The Indians brought an elephant into a dark stable, wishing to show it to the people. Many people gathered in that pitch-black place to see the animal. But the stable was so dark that it was impossible to see with the eye. In that darkness, where one could not see even another’s eyes, they began to touch the elephant with their hands. One person’s hand touched its ear, and he said, “The elephant is like a gutter.”
Another’s hand touched its leg, and he said, “The elephant is like a pillar.” Another touched its back and said, “The elephant is like a throne.” Each person described the elephant according to the part he touched and how he imagined it. Their words and opinions thus contradicted each other. One said it was a branch, another said it was an alif. If each of them had a candle in hand, there would be no such contradiction in their words.
The eye of sensation is only like a palm, only like foam; the palm cannot grasp the whole elephant at once! The eye that sees the sea is different from the eye that sees the foam. Leave aside the foam and look with the eye of the sea. The foams arise from the sea day and night; it is the sea that sets them in motion. Yet, how strange, you see the foam but do not see the sea.
We are like ships. We are within the luminous sea, yet our eyes do not see; we keep colliding with each other. O man who has boarded the ship of the body and fallen asleep, you have seen the sea, but look at the sea of the sea itself. The sea too has a sea that drives it. The spirit (ruh) also has a spirit that draws and turns it wherever it wishes. When the sun waters the crop of all existence, where was Moses, where was Jesus? When Allah fitted the string to this bow, where was Adam? Where was Eve? This word too is deficient; this word has no conclusion. The word that is not deficient is the one that belongs to that side, to the realm of ḥaqīqa (inner reality).
But if it were told to you, you would stumble; if it were not told, you would understand nothing—woe to you! If it were told with an example, you would immediately cling to that example and take that form as the reality, O valiant one! Like grass, your foot is bound to the earth; you cannot reach the reality, and you just sway your head with every wind. You have no foot to go from one place to another.
Or, if you strive and struggle to pull your foot out of this clay… To abandon your life is a most difficult thing for you! But O poor one, if you find life from the Real (al-Ḥaqq), you will become independent of the earth and then abandon this clay. When a suckling child gives up the nurse, he begins to eat food and leaves her behind.
You are attached to the milk of the earth, like grains that grow from the soil, and have become accustomed to it. Become accustomed to the nourishment of hearts (qalb), and strive to be weaned from this milk! O one without veil, who has no capacity to accept the unimpeded light, at least listen to the words of wisdom, which are a light hidden in letters, and consume them! In this way, you will gain the capacity to accept that unimpeded light, and you will see the hidden light without any veil.
Thus, you will travel in the heavens like a star, and even fall into journeys beyond the heavens, journeys without modality! You have come from nonexistence to existence, so come to yourself—yet how have you come? You are so intoxicated that you have no awareness of yourself. The paths by which you came have not even remained in your mind. Yet, we will still tell you a hint, remind you of something. Abandon this intellect and reach the true intellect.
Block this ear and become the true ear! No, no, I will speak, for you are still unripe. You are still in spring; you have not even seen July! O nobles, this world is like a tree; we are like the half-ripe, half-mature fruits in this world. Unripe fruits cling more tightly and do not easily detach from the branch.
For the unripe fruit is not worthy of a palace or a mansion. But when it ripens and becomes sweet, when it becomes something that bites the lip, it no longer clings well to the branches and falls immediately. When a man’s mouth becomes sweet because of fortune and prosperity, the whole world’s wealth becomes cold to him. To cling tightly to something, to show fanaticism for something, is immaturity.
When you were a child in your mother’s womb, all you did was drink blood. There is something more to be said, but I will not say it; let the Holy Spirit (Rūḥ al-Qudus) tell it to you without me. No, no, not the Holy Spirit, but you yourself will say it to your own ear. There, in reality, neither I am present, nor anything from me or anyone else; you are already me, my dear master.
This is like a dream. When you fall asleep, you lose yourself, but again you return to yourself. You sense and listen to yourself, and in the dream you think that some hidden man other than you is speaking to you. O my beautiful companion, you are not an ordinary single man. You are a world, you are a deep sea.
That tremendous being of yours—could it not be nine hundredfold? It is a sea with neither bottom nor shore. Hundreds of worlds dive into that sea and are drowned. Indeed, this is neither a place of wakefulness nor a place of sleep. Do not speak of here. Allah knows best the truth. Do not speak, but listen to the discourses that cannot be expressed or contained in words, from those who are able to speak of this world! Do not speak, but hear words from that sun that cannot be written in a book or included in speech! Do not speak, but let your soul speak to you of this world. Leave aside the talk of swimming in Noah’s Ark! If you enter into this discourse, you will be like Canaan. He too, being hostile to me, said, “I do not want Noah’s Ark,” and began to swim.
Noah said to him, “Hey, come, enter your father’s Ark, O base son, do not be drowned in the flood.” He replied, “No, I have learned to swim. I have lit a candle other than yours.” Noah said, “Come to your senses; this is called the wave of the calamity of the flood. Today, the hand and foot of the swimmer are of no use.”
But Canaan said, “No, no, I will climb the high mountain. That mountain will save me from every calamity.” Noah said, “Come to your senses; now the mountain is like a straw. Allah grants safety to none but His friend (walī).” Yet Canaan said, “When have I ever listened to your advice, that I should now desire to be among those who follow you?”
“Your word has never pleased me; in both worlds I have been far from you,” he said. Noah said, “Do not, my child, today is not a day for coquetry. Allah has neither peer nor likeness! Until now you have not been stubborn, but this is a delicate time. Whose coquetry passes at this door? He is the one who, from pre-eternity, is manifest in the reality of ‘He begets not, nor is He begotten.’”
Allah has neither father, nor son, nor uncle! From whom would He endure the coquetry of sons, from whom would He hear the supplications of fathers? O old man, I was not born, so do not coquet with me; O young man, I am not a father, so do not swagger so! I am not a husband, nor do I have lust. Leave aside the coquetry of women. In this matter, nothing is considered except servitude, need, and necessity,” He says.
He said this, but Canaan replied, “Father, for years you have been saying these words, and I am saying them again. Are you ignorant or what? How many times have you said these words to everyone and received cold answers, heard bad words? These cold words have not entered my ear; will they enter now? I am now knowledgeable, I have grown up.”
Noah said, “O my child, what would it harm you to heed your father’s advice just once?” He thus gave such beautiful advice, and Canaan responded with such harsh words. Neither did the father tire of advising Canaan, nor did a single word of the father enter the ear of that wicked son! While they were talking thus, a swift wave came.
It passed over Canaan’s head and drowned him, carrying him away. Noah said, “O my patient sovereign, my donkey has died, has the flood carried away its load? How many times have You promised me that those belonging to me would be saved from the flood? I too, in my simplicity, believed Your promises and was hopeful, but why did the flood carry away the mat?”
Allah said, “He is not of your family, not of your kin. Did you not see yourself? You are pure, but if a wolf enters the blue tooth, there is no remedy but to remove it. It must be removed so that your body does not fall into pain because of it. He was your son, but you must abandon him; say, ‘He is not of me.’”
Noah said, “O my Lord, I have no one but You. Those who submit to You are not considered strangers. How am I before You, how is my ikhlas (sincerity)? You already know. Just as meadows and pastures need rain and grow and flourish from it, so too do I need You; I grow from You like them. Indeed, my need is twenty times greater than theirs; the poor lives by You. He rejoices with You; he is nourished by You without intermediary or veil. I am like that too. O Allah, Possessor of Perfection, I am neither with You nor apart from You; I am with You in a state without modality, without cause, without defect. We are fish; You are the sea of life. O Allah, Possessor of the best attributes, we live by Your grace.
You cannot be contained in thought, nor explained by cause. Before this flood, in every adventure, it was You to whom I spoke; after the flood, it is You to whom I will speak. I speak with You, O my Lord, who grants new words and possesses old words, not with them. Love addresses, day and night, sometimes the refuse in the tent places, sometimes the ruins.
Outwardly, it addresses the refuse, the trash in the tent places, but whom does it praise, whom? Praise be to You that You sent the flood and removed that refuse, those remnants of buildings. For they were evil and base buildings, evil and base heaps. They neither called to us nor responded to our call!
I desire such buildings that when I address them, they respond to my voice like a mountain. Let me hear their name twice. I am in love with the name that is the soul of my soul, that gives rest to my spirit. Every Prophet loves the mountain so that he may hear Your name twice. That low and stony mountain is fit to be the home of the mouse, not our home.
Let me speak, even if no one befriends me, even if my words remain unanswered, even if my voice receives no response! To raze such a mountain to the ground, to trample it underfoot because it is not a companion to man, is better!” Allah said, “O Noah, if you wish, I can resurrect all the drowned and bring them to earth again.
I would not break your heart for the sake of one Canaan. But I am informing you of the circumstances.” Noah said, “No, no, even if You wish to drown me, I am content with Your decree. Drown me at every moment. I delight in this; Your decree is like the soul, I am content with it wholeheartedly. I look at no one else; even if I do, that gaze is a pretext—what I see is You.
In the time of shukr (gratitude), my love is for what You do; in the time of sabr (patient endurance), would I ever love what You have created like a disbeliever? Whoever loves Allah’s decree is illumined; whoever loves what He has created becomes a disbeliever (kafir).”