my to-day and my to-morrow, namely, the Shaykh, the exempl?r for them that know God and the leader of them that possess right guidance and certainty, the helper of humankind, the trusted keeper of (their) hearts and consciences, the charge deposited by God amongst His creatures, and His choice amongst His creation, and (the object of) His injunctions to His Prophet and (of) His secrets (imparted) to His chosen one, the key of the treasuries of the empyrean, the trustee of the riches stored in the earth, the father of virtues, the Sword (Ḥusám) of the Truth and Religion, Hasan son of Muhammad son of al-Hasan, enerally known as Ibn Akhi Turk, the Aba Yazid of the time, the Junayd of the age, the entirely veracious son of an entirely veracious sire and grandsire[1]—may God be well-pleased with him and with them!—a native of Urmiya, tracing his descent to the Shaykh who is honoured for having said, ‘In the evening I was a Kurd, and in the morning I was an Arab.’ May God sanctify his soul and the souls of his successors! How goodly is the ancestor and how goodly the successor!
His is a lineage upon which the sun hath cast its mantle, and a renown of ancestry before which the stars have dimmed their beams. Their (his family’s) courtyard hath ever been Fortune's cynosure (qibla), whither turn the sons of the (spiritual) rulers, and Hope's Ka‘ba which is circumambulated by deputations of the suitors for bounty; and may it never cease to be thus, so long as a star rises and an orient sun oe above the horizon, to the end that it may be a fastness for the godly, spiritual, heavenly, super-celestial, illuminated ones who possess (mystical) insight, the silent ones who behold, the absent ones who are present, the kings beneath threadbare garments, the nobles of the nations, the owners of excellences, the luminaries who display the (Divine) evidences. Amen, O Lord of all created beings! An this is a prayer that will not be rejected, for it is a eon that includes fin its benefits) all classes of the creation. Glory be to God, the Lord of all created beings, and God bless the best of His creatures, Mohammed, and his kin, the noble, pure!”
- ↑ Literally, “a ṣiddiq, the son of a ṣiddiq (who was) the son of the ṣiddiq,”
