During my captivity, while watching from a mountain top the awe-inspiring forms of the pine, cedar, and juniper trees and the tremendous spectacle they made, a gentle breeze blew. The scene was transformed into a magnificent, delightful, and noisy display of dancing, a rapturous performance of praising and glorifying God. My enjoyment changed into watching for instruction and listening for wisdom. I recalled these Kurdish lines of Ahmed-i Jizri:

Everyone has hastened to gaze at your beauty;
they are putting on airs due to your beauty.
To express the meanings of the instruction
it derived from the scene, my heart wept as follows:
O Lord, all living creatures appear from everywhere on Earth,
which is a work of Your art, to gaze on You.
From above and below they emerge
like heralds, and cry out.
Those herald-like trees dance in pleasure
at the beauty of Your inscriptions.
Filled with delight at Your art's perfection,
they are joyful and sing sweet melodies.
It is as if the sweetness of their melodies fills them with
renewed joy and makes them sway coyly.
At last they have started dancing and are seeking ecstasy.
Through the work of Divine Mercy,
all living creatures receive instruction in
the glorification and prayer particular to each.
After receiving instruction, each tree stands
on a high rock and raises its head toward the Divine Throne.
Each, like Shahbaz-i Kalender,[1]
stretches out hundreds of hands to the Divine Court
and assumes an imposing position of worship.
They make their twigs curl like dancing love-locks,
and arouse fine ardor and exalted pleasures
in those who are watching.
As if their feelings were stirred up,
they sing touching love songs at a high pitch.

A meaning comes to mind: They recall the weeping caused by the painful fading of metaphorical love (human love for the opposite sex) and deeply touching sighs. They make audible the melancholy songs that lovers sing at their beloveds' grave. They seem to make the eternal tunes and sorrowful voices heard by the dead, who no longer hear worldly voices and words. The spirit understands from this that things respond with glorification to the manifestation of the Majestic Maker's Names; they perform a graceful chant.

The heart derives the meaning of Divine Unity from these trees, each of which is like an embodied verse from the exalted, miraculous composition. In other words, there is so wonderful an order, art, and wisdom in their creation, that if all "natural causes" could do whatever they wished, they could not imitate them even if they joined all their forces. On seeing this, the soul thinks that Earth is revolving in a clamorous tumult of separation and seeks an enduring pleasure. It has received the meaning: "You will find it by abandoning your adoration of the world."

From such chanting, the mind discerns a most meaningful order of creation, inscriptions of wisdom, and treasury of secret truths. It concludes that everything glorifies the All-Majestic Maker. The desirous soul receives such pleasure from the murmuring air and whispering leaves that it forgets mundane pleasures, the basis of its life, and seeks to realize self-annihilation in this pleasure of truth.

The imagination beholds the scene as if appointed angels were embodied in each tree, and each branch held many flutes. It is as though the Eternal Monarch has clothed these angels for a magnificent parade to the sounds of countless flutes. The trees show themselves to be conscious and meaningful. The flutes' tunes are pure and touching, as if issuing from an elevated heavenly orchestra. The mind does not hear the sorrowful wails of separation that all lovers, including primarily Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi, hear; rather, it hears the grateful thanks offered to the Ever-Living, Self-Subsistent One for His Mercy, and praises for His sustaining.

Since the trees are bodies and their leaves are tongues, a breeze makes each tree to recite with its thousands of tongues: "He, He." As the glorification and praise of their lives, they proclaim their Maker to be Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent. All things form a universal circle to proclaim God's Unity: "There is no deity but God," and perform their duties. In the tongue of disposition, they often declare "O God," and ask for what they need from the treasury of Mercy. Through the tongue of being favored with life, they continuously recite His Name: "O Ever-Living One."

O Ever-Living, O Self-Subsistent One. For the sake of Your Names, the Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent, endow this wretched heart with life, and show this confused mind the right direction. Amin.

[1] Shahbaz-i Kalender: A famous hero who, through the guidance of 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, took refuge at the Divine Court and achieved the rank of sainthood.