The Seventeenth Word

 

First table

(NOTE: About 25 years ago on Yusa Tepesi in Beykoz, Istanbul, when I had decided to renounce the world, several important friends came to call me back to the world and my former position. I told them to leave me till the following morning so I could seek Divine guidance. That morning the following two “Tables,” occurred to me. They resemble verse, but they are not. I have not changed them for the sake of that blessed memory. They are included here for they are appropriate.)

 

(A depiction of the true spirit of the heedless people’s world.)

Do not invite me to the world,

I came and found it evil and mortal.

 

Heedlessness was a veil;

I saw the light of truth concealed.

 

All things, the whole of creation—

I saw were mortal and full of harm.

 

Existence, indeed I put it on.

Alas! It was non-existence; I suffered much.

 

As for life, I experienced it;

I saw it was torment within torment.

 

Intellect became pure retribution;

I saw permanence to be tribulation.

 

Life was like a wind, it passed in whims;

I saw perfection to be pure loss.

 

Actions were only for show;

I saw ambition to be pure pain.

 

Union was in fact separation;

I saw the cure to be the ailment.

 

These lights became darkness;

I saw these friends to be orphans.

 

These voices were announcements of death;

I saw the living to be dead.

 

Knowledge changed into whim;

I saw in science thousands of ailments.

 

Pleasure became unmixed pain;

I saw existence to be compounded non-existence.

 

I have found the True Beloved;

Ah, I suffered much pain because of separation.

 

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi