The Epistle of Forgiveness. Abu l-'Ala al-Ma'arri
تترك من إذا جفوتَه ونسيتَ ذكره وتعدّيتَ حدّه وتركتَ نهْيه وضيّعتَ أمره، وتُبتَ إليه وعَوَّلتَ في تفضُّله عليك عليه، وقلت: يا ربّ، قال لك: لبَّيْك وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ إن كان الذُّباب بوجهك فاتَّهمْك، وإن قطّعت أنا أعضاءك فلا تتّهمْني، أنت الذي إذا أعطيتك ما أمَّلْت تركتني وانصرفت: وَإِذَا أَنْعَمْنَا عَلَى ٱلإنْسَانِ أَعْرَضَ وَنَأَى بِجَانِبِهِ. يا واقفًا بالتُهم كم كم؟ أليس يقول لك: ما غرّك بي؟ تقول حِلمك، وإلا لو أرسلتَ عليَّ بَقَّةً لجمعتني عليك إذا أردتَ أن تجمعني:
| أَمِنْ بعدِ شُربِكَ كأْسَ النُهى | وشَمّكَ رَيحانَ أَهل التُقَى |
| عشقتَ فأَصبحتَ في العاشقيـ | ـنَ أَشْهَرَ من فَرَسٍ أَبْلَقَا؟ |
| أَدنيايَ من غَمْرِ بَحْرِ الهوى | خُذِي بيدي قبل أَن أَغرقا |
| أنا لكِ عبدٌ فكوني كمنْ | إذا سرّه عبدُه أعتقا |
Have you forgotten to think of loved ones
who forget your sins when they remember you?111
You treated them unkindly, even though so often,
unlike you, they have been at your beck and call.
And you endured it calmly when they left:
what was then your excuse when you endured it thus?
You abandon Someone whom you have treated unkindly, whom you forgot to remember, whose limit you have transgressed, whose prohibition you have abandoned, whose commands you have ignored; then you turned to Him in repentance, relying on His grace toward you, and saying: “O Lord!” Then He will say to you, “Here I am! «And when My servants ask you about Me I am near».112 If you have a fly on your face, accuse yourself; but if I sever your limbs, you must not accuse Me. You are the one who abandoned Me and turned away, after I had given you what you hoped for. «And when We bless man he recoils and turns aside».”113 O you who stands with these accusations—how many! How many! Will He not say to you, “What has deceived you about Me?”114 and you will say, “Your forbearance! Or else, if Thou wouldst send a tiny bug against me, it would gather me unto Thee if it were Thy wish thus to gather me.”115
After drinking from the cup of understanding,
and smelling the sweet herbal fragrance of the pious,
Have you fallen in love and turned a passionate lover, more
conspicuous than a piebald horse?
O world of mine, please take my hand before I drown
In the deluge of the sea of love!
I’ll be your slave; so be then like the master who,
pleased with his slave, will set him free!116
6.5
كان ببغداد رجل كبير الرأس فِيليّ الأُذنين اسمه فاذوه رأسه في الأزمنة الأربعة مكشوفٌ، لا يتورّع عن ركوب مُخزِية، يقال له: يا فاذوه، ويْلَك! تُب إلى الله. فيقول: يا قومِ، لمَِ تدخلون بيني وبين مولاي وهو الذي يقبل التوبة من عباده؟
فكان في بعض الشوارع يومًا ذاهبًا، والشارع قد اتّسع أسفله وضاق أعلاه والتقى جَناحانِ فيه، فناولَت جارةٌ جارتَها مِهْراسًا، انسَلَّ من يدها على رأس فاذوه فهرس رأسه، وخُلِطَ كخلط الهريسة، وأعجله عن التوبة. وكان لنا واعظ صالح يقول لنا: احذروا مِيتة فاذوه.
قال جبريل في حديثه: خشيتُ أن يتمّ فرعون الشهادة والتوبة، فأخذت قطعةً من حال البحر فضربتُ بها وجهه – يعني طينه، والحال ينقسم ثمانية أقسام منها الطين – فكيف يصنع من عنده أن التوبة لا تصِحّ من ذنب مع الإقامة على آخر؟ فلا حول ولا قوة.
There was a man in Baghdad with a large head and elephantine ears, called Fādhūh. His head was uncovered during all the four seasons; he had no scruples about doing disgraceful things. People would say to him, “Hey Fādhūh, shame! Turn to God in repentance!” But he would reply, “People, why do you come between me and my Lord? It is He who accepts repentance from His servants!”
One day he was going along a certain street that was broad at the bottom but so narrow further up that the opposing houses nearly met. A woman handed her neighbor woman a mortar, but it slipped from her hand and fell on Fādhūh’s head, pounding it to a pulp as if it were a harīsah. It fell too fast for him to repent! We had a pious preacher who used to say us, “Beware of a death like Fādhūh’s!”
Gabriel says in a tradition: “I feared that Pharaoh117 would complete professing the creed and his repentance, so I took some of the mud (ḥāl) of the sea and struck his face with it.”—ḥāl here means “mud;” the word has eight meanings, including “mud”—So how can someone act who believes that repenting of a sin is not valid if one persists in another sin? There is neither might nor power . . .118
The Sheikh Exculpates Himself
7.1
بلغني عن مولاي الشيخ – أدام الله تأييده – أنه قال وقد ذُكِرتُ له: أعرفه خَبَرًا، هو الذي هجا أبا القاسم بن عليّ بن الحسين المغربيّ. فذلك منه – أدام الله عزّه – رائع لي، خوفًا أن يستشرّ طبعي، وأن يتصوّرني بصورة مَن يضع الكفر موضِعَ الشكر. وهو بتعريف التنكير أنفع لي عنده، لجلالة قَدره ودينه ونُسكِه، وأنا أُطلِعه طِلعَه، ليعرف خفضه ورفعه، وفُراداه وجمعه.
I have heard about my lord the