The doctrine of the Mu'tazilites, mentioned, that all men's intellects are alike and equal at birth, is again controverted, and the poet dwells on the essential differences which characterize the intellects akin to Universal Reason or the Logos, and those swayed by partial or carnal reason; the former, like the children of Israel, seeking exaltation through self-abasement; and the others, like Pharaoh, running after worldly rank and power, to their own destruction. In order to make probation of men, as already explained, God fills the world with deceptions, making apparent blessings destructive to us, and apparent evils salutary. On the other hand, if men try to deceive God, they fail signally. Hypocritical weeping and wailing like that of Joseph's brethren is at once detected by God. Thus a certain Arab had a dog to which he was much attached; but one day the dog died of hunger. He at once began to weep and wail, and disturbed the whole neighborhood by his ostentatious grief One of the neighbors came and inquired into the matter, and on hearing that the dog had died of hunger, he asked the Arab why he had not fed him from the wallet of food which he had in his hand. The Arab said that he had collected this food to support himself, and made it a principle not to part with any of it to any one who could not pay for it; but that, as his tears cost him nothing, he was pouring them forth in token of the sorrow he felt for his dog's death. The neighbor, on hearing this, rebuked him for his hypocrisy, and went his way. Then follows a commentary on the text, "Almost would the infidels strike thee down with their very looks when they hear the reading of the Koran."

(3) And when we were a little farther onward, I heard a cry of, "Mary, pray for us!" A cry of, "Michael, Peter, and all Saints!" I do not think there walketh still on earth A man so hard, that he would not be pierced With pity at what afterward I saw. For when I had approached so near to them That manifest to me their acts became, Drained was I at the eyes by heavy grief. Covered with sackcloth vile they seemed to me, And one sustained the other with his shoulder, And all of them were by the bank sustained. Thus do the blind, in want of livelihood, Stand at the doors of churches asking alms, And one upon another leans his head, So that in others pity soon may rise, Not only at the accent of their words, But at their aspect, which no less implores. And as unto the blind the sun comes not, So to the shades, of whom just now I spake, Heaven's light will not be bounteous of itself; For all their lids an iron wire transpierces, And sews them up, as to a sparhawk wild Is done, because it will not quiet stay.

An ignorant youth entered an assembly of pious persons who were being addressed by a holy Shaikh. He saw the Shaikh weeping copiously, and in mere blind and senseless imitation he copied the Shaikh's behavior, and wept as copiously himself, though he understood not a word of the discourse. In fact, he behaved just like a deaf man who sees those around him laughing, and laughs himself out of compliment to them, though he knows not the subject of their merriment, and is obliged to have it explained to him before he can laugh again with real perception of the joke. After he had wept in this ignorant way for some time he made due obeisance to the Shaikh, and took his departure. But one of the Shaikh's true disciples, being jealous for the honor of his master, followed him, and thus addressed him, "I adjure you by Allah that you go not and say, 'I saw the Shaikh weeping, and I too wept like him.' Your ignorant and mere imitative weeping is totally unlike the weeping of that holy saint. Such weeping as his is only possible to one who has, like him, waged the spiritual war for thirty years. His weeping is not caused by worldly grieves, but by the deep concerns of the spirit. You cannot perceive by reason or sense the spiritual mysteries that are open and plain to his enlightened vision, any more than the darkness can behold the light. His breathings are as those of 'Isa, and not like mere human sighs raised by worldly sorrows. His tears and his smiles and his speeches are not his own, but proceed from Allah. Fools like you are ignorant of the motive and design of saints' actions, and therefore only harm themselves if they try to imitate them, without understanding their meaning." To illustrate this a curious story is told of a foolish lady who copied a trick of her clever slave-girl, without understanding the modus operandi, and by so doing caused her own death. In like manner parrots are taught to speak without understanding the words. The method is to place a mirror between the parrot and the trainer. The trainer, hidden by the mirror, utters the words, and the parrot, seeing his own reflection in the mirror, fancies another parrot is speaking, and imitates all that is said by the trainer behind the mirror. So God uses prophets and saints as mirrors whereby to instruct men, being Himself all the time hidden behind these mirrors, viz., the bodies of these saints and prophets; and men, when they hear the words proceeding from these mirrors, are utterly ignorant that they are really being spoken by "Universal Reason" or the "Word of God" behind the mirrors of the saints.

(43) And Joseph said unto them : " Ye have done evil." And they 1 Gen. x'iv. (" Know yc not that such a man as I can indeed divine ? "). The change in our text may be deliberate. and do not be grieved for your possessions, for the Lord sent me before you to set things in order that many people might live.

(43) And early in the morning they departed, and it came to pass that, when they had gone from thence, Joseph said unto the steward of his house : " Pursue them, run and seize them, saying, ' For good ye have requited me with evil ; you have stolen from me the silver cup out of which my lord drinks.' And bring back to me their youngest brother, and fetch (him) quickly before I go forth to my seat of judgment."

(34) And he mourned all that night, for they had brought it to him in the evening, and he became feverish with mourning for his death, and he said : " An evil beast hath devoured Joseph " ; and all the members of his house [mourned with him that day, and they] were grieving and mourning with him all that day.

(59) And you see clearly, that the wicked Pharisees and Scribes put these Things upon him; for these Things did not happen to him for nothing, or without Cause; for it was of Necessity to be so; for the Pharisees, Scribes, and Rulers, had put that in his Dish for him, which he must eat. Or shall we be silent? We must tell it, though it should cost us our Life.

(35) And thou knowest all thathe hath done since the day Jacob his brother went to Haran until this day ; how he hath, forsaken us with his whole heart, and hath done evil to us; thy flocks he hath taken to himself, and carried off all thy possessions from before thy face. II. And when we implored and besought him for what was our own, he did as a man who was taking pity on us.

(42) And Joseph devised a plan whereby he might learn their thoughts as to whether thoughts of peace prevailed amongst them, and he said to the steward who was over his house : " Fill all their sacks with food, and return their money unto them into their vessels, and my cup, the silver cup out of which I N 194 ?HE BOOK OF JUBILEES [chap, xlii drink, put it in the sack of the youngest, and send them away." Joseph finally tests his Brethren, and then makes himself known to them (xliii. -; cf. Gen. xliv., xlv.).

(48) Yet he sows the Pearl in his afflicting Anguish, and the Devil covers it in him, that he may not know it, neither does he know himself; he sows in the Kingdom of God, and knows not his own Seed, but the Seed of Sin, and of the Hunter. And so he consents not to the Sins which he commits; but the Devil with his Followers [or Associates] overpower him, so that the Adamical Man in the Anger does that which the new-born [Man] in the holy Element wills not; now though he does it, yet the new Man in the Image does it not, but the old Man in the Anger. And therefore there is in him a continual Strife, and he runs continually to Repentance; where yet the hidden Man in the

(4) And this is what the Son of Man reveals to us: It is fitting for you (pl.) to receive the word of truth, if one will receive it perfectly. But as for one who is in ignorance, it is difficult for him to diminish his works of darkness which he has done. Those who have known Imperishability, however, have been able to struggle against passions [...]. I have said to you, "Do not build nor gather for yourselves in the place where the brigands break open, but bring forth fruit to the Father."

(90) Though the Devil and this World rage and rave against this, yet it is nevertheless the Ground of Truth, highly known in the Wonders of God, and not from the Fables or Suppositions, such as the proud seeming holy or hypocritical World now ground their Babble upon, about the Cup of Jesus Christ, for the advancing of their Pomp and Haughtiness, their own Honour and supposed Wisdom, for their Pleasure, and the filling of their Bellies, like the proud Bride in Babylon, who rides upon the evil Beast, which devours the Miserable; therefore thus saith the Spirit against Babel in the Confusion, / have spewed thee out; in the Time of the Wrath, thou shalt drink of the Cup of thy Pride, and thy Source [or Torment] shall rise up in Eternity. Of the Voice of God in the Garden of Eden, and the Conference between God and those two, about Sin.

(23) Their eyes and ears are open and the snare is in front, Yet they fly into the snare with their own wings! Comparison of the divine decrees to something that is hidden, yet whose effects are seen. Behold that king's son clad in rags, With bare head and fallen into distress; Consumed by lusts and riotous living, Having sold all his clothes and substance; Having lost house and home, utterly disgraced, If he sees a pious man he cries, "O sir, Aid me, for the love of God;

(4) Therefore now, if we will speak of this most serious Article, we must go from Jerusalem to Jericho, and see how we lie among Murderers, who have so wounded us, and beaten us, that we are half dead, and we must look about us for the Samaritan with his Beast, that he may dress our Wounds, and bring us into his Inn. O how lamentable and miserable it is, that we are so beaten by the Murderer (the Devil) that we are half dead, and yet feel our Smart no more! O if the Physician would come, and dress our Wounds, that our Soul might revive and live, how should we rejoice! Thus speaks the Desire, and has such longing hearty Wishes; and although the Physician is present, yet the Mind can no where apprehend him, because it is so very much wounded, and lies half dead.

Notwithstanding the clear evidence of God's bounty, engendering these spiritual states in men, philosophers and learned men, wise in their own conceit, obstinately shut their eyes to it, and look afar off for what is really close to them, so that they incur the penalty of "being branded on the nostrils," adjudged against unbelievers. This is illustrated by the story of a poor Faqir who prayed to God that he might be fed without being obliged to work for his food. A divine voice came to him in his sleep and directed him to go to the house of a certain scribe and take a certain writing that he should find there. He did so, and on reading the writing found that it contained directions for finding a hidden treasure. The directions were as follows: "Go outside the city to the dome which covers the tomb of the martyr; turn your back to the tomb and your face towards Mecca, place an arrow in your bow, and where the arrow falls there dig for the treasure." But before the Faqir had time to commence the search the rumor of the writing and its contents had reached the king, who at once sent and took it away from the Faqir, and began to search for the treasure on his own account. After shooting many arrows and digging in all directions the king failed to find the treasure, and got weary of searching, and returned the writing to the Faqir. Then the Faqir tried what he could do, but failed altogether to hit the spot where the treasure was buried. At last, despairing of success by his own unaided efforts, he cast his care upon God, and implored the divine assistance. Then a voice from heaven came to him, saying, "You were directed to fix an arrow on your bow, but not to draw your bow with all your might, as you have been doing. Shoot as gently as possible, that the arrow may fall close to you, for the hidden treasure is indeed 'nearer to you than your neck-vein.' " Men overlook the spiritual treasures close to them, and for this reason it is that prophets have no honor in their own countries, as is illustrated by the cases of the saint Abu-'l-Hasan Khirqani and the Prophet Hud or Heber.

(1) In this tale there is a warning for thee, O Soul, That thou mayest acquiesce in God's ordinances, And be wary and not doubt God's benevolence, Let others grow pale from fear of ill fortune, Do thou smile like the rose at loss and gain; For the rose, though its petals be torn asunder, Still smiles on, and it is never cast down. It says, "Why should I fall into grief in disgrace? I gather beauty even from the thorn of disgrace."

A certain noble, who lived under the Christian dispensation when wine was allowed, sent his servant to a monastery to fetch some wine. The servant went and bought the wine, and was returning with it, when he passed the house of a very austere and testy devotee. This devotee called out to him, "What have you got there?" The servant said, "Wine, belonging to such a noble." The devotee said, "What! does a follower of God indulge in wine? Followers of God should have naught to do with pleasure and drinking; for wine is a very Satan, and steals men's wits. Your wits are not too bright already, so you have no need to render them still duller by drink." In illustration of this, he told the story of one Ziayi Dalaq, a very tall man, who had a dwarfish brother. This brother one day received him very ungraciously, only half rising from his seat in answer to his salutation, and Ziayi Dalaq said to him, "You seem to think yourself so tall that it is necessary to clip off somewhat of your height." Finally the devotee broke the wine-jar with a stone, and the servant went and told his master. The noble was very wrathful at the presumption of the devotee in taking upon himself to prohibit wine, as condemned by the law of nature, when it had not been prohibited by the Gospel, and he took a thick stick and went to the devotee's house to chastise him. The devotee heard of his approach and hid himself under some wool, which belonged to the ropemakers of the village, He said to himself, "To tell an angry man of his faults one needs to have a face as hard as a mirror, which reflects his ugliness without fear or favor." Just so the Prince of Tirmid was once playing chess with a courtier, and being checkmated, got into a rage and threw the chessboard at his courtier's head. So before playing the next game the courtier protected his head by wrappings of felt. Then the neighbors of the devotee, hearing the noise, came out and interceded for him with the noble, telling him that the devotee was half-witted, and could not be held responsible for his actions; and moreover, that as he was a favorite of God, it was useless to attempt to slay him before his time, for the Prophet and other saints had been miraculously preserved in circumstances fatal to ordinary persons. The noble refused to be pacified; but the neighbors redoubled their entreaties, urging that he had so much pleasure in his sovereignty that he could well dispense with the pleasure of wine. The noble strenuously denied this, saying that no other pleasure of sovereignty, or what not, could compensate him for the loss of wine, which made him sway from side to side like the jessamine. The prophets themselves had rejected all other pleasures for that of spiritual intoxication, and he who has once embraced a living mistress will never put up with a dead one. The moral is, that spiritual pleasures, typified by wine, are not to be bartered away for earthly pleasures. The Prophet said, "The world is carrion, and they who seek it are dogs;" and the Koran says, "The present life is no other than a pastime and a sport; but the future mansion is life indeed."

(112) Thus thou continually murderest poor Abel two Manner of Ways, and givest him great Occasion of stumbling; by thy Pomp and Power thou drawest him away from God into the Spirit of this World, where he then grows stark blind, and so he will continually ride after thee; he will still sit upon thy Beast, and be Lord also, and ride over the bended Knees; and thus the Kingdom of this World is a right Den of Thieves, and in the Presence of God a Lake of Abominations. 1 13. The Spirit of thy stout Beast is the hellish Worm; the crowned Bride that sits upon it is the false Woman [or Whore] of Babel: She drinks only out of the Cup of Whoredom and Abominations, her Drink in that Cup is the Fierceness of the Anger of God, of which the People [or Nations] drink, and become drunk, and so in their Drunkenness they become Murderers, Robbers, Thieves, false perfidious Mockers, Jesters, Scorners, proud, high-minded, Self-honourers, stern malicious People, there is no End of the Number of those that hate one another; every one supposes his Way is right, and that he walks in the right Path; if his Brother and Sister go not in the same Way with him, he scorns them, and calls them Heretics; and so one Wolf bites another; his Way is in his own Opinion, as his Master teaches him, who yet never regards any Thing but his a Belly- God, that his Esteem and Glory may be great among Men; thus one Hypocrite deceives the other, and they are Scorners and Persecutors one of another among themselves; and one is a Wolf as well as another; and the poor Abel (who stands in true Resignation, and relies upon God) must continually be their Footstool, he is continually murdered in a two-fold Manner. 1 14. One is, that he is deceived, and goes along into Babel, and is murdered, as to the Kingdom of Heaven. The other is, that if he remains constant, then the Devil (with Cain) will not endure him, but murders him outwardly, as to the Body, or takes away his good Name and Credit, and covers him so that he may not be known, that so the Kingdom of Cain and the Antichrist may remain in Babel; of which we know well how to speak by our own Experience, if Wrath and Anger did please us. But it fares very well with our Abel, and our being scorned springs up in the Blossoming of the Lily, whereat we will rejoice well enough, when we return again from Jericho to Jerusalem to our Father Abel.

Certainly, if these things have happened to each one of us, it is fitting for us, surely, to think about all so that the house may be holy and silent for unity. Like people who have moved from a house, if they have some dishes around that are not good, they are broken. Nevertheless, the householder does not suffer a loss but rejoices, for in the place of these defective dishes there are those that are completely perfect. For this is the judgment that has come from above and that has judged every person, a drawn two-edged sword cutting on this side and that. When the word appeared, who is in the heart of those who pronounce it—it was not merely a sound but has become a body—a great disturbance occurred among the dishes, for some were emptied, others filled; some were provided for, others were removed; some were purified, still others were broken. All the spaces were shaken and disturbed for they had no composure nor stability. Error was disturbed, not knowing what she should do. She was troubled, she lamented, she was beside herself because she did not know anything. When knowledge, which is the abolishment of error, approached her with all her emanations, error was empty, since there was nothing in her. Truth appeared; all its emanations recognized it. They greeted the father in truth with a power which is complete and which joins them with the father.

A mule said to a camel, "How is it that I am always stumbling and falling down, whilst you never make a false step?" The camel replied, "My eyes are always directed upwards, and I see a long way before me, while your eyes look down, and you only see what is immediately under your feet." The mule admitted the truth of the camel's statement, and besought him to act as his guide in future, and the camel consented to do so. Just so partial reason cannot see beyond the grave, but real reason looks onward to the day of judgment, and, therefore, is enabled to steer a better course in this world. For this cause, men having only partial reason or mere opinion of their own ought to follow the guidance of the saints, according to the text, "O believers, enter not upon any affair ere God and his Apostle lead the way." Then follows another anecdote of an Egyptian who asked an Israelite to draw water for him from the Nile, because the water of the Nile turned to blood when drawn by an Egyptian. Afterwards the Egyptian asked the Israelite to pray for him, and the Israelite admonished him to renounce his egotism and conceit of his own existence, which blinded his eyes to divine verities. In illustration of this he tells the same story of an adulterous woman, which is known as the "Merchant's Tale" in Chaucer. This woman, desiring to carry on an intrigue with her paramour, climbed up a pear-tree to gather the fruit, and when she had reached the top she looked down, and pretended that she saw her husband misconducting himself with another woman. The husband assured her there was no one but himself there, and desired her to come down and see for herself. She came down and admitted there was no one there. Her husband then, at her request, ascended the tree, and she at once called her paramour, and began to amuse herself with him. Her husband saw her from his post in the tree, and began to abuse her; but she declared there was no man with her, and that the pear-tree made her husband see double, just as it had made her see double previously.