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Fruit of Paradise - Two Very Great Angels

Two Very Great Angels

Tags: Universal Intellect, Universal Soul

(Translated from Pir Nasir-i Khusraw's Dīwān)

Above the seven spheres there are two pearls¹
The light of both illumines the world and mankind are illumined.
In the placenta of non-existence from the sperm of existence
They make pictures but themselves have no picture.
They are not sensibles and are not contained in senses
They are not visible because they are neither dark nor bright.
They are brought up in eternity by the holy wet-nurse
They are not pearls but have the attributes of pearl.
From this side of creation and that side of the universe
Within and beyond time they are together.
They are not in the world and are also in it.
They are not within us but bring up the soul in our bodies.
It is said that they are both the worlds and therefore
They are in seven climes but not in seven climes.
This one is the Holy Spirit and that one is the Spirit of Jibril
They are flying angels but do not have any (physical) wings.
With open wings they are in the nest of the lower world without wings
They fly on the nest of the higher world without wings.
With the hot and the cold and the dry and the wet of the world
They are friends as are earth and air with water and fire.
In the treasure house of pre-eternity and in the treasury of post-eternity
They are not pearls but have the name of pearl.
They are both the world and mankind and Hell and Paradise
They are both present and absent and poison and sugar.
They are from light to darkness, from apogee to perigee
From the west to the east, from ocean to land.
They are existent and non-existent, hidden and manifest
Therefore they are without and with you in the same house.
In the next world which is their workshop
They are destroyers of the building and the builders.
They give sustenance to the five senses and the four natures
They are the cooks of the nine spheres and the seven planets.
There are ten observers around their residence
Of them five are inside and five at the door.
In front of them are both the shopkeepers of heaven
Standing and they buy what they sell.
They are with the king with ten heads, six faces and seven eyes
With four adversaries in the same house.
They are not substance for substance takes accident from them
They have made an axis for accident but they are not axes.
They read to you the book of secrets without letters
They know your deeds without seeing them.
They appeared because of the fact that they are hidden
They are without body and without a head because they are in the body and in the head.
It is their attribute that they are not contained in the world
Yet they are hidden in our body and head.
That place they have made a place for you
Otherwise which place! They are above the place.
They came to you from a place which is not a place
There they are angels, here they are Messengers.
In attributes they are higher than the rank of the angelic world
Like the essence of God, they are neither element nor substance.
Even though both the worlds are the possessions of this and that
If you wish, they are subjugated to your soul.

¹By two pearls are meant the Universal Intellect and the Universal Soul, who are two very great angels.

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