds of thousands of captives. For a time, he made me companion to the owls, and for my sake, he turned owls into falcons. Blessed is the falcon who follows my flight, whose fortune becomes my friend and understands my secret. Cling to me and become falcons, even if you are owls, become falcons! Wherever one beloved by such a king falls, how can he ever be a stranger?
Whoever the king cures, he laments like the reed flute, never remaining silent. I am the owner of the estate, I do not sit at another’s table to eat my food. The king, from afar, beats my drum with the call of “Irjiʿī” (Return!). My witness against those who contend with me is Allah.
I am not of the king’s kind, God forbid I claim this. But through his manifestation, I possess his light. Being of the same kind is not only in form and essence. Water is considered of the same kind as the plant in the earth. The wind is called the kind of fire because it kindles and helps it burn. Ultimately, wine is of the same kind as nature because it brings joy to it. Since our kind is not of the king’s kind, our existence was clothed in his existence and became annihilated.
When our existence is gone, only his existence remains, alone. I am like dust before the foot of his horse, like dust! The soul and its signs have become earth. In the earth is his footprint.” To find this trace, become earth under his feet so that you may become the crown of the upright. So that my form does not deceive you, drink my wine without listening to my words, eat my meze. How many are there whose form has blocked their path. They aimed at the form, and thus clashed with Allah.
This soul is united with the body, yes. But does the soul ever resemble the body? The light of the eye is paired with the fat of the eye, the light of the heart is hidden in a drop of blood. Joy comes from the redness of the liver, sorrow from its blackness, the intellect is like a candle within my brain. This is in a manner related but without modality. Intellects are incapable of knowing this modality. The universal soul is connected to the partial soul; the soul took a pearl from it and placed it on its neck. Just as Mary conceived the Messiah who captivated hearts, so too did the soul conceive from the pearl it took into its bosom.
But that Messiah is not the Messiah who travels over dry and wet, over the earth. The rank of that Messiah is higher than travel. The soul has conceived from the soul of souls. Thus the world is conceived from such a soul. The world gives birth to another world. This resurrection shows another resurrection. If I spoke and counted until the Day of Resurrection, I could not describe this resurrection.
These words, in meaning, resemble the cry “Yā Rabb” (O Lord). Letters are traps to catch the breath of a sweet-lipped one. After Allah’s answer of “Labbayk” (Here I am) comes to the servant’s “Yā Rabb,” how could one ever fail to say “Yā Rabb”? But this “Labbayk” is such a “Labbayk” that you cannot hear it, but you can taste it with your whole being from head to toe.
There was a high wall by the side of a river. On top of the wall stood a thirsty, suffering man. The wall prevented him from reaching the water. The thirsty man was writhing like a fish for water. Suddenly, he threw a piece of brick into the water. The sound of the water came to his ear like an eye. That sound was like the voice of a sweet beloved. That sound intoxicated the man like wine.
The man, fallen into such hardship, delighted in the pure sound of the water and began breaking off bricks from the wall and throwing them into the water. The water seemed to cry out, “O man, what benefit do you gain by throwing stones at me?” The thirsty man said, “O water, there are two benefits. That is why I do not desist from this. The first benefit is this: hearing the sound of water is like listening to the rebab for the thirsty.
The sound of water resembles the voice of Isrāfīl. Even the dead find life from this sound. Or this sound is like the thunder in spring days. Because of this sound, gardens and orchards become beautiful, filled with flowers. Or it is as if the poor have been told the time for zakāt has come, or the prisoner has been given the good news of release. Or like the breath of the All-Merciful, coming from Yemen to Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), spoken without a mouth.
Or like the intercession of Aḥmad (the Prophet) for the rebels, or like the scent of the beautiful and gentle Yūsuf that reached the soul of the weak Yaʿqūb. The other benefit is that every stone, every piece of brick I break off from the wall and throw into the pure water, lowers the high wall a little more each time. The lowering of the wall brings me closer to the water. Breaking off those stones and bricks from the wall is the prostration that brings nearness, as in the verse, “Prostrate and draw near.” When the wall’s neck is high, it prevents this bowing of the head. Unless I am freed from this earthen body, I cannot prostrate to the Water of Life. Of those on the wall, the thirstiest is the one who breaks off and throws the stone or brick the quickest.
The one most in love with the sound of water breaks off and throws the largest stone from the wall. That man, from the sound of the water, rejoices as if he were immersed in wine up to his throat. The stranger, however, hears nothing but the blunt sound of the brick falling into the water. Blessed is the one who considers his youth a bounty and pays his debt. He succeeds in this while he is healthy, strong, and powerful in his days of vigor. For youth is like a lush, fresh garden that produces fruit without stint. The fountains of strength and desire flow in the young man. He makes the ground of his body green with them.
Youth is like a prosperous house, with a high ceiling and four solid walls. Blessed is the one who, before the days of old age arrive, before his neck is tied with a rope of fiber, before the earth becomes barren and flows away, has accomplished his task. For beautiful plants never grow from barren soil. The old man’s strength fails, the water of desire ceases to flow. He benefits neither himself nor others.
His eyebrows droop like the saddle’s pommel, his eyes water and lose sight. His face wrinkles, turning like a lizard’s back. He cannot speak, cannot taste, his teeth can no longer cut anything. The day has passed, evening has come, the body limps like a carcass, and the road is long. The place of work is ruined, the task is past. The roots of bad habits have grown strong, and the power to uproot them has diminished!
This is like the man with sweet words but bad character planting thorns on the road. Passersby began to resent him, told him many times to uproot the thorns, but to no avail. The thorns increased every moment, people’s feet bled because of them.
People’s clothes were torn by the thorns, the feet of the poor were shredded. Whenever the governor said, “You must uproot these,” he replied, “Yes, I will uproot them one day.” For a while, he kept promising, “Tomorrow, tomorrow.” In that time, the thorns he planted took root and grew strong. One day the governor said, “O you who do not keep your promise, come here, do not delay the task we ordered.” The man said, “Father, there are many days, if not today, then tomorrow!”
The governor said, “No, act quickly, do not procrastinate. You say you will do this tomorrow, but know that as days pass, the thorns grow stronger, and the one to uproot them grows older and weaker. The thorn grows and strengthens every day, while the uprooter ages and loses strength. The thorn grows fresh every day, every moment.
The thorn becomes more wretched every day, drying up and remaining. It grows younger, while you grow older. Hurry, do not waste your time,” he said. Consider every bad habit a thorn; how many times have thorns wounded your feet. How many times have you fallen into misery because of bad habits. But you are numb. You have become very insensitive.
Even if you are heedless of harming others with your bad character, at least know that you are hurting yourself. You are a torment to yourself and to others! Either take the axe and strike bravely, like ʿAlī, tear off this gate of Khaybar. Or graft this thorn onto a rose sapling, bring the light of the beloved to the fire, so that his light extinguishes your fire, and his union turns your thorn into a rose garden.
You are like hellfire, but he is a believer. The believer can extinguish the fire. The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), relating the words of hell, said: “Hell, out of fear, begs the believer, ‘My king, pass quickly, your light will extinguish my fire.’”
Thus, the light of the believer destroys the fire. For it is impossible to remove something except by its opposite. On the Day of Justice, fire is the opposite of light, for fire is from wrath, light from grace and bounty. If you wish to repel the evil of fire, sprinkle the water of mercy into the heart of fire! The source of that water of mercy is the believer.
The Water of Life is the pure spirit of the one who possesses ihsan (spiritual excellence). The nafs (lower self) flees from it. For you are of fire, he is like the water of a river. Fire flees from water because it is extinguished by it. Your feeling and thought are all from fire. The feeling and thought of your shaykh are that beautiful light. When the water of his light drips onto the fire, the fire begins to sizzle. As it sizzles, say to it, “Die, be extinguished,” so that this hell of the nafs may be extinguished. Let it be extinguished so that it does not burn your rose garden, nor extinguish your justice and ihsan (spiritual excellence).
After it is extinguished, whatever you plant will grow. Tulips, white roses, and violets will appear. Again, we are going far along the right path. My teacher, turn back, where is our path? We were saying this: O envious man, your donkey is lame, and the resting place is very far. The year has passed, it is not the season for harvest. There is nothing but the darkness of disgrace and evil deeds as yield.
The worm has fallen into the tree of the body. It must be uprooted and thrown into the fire. O traveler, come to your senses, time has passed, the sun of life has inclined toward the well. At least in these two days, while you have strength, spend your old age on the path of truth. At least sow what little seed you have left, so that from these two moments a long life may grow. Before this bright lamp goes out, come to your senses and straighten its wick, renew its oil. Do not say, ‘I will do it tomorrow.’ How many tomorrows have passed.
Let not the time for harvest pass completely, be aware! Listen to my advice: The body is a strong bond. If you want the new, strip off the old! Close your lips, open your palm full of gold. Leave the stinginess of the body, take up generosity. Generosity is to abandon desires and pleasures. No one who has fallen because of desire has ever risen. This generosity is a branch of the cypress of paradise. Woe to the one who lets go of such a branch. Do not let go of this desire and whim, it is a firm rope.
This branch draws the soul to the sky. O beautiful branch of generosity, when you are drawn up to your origin, is it not the beauty of Yūsuf, is not this world like a well? And this rope is patience with Allah’s command. O Yūsuf, the rope has been lowered, cling to it with both hands. Do not be heedless of the rope, time is passing. Praise be to Allah that they have lowered this rope, mingled bounty and mercy together.
Cling to this rope so that you may see a new world of souls, manifest yet invisible. This world, which is nonexistent in reality, appears as if it exists, while the world that truly exists is thoroughly hidden. When the wind blows, dust and earth are seen, flying and scattering, but the wind is unseen. The dust shows itself, veiling the wind. Outwardly, the one who acts is in reality idle, he is nothing but skin. The hidden is the inner; that is the essence. The earth is like a tool in the hand of the wind. Know the true earth as exalted and its nature as high. The gaze of the eye belonging to the earth falls upon the earth. The eye that sees the wind is of another kind. The horse knows the horse, the horse is the equal of the horse.
The rider’s states are known by the rider. Increase the eye of perception, the rider is the light of the Real (al-Ḥaqq). Without the rider, the horse is of no use. Therefore, train the horse, rid it of bad habits. Otherwise, the king will not accept it. The one who shows the way to the horse’s eye is the king’s eye. Without the king’s eye, the horse can see nothing. The eyes of horses are nowhere but on grass and pasture. If you call them anywhere else, they say, “I will not come, why should I come?”
The light of Allah has mounted the light of perception, and only then does the soul turn to Allah. A horse without a rider knows nothing of the road. To know the straight and main road, the king is necessary. Direct the light, which is the rider, to perception. That honor is a fine master for perception. The light that resembles the light of perception is the light of Allah. In this way, the meaning of the verse “Light upon light” (Qur’an 24:35) becomes manifest.
The light of perception draws a man to the earth, the light of the Real leads to the river of Kawthar. For the world perceived by the senses is a very lowly world. The light of Allah is an ocean, perception is like a dewdrop. But the one mounted upon perception is not even in the arena, nothing is seen but his good works and beautiful words. Even the light belonging to perception, though dense and corporeal, is hidden in the blackness of the eyes.
Because of your anger, you do not even see the light of perception, so how will you see the light belonging to religion? If the light of perception, with all its density, is hidden, how could a pure light not be hidden? This world is like a straw in the hand of the wind of the unseen, utterly powerless. The desire of the world of the unseen,
At times raises it, at times lowers it. At times straightens it, at times breaks it. At times leads it to the right, at times to the left, at times makes it a rose garden, at times a thorn. The hand is hidden, see the pen that writes. The horse is running and prancing, but the rider is not in the arena. Look at the arrow that flies, the bow is hidden. Souls are in the arena, but the soul of souls is unseen. Do not break the arrow. It is the king’s arrow. It is not an arrow shot from the bow, but one shot from the hand of the All-Knowing.
The Real said, “You did not throw when you threw” (Qur’an 8:17). Allah’s action is an example for all actions. Break your own anger, do not break the arrow. Your angry eye shows you milk as blood. Take the arrow stained with your blood, kiss it, and bring it to the king. The one in the arena is powerless, bound, and weak. The unseen is very strong and victorious.
We are nothing but prey, who has such a trap? We are nothing but balls before the polo stick, but who wields the stick? Who tears and sews, but who is the tailor? Who blows and burns, but who kindles the fire? In an instant, he makes the truthful a disbeliever, and in an instant, the heretic an ascetic. That is why, unless the one with ikhlas (sincerity) is completely freed from his existence, he is in danger of falling into the trap. For he is on the road, and the bandits are countless.
Only the one under Allah’s protection is saved. The one whose mirror is not completely purified is still a person of ikhlas (sincerity). The one who does not catch birds is still busy with prey. But if Allah brings the person of ikhlas to the station of ikhlas, he is saved and reaches the station of security. There is no mirror that, once it becomes a mirror, returns to being iron. There is no bread that returns to being wheat in the field.
No grape ever turns back into an unripe grape. No ripe fruit ever becomes unripe again. Ripen, become mature, and be saved from decay. Go, become light like Burhān al-Muḥaqqiq.
When you are freed from yourself, you become entirely proof (burhān). When the servant is annihilated, he becomes a sultan. If you want to see this clearly, Salāh al-Dīn showed it, made eyes see, opened them. Every eye that possesses Allah’s light learns lessons of poverty from his gaze. The shaykh, like Allah, acts without tools. He gives lessons to the murīds (aspirants, disciples) without words. The heart is as soft as wax in his hand. His seal sometimes marks the heart with disgrace, sometimes with honor.
The seal on the wax is a sign for a ring. It reminds one of it, but whose sign is the pattern on that ring, whom does it recall? That pattern, every link of its thoughts, each passing into the other, thus chained together, tells of the mind of that goldsmith.
Whose is this voice in the mountains of the heart? This mountain is sometimes full of sound, sometimes empty and silent. Wherever the master of the house is, he is the ruler and master, and his work is proper. Let this mountain of the heart never be empty of his voice! There are mountains that echo the sound twice, and mountains that echo it a hundred times. The mountain, from that sound, from that word, lets flow hundreds of thousands of pure and clear springs. But when that grace is cut off from the mountain, the waters in the springs turn to blood.
That cup, because of the king of blessed kings, turned Mount Sinai into a ruby. The parts of the mountain came to life and became wise. O people, are we lower than a stone, that no living spring gushes from us, nor does the body join the green-clad spiritual ones? In it, there is neither the voice of one who longs, nor the joy of a cupbearer’s sip of wine! Where is the zeal that would uproot such a mountain with an axe, a hoe, or whatever means?
Perhaps a ray of moonlight will strike its parts, perhaps the moonlight will find a way to it! On the Day of Resurrection, the mountains will be uprooted from their places. When will you ever show such generosity in your actions? How could this resurrection be considered less than that resurrection? That resurrection is a wound, this is like an ointment. Whoever sees this ointment is saved from the wound. Even the wicked who see this beauty become people of ihsan (spiritual excellence). Blessed is the ugly one who becomes a companion to the beautiful, woe to the rose-faced whose companion is winter! When dead bread becomes a companion to the soul, it is revived and becomes the soul itself.
Black wood, when it becomes a companion to fire, loses its darkness and becomes all light. The dead donkey, when it falls into the salt, leaves its donkey-ness and impurity aside. The color of the Day of Allah is the dye of Allah. In it, everything is dyed one color. Even if someone falls into the jar, if you tell him to get out, he says in his joy, “Do not blame me. The jar is mine.”
To say “I am the jar” is to say “I am the Real (al-Ḥaqq).” Iron is iron, but when it takes on the color of fire, it is dyed that color. The color of the iron is annihilated in the color of the fire. Though it seems to fall silent, it still boasts of being fire. When gold in the mine turns red, its speech, without mouth or lips, is “I am fire.”
It is exalted with the color and nature of fire and says, “I am fire, I am fire! Even if you doubt, I am fire; if you wish, try, touch me. I am fire; if you doubt, put your face to me for a moment!” When the son of Adam is illuminated by Allah, he is chosen and becomes the one to whom the angels prostrate. Even the criminal who, like an angel, is saved from rebellion and doubt, prostrates in the world.
What is fire, what is iron? Close your lips. Do not mock the one who makes this analogy. Do not step too far into the sea, do not speak much of the sea, bite your lip and stand on the shore! Even hundreds like me cannot endure the sea. Yet I do not fear drowning in the sea, nor can I refrain from plunging into it. My soul is sacrificed to the sea, my mind as well. This sea gives the blood price for your soul, and for your mind. As long as I have feet, I walk in the sea; if I have no feet, I dive into the sea like a waterbird. The one who is ill-mannered in the presence is better than the one who is not present. He may be crooked to the people, but is he not at the door after all?
O one whose body is soiled and polluted, circle around the edge of the pool. How can a person be cleansed while outside the pool? How can one who is far from the pool be clean? That man is even far from inner purity. The purity of this pool is limitless. The purity of bodies, however, is very little. For the heart is a pool, but hidden. This pool has a secret path to the sea. Your limited purity needs help. Otherwise, what is counted decreases as it is spent. The water says to the filthy man, “Run to me.” The filthy man says, “I am ashamed of the water.”
The water says: “How can this shame be removed without me, how can this filth be cleansed without me?” If the filthy man is ashamed and hides from the water, this shame causes the realization of the saying, “Modesty prevents iman (faith).” The heart is muddied in the pool of the body, but the body is purified in the pool of the heart. O son, if you are around the pool of the heart, beware of the pool of the body!
The sea of the body and the sea of the heart are joined, but there is a barrier between them, they do not mix. Be straight or crooked, come toward that pool of the heart, do not lag behind. There is danger to the soul in the presence of kings, but those of high aspiration do not fear the king because of fear for their lives. When the king is sweeter than sugar, it is better and more fitting for the soul’s sweetness to go to him.
O you who blame me, may you be well. O you who seek safety, leave me be! My soul is a hearth, it delights in fire, it is enough for the hearth to be the home of fire. For me, it is to burn in love like a hearth. Whoever is blind to this is not a hearth at all. If lack of provision becomes your provision, your everlasting garden of the soul will be filled with roses and irises. What others fear will give you security. The waterbird finds strength from the sea, but the housebird is ruined.
O physician, I have again become mad. O beloved, I have again fallen into black love. Every link of the chain of your chain has different kinds of madness. Each link brings a different madness. That is why I have a different madness at every moment. It is proverbial: madness is of many kinds, many varieties. Especially if it is in one bound to such a great mind! Such a madness has broken my bonds that all the madmen give me advice.
This kind of madness also befell Dhū’l-Nūn al-Miṣrī. In him, new and new ecstasies and attractions appeared. His ecstasy reached such a degree as to reach above the sky, it became a pain in the liver. Come to your senses, O barren earth, do not compare your own ecstasy to the ecstasy of those pure ones who possess this state! The people could not bear his madness.
His fire almost set the people’s beards alight. When the fire touched the beards of the common people, they, in their blindness and stubbornness, bound him. Even if the people generally fall into hardship on this path, there is no way to pull back the reins. All these kings feared for their lives because of the people. For this crowd is blind, and the kings have no sign! When the rule falls into the hands of the ruffians, in the end, Dhū’l-Nūn fell into prison. A single great king, alone on his horse, rides on, with none following or obeying him. Such a matchless pearl has fallen into the hands of children, and there is none who knows its worth. What is a pearl? A sea hidden in a drop, a sun contained in a speck! Such a sun showed itself as a speck and gradually revealed its face.
All the specks were annihilated in it. The world became intoxicated because of it, and came to itself because of it. But when the pen is in the hand of a tyrant, there is no doubt that Manṣūr is hanged. As long as this rule, this government, is in the hands of the wicked, it is necessary to kill the prophets. The misguided people, in their foolishness, said to the prophets, “We consider you a bad omen. Evil comes to us because of you.”
Look at the ignorance of the Christians, who hope for help from a God who was hanged. For, according to them, the Jews hanged Jesus. If that is so, who is to help him? When the heart of that king is turned to blood because of them, how can the decree, “Allah will not punish them while you are among them” (Qur’an 8:33), continue? The true goldsmith fears the traitorous counterfeiter more than anyone. The Yūsufs hide from the envy of the ugly. The beautiful live in fire for fear of enemies.
The Yūsufs fell into the well because of the trickery of their brothers. For those brothers, out of envy, always handed Yūsuf over to the wolves. What befell the Yūsuf of Egypt because of envy! This envy is a great wolf lying in wait. In short, gentle Yaʿqūb always feared this wolf would harm Yūsuf. The apparent wolf did not circle around Yūsuf. But this envy, with what it did, surpassed even the wolves!
This wolf of envy wounded Yūsuf, and they made sweet excuses, saying, “We left him at the head of our clothes and went away, and a wolf took him.” Such trickery is not found in hundreds of thousands of wolves. Wait and see how this wolf will be disgraced in the end! Therefore, on the day when everyone will see the harm of their evil deeds, the envious will certainly be resurrected in the form of wolves.
The lowly, greedy, and unlawful eater will rise on that day in the form of a pig; the adulterers, with their private parts stinking; the wine drinkers, with their mouths stinking. The hidden scent that hearts perceive will be revealed and sensed on the Day of Resurrection. The being of man is like a forest. If you are aware at that moment, beware of this being! In our bodies are thousands of wolves, thousands of pigs. There are thousands of pure, impure, beautiful, and ugly qualities.
Whichever trait prevails, the rule is his. If gold is more than copper in the mine, that mine is called gold. Whichever trait prevails in your body, you must be resurrected in the form of that trait. In man, sometimes wolfishness appears, sometimes he becomes beautiful like Yūsuf with a face like the moon. Goodness and grudges travel secretly from heart to heart. Even the ox and donkey learn and become skilled from man. The wild horse becomes gentle and accustomed. The bear dances, the goat salutes.
The dog acquires human traits, eventually becoming a shepherd, hunting or guarding the flock. The dog of the Companions of the Cave (aṣḥāb al-kahf) acquired such a trait from them that in the end, it began to seek Allah. Every moment, something different appears in the heart. Sometimes man becomes satanic, sometimes angelic. Sometimes he becomes a trap, sometimes a wild beast! From that strange forest known to the lions, from that thicket with a secret path to the hearts’ trap, steal inwardly, steal the coral of the soul! O you lower than a dog, obtain that pearl from the hearts of the gnostics! Since you are stealing, at least steal the subtle pearl! Since you are carrying loads, at least carry a noble load!
Friends pondered over this matter of Dhū’l-Nūn, went to the prison, and began to discuss and express their opinions: They said, “He must be doing this deliberately. There is wisdom in it. He is a qibla, a proof for this religion. Is it possible for madness to rule him, for him to be robbed? Such a thing is far from his boundless intellect, like the sea! God forbid that the cloud of madness should veil his moon. Such a thing is not befitting the perfection of his great station.
He withdrew to a corner from the evil of the people. He was ashamed before the wise and became mad. He was tired of the grain-worshipping, foolish intellect, so he deliberately showed himself mad.” The mine also says: “O brave one, bind me, strike my head and back with a whip made of ox’s tail, but do not dig me up! May I find life from the wound of the whip.
May I be revived like the slain man whom Moses revived because of the ox. May I be healed from the wound opened by the whip made of ox’s tail, revived like the slain man revived by Moses’ miracle. That slain man was revived from the wound made by the ox’s tail whip. He became gold because of the alchemy, like copper. He leaped up, revealed secrets, and showed those who shed his blood.
He said openly, “These killed me, these sowed the seed of this discord.” When this heavy body is killed, the soul that knows secrets is revived. That man’s soul sees paradise and hell, and knows all secrets. He shows the bloody devils, the traps of trickery and deceit, and the satanic acts. To slaughter the ox so that the soul may be saved from the wound of its tail is among the conditions of the path. You too, quickly subdue the ox-like nafs so that the hidden soul may be revived and become wise.
When they approached Dhū’l-Nūn to understand his state, Dhū’l-Nūn shouted at them: “Hey, who are you? Beware!” They replied politely, “We are among the friends. We have come here with all our heart and soul to ask after your state. How are you, O skillful, knowledgeable sea of intellect? Why do you show yourself mad when you are wise, what is this slander? Can the smoke of the bathhouse reach the sun? Can the Phoenix be subdued by the crow? Do not fear us, tell us this.
We are your lovers. Do not do this to us. It is not fitting to distance lovers from yourself. It is not right to hide things from them and deceive them with tricks. O king, reveal the secret. O moon-faced one, do not hide your face with a cloud. We love you, we are loyal to you, we are in love with you. In both worlds, we have given our hearts to you,” they said. Dhū’l-Nūn began to curse and utter nonsense like a madman. He leaped up and began to throw stones and sticks at them. All of them fled for fear of being wounded and crushed.
Dhū’l-Nūn laughed heartily and shook his head. He said: “Look at the whims and desires of these friends. Look at the friends! Where is the sign of those who are truly friends? The trouble of the friend is as dear as the soul. Does the friend find the friend’s trouble heavy? Trouble is the inner, the soul. Friendship is like its skin.
Is not the sign of friendship to delight in calamities, afflictions, and hardships? The friend is like gold. In trouble, he is like fire. Pure gold becomes pure in fire.”