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60 THE TARJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (V l)

VI
1. Wlien they departed, eudurance and patience departed.
They depai’ted, althougli they were dwelling in tin'
core of my heart.
2. I asked them where the travellers rested at noon, and
I was answered, ‘ Their noonday resting-place is where
the sliih and the hAn trees diffu.se a sweet scent.’
.*k Then I .said to the wind, ‘ Go and overtake them, for thej’
are biding in the shade of the grove,
4. And bear to them a greeting from a sorrowful man in
f
C*
whose heart are sorrows because he is separated from
his people.’

C o m m e n t a r y
1. ‘ They departed,’ i.e. the Divine Ideas
' They were dwelling in the core of my heart ’ : the Divine
Idea.s. have no relationship except with their object
aJ'), which is God ; and God dwells in the heart, according
to the Tradition ‘ Neither My earth nor My heaven contains
Me, but I am contained in the heart of My servant who
believes’. Since, however, no manifestation was vouchsafed
to him at this moment, the Ideas, being objects of vision,
di.sappeared, notwitlrstanding that God was in his heart.
2. ‘ I asked them,’ i.e. the gnostics and the real existences
of the past Shaykhs who were my guides on the
mystic Way.
ev'ery heart where the sighs of longing appeared, for
‘ Their noonday resting-place,’ etc., i.e. they reposed in

sldh denotes inclination (mayl) and ban absence (bn‘d).
3. ‘ I said to the wind,’ i.e. I sent a sigh of longing after
them in the hope of causing them to return to me.
‘ In the shade of the grove,’ i.e. amongst the ardk trees,
whereof the wood is u.sed as a tooth-.stick He
refers to the Tradition ‘ The use of the tooth-stick purities
the mouth and pleases the Lord ’, i.e. the Divine Ideas ai’C
dwelling in the abode of purity.