English
Number 25
What the heart and soul long for is right here, within heart and soul;
but the soul that stays unaware of itself is lost and heedless.
My heart searches for the Beloved's home with all its heart and soul,
unaware that the Beloved already dwells inside that very heart and soul.
That heart and soul make their home amid water and clay,
though their true dwelling lies beyond this realm of dust and mud.
This hidden treasure was granted to every person within themselves,
yet each one's own secret is a hard riddle sealed against them.
It is all one ocean, and that ocean is our very self,
but our sense of self stands as a veil between us and the sea.
Only the one who drowns in the sea has eyes that truly see it;
whoever stays on the shore sees nothing but the shapes of the waves.
No one who merely reflects the sea is complete in either world;
know that only the one who becomes the sea itself is the perfect man.
The whole world is nothing but the shadow of the light of Being;
turn your face away from the world, for a shadow soon fades.
If you are wise, choose the shadow that leans on the sun;
no one truly wise would trade the sun for a mere shadow.
It is not fitting for one who walks the straight path
to lean toward whatever the crowd happens to desire.
Since you have learned that truth is being and falsehood is nothing,
follow the truth and turn away from all that is false.
The point of oneness is the very heart of unity, the ocean of Being;
it belongs to whoever arrives at the line of justice.
Do you know what stands between the soul and the Beloved, Maghrebi?
A meeting point that gathers all: an imagined line, a dividing edge.