Concerning the questions of Manakji Limji Hataria 5 страница
329.
I advance with My face set towards Him Who is the Almighty,
the All-Bounteous, whilst behind Me glideth the serpent.
330.
Mine eyes have rained down tears until My bed is drenched.
I sorrow not for Myself, however.
331.
By God! Mine head yearneth for the spear out of love for its Lord.
332.
I never passed a tree, but Mine heart addressed it saying:
`O would that thou wert cut down in My name,
and My body crucified upon thee, in the path of My Lord!'
333.
Yea, because I see mankind going astray in their intoxication,
and they know it not:
334.
they have exalted their lusts, and put aside their God,
as though they took the command of God for a mockery, a sport, and a plaything;
and they think that they do well,
and that they are harboured in the citadel of security.
335.
The matter is not as they suppose:
tomorrow they shall see what they now deny.
336.
"We are about to shift from this most remote place of banishment (Adrianople)
unto the prison of Akka.
337.
And, according to what they say, it is assuredly the most desolate of the cities of the world,
the most unsightly of them in appearance,
the most detestable in climate, and the foulest in water;
338.
it is as though it were the metropolis of the owl;
there is not heard from its regions aught save the sound of its hooting.
339.
And in it they intend to imprison the Servant,
and to shut in Our faces the doors of leniency
and take away from Us the good things of the life of the world during what remaineth of Our days.
340.
By God! Though weariness lay Me low, and hunger consume Me,
and the bare rock be My bed, and My fellows the beasts of the field,
I will not complain,
341.
yet I will endure patiently as those endued with constancy and firmness have endured patiently,
through the power of God, the Eternal King and Creator of the nations,
and will render thanks unto God under all conditions.
342.
We pray that, out of His bounty-- exalted be He--He may release, through this imprisonment,
the necks of men from chains and fetters,
and cause them to turn, with sincere faces, towards His Face,
Who is the Mighty, the Bounteous.
343.
Ready is He to answer whosoever calleth upon Him,
and nigh is He unto such as commune with Him.
344.
And We ask Him to make this dark calamity a buckler for the body of His saints,
and to protect them thereby from sharp swords and piercing blades.
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345.
Through affliction hath His light shone and His praise been bright unceasingly:
this hath been His method through past ages and bygone times.
346.
"The people shall know what today they understand not when their steeds shall stumble,
their beds be rolled up, their swords be blunted, and their footsteps slip.
347.
I know not how long they shall ride the steed of desire
and wander erringly in the desert of heedlessness and error.
348.
Of glory shall any glory endure, or of abasement any abasement?
349.
Or shall he endure who used to stay himself on high cushions,
and who attained in splendour the utmost limit?
350.
No, by My Lord the Merciful!
`All that is thereon is transient, and there remaineth only the face of My Lord'
the Mighty, the Beneficent.
Tablet of the Letter to the Kings CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Divisions 351-375
Tablet to the Shah of Iran
THE LETTER TO THE KINGS
351.
What buckler hath not the arrow of destruction smitten,
or what pinion hath not the hand of fate plucked?
352.
From what fortress hath the messenger of death been kept back when he came?
353.
What throne hath not been broken, or what palace hath not been left desolate?
354.
If men did merely know what pure wine of the mercy of their Lord, the Mighty, the All-Knowing,
was beneath the seal,
they would certainly cast aside reproach and seek to be satisfied by this Servant;
355.
yet now have they veiled Me with the veil of darkness
which they have woven with the hands of doubts and fancies.
356.
The White Hand shall cleave an opening to this sombre night.
357.
On that day the servants of God shall say what those caviling women said of yore,
that there may appear in the end what began in the beginning.
358.
Do they desire to tarry when their foot is in the stirrup?
Or do they see any return in their going?
359.
No, by the Lord of Lords, save in the Resurrection!
360.
On that day men shall arise from the tombs
and shall be questioned concerning their riches.
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361.
Happy that one which shall not oppress with burdens
on that day whereon the mountains shall pass away
and all shall appear for the questioning in the presence of God the Exalted!
Verily He is severe in punishing.
362.
"We ask God to sanctify the hearts of certain of the doctors from rancour and hatred
that they may regard things with eyes which closure overcometh not;
363.
and to raise them unto a station where the world
and the lordship thereof shall not turn them aside from looking toward the Supreme Horizon,
364.
and where anxiety for gaining a livelihood and providing household goods shall not divert them
from the thought of that day whereon the mountains shall be made like carpets.
365.
Though they rejoice at that which hath befallen Us of calamity,
there shall come a day whereon they shall wail and weep.
366.
By My Lord, were I given the choice between the glory and opulence,
the wealth and dignity, the ease and luxury wherein they are,
and the distress and affliction wherein I am,
367.
I would certainly choose that wherein I am today,
and I would not now exchange one atom of these afflictions
for all that hath been created in the kingdom of production!
368.
Were it not for afflictions in the way of God
My continuance would have no sweetness for Me, nor would My life profit Me.
369.
Let it not be hidden from the discerning and such as look towards the chiefest outlook that I, during the greater part of My days, was as a Servant sitting beneath a sword suspended by a single hair who knoweth not when it shall descend upon Him, whether it shall descend instantly or after a while.
370.
And in all this We give thanks to God the Lord of the worlds,
and We praise Him under all circumstances:
verily He is a witness unto all things.
371.
"We ask God to extend His shadow (the Shah of Persia),
that the unitarians may haste thereto, and that the sincere may take shelter therein;
and to bestow on these servants flowers from the garden of his grace
and stars from the horizon of his favours;
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372.
and to assist him in that which he liketh and approveth;
and to help him unto that which shall bring him near to the dayspring of His most beautiful names,
that he may not shut his eyes to the wrong which he seeth,
yet may regard his subjects with the eye of favour and preserve them from violence.
373.
And we ask Him (exalted is He) to gather all together by the gulf of the Most Mighty Ocean where of each drop crieth,
'Verily He is the giver of good tidings to the Worlds and the quickener of the worlds;
and p raise be to God the King of the Day of Judgement.'"
374.
And we ask Him (exalted is He) to make thee a helper unto His religion
and a regarder of His justice,
that thou mayest rule over His servants as thou rulest over those of thy kindred,
and mayest choose for them what thou wouldest choose for thyself.
375.
Verily He is the Potent, the Exalted, the Protecting, the Self-Subsistent."
Translated by S. Effendi and E. Browne
compare with other text of the tablet
confirm notes
translator K____
The Tablets of the Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys CHAPTER ONE
Divisions 1-25
Two Sufi inspired tablets, revealed in Persian
THE SEVEN VALLEYS
The Tablet of the Seven Valleys
Preamble
1.
In the Name of God, the Clement, the Merciful.
2.
Praise be to God Who hath made being to come forth from nothingness;
graven upon the tablet of man the secrets of preexistence;
3.
taught him from the mysteries of divine utterance that which he knew not;
made him a Luminous Book unto those who believed and surrendered themselves;
4.
caused him to witness the creation of all thingsin this black and ruinous age,
and to speak forth from the apex of eternity with a wondrous voice in the Excellent Temple,
5.
to the end that every man may testify, in him, by him,
in the station of the Manifestation of his Lord, that verily there is no God save Him,
6.
and that every man may thereby win his way to the summit of realities,
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until none shall contemplate anything whatsoever, except that he shall see God therein.
7.
And I praise and glorify the first sea which hath branched from the ocean of the Divine Essence,
and the first morn which hath glowed from the Horizon of Oneness,
8.
and the first sun which hath risen in the Heaven of Eternity,
and the first fire which was lit from the Lamp of Preexistence in the lantern of singleness:
9.
He who was Ahmad in the kingdom of the exalted ones,
and Muhammad amongst the concourse of the near ones, and Mahmád
(Muhammad, Ahmad, Mahmád are names and titles of the Prophet,
from the word "to praise," "to exalt.")
in the realm of the sincere ones. "...by whichsoever (name) ye will, invoke Him:
10.
He hath most excellent names" in the hearts of those who know. Quran 17:110
And upon His household and companions be abundant and abiding and eternal peace!
11.
Further, we have harkened to what the nightingale of knowledge sang on the boughs of the tree of thy being, and learned what the dove of certitude cried on the branches of the bower of thy heart.
12.
Methinks I verily inhaled the pure fragrances of the garment of thy love, and attained thy very meeting from perusing thy letter.
13.
And since I noted thy mention of thy death in God, and thy life through Him, and thy love for the beloved of God and the Manifestations of His Names and the Dawning-Points of His Attributes
14.
—I therefore reveal unto thee sacred and resplendent tokens from the planes of glory,
to attract thee into the court of holiness and nearness and beauty,
15.
and draw thee to a station wherein thou shalt see nothing in creation
save the Face of thy Beloved [Lord], the Honored,
and behold all created things only as in the day wherein none hath a mention.
16.
Of this hath the nightingale of oneness sung in the garden of Ghawthíyyih. sermon by Alí
17.
He saith:
"And there shall appear upon the tablet of thine heart a writing
of the subtle mysteries of `Fear God and God will give you knowledge'; Quran 2:282)
18.
and the bird of thy soul shall recall the holy sanctuaries of preexistence
and soar on the wings of longing in the heaven of `walk the beaten paths of thy Lord',
and gather the fruits of communion in the gardens of `Then feed on every kind of fruit.'"
Quran 16:71
19.
By My life, O friend, wert thou to taste of these fruits,
from the green garden of these blossoms which grow in the lands of knowledge,
beside the eastern lights of the Essence in the mirrors of names and attributes
20.
—yearning would seize the reins of patience and reserve from out thy hand,
and make thy soul to shake with the flashing light,
and draw thee from the earthly homeland to the first, heavenly abode in the Center of Realities,
21.
and lift thee to a plane wherein thou wouldst soar in the air even as thou walkest upon the earth, and move over the water as thou runnest on the land.
22.
Wherefore, may it rejoice Me, and thee,
and whosoever mounteth into the heaven of knowledge, and whose heart is refreshed by this,
that the wind of certitude hath blown over the garden of his being,
from the Sheba of the All-Merciful.
Peace be upon him who followeth the Right Path!
23.
And further:
The stages that mark the wayfarer's journey from the abode of dust to the heavenly homeland are said to be seven.
24.
Some have called these Seven Valleys, and others, Seven Cities. [Seven Hills?]
25.
And they say that until the wayfarer taketh leave of self, and traverseth these stages,
he shall never reach to the ocean of nearness and union, nor drink of the peerless wine.
The Tablets of the Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys CHAPTER TWO
Divisions 26-50
Valley of Search
THE SEVEN VALLEYS
26.
The first is The Valley of Search.
27.
The steed of this Valley is patience;
without patience the wayfarer on this journey will reach nowhere and attain no goal.
28.
Nor should he ever be downhearted;
if he strive for 100,000 [1,000] years and yet fail to behold the beauty of the Friend,
he should not falter.
29.
For those who seek the Ka'bih (The holy Sanctuary at Mecca. Here the word means "goal.") of "for Us" rejoice in the tidings:"In Our ways will We guide them."
Quran 29:69: "And whoso maketh efforts for Us, in Our ways will We guide them."
30.
In their search, they have stoutly girded up the loins of service, and seek at every moment to journey from the plane of heedlessness into the realm of being.
31.
No bond shall hold them back, and no counsel shall deter them.
32.
It is incumbent on these servants that they cleanse the heart
—which is the wellspring of divine treasures—
from every marking, and that they turn away from imitation,
which is following the traces of their forefathers and sires,
and shut the door of friendliness and enmity upon all the people of the earth.
33.
In this journey the seeker reacheth a stage wherein he seeth all created things wandering distracted in search of the Friend.
34.
How many a Jacob will he see, hunting after his Joseph;
he will behold many a lover, hasting to seek the Beloved, he will witness a world of desiring ones searching after the One Desired.
35.
At every moment he findeth a weighty matter, in every hour he becometh aware of a mystery;
for he hath taken his heart away from both worlds, and set out for the Ka'bih of the Beloved.
(The holy Sanctuary at Mecca. Here the word means "goal.")
36.
At every step, aid from the Invisible Realm will attend him and the heat of his search will grow.
37.
One must judge of search by the standard of the Majnún of Love.
(Majnún literallymeans "insane." This is the title of the celebrated lover of ancient Persian and Arabian lore, whose beloved was Laylí, daughter of an Arabian prince. Symbolizing true human love bordering on the divine, the story has been made the theme of many a Persian romantic poem, particularly that of Nizámí, written AD 1188)
39.
It is related that one day they came upon Majnún sifting the dust, and his tears flowing down.
40.
They said, "What doest thou?"
He said, "I seek for Laylí."
41.
They cried, "Alas for thee! Laylí is of pure spirit, and thou seekest her in the dust!"
42.
He said, "I seek her everywhere; haply somewhere I shall find her."
43.
Yea, although to the wise it be shameful to seek the Lord of Lords in the dust,
yet this betokeneth intense ardor in searching.
44.
"Whoso seeketh out a thing with zeal shall find it." Arabian proverb
45.
The true seeker hunteth nothing except the object of his quest,
and the lover hath no desire save union with his beloved.
Nor shall the seeker reach his goal unless he sacrifice all things.
46.
That is, whatever he hath seen, and heard, and understood,
all must he set at naught, that he may enter the realm of the spirit, which is the City of God.
47.
Labor is needed, if we are to seek Him;
ardour is needed, if we are to drink of the honey of reunion with Him;
and if we taste of this cup, we shall cast away the world.
48.
On this journey the traveler abideth in every land and dwelleth in every region.
49.
In every face, he seeketh the beauty of the Friend;
in every country he looketh for the Beloved.
50.
He joineth every company, and seeketh fellowship with every soul,
that haply in some mind he may uncover the secret of the Friend,
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