Turjuman Alashwaaq ترجمان-الأشواق

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TRANSLATION FUND.
NEW SERIES.
ORIENTAL
VOL. XX.
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THE
TAKJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ
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A COLLECTION OF MYSTICAL ODES

BY
ott
MUHYI'DDIN IBN AL-'ARABI
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EDITED FROM THREE MANUSCRIPTS WITH A LITERAL

VERSION OF THE TEXT AND AN ABRIDGED TRANSLATION OF THE AUTHOR'S COMMENTARY THEREON
BY
REYNOLD
A.
NICHOLSON,
M.A., LITT.D.
ww
w.
LECTURER IN PERSIAN IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE,

AND FORMERLY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE.
LONDON
ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY,

22 ALBEMARLE STREET.
gl
>
EX UBRiS
V113Q
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HERTFORD
STEPHEN AUSTIX AND SONS, LTD.
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PREFACE
WHATEVER view may
be taken of the respective merits of
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Arabic and Persian poetry, I think it will generally be

allowed by those familiar with the mystical literature of both
nations that the Arabs excel in prose rather than in verse,

while the Persian prose- writers on this subject cannot be
ob
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Faridu'ddin 'Attar, Jalalu'ddin

compared with the poets.
Rumi, Hafiz, and Jami to mention only a few of the great
Persian poets whose works, translated into various languages,
have introduced the religious philosophy of Sufiism to a rapidly
European culture are as much superior to

their Arab rivals, including even the admirable Ibn al-Farid,
as the Futukdt al-Makldyya and the Fusus al-Hikam are
widening
circle of
Axhwaq
is
no exception to
The Tarjuman
The obscurity of
ott
superior to similar treatises in Persian.

this rule.
alits
and the strangeness of its imagery

austere spirits for whom literature provides a refined and
arduous form of intellectual exercise, but the sphere in which
will satisfy those
the author moves
is
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style
too abstract
and remote from common
experience to give pleasure to others who do not share his

visionary temper or have not themselves drawn inspiration
w.
from the same order of ideas. Nevertheless, the work of

such a bold and subtle genius deserves, at any rate, to be
studied, and students will find, as a reward for their labour,
many noble and striking thoughts and some passages of real
'
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The following lines are often quoted. They express

beauty.
the Sufi doctrine that all ways lead to the One God.
heart has become capable of every form it is a pasture
for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
And a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Ka'ba and the
My
Tora and the book of the Koran.

follow the religion of Love
whatever way Love's
camels take, that is my religion and my faith.' l
tables of the
xii,
13-15.
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PREFACE
IV
The present
edition
was designed
in
the
first
instance
om
for the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, and is now

published in its original shape. I will not repeat or expand
what I have said in my brief introduction concerning the
date of composition, the different recensions of the text, the

method of interpretation, and the general character of these
remarkable odes, but it may be useful to indicate in a few
affords
Ashwdq
theosophy, I
feel,
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words some of the principal theories which are shadowed

forth symbolically in the text and revealed more explicitly
in the author's commentary.
Although the Tarjutndn almaterial for an essay on Ibn al-'Arabi's
speaking for myself, that further study of
works is necessary before such a task can be attempted

with advantage. Much valuable information is contained in
a treatise on Monism by 'All b. Sultan Muhammad al-Qari
his
ott
a polemic directed against Ibn al-'Arabi and his

followers who held that all Being is essentially one with God,
al-Harawi
notwithstanding its apparent diversity. This pamphlet was

written in answer to a champion of Ibn al-'Arabi, who had
under twenty-four heads various passages in the

FutuJidt and the Fusils, to which objection was taken by
orthodox theologians, and had endeavoured to justify the
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collected
author against his
critics.
'Ali al-Qari
regards Ibn al-'Arabi
and gives him no quarter. Of course

the offending passages admit of more than one interpretation,
and the author would doubtless have repudiated the conTheir pantheistic
struction put upon them by theologians.
I have classified
cannot
be
however,
away.
import,
explained
the following examples for the sake of convenience and have
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as a dangerous infidel
added a few references to the commentary on the Tarjumdn.

1. God and the World.
Ibn al-'Arabi says in the Futuhdt,
Glory to God who brought all things into existence, being
He is the
Himself their substance (IxLc
*L-iJ! JcJ)-
'
Brockelmann,
j-^-J].
ii,
394.
It appeared,
The work
in question is entitled
volume published at Constantinople

which was given to me by Dr. Riza Tevfiq.
subject, in a
jjo-.
djL.-
together with several other tracts on the same

in 1294 A.H.
a copy of
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PREFACE
substance of every object in manifestation, although He is

not the substance of objects in their essences.' l And again,
God manifests Himself in every atom of
in the Fusus,
'
He
is
every intelligible object and
revealed in
om
creation
concealed from every intelligence except the intelligence of

those who say that the Universe is His form and ipseity
(a^j &. aj
inasmuch as
.**>)>
He
stands in the same relation to
phenomenal objects as the spirit to the body.'

2. God and Man.
Man is the form of God
Man is to God
him God beholds the
the spirit of Man.'
by means
of
and God
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'
'
is
as the pupil to the eye
which He has
both temporal and eternal he is
'
objects
Man's origin is
an organism durable and everlasting.'
Man is the substance
when he
of every attribute wherewith he endows God
contemplates God he contemplates himself, and God conHence Abu
templates Himself when He contemplates Man.
Sa'id al-Kharraz said that he was a face and tongue of God,
created.'
'
who
is
called
by the name
of
ott
Abu
Sa'id al-Kharraz
God
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by other temporal names, because God unites

in Himself.'
dwells in the heart of
with Divine
Himself
(x,
Man
(vi, 1),
all
and also
opposites
and Man, invested
a mirror which displays God to

qualities,
Divine
2).
qualities may justly be attributed
is
'Arabi,
w.
anyone who is so transported from himself that God

becomes his eye and his ear (x, 1). Although union with
God is not possible while the body exists (v, 2), Ibn al-
to
like Plotinus, holds that

2
'
'
deification
is
attainable
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Elsewhere he says that knowledge of God is the

(xxiv, 3).
utmost goal that can be reached by any contingent being
This knowledge is gained solely by means of
(xvii, 5).
Faith and Contemplation, which Reason may serve if it
consents to lay aside its reflective faculty (iii, 2, 5).
What,
then, is the end of knowledge ?
Apparently, a state of
Nirvana or transcendental unconsciousness, t\
1
Cf. xx, 25: 'The Divine attributes are manifested in creation.
Divine essence does not enter into creation.'
l>ut
the
Cf. xxv, 7.
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PREFACE
VI
(v,
6).
The
phenomenal
vanishes
in
presence
of
the
Eternal (xx, 19).

3.
Since
Religion.
all
things are a manifestation of the
om
Divine substance, it follows that God may be worshipped in

a star or a calf or any other object, and that no form of
more than a portion of the truth.

Ibn al-'Arabi says, 'to any particular
positive religion contains
'Do not attach

creed
yourself,'
so
exclusively,
that
you
disbelieve in all the rest
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otherwise you will lose much good, nay, you will fail to
Let your soul be
recognize the real truth of the matter.
all forms of belief.
God, the omniand
is
not
limited
present
omnipotent,
by any one creed, for
He says, " Wheresoever ye turn, there is the face of Allah "
and the face of a thing is its reality.' It is
(Ivor, ii, 109)
vain to quarrel about religion.
Everyone praises what
he believes his god is his own creature, and in praising it
he praises himself. Consequently he blames the beliefs of
others, which he would not do if he were just, but his dislike
"
is based on ignorance.
the
If he knew Junayd's saying
water takes its colour from the vessel containing it" he
would not interfere with the beliefs of others, but would
l
The Divine
perceive God in every form and in every belief.'
substance remains unchanged
and
amidst all
unchangeable
o
o
the variety of religious experience.
Those who worship
God in the sun behold a sun, and those who worship Him in
living things see a living tiling, and those who worship Him
in inanimate objects see an inanimate object, and those who
worship Him as a Being unique and unparalleled see that
which has no like (xii, 13). In a noteworthy passage Ibn
al-'Arabi seeks to harmonize Islam with Christianity.
The
Christian Trinity, he says, is essentially a Unity which has
capable of embracing
'
'
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ott
'
counterpart in the three cardinal Names whereby God is

signified in the Koran, viz. Allah, ar-Rahman, and ar-Rabb
its
(xii,
4).
Islam
is
and God's mercy
is
who invokes Him
peculiarly the religion of Love (xi, 15),

denied to none, be he Moslem or infidel,
in the extremity of his need.

1
Even
if it
Cf. xiii, 12.
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PREFACE
vii
so be that the unbelievers shall remain in Hell for ever, they

will at last feel its fiery torments a pleasure and delight.
Ibn al-'Arabi
is
said to have claimed that he
was the Seal
Muhammad was
of the Saints, as
is
om
the Seal of the Prophets,

and also that the Saints are superior to the Prophets, but it
very doubtful whether these accusations are well founded.

to have maintained that the Prophets, in so far as
He seems
they are Saints, derive their knowledge from the Seal of the
and that the Prophets in virtue
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of their saintship are

to
the
in
virtue
of
their
superior
Prophets
prophetic dignity
Saints,
He does assert, however, that he had

iv, i
xviii, 8).
reached a spiritual degree which was not attained by any of
(cf.
his peers (xxiv, 4).

I desire gratefully to
which
of suggestions, nearly all of
have inserted in the book while
through the
criticism
made a number
ott
manuscript, and
acknowledge the valuable assistance

read the text and translation in
who
of Sir Charles Lyall,
press.
enables
me
The
fact
to
offer
that
it
it
to
it
was passing
has undergone his

of Arabic
students
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poetry with more confidence than would otherwise have

been possible. My thanks are due also to the Librarian of
University of Leiden, who caused two MSS. of the

Tarjumdn to be sent to Cambridge, and allowed them to
the
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remain there as long as they were required.
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ALTHOUGH Ibn
al-'Arabi (560-638 A.H.)
is
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THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ

the most celebrated
Muhammadan
mystics, the only one of his 150 extant

works that has hitherto appeared in a European edition is
of all
was published by Fluegel
(cuWHa^) which
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the brief glossary of Sufi technical terms
with the Ta'rlfdt

of Jurjani, under the title of Definitiones theosophi Mohjied-din Mohammed ben Ali vulgo Ibn Arabi dicti. So far
in 1845, together
am
aware, none of his books has been translated into

any European language, and no trustworthy account can yet
be given of his vast theosophical speculations, which produced
as I
By
ott
an extraordinary impression throughout the Moslem world.

far the larger portion of his writings is in prose, but the
remnant includes a Diwdn of about 450 pages
poetical
(published
'
Biilaq in 1271 A.H.) and several smaller

of these is the Tarjumdn al-Ashwdq or
at
One
alk
collections.
Interpreter of Desires
'.
The
fact that
it
is
accompanied
by a commentary, in which the author himself explains the

meaning of almost every verse, was the principal motive
that induced me to study it
its brevity was a strong
recommendation and something, I suppose, may be attributed
to my possessing an excellent MS., which, as is noted on the
last page, has twice undergone collation and correction.
w.
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curious problem of literary history is involved in the

question of the date at which the poems and the commentary
The MSS.
were composed.
exhibit
three
different
of
the
recensions.
Tarjumdn al-Ashwdq
The
first recension,
1
and Gotha
represented by Leiden 875 (2), Brit. Mus. 1527
In his
2268, contains the poems without the commentary.
,
Ibn al-'Arabi refers to his arrival in Mecca in

on insufficient grounds, as
A.H., and Dozy assumed
preface
598
I shall presently
that year.
show
that the poems were composed in
They were condemned by some devout Moslems
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as
'
vain and amatorious
',
and
in order to refute his critics
the author issued a second recension, represented by Leiden

641 and Brit. Mus. 754 \ containing the same poeins with
om
a commentary and a new preface, in which he declares that

he composed these poems, while visiting the holy places at
Mecca, in the months of Rajab, Sha'ban, and Ramadan,
611 A.M. The third recension is represented by Bodl. (Uri)
1
1276, Munich 524 Berlin 7750 and 7751, and the MS. cited
,
It agrees with
(Fluegel's edition), ii, 276.
the second in giving the date of composition as 611 A.H., but
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by Hajji Khalifa
includes a statement of the circumstances which caused the
author to write his commentary.

My MS. seems to be unique
in so
far as
it
contains
from the second.

Dozy, as I have
ott
the
the preface belonging to the first recension and
additional statement which differentiates the third recension
believed that
said,
the
true
also
date of
A.H., was given by the author in

the preface to the first recension, and that on publishing
the second recension he post-dated it by thirteen years.
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composition, namely 598
To wipe out the memory of his offence the poet not only
proved by means of his commentary that Heavenly, not
earthly, love was the theme that inspired him, but he also
'
pretended that the poems were composed at a different time

by which artifice, though he could not deceive those who had
w.
read them before, he might dupe anyone who had heard

2
people talk of them and the scandal produced by them.'
ww
Before considering the justice of Dozy's criticism it will be

well to set forth the evidence more fully than he has done.
I shall therefore summarize the contents of the prose sections
which form an introduction to the text of the poems.
1
Perhaps I should say almost unique ', since Pertsch's description of

Gotha 2269, which is defective at the beginning, leads me to suppose that
The Gotha MS., however, has
it resembles my MS. in this particular.
the date 611 A.H., which is wanting in mine.
Leiden Cat., ii, 77. The last clause, as printed, runs
qui de iis deque
'
'
magna
offensione
cuius
causa
fando audiverant,' i.e. 'the

Dozy cannot have meant to write this.
exstiterant,
scandal which had produced them '.
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PREFACE TO THE FIRST RECENSION
1.
On
Mecca in 598
his arrival at
A.H.
Ibn al-'Arabi found
b.
Fakhru
He
particularly mentions Makinu'ddiri Abu Shuja'

b. Abi 'r-Raja al-Isbahani and his aged sister,
'n-Nisa bint Rustam.
[With the former he read the
of Islam.
Zahir
om
a number of scholars and divines, both male and female,

whose ancestors had emigrated from Persia in the early days
Rustarn
at-Tirmidhi on the Apostolic Traditions.

He begged Fakhru 'n-Nisa to let him hear Traditions from her,
but she excused herself on the plea of her great age, saying
'Isa
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book of Abii
that she wished to spend the last years of her life in devotion.
She consented, however, that her brother should write for
Ibn al-'Arabi, on her behalf, a general certificate (<5jlc *jl=r^)

which she related
and he received
for all the Traditions
ott
a similar certificate from Makinu 'ddin himself.] 2

Makinu 'ddin had a young daughter, called Nizam and
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surnamed 'Aynu 'sh-Shams wa '1-Baha, who was exceedingly

beautiful and was renowned for her asceticism and eloquent
[The author says that he would have descanted
preaching.
on her physical and moral perfections had he not been
deterred by the weakness of human souls, which are easily
w.
corrupted, but he eulogizes her learning, literary accomplishIbn al-'Arabi observed the
ments, and spiritual gifts.]
was
of
her
which
enhanced by the society
nature,
nobility
He celebrated her in the poems
of her father and aunt.
in this volume, using the erotic style and
vocabulary, but he could not express even a small part of
the feelings roused in him by the recollection of his love for
ww
contained
her in past times

(*j~jj UMJ>^\ s^s?
lfc.\f=.
'
*jjJ.
Nevertheless
Uj. *j^
I
(j-jW).
U uô
^b! Jj
MS. adds
her sake some of
[Here
have put into verse for
the longing thoughts suggested
t-XJ jj
my
by those precious memories,
1
I follow the text of my MS.
The passages which occur in it, but not in
the Leiden MS. 875 (2), are enclosed in square brackets.
The Arabic text
will be found below.
"
And
Instead of the foregoing passage the Leiden MS. 875 (2) has
'
received a certificate from both of them.
'
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and I have uttered the sentiments of a yearning soul and

have indicated the sincere attachment which I feel, fixing
my mind on the bygone days and those scenes which her
society has endeared to
me
'
(-^Ls^lj
&U^
+;*& J^l.
The author continues: 'Whenever I mention
A-K.-JL-H).]
a name in this book I always allude to her, and whenever
I mourn over an abode I mean her abode.
In these poems
I always signify Divine influences and spiritual revelations
and sublime analogies, according to the most excellent way
which we (Sufis) follow
God forbid that readers of
this book and of my other poems should think of aught
.
to souls that scorn evil
unbecoming
om
ob
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ÎbjJ.
and to lofty
spirits that
are attached to the things of Heaven

Amen
[These pages include the love-poems which I composed at
Mecca, whilst visiting the holy places in the months of
'
ott
In these poems I point

Sha'ban, and Ramadan.
Divine knowledge and
to
various
sorts
of
(allegorically)
Rajab,
and intellectual sciences and religious

I have used the erotic style and form of
exhortations.
expression because men's souls are enamoured of it, so that
mysteries
there are
many
alk
spiritual
reasons
list
of
should
commend
itself.]
Ibn al-'Arabi's names and titles, the

last paragraph within square
w.
After giving a
as
proceeds
These
brackets
in
the
'
it
PREFACE TO THE SECOND RECENSION
2.
text
why
pages
include
the
love-poems
which
composed at Mecca ... in the months of Rajab, Sha'ban,

In these poems/ etc.,
and Ramadan in the year 611.
ww
without further variation.

3.
This
is
PREFACE TO THE THIRD RECENSION
identical with the last, but contains in addition
the following statement of the motives which induced the

author to write his commentary. 1
'I
w rote
r
this
commentary on the Diwan
entitled
Tarjumdn
1
In some MSS. this statement does not form part of the preface, but
placed after the text and commentary. It occurs in my MS. on fol. 140a.
is
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al-Ashwdq, which
composed at Mecca, at the request of

Abu Muhammad Badr b. 'Abdallah
my
al-Habashi al-Khadim and al-Walad al-Barr Shamsu 'ddin
Isma/il b. Sudakin an-Niiri l in the city of Aleppo.
He
I
om
al-Mas'ud
friend
'ddin) had heard some theologian remark that the

author's declaration in the preface to the Tarjumdn was
not true, his declaration, namely, that the love-poems in
(Shamsu
mystical sciences and realities.

"
Probably," said the critic, he adopted this device in order
to protect himself from the imputation that he, a man
this
collection
refer
to
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"
When my critic
heard
it
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mentioned. 3
ott
famous for religion and piety, composed poetry in the erotic

Shamsu 'ddin was offended by his observations and
style."
Accordingly, I began to write the
repeated them to me.
commentary at Aleppo, and a portion of it was read aloud
in my lodging in the presence of the above-mentioned
theologian and other divines by Kamalu 'ddin Abu '1-Qasim
2
b. Najmu 'ddin the Cadi Ibn al-'Adim
God bless him
and
in
an
I finished it with difficulty
imperfect manner, for
I was in haste to continue my journey, on the date already
he said to
Shamsu
'ddin
that he would never in future doubt the good faith of any

Sufis who should assert that they attached a mystical
and he
signification to the words used in ordinary speech
conceived an excellent opinion of me and profited (by my
This was the occasion of my explaining the
writings).
w.
Tarjumdn.'
ww
I have now laid before the reader nearly all the available
materials for a solution of this problem.
How, then, does it
of
falsification
stand with the charge
brought by Dozy
against Ibn al-'Arabi
Dozy's theory seems to
grounds
me
untenable on the following
He wrote commentaries on two treatises by Ibn al-'Arabf (see

Brockelmann, i, 443).
This is the well-known historian of Aleppo.
3
No date is mentioned in my MS. According to Hajji Khalifa (ii, 277),
the author finished his commentary in the second Rabf, 612 A.H. (July
1
August, 1215
A.D.), at
Aqsaray
(in
Lycaonia).
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THE TARJUMAX AL-ASHWAQ
Ibn al-'Arabi does not imply, in the preface to the

recension, that the poems were composed in 598 A.M.
Although he only arrived at Mecca in that year, he speaks
(a)
first
om
of his acquaintance with Nizam, the daughter of Makinu 'ddin,

as something past, and of Makinu 'ddin himself as no longer
alive. 1
(6)
The hypothesis that 598
A.H.
was the date
No arguments
com-
by the author, 611
A.H.,
is
ob
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position is not required.

to show that the date given
There
impossible or unlikely.
of
have been advanced
nothing incredible in the

statement that, while visiting the holy shrines at Mecca in
this year, the author was inspired by those familiar scenes
to celebrate in mystical fashion the feelings of love connected
is
The second and
third verses of the thirty-second
poem run
alk
as follows
ott
with an earlier period of his life.

(c) The poems themselves contain evidence that they were
not composed at the date which Dozy attributes to them.
Ibn al-'Arabi was 50 years 'old when he wrote these

2
He was born in 560 A.H., so that in 598 A.H. his
verses.
age was only 38. In 611 A.H. he was 51. To say '50'
instead of 51 is a small poetical licence, which needs no
'
w.
'
apology, whereas on
Dozy's supposition the author must
age and post-dated his poems by

considerably more than a decade in each case.
We may therefore conclude that Ibn al-'Arabi's account
antedated
ww
have
his
and that the composition of the

finished in Ramadan, 611 A.H.
was
Tarjumdn al-Ashwdq
A
few
months afterwards the author
(January, 1215 A.D.).
the matter
of
is
correct,
began to write his commentary at Aleppo, for Hajji Khalifa

us that it was completed in Rabi' ath-thani of the
following year (August, 1215 A.D.).
tells
This is indicated by the words JlxJ' <d!1 <w^- which follow

y
^Ânother reference to the poet's age occurs in xxxvi, 2.
,
his
name.
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The further
to
I
whether Ibn al-'Arabi was quite

poems were intended
question,
sincere when he
claimed that his
mystical in spirit, though erotic in form, must,

Students of
be answered in the affirmative.
be
Oriental
poetry have
sometimes
to
om
think,
ask
themselves,
'
Is
love-poem disguised as a mystical ode, or a mystical

and to
ode expressed in the language of human love ?
this a
'
acknowledge that they cannot

allowed
tell.
Here, however, the
not so nicely poised that every reader may be
to choose the interpretation which pleases him.
is
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balance
Some
of the poems, it is true, are not distinguishable from

ordinary love-songs, and as regards a great portion of the
text, the attitude of the author's contemporaries,
who
refused
had any esoteric sense at all, was natural

and intelligible on the other hand, there are many passages
which are obviously mystical and give a clue to the rest. If
to believe that
it
ott
the sceptics lacked discernment, they deserve our gratitude for

having provoked Ibn al-'Arabi to instruct them. Assuredly,
qasida.
mark
But the
alk
without his guidance the most sympathetic readers would

seldom have hit upon the hidden meanings which his fantastic
ingenuity elicits from the conventional phrases of an Arabic
fact that his explanations overshoot the
no proof of his insincerity he had to satisfy his

critics, and it would have been difficult to convince them
that the poems were mystical in spirit and intention unless
he had given a precise and definite interpretation of every
line and of almost every word.
The necessity of entering
is
w.
an Arab
is
in
ww
into trivial details
any case apt
to exaggerate
details at the expense of the whole

drives the author to
take refuge in far-fetched verbal analogies and causes him
to descend with startling rapidity
from the sublime to the
The author admits that in some passages of his poems the mystical
import was not clear to himself, and that various explanations were
1
suggested to him in moments of ecstasy: jjjs
?',
J
,-i
\^
>
c'Ji-i.sr'*
c
\^
(N.
5o,
J;L^
Ito-wCt
J" J
li^Lj
Je
4_*_L__!'
at foot).
www.alkottob.com
We
ridiculous.
have
seen that
when he published
his
om
commentary he omitted from the preface those passages

relating to the beautiful and accomplished Nizam which
No doubt they had been
occur in the first recension.
misunderstood
it was inevitable that they should excite
To cancel them was merely to deprive his critics
suspicion.
of a powerful weapon against which he could not defend
himself effectively.
For, if Nizam was to him (and manifestly
she was nothing else) a Beatrice, a type of heavenly perfection,
an embodiment of Divine love and beauty, yet in the world's
ob
.c
eyes he ran the risk of appearing as a lover who protests his

devotion to an abstract ideal while openly celebrating the
charms of his mistress. In the poems she is scarcely ever
mentioned by name, but there are one or two particular

references which I will quote here
:
Long have
yearned for a tender maiden, endowed with prose
ott
'
'
my two
alk
and verse (^J.jiJ c^j), having a pulpit, eloquent,

One of the princesses from the land of Persia, from the most
glorious of cities, from Isfahan.
She is the daughter of 'Iraq, the daughter of my Imam, and
I am her opposite, a child of Yemen.'
(XX, 15-17.)
comrades,
may my life-blood
be the ransom of a slender
w.
girl who bestowed on me favours and bounties

She established the harmony of union, for she is our principle of
harmony (L^llsj): she is both Arab and foreign: she makes
!
the gnostic forget.
'
ww
Whenever she gazes, she draws

and her front teeth show to
Verily, she
is
an Arab
against thee trenchant swords,

thee a dazzling levin.'
'(XXIX, 13-15.)
girl
belonging by origin to the daughters
of Persia, yea, verily.
Beauty strung
for her a
row
of fine pearly teeth, white
and pure
as crystal.'
(XLII, 4-5.)
Since I do not propose either to discuss the poems from

a literary and artistic standpoint or to give an account of
the
mystical doctrines which the author has occasion to
www.alkottob.com
touch upon in the course of his commentary, it only remains

to describe the MSS. which I have used in preparing this
edition.
MS.
in
my
collection,
dated 1029 A.H.
It contains
om
1.
both the text of the poems (written with red ink) and the
commentary. Inscriptions on the last page certify that it
has been twice diligently collated and corrected. In referring
it
I shall use the designation
2.
N.
MS.
in the Leiden University Library, Cod. 875 (2)

It contains only the
(see Dozy's Catalogue, ii, 74).
Warn,
ob
.c
to
text of the poems, with a preface, and is dated 992 A.H.

referring to it I shall use the designation L.
In
I shall use the designation
M.
ott
3. A MS. in the Leiden University Library, Cod. 641

Warn, (see Dozy's Catalogue, ii, 75-7). It is dated 984 A.H.,
and contains both text and commentary. In referring to it
ww
w.
alk
The Arabic text printed below is based on N., and the

variants in LM. are noted at the foot of the page.
The text,
which exhibits many grammatical and metrical irregularities,
is not vocalized in any of these MSS.
The commentary in N., from which my translation is
made, is sometimes not so full as that in M. The latter
includes a few excerpts from the Futuhdt al-Makkiyya.
The English version of the commentary is usually very much
abridged, but I have rendered the interesting and important
1
passages nearly word for word.
I shall now transcribe the text of the preface and the
poems according to N. The Arabic text will be followed by
an English version of the poems, with annotations based on
the author's commentary.
1
The
correct title of the
!j)1 Ûjs^.j
\t,
T-jZi
which occurs
commentary seems
it is
to be
-;ê.^.
C/
-J
jlL jj! <2L.

~J
>
derived from the phrase JU^jJi
in the preface (p. 12,
1.
7 infra).
i_)j
The erroneous reading
's.
is
found
commentary
as
in
most MSS., and Hajjf Khalifa gives the
viLcSL
title of
the
J\s>- JJ1
www.alkottob.com
10
THE ARABIC TEXT

^^"
,-.
J J^jsr*
ob
.c
*w-s
ott
<
US!
yJ
om
r*
/.)^Cv2-
w.
alk
'
^^'!
ww
U--
JLi.
Here L. proceeds
j^l
^.
Li. Jo*J
,.,*u-i.
\*^s
jU-!
(p. 11,
1.
o^.X>-
9).
www.alkottob.com
Ui
^V
w-
t
^
11
l* Uk," I*
fl Jua*)!
j^l. ^.J^
om
\-'
2J 4*
ob
.c
LJ
1
ott
CLI
jJJ!
u=/<jjb]j)\
alk
fti
^^
'
J5*
i^T?
c^* L^'^ ^-'
*_
cuUrU
>*^&
V^l'l
(J )
w.
A^*-
.'
ww
L. om.
L. om. the next four words.
om. from here to i_$X
ilk>.
<&J
p. 12, 1.1.
'
ly*,î
"_;
^.j
See the Mardsid under
jU^-U
N.
9
N. lflc.
www.alkottob.com
om
12
_.
'
'
'
>o (^
\*%*
*Ûllj Jft*J1
ob
.c
ft
J*
c^-v.
ii
alk
JL.L
ott
Ul
i**'!
w.
.i
..,.
ww
J_^!
ij
L.
L. om. from here to
T
L.
T
L
VV^.
l
cr ,.
Kor. 20, 66.
Kor. 93, 4.
So LN., but the sense seems to require

L. om. from here to eÂ^'V
L.
dA-J^n
J^j^
a JJs
LJ
last line.
www.alkottob.com
M.
M.
Uj
Vfel\
ww
w.
alk
ott
ob
.c
om
13
www.alkottob.com
14
t_> liA
^v
"
ob
.c
om
<2J
\j\
alk
ott
(*
_&
ww
w.
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>J
.1
<Ljfc*Jl
LT^/U-J
L^->i .Û't
om
_.'.
:
\
.J
^.J
LT-xiAJ
t.__otlU!
for *1
of N., but the final
c^
L.
c^-J ,l>-
this is the original reading
has been erased by a corrector.
alk
P L.
ott
ob
.c
1'
~t
--)
15
II
ww
w.
;_j
ji
-st *
i
L.
^L
for
I_j3lj
1
Li-tu^
Jl
tû
Ss
-^T jJjJ tl?L.i
Li^!^
N.
rx.jjT
^^-^
M. cîi
L.
<_
www.alkottob.com
16
I.
L.
'
'
L.
om
v;4 LLJT LJUJ.
.iJ JÛ-;
U-'J
for J^
jlj
jl
tr
ir This verse is the tenth in
L. and M.
tto
b.c
Ill
<',..1
j .*. Lj
alk
o
l_Js.-
L.
L.
^-J^
;.
L. *f*
i
LM.
+\J
1
L.
^,U-s^
N. in marg.
[sic].
L.^.^.
for
ww
v^c..-
w.
IV
www.alkottob.com
L.
i** for
lji-i
M.
\
,
supp. above.
w.
alk
o
tto
b.c
om
Ui
ww
17
www.alkottob.com
18
LM.
N. _j
om
**li
L.
VIII
^jt
~
.
^_i ^t-i
A_
to
L.
^.c.
L.
alk
o
tto
4~'-'
b.c
j**j1
fjM.a.
IX
*
ww
w.
M.
i^^LiiJ.
r N. lAi.j\A-
in marg. l^xjL^.
L. J.
for
sT *
L. omits this poem.
www.alkottob.com
19
^ ^ j ^.
l^-J
J^jT JJ J
aJ
Jyij
e_i:JT
b.c
Uij;
ilt
^f,
UT
tto
j^
|_^Li
^T
om
XI
* cLv*,-
alk
o
-j;
w.
Here begins a lacuna
N.
L.
ww
twenty-second poem,
JLaJLj
N.
in
M. extending
L. e^-4t^.
in
marg.
^^
ti
to the tenth verse of the
L. i^^^sjs^lj
v L.
L.
L^.
XII
www.alkottob.com
20
îk;
Sjjj
*^J
4-Njl
L;
^J
LJ
_L^-
,5--- j
bL.
i?^
alk
o
ilrW*
tto
XIII
J^ j&l
LJ-
L.
b.c
-^
L.
om
KT*
^~
w.
ww
J *
L.
rL.
XIV
www.alkottob.com
21
XV
LJ-?
Uill
(__,'
uI *
^-^
-^
alk
o
tto
A_4_i
b.c
L.
^.i-j
^ ^"^
JJ
-^
US
L-
>
om
L.
ww
L.
w.
U
)
L.
L.
XVI
www.alkottob.com
1-J
cL_^_^_;
4_
L.
alk
o
L. -JJ
but
ir
tto
;-5
b.c
* l_.j.
!T
j.
--
J i/ j>
j,
om
22
u.jujt]\ in
marg.
I" omits this verse.
LM.
\J)j*&\
ww
w.
XVII
JUi
'j
JuJi-JL
..-L^r
r
*
*
e
e-uÂJ
Jj
^64
&U
JsdJ
-***&)
ît J
I^>
$>\
U*^J
tjffij
LM.
www.alkottob.com
THE TAKJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ
23
XVIII
^ ^^
i
Û
f-^~?
JLS 5
*
L. L_iLaM
but M.
L. *..
>
in
,
commentary
A
L.
(î
L.
ljfcL~o
tto
jax-i1 Jjb
LM.
which must be scanned
JjJ/,J and TJs,K

**
it
LM.
sLi-t
L/
i
w.
XIX
ww
ej
Jj
alk
o
uj
b.c
L,
0<
om
Jj
U-J
iit
Ifti
*
,
*
,
*
*
y^j Ij^t
Jj.j*J*\
L.
o^^
v
(.r*
LM. J\\^ ^t
LM.
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAO
24
:>-
<_Ju e^-J^-i! j^Jj! * UJJJ

#
f^
"
fc
LZLiî ij)^fil
I
b.c
om
XX
^Lc
LJU ujLjt
J;
tto
S.jl.lJ!
^JU;
LJJ J
J-4
alk
o
^j'
ww
w.
* tv
sj
5
'
,__
* *-^-j
tM.
t
L. IjJ^ for Ll=
LM.
AM.
(
rr
LMN.
'
LM
www.alkottob.com
__*_>
L5c
^_x
-.
i ^TTT v
**
eui^
_^
*_l_î O'&
XXI
L)J *
U.
L. Jjfcuuj
r N".
*
>;l3-^b;
LMN.
* L:L^
w i/
*
^y -/Xx
.
u-*^
tto
.'*
-/
b.c
re
om
,_& ilT
-a;
25
J.t.
MN.
<A^L^* for
A^
XXII
4^1 ili^:
alk
o
Lyi
'-^
^^
w.
-j *
~^~
*-
-^-*
'-*
'
^'
^-z^J
i_>
* *__*_I_A
ww
JtJ *
;_<!
LM. A^J
jii
_i._
*
*
^5^
L.
î^
o^V-
n ^-X>-
i^---'
''
k.
*il^
J^-^ J^JJ M.
a lacuna here, extending from this verse to xxix,
has
r.
www.alkottob.com
26
XXIII
J-^ g JJ
^3 &.
b.c
tto
..
i_3'
J-,,
jiSj
alk
o
-^.
t^
j_j
Us
om
._1_
tr
ir
;i'
L.
ww
w.
ti
L.
L.
XXIV
&. \JL\
A!
^Jil
llo
www.alkottob.com
om
b.c
27
L.5
i-j *
,
* t/J
alk
o
L.
tto
^ *
XXV
_ '^
^J4
\J
l * l_J
I5\
i_ ^ *
w.
bj
ww
<L
* ^r-^-J
.1
UU
L.
^
*
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;^ U,
iJ
U^
\jjb
l_J
tr L.
L.
L.
JA>-
L.
^1;
JT
L.
tc
L.
L.
alk
o
r-
^-ji
tto
Iju
'4;,%-^
>^ If
-/,->
ilr;
L.|
iTii
1).
>
b.c
-5
^l_>
* i_
,-î
om
28
US'
il.
ww
w.
XXVI
L. A^-
L. om. this verse.
www.alkottob.com
29
XXVII
*
^;
u.
L.
^*-.i'
Uj
N".
-j,i
c3.-^~J tLxkJ
JL>ju iiy^
LU
* ly
^5_-
l_^..
^jUl^ >
i-l).i
u -
i-^-j
11- Li
^JUj.
JLTJT
^l^sT
L.
tto
y.j,
b.c
Î
om
XXVIII
*
alk
o
_ j
w.
x_l A
'
Jk_a_j ^^
o"^-
__
^_5
ww
^.f\ ^44
*.*i\
c
^j
jliJti
j^-XlT
jj llic
*
*
V.
'J*
k^',
LJ
cLjf
J^-ri-
J-LJ J
*.
ji
<-J
N.
^J U
j.3i
t^S
* ^-i-J
^".
in marg. u-flLi- for

j^J
L.
Ii
1
L.
tr
lr
** JJ
www.alkottob.com
30
X_&^1
<*>
-^
^S:*
tt
V
*-i U
-^
om
'*
*_JauJ
A_jj;i,
>
''>>>
4-cy
s '*
x_^
b.c
IJ-&U
*_
r-
rr
tto
i
>
XXIX
U/f
w.
* fjJJj
ww
-c
M.
LMN.
-i-x
JJ^JI
JLL
*
*
N.
jili
alk
o
U.
^ cAJ
l>
L.
U'^Lu
M.
1.
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31
tr
\JL>
om
U5
.-;'
Ujj
*>
b.c
Jj
tto
M. ^*-j^
L. liU? <U
M.
UjlSs
XXX
i_J
w.
_J
-c-
ww
rr
r r
alk
o
IA
.^
^,1-i
_x_j-j
}-*-**
_!
i_j
*
*
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32
O
\^
'
"
om
k_XC
sjS
._j
i--j
iii
tto
_ Uilc
alk
o
UUij
4-Lif
w.
ww
I*
N.
L-^sil
re
M.
\j~\ (
l_..
Jl_;
J.
L. om. this verse.
M LM.
^Jk*j
^JJfc
tjjlj^j
= UU)
L^-jlJJ
jL&uJl
b.c
JUll
^^
hut
for
tt
M.
iv
(
>\
M. e^Laj
U
1"
hut
LN.
jlj
LJjj\
tl
in marg.
lj<L
cf.
XY,
K. >Ux!l
ri
TA Sir
to
L. U*JI
N.
*_)JaJ
Charles Lyall suggests
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAK AL-ASHWAQ
33
tto
b.c
om
_X_A^_J
j;j
11 J
^.ji'
rv
ijpli
alk
o
*
*
^j-i
l->
_Lj * l-^-
juJ-jj
^_
* LlJi
^1
>
w.
,ir,sj
-i
ww
^.
^L
^/
li
M.
M.
J.
>
y ^l-
'
*
*
'
cUi ___
^ JJ
<_-i_^
>
,
L.
<L*ia>
M.
M.
www.alkottob.com
34
L*_iJ
J./
-iaiL
^
* i-^v
JL^
ST J
V d>"-J' ^-y
*^V,L \J
M.
^jj
L.
tU
)bl
**
.^
M.
b.c
i.J
^.j
om
XXXII
^J/JJ;
tto
XXXIII
I5
alk
o
..
'*
~"
^_r* ^r
..
[*~
'
>
t~
?
o_jx-
"
ww
w.
XXXIV
XXXV
i-*_^ *-*lS" J]
^-f>^-
*
UJU ^-i-p. *'U (^
i!! J Ua^'T
JL& * U Jlo U^jjT^^ ^tjj
L. i-jl u;;^
l'
M.
4^^
^)'\^.
r I"
**i
www.alkottob.com
35
LM.
XXXVII
Ls *
3 Li
alk
o
UJ
tto
LllT. *
b.c
N. in marg. L_/U--
om
XXXVI
XXXVIII
w.
^w j
IH-J J.
^J U,
11<
JuiJ
M.
jSL^J
*^
ww
.^
LMN.
XXXIX
www.alkottob.com
36
;_;;_
;*J\
v
(J^4^
{.)
LJui- *
#.*
M.
JJ J
M.
*?/ 3 ^
L.
_î_.
l_^._js
LM.
._j
>V ^
n_^t
l_.rfi"
*5
M. om.
* ^'j^
this
cT
^_
XLI
*
;_^_1_^^.':
'
'
*
s
Mh__<'
r"''
_i
-^
M.
w.
* f ju-
alk
o
su!Lj
Jji
tto
XL
-J
b.c
uu
r
*-'j JW~2* i<
om
51
ww
.*uJ
J-4&T! * jî^,
*_j l_.,
'
::
^_1_^r ^
"
|
'
**
,_ji
CJl^
,'j..-*
-^
^ ûi ^
*
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37
& JL, J
"j
.'
'
x
.5"-
* AJ
>
t S .
-<-XAJ
,...
^_,
j/n
^-L
*
sti
^xlT J_.
LM.
XLII
LN.
LJ
tto
L.
<_>LjyT
w.
alk
o
Ji L
c *
ww
om
ox
.,
\^j
b.c
_i^\^ J^_A_^J l-4-Ju ^-^-j
*-
M.
M.
j^S!
M.
www.alkottob.com
38
XLIII
*
^-.-xcl-k c_J;J J.;j
jLJ
J.
-S
*tyfcj
-J>-^
*
-'
s-
^-3\j
-ji-iLA
om
*
*
^4*,
^&
ux^
L^J
marg.
^^
so
jjj
,-s^^
N. in marg.
LM.
\j~e
L.
=C
jU
Lj
i.
'
s-; M. ,j^
Jjjj
alk
o
L.
U-v
tto
\-*l *
|U
^JiJ
b.c
^ ;^
&, ULl
N.
in
XLIV
^ ^
JLC
Lft.p
l_*J^ *
l_g,_.)
ww
w.
LJ4U
r In
L. \g
l^j
LM.
.
b.ij ^-xi
LMN.
aaLfiJ,
A L.
which
\
'
O-^^l" *J1
1-J
this verse is preceded
_?L.>
c^-^jl
Jj-;
Ûu^
\-t-Lz-L-S
by verses
i^-^j^
is
wfr-fl
'
and
'
'.
M. ei-i-
N.
<ti.
metrum.
www.alkottob.com
THE TAEJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ
39
om
It
XLV
4.
'
* *-
b.c
_j
* +-
>>
L f.^ ^
...
c^
*^
ww
w.
alk
o
tto
^-AJui JuJ
X. J
L.
n
;
M.
M.
www.alkottob.com
40
-^. *
jj;
r
J' .
M.
alk
o
tto
XLVII
b.c
N.
om
r L.
^,S
^.
XLVIII
^-i-5. *
jl_l
w.
JL:
ww
JL,
*
"
L. om. this verse.
L.
cu jLJ
M.
www.alkottob.com
41
om
ir
fe Uj *
L.
isl.
L. om. this verse.
b.c
XLIX
UJ
alk
o
->
tto
xviii,
J la J UJ
i
M.
ttJ
UUj
Jk'ij
for the scansion of
w.
cf.
M.
ww
UD
>
-*j
ij.5
x_J.
lj
v-^l
LI
.
\_Jvt
*
(*
r'*
Jljr: (/"* -r?^^*
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r L. .^jfcRs*-
wJ^~!
had originally UÛuJ
LMN.
L. <_-jUl
LjjUuJ,
but the commentary of N.
om
42
^lj\
LII
^
^2
^.
a*i ^t-tf
b.c
J *
tto
idj
alk
o
L- r
^>
\Jj\~zl\
lij
L^-
L. <U>-
-c
w.
LIU
ww
L. e^jli
L.
uJl^
^^ LM.â-J Ui
;
LIV
J.jj
31
j-j jj.
LM.
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,-?
a_jl_L_J_JLJ
LMN. Jj^.
M. ^^Jl^sr.
tr M.
Jj; M. ujCl JJ^ i^jLUo U^.
1
c__^.
'
L_J jt
tt
L.
w.
alk
o
LV
L.
LN.
LVI
ww
L.
tto
b.c
om
43
I.
x
^vJ ^ * |i
>
N. ^JLi
,.,.
LM. A&
www.alkottob.com
om
LVII
b.c
i"bJ
jjjJJT JL!
u.
tto
JI
<u
JiJ
alk
o
daif *
Ui.
LM.
LM.
w.
LVIII
ww
44
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AI.-ASHWAQ
45
om
LIX
b.c
JT J
!*.
Û
tto
\~\
\^
,
alk
o
'\
I,
X
I
-s-L.
>/
ir
ww
LM.
tr
w.
LX
~<
,.''
M.
^j.
www.alkottob.com
46
LXI
'
4- Jj *-*J-'
c
ljj &_j *
I*
L_
C"
M.
Uj
marg. ^.U^.
w.
in
L.
]S".
originally
\j
altered to
.*L*J
alk
o
v}
b.c
^-*
-f
_J' ^Jk-J r
tto
uJ
IT
J-^-
om
-j <j
^j
ww
_x*.~;
c^^
c^.
>
_~
<^^
)&
^
*
<Ua
_
,^-jl
>Ûill
j\ M-
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJQMAN AL-ASHWAQ
47
om
'
^H
UsJ!
*-
^--'
î
l>
ww
w.
alk
o
tto
b.c
l.
a..-
www.alkottob.com
48
(l)
that I were aware whether they
they possessed
And would
2.
that
threaded
knew what
knew what mountain-pass they
heart
my
heart
b.c
Would
1.
om
TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY
Dost thou deem them safe or dost thou deem them dead ?
Lovers lose their way in love and become entangled.
3.
4.
the Divine Ideas
'
1.
i.e.
They,'
tto
COMMENTARY
(^J$\J&\^\
),
of
which the
(of gnostics)
passionately enamoured, and by
which the spirits are distraught, and for whose sake the
are
hearts
devotion.
'
What
because
heart,
Nevertheless,
seek
'
heart
it
and
it
perform
their
works
he refers to the perfect Muhainmadan

not limited by stations (cÛUUM).
is
as
it, for they belong to its essence, inasmuch
beholds in them nothing except its own nature.
it
w.
possess
What
of
is possessed by the Divine Ideas, for they

seeks them.
They cannot know that they
it
it
alk
o
godly workers (^J&!i$\ JUU51)
mountain-pass they threaded,' i.e. what gnostic's

heart they entered when they vanished from mine. 'Mountainpass signifies a station ( *Ul* ), which is fixed, in contrast
'
2.
'
3.
'
'
ww
to a
'
'
state
J U- ), which
The Divine
of the seer
Ideas, exist only in the existence

dead in so far as the seer is non-
qua
Ideas,
they are
is fleeting.
'
'
existent.
4. Lovers are perplexed between two opposite things, for

the lover wishes to be in accord with the Beloved and also
wishes to be united with Him, so that if the Beloved wishes

to be separated from the lover, the lover is in a dilemma.
www.alkottob.com
49
(ll)
II
1.
On
2.
peacocks upon them,

Peacocks with murderous glances and sovereign power
thou wouldst fancy that each of them was a Bilqis on
3.
When
4.
When
she kills with her glances, her speech restores to

as tho' she, in giving life thereby, were Jesus.
The smooth surface of her legs is (like) the Tora in

brightness, and I follow it and tread in its footsteps
as tho' I were Moses.
She is a bishopess, one of the daughters of Rome, unadorned thou seest in her a radiant Goodness. 2
Wild is she, none can make her his friend she has
gotten in her solitary chamber a mausoleum for
remembrance.
She has baffled everyone who is learned in our religion,
every student of the Psalms of David, every Jewish
doctor, and every Christian priest.
If with a gesture she demands the Gospel, thou wouldst
deem us to be priests and patriarchs and deacons.
The day when they departed on the road, I prepared
tto
6.
b.c
her throne of pearls.

she walks on the glass pavement l thou seest a sun
on a celestial sphere in the bosom of Idris.
life,
5.
om
the day of parting they did not saddle the full-grown

reddish-white camels until they had mounted the
9.
10.
for
11.
w.
8.
alk
o
7.
war the armies
When my
of my patience, host after host.

soul reached the throat (i.e. when I was at
ww
the point of death), I besought that Beauty and that
Grace to grant
12.
And
she yielded
me relief,
may God
preserve us from her
and may the victorious king repel
13.
Iblis
evil,
exclaimed, when her she-camel set out to depart,

O driver of the reddish-white camels, do not drive
'
them away with her
'
!
Kor. xxvii, 44.
The author explains that /w,^lj
is
equivalent to
www.alkottob.com
50
(ll)
COMMENTARY
The full-grown camels/
'
1.
i.e.
the actions inward and out-
Him who
ward, for they exalt the good word to

on high, as He hath said: 'And the
is
throned
it'
om
good deed exalts
'The peacocks' mounted on them are his

(Kor. xxxv, 11).
he likens them to peacocks because of their
loved ones
The peacocks are the spirits of those actions, for
beauty.
:
no action
acceptable or good or fair until it hath a spirit

consisting in the intention or desire of its doer. He compares
them to birds inasmuch as they are spiritual and also for the
b.c
is
variety of their beauty.
'
With murderous glances and sovereign power

he
refers to the Divine wisdom (aLfcl'l <u^) which accrues to
a man in his hours of solitude, and which assaults him with
'
such violence that he

*.xa>Llu*
(<6'\j
^.
tto
2.
unable to behold his personality
is
<&cJ),
and
over him.
which
exercises
dominion
'
on her throne of pearls

he refers to that
which was manifested to Gabriel and to the Prophet during
his night journey upon the bed (cjkjk) of pearl and jacinth
Bilqis
alk
o
'
in the terrestrial heaven,
when
Gabriel alone swooned by
reason of his knowledge of Him who manifested Himself

on that occasion.
The author calls the Divine wisdom
'
on account of its being the child of theory, which

is subtle, and practice, which is gross, just as Bilqis was both
spirit and woman, since her father was of the Jinn and her
mother was of mankind.
3. The mention of Idris alludes to her lofty and exalted
rank.
In the bosom of Idris,' i.e. under his control, in
'
ww
w.
Bilqis
'
of
respect
his
'
Prophet said
unworthy
that
of
it,
ye do
a wrong.'
because
he
speaks
lest
who
one
of
turning her wheresoever he will, as the

Do not bestow wisdom on those who are
it
The opposite
JU~), and who is

influence (j.U).
In this verse the author
feeling
his puissance in virtue
case
is
dominated by his
therefore under the control of an
is
calls attention to
of a prophetic heritage (<u-4J
<Lz
www.alkottob.com
51
(ll)
UL~*), for the prophets are masters of their spiritual
ly.J
whereas most of the saints are mastered by

The sun is joined to Idris because the sun is his
them.
and
the Divine wisdom is described as
walking
sphere,
of
(instead
running etc.) because of her pride and haughtiness, and because she moves in the feelings of this heart and
feelings
( J^**~^)>
'
om
'
'
',
changes from one feeling to another with a sort of absolute
She
'
4.
of passing
kills
away
c-jyaj).
with her glances
'
:
b.c
(^X^
power
referring to the station
in contemplation (jjjfcUL*!!
'
'
*lxJ1).
Her
speech restores to life

referring to the completion of the
of
man
when
the spirit was breathed into him.
moulding
:
compared to Jesus
is
in reference to Kor. xxxviii, 72,
tto
She
'And I breathed into him of My spirit' or Kor. xvi, 42,

That We say to it " Be ", and it is.'
5.
Her legs referring to Bilqis and the glass pavement
'
'
'
'
alk
o
(Kor. xxvii, 44).
Tora in brightness,' because the Tora (Jl.yJt)

O
derived from the phrase
'the stick produced
^j'j,
Is like the
>S
is
jjpl
fire.'
The four faces (=>-J) of the Tora, namely, the four
Books (the Koran, the Psalms, the Pentateuch, and the
correspond to
Kor. xxiv, 35 (c^j!
6.
'
One
the
fourfold
of the daughters of
Rome
of the race of Jesus (jc*si*M

JJ^M-UC),
the
Roman
'
Empire.
ww
to
mentioned in
light
<
w.
Gospel),
is
'
:
this
wisdom, being
described as belonging
Unadorned,'
i.e.
she
is
of
the
(.x^^M) and without any vestige of

adornment from the Divine Names, yet there shines from
essence of unification
her the
'
radiance
/
'
of Absolute Goodness, viz. the burning

^
splendours (4JLjb*M ciÛsaJLH) which,
if
God were
to
remove
the veils of light and darkness, would consume the glories of
His face (^>~ c^^vi-)7.

Wild is she, none can make her his
friend,'
contemplation of the Essence is a passing
away
'
because
('Us),
in
www.alkottob.com
52
(ll)
1
She is
said, there is no pleasure.
which, as as-Sayyari
wild ', inasmuch as noble souls desire to seize her, but she
'
does not show friendship to them, because no relation exists
between them and
om
her.
In her solitary chamber,' i.e. in the heart. Her solitude

Neither My earth
is her looking on herself, for God says,
nor My heaven contains Me, but I am contained by the heart
'
'
My
of
servant
who
a believer
is
wisdom
and empty of
a desert
like
and
since the heart
which
of the race of Jesus is bare
b.c
contains this essential
'
it is
attributes (<u
J.JU
J~l\. joysrll!
^y),
Then he
and she is like a wild animal.
all
tto
mentions the marble tomb of the Roman emperors, that

such a mausoleum may remind her of death, which is the
severance of union, and make her shun familiarity with the
created world on account of this severance.
8.
The four Books
(the Koran, the Psalms, the Tora,
and
alk
o
the Gospel) are here indicated by the mention of those who

study and expound them. All the sciences comprised in the
four Books point only to the Divine Names and are incapable
of solving a question that concerns the Divine Essence.
If this spiritual being, forasmuch as she is of the race
9.
of Jesus, appeals to the Gospel by way of justifying it in
anything which men's thoughts have falsely imputed to it,
we humble
ourselves
before
her
and serve her no
less
w.
devotedly than do the heads of the Church, because of her
majesty and sovereign might.

10.
Upon the road,' i.e.
'
the
spiritual
ascension
ww
'To grant me relief': he means what the Prophet

meant by his saying, Lo, the breath of the Merciful comes
The writer begs that
to me from the quarter of al-Yaman.'
11.
the world of breaths
from her
1
to
_Ujl'\
JU) may
him along with the
Abu 'l-'Abbas
and separation
'
spiritual feelings
as-Sayyari of ]VIerv (died 342
(<G_aJ'
_*>-)
is
continually be wafted
A. H.
).
(Jl.^).
His doctrine of union
explained by al-Hujwiri in the Ka*hf
al-Mahjtib.
www.alkottob.com
The Arabs
.refer to this
53
III)
(ll,
in their poetry, for
they speak of
giving greetings and news to be delivered by the winds

'
12.
blow.
the Tradition
'
He refers to
preserve us from her evil
I take refuge with Thee from Thyself
'
May God
The
'
'.
victorious
king,'
i.e.
of
thoughts
knowledge and
Divine guidance.
Iblis,' i.e.
the thought of becoming one with
for this is a hard station,
and few who attain
God
(jW*l),
to it escape
b.c
'
om
when they
from the doctrines of jlsJM and incarnation (JL>.). It is

I am his ear and his
the station indicated in the Tradition
eye
',
'
etc.
He
13.
'
says,
this noble heart
When
this spiritual essence desired to quit
on account of
gaze
is
directed towards the Divine
Names, the
alk
o
its
tto
its (the heart's) return from

the station denoted by the words, " I have an hour which
I share with none save my Lord," to the task
imposed upon it
of presiding over the phenomenal worlds, for which purpose
lofty
aspiration (<&&) on which this spiritual essence was borne

to the heart, took its departure.'
He calls this aspiration
'
her she-camel
angels
',
and the drivers
who approach
nearest to
of such aspirations are the
God
( ^*jr
1.
O my two
friends, pass by al-Kathib and turn towards

and seek the waters of Yalamlam,
For there dwell those whom thou knowest and those to
whom belong my fasting and my pilgrimage and my
visit to the holy places and my festival.
Never let me forget at al-Muhassab of Mina and at
al-Manhar al-A'la and Zamzam certain grave matters.
3.
4.
ww
La'la'
2.
w.
Ill
Their Muhassab
my
is
heart, because of their casting the
pebbles, and their place of sacrifice

their well is
blood.
is
my
soul,
and
my
5.
camel-driver,
little
if
thou comest to Hajir, stop the beasts
while and give a greeting,
www.alkottob.com
54
6.
And
7.
And
(ill)
address to the red tents on the side of the guarded

pasture the salutation of one who longs for you and
is
distraught.
they return thy greeting, once more let the East

and if they are
wind bring thy salaam to them
with
on
camels
and advance
silent, journey
thy
To the river of Jesus, where their riding-camels halted and
where the white tents lie beside the river-mouth,
And call Da'd and ar-Rabab and Zaynab and Hind and
Salma and Lubna, and listen,
And ask them whether at al-Halba is She, the limber
one who shows thee the radiance of the sun when
om
if
8.
9.
10.
she smiles.
'
O my two
friends,'
i.e.
tto
COMMENTARY
1.
b.c
his reason
'
and
his faith.
Al-Kathib,' the place of contemplation.

La'la'/ the place of bewilderment and amazement, that
he may no more be conscious of love and longing.
The waters
'
water
'
2.
alk
o
'
of Yalamlam,'
i.e.
the fountain of
knowledge of the Essence and of

by means of Faith.
And
My
those to
'
whom
belong,'
its
fasting
etc., i.e.
attributes
is
gained
the Divine attributes.
he means the quality of being independent
w.
'
since
'
solely
'
life,
the source of every living tiling.

he addresses Faith, not Reason, for
Thou knowest
is
dyLall), as God said, 'Fasting belongs to

that
Me/
quality cannot truly be predicated of a man
a
man
has
some part in fasting, since it entails abstinence
yet
from food and nourishment.
of food (<LJ\.x*^
ww
i.e.
My pilgrimage,' i.e. a repeated turning towards this pure

Essence for the sake of gaining a blessing at every moment
from the Divine Names. This pilgrimage and visitation
'
(.U^cl)
one
'
is
Name
My
incessant,
though a man
is
momently going from
to another.
the concentration (_&>-) of the

stations and Divine verities are
festival,' referring to
mind when
all
mystical
www.alkottob.com

united therein, just as
sorts
all
55
(ill)
and
conditions
men
of
assemble at Mecca for one purpose.

Never let me forget
he alludes to an occasion when
3.
'
'
he became invested with Divine qualities
am
his ear
uJsr) in the
and he
(\jb^\
and
om
'
sense of the Tradition
his eye
',
having attained by Divine investiture the station which is described in the words And
also calls attention
to his
'
'
thy Lord is not forgetful (Kor. xix, 65).

At al-Muhassab,' the place where the pebbles are cast.
He refers to the verse And remember God even as ye
'
more reverently' (Kor. ii, 196),

memory of your fathers out of
remember your
fathers, or
in this place cast the
i.e.
your hearts and mouths.

At al-Manhar al-A'la,' the place of
Zamzam
'
'
:
my
I offer
life-blood.'
he means the station of everlasting
Their Muhassab
'
4.
but
offerest victims,
(spiritual) sacrifice,
alk
o
Thou
'
tto
'
as the poet says
b.c
'
'
'
'
their
life.
refers to the Divine verities
which descend upon the heart and cast out sensual and
devilish thoughts.
Their place of sacrifice
'
youth who mentally
'
the story
is
offered himself at
well
known
of the
Mina when he saw
the people offering sacrifice, and died on the spot.

5.
O camel-driver' he addresses the Desire which drives
'
w.
his thoughts to the

'
'
abode of those
whom
he loves.
the understanding, and the
Hajir
hijr
way (to God)
only through faith and contemplation, not through the
understanding in respect of its power of reflection but in
:
ww
is
is
virtue of its cognition and belief.

Stop the beasts a little while/ because
'
when
the lover
approaches the dwelling-place of his beloved he is dazed

and dumbfounded and often swoons consequently he is apt
to break the rules of good manners in greeting her.
first
6.
'
The red
of all colours,
'
On
'
the Arabs deem red the most beautiful

and red tents are reserved for brides.
tents
the side of the guarded pasture,'
i.e.
the tents are
www.alkottob.com
56
inaccessible except to those

He calls the tents
them.
(ill,
IV )
who have
the right to approach

(round tents or domes)
qibdb
and best of shapes, and he

says that the Divine Realities which he loves are in their
original home, which is beside God, not beside any phenomenal
the
is
object, for
first
'
they belong to
om
because roundness
command
the world of
'
he mentions the East wind

Let the East wind,' etc.
because
?abd signifies inclination (mayl).
particularly,
'
7.
'
8.
'
To the
river of Jesus,'
b.c
'
to the
i.e.
ample knowledge
manifested in Jesus (j^L^JI J *--*!

_**.:iUJ! *1*^)because
Jesus was born of
The white tents
white,
\
'
'
'
9.
He
this
knowledge
is
approached
of Divine allocution and manifestation
'
says,
the
Call
their
according to
names
difference,
in
of
these Divine Realities
order that
alk
o
by the way
i.e.
tto
a virgin.
Beside the river-mouth,'
whichever
yours may respond to you and that thus you may

what is your position in regard to them.'
10.
Al-Halba,' a quarter of Baghdad. Halba means
'
is
know
'
race-
The Divine
Realities strive to outstrip one another

in haste to reach the phenomena which display their traces
course
'.
Hence he speaks of the limber

the
towards
inclining
phenomenal world.
one
'
',
i.e.
The radiance
of Jesus, but
'
~
(
of the sun
now thou
When
'
she smiles
'
:
formerly thou wert in a station
art asking of a station of Idris, lofty
^Lj JVl_c), for to
ww
and polar
'
their power.
w.
and manifest
him belongs the fourth heaven.
he indicates that this
of Expansion (L^lH /*U-<)
and that she
is
is
the station
with him in joy
and beauty (not in awe and majesty).
IV
Greeting to Salma and to those who dwell in the preserve,

for it behoves one who loves tenderly like me to give
greeting.
www.alkottob.com
And what harm
2.
return
she gave me a greeting in

women are subject to no authority.
to her
But
fair
57
(IV)
if
They journeyed when the darkness
of night had let down

and I said to her, Pity a passionate
lover, outcast and distraught,
Whom desires eagerly encompass and at whom speeding
arrows are aimed wheresoever he bends his course.'
She displayed her front-teeth and a levin flashed, and
I knew not which of the twain rent the gloom,
And she said, Is it not enough for him that I am in his
heart and that lie beholds me at every moment ?
Is
'
its
5.
om
4.
curtains,
'
6.
it
not enough
'
1.
'
Salrna
<OjU-.l~r),
tto
COMMENTARY
'
b.c
3.
he alludes to a Solomonic ecstasy
(a,'Jl>-
which descended upon him from the station of
Solomon
in virtue of a prophetic heritage.

In the preserve,' i.e. an unattainable station, viz. prophecy,
whereof the gate was closed by Muhammad, the last of the
experience of this Divine wisdom

in so far as he was a prophet is different from his
Solomon's
prophets.
(<u)
alk
o
'
experience of
it
in so far as
he was a
saint,
and we share
it
2.
w.
with him only in the latter case, since our experience of it

is derived from the
saintship which is the greatest ciz'cle
God does nothing
Him
of necessity
whatever comes to us
by His favour. The author indicates this

Divine Solomonic apparition (nukta) by the term marble
from
women
ww
'
is
.statues
(i.e.
fair as
marble statues).
'
He means
that
does not answer by speech, for if she did so her speech

would be other than her essence, whereas her essence is
single, so that her advent is identical with her speech and
with her visible presence and with her hearing and in this
respect all the Divine Realities and Attributes resemble her.
sin-
3.
'
They
journeyed,'
etc.
the ascension of the prophets
always took place during the night, because night

time of mystery and concealment.
is
tin-
www.alkottob.com
58
'
The darkness
of night,'
i.e.
(IV,
V)
the veil of the Unseen let
down
om
the curtains of gross corporeal existence, which is the

night of this animal organism, throwing a shroud over the
spiritual subtleties and noble sciences which it enshrines.
These, however, are not to be reached except by journeying

through bodily actions and sensual thoughts, and whilst
man
thus occupied the Divine wisdom goes
is
his heart, so that on his return he finds her
away from
and
follows
gone
b.c
her with his aspiration.

'
he describes this celestial form as

Speeding arrows
his
wherever
it turns, with the arrows of her
heart,
shooting
4.
'
glances, as
God
'
said,
Wheresoever ye turn, there
is the
face
of Allah' (Kor. ii, 109).

5.
She displayed her front-teeth,' etc., i.e. this lover found
God is the light of the
his whole being illuminated, for
tto
'
'
and
heavens
the earth'
also said in his prayer,
'
(Kor. xxiv, 35), and the Prophet

God, put a light into my ear and
and after mentioning the different members of

and make the whole of me one
his body he concluded,
viz.
the
manifestation
of Thy essence.
Such a
by
light,'
manifestation is compared to a flash of lightning on account
The author says that he did not
of its not continuing.
know whether his being was illuminated by the manifestation
proceeding from this Divine wisdom, which smiled upon him,
my
eye,'
alk
o
into
'
by a simultaneous manifestation of the Divine Essence.

She said,' etc., i.e. let him not seek me from without
and let it satisfy him that I have descended into his heart,
so that he beholds me in his essence and through his essence
at every moment.
'
1.
2.
ww
6.
w.
or
My
longing sought the Upland and my affliction the

Lowland, so that I was between Najd and Tihama.
They are two
contraries
which cannot meet
hence
my
Guide
me
disunion will never be repaired.

3.
What am
O my
to do
What
shall I devise
censor, do not affright
me with blame
www.alkottob.com
59
(v)
Sighs have risen aloft and tears are pouring over
4.
my
cheeks.
The camels, footsore from the journey, long for their

homes and utter the plaintive cry of the frenzied
G.
After they have gone, my life is naught but annihilation.

Farewell to it and to patience
om
5.
lover.
b.c
COMMENTARY
The Upland,' referring to God on His throne.

he says, Inasmuch as
They are two contraries,' etc.
'
1.
'
'
2.
man is always governing the body,

can never contemplate that which is uncomposed apart
from its body and independently, as some Sufis and
the spiritual element in
and
philosophers
writer says,
my
Hence
ignorant persons declare.'
disunion will never be repaired,'
cannot become united with
and who
resembles
Him who
is
alk
o
'
'
tto
it
my
essence
and
the
i.e.,
pure and simple,
reality.
Therefore
unattainable, but longing

longing
is a necessary attribute of love, and accordingly I cease not
is folly,
for this station
from longing.'
'
My
5.
(*^J\)
the blaming soul

(<L*\fl\ UM.J^\\).
camels,' i.e. the actions or the lofty thoughts
censor,'
The
'
since, in
class of actions
mount
my
opinion, such thoughts belong to the
on which the good words (c^,^L^
to the throne of God.
for the Divine
They
'
J^)
long for their homes
',
Names from which they proceeded and by
ww
i.e.
i.e.
w.
3.
is
which they are controlled.

6. 'My life is naught but annihilation'
he says, When
the lofty thoughts ascend to their goal I remain in the state
of
passing
away from
'
passing
away ('LiH ^c
*UJttOi
f r
have gained the life imperishable which is not followed

by any opposite.' Accordingly, he bids farewell to patience
and to the mortal life, because he has quitted the sensible
world.
www.alkottob.com
60
(Vl)
VI
When
1.
they departed, endurance and patience departed.

departed, although they were dwelling in the
They
my
heart.
om
core of
asked them where the travellers rested at noon, and

I was answered, Their noonday resting-place is where
the skill and the bdn trees diffuse a sweet scent.'
2.
'
Go and overtake
3.
Then
4.
are biding in the shade of the grove,

And bear to them a greeting from a sorrowful man in
whose heart are sorrows because he is separated from
'
his people.'
'They
departed,'
i.e.
tto
COMMENTARY
1.
them, for they
b.c
I said to the wind,
the Divine Ideas
(<&j,!Oi
A?U*J1).
'
the Divine
They were dwelling in the core of my heart
Ideas have no relationship except with their object (,!ixjl
'
which
is
God
Me, but I
am
'
and God dwells
in the heart, according
alk
o
<uH),
to the Tradition
Neither
My
earth nor
My heaven contains
My servant who
contained in the heart of
no manifestation was vouchsafed

moment, the Ideas, being objects of vision,
disappeared, notwithstanding that God was in his heart.
I asked them,' i.e. the gnostics and the real existences
2.
believes
him
to
'.
at
Since, however,
this
(,j.j\&s>-)
Shaykhs who were
w.
'
of the past
my
guides on the
mystic Way.
Their noonday resting-place,' etc., i.e. they reposed in
every heart where the sighs ( -Ui!) of longing appeared, for
shiJi denotes inclination (mayl) and bdn absence (bu'd).
ww
'
'
3.
'
I said to
the wind,'
I sent
a sigh of longing after
in the
whereof the wood
is
refers to the Tradition
the
i.e.
hope of causing them to return to me.

In the shade of the grove,' i.e. amongst the
them
mouth and
ardk
trees,
used as a tooth-stick (ci/U-j)-
He
The use
the Lord
of the tooth-stick purifies
'
pleases
dwelling in the abode of purity.
',
i.e.
the Divine Ideas are
www.alkottob.com
61
(VIl)
VII
kissed the Black Stone, friendly
around
me
came
they
ambulation with veiled
;
to
women thronged
perform
the circurn-
faces.
om
As
1.
They uncovered the (faces like) sunbeams and said to me,

Beware for the death of the soul is in thy looking
2.
'
at us.
How many
3.
aspiring souls have
we
killed
already at
4.
b.c
al-Muhassab of Mina, beside the pebble-heaps,

And in Sarhat al-Wadi and the mountains of Rama and
Jam' and at the dispersion from 'Arafat

Dost not thou see that beauty robs him who hath modesty,
and therefore it is called the robber of virtues ?
!
Our
6.
7.
trysting-place after the circumambulation is at

Zamzam beside the midmost tent, beside the rocks.
whom
There everyone
tto
5.
anguish hath emaciated
is
by the love-desire that perfumed

stir in him.
8.
When
alk
o
to health
restored
women
they are afraid they let fall their hair, so that

they are hidden by their tresses as it were by robes
of darkness.'
COMMENTARY
,-*-J!)
(<iu3JU^
upon
it
I kissed the
Black Stone/
was outstretched
w.
As
'
1.
i.e.
to
when
me
the Holy
Hand
that I might take
the Divine oath of allegiance, referring to the verse
who swear fealty to thee swear fealty to God ; the

hand of God is over their hands (Kor. xlviii, 10).
'Friendly women,' i.e. the angels who go round the tlnmir
of God (Kor. xxxix, 75).
2. 'The death of the soul,' etc.
these spirits say, 'Do not
look at us, lest thou fall passionately in love with us.
Thou
ww
Those
'
\\crt created for
xistence
God, not for
by us from Him, He
us,
and
if
thou wilt be veiled
will cause thee to pass
Him
(<u
killed,'
i.e.
through
'
LJly>-
away from thy
_c
t__fLi'),
like
unto
and
thou
wilt perish.'
3.
'
Have we
spirits
us,
for
the
www.alkottob.com
62
(VIl)
above-mentioned angels who go round the Throne have no

relationship except with pilgrims circumambulating the Ka'ba.
Beauty robs him who hath modesty/ since the vision

of Beauty enraptures whosoever beholds it.
The robber of virtues,' i.e. it takes away all delight in the
vision of beauty from him who acts at the bidding of the
possessor of this beauty and sometimes the beauteous one
bids thee do that which stands between thee and glorious
things, inasmuch as those things are gained by means of
'
om
5.
'
actions
hateful
Tradition declares
the
encompassed by things which thou

'
6.
At Zamzam,'
i.e.
midmost
which
(_:j/^),
divides
tent,'
the
world.
Beside the rocks,'
i.e.
the
spiritual
the sensible
holy spiritual beings
(<CLjjJin
Paradise
is
which thou
intermediate
from
the
world
corporeal
bodies in which the
jlx^M) take their abode.
alk
o
'
i.e.
tto
'
that
dislikest (x.\j^).
in the station of the life
for.
yearnest
Beside the
b.c
He
means that these spirits in these imaginary forms are

metaphorical and transient, for they vanish from the dreamer
as soon as he wakes and from the seer as soon as he returns
to his senses.
He warns thee not to be deceived by the
manifestations of phenomenal beauty, inasmuch as all save
is
unreal,
His that
7.
not-being like unto thyself

be thine.
i.e.
w.
God
He may
In the intermediate world
therefore be
^) whosoever loves these
spiritual beings dwelling in sensible bodies derives refresh-
ment from the world
ww
of breaths and scents

(^\}\t r Ui3l Jls)
because the spirit and the form are there united, so that the
delight
8.
is
double.
When
these phantoms are afraid that their absoluteness

by their confinement in forms, they cause
will be limited
thee to perceive that they are a veil which hides something

more subtle than what thou seest, and conceal themselves
from thee and quit these forms and once more enjoy
infinite
freedom.
www.alkottob.com
63
IX)
(VIII,
VIII
1.
Their abodes have become decayed, but desire of them

ever new in my heart and decay eth not.
is
These tears are shed over their ruined dwellings, but souls
are ever melted at the memory of them.
3.
Through love
of
have rolled
affection
my
:
cheek
in the dust in tender
One who
is
drowned
in his tears
and burned
'
sorrow with no respite

thou who wouldst kindle a
!
the
fire
owe
of passion.
fire,
be not hasty
Go and take of
it
to you,
in the fire of
tto
0.
I,
and passionate
then, by the true love which I
do not make hopeless

5.
am
b.c
a beggar
I
behind their riding-
I called out
ye who are rich in beauty, here
'
camels,
4.
them
om
2.
Here
is
COMMENTARY
'Their abodes have become decayed': he says, 'the

places of austerities and mortifications, where the Divine
Names made works

through age and
is
alk
o
1.
have become decayed
(Jt^c.!) their abode,
loss of
youthful strength.'
The word cJJ
used in reference to the springtide (^--jO of human life.

3.
Behind their riding-camels,' i.e. the powers of youth
'
w.
and the delights of the commencement (aj^jjl).

4.
I have rolled my cheek in the dust,'
'
to be united with you, for

by means of that which I
'
6.
ww
indigence.
Here
is
the
God
have
'
says,
not,'
fire of passion,' i.e. in
i.e.
desiring
Seek access to Me
viz. abasement and
my
heart.
IX
1.
Flashes of lightning gleamed to us at al-Abraqan, and

their peals of thunder crashed between the ribs.
2.
Their clouds poured rain on every meadow and on every

quivering branch that bends towards thee.
3.
The watercourses were flooded and the breeze wafted
www.alkottob.com
64
(IX)
perfume, and a ringdove flapped her wings and a twig

put forth leaves.
They pitched the red tents between rivulets (creeping) like
amongst which were seated
serpents,
om
4.
Friendly damsels, bright of countenance, rising like the
5.
and limber.
suns, large-eyed, noble, of generous race,
COMMENTARY
'Al-Abraqan,'
in the unseen
'
two manifestations
i.e.
and one
of the Essence, one
in the visible world.
b.c
1.
Flashes of lightning,' referring to the variety of forms in
the latter manifestation.

'
Divine converse (cj'-^ ^-*)

which followed the manifestation. This is a Mosaic ecstasy
~j.
of
<^>
thunder,'
Moses
for
the
i.e.
first
tto
Peals
saw the
fire
and afterwards
heard God speak. The mention of thunder also

God's speech was a rebuke.
'Their clouds,'
the ecstasies
i.e.
alk
o
2.
signifies that
(jU:sJ) which bring
forth the Divine sciences.
On
'
every meadow,'
On
'
man
together with
holds.
i.e. the
straight movement
the growth of man ( LuJ^ i'LU),
a
created Adam after His own image and
which
God says that He
from
it
every quivering branch,'
(<uJb**xJ1 <..s^)
this station
it
'
is
bends
',
w.
as
the heart of
i.e.
the Divine sciences which
i.e.
inclines
towards thee that
it
may
instruct thee.
3.
He
'
says,
The valleys
of
the Divine
flooded, and the world of breaths
ww
sweet scents of the Divine
((jyu\JL>5!
sciences
JU)
were
diffused the
sciences.'
Soul together with the

Partial
the
Soul, which appears in
produces upon
in
as it possesses the two
so
far
the form of the Universal
'
ringdove,'
i.e.
the Universal
effect it
faculties of
'
He
twior,'
O
knowledge and
i -e<
action.
that with which the branches are clothed.
refers to the verse
'
Take your becoming vesture at every
mosque' (Kor. vii, 29), i.e. the everlasting vesture of God,

which consists in the various kinds of Divine science and gnosis.
www.alkottob.com

4.
'
The red
tents/
i.e.
the
(IX,
bride-like
65
X)
forms of Divine
wisdom.
'
Rivulets/
diverse sciences connected with the works
i.e.
om
which lead to union with these forms of Divine wisdom.

'Like serpents': cf. Kor. xxiv, 44, 'And amongst them is one
who walks on his belly.' He refers to those devout persons
who scrupulously examine their food, for by means of pure
b.c
food which produces strength for the practice of devotion

the heart is illuminated and becomes the abode of these forms
of Divine wisdom.
of countenance/ etc., i.e. there is no doubt

Bright
o
as the Prophet said, Ye shall see your
them,
concerning
Lord as ye see the sun at noonday when no cloud comes
5.
'
'
tto
between.'
Noble/ i.e. proceeding from the results of works prescribed

unlike the maxims of the philosophers which spring
God,
by
from their own minds.
'
Of generous race
'
:
a3-JLe is
therefore, that they understand
perceive
'
its value.
Limber
'
He means,
imparted to them and
derived from JAC.
alk
o
'
what
is
although per se they are in the station of

and
equilibrium
inflexibility, yet when they are invoked
and
with longing
humility and love they incline towards the
:
because he
is
not able to ascend to them.
w.
caller,
2.
She
I
said,
wonder
at a lover
who
in conceit of his merits
walks proudly among flowers in a garden.'

Do not wonder at what thou seest, for thou
replied,
'
ww
1.
'
hast beheld thyself in the mirror of a man.'
'
COMMENTARY
1.
Flowers/ i.e. created things.
'A garden/ the unitive station (*_^Ls)l Jjul!)> '- e his essence.
'Utba al-Ghulam used to walk proudly and swagger in his
-ait.
How should not I do so/ he said to one who found
-
'
fault with him,
'
since
He
has become
my
Lord and
have
www.alkottob.com
66
(X, Xl)
When a man realizes God in the sense

become His slave ?
of I am His hearing and His sight
this station justifies the
attribution to him of whatever is attributed to God.
'
'
',
I am like a mirror to thee, and in those

which
I am invested thou beholdest thyself,
with
qualities
not me, but thou beholdest them in my human nature which
He
'
says,
om
2.
has received this investiture.'

is
God in created things, which in the

more exalted than the vision of created
the vision of
opinion of some
things in God.
is
b.c
This
XI
doves that haunt the ardk and ban
trees, have pity

woes by your lamentation
Have pity
Do not reveal, by wailing and weeping, my
hidden desires and my secret sorrows
I respond to her, at eve and morn, with the plaintive cry
of a longing man and the moan of an impassioned
2.
3.
not double
!
lover.
4.
my
tto
Do
The
spirits
trees
alk
o
1.
faced one another in the thicket of ghadd
and bent their branches towards me, and
it
(the
5.
bending) annihilated me
And they brought me divers sorts of tormenting desire
and passion and untried affliction.
6.
Who
7.
Who of Na'man
Who of Dhat al-Athl
moment
after
heart
moment, for the
They encompass my
sake of love and anguish, and kiss my pillars,
9.
sure promise of Jam' and al-Muhassab
w.
Mina
Even as the best of mankind encompassed the Ka'ba,

which the evidence of Reason proclaims to be
ww
8.
me
will give
of
imperfect,
kissed stones
And
(prophet).
therein,
And what
is
although he was a Natiq

the rank of the Temple in
comparison with the dignity of
Man
1
In the Isma'ili system Muhammad, regarded as an incarnation of
See Professor
Universal Reason, is the Natiq of the sixth prophetic cycle.
Browne's Literary History of Persia, i, 408 seq.
www.alkottob.com
How
67
(XI)
vow and swear
that they would not

change, but one dyed with henna does not keep oaths.
And one of the most wonderful things is a veiled
11.
often did they
who
gazelle,
points
with red finger-tip and winks
om
10.
with eyelids,
12.
gazelle whose pasture is between the breast-bones

O marvel a garden amidst fires
the bowels.
!
and
My heart has become capable of every form it is a

pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
14. And a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Ka'ba and the
13.
Tora and the book of the Koran.
tables of the
follow the
15.
b.c
of
religion
Love
whatever way Love's
and
sister,
tto
camels take, that is my religion and my faith,

16. We have a pattern in Bishr, the lover of Hind and her
Qays and Lubna and
in
Ghaylan.
in
Mayya and
1.
3.
me,
I
alk
o
COMMENTARY
the influences of holiness and purity.

to
her,' i.e. I repeat to her what she says to
respond
am
as God said to the soul when He created her,
'
'
'
doves,'
i.e.
and she answered,
qualities,
whereupon He
'
Who am
'
Who
'
referring to
her
caused her to dwell four thousand
years in the sea of despair and indigence and abasement

until she said to Him, Thou art my Lord.'
4.
two
Faced one another,' because love
opposites.
In the thicket of ghadd
'
Branches,'
trees,'
i.e.
the
fires of love.
Annihilated me,' in order that He alone might exist, not

through jealousy that the lover should have any existence
'
I,
i.e.
entails the union of
flames.
ww
'
w.
'
'
in himself apart
6.
'
Jam','
i.e.
from
his beloved.
union with the loved ones in the station of
proximity, which
is
al-Muzdalifa.
'Al-Muhassab,' the place where the thoughts which prevent

lovers from attaining their object of desire are cast out.
'
Dhat
al-Athl,' referring to the principle (J-^), for it is
www.alkottob.com
68
(Xl)
the principle in love that thou shouldst be the very essence

of thy Beloved and shouldst disappear in Him from thyself.
Na'man,' the place of Divine and holy bliss (+~*j).

7.
For the sake of love and anguish,' i.e. in order to
'
me with
inspire
'
And
kiss
passion.
'
my
om
'
(properly, kiss over the litlidm or
pillars
covering the mouth), i.e. he is veiled and unable to

behold them except through a medium (aL*^.)The pillars
veil
'
'
human
the four elements on which the
constitution
b.c
are
based. 1
is
'One dyed with henna': he refers to sensual influences

such as descended on the soul when God
(dlîJ ci^J.U),
y ^
addressed it and said,
not I your Lord?' (Kor. vii, 171),
10.
'
it
a promise and covenant.
tto
and received from
Am
Then
it
did
not faithfully keep the station of unification

but
(ju^yiJI),
followed other gods.
No one was exempt from this polytheism, for every one said, I did and I said ', at the time
'
'
forgot to contemplate the Divine
within him.
11.
'A veiled
i.e.
gazelle,'
by a sensual state
spiritual
alk
o
when he
'
feelings
a Divine subtlety (<u~y) veiled
(<lwuiJ <3l-)> in
(J!^)
Agent and Speaker
unknown
who cannot explain
reference to the
of gnostics,
their feelings to other men

they can only indicate them
symbolically to those who have begun to experience the like.
w.
'
With red finger-tip

he means the same thing as he
meant by one dyed with henna in the last verse.
'And winks with eyelids/ i.e. the speculative proofs
'
'
'
of
ww
concerning the principles of gnostics are valid only for

those who have already been imbued with the rudiments
this
experience.
Gnostics,
though they resemble the

1
vulgar outwardly, are Divines (^yUjlj ,) inwardly.

12. 'Whose pasture,' etc., as 'Ali said, striking his breast,
Here are sciences in plenty, could

them (in their minds).'
'
but find people to carry
1
The author leaves the next two verses unexplained.
mankind is Muhammad.
'
The best
of
'
www.alkottob.com
69
(Xl)
'A garden amidst fires,' i.e. manifold sciences which,

strange to say, are not consumed by the flames of love
in his breast.
The reason is, that these sciences are
seeking and longing, and therefore,
by them.
fires of
om
produced by the
like the salamander, are not destroyed

'
13.
become capable of every
heart has
My
another has
'The heart
said,
JjjJ!)
is
influences
variety of
of
its
(<uJJD')/
by which
it
is
states of
its
is
feelings
due
'
A
A
'
'
to
gives
transformation
the
this
consequence of the
its
variety
the
of
inmost ground
phenomenon
Divine
The
OjLs).
the
name
of
tto
religious
various
(JUÎ); and the variety
feeling
manifestations that appear to
law
in
affected
to
its
according to the
varies
it
as
from
b.c
changing
for
form,'
so called
'
(jÂ\ ^s JSuilU Jj^sriJl).

pasture for gazelles,' i.e. for the objects of his love.
convent for Christian monks
inasmuch as he makes
'
A temple for idols,' i.e. for the Divine Realities which

seek and for whose sake they worship God.
'
14.
men
The
'
exalted
'
alk
o
the loved ones to be monks, he calls the heart a convent.
The
pilgrim's Ka'ba,' because his heart

spirits.
tables of the Tora,'
i.e.
is
encompassed by
his heart is a table
on which
are inscribed the Mosaic sciences that have accrued to him.
The book
of the Koran,' because his heart has received
w.
'
an
inheritance of the perfect Muhammadan knowledge.

15. 'I follow the I'eligion of Love,' in reference to the verse
'
Follow me, then God will love you (Kor. iii, 29).
Whatever way Love's camels take,' etc., i.e. I accept
willingly and gladly whatever burden He lays upon me.
No religion is more sublime than a religion based on love
'
ww
'
and longing for Him

This
whom
'
worship and in
whom
have
a peculiar prerogative of Moslems, for the

station of perfect love is appropriated to Muhammad beyond
faith
'.
is
any other prophet,
He
since
God took him
as His beloved
(H.^).
one and the same reality

qud
to those Arab lovers and to me, but the objects of our love
16.
says, 'Love,
love, is
www.alkottob.com
70
(XI, XIl)
are different, for they loved a phenomenon, whereas I love the
We
have a pattern in them,' because God only

them with love for human beings
o like themselves
'
Essential.'
afflicted
He might show, by means of them, the falseness

who pretend to love Him and yet feel no such
transport and rapture in loving Him as deprived those
enamoured men of their reason and made them unconscious
om
in order that
of those
b.c
of themselves.
XII
1.
At Dhu Salam and the monastery in the abode of al-Hima

are gazelles who show thee the sun in the forms of
marble statues.
And
at one time I
in
the
desert,
My
and
herdsman
of the gazelles
at another time I am called a
astrologer.
three although He is One, even as the

Persons
(of the Trinity) are made one Person
(three)
Beloved
is
in essence.
5.
called the
monk and an
Christian
4.
am
tto
3.
Therefore I watch spheres and serve in a church and guard

a many-coloured meadow in the spring.
alk
o
2.
So be not displeased, O friend, that I speak of gazelles

that move round the marble statues as 'a shining sun',
Or that
I use metaphorically the necks of the gazelles,

the face of the sun, and the breast and wrist of the
w.
6.
white statue,
Just as I have lent to the branches (spiritual) endowments

and to the meadows moral qualities, and to the
ww
7.
lightning laughing
1.
'Dhu Salam': a
on account of
'
'
The
its
COMMENTARY
station to
which submission
is
rendered
beauty.
monastery,'
The abode
lips.
referring
of al-Hima,' that
to
a Syrian
ecstasy
QJU-
which surrounds the most
inaccessible veil of Divine glory.
www.alkottob.com
71
(XIl)
forms of Divine and prophetic wisdom

Gazelles,' i.e.
which descend upon his spirit.
Marble statues/ i.e. sorts of knowledge (t__.l*^) with
which neither reason nor lust is connected hence he makes
'
om
'
them inanimate
'
watch
2.
(aJjU.s>-).
spheres,'
i.e.
the
spiritual states in
which
these sorts of knowledge revolve, like the sun.

And serve in a church,' because marble effigies are found
'
'
And
guard,'
etc.
b.c
in churches.
meadows where
the
these
gazelles
pasture are the scenes of devotional acts and Divine morals

they are described as many-coloured ', i.e. adorned with the
'
and spring-like, because that which

more delightful to the soul.
realities,
and fresh
is
He
bring
o
Although the
(
new
refers to his ever-changing spiritual states, which

with them manifold Divine influences and sciences.
.-jill)
This
remains one.
of
i*-3^)
spiritual experiences vary, the Divine substance
the 'transformation'
alk
o
3.
is
tto
Divine
is
which Muslim speaks
in
(,
^ J^saH
the chapter on Faith,
Those who worship God in the sun behold a sun, and those
who worship Him in living things see a living thing, and
those who worship Him in inanimate objects see an inanimate
object,
and those who worship
Him
as a Being unique
and
w.
unparalleled see that which has no like.

4. He says,
Number does not beget multiplicity in the
Divine substance, as the Christians declare that the Three
'
One God, and as the Koran

on God or call on the Merciful ;
Persons of the Trinity are
ww
declares (xvii, 110)
"
Call
howsoever ye invoke Him, it is well, for to Him belong the

The cardinal Names in the Koran
most excellent Names."
'
are three, viz. Allah and ar-Rahrnan and ar-Rabb, by which

One God is signified, and the rest of the Names serve as
epithets of those three.
'
6.
'
Necks,' indicating the Light (.^\), as in the Tradition
The muezzins
Day
shall be the longest-necked of
of Resurrection
mankind on the
'.
www.alkottob.com
72
XIIl)
(XII,
The face of the sun,' as in the Tradition Ye shall see

your Lord as ye see the sun
The breast and wrist of the white statue,' as in the
Tradition which mentions the breast and fore-arm of the
'
'
'.
om
'
Almighty.
The branches,' i.e. the souls distraught by the majesty

God and turned away by love from the consciousness of
'
7.
of
personality and
phenomenal nature.
from
the
contemplation
their
of
b.c
their
'The meadow,' i.e. the station of union (_^SM /UU) in

which God has placed them.
Moral qualities,' i.e. the scented breaths of Divine Mercy,
'
the goodly praise (J.^.s-M -*UiM) of the kind mentioned in

Even as Thou dost praise Thyself.
'The
'
lightning,'
'
Laughing
lips,'
i.e.
as
tto
viz.
the Tradition
a manifestation of the Divine Essence.
God
is
said in the Tradition to rejoice

<d)\).
alk
o
at the repentance of His servant, or to laugh ((^.Xs^V.
XIII
1.
2.
Tears flowed from their eyes in distress for her complaint,
3.
ringdove wailed and a sad lover complained, and he was

grieved by her trilling note and complaint.
and 'twas as tho' they (the tears) were fountains.

responded to her in the bereavement caused by the loss
of her only child
one who loses an only child is
bereaved indeed.
responded to her, while Grief walked between us
was invisible, but I was clearly seen.
5.
In
7.
me
With murderous
I
she
a burning desire, from love of the sandy tract of

'Alij, where her tents are and the large-eyed maidens,
is
ww
4.
6.
w.
their eyelids are

glances, languishing
sheaths for glances like swords.
did not cease to swallow the tears proceeding from my
malady and
to conceal
and guard
my
passion from
who blame me,

when the raven's croak announced
those
8.
their departure,
a
sorrow-stricken
lover.
the
desire
of
separation exposed
Until,
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHAVAQ
They journeyed continuously through the
9.
73
(XIIl)
night, they cut
om
the nose-rings of their camels, so that they (the

camels) moaned and cried under the litters.
10. I beheld the pangs of death at the time when they loosed
the camels' reins and tied their saddle-girths.

11.
Oh!
12.
None blames me
separation together with love's pain
love's sorest pain together
with meeting
for desiring~ her, for she

*
may
the Universal Spirit, born of God and

She is described as having a collar
i.e.
ringdove,'
breathed into Man.
covenant which
(ring), in reference to the

'
beloved and
He
laid
upon
her.
tto
'A
is light.
is
be.
COMMENTARY
1.
mortal, but
b.c
beautiful wherever she
is
the partial spirit which is in Man.

Her trilling note,' i.e. the sweet melodies calling him to
union with her. This union is the first resurrection at
sad lover/
i.e.
'
(c^yJb
From
'
2.
Jp'^JO'
is
\j
he refers to the partial spirits

Her complaint the Universal Spirit, which
their
'
(<u5:.sM
alk
o
death
A'l).
eyes
'
the father of the partial spirits, longs for them even more
than they long for

3.
Her only
'
her.
child,'
i.e.
the
quality which disher unity (jlj^.),

Him who brought her
special
viz.
w.
tinguishes her from all things else,

whereby she knows the unity of
into being.
The loss of it consists in her not knowing what
it is and in its not being plainly discerned by her.
4.
She was invisible/ for she does not belong to the world
'
ww
and
The sandy
of expression
5.
'
exposition.
tract of 'Alij/
acquired or analytic sciences.

after good
'
'
works ( JU^ciH
i.e.
'Alij
the
subtleties
refers
to
of
the
the striving
ajs)l*-).
Her tents/ the veils which conceal these sciences.

The large-eyed maidens/ i.e. the sciences which descend
upon the solitary recluse.

6.
With murderous glances/
from
his own personality.
-away
'
i.e.
they cause him to pass
www.alkottob.com
74
(XIII,
XIV)
Languishing/ i.e. they incline towards the solitary. The

term glances indicates that they are sciences of contemplation
'
'
'
7.
He refers to a state of
concealment which
is
of the Malarnatis. 1
'
'
is
They journeyed continuously
infinite,
There
is
characteristic
since the object sought
the return from it is also a journey towards it.

no migration except from one Divine Name to
b.c
9.
om
and revelation, not of faith and mystery, and that they

proceed from the manifestation of forms.
another.
'
They cut the nose-rings of their camels,' on account of

the violent haste with which they travelled.
11.
'Meeting,' a kind of presence (,^j-^) in which there is
tto
no passing away (*Li).

12. He says, 'The aspirations and desires of
all
seekers are
alk
o
attached to Her, yet She is essentially unknown to them

hence they all love Her, yet none blames another for loving
Her.
Similarly, every individual soul and the adherents of
every religion seek salvation, but since they do not
know
they are also ignorant of the way that leads to it, though
everyone believes that he is on the right way. All strife
it
between people of different religions and
way
that
leads
to
salvation,
sects is
about the
not about salvation
itself.
anyone knew that he was taking the wrong way, he

would not persevere in his error.' Accordingly the author
says that She manifests Herself everywhere, like the sun,
and that every person who beholds Her deems that She is
with him in Her essence, so that envy and jealousy are
removed from their hearts.
1.
ww
w.
If
XIV
He saw
the lightning in the east and he longed for the

east, but if it had flashed in the west he would have
longed for the west.
1
A Sufi sect or school who emphasized the need of incurring blame
(maldmat) for God's sake and of concealing spiritual merit, lest they should
fall into self-conceit.
See my translation of the Kashf al-Afahjtib, pp. 62-9.
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XIV)
My
3.
The
for the lightning and its gleain, not for the

places and the earth.
east wind related to me from them a tradition handed
desire
is
down
successively from distracted thoughts, from
my
om
2.
75
from anguish, from my tribulation,

From rapture, from my reason, from yearning, from ardour,
from tears, from my eyelid, from fire, from my heart,
That He whom thou lovest is between thy ribs the
passion,
4.
'
5.
breaths toss him from side to side
b.c
Bring a message to him and say

that he is the enkindler of the fire within my heart.
it shall be quenched, then everlasting union, and if
6.
I said to
7.
If
He
'
the east wind,
shall burn,
'
then no blame to the lover
COMMENTARY
God in
tto
it
1.
'.
refers to the vision of
created things, viz. the

to
'
The
'
If it
alk
o
manifestation in forms, and this causes him to cleave

phenomena, because the manifestation appears in them.
the place of phenomenal manifestation.

in the west,' i.e. if it had been a mani-
east,' i.e.
had flashed
would
have longed for that purer manifestation in the world of
purity and mystery.
2. He says,
I desire the forms in which the manifestation
festation of the Divine essence to the lover's heart, he
'
festation
3.
itself.'
The world
w.
takes place only in so far as they are a locus for the maniof breaths
(^li)
$\
JU) communicated
to
me
4.
ww
the inward meaning of these phenomenal forms.
'Rapture'
'intoxication,'
(literally,
The
in the manifestations.
degree
second c_Ai
'
and the third
From my
reason,'
reason and takes

5.
'
The
i.e.
it
shall
He
'
says,
be veiled
degree
intoxication
whatever
it
the
is
fourth
jjJ, the
him various
transports the
has.
the overwhelming
this manifestation produces in

7.
JiLi)
because
away from
breaths,' etc.,
first
awe
inspired
by
ecstasies
(J^=-l).
the awful might of this manifestation
through the permanence of the Divine
If
www.alkottob.com
76
XV)
(XIV,
substance, then the union will be lasting

O
';
but
festation be unchecked, it will sweep away

in its locus, and those who perish are not in
that exists
This
fault.'
is
ecstasy.
03^
XV
2.
whose sake I died of fear

The blush of shame on his cheek
!
b.c
They left me at al-Uthayl and al-Naqa shedding tears

and complaining of the fire (that consumed me).
My father be the ransom of him for whose sake I melted
with anguish
My father be the ransom of him for
1.
3.
all
the mani-
om
the saying of one possessed and mastered
if
is
the whiteness of
dawn
5.
Who
will
relieve
6.
7.
my
sorrow
Whenever
pain
?
Who
will help a passionate lover
keep secret the torments of desire,
my
tears
betray the flame within and the sleeplessness.

And whenever I say, Give me one look !' the answer
'
'
Thou
art not hindered but for pity's sake.'

8. It cannot be that one look from them will avail thee.
is,
Is
aught but the glimpse of a levin that flashed ?

I am not forgetting the time when the camel-driver,
w.
it
9.
lie
Who will
distracted thoughts ?
Who will ease
Guide me to him
my
alk
o
my
compose
tto
4.
conversing with the redness of eve.

Patience decamped and grief pitched tents, and I
prostrate between these two.
wishing for separation and seeking al-Abraq, urged

10.
them on.
The ravens of separation croaked
at
them
may God
not
ww
preserve a raven that croaked

11. The raven of separation is only a camel which carried
away
the loved ones with a swift wide-stepping pace.
COMMENTARY
He
laments the departure of his companions, viz. the

spiritual angelic beings who suffer no natural bondage, whilst
he is left a pi'isoner in this body, occupied with governing it
1.
and prevented from wandering
freely through the celestial
spheres.
www.alkottob.com

'
'
Al-Uthayl,' his natural constitution
77
(XV, XVl)
^!
Al-Naqa,' his body.
the Highest Spirit ( LsW

-j)\\ which
his real father in the world above and his phenomenal
'
is
My
father/
i.e.
om
2.
mother in the world below.

Of him for whose sake I melted with anguish
he refers
in
Divine
contained
his
heart.
to the
mystery
Of fear,' i.e. fear of the radiance of the Divine majesty.
6. The love that is revealed is stronger and more passionate,
for there is no good in a love that is ruled by reason.
7. God in His mercy veils the splendours of His face from
His creatures.
'
'
The more the Beloved looks on

Vision
is
ecstasy.
'
9.
The
camel-driver,'
i.e.
thee, the
possible only in
tto
8.
anguish increased.
b.c
'
the voice of
God
more is thy
moments of
calling those
exalted spiritual beings to ascend towards Him.

Separation,' i.e. their departure from the phenomenal
alk
o
'
world.
'
Al-Abraq,' the place where
essence.
10.
his
'
The ravens
phenomenal
of separation,'
existence,
ascent to God.
'A
God
i.e.
which
is
manifested in His
considerations affecting
hinder
him
from
the
ravens of separation are really

a man's aspirations (Â), since aspiration bears him aloft
and unites him with the object of his search.
1.
2.
3.
They
(the
the
w.
camel,'
i.e.
ww
11.
XVI
women) mounted the howdahs on
the swift
camels and placed in them the (damsels like) marble

statues arid full moons,
And promised my heart that they should return but do
;
the fair promise anything except deceit ?

And she saluted with her henna-tipped fingers for the
leave-taking, and let fall tears that excited the flames
(of desire).
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XVl)
78
When
she turned her back with the purpose of
for
'
I cried out after
5.
'
said,
them, Perdition
Dost thou invoke perdition
Then invoke
6.
it
'
She answered and
not only once, but cry
"
Perdition
times.'
making
al-Khawarnaq and as-Sadir,
"
om
4.
many
for
trees, have a little pity on me
increased
moans,
parting only
thy
And thy lamentation, O dove, inflames the longing lover,
excites the jealous,
7.
b.c
8.
dove of the ardk
Melts the heart, drives off sleep, and doubles our desires
11.
12.
13.
and sighing.
Death hovers because of the dove's lamentation, and we
beg him to spare us a little while,
That perchance a breath from the zephyr of Hajir may
tto
10.
sweep towards us rain-clouds,

By means of which thou wilt satisfy thirsty souls; but
thy clouds only flee farther than before.
O watcher of the star, be my boon-companion, and
O wakeful spy on the lightning, be my nocturnal
comrade
O sleeper in the night, thou didst welcome sleep and
!
14.
alk
o
9.
inhabit the tombs ere thy death.

But hadst thou been in love with the fond maiden, thou
wouldst have gained, through her, happiness and joy,
16.
Giving to the
w.
15.
fair
ww
versing secretly
moons.
'
1.
The camels
the actions
damsels
'
in the
'
are
(women) the wines

with the suns, and
of intimacy, conflattering the full
COMMENTARY
the human faculties,
which they are charged

howdahs are the mystical
'
the howdahs
'
'
to perform, the
sciences and the
perfect sorts of knowledge.

3.
He
'
says,
This Divine subtlety, being acquired and not
given directly, is subject to a change produced by contact

with phenomena
this change he indicates by speaking of
J
her henna-tipped fingers as though it were the modification
'
',
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XVl)

of unity
by a kind
of association (uJ^-xi^)-
79
Nevertheless,
her staying in the heart is more desirable than her going, for
she protects the gnostic as long as she is there.
And let fall tears,' etc. she let loose in the heart sciences
'
om
which produced an intense yearning.

Al-Khawarnaq and as-Sadir,' i.e. the Divine presence.
of contemplation
4.
5.
'
'
Perdition
'
death to the phenomenal world
i.e.
now
that these sublime mysteries have vanished from it.

Dost thou invoke perdition ? i.e. why dost thou not see
'
b.c
'
God in everything, in light and darkness, in

and
simple
composite, in subtle and gross, in order that thou
feel
not
the grief of parting.
mayst
6. 'Cry "Perdition!" many times' (cf. Kor. xxv, 15),
i.e. not
only in this station but in every station in which
thou art placed, for thou must bid farewell to every one of
them, and thou canst not fail to be grieved, since, whenever
the form of the Truth disappears from thee, thou imaginest
He
tto
the face of
but He has not left thee, and it is

with
only thy remaining
thyself (c__** uXiJ.) that veils
from thee the vision of that which pervades the whole of
has
left
thee
creation.
7.
alk
o
that
'0 dove of the ardk
of Divine pleasure
he addresses holy influences

which have descended upon him.
trees':
i.e.
pity on me
pity my weakness and
to
attain
unto
inability
thy purity.
'For parting only increased thy moans': he says, 'Inasmuch
as thy substance only exists through and in me, and I am
Have a
'
little
w.
'
ww
diverted from thee by the dark world of phenomena which

me in bondage, for this cause thou art lamenting thy
keeps
separation from me.'

8.
'
And thy
lamentation,'
unbounded freedom
i.e.
etc.,
we who
seek
the
of the celestial world should
weep more
from
regarding
bitterly than thou.
'Excites the
others
no
jealous':
arises
jealousy
and he who beholds God
(^LiiH),
jealousy, for
God
in various forms, the
in everything feels
One; but since God manifests Himself

term 'jealousy is applicable to Him.
is
'
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHVVAQ
80
'
10.
Death,'
Man
of
i.e.
the station in which the subtle principle
severed from
is
(XVI, XVIl)
its
governance of this dark body for
11. 'Hajir'
denotes here
the
most inaccessible
No phenomenal
the Divine glory.
it
by
om
the sake of the Divine subtleties which are conveyed to

the above-mentioned holy influences.
veil
of
b.c
being can attain to the

immediate experience thereof, but scents of it blow over the
hearts of gnostics in virtue of a kind of amorous affection
sciences and diverse sorts of knowledge
most holy Essence.
13. 'O watcher of the star,' in reference to keeping in mind
that which the sciences offer in their various connexions.
O wakeful spy on the lightning the lightning is a loctis
The author says, addressing
of manifestation of the Essence.
one who seeks it, Our quest is the same, be my comrade in
'
Rain-clouds/
i.e.
belonging to the
'
'
tto
'
the night.'
verse
may
be applied
either
to
alk
o
This
14.
the
heedless
(aliiSI J_a^) or to the unconscious (*LiH Jjbl).

The fond maiden,' i.e. the Essential subtlety which
15.
'
the gnostic's object of desire.

although She
Through her
is
'
'
thee
her manifestation to
to thee
(<
is unattainable, yet through

that thou hast is baptized
~^j}, and thy whole kingdom
is
displayed
by that Essential form.
w.
for thee
all
Conversing secretly with the suns,' etc., in reference

to the Traditions which declare that God will be seen in the
next world like the sun in a cloudless sky or like the moon
'
ww
16.
when she
1.
2.
3.
is
full.
XVII
driver of the reddish-white camels, do not hasten with

them, but stop for I am a cripple going after them.
!
Stop the camels and tighten their reins I beseech thee

by God, by my passion, by my anguish, O driver!
Who
is willing, but my foot does not second her.
soul
My
will pity
and help me
www.alkottob.com
5.
6.
What
craftsman do in a case where his

have
declared
themselves
tools
to be working mischief ?
Turn aside, for their tents are on the right of the valley.
shall the skilled
God bless thee,

Thou hast collected a
who
and the inmost core of
my liver.
May my love be
what thou containest

my soul and my breath
the black clot in the membrane
valley, for
folk
om
4.
are
of
Sal' or
unblest
Ajyad
do not die of grief at Hajir or
if I
b.c
7.
81
(XVII)
COMMENTARY
tto
1. The Divine
Spirit which speaks in Man and is charged
with the governance of this body says to the camel-driver,
i.e. to God's summoner who
guides the lofty aspirations in
their journey heavenward,

Do not hasten with them, for
I am hampered by this body to which I am tied until death.'
'
of
Who
'
God
4.
will pity
(JJA}\).
He
'
says,
What
the body at times,
absence
aim
is
and help me
shall I
i.e.
*Ui3^)
(aL.*!!,
He
'
refers to the decree
alk
o
3.
in
do ? Though I am able to quit

moments of passing away and
under the influence of ecstasy, my

and, moreover, at such moments
to depart entirely
w.
the sensible world exercises a powerful attraction upon me.

This attraction (here called " his tools ") spoils what I am
endeavouring to do, and disturbs my state of passing away

and absence in order to bring me back to the body.'
Their tents,' i.e. the abodes of these aspirations, which
5.
'
ww
are in their knowledge of God, not in God, since He is

not a locus for anything.
Knowledge of God is the utmost
goal to which contingent being can attain, and the whole

universe depends on knowledge and on nothing else.
'On the right of the valley,

God spoke to .Moses at Mount
'What thou containest,' i.e.
referring to the occasion

Sinai Kor. \ix, 53).
when
Divine, holy, and Mosaic kinds
of knowledge.
~
'
7.
l.Iajir,' i.e.
the intermediate world
.Jl).
www.alkottob.com
82
'
Sal','
mountain
near
(XVII, XVIIl)
Medina,
the
i.e.
station
of
Muhammad.
om
'Ajyad,' a mountain near Mecca, i.e. a Divine station

which causes me to pass away from all phenomenal existence.
XVIII
1.
Halt at the abodes and weep over the ruins and ask the
decayed habitations a question.

2.
'
Where
Where
Behold them
are the loved ones
(They answer),
in the desert.
Thou seest them in the mirage like gardens the vapour

makes large in the eyes the figure (of one who walks
:
in
it).'
They went,
5.
I followed,
tto
desiring al-'Udhayb, that they might drink

there a cool life-giving fountain.
4.
asking the zephyr about them, whether they

have pitched tents or have sought the shade of the
ddl tree.
6.
The zephyr
7.
They had
alk
o
3.
'
are their camels gone ?

traversing the vapour
b.c
'
I left their tents at Zarud, and the

camels were complaining of fatigue from their night-
journey.
'
said,
let
down
over the tents coverings to protect
their beauty from the heat of noon.
9.
ww
10.
and go towards them, seeking their traces, and

drive thy camels speedily in their direction.
And when thou wilt stop at the landmarks of Hajir and
cross dales and hills there,
Their abodes will be near and their fire will be clearly
seen a fire which has caused the flame of love to
Rise, then,
w.
8.
blaze.
11.
Make
the camels kneel
Let not
for longing love will present

the form of cubs.'
COMMENTARY
voice of God
(jLs
He
says to the
his heart, Halt at the abodes,'
1.
its lions affright thee,
them
;1
'
i.e.
to thine eyes in
^^)
calling
from
the stations where gnostics
www.alkottob.com
83
(XVIIl)
alight in the course of their journey to infinite knowledge of

their object of worship.
And weep over the ruins/ i.e. the traces left by those
gnostics, since I cannot
accompany them.
om
'
The decayed habitations,' because there is no joy in the

abodes which have been deserted, and their very existence
'
depends on those who dwell in them.

Their camels,'
'
The
'
vapour,'
i.e.
i.e.
their aspirations.
the evidences
( Jj^j)
of that
which they
b.c
2.
seek, for its evidences are attached to its being found in
themselves.
The
'
i.e.
desert,'
the station of abstraction
(jj^f ).
3.
Makes large,' i.e. they are grand because they give
evidence of the grandeur of that which they seek.
Hence it
is said, In order that he who was not (namely, thou) may
tto
'
'
pass away, and

subsist for
He who never was

And God said,
ever.'
'
not (namely, God) may

Like a vapour in the
when he cometh to
the station of humility)
it to be nothing, but he findeth God with him
(Kor. xxiv, 39), inasmuch as all secondary causes have been
cut off from him.
Accordingly the author says that the
.
(i.e.
he findeth
it,
vapour makes
'
meaning that Man's superiority
etc.,
large,
over
alk
o
plain
all other contingent beings consists in his giving stronger

evidence of God, since he is the most perfect organism, as the
Prophet said, Verily he was created in the image of the
Merciful.'
w.
'
'Desiring al-'Udhayb,' i.e. seeking the mystery of

in the station of purity from the fountain of liberality.
'
ww
4.
That they might drink
Divine manifestation
'
:
J^XJ^),
shurb
is
dhawq
life
the second degree of

being the first.
'Whether they have pitched tents,' referring to knowledge acquired by them.

Or have sought the shade of the ddl tree,' referring to
knowledge divinely bestowed, in which their actions have no
Ddl implies bewilderment (i'^.=v.).
part.
6.
At Zariid,' a great tract of sand in the desert inasmuch as sand is often tossed by the wind from one place
5.
'
'
www.alkottob.com
84
(XVIII, XIX)
to another, he indicates that they are in a state of unrest,
because they are seeking that which is unimaginable, and of

which only the traces are to be found in the soul.
Coverings to protect their beauty,'
i.e.
unless their
om
'
7.
were veiled, the intense radiance of

station would consume them.
faces, viz. their realities,
this
'
he says, Seek to approach the

Seeking their traces
of
the
with
degree
prophets
thy aspiration (this he indicates
"
camels "), but not by immediate experience
by the word
'
8.
'
b.c
(JU-), for only the Prophet has immediate experience of

this station.'
There is nothing, however, to prevent anyone from aspiring to it, although it is unattainable.
'
9.
Hajir,' referring to the obstacle
which makes immediate
tto
experience of this station impossible for us.

10.
Their fire will be clearly seen,' i.e. the
'
perils
into
which they plunged before they could arrive at these abodes.

According to the Tradition, Paradise is encompassed with
'
alk
o
hateful actions.'
jLilL!n told me at al-Mawsil that

O"
he had seen in a dream Ma'ruf al-Karkhi sitting in the midst
One
of the illuminati
of Hell-fire.
( >H
him and he did not perceive

That
fire is the enclosure that
him,
which you saw him seated. Let anyreach that abode plunge into the fire.'
The dream
terrified
'
I said to
its
meaning.
guards the abode in
one who desires to
friend
it
11.
was pleased with
w.
My
that
was
and recognized
this explanation
true.
'Let not
its lions affright thee,' i.e. if
thou art a true
ww
lover be not dismayed by the dangers confronting thee.

the form of cubs,' i.e. innocuous and of no account.
1.
2.
3.
'
In
XIX
mouldering remains (of the encampment) at al-Uthayl,

where I played with friendly maidens
!
was cheerful and smiling, but to-day it has

Yesterday
become desolate and frowning.
They went far away and I was unaware of them, and they
knew not that my mind was watching over them,
it
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XIX)
85
4.
Following them wherever they journeyed and pitched

tents, and sometimes it was managing the beasts of
5.
Until,
burden,
when they
om
alighted in a barren wilderness and

and spread the carpets,
brought them back to a meadow verdant and ripe
which erstwhile had been an arid desert.
pitched tents
G.
It
7.
They did not
halt at
any place but
its
meadow
8.
contained tombs of their lovers.
COMMENTARY
contained
b.c
forms beautiful as peacocks,

And they did not depart from any place but
earth
its
1.
Its remains
Al-Uthayl,' i.e. the natural constitution.
are described as mouldering because they are changed by
'
'
tto
'
the various spiritual emotions

(J\^>-0 which pass over them.
'
Friendly maidens,'
i.e.
forms of Divine wisdom by which
alk
o
the gnostic's heart is gladdened.

2.
Desolate and frowning,' because he has returned to the
'
world of sense and consciousness.
And they knew not,' etc. as, when a man leaves

a place, he remains there in imagination and keeps the
'
3.
picture of
it
in his soul.
was managing the beasts of burden,' i.e. he was

influencing them by his thought, so that their thoughts
turned to him. This was the result of his sincerity
for
'
It
w.
4.
he turn sincerely to God, may influence the

as
often
superior,
happens with sincere novices and their
if
ww
the inferior,
ritual directors.
s])i
5.
'
In a barren wilderness,'
i.e.
the station of absolute and
abstract unification.
'
And
spread the carpets,' in reference to the Divine favours
which they received on reaching the abode of the Truth.

6. In this verse he
points out that no reality except the
Divine substance can subsist together with abstract unification.
Hence, when they gained this station and realized it and
knew the meaning of God's word, 'There is nothing like unto
www.alkottob.com
86
He brought them back
Him,'
XX)
(XIX,
own
to the unification of their
essences in respect of their oneness, which is incomparable

in respect of the Divine substance contained in its essence.
To a meadow verdant and
ripe,'
referring to the Divine
om
'
mysteries which the Truth conveyed to them by the realities

of the Names.
7.
Forms
'
beautiful as peacocks,'
states, actions,
'
their lovely spiritual
dispositions.
of their lovers,' i.e. the realities
Tombs
which desire
b.c
8.
i.e.
and
that their traces should be manifested in gnostics.

These
know
of
exist
who
those
objects
knowledge only
through
them, and therefore they love the existence of the gnostic, in

far as he knows them, more intensely than they are
desired by him.
Accordingly the author describes them as
tto
so
dying when the gnostics depart.
XX
My
lovesickness
me by
console
2.
is
from her of the lovesick eyelids
alk
o
1.
the mention of her, console
me
meadows and wailed the

from that which grieved me.
May my father be the ransom of a tender playful girl,
one of the maidens guarded in howdahs, advancing
The grey doves
fluttered in the
grief of these doves is
3.
She
\vayingly
among
the married
rose, plain to see, like a sun,
w.
4.
women
and when she vanished
she shone in the horizon of

5.
ruined abodes at
Rama
my heart.
How many fair
beheld
swellino
v
O breasts have they
damsels with
May my
father and I myself be the ransom of a God-
ww
6.
nurtured gazelle which pastures between
safety
fire thereof in that place
the quencher of the fires.
my
ribs in
7.
The
8.
O my two
9.
is
light
thus
is
the light
friends, bend my reins aside that I m&y see the

form of her abode with clear vision.
And when ye reach the abode, descend, and there, my two
companions, weep for me,
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XX)

10.
And
stop with
me
little
87
while at the ruins, that we

I may weep indeed
endeavour to weep, nay, that
may
because of that which befell me.
me without
without a spear.
12. Tell me, will ye weep with
arrows,
me when
Help me, oh help me to weep
me
passion slays
I
me
om
shoots
11. Passion
weep beside her
13.
And
14.
Sulayma and Zaynab and 'Inan

Then tell me further of Hajir and Zarud, give me news
15.
And mourn
rehearse to
Hind and Lubna and
the tale of
b.c
of the pastures of the gazelles

for me with the poetry of
!
17.
Qays and Lubna,

Ghaylan
Mayya and
Long have I yearned for a tender maiden, endowed with
prose and verse, having a pulpit, eloquent,
One of the princesses from the land of Persia, from the
18.
most glorious
of cities, from Isfahan.
o
She is the daughter of 'Iraq, the daughter of
and with
am
tto
16.
the afflicted
my Imam,
alk
o
her opposite, a child of Yemen.

have ye seen or heard that two opposites
lords,
my
are ever united ?
and
19.
20.
Had you
21.
Whilst passion caused sweet and joyous words to be

uttered between us without a tongue,
22.
You would have
seen us at
Rama
proffering each other cups of
w.
passion without fingers,
seen
standing disappears
state
in
which the
Yemen and
'Iraq
under-
embracing
together.
l
who said before my time
spoke the poet
(and he has pelted me with the stones of his under-
ww
23. Falsely
standing),
24.
2.").
'
thou
who
givest the Pleiades in marriage to Suhayl,
God bless thee

The Pleiades are
how
Suhayl whenever he
1
'Umar
b.
should they meet
in the north
Abi Rabf'a,
eel.
whenever they
rise,
and
rises is in the south.'
by Schwarz,
vol.
ii,
p. 247,
No. 439.
www.alkottob.com
88
COMMENTARV
'
1.
Her
desired
of the lovesick eyelids
by
he means the Presence
she
Although
gnostics.
known and
'
is
too sublime to be
them in mercy
loved,
and kindness and descends into their hearts by a sort of
towards
inclines
om
she
manifestation.
'
his
Console
me by
the mention of her
malady but remembrance
'
(.ij).
by my remembrance of
remembrance of me (cf. Kor. ii, 147).
2.
The grey doves,' i.e. the spirits
twice,
world.
And
says 'Console me'

God and by God's
of the
intermediate
wailed,' because their souls cannot join the
have
been
from
released
imprisonment
tto
which
no cure for
is
b.c
i.e.
'
'
there
He
earthly body.
3.
A tender playful
spirits
in
this
girl,' i.e. a form of Divine wisdom,

and holy, which fills the heart with joy.
One of the maidens guarded in howdahs
she is a virgin,
because none has ever known her before she was veiled in
modesty and jealousy during all her journey from the Divine
'
essential
'
alk
o
'
Presence to the heart of this gnostic.

The married women,' i.e. the forms of Divine wisdom
'
already realized by gnostics who preceded him.

4.
And when she vanished,' etc., i.e. when she set in the
'
Unseen
5.
'
'
ruined abodes,'
At Rama,' from
is
'
i.e.
.
the bodily faculties.
(he
sought), implying
that
their
vain.
ww
search
she rose in the world of the
JU)
JU).
(c_^-j5!
(SjlûJ!
w.
world of evidence
How many
fair damsels,' etc.,
i.e.
subtle
and Divine forms
by which the bodily faculties were annihilated.

7. The natural fires are extinguished by the heavenly
light
in his heart.
8.
'
The form
she issued forth.
of her abode,'
He
i.e.
the Presence from which
seems to desire the station of Divine
contemplation, since wisdom is not desired except for the

sake of that to which it leads.
www.alkottob.com
because this Presence annihilates everyher and beholds her.
'
Weep for me,'

one who attains unto
9.
10.
'
That
89
may weep/
for the loss of the loved
etc., i.e.
the state called
'Without a
called
&
om
ones and of everything except the ruins of their abode.

11. 'Without arrows,' i.e. from a distance.
He refers to
.
\jj
i.e.
spear,'
near at hand.
He
refers to the state
sLi-iiU
\j
Hind was the mistress of Bishr, and Lubna of Qays

'Inan was a slave-girl belonging to an-Natifi
b. al-Dharih
Zaynab was one of the mistresses of 'Umar b. Abi Rabra
Sulayma was a slave-girl whom the author had seen he
He interprets the names of all
says that she had a lover.
these women mystically, e.g. Hind is explained as an allusion
b.c
13.
to the Fall of
Adam, and Zaynab
tto
as signifying removal
from
the station of saintship to that of prophecy.

16.
He
describes this essential
verse,
i.e.
*j .**)!)
absolute in respect of
alk
o
endowed with prose and
as
knowledge (j^jJl
her essence, but limited in respect of possession (<^^>.

'
i.e.
pulpit,'
To climb
the ladder of the Most Beautiful Names.
this ladder
these Names.
'
is
to be invested with the qualities of
w.
Eloquent,' referring to the station of Apostleship.

I allude enigmatically to the various
The author adds
'
ww
kinds of mystical knowledge which are under the veil of

an-Nizam, the maiden daughter of our Shaykh.'
17. 'One of the princesses,' on account of her asceticism,
for ascetics are the kings of the earth.
18.
'Iraq indicates origin, i.e. this knowledge
'
'
a noble
'
comes of
race.
child of Yemen,'
wisdom and the breath
i.e.
in
respect of faith (ôU.^) and
.^^J! ^s+&j} an d
These qualities are the opposite of
tenderness of heart.
what is attributed to 'Iraq, viz. rudeness and severity and
infidelity,
of the Merciful
whereas the opposite of 'Iraq
itself is
not Yemen,
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XX, XXl)
90
but the .Maghrib, and the opposite of Yemen itself is not

The antithesis here is between the qualities
'Iraq, but Syria.
of the Beloved and those of the lover.
'
Two
referring to the
opposites,'
when a man sneezed
in
om
story of Junayd,
and
God be
said,
presence
the
i,
said,
verse,
1).
Junayd
praised!' (Kor.
completing
'Who is the Lord of created beings.' The man replied, And
who is the created being, that he should be mentioned in the
same breath with God ?
O my brother,' said Junayd, the
when
it
is
joined to the Eternal, vanishes and
phenomenal,
When He is there, thou art not, and
leaves no trace behind.
19.
'
his
'
'
22.
'
Yemen and
the qualities of
Abu
of
and
(Kor.
Ivii,
The
the
3).
i.e.
the identification (jls^l) of
'
By His
Last
He
refers to the saying
who on being asked how he knew

uniting two opposites, for He is the
and
the
Outward and
the
Imvard
'
alk
o
First
'
'Iraq,' etc.,
Wrath and Mercy.
Sa'id al-Kharraz,
God, answered,
24.
is not.'
b.c
He
thou art there,
'
tto
if
'
Pleiades,'
i.e.
the seven attributes demonstrated
scholastic philosophers.
by
Suhayl,' i.e. the Divine Essence.

The
In the north,' i.e. in the world of phenomena.
Divine attributes are manifested in Creation, but the Divine
'
25.
'
XXI
garden of the valley, answer the lady of the preserve

and her who hath shining front-teeth, O garden of
ww
1.
w.
Essence does not enter into Creation.
the valley
2.
And
of thy shades o'ershadow her for a short

time until she be settled in the meeting-place.
3.
And
her tents be pitched in thy midst.

Then thou wilt
have as much as thou wishest of dew to feed the
4.
And
let
little
tender shoots,
as much as thou wishest of showers and the moisture
of clouds passing over her
ban
trees at eve
and morn,
www.alkottob.com
And
as
much
as thou wishest of dense shade
delicious to the gatherer,
which
And
6.
it
swaying
the
garden of the valley,' in reference to the

the Divine light appeared to Moses.
which
'
(on
of those who seek Zarud and its sands, and of those

who chant as they drive the camels from behind, and
of those who march in front and lead them well.
The lady
of
the
bush in
b.c
'
.
fruit,
bough
hangs),
COMMENTARY
1
and
om
o.
91
(XXI, XXIl)
the
of
Moses,
signifying a spiritual degree which the gnostic inherited
from Moses.
Preserve
denotes the station of Glory
i.e.
preserve/
'
'
unattainable by his essence.

Shining front-teeth,' because
converse and speech
(^LJ^
he
is
in
the
tto
'
reality
station
of
i'ls-L*Jl).
'
alk
o
2.
Until she be settled,' i.e. until the place be ready for
her reception, so that she may speak from his essence to his
essence without regard to anything extraneous.
3.
Dew to feed the tender shoots,' i.e. gracious sorts of
'
knowledge which nourish the human organism.

(i.
Zariid and its sands.' i.e. elusive sorts of knowledge
o
which are not to be apprehended save in moments of ecstasy.
'
And
of those who chant,' etc.

The hddi who drives the
from behind typifies that which comes with fear and
chiding and menaces, while the kadi who goes in front of the
'
w.
'-.niiels
camels t\'pines that which comes with hope and joy and
kindness.
The former is the servant of the Wrathful
L.
2.
J>--),
and the
ww
(.lift)
latter
is
the
servant
of the Merciful
XXII
Turn the camels aside, towards the stony tract of Thahmad,

where are the tender lnnnelies and the humid meadow,
\Vln-re the lightnings show to thee their flashes, where
the clouds pass at eve and morn,
3.
And
thy voice at dawn to invoke the bright-faced

d;i niseis and the fair lissome
virgins,
lift
www.alkottob.com
92
Who
4.
murder with
their black eyes
(XXIl)
and bend their supple
necks.
Among them
is
who
she
that loves the
assails
fair.
She takes with a hand
6.
and
loves
with glances
arrows and Indian swords every frenzied heart
like
anointed with
7.
When
8.
Her eyes
om
5.
soft arid delicate, like pure silk,
nadd and shredded musk.
she looks, she gazes with the deep eye of a young

gazelle to her eye belongs the blackness of antimony.
b.c
are adorned with languishment
and
killing
magic, her sides are girt with amazement and incomparable beauty.
slender one, she loves not that which I love and she
does not
She
10.
let
her threats with sincerity. 1

her plaited lock as a black serpent, that she
fulfil
down
might frighten with
By
God,
die
I fear
and
it
not death
those
who were
my
only fear
following her.
is that I shall
shall not see her to-morrow.
alk
o
11.
tto
9.
COMMENTARY
1.
2.
'
The
'The
camels,'
i.e.
the clouds.
lightnings.'
uses the term
'
The author
'
of these
poems always
to denote a centre of manifestation
lightning
for the Divine Essence.
The bright-faced damsels,' i.e. intelligences derived from

which have descended from the fourth heaven.
Lissome,' i.e. inclining towards the phenomenal world, to
He means all realities that are connected with
replenish it.
the phenomenal world, e.g. the Divine Names.
4.
Who murder with their black eyes,' referring to the
'
w.
3.
Idris
ww
'
'
sciences of contemplation.
5.
'
Indian,' because India is the place where

of wisdom which were in
and there the fountains

gushed
1
Adam
Adam
fell,
first
forth.
The author expressly says
in his
commentary that
has here the meaning of (Xc.l
(to threaten).
established usage, just as L_ o"
(for
"$
^sii
j!)
is
This
is
.Xc,
(to promise)
a defiance of the
a violation of grammar.
www.alkottob.com
93
(XXII, XXIIl)
'
Pure silk,' i.e. undyed, in reference to her being

removed from all contamination.
Anointed with nadd,' i.e. with mixed perfumes.
He
she
is
invested
with
Divine
means that
qualities.
She loves not that which I love,' i.e. she is not limited
9.
by the will of anyone, and if it happens that her will is in
accord with mine, that is due to the effect produced by her
6.
om
'
'
upon me, not to the effect produced by me upon her.

She does not fulfil,' etc., i.e. she is clement and forgiving.
10.
Her plaited lock,' i.e. a chain of evidences and proofs.
'
b.c
'
'
black serpent,' referring to the science of the Divine

majesty and awe.
He
says that he
only afraid of missing the contemplation of his Beloved, and that he hesitated to follow
her because he wished to acquire such Divine faculties as
would enable him
is
tto
11.
to face this manifestation.
alk
o
XXIII
1.
At dawn they alighted
2.
many a deep ravine,

And at daybreak they descried a cairn shining on the top
of a mountain peak.
3.
When
traversed
in
Wadi
the vulture desires to reach
eggs of the
Ornaments are
").
And they had
anuq
set
upon
it
w.
4.
are below
its
'l-'Aqiq
it
he
is
after
having
unable, and the
it.
foundations are lofty, like
al-'Aquq.
them
written some lines which were communicated

'
Oh,
ww
to
who
a forlorn and longing
will help
lover,
G.
7.
Who
although his thought soars above this Arcturus,

trodden underfoot like burning ashes,
And whose home
is
beside this Aquila, yet he has died in
tears the death of the
8.
His
is
drowned
hath delivered him to calamities in this place

without a brother to befriend him.
lo\<-
This translation of
,j ^\
is
conjectural.
www.alkottob.com
94
(XXIIl)
O ye who come to the waters of the well, and O ye

who inhabit Wadi 'l-'Aqiq,
And O thou who seekest Medina to visit it, and O ye
who travel on this road,
Look on us again with pity for we were robbed, a little
10.
11
om
Then,
9.
after
dawn, a
little
before sunrise,
13.
Shaking, like the
14.
b.c
Of a bright-faced lissome damsel sweet of breath, diffusing

a perfume like shredded musk,
Swaying drunkenly to and fro like the branches, fresh
as raw silk, 1 which the winds have bent,
12.
a stallion-camel, fearsome
of
hump
as sand-hills.
No
15.
hips huge
censor blamed
not blame
me
for loving
O her,
me
and
myv
my
My
17.
desire
friend did
my
sobbing
my troop of camels and my grief is my

my passion is my morning drink and my
my evening drink.'
is
alk
o
garment and
tears are
tto
for loving her.

16. If any censor had blamed me for loving her,
would have been
answer to him.
COMMENTARY
He
describes pilgrims on the way to the Truth, travelling

in themselves through the night of their bodily existence and
stopping for rest at dawn, i.e. the boundary which divides
1.
Host
w.
the wisdom appertaining to the Divine realities that is

deposited in the phenomenal world from the realities of the
Spirits of Light, which are called allegorically the Heavenly
olilH
The
Ll\).
travellers cause their camels,
ww
aspirations, to halt in the
Wadi
on the garb of pilgrimage
Muhammadan
'
2.
'
cairn.'
sanctity
i.e.
'l-'Aqiq,
This
J.^-1).
(<Tj,xks:*
i.e.
is
the station of
spirit.
the body.
Sir Charles Lyall has suggested that
should be rendered 'red

LJL$J1
"
'
poppies', but the commentary runs
.4-U
Ui*
JL-
their
^.=-).
a guide, namely, the
mountain peak,'
i.e.
where pilgrims put
_O
<d-Lljj
,J
(MS.
AUK!
..''
Jb /
<d^x)
www.alkottob.com

The
spirits
^\),
i.e.
which
^j^)
(j$&A\
The
'
vulture,'
~- J>\
the spirit of the intermediate world

nearer than any other of the ruling
to the Heavenly Host.
is
which lays
aniiq,'
eggs in the loftiest and most
its
om
'
3.
95
(XXIIl)
inaccessible places.
Ornaments,' i.e. the manifestation of the Divine

In Bodl. (Uri) 1276, the commentary states that
qualities.
al-'Aquq is said to be a great castle on the top of a high
'
4.
7.
'
And whose
home,'
etc., i.e.
b.c
mountain.
this station,
notwithstanding
by various sorts of revealed knowledge,

sublimity,
class
of love, from this person who abides
the
to
belonging
its
is
veiled
'
9.
acquired from good

knowledge (JjJl i'U-), in reference to
he
who waft dead and whom we restored
'Shall
The waters
the
viz.
works,
Kor. vi, 122
tto
there, so that he is caused to pass away from the contemplation

of himself in this centre of manifestation.
of the well,'
i.e.
life of
'
10.
'
On
this road,'
reference to Kor.
11.
'A
little
vi,
the right
life
alk
o
to life
the
i.e.
way (^Jb*^!
in
Lâli),
154.
before sunrise,'
i.e.
the hour of the ascent that
succeeds the Divine descent into the terrestrial heaven, which

descent occurs in the last third of the night.
'A
bright-faced
which
is
lissome
his
object
w.
12.
attribute
'lissome' because of
damsel,'
of
the
i.e.
desire.
her descent towards
She
us,
Essential
is
called
yet from
it
derived that can be grasped by knowledge or

nothing
understanding or imagination.
is
ww
'Diffusing a perfume,'
etc., i.e.
leaving Divine impressions
in the hearts of her worshippers.

13. 'Swaying drunkenly,' in reference to the station of
bewilderment (s^y).
Which the winds have
'
seeking her cause her to

comes a span nearer to Mr.
14. This verse refers to
bent,'
i.e.
the aspirations (**^) by
incline, as
I
(!or|
will conic a
tin-
says,
'If
anyone
cubit nearer to him.'
infinite bounties, spiritual
and
other, which God has heaped upon His servant^.
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAX AL-ASHVVAQ
96
15.
Inasmuch
as she
is
(XXIII,
like the sun,
XXIV)
which
is
common
to
she does not excite jealousy.
16.
'My
sobbing/
his reproaches.
17. 'My desire is
my
i.e.
my
ecstasy would
XXIV
verse, to
'
which
knew
dervish recited to
not any brother

K
Everyone who hopes
showers thereof
me
me
to
the following
b.c
The author says
deaf to
troop of camels,' which bear
Beloved.
my
make me
om
all,
for thy bounty receives copious

thy lightning never breaks its promise of
rain except with me.'
its application and pursued its meaning, and

some
verses in the same rhyme, including this
composed
verse among them on account of its perfection, and I said in
answer to that dervish (may God have mercy on him ) as
tto
admired
1.
alk
o
follows
Halt by the ruined abodes at
La'la'
and mourn for our
loved ones in that wilderness.

2.
Halt by thy dwelling-places and call to them, wondering

at their loneliness, with exquisite lamentation.
'
3.
Beside thy ban tree I have seen many a one like myself
plucking the fruit of comely forms and the roses of
w.
a verdant meadow.
4.
Everyone who hopes for thy bounty receives copious

showers thereof
thy lightning never breaks its
promise of rain except with me.'
She said, Yes there hath been that meeting in the
shadow of my boughs in the most plenteous spot,
When my lightning was one of the lightnings of smiling
mouths but to-day my lightning is the flash of this
;
'
ww
o.
6.
brilliant stone.
7.
Reproach, then, a fate which we had no means of averting

what is the fault of the camping-place at La'la' ?
I excused her when I heard her speech and how she was
:
'
8.
complaining even as
complain with a sorrowful heart,
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXIV, XXV)
And
9.
'
10.
asked her, when
97
saw her demesne, through which
the four winds sweep at night,

Did their winds tell thee where they rested at noontide
'
they rested at Dhat al-Ajra',

11. Where the white tents are radiant with those rising suns
Yes
'
said,
om
She
within.'
COMMENTARY
'
I.
The ruined
i.e.
abodes,'
the vestiges of the dwelling-
places of the Divine Names in the hearts of gnostics.

In that wilderness,' i.e. in his empty heart.
'
3.
b.c
'
Plucking the fruit of comely forms,'
of the Divine
knowledge
o
Self-subsistence
the manifold
i.e.
(aLx^&M),
'
\
J~**
with
Sufis
'
of
Ibn Junayd
al-Ifriqi
and
his followers consider that it
not correct.
The roses of a verdant meadow,' referring to the station

Shame (L^si\), which results from meditation and con-
alk
o
is
tto
which, according to our doctrine, it is possible to be invested.

This investiture (/iJi^1 ) is a matter of dispute amongst the
templation.
Thy lightning never breaks its promise,' etc., i.e. through

the lack of Divine favour (<t>U*JI
He also indicates
4.
'
p^).
that he himself
which was not reached
in a lofty station
is
his peers, because the lightning is a locus of

manifestation for the Essence, and from this locus the soul of
the seer gains no knowledge, inasmuch as it is a manifestation
w.
by any
of
devoid of material form.

'
6.
When my
i.e.
lightning,' etc.,
that manifestation took
a lovely form, but my manifestation to thee is

place
formless and inanimate (#oU>-) and is not determined by
ww
in
love and passion.
II. 'The white tents,' in reference to the veils of light

which are drawn over the splendours of the face of God.
1.
2.
In
grief for
my
my
heart,
heart the
full
moon
fire of
XXV
grief
passion
O joy
is
for
my
burning, in
mind,
my
O joy
mind the
of darkness hath set.
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAX AL-ASHWAQ (XXV)
98
3.
O musk
full
moon
green is the bough,

the musk
O bough of the sand-hills

how
bright the moon,
How
how sweet
smiling mouth whose bubbles
which
5.
6.
7.
O moon
I tasted
O saliva
in
upon thy cheek*!

she removed her veil, it would have been a torment,
and on this account she veiled herself.
She is the morning sun rising in a heaven, she is the
Had
of the sand-hills planted in a garden.
Fear made
me watch
her incessantly while I watered the
bough with
falling rain.
If she riseth, she will be a
wonder
to
mine
eye, or
if
she
tto
9.
and
white honey
that appeared to us veiled in a red blush of shame
bough
8.
I loved
om
b.c
4.
setteth she will be a cause of
my
death.
Since Beauty bound on her head a diadem of unwrought

gold, I am in love with gold that has been wrought.
11. If Iblis had seen in Adam the brilliance of her face, he
would not have refused to worship him.

had seen the lines that Beauty limned on her
cheeks, then he would never have written.
Bilqis had seen her couch, the throne and the pavement
would not have occurred to her mind.
sarh tree of the valley and O bdn tree of the thicket.
deliver to us of your perfume, by means of the
12. If Idris
13. If
alk
o
10.
15.
A musky
w.
14.
zephyr,
ww
16.
odour which exhales its fragrance to us from

the flowers of thy lowlands or the flow ers of the hills.
ban tree of the valley, show us a branch or some twigs
17.
18.
that can be compared with her tenderness

The zephyr's breeze tells of the time of youth spent at
Hajir or Mina or Quba,
Or at the sand-hills and where the vale bends beside the
guarded pasture or at La'la', where the gazelles come
!
to browse.
19.
Do
not wonder, do not wonder, do not wonder at an

of the coy beauties,
Arab passionately fond
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAX AL-ASHWAQ (XXV)
99
Who, whenever a turtle-dove moans, is thrilled by the

remembrance of his beloved and passes away.
20.
'O
1.
grief for
om
COMMENTARY
my
heart': he fears that the anguish of
love will destroy this body by the mediation of which he has

acquired the Divine sciences.
Although most souls desire to
be stripped thereof and to return to their elemental world,

yet in the opinion of profound theosophists abstraction from
body and
soul.
my
joy for
which the Truth

'
2.
The
is
mind,' because the
contemplated.
moon of darkness hath set

Ye shall see your Lord as ye
is
'
full
'
the Tradition,
the night when she
'
mind
Darkness/
is full.'
the invisible world.
i.e.
the locus in
tto
'
b.c
the body should only be sought through ecstasy and selfn t by dissolving the connexion of
(Mlij fl=-),
annihilation
He
in reference to
see the
moon on
describes the
moon
'
alk
o
as having set in the sensible world and risen in his mind.
breathing Divine mercy.

because her light is borrowed from the Light
of God, and because she is a mirror for Him who manifests
3.
'
musk,'
Himself in
'
i.e.
full moon,'
her.
of the sand-hills,' referring to the quality of
bough
'
w.
Self -subsistence (^.XiiS!).
How
4.
'
'
green
Bubbles
is
'
the bough
i.e. clothed with Divine Names.
as water is the source of all life, the bubbles
!
ww
signify the sciences of Divine mercy which appear from the

Divine Life when the breaths (of mercy) flow.
Saliva,' i.e. sciences of communion and converse and speech
which leave a delicious taste in the heart.
5.
God is described as bashful ( e-^) in an Apostolic
'
Tradition.
'
6.
Had
she
'
Tradition,
darkness
face
removed her
veil,'
etc.
God hath seventy thousand
if
He were
would consume
to
all
according to the
of light and
remove them, the splendours of His
veils
that His sight perceives.'
Therefore
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXV)
100
He keeps Himself veiled in mercy to us, in order that our

substance may survive, for in the survival of the substance of
phenomenal being the Divine Presence and its lovely Names
are manifested, and this is the beauty of phenomenal being
if it perished, thou wouldst not know, since all kinds of
knowledge are divulged by means of forms and bodies.
7. 'In a heaven/ referring to the form in which the
The form varies according to the
manifestation takes place.
variety of beliefs and cognitions and this is what is called
om
e.g.
Its
Qadib al-Ban, attain to

spiritual form comprises
Planted
'
the mystical states (JL-\) of
all
Names.
with this quality,

Junayd and others.
refers to the investiture Ciiir)
a doctrine which
We
gnostics,
of the sand-hills,' the quality of Self-subsistence
in the garden of the Divine

'
Some
tto
The bough
Jx^).
this station in a sensible form.
mankind.
'
b.c
'transformation' (j*d\ ,J Jj|srdU
is
contrary to that of Ibn
alk
o
agree, however, as to its realization
(^jjissr),
although
deny the possibility of realizing anything which cannot be

an object of such investiture, since it is not to be apprehended
by
feeling
j.j)
emotionally.
it
may
be
known
symbolically, but not
Fear made me watch her,' i.e. in fear of being veiled

from her I began to behold her in everything and before
everything, regarding everything as depending on her and
'
immanent
'
w.
8.
(in
God) before
its
creation.
watered the bough,' in order that the Divine sciences

it contains might bear fruit in me.
ww
which
She will be a wonder/ for it is wonderful that

abasement should apprehend God in His glory.
'
9.
his
10.
'
Beauty/
i.e.
a locus
Man
in
of ocular manifestation in the
which
station of severance (JjjjhJI), in
Man
is
discriminated
from God.
'
Unwrought gold/
referring to her freedom from contac-
with phenomena.
Gold that has been wrought
'
'
:
gold denotes the quality
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXV, XXVl)

which
of perfection
of stations.
It
attained
is
described
is
as
101
by completing the
series
wrought, because
God's
om
manifestation to us by means of ourselves is actual, whereas

His manifestation to us by means of Himself is not.
12. Idris typifies the speculative theologian.
13.
'
Her
'
couch,'
Her mind
'
her lofty degree.
i.e.
b for JL> (mind), because
(*U), the second
Universal Reason, which is the

second category of Being.
15. 'From the flowers of thy lowlands,' i.e. the station of
Divine Revelation
'
The
jb "$i\
which descends
Jjjîll)
and in the revealed
of the Apostle
flowers of the
hills,' i.e.
b.c
letter of the alphabet, signifies
in the
Sunna
scriptures.
the most inaccessible veil of
God
in
whereas God seeks
Man
in wealth
tto
the Divine glory.

16. Man seeks
want and
and
desire
in
to
receive,
in desire to give.
The zephyr's breeze,' etc., i.e. the sciences wafted into

the heart from the revelation and manifestation of God in
'
diverse stations.
'At the
Where
human
allows the
pasture
'
At
19.
',
i.e.
La'la'/
Do
sand-hills,'
i.e.
the
mount
of Vision.
the station of Mercy, which

essence to subsist
beside the guarded
the vale bends,'
i.e.
'
at the manifestation of the Divine essence.

in the frenzy of love.
at a thing which
i.e.
not wonder
w.
18.
'
alk
o
17.
yearns
for
its
original home.
20.
'
turtle-dove/
i.e.
the soul of a gnostic like himself,

in him a longing for God.
1.
2.
ww
whose sublime utterance excites
Do
the journey's end.

not seek (any other spot) and do not
'
3.
XXVI
In the valley-curve between the two stony tracts is the

Make our camels kneel, for here is
trysting-place.
And
O Thahmad
call after this,
'
Hajir
Bariq
play as friendly full-breasted damsels played, and
!
pasture as shy gazelles pastured
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THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXVl)
102
In a
4.
flies sang and hummed and a warbling

answered them joyously.
meadow whose
bird there
and soft its breeze, and the clouds were

and
flashing
thundering,
And the raindrops were descending from the crevices of
Soft were
clouds
the
because he
And drink
7.
and
'
8.
om
0.
its sides
tears shed by a passionate lover

parted from her he loves.
like
is
the pure essence of
its
wine with
listen rapturously to a singer
its
intoxication,
who chanteth
there:
b.c
5.
the pure wine that in Adam's time related concerning

the Garden of Eden an authentic tradition
!
Verily, the fair women scattered it from the water of their

mouths like musk and the virgins bestowed it on us
9.
stint.'
tto
without
COMMENTARY
'In the valley-curve between the
1.
two stony
tracts/
in the place where Divine favours are bestowed on the

soul which is the locus of an Essential manifestation.
'
The
alk
o
i.e.
trysting-place,'
referring
either
to
the
Faith or to God's taking a covenant from
mankind.
'
The journey's
2.
'
Do
'
There
is
i.e.
etc.,
souls
of
of
the mystery of everlasting life.

the Tradition,
in accordance with
no mark beyond God.'
And
'
play/
etc.,
referring to the various states of this

transported from one Divine Xame to
w.
3.
end,'
not seek,'
station
the
gnostic in which he is
Full-breasted damsels
another.
'
'
and
'
'
shy gazelles refer to
the abstruse sciences of pure unification.

4.
In a meadow/ i.e. the Divine Presence, together with
the Holy Names contained in it.
ww
'
'
Flies/
i.e.
subtle spirits.
warbling bird/ i.e. the human soul, in respect of the

forms with which it is endued in every sphere and station,
'
and thundering/
o in reference to the two
and
interlocution
(c_jlk>-. i'jjj>lA,)
contemplation
was in a dense
God
and
the
Kor.
Cf.
Tradition,
ii,
206,
cloud there was no air above Him or below Him.'
Were
o.
flashinoo
states, viz.
'
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THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXVI, XXVIl)
103
The raindrops,' i.e. manifold sorts of Divine knowledge.

The pure essence of its wine,' i.e. spiritual meanings
and Divine sciences, which fill the heart with delight.
c*
'
6.
'
7.
'
singer,'
i.e.
&\)
praise (*_^lsM
and
is
8.
'
the voice
the
',
( lj.^[^\)
human
produced by the universal
soul hears
it
om
'A
in its essence
enraptured.
The Garden
of Eden,'
i.e.
this
wine
is
derived from the
Presence which comes to dwell in the souls of gnostics at the
time of nurture
'
The
b.c
(Lj^\ ^\ e t).
women,' i.e. the Divine Names.
From the water of their mouths,' i.e. from the station of
'
9.
fair
speech and expression.

'
The
virgins,'
i.e.
from the station of shame, referring to
tto
contemplation.
XXVII
1.
2.
3.
Taking no joy
ancient temple, there hath risen for you a light that
complain to thee of the deserts which I crossed, where

I let my tears flow unchecked,
morn
').
to
morn
dawn
or dusk, continuing from

and passing from eve to eve.
in rest at
if they suffer from footsoreness,

and
make haste in their journey.
journey by night
These beasts of burden carried us to you with eager desire,
Truly, the camels, even
w.
4.
alk
o
gleams in our hearts.
though they did not hope to attain thereby,
7.
They traversed wildernesses and wellnigh rainless lands,

impelled by passion, but they did not therefore
ww
(i.
complain of fatigue.
They did not complain of the anguish of
who complain of fatigue.

something absurd.
I
1.
'O
ancient
love,
and
'tis
Indeed, I have claimed
COMMENTARY
temple,'
i.e.
the
gnostic's
heart
which
contains the reality of the Truth.
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWA*,)
104
(XXVII, XXVIIl)
There hath risen for you,' etc., i.e. the light

(which is the centre of the body) seeks to
'
members
In this station a
realities.
man
body the Divine

by God, hears by God,
The
deserts which I crossed,'
which
austerities
'
4.
The
camels,'
of
difficulty
the
proofs
lead
them
the aspirations.
i.e.
from
do not cease
i.e.
the mortifications and
I suffered.
He means
their
quest.
by
supplied
that they
by the
although exhausted
They are exhausted
seeking,
the
b.c
'
understanding
to the Divine reality.
its
of the
sees
speaks by God, and moves by God.

2.
from
om
source and convey to the
in the heart
rise
are
because
unable to
I have claimed something absurd,' i.e. I pretend to love

God, while complaining of distress and fatigue, yet these
'
tto
7.
viz. my acts and thoughts which

beasts of burden
and govern, make no complaint.
'
',
I control
XXVIIl
Dhat
Between al-Naqa and
2.
Grazing there in a dense covert of tangled shrubs, and
3.
New moons
4.
But
5.
And
alk
o
1.
al-Ajra',
La'la'
are the gazelles of
pasturing.
never rose on the horizon of that
I wished,
from
fear, that
w.
never appeared a flash
hill
they had not risen.

from the lightning of that
fire-stone
6.
7.
9.
my
I desired, for
O my
O my
tears, flow
And
sighs, ascend
ww
8.
But
thou,
between
my
feeling's sake, that it
mine
had not flashed.
eye, cease not to shed tears
O my
camel-driver,
heart, split
go slowly, for the
fire
is
ribs.
10.
From
11.
So
12.
find an eye to weep.

Set forth, then, to the valle}r of the curving sands, their
abode and my death-bed
their copious flow through fear of parting
have
all
that,
when
my
tears
been spent.
the time of starting comes, thou wilt not
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXVIll)
whom
There are those
13.
love,
105
waters of
the
beside
al-Ajra'
them, Who will help a youth burning with

desire, one dismissed,
15. Whose sorrows have thrown him into a bewilderment
'
call to
which
the last remnant of ruin
is
om
And
14.
O moon
beneath a darkness, take from him something

and leave something
O
17. And bestow on him a glance from behind yonder veil,
16.
'
Because he
Or
20.
He
21.
For
flatter
is too weak to apprehend the terrible beauty,

him with hopes, that perchance he may be
b.c
18.
19.
revived or
a dead
am
may understand.
man between al-Naqa and
dead of despair and anguish, as though
fixed in
my
place.
The East Wind did not
22.
tell
cheating phantoms.
23. Sometimes the wind deceives
is
not (really) heard.
the truth
when
it
when
it
were
brought
causes thee to hear
alk
o
what
La'la'.'
tto
is
COMMENTARY
'
1.
Between al-Naqa and

musk, on which
La'la','
etc.,
i.e.
between the
the vision of God, and the

of
frenzied
love
for
are
diverse sorts of knowledge
Him,
place
connected with the stations of abstraction (jo -sill).
of white
is
w.
hill
'
In a dense covert of tangled shrubs,'

phenomenal admixture and interdependence.
2.
'
3.
pass
New
From
moons,'
fear,'
i.e.
i.e.
ww
4.
'
away
in
i.e.
the world of
Divine manifestations.
from fear that the beholder might
himself from himself, and that his essence
might perish, whereas his object is to continue subsistent

through God and for God or from fear that he should
;
imagine the manifestation to be according to the essential

nature of God in Himself (which is impossible), and not
The former belief,

according to the nature of the recipient.
which involves the comprehension (Û*.|) of God by the
person to
whom
the manifestation
is
made, agrees with the
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAK AL-ASHWAQ (XXVIII)
106
doctrine of some speculative theologians,
who maintain
that
our knowledge of God and Gabriel's knowledge of Him

and His knowledge of Himself are the same. How far is
from the truth

A flash from the lightning of that tire-stone,'
inanimate, phenomenal, and earthly manifestation.
this
'
9.
camel-driver,'
the
i.e.
voice
of
aspirations to Himself.
fire/
the
i.e.
fire of love.
God
He
i.e.
calling
b.c
The
'
om
'
5.
says that his eyes have been melted away

the tears which he shed in anticipation of parting.
10-11.
an
the
by
'To the valley of the curving sands,' i.e. the station

mercy and tenderness.
My death-bed,' because the Divine mercy causes him to
'
tto
12.
of
in bewilderment.
away
pass
'Beside the waters of al-Ajra'':
13.
because
14.
'
One
again after
God
says,
Paradise,
16.
'A
'
alk
o
the result of painful self -mortification
is
dismissed,'
i.e
contemplation,
after having
one
who
i.e.
mercy
(,j
has come to himself
according to the tradition that

to His servants in
shown Himself
Send them back to their

darkness,'
this
pavilions.'
the forms in which the manifesta-
tion takes place.
etc., i.e. take from him whatand leave whatever is not related
to himself, so that only the Divine Spirit may remain in him.
21. 'For I am dead of despair and anguish,' i.e. I despair
of attaining the reality of that which I seek, and I grieve
Take from him something,'

is
related to himself,
ww
ever
w.
'
for the time spent in a vain search for it.

As though I were fixed in
place,'
'
place,
my
my present state,
quantity, and quality, being
escape from
inasmuch as
i.e.
it
I
is
cannot
without
purely transcendental
22. 'Cheating phantoms,' i.e. the similes and images in

which God, who has no like, is presented to us by the
world of breaths (Isj^ JU).
www.alkottob.com
THE TAEJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXIX)
107
XXIX
May my
and
father be the ransom of the boughs swaying to
fro as they bend,
the cheeks
2.
bending their tresses towards
Loosing plaited locks of hair

bends
om
1.
soft in their joints
Trailing
skirts
of
haughtiness
garments of beauty
4.
clad
embroidered
in
Which from modesty grudge
to bestow their loveliness

which give old heirlooms and new gifts
Which charm by their laughing and smiling mouths; whose
lips are sweet to kiss
Whose bare limbs are dainty which have swelling breasts
and offer choice presents
Luring ears and souls, when they converse, by their
;.
b.c
3.
and
5.
6.
7.
wondrous witchery
Covering their faces for shame, taking captive thereby the
devout and fearing heart
Displaying teeth like pearls, healing with their saliva one
who is feeble and wasted
Darting from their eyes glances which pierce a heart
experienced in the wars and used to combat
Makinoo rise from their bosoms new moons which suffer
;
8.
alk
o
9.
tto
10.
11.
no eclipse 011 becoming full

Causing tears to flow as from rain-clouds, causing sighs
to be heard like the crash of thunder.
O my two comrades, may my life-blood be the ransom
13.
w.
12.
of a slender girl
ww
bounties
14.
who bestowed on me
favours and
She established the harmony

principle of
she
is
of union, for she
is
our
both Arab and foreign
harmony
makes the gnostic forget.
Whenever she gazes, she draws against thee trenchant
swords, and her front teeth show to thee a dax/.lin:
she
15.
levin.
1
(I.
O my
comrades, halt beside tin- guarded pasture of Hajir

O my comrades.
Halt, halt,
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXIX)
108
ask where their camels have turned, for
17.
That
18.
have plunged into places of destruction and death,

And scenes known to me and unknown, with a swift
may
deserts
om
camel which complains of her worn hoofs and of
and wildernesses,
A camel whose flanks are lean
and whose rapid journeying

caused her to lose her strength and the fat of her
19.
hump,
I brought
her to a halt in
the
sandy tract of
b.c
20. Until
Hajir and saw she -earn els followed by young ones

at al-Uthayl.
They were led by a
him
moon
of awful mien,
and
I clasped
he should depart,
my
moon that appeared in the circumambulation, and
while he circumambulated me I was not circum-
22.
23.
He was
ribs for fear that
to
tto
21.
alk
o
ambulating anyone except him.

effacing his footprints with the train of his robe,
so that thou wouldst be bewildered even if thou wert
the guide tracing out his track.
COMMENTARY
'
1.
My
father,'
'The boughs,'
i.e.
i.e.
Universal Reason.
the Attributes which bear Divine
know-
ledge to gnostics and mercifully incline towards them.

'
Locks of
hair,'
i.e.
hidden sciences and mysteries. They
w.
2.
are called 'plaited' in
allusion
to
the various degrees of
knowledge.
'
ww
Soft,' in respect of their graciously inclining to us.

'In their joints and bands,' in reference to the conjunction
of real and
3.
'
phenomenal
'Trailing skirts,'
qualities.
etc.,
because of the loftiness of their rank.
Clad in embroidered garments,'
etc.,
i.e.
appearing in
diverse beautiful shapes.

4.
'
Which from
modesty,'
etc.,
referring to the Tradition.
Do
not bestow wisdom except on those who are worthy of

it, lest ye do it a wrong.' since contemplation is not vouchsafed to everyone.
'
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXIX)

Old heirlooms/ i.e. knowledge demonstrated by proofs
derived from another.
'
New
gifts,' i.e.
by God and
knowledge of which the proof is bestowed

own mind as the result of sound
occurs to one's
om
'
reflection.
Covering their faces for shame,' i.e. they are ashamed

reveal themselves to those whose hearts are generally
'
8.
to
9.
'
Teeth like
the ordinary
the sciences of Divine majesty.
i.e.
pearls,'
viz.
b.c
occupied with something other than God,

believers described in Kor. ix, 103.
'
Expsrienced in the wars,' etc., i.e. able to distinguish

the real from the phenomenal in the similitudes presented to
10.
the eye.
From
'
'New
'
their bosoms,'
moons,'
Which
i.e.
suffer
no
slender
girl,'
'
i.e.
Arab/
caused
i.e. it
harmony
me upon
me
!>(
Sj\ J^xr*).
Ideas.
the single, subtle, and essential
the
knowledge concentrated
with my Lord.
'
attributes.
they are not subject to any
them from the Divine
knowledge of God.
14.
She established
'
i.e.
eclipse,'
alk
o
'
from the Divine
a manifestation in the horizon
natural lust that veils

13.
i.e.
tto
11.
of
union,'
this
i.e.
myself and united
me
know myself from myself.

me to know myself from God,
to
w.
Foreign/ i.e. it caused

because the Divine knowledge is synthetic (j3U:-0 and does
not admit of analysis except by means of comparison and
since comparison is impossible, therefore analysis is impossible;
;
follows that synthesis also is impossible, and I only

term in order to convey to the reader's
a
meaning that is not to be apprehended save
intelligence
it
ww
whence
use the
latter
by immediate feeling and intuition.

i.e. his knowledge and himself.
Forget/
o
o
'
15.
'A
dazzling levin/
i.e.
a manifestation of the Essence
beauty and joy.

he means
comrades
in the state of
16.
'
O my
'
his
understanding and
his faith.
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXIX, XXX)
110
the aspirations which carry the

sciences and subtle essences of man to their goal.
19.
'
swift camel,'
Whose
'
i.e.
an aspiration in himself.
i.e.
etc., i.e.
rapid journeying,'
this aspiration
was
om
18.
Their camels,'
'
17.
connected with man}* aspects of plurality which disappeared
journey towards Unity.
in the course of its
sandy tract of Hajir,' i.e. a state which enabled

between phenomena and prevented me
from regarding anything except what this state revealed to me.
20. 'In the
me
'
She-camels followed by young
b.c
to discriminate
ones,'
i.e.
original sciences
from which other sciences are derived.
'A moon
of
awful mien,'
'
i.e.
a clue to Himself.
-as
The
'
'
i.e.
He adduced
His uniqueness and incom-
So that thou wouldst be bewildered,' i.e. our knowledge

O
is ignorance and bewilderment and helplessness.
He
Him
alk
o
of
a manifestation of Divine
the evidences which
train of his robe,'
parability.
i.e.
tto
21.
majesty in the heart.

23.
His footprints,'
says this in order that gnostics

their knowledge of God.
may
recognize the limits of
XXX
2.
In the tamarisk groves of al-Naqa is a flock of qatd birds

over whom Beauty has pitched a tent,
And in the midst of the deserts of Idam are camels which
w.
1.
graze beside them and gazelles.
O my two
friends, stop and beg speech of the relics of an

abode which has become ruined after them,
ww
3.
4.
5.
<5.
And mourn for the heart of a youth who

day when they departed, and weep and
Perchance it may tell whither they were
left it
on the
wail.
bound, to the
sands of the guarded pasture or to Quba.

They saddled the camels and I knew not whether 'twas
from my heedlessness or because mine e} e was dull.

'Twas neither that nor this, but 'twas only a frenz}* of
love which overwhelmed me.
r
7.
www.alkottob.com
THE TAEJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXX)

8.
9.
I hailed
111
thoughts that fled and dispersed in pursuit of them like

the bands of Saba
!
every wind that blows, crying,

South wind
O East wind
Have ye any knowledge of what I feel ?
!
befallen
me on
North wind
om
10.
'
Anguish hath
account of their departure.'
17.
To what
18.
And when they promise you
13.
14.
15.
'
'
tto
12.
b.c
16.
The East wind gave me its news delivered by the skill

plants which received it from the hill-flowers,
Saying, 'Whosoever is sick of the malady of passion, let
him be diverted by the tales of love.'
Then it said,
North wind, tell him the like of what
1 have told him, or something
O more wonderful.
Then do thou, O South wind, relate the like of what
I have related to him or something more sweet.'
The North wind said, I have a joy which the North
wind shares with the South wind
Every evil is good in the passion which they inspire, and
11.
is
alk
o
19.
torment
sweetened by their approval.'

end, therefore, and on what O
ground and for what
cause dost thou complain of the sorrow and sickness ?
my
aught, you see that its

a
false
lightning gives
promise of rain.
The Invisible fashioned on the sleeve of the cloud
w.
a golden embroidery of the lightning's splendour,

20. And its tears poured from it upon the middle of its
cheek-balls and kindled a fierce flame.
21.
She
22.
And when thou wouldst
ww
is a rose that springs up from tears, a narcissus that

sheds a marvellous shower.
fain gather her, she lets
to conceal herself, a scorpion-like tress on

of her temples.
23.
The sun
rises
when she
smiles.
these bubbles on her teeth
Lord,
how
bright are
24.
Night appears when she

and tangled hair.
25.
The bees compete with one another whenever she
Lord,
how sweet
is
lets
down,
each side
fall
her black, luxuriant,
spits.
that cooln*
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXX)
112
And whenever
26.
she bends she shows to us a (fruitful)

when she gazes her looks are drawn
branch, or
swords.
27.
How
28.
Am
not I an Arab
and therefore
om
long wilt thou talk amorously at the sand-hill of

Hajir, O son of al-'Arabi, to the coy beauties ?
fond of the coy beauties.

I care not whether my passion rises with
only she be there.
if
Whenever
30.
or sets,
I say 'Will ye not?' they say, 'Wilt not thou ?'

I say,
May not I ? they say, He
and whenever
'
'
refuses.'
And whenever
31.
me
b.c
29.
women
I love the fair
and am
'
they go to the upland or to the lowland,
My
32.
heart
tto
I cross the desert in haste to search for them.
the Samiri of the time
is
the footprints
it
to gold.
And whenever they rise
33.
as often as
it
sees
seeks the golden one that was turned

or set,
it
goes like
Dhu
'1-Qarnayn
alk
o
in quest of the means (of reaching them).

How oft did
oft did we cry out in hope of union
How
34.
we
36.
By
I
Woe
God, it is the source of

exclaim behind it, Alas
me, woe
is
warbles,
is
is
me
made
for a
my
grief.
How
among
often do
'
'
w.
35.
37.
cry out in fear of parting

sons of az-Zawra, this is a moon that appeared
you and set in me.
youth who, whenever a dove
to vanish
ww
COMMENTARY
1.
'In the tamarisk groves,'
etc., i.e.
in the grove of the
are sciences which are the offspring of veracity, in

reference to the proverb, More veracious than the qatd.'
white
'
2.
and
hill
The
deserts of Idam,'
isolation
'
Camels,'
Gazelles,'
3.
i.e.
the stations of abstraction
(juybJlj jj^sriJJ).
sciences with which our souls are familiar.
i.e.
'
'
'
i.e.
O my two
abstruse sciences.
friends,'
i.e.
his understanding
and
his faith.
www.alkottob.com

'
5.
The sands
of
113
the guarded pasture/ referring to the
endurance of anguish (â^\

caused by separation in
tjs?)
a station remote from phenomenal being and inaccessible.
Quba/
the station of repose, for the Prophet used to
i.e.
om
'
alight there every Sabbath.

6.
The camels/ i.e. the aspirations on which our hearts ride.
'
'Twas only a frenzy of love/ etc., i.e.

with love for Him veiled me from Himself.
7.
my
preoccupation
13-14. The East wind bestows on him the knowledge

o of
God created Adam after His own image ', the South wind
b.c
'
'
bestows on him the knowledge of the companions of the

c_jls-^, Kor. Ivi, 89), and the North wind
right hand
(^-**J!
bestows on him the knowledge of the favourites of God

Kor.
Ivi,
and saintship and

of
whom
87),
is
al-Khadir
Abu Hamid
which
is
the station between prophecy
tto
(lûjttjujl,
attained only by the nonpareils (j! JM),

is one, as the Koran bears witness.
(al-Ghazali) denies the existence of this station,

knew it, and he imagines that
alk
o
because he never reached or
who advance beyond the rank of the siddiqs

have fallen into prophecy and have acted irreverently, but
such is not the case. The station to which I refer lies between
those Saints
It is
the position of the siddiq and that of the Prophet.
indicated by the mystery which made an impression on the
s.^^
j
16.
w*fi)-
When
evil
every
Abu Bakr (^ ^\ J.
w.
heart of the greatest siddiq,
the lover passes
away from
becomes good to him, because
his
it is
^_$j]\
own
~^\\
desire,
the will and
ww
desire of his Beloved.
18. 'Its lightning gives a false promise of rain': a

manifestation of the Essence produces nothing in the heart,
inasmuch as it cannot be apprehended or confined by any
phenomenal
object.
In
this
respect
it
differs
from the
manifestation in forms in the world of similitudes, for the

seer apprehends the form
and interprets it.
19.
'
On
of that
which
is
manifested to him
the sleeve of the cloud/ referring to Kor.
ii,
206.
www.alkottob.com
114
The cloud
the heart which clothes, i.e. contains, God. The

sleeve represents the hand which takes the pledge of fealty
to Him. The author describes a manifestation of the Essence
is
veil of
phenomena, a manifestation due to the fact
by a servant
profoundly realized
Adam in His image.
20.
And
'
its tears,'
etc.,
i.e.
om
behind the
of God, that
diverse
God
created
sorts of evidentiary
b.c
knowledge poured into the gardens of the Divine hearts and

produced an overwhelming sense of awe and majesty.
21.
A narcissus,' i.e. a vision that imparts incomprehensible
'
knowledge.
The sun rises,' i.e. sciences appear which are connected

with the Qutb and upon which the universe depends.
24. She reveals to the hearts of gnostics mysterious love.
23.
'
'
am
his ear
and
tto
25. When this gnostic feels in himself a Divine realization

so that he attains to the station indicated in the Tradition,
his eye,' his speech
becomes pure Truth
alk
o
and absolute Revelation, and the hearts of his disciples

from him knowledge in the same way as the bees
receive honey from God (Kor. xvi, 70).
26. As the winds sway the bough, so the gnostic's aspiration
causes God to incline mercifully towards him.
27. 'At the sand-hill of Hajir,' i.e. the white hill, wellknown to the Sufis, on which it is impossible for anyone
receive
He
'
Why dost thou not occupy thyself

with making ready for the gifts bestowed by this high
station, in order that no thought of "the coy beauties",
i.e. contemplation and bewilderment,
may occur to thee ?
28. He answers
The beauties which I seek are the
says,
w.
to set foot.
'
'
ww
offspring of the original fiat whence we came forth.

an Arab
and therefore I love the coy beauties
(,5^)
do not blame
i.e.
me
is
29.
for acting as I
original and real.'

I care not,' etc.,
'
When
consider my
am
(c__>J*ll),
me
and degrees, but only by

30.
i.e.
am
am prompted by what
in
not limited by stations

wherever she is I am.
her, so that
say to the mediums and veils, Will you not

case with her, that perchance I may win of
'
www.alkottob.com
115
'
such delight as other ecstatics have enjoyed ? they

answer
Wilt not thou consider our faces how they are
turned towards thee and veiled from her ? i.e. secondary
her
'
'
you must
om
causes are merely an affliction and probation through which

if you remain with them you will receive
what
their being can give, and you will
nothing except
but
pass,
be veiled from the object of your desire.

May not I ? i.e. may not I attain to my Beloved
'
'
He
who seek him by

means of secondary causes. God is known only by means
of God.
The scholastic theologian says
I know God by
that which He created,' and takes as his guide something
that has no real relation to the object sought.
He who
know s God by means of phenomena, knows as much as
he excludes those
i.e.
refuses,'
b.c
'
'
those
31.
tto
phenomena give to him and no more.

'They go to the iipland,' i.e. the Divine
realities
reveal themselves in imaginary bodies as Gabriel appeared

form of Dihya.
'
To the
alk
o
in the
lowland,'
they reveal themselves, like the
i.e.
spirits of the prophets, in earthly bodies of the intermediate
world.
'
32.
As
Kor. xx, 96.
which
often
He
as
sees
it
'
says
There
whom
the
is
in
footprints,'
me an
etc.
cf
aspiration with
regard with favour, and those

whose growth is symmetrical, and those whose form is erect
(I mean in the earthly pilgrimage), and those whose hearts
I
w.
I revive those
are prepared to receive the overflowing grace of the spirit

and I breathe into them something of that which I have
ww
gained from that footprint, and they are revived thereby
and are under
my
care.'
He
refers to the class of saints
who have renounced the powers of 'control' (u*OJ^-3il\)

which God bestowed upon them, for one who abides with
the Primal Realities is more perfect in knowledge than one
who is veiled by such Divine gifts. Abii Yazid (al-Bistami)
whom
they are touching, but it is a robe

in which God clothed me: how, then, should I hinder them
Whoever sees the
from that which belongs to another ?
said
'
It is
not I
'
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THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXX, XXXl)
116
robe of honour which God conferred on the Black Stone,

and knows the stone, will know what I mean. This was
the station of Abu Yazid and of my Shaykh, Abu Madyan.
How
we beg for power over the

we might rule them without fear
often did
states, so that
them
spiritual
of losing
om
34.
O sons of az-Zawra' az-Zawra is a name of Baghdad,

which is the residence of the Qutb in the visible world.
The author refers to those who are in the presence of the
Qutb and under his a3gis (<G'yta c^x^)'
35.
A moon.'
'
b.c
an
among
essential manifestation which appeared

the
existence of the Qutb, and vanished
you through
in
i.e. it
He makes
'
36.
that
my
is
inward being and mystery
himself to be one of the nonpareils (j

it,' although it is within himself, indicating
tto
me,
etc., i.e.
Behind
not circumscribed
it is
(<L1?U~
I'l
me
alk
o
Lord, let
dove,'
i.e.
sound OLL-aLJl)) which

it
but that
increase in knowledge.'
the spirits of the intermediate world,
bearers of the inspiration that comes at the tinkling
'
37.
the
with him in the category of additionals, as the Prophet

'
said,
.;
jl -wlj),
,*JLC.
I,
it is
strikes a rock.
is
They
like the noise of a chain
when
cause this heart to vanish, even as
vanish on hearing that sound.

Hence
the Prophet said that this manner of inspiration was the
most grievous to him, and he used to pass away from his
w.
themselves
they
and wrap himself
senses,
understood
its
meaning.
until
it
departed, after he had
portion of this belongs to his
ww
(spiritual) heirs.
1.
2.
And
lightning-cloud
XXXI
gleamed at Dhat al-Ada, with light
flashing over the plain thereof,

the thunder of its secret converse cracked,
and
its
copious showers.
Make the camels kneel
called to one another
rain-cloud let
fall
'
'
3.
They
but they did not

out
O driver,
listen,
and
in
my
passion cried
'
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THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXXl)

4.
Alight here and abide, for
5.
I love
one
who
is
whom
if
om
And
7.
her seat were a valley (but her throne
mountain),
The low ground would be made high by her
8.
is
a high
who
'he
b.c
looks enviously shall never attain to that height.

By her is every desert peopled, and by her is every
9.
mirage transformed to abundant water,

her is every meadow made bright, and by her
is every wine made clear.
10.
And by
11.
My
12.
The
core of
my
heart,
when
Was
mark.
No
owl
in
raven
desert
ww
A
Dhat
or
ring-dove
croaking
is
lover
true.
COMMENTARY
lightning-cloud,' i.e. a manifestation of the Essence.

al-Ada,' in Tiharna, i.e. the station of abasement
Light,'
4.
dark
through
Dhat al-Ada a passionate
pertaining to exaltation, for

themselves before Him.
'
no
although in love of them he
slain,
1.
places,
surpassing,
leave at
And might
'
it
is
more unlucky than a full-grown camel which they

saddled, that it might carry away one whose beauty
is
16.
day
the Cleaver shot
w.
15. Is
my
by eyes which are accustomed to aim at

entrails, and none of their shafts misses the
cloven
the
14.
and
alk
o
13.
face,
tto
night is radiant with her

with her hair.
with her arrows,
to
with you,
slender, lissome, of fresh beauty, for

the heart of the sad lover is longing.'
woman,
The assembly is tilled with fragrance at the mention

of her, and every tongue utters her name.
6.
'
117
God
exalts those
who humble
the light of exaltation.

beside one who seeks and loves you.
is with you': he addresses the sciences imp;irtc<]
i.e.
'
Here,'
i.e.
'One who
him by this manifestation.
Inasmuch as they are sought,
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THE TABJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXXI, XXXII)
118
own sake but
only for the sake of that on

dependent, he says that he desires to
that
by means of them.
approach
5.
A woman,' etc., i.e. a Divine attribute which manifested
not for their
which they
are
itself in
'
the world of similitude.
exalts everyone in whom she dwells.

i.e. the heart of the
gnostic.
looks enviously,' etc.
the Divine essence
Her sublimity
7, 8.
'
om
'
high mountain/
He who
'
9.
Every desert/
i.e.
b.c
unknowable.
every heart laid waste by forgetful-
ness of God.
10.
'
Wine/
i.e.
is
spiritual delight.
He
from her
and
face,
my
tto
says: 'I have gained knowledge of the invisible

world from her hair, and knowledge of the visible world
11.
visible
world produces her as an
invisible being to the eye/ i.e. I have the power of appearing

in different forms, like al-Khadir and some saints, e.g. Qadib
'
alk
o
al-Ban.
The Cleaver/
God, in reference to Kor. vi, 95, 96.

13.
Was cloven/ etc., i.e. by the sciences and manifestations of the Divine Ideas.
12.
'
i.e.
14-16. The most unlucky of all things is any ecstasy

that intervenes between thee and this Divine attribute, for
w.
ecstasy takes possession of the heart, so that the mystery

of the Almighty which was illuminated by this Essential
ww
Manifestation is left neglected and without power to retain

that which has already been revealed to it.
1.
2.
3.
Our
talk between al-Haditha and al-Karkh recalls to
me
the period of youth and its prime.

I said to myself
After fifty years,
It
when through long

have
meditation
become as weak as a young bird,
recalls to me the neighbourhood of Sal' and Hajir, and
brings to
4.
XXXII
And
'
my mind
the period
prime,
the driving of the camels up
hill
of
youth and
and down
dale,
its
and
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXXII, XXXIIl)
my
kindling
the
markh
them by rubbing the 'afdr and
for
fire
119
together.'
He
1-3.
says
Our
praise of
God (< j),
om
COMMENTARY
'
telling of the
Divine Revelation, recalls to me the time of pilgrimage in

the station where the veils were rent and lifted from me
acts
by
devotion that produced spiritual feelings and

which I was unconscious, and brings me back
present state of acting in unveiledness and without
of
from
my
b.c
aspirations of
being conscious of consciousness to the former state of acting

'
4.
was
veiled.'
My
kindling fire,'
secondary causes
veiled
the things generated by

whereby the reality is doubly
i.e.
etc.,
tto
which
in
disguised.
XXXIIl
respond with diverse notes of grief to every cooing dove

perched upon a bough in a grove.
alk
o
1.
She weeps for her mate without
2.
tears,
but from
my
eyelids the tears of sorrow are streaming.

I say to her, when my eyelids have shed their abundant
3.
tears in token of my inward state,

Hast thou any knowledge of those whom I love, and
did they rest at midday in the shadows of the
'
w.
4.
branches
'
ww
COMMENTARY
subtle spiritual essences which
'
1.
Every cooing
appear
2.
4.
in
dove,'
i.e.
forms of the intermediate world.
'
From my
'
Did they
eyelids,' etc.:
rest,'
etc.,
because of
my
did they
i.e.
bodily existence.
show themselves
in the shades of this natural organism, so that I
them there
1
may
seek
'Afar and markh
are the
names
of
trees
whose wood was used
for
this purpose.
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THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXXIV-Vl)
120
XXXIV
1.
At the
2.
lions, by the looks of lissome women

Overthrown, though they were bred in the carnage of war.
What match are the lions for the black eyes ?
among
the mountains of Zariid are haughty
The women's looks murdered them. How sweet are those

looks from the daughters of kings
3.
COMMENTARY
Haughty
1.
'
In
From
'
3.
aspiring and courageous hearts.

the Divine Ideas.
lions,' i.e.
Lissome women,'
i.e.
the daughters of kings,' referring to Kor.
a puissant
the presence of
full
tto
Three
liv,
55:
king.'
XXXV
1.
b.c
'
'
om
hill
moons, unadorned by any ornament, went forth

with veiled faces.
to at-Tan'im
2.
They unveiled shining
3.
And they
faces like suns
and
cried
with
alk
o
a loud voice 'Labbayka', visiting the holy shrines.

approached, walking slowly as the qat/i birds
walk, in gowns of striped
Yemen
cloth.
COMMENTARY
Three Divine Names went forth from
Divine
traces,
1.
w.
the
Presence to at-Tan'im, desiring to manifest their

i.e. their bliss (+~xj) consists in such manifestation.
veiled faces,' lest
anyone who was unable
to
'With
endure the
sight of their splendour should behold them and perish.

2.
They unveiled,' i.e. in the heart that was prepared to
'
ww
receive them.
The holy shrines,' i.e. this noble heart.

In gowns of striped Yemen cloth,' i.e. graced by the
3.
subordinate Names which attended them like priests.
'
'
1.
XXXVI
earth of the Highland, mayst thou be a blessed highland

May the rain-clouds water thee abundantly with
shower on shower
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THE TARJUMAX AL-ASHWAQ (XXXVI, XXXVIl)
121
he who has greeted thee for fifty years greet

thee once and twice and then once again
2.
And may
3.
I crossed
4.
Until the lightning shone from the direction of al-Ghada,

and its coming in the night has increased the passion
that I felt before.
om
every desert and wilderness to meet her, riding

on the big-humped she-camel and the old dromedary,
COMMENTARY
earth of the Highland,'

corporeal world.
'
The white
2.
'
clouds,'
He who
i.e.
the understanding in the
b.c
'
1.
Divine Knowledge.
i.e.
has greeted
thee,'
i.e.
the Truth, which bestows
spiritual gifts.
crossed every desert and wilderness,'

austerities and mortifications of the flesh.
'
tto
3.
i.e.
I suffered
The big-humped she-camel,' i.e. the religious law.

The old dromedary,' i.e. the matured and experienced mind.
4.
The lightning,' i.e. the luminous radiance of the most
'
'
alk
o
'
inaccessible veil of the Divine glory.

Al-Ghada,' phenomenal existence.
'
'
Coming
in the night,'
world.
i.e.
in the darkness of the
phenomenal
1.
2.
O my two
w.
XXXVIl
comrades, approach the guarded pasture and

seek Najd and yonder sign that marks the way,
And come down to a well at the tents of the curving sand
ww
and beg shade of
its
3.
And whenever ye come
4.
Deliver to
ye have come
all
who
6.
my
'
Peace be with you
And hearken what they

is
trees.
for then
to the valley of Mina
heart's being
to that in which is
dwell there the greetings of love from
me, or only say,
5.
ddl and salam
will reply,
and
'
!
tell
how one who
heartsick
Complains of the ardours of
love,
while he
is
hiding
nothing, seeking information, and asking questions.
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THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXXVII, XXXVlIl)
122
COMMENTARY
O my two comrades,' i.e. his understanding and his

The guarded pasture,' i.e. the veiled glory of God.
'
1.
'
sublime knowledge.
Yonder sign,' i.e. inductive knowledge.
Najd,'
'
'
2.
i.e.
well,'
At the
'
i.e.
the source of eternal
tents of the curving sand,'
life.
i.e.
in the presence of
Divine mercy.
'
shade,' etc.,
seek delight in the knowledge that
i.e.
b.c
Beg
faith.
om
'
bewilders the intellect and
is exempt from all limitation.

The valley of Mina,' i.e. the abodes of the Heavenly
Host and of the Divine Names assembled for the purpose of
'
3.
manifestation.
Or only
'
say,' etc.,
greetings, then
my
they are not pleased to receive

no mention of me.
i.e. if
make
'
6.
he
is
Asking
i.e.
questions,'
tto
4.
touching the malady with which
smitten, viz. the obstacles that hinder

desire,
him from attaining
notwithstanding that love has
alk
o
to the object of his
intoxicated his whole being.
XXXVIII
1.
2.
The dearest place on God's earth to me

Mecca and the Farther Temple is the
How
Imam who
w.
my
reason and
my
is
the guide of
faith
my
religion
and
home
of a daughter of Persia, one whose gestures

are subtle and whose eyelids are languid.
'Tis the
She greets and revives those whom she killed with her
looks, and she conferred the best (gift) after beauty
and beneficence.
ww
4.
Tayba and
1
city of Baghdan.
should I not love the (City of) Peace, since I have
there an
3.
after
COMMENTARY
'
Tayba (Medina), i.e. the station of Yathrib from which

return
with utter failure to attain to true knowledge of
they
the most glorious God, as Abu Bakr said, perception is
1.
'
'
Baghdiin
is
one
of the
seven various spellings of Baghdad.
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THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXXVIII, XXXIX)

the incapacity to achieve perception.'
This involves seeing
in everything.
'
Mecca,'
i.e.
the perfect heart which contains the Truth.

(Jerusalem), i.e. the station of
The Farther Temple

holiness and purity.
'
'
om
God
123
'
Baghdan,' i.e. Baghdad, because it is the abode of the

Qutb, in whom is the perfect manifestation of the form of
the Divine presence.
'
(<U^
daughter of Persia,' i.e. a form of foreign wisdom

<uL*.), connected with Moses, Jesus, Abraham, and
other foreigners of the same

Whose eyelids are languid,'
class.
'
4.
'
The
is tender and merciful.

and beneficence
Gabriel
she
'
(
thy worshipping God
thou
wert
and
he
added, for if thou
Him/
though
seeing
seest
Him
not, yet
beneficence
is
.Lu-w}H) consists in
He
sees thee.'
tto
said, 'Beneficence
as
i.e.
best (gift) after beauty
b.c
3.
'
Hence the best
'
'
gift
after
God's vision of thee.
My
be the ransom of fair-corn pie xioned and coy

virgins who played with me as I was kissing the
soul
Pillar
2.
When
'}.
Xo
and the Stone
them, thou wilt find no

in
of traces.
but
their
the
sweetest
scent,
guide
me
I remembered
moonless night
darkened
o'er
but
O
thou art
lost in pursuit of
w.
4.
alk
o
XXXIX
them and journeyed in moonlight.

Only when I walk in their company
night seem to
me
My
(i.
If she
7.
The whiteness
ww
5.
unveils her mouth, she
will
show
to thee
what
sparkles like the sun in unchanging radiance.

of her forehead is the sun's, the blackness
on her brow is the night's most wondrous

she a sun and a night together
are in daylight during the night and in
her
we
Through
of the hair
of
8.
of riders does the
sun in the morning.

love urged me to dalliance with one of them, a beauty
who hath no sister in humankind.
like the
forms
is
a nisrht of hair at noon.
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THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXXIX, XL)
124
COMMENTARY
Divine sciences embodied in the
'
1.
i.e.
Virgins,'
world
of similitude.
was
'
Their scent,'
who know
'
3.
the
in
station
(1*^1 a^L^H).
allegiance
2.
i.e.
etc.,
kissing,'
No
their traces in the hearts of the gnostics
i.e.
them.
moonless night,'
i.e.
the darkness of ignorance or
'
The blackness
mysterious sciences
the
of
b.c
bewilderment.
7.
Divine
of
om
As
'
hair
which she
of
on
her
the
is
i.e.
the
e.g.
the
brow,'
bearer,
Traditions respecting assimilation (<f.î:^\).

8.
We are in daylight during the night,' etc., i.e. in the
essence of the case God's invisibility is His visibility, and
His visibility is His invisibility, if we regard Him and not
own
our
tto
'
reason.
alk
o
XL
Between Adhri'at and Busra a maid
1.
my
She was
2.
it
3.
Every
sight like a full moon.

exalted in majesty above
in pride
full
and
moon,
of fourteen rose to
Time and transcended
glory.
when
it
reaches
perfection,
suffers
a waning that it may make a complete month,

Except this one for she does not move through zodiacal
signs nor double what is single.
Thou art a pyx containing blended odours and perfume,
thou art a meadow producing spring-herbs and
w.
4.
ww
5.
flowers.
Beauty reached
6.
thee
'
1.
is
in thee her
utmost limit
another like
impossible.
COMMENTARY
Between Adhri'at and Busra
'
:
he
mentions these
places because they mark the farthest point reached

Prophet in his Syrian journey.
'
maid
of fourteen,'
i.e.
the perfect soul.
Four
by the
is
the
www.alkottob.com
125
(XL, XLl)
most perfect number, and ten consists of four numbers,

+ 2 + 3 + 4, and fourteen is 4 + 10.
viz. 1
'
4.
Nor double what
is
i.e.
single,'
she
in the station
is
Unity and no one is joined with her, for she is not

homogeneous with anything.
5.
Blended odours and perfume,' i.e. Divine sciences and
om
of
'
influences.
'
6.
Hamid
Beauty reached
in
her utmost
thee
limit,'
Abu
as
b.c
more beautiful world than this

is not possible.
Had it existed and had God kept it to
Himself, He would have shown avarice which is incompatible
with His liberality and weakness which is contradictory to
'
(al-Ghazali) said,
His omnipotence.'
God save a
to
2.
3.
How
I
bird on a
5.
tree,
a bird that has revealed
the true story

the loved ones bound the saddles on their camels.
and then gat them away at dawn.

journeyed and in my heart for their sake was a
because of their departure
fire
blazing
4.
bdn
me
alk
o
1.
tto
XLI
Striving to outpace them in the darkness of the night r

calling to them, and then following their track.
I
had no guide
in pursuing
them except a perfumed
6.
w.
breath of their love.
The women
shine.
Then
I let
my
riders said,
8.
And were
became
tears pour in front of the camels,

When did this river flow ?
ww
7.
raised the curtain, the darkness
light,
camels journeyed on because of the moon-
arid the
'
unable to cross
and the
'
it.
I said,
'
My
tears rolled in
streams.'
9.
Tis as though the thunderclaps at the gleam of the

lightnings and the passing of the clouds at the fall
of rain
10.
Were the
palpitation of hearts at the flash of teeth

the flow of tears for travellers who rode away.
and
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126
11.
thou
who
(XLl)
likenest the lissomeness of the tall forms (of
the loved ones) to the softness of the fresh verdant
bough,
thou hadst reversed the comparison, as I have done,
thou wouldst have taken a sound view
om
12. If
For the softness of the branches is like the lissomeness

of the tall forms, and the rose of the meadow is like
13.
b.c
the rosy blush of shame.
COMMENTARY
'
1.
bird on a
ban
tree,'
his body.
of
The
God
2.
'
true story,'
i.e.
spirit
in
the Tradition concerning the descent
to the terrestrial heaven.
How
Prophet's
tto
'
the
i.e.
the loved ones,'
etc., i.e.
how God
descended into
the night of phenomenal forms and gat Him away at dawn',

that is, manifested Himself in the intermediate world, which,
for this
like the dawn, is light mingled with darkness
'
is
holiness of the
4.
'
'
impure
comparison with the purity and
Godhead per
se.
'
he refers to the investiture
qualities.
breath,' alluding to the habit of guides,

losing their way in desert places try to recover it
smelling the earth.
who on
6.
perfumed
w.
5.
by
in
Following
O their track
with Divine
alk
o
manifestation
This verse refers to Kor. xxxiv, 22
removed from their hearts,' etc.

The riders,' i.e. the angels mentioned
shall be
'
7.
And were unable
ww
'
8.
to cross
it,'
when
'
:
in Kor.
the terror
ii,
206.
because these tears were
shed in the grief of parting, and the Heavenly Host lack this
emotion, for they are not veiled from God hence they are
not allowed to traverse this station.
:
11-13. The author says that, in accordance with the real
subsisting between God and His creatures, they

should be connected with Him, not He with them. Thus the
supple bough should be compared to the form of the Divine
relation
Beloved and the rose
to
His cheeks, not vice versa, as
www.alkottob.com
127
(XLI, XLIl)
XLII
1.
O men
2.
He who
of intelligence and understanding,

between the sun and the gazelles.
not forgetful, but he
is forgetful.
distraught
who
forgets
himself to his herd, for gifts open
offer
mouth
is
am
b.c
Let him
3.
Suha
forgets
the sun
om
happens in those Traditions which attribute human qualities

to God, although in reality He is the eternal source of such
qualities and therefore incomparable.
to utter praise.
the
an Arab girl, belonging by origin to the

of
Persia, yea, verily.
daughters
her a row of fine pearly teeth, white
for
Beauty strung
and pure as crystal.
Verily, she
5.
is
tto
4.
from her unveiling, and at that moment her

loveliness and splendour affrighted me.
From those twain I suffered two deaths thus hath the
I
6.
7.
boded
ill
alk
o
Koran revealed
I
8.
her.
Wherefore did thy unveiling affright me ?

(She answered), Thy foes have trysted to attack thee
when the sun shines.'
'
said,
'
'
I said,
9.
'
am
hides thee
in a
:
guarded demesne of black hair that
let it fall at their
This poem of mine

only Her.
11.
The word
is
Her'
'
is
my
coming.'
without rhyme
w.
10.
aim, and for
I intend
Her sake
by
am
it
not
fond of bartering except (with) 'Give and take

1
ww
(kd wa-hd).
COMMENTARY
'Between
the sun and the ga/elles.' referring to

The Divine command desccndeth betu'cr,,
them' (viz. the heavens and the earth).
2. The heedless man
i.s
not he who neglects what is
1.
Kor.
Ixv,
12:
The meaning
'
of the last hemistich
i*
ohsrure.
I'ossiUy
l^j..
l>
\\;i-
a formula used in completing a bargain.
www.alkottob.com
128
who
the star Suha, but he
like
invisible,
(XLIl)
and manifest, like the sun.

Let him offer himself to his herd,'
neglects
what
visible
3.
'
then they will praise him.

4.
An Arab
'
i.e.
girl,'
etc.,
whom
the sake of those
sacrifice himself for
i.e.
let
him
he loves, and
om
is
one of the Muhamrnadan kinds of
knowledge.
'
'
for the
Belonging by origin to the daughters of Persia
and
barbarous
is
idiom
ancient
more
than
foreign
(LtJs~\)
the Arabic (<&
b.c
-*M).
from her unveiling

when a woman
unveiled herself to an Arab with no particular motive, he
used to regard it as a sign that she was unlucky to him, and
'
'
boded
6.
ill
'
7.
tto
he used to be afraid in consequence.
Two
deaths,' i.e. dying to (becoming unconscious of)

and dying to himself, so that he remained with her in
others,
virtue of her, not in virtue of himself.
8.
'
Thy
alk
o
Thus hath the Koran revealed

'Thou hast caused us
xl, 11
Kor.
foes,' etc.,
to thee,
i.e.
make
to
my
essence will
thee imagine that the form in which
appear to thee is I myself.

9.
I am in a guarded demesne,'
etc.,
as
it is
said of the
w.
'
reference
moment when
thy desire to obtain possession of
deceive thee and
in
they will beguile thee with a form

I manifest my essence
i.e.
resembling mine at the
her,'
to die twice.'
Prophet 'for He causes a guard (of angels) to go before and

behind him (Kor. Ixxii, 27), that he might be in no doubt
:
'
concerning his inspiration. This is the meaning of my verse,

At night the angels descended upon my heart and circled it
ww
'
like the sphere that circles the pole-star.'
without rhyme,' i.e. it has

no recurring rhyme-letter (C?t)> which in a rhymed poem
would invariably precede the b>.
10.
'
This
poem
of
mine
is
'
intend by it only Her (or, as the author expresses it,

only the letter hd '), i.e. I have no connexion except with
Her, since my connexion with the phenomenal world is
'
'
'
entirely for
Her
sake, in so far as
She reveals Herself
there.'
www.alkottob.com
129
(XLIIl)
XLIII
Let
'
2.
me
never forget my abode at Waria and my saying to

camel-riders as they departed and arrived,
Stay beside us a while that we

for I swear by those whom
comforted thereby,
may be
I love
that I
(by thinking of you).'
5.
6.
bountiful halting-place.
'Twas in the glen of the valley of Qanat I
met them,
and my last sight of them was between an-Naqa
and al-Mushalshal.
They watch every place where the camels find pasturage,
but they pay no heed to the heart of a lover led
astray.
camel-driver, have
pity on
a youth
palms crosswise on his bosom to
his
see
still
a heart
that throbbed at the noise of the (moving) howdah.

They say, Patience but grief is not patient. What can
'
I do, since patience is far

9.
whom you
bids farewell,
alk
o
Laying
'
8.
consoled
they set out they will journey with the most auspicious
omen, and if they halt they will alight at the most
breaking colocynth when he

7.
am
b.c
4.
If
tto
3.
om
1.
from me
Even if I had patience and were ruled by it, my soul

would not be patient. How, therefore, when I have
it
not
w.
COMMENTARY
the station of confession and shortcoming

Wana,'
and failure to pay due reverence to the majesty of the Divine
'
1.
i.e.
ww
presence.
'Camel-riders,'
the saints and favourites of
i.e.
Every place where the camels

objects to which our aspirations tend.
5.
6.
'
'
camel-driver
calls the aspirations
'
pasturage,'
i.e.
the
he addresses the Divine voice which
towards
'
Breaking colocynth,'
anguish (for
find
God
i.e.
it.
having his face distorted with

is broken its pungent smell
when colocynth
www.alkottob.com
causes the eyes to water).
(XLIII,
XLIV)
Imru'u'1-Qays says
The Dlwdns, 204, No. 26)
(cf.
Ahlwardt,
om
130
XLIV
moon appeared
1.
The
2.
3.
If she enters into the
in the night of hair, and the

black narcissus bedewed the rose.
full
tender girl is she the fair women were confounded by

her, and her radiance outshone the moon.
her
mind, that imagination wounds

can
she
be perceived by the eye ?
how, then,
a phantom of delight that melts away when we
4.
She
5.
Description
6.
Whenever
7.
If
8.
She
9.
From
is
b.c
think of her
she is too subtle for the range of vision.

sought to explain her, but she was tran-
tto
scendent, and description became dumb.

it tries to qualify her, it always retires baffled.
one
who
alk
o
seeks her will give rest to his beasts, others

will not give rest to the beast of reflection.
a joy that transports from the rank of humanity

every one who burns witli love of her,
is
jealousy that her clear essence should be mingled

filth which is in the tanks.
with the
10.
She excels the sun
11.
compared with any.

The heaven of light
is under the
O
diadem is beyond the spheres.
w.
'
The
full
ww
1.
in splendour: her
moon,'
form
is
not to be
sole of her foot: her
COMMENTARY
etc.,
i.e.
the
Divine manifestation
appeared in the unseen world of mysterious knowledge.

And the black narcissus,' etc., i.e. the weeping eye
'
bedewed the red cheeks.
He means
to say that the centre of
Essential manifestation replenished the Divine names.

'
2.
'
7.
The fair women,' i.e. the attendant Names.

One who seeks her,' i.e. the gnostic who is aware that
he cannot reach her.

'
His
beasts,'
i.e.
his aspirations.
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XLIV-Vl)

'
i.e.
Others,'
men
of understanding
who
131
assert that
God
is
known by
logical demonstration.
8.
Transports from the rank of humanity,' i.e. to the next
world, in which the disembodied spirits assume different
forms
'
om
'
The
which
in the tanks,' i.e. the impurity and

darkness of nature in the corporeal world.
11. Cf. Kor. xx, 4, and the Tradition that God, before He
created the Throne, was in a dense cloud, and neither above
it nor beneath it was any air.
filth
is
b.c
9.
XLV
2.
The loved ones of my heart where are they ? Say, by

God, where are they ?
As thou sawest their apparition, wilt thou show to me
their reality
4.
5.
6.
How
and how often

long, how long was I seeking them
did I beg to be united with them,
Until I had no fear of being parted from them, and yet
I feared to be amongst them.
!
Perchance
my
alk
o
3.
tto
1.
star will
happy
from me,
That mine eye may be
not ask,
'
Where
with them, and that
blest
are they
hinder their going afar

I
may
'
2.
'
w.
COMMENTARY
'
1.
The loved
the sublime spirits.

Their apparition,' i.e. their manifestation in the world
ww
of similitude.
ones,'
4.
'
I feared to be
i.e.
amongst them,'
i.e.
lest their
radiance
should consume me.

'
5.
My
happy
star,'
i.e.
the
Divine favour predestined
to me.
1.
2.
XLVI
war of love between the entrails and the large

eyes, and because of that war the heart is in woe.
Dark-lipped and swart is she, her mouth honeyed the
There
is
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XLVl)
132
evidence of the bees
is
the white honey which they
produce.
moon
3.
Full-ankled, a darkness o'er a
4.
a bough growing on hills.

decked
with ornaments; she is not wedded; she
Beautiful,
shows teeth like hailstones for lustre and coolness.
5.
she
b.c
7.
cheek a red
She keeps aloof in earnest, though she plays at loving in

and death lies between that earnest and jest.
jest
Never did the night darken but there came, following it,
the breath of dawn 'tis known from of old.
And never do the East winds pass over meadows
;
6.
in her
is
om
blush
containing coy virgins with swelling breasts
9.
But they bend the branches and whisper, as they blow,

of the flowery scents which they carry.
I asked the East wind to give me news of them.
The
wind said, What need hast thou of the news
I left the pilgrims in al-Abraqan and in Birk al-Ghimad
and in Birk al-Ghamim near at hand
tto
8.
10.
11.
They
alk
o
'
are not settled in
any
country.'
said to the
wind, Where can they take refuge when

of my desire are pursuing them ?
'
13.
gharab trees hath ceased.

The raven does not croak in our encampments or make
any rift in the harmony of our union.
ww
14.
Far be the thought

They have no abode save my mind.
Wherever I am, there is the full moon. Watch and see
Is not my imagination her place of rising and my heart
her place of setting ? for the ill-luck of the ban and
w.
12.
the steeds
'
COMMENTARY
1. He says
There is a war of love between the world of
intermixture and cohesion and the Divine Ideas, because this
'
world desires and loves them inasmuch as
its life is
wholly
derived from their beholding it.

Nothing but this natural
world hinders the hearts of gnostics from perceiving the
Divine Ideas accordingly the heart is in woe and distress
;
because of the war that continually exists between them.'
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XLVl)
133
'
he refers to one of the

Dark-lipped and swart is she
Divine Ideas, whom he describes as having dark lips on
account of the mysteries which she contains.
'
2.
The evidence
'
'
he mentions the bees because

have
immediate
they
experience of the inspiration which the
of the bees
om
hearts of gnostics desire.
^darkness
'
i.e.
(Kor. Ixviii,
o'er
a moon/
terrible,
i.e.
she
is
of contemplation.
'
bough
self -subsistence
of
on
growing
hills/
manifestations.
29.
hidden save to the eye
referring
which
(<xl^*la!l)
with reference to
42) and to Kor. Ixxv,
b.c
Full-ankled,'
k__iJo +
jLs
mighty and
'
3.
is
the
to
revealed
quality
Divine
in
Ornaments/ i.e. the Divine Names.

Not wedded/ i.e. no human being has ever known
'
'
tto
4.
her.
Teeth like hailstones/ referring to the purity of her
'
manifestation.
She keeps aloof in earnest/ i.e. she is really inaccessible.

Death/ i.e. anguish for those who love her.
Never did the night darken/ etc., i.e. every esoteric
6.
'
alk
o
5.
'
'
mystery has its corresponding exoteric manifestation God is

both the Inward and the Outward.
7.
The East winds/ i.e. the spiritual influences of Divine
'
manifestation.
'
Meadows/
Coy
i.e.
hearts.
w.
'
virgins/
etc., i.e.
sensuous knowledge derived from the station

beauty.
'
They bend the branches/
ww
8.
towards those who subsist

11.
in
'No country
any one
change
to be the
13.
gkarab
i.e.
the Self-subsistent inclines
phenomena.
in particular/ etc.,
*UU
.j
tree
ghurbat
all
i.e.
they do not remain
to settlement in the station of
^JlLcJl),
most exalted of
The bdn
tree
in
state, referring
jJcJl
wisdom and
of shame and
subtle forms of Divine
which theosophists
consider-
the stations.
suggests
bayn
(separation),
and the
(exile).
www.alkottob.com
134
(XLVII, XLVIIl)
XLVII
1.
2.
Who can
dove on the ban tree at Dhat al-Ghada, I

by the burden thou hast laid upon me.
3.
draught
of destiny
oppressed
Who can drain
the
om
support the anguish of love
bitter
am
and burning passion, O would that he

who caused my sickness had tended me when I am
'
my
say in
grief
'
sick
4.
He
5.
veiling his head and turning away.

His veiling did me no hurt I was only hurt by his
having turned away from me.
;
b.c
passed by the house-door mocking, hiding himself,
COMMENTARY
'
'
'
flash
'
He
etc.,
passed,'
self-mortification.
referring to Divine thoughts which
upon the mind and are gone in a moment.
alk
o
4.
tto
'0 dove,' i.e. the Absolute Wisdom.

Dhat al-Ghada,' referring
o to states of
The burden
cf. Kor. xxxiii, 72.
1.
I am necessarily veiled from God, but God's turning

from
me is caused by some quality in me of which
away
I am ignorant and which I cannot remove until God enables
5.
me
i.e.
to
know what
it is.
2.
And
w.
XLVIIl
1.
camel-driver, turn aside at Sal' and halt by the ban tree
ww
of al-Mudarraj,
call to them, imploring their pity
princes, have ye any consolation ?
3.
At Rama, between an-Naqa and
and grace,
'
O my
'
Hajir,
is
a girl enclosed in
a howdah.
the tender maid
Her
4.
Oh, her beauty
5.
lamps to one travelling in the dark.

She is a pearl hidden in a shell of hair as black as jet,
A pearl for which reflection dives and remains unceasingly
fairness gives
light like
6.
in the deeps of that ocean.

7.
He who
looks upon her deems her to be a gazelle of the
www.alkottob.com
135
(XLVIIl)
and the loveliness
sand-hills because of her neck
of
9.
If she lifts her veil or
om
8.
her gestures.
'Tis as though she were the morning sun in Aries, crossing
of the zodiac at their farthest heio-ht.
the degrees
o
o
uncovers her face, she holds cheap
the rays of the bright dawn.

10. I called to her, between the guarded pasture and Rama,
Who will help a man that alighted at Sal' in good hope ?
'
will
help a
man
lost in
a desert, dismayed, con-
founded in his wits, miserable

12.
Who
13.
Who
man drowned
will help a
by the wine
b.c
Who
11.
in his tears, intoxicated
of passion for those well-set teeth
will help a
man burned by
his sighs, distraught
by
'
the beauty of those spacious eyebrows
tto
The hands of Love have played at their will with his

heart, and he commits no sin in that which he seeks.
14.
COMMENTARY
'
Halt
ban
'
he says,
al-Mudarraj
addressing the Divine messenger which calls the aspirations
that seek to know and behold Him,
Appear to me in
by
the
tree
the station of self-subsistence
(*^jjd\
'
2.
not suddenly,
call to them,'
i.e.
'
and lovingkindness gradually
lest I perish.'
to the Divine
Names.
Rama,' one of the stations of abstraction and isolation.

Between an-Naqa and Hajir,' between the white hill and
'
w.
3.
'
jLc),
And
of
alk
o
1.
the most inaccessible
veil,
to
which the hearts of mystics
can never attain.
A girl enclosed in a howdah,' i.e. the Essential Knowledge

contained in the hearts of some gnostics.
ww
'
travelling in the dark,' i.e. to those who ascend

and journey in the night (like the Prophet).
6. God is beyond the reach of mental effort
He is revealed
4.
'
To one
by Divine favour to a heart empty of
all
thoughts.
'
Crossing the degrees of the zodiac,' etc., in reference

to the magnification and glory which the seer feels in himself
8.
as he continues to contemplate her.
www.alkottob.com
136
'
10.
Sal','
12. 'In
(XLVIII, XLIX)
one of the stations of Divine sanctity.
his
the
in
i.e.
tears,'
knowledge
o that comes
of
contemplation.
Wine,'
the
i.e.
human
every science that inspires joy and rapture in

Divine perfection.
soul, e.g. the science of the
om
'
Those well-set teeth,' i.e. the grades of knowledge of God.

Those spacious eyebrows,' i.e. the station between
the two Wazirs and Imams.
He alludes to the station of
'
'
13.
XLIX
1.
Who
will
show me her of the dyed
show me her
3.
4.
5.
of desire, melting with passion, because that

me hath befallen her
Dying
Mourning
alk
o
8.
Who
will
for
mate,
which
blaming Time, who
unerringly, as he shot me.

Parted from a neighbour and far
shot
her
from a home
Alas, in
my time of severance, for my time of union
Who will bring me her who is pleased with my torment ?
I am helpless because of that with which she is
w.
7.
fingers
honeyed tongue ?
She is one of the girls with swelling breasts who guard
their honour, tender, virgin, and beautiful,
Full moons over branches they fear no waning.
In a garden of my body's country is a dove perched on a
ban bough,
befell
6.
of the
tto
2.
b.c
the Qutb.
pleased.
COMMENTARY
1.
'
'
he means the phenomenal

Eternal power (i',jjjji
which
the
by
irjjjjji)
hidden according to the doctrine of some scholastic
of the
dyed
fingers
(<u.xs-'M
ww
power
Her
JUjjjiH) is
theologians.
He
'
says,
this matter, so far as
Who
will
impart to
me
the truth of
He
knowledge thereof is possible ?
wishes to know whether God manifests Himself therein
or not.
The author denies such maniJssf* UJ ^V. Jjb)
festation, but some mystics and the Mu'tazilites allow it,
'
while the
Sufis
among
the
Ash'arites leave the question
undecided.
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XLIX-LI)

'
4.
dove,' etc.,
in the
appeared
to the belief of
137
a spiritual Prophetic essence which
i.e.
incommunicable self-subsistence.
He
Follow me, that God
them and they
loves
'A
6.
mate,'
i.e.
may
love
om
the Divine Self -subsistence (Uj

^-^V. ^ <uûlaJl J)V).
5. 'Dying of desire,' etc., with reference to Kor.
'
refers
some Sufis that Man cannot be invested with
and Kor.
love you,'
Him.'
the Universal
Form
29,
iii,
'
v, 59,
He
(<u^lsM s,*d\).
'
b.c
Blaming Time,' because the forms belonging to the world

of similitude are limited by Time in that world.
7.
A neighbour,' i.e. a gnostic who became veiled from his
Lord by his self after having subsisted by his Lord and for
'
'
'
the sake of his Lord.
home,'
i.e.
his natural constitution,
whenever he returns
tto
'
to
it.
1.
She has left bitten by her viper-like

locks one who would fain approach her,
And she bends her soft eye and melts him and leaves him
sick on his bed.
She shot the arrows of her glances from the bow of an
eyebrow, and on whatever side I came I was killed.
3.
alk
o
2.
Oh, the traitress!
COMMENTARY
1.
The
traitress,'
i.e.
a deceitful Attribute, which caused
w.
'
one who sought her to become enamoured of the mysterious

sciences derived from the Divine majesty and beauty.
3.
'
His
He
bed,'
i.e.
his body.
describes the
ww
2.
'
passing
'
away
produced by contem-
plation of the Divine Ideas.
1.
2.
LI
At Dhat al-Ada and al-Ma'ziman and Bariq and Dhu Salam

and al-Abraqan to the traveller by night
Appear flashes of swords from the lightnings of smiling
mouths like musk-glands, the odour whereof none is
permitted to smell.
www.alkottob.com
138
If
3.
war
(LI,
LIl)
waged against them, they draw the swords of

and if peace is made with them, they
is
their glances
break the bonds of constraint.
They and we
om
enjoyed two equal pleasures, for the

Beloved has one kingdom and the lover another.
4.
COMMENTARY
12. He
In the station of light and that of the

says,
soul's oppression between the two worlds and that of the
manifestation of the Essence and that where the ascending
peace
veiled
is
'
Equal,'
God
because
image.
'
For the Beloved,'
created
etc., i.e.
a kind of mutual influence
Man
after
His
own
tto
which
4.
b.c
(J.~:) appears a terribly beguiling grace

the
favour of the Beloved.'
by
This verse refers to the Wrath and Mercy of God.
find
spirits
3.
'
(.
the lover and the Beloved exert
upon one another.
JJ-^J")
1.
am
alk
o
LH
Radwa
content with
be, those
whom
meadow and
as a
place, for it has a pasture in

I love will
which
hear of
is
a lodging-
cool water.
so that
2.
May
3.
and lodging-place.
they
For lo, my heart is attached to them and listens silently
whenever the camel-driver urges them on with his
4.
And
it
its fertility,
as an abode
w.
will take
chant.
if
they call to one another to set out and cross the

thou wilt hear its wailing behind their camels.
desert,
And
if
they make for az-Zawra,
it
will be in front of
them,
ww
5.
and
6.
Xo
they are bound for al-Jara, it will alight there.

fortune is found except where they are and where
if
they encamp, for the bird of Fortune has fledglings

in their tribe.
7.
8.
Fear for myself and fear for her sake battled with each
other, and neither gave way to its adversary.
When her splendours dazzle mine eyes, the sound of my
sobbing deafens her
ears.
www.alkottob.com
(LII,
139
LIIl)
COMMENTARY
'
Radwa/ with
'
2.
4.
'
(L*sJ!
the
station
whom
Those
The desert/
'
to
Their camels/
the stations of abstraction (jj
i.e.
the aspirations journeying
i.e.
the body.
Az-Zawra/
i.e.
'
In front of them
his thoughts
o
Al-Jar'a/
the presence of the Qutb.

he means that he anticipates them in
:
and wishes.
'
i.e.
where they
a place
mortification.
The gnostic seeks only that which

'
Fear for myself/
sufl'er
is
painful
self-
akin to himself.
tto
6.
-srdl).
away from
b.c
'
5.
'
Divine
of
spiritual nourishment.
I love/ i.e. gnostics like himself.
i.e.
pasture,'
'
reference
/^-*)-
om
1.
satisfaction
my eyes should be dazzled

the
manifestation
of
Beloved's
my
by
glory.
Fear for her sake/ i.e. fear lest her ears should be deafened
7.
i.e.
fear lest
'
of
my
sobbing.
alk
o
by the noise
LIII
1.
2.
Whenever we meet to take farewell thou wouldst deem

us, as we clasp and embrace, to be a doubled letter.
Although our bodies are
3.
This
is
the
dual,
eye sees only
leanness and his light, and were it

moaning, I should have been invisible to
w.
single one.
\/
because of
not for
my
my
ww
the eye.
The doubled
1-2.
COMMENTARY
letter
is
two
letters,
one of which
is
The
concealed in the other.

soul, bidding farewell to the
are in this case, for though we are really
body, says,
'
We
The soul loves the body because

two, we appear to be one.'
all her knowledge of God is gained through her imprisonment
in the body and through her making use of it in order to
The author also refers to the
love and In- whom I love is I.'
serve God.
whom
'
verse,
am
he
www.alkottob.com
140
The mention
'
'
of
farewell
(LIII,
L1V)
indicates a distinction between
the qualities which properly belong to the lover and those

which properly belong to the Beloved.
'
his
'
My
And
cannot
eye
i.e.
leanness,'
his light,'
am
of the spiritual world.
on account of the intensity of his light
i.e.
perceive either
om
3.
own
his
subtlety.
'
And were
it
etc.
not,'
so
Mutanabbi
radiance or
'
says,
Were
it
my
not
b.c
that I speak to thee, thou wouldst not see me.'
LTV
They said, The suns are in the heavenly sphere.'

Where should the sun dwell but in heaven ?
When a throne is set up, there must be a king to sit
1.
2.
erect
3.
When
upon
it.
the heart
is
purged of
the angel descend.

4.
He made
tto
'
Himself master of
ignorance, then
its
me and
I of
must
Him, and each
5.
alk
o
of us hath possessed the other.
being His property is evident, and my possessing

is (proved by) His saying,
Come hither.'
My
Him
'
6.
camel-driver, let us turn aside and do not lead the
7.
house on a river-bank near al-Musanna caused thee to
8.
Would
travellers past
al-Falak.
and did not make thee forget thy sickness.

that the lord of desire had laid on thee (O my
w.
fall sick
censor
laid
on
my
me
pain and the burden of love that was
For neither Zarud nor Hajir nor Salam
is
an abode that
ww
9.
Dar
emaciated thee.
10.
From
11.
The glory
the burning grief of the journey (towards Him)

thou wert seeking the rain-clouds of union, but they
did not o'ershadow thee.
as
He
thee
12.
And
oh,
of His sovereignty abased thee, and would that

abased thee so He had shown fondness towards
would
that, since in
His pride
He refused
to
show
www.alkottob.com
(LIV,
141
LV)
Himself fond, oh, would that He had emboldened thee

show fondness towards Him
to
COMMENTARY
1.
The suns are in the heavenly sphere,'
radiance is in the heart.
'
'
The
4.
the most sublime spiritual essences.
i.e.
Himself master of me,' inasmuch as I
by Him.
limited
'
angel,'
He made
And
Him/ inasmuch
of
Come
Names may
'
hither
'
(Kor.
xii,
23),
receive them.
Dar
'
6-7.
in
i.e.
is
are
unless
impossible
al-Falak,' a convent for pious
am
order that the
tto
be manifested, which
Names
Divine
the
as
manifested only in contingent being.

5.
om
'
4.
and xx,
Cf. Kor. xv, 29,
the Divine
b.c
2.
3.
i.e.
women
at
Baghdad
on the bank of the Tigris near al-Musanna, which is the

on whom be peace
The author
residence of the Imam
!
to
heart, because
the
manifestation.
'
Al-Musanna,' the
Caliph's palace.
To
And
fall sick,'
did not
relief.
9.
He
i.e.
is
the
of Divine
Temple
station of the Qutb, since
it
was the
to fall in love.
make
thee forget thy sickness,'
i.e.
gave thee
says that the passion of his soul was not kindled
w.
no
'
'
it
alk
o
refers
anything contingent or
by
finite.
ww
11. He says: 'Although thou hadst knowledge of God,

that knowledge did not humble thee so much as thou werfc
humbled by the glory of His manifestation, i.e. thy abasement
was due
of
1.
to His glory, not to Himself
Him was
am
hence thy knowledge
imperfect.'
absent,
LV
and desire makes
him and am not
cured, so
my
'tis
and I meet
whether I am
soul die
desire
absent or present.
2.
And meeting with him
creates
in
me what
never
www.alkottob.com
142
imagined
and the remedy
is
(LV, LVl)
a second disease
of
passion,
Because I behold a form whose beautj^, as often as we
3.
om
meet, grows in splendour and majesty.

Hence there is no escape from a passion that increases
4.
in correspondence with every increase in his loveli-
ness according to a predestined scale.
COMMENTARY
He
continually tormented, for in the anguish of

absence he hopes to be cured by meeting his Beloved, but the
is
b.c
1-4.
tto
meeting only adds to his pain, because he is always moving

from a lower state to a higher, and the latter inevitably
produces in him a more intense passion than the former did.
LVI
goal is) the corniced palace of Baghdad, not the

corniced palace of Sindad, 1
city set like a crown above the gardens, as though
she were a bride who has been unveiled in the most
(My
2.
The
3.
The wind plays with the branches and they are bent, and
'tis as
though the twain had plighted troth with one
alk
o
1.
fragrant chamber.
another.
Meseems, Tigris
5.
He who
6.
God
the string of pearls on her neck, and

our lord, the Imam who guides aright,
is
w.
4.
her spouse
is
gives victory and is made victorious, the best of

Caliphs, who in war does not mount on horseback.
him
ww
bless
as
swaying bough
And
7.
likewise
as
The second hemistich
long as a ringdove
moan for him,
long as
of this
the lightnings shall
verse
is
b.
Sindad was a palace
flash of
borrowed from the verses
Ya'fur (Mufnililaliyydt, ed. by Thorbecke,

ed. by Wustenfeld, 105)
al-As\vad
perched on
shall
p.
52, 8-9
of
Bakri,
of Hira.
www.alkottob.com

smiling mouths, for joy of
flowed from mine eyes,
143
(LVI, LVIl)
which morning-showers
om
The mouths of virgins like the sun when the mists have
withdrawn and when it shines forth clearly with
most luminous radiance.
8.
COMMENTARY
1. 'The corniced palace of

Baghdad,' i.e. the presence of
the Qutb.
The corniced palace of Sindad,' i.e. the kingdom of this
world.
The wind plays with the branches/

themselves
attach
towards them.
inclines
'
4.
'
Tigris,'
i.e.
The Imam,'
'
5.
Divine
the
to
Who
the station of
i.e.
the Qutb.
in war,'
i.e.
etc.,
life.
i.e.
the aspirations
Self-subsistence,
tto
'
3.
b.c
'
which
he has quitted the body and
'
6.
'
7.
is
alk
o
taken his stand on the spiritual essence by which he

related to God.
ringdove,' etc., i.e. the soul confined in the body.

As long as the lightnings,' etc., referring to the glories
of Divine contemplation.
LYII
1.
breeze of the wind, bear to the gazelles of Najd this

I am faithful to the covenant which ye
message
'
know.'
2.
And
w.
Our trysting-place
at the guarded pasture beside the hills of Najd on
say to the young

is
girl of the tribe,
'
3.
ww
the Sabbath morn,
On
the red
hill
towards the cairns and on the right hand
of the rivulets
and the solitary landmark.'
4.
And
5.
For
her, then
(5.
And
she and I will communicate what we

and sore tribulation and grievous pain.
if
her words be true and she feel the same tormenting
desire for
me as I feel
we shall meet
covertly in the heat of noon

at her" tent with the most inviolable troth,
suffer of love
www.alkottob.com
144
(LVII, LVIIl)
vague dream or glad tidings revealed in sleep or

the speech of an hour in whose speech was my happy
fortune ?
7.
Is this a
8.
Perchance he
who brought
the objects of desire (into
them face to face with me, and

bestow on me the gathered roses.
gardens will
my
their
om
heart) will bring
COMMENTARY
b.c
1. 'O breeze of the wind/ i.e. the subtle

spiritual sense
which gnostics use as a medium of communication.
The gazelles of Najd/ i.e. the exalted spirits.
'
'
2.
The young
girl of the tribe/
akin to himself.
3.
The red
'
hill/
i.e.
which
inferior to oneness (Ljo-^H).
is
In the heat of noon/
(*lû.)t).
7.
'
union
the
the Divine singleness (JLj^jJll),
i.e.
Is this a
vague dream
impossible, for
is
in the station of equilibrium
i.e.
alk
o
'
5.
landmark/
solitary
is
tto
The
the spirit especially
the station of beauty, since red
fairest of all the colours.

'
i.e.
my
'
(cf
Kor.
xii,
44),
i.e.
this
spirit cannot escape from the
corporeal world.
LYIII
1.
Oh,
any way to the damsels bright and fair ?

there anyone who will show me their traces ?
can I halt at night beside the tents of the curving
is
there
And
And
w.
2.
is
sand
And can
I rest at
noon
in the shade of the
ardk trees ?
The tongue of inward feeling spoke, informing me that she
says, Wish for that which is attainable.'
love
for thee is whole, O thou end of my hopes, and
My
ww
3.
'
4.
because of that love
5.
6.
Thou art exalted, a

moon that never
full
my
heart
moon
sets after it
is sick.
rising
hath
over the heart, a

risen.
May
thy ransom, O thou who art glorious in beauty
and pride for thou hast no equal amongst the fair.
Thy gardens are wet with dew and thy roses are blooming,
I be
7.
www.alkottob.com

and thy beauty
to
is
145
(LVIII, LIX)
passionately loved
it is
welcome
all.
flowers are smiling and thy boughs are fresh

wherever they bend, the winds bend towards them.
Thy grace is tempting and thy look piercing armed with
Thy
8.
9.
om
'
the knight,
it
affliction,
rushes upon me.
COMMENTARY
The damsels bright and fair,' i.e. the knowledge derived

1.
from the manifestations of His Beautiful Name.
The
'
2.
the
of
tents
curving sand/
Divine favour.
of the
This station
3.
ardk
trees,'
gained only by striving and sincere

Travel that thou mayst
by wishing.
is
application, '
^ \
*~/
attain' (J-^> uJsJ^si).
*"
'
A moon
contemplation of the
'
not
5.
i.e.
Presence.
the stations of
i.e.
tto
The shade
pure and holy
'
b.c
'
that never
sets,' etc.
he points out that God
from
it
'
7.
afterwards.
Thy gardens
are replenished
to them.
alk
o
never manifests Himself to anything and then becomes veiled

are wet with dew,'
by the Divine
'
qualities
i.e.
all
Thy
creatures
which are revealed
Thy roses are blooming,' in reference to a particular

manifestation which destroys every blameworthy quality.
It is welcome,' i.e. it is loved for its essence (<o! jj t__>^^r*).
'
8.
Thy
heart.
'
w.
'
flowers,' etc.,
1.
ww
Thy boughs,' i.e.

Thy knowledge (c x-
i.e.
Thy knowledge
is
welcome to the
the spiritual influences which convey

lgi'LU~).
LIX
gazelle from whose witching eye (glances

edge of a keen blade are drawn,
at 'Arafat I perceived what she desired and I was
Tayba hath a
like) the
2.
And
3.
And on
not patient,
the night of Jam'
is
mentioned
we had union with
her, such as
in the proverb.
www.alkottob.com
146
4.
The
5.
The wish
oath
girl's
is
false
(LIX)
do not confide in that which
betrays.
gained at Mina, would that

hour of rny life
to the last
it
might continue
was transported with love
6.
In La'la' I
7.
displays to thee the splendour of the bright moon.

She shot Rama and inclined to dalliance at as-Saba
8.
And
9.
And
10.
And
her
who
om
for
and
removed the interdiction at al-Hajir.

she watched a lightning-gleam over Bariq with a
b.c
glance swifter than a thought that passes in the mind.

the waters of al-Ghada were diminished by a blazing
fire which passion kindled within his ribs.
she appeared at the bdn tree of an-Naqa and chose

adornment) the choicest of its superb hidden
tto
(for her
pearls.
And
11.
at
Dhat al-Ada she turned backward

lion.
lurking
in dread of the
At Dhu Salam she surrendered
13.
murderous languishing glance.

She stood on guard at the guarded pasture and bent at
the sand-bend, swayed by her all-cancelling decisive
14.
And
alk
o
12.
my
life-blood to her
resolution.
she
at 'Alij
managed her
affair (in
such a way)
that she might escape from the claw of the bird.

15. Her Khawarnaq rends the sky and towers beyond the
w.
vision of the observer.
COMMENTARY
1.
'Tayba (Medina) hath a gazelle/ referring to a Mu-
ww
hammadan
degree (aj ja-sr* <UJ'r.*), i- e a spiritual presence

belonging to the station of Muhammad.
3.
On the night of Jam' he says, we abode in the station
-
'
'
'
of proximity (dyJi)!)
and
He
concentrated
'
me upon
myself'
He did not salute until he

In the proverb/ namely,
bade farewell (c^
*lu U), i.e. they parted as soon as
'
'
'
^-
they met.
www.alkottob.com

4.
He
accomplish
7.
LX)
147
'
says,
self-subsistent
'
(LIX,
Put no trust in an Attribute that is ;not

and depends on One who may not always
its desires.'
She shot Rama,'
i.e.
she
shot that which she
was
it
to be.
'And
inclined to dalliance at as-Saba,'
i.e.
manifest herself.
'
A lightning-gleam,'
i.e.
a locus of manifestation for the
Essence.
'
10.
And
chose,' etc.,
i.e.
she revealed herself in the most
lovely shape.
Dhat
al-Ada,'
i.e.
the place of illumination.

etc., i.e. she returned to her natural
She turned backward,'
world for fear that that
tto
'
11.
'
she desired to
b.c
8.
om
seeking (<u.y c^-oK I* c^%^,), because she regarded the thing

as being the opposite of what it was and of what she believed
fierce light
12. Gnostics are annihilated
by
should consume her.
their vision of the Truth,
but this does not happen to the vulgar, because they lack
'Bent,'
i.e.
alk
o
knowledge of themselves.
13. 'The guarded pasture,'
the station of Divine glory.

inclined with Divine mercy.
This refers to /her
i.e.
investing herself with Divine qualities (jJ^JI).

14. 'That she might escape,' etc., i.e. she was unwilling to
receive from the spirits, for she wished to receive only from
spirits,
1.
'
and sometimes immediately.

Her Khawarnaq,' i.e. the seat of her kingdom.
ww
15.
w.
God, by intuitive feeling (l|. j), not by cognition (U,Lc). God

sometimes bestows His gifts by the mediation of the exalted
LX
Approach the dwelling of dear ones who have tafcen

covenants
may clouds of incessant rain pour upon
it!-
2.
And
breathe the scent of the wind over against their land,

may tell thee where
in desire that the (sweet) airs
they
are.
www.alkottob.com
148
I
3.
(LX, LXl)
know
that they encamped at the bdn tree of Idam,

where the 'ardr plants grow and the shih and the
katam.
Dear ones/
i.e.
'
Covenants,'
':
i.e.
the exalted
om
COMMENTARY
'
1.
spirits.
Divine covenants taken from
the
spirits of the prophets.

'
Clouds of incessant
rain,'
i.e.
knowledge descending upon
them continuously.
'
And
breathe,' etc., referring to the Tradition,
'
I feel the
b.c
2.
the
breath of the Merciful from the quarter of Yemen.'

3. 'I know.' The author says that *U is here used with the
'
"\
At the ban
tree of
Idam/
station of Absolute
the
i.e.
tto
of
meaning
purity at the end of the journey to God.

'
The 'ardr plants/
etc.,
i.e.
sweet
spiritual
influences
spiritual beings.
alk
o
proceeding from lovely
LXI
1.
ban
tree of
Baghdad
the valley, on the bank of the river of
2.
3.
His plaintive song reminds me
4.
the lady of the chamber.

Whenever she tunes her triple chords, thou must forget
the brother of al-Hadi.
5.
And
w.
mournful dove that cooed on a swaying bough

me with grief for thee.
she lavishes her melody,
ww
if
driver
7.
That
am
of the plaintive song of
who
is
Anjasha the camel-
swear by
6.
filled
Dhu
'1-Khadimat and then by Sindad

passionately in Jove with Salma who dwells
at Ajyad.
8.
No
am
in the
9.
Beauty
is
mistaken
membrane
she dwells in the black clot of blood

of
my
liver.
confounded by her, and odours of musk and
saffron are scattered abroad.
www.alkottob.com
THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (LXl)
149
COMMENTARY
'
1.
O ban
tree,'
the tree of light in the station of
etc., i.e.
the Qutb.
On
mournful dove,'
i.e.
a swaying bough,'
station of self-subsistence
3.
'
The lady
dominion
4.
'
in its
Her
own
the
i.e.
JLJUJiH aliJl).
body,
with
its
Imams and
'
the Qutb.
His brother was a tine
Caliph.
tto
musician.
Anjasha,' a camel-driver contemporary with the Prophet.

used to chant so sweetly that the camels died.
(See
'
Nawawi, ed. by Wiistenfeld, 164.)

7.
Salma (a woman's name), i.e. a Solomonic
'
alk
o
'
station.
'Ajyad' (plural of <^^~, neck), a place at Mecca.
through which the breath
Here
passes.
w.
refers to the throat
ww
it
three
'
viz.
'Al-Hadi,' the 'Abbasid
He
in the
every reality that exercises
world.
the abode of the two
5.
i.e.
spirit.
human organism
(<uÛ^ AiU
chamber/
chords,'
triple
the
length, breadth, and depth.

Triple chords
also refer to the grades of the three Names, which are
dimensions,
may
of the
an exalted
i.e.
om
'
b.c
2.
'
www.alkottob.com
om
b.c
Page
76, line 6.
For al-Naqti read an-Naqa.
2.
p. 77,
1.
p. 89,
1.
10.
p. 91,
1.
23.
18.
1.
p. 105,
11.
p. 110,
1.
23.
p. 121,
1.
11.
For al-Dharih read adh-Dharili.

For hddi read hddl.
For al-Naqa read an-Naqa.
alk
o
p. 104,
tto
ERRATA
13, 21.
ww
w.
For white clouds read rain-clouds
www.alkottob.com
INDEX
om
PERSONS, PLACES, AND BOOKS
I.
Names of persons and places are printed in Roman type, whether they
occur in the translation or in that portion of the Arabic text which has not
been translated. Titles of books are printed in italics.
David, 49.
Abraham,
10, 123.
Dhatal-Ada,
116, 117, 137, 146, 147.
AbuBakr, 113, 122.

Abu 'Isa at-Tirmidhi,
Abu Madyan, 116.
Dhu
Dim
Dhu
3, 10, 11.
90.
64, 89, 92, 98, 102, 113, 114.

Adhri'at, 124.
al-Ajra', 105, 106.
alk
o
dt
Anjasha, 148, 149.

Aqsaray, 5.
Ohaylan, 67,
of
Makinu
3.
Sef.
ww
123, 141-3,148.
14(i.
!)S.
Birk al-Ghamnn, 132.

Birk aUihimad, 132.
Bishr, 67, 89.
Busra, 124.
Gospel, the.
4!),
al-H.-i.li,
H
148, 149.
al-IIaditha, 118.
Hajir (al-Hajir), 13, 53, 55, 78, 80-2,

si. ST. 9S, 101, 107, 108, 110, 112,
114.
Ihijji
US,
134, 135, 140,
Khalifa, 2,
:>4.
I):iral-Fuluk, 140, 141.
5,
(i,
-Mi.
!).
al-Halba, 54, 56.

llijiix., the, 10.
al-llima, 13, TO.
Hind, 54,
I
lira,
I
II
C.7, -ST.
S!(.
ML'.
u j win',
5'J.
D
Da '(I,
51, 52.
'ddin.
Baghdad, 56, 116, 122,

Baghdan, 122, 123.
87.
al-Cthax-alf, 113, 125.
w.
Ni/am, daughter
Beatrice, 8.
Bilqfs, 49-51,
9.
al-(;h8wlu, 121, 146.
i.l-Aswadb. Ya'fur, 142.

'Aynu 'sh-Shams wa '1-Baha,
Bariq, 101, 137,
al-Makkiyya,
(iabriel, 50, 106, 115, 123.
al-'Aquq, 93, 95.

'Arafat, 61, 145.
al-Balat, 14.
3, 10.
1, 2.
Fluegel,
'Alij, 72, 73, 146.
1.
1, 2, 5, 9.
Dozy,
Fakhru 'n-Nisa bint Rustam,
14!).
'Ali, 68.
Bakrf, 142.
'1-Qarnayn, 112.
Salam, 70, 137, 146.
Dihya, 115.
Dlicdn of Ibn al-'Arabi,
115, 116.
Adam,
Ajyad, 81, 82, 148,

Aleppo, 5.
'1-Khadimat, 148.
tto
Abu Sa'i'd al-Kharraz,

Abu Yazid al-Bistami,
b.c
al-Abraqan, 63, 132, 137.

Abu '1- 'Abbas as-Sayyari, 52.
Dhat al-Ajra', 97, 104.

Dhat al-Athl, 66, 67.
Dhat al-Ghada, 134.
al-Abraq, 76, 77.
Iblis,
HID
al
'.,
.-,::.
Adini,
-.is.
5.
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INDEX
152
Ibn Junayd al-Ifriqi,
Idam, 110, 112, 148.
al-Ma\vsil, 84.
97, 100.
Mayya,
Idris, 49-51, 56, 92, 98, 101.

Imru'u '1-Qays, 130.
67, 87.
al-Ma'/iman, 137.
Mecca, 1-6,
10, 12, 55, 82, 122, 123,
149.
India, 92.
system of
the, 66.
om
Medina, 82, 94, 122, 146.

Merv, 52.
Mina, 53, 55, 61, 66, 98,
'Iraq, 8, 87, 89, 90.

8, 87.
Isfahan,
Isma'ilis,
146.
121,
122,
Moses, 49, 64, 81, 91, 123.
Jam', 61, 66, 67, 145, 146.
al-Mudarraj, 134, 135.

Muhammad, the Prophet, 10, 50, 52.
al-Jar'a, 138, 139.

Jerusalem, 123.
57, 66, 68, 69, 82, 84, 101, 113, 116,
Jesus, 49, 51, 52, 56, 123.

Jesus, river of, 54, 56.
Jiyad, 11.
Junayd,
al-Muhassab, 53, 55, 61, 66,

al-Musanna, 140, 141.
al-Mushalshal, 129.
90.
K
Ka'ba, the, 62, 66, 67,
'ddin
Muslim, 71.
Mutanabbi,
69.
Abu '1-Qasim b. Najmu
'ddin the Cadi Ibn al-'Adim,
5.
al-Karkh, 118.
Kaslif al-Ma!ijul>, 52, 74.
al-Kathib, 53, 54.
al-Khadir, 113, 118.
al-Muzdalifa.
alk
o
Na'man,
52, 67, 69, 127, 128.
quotations from the,
<>7.
Najd, 58, 121, 122, 143, 144.
78, 79, 146, 147.
al-Khawarnaq,
Koran, the, 51,
67.
140.
tto
Kamalu
See TrwUfloii*
b.c
124, 126, 135, 149.

of the Prophet.
12, 49, 50,
66, 68.
an-Naqa,
76, 77, 104, 105, 110. 129.
134, 135, 146.
an-Natifi, 89.
149.
51, 55, 58, 61, 64, 65, 68, 69, 71,
Xawawi,
79, 81, 83, 85, 88, 90, 95, 102, 109,
Ni/am, daughter of Makinu 'ddin.
120, 126-8, 131, 133,

134, 137, 141, 144.
118,
w.
113-15,
La'la', 53, 54, 96, 98, 101, 104, 105,

146.
Lubna,
54, 67, 87, 89.
Lycaonia,
5.
3,
6, 8, 11, 89.
See Tora.
Pentateuch, the, 51.

Persia,
3,
8,
122,
87,
123,
127,
128.
Pertsch,
2.
Psalms, the, 49, 51, 52.
ww
Maghrib, the,
90.
Maldnu 'ddin Abu Shuja' Zahir b.

Rustam b. Abi 'r-Raja al-Lsbahani,
Ma'n
Qays b. adh-Dharili,
Quba, 98, 110, 113.
74.
b. Za'ida, 11.
ul-Manhar
al-A'la,
."53,
118.
Qanat, 129.
Qays, 67, 87.
3, 6, 10, 11.
Malamatis, the,
Qadibal-Ban, 100,
55.
Qurrat al-'Ayn,
89.
15.
b. Sa'ida, 11.
Ma'riif al-Karkhi, 84.
Quss
;d-Mas'ud Abu Muhammad Badr b.

'Abdallah al-Habashial-Khadim, 5.
Qutb, the, 114, 116, 123, 136, 139.

141, 143, 149.
www.alkottob.com
INDEX
Tigris, the, 141-3.

Tihama, 11, 58, 117.
Radwa, 138, 139.

Rama, 61, 86-8, 134,
135, 146, 147.
Bisdlat adh-Dhakhd'ir
wa
'l-A'ldq, 9.
49, 51.
ar-Rum,
14.
Abu
See
11.
at-Tirmidhi,
Tirmidhf.
'Isa at-
Tora, the, 49, 51, 52, 67, 69.

Traditions of the Prophet, 50, 52-5,
58, 60, 62, 64-7, 71, 72, 80, 84, 95,
om
ar-Rabab, 54.
Rome,
153
102, 106, 108, 114, 116, 123,

124, 126, 127, 131, 148.
99,
Saba, 111.
as-Saba, 146, 147.
as-Sadfr, 78, 79.
al-'Udhayb, 82, 83.
'Umar
Salam, 140.
Salma, 54, 56, 57, 148.
as-Samaw'al, 11.
b.
Abf Rabi'a,
87, 89.
b.c
Sal', 81, 82, 118, 134-6.
'Utba al-Ghulam,
65.
al-Uthayl, 76, 77, 84, 85, 108.
Samirf, 112.
Sarliatal-Wadi, 61.
Wadi
as-Sayyari, 52.
Shamsu 'ddin Ismd'il b. Sudakin
al-Walad al- Barr Shamsu 'ddinlsma'il
an-Niiri, 5.
Wana,
Sinai, Mt., 81.
Sindad, 142, 143, 148.

57.
Yalamlam,
87, 89.
al-Yaman.
Syria, 90.
5.
129.
alk
o
Solomon,
Sulayma,
Siidakfn an-Niiri,
tto
b.
'l-'Aqfq, 93, 94.
53, 54.
See
Yemen.
Yathrib, 122.
Yemen,
at-Tan'im, 120.
Ta'rlfdt, the, of Jurjanf,
Tayba, 122, 145, 146.
8, 87, 89, 90, 120, 148.
1.
Zamzam,
53, 55, 61, 62.
91, 120, 140.
Technical terms, Sufi, glossary of the,
Zariid, 82, 83,
by Ibn al-'Arabf,
Thahmad, 91, 101.
az-Zawra, 112, 116, 138, 139.
Zaynab, 54,
87",
87, 89.
ww
w.
1.
www.alkottob.com
INDEX
154
II
SUBJECTS AND TECHNICAL TERMS

Form, the Universal, 137.
Four, the most perfect number, 124.
al-afrdd, 113, 116.

ahadiyyat, 144.
ahwdt, 51, 52, 64, 68, 75, 85, 100.

'a/am al-amr, 56.
om
II.
See ahwdl.
hdl, 48, 50.
'a7am al-anfds, 52, 64, 75, 106.

'dlam al-ghayb, 88.
'dlam ash-shahddat, 88.
Ascension, the spiritual, 52, 57, 135.
hayd, 97.
hayrat, 83, 95.

Heart, the perfect
Muhammadan, 48.
Hill, the red, 144.
Hill, the white, 105, 114, 135.
Attributes, the Divine, 54, 57, 90,
himmat, 53.
Host, the Heavenly, 94, 122, 126.
108, 109, 118, 137, 147.
b.c
Ascetics, 89.
huliil, 53.
B
al-barzakh, 62, 81.
Ideas, the Divine, 48, 60, 109, 120,
bast, 56.
132, 133, 137.
tto
Bees, inspiration of the, 114, 133.

Body, three dimensions of the, 149.
Immanence,
58, 60, 79.
Intoxication, mystical, 75.
Camels, a figurative term for actions,

for aspirations, 53, 59, 77,
50, 59
83, 84, 94, 104, 110, 113, 129, 139
ittihdd, 53, 90.
alk
o
ishtiydq, 89.
istiwd, 144.
for
human
faculties, 78.
Causes, secondary, 115, 119.
jam
Colocynth, 129.
Jealousy, 67, 79, 96.

Jinn, the, 50.
Contemplation, 51, 54, 74, 79, 88,

92, 93,
145.
52, 54, 72.
102, 106, 108, 135-7, 143,
Knowledge
w.
D
Death, 80, 128.
75, 83, 100, 147.

dhikr, 88, 119.
adh-dhikr al-jdmi', 103.
dhawq,
ww
Ecstasy, 57, 64, 70, 75-7, 81, 91, 99,

118.
Essence, the Divine, 52, 54, 58, 64,

80, 90, 101.
of
God,
52, 68, 69, 81-3,
86, 88, 91, 95, 105, 108, 109,

115, 122, 131, 135, 141.
114,
Light, the inward, 58, 65, 88, 104.
Lightning, figurative term for a

Divine
of
the
manifestation
Essence, 58, 64, 72, 75, 80, 92, 97,
109, 113, 117, 147.
Love, Divine, 48, 58, 68-70, 74, 93,

113, 137-40, 142.
Faith, 54.
maldmat,
/and, 51, 59, 61, 74, 80, 81, 99.
Man, the most perfect organism, 83.

See Ideas,
al-mandzir al-'idd, 48.
the Divine.
farddniyyat, 144.
Fasting, 54.
74.
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INDEX
the partial, 64
the perfect,
the Universal, 64.
the
Spirit, the Divine, 81, 106
al-bast, 56.
l
al-jam
al-maqdm
Soul,
124
72.
al-jdmi', 65.
Highest, 77 the partial, 73 ; the

Universal, 73.
Spirit of the intermediate world,
al-muqarrabtin, 53, 113.
N
an-nafs al-lawwdma, 59.
Names, the Divine, 51-4, 59, 63, 71,
74, 86, 92, 97, 99,
100, 102, 103,
om
maqdm
maqdm
siddiq, 113.
48.
maqdm,
155
II
the, 88, 95, 116.

Spirits of Light, the, 94.
sukr, 75.
See
120, 122, 130, 133, 141, 149.
Attributes, the Divine.
Names of God,
beautiful, 89.
the three cardinal, 71.
tafriqat, 52, 100.

tajalli, 83.
b.c
Names, the most

ndmtis, 49.
tajrtd, 83, 105, 139.
ruitiq, 66.
takJialluq, 55, 97, 100, 147.

talwin, 133.
Night-journey of the Prophet, 50.
tashbih, 124.
tasr'if,
Pilgrimage, the, 54.

Prophets, the, 51, 57, 84, 115.
Proverbs, Arabic, 112, 146.
115.
tto
tawhld, 68.
Tents, red, 55, 65.

ath-thand al-jamil, 72.
Time, 137.
Transformation,
qatd, proverb concerning the, 112.
Rapture, 75.
Realities, the Divine, 56, 57, 69, 86,
115.
69,
71,
Trinity, the Christian, 71.
alk
o
qurbat, 146.
mystical,
100.
al-qayytimiyyat. See Self-subsistence,

the Divine.
Union, 59, 63, 67, 73, 76, 109, 144.

Unveiling, of a woman, regarded as
unlucky, 128.
Reason, the Universal, 66, 101, 108.
55, 144.
Religion, 74.
rldd, 139.
riyy, 75.
w.
Reason and Faith, 54, 109, 112, 122.

Red, the most beautiful of colours,
first
ww
Roundness, the
and best
132,
in created things,
of created things in
66.
W
wurid, 50.
Way to God, the, 55.

Wine, mystical signification
Sacrifice, spiritual, 55.
Saints, the, 51, 57, 113, 115.

Self -subsistence, the Divine, 97, 99,
shurb, 75, 83.
115,
God
66, 75, 79
God,
114,
wakddniyyat, 73.
shawq, 89.
Vision, of
of
shapes, 56.
100, 133, 135, 137, 143, 149.
Veils, spiritual, 61,

137.
of, 103,
118, 136.
Wisdom, the Divine,
50, 57, 58, 88,
134.
World, the intermediate,
62, 81, 88,
95, 126.
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A COLLECTION OF MYSTICAL ODES

MUHYI'DDIN IBN AL-'ARABI

EDITED FROM THREE MANUSCRIPTS WITH A LITERAL

LECTURER IN PERSIAN IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE,

ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY,

be taken of the respective merits of

Arabic and Persian poetry, I think it will generally be

nations that the Arabs excel in prose rather than in verse,

Faridu'ddin 'Attar, Jalalu'ddin

European culture are as much superior to

superior to similar treatises in Persian.

and the strangeness of its imagery

the author moves

and remote from common

experience to give pleasure to others who do not share his

from the same order of ideas. Nevertheless, the work of

The following lines are often quoted. They express

Tora and the book of the Koran.

for the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, and is now

date of composition, the different recensions of the text, the

words some of the principal theories which are shadowed

works is necessary before such a task can be attempted

a polemic directed against Ibn al-'Arabi and his

notwithstanding its apparent diversity. This pamphlet was

under twenty-four heads various passages in the

author against his

regards Ibn al-'Arabi

and gives him no quarter. Of course

added a few references to the commentary on the Tarjumdn.

volume published at Constantinople

together with several other tracts on the same

substance of every object in manifestation, although He is

every intelligible object and

concealed from every intelligence except the intelligence of

stands in the same relation to

phenomenal objects as the spirit to the body.'

the spirit of Man.'

as the pupil to the eye

by other temporal names, because God unites

dwells in the heart of

and Man, invested

a mirror which displays God to

anyone who is so transported from himself that God

like Plotinus, holds that

Elsewhere he says that knowledge of God is the

Eternal (xx, 19).

things are a manifestation of the

Divine substance, it follows that God may be worshipped in

more than a portion of the truth.

positive religion contains

'Do not attach

disbelieve in all the rest

counterpart in the three cardinal Names whereby God is

and God's mercy

who invokes Him

peculiarly the religion of Love (xi, 15),

in the extremity of his need.

Cf. xiii, 12.

so be that the unbelievers shall remain in Hell for ever, they

said to have claimed that he

was the Seal

the Seal of the Prophets,

very doubtful whether these accusations are well founded.