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 seal_, or “the last prophet,” in the terminology of this sect, is
a person, to whom this office can be appropriated, and from whom the
great business may proceed; but, in forthcoming it is not allowed to
him to be, in form,[207] all-sufficient in dignity, and in showing
this form in the world; this is not confined to a single person; but
if this excellence is manifested around, it is acknowledged as _the
seal_ of dignity in this age. When this condition is established,
then, by the before-said interpretation, the moon is said to be the
symbol realised in this form, because, in the style of eloquence, it
is generally usual to interpret the form of perfection by that of the
moon, and “to divide the moon,” means in figurative language to elicit
thoroughly the sense from this form, without taking into consideration
the instruments of imitation and the arrangement of artful
contrivances. Thus was it with regard to the promised lord of the
prophetic asylum. The lord Imâm Muhammed _núrbakhsh_,[208] “the
light-bestower,” in his treatise upon the ascent to heaven, stated:
“Know that the lord Muhammed, the Selected (peace be with him!)
ascended to heaven with a body, but this body was light, like that
assumed in a dream, with which he went into a state of trance, which
is an intermediate state[209] between sleeping and waking, and on that
account it is said in the first tradition of the ascent:
“I was between sleeping and waking.”
And further:
“God directed thee in the explanation of things revealed to
the prophets and saints, upon whom be peace!”
That his being carried from the mosque of Mecca to the mosque of
Jerusalem, is an image of the migration of the terrestrial angels from
one place to another. To keep the Imámate (or presidence) during
worship is to the prophet an image, that in his religion there are
many heirs of the prophet, who are the saints and learned men of the
age.
_Borák_, the vehicle of devotion, is like an image of prayer; the
saddle and bridle represent the ready mind and the perfect union of
religion. The members of Borák, of precious jewels, typify purity,
candor, affection, submission, humility, and perfect love of God,
rejecting all other desire except that tending towards the supreme
Being in prayer. The restiveness of Borak, and the aid given by
Jabríil in mounting Borák present a similitude of the reluctance of
the human mind to the wisdom of its knowledge of God, and Jabríil
figures the science of divinity.
The _travelling by steps up to heaven_, means the gradual elevation by
steps, which are remembrance, rosary-beads, praising and magnifying by
exclamation, God and the like, by which the heart arrives from this
nether world of sensuality to the upper world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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