O Brother! Not every sea hath pearls; not every branch will
flower, nor will the nightingale sing thereon. Then, ere the nightingale of the
mystic paradise repair to the garden of God, and the rays of the heavenly
morning return to the Sun of Truth—make thou an effort, that haply in this
dustheap of the mortal world thou mayest catch a fragrance from the everlasting
garden, and live forever in the shadow of the peoples of this city. And when
thou hast attained this highest station and come to this mightiest plane, then
shalt thou gaze on the Beloved, and forget all else.
The Beloved shineth on gate and wall
Without a veil, O men of vision. [1]
Now hast thou abandoned the drop of life and come to the sea
of the Life-Bestower. This is the goal thou didst ask for; if it be God’s will,
thou wilt gain it.
In this city, even the veils of light are split asunder and
vanish away. “His beauty hath no veiling save light, His face no covering save
revelation.” [2] How strange that while the Beloved is visible as the sun, yet
the heedless still hunt after tinsel and base metal. Yea, the intensity of His
revelation hath covered Him, and the fullness of His shining forth hath hidden
Him.
Even as the sun, bright hath He shined,
But alas, He hath come to the town of the blind! [3]
(Baha’u’llah, ‘The Seven Valleys and the Four
Valleys’)
[1] Farídu’d-Dín Attár (ca. 1150–1230 A.D.), the great
Persian Súfí poet.
[2] Hadíth, i.e. action or utterance traditionally
attributed to the Prophet Muhammad or to one of the holy Imáms.
[3]The Mathnaví.
