my friend...
Another example is Bediuzzaman's famous `Gurbet' letter. There is no direct equivalent for the word `gurbet' in English; it denotes the idea of being away from home, exile, and strangeness, and has long been a muchworked theme in the literatures of the Islamic lands. After starting in his customary way, Bediuzzaman writes:
"My hard-working brothers, zealous friends, and means of consolation in these lands of exile known as the world!
"...These last two or three months I have been very much alone. Sometimes once every two or three weeks I have a guest with me. The rest of the time I am alone. And for nearly three weeks now there have been none of those working in the mountains near me; they have all dispersed...
"One night in these strange mountains, silent and alone amid the moumful sighing of the trees, I saw myself in five exiles of different hues.
"The first: due to old age, I was alone and a stranger away from the great majority of my friends, relations, and those close to me; I felt a sad exile at their having left me and departed for the Intermediate Realm [the grave]. Then another sphere of exile was opened within this one: I felt a sad sense of separation and exile at most of the beings to which I was attached, like last spring, having left me and departed. And a further sphere of exile opened up within this, which was that I had fallen apart from my native land and relations, and was alone. I felt a sense of separation and exile arising from this too. Then through that, the lonesomeness of the night and the mountains made me feel another pitiable exile. And then I saw my spirit in an overwhelming exile, which had been prepared to journey to eternity both from this exile and from the transitory guest-house of this world. I said to myself suddenly, My God, how can these exiles and layers of darkness be borne? My heart cried out:
"My Lord! I am a stranger, I have no one, I am weak,
I am powerless, I am impotent, I am old;