Shaykh Khircâni, who rested upon the very throne of God, one day desired aubergines. His mother, out of affection for him, demanded them with loud cries, until at last she obtained half of one. No sooner had he eaten this half-aubergine than his child’s head was cut off. When night came, a wicked man placed the head of this innocent child upon the threshold of the shaykh’s door, and he then said: “Had I not told you a thousand times, I, the wretched one,
“that, if I ever ate even a little aubergine, some fatal accident would necessarily befall me? This desire was constantly burning within my soul, and I knew not how to overcome it. He whom his desires subdue cannot breathe for a moment in the company of his soul. A terrible thing has happened to me; it is more than struggle and submission. The learned man knows nothing; his knowledge is without certainty, and you have dealings with every kind of learning. At every moment, a guest arrives. A caravan arrives, and a new trial. Although my soul has been stricken with a hundred sorrows, what it still has to endure will be keenly felt. Whoever has been manifested out of the abyss of nothingness must shed all his blood. Thousands of ardent lovers eagerly sacrifice their lives for a drop of blood shed by the object of their love. All souls are employed in shedding their blood.”
“that, if I ever ate even a little aubergine, some fatal accident would necessarily befall me? This desire was constantly burning within my soul, and I knew not how to overcome it. He whom his desires subdue cannot breathe for a moment in the company of his soul. A terrible thing has happened to me; it is more than struggle and submission. The learned man knows nothing; his knowledge is without certainty, and you have dealings with every kind of learning. At every moment, a guest arrives. A caravan arrives, and a new trial. Although my soul has been stricken with a hundred sorrows, what it still has to endure will be keenly felt. Whoever has been manifested out of the abyss of nothingness must shed all his blood. Thousands of ardent lovers eagerly sacrifice their lives for a drop of blood shed by the object of their love. All souls are employed in shedding their blood.”
The man with the fish said one day: “I was in the desert, committing myself to God, without staff or provisions. Along the way I saw forty persons, clad in the dervishes’ frock, who had breathed their last in that very place. My spirit was troubled; a fire consumed my agitated soul. At last I cried out: ‘O God! What is this that I see? What! So many holy men cast down in the dust!’ A heavenly voice then said to me: ‘We are aware of the matter. It is true, We cause these persons to perish, but We pay the price of their blood.’ I asked again: ‘How many more will Thou cause to perish thus?’ The voice replied: ‘Until I have paid the price of blood. Thus do I act. So long as the price of blood is not in My treasury, I will kill, that I may remain in mourning. I cause a person to perish and drag him through blood; I drag him, head over heels, throughout the world. After that, when the parts of his body have been effaced, when his feet and hands have been utterly lost, I show him the sun of My face and cover him with the mantle of My beauty. With his blood I tint his face rose-coloured, and make him remain in contemplation upon the dust of this road. I make him like a shadow on My path; then I show the sun of My face, and when it appears, how could a shadow remain on My path? As the shadow is nothing before the sun, it is lost in Him; but God alone knows the truth. He who has lost himself has escaped from himself; he can no longer concern himself with that: he is effaced. Speak no more, then, of effacement; surrender your soul and seek no further. I know no greater happiness for man than to lose himself.”