Chehel Asrar 16 - Sixteenth Ghazal

Ghazal 16

12 couplets  |  Riaz 1991, printed p. 458–459

عاشِقان عَکْسِ رُخَت دَر هَمِه اَشْیا بِینَنْد

ʿāsheqān ʿaks-e rokh-at dar hame ashyā bīnand

1a  Lovers see the reflection of your face in everything;

سِرِّ سَوْدایِ تُو دَر سینِه هُوَیْدا بِینَنْد

serr-e sowdā-ye to dar sīne hovaydā bīnand

1b  they see the secret of longing for you revealed in the breast.

Commentary on couplet 1

The lovers recognize the beloved’s reflected face throughout the world and discover their inward longing openly displayed within the breast. The two halves bring outward perception and inward awareness together: what they see everywhere also reveals what possesses them. ʿAks, reflection, establishes an image that returns explicitly as the mirror in couplet 7. Serr and hovaydā, secret and manifest, make love both intimate and disclosed. The address retains the immediacy of speaking to a beloved, while the later language of divine Names gives it a pronounced metaphysical dimension. The opening presents a transformed way of seeing whose scope includes both things and the heart that beholds them.

هَر کِرا یِک نَفَسی با تُو مُهَیّا گَرْدَد

har kerā yek nafasī bā to mohayyā gardad

2a  When anyone is granted a single moment with you,

دُو جَهان پِیشِ دَرَش عَیْشِ مُهَنّا بِینَنْد

do jahān pīsh-e dar-ash ʿaysh-e mohannā bīnand

2b  they see the delights of both worlds waiting at his door.

Commentary on couplet 2

A single breath or moment with the beloved makes the joys of both worlds appear at the fortunate person’s door. The smallness of yek nafasī contrasts with the immensity of do jahān: the value of encounter exceeds what worldly and otherworldly pleasures can offer separately. Mohayyā suggests that the moment becomes available or is made ready; the supplied translation emphasizes its being granted. The door image makes abundance seem to attend upon the lover once companionship has been received. This is love’s reversal of ordinary measures of wealth and duration. It prepares the later preference for loving pain over heavenly feasting, without requiring the poem to renounce every hope of blessedness.

خاکِ راهی کِه سَگِ کُویِ تُو بَر وَی گُذَرَد

khāk-e rāhī ke sag-e kū-ye to bar vay gozarad

3a  The dust of a road where the dog of your street has passed

توتِیایِ رَمَدِ دِیدِهٔ بِینا بِینَنْد

tūtiyā-ye ramad-e dīde-ye bīnā bīnand

3b  they see as an eye-salve for the seer's inflamed eyes. [1]

Commentary on couplet 3

The lovers value even dust touched by the beloved’s street-dog as a remedy for their troubled sight. The chain of connection is deliberately indirect: beloved, street, dog, road, dust. Yet its least prestigious end becomes precious through belonging to that place. Tūtiyā denotes a traditional substance used for the eyes; the literary transfer from ordinary dust to eye-salve intensifies this reversal of value. [7] Dīde-ye bīnā introduces a further paradox: even the seeing eye can be inflamed and need help. Spiritually, the image can suggest that insight remains dependent on humility and renewed receptivity. Its emotional foundation is the lover’s tenderness toward everything associated with the beloved.

دَرْدِ عِشْقَت کِه حِمایَت‌گَرِ هَر دَرْمانَسْت

dard-e ʿeshq-at ke hemāyatgar-e har darmānast

4a  The pain of loving you, which keeps every cure at bay, [2]

خُوش‌تَر اَز مائِدِهٔ جَنَّتِ مَأْوا بِینَنْد

khoshtar az māʾede-ye jannat-e maʾvā bīnand

4b  they find sweeter than the feast in the Garden of Refuge. [3]

Commentary on couplet 4

The lovers find the pain of loving sweeter than a feast in paradise. The first half complicates this preference through hemāyatgar: the supplied reading treats love’s pain as keeping cures away, while the familiar protective sense would make it a protector of cures. Dehkhoda records both protection and prevention under the related word ḥimāya, but this does not settle the compound’s meaning here. [7] Either way, dard and darmān, pain and remedy, place love beyond an ordinary wish for relief. Jannat al-maʾwā is Qur’anic language from 53:15. [8] The comparison measures the sweetness of attachment against the sweetness of reward; the pain matters through its relation to the beloved.

آتَشی کَز غَمِ تُو رَخْتِ دِل وُ جان سُوزَد

ātashī k-az gham-e to rakht-e del o jān sūzad

5a  The fire that burns up heart and soul's possessions in grief for you—

اَز فُرُوغِ قَبَسَش نُورِ تَجَلّی بِینَنْد

az forūgh-e qabas-ash nūr-e tajallī bīnand

5b  in the radiance of its flame they see the light of revelation.

Commentary on couplet 5

Grief kindles a fire that consumes the possessions of heart and soul, yet the lovers recognize divine disclosure within its brightness. Rakht can evoke baggage, belongings, and the furnishings of a life: the burning reaches what the inner person has gathered and claimed. Qabas, a flame or firebrand, recalls Moses seeking fire in Qur’an 20:10; tajallī recalls the divine manifestation to the mountain in 7:143. These are suggestive resonances from distinct scenes. [9] Here tajallī can be understood as divine self-disclosure, a nuance more specific than the supplied ‘revelation.’ Destruction and illumination coincide in the image: what loosens the lover’s attachments also becomes a means of seeing.

اَز وُجوهِ «سَنُرِیهِمْ» خَطِّ اَسْما خوانَنْد

az vojūh-e “sanurīhim” khatt-e asmā khānand

6a  In the aspects of “We shall show them,” they read the script of the Names; [4]

پَس بِتَحْقیق هَمِه عَیْنِ مُسَمّی بِینَنْد

pas be-tahqīq hame ʿayn-e mosammā bīnand

6b  then, in true realization, they see everything as the Named himself.

Commentary on couplet 6

The lovers first read the divine Names in the varied aspects of manifestation, then recognize the Named. Sanurīhim directly recalls Qur’an 41:53 and its promise of signs in the horizons and within human beings; the movement from Names to Named is the poem’s interpretation. [10] As supplied, the second half makes the strong claim that everything is seen as the Named himself. There is also a grammatical alternative: hame may mean ‘all the lovers,’ giving ‘they all see the very Named.’ The translation remains unchanged. Taḥqīq suggests realization or verified recognition. The couplet moves beyond resemblance toward immediate recognition of the divine referent, while its compressed syntax leaves the precise account of identity unstated.

هَرچِه هَسْت آن هَمِه آئینِهٔ ذاتَت دانَنْد

harche hast ān hame āyīne-ye zāt-at dānand

7a  They know that all that exists is a mirror of your essence;

رُویِ مَقْصود دَر آن آینِه پَیْدا بِینَنْد

rū-ye maqsūd dar ān āyīne paydā bīnand

7b  in that mirror they see the face they seek revealed.

Commentary on couplet 7

All existence becomes a mirror of the beloved’s essence, and the sought face appears within it. Dānand, ‘they know,’ reinforces the preceding claim of realization; the mirror also develops the opening reflection into an account of how the beloved becomes visible. An Akbarian comparison is illuminating: the Adam chapter of Ibn ʿArabi’s Fuṣūṣ describes divine manifestation in the form afforded by its receiving place, while retaining creation’s dependence on God. [11] On this reading, the manifestation is real, but the particular reflected form does not exhaust its divine source. The poem’s own image holds recognition and differentiation together: the lovers find the sought face through the mirror’s revealing capacity.

عُودِ جان را هَمِه شَب سوخْتِه دَر مِجْمَرِ شَوْق

ʿūd-e jān rā hame shab sūkhte dar mejmar-e showq

8a  All night they have burned the soul's aloeswood in longing's brazier;

دَمِ خُوشْبُویِ صَبا دَر دِل اَزین‌جا بِینَنْد

dam-e khoshbū-ye sabā dar del az īnjā bīnand

8b  from this they discern the fragrant breath of the dawn breeze in the heart.

Commentary on couplet 8

The soul becomes fragrant aloeswood burning through the night in a brazier of longing. The second half discovers the dawn breeze’s scent within the heart, as though the night’s inward offering had become a breath of renewal. This changes the emphasis of fire: earlier it consumed possessions, while here it releases fragrance from something precious. Showq is longing that draws the lover toward the beloved; its brazier sustains the offering across the darkness. The expression az īnjā links the sweetness discerned in the heart to that nocturnal burning. The couplet evokes sustained devotion and its subtle effects through smell, warmth, and breath, without specifying a particular ritual practice.

دَسْتِ هِمَّت بِه بَد وُ نِیکِ جَهان نَالایَنْد

dast-e hemmat be bad o nīk-e jahān nālāyand

9a  They do not soil the hand of aspiration with the world's good or bad,

چُون دِل اَز هَرچِه دُورَنگی‌سْت مُبَرّا بِینَنْد

chūn del az harche dorangīst mobarrā bīnand

9b  for they see the heart free of every trace of duplicity.

Commentary on couplet 9

The lovers keep the hand of aspiration unstained by the world’s good and bad because their hearts are free of duplicity. Hemmat names concentrated spiritual aspiration; giving it a hand makes attachment look like grasping something that leaves a mark. In context, good and bad can include favorable and adverse circumstances, while dorangī, literally two-coloredness, sharpens the ethical concern with divided loyalty and insincerity. A close parallel occurs in the Darwīshiyya printed under Hamadani’s name: aspiration is freed from anxious involvement in the prosperity and adversity of both worlds. [12] That work also insists on moral purification. The couplet’s detachment can therefore be read as integrity maintained through changing fortunes.

سالِکان توشِهٔ اِین رَه زِ فَنا ساخْتِه‌اَنْد

sālekān tūshe-ye īn rah ze fanā sākhte-and

10a  The travelers have made self-effacement their provision for this road;

دَوْلَتِ آخِرَت اَز مِحْنَتِ دُنْیا بِینَنْد

dowlat-e ākherat az mehnat-e donyā bīnand

10b  they see the fortune of the next life arising from this world's hardship.

Commentary on couplet 10

The travelers carry fanā as their provisions and recognize future blessedness through present hardship. The paradox is practical and inward: what equips them for the journey is a relinquishment of the self’s possessive claims. Fanā, self-effacement, can describe the fading of these claims in awareness of God; it need not mean the destruction of the person. In a comparative context, Ibn ʿArabi’s Kitāb al-fanāʾ distinguishes contemplation of unity from an identity that erases meaningful differences, while retaining worship and its recompense. [13] The second half gives the journey an enduring horizon. Hardship is seen through the possibility of its fruit, and the traveler’s provision changes how that hardship is borne.

دَر لِباسِ تَعَب وُ فَقْر بِدُو مِی‌نازَنْد

dar lebās-e taʿab o faqr bedū mī-nāzand

11a  Clothed in hardship and poverty, they take pride in him,

کَز پَلاسِ غَمِ اُو رُوحِ مَسیحا بِینَنْد

k-az palās-e gham-e ū rūh-e Masīhā bīnand

11b  for in the coarse sackcloth of grief for him they see the spirit of the Messiah.

Commentary on couplet 11

The lovers wear hardship and poverty like clothing, yet take pride in the beloved because grief’s coarse sackcloth discloses the spirit of the Messiah. Palās gives this poverty a rough texture, contrasting with the life and dignity recognized through it. Bedū directs their confidence toward him, rather than making their deprivation a self-sufficient achievement. Faqr can signify both material poverty and an acknowledgment of dependence before God. The Messiah introduces a promise of enlivening power: Qur’an 3:49 associates Jesus with healing and restoring life by God’s permission. [14] This is a useful scriptural context for the image, while the sackcloth remains the poem’s own way of clothing sorrow.

«حُفَّتِ الْجَنَّةُ» چُو کَرْدِه اَسْت عَلایی تَحْقیق

“ḥuffati l-jannatu” cho karde ast ʿAlāʾī tahqīq

12a  Since ʿAlāʾī has realized the truth of “Paradise is surrounded,” [5]

کَز پَیِ رَنْج وُ تَعَب گَنْجِ مُکافا بِینَنْد

k-az pay-e ranj o taʿab ganj-e mokāfā bīnand

12b  they see the treasure of recompense following pain and toil. [6]

Commentary on couplet 12

The closing name, ʿAlāʾī, enters beside a hadith whose truth has been realized: paradise is surrounded by hardships. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2822 supplies the continuation and contrasts this with the temptations surrounding hell. [15] Taḥqīq recalls the realized recognition of couplet 6, now applied to the difficulty of the path. Ranj and ganj, pain and treasure, make recompense audible through a small change of sound; toil and reward remain joined without becoming identical. The ending also qualifies the earlier preference for love’s pain over paradise: the lovers can value the relationship above its pleasures while still recognizing promised recompense. Their vision discovers a possible harvest within faithful endurance.

Reading notes

[1] 3b: Tūtiyā is a mineral eye-salve; ramad is inflammation of the eye.

[2] 4a: Dehkhoda records prevention and medical abstinence under حمایة; this older sense is provisionally read here. The usual protective sense would give “protector of every cure.”

[3] 4b: Jannat al-maʾwā, the Garden of Refuge, occurs in Qur'an 53:15.

[4] 6a: Qur'an 41:53 promises to show divine signs in the horizons and within human beings.

[5] 12a: The hadith continues “by hardships” (Sahih Muslim 2822). Arabic spelling is regularized here to الجنة from the source’s Persian الجنه; the pronunciation and meaning are unchanged. https\://sunnah.com/muslim:2822

[6] 12b: Mokāfā is the printed poetic form for recompense or requital.

Understanding this ghazal

The governing question of this ghazal is how love changes what becomes visible and what counts as wealth. Its plural lovers address a single ‘you,’ whose face appears throughout things and whose longing becomes manifest within them. The refrain bīnand, ‘they see,’ repeatedly names this altered perception. At first it finds a reflection; later it reads Names, recognizes the Named, and knows existence as a mirror. The surrounding images keep these claims close to felt life: a moment of companionship, a dusty road, an aching eye, burning wood, rough clothing, and provisions for a journey.

The central metaphysical couplets make a claim stronger than the recognition of beautiful reminders. Yet the alternative syntax of hame in couplet 6 and the mirror of couplet 7 leave room for distinguishing direct recognition from an undifferentiated identity of things. Ibn ʿArabi’s Adam chapter provides a comparative account of real divine manifestation in forms that remain dependent and limited. [11] The ghazal does not unfold all the distinctions of that account. Its claim is voiced through the lovers’ seeing and knowing, and the commentary should preserve both its boldness and its poetic compression.

The poem’s changing measures of value connect this vision with spiritual practice. Dust serves sight; grief becomes sweeter than a heavenly feast; fire both consumes and perfumes; poverty clothes a life-giving presence. These are related reversals, though each couplet gives them a different emotional texture. The Darwīshiyya printed under Hamadani’s name supplies a pertinent parallel in its account of aspiration released from anxious attachment to changing fortunes, within a discipline of moral purification. [12] Here the unstained hand and undivided heart similarly place integrity alongside heightened perception. The beloved’s visibility calls for a transformation of attachment.

The final three couplets bring the traveler, the poor lover, and the named poet into contact with hardship and promised reward. Paradise, momentarily surpassed as an object of enjoyment, returns as the destination enclosed by difficulty. The hadith makes endurance intelligible without resolving every tension between love for the beloved and desire for recompense. [15] That tension is part of the ghazal’s richness. Its final insight concerns the eye that can recognize a gift within loss: the baggage burns, yet light appears; the wood is consumed, yet its fragrance fills the heart.

Sources and textual notes

Reading notes [1]–[6] reproduce the supplied notes, including the alternative interpretation of couplet 4 and the recorded Arabic spelling regularization in couplet 12. No further change has been made to the supplied reading text. The alternative grammatical reading of hame in couplet 6 is discussed separately. The supplied edition reference is retained; this is not a new manuscript collation. References [7]–[15] support the added commentary.

7. Dehkhoda’s dictionary, tūtiyā entry hosted by Vajehyab, records its use as an eye preparation and supplies poetic examples. The ḥimāya entry hosted by Lamtakam records protection, prevention, and keeping a patient from harmful things. These lexical senses support the discussion, but the entry does not establish which sense governs hemāyatgar-e har darmān in this ghazal.
8. Qur’an 53:15, al-Najm, names jannat al-maʾwā. The feast and the comparison with love’s pain belong to the ghazal, rather than to the wording of this verse.
9. Qur’an 20:10, Ṭā Hā, uses qabas for the firebrand Moses hopes to obtain. 7:143, al-Aʿrāf, describes God’s manifestation to the mountain and Moses’ collapse. The combination of fire and tajallī in couplet 5 can evoke these distinct Mosaic scenes; the poem does not quote either scene in full.
10. Qur’an 41:53, Fuṣṣilat, begins with sanurīhim and promises signs in the horizons and within human beings. The script of the Names and recognition of the Named are the ghazal’s interpretive development. The verse’s wording should be distinguished from the stronger formulation in the supplied translation of couplet 6b.
11. Ibn ʿArabi, Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, Adam chapter, in Bülent Rauf’s English rendering, which incorporates the Ottoman Turkish commentary tradition. The opening describes manifestation through a receiving place figured as a mirror. Later passages distinguish creation’s dependent existence from God’s self-sufficiency and deny that the universe comprehends God as God comprehends Himself. Used comparatively for the relationship between manifestation and its particular forms.
12. Darwīshiyya, printed under Hamadani’s name in Muhammad Riaz, Aḥvāl o āsār o ashʿār-e Mīr Sayyid ʿAlī Hamadānī, second edition, Islamabad, 1991. Printed pp. 494–495 connect the heart’s purification with religious and ethical conduct; p. 498 describes aspiration freed from anxious attachment to prosperity and adversity in both worlds. The scans were consulted. On printed p. 486, Riaz defends Hamadani’s authorship against a competing attribution to Sayyid Muhammad Nurbakhsh; the comparison retains this reservation. Digitized Riaz edition.
13. Ibn ʿArabi, Kitāb al-fanāʾ fī-l-mushāhada, translated by Layla Shamash and Stephen Hirtenstein, Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society, 9 (1991). The translated opening distinguishes contemplation of unity from an identity that suppresses differentiated degrees. The later discussion of the divine address retains obligatory and customary worship and its recompense while describing devotion purified of bargaining for reward. This is a comparative source, not a commentary on the present poem.
14. Qur’an 3:49, Āl ʿImrān, presents Jesus as healing and restoring life by God’s permission. It supplies context for the enlivening significance of the Messiah in couplet 11; it does not describe the sackcloth used in the poem’s image.
15. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2822, Kitāb al-Janna, in-book reference Book 53, Hadith 1, reported from Anas ibn Mālik. The hadith describes paradise as surrounded by hardships and hell by temptations. Its opening is directly quoted in couplet 12. The reference and continuation supplied in reading note [5] have been verified.

The catchword at the foot of the upper page looks like هرچه, which is exactly where the lower page opens — هرچه هست آن همه آیینه ذات دانند. The two leaves follow one another, and nothing is missing between the crops.

Couplets 1–6 on the upper page sit in the printed Riaz order. The lower page runs 7, 8, 9, then 11, 12. Couplet 10, سالکان توشهٔ این ره ز فنا ساخته‌اند, does not appear between 9 and 11 in what is shown.  

The last line itself reads از پی رنج و تعب گنج مکافا بینند, where Riaz prints کز پی. Same sense and the same scansion, without the کِه. The final ی carries the two subscript dots common in Indo-Persian hands, which is what makes پی rather than پس the better reading here. That belongs in our apparatus alongside the line-order divergence from the Ghazal 15 page.