In this are summed up the roots and branches of faith.
It is not I who declare this; hear it from the Koran,
"There is no distinction in the creatures of the Merciful."

INDICATION

OF THE GIRDLE.

885 The knotted girdle is the emblem of obedience.
I have looked and seen the origin of every thing,
For the wise man finds no trustworthy information
As to anything except in its original usage.'
Gird your loins, like a valiant man, with manliness,
Join the band who "fulfil my covenant."

With the horse of knowledge and the bat of obedience
Bear off from the field the ball of good fortune.

For this duty did God create you,
Albeit He created many creatures besides you.*
890 Knowledge is as a father, practice a mother

Of mystic states which are "a joy of the eyes.
Doubtless, there is no mortal man but has a father,"
There was never but one Messiah in the world."
Cast aside vain tales, and mystic states and visions,
Dreams of lights, and marvels of miracles.

8

Your miracles are comprised in "Truth" worship,"

1 Koran, Sura LXVII. 3.

2 See couplet 728.

3

Koran, Sura II. 38: "O children of Israel, fulfil your covenant with me," i. e. obedience. See couplet 419.

4 Koran, Sura LI. 56: "I have not created Jins and men save to serve and obey me."

5 "No soul knoweth the joy of the eyes which is secretly prepared for them as a reward for that which they have wrought."-Koran, Sura XXXII. 18. See 1 Cor. ii. 9.

6

Knowledge, the father, is necessary, as well as obedience or practice, the mother,

to bring men to the good fortune of Union. L.

'See Koran, Sura III. 42.

9

Compare couplet 849 and note.

• Miracles, karamat, also mighty works, honour, as in couplet 554.

All besides is pride, vain glory and illusion of existence.
In this path whatever is not of poverty of spirit

Is but being puffed up and seeking our own glory.' 895 By cursed Iblis, who witnesses not verity,

Are wrought thousands of miracles.

Now he approaches from the wall, now from the roof,
Now he dwells in your heart, now in your body.
He knows all the hidden counsels of your heart,

He works in you unbelief, and transgression and sin.
Iblis is the Imám, and you his followers,2

But how can you rival him in his miracles?

If

your miracles are wrought only in self-ostentation, You are a Pharaoh, to wit, one arrogating divinity. 900 But he who has fellowship with "The Truth" Is never one who vaunts himself.

3

All your regard is set on creatures; Beware
That you fall not into captivity of this disease."
If you consort with the base, you become an animal ;
Nay, not an animal, but at once a stone.*

Flee from connection with the base,

Lest
you fall headlong from your natural rank.
You have wasted your precious life in trifling,
You think not of what use is such a life as yours.

905 They call it peace when it is confusion,

They take an ass for their guide-see his beard!"
The leadership having now devolved on fools,
All men have fallen on evil days.

1 Miracles, if done to be seen of men, are a cause of egoism. L.

* Because you work miracles for self-ostentation. L.

I. e. the wish to be thought a mighty worker of miracles. You seek the approbation of the base, and, by consorting with them, sink to their level. L.

* Naskh transmigration of the soul into men, maskh into animals, raskh into plants

and into minerals, faskh into all. L. See Schmölders (Documenta, p. 123).

I. e. the mark of the popular Shaikh. L. This passage would seem to have been written under the influence of personal animosity against some particular popular teacher, but Lahiji treats it as of only general application.

910

See the one-eyed Dajjal,' in what way
He is sent into the world as an ensample.
See this ensample, O man of sense!

Know him for the ass whose name is Jassás.
See all these asses in the toils of that ass,
Being the forerunners in ignorance of that ass.
When our lord told the story of the latter days,
In several places he signified this matter.

See now how there are blind and gluttons,

All knowledge of the faith has departed to heaven.
There remain not in the midst courtesy and modesty,
None have shame for their ignorance.

The whole condition of the world is upset;

If you are wise, see in what state it is.

One who is accursed and banned and hated

Is now Shaikh of the age, because his father was good.

915 Yet that wicked son was slain by Khizr,2

3

Because his father and grandfather were good.
O ass, now you have chosen for your Shaikh
An ass who is more ass-like than yourselves.
For as much as "he knows not cat from mouse,'
How will your secret be purified through him?
If the son shows a trace of his father,
What shall I say? Verily he is light upon light.
If the son be of good judgment and fortune,

He is as fruit, the cream and perfection of the tree. 920 But how can he be Shaikh of the faith,

1

Who knows not good from evil, evil from good?
Discipleship is learning the knowledge of the faith,

Dajjal, Antichrist, and Jassás, the spy, a mighty beast sixty cubits high, will appear as precursors of the last day.-Sale's Koran, Prelim. Discourse, p. 57, and Sura XXVII. 83, 84. 1 John ii. 18. 1 Tim. iv. 1.

2 See Koran, Sura XVIII. 61. Khizr slew him because he feared that his parents would suffer for their son's perverseness.

Or 'calling cattle, from driving them away,' or 'good from evil.'

Kindling with light the lamp of the heart.
Did ever one learn knowledge from the dead?
Was ever lamp lighted from ashes?

For this cause my mind is resolved on this,
To gird my loins with the Magian girdle.'
Not for this cause that I may gain fame,
That I have, but am ashamed of it.2
925 Since my rival is base for this cause,
My obscurity is preferable to his fame.

Again an inspiration came to me from "The Truth,"
"Cavil not at Wisdom because of a fool."

If there were no sweepers in the world,

The world would be buried in dust.

After all, the bond of genus connects us all-
So goes the world, Allah is all-wise.

Nevertheless flee from the society of the base,

If

you seek to be a true servant abandon form ;1 930 Form accords not with true obedience,

Practise true obedience, and abandon form.

INDICATION

ON CHRISTIANITY.

In Christianity the end I see is purification from self,"
Deliverance from the yoke of bondage."

1 I. e., as a mark of distinction from the ignorant Shaikh, who cleaves only to outward form. L.

2 Because it is shared with the ignorant Shaikh. L. Because all things are created for some purpose. L.

'Ibadat, servitude, obedience, devotion. 'Adat, custom, usage, habit, form, mechanical religion, routine. Lahiji explains it as 'the five pillars' of the Moslem law, viz. reciting the creed, prayer, fasting, alms and pilgrimage. St. Paul's 'righteousness of the law.'

Purification from self, tajrid. See note on couplet 86. So in couplet 936 below, purified, mujarrad:

"If you ascend, like Messiah, pure and free to heaven."

6

Bondage, taklid. See note on couplet 109.

Hafiz.

The blessed portal of Unity is the sanctuary of the soul,
Which is the nest of the Everlasting-the Simurg.
This doctrine was taught by God's spirit (Jesus),
Who proceeded from the Blessed Spirit.'
Also by God is placed in you a soul,

Wherein is a sample of the Blessed Spirit.

935 If you find release from the carnal mind of humanity,
You will obtain entrance to the life of Divinity.

Every man who is purified as angels are pure
Will ascend with God's spirit to the fourth heaven.

ILLUSTRATION.2

The infant that sucks the breast is confined

At his mother's side in a cradle.

But when he is grown up and able to travel,

If he is manly he goes with his father.

The elements are to you as your mother after the flesh,

You are an infant, and your father is the Father on high.3 940 For this cause said Jesus at the time of His ascension, "I go unto my Father which is on high.”4

You too, O soul of your Father, turn to your Father,
Your companions are gone, go forth too.

If you desire to take wing as a bird,
Cast the carrion world to the vultures.
Give to the base the treacherous world,

It is not meet to give carrion but to dogs."

What matters relationship? Seek your real friend,

1 The Holy Ghost, or "Blessed Spirit," is by Muhammadans identified with the angel Gabriel, the Divine Messenger. See Deutsch, Remains, p. 80, and Koran, Sura II. 81, III. 40. The Jewish expositors seem to have held the same view. Rodwell sub loco.

'On the spiritual ascension of the human soul.

Alluding to the Hadis: "The world is carrion, and they that seek it are dogs."

N