2

and even Idolatry; and there is high authority (if authority be needed) for thinking it not inconsistent with our loyalty to our own religion to mete out similar tolerant measure to them.

1 Dr. Wolff says of the Sufis of Bokhara, "They are people who really try, as they express themselves, to come nearer to God' by a moral life, separation from the world, meditation, prayer, and reading the books of other religious sects.”Missionary Tour, p. 205.

2

E. g. The passage from St. Augustine quoted by Sale as the motto to his translation of the Koran-" Nulla falsa doctrina est quæ non aliquid veri permisceat ;" and those from St. Augustine, St. Clement and others, quoted by Max Müller in the Preface to his "Chips."

41, couplet 409, read "The fourth is the purification of the secret from 'other.'"

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

EXORDIUM.

1

In the name of Him who taught the soul to think,
And kindled the heart's lamp with the light of soul;'
By Whose light the two worlds were illumined,
By Whose grace the dust of Adam bloomed with roses;
That Almighty one who in the twinkling of an eye,
From Kaf and Nun brought forth the two worlds! 2
What time the Kaf of His power breathed on the pen,
It cast thousands of pictures on the page of Not being.
5 From that breath were produced the two worlds,*
From that breath proceeded the soul of Adam.
In Adam were manifested reason and discernment,
Whereby he perceived the principle of all things.
When he beheld himself a specific person,

He thought within himself" What am I?"5
From part to whole he made a transit,
And thence returned back to the world.

He saw that the world is an imaginary thing,

Like as one diffused through many numbers."

I. e. The reasonable soul, nafsi natika.

I. e. The material visible world, and the invisible, spiritual or 'world of command.' ("Are not creation and command of Him?" Koran, Sura VII. 52.) The Sufis identified these with the Platonic worlds of ideals and of sensible objects. See Dabistan-i-Muzahib, p. 445 (Calcutta edition).

3 Pen (kalam) a name of 'Akl i kull, universal reason, the first emanation from the "One." Kaf, i. e. kudrat, power. L.

The command of God, Kun fa-yakunu, 'Be and it was,' is here alluded to. Koran, Sura II. 3. See Psalm xxxiii.. 9.

5 See Milton's Paradise Lost, VIII. 270.

• The phenomenal world has no real 'objective' existence. It is only the repe

tition of the "One," (L.), who is, as Milton says:

10 The worlds of command and of creatures proceed from one

breath,

And the moment they come forth they go away again.

Albeit here there is no real coming and going,

Going, when you consider it, is naught but coming.'
Things revert to their proper original,

All are one, both the visible and the invisible.

God most high is the eternal one who with a breath

Originates and terminates both worlds.

The world of command and that of creatures are here one,

One becomes many and many few.

15 All these varied forms arise only from your fancy,
They are but one point revolving quickly in a circle."
It is but one circular line from first to last

Whereon the creatures of this world are journeying;
On this road the prophets are as princes,
Guides, leaders and counsellors.

And of them our lord Muhammad is the chief,

At once the first and the last in this matter.

The One (Ahad) was made manifest in the mim of Ahmad..

In this circuit the first emanation became the last. 3

20 A single mim divides Ahad from Ahmad;

The world is immersed in that one mim.

1 See Answer XI. Coming and going are mere subjective impressions produced on the mind of the percipient by the rapid renewals of Divine manifestations.

L.

* See Answer XII., i. e. the one Divine Being who is evolved, and rayed out through His various emanations down to man,-the lowest point in the circle,— and is united again to Himself in man's upward journey back to Unity. L.

3 Ahmad, or Muhammad, is the type of the "perfect man," who is the theatre or exhibition place of all the Divine names and attributes. The first emanation, 'ayn, was universal reason, and this descended, through the intermediate emanations, into man, and is again carried upwards by the perfect man " in his ascent to "Unity,"

and is united with the "One." Thus the first becomes the last. L.

4

5

Mim, the forty grades of emanations, from universal reason down to man. L. Koran, Sura XII. 108.

His entrancing state is the union of union,

His heart ravishing beauty the light of light.
He went before and all souls follow after
Grasping the skirts of his garment.

As for the saints on this road before and behind

They each give news of their own stages.

25 When they have reached their limits

They discourse of the knower' and the 'known,'

3

2

One in the ocean of unity says 'I am the Truth,'
Another speaks of near, and far, and the moving boat,
One, having acquired the external knowledge,

Gives news of the dry land of the shore.*

One takes out the pearl and it becomes a stumbling-block,
Another leaves the pearl and it remains in its shell."

8

One tells openly this tale of part and of whole,"
Another takes his text from eternal and temporal:
30 One tells of curl, of mole, and of eyebrow,
And displays to view wine, lamp and beauty."
One speaks of his own being and its illusion,10
Another is devoted to idols and the Magian girdle."

Since the language of each is according to his degree of progress,
They are hard to be understood of the people.

He who is perplexed as to these mysteries

Is bound to learn their meaning.

1 See Answer V.

See Answer IX.

2 See Answer VII.

See Answer X.

See Answer IV., Illustration 2. The positive law is the shell, and Sufi mysteries the pearl within it. One exposes these mysteries to the vulgar and causes scandal, another keeps them concealed. L.

See Answer XI.

See Answer XIII.

See Answer XII.

• See Answer XIV.

10 I. e., of the illusive unreal nature of all phenomena, ta'ayyunha. L.

11 See Answer XV.

THE CAUSE OF WRITING THIS BOOK.

Seven and ten years had passed after seven hundred,
From the Flight, when lo, in the month Shawál1
35 A messenger of a thousand graces and virtues
Arrived at the behest of the men of Khorásan.
A great man, who in that country is famed2
For his varied learning as a fount of light,—
Whom all the men of Khorásan, great and small,
Pronounce to be better than all men of this age,-
Had written an epistle on the matter of mystery
Addressed to the masters of mystery.

Therein many difficult expressions

In use amongst the masters of indications,

40 Had been versified in the form of several questions,
A world of mystery in a few words.

When the messenger read that epistle, forthwith
The news was noised abroad by many mouths.

All the nobles present in that congregation,

Turned their eyes upon this durvesh.

One who was a man well versed in affairs,3

And who had heard these mysteries from me a hundred times,
Said to me,
"Tell the answers off straightway,

"That the men of the world may profit thereby."
45 I replied, "What need? for again and again
"Have I set forth these problems in treatises."

66

True," said he, "but I hope to have from you

Answers in rhyme corresponding to these questions."

1 717 A.H.=1317 A.D.

* Amir Hosaini is the person referred to. See Introduction.

3

Lahiji says the name of this person was Shaikh Aminuddin, and the conversation took place at Tabriz.