Sol 6

  1. Abu al-Harith, hear a tale that took place,

    A story whose wonder delighted me.

  2. One day I longed to meet you;

    So loved ones draw the soul.

  3. I set out toward your door,

    Though weariness had exhausted me.

  4. When I reached the house of the one I sought,

    A house whose custom is welcome,

  5. There at the door stood a black woman,

    At whom devils would gnash their teeth.

  6. We said to her, “Convey our request.”

    She replied, “The door to your graves is there.”

  7. She snarled at us in full measure

    And brought up matters and their causes.

  8. We asked someone beside her,

    “Please, are you its doorkeeper?”

  9. He turned his face away from us

    And offered a whole lesson in grammar.

  10. I said, “Be brief, my son, be brief;

    We are no army with its factions.”

  11. We called for her a Qunbur, while the young man

    Arranged the dishes and kept returning to them.

  12. He said, “Go about your business;

    A gatecrasher has no share of its delicacies.”

  13. I told myself, “Do not fret;

    Such are these attendants and their manners.”

  14. A young man beside me said, “Your patience

    Will ease the soul’s pains.

  15. Perhaps an hour will pass for you,

    And the attendants and their company will sing.

  16. Then swift relief may come to us,

    And the people inside will learn of us.”

  17. I said, “And through patience you hope for us?”

    He said, “With patience you will get through it.”

  18. I said, “Your counsel is good, but we have stood long;

    Our bodies and backs are worn down.

  19. Your lutes and the smoke of cigars

    Are a blaze setting the house alight.

  20. One party alights and another flies off,

    Amid the dancing of the girls and their games.

  21. My time is drowned without benefit

    In prolonged coughing and the like.”

  22. I said, “Idleness is ill-omened,

    And its long-windedness is an evil.”

  23. So I rose to pray in a secluded place

    Where the house’s prayer niche appeared.

  24. My prayer grew long, and I kept standing

    Until its limbs were stripped bare.

  25. After the prayer a clamor rose

    From remembrance prolonged by its groups.

  26. Until the jinn bleated in terror

    And the house’s riffraff fled.

  27. The earth shook with its earthquake;

    Imagine the earth and its foundations.

  28. Yet it availed nothing, and the stay grew long;

    Years and ages passed.

  29. There we built ourselves a quarter,

    Its timber brought from India.

  30. Around it a garden was adorned,

    Made lovely, with grapes ready to pick.

  31. I took a wife into my home;

    She lived long and bore children.

  32. Still no permission came from you,

    And the house’s barriers multiplied.

  33. When we tired of it, we turned back toward

    Homes whose changes had stretched on.

  34. On our return we lost the way,

    And its markers had vanished from the road.

  35. No wonder: the years

    Turn their wheel over people.

  36. I lost my house until there appeared

    Its traces enclosed by the thresholds.

  37. I found all my descendants

    Grey-haired after so long a time.

  38. I found my books piled together;

    They said the children of mice frequented them.

  39. That, Abu al-Harith, is the end

    Of a marvel whose strangeness went on and on.

  40. So all the troubles of Abu Muslim

    Are on you, and your sleep caused them.

  41. The Truth’s succor comes to thirsty hearts;

    They are the meeting place of lights and gifts.

  42. The Truth draws hearts to Himself

    After existence is scattered like ashes,

  43. After traces are effaced in seeking the

    Essence, and the seeker becomes the sought,

  44. After grasping the unity of the Truth for

    Creation, and rejecting the unity of separate ones.

  45. Ah! Love is not soothed by an “ah,”

    Yet an “ah” is forbidden to one who loves.

  46. I have a soul melted by the blaze of long-

    Ing, leaving only the heart’s beating.

  47. I rose to tell my secret, by my secret, to

    Love; my complaint was like striking a firesteel.

  48. Then the sovereign power of the

    Truth said to me, “Endure in my love, my desired one.”

  49. O rider hastening toward us,

    Tell me, have you neared that valley?

  50. Have you traveled even a span from yourself toward us?

    You remain deep within the center of passion.

  51. If you sounded your own depths, you would see

    The others kneeling there like mountains.

  52. If you shed your black garments, they would make you

    Their leader among the men in the gathering.

  53. You are the key to the treasure, if only you knew,

    And the pivot of going forth and returning.

  54. You are of us and we of you, yet

    The darkness of foes stands between us.

  55. If we met you with estrangement, we would not demand

    Proof of your claim or pure affection.

  56. The Truth has seen no visible atom in you

    But Himself; thus nearness itself is distance.

  57. So free yourself, in Muhammad’s way, from the

    Cause, and cry out above the heads of the people.

  58. Be effaced in us, for no living one has life;

    Life comes to the living after passing away.

  59. Veil yourself from yourself with me, but do not veil yourself from

    Me with the curtains of influence and creation.

  60. Leave this and that, form and na-

    Me; only my steed is in the field.

  61. Burn from love of me alone

    Through layers of fire in every valley.

  62. When love is sound, you will find

    The torment of refusal and distance sweet.

  63. And when love is sound, it will not care

    For the dance of bliss and hardship.

  64. In every atom of my being

    Is wisdom I have concealed from my servants.

  65. You waste away from passion while passion is far

    From you, and you are far from it.

  66. Had you been true to passion, my love would have sufficed you,

    And you would have held to my desire in love.

  67. We seek union while the station is one of refusal,

    Before pebbles crack and thornwood is stripped.

  68. Lord, “At Your service!” The Truth’s proof is higher,

    And the eyes of majesty stand watch.

  69. Whomever You take under Your care, upon him dawns

    The sun of guidance from the Truth’s perfections.

  70. Who am I, when the self is annihilation and erasure

    In the station of trial and witnessing?

  71. Who am I, when the self is fancy and illusion

    In the station of address and guidance?

  72. Who am I, when the self is figure and shadow

    In the station of distancing and creation?

  73. Rather, I am related to a trace of the

    Truth, a solitary witness to the Truth.

  74. And insofar as I am related to Him,

    Praise, acclaim, and glory are mine;

  75. And insofar as I am related to Him,

    Every lack and blemish is counted as mine;

  76. And insofar as I am related to Him,

    I revive the spirit and raise bodies.

  77. My relation to the Truth turned me until

    I rose to recite the Psalms among lifeless things.

  78. If there is any witnessing ear in existence,

    Then I am the finest singer in existence.

  79. I softened iron only because

    I rose to sing to the blacksmith’s tune.

  80. An heir to the outpouring, perfections, and wis-

    Dom of his forefather, the guiding Messenger;

  81. One who brings travelers, through the Truth, to the

    Truth, and reveals the dawns of divine aid.

  82. From his abundance he poured a sea upon the world

    In a poem like a glowing jewel.

  83. In that outpouring we witnessed the meeting of the

    Two seas, one hidden there and one manifest.

  84. For one whom the Muhammadan way watered with a sea,

    It is no wonder that he gives drink to those who come.

  85. He received these insights, uncover-

    Ing the hidden treasure of the singular ones.

  86. They were mingled from the primal substance of prophecy

    Before the unfolding of creation appeared.

  87. The source of excellence is Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr,

    Noble in fathers and forefathers.

  88. Alawi and Muhammadan; upon him

    The radiance of both lineages bears the mark of rectitude.

  89. He gathered knowledge with an increase of pie-

    Ty; by God, what an increase he gathered.

  90. He acquired pearls from the sciences of allu-

    Sion and adorned assemblies with them.

  91. He stripped the soul of its restraints, and sub-

    Tle gifts of aid poured upon it.

  92. He received words from his Lord;

    The outpouring clothed them in ink.

  93. They emerged bereaved from the tents of gift,

    Mourning the loss of their kin.

  94. They came forward to make clear hidden mat-

    Ters folded away by the singular one of al-Haddad.

  95. Be an explanation of them; how great this expla-

    Nation, a treasure that will never run out.

  96. The Truth flashes from its lofty sour-

    Ces and pours wisdom upon the servants.

  97. He upheld sacred law and spiritual truth, calling

    With both tongues to guidance and right direction.

  98. A light shaped through him the secrets of corners

    Watched over by the circles of the singular ones.

  99. He gathered from the stores of knowledge and wis-

    Dom a treasure enduring until the Day of Return.

  100. He encompassed the people’s insights that o-

    Pen for travelers the door to what they seek.

  101. Mecca of God yearned for its spread,

    That its lights might travel through the lands.

  102. From the orbit of prin-

    Ting, it set around it stars of success and happiness.

  103. The date of its printing came within a verse

    That crowned the brow of recitation.

  104. Its clear spring is blended with ginger;

    Drink it from the spring where seekers draw water.

Sol 6