(1) Fools laud and magnify the mosque, But the former is mere form, the latter spirit and truth. The mosque that is built in the hearts of the saints Is the place of worship of all, for God dwells there. So long as the hearts of the saints are not afflicted, Our forefathers lifted their hands against the prophets; Seeing their bodies, they took them for ordinary men. In you also abide the morals of those men of old; How can you avoid fearing that you will act like them? The morals of those unthankful ones dwell in you, Seeing that all these bad symptoms are seen in you, And that you are one with those men, how can you escape?

(11) You have made the pilgrimage and gained the life to come, You have become pure, and that in a moment of time. Of a truth that is God which your soul sees in me, Though the Ka'ba is the house of His grace and favors, Since He made that house He has never entered it, But none but That Living One enters this house; When you have seen me you have seen God, And have circumambulated the veritable Ka'ba. To serve me is to worship and praise God; Open clear eyes and look upon me,

(18) Dating from the Hegira the power of the Prophet steadily grew until in the eighth year Mohammed entered Mecca after practically a bloodless victory and established it as the spiritual center of his faith. Planting his standard to the north of Mecca, he rode into the city, and after circling seven times the sacred Caaba, ordered the 360 images within its precincts to be hewn down. He then entered the Caaba itself, cleansed it of its idolatrous associations, and rededicated the structure to Allah, the monotheistic God of Islam. Mohammed next granted amnesty to all his enemies for their attempts to destroy him. Under his protection Mecca increased in power and glory, becoming the focal point of a great annual pilgrimage, which even to this day winds across the desert in the months of pilgrimage and numbers over threescore thousand in its train.

(89) And when they saw it they feared and trembled at its presence, and desired to return to their folds.

(1) The Sage said, "Whither are you going, O Bayazid? Where will you bring your caravan to a halt?" Bayazid replied, "At dawn I start for the Ka'ba." Quoth the Sage, "What provision for the way have you?" He answered, "I have two hundred silver dirhams; See them tied up tightly in the corner of my cloak." The Sage said, "Circumambulate me seven times; Count this better than circumambulating the Ka'ba; And as for the dirhams, give them to me, O liberal one, And know you have finished your course and obtained your wish,

(20) "Conscious that life was waning away within him," writes Washington Irving, "Mahomet, during this last sojourn in the sacred city of his faith, sought to engrave his doctrines deeply in the minds and hearts of his followers. For this purpose he preached frequently in the Caaba from the pulpit, or in the open air from the back of his camel. 'Listen to my words,' would he say, 'for I know not whether, after this year, we shall ever meet here again. Oh, my hearers, I am but a man like yourselves; the angel of death may at any time appear, and I must obey his summons."' While thus preaching, the very heavens are said to have opened and the voice of God spoke, saying: "This day I have perfected your religion, and accomplished in you my grace." When these words were uttered the multitude fell down in adoration and even Mohammed's camel knelt. (See Mahomet and His Successors.) Having completed the valedictory pilgrimage, Mohammed returned to Medina.

(16) The holy city, the dwelling, of their hearts' desire, they proclaimed supreme

(33) The Caaba, or cube-shaped building in the midst of the great court of the mosque at Mecca, is the most holy spot in the Islamic world. Toward it the followers of the Prophet must face five times a day at the appointed hours of prayer. Like the devotees of nearly all other faiths, the Mussulman originally faced the East while in prayer, but by a later decree he was ordered to turn his face toward Mecca.

(81) Therefore I cannot relate thy ecstatic states, This manoeuvre is one of the devices of the heart, Whereby the heart's feet wend their way to the truth. Many hearts and souls would become lovers of God Of these Abu Talib, the Prophet's uncle, was one; He said, "What will the Arabs say of me? That my own nephew has perverted me from my religion!" Muhammad said, "O uncle, confess the faith to me, That I may strive with God for thee!" He said, "Nay; it will be published by them that hear;

(145) My fear is increased by remaining idle." Why then, O faint-hearted one, in the matter of religion Are you paralysed by the fear of loss? See you not how the traders in this market of ours Make large profits, both apostles and saints? What a mine of wealth awaits them on leaving it, Seeing they make such profits while still here! Fire is soft to them as cotton raiment, The ocean bears them gently like a porter; Iron in their hands is soft as wax,

(21) Tho Beloved once called the Ka'ba 'My house,' But has said to me 'O my servant' seventy times; O Bayazid, you have found the Ka'ba, You have found a hundred precious blessings." Bayazid gave heed to these deep sayings, The sick man said, "Sickness has brought me this boon. That this Prince (Muhammad) has come to me this morn, So that health and strength may return to me O blessed pain and sickness and fever! O welcome weariness and sleeplessness by night!

(21) Wherefore should you tear away the parts from the whole? If the part be severed from its whole it is useless; Till it is again joined to its whole, 'Tis a dead thing, and a stranger to life. Thus Daquqi, in devotions and praises and prayers, Throughout his long journeys his object was this, He cried continually as he went his way, "O Lord, let me draw near to Thy chosen ones!" So Daquqi (the mercy of God be upon him!) Said, "I journeyed long time to East and to West,

(11) You are wearied with ten prostrations in prayer, Such an one goes barefoot to the Ka'ba, Whilst another faints with going to the mosque." "At times my state resembles a dream, Know my eyes sleep, but my heart is awake; My body, though torpid, is instinct with energy. The Prophet said, 'Mine eyes sleep, But my heart is awake with the Lord of mankind.' Your eyes are awake and your heart fast asleep, My eyes are closed, and my heart at the 'open door.'

(182) Ho! seek aid of Him, not of another than Him Seek water in the ocean, not in a dried-up channel. On cleansing the inward temple of the heart from self-conceit and reliance on carnal reason. When the body bows in worship, the heart is a temple, And where there is a temple, there bad friends are weeds When a liking for bad friends grows up in you, Flee from them, and avoid converse with them. Root up those weeds, for, if they attain full growth, O beloved, this weed is deviation from the "right way," You crawl crookedly, like infants unable to walk.

(12) As in reality the tree is born of its own fruit." This product goes forth from heaven very swiftly, 'Tis not a long road that this caravan travels; Can the desert stop the deliverer? The heart travels to the Ka'ba every moment, Distance and nearness affect only the body, What do they matter in the place where God is? When God changes the body, Press on like a lover, and cease vain words, O son! Part of Soloman's message to Bilqis.

(105) The place of worship of the noble is nobility, Inasmuch as the base are evil and arrogant, Hell and humbling are the "small gate" for them. Verily God has created two places of adoration, Even so Moses made a small gate in Jerusalem, The prophets said, "How long, in our benevolence, Shall we give to this and that one good advice? How long shall we hammer cold iron in vain? How long waste breath in blowing into a lattice? Men are moved by God's decree and fixed ordinance,

(41) To utter the words, 'Come to the asylum!'" The wrath of the Prophet boiled up, and he said (Uttering one or two secrets from the fount of grace), "O base ones, in God's sight the 'Ho!' of Bilal Is better than a hundred 'Come hithers' and ejaculations. Ah! excite not a tumult, lest I tell forth openly If ye keep not your breath sweet in prayer, Go, desire a prayer from the Brethren of Purity!" For this cause spake God to Moses, At the time he was asking aid in prayer,

(19) In the tenth year after the Hegira, Mohammed led the valedictory pilgrimage and for the last time rode at the head of the faithful along the sacred way leading to Mecca and the Black Stone. As the premonition of death was strong upon him, he desired this pilgrimage to be the perfect model for all the thousands that would follow.

(41) When Abu Bakr caught the perfume of Muhammad, He said, 'This is no false one.' But Abu Jahl, who was not one of the sympathizers, Saw the moon split asunder, yet believed not. If from a sympathizer, to whom it is well known, I withhold the truth, still 'tis not hidden from him; But he who is ignorant and without sympathy, However much I show him the truth, he sees it not. The mirror of the heart must needs be polished Before you can distinguish fair and foul therein."

The Prince of Bokhara had a Vakil who, through fear of punishment for an offence he had committed, ran away and remained concealed in Kuhistan and the desert for the space of ten years. At the end of that time, being unable to endure absence from his lord and his home any longer, he determined to return to Bokhara and throw himself at his lord's feet, and endure whatever punishment his lord might be pleased to inflict upon him. His friends did all they could to dissuade him, assuring him that the Prince's wrath was still hot against him, and that if he appeared at Bokhara he would be put to death, or at least imprisoned for the rest of his life. He replied, "O advisers, be silent, for the force of the love which is drawing me to Bokhara is stronger than the force of prudent counsels. When love pulls one way all the wisdom of Abu Hanifa and Ash-Shafi'i is impotent to withstand it. If it shall please my lord to slay me, I will yield up my life without reluctance, for this life of estrangement from him which I am now leading is the same as death, and release from it will be eternal happiness. I will return to Bokhara and throw myself at my lord's feet, and say to him, 'Deal with me as thou wilt, for I can no longer bear absence from thee, and life or death at thy hands is all the same to me!'" Accordingly, he journeyed back to Bokhara, counting the very toils and discomforts of the road sweet and delightful, because they were steps in his homeward course. When he reached Bokhara his friends and relations all warned him not to show himself, as the Prince was still mindful of his offence and bent on punishing him; but he replied to them as to his other advisers, that he was utterly regardless of his life, and was resolved to commit himself to his lord's good pleasure. He then went to the court and threw himself at his lord's feet and swooned away. The Prince, seeing the strong affection borne to him by his repentant servant, conceived a similar affection towards him, and descended from his throne and graciously raised him from the ground, and pardoned his offence. Thus it is that eternal life is gained by utter abandonment of one's own life. When God appears to His ardent lover the lover is absorbed in Him, and not so much as a hair of the lover remains. True lovers are as shadows, and when the sun shines in glory the shadows vanish away. He is a true lover of God to whom God says, "I am thine, and thou art mine!" In the course of this story, which is narrated at great length, are introduced anecdotes of a lover and his mistress, of the Virgin Mary being visited by the "Blessed Spirit" or Angel Gabriel, of the fatal mosque, of Galen's devotion to carnal learning, of Satan's treachery to the men of Mecca at the battle of Bedr, and of Solomon and the gnat. There also occur comments on various texts, and a curious comparison of the trials and wholesome afflictions of the righteous to the boiling of potherbs in a saucepan by the cook. The reply of the lover when asked by his mistress which city of all those he had seen was most pleasing in his sight.