Sa’aduddin Mahmud Shabistari

Sa’aduddin Mahmud Shabistari was born in Shabistar, a village near Tabriz, in the province of Azerbaijan. His life is not that thoroughly chronicled, and we find a few references only in the noted works of the classical Sufis. It appears that he was born in the middle of the seventh century of the Hegira [1250 AD] and that he died at Tabriz, where he spent most of his life devoted to mystical teaching. The most famous of his written works is the Gulshan-i-Raz which was composed in 1317 AD, in answer to fifteen questions on the doctrines of the Sufis. In addition to this he is also the author of Haq-ul-Yaqin and Risala-i-Shahid.

Below we find some selections from the Gulshan-i-Raz.

• He is a perfect man who in all perfection does the work of a slave inspite of his lordliness.
• Your being is naught but thorns and weeds, cast it all clean away from you. Go sweep out the chamber of your heart, make it ready to be the dwelling place of the Beloved. When you depart, He will enter; In you, void of yourself, will He display His beauty.
• He that is born blind believes not what you say of colours, though you show him instances and proofs for a century. White and yellow and red and dark and light green are naught to him but darkest black. See the plight of one blind from his birth, can he ever gain sight from the physician’s eye salve? Reason cannot see the state of the world to come, as a man born blind cannot see things in this world.
• Verily "I am The Truth" is a revelation of absolute mystery; Save the Truth who can say "I am The Truth"? All the atoms of the world , like Mansur, you will take to be drunken and heavy with wine; Continually are they singing this song of praise, continually dwelling on this mystic verity. If you desire that its meaning may be clear to you, then read the text, "All praise Allah". When you have carded "self"as cotton, you, like the "wool carder", will raise this cry. [Mansur Hallaj was the mystic who was put to death in Baghdad in 309. A.H for having said "Anal Haqq" I am The Truth. "Hallaj" means wool-carder.]
• Friendship with Him is estrangement from self. When the contingent wipes off the dust of contingency, nothing remains save Necessary Being.
• A world dwells in the heart of a millet-seed. In the wing of a gnat is the ocean of life; In the pupil of an eye the heaven. What though the corn-grain of the heart be small, it is a station for the Lord of both worlds to dwell therein.
• Of Tavern-Haunters. [In mystical terminology Tavern signifies Unity and the Tavern-haunters would be the ones who have attained to the station of Unity].

To be a haunter of taverns is to be freed from self, self-regard is paganism, even if it be in righteousness. They have brought you news from the tavern that unification is shaking off relations. The tavern is of the world that has no similitude. It is the place of lovers that care not. The tavern is the nest of the bird of the soul. The tavern is the sanctuary that has no place. In His desert the world is as a mirage. This desert has no end or limit. No man has seen its beginning or its end. Though you wander about in it for a hundred years, you will find there neither yourself, nor "other". They that dwell therein are headless and footless; they are neither faithful nor infidels. The wine of alienation from self has got to their heads; they have renounced alike evil and good. Each has drunk wine without lips or palate. Each has cast away thought of name and fame, talk of marvels, of visions, of "states", dreams of secret chambers, of lights, of signs. All through the smell of these dregs have they cast away. Through tasting this self-annihilator they are lying drunken. Pilgrim’s staff, cross, and rosary, and dentifrice, all have they given as ransom for these dregs. Falling and rising again in the midst of water and clay [the delight of union and the void of separation] shedding blood from their eyes for tears. Now raised by intoxication to the world of bliss, stretching their necks as racers. Now with blackened faces beholding the wall, now with reddened faces impaled on the stake. Now in the mystic dance of Joy in the Beloved, losing head and foot like the revolving heavens. In every strain which they hear from the minstrel comes to them rapture from the unseen world. The mystic song is not those mere words and sound, for in every note thereof lies a precious mystery. Putting off from their head the tenfold cloak [the external and internal senses], being extracted from every colour and smell; and washing off in that pure well racked wine, all colour, black, and green and blue.

Drinking one cup of that pure wine, and thence being cleansed from qualities they become "Sufis"; Sweeping the filth of dung-heaps from off their souls, telling not a hundredth part of what they see, grasping the skirts of drunkards, wearied of teachership and discipleship. What are devotion and piety? What hypocrisy are these? What are teachership and discipleship? What bonds are these? If your face be still set towards great and small; idols, girdles and Christianity are meet for you.