Who attains the secret of unity?

The one who does not stop till he gets there.

What is the understanding of one that is a knower?

Most of Shabistari’s answer to question 5 is really about knowing – and for that you have to purify yourself bodily, spiritually, in habits (which become your character, cf #11), and by shedding self-awareness. The first two are obvious areas for attention. The third is interesting, potentially lost in the second but it gives a way forward that has an opportunity to change at almost every moment.

The fourth is back to that business of the (human) self that was raised in question 3. Again, Shabistari does not seem to be saying “destroy” your psyche, your sense of self which holds the narrative thread of life and the consciousness that allows you to know, and, through you, God to know Himself. Rather, he seems to be saying to pay no attention to it (couplet 404): to become effectively unconscious of it, and not to prize it or think that anything is due to it. Not recognition, not reward, not admiration – these are effectively what the “young Christian” (Whinfield’s pir or spiritual guide) told Shabistari he had sought through his study (question 15, couplet 988). Conversely, and equally, not slighting, not punishment, not contempt. To return to question 15, the young Christian did not slight, punish, or despise Shabistari but invited him to drink the draught that would make him forget himself and open himself to unity and bliss.

Effectively, while we maintain a sense of our individual self, we are “other” than Him, and there is no “other”. It makes no difference if we plume or debase ourselves – both get in the way. When we see ourselves, we reserve ourselves apart. That’s all.

So this connects with what Shabistari said in relation to question 3, that our apparently individual selves are nothing but artifacts of the universal “I” that is God. Once we have assimilated that, whatever seems to be the case about ourselves becomes unimportant: it is merely a lense, or a directed eye. In question 15, this is how Shabistari treats his own self. He is no longer interested in it beyond its record of the experience that allows him to answer Amir Hosaini’s questions (couplets 984–999).