If someone should go in a straight line from the earth to the sun
within three months and proceed beyond the sun for another three
months into the same direction, he would reach a star named
Sitara. Sitara is a Persarabian word, meaning nothing more than
"star".
This star has much, very much, in common with our earth. Its
diameter is 1700 miles [a] and its equator 5400 miles long. It
revolves around itself and simultaneously also around the sun.
One movement around itself takes precisely one day, the movement
around the sun takes just as precisely one year, not a second more
or less. Its surface consists of one part land and two parts
water. But, while there are five continents to be found on earth,
the land of Sitara is arranged in a different, much simpler
manner. It is all connected. It does not form several
continents, but just a single one, which consists of the lowland,
full of morasses, and the highland, boldly towering up towards the
sun. Both are connected by a rather small, steeply ascending
strip of jungle. The lowland is a plain. It is unhealthy, rich
in poisonous plants and savage beasts, and at the mercy of all the
tempests, raging from sea to sea. It is called Ardistan. Ard
means earth, soil, a base substance, and figuratively it means the
pleasure of mindless existence in filth and dust, the
inconsiderate amassing of material possessions, the cruel,
destructive fight against everything that does not belong to one's
own self, or is not willing to serve it. Thus, Ardistan is the
home of the low, selfish ways of life, and in respect to its more
evolved inhabitants, the land where _persons_of_violence_and_
_egotism_ live. The highland, on the other hand, is lofty,
healthy, eternally young and beautiful, kissed by sunbeams, rich
in natural gifts as well as the products of human efforts, a
garden of Eden, a paradise. It is called Jinnistan. Jinni means
spirit, beneficent ghost, bliss-bringing, unearthly creature, and
figuratively it means the inborn yearning for higher goals, the
pleasure in mental and spiritual progress, the busy striving for
everything which is good and noble, and most of all the joy in
promoting one's neighbours' happiness, the well-being of all those
who require love and assistance. Thus, Jinnistan is the realm of
humanity and neighbourly love, stretching upwards like the
mountains, the once promised land of the _nobly_spirited_people_.
[a] This refers to the now outdated old German geographic mile,
which had a length of 4.6126 statute miles. Thus, Sitara has
precisely the same size as Earth.
Down below, Ardistan is ruled by a line of vile thinking, selfish
tyrants, whose most supreme law reads mercilessly short: "YOU
SHALL BE YOUR NEIGHBOUR'S DEVIL, SO THAT YOU SHALL BECOME YOUR OWN
ANGEL!" And high above, Jinnistan was ruled for countless ages by
a dynasty of generous, genuinely royal-minded regents, whose most
supreme law reads delightfully short: "YOU SHALL BE YOUR
NEIGHBOUR'S ANGEL, SO THAT YOU SHALL NOT BECOME YOUR OWN DEVIL!"
And for as long as this Jinnistan, this land of the nobly spirited
people, exists, every citizen had been required to be secretly,
without exposing him- or herself, the guardian angel of one other
person. So, there is happiness and sunshine for Jinnistan, but in
Ardistan, there is just a deep spiritual darkness and the
forbidden, and therefore secret, lamentation for liberation from
this hell! No wonder that down there, in the lowland, an ever
growing desire for the highland developed! No wonder, that the
more evolved ones of the souls there sought to free themselves
from the darkness and sought redemption! Millions and millions
enjoy life in the morasses of Ardistan. They have grown used to
the miasmas. They do not want to have it any other way. They
would not be able to exist in the clean air of Jinnistan. These
are by no means just the poorest and lowest, but even more so the
richest and most distinguished inhabitants of the land: the
pharisees, who need sinners in order to appear righteous, the
prosperous, who require poor people for contrast, the lazy ones,
who must have workers for their convenience, and most of all the
smart, cunning ones, for whom the stupid, trusting, honest ones
are indispensable, to be exploited by them. What would happen to
all those privileged ones, if the others were not to exist any
more? Therefore, everyone is most strictly forbidden, to leave
Ardistan and to escape the pressure of its laws. But the harshest
punishment is inflicted upon him who dares to flee to the land of
neighbourly love and humanity, to Jinnistan. The border is
guarded. He will not get through. He will be apprehended and
brought to the "spirits' furnace", to be tortured and tormented,
until the pain forces him to beg for forgiveness and to return to
the hated oppression.
This is because, between Ardistan and Jinnistan, there is
Maerdistan, that steeply ascending strip of jungle where the
infinitely dangerous and strenuous way up passes through its
labyrinths of trees and rocks. Maerd is a Persian word; it means
"man". Maerdistan is the frontier land, where only "men" may dare
to venture; anybody else would necessarily perish. The most
dangerous part of this almost entirely unknown area is the "forest
of Kulub". Kulub is an Arabian word. It means the plural of
"heart". Thus, the enemies who have to be conquered one by one,
if one would want to escape from Ardistan to Jinnistan, lurk in
the depths of the heart. And in the midst of this forest of
Kulub, that place of torture is to be found, about which I have
written in "Babel and Bible", page 78:
"In Maerdistan, the forest of Kulub,
Lies lonely, hidden well, the spirits' furnace."
"Do spirits forge there?"
"No, but they are forged!
Storms bring them, drag them, here at midnight's time,
When lightnings light the sky, tears pour like floods,
Where hatred comes on them in grim delight,
And envy digs its claws into the flesh.
Remorse will sweat and wail where bellows blow.
The pain is by the block with staring eyes,
A blackened face, the hammer in his hand.
There, now, o sheik, the pliers grab you fast.
They toss you to the blaze; the bellows creak.
The flame flares upwards, far beyond the roof,
And all that you possess and what you are,
The flesh, the mind, the soul, and all the bones,
The sinews, fibres, tendons, flesh and blood,
The thoughts and feelings, everything and all,
Is burnt from you, is tortured and tormented
Up to the whitest blaze - - -"
"Allah, Allah!"
"Don't scream, o sheik! I'm telling you, don't scream!
For screamers are unworthy of this pain,
Are thrown away to be the dross and refuse
And must, at last, be molten down again.
But you would want to be the steel, a blade
That glistens in the paraklet's [a] own fist.
Be quiet, thus!
"He rips you from the fire - -
He casts you on the anvil - - holds you tight.
It clangs and cracks on you in every pore.
The pain will start its work, the smith, the expert.
He spits into his fists, and then he grasps,
Lifts with both hands, the giant hammer up - - -
The blows do strike. Each blow is like a murder,
A murder killing you. You think you're crushed.
Hot scraps spew widely, everywhere around.
Your self gets thinner, smaller, even smaller,
And yet, you must go back into the fire - -
Again - - and yet again, until the smith
Will see the spirit in hell's agony,
Through all the gloom of soot and hammers' blows,
Who smiles at him in calm and grateful joy.
This one is fixed into the vice and ground.
The file does screech, and eats away from you
Whatever still - - -"
"Desist! It is enough!"
"It does go on, for now the drill is used,
It spirals deeply - - -"
"Silence! Oh, for God's sake!"
etc. etc.
[a] parakletos (Greek): a person called to one's aid, especially
to intercede before God, used in John 14-16 for the Holy
Spirit (the King James version translates it as "comforter"
here) and in 1John 2:1 for Jesus Christ (the King James
version translates it as "advocate" here).
So this is how Maerdistan is like, and this is what is going on
inside the "spirits' furnace of Kulub"! Every inhabitant of
Sitara knows the tale which says that the souls of all important
people, who are to be born, are sent down from heaven. Angels and
devils are waiting for them. A soul who is so fortunate to come
across an angel will be born in Jinnistan, and all of its paths
are smoothened. But the poor soul who falls into the hands of a
devil will be dragged to Ardistan by him, and hurled into an even
deeper misery, the higher the task was which the soul had been
given from above. The devil wants it to perish and rests neither
day nor night to turn him, who was destined to be gifted or
ingenious, into a rotten and doomed individual. All resistance
and rebellion is futile; the poor soul is doomed. And even if he
succeeded in escaping from Ardistan, he would still be apprehended
in Maerdistan and dragged to the spirits' furnace, to be tortured
and tormented, until he loses his last bit of courage to resist.
Only rarely, the heavenly strength, given to such a soul hurled to
Ardistan, is thus great and thus inexhaustible that it could bear
even the strongest pain of the spirits' furnace and face the smith
and his fellows "through all the gloom of soot and hammers' blows,
and smile at him in calm and grateful joy." Even the greatest
pain is powerless against such a heavenly child, it is immune; it
is saved. It will not be destroyed by the fire, but rather
purified and fortified. And once all the dross has fallen off,
the smith has to keep his distance, because there is nothing left
that would belong to Ardistan. Therefore, neither man nor devil
can prevent it now, and may all of the lowland burst out in an
roar of rage, from rising up to Jinnistan, where everyone is his
neighbour's angel. - - -