Where Are We?

Mustafa himself said that every prophet, whether young or old, tended sheep. Without shepherding and that test, God did not grant them leadership of the world. When asked, "Did you also, O champion?" he replied, "I too have been a shepherd for a time." To reveal their dignity and patience, God made them shepherds before prophethood. Any leader who shepherds people does so with focus and care. Like Moses, he brings wisdom and prudence to his flock. Therefore, God grants him spiritual leadership, as He elevated the prophets from shepherding to guiding the pure. O master, in your shepherding, you did what would blind your status. I know that there, in God's recompense, He will grant you eternal leadership. In hope of your generosity like the sea, in fulfilling your duties, I borrowed nine thousand in extravagant gold. Where are you to ease this pain? Where are you to smile like the garden and say, "Take this and much more from me"? Where are you to make me smile, to show kindness and generosity like the lords? Where are you to take me to your treasury, to free me from debt and poverty? I say enough, and you are generous, saying, "Take this too for my heart." How can the world fit under clay, how can the sky fit on earth? By God, you are beyond this world, both in life and now. In the air of the unseen, a bird flies, its shadow casting on the ground. The body is the shadow of the shadow of the heart; how can the body match the heart's stature? The sleeping man's soul is like the sun, shining in the sky while the body is in the garment of sleep. The soul is hidden in the void like a seam, the body turns under the quilt. The soul, as my Lord's command, is hidden; any example I give is inadequate. Oh wonder, where is your sweet-tongued ruby, and your pleasant answers and secrets? Oh wonder, where is that sugar-like agate, that key to our difficult locks? Oh wonder, where is that breath like Zulfiqar, that made minds restless? How long like a dove seeking a nest, where, where, where, where, where, where? Where is the place of mercy's attributes, power, delight, and intelligence? Where is the place where the heart and thought were always like a lion and its forest? Where is the place where the hope of men and women goes in times of sorrow and grief? Where is the place where, in times of illness, the eye looks with hope for health? The place where, to repel ugliness, you seek wind for planting and sailing. The place where the heart points, as the tongue or "Ya Hu" expresses. He is with God without saying "where, where," I wish I could say "weave" like a weaver. Where is our intellect to see the west and east, the spirits striking with a hundred kinds of lightning?