Page:A Moslem seeker after God - showing Islam at its best in the life and teaching of al-Ghazali, mystic and theologian of the eleventh century (IA moslemseekeraft00zwem).pdf/153



Think not this corpse before you myself:

That corpse is mine, but it is not I.

I am an undying life, and this is not my body,

Many years my house and my garment of change;

I am the bird, and this body was my cage,

I have wing d my flight elsewhere, and left it for

a token.

I am the pearl, and this my shell, Broken open and abandon d to worthlessness; I am the treasure, and this was a spell Thrown over me, till the treasure was released in

truth.

Thanks be to God, who has delivered me, And has assign d me a lasting abode in the highest. There am I now the day conversing with the happy, And beholding face to face unveiled Deity; Contemplating the Mirror wherein I see and read Past and present, and whatever remains to be. Food and drink too are mine, yet both are one; Mystery known to him who is worthy to know. It is not " wine sweet of taste " that I drink; No, nor " water," but the pure milk of a mother. Understand my meaning aright, for the secret Is signified by words of symbol and figure, I have journey d on, and left you behind; How could I make an abode of your halting-stage? Ruin then my house and break my cage in pieces, And let the shell go perish with kindred illusions; Tear my garment, the veil once thrown over me; Then bury all these, and leave them alike for I go. Deem not death death, for it is in truth Life of lives, the goal of all our l