In Mahmoud Shabestari's *Golshan-e Raz*, the 'Idol' (بت - Bot) is utilized as a profound Sufi metaphor representing love, unity, and the manifestation of the Divine. Rather than signifying literal polytheism, Shabestari argues that because all of existence is a manifestation of the Absolute Being, the idol is also a reflection of that divine reality. He provocatively asserts that if a true Muslim understood the esoteric essence of the idol, they would recognize that true religion lies in this 'idol-worship'—which, in the Sufi context, means recognizing and worshipping the One Divine Reality as it manifests across all forms in the universe.

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بت اینجا مظهر عشق است و وحدت 
بود زنار بستن عقد خدمت
چو کفر و دین بود قائم به هستی 
شود توحید عین بت پرستی
چو اشیا هست هستی را مظاهر 
از آن جمله یکی بت باشد آخر
نکو اندیشه کن ای مرد عاقل 
که بت از روی هستی نیست باطل
بدان که ایزد تعالی خالق اوست 
ز نیکو هر چه صادر گشت نیکوست
وجود آنجا که باشد محض خیر است 
وگر شری است در وی آن ز غیر است
مسلمان گر بدانستی که بت چیست 
بدانستی که دین در بت پرستی است
وگر مشرک ز بت آگاه گشتی 
کجا در دین خود گمراه گشتی
ندید او از بت الا خلق ظاهر 
بدین علت شد اندر شرع کافر
تو هم گر زو ببینی حق پنهان 
به شرع اندر نخوانندت مسلمان
ز اسلام مجازی گشت بیزار 
که را کفر حقیقی شد پدیدار
درون هر بتی جانی است پنهان 
به زیر کفر ایمانی است پنهان
همیشه کفر در تسبیح حق است 
و «ان من شیء» گفت اینجا چه دق است
چه می گویم که دور افتادم از راه 
«فذرهم بعد ما جائت قل الله»
بدان خوبی رخ بت را که آراست 
که گشتی بت پرست ار حق نمی خواست
هم او کرد و هم او گفت و هم او بود 
نکو کرد و نکو گفت و نکو بود
یکی بین و یکی گوی و یکی دان 
بدین ختم آمد اصل و فرع ایمان
نه من می گویم این بشنو ز قرآن 
تفاوت نیست اندر خلق رحمان

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## English translation
The idol here is the manifestation of love and unity,
And binding the girdle is the covenant of service.
Since both infidelity and faith are sustained by Being,
Unity becomes the very essence of idol-worship.
Since all things are manifestations of Being,
Of those, at last, one is the idol.
Ponder well, O wise man,
For the idol, in respect of existence, is not void.
Know that the Lord Almighty is its creator,
And whatever proceeds from the good is good.
Existence, wherever it is, is pure good,
And if there is any evil, it is from the 'other'.
If the Muslim but knew what the idol is,
He would know that religion lies in idol-worship.
And if the polytheist were aware of the idol,
Where would he have gone astray in his religion?
He saw in the idol nothing but the external creation,
For this reason, in the religious law, he became an infidel.
If you, too, see the hidden Truth within it,
You will not be called a Muslim by the religious law.
He became weary of metaphorical Islam,
To whom real infidelity was revealed.
Within every idol, a soul is hidden,
Beneath infidelity, a faith is hidden.
Infidelity is forever glorifying the Truth,
What is the difficulty here in the saying: 'And there is nothing...'?
What am I saying? I have wandered far from the path:
'So leave them' after 'Say, God.'
Who adorned the face of the idol with such beauty?
You would not have worshipped the idol had the Truth not willed it.
He Himself did, He Himself spoke, and He Himself was;
He did well, He spoke well, and He was good.
See One, speak One, know One;
With this, the root and branch of faith are completed.
I am not saying this, hear it from the Qur'an:
'You see no disharmony in the creation of the Merciful.'

بخش ۵۹ - جواب / Section 59 - Answer

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بت ترسا بچه نوری است باهر 
که از روی بتان دارد مظاهر
کند او جمله دل ها را وشاقی 
گهی گردد مغنی گاه ساقی
زهی مطرب که از یک نغمهٔ خوش 
زند در خرمن صد زاهد آتش
زهی ساقی که او از یک پیاله 
کند بیخود دو صد هفتاد ساله
رود در خانقه مست شبانه 
کند افسون صوفی را فسانه
وگر در مسجد آید در سحرگاه 
بنگذارد در او یک مرد آگاه
رود در مدرسه چون مست مستور 
فقیه از وی شود بیچاره مخمور
ز عشقش زاهدان بیچاره گشته 
ز خان و مان خود آواره گشته
یکی مؤمن دگر را کافر او کرد 
همه عالم پر از شور و شر او کرد
خرابات از لبش معمور گشته 
مساجد از رخش پر نور گشته
همه کار من از وی شد میسر 
بدو دیدم خلاص از نفس کافر
دلم از دانش خود صد حجب داشت 
ز عجب و نخوت و تلبیس و پنداشت
درآمد از درم آن مه سحرگاه 
مرا از خواب غفلت کرد آگاه
ز رویش خلوت جان گشت روشن 
بدو دیدم که تا خود چیستم من
چو کردم در رخ خوبش نگاهی 
برآمد از میان جانم آهی
مرا گفتا که ای شیاد سالوس 
به سر شد عمرت اندر نام و ناموس
ببین تا علم و زهد و کبر و پنداشت 
تو را ای نارسیده از که واداشت
نظر کردن به رویم نیم ساعت 
همی ارزد هزاران ساله طاعت
علی الجمله رخ آن عالم آرای 
مرا با من نمود آن دم سراپای
سیه شد روی جانم از خجالت 
ز فوت عمر و ایام بطالت
چو دید آن ماه کز روی چو خورشید 
بریدم من ز جان خویش امید
یکی پیمانه پر کرد و به من داد 
که از آب وی آتش در من افتاد
کنون گفت از می بی رنگ و بی بوی 
نقوش تختهٔ هستی فرو شوی
چو آشامیدم آن پیمانه را پاک 
در افتادم ز مستی بر سر خاک
کنون نه نیستم در خود نه هستم 
نه هشیارم نه مخمورم نه مستم
گهی چون چشم او دارم سری خوش 
گهی چون زلف او باشم مشوش
گهی از خوی خود در گلخنم من 
گهی از روی او در گلشنم من

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## English translation
The Christian youth is a brilliant light
That manifests through the faces of idols.
He makes all hearts his captives;
Sometimes playing the musician, sometimes the cupbearer.
What a musician, who with a single sweet tune,
Sets fire to the harvest of a hundred ascetics!
What a cupbearer, who with a single cup,
Makes a devotee of two hundred and seventy years lose himself!
He enters the convent drunk at night,
Turning the Sufi's spell into a mere myth.
And if he enters the mosque at dawn,
He will not leave a single conscious man in it.
He enters the school like a hidden drunkard,
And the jurist becomes helplessly intoxicated by him.
From his love, ascetics have become helpless,
Wandering far from their homes.
He has made one a believer and another an infidel;
He has filled the whole world with his tumult and stir.
The tavern is made prosperous by his lips;
The mosques are filled with light by his face.
All my affairs were made successful by him;
Through him I found deliverance from the infidel self.
My heart had a hundred veils from its own knowledge—
From vanity, pride, deceit, and conceit.
That moon entered my door at dawn
And awoke me from the sleep of negligence.
From his face, the sanctuary of the soul became bright;
Through him I saw what I myself truly am.
When I cast a glance at his beautiful face,
A sigh arose from the depths of my soul.
He said to me, 'O deceitful hypocrite!
Your life has been spent in pursuit of name and reputation.
See what your knowledge, asceticism, pride, and conceit
Have kept you back from, O immature one!
To look upon my face for half an hour
Is worth a thousand years of worship.'
In short, the face of that world-adorning beloved
Showed me to myself completely at that moment.
The face of my soul turned black with shame
For the waste of my life and days of vanity.
When that moon saw that, because of his sun-like face,
I had cut off all hope from my own life,
He filled a cup and gave it to me,
From the water of which a fire fell within me.
He said, 'Now, with this colorless and odorless wine,
Wash away the inscriptions from the tablet of existence.'
When I drank that cup completely clean,
I fell upon the dust in my intoxication.
Now I am neither non-existent in myself, nor am I existent;
I am neither sober, nor intoxicated, nor drunk.
Sometimes like his eye I have a pleasant head,
Sometimes like his curls I am perturbed.
Sometimes from my own nature I am in the furnace-room,
Sometimes from his face I am in the rose garden.

بخش ۶۳ - اشارت به بت / Section 63 - Allusion to the Idol

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