The Republic of Rumi: A Novel of Reality
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The Republic of Rumi: a Novel of Reality

Chapter 66

Zurvan


By Khurram Ali Shafique

The Prophet once said, “I have a time with God to which no angel is privy.”

Prologue on Earth

The evening sky is adorned with many hues, but Iqbal is feeling sad because he is not immortal. He sings a ghazals from Rumi – the same from which Rumi quoted at the entrance of the first enclave:

I said, “What we have sought is never attained.”
He said, “I seek that which is unattainable.”

The spirit of Rumi appears and addresses Iqbal:

“Are you in the stage of life, death or death-in-life? Invoke three witnesses to verify your Station. The first witness is your own consciousness: see yourself with your own light. The second witness is the consciousness of another ego: see yourself, then, with the light of an ego other than you. The third witness is God’s consciousness: see yourself, then, with God’s light. If you stand unshaken in front of this light, consider yourself as living and eternal as He! That person alone is real who dares – dares to see God face to face.”

The master’s speech evokes an epiphany in Iqbal’s soul. Heaven becomes immersed in a cloud of light that belongs neither to the East nor to the West but is rather between them. An angel descends.

The angel is Zurvan, the guardian spirit of Time and Space. One side of his face is fire, illuminated like star and adorned with a wakeful eye. The other resembles smoke, dark as night and adorned with an eye fast asleep. His wings are colorful, his temperament is like the flight of imagination and in one breath he travels between heaven and the earth, soaring in a new atmosphere every moment.

He addresses Iqbal:

“The human being and the angel are both in bondage to me. I am every rose that you pluck from the branch and I am the matrix of every thing that you see. Only a hero who has in his heart ‘I have a time with God’ can break free from my spell.”

The Garden begins to change – either the sight is opening on another world or this same world is taking another form. The Poet dies in his world and the thread of his life gets snapped. His soul trembles at the loss of a world but then another world blossoms out of his dust. It is a world without tumult and clamor. His body becomes nimbler, his soul more adventurous and his inward eye more wakeful. Hidden things become unveiled and thus the song of the stars reaches his ears. They are welcoming him: “Welcome to this side of the world of dimensions…”

You may notice that this is the beginning of the third zone.

Marker of the Beginning of the Third Zone

I know that the veils will be lifted one day,
But do not think that the soul will stop writhing.

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‘Prologue on Earth’ in which the spirit of Rumi invites Iqbal on a spiritual journey in search of immortality and the guardian angel of Time and Space appears.
Persian text


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