In the Name of God the
Compassionate, the Merciful!
Glory be to the Sovereign who rules over the two worlds with absolute dominion; for the existence of all that has been has
been through His Being; the present existence of all that now exists is through
His Being, and the future existence of all that shall exist will exist through
His Being. He is the First, the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden; and He is
seeing of all things. And salutations and blessings be upon His divine envoys,
especially to Muhammad, the Chosen, through whom
the seal was affixed to prophecy, and upon his Companions and to the Knowers of
Religion, may divine favour rest upon them all!
One
of my dear friends one day asked me the following question: "Do birds
understand each other's language?"
-
"Certainly," I answered, "they do."
-
My friend replied: "How do you know this?"
- "It so happens that in the beginning when He who
is the Maker in the real sense wanted to manifest my being that not yet was,
He created me in the form of a falcon. However, in the land where I was there
were also other falcons; we talked to one another, we listened to the different
words and we understood each other."
-
"Very good," said my friend, "but how have things gotten the way
they are now?"
- Well, this is how: "one day the hunters,
Decree and Destiny, spread out the fillet of Predestination; they hid the grain
of attraction in it as a bait and in this way successfully managed to take me a
prisoner. They kidnapped me from the homeland that had been my nest and took me
away to a faraway country. My eyelids were sewn together and they fettered me
with four different kinds of chains; finally, ten wardens were appointed to
guard over me: five faced me and had their backs to the outside; five others
had their back to me and faced the outside. The five who were facing me kept me
so tightly in a world of confusion that I forgot everything: my own nest, the
faraway homeland and everything that I had known over there. I now imagine that
I have always been just like I am now.
When some time had passed this way, my eyes reopened a little bit, and to the
degree that they could see again, I began to look around. I began to see the
things that I had not seen for so very long and I admired them greatly.
Gradually every day my eyes opened a little more and I looked at more things so
I fell over with surprise. Finally my eyes reopened completely; the world
showed itself to me just the way it was. I looked at the chains that tied me
down; I saw that I was a prisoner of the ten wardens. I said to myself:
"Apparently I will never be extricated from these four fetters or from
these jailers so that my wings can open and I can fly again, free and
unhindered from all bonds."
More time passed. Suddenly, one day I noticed that my jailers had relaxed their
attention. "I could not have found a better moment," I thought to
myself. Secretly I slipped away, and as well as I could I hobbled in my chains
until I ended up on the desert road. There, in the desert, I saw someone coming
my way. I walked to meet this person. I stopped and greeted him. With grace and
consideration, the person returned my greeting. Observing a crimson reflection
in his complexion, I thought I had met an adolescent.
-
"Young man," I said, "where are you going?"
-
Child! Came the reply, "You are wrong in calling me that! I myself am the
eldest of the Creator's children, and you call me 'young man'?"
-
"But in that case, why aren't you like someone who is old?"
- "I really am one of the most ancient ones, a
Sage whose essence is Light. The same person who made you a prisoner of the
fillet, who put those chains around you and made those jailers guard you, also
threw me into the pit of darkness a long time ago, that is the reason you see
that crimson color around me. Otherwise I am completely white and luminous.
Like anything white whose whiteness comes from solidarity with the Light, when
it gets mixed with the night it appears sort of reddish. Watch at twilight and
at dawn, both are white because they are connected with the light of the sun.
However, twilight and dawn are a moment between the two: one side is towards
day which is white and the other is towards night which is black, hence the
purple of the dawn in the morning and of the twilight in the evening. Watch the
astral mass of the moon when it rises. Although its light is a light borrowed,
it is truly clothed in light, but one of its faces is turned towards day while
the other is turned towards night. So the moon appears crimson. A simple lamp
appears to have the same property; below, the flame is white, higher up it
turns towards dark smoke; in between it appears reddish. Many other analogies
or similarities can be given as an example of this rule"
-
"O Sage, then where do you come from?" I asked this time.
-
"I come from beyond Mount
Qâf. That is where my
home is. Your nest was there also. Alas! You have forgotten it!"
-
"But what are you doing here?"
-
"I am a perpetual pilgrim. Without letting up, I travel around the world
and marvel at all its wonders."
-
"What sort of wonders have you seen in the world?"
-
"I have seen seven wonders: the first one is Mount Qâf,
our home, yours and mine. The second is the Jewel that illumines the Night. The
third is the tree Tûbâ. Fourth are the twelve workshops. Fifth is David's coat
of mail. Sixth is the Sword. Seventh is the Source of Life."
-
"I beg you to tell me the history of all that."
-
"Alright, first there is Mount
Qâf. It stands on top of
the world that it completely surrounds; in fact, all together it is made up of
twelve mountains. That is where you will go when you are freed from your
chains, because that is where you were taken from and every being ultimately
returns to the form it had initially."
-
"What road do I take to get there?" I asked.
-
"The road is indeed very difficult. You first see two mountains that
already are part of Mount
Qâf. The one has a very
cold climate and the other is very hot. The heat and the cold of those places
knows no limits."
-
"Isn't that easy? I will go across the mountain with the hot climate in
the winter and will travel over the mountain with the cold climate when it is
summer."
-
"Unfortunately, you are wrong. There isn't any season that the weather on
those mountains gets any better."
-
"How far is it to those mountains? I asked."
-
"No matter how long and how far you travel, you will keep getting back to
the place from where you left. It's like a compass where one point is fixed at
the center and the other is on its periphery: as long as it keeps turning it
always keeps getting back to where it started."
-
"Maybe it is possible to drill a tunnel through those mountains and then
travel through the hole?"
- "Actually, it is impossible to drill a
tunnel through them. On the other hand, those who have the aptitude can cross
them in a single instant without having to dig at all. This is about a power
that is similar to the one balsam has. If you hold the palm of your hand up to
the sun long enough for it to become hot and if you then pour balsam drop by
drop into your palm, the balsam passes through to the backside of your hand
thanks to a natural power that it has. So also with you: if you realize the
natural power in yourself to cross those mountains, then in an instant you will
have crossed them."
-
"How can you realize this power in yourself?"
-
"I will give you a hint, if you are capable of catching it.
-
"When I have crossed those first two mountains, is it then not easy to
cross the others?"
-
"Easy, certainly, but on condition that you understand. Some people
remain forever captive of those two mountains. Others cross to the third and
stay there. Still others get to the fourth, to the fifth and so on, to the
twelfth. The smarter the bird, the further it will fly."
-
"Now that you have explained Mount
Qâf to me, I said, I beg
you to tell me the history of the Jewel that illumines the Night."
-
"The Jewel that illumines the night also exists on Mount Qâf;
more precisely, it is located on the third mountain and the dark night becomes
resplendent because of it. Nevertheless, it does not stay in the same state
without any changes. Its light comes from the Tûbâ tree. Every time that it
finds itself "in opposition" to the Tûbâ tree, relative to the place
where you are, the Jewel appears entirely luminous, like a resplendent globe.
When it is no longer opposite, but in a place closer to the Tûbâ tree, part of
its luminous disk is hidden relative to you, while the rest continues to shine.
The closer it gets to the tree Tûbâ tree, the more the dark part gains on the
luminous part, all the while, mind you, relative to the place where you are,
because in relation to the tree Tûbâ one hemisphere of the Jewel stays
luminous. When it is the closest to the Tûbâ tree, it appears in relation to
you as having become completely dark, while on the side of the Tûbâ tree it is
completely light. Inversely, when it gets further away from the Tûbâ tree, it
begins to illuminate in relation to you (that is, as seen from your side); the
further it gets away from the Tûbâ tree, the stronger its light gets relative
to you. The light itself never increases; the mass of the Jewel keeps the
excess light for itself and the dark zone gets equally smaller. This goes on
until the opposition of the tree Tûbâ happens again (that is, the greatest distance);
then the mass of the Jewel keeps the light completely for itself.”
The
Jewel that illumines the Night
It's
analogy
An analogy will make you
see this. Perforate a little ball completely along its diameter and draw a line
over the marks. Then fill a bowl with water and put the little ball on the
surface of the bowl so that half of it is in the water. Let us suppose that in
ten turns at a given moment the water has covered every part of the little ball
(while it revolves around itself). If someone has observed this, looking from
under the bowl, then they will always see one half of the ball plunged into
water. Now if the observer is then placed just below the middle of the bowl and
keeps looking at it in a slanted direction in relation to this vertical middle,
then the entire half of the ball in the water can no longer be seen because to
the degree that the direction of one's view differs from the middle, one ceases
to see that part of the ball that is no longer in opposition to this vantage point.
On the contrary, while looking this way, one will see part of the ball out of
the water. The more obliquely one raises one's view towards the water level in
the bowl, the smaller will be the part of the ball dipped into the water and
the more one will see it out of the water. When one places oneself in order to
see exactly level with the water in the bowl, one hemisphere will be seen in
the water and the other out of it. Then if one's view is slanted more and more
above the water level, more of one part of the ball will be seen, until one's
view passes vertically through the middle of the bowl and one sees the ball in
its entirety, but also completely out of the water. Someone will perhaps object
that while looking from below the bowl, they see neither the water nor the
little ball. We answer that of course they can be seen, on condition that the
bowl is made out of glass or some other transparent material. Now when we deal
with the bowl and the little ball of our example, it is the observer who has
moved around the bowl in order to look at them. However, when we are dealing
with the Jewel that illumines the Night and the Tûbâ tree, it is they
themselves that rotate around a stationary observer."
- "Then what is the
Tûbâ tree?" I then asked the Sage.
- "The Tûbâ tree is an
immense tree in Paradise. Everyone is familiar
with this tree every time they walk there. In the very heart of the twelve
mountains that I spoke of there is a certain mountain. On that mountain stands
the Tûbâ tree.
- "Does it bear fruit?"
- "All the fruit you
see in the world is from this tree; the fruit you see before you all belongs to
it. If the Tree did not exist there would be no fruit and no trees, no flowers
or plants around you!"
- "Fruit, trees and
flowers, what relation do they all have to this tree?"
- "Sîmurgh has
her nest in the top of the Tûbâ. At sunrise she leaves her nest and spreads her
wings over the earth. It is from the influence of those wings that fruit
appears on trees and that plants germinate in the earth."
- "I have heard it
said that it was Sîmurgh who raised Zâl and that it was with Sîmurgh's help
that Rostam killed Esfandyâr."
- "Yes, that's
true."
- "How did that
happen?"
-
When Zâl made his entrance into existence from his mother's womb, his hair and
face where completely white. Sâm, his father, ordered that he be thrown out
into the desert. His mother was just as profoundly disturbed at having brought
him into the world. Seeing her son with such repulsive features, she consented
to the order. So Zâl was abandoned into the wilderness. It was then winter then
and cold. No one imagined that the child would survive there. A few days
passed; his mother lost her resentment and felt pity for the child. "I
will go into the wilderness", she said to herself, "I must see what
has happened to my child". After arriving in the wilderness she found him:
the child was still alive, Sîmurgh had taken it under her wings. When mother
and child saw each other, Zâl smiled at her and the mother took him to her
breast and nursed him. She wanted to take him with her, but then said to
herself: "No, because they won't understand how he survived these days, I
won't take him back to the house." She then abandoned little Zâl in the
same place, under Sîmurgh's wings and hid herself in the vicinity. When night
fell and Sîmurgh left the desert, a gazelle approached Zâl's crib and placed
its breast on the child's lips. After the child was finished with her milk, the
gazelle rocked it to sleep in its crib so Zâl would be safe from all troubles.
Then the mother got up, moved the gazelle away from the crib and took the child
home."
- "What secret is
hidden there?" I asked the Sage.
- "I myself have asked
Sîmurgh about this and this is what she said": "Zâl came into the
terrestrial world under the attention of Tûbâ. We did not allow him to perish.
We abandoned the fawn to the power of the hunters and put our pity into the
heart of the gazelle, its mother, so that she took pity on him and gave him her
milk. During the day I myself took him under my wings."
- "And the case of
Rostam and Esfandyâr"?
-
"This is what happened. Rostam did not have enough strength to defeat
Esfandyâr and collapsed from fatigue. His father, Zâl, poured out supplications
before Sîmurgh. However, Simûrgh naturally had the power that when someone held
a mirror directly in front of her, or some other thing like a mirror, every eye
that looked into that mirror would be blinded. Zâl made a breastplate of iron
with a perfectly polished surface and put that on Rostam. Likewise he put a
perfectly polished helmet on Rostam's head and hung pieces of mirror from his
horse. Then he directed Rostam to place himself directly in front of Sîmurgh.
Esfandyâr inevitably had to come at Rostam. The moment he came close, Sîmurgh's
rays that fell on the breastplate and the mirrors reflected back into
Esfandyâr's eyes; he became dazed and couldn't see anything anymore. He
imagined and believed that he was wounded in the eyes because he caught a
glance of two sharp points. He fell from his horse and perished at the hands of
Rostam. Consider that the two points from the arrow made out of a branch of the
gäz tree of which the recitals speak, are Sîmurgh's two wings."
- "Do you mean to
say," I asked the Sage, "that in the entire universe there has been
only one Sîmurgh?"
- "No, those who don't
know, erroneously think so. Unless a Sîmurgh continuously descends down
to earth from the tree Tûbâ while the one that went before her returns, that
is, unless a new Sîmurgh continually comes, nothing of what is here can stay
alive. Like what comes to the earth, so also a Sîmurgh goes forth from the Tûbâ
tree out to the twelve workshops."
- "O Sage! I cried
out, What are these twelve workshops?"
-
"In the first place, realize that when our King wanted to organize his
Kingdom, he organized our country first and then he put us to work. He
instituted twelve workshops and in each workshop he put some apprentices. Then
he also put the students to work so that below the twelve workshops a new
workshop appeared and our King put a Master (ustâd) in there. This
Master he appointed to his own work so that under this first workshop again
another workshop appeared. In turn he put a second Master to work there so that
under the second workshop yet another workshop appeared, entrusted to a third
Master, and so on, until there were seven workshops and a Master especially
appointed over each one. Then to each of the apprentices who were divided over
twelve houses he gave a robe of honor. He also gave a robe of honor to the
first Master and entrusted him two of the twelve higher workshops. To the
second Master he also gave a robe of honor and of those twelve workshops
equally entrusted him with two of them. Similarly with the third Master. To the
fourth master he gave a robe that was the most beautiful of all; he did not
entrust any of the twelve workshops to him but ordained him to exercise care
over all twelve. To the fifth and sixth Masters he gave gifts just like he had
done to the second and third Masters. When the turn came of the seventh Master
only one workshop remained. This was given to him, but he was not given a robe
of honor. The seventh Master then complained: "Every Master has two
workshops and I have only one! Everyone has been given a robe of honor and I
have been given none!" He was told that under his workshop two workshops
would be built that he would be given the greatest control over. Under all of
those workshops fields were laid out to be sown and their care was equally
given to the seventh Master. Besides this, it was determined that a lesser robe
would continually be made from the beautiful robe of the third Master and that
in this way at every moment the robe of one would also be the robe of the
other, like I explained about Sîmurgh."
- "O Sage," I insisted,
"what is woven in these workshops?"
- "Embroidery, but
they also weave things that no one has ever thought of weaving. David's coat of
mail is also woven there."
- "O Sage, what is
David's coat of mail?"
- "That coat of mail
is made up of the various ties that are woven around you."
- "Why is it
made?"
The
Two-pointed Arrow
-
"In each of the four triads that make up the twelve higher workshops one
link is made; from the work in these twelve workshops the result is therefore
four links. But it does not end there. These four links are given to the
seventh Master because he handles each of them. When they are placed under his
control the seventh Master sends them to the field that he sows and there they
remain for a certain amount of time in a state of rest. After that the four
links are connected with each other and they form a tight fabric. Then they
take a falcon like you prisoner and throw that coat of mail on it so that it is
completely sown up."
- "How many links are
there in each coat of mail?" I asked.
- "If you could count
the drops of water in lake Omân then you could also count how many links there
are in each coat of mail."
- "But is there a way
to get rid of it?"
- "Through the Indian
Sword."
- "In our country
there is an executioner; this Sword is in his hands. It has become a rule that
when a coat of mail has rendered the services that it must provide for a
certain time and its time is over that this executioner strikes it with his
Sword. That blow is so hard that all the links break and scatter."
- "For someone wearing
that coat of mail are there differences in the way they receive that
blow?"
-
"Of course there are differences. For some the shock is so bad that had
they lived a century and had they passed their entire life in meditation on the
nature of the most intolerable suffering and what the greatest suffering is
that can be imagined, they could still not imagine the violence of the blow
that this Sword inflicts. One the other hand, for others the blow is much more
easily received."
- "O Sage, I beg of
you, what do I have to do so this suffering is made easy for me?"
-
"Find the Spring of Life. From this Spring streams of water run down over
your head until this coat of mail (instead of hemming you in tightly) becomes a
simple garment that hangs around you with ease. This way you are invulnerable
to the blow from this Sword. It is as if this Water makes the coat of mail
supple, and when it is completely loosened up, the shock from the Sword is no
longer felt."
- "O Sage, where is
this Spring of Life?"
- "In the Darkness. If
you want to take part in the Quest for this Spring, look for the same sandals
that Khezr wears and progress on the road of confident abandonment, till
you arrive in the region of the Shadows."
- "In what direction
is that road?"
- "In whatever
direction you go, if you are a real traveller then you will finish the
journey."
- "But what does the
region of the Shadows mean?"
-
"It is the darkness of one's awareness. Because you are in darkness
yourself. You simply have no awareness. When they who take this road see themselves
as being in darkness then they have understood that they are here and now in
the night and that they have never yet reached the clarity of the light of day.
That is the very first step of a real traveller. It is only possible to raise
yourself up if you start there. If someone therefore reaches that station then
it is possible to go on from there. The seeker for the Spring of Life passes
through all sorts of stupors and distresses. However, if they are worthy to
find the Spring then finally after the darkness they will contemplate the
light. They must not take flight before this light because it is a splendor
that descends from the high Heavens upon this Spring of Life. When they have
finished the journey and bathed in the Spring of Life then they are
invulnerable to the blow by the Sword." As these verses have it:
Let
yourself be bruised by the Sword of Love
And find eternity,
Because the Sword of the Angel of Death,
Is never a sign that you are among the revived --Sanâ'î
And find eternity,
Because the Sword of the Angel of Death,
Is never a sign that you are among the revived --Sanâ'î
Those
who bathe themselves in this Spring will never be sullied. Those who have found
the meaning of True Reality have arrived at the Spring. When they emerge
from the Spring they have attained to that which makes them like the drop of
balsam that you pour into the hollow of your hand after holding it up to the
sun and which then penetrates to the back of your hand. If you are Khezr, then
you too can cross Mount
Qâf."
...
When I told these things to my dear friend who had asked me about them, he
cried out: "You really are a falcon who has been captured into the fillet
and who now gives chase to the game. Well, catch me then! To the cords of the
hunter's saddle I will not be a bad prey."
Yes,
I am the falcon who the hunters of the world
are in need of at every moment.
My game are gazelles with dark eyes,
Because Wisdom is like tears that pour through their eyelids.
Before me the literal meaning of words flee
Near me one knows how to catch the hidden meaning.
are in need of at every moment.
My game are gazelles with dark eyes,
Because Wisdom is like tears that pour through their eyelids.
Before me the literal meaning of words flee
Near me one knows how to catch the hidden meaning.
