Basatin al-uns 77.74

77.74

If I sit upon a speck of dust, it does not stir; behold my fortune! / An ant carries off my baggage over two stages; behold my fortune!
Though by way of parable I make a morsel of the sun's disk, / it yields only darkness in my breast; behold my fortune!
For some time I was in this unpropitious state and sorrow-increasing contemplation, when suddenly on that island an ascetic arrived at my side,
the light of obedience shining from the lines of his sun-like brow, and his countenance of apparent grace
giving indication of the purport of 'their mark is on their faces from the trace of prostration'; an immovable pole upon the sphere of grace, and
a guiding ghawth upon the mystical path; an elder with the breath of Jesus and the footstep of Moses, with the knowledge of Khiḍr and the character of Muṣṭafā; he had chosen detachment from all worldly
attachments and occupations, and like a sword was content with a garment of green; and in the midst of the affliction and hardship of the wilderness
he had made his dwelling and abode; and from the pleasures of carnal lusts, like a contented man from begging, he had tucked up the skirt of his soul;
he had turned his face from the love of house, wealth, and children, and set his back against the wall of contentment and ascetic discipline;
he had renewed his union with the bride of seclusion; like a ringdove he had placed the collar of yearning for the Unconditioned Divine Presence upon the neck
of his heart; and in the gardens of discipline, upon the bough of 'I have a time with God,' he sang his glorifications and litanies like a nightingale; verse:
verse: