Farid Ud-Din Attar - The Valley of Gnosis

art Rassouli

The Valley of Gnosis has neither beginning nor end.
No other road is like the road which is hidden therein,
nor any road there like any other road there,
but the traveller in the body is other than the traveller in the spirit.
Soul and body are for ever in a state of deficiency or perfection
according to their strength and weakness.
Therefore, of necessity, the road is revealed to each one
according to his capacity for that revelation.
On this road, trodden by Abraham, the friend of God,
how could the feeble spider be a companion to the elephant ?
The progress of each will be in accordance with his spiritual state.
Though the gnat were to fly with all its might, could it ever equal the perfection of the wind ?
Since, then there are different ways of making the journey, no two birds will fly alike.
Each finds a way of his own, on this road of mystic knowledge,
one by means of the Mihrab and another through the idols.
When the Sun of Gnosis shines forth from the heaven above,
on to this most blessed road, each is enlightened according to his capacity
and finds his own place in the knowledge of the Truth.