Book 4
STORY VIII.
The Prince who, after having been beguiled by
a Courtesan, returned to his True Love.
A certain king dreamed that his dearly beloved son, a youth of great promise, had come to an untimely end. On awaking he was rejoiced to find that his son was still alive; but he reflected that an accident might carry him off at any moment, and therefore decided to marry him without delay, in order that the succession might be secured.
Accordingly he chose the daughter of a pious Darvesh as a bride for his son, and made preparations for the wedding. But his wife and the other ladies of his harem did not approve of the match, considering it below the dignity of the prince to marry the daughter of a beggar. The king rebuked them, saying that a Darvesh who had renounced worldly wealth for the sake of God was not to be confounded with an ordinary beggar, and insisted on the consummation of the marriage. After the marriage the prince refused to have anything to do with his bride, though she was very fair to look on, and he carried on an intrigue with an ugly old woman who had bewitched him by sorcery. After a year, however, the king found some physicians who succeeded in breaking the spell, and the prince returned to his senses, and his eyes were opened to the superior attractions of his wife, and he renounced his ugly paramour and fell in love with his wife. This is a parable, the true wife being the Deity, the old paramour the world, and the physicians the prophets and saints. Another illustration is a child who played at besieging a mimic fort with his fellows, and succeeded in capturing it and keeping the others out. At this moment God “bestowed on him wisdom, though a child,” 1 and it became to him a day “when a man flees from his brethren,” 2 and he recognized the emptiness of this idle sport, and engaged in the pursuit of holiness and piety. This is followed by an anecdote of a devotee who had so concentrated his thoughts on things above that he was utterly careless of all earthly troubles, and was cheerful and rejoicing even in the midst of a severe famine.
The world is the outward form of “Universal Reason” (Muhammad), and he who grieves him must expect trouble in the world. 3
The whole world is the outward form of Universal Reason,
For it is the father of all creatures of reason.
When a man acts basely towards Universal Reason,
Its form, the world, shows its teeth at him.
Be loyal to this father and renounce disobedience,
That this earthy house may furnish you golden carpets.
Then the judgment-day will be the “cash of your state,”
Earth and heavens will be transfigured before you. 4
I am ever in concord with this father of ours,
And earth ever appears to me as a Paradise.
Each moment a f1~esh form, a new beauty,
So that weariness vanishes at these ever-fresh sights.
I see the world filled with blessings,
Fresh waters ever welling up from new fountains.
The sound of those waters reaches my ears,
My brain and senses are intoxicated therewith.
Branches of trees dancing like fair damsels,
Leaves clapping hands like singers.
These glories are a mirror shining through a veil;
If the mirror were unveiled, how would it be?
I tell not one in a thousand of them,
Because every ear is stopped with doubt.
To men of illusions these tales are mere good tidings,
But men of knowledge deem them not tidings, but ready cash.
This is illustrated by an anecdote of Ezra or ‘Uzair and his sons.5 On his return from Babylon, whither he had been carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar, Ezra beheld the ruins of Jerusalem, and he said, “How shall God give life to this city after it hath been dead?” And God caused him to die for a hundred years, and then raised him again to life, and said to him, “How long hast thou waited?” He said, “I have waited a day.” God said, “Nay, thou hast waited a hundred years. Look at the dead bones of thine ass; we will raise them and clothe them with flesh.” Ezra was raised from the dead as a young man, whereas his sons were then, of course, very old men. They met him, and asked if he had seen their father. He replied, “I have seen him; he is coming.” Some of them rejoiced, considering this good news; but others, who had loved him more dearly, knew him and fainted with joy. What was mere good tidings to the men of opinion was the “ready money of their state” to men of real knowledge.
*NOTES:
1.Koran xix. 13.
2.Koran lxxx. 34.
3.”Aql i Kull, Universal Reason, or the Logos, was identified with the prophet Muhammad.”
4.Koran xiv. 49.
5.This story comes from Koran ii. 261.
Source : enel.ucalgary.ca