Literary & Poetic Creations
تخلیقاتِ شاعری
دوست دشمن نے داد دی حسرت
Friend and foe alike have paid tribute to Ḥasrat —
شعر میں تیسرے کیا صفائی ہے
what consummate clarity there is in his verse!
(Ḥasrat Ṣiddīqī)
Ḥaḍrat's Connection with Poetry and Taṣawwuf
Taṣawwuf (Islamic mysticism) has a profound connection with poetry, and in Urdu and Persian most of the celebrated masters of the craft have also been Ṣūfīs. The great majority of poets who have passed through the Persian tradition — Rūmī, Saʿdī, ʿIrāqī, Khusraw, Jāmī, Bedil — as well as those in the Urdu tradition — Sirāj Awrangābādī, Shāh Ḥātim, Khwāja Mīr Dard, and Āṣaf — were Ṣūfīs and masters of poetry alike.
Ḥaḍrat Ḥasrat (raḥimahu'llāh) had an intimate acquaintance with all the sciences and arts of literature, and poets looked to him for critical appreciation. The distinctive quality of the Ṣūfī poets is that they possess mastery over Urdu, Persian, and Arabic simultaneously — and in every tongue they are able to articulate what they wish. There is no genre of poetic composition with which Ḥaḍrat had no engagement: wherever he turned his natural genius, he gave that genre its consummate form. However, his scholarly dignity and his religious reserve made it very difficult for him to speak openly of his inner states. Yet when Ḥaḍrat's benevolent temperament moved him to gather his verse into a collection, he fulfilled the office of teaching and spiritual guidance through the very act of completing that collection.
In the beginning Ḥaḍrat's verse shared the characteristics of various poets of the time, and its nabḍ (pulse; i.e. Ghālib's influence) gained wide acclaim. But afterwards Ḥaḍrat's poetry developed into an entirely individual style and a distinctive āhang (cadence) that was uniquely his own. The characteristics of Ḥaḍrat's kalām (poetic utterance) are: learning and gnosis, devotion and refinement, beauty and love, kashsh-sāziyāṉ (inner attractions), passion and effect, lover and beloved, the depiction of mystical states — bewilderment, trepidation, intoxication and ecstasy.
In poetry, to bring jaẕba (spiritual emotion) and thought into the difficult task of verse is an arduous work. The language of the heart and its expression are not possible without the power of God — without that power one cannot distinguish between ḥaqīqat (reality) and majāz (metaphor). The inner states of the Ṣūfī cannot be conveyed to others. These states are beyond the power of language and style to express; if one forces the expression, it will be inauthentic and the soul will remain unaffected; and the poetry will fail to produce an impression.
Some such verses do come, conveying what cannot ordinarily be conveyed — but Ḥaḍrat is rare in uttering such lines. When they come, they make us confessors to our own interior experiences, they make us share our most intimate feelings with our listeners, and they are like that: where the meaning in the verse actually begins is truly where it ends, and where it ends is where its subtler meaning commences — and within it are concealed uniquely evocative impressions and feelings.
In terms of thought and theme, Ḥaḍrat's verse outstrips other poets in the refinement of its metaphors and the delicacy of its constructions; but these formal-aesthetic aspects are not rendered ostentatiously. Rather, Ḥaḍrat not only informs the literate reader of the present condition and station of things, but also — for the one desirous of reading his verse — produces a vibration of deep longing, a sharpness of feeling and emotion, a magic that enlivens his poetry and leaves an enduring impression.
The Poetry as Spiritual Signpost
Ḥaḍrat's poetry contains themes yet these are but vessels for his divine intimations — they are vessels pointing toward the divine realities, such that only the fully accomplished ʿārif (one who knows God) can grasp them. This is so because Ḥaḍrat always expressed his spiritual experiences, the subtleties of sulūk (the mystical path) and maʿrifat (gnosis), as well as the delicate spiritual and gnostic questions, through the treasury of Ṣūfī poetry; for there is no parallel to such poetry in the Urdu corpus. He also disclosed certain mysteries in it, for instance:
آئینہ روکے سامنے ہم بن کے آئینہ
Standing before the mirror, we ourselves became the mirror —
حیرانوں کا ایک تماشا کریں گے ہم
we shall perform a spectacle for the bewildered ones.
بقدر وسع آئینہ ہوا آئینہ گر ظاہر
To the extent of the mirror's capacity, the mirror-maker appeared —
بناکر آئینہ خانہ وہی محو تماشا ہے
having built the hall of mirrors, He Himself is absorbed in the spectacle.
اس کی تصویر کے سواحسرت
Other than His image, O Ḥasrat —
کوئی ولیسا نظر نہیں آتا
no other form comes to sight.
ایک گردش ہے صورت پر کار
There is a single rotation at work upon [all] forms —
اور ٹھکانہ نظر نہیں آتا
and no other abode comes into view.
نہ ٹلائے سے ٹل گئی ہے بلائے آسمانی
The celestial calamity has not been averted by pleading —
مرا اعتبار حسرت مرا اعتبار ہوا
my trust, O Ḥasrat, has become my trust [i.e. what I relied on].
بے وجہ نہیں دلکشی صورت باطل
The allure of the outward form is not without purpose —
باطل میں بھی ہے حق کا تماشا رے آگے
even in the apparent falsehood there is the spectacle of the Real, ahead.
Thus in the reckoning of attributes, names and qualities, a veil is drawn over the face, the Reality is revealed and made apparent, the Self becomes manifest — and its ẓuhūr (manifestation) conceals itself in this manner.
پردہ میں نمایاں ہے بے پردہ و پنہاں ہے
He is manifest within the veil, and yet unveiled and hidden —
پیدائی ہے پنہانی · پنہانی ہے پیدائی
appearance is concealment, and concealment is appearance.
Ḥaḍrat's teaching is that the world of ḥaqq (divine truth) has no ḥijāb (veil) as such, since it is. Therefore the human being is a veil — and because of the very nature of one's own essential constitution, one is unable to perceive God directly. It is for this reason that one cannot reach the divine essence through effort and contemplation alone, since reaching the divine essence is not possible. For God, exalted is He, cannot be reached via any intermediary; and union with Him through taṣawwur (mental imaginative contemplation) is also not possible. He expresses this thought thus:
طلب محبوب کی لازم اور اس کو درد مجبوری
The seeking of the Beloved is incumbent, and in that seeking there is the pain of helplessness —
خیالِ فرقت محبوب ہی مر وجہ فرقت ہے
indeed the very thought of separation from the Beloved is itself the cause of separation.
وصلِ یار اچھا ہے نہ ہوتا یہ تو بہتر تھا
Union with the Beloved is good, yet had it not occurred, it would have been better still —
وصالِ یار کی صورت میں بھی فرقت کی صورت ہے
for even within the form of union with the Beloved, the form of separation persists.
تیرے درد دل کی دو اکسیں دلگی حسرت بے نوا
Two elixirs of the pain of the heart: the desolate Ḥasrat's longing —
تو ترقی کے تمام ہولوں ہی نالہ بلے گزارش میں
in the very ascent through all the terrors, nothing but lamentation and supplication.
نہ ٹھکانہ ہے ہمارا نہ کوئی جائے قرار
We have neither an abode nor any place of rest —
عمر بھر راہ طلب میں تری بربادرہے
all our life is spent in ruin upon the path of Your seeking.
He declared: "Among some wujūdiyyūn (those of the school of the unity of being) there is the view that God, exalted is He, Himself manifests His own taʿayyunāt (determinations/particularisations) within His determinations — thus the realities and attributes of the Real become manifest within the determinations — and as a parallel to these realities and attributes, the external aʿyān (entities) come into being." He expressed this view thus:
مرآتِ حقائق ہے یہ دنیا مرے آگے
This world before me is the mirror of realities —
ہر ایک میں ہے یار کا جلوہ مرے آگے
in every single thing before me is the radiance of the Beloved.
بے بود ہے نمودِ عدم ہے مرا وجود
Groundless is the appearance — my existence is the manifestation of non-being —
میں چشمِ اعتبار میں محضِ اعتبار ہوں
in the eye of reckoning, I am nothing but a hypothesis.
اے نمودِ بے حقیقت کچھ نہیں تیرا وجود
O manifestation devoid of reality, your existence is nothing —
ہم کو دھوکا ہوگیا تھا ہم کو دھوکا ہوگیا
we had been deceived, we had indeed been deceived.
جو نظر آیا نہ تھا جو تھا نظر آیا نہیں
What appeared was not [really there]; what truly was, did not appear —
بے حقیقت میں حقیقت کا تماشا ہوگیا
within unreality the spectacle of Reality was enacted.
Love, the Beloved, and the Mirror
The following verses elaborate on the theme of love (ʿishq) and its marvels:
اے جذبہ عشق تیری کیا بات
O passion of love, how wondrous you are —
لیلیٰ باہر مکل ہی آتی
Laylā would simply come forth from outside.
مجنوں کا لباس زیبِ تن تھا
Majnūn wore the garb becomingly —
لیلیٰ جس وقت باہر آتی
whenever Laylā came forth from outside.
مجنوں نے جو دیکھا آئینے کو
When Majnūn looked into the mirror —
لیلیٰ کی شکل اس میں پائی
he found Laylā's form within it.
دیکھا تو وہ چیز اور ہی تھی
What he saw was something else entirely —
کچھ اور ہی تھی سنی سنائی
and what he had heard told was something else again.
He declared: "Some consider that, since the external entities are established by their asmāʾ (divine names), they are therefore the external objects of existence — and they come into being by means of the association of knowledge and power with some third thing, namely an external existent. In their thought, the world is a spectacle of knowledge and of the divine self, in which no divine essence is present from without. These external levels are not subject to the divine essence's commands and the divine essence's truth — and reality does not necessarily change when the world and the divine essence change. He expresses this view thus:
نمودِ جنبشِ نوکِ قلم میں ساری تحریریں
All writings are in the movement of the pen's tip made manifest —
عوالم کیا ہیں علمِ ذات کی ہیں چند تفسیریں
what are the worlds but a few commentaries upon the knowledge of the [divine] Essence?
تماشا گاہ ہے عالمِ کسی استادِ کامل کا
The world is the arena of a perfect master's art —
یہ ہم تم کیا ہیں گویا سنیما کی چند تصویریں
and what are we and you but a few frames of cinema, so to speak.
مری بودی کی نمود ہے یہ حقیقت اور مجازمیں
The manifestation of my nothingness — this is in both reality and metaphor —
میں دیکھ کے لاکھوں نمائیں ہوں ہنوز پردہ رازمیں
though I have beheld millions of displays, I am still behind the veil of mystery.
سستی میں ظہور ہستی ہے
In sloth is the manifestation of being —
اک تماشا نہیں تو کیا ہم ہیں
if we are not a spectacle, then what are we?
Ḥaḍrat's teaching is that certainty is an illusory quality — for truly it is the external existence and the divine existence that appear within it — and for that reason we look upon things through its medium; thus we look on ourselves as contingent and God as real. He accordingly writes:
حجاب دیدہ مجنوں خیال رویا ہے
The veil over Majnūn's eye is the imagination of a vision —
اگر ابطال باطل ہوتو تحقیقی حقیقت ہے
if the false is truly negated, then the real truth is revealed.
اسی کی ذات ہے بالذات قطعاً
His Essence alone is absolutely self-subsisting —
تماشایار کا ہے میں نہیں ہوں
it is the Beloved's spectacle; I am not.
He declared: "Wujūd (being/existence) is one, yet it is nazar (sight/gaze) according to one's own capacity." He said:
ہر جام کا رنگ جدا ہے
Every cup has its own colour —
پیتے سے ہے کون جام خالی
and which cup is empty of the drinker?
بد کون ہے اور نیک ہے کون
Who is evil and who is good —
تو در ہر شان بیکمال
You are peerlessly perfect in every attribute.
ہے غیر ترا معدوم اور خیب میں تو کمتوم
Your other is non-existent, and You are hidden within the hidden —
مگر جلوے یہ کس کے ہیں یارب مجھے بتلادے
but these radiances — whose are they, O Lord? Do tell me.
He declared: "Wujūd-i-ḥaqīqī (true existence) is without qualities, without attributes, without form — and yet since it is outside [ordinary categories], it is from this void, as it were, that any form appearing outside becomes known within. For the uninformed thinks that by looking at the outward form he perceives an outer existence — yet the ʿārif (gnostic) understands that it is not the form that is present externally but rather the knowledge that manifests from the inside; and knowledge itself is outside [ordinary categories] — but it is the divine knowledge, not the external knowledge. It is the divine self, known and witnessed — and it is in its own presence that access to this world is not [truly] possible. He expresses this thought thus:
جو جو ہوا سی کی نمود ہونہ نمودِ اصل وجود ہو
Whatever manifested is but the manifestation of illusion — let the original existence be manifested!
کوئی کیا بتائے کمل جو ہے خیال شعبدہ بازمیں
Who can fully explain what lies in the play of illusion and fantasy?
خود نہاں اور عیاں اس سے نہال بانے جہاں
Himself hidden, yet all the dwellers of the world are revealed and gladdened through Him —
حیرت انگیز ہے اس سے نہال بانے کا پنہاں ہونا
how wondrous it is that those made joyful through Him remain hidden!
ہے پیشِ نظرِ خیالِ تیرا
Before my gaze is the thought of You —
ہر چند ہوں پیشِ کر خیال
though I am in the midst of every [passing] thought.
Ḥaḍrat has written in one place: "Within the aʿyān thābita (fixed entities) and the tajallī (divine self-disclosure) these become manifest for the Ṣūfīs who possess the right capacity — and just as that God and His counterpart is: every tajallī seeks its own maẓhar (locus of manifestation), and every maẓhar seeks its Lord — the tajallī that is particular to the Lord, to its particular locus. If that particular ʿayn (entity) does not exist then it will not materialise; and its existence as a maẓhar — since it will be the ism al-ilāhī (divine name) from it, and the Lord is its Rabb — will be without effect. And since it is the maẓhar and the divine name and the tajallī, then should that ʿayn not become the maẓhar, then the Lord is not well pleased and the Rabb has not received what He found pleasing." He expresses these most delicate issues in his verses thus:
ایک شجر کے دونوں ثمر ہیں
Both are the fruit of a single tree —
کون اچھا کون برا میں کیا جانوں
which is good and which bad — what do I know?
دونوں جانب ایک لگن ہے
On both sides there is a single ardent longing —
کس نے کس کو چاہا میں کیا جانوں
who desired whom — what do I know?
دوڑ کے دونوں مل گئے باہم
Running, both came together —
کون جیتا کون بارا میں کیا جانوں
who won and who was defeated — what do I know?
ایک صورتیا میں دو دو مورتیا
One image in which there are two images —
کون مولا کون بندہ میں کیا جانوں
which is the Master and which the servant — what do I know?
ایک خیالِ برقع سمن کر
A single thought, having lifted the veil —
کون پردے سے نکلا میں کیا جانوں
who emerged from behind the veil — what do I know?
Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī (raḥimahu'llāh) wrote in his book Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam: "I have written in one place: every maẓhar is named both as the human being and as the khalīfa (viceregent)." This is because the ḥaqīqat al-ʿālamiyya (universal reality) is to God, exalted is He, like the pupils of the eyes — one sees with the pupils of the eyes just as one sees with a puppy. And the human being, it is said, is the pupil in the eye of God, exalted is He; and through the human being the divine regards His creation and bestows existence. For since the purpose of the human being's creation is this — He says:
مقصودِ خلق جب مرآتِ اسماء وصفات
When the purpose of creation is the mirror of the [divine] names and attributes —
زینت افزائے سر و افسر شاہانہ ہم
we are the adornment of the royal crown and diadem.
آفرین آفرینش زیبِ اورنگِ شمی
Praise be to creation, the glory of the Solar Throne —
نورِ چشمِ صاحبِ خانہ چراغِ خانہ ہم
we are the light of the eye of the master of the house, the lamp of the house.
Ḥaḍrat's teaching is that if you cut yourself off from all attachments and relationships of the divine essence, and look upon the divine essence alone — then in your reckoning, God is the servant, not you: Ḥaḍrat is his Lord's mirror. He says:
در محفلِ یکتائی اغیار نی گنجہ
In the gathering of the uniquely One, there is no room for rivals —
اغیار چسل گنجہ جوں یارِ نی گنجہ
the rivals are as absent as the Beloved's absence — no room.
He would sometimes say: "God" and sometimes "the divine essence," meaning both the same. At this moment the name is "Allāh," and in its essence is the real meaning, with which nothing can be compared. He says:
ہے عجب رہ کہ حقیقت کہ نہیں نشانِ خلقت
How strange a path this is — in the reality, no trace of creation —
یہ کہاں مجلس باطل کہ وہاں دو چار ہوا
what kind of assembly of the false is this, where two or four came together?
وحدت میں تیری حرف دونی کا نہ آسکے
In Your unity, no word of duality may come —
آئینے کیا مجال جو صورت دکھاسکے
what capacity has the mirror to show [any distinct] form?
The Divine and the Human: Servant-hood and Relation
He would also say: "Sometimes God is named and sometimes the divine essence is meant." He expresses this as follows:
"We are servants — for if we are one [with God], then we are one. We are old and had one event. That event he resolved through the most ancient of things. From this matter of resolution, we are servants of God. We are marbūb (the one with a Lord), for we have a Rabb (Lord). We are worshippers, for we have a Maʿbūd (One Worshipped). We are beloved, for He is the Beloved. We are not a parent, for we had a father but no master — no Āqā (master) either. The Lord should be beloved, and the master should be the slave." He expresses this thought in these verses:
نہ نیاز تھا تو نہ ناز تھا نہ درکمال ہی باز تھا
There was no humble petition, no pride, no skill of perfection either —
مری جاں جاں تھا نہاں رہا تیرا ناز میرے نیاز میں
O my soul, the soul was hidden — Your pride abided within my petition.
دنیا کی کشمکش ہے سب تیرے دم سے حسرت
All the struggle of the world is by Your breath, O Ḥasrat —
سارا فساد تیرا بجھگڑا تمام تیرا
all the discord is Yours, all the dispute is Yours.
بربادی عاشق سے کب رتی ہے معشوقی
Has the ruin of the lover ever been aloof from the beloved's role?
سب دم سے ہمارے ہے معشوقی وشیدائی
all ardour and frenzy for the beloved comes from our very breath.
نہ دنیا کی مجھے حاجت نہ مقبسنی سے مجھے مطلب
I have no need of the world, no purpose with proximity —
الٰہی تیری ہی خاطر مرا جینا ہے مرنا ہے
O God, it is for You alone that my living and my dying are.
آنسینہ تا بانم ازیر برپایم دل
From the chest inward, the heart aches from the burden of Your name —
زنہار کہ پیشِ من با ناز چنیسِ آتی
beware — do not come before me with such pride!
دادِ کمال و جمال لے
Receive the tribute of Your perfection and beauty —
سی تو وجہ خلقت ہے
for You are the very cause of creation.
میری بھی میں مغنی
I too am a minstrel in my own right —
یار کی محبوبیت ہے
and the Beloved's belovedness is [always] there.
مجھ میں بھی لکلام ہی کا
Within me too is the utterance of the [divine] word —
مجھ میں مرآتیت ہے
within me is the quality of being a mirror.
فقر گمایل سے قاہر
Poverty is subdued by the one who has attained it —
ہوتی جو دو سخاوت ہے
what manifests as the two generosities.
کیا فرشتوں کو خبر تھی کہ یہ خاکی پتلا
Did the angels know that this earthen puppet —
جاں پڑتے ہی تجلسات کا پتلاہوگا
upon receiving the soul, would become the very puppet of divine self-disclosures?
Ḥaḍrat declared: "Muḥammad ﷺ's supplication is this: O Lord, fix me — for I am astonished by what You have given me through divine revelation. Bewilderment grows, but its vexation is not that of ordinary confusion." The station of bewilderment (ḥayrat), which Ḥaḍrat expresses thus:
غایتِ معرفت و علم ہے نادان ہونا
The ultimate station of gnosis and knowledge is to be as one who knows nothing —
سرمدِ دیدہ تحقیقی ہے حیران ہونا
for the eye of verification to be in eternal bewilderment.
سرگشتہ مثلِ مجنوں پایا تری گلی میں
Wandering like Majnūn, I found [myself] in Your lane —
گرہوش مند کوئی سپنچا تری گلی میں
did any sane person ever reach Your lane?
دیوانگی پہ میری قدستے ہیں حل والے
Those with solutions take pride in my madness —
ہم نے تو لاکھ ڈھونڈا کچھ پتہ نہ پایا
yet we have searched a hundred thousand times and found no trace.
تیری گلی کا رستہ پوچھا تری گلی میں
I asked for the way to Your lane — within Your lane —
مجنوں کد ہر مچمجا ہے لیلیٰ تری گلی میں
every corner is Majnūn's dazed wandering — Laylā is in Your lane.
ہر طرف ننگایوں کی لاکھ کوشش کی
On every side a hundred thousand efforts of the naked ones —
پر نہیں ملاحسرت آج تک نشاں اپنا
yet Ḥasrat has not found to this day his own trace.
He declared: "Allāh alone rears us, not anyone else. His own essence is what keeps us — it does not let the confusion grow greater, though the astonishment may intensify." He said:
یہ وادی حیرت ہے تو سلیم کچھ چون وچرا کرنا
This is the valley of bewilderment, O Salīm — do not ask for reasons or causes.
The Divine Mirror and the Tajallī of Names and Attributes
Ḥaḍrat Maḥmūd (raḥimahu'llāh) says: "The tajallī of the names and attributes of the divine entity is such as to cause astonishment — and when existence becomes bright and young, it causes astonishment and one loses oneself in it. The source of love — the Beloved's quṭb (pole) — keeps one moving from the centres of love and keeps one at a distance. The Beloved is warmed — it remains in the orbit of its goal. It itself is what keeps moving — for it is the beginning for this and the end for that. It is the complete end. He expresses this thought thus:
ایک گردش ہے صورت پر کار
There is a single rotation at work upon [all] forms —
اور ٹھکانہ نظر نہیں آتا
and no [other] abode comes into view.
Ḥaḍrat said: "Is there a connection between the servant and the Lord, or not? Is there a relation? Are the two one ʿayn (identical entity)? Or [are they] two distinct, ancient things, with one event?" Concerning this he resolved the bewilderment of each through the effort to reach divine knowing, though the ʿārif is also in bewilderment regarding it. Regarding this relation he says:
تو ہم ہے توہم ہے نہ قلت ہے نہ کثرت ہے
You are "we" — "we" is in You — there is neither fewness nor multiplicity.
نہ بکمیں یہ توحیرت ہے جو تکمیں یہ توحیرت ہے
If we look not, that is bewilderment; if we look, that too is bewilderment.
جانتا ہوں میں کچھ بے شک بوں میں
I know something, yet I am certainly in doubt —
پر یہ معلوم نہیں کیا ہوں میں
but this much is not known: what am I?
وہی ظاہر ہے وہی باطن ہے
He is the Outward and He is the Inward —
وہی سب کچھ ہے تو پھر کیا ہوں میں
He is everything — so then what am I?
دیکھا تو کچھ نہ پایا سوچا یہ سمجھا
I looked and found nothing; I pondered and understood this —
اک نام رہ گیا ہے میرا تری گلی میں
only a name of mine remains in Your lane.
نیستی میں ہوں نہ ہستی بے نشانی میری
I am neither in non-being, nor in being — my own trace is gone —
بے نشانی ہے نشانی میری
tracelessness itself is my trace.
زبان نے کچھ نہ دیکھا اور آنکھیں کچھ نہیں کہتیں
The tongue has seen nothing, and the eyes say nothing —
جو دیکھا آنکھوں نے قاصر ہیں اس میں زبانِ میری
what the eyes have seen, my tongue is too feeble to tell.
Ḥaḍrat says: "Wujūd (being) is a certain thing — it is a real certainty, firm and unshakeable; nothing can be set beside it. If it could be set beside, then it would be divisible as well. It is the divine existence: voidless, and its very being fills with meaning. It is eternal (qadīm) and the self-subsisting (bāldhat) existent. Existing, it is the source of all qualities simply because it is. After the dispersion of knowledge the kathrat (multiplicity) is the beginning — and it manifests within the universe of unity. He expresses this poetically:
دائرے سے منتسع ہوئی مرکزو محیط
From the circle emerged the centre and the circumference —
شانِ وحدت سے مرکز بس ہوئی شانِ کثرت آشکار
from the attribute of unity the centre emerged, and from it the attribute of multiplicity was revealed.
Namely, the realities of the asmāʾ al-ilāhiyya (divine names) and their attributes are the kathrat (multiplicity) that is manifest within the divine essence, and those realities are necessarily not external to the divine essence — since the asmāʾ al-ilāhiyya are necessarily like that — and the single existent reality is the dhāt wājib al-wujūd (the Necessarily Existent Essence). He declared: "Allāh is everything; one cannot make any other thing a governing metaphor beside Him. I say: all of these belong together — as a ruling of the class. Since I am one of the class, I can say that we are at a level below, and we are dependent upon You — in Your essence we are. — After [the state of] fanāʾ (annihilation), where is annihilation? After that we go to the Beloved, and after that we remain in the Beloved — in the Beloved's being we are by subsistence, and the Allāh's being is the real being — and Allāh is one attribute of the ẓāhir — and God is to be made clear as the source of being, and its īmān (faith) is incomplete without it." He thus says:
جس طرف دیکھتا ہوں تو ہی ہے
In whichever direction I look, it is You —
غیر حیرا نظر نہیں آتا
no other bewildered one comes into sight.
پرگشتِ دل و جاں از جلوہ جانانم
The wandering of my heart and soul is from the radiance of my Beloved —
در چشمِ من اے حسرت بزیادنی گنجہ
in my eye, O Ḥasrat, there is no room for increase.
The Mirror Discourse and the Ghazal of the Āʾina
In one lesson he declared: "Look — with the eyes you are seeing what all are the tajalliyāt of God, exalted is He — [look] with the ears and listen — the tajallī of God, exalted is He, is always such as to resemble the divine essence — for the divine essence cannot be contained in any one thing because of its self-completeness, though that thing may point to it." He expressed this thought in these verses:
ترا قصیدہ یار ہوا تو وہی رونبرو ہو پیدا
Your qaṣīda (panegyric) materialised, and the very Beloved became manifest face to face.
ترا جس کا ہوا ارادہ ہو تو وہی روبرو ہو پیدا
Whoever you intended, that very one became manifest face to face.
Ḥaḍrat said: "I ask myself: I am before being — what was before? Is there being? What was before being? What after? And 'after' is — there is Allāh. This is the origin of all. — For the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ has made us understand all these things. We understand them — he said lā ilāha illā Allāh — and after shirk fī'l-wujūd (associating partners with God in being) became apparent, and after the Sharer was removed — and in one's being, one forgets as much as there is — you will gradually lose it, it will flow away — the people of wujūd and every form of being are at the root — they are the slayers of." He expresses this thought to his students in these verses:
یہ کمال کی غیریت ہے کہ بنی جواب وحدت
This is the perfection of otherness — that it became the very answer of unity —
اے گر کہتے ظاہر تو وہی دو چار ہوتا
if He were called the Manifest, that very two or four would come about.
دل سارے جہاں سے اتحادے
The heart holds union with the entire world —
جو غیبِ خدا ہو بھلادے
so let it cause one to forget whatever is the unseen of God.
خود اپنے کو بھی مشادے
Let it witness even its own self —
بس یار کو تونے پایا رے
for in this way, you have found the Beloved.
مری ہستی ہی کیا ہے میں نہیں ہوں
What is my existence? I am not —
وہی جلوہ فزا ہے میں نہیں ہوں
it is He alone who augments radiance; I am not.
خیالِ اس یار کا ہے میں نہیں ہوں
What exists is the thought of the Beloved; I am not —
وہ کسیا بتلا ہے میں نہیں ہوں
He it is who tells you; I am not.
وہ پچھپ سکتا نہیں ظاہر وہی ہے
He cannot hide — it is He who is manifest —
اسی کی ذات ہے بالذات قطعاً
His Essence alone is absolutely self-subsisting.
تماشا یا کا ہے میں نہیں ہوں
The spectacle is the Beloved's; I am not —
فنامیں پہلے ہی کہاں جو فنا ہوں
even before annihilation, where was the one who would be annihilated?
خدا کے سامنے ہستی کا دعویٰ
To claim existence before God —
نہیں ہوں میں نہیں ہوں میں نہیں ہوں
I am not, I am not, I am not!
کہاں تک یہ خودی باطل پرستی
How long this vanity of self-worshipping falsehood —
خدا کو حبس نے پایا وہ کہاں
has any confinement ever found God — where is He?
سسی اس کی دواہے میں نہیں ہوں
Even its medicine is His — I am not —
وہ گھوم کر کہہ کہ میں نہیں ہوں
having turned all around, say: I am not.
جو بندہ ہے وہ ہے اک وہم باطل
Whatever is the servant is but a false illusion —
یہ باطل جانتا ہے میں نہیں ہوں
this falsehood knows: I am not.
نہیں معلوم حسرت کو کوئی بات
Ḥasrat knows nothing of any matter —
پراتنا جانتا ہے میں نہیں ہوں
but this much he knows: I am not.
منظور منظور اے اہلِ دنیا
Accepted, accepted, O people of the world —
اللہ میرا باقی تمھارا
Allāh is mine and the rest is yours.
اے ذات تو مجمع الکمالات
O Essence, You are the gathering of all perfections —
میں بھی ہوں کمل بے کمال
and I too am complete — complete in incompleteness.
Ḥaḍrat says: "Remember the meanings — wājib bāldhat (the Necessarily Existent through Itself), mumkin bāldhat (contingent in itself), mumtaniʿ (impossible). Mumtaniʿ has no existence — it is cancelled existence. And mumkin bāldhat is existent through wājib. Therefore mumtaniʿ is not possible, neither through its own power nor through wājib. But when there is a change in the contingent, the real certainty does not change. It remains — the servant and the creature will always keep the self and its seeking from the self manifested — never." He says:
جو کچھ ہے وہ آقا کا کچھ بھی نہیں بندے کا
Whatever exists belongs to the Master — nothing belongs to the servant —
حسرت ترابندہ ہے جو تجھ کو بھلا کیا دے
Ḥasrat is Your servant — what can he give You that is of any use?
نازشِ حسرت بیسپارہ رہ ہے بیسپارہ ہے
Ḥasrat's pride is helplessness — helpless he remains —
کبریا تیری ردا قرب ہے جامِ تیرا
Your divine majesty is the cloak; proximity is Your cup.
دیکے کے اس کمل کو ہم نے اس کو لے لیا
Having seen that perfection we took it upon ourselves —
کیسے ہیں داد دوستمیں ہم نے عاقل و فرزانہ ہم
how admirable — we who among our friends have been the wise and the discerning.
اللہ الارضُ والسّموات
Allāh — [His is] the earth and the heavens.
میری ہر چیز ہے پرائی
My every thing is another's —
مجھ کو تری شانِ کبسیائی
to me belongs Your attribute of divinity.
مجھ کو مری بندگی مبارک
Blessed to me is my servitude —
تجھ کو تری شانِ کبسیائی
to You belongs Your attribute of divinity.
حسرت کے پاس کیا دھرا ہے
What has Ḥasrat stored away?
اک جانِ سو دہ بھی ہے پرائی
Even his afflicted soul belongs to another.
میں ہوں بھی سی اور نہیں ہوں میں بھی سی
I am and am not — and I am not, yet am —
حسرت بخدا عجیب تماشا ہوں میں
by God, O Ḥasrat, what a wondrous spectacle I am!
The Āʾina (Mirror) Ghazal: the Discourse of Vision
Ḥaḍrat is teaching: "Allāh, exalted is He, has made the aʿyān (entities) appear in a tajallī of His own essence — through this means one can understand the divine's attributes, in the following manner — this thing is like a unity with the divine existence. But the window is closed — look to the time when we can see it. However, the latch of the window is the inner eye, the inner eye. The inner eye — where is it? In the inner eye, in the inner eyes. The inner eyes — where? In the inner eyes." He expresses this idea as follows:
پہلے ہم تھے وحدت میں
First we were in unity —
اب تو ہم میں وحدت ہے
now unity is within us.
Shaykh Akbar Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī (raḥimahu'llāh) writes in Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam: "The divine names, attributes, and realities are limitless and boundless — yet you are watching — or rather, one watches so as to see the tajallī — for in order to see the tajallī of the Real one watches. So the mirror is such that one must look in one's own mirror — you must not look at the divine essence, you must never look at its attributes from outside — it is not possible to look at them from outside. Rather you must look at yourself — in your own forms at the two positions: if the image does not come to you in the mirror — then never look towards the mirror. If the gaze comes to the mirror, then look in it yourself. But if the gaze is directed toward the mirror, it does not come; rather the image becomes broken. Yet one should nevertheless keep on looking into the mirror to see oneself." He writes:
آئینہ کہا کیا کہ کیا تجھ میں ہے ریحانی
What the mirror says — what is within you, this fragrance?
پوچھو اس سے کہ تری قیمت تجھ جو ہے شیدائی
Ask of it: what is your price to the one who is its admirer?
On this occasion there are also these lines by Ḥaḍrat:
میں جلوہ مجوب میں بت بن کے کھڑا ہوں
In the Beloved's radiance I stand transformed as a figure —
وہ بھی میں کرتے محو تماشا میرے آگے
He too is absorbed in the spectacle before me.
Another verse by Ḥaḍrat:
آئینہ روکے سامنے ہم بن کے آئینہ
Standing before the mirror, we ourselves became the mirror —
حیرانوں کا ایک تماشا کریں گے ہم
we shall perform a spectacle for the bewildered ones.
In the verses cited above Ḥaḍrat has told us that the mirror in this context is the mirror of God, exalted is He, and the mirror manifests the divine names and attributes, and the appearances of the divine commands. He declared: "The Outward is the aḥadiyya (unicity) and the Inward is the wāḥidiyya (oneness). And the Inward is the wāḥidiyya. So what comes first — the aḥadiyya comes first, and after the aḥadiyya comes the wāḥidiyya, and after the wāḥidiyya comes the aḥadiyya. This is the meaning — that it is the first, the outward, the last, and the inward." He expresses this thought in these verses:
وحدت میں اس کی حرف دونی کا نہ آسکے
In His unity no word of duality may come —
آئینے کیا مجال جو صورت دکھا سکے
what capacity has the mirror to show [any distinct] form?
وہی ظاہر ہے وہی باطن ہے
He is the Outward and He is the Inward —
وہی سب کچھ ہے تو پھر کیا ہوں میں
He is everything — so what am I?
جانتا ہوں کہ میں کچھ ہوں لیکن
I know that I am something, and yet —
پر یہ معلوم نہیں کیا ہوں میں
this is not known: what am I?
ہم نے تو لاکھ ڈھونڈا کچھ پتہ نہ پایا
We have searched a hundred thousand times and found no trace —
مجنوں کدہر مچمجا ہے لیلیٰ تری گلی میں
Majnūn wanders dazed — Laylā is in Your lane.
ہے غیر ترا معدوم اور خیب میں تو کمتوم
Your other is non-existent, and You are hidden in the utterly hidden —
مگر جلوے یہ کس کے ہیں یارب مجھے بتلادے
yet these radiances — whose are they, O Lord? Do tell me.
مرآتِ حقائق ہے یہ دنیا مرے آگے
This world before me is the mirror of realities —
ہر ایک میں ہے یار کا جلوہ مرے آگے
in every single thing before me is the Beloved's radiance.
نیرنگی اشکال ہے نیرنگِ مرایا
The wondrous variety of forms is the wonder of mirrors —
سوارنگ میں ہے ایک ہی جلوہ مرے آگے
in a hundred colours, there is but a single radiance before me.
The Ghazal on ʿIshq and Ḥusn
In one lesson he declared: "With the eyes you are beholding those things — with the ears you are listening — all these are the tajalliyāt of God, exalted is He — remember God; the tajallī of God, exalted is He, is always in the likeness of the divine essence — for the divine essence in its own completeness cannot be seen by anyone — because it is beyond sight. This thought he expresses in these verses:
جب وہ نہوں تو میں ہوں نہوں میں تو وہ رہیں
When they are not, I am; when I am not, they remain —
حسرت یہ رنگ ہوتو میں کامگار ہوں
Ḥasrat — if this is the colour, then I am successful.
ہوگئے مدہوش بپنی ہم کو جب بوئے شراب
We were made intoxicated when the scent of wine reached us —
یعنی پہنچے بھی نہیں تھے تادور میخانہ ہم
that is, we had not yet even reached the outskirts of the wine-house.
جستجو میں ان کی ہم خود کھوگئے مگر کیا ہوگا
In seeking them, we ourselves were lost — but what will come of it?
چاہتے کیا تھے — چاہتے تھے — مگر کیا ہوگا
What did we desire — we desired — but what will come of it?
حیف درچشمِ زدن صحبتِ یار آخر شد
Alas, in the blink of an eye the companionship of the Beloved finally ended —
رہ گئے جائے مرے دل کے سب اس دل میں
all the places of my heart remained within this heart.
دریار پر شہادت یہ کہاں تھی میری قسمت
Martyrdom at the Beloved's court — where was this in my destiny?
مجھے ہامزہ تھا مرنا جو بہزار یار ہوتا
It was my Ḥamza-like hope to die as the beloved of a thousand Beloveds.
مرے حصہ میں شب و روزِ جگر کاوی ہے
My share is the day and night of heart-gnawing anguish —
مری قسمت میں کہاں یار کا ہمساں ہونا
where in my destiny is equality with the Beloved?
The continuing lesson proceeds, saying: "Remember this — that the things which come to us from this world are among the tajalliyāt of God, exalted is He — and upon coming with those things into this world, the tajallī of God, exalted is He, is manifested — I am here — the things He showed me — what did you see upon seeing them? Those things are God the Evident and the real Existence upon — and God is one attribute of the ẓāhir — and God must be made evident as the source of being — and its īmān is incomplete without it." He thus says:
جس طرف دیکھتا ہوں تو ہی ہے
In whichever direction I look, it is You —
غیر حیرا نظر نہیں آتا
no other bewildered one comes into sight.
پرگشتِ دل و جاں از جلوہ جانانم
The wandering of my heart and soul is from the radiance of my Beloved —
در چشمِ من اے حسرت بزیادنی گنجہ
in my eye, O Ḥasrat, there is no room for more.
The Wujūdiyyūn (Unitarians of Being) and the Ghazal of Bewilderment
Ḥaḍrat's teaching is that the ahl-i-tawḥīd (people of divine unity) maintain that the Dhāt wājib al-wujūd (the Necessarily Existent Essence) exists — and as many as there are created things in the world — all of them are given different names for the sake of distinction. Namely all existing things are the very real entities. So besides God, every entity is comprehensible — and it is not possible for anyone to claim existence before God. He expresses this thought thus:
زمِ باطل کی بادہ مستی کب تک
How long the drunken intoxication of falsehood's wine?
نادان یہ ادعائے ہستی کب تک
O foolish one, how long this claim to existence?
تو بھی موجود اور حق بھی موجود
You also exist and the Real also exists —
ظالم یہ شرک و خود پرستی کب تک
O tyrant, how long this associationism and self-worship?
Ḥaḍrat declared: "Look at God, exalted is He: He is the First, the Last, the Outward, and the Inward. He is the Outward — and the Inward is the bāṭin (esoteric). Listen then — when, as a rule, it goes in the way that beings go each day — the bird, the animal — all these are created and produced — each according to this rule, meanings emerge — and this rule also has this in common: when something is called out, then the meaning of "all-encompassing" comes into being." He expresses this thought in these verses:
لہٰذا آیت کے معنیٰ یہی ہوئے کہ وہی اول ہے، وہی آخر ہے، وہی ظاہر ہے، وہی باطن ہے۔
وحدت میں اس کی حرف دونی کا نہ آسکے
In His unity, no word of duality may come —
آئینے کیا مجال جو صورت دکھا سکے
what capacity has the mirror to show [any distinct] form?
وہی ظاہر ہے وہی باطن ہے
He is the Outward and He is the Inward —
وہی سب کچھ ہے تو پھر کیا ہوں میں
He is everything — so what am I?
جانتا ہوں کہ میں کچھ ہوں لیکن
I know that I am something, and yet —
پر یہ معلوم نہیں کیا ہوں میں
this is not known: what am I?
ہم نے تو لاکھ ڈھونڈا کچھ پتہ نہ پایا
We have searched a hundred thousand times and found no trace —
مجنوں کدہر مچمجا ہے لیلیٰ تری گلی میں
Majnūn wanders dazed — Laylā is in Your lane.
ہے غیر ترا معدوم اور خیب میں تو کمتوم
Your other is non-existent and You are hidden in the utterly hidden —
مگر جلوے یہ کس کے ہیں یارب مجھے بتلادے
yet these radiances — whose are they, O Lord? Do tell me.
مرآتِ حقائق ہے یہ دنیا مرے آگے
This world before me is the mirror of realities —
ہر ایک میں ہے یار کا جلوہ مرے آگے
in every single thing before me is the Beloved's radiance.
نیرنگی اشکال ہے نیرنگِ مرایا
The wondrous variety of forms is the wonder of mirrors —
سوارنگ میں ہے ایک ہی جلوہ مرے آگے
in a hundred colours there is but a single radiance before me.
The Beloved and the Lover's Complaint: Ghazals on Longing and Pain
Regarding the relationship between muḥabba (love) and the beloved Ḥaḍrat says in one place:
میں صین کا ری الفت نجو مجھلوں کے دلرباں میں دلرباں
I follow the path of love — the captivators of hearts are my captivators.
اگر اڑ جاویں کوئے دلرباں میں دمیجاں میری
If I fly away into the quarter of the heart-capturers — my soul and my life —
محبت سے ہرگز نہ پھیروں گے منو
I shall never turn away from love.
محبت میں گل گل لگ کے مرجائیں گے
In love, flower by flower, I shall come to die —
محبت میں مرنے کو تیار ہیں جس سے دار جائیں گے
in love I am ready to die — from that very thing I shall be borne to the gallows.
محبت کی گر ہے یہی صبح وشام
If this is love's morning and evening —
تو اک دن جہاں سے گزر جائیں گے
then one day from this world we shall pass away.
محبت نے چھوڑا ہے خیال یارکچھ دل میں
Love has left behind the thought of the Beloved somewhat in the heart —
عوضِ خوں کے خیالِ یار کے لیے چل جائیں
in place of blood, the thought of the Beloved flows through the heart.
Addressing the Beloved, he says:
آمرے دل میں کہ غیروں کا نہیں اس میں گزر
Come into my heart, for no strangers pass through it —
پردہ غیروں سے اگر تجھ کو ہے کرنا منظور
if you wish to be veiled from strangers,
یہ تجھ رو کا تجھیں منظور کہ ہے گھر مطلوب
then let this be your abode and your sought-after home.
آنکھو میں رہنا ہے بہتر کہ مری جاں دل میں
Dwelling in the eyes is better, O my soul, than in the heart —
اس سے بہتر نہیں پردہ کا کوئی مقام
for there is no better place for the veil than this.
تم کو چپ چپنا ہوتو جاڑ میری جاں دل میں
If you wish to be silent, then enter my soul and heart —
خود ساتنائی کے توقعل نہ کیمی ہوگے
for from self-seeking you will never succeed in your witness.
دادِ لینی ہم کبھی ہم ہوگئے
We will never relinquish appreciation — we have become who we are —
تم نے دیکھا آئینہ — تو پردے سے ظاہر ہوگا
you looked in the mirror — then from behind the veil it became manifest.
بھلا آئینہ میں کبھی تم نے دیکھا
Have you ever looked in the mirror? —
تمہیں جن نگاہوں سے ہم دیکھتے ہیں
with those very gazes with which we look at you.
دیکھو کیاکہتے ہو دنیا میں اور دعوٰی ہے تنہائی کا
Look — what do you say in the world, while your claim is to solitude?
آئینے باتو میں ہے مجو ساکونی
In the mirror's discourse is the peace of absorption.
لاکھ نیچی نظر رکھو اپنی
Keep your gaze lowered a hundred thousand times —
کسیں چھپتی ہیں پیارکی آنکھیں
the eyes of love still remain uncontained.
دگاہِ محبت سے گر دیکھ تو
If you look through the gaze of love —
لگے سارے دل کے اتر جائیں گے
all of the heart's burdens will be lifted.
The Ghazal of Tawḥīd and Renunciation
Ḥaḍrat declared: "Allāh, exalted is He, is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward — the Outward is the ẓāhir. Listen now — when it goes in this way by rule, then every day as beings come by rule — the bird, the animal — all these are created and from this rule meanings emerge. He expresses this in the ghazal:
زمِ باطل کی بادہ مستی کب تک
How long this drunken intoxication of falsehood's wine?
نادان یہ ادعائے ہستی کب تک
O foolish one, how long this claim to existence?
تو بھی موجود اور حق بھی موجود
You also exist and the Real also exists —
ظالم یہ شرک و خود پرستی کب تک
O tyrant, how long this associationism and self-worship?
The Ghazal of Ḥusn and ʿIshq (Beauty and Love) — Their Dispositions
The ghazal regarding ḥusn and ʿishq (beauty and love), in which Ḥaḍrat gives a glimpse of their inner experiences, their moods, and their spiritual encounters:
سسیر گر میں دل کسی لے لیا
In the journey, someone took away the heart —
کیا تماشے میں تماشا ہوگیا
what a spectacle within a spectacle it became!
آنکھو لینے کا بہانہ ہوگیا
Taking the eyes became a pretext —
دل پہ اس ظالم کا قبضہ ہوگیا
and the tyrant took possession of the heart.
ہاں ہماری ہوگئی مٹی غراب
Yes, our soil mixed with the dust —
اور ان کا اک تماشا ہوگیا
and their spectacle came to pass.
آنکھولیتے ہی ہمارے دل پہ اک بجلی گری
Upon seizing our eyes, a lightning bolt struck our heart —
کچھ خبر ہم کو نہیں دل پہ باقی کہ پھر کیاہوگیا
we have no news of the heart — what then became of it?
Concerning beauty and love, from these verses one gains a glimpse of the inner experiences:
عشق ہے اک بلائے جاں ہے آفتِ جہاں
Love is a torment of the soul, a catastrophe of the world —
وادیِ حسن و عشق میں جاں کے کوئی جائے کیوں
why should any soul enter the valley of beauty and love?
عشق ہے دل لگی نہیں کمیل نہیں بنتی نہیں
Love is ardour, not entertainment — it cannot be completed, it cannot be made —
دل کو خود اپنے ہاتھوسے دے کے یہ لینے کیوں
why give the heart with your own hand only to take it back?
مرضِ عشق کو وہ کیا جانے جو بتلاجانے
What does the one who can explain the illness of love truly know of it?
عاشقی ہے حوصلہ مندوں کا کام ٹھنا ہوگا
loving is the work of the stout-hearted — it requires resolution.
جان دینے کا محبت نام ہے
Love is the name given to sacrificing one's life —
عشق کرنے کو کچھ کلیجہ چاہیے
loving requires some courage of heart.
عاشقی کیا ہے اک گناہِ عظیم
What is ardent love but a great sin?
زندگی بھر عذاب ہوتا ہے
A lifetime of torment it proves to be.
بلا خیر ہے عشق کی سرزمیں
The land of love is a calamity without blessing —
دیل عاشق بے پیگر جائیں گے
the lover's heart will wander away in utter helplessness.
مجلسِ عشق میں ہوگی خوب ہی مرثیہ خوانی میری
In the assembly of love, a fine elegy will be recited for me —
مکتبِ عشق میں معلوم نہیں لگے گاکون
who will be appointed in the school of love is not known —
درسِ افتادگی و درسِ فنا میرے بعد
the lesson of humility and the lesson of annihilation — after me.
درد دل کی قیمت کا یوں اندازہ کراتے ہیں
They make one realise the value of the heart's pain thus:
منفعنہ گوشت سے سوانہ ہوا
No profit came from flesh alone —
دل اگر دردِ آشنا نہ ہوا
if the heart is not a friend of pain.
دو جہاں پنچ کر حسرت اے حاصل کرلے کیمی سی
Having passed through the two worlds, O Ḥasrat, make a little gain —
لذتِ درد جولحاصل کرلے
gain the pleasure of pain.
درد تو لاعلاج بن او شبِ غم دراز ہو
Let the pain be incurable, and the night of grief be long —
میں رہوں اور بے کسی کوئی نہ چارہ ساز ہو
let me remain in helplessness, with no one to remedy my state.
سینہ میں دل کباب ہو آنکھوں میں سیلِ آب ہو
Let the heart within the chest be a kebab, and the eyes a flood of water —
نغمہ طرب فزا ہو، نغمہ فزا نہ ساز ہو
let the melody augment joy yet let there be no instrument of augmentation.
لذتِ درد پہ میں جیتا ہوں
I live on the pleasure of pain —
کونسی مجھ کو اور راحت ہے
what other ease is there for me?
دل کا میرے دردوہی آمرد دی
My heart's pain — the very one who made it came —
میرا جینا اور مرنا لا اله الا اللہ
my living and my dying: lā ilāha illā Allāh.
دردِ محبت ہے اک پیساری ربی
The pain of love is a divine blessing of the Lord —
ہوگیوں نہ پیساری ربی
let it not be devoid of that divine blessing.
The Ghazal on Murāqaba (Contemplative Vigil) and the Mirror of the Heart
From the verses on love there is also this one, given to the Beloved in address:
نہیں نقدِ عمل کچھ بھی مرے جیب و گریباں میں
There is no coin of deeds whatsoever in my pocket or collar —
مگر دل میں ہیں یارب تیرے محبوبوں کی تصویریں
but in my heart, O Lord, are the images of Your Beloved ones.
میں سراپا ہوں گناہ گار مگر
I am wholly a sinner, yet —
یا الٰہی ترا بندہ ہوں مگر
O God, I am Your servant regardless.
مردِ خدا رسیدہ ہے ایک ہی بر گزیدہ ہے
The man arrived at God is one single elect —
جس پہ جہاں کو ناز ہو اس کو کوئی نازنہ ہو
of whom the world is proud — yet no one is proud before him.
حسرت کی جھولی خالی ہے
Ḥasrat's lap is empty —
لگنے گا نہ کیوں سائل ہی توہے
why should it not be attached — for you are but a petitioner.
کام کا کچھ نہیں ہوں میں یارب
I am of no use whatsoever, O Lord —
بخش دے اپنی مہربانی سے
grant forgiveness by Your own mercy.
ظاہر خیر و شر سب کا
Manifest are the good and the bad of all —
کرتا رب العزت ہے
the Lord of Honour does it all.
منشاء کیونکہ طبیعت ہے
Because the origin is in [one's] nature —
برا بھلا ہم کرتے ہیں
good and bad, we do.
Ḥaḍrat said: "After the deed, those things are in the will — and after the will the deeds follow; in those things that pass before the will there is no choice. For if there is a will without the will, it would not be a will, but rather a will from the will — it is necessary that it comes ready for the will, and that the compulsion is necessary." He expresses this in these verses:
قبلِ ارادہ ہیں مجبور
Before the will we are helpless —
بعد ارادہ قدرت ہے
after the will there is power.
کامل علت ہے عاجز
The complete cause is feeble —
ناقص میں کچھ قدرت ہے
in the incomplete there is some power.
نظم جہاں میں عاجزہیں
In the ordering of the world we are weak —
جزوی طور سے قوت ہے
yet in a partial sense there is capacity.
مقصد مراوی ہے جو مطلب ہے یار کا
My purpose is what is the meaning of the Beloved —
میں اپنے اختیار میں بے اختیار ہوں
within my own will, I am will-less.
جب اس کا ارادہ چلتا ہے
When His will runs its course —
پھر اپنا ارادہ کون کرے
then who acts according to his own will?
قریب قرائنس گر پوچھو
If you ask about the near indicators —
اور ہی ترکِ ارادت ہے
then the renunciation of will is something else entirely.
ترکِ ارادی اور ہے شنی
The voluntary renunciation of will is [yet] another thing —
اور ہی ترکِ ارادت ہے
and the renunciation of devotion is yet another thing.