Sol 6.1

  1. أرى طالباً مِنّا الزِّيادةَ لا الحسْنى

    بفِكرٍ رَمى سهْماً فعَدَّى بهِ عدْنا

    I see someone seeking from us increase, not the fairest good;

    with thought he shot an arrow and carried it beyond Eden.

  2. وطالِبَنا مطلوبُنا مِن وُجودِنا

    نغيبُ به عَنَّا لدَى الصَّعْقِ إِذْ عَنَّا

    Our seeker is our sought, arising from our own being;

    in him we vanish from ourselves at the stunning shock, when he appears.

  3. ترَكْنا حُظُوظا من حضيض لحُوظِنا

    مع المقصد الأقصى إِلى المطلب الأسنى

    We abandoned our allotted gains from the low ground of our gazes,

    with the furthest aim, toward the most sublime quest.

  4. ولم نُلف كُنْه الكَوْن إِلا تَوهُّماً

    وليْس بشيءٍ ثابِت هكذا الفيْنا

    We found the essence of the universe to be nothing but supposition;

    it is no fixed thing—thus we found it.

  5. فرفْضُ السِّوى فرْضٌ علينا لأنَّنا

    بِملَّةِ محوِ الشركِ والشَّكِّ قد دنَّا

    Rejecting all otherness is our obligation, because

    we have professed the creed of erasing polytheism and doubt.

  6. ولكِنّه كيف السَّبيلُ لرَفضِهِ

    ورافِضُه المرفوضُ نحن وما كُنَّا

    But how are we to reject it,

    when its rejecter is the rejected—ourselves and whatever we were?

  7. فيَا قائِلاً بالوصْل والوقْفةِ التي

    حجِبت بها اسمعْ وارعوى مثل ما أبْنا

    O you who speak of union and of the stopping-place

    by which you were veiled: listen and turn back, as we returned.

  8. تقيَّدْت بالأوهام لمَّا تداخَلتْ

    عليك ونورُ العَقْلِ أورثك السجْنا

    You became bound by illusions when they intertwined

    around you, and the light of intellect bequeathed you imprisonment.

  9. وهِمْت بأنْوارِ فهِمْنا أصولَها

    ومنْبعها منْ أينَ كان فما هِمنا

    You were enraptured by lights whose origins we understood,

    and their source—whence it arose—so we were not enraptured.

  10. وقد تحْجُبُ الأنوار للعبْدِ مثْل ما

    تقيَّد من إِظلامِ نفْس حوَتْ ضِغنا

    Lights may veil the servant, just as

    he is fettered by the darkness of a soul harboring rancor.

  11. وأيُّ وِصالٍ في القضيَّة يُدَّعى

    وأكملُ مَنْ في النَّاس لم يدَّع الأمنْا

    What union can be claimed in this matter,

    when the most perfect among people did not claim security?

  12. ولوْ كان سرُّ الله يُدركُ هكذا

    لقالَ لنَا الجمهورُ ها نحن ما خِبْنا

    If God's secret could be grasped in this way,

    the multitude would tell us: 'Here we are; we have not failed!'

  13. فكم دونَه من فِتْنةٍ وبليَّةٍ

    وكم مَهْمهٍ من قبْل ذلك قد جُبْنا

    How many trials and afflictions lie before it,

    and how many wildernesses we traversed before that!

  14. فلا تلْتفِتْ في السَّير غيراً وكلُّ ما

    سِوى الله غيرُ فاتخِذْ ذِكرَه حِصْنا

    On the journey, do not turn toward another; everything

    apart from God is other—so take remembrance of him as a fortress.

  15. وكلُّ مَقامِ لاتقُمْ فيهِ إِنَّه

    حجابٌ فجِدَّ السَّير واستَنْجِدْ العوْنا

    Do not remain in any station, for it

    is a veil; press on in the journey and seek assistance.

  16. ومهْما ترى كلُّ المراتِبِ تجْتلي

    عليْكَ فحلْ عنها فعَين مِثْلها حُلْنا

    Whenever you see all the ranks unfolding

    before you, depart from them: we departed from their very like.

  17. وقُلْ ليْس لي في غَير ذاتِكَ مَطْلٌ

    فلا صورةٌ تُجْلى ولا طُرفة تُجْنى

    And say: 'I will linger in nothing but Your Essence—

    no form to be revealed, no marvel to be harvested.'

  18. وسِرْ نحْو أعْلام اليمين فإنها

    سبيلٌ بها يُمْنٌ فلا تتركَ اليمُنا

    Travel toward the landmarks of the right, for they

    mark a blessed path; do not abandon the right.

  19. أمامَك هَولٌ فاسْتمِعْ لوصيَّتي

    عِقال من العَقْلِ الذي منه قد تُبْنا

    Before you lies a terror; listen to my counsel:

    a fetter from the intellect, which we have renounced.

  20. أبادَ الوَرى بالمشْكلات وقَبْلهم

    بأوهامِه قد أهْلَك الجِنَّ والبِنَّا

    It destroyed mortals with perplexities, and before them

    its illusions had destroyed the jinn and the binn.

  21. محجَّتُنا قطْع الحجا وهوَ حجُّنا

    وحَجَّتُنا تتلوه باءٌ بِها تُهْنا

    Our path is to cut off intellect; that is our pilgrimage.

    And our pilgrimage is followed by a bāʾ, through which we went astray.

  22. يُبطِّئنا عند الصُّعودِ لأنَّه

    يودُّ لوَانَّا للصَّعيدِ قد أخْلَدْنا

    It slows us in our ascent, because

    it wishes we had clung to the earth.

  23. تلوحُ لَنا الأطْوارُ منه ثلاثَةً

    كَرَّاءٍ ومَرْئِيِّ ورؤيةِ ما قُلْنا

    Three stages appear to us from it:

    seer, seen, and seeing, as we have said.

  24. ويُبْصر عبْداً عنْد طورِ بقائِهِ

    ويرجِع موْلى بالفَنا وهوَ لا يَفْنى

    It beholds a servant at the stage of his abiding,

    and returns a lord through annihilation, though it does not perish.

  25. ولوْحاً إِذا لاحَت سُطورُ كَيانِنا

    له فيه وهو اللَّوْح والقلم الأدنى

    And a tablet, when the lines of our being appear

    to it upon it—it is the Tablet and the lower Pen.

  26. يكُدُّ خُطوط الدَّهْر عنْد التفاتِه

    إِحاطَتَه القُصوى التي فيه أظْهرْنا

    It scores the lines of eternity as it turns toward

    its utmost reach, which we have revealed within it.

  27. أقام دُوَين الدهْرِ سِدرَةَ ذاتِه

    ونحو ووصْف الكلِّ في وصفه حِرنا

    It established the lote-tree of its essence just below eternity.

    And direction, and the description of the All—we were bewildered in describing it.

  28. يقَيِّد بالأزمانِ للدَّهْرِ مثْل ما

    يكيِّف للأجسام من ذاتِهِ الأبْنا

    It binds eternity to temporal spans, just as

    it gives bodies form through the offspring of its own essence.

  29. وعرشاً وكُرسيًّا وبرجاً وكوكبَا

    وحشْواً لجِسْم الكلِّ في بحرِهُ عمْنا

    And a throne, a chair, a tower, and a star,

    and stuffing for the body of the All—we swam in its sea.

  30. وفتْقٌ لأفْلاكِ جواهِره الذي

    يشَكلَه سِرُّ الحروف بحَرْفيْنا

    And a sundering of the spheres of its substances, which

    the secret of letters shapes through our two letters.

  31. يُفرِّق مجموع القضيَّة ظاهراً

    وتجمع فَرقاً من تداخُله فُزنا

    It outwardly divides the whole of the matter,

    and gathers divisions; through its interweaving we prevailed.

  32. وعَدَّد شيئاً لم يكُن غير واحِدٍ

    بألفاظِ أسماءِ بها شتَّت المعْنى

    It made multiple a thing that was only one,

    scattering its meaning through the utterance of names.

  33. ويعْرجُ والمعْراجُ منه لذاتِهِ

    لتطْوِيرِه العُلويِّ بالوهْم أسرَيْنا

    And it ascends; the ascent is from it to its own essence.

    To its higher unfolding we traveled by night in imagination.

  34. ويجْعلُ سُفليها ويوهِمُ أنَّه

    لِسُفْلِيِّه المجعول بالذَّاتِ أهبِطْنا

    It fashions its lower realm and imagines that

    we were sent down in essence to its fashioned lower realm.

  35. يقدِّر وصْلاً بعْد فصْل لِذاتِه

    وفرض مسافات يجذلها الدهنا

    It supposes union after separation for its own essence,

    and posited distances that the mind carves out [reading uncertain].

  36. يجَلى لنا طور المعِيَّةِ شكَّه

    وإِن لمعَت منه فلتلحق الميْنا

    Its doubt unveils for us the stage of togetherness;

    and if it flashes forth from it, let it be joined to falsehood.

  37. ويُلْحقُها بالشِّرْك من مثْنوِيَّةٍ

    يلوحُ بها وهو الملوَّح والمثْنى

    It links it to polytheism through a duality

    that it displays, while it is itself the displayed and the doubled.

  38. فنحن كَدودِ القزِّ يحصرُنا الذي

    صنعْنا بدَفْع الحصْرِ سجْناً لنا مِنَّا

    So we are like silkworms, confined by what

    we made to ward off confinement—a prison for us, made of ourselves.

  39. فكم واقِفٍ أرْدَى وكم سائرٍ هَدَّى

    وكم حكمةٍ أبْدى وكم مملقٍ أغْنى

    How many a standing person it ruined, and how many a traveler it guided!

    How much wisdom it disclosed, and how many an impoverished person it enriched!

  40. وتِّيم الباب الهرامِس كلِّهم

    وحسْبُك من سقْراط أسكَنُه الدِّنَّا

    It enthralled the hearts of all the Hermeses;

    and Socrates will suffice for you: it lodged him in a cask.

  41. وجرّد أمثَالَ العوالِم كلَّها

    وأبدأ أفْلاطون في أمْثلِ الحسنى

    It abstracted the likenesses of all the worlds,

    and Plato began with the finest exemplars of the fairest good.

  42. وهامَ أرِسطو حتى مشى من هُيامِه

    وبثَّ الذي ألقى إِليْه وما ضنَّا

    Aristotle became enraptured, until his rapture made him walk;

    he spread what was imparted to him and did not withhold it.

  43. وكان لِذِي القرْنينِ عوناً على الذي

    تبدَّى له وهُو الذي طلَب العَيْنا

    It was an aid to Dhu al-Qarnayn concerning what

    appeared to him; he was the one who sought the source.

  44. ويبحث عن أسباب ما قد سمعتم

    وبالبحث غطى العين إذ رده غينا

    It searches for the causes of what you have heard,

    but through searching it veiled the ʿayn, turning it into a ghayn.

  45. وذوَّق للحلاَّج طعْم اتحادِه

    فقال أنا مَن لا يُحيطُ به معْنى

    It gave al-Hallaj a taste of its union,

    and he said: 'I am the one whom no meaning encompasses.'

  46. فقيل له ارجَعْ عن مقالِك قال لا

    شربْت مُداماً كلَّ من ذاقَها غنىَّ

    He was told: 'Retract your saying.' He said: 'No!

    I drank a wine that makes everyone who tastes it sing.'

  47. وانطلّق للشِّبْلي بالوحْدة التي

    أشار بها لمَّا مجا عنده الكوْنا

    It went forth to al-Shibli with the unity

    to which he pointed when it spat out the cosmos before him.

  48. وكان لذات النَّفرِي مولِّهَا

    يخاطبُ بالتَّوحيد صَيَّره خِدْنا

    It enraptured the essence of al-Niffari,

    addressing him with oneness and making him an intimate.

  49. وكان خطيبَا بين ذاتين مَن يكُن

    فقيراً يَرَ البحر الذي فيه قد غُصْنا

    It was a preacher between two essences; whoever is

    poor will see the sea in which we have dived.

  50. وأصْمت للجنَيِّ تجريدُ خلقِه

    مع الأمر إِذْ صارت فصاحتُه لُكنْا

    Stripping away his created nature silenced al-Junayy,

    along with the Command, as his eloquence became a stammer.

  51. تثَنىَّ قضيب البان من شُرْب خمرهِ

    فكان كمثْلِ الغير لكنَّه ثنَّا

    The branch of the bān tree swayed from drinking its wine;

    it seemed like the other, yet it made two.

  52. وقد شَذَّ بالشُّوذىّ عن نوْعِهِ فلم

    يملْ نحْو أخْدان ولا ساكِنْ مُدْنا

    It took al-Shudhi beyond his kind, so he did not

    incline toward companions or dwell in towns.

  53. وأصبح فيه السُّهْر ورديِّ حائراً

    يصيحُ فما يُلْقى الوجود له أذْنا

    Al-Suhrawardi became bewildered in it,

    crying out, while existence lent him no ear.

  54. ولابن قسيِّ خلْع نَعْل وجودِه

    وليْس إِحاطات من الحجر قد تُبْنا

    For Ibn Qasi, the sandal of his being was cast off,

    not encompassing claims; we have repented of confinement.

  55. أقام على ساقِ المسرَّة نجْلُها

    لِما رمز الأسرَارَ واسْتمطر المزْنا

    The son of joy stood firm upon its stem,

    when he signified the secrets and asked the clouds for rain.

  56. ولاحَ سَني برْقِ من الغَرْب للنُّهَى

    لِنَجْل بنِ سيناء الذي ظنَّ ما ظنَّا

    The radiance of lightning from the West shone upon the intellects,

    for the scion of Ibn Sina, who supposed what he supposed.

  57. وقد خلَّد الطُّوسيُّ ما قد ذَكَرْتُه

    ولكنَّه نحْو التَّصرِّف قد حَنَّا

    Al-Tusi immortalized what I have mentioned,

    but he yearned toward the exercise of power.

  58. ولابْن طُفيْل وابن رشْدٍ تيقُّظٌ

    رسالةُ يقظان أقْضى فتْحَه الحيْنا

    Ibn Tufayl and Ibn Rushd had an awakening;

    the treatise of Yaqzan—its unveiling brought on doom.

  59. كَسا لشُعَيْب ثوْب جْمع لذاته

    يجُرُّ على حُسَّاده الذَّيْل والرُّدنا

    It clothed Shuʿayb in a robe of gathered unity for his essence,

    whose hem and sleeves he trails over his enviers.

  60. وعنْه طَوى الطّائيُّ بُسط كيانِه

    به سكْرة الخَلاَّع إذْ أذهب الوهْنا

    From it al-Ta'i folded the carpets of his being;

    through it came al-Khallaʿ's intoxication, as it banished weakness.

  61. تسَمَّى بروح الروح جَهْراً فلم يُبَل

    ولم ير ندَّا في المقام ولا خِدْنا

    He openly named himself 'the Spirit of the Spirit' and did not care,

    and saw no rival in the station, nor any intimate.

  62. به عمر بن الفارِض النَّاظم الذي

    تجرَّد للأسْفار قد سَهَّل الحزْنا

    Through it, Umar ibn al-Farid, the poet who

    devoted himself to journeys, made the rugged ground easy.

  63. وباحَ بها نجْلُ الحرالي عنْدما

    رأى كتْمه ضعْفاً وتلويحُه غيْنا

    The scion of al-Harali divulged it when

    he saw concealing it as weakness and alluding to it as a veil.

  64. وللأموِيِّ النَّظْم والنَّثر في الذي

    ذكَرْنا وإِعْراب كما نحن أعْرَبْنا

    Al-Umawi has verse and prose concerning what

    we have mentioned, and elucidation just as we have elucidated.

  65. وأظهر منه الغافِقي لِمَا خفى

    كشَّف عن أطوارِه الغَيمَ والدُّجنا

    From it al-Ghafiqi brought to light what was hidden,

    clearing the clouds and darkness from its stages.

  66. وبيَّن أسرارَ العُبوديَّة التي

    عن أعرابها لمَ يرفعوا اللَّبْس واللَّجْنا

    He explained the secrets of servanthood whose

    elucidation they had not cleared of confusion and obscurity.

  67. كشفْنا غِطاءً عَن تداخلِ سرِّها

    فأصبح ظهْراً ما رأيْتم له بطْنا

    We lifted a covering from the interweaving of its secret,

    so what you had seen as inward became outward.

  68. هدانا لِدين الحقِّ ما قد تولَّهتْ

    لِعزَّته ألْبابُنا وله هُدْنا

    What guided us to the religion of Truth is that for whose

    might our hearts were enraptured, and to it we submitted.

  69. فمن كان يَبغى السَّير للجانب الذي

    تقدَّس فلْيأتِ فلْيأخُذْه عنّا

    Whoever seeks to journey toward the side

    that is holy, let him come and receive it from us.