[180] The original text has here باعتبار امر ادمى ba itibár-i-amr âdemí. Itibar has in the Dictionary, among other significations, that of “reasoning or computing by comparison; considering with attention; calculating properly,” which appears to me the only meaning applicable in this place; ba itibar may perhaps here be better interpreted by “in the acceptation (assumption) of.” This word occurs twice with امور, amur (the plural of amr), in the following important passage of Gulshen raz:
وجود اندر كالش حويش ساريست
تعينها امور اعتباريست
امور اعتبارى نيست موجود
عدو بسيار و يكجيزست معدود
جهانرا نيست هستى جز مجازي
سراسر حال او لهوست و بازي
Baron von Hammer interprets amúri itibarí by “Gegenstande der Erscheinung,” that is “objects of appearance;” I dare differ somewhat in the expression, but not in the meaning of these words: “Existence manifests itself (see p. 222, [note 9]) in its own place; things perceived by senses are mere objects of acceptation; things of acceptation are not real. There are many numbers, but one only is numbered (that is, numbers are only one unit, repeatedly employed). The world has no existence but as a metaphoric image: its state is entirely a farce and a play.”
[181] Bastam is a town of Khorassan, the native place of Abu Yezid Taifer ben Issa, one of the most celebrated Súfis of Persia. He had inherited the frock of another mystical personage, called Habib Ajemi. Bastami attained the supreme degree of spirituality—perfect union with God. He occasionally branched out into all the enthusiasm imaginable, saying that God was with him and near him, nay in the sleeve of his garment; and then again he came at times into the regular order of piety and devotion, hoping that God would forgive him his sins, and let his latter end be that of the righteous. It is said of him (see the third Majalis, “conference,” of Sâdi) that, having once called out to God for union with the supreme Being, he heard the voice from above: “Abu Yezid, thy thou is still with thee; if thou wilt come to me, abandon thyself and come.” He died in the year of the Hejira 261 (A. D. 874).—(See Transact. of the Lit. Soc. of Bombay, vol. I. p. 100; Malcolm’s Hist. of Persia, p. 395; Pend nameh, edit. and transl. by Silvestre de Sacy, p. 231.)
[182] Silvestre de Sacy, in the translation of a part of the Definitions of Jorjáni, gives the following note as translated from the Persian (see Notices et Extraits des MSS., vol. X. p. 67): “The Súfis declare that every time is the turn of the manifestation of a name (divine); when the turn of this name is terminated, it conceals itself under another name, for which the turn of denomination is arrived. The periods of the seven planets, each of one thousand years, are attached to it; and the words of the Koran, speaking of God: “Every day he is in action, indicate it; because one day of thy Lord is equivalent to one thousand years of yours. Verse. O thou whose light manifests itself in the vest of the world, thy names are manifested in the nature of man; thy science shows itself by the science of (Muhammed) the seal (of prophets); thy bounty is manifested by the bounty of khatem (the seal). The divine names are distinct forms, which are called aâyan sabitah, “fixed realities."—Extracted from the Diván of Alí.)