Nature fled from the sultan and went to the home of an elderly woman who sifts flour due to her unknowingness. That woman, while fighting to cook tutmaç for her children, saw that beautiful, pleasing hawk. She caught it, tied its leg, cut its wing, maiming it, clipped its nails, and put hay in front of it to eat. She said, “Those who are not qualified have not cared for you well; your wing has exceeded its limit, and your nails have grown long. Those who are unqualified make you ill. Come to your mother so that she may care for you!” Friend, know the love of the unknowing in this way. The unknowing one always goes crookedly on the path, always stumbling.
On the sultan’s day, he spent his time searching for the hawk and finally turned towards that old woman’s tent. Suddenly, he saw the hawk there, amidst dust and smoke. Looking at it, he began to weep. He said, “Although you deserved this state because you did not show us true loyalty, and because you fled from paradise, neglecting that heaven and the people of hell are not equal, settling in hell, this is your due for fleeing to the home of this foul old woman who knows nothing.”
The hawk was rubbing its wing against the sultan’s hand, speaking with its condition, “I have sinned!” O generous one, if you only accept those who are good, where will the bad go to present their condition and weep? The sultan, because he makes every evil good, gives this audacity in grace, causes these murders to happen.”
Go forth and do ugly deeds so that even our goodness may appear ugly before the presence of that beautiful beloved. It is as it is: you considered the service you rendered worthy of her, and you exalted the flag of transgression for her sake. They allowed you to remember her, to call upon her, and therefore pride fell into your day. You saw yourself speaking with God. Yet there are those who, because of this doubt, become estranged from Him. Although the sultan sits with you on the ground, know yourself, know your limits, and sit more humbly.
The hawk said, “My lord, I repent, I have made tawbah, I have become a Muslim again. You are the one who intoxicates even the lion to the point of being able to catch it; if he strays from his path due to intoxication, accept his apology. Even though they cut my nails, you will accept me and not turn away from me, and I will pluck the perches of the sun. Even though my wing is gone, if you caress me, if you show favor to me, even fate will be checkmated in my game. If you grant me the belt of power, I will tear mountains from their roots; if you give me the pen of power, I will overthrow flags and break armies. Finally, my form is not even less than a mosquito… I, with my wing, will strike down and destroy Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom. Even if I am an Ebabil in weakness, even if all my enemies are elephants, I will fire a burning bullet, a bullet that has the effect of hundreds of catapults.”
Even if it is no larger than a chickpea in battle, I will leave no head or helmet! Moses went to war with only one staff, but with that staff he broke and passed through Pharaoh and his swords. Every prophet has struck that door alone, attacking the entire world. Noah asked for a sword, and the wave of the Flood was cut like a sword by God’s power. O Ahmad, who are the soldiers of the earth? Look at the moon; even its forehead is wounded! In this way, let those who believe in the fluctuating and non-fluctuating stars understand that this is your era, not the era of the moon.
This is your era, because even Moses, the Word, always longed for your time. Moses saw the brilliance of your era, the appearance of the dawn of that blessed era, and said, “My Lord, what an era of mercy! That era is beyond mercy… in that era there is vision.” Let him be submerged in the seas so that Ahmad’s era may manifest.” God said, “I showed you that era for His sake, I opened the way to that solitude for Him.”
O Word, you are far from that era; draw back your foot, for this climate is long. I am generous. I show food to creation so they may fall into despair and weep. A mother rubs her child’s nose so the child wakes up and asks for nourishment. For the child has no knowledge of his hunger, he sleeps. But the affection of milk begins to pain both the mother’s breasts.
I was a hidden treasure of mercy, I sent a community that attained guidance. God sent all the graces I desired with my heart and soul to you, but you coveted them. O Ahmad, how many nations have broken idols so that they may say, “O Lord!” If it were not for Ahmad’s work, you too would worship idols like your ancestors.
Know Ahmad’s right over the nations, and let your head be saved from prostrating to idols, so that you may know this. Speak of the gratitude for being saved from worshipping that idol, so that God may save you from the hidden idol within yourself. Just as He saved your head from the idols, save your heart with that power. You found religion as a free inheritance from your father, and you turned away your head without giving thanks for it. He ate the inheritance; what does he know of the value of property?
Rustam died, Zal gained free honor! I am moved to mercy when I make someone weep; I attain my blessing when they weep and overflow. If you do not want to give something to someone, I will not show that desire. But once you have closed your heart, I will not open it. My mercy is bound to those weeping. When a servant weeps, the sea of mercy begins to swell and surge.
They say the hawk, turning again to the sultan, is the hawk returning to the sultan. The hawk that has lost its way is a blind hawk. A hawk lost its way, fell into a ruin, remained among owls. He was of the light of acceptance, all light. But the servant of fate and destiny blinded his eye; he scattered dust in his eyes, led him astray, and brought him among the owls.
Not only has he fallen away from the sultan, but the owls began to strike at his head, to pluck his beautiful wings. A clamor fell among the owls: “Come to yourselves; the hawk is coming to take back its place and homeland.” They all swarmed upon the strange hawk like neighborhood dogs, beginning to tug at his cloak.
The hawk said, “Am I worthy of the owls?” I have given so many ruins to the owls. I do not want to stay here; I want to return to the sultan. Do not worry and harm yourselves. I will not stay here; I will go to my homeland. This ruin appears as a pleasant place to you, but not to me. The place where I show favor is the sultan’s arm.”
The owl said, “The hawk is trying to deceive you so that he may stray from his home and family. He intends to separate us from our homeland with trickery. This trick shows abundance but is worse than all predators in God’s name. His greed eats mud like honey. Don’t let the ayi take your tail. They are trying to lead astray those pure people who speak of the sultan and the sultan’s hand.”
How can a little hawk associate with a sultan? If even a bit of reason is in you, do not listen to these words. Is he of the sultan’s kind, or of the vizier’s kind? Can garlic and almond halva be eaten together? His saying that the sultan is looking for him is part of his trickery and deception. This is an unacceptable commodity. These are empty words, a trap set to deceive fools! Whoever believes in this believes in foolishness.
What connection can a weak hawk have with a sultan? Even the lowest owl would strike at his brain and bring him help from the sultan, how? Indeed, where?” The hawk said: “Even if a single feather falls from me, the sultan will uproot the root of the owls’ nest. Who is this owl? If even a hawk hurts me, breaks my heart, and inflicts injustice upon me,
The sultan makes harvesters at every slope and descent, exalts peaks. My guardian is his favor. Wherever I go, the sultan is behind me. My dream is in the sultan’s heart. He cannot stand without me. When the hawk flies with me, he soars in the heights of the soul like a radiance; he soars like the sun and moon, surpassing the celestial curtains.
The light of reason is from my thought; the creation of the heavens is because of my face. I am such a hawk that even Huma is amazed by me. Who are the owls to know my secret? The sultan opened the prison to free me, released tens of thousands of prisoners. For a time, he made me a companion of the owls so that they might become hawks through me. How blessed is that hawk who follows my flight and makes his fortune in it and understands my secret. Attach yourselves to me so you may become hawks, even if you are owls! Where does one who is beloved by such a sultan fall, how can he be a stranger?
Whoever the sultan heals for their suffering, that one wails like a reed, his voice will not remain silent. I am the owner of the dominion; I do not sit at another’s table and eat my food. The sultan’s kind is the sound of