(131) O heart haste thither, for God will shine upon you, He will infuse into your soul a new soul, So as to fill you, like a goblet, with wine. Take up your abode in His soul! Take up your abode in heaven, O bright full moon! Like the heavenly Scribe, He will open your heart's book Abide with your Friend, since you have gone astray, Strive to be a full moon; you are now a fragment thereof. Wherefore this shrinking of the part from its whole? Why this association with its foes?

(23) Your fat kindles no light or flame in a lamp; Burn up, then, all this body of yours with discernment; Rise to sight, to sight, to sight! The Sufi said, "The Great Helper is able He who casts into the fire roses and trees He who extracts the rose from the thorn He who exalts the heads of the cypresses He by whose fiat all non-existent things exist, What harm to Him were it if He made them eternal? He who gave to the body a soul and made it live, What loss to Him were it if He never caused it to die?

(22) When you pluck up your foot you escape from the mire, When you obtain salvation at God's hands, O wanderer, You are free from the mire, and go your way. When the suckling is weaned from its nurse, You are bound to the bosom of earth like seeds, Eat the words of wisdom, for veiled light When you have accepted the light, O beloved, When you behold what is veiled without a veil, Like a star you will walk upon the heavens; Nay, though not in heaven, you will walk on high.

(91) When the light of Allah illumes his senses, When love of God kindles a flame in the inward man, He burns, and is freed from effects. He has no need of signs to assure him of love, Other details are wanting to complete this subject, But take this much, and all hail to you! Though reality is exposed to view in this form, For instance, these two resemble water and a tree; When you look to their essence they are far apart; Yet see how quickly a seed becomes a high tree

(41) But whoso seeks his water of life in worldly joys, The eyes of the heart which behold the heavens Mankind are ever being changed, and God's elixir Joins the body's garment without aid of needle. On the day that you entered upon existence, You were first fire, or earth, or air. If you had continued in that, your original state, How could you have arrived at this dignity of humanity? But through change your first existence remained not In lien thereof God gave you a better existence

(54) You issue from God's attributes at first; Return again back to those attributes with all speed! You come from the clouds and sunshine and sky, You come in the form of rain and sunshine, You begin as a part of the sun, clouds, and stars, You rise to be breath, act, word, and thought! True is the saying, 'Kill me, O faithful ones!' True it is that 'In our death is life.' Acts, words, and faith are the food of the King, Thus, as potherbs become the food of men,

(1) Till man destroys "self" he is no true friend of God. His friend said, "who art thou. O faithful one?" He said, "'Tis I." He answered, "There is no admittance. There is no room for the 'raw' at my well-cooked feast. Naught but fire of separation and absence Can cook the raw one and free him from hypocrisy! Since thy 'self' has not yet left thee, Thou must be burned in fiery flames."

(8) And now, my son, be still and solemn silence keep! Thus shall the mercy that flows on us from God not cease. Henceforth rejoice, O son, for by the Powers of God thou art being purified for the articulation of the Reason (Logos). Gnosis of God hath come to us, and when this comes, my son, Not-knowing is cast out. Gnosis of Joy hath come to us, and on its coming, son, Sorrow will flee away to them who give it room. The Power that follows Joy do I invoke, thy Self-control. O Power most sweet! Let us most gladly bid it welcome, son! How with its coming doth it chase Intemperance away!

(1) Know, O beloved, that man was not created in jest or at random, but marvelously made and for some great end. Although he is not from everlasting, yet he lives for ever; and though his body is mean and earthly, yet his spirit is lofty and divine. When in the crucible of abstinence he is purged from carnal passions he attains to the highest, and in place of being a slave to lust and anger becomes endued with angelic qualities. Attaining that state, he finds his heaven in the contemplation of Eternal Beauty, and no longer in fleshly delights. The spiritual alchemy which operates this change in him, like that which transmutes base metals into gold, is not easily discovered, nor to be found in the house of every old woman. It is to explain that alchemy and its methods of operation that the author has undertaken this work, which he has entitled, The Alchemy of Happiness. Now the treasuries of God, in which this alchemy is to be sought, are the hearts of the prophets, and he who seeks it elsewhere will be disappointed and bankrupt on the day of judgment when he hears the word, "We have lifted the veil from off thee, and thy sight to-day is keen."

(21) Through grief my days are as labor and sorrow, My days move on, hand in hand with anguish. Yet,, though my days vanish thus, 'tis no matter, Do thou abide, O Incomparable Pure One! But all who are not fishes are soon tired of water; And they who lack daily bread find the day very long; So the "Raw" comprehend not the state of the "Ripe;" Arise, O son! burst thy bonds and be free! How long wilt thou be captive to silver and gold? Though thou pour the ocean into thy pitcher,