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The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, by Ibn al-Arabi, tr. Reynold A. Nicholson, [1911], at sacred-texts.com


XXXVI

1. O earth of the Highland, mayst thou be a blessed highland! May the rain-clouds water thee abundantly with shower on shower!

p. 121

2. And may he who has greeted thee for fifty years greet thee once and twice and then once again!

3. I crossed every desert and wilderness to meet her, riding on the big-humped she-camel and the old dromedary,

4. Until the lightning shone from the direction of al-Ghaḍá, and its coming in the night has increased the passion that I felt before.

COMMENTARY

1. 'O earth of the Highland,' i.e. the understanding in the corporeal world.

'The rain-clouds', i.e. Divine Knowledge.

2. 'He who has greeted thee,' i.e. the Truth, which bestows spiritual gifts.

3. 'I crossed every desert and wilderness,' i.e. I suffered austerities and mortifications of the flesh.

'The big-humped she-camel,' i.e. the religious law.

'The old dromedary,' i.e. the matured and experienced mind.

4. 'The lightning,' i.e. the luminous radiance of the most inaccessible veil of the Divine glory.

'Al-Ghaḍá,' phenomenal existence.

'Coming in the night,' i.e. in the darkness of the phenomenal world.


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