The Dabistán, or School of manners, Volume 3 (of 3): translated from the original Persian, with notes and illustrations
Religion
The Dabistán, or School of manners, Volume 3 (of 3): translated from the original Persian, with notes and illustrations
Iran -- Religion; Religions
The presence of the universal deity, which is expansive in the divine
spirit and soul), is fivefold. The first is _hazeret ghaib mut´lak_,
“the presence of the absolute mystery,” and this is one with the
_aâyían sábatah_, “the invariable prototypes (realities of things).”
The second is the _hazeret ghaib muśáf_,[195] “the presence of the
relative mystery,” which is nearest the absolute mystery, and this
belongs to pure intellects and spirits. The third is the _hazeret
musáf ghaib_,[196] “the presence of the mysterious relation,” which is
nearest the absolute evidence; this is the world of similitude, or
dream. The fourth is the _hazeret shahádet mut´lak_,[197] “the
presence of the absolute evidence,” which reaches from the centre of
the earth to the middle of the ninth empyrean heaven. The fifth is the
_hazerát jámâh_,[198] “the presence of the vest,” and this is the
universe in an extensive, and mankind in a restricted, acceptation.[199]
The Súfis besides say: The world is life and intellect, as far as the
mineral kingdom; but the manifestation of intellect in every body is
determined by the temperature of the human constitution. Sometimes
bounty attains an excellence which is uttered with ecstacy, and
becomes a modulation more powerful than that which strikes the ear:
and this is the mode of the prophet (blessing upon him!). Thus is it
commonly related that Jabrííl brought to the blessed prophet the happy
news, that his poor followers will enter heaven five hundred years
sooner than the rich. The prophet, full of joy, said: “Can none of you
recite a verse?” A person proffered these distichs:
“The serpent of desire bit my heart:
There is, to cure me, neither doctor nor magician,
If not the friend whom I adore:
He alone possesses the theriac and the amulet suitable to my cure.”
Upon this the lord prophet, with his companions, moved about in
ecstacy, with such a violence that the cloak fell from his
shoulder.[200]
Further, the sagacious say that the forms of the sensible world are
shades of seeming forms. The Súfis also maintain that a spirit cannot
exist without a body;[201] when it breaks forth from a body, it
obtains, according to its deeds and actions, an apparent body, which
they call _acquired_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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