He then cried aloud. After which he slowly returned to his chamber, and
there continued to moan.
He managed to crawl, as well as he could, to the congregational
service of worship of that Friday at noon. Thence he proceeded to the
mausoleum, kissed the shrine, sang a hymn, performed a holy dance, and
uttered ecstatic cries. He then laid himself down at full length on the
floor, under which he is now buried, and said: “Where the man falls,
there let him be interred. Bury you the deposit of my corpse in this
spot.”
That day was as though the last judgment were at hand. A tempest arose;
all creation, mortal and immortal, seemed to be groaning.
The day following, Saturday, the traces of his malady were but too
visible in ‘Ārif’s features. He strove to battle with it, and to
converse, as if he were in perfect health.
His sickness lasted about five and twenty days. On the twenty-second of
Zū-’l-Hijja there was a violent shock of earthquake.
There was then in Qonya a certain saint, commonly known as “_the
Student_,” a successor of the legist Ahmed. In his youth he had made
himself a great reputation for learning, in all its branches. But, for
forty years, he had been paralysed, and had never risen from his seat,
summer or winter. He was well versed in all mysteries, and now began to
say: “They are taking away the lamp of Qonya! Alas, the world will go
to utter confusion! I, too, will follow after that holy man!”
Shocks followed after shocks of the earthquake; and ‘Ārif exclaimed:
“The hour of departure is at hand! See, the earth yawns for the
mouthful it will make of my body. It shows signs of impatience for its
food!”
He then asked: “Look! what birds are these that are come here?” His
eyes remained fixed for a time on the angelic visions which he now saw.
From time to time he would start, as though about to fly. The assembled
disciples, men and women, wept bitterly. But he again spoke, and said--
“Sheykhs, be not troubled! Even as my descent into this world was for
the regulation of the affairs of your community, so is my existence
of equal advantage to you, and I will at all times be with you, never
absent from you. Even in the other world will I be with you. Here
below, separation is a thing unavoidable. In the other world there is
union without disrupture, and junction without a parting. Let me go
without a pang. To outward appearance, I shall be absent; but in truth,
I shall not be away from you. So long as a sword is in its sheath, it
cuts not; but, when it shall be drawn, you shall see its effects. From
this day forward, I dash my fist through the curtain that veils the
invisible world; and my disciples shall hear the clash of the blows.”
As he spake these words, his eldest son, Shāh-Zāda, and his own
half-brother, Chelebī ‘Ābid, entered the room. Sheykh Eflākī asked him
what commands he had to give for them. ‘Ārif replied: “They belong to
the Lord, and have no longer a relation to me; He will take care of
them.”