Everyone
has hastened from
all around to gaze
at your beauty;
they are putting
on airs due to
your beauty.
In
order to express
the meanings of
the instruction it
derived from the
scene, my heart
wept as follows:
Lord,
all living
creatures appear
from everywhere on
the earth which is
a work of Your
art, to gaze on
You.
From
above and below
they emerge like
heralds, and cry
out.
In
pleasure at the
beauty of Your
inscriptions,
those herald-like
trees are dancing.
Filled
with delight at
the perfection of
Your art, they too
are joyful and
sing sweet
melodies.
It
is as if the
sweetness of their
melodies fills
them with renewed
joy and makes them
sway coyly.
At
last they have
started dancing
and are seeking
ecstasy.
Through
the work of Divine
Mercy all living
creatures receive
instruction in the
glorification and
prayer particular
to each.
After
receiving
instruction, each
of the trees
stands on a high
rock and raises
its head toward
the Divine Throne.
Each
like Shahbaz-i
Kalender,1
stretches out
hundreds of hands
to the Divine
Court and takes up
an imposing
position of
worship.
They
are making their
twigs curl like
love-locks
dancing, and they
arouse in those
who are watching
them fine ardor
and exalted
pleasures.
As
if their feelings
were stirred up,
they are singing
touching love
songs at a high
pitch.
From
it a meaning such
as this comes to
mind: They recall
the weeping caused
by the pain of the
fading of
metaphorical
love-human love
for the opposite
sex-and deeply
touching sighs.
They
make heard the
melancholy songs
that lovers sing
at the grave of
their beloveds.
They
seem to have a
duty of making the
eternal tunes and
sorrowful voices
heard by the dead
who no longer hear
worldly voices and
words.
The
spirit understands
from this that
things respond
with glorification
to the
manifestation of
the Majestic Maker’s
Names; they
perform a graceful
chant.
The
heart derives the
meaning of Divine
Unity from these
trees each like an
embodied verse
from the exalted,
miraculous
composition. There
is so wonderful an
order, art, and
wisdom in their
creation, that if
all the ‘natural
causes’ in
existence had the
power and
authority to do
whatever they
wished, and they
gathered together
in co-operation,
they could not
imitate them.
The
soul on seeing
them has the
impression that
the earth is
revolving in a
clamorous tumult
of separation and
seeks an enduring
pleasure. It has
received the
meaning: ‘You
will find it in
abandoning
adoration of the
world.’
The
mind discerns from
such chanting of
trees and animals
and the cheering
of plants and air,
a most meaningful
order of creation,
inscriptions of
wisdom, and
treasury of secret
truths. It
concludes that
everything
glorifies the
All-Majestic Maker
in various ways.
The
desirous soul
receives such
pleasure from the
murmuring air and
whispering leaves
that, forgetting
mundane pleasures,
which are the
basis of its life,
wants to realize
self-annihilation
in this pleasure
of truth.
The
imagination
beholds the scene
as if their
appointed angels
were embodied in
these trees from
each of whose
branches hang many
flutes. It is as
though the Eternal
Monarch has
clothed the angels
in the trees for a
magnificent parade
to the sounds of
thousands of
flutes. Thus the
trees show
themselves to be
not insentient,
unconscious bodies
but most conscious
and meaningful.
The
tunes produced
through the flutes
are pure and
touching as if
issuing from an
elevated heavenly
orchestra. The
mind does not hear
from them the
sorrowful wails of
separation that
all lovers,
including
primarily Mawlana
Jalal al-Din al-Rumi,
hear, but the
grateful thanks
offered to the
Ever-Living,
Self-Subsistent
One for His Mercy,
and praises for
His sustaining.
Since
the trees have all
become bodies,
with all their
leaves being
tongues, at the
touch of the
breeze, each tree
is repeating with
its thousands of
tongues the
recitation of ‘He!
He!’ As the
glorification and
praise of their
lives they
proclaim their
Maker to be
Ever-Living and
Self-Subsistent.
Not
only the trees but
all things
together form a
universal circle
to proclaim God’s
Unity saying, ‘There
is no deity but
God,’ and
perform their
duties.
In
the tongue of
disposition they
frequently declare
‘O God!’ and
ask the
necessities of
their lives from
Him, from the
treasury of Mercy.
And through the
tongue of being
favored with life,
all of them
together
continuously
recite His Name,
‘O Ever-Living
One!’
Ever-Living,
O Self-Subsistent
One! For the sake
of Your Names, the
Ever-Living and
Self-Subsistent,
endow this
wretched heart (of
mine) with life,
and show this
confused mind the
right direction.
Amen.
1
Shahbaz-i Kalender
was a famous hero
who through the
guidance of ‘Abd
al-Qa-dir al-Jilani
took refuge at the
Divine Court and
attained to the
degree of
sainthood.
