One of the Companions (ṣaḥāba) fell ill, became weak due to his illness, and grew thin as a thread. Mustafa (the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him) came to inquire about his condition and well-being. For the Prophet’s character was entirely composed of grace and generosity. There is benefit in visiting the sick and inquiring after their state and well-being. The benefit, again, returns to you. The first benefit is this: That sick man may be a pole (quṭb), a great personage.
Since the stubborn man lacks both eyes of the heart, you cannot distinguish firewood from aloe wood. There are treasures in the world. Do not grieve or tire yourself in vain, but never consider any ruin to be without a hidden treasure. Always keep company with every dervish, for who knows what may come of it; if you find a sign, then revolve thoroughly around it! Since you lack the eye of the soul, assume that there is a treasure in every body! Even if he is not a pole, perhaps he is a fellow traveler on the path; if not a king, at least a mounted soldier. Whoever he may be, whether on foot or mounted, you must consider it necessary to meet fellow travelers, inquire after their state, and take care of their well-being.
Even if that person is an enemy, it is still good. For through ihsan (spiritual excellence), even an enemy becomes a friend. Even if he does not become a friend, at least his enmity is lessened. For showing kindness is like a balm to hatred. There are many other benefits besides this, but O good man, I fear prolonging the discourse. The summary is this: Be a friend to the community. Even if you cannot find a friend, like the blind man who carves idols, carve one from stone and love it! For the multitude and the abundance of the caravan folk break the backs of highwaymen and subdue them.
Allah addressed Musa (Moses) thus: “O you who see the moon rise from your armpit! I have made you the rising place of the light of divinity, yet I, who am Allah, fell ill—why did you not come to inquire after My condition and well-being?” Musa said, “O Allah, You are exalted above all deficiency. What is this symbol, my Lord? Explain it to me.” Thereupon Allah said again, “Why did you not show kindness and inquire after My condition when I was ill?” Musa said, “My Lord, You are free from all imperfection. My mind is bewildered; explain the reality of this saying.” Allah said, “Yes, a pure and chosen servant of Mine was ill. Look carefully: he is Me.
His offering of excuses is My offering of excuses. His illness is My illness,” He said. Whoever wishes to sit and rise with Allah should sit in the presence of the walī (friend[s] of God). If you are cut off from the presence of the walī, you are destroyed. For you are a part (juzʾ) without a whole (kull). If Satan separates someone from the people of generosity, he leaves him utterly alone and friendless; and when he finds himself in that state, he devours him, destroys him, and departs. Know that even a moment’s separation from the community is nothing but a trick of Satan.
A gardener saw three thieves enter his garden. One of these three was a sharif, another a sufi, and all three were frivolous and disloyal people. The gardener said to himself, “I have many things to say to them, hundreds of arguments to bring against them. But they are a group. A group is strength; I cannot handle these three alone. First, I must separate them from each other. Let me divide each from the others. Then, one by one, I will pluck their hair and beards.” He schemed to sow discord among them and sent the sufi away. When the sufi left, the other two remained alone together.
He said to the sufi, “Go home and bring a rug for these friends.” To the faqih he said, “You are a jurist, and this is a famous sharif. We eat bread by your fatwa, we fly on the wings of your knowledge. This one is our prince, our sultan, descended from Sayyid and Mustafa. Who is this gluttonous, miserly sufi to associate with kings like you? When he returns, drive him away. You two stay in my garden, in my meadows, for a whole week. What is a vineyard compared to this? Even my life is yours.
You are like my right eye,” he said. He tempted and deceived them. Ah, one should not part from friends. When the sufi returned, they drove him away. Then the gardener chased after him with a big stick. He said, “O dog of a sufi, so you dare to enter my vineyard! Was it Junayd who showed you the way, or Bāyazīd? Which shaykh or which master left you this inheritance?” Finding the sufi alone, he beat him thoroughly, leaving him half dead, splitting his head. The sufi said, “My turn has passed.
But friends, watch your turn well. You considered me a stranger, but know that I am no more a stranger than this scoundrel. What I have suffered, you will also suffer. Such a potion is fit for every base person. This world is a mountain; your words will echo back to you.” When the gardener was rid of the sufi, he devised another pretext. He said to the sharif, “O sharif, go home; for the mid-morning meal I have baked flatbread, knock on the door.
Tell Kaymaz to bring the flatbread and goose.” When the sharif left, he said to the faqih, “O man of understanding, who has seen the sun and knows everything, you are a faqih, here in this field. That sharif makes a meaningless claim. Who knows what his mother did? You attach your heart to women and women’s work, yet you say women are of deficient intellect and cannot be trusted. In these times, many fools claim descent from ʿAlī and the Prophet.” Everyone who is of adultery and adulterers suspects the people of God of such things. The one who is dizzy from turning will surely see the house as turning like himself. The words of that ill-mannered gardener reflected his own state. If that gardener were not the offspring of apostates, would he have spoken thus about the Prophet’s family?
He recited incantations, and the faqih listened. Then that reproachful faqih went after the sharif and said, “O donkey, who invited you to this vineyard? Did you inherit thievery from the Prophet? The lion’s cub resembles the lion; tell me, in what way do you resemble the Prophet?” That cruel man did to the sharif what the Kharijites did to the family of Yasin.
Indeed, just as Satan and the ghouls bear enmity to the family of the Messenger, as Yazid and Shimr did, so too did he bear such enmity and took his revenge. The sharif was ruined by the oppression of that tyrant, and said to the faqih, “I have escaped the water. Now tread carefully, for you are left alone; be like a drum, constantly beaten on your belly! Forget my being a sharif. Even if I am not worthy of friendship, I am not less than such a tyrant as this towards you.”
The gardener, having rid himself of him as well, came to the faqih and said, “O faqih! What faqih? O man whom even the most base are ashamed of! O you whose hand should be cut off, is it permissible to enter vineyards? Is there a command for this? Is this your fatwa? Did you read such a license in the Wasit? Or is this matter found in the Muhit?” The faqih said, “Strike, strike, you have the right. The opportunity has come. This is what befalls one who separates from friends.”
Inquiring after the sick is for the sake of friendship and unity. This unity, this friendship, gives rise to a hundred kinds of love. When the peerless Prophet went to visit the sick Companion, he found him at the point of death. If you distance yourself from the presence of the walī, in reality you distance yourself from Allah. If even the end of separation from fellow travelers is sorrow, how much more so is separation from kings! Seek always the shade of the kings, so that in that shade you may become better than the sun. If you set out on a journey, do so with this intention; if you sit, do not be heedless of this!
The Shaykh of the Community, Bāyazīd, set out for the ḥajj and ʿumra, running towards Mecca. In whichever city he arrived, he first sought out the saints there, searching for someone with insight and the eye of the heart. Allah said, “Wherever you arrive during your journey, first seek out a man of God.” Strive to obtain the treasure, for profit and loss come after the work; consider them secondary.
If someone sows wheat to obtain grain, in the end he also gets straw. But if you sow straw, you cannot obtain wheat. Seek the pupil of the eye among people, the pupil of the eye among people, the very pupil of the eye! When the time for ḥajj comes, intend to visit the Kaʿba. When you arrive there, you will also see Mecca. The purpose of the Miʿrāj is to see the Friend.
One day, a new murīd (aspirant, disciple) built a house. The pīr (spiritual master) came and saw his house. The shaykh, wishing to test his new murīd, that well-intentioned man, asked, “Companion, why did you open a window in the house?” He replied, “So that light may enter.” The shaykh said, “That is secondary. What you should seek is to hear the call to prayer from this window.” Bāyazīd, during his journey, was striving to find the person who was the Khidr of the time, searching for such a man. He saw a pīr whose body was thin as a crescent; in him he found the state and quality of the men of God.
The pīr’s eyes could not see, but his heart was like the sun. He was like an elephant who, in his dream, had seen India, sleeping with his eyes closed. If he opened his eyes, how could he not see? How strange! When it comes to dreams, strange things are revealed. The heart, in sleep, becomes a window. The gnostic is one who, even awake, sees beautiful dreams.
Take the dust he treads on and apply it to your eyes like kohl. Bāyazīd went and sat in the presence of that pīr, inquired after his state, and learned that he was both poor and had a large family. The pīr said, “O Bāyazīd, where are you going, how long will you carry the burdens of exile?” Bāyazīd replied, “It is the season of ḥajj; I am going to the Kaʿba.” The pīr asked, “What provisions do you have for the journey?” Bāyazīd said, “I have two hundred dirhams of silver, tightly tied to the edge of my cloak.” The pīr said, “Circle around me seven times. Consider this circumambulation more acceptable than the circumambulation of the ḥajj. And give me those dirhams, O generous one.
Know that you have performed the ḥajj, your wish is fulfilled. You have performed the ʿumra, attained eternal life, become pure, run to Safā, fulfilled the rites of saʿy. By the Truth that your soul has seen, He has made me more exalted and more acceptable than His own house. Though the Kaʿba is the house of His grace and bounty, my body is the house of His secret. Allah built the Kaʿba, but since He built it, He has not entered it. Yet, in this house, in my body, none but the Ever-Living Allah has entered. Now that you have seen me, know that you have seen Allah; you have circumambulated the Kaʿba of truthfulness. Serving me is obedience to Allah, praising Him. Do not think that the Truth is separate from me. Open your eyes well and look at me so that you may see the light of Allah in man.” Bāyazīd listened to these subtle points and wore them like a golden earring. Thus his rank was elevated, his virtue increased. Having reached the end of the path of ḥaqīqa (inner reality), Bāyazīd attained a station (maqām) beyond which no further station can be imagined.
When the Prophet saw the sick man, he inquired after his state and well-being, and showed kindness to that true friend. When the man saw the Prophet, he revived, as if newly created at that moment. The Companion said, “This illness brought me to this fortune; this sultan came to visit me at the dawn of his sovereignty. Thus I attained health; by the blessing of the foot of this king whose sovereignty knows no bounds, I was healed. How beautiful, how blessed is pain and suffering.
How fortunate, how blessed is the fever of illness, pain, and sleepless nights! See, Allah, in His grace and bounty, gave me such an illness, such an affliction in my old age. He granted me back pain that wakes me every midnight from sleep. So that I may not sleep all night like an ox, the Truth bestowed on me these pains. From this brokenness, the mercy of kings overflowed. Even Hell ceased to threaten me and fell silent,” he said.
Pain, suffering, and illness are treasures. Mercies are within them. When the skin is torn, the inside is renewed. Brother, to endure darkness, cold, sorrow, brokenness, and illness is the source of the Water of Life and the cup of intoxication. For all elevations are hidden in lowliness. Springs are hidden in autumn, and autumn in spring.
Do not flee from it! Befriend sorrow, become intimate with loneliness. Always wish for a long life from your death! Do not heed what your nafs (the lower self) calls “bad.” For its work is always contrary. Do the opposite of what it says. The counsels of the prophets in the world are like this. It is obligatory to consult in your affairs so that you may regret little in the end.
The community asked, “With whom should we consult?” The prophets replied, “With the intellect that is followed.” Even when someone asked, “But what if a child or a woman comes, who has no sound judgment? Should we consult with them too?” The Prophet said, “Consult with them as well, but whatever they say, do the opposite, take the contrary path.”
Consider your nafs as a woman, even worse than a woman. For a woman is a part, but the nafs is the whole of evil! If you consult with your nafs, do not follow what that base one says, do the opposite; even if it commands you to pray or fast, the nafs is a deceiver, and even in that command it will set a trap for you. To consult with your nafs in your affairs and do the opposite of what it says is perfection. You cannot overcome it, you cannot resist its stubbornness; go, gain a friend and reconcile with him! The intellect finds strength from another intellect.
The sugar cane gains perfection from another sugar cane. I have seen much from the tricks of my nafs. With its magic, it even removes reason and discernment. It makes you promises anew, then breaks them a thousand times. Even if your life is extended for hundreds of years, the nafs finds a new excuse every day and hinders you; it speaks cold promises in a warm manner.
It is such a magician that it binds a person hand and foot. O light of truth, Husam al-Din, come, for without you nothing grows in this wasteland. Because of the breaking of a walī’s heart, a veil has been drawn over those who follow the nafs. The cure for this fate is known only to fate itself. People’s intellects are bewildered by fate. That black serpent, like a wolf on the road, has become a dragon. But both dragon and serpent become a staff in your hand, O you who intoxicated even the soul of Musa, O you who made Musa lose himself! Allah has decreed for you: “Take it, do not fear, the dragon will become a staff in your hand.” O king, come, show the White Hand (Yad Bayḍāʾ).
He brings forth a brand new morning from the blackest nights. A hellfire blazes and flares. Blow upon it, O breath that surpasses and exceeds the breath of the sea! The sea is a deceiver, it shows you foam; hell is, it displays heat to you. Therefore, it seems insignificant to your essence, so you see it as weak, your anger stirs. Just as the multitude of the enemy seemed few in the eyes of the Prophet.
So the Prophet attacked them without seeing danger. If he had seen them as many, he would have hesitated. O Ahmad, that was a divine favor, and you were worthy of it. Otherwise, your heart would have become corrupted. Allah made both the outward and inward battle seem insignificant to him and to his Companions. Thus, He made the easy thing easy for him, and he no longer turned away from difficulty. To make the enemy seem insignificant was a blessed thing.
For the one who is a friend to him and teaches the way is Allah. But as for the one whose helper is not Allah in victory, even a rabbit appears as a male lion to him. Woe to the one who, seeing only the face from afar, enters battle with pride! The Dhu’l-Fiqar appears like a spear, the male lion like a cat, and the fool, thinking himself brave, enters the fight, falls into the trap by this trick. Thus, fire-worshippers come to the fire temple with their own feet. That matter seems to you like a straw. You think you can blow it away at once, make it fly from its place.
But come to your senses, that straw can uproot even mountains. Because of it, the world weeps, while it laughs! The heel at the bottom of this river water is visible, but hundreds like Uj ibn ʿUnuq have drowned in it! The wave of blood, the mound of musk, appears like dry land. The blind Pharaoh saw that sea as dry and, showing bravery, rode into it. But when he plunged in, he reached the bottom of the sea. How could Pharaoh’s eyes see? The eye sees with the face of Allah. Where is the Truth to be the confidant of every fool?
Sugar appears, but it becomes a poison that kills without a sound. It seems a road, but the guide is nothing but the voice of a ghoul. O heaven, you have clung tightly to the tribulations of the end times, grant us a moment’s respite! You are a sharp dagger drawn against our purpose; you are a poisoned instrument for bloodletting us.
O heaven, learn mercy from the mercy of Allah. Do not wound the hearts of ants like a snake. For the sake of the One who turns your wheel above this structure. Before you uproot us, turn differently for a while, have mercy. For the sake of Allah, who first nursed us, made our sapling grow from water and earth, for the sake of the king who created you pure and brought forth so many torches.
He made you so prosperous and enduring that Time itself considered your beginning to be nonexistent. Praise be that we have known your beginning. The prophets have revealed the secret. The one who is human knows that it must be created later. But what does the spider that weaves its web in the house know? What does the mosquito know, whose vineyard this is? It is born in spring, dies in winter. Does the worm, born broken inside the wood, know the state of the wood as a sapling?
If it knows, it is only by nature of intellect, even if its form is that of a worm. The intellect shows itself in many colors and forms, but like a peri (fairy), it is far from those forms. What is a peri compared to it? It is even superior to an angel. But you have the wings of a fly, so you fly low. Though your intellect draws you to heights, imitation lead spreads in low places.
The knowledge born of imitation is a burden to our soul, a borrowed thing. Yet we sit, thinking it is our own property. Better to be ignorant than to have such intellect. Better to act mad! Flee from whatever you see as beneficial. Drink poison, pour out the Water of Life! Curse those who praise you, lend your capital to the bankrupt! Abandon trustworthiness, go to the place of fear. Leave honor, become openly disgraced! I have tried the intellect that thinks long and hard. From now on, I will act mad!
The Prophet visited the sick man, inquired after the state and well-being of that poor, weeping soul. Then he said, “Did you perhaps make a certain dua (supplication), or unknowingly eat some poisonous food? Recall, when your nafs surged with its tricks, what kind of supplication did you make?” The sick man said, “I cannot recall at all. Help me remember.”
By the blessing of Mustafa’s (the Messenger’s) presence, which bestows light, he remembered the supplication. By the Prophet’s help, who illuminates all, he recalled what he could not remember. The light that distinguishes truth from falsehood shone through the window opened from heart to heart. He said, “O Messenger of God, I uttered a delirious prayer; now I remember my supplication.
I was always entangled in sin. Like one drowning who clings to a snake, I clung to whatever came before me. You threatened sinners with severe punishments. I fell into distress, had no remedy. The bond was tight, the lock closed. I could neither endure nor escape. I had no hope left for tawba (repentance), nor strength to endure. In my pain, like Harut and Marut, I cried out: O Creator Allah, Harut and Marut wished for the Babylonian well to escape their peril.
Though they were strong, wise, even like magicians, capable of everything, even they wished to bear the punishment of the Hereafter in that well. And they did well, it was the right thing. The pain of smoke is surely easier and less significant than fire. The torment of the Hereafter cannot be described. Compared to it, the pain of this world is insignificant. Blessed is the one who strives, struggles, and inflicts pain on his body.
So that he may escape the torment of that world, he endures this pain as worship. I too, O Lord, prayed: let me suffer that torment here at once, so that I may be at ease in the next world. I kept knocking at the door of supplication in this way. Then I was afflicted with this illness. My soul fell into unceasing pain.
I was deprived of dhikr (remembrance of God) and my litanies. I was unaware of myself, of good and evil. If I had not seen your face, O blessed, fragrant, and holy Prophet, I would have been utterly cut off from the register of life. You, like a king, showed me kindness and became my companion in suffering, and saved me from this sorrow.” The Prophet said, “What have you done? Never make such a supplication again. Do not dig up and uproot your own root.
O weak ant, what strength do you have to try to bear such a mighty mountain?” The man said, “My sultan, I repent. I will never again dare such a thing, never utter such words.” This world is a desert, you are Moses. We too, because of our sins, are people afflicted in the desert. For years we have journeyed, yet in the end we are captives at the first station. Though the people of Moses traveled far, in the end they found themselves where they first began. If Moses had been pleased with us, a road, a way out of this desert would have been found.
But if he had been utterly weary of us, would our food have come from heaven? Would springs have gushed from a stone in the desert to save our lives? Even if not, instead of food, fire would have rained upon us, and we would have burned at this station. Moses is sometimes pleased with us, sometimes not; sometimes our friend, sometimes our enemy. His wrath sets our belongings aflame, his forbearance shields us from calamity. How can he treat us both with forbearance and with wrath? But O noble Allah, this is from Your grace, and such grace is not a rare thing. It is not proper to praise someone to his face. That is why I mention Moses by name. If not Moses, whoever it may be, is it fitting to mention another before You?
Our covenants have been broken hundreds and thousands of times. But Your covenant is like a mountain, unmoved from its place. Our covenant is like a straw, weak before every wind. Your covenant is like a mountain, even stronger than hundreds of mountains. For the sake of that strength, O Master of colors, have mercy on our changes from color to color!
We have seen ourselves, and our disgrace. O King, do not test us too much. O generous and sought-after Allah, conceal our other faults and evils. You are infinite in beauty and perfection; we are infinite in crookedness and error! Cover the endless evil of these few base people with Your endless grace, beauty, and perfection.
Alas, only a single thread remains of our garment. We were a city, now only a single wall stands. O our Master, protect what remains, so that Satan may not rejoice completely. Not for our sake, but for the sake of that ancient grace with which You always seek out and protect the guilty, O Lord. Since You have shown Your power, show Your mercy as well, O Allah, who bestows mercy on pieces of flesh and fat. If this supplication increases Your wrath, O great Allah, teach us a supplication.
Just as when Adam was expelled from Paradise, You granted him tawba (repentance) and saved him from the evil Satan. Who is Satan to be superior to Adam, to win by such a trick and defeat him? All of this, in reality, served Adam’s benefit. Satan’s trick and scheme became the cause of his being cursed. Satan saw one trick, but failed to see two hundred. Thus, he cut the pillar of his own house.
At night, he wanted to set fire to others’ crops, but the wind carried the fire to his own field. The curse became a blindfold for Satan, so he thought his trick was a loss for his enemy Adam. Such is the way a curse makes a person appear contrary. The envious one sees himself, admires himself, and becomes full of malice. In the end, he does not realize that evil will return to him and harm him.
He sees everything that will defeat him in reverse. Yet, it is he himself who is defeated and harmed! For if he saw that he was nothing, if he knew how deadly and severe his wound was, such a vision, such knowledge, would sadden his heart. And sorrow would remove him from the veil. If mothers did not suffer labor pains, no child would find a way to be born. This trust is in the heart, and the heart is pregnant.
These counsels are like a midwife. The midwife says, “The woman has no pain; pain is needed, pain is the way for the child.” The one without pain is a highwayman; lack of pain is to say “Ana’l-Ḥaqq—I am the Truth.” To say “ana” (I) at the wrong time is to fall into a curse; to say “ana” at the right time is mercy. Mansur’s saying “ana” was surely mercy, but look at Pharaoh’s saying “ana”—it was pure curse!
In short, every rooster that crows out of season must be beheaded as a lesson. What is beheading? It is to kill the nafs in this world, to abandon the desires of the nafs. This is like removing the sting of a scorpion so it may escape being killed; like pulling the venomous tooth of a snake so it may escape being stoned. Nothing but the shadow of the pīr kills the nafs. Cling tightly to the hem of the one who kills the nafs. If you hold his hem firmly, this is Allah’s success. Every strength that appears in you comes from his drawing and calling you. Know well: “You did not throw when you threw.” Whatever your soul possesses is from the Soul of souls. It is He who holds your hand, who bears your burden. At every moment, with every breath, expect that moment and breath from Him! If you have become the recipient of His grace, do not grieve. Know that He does not neglect, but gives respite. Allah’s mercy comes late, but comes thoroughly; He never separates you from His presence, He is with you at every moment. If you wish to hear the explanation of this union, this love, read the surah “By the morning brightness” (al-Ḍuḥā) with deep reflection! If you say, “Evil is also from Him,” it is so, but does this diminish His perfection?
This bestowal of evil is also from His perfection. Listen, O great one, let me give you an example: For instance, a painter makes two kinds of pictures: pictures of the beautiful and of the ugly. He paints the beauty of Joseph and the houri, and also paints the ugliness of demons—not as a flaw, but as proof of his mastery. He paints the ugly in such a way that all ugliness revolves around it, is woven around it.
Thus, the perfection of his knowledge is revealed, and whoever denies his mastery is disgraced. If the painter does not know how to paint the ugly, he is deficient. For this reason, Allah is the Creator of both the disbeliever and the believer. Thus, kufr (disbelief) also bears witness to His divinity, as does iman (faith). Both prostrate to Him. But know that the believer’s prostration is by choice. For the believer seeks Allah’s pleasure, his aim is to attain His pleasure.
The disbeliever also worships Allah, though unwillingly, but his aim is different. He builds the king’s fortress, but out of a claim to sovereignty. He rebels so that the fortress may be his, but in the end, the fortress falls into the king’s hands. The believer repairs the fortress for the king, not to gain rank or position. The ugly says, “O King who created the ugly, You are able to create the beautiful as well as the ugly.” The beautiful says, “O King of beauty, You have purified me from all faults.”
The Prophet said to the sick man: “Say this: O Allah, make difficulties easy for us. Grant us good in the abode of this world and in the abode of the Hereafter. Make our path as pleasant as a rose garden, O exalted Allah, for our true abode is with You.” On the Day of Resurrection, the believers will say, “O angels, was not Hell a common road?
Both the believer and the disbeliever were to pass through it. But on this road, we saw neither smoke nor fire. Here is Paradise, the abode of safety. Where then is that base stopping place?” The angels will say, “Remember that lush green garden we saw while passing by? That was Hell, the abode of severe torment. But for you, it became a place of gardens, orchards, and greenery. You purified this Hellish, ill-natured, fire-tempered nafs.
You strove and made it pure for Allah; you extinguished the fire for Allah’s sake. You turned the blazing fire of lust into the green of taqwa (God-consciousness), the light of hudā (guidance); the fire of greed became forbearance, the darkness of ignorance became knowledge; you cast away the fire of greed, which was like thorns, and it became a rose garden. Since you extinguished all the fires within yourselves for our sake, thus the poison became honey.
Since you made the nafs, which belongs to fire, into a garden and sowed seeds of loyalty there, the nightingales of dhikr and glorification began to sing beautifully in the greenery, by the riverside. You responded to the call to Allah, you sprinkled water on the hell of the nafs. Our Hell became for you a place of greenery, a rose garden, a grove.” O son, what is the recompense for ihsan (spiritual excellence)? Grace, ihsan, and the most precious reward. We are sacrificed, we are annihilated in the face of the attributes of existence and goodness: Even if we are treacherous or mad, we are intoxicated by that cupbearer, that goblet; we submit to His command, offer our precious souls to Him. Did you not say, as long as the beloved’s image remains in our hearts, our task is servitude and self-sacrifice?
Wherever a lamp of tribulation is lit, there a hundred thousand lovers’ souls are burned. The lovers in the house are moths to the lamp of the beloved’s beauty. O heart, go to the place illuminated by you, to the assembly of those who shield you from tribulations, to those who give you a place in their souls, who make you a goblet full of wine! Make your home in their souls; O bright full moon, dwell in the sky!
They open the book of the heart like Mercury to reveal secrets to you. Since you have no place or abode, go to those you know; if you are a piece of the moon, turn your face to the perfect, complete moon! What is this? Why should the part fear the whole? What is this mingling with the contrary? See the unseen, with the light of the eye, become the eye itself!
O fool, as long as you flirt and deceive like a woman, how will you rise above? You take the people’s learning about you, their flattery, their sweet and deceptive words, and pocket them like gold! It is better for you to receive the blows and curses of kings than the honey of base people. Eat the slap of kings, do not eat the honey of the lowly. Thus, by the fortune of the men of God, you too become a man. For from them comes the robe of honor, comes fortune. They turn the body into soul in the refuge of the spirit.
Wherever you see a naked, a poor person, know that he has fled from a perfect one. To do what your heart desires, to fulfill the wishes of that blind, evil, and impoverished heart, is to flee from a master. If he had followed the master’s wishes, he would have adorned himself and his kin. Whoever flees from the master in this world flees from fortune; know this well. You learned a craft for bodily gain, now turn your hand to the craft of religion!
You have clothes in this world, you have become rich; but when you leave this world, what will you do? Learn a craft for the Hereafter as well, so that you may gain the profit of forgiveness. That world too is a city full of markets and profits. Do not think that gain is only in this world and that this gain is sufficient! The great Allah said, “The profit of this world is but a child’s play compared to that profit.”
See how a child walks over to another, acts as if he is uniting and conversing with him. Children play at shopkeeping, but nothing comes to their hands except the passing of time. Night falls, the child returns home hungry; the other children leave, and he is left alone. This world is a playground, death is the night. You return, but your purse is empty, and you are exhausted!
This rebellious fellow, the profit of religion is love, the attraction of the heart, the capacity for the light of truth. This base nafs seeks perishable gain from you. But how long will you keep gaining base things? Leave it now, enough! Even if the base nafs asks you for a lofty gain, there is trickery and deceit in this request.