Those who learned to be truly human found everything in being humble. While those who looked proudly from above were pushed down the stairs. A heart that must always feel superior will one day lose its way. What should be within, leaks out. The old man with the white beard never sees the state he's in. He needn't waste money on making the Hajj if he's broken someone's heart. The heart is the seat of God, where God is aware. You won't find happiness in either world if you break a heart. The deaf man doesn't hear, the blind man mistakes day for night. Yet the universe is filled with light. We've seen how those who came later moved on. Whatever you think of yourself think the same of others. This is the meaning of the Four Books if they have one. May Yunus not stray from the path nor get on his high horse. May the grave and the judgement be no concern if what he loves is the face of God.
Whatever I say, You are the subject. Wherever I go, every impulse is toward You. It's true, those who don't love You are soul-less dolls but the living need a Beloved like You. You've veiled Yourself from the whole universe. At a single sight of You it would perish. Giants and elves, humans, angelic powers all beings are in love with You. The seraphim and maidens of paradise crowd around You and can't bear to leave Your presence. From Your hand poison is a delicious drink. My soul is healed by anything You do. When I eat something sweet without You, it's bitter. You are the soul's taste, what else could I want? If my soul suffered a hundred wounds my joy would not decrease. This love washes everything clean. Yunus is just one atom of it. This planet, this whole universe is born from a taste of love.
Soul of my soul Without You I have no work to do If You are absent from Paradise I don't need to go there. If I look, all I see is You. If I speak, I speak of You. There is no better prey than You whom I secretly watch. Because I forgot myself because I went to You, in any conversation, in every state I haven't got a moment's rest. You can kill me seventy times and like St. George, I'll resurrect and crawl back unashamed. Show Your face to Yunus. He loves You and has no other.
I am a fatherless pearl unrecognized by the sea I am the drop that contains the ocean. Its waves are amazing. It is beautiful to be a sea hidden within an infinite drop. When Majnun spoke Layla's name he broke the meter of his poem. I was both Layla and Majnun who adored her. Mansur* did not speak idly of Unity. He was not kidding when he said "I am Truth". In this world of many You are Joseph and I am Jacob. In the universe of Unity there is neither Joseph nor Canaan. That my name is Yunus is a problem in this material world. But if you ask my real name, it is the Power behind all powers.
* Mansur al-Hallaj (d. 922), a great Sufi martyred for his ecstatic utterance.
My love for You goes deeper than my own soul. My way amounts to this: I don't say I'm inside of myself. I'm not. The I within me is deeper than myself. Anywhere I look, is filled with You. Where can I put You if You're already inside. You are Beauty without features something deeper than any signs. Don't ask me about myself. I'm not inside. My body walks. I'm clothed, yet empty. I can't lay a hand on the One who took me from myself You can't go over the head of the Boss. Some people get their share of revelations and some people go deeper than this. In the beautiful light of His face is a fire brighter than the light of day. What a suffering it is that's deeper than any remedy. The Law and the Brotherhood are paths. Truth and Wisdom are still deeper. They say Solomon knew the language of birds. Within Solomon is a deeper Solomon. I've forgotten religion and piety. What if there's a doctrine deeper than religion? The works of those who leave the faith are blasphemy. What about a blasphemy that goes deeper than faith? Yunus chanced to meet a Friend who showed him a door inside.
I have found the soul of souls. Let this soul of mine be taken. I've forgotten gain and loss. Let this shop of mine be plundered. I've passed beyond my very self. I've removed the veils before me. I am together with the Friend. Let these doubts of mine fall away. My own ego abandoned me. The Friend took everything I had. Those who give and take are friends. Let this language of mine be jumbled. I cut all ties and went to the Friend. I fell in with God. Let my poems be scattered. I became tired of twoness and ate at the table of Oneness. I drank the wine of suffering. Let all my remedies be thrown out. Since this journey of Being began the Friend has rushed to meet us. Light has filled the ruins of this heart. Let this universe of mine be shattered. I have passed up dreams. I have tired of summers and winters. I have found the Gardener of flowers. Let this garden of mine be dug up. Yunus, you say it well, smooth as honey. I have found the honey of honeys. Let this hive of mine be given away.
I am before and I am after. I am the life of many lives. I am Khidr when he appears to those who have lost their way. I am the secret found in settling down to work. When I hide myself within a heart the blind do not need eyes to see me. The One who causes particles to collide at the moment of "Be"* the One whose glance constructs a world the One through whom the table is set I am the guardian of every love. I've made the fields flat and I've built the mountains. I put the skies above you. I sustain all things. I am the faith of lovers. I am Islam and I am blasphemy. The One who gives life and also gives order the One who correctly wrote the Four Books the One putting black marks on white sheets of paper and the Quran —I am. The one who is united with the Friend and does what the Friend says the Creator of possessions Who sets up the world I am the Gardener. The One who carried Hamza over Mount Kaf** The One who untied his hands and feet. That poisonous snake behind the Simurgh and Kaf are Me. This is not Yunus speaking but his very Self. Not to believe this would be blasphemy. The First, the Last, the Present I am.
*The moment when God said "BE, " and it was.
** Mount Kafi Literally, the Caucasus Mountains; the cosmic mountain and the home of the Simurgh, a Divine bird who was the goal in Attar's Conference of the Birds.
Love is my sect and religion. When my eyes saw the face of the Friend, all sorrows became joys. Here, my King I give myself to You. From beginning to end all my treasure and richness is You. The source of this mind and soul, the origin of space are with You. You are the end and everything between. I can only go toward You. My way is from You to You. My tongue speaks of You within You. And yet my hand can't touch You. This knowledge amazes me. I can no longer call myself "I". I can't call anybody "you" anymore. I can't say this one is a servant and that one is a king. It doesn't make any sense. Since I found the love of the friend this world and the next world are one. If you ask about the infinite beginning and the infinite end they are my night and day. No longer do I mourn or cloud my heart because truth's voice is heard and I'm at my own wedding.
Don't let me wander from Your love don't let me leave Your door and if I lose myself let me find myself with You. The Friend sent me here. Go and see the world, he said. I have come and seen how beautifully it's arranged. But those who love You don't stay here. He tells His servants Tomorrow I will give you paradise. That tomorrow is my today. Who else knows this wisdom and this pain? And if it is ever known it cannot be said. I turn my face to You. You are the soul and the universe the secret treasure. All gain and loss is from You. My acts are no longer my own. Yunus turns his face to You forgetting himself. He speaks every word to You. It is You who makes him speak.
Truth gave me a heart bewildered before a syllable is spoken. There comes a moment of happiness then one of weeping. The next is like winter —long and dark the next like a birth —flower gardens and fine vineyards appear. A moment comes when he can't speak he can't explain a thing! In another, pearls fall from his tongue remedies for those who suffer. In another he rises to the heights in the next he's beneath the earth. In one moment he's a drop, in another he's boiled over into an ocean. One moment he remains in the dark he can't know anything; in the next he dives into a sea of wisdom. He becomes a Galen, a Luqman. One moment he becomes a giant or sprite living in some ruins. In the next he's flying with Belkis he's a sultan of men and jinns. One moment he enters the mosque and puts his face to the floor the next he's going to church, reading the Gospel and becoming a monk. A moment comes when like Jesus he raises the dead. A moment comes when he enters the house of pride and becomes another Pharoah or Hamam. One moment he's Gabriel bestowing abundantly to every gathering next moment he's lost and poor Yunus stands astonished.
The rivers of paradise flow, chanting Allah, Allah. The nightingales of Islam are perched all around, singing, Allah, Allah. The branches of the Tuba tree wave each heart and tongue reciting the Quran. In the rose garden of Paradise, the fragrance of Allah. Food and drink spread out for you by angels. The Prophet Idris sewing your astral garments chanting, Allah, Allah. These strolling virgins of Paradise their words are musk and amber. Their faces are brighter than the moon singing Allah, Allah. You fall in love with Truth and begin to cry You become holy light both inside and out singing Allah, Allah. Whatever you desire, ask it of Truth. Be a guide on the straight path. The nightingale has fallen in love with the rose singing Allah. The doors of the heavens opened and the doors of eight paradises all singing Allah, Allah. Rizwan* opens the doors dressed in astral clothes. Those who drink the wine of Kevser** become content and chant, Allah, Allah. Dervish Yunus, go to your lover now don't delay another day. Tomorrow you'll enter the court of Truth singing Allah, Allah.
* Rizwan: the gatekeeper of Paradise.
** Kevser: the spring of Paradise.