Chapter 8

Now the New Year reviving old Desires, The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires, Where the White Hand of Moses on the Bough Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires.

The metaphors here refer to white blossoms and the perfumes of spring.

31 Qur'an 16:126.

32 Qur'an 24:35.

_ 33 Dh_u'l-Awtad is variously rendered by translators of the Qur'an as The Impaler, The Contriver of the Stakes, The Lord of a Strong Dominion, The One Surrounded by Ministers, etc. Awtad means pegs or tent stakes. See Qur'an 38:11 and 89:9.

34 Qur'an 20:46.

35 Qur'an 33:63: "Men will ask Thee of 'the Hour.' Say: The knowledge of it is with God alone." Cf. also 22:1, "the earthquake of the Hour," etc. See also Matthew 24:36, 42, etc. To Baha'is, this refers to the Advent of the Bab and Baha'u'llah.

36 Cf. the Islamic confession of faith, sometimes called the two testimonies: "I testify that there is no God but God and Muhammad is the Prophet of God."

37 Cf. Qur'an 27:20 ff.

38 Qur'an 12:44; 21:5.

39 Qur'an 24:39.

40 1875 A.D.

41 The foregoing paragraph, together with the later paragraph beginning "A few, unaware of the power latent in human endeavor," was translated by Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Baha'i Faith. Cf. The World Order of Baha'u'llah, pp. 37-38.

42 Sasaniyan king who reigned 531-578 A.D.

43 i.e., the whole world.

44 Sa'di, The Gulistan, On the Conduct of Kings.

45 Qur'an 17:84.

46 The poet Sana'i.

47 Rumi, The Ma_th_navi, III, 4229-4231.

48 Qur'an 2:24.

49 Qur'an 8:64.

50 See Rumi, The Ma_th_navi, II, 185 and 189. Also the Hadi_th_: "God created the creatures in darkness, then He sprinkled some of His Light upon them. Those whom some of that Light reached took the right way, while those whom it missed wandered from the straight road." Cf. R. A. Nicholson's "The Ma_th_nawi of Jalalu'ddin Rumi" in the E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Series.

51 Qur'an 24:35.

52 Qur'an 2:58.

53 Qur'an 17:4 ff.

54 The King James Bible reads: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy." Scholars object to this reading because it is contrary to the known Law as set forth in Leviticus 19:18, Exodus 23:4-5, Proverbs 25:21, the Talmud, etc.

55 Cf. 'Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, ch. LXXXIV, and Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 385. See also Galen on Jews and Christians by Richard Walzer, Oxford University Press, 1949, p. 15. The author states that Galen's summary here referred to is lost, being preserved only in Arabic quotations.

56 From Qur'an 4:114; 2:207, etc

57 Qur'an 39:69.

58 The Persian text transliterates this author's name as "Draybar" and titles his work The Progress of Peoples. The reference is apparently to John William Draper, 1811-1882, celebrated chemist and widely-translated historian. Detailed material on Muslim contributions to the West, and on Gerbert (Pope Sylvester II) appears in the second volume of the work cited. Of some of Europe's systematically unacknowledged obligations to Islam the author writes: "Injustice founded on religious rancour and national conceit cannot be perpetuated for ever." (Vol. II, p. 42, Rev. ed.) The Dictionary of American Biography states that Draper's father was a Roman Catholic who assumed the name John Christopher Draper when disowned by his family for becoming a Methodist, and that his real name is unknown. The translator is indebted to Mr. Paul North Rice, Chief of the New York Public Library's Reference Department, for the information that available data on Draper's family history and nationality are in conflict; The Drapers in America by Thomas Waln-Morgan (1892) states that Draper's father was born in London, while Albert E. Henschel in "Centenary of John William Draper" (New York University "Colonnade," June, 1911) has the following: "If there be among us any who trace their lineage to the sunny fields of Italy, they may feel a just pride in John William Draper, for his father, John C. Draper, was an Italian by birth..."

The translator's thanks are also due to Madame Laura Dreyfus-Barney for investigations in connection with this passage at the Library of Congress and the Bibliotheque Nationale.

59 Qur'an 3:110.

60 Qur'an 3:100.

61 Qur'an 16:92.

62 Qur'an 7:198.

63 Qur'an 3:128.

64 Qur'an 2:172.

65 Qur'an 59:9.

66 Qur'an 2:203.

67 Qur'an 42:36.

68 Qur'an 3:153.

69 Qur'an 17:14.

70 Qur'an 59:9.

71 Qur'an 23:14: "Blessed therefore be God, the most excellent of Makers."

72 Qur'an 17:31; 110.

73 Rumi, The Ma_th_navi, II 2:277. The next line is:

A garden close, if that thought be a rose, But if it be a thorn, then only fit to burn.

74 From the lines: "Attar has passed through the seven cities of love, and we are still at the first bend in the road."

75 Qur'an 26:84.