The Masnavi of Rumi Volume Book Two: A New English Translation with Persian Text and Explanatory Notes 9781788313148, 9781838601904, 9781786736024

Citation preview

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two The Masnavi of Jalāloddin Rumi Mowlānā Jalāloddin Balkhi (1207–1273), known to the West as Rumi is a Persian poet comparable to the greatest poets of Europe. He wrote mostly in Persian, but also in Arabic and has been famed throughout the Muslim world as one of the greatest spiritual teachers of all time. He was born in 1207 in a small town near Balkh in modern day Afghanistan, but his family fled the advancing Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan, who by 1220 had devastated Balkh and Samarqand, the cities of Rumi’s childhood. Around 1216 his family migrated more than 2,000 miles westwards, finally settling in the Sultanate of Rūm in Anatolia (in Modern Turkey), which had been in Seljuq hands since the late 1070s. Rumi’s father, Bahāoddin Valad, established himself as a religious scholar in Konya, the Seljuq capital of Rum. Apart from years spent studying in Aleppo and Damascus, Rumi remained in Konya for most of the rest of his life. Like his father, he was educated in all the religious sciences and became a scholar of a spiritual, Sufi leaning. In his late thirties he began a process of personal transformation as a result of meeting Shamsoddin of Tabriz, an itinerant spiritual master who arrived in Konya in 1244. A pewerful and enigmatic teacher, in the brief period of four years Shamsoddin stimulated a spiritual and poetic development in Rumi that lasted all his life until his death in 1273, though Shamsoddin himself disappeared mysteriously some 25 years earlier in i

1248. Near the time of their first meeting, Rumi began the composition of a body of lyric poems ghazals) totalling 35,000 verses. In his later years he turned to the composition of his most mature and final work, the mystical masterpiece in six volumes of Persian verses known as the Masnavi-ye Maʿnavi ‘The Spiritual Couplets’, a poem of epic length that is also one of the most intimate expressions of spiritual teaching. Rumi is affectionately known as ‘Mowlānā’ in Persian, ‘Mevlana’ in Turkish, ‘Our Master’, and after his death his disciples formed the eponymous ‘Mevlevi’ Sufi order, best known in the West for its practice of the sema / samāʿ, the ritual practice of ‘audition’ to music accompanied by the balletic turning (whirling) of the Mevlevi dervishes. Today, however, it is in his Divān of lyric poems and in his Masnavi, that Rumi lives on in the world, in the spiritual insight of a consummate poet. Alan Williams was born in 1953 in Windsor, England. He studied Classics, then Persian and Arabic at The Queen’s College, Oxford, followed by a doctorate in Old and Middle Iranian Studies at SOAS, University of London, where he has also taught. He was Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Sussex from 1979, and moved to the University of Manchester in 1985, where he is now Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Religion. He has written nine books and many articles on Iranian Studies, the history of religions, comparative literature and translation studies, including The Pahlavi Rivāyat Accompanying the Dādestān ī Dēnig (Copenhagen, 1990), Spiritual Verses (London, 2006), a study of the Zoroastrian Qes.s.e-ye Sanjān (Leiden, 2009) and, with S. Stewart and A.Hintze, The Zoroastrian Flame (London, 2016). He was British Academy Wolfson Research Professor 2013–16, and is a holder of a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship (2016–19) for his work on Rumi’s Masnavi.

ii

The Masnavi of Rumi Book Two A New English Translation with Persian Text and Explanatory Notes

Alan Williams

iii

I.B. TAURIS Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA BLOOMSBURY, I.B. TAURIS and the I.B. Tauris logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2020 Translation copyright including commentary explanatory and supplementary text © Alan Williams 2020 The moral right of the translator has been asserted All rights reserved Cover design by Adriana Brioso Cover image © The British Library Board. (Add Ms 27263, f104r) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN:

HB: 978-1-78831-314-8 ePDF: 978-1-78673-602-4 eBook: 978-1-78672-609-4

Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters.

iv

Contents Preface ix Chronology

xi

Introduction xiii Further Reading xxiii Note on the Translation xxvi

English Translation of The Masnavi Book Two ‘The Ending of the Self ’

Rumi’s Preface

1

3

Poem on the fantasies of self-love and illusion

5

How, in the time of Omar, May God be pleased with him, the moon appeared to someone’s imagination 12 A snake-catcher’s stealing a snake from another

13

The request of the companion of Jesus that Jesus should bring bones back to life 13 A Sufi tells a servant to look after his mount and the ‘God help us!’ of the servant 14 The King finds his falcon in the house of a poor old woman

25

Sheikh Ahmad son of Khezruya buys halva for his creditors, by the grace of God Almighty 28 An ascetic who was warned not to weep

32

The peasant who stroked a lion in the dark

36 v

vi

Contents

Some Sufis sell a traveller’s beast to pay for a Sufi Samāʿ

37

The publicising of a bankrupt by the public criers of the Qādi

41

How people blamed someone who killed his mother out of suspicion 52 How a king tested two slaves he had just bought

56

The domestic servants’ envying the special servant

69

The capturing of the falcon among the owls in the wilderness A thirsty man throws a brick into a river

74

77

‘Uproot this thorn bush you have planted in the road!’

79

The coming of friends to the asylum to question Zu’l-Nun the Egyptian 89 How Loqmān’s master tested his intelligence A king and a sheikh

94

101

Solomon, Bilqis and the hoopoe A philosopher’s denial of scripture

102 104

Moses takes offence at the prayers of a shepherd

109

An Amir’s harassment of a sleeping man into whose mouth a snake had gone 119 On putting one’s faith in the fawning and trustworthiness of a bear 122 The blindman’s saying ‘I have two blindnesses’

126

How Moses said to the calf-worshipper ‘Where’s your vain scepticism and precaution?’ 129 How a madman sought to ingratiate himself with Galen and how Galen was afraid 132

vii

Contents

The crow and stork

133

Mohammed’s visit to the sick Companion God and Moses

135

136

How the gardener separated the Sufi, the jurist and the Alavid from one another 137 A sheikh and Bāyazid

140

A novice who built a new house

141

Another anecdote about Bāyazid Dalqak and the Seyyed-e Ajal

143

148

The holy man who rode a hobby-horse How a dog attacked a blind beggar

148

149

How a constable summoned a fallen drunkard to prison Iblis and Moʿāviye

151

165

A judge who complained of the disaster of being a judge The remorse of one being absent at prayers The escape of the thief

175

177

The atheists and their building a mosque of opposition Someone who was seeking after his stray camel The Indian who quarrelled

191

The Ghuzz Turcomans’ attack

193

An old man complained of his ailments Juhi and the child

195

197

A boy who was afraid of an effeminate man

200

184

179

173

viii

Contents

The archer and the horseman

200

The Arab and the philosopher

201

The miracles of Ebrāhim son of Adham on the sea-shore

203

A stranger reviling a sheikh and the sheikh’s disciple’s answer Shoʿeyb

213

The Prophet to Aisha, on ritual prayer The mouse and the camel

217

The dervish suspected of being a thief Some Sufis reproach a Sufi

217

220

222

The mother of John the Baptist and the mother of Jesus The search for the Tree of Life

230

How four persons quarrelled about grapes

233

How Mohammed established unity amongst Muslims The Story of the Ducklings

229

238

Pilgrims amazed at the miracles of an ascetic

240

Notes 243 Appendix: Analytical Index of Stories and Discourses of Masnavi Book Two 301 Index of Proper Names, Terms and Selected Themes 309

Persian Text of The Masnavi Book Two, Edited by Mohammad Esteʿlami 484

235

209

Preface

T

his is the second volume of the Masnavi of Mowlānā Jalāloddin Rumi Balkhi, one of the world’s great poetical works, complete with text,

translation and commentarial notes. Rumi died seven and a half centuries ago, but he is more popular now than perhaps ever before and his work is as alive today as it ever was. The purpose of this series of publications is to overcome the barriers of cultural, historical and linguistic distance that separate 21st-century readers from the Masnavi by presenting it in a parallel text format, with the Persian text of the two oldest manuscripts accompanied by a new English translation. I am grateful to the British Academy and Wolfson foundation for awarding me their British Academy Wolfson Research Professorship and to the Leverhulme Trust for conferring on me a Major Research Fellowship. These generous awards have allowed me to dedicate most

of my time to working on the Masnavi. I owe a great debt of gratitude to the late Dr Leonard Lewisohn, the soul of kindness, founder and Editor of the Mawlana Rumi Review, who sadly and unexpectedly passed away as I was writing this Preface. I, like all those who work in the fields of Persian poetry and Sufi studies, will miss him sorely. I thank Professor James Morris and Professor Franklin D. Lewis, alongside whom I work on the Editorial Board of the Mawlana Rumi Review, for their much appreciated collegial support and friendship. I should also like to thank Professors Carole and Robert Hillenbrand for their unflagging support and encouragement, as well as all my colleagues at the British Institute of Persian Studies and the Iran Heritage Foundation, who are too numerous to mention individually. I am grateful to Professor Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak for his support and insight into Persian literature. I would also like to record publicly my sense of gratitude to my former teacher at the University of Oxford, Professor Mohammad Reza Shafi‘i Kadkani, whose ix

x

Preface

knowledge, enthusiasm and limitless love for Persian poetry made such an impression on me. I also extend my thanks to my friend and colleague Dr Ibrahim Gamard, who has done so much for the study of Rumi’s works in recent decades, for his advice and helpful reading of the text. Above all, it is my pleasure to thank Professor Mohammad Esteʿlami, whom I was privileged to meet in Montreal in 2013 and 2016, where he was for many years Professor at McGill University. I had long wanted to publish the text of the Konya Manuscript (G) of 677 AH/1278 CE, which is kept in the Mevlana Museum in Konya, in conjunction with my translation. Professor Esteʿlami’s edition is based primarily on this manuscript and I am delighted that he has graciously allowed me to incorporate it with my translation in this and the following volumes. I am deeply grateful to him as a true Ostād, whose knowledge of this text and countless other Persian mystical texts is unparalleled today. Professor Esteʿlami’s edition has the advantage, among others, of having his meticulously prepared apparatus criticus, which compares the Konya Manuscript with several other old MSS, principally the MS of 668, now housed in the University of Cairo Library, and the five MSS of Nicholson’s edition (specifically, four 14th and one 15th century). I am grateful also to Professor Dr Bilal Kuşpınar, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Necmettin Erbakan University, Turkey, to Mr Bekir Şahin, the Director of the Konya Manuscript Library, and also to Dr Naci Bakırcı, Assistant Director of the Mevlana Muzesi, Konya for permission to use the fine photographs he took of pages of the G Manuscript. I also thank my editor, Rory Gormley and his predecessor Alex Wright (now of Cambridge University Press) as well as the production team at I.B. Tauris, Sophie Campbell and Yasmin Garcha; thanks also to Merv Honeywood at RefineCatch for his help. I thank David Hornsby, Jonathan Davy and Andrew Campbell Tiech, the late Richard Stevens and others who read early and late versions of the translations. Lastly, I thank my dear family, without whose love and support I could not have done this.

Chronology c.1152 Birth of Rumi’s Father Bahāoddin Valad c.1200 Bahāoddin teaching in Vakhsh c.1207 Birth of Rumi 30 September in Vakhsh, the second son of Mo’mene Khātun and Bahāoddin Valad c.1208 Bahāoddin in dispute with Qāzi of Vakhsh c.1212 Valad family living in Samarqand; Khwārezmshāh lays siege to the city c.1216 Valad family leave Khorasan for Baghdad and Mecca (March) c.1217 Brief stays in Damascus and Malatya (summer) c.1218 Valad family in Aqshahr near Erzincan for four years c.1219 Mongols destroy Samarqand 1221

Mongols take Balkh

c.1222 Valad family in Larende (Karaman) for seven years Death of Rumi’s mother (between 1222 and 1229) 1224

Marriage of Rumi to Gowhar Khātun

1225

Birth of Rumi’s son Alāoddin

1226

Birth of Rumi’s son, Soltān Valad

c.1229 Family settles permanently in Konya 1231

Death of Rumi’s father

c.1232 Arrival of Borhānoddin, in Konya. Having been a student in Aleppo and Damascus (c.1233–7) Rumi returns to Konya an accomplished scholar. He remains under the spiritual discipline of Borhānoddin 1241

Death of Borhānoddin

1242

Death of Rumi’s wife Gowhar Khātun xi

xii

1244

Chronology

29 November Arrival of Shamsoddin of Tabriz in Konya. Rumi takes up samā‘ and composes ghazals (lyric poems)

1246

Shams leaves Konya for Syria (March)

1247

Shams is persuaded to return to Konya (April)

1247

Shams marries Kimiyā 1247–8 Shams disappears from Konya forever. Rumi makes at least two abortive trips to Syria or Damascus in search of him. Rumi chooses Salāhoddin Zarkub as his successor; a conspiracy to remove Salāhoddin is foiled

1258

Death of Salāhoddin. Abbasid caliphate falls to the Mongols

c.1262 Death of Rumi’s eldest son. Composition of Book One of the Masnavi begins c.1264 Composition of Book Two begins Composition of Books Three to Six until shortly before 1273

December 17 Death of Rumi

Introduction The intention of the following brief introduction is to discuss the main literary and stylistic features of the second book of the Masnavi. The reader is referred to my lengthy Introduction to Rumi and the Masnavi at the beginning of the first volume of this series, and it is unnecessary to repeat the text of that Introduction here and in subsequent volumes. As before, the reader is also referred to the Franklin D. Lewis’s excellent study of the biography of Rumi in history and hagiography, Rumi Past and Present East and West.1 According to v. 1 of the second book, ‘This Masnavi has been delayed a while’, and in v. 7 the poet announces the Islamic year of commencement thus: The dawn of this historic enterprise has happened in the year six-sixty two. This Hijri year corresponds to the period from November 1263 to October 1264 CE. As Lewis says,2 ‘One report in [the Manāqeb al-ʿārefin of the hagiographer Shamsoddin Ah. mad] Aflāki reckons the preceding interval, during which nothing further was composed, as lasting two full years.’ As Lewis adds, ‘If correct, this would mean that Book One was completed sometime in AH 660, corresponding to the period between December 1261 and November 1262’. This second book of the Masnavi follows stylistic patterns very similar to those of the first book and the four that will follow. Rumi’s prose preface is in Persian in this volume; the proem or introductory section of the poetry that begins the second book, is much longer than the 35 verses of the ‘Song of the Reed’ (Neynāme) that precede the first story of the first book. Now, Rumi begins this book with a long reflection, of over 100 verses, giving reasons for delaying the composition of the book, and moving on to bemoan at length the xiii

xiv

Introduction

vanity of human self-love and its illusions. Soon, however, he moves into his stride, with a story and an anecdote in quick succession: the genre of story remains as the most important cohesive element of the book. There is, however, a general sense of greater narrative fragmentation in this volume, as can be seen in the analytical index of the composition in the Appendix. The composition comprises 65 stories and anecdotes, and nearly 100 discourses, reflections and comments, as compared to the 15 main stories, 10 or so substories and approximately 70 passages of discourse/reflection in Book One. As in Book One, the story is Rumi’s way to open his teaching discourses and the starting point from which he segues into other modes of speaking. Again he will take us on a series of poetic journeys that delve into dark recesses and illuminated halls of the mind: the text resembles a carefully annotated musical score, and we readers, as performers of the Masnavi, set its tempo in our own minds. The portions of the text are not regularly set in chapters or themed sections, and even the titles of the headings in the manuscripts are certainly later additions, inscribed to help reciters to divide the text into readable portions. While it is indeed a mystical didactic poem, Rumi himself defines no timetable or syllabus in which we must read the work: latterly, a syllabus may have been defined by the Mevlevi Sufi order, in which its dervishes formally studied the Masnavi as a text of advanced spiritual learning. In this work of art (for whatever it is, religious, literary, medieval or modern, it is a work of art on account of the beauty of its language), the author’s directions are meant for the individual reader alone. In each book Rumi strikes new moods and new chords, and opens new vistas of what awaits the aspirant. The Masnavi is a single work, composed over a period of approximately 11 years from its outset in 1262 to its completion a little before the poet’s death in December 1273. It is not a series of separate compositions, like, for example, the symphonies of Beethoven or the songs of Schubert: Rumi refers to the Masnavi by a single title from the beginning to the end. However, as a composition, it defies any satisfactory analysis of its thematic organisation, beyond the obvious that it describes the perils and pitfalls of progress along the great tariqa, the ‘Way’ of mystical training and practice of the gnostic and mystical traditions of Islam known collectively as ‘Sufism’. In spite of the vast size of his Divān of thousands of short poems, for which he is best known, the

Introduction

xv

Masnavi is his most mature and most important single work. Having written thousands of lyric ghazals, robāʿis and qasides in the decades before he began to write the Masnavi in 1262, Rumi was able to develop his mastery of the lyric genre into another literary form – for centuries the favourite of the Sufi poets– that is, into the ever-changing rhymed-couplet of masnavi. Whereas in the ghazal the rhyme remained the same at the end of every verse of these brief poems, in the masnavi the rhyme changed with every couplet. In the Masnavi the pair of half-lines or hemistichs rhymes internally with itself, but not with the preceding or following verse. This formal difference alone allowed for a boundless expansion of the length of the poem. In the Masnavi there are many passages of lyrical beauty that resemble the poetry of the ghazals. Across the six books of the whole Masnavi there are hundreds of witty stories, and countless passages of moral and spiritual wisdom that could have been expressed with an equal effectiveness in prose. Faridoddin Attār, had brought the art of combining story-telling and Sufi teaching to a great height in his own masnavi compositions, such as his everpopular ‘Conference of the Birds’ (Mant.eq ot.-T.ayr). But Rumi, who regarded Attār both as a great spiritual and literary mentor, took this masnavi form to new heights. He expanded it physically, so that his own Masnavi is many times more voluminous than any preceding example of the genre and which took the whole of the latter part of his life to compose. But more significant is that he also liberated it stylistically, by exploding many of the existing conventions of literary tradition in a manner that resembles what postmodern writers have done in the 21st century. Ironically perhaps, this new development was actually based upon something as old as Islam, namely the stylistic structure of the Quran itself. Rumi broke the shackles of the chain of narrative that binds the story-teller to the normally unquestioned sequence: problem/theme → complication → resolution. One of the most unsettling things the new reader of the Masnavi encounters is that a story may be started and dropped within moments, and may not be picked up again and completed for hundreds of verses. In a similar manner, certain elements of stories in the Quran are placed in unpredictable places, in mosaic fashion, throughout the suras of the text. At the beginning of the first story of Book One of the Masnavi, Rumi first flouted the convention

xvi

Introduction

of authorial fidelity to the vow to ‘tell it like it is’ in a seamless narrative continuity ‘from beginning to end’. Some of his stories take so long to complete, not because in themselves they are long, or that he is absent-minded, forgetful or sloppy as a narrator (for example Story 18 in Book Two, on Mohammad’s visit to a sick companion, which is narrated for a maximum of only 32 verses, is begun in v. 2146 and not completed until v. 2562). It is because, once he has got you onto his vehicle, Rumi whisks you away to where he wants to go, not necessarily to where the story is going. In this and in many other ways, he deconstructs the narrative form and turns story-telling inside out. Let alone that the story is not merely for amusement, it is not even primarily allegorical, or allusive, to the maʿna (spiritual meaning) of his teaching: that would allow him to give you only an emotional or intellectual appreciation of his meaning. Rather, his stories become the site and platform of his meaning and teaching. For Rumi, meaning and form are opposites, but they are inseparable. Without even mentioning the ‘two-sides-of-the-same-coin’ cliché, stories are Rumi’s currency and, like it or not, the reader of his Masnavi is in a transaction with him. It is as if, in the midst of the performance of a story, he possesses the characters on stage, and usurps them. In the present book we have an excellent example of the technique of possession of the imagination at work. In Story 9 in the book (see Appendix) ‘How a King Tested Two Slaves he had Just Bought’, Rumi inhabits the personas of the protagonists and segues from within their speeches into discourses of his own teaching. The latter part of the story, from v. 904 onwards, begins with a dialogue, then moves to a speech that becomes a soliloquy and discourse that runs for nearly 150 verses. This is something Rumi has done on several occasions in Book One, for example in the long story ‘The Jewish king who killed Christians on account of his bigotry’ (vv. 325–742). Now, in Book Two he develops the soliloquy to its finest form, so that a story such as Story 21 ‘Iblis and Moʿāviye’ takes place entirely in the interchange of speeches that are soliloquys, and which are, by that very fact, discourses in disguise. The need for a transition between story and discourse has been rendered unnecessary, as Rumi successfully permeates the story with his first person discourses. To recap, and to restate in brief what was set out in the Introduction to Book One, I described the Masnavi as having a dynamic rather than a thematic type

Introduction

xvii

of organisation. First and foremost it is a poem which, despite its grand conception and subsequent fame as a didactic masterpiece, is written in the style of an address to a single reader or small group of readers. It therefore follows the most eloquent rhetorical style of the text in whose shadow it stands, namely the Quran itself, which is addressed to each human soul of humankind. Just as the voice of revelation in the Quran shifts in terms of speaker and addressee, and regularly changes its register and voice, so the Masnavi is made up of a series of subtle shifts and transformations of its voice. On the one hand, the poetic style of Rumi’s ghazals is very distinctive and has been celebrated and imitated in every century since its composition. On the other hand, in the Masnavi Rumi is the peerless master of a form none have come close to reproducing, with an extraordinary potency of language. In my view, Rumi’s technical dexterity lies is in the way he plays and improvises upon the keyboard of the human imagination, in an octave of voices of different types of expression. He ranges from the formal, didactic voice of the sheikh, in which he begins each book in a preface, sometimes in Arabic, sometimes in Persian. The voice continues until the first story is announced (in Mas. 1 this happens at v. 35, and in Mas. 2 at v. 112). The style is traditional, mostly genial and avuncular, and always in the past tense, except when he makes, not infrequently, his asides to the listener/reader: it is perhaps the voice of the Masnavi in which he has been best known for centuries. No story proceeds for very long before there is the interjection of an analogy, which I have described as being a distinctive voice itself that runs through the Masnavi. Rumi is master of quick-fire analogies, which may be as brief as single verses or half-lines, or a series of one-liners, or alternatively as extended analogies running over many verses – they are always directly targeted at the reader’s intelligence. These analogies take flight from the linearity of ordinary narrative, in that their intention is elucidation and illumination – they are examples or illustrations (Ar. Per. masal). Returning to the story, Rumi populates them with a seemingly limitless cast of dramatis personae, from kings to chickpeas, from prophets to courtesans, from legendary heroes to the natural elements of wind and water. Within the stories, he sets up dialogues and arguments, and perhaps his most useful innovation I have mentioned just now, namely the soliloquy of story characters. He turns his stories into

xviii

Introduction

teachings through such soliloquies, or often simply by breaking off from the story, and taking his willing reader with him into discourses, and then into rapturous lyrical passages which soar to ecstasies in spiritual vision and mystical insight. Periodically this cycle is concluded and restarted by a cut-off point, or hiatus of silencing the text of author and reader, before proceeding to the next period of the poem. If this sounds far-fetched, it is not: it is the normal cycle of the Masnavi. It is obvious that the Masnavi is no ordinary storybook. Rumi had realised that his disciples preferred to listen to him speaking in parables and ‘tales of other folk’ rather than in stark mystical philosophical and metaphysical terms. What is more, poetry was (and still is) the key to the Iranian imagination, whether of the short lyric ghazal or of the extended masnavi form: it is enchanting and alluring to the mind, seducing it into the relationship of the lover and beloved, and entrancing it in cool groves of the passionate idyll, of perfumed Persian gardens of rose and narcissus: To ruminate on hyacinth and basil to reach the garden of realities.3 In Rumi’s Masnavi he allowed this micro-landscape of the garden and the lovers’ tryst of the ghazal poems to expand to the infinite perspective that story-telling has in view. These stories are drawn from many genres, from Muslim, Christian and Jewish scriptures and those of other faiths, and from the literary and folk traditions of ancient Iran, Greece, India and beyond. In addition there is Rumi’s own fertile imagination, nourished on folktales and literature he had been steeped in since boyhood. As suggested above, this book has a somewhat different character from the one that precedes it. It is difficult to define exactly in what this difference lies, but perhaps it is just that here Rumi gets down to his moral and spiritual teaching in much more detail. Great inspirational passages of rapture recur, as in Book One, but there is now more emphasis on the problems that beset human nature, and how one must strive to rise above them. It is therefore like a garden full of thorns and snares in among the flowers and fruits of mystical joy. One of the first themes of this book, and of the Masnavi as a whole, is the overpowering obstacle of the fleshly sensuality that blocks the gateway

Introduction

xix

to life in the divine world (v. 10). Whereas the fleshly senses feed on darkness, the spiritual senses are nourished by the sun (v. 51): bodily sensuality makes a nonsense of love (v. 708b-9) and is fiery, whereas the spiritual sense is full of light (v. 1260). Sensual light is weighed down by the gravitational pull of our physical nature, whereas spiritual light is uplifting (vv. 1298–1303) – this affects the physical, sensual eye, which is ‘at war with mind and faith’ (v. 1611). There is however, as with many other critical observations about human nature, a positive teaching for the sincere reader. Towards the end of this book Rumi moves on to these positive teachings, such as that the senses can be transformed, as there is a hierarchy of the senses (vv. 3250–57) over which a truer sense (of the heart) guides one to the spiritual world (vv. 3260, 3265), and emphatically: The self is suspect, not the noble mind, our sense is suspect, not the subtle light. The self inclines to sophistry, just beat it! for beating’s good for it, not reasoning with it.4 A more specific problem with sensuality is the presence of a whole spectrum of desire in human nature, which includes ‘coveting’, ‘greediness’ and ‘lust’. This many headed monster is a subject on which Rumi has much to say, for example: If you’d be pure of eye and mind and hearing you must tear down the veils of vain desire . . . . . . and know that all desire is like an earplug! Whoever has desire turns incoherent – with such desire can eye and heart be bright.5 Desire and lust are necessary for the animal nature of the physical human being: The springs of vigour and of lust are flowing to keep the garden of the body verdant6 but they must be forsaken for the soul to be drawn up to Heaven to return to its true source, as is explained in a beautiful passage on the respective blessings of youth and old age (vv. 1269ff.). The problem is that lust (Ar. – Per. shahvat),

xx

Introduction

though it has a function, is also ‘the origin of pride and hatred’ (v. 3473), and is founded on habit that is so difficult to break that Rumi says we are drunk on it, and that leaves us susceptible to temptation by the devil: only by ridding it from our nature can we know the divine mysteries (see v. 2753f.), as Moʿāviye, a character in a major story, has done (see v. 2765). Lust is associated with hellfire in Islamic tradition (see v. 1841, which reflects a hadith). However, entombment in lust (v. 1981) may be exchanged for the vision of light: so, again, here is a therapeutic teaching that emerges in the second half of the book. The most important message of this book is that the transformation of the lower nature is possible. In this book Rumi refers on several occasions to madness. This is not always the furore of stupidity, the delusional states of the psychotic, or other pathological conditions of mental illness. Often Rumi is often referring to a transformative state of disaffection with worldliness, which gives way to the state of absorption in the divine. (See for example vv. 1385ff. and the story of one of the most famous ‘mad’ Sufis, Zu’l Nun (1390 ff.). The heart of the ascetic goes into states of expansion and contraction (v. 2972) – what appear to be states of elation and depression in the holy are just these interior movements. Ordinary folk cannot understand or appreciate the state of mind of the genuinely holy ones (vv. 2352ff ). Conversely, the book is also full of examples of those who deceive maliciously, personified in the traditional Iranian form of the ‘demon’ (Per. div) and in the Islamic Satan (Ar. shaytān) and Iblis, as the forces that habitually overwhelm the self through its attachment to sensuality. The book also has a cast of cruel human deceivers (Story 3 and 6) and false friends (vv. 254ff.) , scoundrels, thieves (vv. 136ff.) and fools (Story 1, 2, 4 etc.). Miraculously, Rumi salvages hope from this worldly nest of deception in humankind, and teaches the possibility of liberation from such darkness: it is through the development of discernment (vv. 758ff., 2469) and through the discerning eye of the heart that seeks inner illumination (vv. 85ff.) In the very last scene of the book, Rumi leaves us with a vision of the full transfiguration of the individual by ascetic work on the self. Whereas it may be thought of as a final brief story tagged on the end of the book, it is surely intended as an image of the possible transformation of nature that burns itself into the reader’s memory.

Introduction

xxi

To allow Rumi to have the last word in this Introduction, I quote another visionary passage, in the story of the Prophet visiting a sick man, of a dialogue between believers and the angel who articulates the nature of this transformation: Believers at the Judgment say ‘O Angel, is not the road we share the one to hell? The infidel and faithful go along it – yet on this road we saw no smoke and fire. 2565 Look, here is Paradise, the place of safety! What happened to that pestilential passage?’ The angel says, ‘That garden full of greenness that you have seen somewhere, passing through it, That’s Hell, the place of punishment extreme: to you it was an orchard, garden, trees, As you have struggled with this hellish self, a heathen fire that stirs up insurrection, You fought it and it filled with purity, for God’s sake you extinguished hellish fire, 2570 The fire of lust whose flames leapt up became the bloom of piety and light of guidance, The fire of anger in you turned to mildness, the darkness of your ignorance to knowledge, Your fire of greed turned into selfless love, and thorny malice turned into a rosebed. And so, as all these fires of former times were put out by you for the sake of God, And made the fiery soul just like a garden in which you sowed seeds of sincerity 2575 Where nightingales remembering God and praising were singing sweetly on the river bank, You have responded to God’s summoner, brought water to the hell-fire of your soul. Our hell, as far as you’re concerned, became the greenery and roses, wealth and riches.’7

xxii

Introduction

Notes 1 Rumi Past and Present East and West: The Life, Teachings and Poetry of Jalal al-Din Rumi. Oxford: Oneworld, 2000, revised paperback edition 2008. 2 Lewis, p. 219. 3 Mas.2.3255. 4 Mas.2.3514. 5 Mas.2.572ff. 6 Mas.2.1222. 7 Mas.2.2563–77.

Further Reading For a fuller bibliography of printed and electronic material on Rumi see Lewis (2008, 2011, 638ff. and 650ff.)

Editions of the Masnavi Masnavi, ed Mohammad Esteʿlami, 7 vols. 2nd edition, Tehran : 1990 Mathnawi of Jalalu’ddin Rumi, ed. and tr. Reynold A. Nicholson, E.J.W. Gibb Memorial, New Series, 8 vols., London: Luzac and Co., (Vol. I, 1923, text of books 1 and 2; Vol. II, 1926, translation of books 1 and 2; Vol. III, 1929, text of books 3 and 4; Vol.IV, 1930, translation of books 3 and 4; Vol. V, 1933, text of books 5 and 6; Vol. VI, 1934, translation of books 5 and 6; Vol. VII, 1937, commentary on books 1 and 2; Vol. VIII, 1940, commentary on books 3–6) Masnavi-ye Maʿnavi-ye Jalāloddin Mohammad Balkhi: tashih va moqādeme (‘Masnavi-ye Maʿnavi of Jalaloddin Mohammad Balkhi: Critical Edition and Introduction’), ed. Mohammad ʿAli Movahhed, Farhangestān-e Zabān va ʿadab-e Farsi va Nashr-e Hermes, Tehran 1396/2018 Masnavi-ye Maʿnavi, ed. Towfiq Sobhani, Tehran: Vezārat-e Farhand va Ershād-e Eslāmi, 1373/1994, repr. 1374/1995 Masnavi-ye Maʿnavi, ed. Abdol karim Soroush, Tehran: ʿElmi va Farhangi, 1275/1996 See also http://www.masnavi.net/ and http://www.dar-al-masnavi.org/

Select Bibliography Arberry, A.J., Mystical Poems of Rumi, 2: Second Selection Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979 Arberry, A.J., The Discourses of Rumi, New York: Samuel Weiser, 1972 Arberry, A.J., Mystical Poems of Rumi, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968 Arberry, A.J., The Koran Interpreted, Oxford: Oxford University Press 1964 Arberry, A.J., More Tales from the Masnavi. UNESCO Collection of Representative Works: Persian Series, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1963 Arberry, A.J., Tales from the Masnavi, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1961 xxiii

xxiv

Further Reading

Asad, M., The Message of the Qur’an, Dar al-Andalus: E.J. Brill, 1980 Baldick, J., ‘Persian Sufi Poetry up to the Fifteenth Century’ in Handbuch der Orientalistik. Bd.4: Iranistik. Abs.2:Literatur. Lfg.2, Leiden: Brill, 1981, 112–132 Banani A., Hovannisian, R., and Sabagh, G., Poetry and Mysticism in Islam: The Heritage of Rumi, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994 Burckhardt Qureshi, Regula, Sufi Music of India and Pakistan, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987 Chittick, William C. (tr. of Maqālāt of Shamsoddin) Me and Rumi The Autobiography of Shams-i Tabriz, Louisville Kentucky: Fons Vitae, 2004 Chittick, William C., ‘Rumi and Wahdat al-Wujud,’ in Banani (1994) Chittick, William C., The Sufi Path of Knowledge, Albany, State University of New York Press, 1989 Dabashi, H., ‘Rumi and the Problems of Theodicy: Moral Imagination and Narrative Discourse in a Story of the Masnavi’, in Banani (1994) Davis, R., ‘Narrative and Doctrine in the First Story of Rumi’s Mathnawi’, in Hawting, G.R., Mojaddedi, J.A. and Samely, A. (eds) Studies in Islamic and Middle Eastern Texts and Traditions in Memory of Norman Calder, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000 De Bruijn, J.T.P., Persian Sufi Poetry: An Introduction to the Mystical Use of Classical Poems, Richmond: Curzon Press, 1997 Elias, Jamal,‘Mawlawiyya’, in Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic World, ed. Esposito, John L., 4 vols., New York: Oxford University Press, 1995 Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960Encyclopaedia Iranica, ed. Yarshater, E., available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/ Ernst, Carl W., The Shambhala Guide to Sufism, Boston: Shambhala Publications Inc., 1997 Gamard, Ibrahim and Farhadi, Rawan, The Quatrains of Rumi, San Rafael CA, Sufi Dari Books, 2008 Jones, A., The Qurʾān, Exeter: E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Trust, 2007 Keshavarz, Fatemeh, Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi, University of South Carolina Press, 1998 The Koran with a Parallel Arabic Text, translated with notes by N.J. Dawood, London: Penguin, 1990 Lewis, Franklin D., Rumi Past and Present East and West: The Life, Teachings and Poetry of Jalal al-Din Rumi Oxford: Oneworld, 2000 Lewisohn, L. (ed.), The Philosophy of Ecstasy: Rumi and the Sufi Tradition (World Wisdom: The Library of Perennial Philosophy / Spiritual Masters: East & West) 2015 Lewisohn, L. (ed.), Classical Persian Sufism: From its origins to Rumi 700–1300, London and New York: Oneworld Publications, 1993 Mardin, Şerif, ‘Mevlevi’, in Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic World, ed. Esposito, John L., 4 vols., New York: Oxford University Press, 1995 Mills, Margaret, M.A., ‘Folk Tradition in the Masnavī and the Masnavī in folk tradition’, in Banani 1994 Nasr, S.H. (Editor in Chief), The Study Quran A New Translation and Commentary, New York: Harper Collins, 2015 Mojaddedi, J., Beyond Dogma: Rumi’s Teachings on Friendship with God and Early Sufi Theories, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012

Further Reading

xxv

Movahhed, Mohammed ‘Ali (ed.), Maqālāt-e Shams-e Tabrizi, Tehran: Entesharat-e Khwarazmi, 1990 Perry, J.R., ‘Monty Python and the Mathnavi: The Parrot in Indian, Persian and English Humor’, Iranian Studies, 36/1 (2003), 63–73 Renard, J., All the King’s Falcons: Rumi on Prophets and Revelation, Albany: SUNY Press, 1994 Safi, O., ‘Did the Two Oceans Meet? Historical Connections and Disconnections between Ibn ʿArabi and Rumi’, Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society, 26 (1999), 55–88 Thackston, Wheeler, Signs of the Unseen, Putney, Vermont: Threshold Books, 1994 Virani, N., ‘ “I am the Nightingale of the Merciful”: Rumi’s use of the Quran and Hadith’, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 22/2 (2002), 100–11 Williams, Alan, Spiritual Verses, The First Book of the Masnavi-ye Maʿnavi, London and New York: Penguin, 2006

Note on The Translation

I

have chosen to use an English metre of max. 22 syllables (see Introduction §7) to translate the Persian ramal metre of the same syllablic length. The

layout of the pages is different, as the English couplet occupies two lines, the second hemistich indented from the left, whereas in the Persian the whole verse runs across the page. This arrangement is partly to accommodate different habits of reading down the page, but also because of the ‘space factor’ in page layout. (In the Konya MS, as can be seen in the image of the Neynāme in Plates 2 and 3 of Book One, the medieval calligrapher could write two couplets on each line, allowing approximately 50 verses per page.) English generally uses more words to translate a verse couplet of Persian. This is partly a function of the differences between the two languages – most basic, among many other reasons, is that Persian does not have verbal equivalents to Eng. articles ‘the’ and ‘a’ / ‘an’, and generally does not use separate pronouns ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘he’ etc. with the verb. Added to this is the fact that Persian script is more like a ‘shorthand’, since it does not include short vowels in its orthography. The Persian poet can in any case be very concise in this language, using key words and tags that open up whole contexts familiar to the Persian speaking audience (for example a single iconic word from can trigger recollection of whole passages from the Quran or hadith traditions). It is partly for this reason that the Notes to the Translation are provided, but to keep the text of the poem ‘clean’, I have not cluttered the page with footnotes or asterisks, but ask the reader to make full use of the Notes as required. There is no punctuation in the manuscript of the medieval Persian, but modern English translation benefits from a light use of commas, colons etc., to make sense of the highly condensed language of the original. For Rumi, Arabic had a more sacred status than his native tongue and he frequently quotes or xxvi

Note on The Translation

xxvii

composes in Arabic, which is printed in italics in the translation. Whereas there is no capitalisation in Persian and Arabic orthography, I capitalise names and pronouns that have transcendent reference to the divinity. Often, honorific phrases are used in Arabic for prophets and revered religious (and, occasionally, literary) figures (such as ‘upon him be peace’), and these are included in the translation.

xxviii

The Masnavi Book Two The Ending of the Self

1

2

Rumi’s Preface In the Name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate The partial explanation of the wisdom of postponing this second book is that if all Divine Wisdom were made known to His servant in regard to the benefits of that work, the servant would be incapable of that work, and the limitless wisdom of God would annihilate his understanding, and he would not complete the work. So God Most High makes a portion of that limitless wisdom into a tether for his nose and leads him to that work – for if He gives him no information of those benefits, he will not be motivated at all, for the motivation to do the right thing arises from benefits to human beings; and if He just poured out wisdom, he would not be motivated either, just as with the camel – if there is no tether in the nose, the camel will not move and if the tether is too big, it will just lie down. And there is nothing We do not have storehouses of, but We send it down only in certain quantities. Earth without water does not make bricks, and when the water is too much it does not make bricks either. And He raised up heaven, and set the Balance and He gives everything in due measure and not without calculation and due measure, except to those who have been transformed from the creaturely state, who have become as the text says, ‘and God provides whomsoever He will without reckoning’. But he who has not tasted does not know.

3

4

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

To one who asked the question ‘What is love?’ I said ‘You shall know this when you become me’. True love is love beyond all calculation, which is why it is said that it is in reality the quality of God, and for man his servant a mere figure of speech. ‘He loves them’ is all there is – who are ‘they’ in ‘they love Him?’

The Poem

This Masnavi has been delayed a while – time was required that blood would turn to milk. Until your fortune bears a new-born child, blood does not turn to sweet milk, hear this well! As when Hosāmoddin, the Light of Truth, held back the reins at heaven’s highest point, When he’d gone up to the Realities, without his springtime, blossoms had not opened. 5 When he came from the ocean to the shore the Masnavi’s poetic lyre was tuned. His reappearance was the day of opening the Masnavi, the burnisher of spirits: The dawn of this historic enterprise has happened in the year six-sixty two. A nightingale left here and it returned, became a falcon, all to hunt these meanings. Remain upon the Royal arm, O falcon! that all can find His gate is ever open! 10 It’s blocked by sensuality and lust: instead, here is the drink to end all drinks! Shut tight your mouth that you may clearly see your throat and mouth are blindfolds on that world! O mouth, you are the very hole of hell! O world, you’re like the state of No Man’s Land! 5

6

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Next to this lowly world is light eternal, the purest milk is next to streams of blood. If you should carelessly take one step in, your milk shall turn to blood in your confusion. 15 When Adam took one step in selfish pleasure, his fall from Paradise became his shackle! The angels fled from him as from a demon, how much he cried his eyes out just for bread! Though all the wrong he’d done was just a hair’s breadth, but still, that hair had grown across his eyes. This Adam was the eye of light eternal: one hair upon the eye’s a mighty mountain! If Adam had been prudent in this matter, he would not have excused himself contritely. 20 For when one mind is coupled with another, it will prevent bad action and bad speech. But when one ego’s friendly with another, the individual mind is vain and useless. When you are in despair from loneliness, become a sun beneath the shade of God. Go seek the friend of God! Be quick about it! When you have done this, God will be your Friend – He who has sewn his gaze on solitude has surely also learnt that from the Friend. 25 Seclusion is from strangers, not the Friend: fur coats are for December not for spring. When mind is doubled by another mind, the light increases and the way is clear. When ego’s chuckling with another self, darkness increases and the way’s obscured. The saintly friend is like your eye, O huntsman! Keep it immaculate of sticks and straws! Don’t let your rough-brush tongue stir up the dust! Don’t give your eye a souvenir of rubbish!

Poem on the fantasies of self-love and illusion

30 The faithful is the mirror to the faithful, his face is to be free from all defilement. The Friend’s the mirror to the soul in sorrow, O soul, don’t breathe upon the mirror’s face! Don’t make it hide its face against your breath: your breath must be suppressed at every moment. Or are you less than earth? When earth befriends spring rain, it finds a hundred thousand flowers. The tree that is in union with a friend will blossom in sweet air from top to bottom. 35 In autumn, when it sees the hostile friend, it draws its head and face under the covers. It says ‘The bad companion stirs up trouble! Since he has come, my way ahead is sleep. So I shall sleep – a Sleeper of the Cave – and better than a Decius, though a prisoner.’ Their vigil’s caused by Emperor Decius’ doing: their sleep’s the capital of their renown. Sleep is a vigil when it is with wisdom: woe to the wakeful who consort with fools! 40 In January, when crows have pitched their tents, the nightingales have hidden and are resting, Because without the garden they are silent: the absence of the sun kills wakefulness. O sun! You leave behind this rosy garden, that you may shine upon the nether world. There is no movement for the sun of knowledge: it rises only in the mind and soul. Especially the Perfect Sun beyond, by day and night its action is enlightening. 45 Come to the sunrise if you’re Alexander, then everywhere you go, you shall be splendid. Then everywhere you go, there shall be sunrise, sunrises shall be lovers to your sunsets.

7

8

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Your bat-like senses running to the sunset, your pearl-diffusing senses to the dawn. The senses’ way’s the asses’ way, O rider! O meddler among asses, have some shame! There are five senses other than these five, they are like pure red gold, these others copper. 50 In that bazaar, the men of the last judgment, will they buy copper sense when there is gold? The fleshly sense is eating food of darkness, the spiritual sense is nourished by a sun. O you who have brought sensory goods to Heaven, take out your hand, like Moses, from your bosom. O you, whose quality’s the sun of knowledge, whose sun in space is limited to one. Now you become the sun and now the ocean, and now you are Mount Qāf and now the Anqā. 55 You are not this or that in your own essence, O You, much more than all imaginings! The spirit is the friend of mind and knowledge – what truck has it with Arabic or Turkish? ‘Comparer’ and ‘transcender’ are bewildered by You, so imageless and polymorphic. Sometimes ‘transcender’ overcomes ‘comparer’, sometimes the forms will ambush the ‘transcender’. Sometimes Abu’l Hasan will tell you drunkly ‘O tiny teeth, O tender bodied one!’ 60 Sometimes he will destroy his very image – he does that for the Loved One’s sheer transcendence. Moʿtazelism is for the sensory eye: the Sunni has true insight into union. The sense-obsessed, they are Moʿtazelite: mistakenly they see themselves as Sunni. All stuck in sense, they are Moʿtazelite: though they say they are Sunni, they are stupid.

Poem on the fantasies of self-love and illusion

He who takes leave of sensory things is Sunni, those who have insight have the eye of reason. 65 If animal sense could look upon the King, beasts of the field and asses would see God. And if you had no other kind of sense beyond desire, except the sense of creatures, How then by common sense could Adam’s sons have been both honoured and confided in? Your talk of what is ‘formed’ and what is ‘formless’ would all be vain without your leaving form. The formless and the formed appear to him who is all substance yet has sloughed his skin. 70 If you are blind ‘it is no fault in blind men’ – if not, go on, ‘patience unlocks success’. The medicine of patience burns the veils upon the eyes and opens up the breast. When your heart’s mirror’s cleansed and purified, you shall see forms beyond this earth and water. You’ll see the paintings and the Painter too, the imperial carpet and the Chamberlain. The image of my friend is like Khalil, his form’s an idol – idol-smasher truly. 75 Thank God that when he was made manifest my soul saw its reflection in his image. The dust upon Your threshold fooled my heart: heap dust on it, content without Your dust. ‘If I am fair’, I said, ‘I’ll take this from him, if not, he’s laughed at my unlovely face.’ The answer’s this: ‘I should look at myself, or else he’ll laugh at me: “What choice have I?” ’ He’s beautiful and is in love with beauty. What fresh young man would choose an aged woman? 80 The fair attracts the fair, you must know this, And here recite ‘Good women for good men’.

9

10

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

In this world every thing is drawn to some thing: the hot is drawn to hot, the cold to cold. As worthless types draw to themselves the worthless, those who endure are happy with the enduring. The fiery are attracted to the fiery, the luminous are seekers of the light ones. Your soul is anxious when you close your eyes – the eye can’t bear to be deprived of daylight. 85 Anxiety gripped you when you closed your eyes, how could your eyesight do without the daylight? Your restlessness was from the eye’s allurement to be united with the light of day. If restlessness afflicts your open eyes, know that your heart’s eye’s closed, and open it! That is the craving of your inner eyes, that seek illumination beyond measure. As separation of the fickle lights brought you discomfort – so your eyes would open, 90 Then separation of the constant lights will bring discomfort – keep a watch on them! Since He is calling me I’ll look to see if I deserve attraction or revulsion. If someone charming leads the ugly on, it is a mockery he makes of him. How shall I see, I wonder, my own face and see my colour? Like the day or night? I sought the image of my soul for so long: but no one showed me what that image was. 95 ‘What, after all,’ I said, ‘are mirrors for?’ That each should know just what and who he is! The metal mirror is for surfaces: the bright-faced mirror of the soul is priceless.

Poem on the fantasies of self-love and illusion

Soul’s mirror is none other than the Friend’s face, the face of one who hails from yonder regions. I said, ‘Heart! Seek the universal mirror! Go to the sea! – it will not work with rivers!’ By this endeavour has the servant found you: the pains of birth drew Mary to the Palm tree. 100 When for my heart your vision became vision, my blinded heart was gone and drowned in vision. I saw you as the universal mirror: always – I saw my image in your eye. I said, ‘At last I’ve seized upon my self. In his two eyes I’ve found the shining path.’ My mind declared ‘That’s your imagination! Discern your essence from imagination!’ And from your eye my image found its voice, saying ‘I am you, and you are I, in union. 105 Could fantasy have access to the truths of such an eye illumined and eternal? Should you behold in others’ eyes than mine, your image, that is fantasy and worthless. For they apply the kohl of non-existence, and taste the wine of Satan’s mis-concoction. Their eyes are homes to fantasy and nothings, and thus they see such nothings as existent. But since my eye got kohl from Glorious God, reality’s its home, not fantasy.’ 110 While there’s one hair of ‘you’ before your eye a pearl is in your fantasy a jasper. You’ll know the gap between the pearl and jasper when you go past your fantasy completely. So hear a story, connoisseur of pearls, and learn to see instead of speculating.

11

12

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

How, in the time of Omar, May God be pleased with him, the moon appeared to someone’s imagination In Omar’s time, it was the month of fasting and people came a-running to the hilltop, To take the fast-day new moon as an omen – someone said ‘Omar, here is the new moon!’ 115 When Omar saw no moon up in the sky, he said, ‘This moon rose from your fantasy! If I can see the sky with clearer sight, why is it I can’t see the pure new moon?’ He said, ‘Go wet your hand and wipe your brow, and then look up to see the crescent moon.’ He wet it and he saw no moon, and said, ‘Your majesty, there is no moon, it’s vanished.’ He answered, ‘Yes, your brow became a bow, which shot you with an arrow of invention.’ 120 When one hair bent, it browbeat him so that he falsely boasted he had seen the moon. If just one crooked hair obscures the sky, how will it be when all your limbs are crooked? Make straight your limbs according to the straight ones! Don’t deviate, true traveller, from that threshold! The balance measures true stability, and also measures instability. He who is matched in weight with the unrighteous falls into loss, his mind becomes confused. 125 Go on! ‘Be hard upon the unbelievers’: throw dust upon your fondness for the strangers! Be like a sword upon the strangers’ heads! Don’t play your foxy tricks! Be lion-like! Don’t let the friends break off from you in envy, because the thorns are enemies of this rose. Set fire to the wolves like wild rue, because they are the enemies of Joseph.

A snake-catcher’s stealing a snake from another

13

‘My darling’, Iblis calls you, but beware in case the demon tricks you with his words. 130 He worked a fraud like this upon your father: this blackfaced one checkmated Adam once. This rook is speedy in the game of chess, you should not watch the game with sleepy eyes! He knows so many check moves of the queen, to choke you down your throat like bits of straw. His straw gets stuck inside your throat for years. What is this straw? – it’s love of rank and wealth. O fickle man, the straw is wealth, for when it’s in your throat it blocks the living water. 135 And should an artful foe have got your wealth, a robber would have ripped a robber off.

A snake-catcher’s stealing a snake from another snake-catcher A thief had snatched a snake from a snake-catcher and in his folly reckoned it a prize. But while the snake-catcher escaped the fangs, the thief was, sadly, slaughtered by the snake. The snake-catcher saw him and recognised him, and said, ‘My snake has done him in alright! My soul was praying hard that I would seize that man and I’d get back my snake from him. 140 Thanks be to God that prayer was not approved: I thought I’d lost, but I was better off.’ So many prayers are doomed and ruinous! And mercifully our Holy God ignores us!

The request of the companion of Jesus, on whom be peace, that Jesus, on whom be peace, should bring bones back to life A foolish man who tagged along with Jesus once saw some human bones down in a grave.

14

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

He said, ‘Companion, what’s that name sublime by which you make the dead alive again? Teach it to me that I may do some good, and with it put back life into the bones.’ 145 He said, ‘Be silent that is not your work, it is not fitting for your breath and speech, For it requires breath purer than the rain, in action how more piercing than the angels! Lifetimes it takes to purify the breath till heaven’s treasury is entrusted to him. If you had grasped this staff in your right hand, where would your hand have found the powers of Moses’?’ He said, ‘If I’m not fit to chant such mysteries, then chant the name upon the bones yourself!’ 150 And Jesus said, ‘O Lord, what is the secret of this fool’s longing for such vanities? Why does this sick man not bewail his plight? Why does this dead man not repent his life? He has discharged himself to his own death, yet he would seek to mend the bones of strangers!’ God said, ‘The damned seek for their own damnation, the full-grown thistle’s his reward for sowing.’ The one who in this world is sowing thistles do not go searching rose gardens for him! 155 If he should hold a rose, it turns to thistles, and any friend he makes becomes a snake. That knave’s a poison potion of a snake! contrary to the man of God’s elixir.

A Sufi tells a servant to look after his mount and the ‘God help us!’ of the servant A Sufi wandered all around the world till one night he stayed over in a lodge.

A Sufi tells a servant to look after his mount and the ‘God help us!’

He had an ass, and tied it in the stable; he took the place of honour with his friends, And then he joined his friends in contemplation: friends’ presence is a book, and how much more! 160 The Sufi’s book is not inscribed in black: it’s nothing but a heart as white as snow. The scholar thrives on tractates of the pen: what keeps the Sufi going? Tracks he traces. He’s like a hunter who is after game: he sees the deer tracks and he’s on the trail. For some time he will make do with the deer tracks, and then he’s guided by the musk-deer gland. When he is grateful for the track, and travelled, that track will doubtless bring him his desire. 165 To go one stage upon the scent of musk-gland is better than a hundred trips and traipsings. That heart which is the rising place of moonbeams is where the gates are opened for the enlightened. To you it is a wall, to them a doorway, to you a stone, a gemstone to the Dear Ones. Those things which you see clearly in a mirror, the Pir will see before you in a brick. The Pirs are those whose souls were in the Sea of Grace before this world came into being. 170 They lived for lifetimes long before this body, they harvested the wheat before the sowing. Before the form they have received the spirit, they have bored pearls before the sea existed. Creation’s plans were still in process when their souls were neck-deep in God’s sea of power. And while the angels were opposing that, they clapped their hands at them in secret, jeering. He was informed of every form that is, before the Universal Soul was fettered.

15

16

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

175 Before the heavens were made they witnessed Saturn; they saw the bread before the seeds existed. Without a brain and heart, they’re filled with thought; without an army and a war, they won. For them that contemplation is their thought and yet, to those far off, it’s intuition. Thought is about things past and things to come: when it escapes these two, the problem’s solved. It saw conditioned things as unconditioned, before the mine it saw true coin and fake. 180 And long before creation of the grapes, they tasted wine and felt its ecstasies. They see December in a hot July, and see the shadows in the sunlight’s beams. Inside the grape’s heart they have seen the wine, they’ve seen phenomena in pure fanā. The sky drinks deeply from their circling cup, the sun is swathed in gold by their abundance. When you see two of these meet as companions, they are both one and they’re six hundred thousand. 185 They can be likened to the waves in number, the wind would bring them to plurality. The sun, which is the souls, is all divided, reflected in the windows of the bodies. If you look at its disk, indeed it’s one, but he who’s veiled by bodies is in doubt. The animal spirit is in separation: the human spirit is a state of union. Since God ‘has sprinkled over them His light’, His light has never truly been divided. 190 Leave off your weariness one moment, comrade, one mole of His I’ll tell about His beauty. The beauty of His state has no description, both worlds—what are they? Just His mole’s reflection.

A Sufi tells a servant to look after his mount and the ‘God help us!’

17

If I should breathe a word of His fair mole, my speech is going to tear apart my body. I’m happy as an ant inside a grain store to bear a weight much greater than myself.

The closing of the explanation of the meaning of the story on account of the listener’s preference for the telling of the outer form of the story When will the one who rouses light to envy allow me to declare what must be told? 195 The sea throws up the foam and makes a crest, it washes back, then floods into the backwash. Hear what has been the problem at this time – I think the listener’s heart has gone somewhere. His thoughts have wandered to the Sufi traveller – he’s in that story right up to the neck. It’s necessary to draw back from this discourse, to tell what was the outcome of that story. Don’t think the Sufi is that form, my dear one – how long will you crave nuts and sweets like children? 200 Our body is like nuts and sweets, my son. If you’re a man you ought to give up both! And even if you cannot give them up, God’s grace will open up for you nine levels. Now listen to the surface of the tale, but mind you prise the kernel from the shell.

The servants undertaking to look after the beast and his dereliction When ecstasy and joy came to an end for that enthusiastic Sufi circle, They brought on trays of food for him, their guest; just then he was reminded of his beast.

18

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

205 He told the servant, ‘Go down to the stable, see to the straw and barley for the beast!’ Said he, ‘God help us! What is all this speech? Such things have been my duty for so long!’ He said, ‘His barley must be moistened first, the ass is aged and her teeth are weak.’ Said he, ‘God help us!, sir, what are you saying? Such orders are what others learn from me!’ He said, ‘Take off her saddle first of all, put herbal ointment on her chafing back.’ 210 Said he, ‘God help us! After all, great wise one, I’ve had a hundred thousand guests like you! All have departed from us satisfied, our guests are dear to us, like family.’ He said, ‘Give her hot water, but lukewarm.’ Said he, ‘God help us! I’m embarrassed by you!’ He said, ‘Don’t put too much straw in the barley!’ Said he, ‘God help us! – Stop this conversation!’ He said, ‘And sweep his stall of stones and dung, and if it’s muddy sprinkle sawdust on it.’ 215 Said he, ‘God help us, old man, ask God’s pardon! Do not advise an expert on the subject!’ He said, ‘Take up your comb, rub down the ass!’ Said he, ‘God help us, man, and shame on you!’ The servant spoke and pulled himself together: said he, ‘I’ll get the straw and barley first!’ He went, and paid no thought to any stable, and gave the Sufi fitful hare-brained sleep. The servant went to join some ruffian friends, and laughed at the instructions of the Sufi. 220 The Sufi, weary from the road, stretched out and closed his eyes, and he began to dream. He dreamed his ass was in a wolf ’s embrace that tore off pieces from its back and thighs.

A Sufi tells a servant to look after his mount and the ‘God help us!’

He cried, ‘God help us! What’s this melancholia! And heavens! Where’s that helpful servant gone?’ And then he’d see his ass upon the road, sunk in a well and fallen in a ditch. He saw all manner of horrendous nightmares: he said the Fātiha and Qāreʿa. 225 He said, ‘What can be done? My friends have fled. They’ve disappeared and bolted all the doors!’ Again he’d say, ‘O heavens! Oh, that servant! Did he not sit and eat a meal with us? I showed him only grace and gentleness, why would he in response show hate to me? All enmity must have a cause beneath it, or else our nature calls for decency.’ And ‘When did Adam, full of grace and kindness, perform an act of violence on Iblis? 230 What did a man do to the snake and scorpion that they should wish upon him pain and death? The very instinct of the wolf is tearing, this malice is still manifest in people.’ And he would say, ‘This evil thought is wrong. Why have I thought such thoughts against my brother?’ He would say, ‘Prudence lies in your suspicion. Without suspicion how can one survive?’ The Sufi worried, and his ass was such that you’d not wish upon your enemies. 235 The poor ass languished in the dirt and stones, its saddle twisted and its halter torn. And dead beat from the road, no food all night, it was between death’s door and perishing. The ass repeated all night long, ‘O Lord, I give up barley. Just a little straw?’ It spoke in Sufi words, ‘O sheikhs!’, it said, ‘Have mercy! I am burnt out by this scoundrel!’

19

20

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

The pain and punishment that donkey felt is what the flightless bird feels in a flood, 240 It rolled upon its side all night till dawn, that wretched creature, from exceeding hunger. When it was day, at dawn the servant came, at once he fastened on the saddle tightly, And as horse traders do, he beat the ass with several blows that dog himself deserved. The ass leapt from the sharpness of the sting – in what tongue could the ass tell of its state?

The travellers suspect that the Sufi’s beast is sick Now when the Sufi mounted and got going, the ass began to stumble all the time. 245 And every time the people picked it up they all knew it was in a state of torment. One person gave a hard twist to its ears, another looked inside its mouth for something. A third looked in its hoof to find a stone, another looked for mucus in its eye. They said ‘O Sheikh, what’s this? Just yesterday did you not say “Thank God! This ass is strong!” ?’ He said, ‘The only way the ass knew how to make it through the night was by God help us! 250 Since all its food all night was just God help us! by night it’s praising and by day prostrating.’ Most humans are just human cannibals, have no faith in their greeting ‘Peace be with you!’ The devil has his house in all their hearts, don’t listen to the noise of devilish men! The one who eats from devilish breath ‘God help us!’ shall fall headlong in battle, like an ass, Who feeds on fiendish falsehood from this world and fraud and flannel from false-friendly foes,

A Sufi tells a servant to look after his mount and the ‘God help us!’

255 He’ll fall headlong in madness, like an ass upon the Muslim path and Serāt bridge. Beware! Don’t listen to the bad friend’s flannel! Watch for the trap! Don’t trust the ground you walk on! A hundred thousand devils chant ‘God help us!’, O Adam, see the Devil in the serpent! He will deceive you with ‘Beloved darling!’ then flay his lover’s torso like a butcher. He will deceive you, so that he can flay you! Alas, if you take opium from your rivals! 260 He comes a-grovelling to you, like a butcher, he’ll simperingly deceive you for your blood. Go hunt your prey yourself, be like a lion! Give up the fawning talk of kin and stranger! Respect for losers is like being the servant: better alone than fawned on by a loser. Don’t set up house on other people’s land, attend to your own work, don’t work for strangers! Who is the stranger: it’s your earthly body. Your melancholy’s all because of that! 265 While you give fat and sweetness to your body, you shall not see abundance in your essence, And even were your body smeared in musk, the day you died, its stench would reappear. Don’t smear your body, smear your heart with musk! What is this musk? The Almighty’s Holy Name. The hypocrite puts musk upon his body – his spirit’s at the bottom of the trash can, God’s name upon his tongue, and in his soul the stenches from his sacriligious thinking. 270 For him the zekr is grass around the ash: – a rose and lily growing on a midden. And there, those plants are certainly on loan, those flowers belong to banquets and to feasts.

21

22

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

‘Good women come to good men,’ it is said: ‘beware, to impure men come impure women!’ Don’t hate! For those who lose themselves in hate, – their monuments are set among the hateful. Hell is the root of hatred, and your hate is part of all that’s hostile to your faith. 275 Since you’ve a part of hell in you, be careful: the part will take its refuge in its whole! The bitter man belongs with bitter men, how can the idle breath be close to truth? And if you’re part of Paradise, renowned one, your life will constantly be Paradise. O brother, you are that same thought exactly: the rest of you is skeleton and fibre. You are a garden if your thought is roses, and if your thought is brambles you are kindling. 280 You’re sprinkled on the breast if you are perfume, but if you are like piss you’re tossed away. See all the trays out at the pharmacist’s, each sort is put in order with its own, Some sorts are grouped with certain other sorts in elegant homogeneity. If aloes wood and sugar get mixed up, he sorts them one by one from every other. The trays got broken and the souls were spilled: the good and evil mixed with one another. 285 God sent the prophets with the scrolls of parchment that He might pick those grains upon the trays. Before the prophets came we all were one, and no one knew of who was good or evil. Fake and true coin were current in the world when all was night and we were in the dark. Until the sun of prophethood arose, saying, ‘False be gone! Come forward purity!’

A Sufi tells a servant to look after his mount and the ‘God help us!’

The eye can make out differences in colour, the eye can tell the ruby from the pebble. 290 The eye distinguishes the jewel from rubbish, for bits of rubbish lacerate the eye. These fraudsters are the enemies of daylight: those golden-mined ones are the daylight’s lovers. Day is a mirror of its explanation whereby the sterling gold may be accepted. For this, God called the Resurrection ‘Day’, for ‘Day’ discloses red and yellow’s beauty. In truth the mystery of the saints is ‘Day’: before their moon the daylight seems like shadows. 295 Day well reflects the man of God’s interior, while blindfold night reflects his occultation. For this God ordered ‘By the morning brightness’ the Prophet’s inner light is ‘By the morning. . .’ While others say the Friend meant ‘morning’ by this, because the morning is His mirror image. To swear on things ephemeral is a sin: do such ephemeral things suit speech divine? ‘I love not them that set,’ said Abraham: How could Almighty God have meant ephemera? 300 Said Abraham ‘I love not things that set,’ how could Great God intend ephemeral things? ‘And by the night’ points also to his ‘veiling’, and to his terracotta-coloured body. And when his sun had risen in the sky, it told the body’s night, ‘You’re not forsaken’. Out of affliction’s essence union came: ‘He did not hate you’ signified his sweetness. Indeed each sign’s a symbol of a state, the state is like the hand, the sign a tool. 305 A goldsmith’s tool held in a cobbler’s hand is like a seed that has been sown in sand.

23

24

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

And as for cobblers’ tools in labourers’ hands, they are like straw for dogs or bones for asses. On Mansur’s lips ‘I am the Truth’ was light: on Pharaoh’s lips his ‘I am God’ was lies. In Moses’ hand the staff became a witness: in sorcerers’ hands it turned to clouds of dust. And for this reason Jesus did not teach his fellow-traveller the Master’s name, 310 For he’d not know, and blame the tool instead – strike stone on mud: how can you get a spark? The hand and tool are like the stone and iron: the pair’s a precondition for production. The One is He who has no tool or partner. There’s doubt in number: One is beyond doubt. Those saying ‘two’ or ‘three’ or more than this are certainly unanimous on ‘one’. When double vision’s put aside, they’re one: those saying ‘two’ and ‘three’ become one ball. 315 If you’re a ball upon His polo field, keep spinning round about His polo-stick. The ball is true and flawless only when it’s set to dancing by the royal touch. So listen carefully, four-eyes, to the following: apply the drug for sore eyes through your ears! Then holy discourse is not stuck in blind hearts, and goes on to the light from which it came. The Devil’s spell goes into crooked hearts, just like the crooked shoe on crooked feet. 320 Although you got your wisdom by rote-learning, when you’re not worthy, it will give you up, And though you write it out and annotate it, and though you boast about it and explain it, It will withdraw its face, contentious one, and break the bonds and take its flight from you.

The King finds his falcon in the house of a poor old woman

If you read nothing, yet it sees your love, the knowledge is a tame bird in your hand. Like any peacock in a peasant’s house, it may not stay with every ignoramus.

The King finds his falcon in the house of a poor old woman 325 Religion’s not that falcon which escaped the King to that old woman sifting flour To cook some pastry dishes for her children. She saw that beautiful and noble falcon, She tied its feet together, clipped its wings, she cut its talons, and she fed it straw. ‘The nincompoops have not looked after you! Your wings are overgrown, your claws too long, All their unskilful hands make you unwell. Come to your mother to take care of you!’ 330 Such is the affection of a fool my friend, the fool will always stagger on the path. The King was searching all the day till late, until he reached the woman and her hovel. Straight off, in smoke and dust, he saw his falcon! The King wept bitter tears for it, and moaned, ‘Although it’s just deserts for what you did’, he said, ‘– not keeping faith with me correctly – Why did you flee from Paradise to Hell, forgetful that “those of the Fire. . . aren’t equal”. 335 For one who, from a King who knows him well, flees to an old hag’s house, it’s just deserts.’ The falcon said in silence ‘I have sinned’, and rubbed its wings against the sovereign’s hand. Where may the wretched sinner plead and moan if you accept none but the good, O Kind One? The King’s grace leads the soul into temptation, because the King makes good all hideous things.

25

26

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Do not do hideous things, our goodness yet appears as hideous to our Gracious One. 340 As you considered your own service worthy, you raised the standard of your sin above it. Since zekr and prayer were authorised for you, your heart became presumptuous from praying. You saw yourself as having words with God, how many are separated by such thoughts! Although the King sits with you on the ground be known to yourself - sit more carefully. The falcon said, ‘O King, I am ashamed, I do repent. I am reborn a Muslim! 345 The one you make so drunk and lion-catching, if he walks crookedly, accept his reasons. My talons may have gone, but when You’re mine, I’ll tear the forelock off the very sun. Although my wings are gone, when you caress me, the whirling spheres slow down to see me play. Give me a belt and I’ll uproot the mountain! Give me a pen and I shall break the standards! My body’s not inferior to the gnat’s, so with my wings I’ll ruin Nimrod’s kingdom. 350 Take me as like the flocks of birds in weakness, and all my enemies like elephants, But if I should discharge a pea-sized pellet, my pellet has the effect of heavy weapons. Although my pebble is a lentil’s size, in battle it leaves neither head nor helmet.’ When Moses came with one staff into battle, he smashed at Pharaoh and at all his swords. Each prophet on his own who’s knocked the door has singlehandedly struck all the worlds. 355 When Noah begged of God to have a sword, for him flood waves were tempered like a sword.

The King finds his falcon in the house of a poor old woman

Mohammad (truly, what are earthly armies?) behold the moon and split apart her forehead, So that the unenlightened star-gazer may know this is your era, not the moon’s. It is your era, for the prophet Moses, who spoke with God, yearned constantly for this. When Moses saw the splendour of your era in which the dawn of revelation rose, 360 He said, ‘O Lord what age of mercy is that? For this surpasses mercy—there is vision! Submerge Your prophet Moses in the seas to surface in the era of Mohammad.’ He said ‘For that I showed to you, O Moses, for that I opened up your way to union. For you are in this age from that one Moses, stretch out your legs because this carpet’s long! For I am kind, I show the servant bread, so that desire will make the living weep. 365 A mother will massage her baby’s nose, that he may wake and search for nourishment. He may have drifted off to sleep still hungry, and nibbles on her breasts for milk to flow. I was a treasure and a hidden mercy and I sent forth a rightly guided people.’ And every grace you seek with all your heart He showed to you so you would long for it. How many idols did Mohammad smash that in this world the people cry ‘O Lord’ 370 For if Mohammed had not striven, you would also worship idols like your forebears. This head of yours escaped from idol-worship, so that you know his claim over the nations. If you can speak, then thank him for this rescue, to wrest you also from the inner idol.

27

28

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Since he indeed has saved your head from idols, by that same power, liberate your heart! You were not grateful for your faith because it was passed down for nothing from your father. 375 What does an heir know of the power of wealth? A Rostam tore his soul, Zāl got his free. ‘When I cause men to weep, My mercy wells, the one who cries out feeds upon My grace. If I do not bestow I do not show him: but I contract his heart and open it. To those good tears My mercy is related: with tears a wave swells from the sea of mercy.’

Sheikh Ahmad son of Khezruya buys halva for his creditors, by the grace of God Almighty There was a sheikh continually in debt, such was this splendid man’s good-heartedness, 380 He took ten thousand loans from noble men and spent them on the paupers of the world, He built a Sufi lodge with money borrowed, gave up his life and wealth and Sufi lodge, And God would pay off all the debts he had, as God made flour from sand for Abraham. The Prophet said, ‘In every marketplace there are two angels offering their prayers: Saying “God, give those who overspend a hand-out!” “O God, bring ruin on the miserly!” ’ 385 Especially spenders who have spent their lives and sacrificed their throats for their Creator. He offered up his throat like Ishmael, the knife does not begin to touch his throat. So martyrs live in joy because of this (do not dwell on the body like the pagans!),

Sheikh Ahmad son of Khezruya buys halva for his creditors

Since He bestowed on them the life eternal, the life immune from grief and pain and suffering. The debtor sheikh behaved like this for years, he’d give and take away just like a waiter. 390 He kept on sowing seeds until his death day, that, come that day, he’d be a glorious prince. And when the sheikh’s life-span approached its end, he saw the signs of death in his existence. The creditors all sat around the sheikh, who melted nicely like a candle on him, The creditors despaired and turned to sourness, heart-ache accompanied by aching lungs. He said: ‘Just look at these suspicious men! Does God not have four hundred golden dinars?’ 395 From outside came a boy’s cry ‘Buy my halva!’ He boasted halva in the hope of ha’pennies. The sheikh gave orders, nodding to his servant, ‘Go out and buy the halva – all of it! – So when the creditors are eating halva they’ll not look crossly at me for a while.’ Immediately the servant went outside to purchase all the halva with some gold. He asked him, ‘What’s the price for all the halva?’ The boy replied, ‘Just over half a dinar’. 400 He answered, ‘No, don’t ask so much from Sufis, I’ll give you half a dinar – say no more!’ He placed the halva tray before the sheikh, Behold the mysteries of the sheikh’s contrivance! He gestured to the creditors, ‘This gift’s a blessing, eat with joy, for this is lawful.’ The boy removed the tray when it was empty, He said, ‘O wise one, please give me my money.’ The sheikh replied, ‘Where would I find a dirham? I’m deep in debt and heading for oblivion.’

29

30

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

405 The boy then hurled the tray upon the ground, cried out in grief and wailed his lamentations. He wept because he had been cheated, crying, ‘I wish that I had broken both my legs! Or that I’d hung around the bath-house furnace and never passed the Sufi house’s door. Freeloading Sufis, scrabbling after scraps, dog-hearted and like cats that lick their faces!’ The howling of the boy brought all the mob to come and stand around him in a crowd. 410 He went up to the sheikh, ‘O, cruel sheikh! You realise my boss will murder me If I go back to see him empty-handed, do you give him the right to murder me?’ And then the creditors turned on the sheikh, reproaching him, ‘What is this all about? You’ve gobbled up our goods, and injured us, – what’s this new crime to add to all of it?’ The boy was weeping all the while till prayer-time, the sheikh had closed his eyes and blanked him out. 415 Aloof from criticisms and attacks, he’d drawn a veil to hide his moon-like face, Pleased for eternity and death, content, the sheikh cared not for slander or for gossip. How can the look of sour folk perturb the face that’s sweetened by the smile of God? And he whose eye’s been kissed by the Beloved, how can he suffer from the wrath of heaven? On moon-light nights how could the moon in Spica have any fear of dogs and all their barking? 420 The dog performs his dogged obligation, the moon’s task is her face’s radiation. So everyone performs his little task – the water’s not polluted by a weed.

Sheikh Ahmad son of Khezruya buys halva for his creditors

Weeds wend their way upon the water’s surface, the stream flows purely on without commotion. The Holy Prophet splits the moon at midnight, Abu Lahab talks nonsense out of envy. The Christ Messiah brings the dead to life, the Jew is tearing out his beard in anger. 425 Does barking ever gain the moon’s attention, especially the Moon that is God’s chosen? Till dawn the King is drinking by the stream, in ecstasy oblivious of the frogs. The boy’s dispute was just about some pennies, the sheikh’s intent put paid to his largesse. So no one gave the boy a single penny, the power of Pirs is even more than this! By prayers that afternoon a servant came, he held a tray like one from those of Hātem, 430 A man of property and wealth had sent the sheikh a gift, for he knew all about him. Four hundred dinars—there right in the corner, another half a dinar in some paper! The servant came and bowed before the sheikh and set the tray before the matchless sheikh. When he unveiled the tray for all to see, the people saw that miracle from him. Astonished cries broke out from one and all, ‘O sheikh and majesty, what is all this? 435 What secret and what royal gift is this? O sovereign lord of sovereign lords of secrets, We did not know. Forgive our imposition! The words we uttered were well out of order! And we who wave our staffs about so blindly, we cannot help but break a lamp or two. Life deaf men, we’ve not heard a single sentence. We answer spouting out our own opinions.

31

32

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

We have not taken Moses’ sound advice, who was embarrassed contradicting Khezr, 440 Despite the fact his eye could shoot up high and with his vision split the heavens apart. In foolishness a frenzied harvest mouse, has fixed its mousey eye on your eye, Moses!’ The sheikh instructed them ‘I do forgive all your loquaciousness – it’s not forbidden. The secret of this was that I asked God, and so of course He showed me the true path. He said “Although that money’s nothing much, it all depended on the boy’s outcry. 445 Until the boy who’s selling halva weeps, the sea of mercy does not come to boiling.” ’ That child’s the pupil of your eye, O brother! Know that your wish depends on your distress! If you desire that robe to come to you, then shed your pupil’s tears upon your body.

Someone frightens an ascetic saying, ‘Don’t weep so, in case you go blind!’ A friend in God’s work said to an ascetic, ‘Weep less in case your eyes come to no good!’ And he replied, ‘There are two choices only: Eye either sees the Beautiful or not. 450 If it can see the light of God, what’s wrong? for unity with God, how small two eyes are! If eye does not see God, tell it “Get out!” – tell such an eye so insolent “Go blind!” ’ Don’t miss the eye, for Jesus’ eyes are yours: do not go left – he gives you two right eyes. The Jesus of your spirit’s present with you: seek help from him, he is our pleasant help.

An ascetic who was warned not to weep

Don’t all the time impose on Jesus’ heart the slave-employment of your bone-filled body! 455 Just like that foolish man who in the story we mentioned for the sake of righteous ones. Don’t seek the body’s life from your Messiah! Don’t ask from Moses what the Pharaoh wants! Don’t lay upon your heart thoughts of subsistence: subsistence will not fail! Be there at court! This body’s meant to be the spirit’s tent, and also it is like the ark for Noah. The Turcoman will have his tent wherever – especially honoured at the Court of Heaven.

The Rest of the Story of the Prayer of Jesus, on whom be peace, Bringing Back Bones to Life 460 So Jesus said God’s name over the bones in answer to the young man’s supplication, And for that callow fool God’s judgment brought new life back to those skeletal remains. A lion black as black sprang out of them, and with one paw destroyed his human form, Gouged out his skull and spilled his brains so swiftly, a kernel of a nut inside – no brain! – Had he a brain, the shattering he suffered would not have bothered him, except his body. 465 Said Jesus, ‘Why were you so swift to smite him?’ He said, ‘Because he was upsetting you!’ ‘You did not drink the young man’s blood?’ said Jesus, He said, ‘the drink was not allowed to me.’ Oh, many a person like that savage lion has quit this world and left his prey uneaten. – A morsel scarcely – though his greed’s a mountain, he had no power, though power’s what he was after.

33

34

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

O You who have assisted us, in this world of vain and slavish work, deliver us! 470 What seemed to us the bait, and was the fish-hook – reveal to us the way things really are. The lion said, ‘Messiah, this, my prey, was purely for the purpose of a warning. If in this world I’d had a livelihood, what business would there be for me with dead men?’ It is the prize for one who finds pure water and pisses in the river like a donkey. If that beast knew the value of that stream, he’d put his head, not feet, into the stream. 475 If he should find a prophet such as this, the Lord of life’s own water, nourisher, How does he not expire before Him, saying, ‘O Lord, revive me by Your order “Be!” ’? Don’t wish your dog-like self to stay alive! It’s always been so hostile to your soul! May all the bones be dead as dust, that hold this dog back from the quest for living spirit! You are no dog, why do you yearn for bones? What is this blood-lust if you’re not a leech? 480 What is that eye that has no sight in it, that’s only shamed in eye examinations? Opinions may be wrong from time to time, but what’s this one that’s blind about the path? O eye, for others you make lamentation – sit down awhile, lamenting for yourself. The weeping cloud makes green and moist the bough, the candle burns the brighter in its weeping. Wherever people make lament, sit there, because you have more right than them to weep, 485 For they are parted from what passes, and forgetful of the mine’s eternal ruby.

An ascetic who was warned not to weep

The stamp of imitation locks the heart: go on, dissolve its fetter with your tears! The bane of all good things is imitation, it is a straw, though it is mountain high! A blind man may be huge and fierce of temper: see him as merely meat, he has no eye! Though someone’s words are finer than a hair, his heart may have no inkling of those words. 490 In his words there’s intoxication, yet between him and the wine there is a distance. He’s like a stream – it does not drink the water – the water passes from him to the drinkers. The water in the spring does not sit still there, because the spring’s not thirsty, nor a drinker. It makes a sad lament, just like the ney, but he is touting for a purchaser. The imitator’s speech is like a mourner’s: except desire, that scoundrel has no purpose. 495 The mourner utters searing words, but yet where is the heart that’s seared, skirt torn asunder? From knowers to pretenders there’s such distance, these are like David, those are like the echo. The source of knowers’ words is all this burning: those mimics just reiterate old learning. Beware, don’t let their words of sorrow fool you: the load is on the ox, the cart is groaning. The imitator gets his just reward, the mourner gets his payment at the reckoning. 500 The infidel and faithful both say ‘God’: between the two there is a difference. The beggar calls out ‘God!’ from want of bread: sincere ones say it from their very soul. If beggars realised what they were saying, their eyes would no more fix on ‘more’ and ‘less’.

35

36

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

For all his life the beggar calls out ‘God!’ he totes the Holy Book for straw like asses. If all the words he spoke shone in his heart, his body would be blown to kingdom come. 505 The names of demons work in sorcery, in God’s name you do well at thievery!

How a peasant rubbed down a lion in the dark thinking that it was his ox A peasant shut his ox in its enclosure: a lion ate his ox and sat right there. The peasant went in there to find his ox, so curious was he looking for that ox. He ran his hand along the lion’s limbs, the back, the side, above and underneath. The lion said, ‘Were it a little lighter . . . his gallbladder would burst, his heart would bleed! 510 He’s stroking me so boldly thus because in this dark night he thinks I am the ox!’ For God is saying, ‘O blind deluded one, at My Name did not Sinai fall in pieces? Had We sent down a book upon the mountain you would have seen it humbled, torn, then gone. If Mount Uhud had been aware of me, it would have split and would have bled its heart out.’ You’ve heard this from your mother and your father, you’re unaware, you are affected by this! 515 If you know Him without pretence, you will, by grace, be like a hidden heavenly voice. So listen to this story as a warning to understand the dangers of pretending.

Some Sufis sell a traveller’s beast

Some Sufis sell a traveller’s beast to pay for a Sufi Samāʿ A Sufi came upon a wayside lodge, he took his mount and put it in the stable. With his own hands he watered it and fed it, not like that Sufi we described before, Took care of it, against neglect and madness, but when fate strikes, what use is care at all? 520 The Sufis there were destitute and poor, for poverty is almost unbelief. O well-fed rich man, you beware, don’t mock the misdemeanours of the suffering poor. So in their wretched state that Sufi flock all set their minds on selling off the ass. Saying ‘Carrion food is lawful in dire need, there’s many a horror need will make a virtue.’ Right there and then they sold the little ass and brought delicious pastries and lit candles. 525 A joyful uproar broke out in the lodge: ‘Tonight there’s pastries, music and there’s feasting. How much more patience and this three-day fasting, how much more of this empty purse and begging? We’re also creatures, we have souls as well. Tonight our luck is in – we have our guest!’, In this way they were sowing seeds of falsehood, for what they thought was soul was no such thing. So much exhausted by his lengthy journey, the traveller felt their welcome and their warmth. 530 The Sufis one by one would stroke and soothe him, for they were playing games of sweet devotion. When he saw how they fell for him, he said, ‘If I do not enjoy tonight, when can I?’ They ate the sweetmeats and began the Samāʿ, the lodge was choked with smoke up to the ceiling.

37

38

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

The kitchen smoke, the dust of stamping feet, souls stirred by love-sickness and ecstasy, Now waving hands, they’re pounding with their feet, now they are sliding on the floor, prostrating. 535 Fortune is slow to grant the Sufi’s wishes, which means a Sufi can get very hungry. Except perhaps that Sufi who is sated with God’s light, he is free from begging’s shame. But few among the thousands are such Sufis, the rest are living in His Welfare State. When this Samāʿ had gone from start to finish, the singer launched into a rhythmic cry, ‘The donkey’s gone, the donkey’s gone’, he started, and rousing them he pulled them all together. 540 They stamped their feet till dawn in this excitement, they clapped their hands, ‘O boy, the donkey’s gone!’. In imitation then our Sufi started excitedly to shout ‘The donkey’s gone!’ And when the fun and games and dancing stopped, day broke and all the crowd bade their farewells. The lodge was empty, and the Sufi traveller stayed brushing all the road dust from his baggage. He brought his baggage from the cell to tie it upon the donkey, looking for his fellows. 545 So that he’d quickly find his fellow travellers, he went into the stable – but no donkey! He thought, ‘The servant’s taken it for water – because it did not drink so much last night!’ The servant came – the Sufi asked ‘Where is it?’ ‘Come off it, grandad!’ Then a quarrel started. He said, ‘I left the donkey in your care, appointing you the guardian of the donkey. I just want back the thing I gave to you: give back to me what I put in your charge.

Some Sufis sell a traveller’s beast

550 Discuss it rationally, don’t pick a fight! Give back to me what I entrusted to you. The Prophet said that what your hand has taken, such things must in the end be given back. But if you’re uncooperative and stubborn, let’s you and I go to the magistrate!’ He said, ‘They overcame me – all the Sufis attacked and I was fearing for my life. Do you throw liver offal among cats and then attempt to trace their whereabouts? 555 A crust before a hundred starving souls? a scrawny cat before a hundred dogs?’ ‘I guess’ he said, ‘they robbed you violently– they were intent on my own wretched blood – Could you not find me to explain to me, “They’re making off, poor fellow, with your donkey”, So I could buy it from whoever bought it, or they could split my money up between them? When they were here there were a hundred answers, but now they’ve disappeared in all directions. 560 Who should I seize and take before the judge? This fate has fallen on my head from you! Why did you not come telling me, “O stranger, this terrible disaster has occurred”?’ He said, ‘By God, I came down many times! I tried to tell you of these goings on, But you kept saying, “O boy, the donkey’s gone!” more avidly than all the rest who said it! So I kept going back – I thought, “He knows, – He is resigned to fate, a man of gnosis!” ’ 565 He said ‘They were all chanting happily – the feeling came for me to say it too! My mimicking of them has ruined me! Two hundred curses on that mimicry!

39

40

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Especially mimicry of such rapscallions! The wrath of Abraham on those that set! The fervour of that group reflected on me, this heart of mine reflected all their fervour.’ Reflection of good friends is needed till you draw the sea water without reflection. 570 At first, for sure, reflection’s imitation: when it’s continuous, it’s realisation. Till it is certainty don’t leave the friends: don’t leave the shell, the pearl is not yet formed. If you’d be pure of eye and mind and hearing, you must tear down the veils of vain desire. That Sufi’s mimicry out of desire closed off his mind from light and all that shines. Desire for sweets and tastes and ecstasies debarred his mind from knowing what had happened. 575 If vain desire resided in a mirror, it would resemble us in its false image. Or if the weighing scales desired riches, how could the scales account for what is true? Each prophet said sincerely to his people, ‘I ask no payment from you for the message. I am the guide, God is the one who buys you, and God made me a broker for both parties. What’s payment for my work: the vision of God – though Abu Bakr gives me forty thousand. 580 And forty thousand? – that is not my payment: can glass beads ever be like Aden pearls?’ I shall relate a story to you, listen! and know that all desire is like an earplug! Whoever has desire turns incoherent – with such desire, can eye and heart be bright? To his eye, thoughts of power and position are like a hair intruding in his vision,

Publicising of a bankrupt by public criers of the Qādi

41

Except, the one who’s drunk and filled with God – he’s free, however much you give him treasures. 585 Whoever has the pleasure of His vision, this world becomes polluted to his eye. That Sufi, though, was far from drunken bliss, was consequently, in his greed, dim-sighted. One drunk on greed may hear a hundred tales, in greedy ears all subtle meaning fails.

The publicising of a bankrupt by the public criers of the Qādi There was a bankrupt homeless destitute, kept in the jail in unforgiving fetters. He gobbled up the other prisoners’ food, his greed a mountain weight upon their hearts, 590 And no one had the nerve to eat a mouthful because that food-filcher would scoff the lot. Whoever’s banished from His mercy’s banquet might be a king, but has the beggar’s look. He’d trodden human goodness under foot – that bread-thief turned the jail into a hell. If you escape in hope of some relief, calamity will greet you there as well. There is no corner without beasts and snares, except alone with God there is no rest. 595 The corner of this world’s unwelcome prison is full of costs and tolls of social functions. God knows, if you are living in a mouse-hole, you’ll be the victim of some sharp-clawed cat! Man gets his nourishment from fantasies, but only if his fantasies are pretty. And if his fantasies show something ugly, he melts away like candlewax in flames. ’Midst scorpions and snakes, if God should keep you preoccupied with fantasies of fair ones,

42

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

600 The snakes and scorpions will be your friends – that fantasy’s the alchemy for copper. Fair fantasy makes patience turn to sweetness, as thought of comfort comes into the mind. That comfort’s born of faith within the heart: the lack of faith is hopelessness and sorrow. As patience will acquire a crown of faith, no faith will come to him who has no patience. The Prophet said: ‘God did not offer faith to him who has no patience in his nature.’ 605 The one who’s like a serpent in your eyes is pretty as a picture in another’s. In your eyes he’s the image of the ungodly, but in his friend’s he is the true believer. In this one person both the two exist: now he’s the fish and now he is the fish-hook. He’s half believer and half infidel, half full of avarice and half of patience. Your Lord said: ‘Some of you are true believers, some infidels’, old fire-worshippers. 610 He’s like a bull, whose left-hand side is black, whose other side is paler than the moon. And he who sees this side will shrink from him, and he who sees that side is drawn to him. To Jacob’s eyes his Joseph was a houri, the brothers saw him as a beast of burden. The outer eye and unseen inner eye saw him as ugly in their evil fancy. That outer eye’s the shadow of this inner: whatever this may see, that turns towards it. 615 You are somewhere: your origin is nowhere so close this shop and open that one there. Do not go running in these six directions! Here danger lies: the danger is checkmate.

Publicising of a bankrupt by public criers of the Qādi

The Complaining of the prisoners to the agent of the Judge about the high-handedness of the bankrupt The prisoners came with their complaint to see the most perceptive agent of the judge. ‘Now please convey our greetings to the judge. Describe the grief this wretched man has caused us! He has remained continually in this prison, a good-for nothing, fawning, noxious sort, 620 Appearing like a fly at every mealtime so impudent and uninvited, hostile! The food of sixty men means nothing to him, he makes out he is deaf if you say “Stop!” The prisoners never saw a single scrap, and if with all his schemes he finds some food, The throat from hell appears immediately pretending God has told him “You must eat!” For such a three-year famine, justice! justice! The Shadow of our Lord endure forever! 625 This buffalo must either go from prison, or make a food allowance from a trust. O you, the source of happiness for all, whom we have called upon for help, be just!’ The subtle agent went to see the judge, and told him one by one the grievances. The judge recalled the prisoner from the prison, then made enquiries from his officers. And what that lot had been complaining of was all substantiated to the judge. 630 The judge told him, ‘Get up! Go from this prison, go back to the ancestral shack you own!’ He said ‘Your kindness is all I have left – like infidels, my heaven is in your prison. If you eject me forcibly from prison, I’ll starve to death and perish as a beggar!’

43

44

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Just like the Devil, who was saying ‘O Lord, spare me until the Day of Resurrection! For in this worldly prison I am happy to kill the children of my enemy. 635 If anyone should have faith’s livelihood or bread for sustenance upon life’s road, I’m taking it, by trickery and cunning, until they are lamenting in repentance. Sometimes I threaten them with poverty, or blind their eyes with curls and beauty spots!’ The food of faith is scarce in this world’s prison, and what is left is ravaged by this dog! If spiritual food should come from prayer and fasting and countless self-denials, he snaps it up. 640 I pray to God for refuge from His Satan! Alas, we are destroyed by his oppression! He is one dog and goes into a thousand: each one he enters turns into himself. Whoever chills you, know that he is in him: the Devil lies concealed beneath the skin. When he can’t get at form he comes to mind, so that that mind will lead you into trouble, Now fantasies of pleasure or of business, sometimes of knowledge or of house and home. 645 Beware! Repeat ‘God help me straightaway!’ not just with tongue alone but with your soul! The judge said, ‘Demonstrate your bankruptcy!’ He said, ‘Here are the jailbirds as your witness.’ He said ‘They’re not reliable, because they’re fleeing from you, they are weeping blood! They seek as well to be released from you with this intent their testimony’s useless.’ The people of the court all testified: ‘We’re witness to his poverty and low life.’

Publicising of a bankrupt by public criers of the Qādi

650 Each one the judge interrogated said, ‘Your Honour, wash your hands of this insolvent!’ The judge responded, ‘Publicly parade him around the town, he’s bankrupt and a scoundrel. And street by street make proclamations of him – broadcast his bankruptcy in every place. Let no one sell a thing to him on credit! Let no one loan to him a single farthing! I’ll not put him in prison any more however many claims for fraud are made. 655 I’ve now established his insolvency: no money or possessions does he own.’ Man is in this world’s prison for this reason: that his insolvency may be established. In our Quran our God has made a statement proclaiming that the Devil is insolvent: ‘He’s false and destitute and foul of speech! Do not associate or trade with him!’ And if you do and then complain about him, he is a bankrupt. How will you break even? 660 When all this started up, they brought a camel belonging to a Kurd who peddled firewood. The helpless Kurd cried out a lot in protest but pleased the agent offering some money. They took away his camel after lunchtime till night-time – his complaining was no use. They sat that pestilence upon the camel – the owner of the camel running after. They ran from place to place and street to street so all the town would come to recognise him. 665 In every Turkish bath and market place, the crowds of people all saw what he looked like. Ten public criers with voices loud as foghorns, some Arabs, Turks and Kurds and Anatolians.

45

46

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

‘This man is bankrupt! He has nothing left! Let no man waste on him a single penny! Inside and out he hasn’t got a bean! A loser, cheat, a liar, tub of lard, Beware! Beware! Do not do deals with him! Tie up the ox that he brings in to sell! 670 Though you may bring to court this waste of space, I do not wish to put the dead in prison. Fine airs he has – his mouth is very spacious, new underclothes beneath his tattered garments. If he should wear those clothes for a deception, they’re borrowed to deceive the common man.’ O simple one, you must know that wise words on foolish tongues are like his borrowed robes. Although a thief has swathed himself in robes, how could he take your hand when his was severed? 675 At night when he dismounted from the camel the Kurd told him ‘My house is far, it’s late! You’ve been astride my camel since the morning! I let you off the oats, but not the straw.’ ‘What were we doing then till now?’ he answered, ‘Are you all there? Is anyone at home? The drum that banged my ruin out has reached the seventh heaven – you’ve not heard the scandal? Your ears have been stuffed full of foolish hopes, and that will make you deaf and blind, young man! 680 For even bricks and stones heard this announcement “This profligate is bankrupt: he is bankrupt!” ’ Till nightfall they said this with no effect on that so-very-hopeful camel owner. God’s seal is on the sight and on the hearing: there’s many a form and sound within the veils. He manifests to eyes just what He wills of beauty and perfection and flirtation,

Publicising of a bankrupt by public criers of the Qādi

And all He wills He gives the ear to hear of music’s ecstasy, good news and rapture. 685 Existence is so full of remedies, but you have none till God opens a window. Though you are now unconscious of that fact, God will reveal it when the time is right. The Prophet said that God the Glorious created cures for every kind of pain. But you’ll not know the colour or the scent of that cure for your pain without His Order. O you who seek a cure, look at the No-Place, as one about to die reviews his life. 690 This world was founded out of formlessness, from placelessness the world came into place. Turn back from being, go towards Non-being, you’re seeking for the Lord – and you are His. Non-being’s where we earn – don’t give it up: this world of more and less is where we’re spending. God’s place of industry is non-existence! Who is there in this world except the idle? Bring to our minds the words of subtlety – those things that make You Merciful, Dear Friend. 695 The prayer and the response are both from You, security and fear are both from You. If we have said things wrongly, please correct them, Corrector, O our Sovereign Lord of Speech! You have the alchemy for transmutation, though it’s a stream of blood, you make a Nile. Such works of alchemy are all Your doing, such elixirs as these Your mysteries. You mixed together water with the clay and from them made the form of Adam’s body. 700 You gave him kin, a wife and family, all with a thousand thoughts of joy and sorrow.

47

48

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

To some You offered a deliverance, and spared them from this happiness and sorrow. You took them from their kith and kin and kind, and in their sight made all that’s seemly sickly. He vanishes from objects of the senses and He inclines to what cannot be seen. His Love is seen and His Beloved’s hidden, the Friend’s beyond, yet His allure is worldly. 705 Give up this notion! Loves that take on form are not for form’s sake or my lady’s face. The one who is beloved is not form, be it the love of this world or beyond. Why is it that the form you fell in love with, when life has left it, you shrink back from it? The form of it is there – why this distaste? O lover ask: who is your true beloved? If she whom senses sense is your beloved, then all who have such senses are her lovers. 710 If that love makes fidelity grow stronger, how does appearance change fidelity? The ray of sunlight shone upon the wall, the wall received a brilliance that is borrowed. O simple soul why set your heart on clods? Go find a source that’s shining ever after. O you, infatuated with your mind, you see yourself above the form-adorers, The ray of Mind is shone upon your senses – imagine borrowed gold upon your copper. 715 For beauty is like gilt on humankind, or how else did your girl become a crone? She went from being angelic to demonic the gracefulness in her was something borrowed. They take away that beauty gradually, the tender plant will wither gradually.

Publicising of a bankrupt by public criers of the Qādi

Go read ‘Whom we prolong we bring down low’. Seek out the heart! don’t set your heart on bones. That beauty of the heart is permanent, its happiness gives of the living water. 720 True, water, sāqi and the drunk – all three are one soon as the spell of ‘you’ is broken. By reason you won’t comprehend that oneness. Give service, stop your chattering, rude man! Your ‘meaning’ is appearance, something borrowed, you’re happy with derivatives and rhymes. The thing that captivates you, that is meaning, it makes you independent of appearance. Meaning is not what makes you blind and deaf and makes a man a lover of appearance. 725 The blind man’s lot’s imagining more pain: the eye is meant to know this self-extinction. The blind are mines of verses of the Quran: they saddle up an ass they cannot see! Since you can see, go find the ass that’s bolted! How much more stitching saddles, sad old man? When you have got the ass, the saddle’s yours! Bread will not disappear when you have spirit. Astride an ass there’s wealth and gain and stores! Your heart’s own pearl can fill a hundred bodies. 730 Climb on the ass bare-backed, you cheeky lad! Did not the Prophet ride the ass bare-backed? The Messenger of God would ride bare-backed and it is said he went on foot as well. Your ass of self has wandered. Tie it up! How long will it be shy of work and load? He’ll bear the load of gratitude and patience a hundred years or thirty or for twenty. No one who’s burdened bears another’s burden: no one shall reap until he’s sown the seed.

49

50

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

735 It’s raw desire, don’t eat what’s raw, my son! To eat things raw brings sickness on mankind! If someone finds a treasure suddenly, don’t say ‘I want one. No more work for me! That is a matter of luck and it’s unusual! You’ll earn your living while you’re able-bodied! How does a living earned preclude such treasure? Do not retire from work – it follows work. Do not become the ‘Prisoner of “If ” ’: ‘If only I’d done this – If I’d done that!’ 740 The Holy Prophet, who was sincere, banned the saying of ‘if ’ – ‘It is hypocrisy.’ In saying ‘if ’ that hypocrite expired, from saying ‘if ’ regret alone transpired.

A Parable A stranger searching for a house in haste was taken to a ruined house by friends. ‘If this one were to have a roof ’, he said, ‘it could be home to me and you besides. Your folks could also be in comfort if you had another bedroom in the house.’ 745 One said ‘Indeed, it’s good to be with friends, my dear, but one cannot reside in “if ”.’ All this wide world is seeking happiness, they’re in hot water from fake happiness. Both young and old became gold-seekers all – the untrained eye cannot tell gold from alloy. See how the pure gold cast a ray on alloy: don’t choose the gold by guessing with no touchstone. If you’ve a touchstone, choose, or if not go and pledge yourself to one who really knows. 750 You either have a touchstone in your soul, or if you don’t know the way, don’t go alone.

Publicising of a bankrupt by public criers of the Qādi

The ghoul’s cry is the cry of one you know, someone you know who’d lead you to destruction. It cries continually ‘Yes, my caravan, come here to me, the road and signs are here.’ It’s using each one’s name ‘O such and such!’ to make that person one of them that set. When he arrives he’ll see the wolf and lion, life lost, the road so far and late the day. 755 So tell me, then, what is the ghoulish cry? It’s ‘I want riches, status and esteem.’ Ward off these voices from your inner being, so that the mysteries may be revealed. Call out for God, burn out the ghoulish voices, seal up your eye’s narcissus from this vulture. Distinguish a false dawning from the real, distinguish the wine’s colour from the cup’s. That from the eyes that see the seven colours a true eye’s born of patience and endurance. 760 You shall see colours more than these mere tones, you shall see pearls instead of common stones. A pearl? No, rather, you become an ocean, become a Sun that measures out the sky. The Worker is concealed inside the workshop. You, go and see Him clearly in the workshop. The work has woven veils around the Worker: you cannot see Him separate from that work, And since the workshop is the Worker’s dwelling, outsiders are oblivious of Him. 765 Come in, then, to the workshop – non-existence – to see the work and Worker both together. The workshop is a place of clarity, outside the workshop is obscurity. When wayward Pharaoh faced towards existence, of course, then he was blind to see His workshop.

51

52

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Of course, he longed to change his destiny, that he might turn fate’s judgment from his door. In fact at every moment fate was laughing derisively to see the cheek of it! 770 He killed a hundred thousand innocents, to avert divine ordainment and decree. So that the Prophet Moses would not come, he carried out a thousand crimes and murders. Though all that blood was shed, Moses was born and he was then prepared for his chastisement. If he had seen the workshop of the Eternal, his limbs would have been paralysed in scheming. While Moses was kept safe in Pharaoh’s household, outside was Pharaoh vainly slaying children. 775 Just as the sensualist who preens himself bears hateful thoughts against another person, Saying, ‘He’s the foe. He’s envious and hostile’, in fact, the envier and foe’s his body, He is like Pharaoh and his body Moses, He’s running outside, calling ‘Where’s the foe?’ His self is wallowing in the body’s house: he gnaws his hand in hate of someone else.

How people blamed someone who killed his mother out of suspicion A man once killed his mother out of rage, with dagger blows and punching with his fists. 780 And someone told him ‘With your evil nature, you have forgotten what a mother’s due. Tell me, why did you slay your mother, and what she did to you, foul-tempered wretch?’ He said, ‘She did a deed that has disgraced her, I slew her so the earth would be her veil.’

How people blamed someone who killed his mother out of suspicion

He said, ‘Sir, slay the one who sinned against her!’ He answered, ‘Then each day I’d slay someone. I slew her, I escaped from slaying many. To cut her throat beats cutting many throats!’ 785 Your lower soul’s that mother of bad nature: its wickedness abounds in every quarter. Go slay it, for because of that vile thing each moment you’re attacking something precious. And so this lovely world is narrowed for you: through self there’s war with God and with creation. Once self is slain, you’re free from saying sorry: no one in all the world is your opponent. If someone picks a hole in what I say about the prophets and about the saints, 790 Saying ‘Were not the prophets’ selves destroyed? If so, why had they enemies and enviers?’ O seeker after definitions, hear the answer to this scrupulous objection. Those renegades were their own enemies, such blows they were delivering to themselves! An enemy is he who risks your life: he’s not an enemy who takes his own life! A bat is not an enemy of the sun, it is its own foe in its veil of blindness, 795 The radiance of the sun is killing it, how could it ever cause the sun to suffer? An enemy is one who causes torture, who keeps the ray of sunlight from the ruby. All unbelievers stop themselves receiving the radiance from the jewels of the prophets. How could they veil the eyes of such a person? – they’re blinding and distorting their own eyes. They’re like the Indian slave who bears a grudge and kills himself disputing with his master.

53

54

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

800 He plunges headlong from the palace roof to make his master suffer injury. If patients should become the doctor’s foe, or if the child should turn against the teacher, In truth they’re robbers of their lives themselves, they’re highway brigands of their minds and souls. Or if a fuller falls out with the sun, or if the fish gets angry with the water, Will you consider who does harm to whom, and in the end whose star will it extinguish? 805 If God creates you with an ugly face, don’t have an ugly face and ugly temper. If He should take your shoes, avoid the rocks, and if you’re spiked on two, don’t make them four. You’re envious and you say ‘I’m less than someone: my sense of being less fortunate increases.’ That envy is another fault and failing – it’s worse than all inferiorities. When Iblis was ashamed of his low state, he fell into a hundredfold dejection. 810 His envy made him want to be on top. The top? More likely, bloodshed’s what he wanted. That Abu Jahl was shamed before the Prophet, and raised himself up high all out of envy: His name ‘My lord’ turned into ‘Ignoramus’: – how many men turn worthless out of envy. In this world of travails I never saw a thing more fitting than good character. God made the prophets mediators so that such envies would be seen in the commotion. 815 No one’s made insignificant by God: no one was ever envious of God. Yet if you thought someone resembled you, then for that reason you’d be envious of him.

How people blamed someone who killed his mother out of suspicion

So since the Prophet’s greatness is established, it is accepted that he is not envied. In every age a saint is instituted: he is the proof until the Resurrection. Whoever has good character is saved, whoever has a heart of glass is smashed. 820 The saint is then the eternal living Imam, be he of Omar’s or of Ali’s line. He is The Guided, and The Guide, O seeker, concealed and seated there before your face. He is like light, and wisdom is his Gabriel, the saint who is below him is his lamp, And he who is below him is our lamp-niche, the light has its gradations by degree, Because God’s light has seven hundred veils. See light veils at so many different levels, 825 Behind each veil a cohort has its station, these veils of theirs are ranked up to the Imam. Those of the rearmost ranks, because of weakness, their eyes don’t have the strength to bear much light. And those ranked forward, in weak-sightedness, can’t bear the greater brilliance of the light. The brilliant light that is the life supreme is pain and suffering for this half-blind man. His half-blindness is gradually decreasing, past seven hundred he becomes the Sea. 830 The fire that is a boon to gold and iron, how can it benefit fresh quince and apple? The quince and apple have not much unripeness, and unlike iron, need a gentle warmth. That flame is ineffective for the iron, for iron will absorb the dragon’s heat! Long suffering is the holy man of iron: he’s red and thrives on fiery hammer blows.

55

56

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

He is fire’s minister most intimate, he goes into the fire’s heart exposed. 835 Without a barrier, water and its offspring cannot get heat or converse from the fire. The barrier is a kettle or a cauldron, just as a sock is for the foot in walking, Or just a space between, so that the air heats up and thus conveys it to the water. The holy man is one who’s intimate with flames in naked contact with his being. And so he is the heart of all the world, as by this heart the body is fulfilled. 840 Were there no heart what would the body know of speech, or seek if this heart sought for nothing? As glowing rays are seen within the iron, so God’s seen in the heart, not in the body. These partial hearts resemble bodies, next to the hearts of men of heart which are like goldmines. This speech needs much explaining and examples, but still I fear that common thought will stumble, And that my goodness will be turned to bad, for what I’ve said was all in ecstasy. 845 For crooked feet the crooked shoe is better; the beggar’s power stops at your front door.

The Story of How a King tested two slaves he had just bought A King had bought two slaves for next to nothing, with one of them he had a conversation. He found him smart and witty in his answers – what issues from the honeyed lip is honey. For man is hidden underneath the tongue, this tongue’s the veil before the soul’s gateway, And as a wind may draw the veil away, the mystery of the inner court’s revealed.

How a king tested two slaves he had just bought

850 In that house are there pearls or grains of wheat? a hoard of gold or snakes’ and scorpions’ nest? Or is there treasure with a snake beside it? for there’s no hoard of gold without a watchman. The slave would speak like this with no rehearsal as other people might after five hundred – You’d say there was an ocean in his being, an ocean full of jewels of eloquence. The light that radiated from each jewel became discerning of the truth from falsehood. 855 The light of Proof would show to us discernment, minutely separating truth from falsehood. The jewel’s light would then become our eyes’ light, the question and response would both be ours. You’ve crossed your eyes and seen the moon as double: this doubtful point of view is like the question. If you correct your eyesight in the moonlight, you’ll see the moon as one – it is the answer. Think to yourself, ‘Don’t squint, look properly!’ that thought’s the light and radiance of that jewel. 860 If any answers reach the heart from hearing, the eye commands ‘Leave off! Listen to me!’ Ears are informers, eyes can share in union, eyes have experience, ears are friends of talk. By ear there’s transformation of the forms, by sight there’s transformation of the essence. If what you know of fire is got from words, get cooked! Don’t be content with certainty. Till you burn there’s no eye of certainty. You want this certainty? – Sit down in fire! 865 When it succeeds, the ear becomes an eye, the Word becomes entangled in the ear. These words are never-ending. Now return to see just what did the King did with his slaves.

57

58

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

The King’s sending one of the two slaves on his way and questioning the other He realised that the little slave was smart, and signalled to the other one to come. I called him ‘little’ not to put him down – a grandad says ‘My littl’un’ – it’s no insult! The other, when he came before the King, had both a stinking mouth and blackened teeth. 870 The King, though not delighted with his speaking, made efforts to find out what he was hiding. ‘With such a face and stinking mouth’, he said, ‘sit over there, but not too far away! For you have been a scribe and secretary, you have not been a comrade, friend or room-mate. So let’s do something for that mouth of yours. You are the dear one, I’m the skilful doctor. To burn a whole new blanket for a flea, that does not do. Nor should I blank you out! 875 So anyway, sit down, and tell me stories, and I can work out what your mind is like.’ Then he dismissed the smart one on an errand, ‘Go to the bath house. Give yourself a scrub!’ And to this one he said ‘Ok you’re clever. You really are a hundred slaves not one! You are not as your fellow servant showed you – that jealous one would make us cold towards you. He said “He’s thieving, crooked, cowering, he’s lewd, unmanly” and so on and so forth.’ 880 He said, ‘He’s always been a truthful man, I never saw a truer man than him. To tell the truth is second nature to him, and nothing he would say I would call empty. I don’t see that good-hearted man as crooked, I would suspect my own existence first.

How a king tested two slaves he had just bought

It may be that he can see faults in me that I can’t see in my own self, O King!’ If any man’s self-conscious of his faults, would he be smug about his self-improvement? 885 The crowd are careless of themselves, O father, and yet they speak about each other’s faults. If I don’t see my face, idolater, I will see yours and you shall see my face. The man who can behold the face he owns, his light is greater than the universe’s. If he should die, his vision is enduring, because his is the vision of our Maker. That light, by which he sees his own true face in front of him, is not a sensual light. 890 He said, ‘Now speak about the faults he had, just as he told me all about your faults. So I know that you are my confidant to manage my estates and my affairs.’ He said, ‘O King, I shall describe his faults. With me, though he’s a pleasant fellow servant, His faults are love, good faith and human kindness, his errors truthfulness and wit and fellow feeling. His least fault’s generosity and giving, that manliness that even gives its life.’ 895 God has revealed a myriad souls – unseen, what magnanimity could not see that? And if he saw, how could he grudge his soul? Why be so sad for just a single soul? He who is blind to water in the river, begrudges water at the river’s edge. The Prophet said, ‘Whoever knows for certain his compensation on the Day of Judgment, That ten-fold compensation will be his: a different giving comes from him each moment.’

59

60

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

900 All giving comes from seeing compensations, to see this is the opposite of fearing. To grudge is not to see the compensations: the vision of the pearl keeps divers happy. Thus in the world no one need be a miser, for no one chances things without a deal. So giving’s from the eye not from the hand: the sight’s effective – only seers are saved. ‘Another fault’s that he’s not self-regarding, he’s seeking faults within his self-existence. 905 He’s self-recriminating and self-blaming, he’s good to all, but bad toward himself.’ He said, ‘Don’t be so prompt to praise your pal! Don’t mask self-praise under your praise of him! Because I will interrogate the fellow, in which case, your disgrace, perhaps, shall follow.’

The oath of the slave, from the purity of his thought, on the generosity and loyalty of his friend ‘God, no!’ he said, ‘By glorious God, the Sovereign, the Lord and Merciful, Compassionate, The God who sent the prophets, not from need but in abundant grace and eminence, 910 And by the Lord who from the humble earth created the exalted valiant champions, And cleansed them of their earthly constitution, and made them to surpass angelic beings, Extracting from the fire he made pure light, and then it overtook all other lights, The lightning that illuminated spirits, so Adam gained his knowledge from that light Which grew from Adam, which Seth’s hand collected, then Adam made him caliph when he saw that,

How a king tested two slaves he had just bought

915 When Noah gloried in that jewel’s enjoyment, he scattered pearls in that soul-ocean’s air, The soul of Abraham with that great radiance went into fire’s flames without a fear, When Ishmael fell into the river’s stream, he laid his head before his tempered knife, And David’s soul was warmed by its effulgence, and iron was softened in his weapon-weaving, When Solomon was suckled on its union the demon was his servant and obeyed him, 920 When Jacob bowed his head to destiny, his eye was lit up by his own son’s scent, The moon-faced Joseph, when he saw that sun, woke up so much to understanding dreams, And when from Moses’ hand the rod drank water, it made one mouthful of the Pharaoh’s kingdom, When Jesus son of Mary found the ladder, he hastened to the fourth estate of heaven, Mohammad gained that kingdom and enjoyment, and split the moon in two all in a moment, 925 So Abu Bakr was the sign of favour, a king’s companion and his trusted one, Omar became love-sick with that beloved, and like the heart could tell the true from false, Osman became the eye for that beholding, he was the luminous light, and lord of two lights, Ali began to scatter pearls at this sight, became the lion of God in spiritual pastures, Junayd got reinforcements from its legions, his exaltation grew beyond all counting, 930 Bāyazid saw the way into its increase, from God he heard the name “pole of all gnostics”, When Karkhi was the guardian of Karkh, he was love’s caliph and the breath divine,

61

62

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

The son of Adham steered his horse there happy, and he became the king of kings of justice, Shaqiq by travelling that glorious road became the sun of judgment and sharp-eyed – A hundred thousand kings all in concealment are holding high their heads beyond this world, 935 Their names are hidden by God’s jealousy, no beggar ever has pronounced their names, By that light’s truth and truth of the enlightened, those who are like the fishes in that sea, (If I should call it sea of souls or sea’s soul, it is not right, I’ll find another name), And by the Truth of Him from which all comes, for Whom all kernels are mere empty shells, The virtues of my friend and fellow servant, they are one hundred times what I have mentioned! 940 What I do know of that dear friend’s description you’d not believe – what can I say, my lord?’ The King said, ‘Now, say something of your own! How much more talk of this, that and what-not! What do you have and what have you achieved? What pearls have you fetched from the ocean floor? The day you die your sense will come to nothing: have you the soul-light to befriend your heart? When earth shall stuff these eyes in your entombment, will anything illuminate your grave? 945 And at the time your hands and feet are flayed, do you have wings on which your soul shall fly? When nothing of your carnal soul is left you should rely upon the eternal soul. The point of “he that comes with good” is not to do good but to bring it to the Presence! So, is your substance asinine or human? How can you bring these things that passed away?

How a king tested two slaves he had just bought

And these contingencies of prayer and fasting – what does not last two seconds is destroyed, 950 You cannot take with you contingent things, but they remove diseases from the substance. By such contingent things the substance altered, as sickness was made weak by self-restraint. Through effort, self-restraint turned into substance: foul mouths turned honey-sweet through self-restraint. Through sowing, earth turned into ears of corn, hair treatments grew the hair in chains of curls. Sex was contingent and was evanescent: from us there came the substance of the baby. 955 The act of mating horses is contingent, the substance of the foaling is the purpose. And planting of the garden is contingent: the garden’s growth became the substance: purpose! The use of alchemy is a contingent: if any substance came from it, produce it. And polishing, my prince, is a contingent, from which is born the substance: purity. Do not then say “I have performed the actions,” show what contingent things will bring, don’t dodge it! 960 All this description is contingent. Silence! Don’t slay a shadow for a sacrifice!’ He said ‘Your Majesty, my mind despairs if you say one cannot transfer contingents. Great King, your slave has only hopelessness if what occurs, once gone, will not return, If that is not transferred or resurrected, then action’s useless, words are meaningless. Contingencies are transferred differently: what’s transient is restored as different worlds. 965 Transferral of each thing is as befits it, and what befits the herd is he who herds it.

63

64

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

At Resurrection time all that has happened will have its form, and each form has its turn. Look at yourself – weren’t you an accident? an act of sex, and sex that had a purpose? Or look at houses and such habitations they were like pipe-dreams of the architect. Take any house that we admire as fine, whose hall and roof and door are well-proportioned, 970 The architect’s designs – contingencies: he brought the tools and pillars from the forest. What’s every artwork’s origin and source except contingent, fancy and design? Observe objectively phenomena: they’re nothing but results of the contingent. Thought at the start, it finds its end in action: such was the world’s conception pre-eternal. The fruits are in the mind’s conception first, then later come to be in outer action. 975 When you have done the work to plant the tree, right at the very end you’ll reap the first fruit. And though the branches, leaves and roots are first, it’s for the sake of fruit that all is sent. The mystery of the kernel of the heavens was in the end the ‘Lord of the Exception’. This quest and speech transfer contingencies, as do this lion and this jackal too. Indeed the world is all contingent, so that in this the sense came down “Has there not come. . .?” 980 Contingencies are born from what? From forms. From what are born these forms? They’re born from thought. This world’s one thought from Universal Mind. This Mind is King, forms are His messengers. The first world is this world of trial and error, the second, recompense for this and that.

How a king tested two slaves he had just bought

Your Majesty, your slave commits a sin: and that event turns into chains and prison. When your slave carried out his service well, did that event not bring a robe of honour? 985 Effect and cause: the chicken and the egg: this comes from that and that from this and so on.’ The King said, ‘Take this meaning as you will, have your contingencies produced a substance?’ He said, ‘God’s wisdom kept it in concealment to keep this world of good and bad mysterious. For if all forms of thought were known, the faithful and infidel would never cease from zekr. O King, so if this were disclosed not hidden, the marks of faith and doubt were on the forehead – 990 How could there be idolaters and idols in this world? How could any dare to mock? This world of ours would be like heaven on earth! Who would commit a crime or sin in heaven?’ The King said, ‘God hid evil’s recompense, but only from the low, not from His Chosen. If I ensnare a minister, I hide it from all the others, not from the Vizier. God showed to me the consequence of action, more than a hundred thousand forms of actions. 995 Give me a sign, for I know all there are: white clouds do not conceal the moon from me.’ Said he, ‘So what’s the point of my replying? – you understand the nature of what happened?’ He said, ‘The wisdom of the world’s unfolding is that the known is manifestly shown. Until He’d made appear all that He knew He’d not imposed birth pains upon the world. You cannot sit inactive for one moment before some good or evil springs from you.

65

66

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

1000 This urgency of action was appointed all for the sake of making clear your nature. How can the spindle of the body rest when all the while the thread of thought is pulling? The sign it’s pulling is your restlessness: for you to be inactive is like dying. Both this world and the next give birth forever, each cause a “mother”, its effect the “child”. Once born, the effect becomes a cause as well, and it gives birth to marvellous effects. 1005 These causes generate their generations, but you must have a well-illumined eye.’ The King arrived here in the conversation: he either saw a sign from him, or did not. And if that curious King had seen a sign, it’s possible, but I may not discuss it. Now when the other slave came from the steam bath, the great King summoned him before him. He said, ‘Good health to you! Eternal ease! You’re very slender, smart and fair of face. 1010 Alas, if only there were not in you the things that someone’s saying about you, Then anyone who saw your face would smile – seeing you is worth the kingdom of this world.’ He said, ‘Go on, give me a clue, O King, what’s this misguided soul been saying about me!’ He said, ‘First he described you as two-faced, in public you’re a balm, in private poison.’ He heard his friend’s bad-mouthing from the King, then straightaway his anger’s sea boiled over. 1015 The slave turned scarlet, foaming at the mouth, so that a wave of blaming overwhelmed him. ‘Right from the moment he became my friend, he’d just eat so much shit like starving dogs!’

How a king tested two slaves he had just bought

He banged on like a bell, reproaching him, until the King’s hand sealed his mouth, ‘Enough! Now I can tell the two of you apart – your soul stinks and your friend just has bad breath. You, sit right over there, you smelly soul, he’ll be your chief, you’ll be his underdog!’ 1020 Tradition says, ‘Hypocrisy in praise is like the grass that grows upon a dunghill’. Know this: a beautiful and pleasing form behaving badly is not worth a groat. But if the form’s contemptible, displeasing, and his behaviour’s good, die at his feet! Know this: the outward form will pass away, the world of meaning will endure forever. How long this flirting with the jug’s appearance? forget the jug’s appearance: seek the water! 1025 You saw the form and you forgot the meaning, pick pearls out of the shells, if you are prudent! These shells of carnal bodies in the world, though they’re all thriving on the sea of soul, There’s not a pearl in every single shell: open your eyes, look into each one’s heart. Pick out what this one has, what that one has, because the precious pearl is rarely found. If you go on appearances, the mountain in form is vastly greater than the ruby, 1030 And so in form your hand and feet and hair are vastly greater than your eye’s appearance. But this is not a thing concealed from you: eyes are the chosen ones of all your limbs. By one thought coming to your inner nature a hundred worlds are overturned at once. Although the sultan’s body may be single, a hundred thousand soldiers run behind it.

67

68

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Again, the form and figure of the noble King are governed by one thought that is concealed. 1035 Behold a myriad people are impelled by one idea to flood across the world. The people may suppose the idea’s small: it overwhelms the world like tidal waves. So when you realise that from one thought, that every skill existing in the world, That houses, palaces and conurbations, that mountains and the desert plains and rivers, That earth, sea, sun and firmament as well, live by it like the fishes of the sea, 1040 Why, stupidly, do you think that the body is Solomon, and thought an ant, O blind man? And in your eye the mountains will seem great, thought’s like the mouse, the mountain’s like the wolf. And in your eye the world is shock and awe, you fear and quake at cloud and sky and thunder. Your world of thought is lower than the ass: you’re safe, oblivious like insensate stone. You’re two dimensional, you have no wisdom! You’re not quite human, you’re a baby ass! 1045 You take the shadow as the person, blindly; for you the person is a plaything, facile. Wait for the day that thought and fantasy will open and unveil its wings and feathers. You’ll see the mountains turned as soft as wool, this earth of heat and cold become extinguished. You’ll see no sky, no stars and no existence, except the One, the Living, Loving God. A story’s come that’s true (or may not be) to shed light on the truths, that you may see.

Domestic servants’ envying the special servant

The domestic servants’ envying the special servant 1050 A king had shown a gracious preference for one out of the mass of all his servants. His wage was that of forty governors, ten times a hundred viziers’ salary. From perfect fate, fortune and horoscope he was an Ayāz, and the king his Mahmud. His spirit’s origin before his body was royal kin and royal close relation. What matters is what came before the body (ignore what’s newly entered into being). 1055 It’s for the knower, who is not squint-eyed: his eye is focused on the things first sown. Where they had sown the wheat and barley for him, his eye’s fixed on that place by day and night. Night brings forth only what is in her womb: pretences and deceits are wind, mere wind. How can he please his heart with pretty plans, who sees the plots God has in store for him? He is inside a trap and sets a trap, you bet your life that neither will escape. 1060 And though a hundred plants may grow and wither, the one God sowed will flourish in the end. They sow new seed on what was sown the first time, the second’s dying and the first is wholesome. The seed that’s first is perfect and delightful, the second seed is putrid and decaying. Dispense with your contrivance with the Friend, though it was also made of His contriving. The things God has exalted are of use, the one first sown will flourish in the end. 1065 Whatever you may do, do for His sake, for you’re the prisoner of the Friend, O lover.

69

70

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Don’t hang out with this thieving self and his lot; whatever’s not God’s work is nothing, nothing. Before the Day of Judgment shall appear, and the night-thief is disgraced before the king, The stolen chattels of his crafty cunning are still around his neck on Judgement Day. A hundred thousand intellects conspire to lay traps other than the ones He’s set. 1070 They find their traps more vicious than their own – can straw show any strength against the wind? If you say ‘What’s the point of our existence?’ the point is in your question, Mr Headstrong! But surely, if your question has no point, why should we listen to futilities? If there are many profits in this question, then why, I ask you, is this world so futile? Perhaps the world’s in one way profitless, and in another very beneficial. 1075 Your gain may be no gain to me at all, since you have all to gain, don’t turn against it! A world had benefit from Joseph’s beauty, though to his brothers he was worse than useless. The tunes that David played were much beloved, but to the unbelievers clunking wood. Nile water was much more than life’s own water, but it was blood to pagans and the godless. True martyrdom is life to the believer: to atheists it’s death and quite corrupted. 1080 In all the world what single blessing is there, from which some folk are not excluded? Tell me! What good is sugar for the ox and ass? Each soul demands a different sustenance. But if that sustenance is simply habit, then reprimanding is required for that.

Domestic servants’ envying the special servant

When someone sick acquires a taste for clay, though he may think it is his normal food, He has forgotten what the essential food is: he’s been distracted by the food of sickness. 1085 He gave up eating honey, then ate poison, he made diseased food something like his meat. God’s light is the essential food for humans, the food of animals is not for them. And yet the heart fell into this, in sickness, so day and night he eats of clay and water. The sallow face, weak legs and faint of heart – where is the food of heaven with all its tracks? That is the food of royal chosen ones, it’s eaten without throat or implements. 1090 The Sun’s food’s from the light of Heaven’s Throne: the envious and the demons feed on smoke. God said the martyrs ‘are provided for’, and for such food no mouth nor dish was needed. The heart is fed a food by every friend, the heart is purified by all its knowledge. Each human being’s form is like a cup, the inner eye perceives his inner meaning. You are sustained by everyone you meet: you benefit from every close encounter. 1095 When planets meet with planets in conjunction, the mutual effect is generated. As congress of the sexes makes a human, as sparks fly from the clash of iron and stone, From merging of the rains into the earth come forth the fruits and plants and fragrant herbs, Digestion of green plants in human beings brings cheerfulness, contentedness and gladness, From union of this gladness with our souls our goodness and beneficence are born.

71

72

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

1100 Our bodies have an appetite to eat when our desire for recreation comes. A ruddy face comes with the rush of blood, the blood is from the lovely rose-red sun, Red is most excellent of all the colours, and it is from the sun, from this it comes. The land that has been touched by Saturn’s power turns nitrous and unsuitable for sowing. A force comes into action by conjunction, like hypocrites and demons interacting. 1105 These meanings have great grandeur from high heaven, without a trace of grandeur of this world. For this creation, grandeur’s something borrowed: for Him who has ordained it, it’s intrinsic. For grandeur’s sake they will abase themselves in hope of glory, happy in abasement. In hope of ten days’ glory, with vexation they’ve made their necks as skinny as a spindle. Why do they not come here where I am standing, for in this glory I’m the shining sun? 1110 The place of sunrise is in pitch-black skies: Our Sun is way beyond a ‘place’ of rising. His ‘rising place’ is for his particles, His essence does not rise and does not set. I’m overtaken by His particles, in both worlds I’m a sun without a shadow, Yet I revolve around the Sun – how wondrous! The cause is all the glory of the Sun. The Sun is well-informed about the causes, yet he’s cut off from causal correspondence. 1115 A hundred thousand times I’ve cut off hope! From whom? The Sun? Do you believe such things? Do not believe that I could bear to be without the Sun, or fish be without water!

Domestic servants’ envying the special servant

If I am without hope, my lack of hope, my friend, in essence is the Sun’s own doing. Can deeds themselves be separate from the Doer? How can a being ‘be’ apart from Being? All living beings graze upon this meadow – Borāq and Arab horses, even asses, 1120 But yet, the blind horse goes on grazing blindly, not seeing the field from which it is debarred. He who’s not seen the changes from that ocean will turn his gaze on some new point each moment. He drank salt water from the sea of sweetness so that the salty water made him blind. The sea says ‘Drink my water with your right hand, O blind man, so that you get back your eyesight.’ By ‘right hand’ here is meant the true opinion that knows where good and bad originate. 1125 O javelin, there is One Who throws the javelin, so you turn straight sometimes and sometimes crooked. For love of Shamsoddin we’re talon-less, or otherwise we’d make the blind man see. O light of truth, Hosāmoddin, now quickly go cure the blindness of his envious eye. Quick acting calamine of power divine, the darkness-killing drug for stubbornness, If it should touch upon the blind man’s eye, it will extract a hundred years of darkness. 1130 Heal all the blind except the envious – from envy he brings disavowal of You. Though it were me myself, do not give life to envious folk, so I would die like this. That is, the one who’s envious of the Sun, and he who even envies its existence, – His suffering is incurable, alas! He’s down the bottom of the well, forever!

73

74

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

He wants the extinction of the Sun eternal! – Tell me, how could this wish of his be granted?

The capturing of the falcon among the owls in the wilderness 1135 The falcon’s one who comes back to the king, the blind falcon’s the one who lost its way. It lost its way, fell in the wilderness, among the night-owls in the wilderness. It is all light, from light of His Approval, yet it was blinded by Lord Destiny, It lost its way, dust cast into its eyes, left in the wilderness among the owls. To top it all, the owls are now attacking, and tearing at its lovely wings and plumage. 1140 All hell broke loose among the owls, to wit, ‘The falcon’s come to take our habitat!’ Like street dogs full of anger and ferocious, attacking some strange dervish patchwork robe. The falcon said, ‘Why would I mix with owls? I’d leave them to a hundred wastelands like this, I do not wish to be here. I am leaving. I am returning to the King of kings. Owls, do not do yourselves to death about this, for I’m not staying, I am going home! 1145 This wasteland is a paradise to you, for me, however, home’s the royal forearm!’ An owl replied, ‘The falcon’s up to something! It wants to dig you out of house and home. And take our houses by its falcon ruses! He’ll spring us from our nests by subterfuges! This trickster tries to tell us it’s content – it’s worse than all the greedy put together! It gobbles clay like honey, it’s so greedy! My friends, don’t give the sheep’s tail to the bear.

Capturing of the falcon among owls in the wilderness

1150 It boasts about the king and royal forearm, it wants to lead us simple folk astray. Could such a puny bird be royalty? If you have any sense, pay no attention! Is he related to the king or vizier? Find garlic in your baklava – more likely! It says, with falcon tricks and shams and traps, “The king and all his men are looking for me”. It’s hocus pocus madness, ballyhoo a brazen boast to trap the gullible. 1155 Whoever’s taken in by this is bird-brained! What has a scrawny bird to do with kings? See if one little owl could harm this bird’s brain, where is his rescue party from the king?’ The falcon said, ‘Touch just one hair of me, the king will uproot all of Owlestan! And not just owls. If any falcon ever did harm to me or caused my heart to suffer, The king would stack a hundred thousand heads of falcons, piled in every vale and upland! 1160 His favour is the guardian over me, wherever I may roam, the king’s behind me. My vision stays within the Sultan’s heart, the Sultan’s heart falls ill without my vision. And when the King will have me fly towards Him, I fly up to the heart’s peak like His sunrays. And I am flying like the moon and sun, and I am tearing heaven’s veils asunder. The light of intellects is from my thought, the cleaving of the heavens from my nature. 1165 I am the falcon: Homa is amazed at me. Who is the owl to know my mysteries? For me the king was minded of the prison, and then he freed a hundred thousand captives.

75

76

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

A while he made me as the owls’ companion and by my breath he made owls into falcons. O happy owl, who in my flight’s ascent was fortunate to apprehend my mystery! Hold on to me so that you’ll be in love: though you be owls now, you shall be falcons. 1170 Why should he who is loved by such a king be thought a stranger anywhere he landed? And he whose pain is cured by such a king, though he grieve like the reed, shall not be helpless. I am the kingdom’s owner, I’m not frightened: the king will beat my falcon drum from yonder, The call “Return” my falcon drum: God is my witness, and in spite of adversaries! I’m not related to the King– far from it! but in His self-disclosure, I’ve His light. 1175 It’s not relationship of form and essence: the water will relate to earth in plants, The wind relates to fire’s consistency, as wine does in the body’s constitution. My stock is not the species of our King, my ego’s passed away for His Self ’s sake. My ego went, and He alone remained: like dust I swirl beneath His horse’s feet. The soul became the dust – the signs of it, they are His footprints marked upon the dust. 1180 For this mark, be the dust that’s at His feet, that you may crown the head of the exalted. Don’t let my form be a distraction to you – will you enjoy my sweets before my going.’ O many a man has been assailed by form: though he had aimed at form, he struck at God. In sum, this soul’s connected to the body, but is there any likeness in the two?

A thirsty man throws a brick into a river

77

The eye’s light’s sparkle’s joined to fleshy pith, the heart’s light’s hidden in a bloody drop. 1185 Joy in the kidney, sadness in the liver, the mind is like a candle in the brain. All these connections have their why and how, but minds are clueless as to knowing why. The great and partial soul touched one another, this soul received a pearl it took to heart. The soul fell pregnant from its heart being touched, like Mary with the heart-alluring Jesus. Not that Messiah of the land and sea, but that Messiah higher than all measure. 1190 The soul falls pregnant by the soul of souls, and all the world fell pregnant by that soul. The world then brings another world to birth and shows this company a final Judgment. If I explained until the Resurrection, I’d not do justice to describing it. These words themselves are signifying ‘O Lord!’, the words are snares for him who has sweet lips. How can they fail? How can they keep their silence, because their ‘Here am I’ comes with ‘O Lord!’ 1195 It is a ‘Here am I’ you cannot hear, but you can get a taste from there to here.

A thirsty man throws a brick from the top of a wall into the river There was a high wall by a riverbank and on it stood a thirsty man, in sorrow: That wall stopped him from getting to the water, he craved to reach the water like a fish, He threw a brick into the water, then the splash came to his ears as if it spoke, Like words of some intoxicating sweetheart, that sound of water made him drunk like wine.

78

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

1200 Long suffering, and delighted by the sound, he started tearing bricks and hurling them. The water made a sound something like ‘Hey you! What good will come of throwing bricks at me?’ The thirsty man said ‘Water, two good things I have. I won’t hold back from doing this: The first good thing is hearing water running, its sound is like the lute to one who’s thirsty, Its sound is like the voice of Esrāfil, by which he brings life back to one who’s dead, 1205 Or like the sound of thunder on spring days, from which the garden gets so many beauties, Or like alms-giving days to the impoverished, or like the news of freedom to the prisoner, Or like the breathless breath the Merciful once caused to come from Yemen for Mohammad, Or like the fragrance of the Prophet Ahmad, which comes in intercession for the sinners, Or like the scent of fair and gracious Joseph, that touched the soul of Jacob as he languished. 1210 The other boon is that, with every brick I throw, I’m nearer to “the flowing water”, For by removal of the high wall’s bricks the wall is lowered by each one extracted. The lowness of the wall gives rise to closeness, its demolition is a means to union.’ Removal of the bricks is like prostration: ‘. . . prostrate yourself, come near’, it leads to closeness. So long as this wall is so elevated it will prevent the bowing of the head: 1215 Prostration cannot be upon the water of life, till I escape this earthly body. The thirstier he who’s on the wall becomes, the quicker he tears down the bricks and clods,

‘Uproot this thorn bush you have planted in the road!’

The more he loves the sound the water makes, the more he’ll be demolishing the barrier, He’ll be ecstatic at the sound of water – the stranger only hears the sound of plashing – How happy is the one who treats his youth as opportunity to pay his debt! 1220 In those days when he has the potency, and has the health and strength of heart and power, And like the green fresh garden, youthfulness unstintingly brings forth the fruit and flower, The springs of vigour and of lust are flowing to keep the garden of the body verdant, Or like a well-built house of lofty ceilings, full square, without repairs and reinforcement, Before the days of old-age shall arrive to bind your neck ‘in a halter of palm fibres’, 1225 Before the earth turns brackish, broken, barren – no plant could ever flourish in such soil, The waters of your strength and lust run dry, there’s no enjoyment from yourself or others, The eyebrows have collapsed like leather straps, the eyes becoming watery and dim, The face is wrinkled like a lizard’s back, and speech and taste and teeth are all defunct, The day late and the ass lame and the way long, the workshop ruined, and the business bust! 1230 The roots of your bad habits have gone deep and your power to pull them out is sorely weakened!

How the Governor ordered a man, ‘Uproot this thorn bush you have planted in the road!’ Like that smooth-talking boorish type who put a thorn bush in the middle of the road.

79

80

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

The travellers on the road were blaming him and told him, ‘Dig it up!’ – he wouldn’t do so. And all the while the thorn bush grew in size, and people’s feet were bleeding from the wounds. Their clothes were being torn to shreds by thorns, so piteously they pierce the paupers’ feet. 1235 The governor instructed him, ‘Remove this’ and he said, ‘Yes, I’ll dig it up one day.’ Tomorrow and tomorrow though he promised, his thorn bush went from strength to strength and flourished. One day the governor said, ‘You, promise-bender, get on and do the job for us – don’t dawdle! He said, ‘Old fellow, we have lots of time’. He answered, ‘Hurry, don’t put off our debt!’ You who may say ‘tomorrow’, realise that every day the time is fast approaching! 1240 That wicked tree is growing ever younger, that digger’s getting older and decrepit! The thorn bush is expanding and increasing, the digger is decreasing in his dotage. Each day the bush is always green and fresh, each day the digger’s scrawnier and shrivelled. It’s growing younger, you’re becoming older. Be quick and do not waste the time that’s yours! Your horrid habits are all thorn bushes, so many times the thorns have pierced your feet! 1245 So often you’ve been hurt by your own habits, you have no feeling – you are very senseless! If you’re indifferent to offending others, – which is connected to your evil nature – You’re not indifferent to your own offence! You are your own tormentor and the stranger’s. So take up arms and battle like a man! Tear down the Gate of Khaybar like Ali!

‘Uproot this thorn bush you have planted in the road!’

Or bring these thorns to union with the rosebush, and unify the friend’s light with the fire, 1250 So that his light puts out your fire, and that his union makes a rose-bed of your thorn. You are like Hell, and he is the believer: believers can put out the fire of Hell. The Prophet said about the speech of Hell, ‘it supplicates believers out of fear’. It tells him ‘Quickly go from me, O King, your light has robbed me of my fire’s burning.’ The light of faithful souls destroys the fire: you need opponents there to stop opponents. 1255 On Judgment Day the fire opposes light, that one aroused by wrath, this one by grace. If you desire to drive out fire’s evil, put mercy’s water on the fire’s heart. Faith is the well-spring of that mercy’s water, the pure soul of the good is living water. And so your carnal soul is fleeing from him, because you are of fire and he’s the stream. The fire is fleeing from the stream because the fire becomes extinguished by the water. 1260 Your senses and your thought are all from fire, those of the sheikh are all a lovely light. And when the water of his light is trickling upon the fire, the fire spits out and leaps. And when it spits, it tells you ‘death and pain’ to cool this hell that is your carnal soul, So that it does not scorch your rose garden, and does not burn your justice and your virtue. And after that, what you have sown will bloom in tulip, in wild rose and watermint. 1265 Again we’re straying from the proper path: O Master, let’s return, where is our path?

81

82

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Resentful one, we were explaining that, your ass is lame and home is far. Be quick! Late in the season, it’s not time for sowing, except shamefacedness and dirty deeds. The worm is in the tree root of the body: it must be winkled out and set on fire. Be quick, O traveller, now the hour is late: the sun of life has sunk to the horizon. 1270 These two brief days that you have strength, be quick, show vigour in old age, be generous. So spend as much of strength as you have left, that from these precious moments long life grows. To keep this jewelled lamp from being extinguished, make sure you trim its wick and fill it promptly. Don’t say ‘tomorrow’, for tomorrow’s gone! Don’t let the days of sowing go forever! The body is a mighty chain. My counsel: put off the old if you desire the new! 1275 So seal the lips, the gold-filled fist be open! Leave off the body’s stinginess! Be generous – Being generous is leaving lusts and pleasures (for none who sink in lust come up again): It is a branch of paradisiacal cypress, and woe to him whose hand drops such a branch! This leaving craving is the firmest handhold – this branch will draw the spirit up to Heaven. So may the generous branch that draws you up, O man of faith, return you to your source! 1280 You are fair Joseph, this world’s like the well: this rope is patience in the will of God. The rope came, Joseph, grasp it in your hands! Do not neglect the rope, the hour is late! Praise be to God this rope has been let down, that grace and mercy have been mixed together,

‘Uproot this thorn bush you have planted in the road!’

That you may see the world of spirit new, a world so visible and yet unseen. This unreal world became like real existence, that real, existent world became most hidden. 1285 The dust is on the wind and it is playing, it makes a mirage and a shadow play. What seems effective is in vain, and empty, and what is unseen is the core and kernel. The dust is like a weapon in the wind’s hand, regard the wind as high and noble born. The eye that’s dust – its gaze falls on the dust, the eye that sees the wind is something else! A horse knows horses as its fellow creatures, a rider knows the state of being a rider. 1290 The eye’s the horse: the light of God the rider: if riderless, the horse is of no use. So train the horse away from its bad habits, or else the horse is not fit for the king. The horse’s eye is guided by the king’s eye: without the king’s, its eye is sorely wanting. A horse’s eye, wherever you might call it, says ‘Nay, why there?’, except to grass and pasture! God’s light is rider on the light of sense, and then the soul is curious for God. 1295 What do unmounted horses know of highways? It takes a king to know the king’s highway. Approach the sense on which the light is rider: that light is a good master for the sense. God’s light is fair adornment for the senses – this is the meaning of ‘a light on light’. The light of sense draws downwards to the earth, the light of God transports him to the heights. The sensory state is but a nether world, God’s light’s a sea, and sense is like a dewdrop.

83

84

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

1300 And yet that rider’s nowhere to be seen, except in good achievements and good words. The sensual light, that’s gross and heavy going, is hidden in the blackness of the eyes. Just as you don’t see sensual light with eyesight, how could you see the light of holy ones? Despite its coarseness, sensual light’s concealed: should not that purer radiance be kept hidden? This world, like straws in the power of the unseen wind, is a helpless thing in the face of the might of the Unseen. 1305 He is now raising it, now lowering it, He is now mending it, now shattering it. Now to the left, now to the right he takes it, now makes of it a rose-bed, now makes thorns. Perceive the hidden hand and pen that write, the horse agallop with the unseen rider. Now see the arrows fly, and bow concealed, the souls apparent, Soul of souls unseen. Don’t break the arrow, for it is the King’s, it’s not a hit and miss – an expert shot! 1310 God said ‘You did not throw when you were throwing’, the act of God precedes all other actions. Break your own anger, do not break the arrow! Your anger’s eye interprets milk as blood. And kiss the arrow! Take it to the king, the blood-stained arrow dripping with your blood! All that is seen is feeble, fixed and flimsy, the unseen is so strong and unrelenting. We are the prey – who sets a trap like that? We are the polo ball – where is the bat? 1315 He’s tearing, he is sowing, where’s the tailor? He’s blowing, he is searing, where’s the stoker? One hour He’ll makes the saint an infidel, the next He makes the impious religious.

‘Uproot this thorn bush you have planted in the road!’

The pious man risks danger from the trap, until he is completely free from selfhood. For he’s a traveller – countless are the brigands, and only he is saved whom God protects. He’s ‘pious’, he who’s not a spotless mirror, if he’s not caught the bird he’s still ahunting. 1320 And when the ‘pious’ is ‘inspired’, he’s free: he’s gained the place of safety and succeeded. No mirror will return to being iron, no bread goes back to wheat within the stack. No full-grown grape becomes unripe again, mature fruit won’t revert to being first fruit. Mature yourself, be careful not to spoil! Go on, be light like Borhān-e Mohaqqeq, When you’ve escaped from self, you are all proof, and when the slave in you is nought, you’re king. 1325 [ And if you want this clear, Salāhoddin has shown it, opened eyes and made them see. And every eye that has the light of Hū saw in his eyes and face true poverty. Like God, the sheikh can act without a medium: disciples have his teaching without speaking.] The heart is pliant in his hands like wax, at times His seal stamps shame, at others fame. His waxen seal informs about the seal ring: of whom does that seal ring engraving tell? 1330 It is revealing of that Goldmith’s thought, a chain of every ring within another. Whose voice is echoing in the hills of hearts? – at times these hills are full of voice, then empty. He is the Wise, the master, everywhere. Let not his voice desert this mountain heart! Most mountains amplify the voice as double: there’s one that amplifies a hundredfold.

85

86

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

The mountain’s gushing forth with voice and speech a hundred thousand springs of limpid water. 1335 And as that grace emerges from the mountain, the waters in the springs are turned to blood. By that auspicious sovereign, blessed Moses, Mount Sinai turned to rubies top to bottom. All Sinai was bestowed with life and wisdom, then are we less than rocks, you people there? There’s not one spring that’s gushing from the soul, no body joining those who dress in green. It has no echo of the cry of longing, it has no brightness of the sāqi’s draught. 1340 Where is the zeal to dig up such a mountain like this, completely, with a pick and shovel? Perhaps a moon will shine upon its parts, perhaps moonlight will find a way to it. The resurrection will uproot the mountains, then when shall resurrection bring this grace? How is this Resurrection less than that one? That one’s the wound, this is the surgeon’s salve. All those who’ve seen this salve are free from wounds, the bad who’ve seen this good are virtuous. 1345 How bless’d the ugly with the fair companion! Alas when rosy cheeks become autumnal! When lifeless bread is partnered with the spirit, the bread will come alive and be life’s essence. Dark wood became a partner to the fire, the darkness disappeared and all was light. And when an ass fell dead inside the salt-mine, it dropped its being an ass and being dead. God’s baptism is the dying vat of Hū in which the many colours blend as one. 1350 When he falls in that vat, you tell him ‘Stand!’ He says in bliss, ‘I am that vat, don’t blame me!’

‘Uproot this thorn bush you have planted in the road!’

‘I am the vat’ is saying ‘I am God’: though he is iron, he has the fire’s colour. Iron’s colour is negated by the fire’s, it keeps its silence while proclaiming fire. When it’s turned red like gold found in the mine, its tongueless proclamation is ‘I’m Fire’. Enhanced by fire’s hue and fire’s nature, it says, ‘I am the fire, I am the fire. 1355 I am the fire – if you doubt or suspect, experiment and put your hand on me! I am the fire, if you have any doubt, then bring your face to my face for an instant.’ When man is in receipt of light from God, he’s worshipped by the angels for God’s choice. He’s also worshipped by those like the angels whose souls escaped rebelliousness and doubt. What kind of fire? What kind of iron? Be silent! Don’t ridicule the image-maker’s image! 1360 Don’t step into the sea! Don’t speak of That! Be silent at the sea shore! Bite your tongue! A hundred like ‘me’ could not stand the sea, but I cannot resist being drowned in it. Let soul and mind be offered to the sea! This sea has paid the price of mind and soul. So long as my legs move, I’ll persevere; when legs are gone, I’ll keep afloat as ducks do. Uncouth and here is better than my absence! The ring is crooked, is it on the door? 1365 Polluted as you are, come to the pool! How shall a man be pure outside the pool? The pure who’ve been excluded from the pool, they’re also distant from their purity. As for this pool, its purity is endless: of little weight is purity of bodies.

87

88

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Because the heart’s a pool, but secretly it has a hidden channel to the sea. Your finite purity needs reinforcement, or else with use its quantity decreases. 1370 The water told the dirty man ‘Come in!’ The dirty man said, ‘I am shy of water.’ It said, ‘How will this shyness go without me? how will this dirtiness be rid without me?’ Polluted ones who hide themselves from water exemplify how ‘shame inhibits faith’. The heart is muddied by the body’s pool steps, the body’s cleansed by water of the hearts’ pool. Remain around the heart’s pool-steps, my boy, be always careful near the body’s pool-steps. 1375 The body’s sea is crashing on the heart’s sea: between them there’s ‘a barrier they’ll not cross’. And whether you are straight or you are crooked, approach Him always forwards, never backwards. Though in the courts of kings there’s mortal danger, those who are eager can’t hold back from Him. And as the King is sweeter far than sugar, it’s better that the soul should go to sweetness. O blamer, may salvation come to you! O seeker of salvation, you are fragile. 1380 My soul’s a furnace and content with fire: it suits it that it is the fire’s home. Something will burn for love, as for the furnace, whoever’s blind to this is not the furnace. For when your portion is the portionless, you gained the life eternal and death vanished. When heartache makes your joy increase, the rose and lily take your soul’s flower-garden captive. What terrorises others is your safeguard: ducks thrive on rivers, barnyard chickens drown!

The coming of friends to the asylum

89

1385 Again, O Doctor, I’ve become so crazy! Again, Beloved, I’m so melancholy! The rings upon Your chain are very various, each ring brings on another form of madness. Each ring that’s given is a different kind, so every moment I’ve another madness. So ‘Madness takes on different forms’ it’s said, especially in the chain of this great Prince. Such kinds of madness broke the chains asunder – the ones that all the madmen recommend.

The coming of friends to the asylum to question Zu’l-Nun the Egyptian God have mercy on him 1390 This happened to Zu’l-Nun the Egyptian that in him were born new ecstasy and madness, Such exaltation that the salt extended from there up to the hearts in highest heaven – Salt of the earth, don’t match your exaltation with exaltations of the holy masters! The people could not tolerate his madness, his fieriness was tearing at their beards. When fire got to the common people’s beards, they bound him and they put him into prison. 1395 It is not possible to rein this in, though common people find this way distressing. These kings were terrified by common people, for this lot are all blind and kings unblemished. When good-for-nothings have authority, there is no doubt Zu’l-Nun will be in gaol. The great king rides alone, he is a pearl so incomparable in children’s hands. What pearl? An ocean hidden in a droplet, a sun that is concealed within an atom.

90

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

1400 A sun that showed itself as just an atom and gradually revealed its own true face. All atoms were annihilated in it, the world got drunk on it, and sobered up. When lawfulness is in the hands of traitors, Mansur Hallāj is surely on the scaffold. When idiots control important matters, it has to happen that ‘they slew the prophets’. The people who were lost informed the prophets in foolishness ‘We augur ill of you!’ 1405 The Christian ignorance that seeks protection from that dear Lord they hanged upon a cross! Their scripture says the Jews had crucified him, how can one such as He give them protection? And since that sovereign’s heart was bled by them how can they call on ‘while you were among them’? To pure gold and the gold-worker the danger is greatest from the faithless counterfeiter. Josephs avoid the envy of the ugly: in fear of foes the fair must live in fire. 1410 Joseph is down the well, tricked by his brothers: they gave him to the wolves because of envy. What came from envy of the Egyptian Joseph? – this envy is a great fat wolf in ambush. For gentle Jacob always harboured fear and trembling that this wolf would get his Joseph. The outer wolf was not what overcame him: their envy outstripped any wolf in violence. This wolf attacked and as a glib excuse they said ‘We went to race with one another’. 1415 A hundred thousand wolves don’t have such cunning, this wolf will be disgraced at last – just wait! For on the dreadful Day of Resurrection the envious appear as wolves, it’s certain.

The coming of friends to the asylum

The vile assembled greedy carrion-eaters will take the form of pigs on Judgment Day, The stench of genitals from fornication, the stench of mouths from their intoxication, The hidden stench, which hearts alone could sense, is palpable and obvious at that gathering. 1420 Human existence is a primal jungle: if you’ve His breath beware of this existence. There are a thousand wolves and pigs in us, there’s wholesome, loathsome, good and misconceived. The nature that predominates decides: when gold outweighs the copper, it is gold. The character that dominates your being, in that same form must be your resurrection. Sometimes a wolf will enter human nature, sometimes a fair-faced Joseph like the moon. 1425 Benign things and malicious things are passing from one man’s to another’s breast in secret. The fact is that some wisdom, skill and knowledge, is passed from human kind to ox and ass. The frisky steer is tamed and broken in, the bear will dance, the goat will kneel before you. The sense has passed from humans into dogs to be a shepherd, huntsman or a watchman. Good came into the Sleepers’ dog out of the aspirants, so it went seeking God. 1430 At all times something rises in the breast, now devil, angel, now ferocious beast. Out of that wondrous jungle lions all know a secret path into the ensnaring heart. So steal the spirit’s coral from the inside, of those who truly know, you little pup. Since you’re a thief, make it the subtle pearl: since you’ll be burdened, make your burden noble.

91

92

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

The disciples understand that Zu’l-Nun has not gone mad but acted deliberately The friends, so curious about Zu’l-Nun, went to the prison, giving their opinions. 1435 ‘He either means it or there’s wisdom in it, in our faith he’s a guide and inspiration: Such oceanic mind would never let insanity take him to mindlessness. And God forbid that with his perfect standing the cloud of sickness should obscure his moon. He’s gone “indoors”, away from vulgar evil, he’s gone “insane”, ashamed of sober minds. He’s blushing at the dull materialist mind, he’s gone on purpose, and he’s gone “insane”. 1440 “Tie me up tight and whip me with a cow-tail upon the head and back – don’t question this! That from the cow-tail wound I get my life back, just like him slain by Moses’ cow, my friends. That from the cow-tail wound I may be happy, just like him slain by Moses’ cow, I’m well.” ’ The cow-tail whip revived the murdered man, became pure gold like copper in the elixir. The murdered man sprang up and told his secrets, he exposed that band of murderous blood-drinkers. 1445 He spoke out clearly, ‘This lot murdered me! Now they’re disturbed to be my enemy.’ For when this heavy human body’s killed, the secret-knowing being comes to life. His soul can see both Paradise and Hell-fire, it can identify all of the mysteries. It can expose the devilish murderous ones, it can expose the snare of fraud and guile. To slay the cow is needed for the Path, so that the soul recovers through its scourging.

The coming of friends to the asylum

1450 Quick, slay the cow of your own selfhood, so that the hidden spirit comes to conscious life.

Returning to the Story of Zu’l-Nun, may God have mercy upon him So when those individuals approached him, he shouted, ‘Hey, who are you? Watch your step!’ Politely they replied, ‘We are your friends. We’ve come here just to see how you are doing. How are you, ocean of capacious mind? Does not this madness compromise your mind? How can the furnace smoke rise to the sun? How is the phoenix shattered by the crow? 1455 Do not hold back from us, explain these matters! We love you! Don’t behave like this with us! You should not drive away the ones who love you, or masquerade and hide behind a smokescreen! O you, who are our king, disclose the secret! O moon, don’t hide your face in darkening clouds! We are adoring, faithful and afflicted: in both the worlds we’ve pledged our hearts to you.’ He started swearing wildly and abusing, he spoke in gibberish like one possessed. 1460 He sprang up hurling sticks and stones at them – the party fled, afraid of being beaten. He cackled at them, throwing back his head, ‘See how the wind inflates these fellow’s beards! Some friends! Where is the sign of being friends? A friend knows pain is just the stuff of life.’ How can a friend ignore a friend in pain? Pain is the substance, friendship’s like the shell. In misery and disaster and affliction, is not true friendship some encouragement?

93

94

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

1465 The friend’s like gold in such calamity, pure gold is joyful in the heart of fire.

How Loqmān’s master tested his intelligence Was it not Loqmān, slave impeccable, who was attentive day and night in service? His master would prefer him for his work, he thought him better than his very sons. Because, though Loqmān had been born a slave, he was a master and devoid of craving. A king said to a sheikh in conversation, ‘Request of me some favour I may grant you!’ 1470 He said, ‘Your Majesty, aren’t you ashamed to speak to me this way? Rise up beyond this! I have two slaves and they’re contemptible. They are both lord and master over you.’ The king said, ‘Surely some mistake? – What are they?’ He said, ‘The one is lust, the other’s anger!’ The king is he who’s unconcerned with kingship, his light will dawn without the moon or sun. The treasury’s his whose essence is the treasury: he who’s at war with being has true Being. 1475 Externally the master, Loqmān’s master, was actually in truth the slave of Loqmān. There’s many a one in this inverted world – in their esteem a jewel’s not worth a straw. They’ll call a wilderness a place of refuge, the name and colouring ensnares their minds. For one class how you dress will make you known, you wear one kind of shirt, they’ll say you’re common. For one class it’s the fake ascetic look, – to spot the true ascetic you need light. 1480 You need light free of any obfuscation to know someone beyond his words and actions.

How Loqmān’s master tested his intelligence

To go into his heart by mental effort, to see his true stamp unbound by tradition. The Knower of the Unseen’s special agents are heart-spies in the spiritual world. They come like visions to the heart’s interior, the secrets of your state revealed to them. What riches lie within the sparrow’s body that might be hidden from the falcon’s mind? 1485 He who has learnt the secrets of God’s essence, what are the creatures’ secret things to him? He who has moved upon celestial spheres, how hard it is for him to walk on earth? Since iron turned to wax in David’s hand, so what would be wax in his hand, O hard man? Loqmān, appearing as a slave, a master, the slavery, his outer layer, a cover. When such a master goes somewhere unknown, he dresses up his slave in his apparel. 1490 He puts on the apparel of his slave, and makes his slave proceed in front of him. He goes behind him on the road, as slaves do, so no one is aware of who he is. He says, ‘Slave, go sit in the place of honour, I’ll take the shoes out like the humblest slave. Treat me oppressively, call me bad names, Do not afford me any courtesy. I shall regard disservice as your service, I’ve sown deception’s seed by being abroad.’ 1495 The masters have performed such acts of slavery to give the impression that they are the slaves. They’d had it up to here with being the master, they made due preparation for their work. Because, though Loqmān had been born a slave, he was a master and devoid of craving.

95

96

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

The way of self-abasement comes from masters, from slaves comes nothing more than slavery. And from that world to this world so it is, arrangements are turned upside down, take note! 1500 The master of Loqmān was well-informed about his hidden state – he’d seen its sign. The traveller knew the secret, drove the ass just so, all for expedience’s sake. He would have given him freedom from the outset, but he was seeking Loqmān’s peace of mind, Because it was the intention of Loqmān that no one knew that lion warrior’s secret. You hide your secret from the evil one! More wonder that you hide it from yourself! 1505 Conceal your action from your own eyesight, so what you do is safe from evil eyes. Surrender to the lure of the reward: without yourself, steal something from yourself. They’re giving opium to the wounded man to extricate the spear-tip from his body. When death is imminent he’s racked by pain, while he’s concerned with that, his soul is taken. When you entrust your mind to anything, something will secretly be taken from you. 1510 So be preoccupied with what is better, so what he takes from you is something smaller. Whatever you acquire, O careful one, the thief will come in where you feel secure. As when the merchant’s load falls in the water, the better merchandise is what he goes for. Since things will be abandoned in the water, let go of what is worse and save the better.

How Loqmān’s master tested his intelligence

How the excellence and intelligence of Loqmān became apparent to those who examined him Whatever food they brought to Loqmān’s master he’d send somebody on to Loqmān with it. 1515 So that Loqmān would put his hand upon it and then the master would consume his food. He’d eat his left-overs and ecstasise, he’d throw away the food he had not tasted. And if he ate, it was half-heartedly: this is connection yet without engagement. They brought a water melon as an offering, he said, ‘Go, son, and summon Loqmān here!’ And when he cut it, giving him a slice, he lapped it up like sugar or like honey, 1520 With such enjoyment that he offered him a second, third and fourth and . . . seventeenth! One piece remained. He said, ‘I shall eat this to see how sweet this water melon is. He eats so avidly, from his enjoyment our appetites are tempted, craving food.’ When he ate it, its bitterness lit fires that made his tongue swell up and burned his throat. He was distraught with bitterness awhile, and then he said to him, ‘My soul, my world, 1525 How did you make such poison palatable, how could you think this cruelty was kindness? What patience, what gave rise to such endurance? Maybe this life is something you detest? Why did you not politely make a protest, saying, “I’ve a reason, that’s enough for now!” ?’ He said, ‘I’ve eaten from your bounteous hand so much that I am doubled up with shame.

97

98

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

I was embarrassed that I might not eat one bitter thing from your hand, lord of knowledge, 1530 Since all my parts were raised on your largesse engulfed in your temptations and your snare, If I complain and squeal of something bitter, may a hundred miles of dust entomb my limbs! And flavoured by your sweetly-generous hand, how could this melon leave a bitter taste?’ By love are bitter things transformed to sweetness, by love are copper pieces turned to gold. By love the sediment is clarified, by love the sufferings become the healing. 1535 By love the dead man is returned to life, by love the king is made to be the slave. And this love is the consequence of knowledge, – who ever played the fool on such a throne? When did deficient knowledge bear such love? imperfect love is born – love for the lifeless. In lifeless things it sees a pleasant colour, it hears the loved one’s calling in the birdsong. Deficient knowledge cannot tell the difference, it will interpret lightning as the sun. 1540 The Prophet when he called deficient men accursed, he meant deficiency of mind. The physically deficient have His mercy: don’t curse or shun the ones who have His mercy. Deficiency of mind’s the evil sickness, demanding cursing, fit for banishment. Because perfecting minds is feasible, but not the body, it’s impossible. The unbelief and haughtiness of heathens remote from God all stem from mental weakness. 1545 Relief from such deficiency came forth in scripture: ‘it is no fault in blind men.’

How Loqmān’s master tested his intelligence

Lightning will flash and is so very fickle: without clear sight you don’t know flash from constant. The lightning laughs – tell me at whom it’s laughing! – at him who sets his heart upon its light. The lights of all the firmament are hamstrung: how are they like ‘not of the East nor West’? For lightning’s nature ‘takes away the sight’, know that the eternal light is all ‘the helpers’. 1550 To ride your horse upon an ocean wave, to read a letter in a flash of lightning, Is not to see the point because of greed: it is to laugh at your own heart and mind. To see the point is what the mind’s about, it is the self that does not see point. Mind conquered by the lower self becomes it, and Saturn checkmates ill-starred Jupiter. Consider now this inauspiciousness, look at the one who made you so ill-fated. 1555 The gaze that oversees this ebb and flow is piercing from the ill-starred to auspicious. He’s turning you around from state to state, revealing opposites in transformation. So that fear of the left may bear for you the joy of those men hoping for the right, That you may have two wings – the one-winged bird is powerless and cannot fly, good friend. Prevent me from continuing my words, or give me leave to finish what I’m saying! 1560 But if you wish for neither, You command! How could a person know Your destination? The light of Abraham’s spirit is required to see through fire the Kingdom and its mansions. Go step by step above the sun and moon, not stuck here like the doorknob on the door.

99

100

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Like Abraham, surpass the seventh heaven, and say the words ‘I love not them that set’. This world of corporeality’s misleading, except to one who’s freed himself from lust.

The conclusion of how the servants envied the favourite slave 1565 The story of the king, and of his princes’ resentment of the wise lord’s favourite slave, Was left because the discourse was alluring: we must go back and bring it to conclusion. The gardener of the Kingdom so delightful, how could he not know one tree from another? One tree there is that’s bitter and repellent, and there’s the other – seven times the tree. In rearing them, how could he deem them equal? – he sees them with his eye on the result, 1570 What fruit will those trees bring forth in the end though at this moment they appear the same? The master, who was seeing by God’s light, had realised the end and the beginning, For God he’d shut the eye that see’s the world, the eye that would foresee the end he’d open. Those envious ones – they were the rotten trees, they were the ill-starred ones of bitter stock. In envy they were boiling up and frothing, in secret, stirring up their subterfuge. 1575 So that they would behead the favourite slave and they would tear his root out of this world. How could he die? – the king and he were soul mates – his very core was in divine protection. The king got word of those clandestine plots – like Bu Bakr-e Robābi he kept silent. And at the sight of such ill-natured hearts he tapped the rhythm to their machinations.

A king and a sheikh

A cunning people are contriving tricks to get the sovereign into dire straits. 1580 A king so very great, immeasurable, how could he be in dire straits, you fools? They sought to sew a net to catch the king, but in the end they’d learnt this skill from him. Unlucky is the pupil who begins contending with his master and confronts him. And with what master? Master of the world, the known and hidden are the same to him. His eye that’s ‘seeing by the light of God’ has torn apart the veils of ignorance. 1585 His heart is veiled before that sage, a veil which is as holey as an ancient carpet. The veil laughs with a hundred mouths at him, each mouth has turned into a gaping crack. And then the master says to the disciple, ‘You little pup! Have you no faith in me? Though I’m no master nor an iron breaker, suppose I am naïve like you, a novice, Don’t you have help from me for soul and spirit? And do the waters flow for you without me? 1590 My heart is just a workshop of your wealth, so why destroy this workshop, wicked one?’ You’d say you would inflame him secretly, but is there not a window in between us? He sees your thought as if it’s through a window, your heart is witness to your recollection. See, he will not chastise you personally, in kindness, he’ll agree with what you say. He is not smiling smugly at your scolding, but he is smiling at your inmost thoughts. 1595 Deceit, then, is rewarded by deceit: you throw a cup and get a jug, that’s justice.

101

102

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

And if the smile he gave you were approving, a hundred thousand flowers would bloom for you. So, when his heart is working in your favour, you’ll know the sun is going into Aries. For this the daylight and the spring are smiling, the blossoms and green meadows are as one, A hundred thousand nightingales and ringdoves disperse their song into a silent world. 1600 When you see that your spirit’s leaves are yellowing, will you not know the anger of the king? The king’s sun in the sign of disapproval is making makes faces black as is the book. Our souls are leaves for Mercury to write on, that whiteness and that blackness are our measure. He writes it in the colours green and red to rid our spirits of despond and weakness, With green and red the new spring makes its mark, as, you might say, the colours of the rainbow.

The reflection of the veneration of the prophet Solomon in the heart of Bilqis from the little face of the hoopoe 1605 A hundred mercies on the Queen of Sheba, for God gave her the intellect of hundreds. A hoopoe brought a letter and a seal from Solomon, some words of clarity. She read those comprehensive observations, she did not treat the messenger with scorn. She saw the hoopoe, and her soul the Anqā, her sense saw foam, her heart beheld the ocean. Such two-fold signs opposed the mind and senses, just like the Prophet and his enemies. 1610 The unbelievers saw the human Prophet and could not see in him ‘the moon was cloven’.

Solomon, Bilqis and the hoopoe

Throw dust into your eyes of sense-perception, the eye of sense opposes faith and reason. For God has called the eye of sense ‘unseeing’, called it ‘idolater’ and ‘our opponent’. Because it saw the foam and not the ocean, because it saw this moment not tomorrow. Lord of the morrow and of now is present, yet he sees not a penny of the treasure. 1615 An atom brings a message from that Sun – the sun would then become that atom’s slave. A drop with news fresh from the Sea of Oneness, – that drop will captivate the seven seas. A little earth becomes his messenger, and heaven will bow its head before His earth. If Adam’s earth becomes God’s messenger, God’s angels bow their heads before His earth. How was it that ‘The heavens were rent asunder’ – from one eye that a mortal man has opened? 1620 Earth sinks in sediment below the water, – how fast the earth exceeds the throne of heaven: That water’s subtlety is not from water, but is the Generous Creator’s gift. If He makes air and fire inferior, and if He lets the thorn surpass the rose, He is the Judge, and God does what he wills, extracting remedies from pain itself. If He makes air and fire inferior, and makes them dark and gross and ponderous, 1625 And if He elevates the earth and water, he makes the path of heaven traversed on foot, It’s certain that You raise up whom You will, He said to one from earth, ‘Unfold your wings!’ To one of fire he said, ‘Go and be Iblis beneath the seventh earth with your pretending!’

103

104

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

O man of earth, ascend above Sohā! Go down to humid earth, O fiery Iblis! I’m not four natures nor the primal cause, I am abiding in control forever. 1630 My action is uncaused and is straightforward: Mine is the predetermining, not causing. I alter My own ways in My own time, in My own time I lay the dust before Me. I tell the ocean ‘Be filled up by fire!’ I tell the fire, ‘Go, be a bed of roses!’ I tell the mountain range ‘Be light as cotton!’, I tell the heavens, ‘Fall down before my eyes!’ I say, ‘O sun, be partner with the moon!’ I make them both resemble two black clouds. 1635 We dry up all the fountain of the sun, its fountain’s blood we fashion into musk. The sun and moon resemble two black oxen, And God shall fix a yoke upon their necks.

A philosopher’s denial of the scripture ‘if in the morning your water should have sunk into the ground’ A reader was reciting from the Book ‘Your water sank’, that is ‘I stop spring water, I hide the water in the very depths, if I dry up the springs and make a desert, Who shall bring water to the spring again save Me, the peerless, gracious, glorious One?’ 1640 A miserable philosopher logician was passing by the school just at that moment, And when he heard the verse, he disapproved, and said, ‘We get the water with a pick-axe! We bring the water up from underground – we use a shovel and a sharpened axe.’

A philosopher’s denial of scripture;

That night he dreamed he saw a holy man who bludgeoned him and blinded both his eyes. He said, ‘You wretch, if you’re correct, bring light with axes from the well-spring of your eyes.’ 1645 Next day he sprang up, saw his eyes were blind, and that the abundant light had disappeared. If he had grieved and had he shown repentance, the vanished light would be returned in mercy, But even pardon is not ours to ask for, its taste is not dessert for every drunkard. The foulness of his deeds and dire denial had blocked the path of pardon in his heart. His heart was hardened like a granite surface – how could repentance penetrate to seed it? 1650 Where is there one like Shoʿayb who, by prayer, could turn the mountain into earth for sowing? By Abraham’s imploring and belief impossibilities turned possible, Or, by Moqawqes pleading with the Prophet, a stony place became productive land, And so contrariwise, human denial makes copper out of gold, and war from peace. This treachery attracts deformity, it turns the fertile earth to stones and pebbles. 1655 Prostration’s not allowed to every heart : mercy’s reward is not for all and sundry. Don’t sin and break the law relying on ‘I shall repent and come to His protection’. Repentance needs the heat and tears of anguish, conditional on thunder clouds and lightning. There must be fire and water for the fruit, the clouds and lightning needed for this action. Till lightning strikes the heart and clouds the eyes, how shall the threatening fire of wrath be quenched?

105

106

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

1660 When shall the green shoots grow to taste the union? When shall the springs of limpid water bubble? When shall the rose-beds tell the garden secrets? When shall the violet tie the knot with jasmine? When shall the plane-tree raise its hands in prayer? When shall trees hold their heads up in the air? When shall the blossoms scatter from their sleeves full of their offerings in days of springtime? The tulip’s cheeks be set on fire like blood? When shall the rose bring gold out of its purse? 1665 When shall the bulbul come and smell the rose? When shall the ring dove coo as it is seeking? When shall the stork cry out its soulful lak-lak? What is ‘To You’? ‘The Kingdom’s Thine, O suppliant.’ When shall the earth reveal its inmost secrets? When shall the garden shine without the sky? Where have they got those decorations from? – all from the Generous, the Merciful. Those subtleties are signs of being a witness, they are the footprints of a man of service. 1670 The sign will gladden him who’s seen the King, but he who has not seen has no attention. When God asked ‘Am I not your Lord?’ the spirit of him who saw his Lord lost all his senses. He knows the scent of wine: he drank it then if he’d not drunk the wine, how could he scent it? For wisdom’s like a wandering wild she-camel, familiar to the kings, it’s like a guide. You dream you see a pleasant countenance who gives a promise and a sign to you, 1675 That your wish may come true, and here’s the sign, that says someone will come to you tomorrow. One sign is this, that he will be a rider, one sign is that he will take hold of you,

A philosopher’s denial of scripture;

One sign is that he smiles when he is with you, one sign is that he folds his hands together, One sign is that you will not tell this dream, in heedlessness, to anyone tomorrow. That sign that once was told to Zechariah ‘You shall not speak at all for three more days! 1680 For three nights do not speak of good nor bad, this is the sign that John shall come to you. For three days do not breathe a word in speech: this silence is the sign of your intention. Be careful you do not disclose this sign, but keep these words concealed within your heart.’ He will announce these signs to him like sweetness. What are these signs? There are a hundred more! This is the sign that you will gain from God the kingdom and the power that you are seeking. 1685 What you are weeping for in those long nights, and what you’re burning for at dawn in prayer, Without such things your day was plunged in darkness, your neck became as narrow as a spindle. And what you gave as alms was all you have: You have the alms of those who gambled all, Possessions, sleep and rosy cheeks you gave up, thin as a rake, you sacrificed your life, So often sat in fire like aloes wood! so often taken sword-blows like a helmet! 1690 A hundred thousand helpless states like this are endless, second nature to God’s lovers. You had this dream at night, then it was day, and living in its hope your day was glorious. You cast your eyes about to left and right: where is that sign, where are those indications? You’re trembling like a leaf and saying ‘Alas! What if the day goes by and no sign comes?’

107

108

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

You run around the streets, bazaars and houses like someone who has lost a little calf. 1695 ‘Sir, is this running round alright? What’s with you? What is it you possess that you have lost here?’ You tell him ‘It is good, but nobody may know this benefit apart from me!’ If I should tell, the sign will go from me, and when the sign is gone, it’s time for death. You scrutinise the face of every horseman, he says to you ‘Don’t look at me so madly!’ You say to him, ‘I’ve lost a good companion. I have made up my mind to track him down. 1700 May your good fortune long continue, rider! Have pity on such lovers, be forgiving!’ When you have searched with effort in your looking, such effort does not fail, tradition has it. All of a sudden comes a blessed rider, who holds you very closely to his breast. You are oblivious and fall in rapture, the uninformed say, ‘It’s all smoke and mirrors!’ How can he see what is this rapture in him? Does he not recognise that sign of union? 1705 This sign pertains to him who’s seen already – how can the sign appear to any other? And every time a sign arrived from Him, a spirit came into the person’s spirit. The water rose up for the floundering fish, these signs of ‘these are signs of holy scripture’, So then the signs which are within the prophets are specially for that soul who is acquainted. This discourse is deficient and unstable. I have no heart, I’m heartless, please forgive me. 1710 How can one give a number to the atoms – especially one whose mind is rapt by love?

Moses takes offence at the prayers of a shepherd

Shall I be counting up the garden leaves? Or calculate the calls of crow and partridge? One cannot put a number on them, but I’ll count them as a guide for the perplexed. Saturn’s ill sway and Jupiter’s good fortune cannot be quantified, try as you might! But still, some of their consequences must be explained, I mean their benefit and harm. 1715 So that the effects of fate are partly known to people, both the lucky and unlucky. If Jupiter is his ascendant planet, he will enjoy good cheer and great success. If Saturn rules him, then he must be cautious of every kind of trouble in his life. If I don’t speak of Saturn’s fire with someone who’s ruled by Saturn, helpless he would burn. ‘Remember God’, our sovereign gave permission, he saw us in the fire and gave us light. 1720 He said, ‘Though I am free from your remembrance, and images are not conducive to me, Yet one who’s drunk on images and fancies will never find Our Essence without symbols.’ Remembering bodily is feeble fancy: it’s far removed from royal qualities. Someone who says the king is not a weaver – what praise is this? It is uncouth, for sure!

Moses, on whom be peace, takes offence at the prayers of a shepherd Once Moses saw a shepherd on the way repeating to himself ‘O Lord, my God, 1725 Where are You, that I may become Your servant, that I may sew Your shoes and comb Your hair?

109

110

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

That I may wash Your clothes and kill Your lice, and bring Your milk to you, Your Eminence, And kiss Your little hand and rub Your foot – when bedtime comes I’ll sweep around Your bed. I give You all my goats in sacrifice, O You whose memory I swoon and sigh for.’ The shepherd uttered all this silly stuff, and Moses said, ‘Hey you, who is this for?’ 1730 He said, ‘For Him, Who has created us, from Whom appeared this earth and heavenly sphere.’ ‘Oh’, Moses said, ‘You’ve sunk a long way down! No Muslim you! You’ve turned into a heathen! What piffle’s this? What blasphemy and guff! Go stuff some cotton wool into your mouth! Your stinking unbelief stinks out the world! It has reduced religion’s robe to rags! Rough shoes and socks may suit you very well, but how can such be fitting for the Sun? 1735 If you don’t stop your throat from these expressions, a fire will come and burn up all creation. What is this smoke if fire’s not here already? Why is your soul besmirched, your spirit spurned? If you already know God is the Judge, then why believe such piffle and such rudeness? The friendship of a stupid man is hatred: Almighty God can do without such service! Or are you talking to your aunt and uncle? Do carnal needs affect the Glorious One? 1740 The one who sucks on milk’s the growing baby, you only put on shoes if you need feet! If your words are intended for His servant, of whom God said “He is I, I am he”, Who said “In truth I ailed, you did not visit: that is, I too fell sick, not he alone.”

Moses takes offence at the prayers of a shepherd

Who has become “my hearing and my sight,” then even for that servant this is nonsense! To speak uncouthly with God’s chosen ones will kill the heart and fill the page with black. 1745 Should you address a man as “Fatima” —considering men and women are one species— He will do all he can to murder you, though he be pleasant-natured, mild and calm. “Fatima” is a compliment to women but say it to a man, it’s provocation. The hand and foot are blessings for ourselves – to use them for God’s purity pollutes! “Begets not nor was born” for Him is right, Creator of begetter and begotten. 1750 Birth is the quality of all things carnal, all born things are from this side of the river. It is of being, corruptible, and abject: it’s caused and needs the First Cause, certainly.’ He said ‘O Moses, you have stitched my mouth, and you have seared my soul with penitence.’ He tore his clothes and heaved a sigh, and quickly he headed for the desert and departed.

Almighty God’s rebuking of Moses, on whom be peace, on account of the shepherd From God a revelation came to Moses, ‘You have repelled from us Our loyal servant! 1755 Did you come to create a sense of union, or did you come to generate division? Do not touch separation if you can, “For Me the worst of all things is divorce.” I have consigned a way for every one To every one a different idiom.

111

112

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

For him it’s praise, for you disparagement, for him it’s honey, and for you it’s poison. We are completely free from pure and impure, all kinds of slothfulness and speediness. 1760 I did not give the order for My profit but as an act of kindness to My servants. For Hindis, Hindi is for praise of God: the praise of God in Sindi is for Sindis. I am not sanctified by their laudations! – it’s they who are made holy, strewing pearls. We look at neither languages nor words, but at the soul and at the inner state, Inspecting hearts, We see if they are humble, although the spoken words are not so humble. 1765 Because the heart’s the substance, speech is trivial as it intrudes, the substance is the thing. How much more verbiage, tropes and metaphors?! I want your burning, burning! Warm to burning! Inflame a fire of love within the heart! Incinerate all thought and all allusion. The learned are a certain sort, O Moses! Those burnt of soul and spirit are another!’ For lovers there’s a burning every breath – no tax or tithe befalls the ruined town! 1770 If he speaks wrongly do not call him ‘wrong’, or if the martyr’s blood-soaked, do not wash him! For martyrs, blood is better far than water, this wrong is better than a hundred rights. Within the Ka’ba there’s no qibla rule – what if the pearl-diver has no snowshoes?! Don’t ask directions from the roaring drunkard! Why ask a threadbare man to do your darning? The faith of love is separate from all others: for lovers, faith and piety are God.

Moses takes offence at the prayers of a shepherd

1775 If rubies have no seal inscribed, no matter. Love in the Sea of Sorrow is no sorrow.

The revelation comes to Moses, on whom be peace, excusing the shepherd Then God concealed in Moses’ hidden depths such mysteries that cannot come to speech. As Words were poured upon the heart of Moses, and sight and speech were mingled all together, He was so much in ecstasy, then sober, he flew so much from alpha to omega. If I were to explain this, it were foolish, because this matter passes understanding. 1780 If I should speak, it would uproot all reason, if I should write, then it would split the pens. When Moses heard this reprimand from God, he ran to catch the shepherd in the desert. He traced the tracks of that bewildered man, he stirred up dust across the desert margins. The footsteps of a man distraught is truly unlike the steps of any other man. One step from top to bottom like the rook’s, another one diagonal like the bishop’s. 1785 One like a wave is raising up its crest, one like a fish is floundering on its belly. Steps wrote out his condition in the dust, like geomancers drawing in the sands. At last he caught him up and looked at him. The herald of good news said, ‘Leave has come, Do not seek niceties and regulations, say anything your troubled heart would wish for. Your heresy is faith, your faith’s the soul’s light. You are true faith: through you a world is saved.

113

114

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

1790 O you, who’s spared by “God does what He will,” release your tongue without consideration!’ He said, ‘O Moses, I have passed that point, Now I am soaking in my heart’s own blood. I’ve passed beyond the utmost lotus tree, I’ve travelled on a hundred thousand years. You cracked your whip, and then my horse reared up, – it made a leap and cleared the firmament. Divine be closest to our human nature! May there be blessings on your hand and forearm! 1795 Now my condition is beyond description. The things I say are not about my state.’ You see the image which is in the mirror, your image is not what the mirror shows. The breath the piper blows into the pipe, is it the pipe’s? No, it is from the piper. Beware if you are giving thanks or praise, know that it’s like that shepherd’s foolishness. Perhaps your praise is worthier than that, but in regard to God it is defective. 1800 How much, when they draw back the veil, you say, ‘It was not this that they were thinking of!’ Acceptance of your zekr is out of mercy, like prayers of menstruants, it’s an indulgence. Blood is contaminated in her prayers, comparison and likeness stain your zekr. Blood is impure yet water cleanses it, but in the inner nature are defilements, Without the water of God’s grace, they aren’t diminished in the man of action’s nature. 1805 I wish that in your prayer you’d turn your face, and know the sense of ‘Glory to My Lord!’ And say, ‘My prayer and being are unworthy. For bad I’ve done, do not ask compensation.’

Moses takes offence at the prayers of a shepherd

This earth contains the marks of God’s indulgence, that took on nastiness and brought forth flowers, So that it might conceal our own defilements and in exchange make rose-buds grow from them. So when the infidel saw his largesse was meaner and inferior to the earth’s, 1810 No flower and no fruit grew from his being, that sought only corruption of pure things, He said, ‘I have gone backwards in the process O pity! And “O would that I were earth” That I’d not chosen to leave earthiness, but like earth, that I had produced some grain. When travelling, the journey tested me – what was my souvenir of all this travel?’ From all his inclination to the earth he sees no gain before him on the path. 1815 His facing backwards is his greed and passion, to face the path is honesty and longing. As any plant inclined to upward movement is on the increase and in life and growth, But when it turns its head towards the earth, it’s dropping, dried, diminishing, declined. So when your spirit’s tending toward the heights in augmentation, there is your return. If you are upside-down, head to the earth, you have declined. ‘God loves not them that set.’

Moses asks God for the Secret of the Prevalence of the Oppressors 1820 Said Moses, ‘O Lord, Generous Provider, for whom one moment’s zekr is a lifetime, I saw distorted forms in clay and water, my heart raised an objection like the angels.

115

116

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

What is the purpose of creating forms, and casting into them corrupted seed? To light the fire of mischief and oppression, to burn the mosque and worshippers prostrated, To boil the stock of tears of blood and bile, that is all for the sake of supplication, 1825 I know for certain it is wisdom’s essence, but my intention is for sight and seeing. That certainty tells me to “Keep your silence!” Desire to see tells me “No, agitate!” You did disclose Your mystery to the angels, that honey such as this is worth the sting. You manifested clearly to the angels the light of Adam – problems were explained. Your Resurrection tells what is death’s secret: the fruits tell of the secrets of the leaves.’ 1830 Blood’s secret and the seed’s is Adam’s goodness: each increase follows from the lesser state. The innocent first washes clean the tablet, and then he writes his words upon the tablet. He turns the heart to blood and abject tears, he writes the mysteries on it afterwards. At the time of washing clean the tablet, know that it will be made into a book, As when they lay the basis for a house, they excavate the primary foundations. 1835 They first dredge clay from underneath the ground to draw up flowing water for the future. When children cry their eyes out being cupped – they do not know the secret of the matter. A man will pay his gold out to the cupper, and he will stroke the blood-extracting needle. The porter rushes to the heavy burden, and steals the burden from the other porters

Moses takes offence at the prayers of a shepherd

– Look at the porters’ battle for the burden! this is the strife of those who look for work. 1840 As heaviness is basic to relief, and bitter things are prior to enjoyment, And paradise is ringed by our aversions, hell-fire is ringed by our lasciviousness, Your fire’s essence is the verdant branch: the one who’s burnt by fire is Kawsar’s neighbour. Whoever is the prison-mate of toil – that’s his reward for mouthfuls and for lusts. He who is fortune’s ally in a palace – that’s his reward for battles and for toils. 1845 He whom you’ve seen supreme in gold and silver – know that he has been patient in acquiring. One sees without the cause when eyes are open – You, caught in sense, must now attend to causes! And he whose soul is outside nature’s world, is authorised to tear apart the causes. He sees as causeless, not from elements, the fountain of the prophets’ miracles. This cause is like the doctor and the patient, this cause is like the lamp and like the wick. 1850 Prepare yourself a new wick for your night-lamp, but know the sun’s lamp will outshine them all. Go make your plaster for your house’s roof, but know that heaven’s roof is free of plaster. Ah, when our sweetheart burnt away our sorrows, night’s solitude would pass and day would dawn. By night alone the moon has loveliness: with heartache only, seek your heart’s desire. Forsaking Jesus, you adopt the ass, and like the ass, you are beyond the veil. 1855 Insight and wisdom are the way of Jesus, they’re not the ass’s way, O asinine one.

117

118

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

You hear the ass’s cry and you take pity, so don’t you know the ass makes you an ass? Take pity not on asses but on Jesus! Don’t make your nature master of your mind. Let nature weep the greatest lamentation! Take from it, then pay what the soul is owing! For years you’ve been the driver of the ass: Enough, the driver is behind the asses. 1860 In ‘put them behind’ the object is your ego – it should be last: the intellect comes first. Low intellect turned asinine in nature, its thought is fixed on ‘how shall I get food?’ That ass of Jesus gained the heart’s true nature, it set up house with the intelligent. As intellect prevailed, the ass grew weaker – the ass is leaner when the rider’s hefty! From weakness of your intellect, you ass, this worn out ass has turned into a dragon. 1865 Although you have become heart-sick through Jesus, health also comes from him – do not forsake him! You of the Jesus-breath, how does pain strike you? As they say, ‘in this world, no snake no treasure.’ How are you at the sight of Jews, O Jesus? And Joseph, how are you with plots and malice? You, night and day, all for this foolish people, like night and day, You are the life-provider. How are You with the worthless, bilious ones? What virtue’s born of bile, except a headache? 1870 Just like the dawning sun cast light upon our fraud, hypocrisy, pretense and thieving. You’re honey, in this world we’re vinegar, and faith is oxymel that stops this bile. We gripers overdid the vinegar – Pray, add more honey, don’t withdraw your kindness!

An Amir’s harassment of a sleeping man

This we deserved, such things arose from us: what grows from sand cast in the eyes is blindness. But you deserve, O glorious collyrium, that all no-things should gain some-thing from you. 1875 Your heart is seared by these oppressors’ fires, all the appeal from you was ‘Guide my people.’ You, mine of aloes-wood, if they light you, this world is filled with attar and sweet basil. You’re not that aloes-wood that fire consumes, you’re not that spirit that becomes grief ’s prisoner. The wood burns, but its source is far from burning: how may the wind assail the source of light? O you, the source of heaven’s purity, whose cruelty is superior to kindness. 1880 If cruel things should issue from the wise they’re better than a kindness from the foolish. The Prophet said that enmity from wisdom is better than a love from ignorance.

An Amir’s harassment of a sleeping man into whose mouth a snake had gone A wise man once came riding by just as a snake slipped in a slumbering fellow’s mouth. The rider saw it and made haste to chase the snake away, but had no chance to do so. He had his wits about him in reserve and struck the sleeper several stunning mace-blows. 1885 The beatings from that cruel mace propelled him in flight away from him, beneath a tree, Where many rotten fallen apples lay: he said, ‘Get that lot down your throat, poor fellow!’ He gave him so much apple mush to eat it all came up again out of his mouth.

119

120

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

He screamed at him ‘O master, what is happening? Why go for one who’s done no harm to you? If you’ve a basic quarrel with my life, strike with your sword and spill my blood at once. 1890 Cursed was the hour I came into your sight, O happy man who never saw your face! The heathen do not countenance such violence for guiltless, sinless, innocents at all! Blood gushes from my mouth when I am speaking, O God, go on, give him his satisfaction!’ And all the time he’s issuing new curses the other beats him, ‘Go, run in the desert!’ Mace-beaten by the rider, swift as wind, he ran, though he kept falling on his face, 1895 Stuffed full and sleepy was he, and exhausted, his feet and face a hundred thousand wounds. He drove him on relentlessly till nightfall till he was done for, vomiting his bile. He threw up all the contents of his stomach and with the food the snake sprang out of him. Then, when he saw the snake come out of him, he bowed down low before that virtuous man, He saw the horror of that ugly serpent so big and black and all his troubles left him. 1900 He said, ‘Are you the Gabriel of mercy? Are you then lord and master of compassion? How blessèd was the moment that you saw me, for I was dead: you offered me new life. You were pursuing me like mothers do, and I was running off like asses do. The ass is just an ass to flee its master, its owner chases it all out of kindness. It’s not for loss or gain he’s seeking it, but so the wolf or wild beasts don’t devour it.

An Amir’s harassment of a sleeping man

1905 Oh, happy is the man who sees your face, all of a sudden in your neighbourhood. You who the Holy Spirit glorified, what dreadful rubbish did I say to you! O Lord of lords and King of kings, my Prince, it was not me but ignorance that spoke! Had I known something of the circumstances, would I have come out with such arrant nonsense? I would have praised you greatly, gentle sir, if you’d said something hinting at the matter. 1910 But you kept quiet, you were much disturbed, and quietly kept bashing on my head. I lost my mind, my head was so astonished, especially mine that has so small a brain. O you of kindly face and noble action, forgive my words, excuse them as mere madness.’ He said, ‘If I’d said anything about that, your gall would turn to water there and then. If I had told you all about the snake, fear would have snatched away your soul’s own breath.’ 1915 The Prophet said, ‘If I should truly tell about the enemy within your soul, Then even brave men’s gall-bladders would burst, they would not carry on, nor bother working. His heart would have no strength for supplication, his body have no power for prayer and fasting. A nothing, like a mouse before a cat, as startled as a lamb before a wolf. He’d have no strategy to stay or go, So I take care of you by saying nothing. 1920 Like Bu Bakr-e Robābi, I am silent: like David I can put my hand on iron. So by my hand the absurd becomes the actual: the bird whose plumes were torn regains its wings

121

122

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Since there’s “The hand of God is on their hands”, the One declared our hand to be His hand. So certainly my hand’s become a long one, that reaches up beyond the seventh heaven. My hand showed skill against the sky, dear reader Recite the verse “the moon was split asunder” ’. 1925 This quality’s because of mental weakness: how is such power expounded to the weak? You’ll know alright when you lift up your head from slumber. It is finished: God knows best. ‘You’d not have had the ability to eat, or had it in your power or will to vomit – I heard your foul abuse and carried on, repeating to myself, “Lord make it easy!” I had no way of telling you the reason. I could not tell you “I’m deserting you”. 1930 It pained my heart, each moment I was saying, “Direct my people, for indeed they know not.” ’ The one who had escaped from trouble bowed saying, ‘You’re my joy, good fortune and my treasure! You’ll get rewards from God, O noble man, for, feeble as I am, I cannot thank you. God will express His thanks to you, my leader, my mouth and lips and voice aren’t up to that.’ Such is the way the wise show opposition: their poison is elation to the soul. 1935 The friendliness of fools is grief and trouble – now listen to this tale as an example.

On putting one’s faith in the fawning and trustworthiness of a bear A dragon once had seized upon a bear, a man of courage ran off to its rescue.

Putting one’s faith in the trustworthiness of a bear

Courageous men bring succour to the world whenever comes the cry of the oppressed. From all around they hear the victims calling, they’re running to them as divine compassion – Those mainstays for the ruptures of this world, those doctors of the hidden sicknesses. 1940 They are unalloyed justice, love and mercy, like God, they’re safe and incorruptible. Asked why he gives such total help to him, he’ll say ‘It’s for his sad and helpless state!’ Compassion is the prey of lion-like men, as in the world the drug seeks only pain. The drug will go wherever there is pain, as water runs wherever there are lowlands. If you require the water of His mercy, be lowly, drink of mercy’s wine till drunken. 1945 His mercy upon mercy overflows, do not content yourself with single mercies. Bring down the sky beneath your feet, my brave one! From highest heaven hear celestial music. Pull out temptation’s wool stuffed in your ear, so you may hear the cries that come from heaven. Cast out the hair of defect from your eyes, to see the hidden cypress groves and gardens. Expel the fluids from your head and nose, so that God’s fragrance hits your sense of smell. 1950 Leave no trace of the fever and the bile, to get the taste of sweetness from the world. Take manliness, don’t go for impotence, so that a hundred fair-faced ones come out. Extract your soul’s foot from the body’s fetter, so it can freely move around the assembly. Release your hands and neck from chains of greed, and get to know new fortune in the old world.

123

124

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

If not, fly to the Kaʿba of His grace, submit your helplessness to Him Who helps. 1955 Your cries and tears are powerful resources, His total mercy is the strongest nurse. The nurse and mother is in search of pretexts in seeing when her child begins to cry. He made the child that is your neediness, so that it cries and milk is then expressed. He said ‘Call out to God’ – do not stop crying, so that the milk of His love overflows. The sighing wind and cloud that shower milk are for our griefs, be patient for an hour! 1960 ‘In heaven is your provision’, don’t you hear? Why are you stuck here in this lowly place? See how despair and fear, the demon’s voice, will drag you by the ear into despond. For every call that’s summoning you upwards, see how those calls are coming from above. And all the calls that rouse desire in you, they are the howls of wolves that tear men up. This height is not a spatial point of view: these heights are with regard to mind and spirit. 1965 All causes are superior to effects: the iron and stone seem higher things than sparks. A person sits above a haughty man, although he may appear to sit beside him. ‘Position’ here is in nobility: the furthest from the top seat is the lowest. The stone and iron, so far as they come first, in action, thus, are deemed to be superior. And yet those sparks, as being the very purpose, are in this sense ahead of iron and stone. 1970 The iron and stone are first, the sparks are last, but these two are the body, sparks the soul.

Putting one’s faith in the trustworthiness of a bear

And though those sparks are afterwards in time, in quality they’re higher than iron and stone. The bough is prior to the fruit in time, but fruit’s superior in excellence. Since it’s the fruit that is the tree’s true purpose, so it’s the fruit that’s first and tree that’s last. Now, when the bear cried ‘Help!’ against the dragon, the man of courage saved it from its claws. 1975 His cunning and his courage came together, and by these faculties he slew the dragon. The dragon has his strength but has no cunning. Now there’s a cunning greater far than yours! When you have seen your cunning, then reflect, ‘Where is it from?’ And go back to the source! Whatever is below came from above, Come on, direct your eyes towards the heights. To raise your gaze upwards bestows the light, though first, indeed, it brings on dazzlement. 1980 Let your eye grow accustomed to the light: unless you are a bat, look over there. For in the end your vision is your light: your present lust is truly your entombment. Foresight is he who’s seen a hundred ploys, he’s not like one who’s heard one ploy alone. Who has been so deluded by one ploy, by pride he’s alienated from the masters. When he perceived that skill within himself like Sāmeri he, in his pride, spurned Moses. 1985 It was from Moses he had learnt that skill, and then he sealed his eyes against his teacher. Moses of course had other ploys to show, to sweep away that ploy and his own soul. O many an idea runs through someone’s head to make him great, that loses him his head!

125

126

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

If you don’t want to lose your head, be lowly, protected by the master of discernment. Though you’re a king, don’t count yourself above him, pick his cane sugar though you may be honey. 1990 Your thought is form and his thought is the soul: your coin is counterfeit, his is the goldmine. And you are he, so seek yourself in his self, coo like a dove and coo in his direction. If you will not attend to humankind, you’re like the bear who’s in the dragon’s mouth. Perhaps a master’s coming to your rescue, a master who’ll deliver you from danger. Keep crying out! – you’re blind and have no strength, don’t turn away from him who sees the road. 1995 Are you not worse than bears, who scream in pain? – the bear escaped from pain by crying out. God, make our stone hearts soft as wax for sealing, and make our pleading piteously appealing.

The blindman’s saying ‘I have two blindnesses’ There was a blind man, and he’d say, ‘Have mercy! I have two blindnesses, you people here! So please, have twice the pity on me, since I have two blindnesses and live between them.’ They said ‘We’re capable of seeing that you’re blind, but what might be this other blindness – show us!’ 2000 ‘I have an ugly voice: my voice is ugly – an ugly voice and blind! A double whammy! My ugly sound’s the cause of much distress – I start to speak: the people love me less. My ugly voice, wherever it may go, gives rise to anger, suffering and hatred. Have twice the mercy on two blindnesses, hold dear as treasure one who’s not been treasured!’

The blindman’s saying ‘I have two blindnesses’

With this complaint his voice became less ugly, the people were united in their pity. 2005 When he disclosed the secret, then his voice grew fairer by the grace of his heart’s voice. For him whose heart’s voice is disfigured also, three blindnesses are everlasting exile. And yet the blessed ones who freely give may lay their hands upon his ugly head, For when his voice became all sweet and gentle, it made the stoney-hearted soft as wax. When heathens’ cries are hideous and braying, they do not get a favourable reception. 2010 ‘Be silent’ came upon the ugly-voiced one like some dog that is drunk on human blood. The bear’s complaint may well inspire compassion, but your complaint’s not like this, it’s unpleasant. Know that, you’ve acted like the wolf with Joseph, or else like one who’s drunk on innocent blood. Repent, and purge yourself of what you’ve eaten, or if the wound is old, then burn it out.

The end of the story of the bear and that fool who had trusted him So also, when the bear escaped the dragon, and saw the kindness of that valiant man, 2015 Just like the dog of those Men of the Cave, it came into the service of its saviour. That Muslim laid his head down wearily: the bear became his guard in loyalty. A man passed by and said, ‘What’s going on? O brother, say, what is this bear to you?’ He told him of the business with the dragon: he answered, ‘Don’t put trust in bears, you fool!

127

128

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

The love of fools is worse than enmity – you must get rid of it by any means.’ 2020 He said, ‘By God this man speaks jealously! Why see its bear face? Just see its affection!’ He answered, ‘Fools’ affection is beguiling: this spite of mine clean beats a bears’ affection! Hey, come with me and drive the bear away! Don’t choose the bear! Don’t give up on your own kind!’ He said, ‘You spiteful sort, go mind your business!’ ‘It was my business, but you had no chance. I’m not the bear’s inferior, noble sir, give up the bear and I’ll be your companion. 2025 My heart is trembling anxiously for you: don’t go into a wood with such a bear My heart has never trembled for no reason: it is the light of God, not falsely boasting. I am the faithful “made to see by God’s light”: beware, be careful, flee this fire temple!’ All this he said, but nothing did he hear: suspicion’s a great defect in a man. He took his hand, but he withdrew it from him, He said, ‘I’ll go – you’re not a prudent friend.’ 2030 ‘Be gone’, he said, ‘Don’t waste your pity on me, don’t whittle away your wisdom, busybody!’ He answered, ‘I am not your adversary. Please be so kind, and follow after me.’ He said, ‘I’m going to sleep, leave me and go!’ He said, ‘One last time, give in to your friend! So you may sleep safeguarded by a sage, Protected by a friend, a heart-strong master.’ The man grew angry with his earnestness, got lost in fantasy and turned away, 2035 ‘Perhaps he’s come to get me, he’s a murderer, or wants something – a beggar-vagabond!

‘Where’s your vain scepticism and precaution?’

Or he has made a bet with his companions, that he will make me frightened of their partner.’ Out of the malice of his heart there was no single thought of goodwill in his mind. All his good thoughts were solely for the bear: for he was of such stuff, indeed, as bears are. A dog, he cast aspersions at a wise man, and thought a bear affectionate and just!

How Moses said to the calf-worshipper ‘Where’s your vain scepticism and precaution?’ 2040 Once Moses said to someone drunk on fancies, ‘Malicious one, in misery and error! You’ve had a hundred doubts about my mission in spite of seeing such proofs and this fine nature. Though you have seen my hundred thousand wonders, your hundred fancies, doubts and worries grew. You were beset by fantasies and whisperings, you were reproaching me for being a prophet. I raised and showed the bottom of the sea, so you’d escape the evil of the Egyptians. 2045 For forty years the manna came from heaven, and by my prayer the stream ran from the rock, These and a hundred other kinds of wonder, did not decrease those doubts, cold-hearted one? A calf began to low as if by magic, you made obeisance, thus, “You are my God!”. A flood had swept those doubts of yours away – your cool sagacity was put to sleep. How could you not have been suspicious of him? Why lay your head like that, O ugly fellow? 2050 Why could your mind not see through his deceptions – the lure of his fool-captivating magic?

129

130

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Who then might be this Sāmeri, O dogs? who, in the world, can chisel up an idol? How were you taken in by his deception, and made oblivious of all the doubts? How can a calf be vaunted as a god, while you object to my prophetic mission? You stupidly paid homage to a calf, your mind a victim of Sāmeri’s magic, 2055 You stole your eye from God Almighty’s light: here lies much ignorance, profoundest error! To hell with minds and choices such as yours, a source of ignorance like you should perish. The golden calf cried out, – what did it say, then? – that all this longing flourishes in fools? You have things more miraculous from me, but how will every villain take to God?’ What steals away the vain – their vanity and what excites the idle – idleness! 2060 For every kind is taken by his own kind, – why would the ox be drawn towards the lion? Why would the wolf have any love for Joseph, unless it had been tricked into devouring. When it leaves wolfishness it will be close: the cave dog turned into a son of Adam. When Abu Bakr got Mohammad’s scent, He said, ‘This face is not a lying face.’ Though, since Bu Jahl was not of the companions, he saw a hundred moons split, yet believed not. 2065 The sufferer, whose bowl fell from the roof – we hid the truth from him, but it’s not hidden. The ignorant one, so distant from his sorrows, how often are they shown! – yet he can’t see them! The mirror of the heart must be kept pure to recognise the ugly from the good.

‘Where’s your vain scepticism and precaution?’

131

How the man of sincere counsel, after having done his utmost in admonition, took leave of him who was deluded by the bear That Muslim left the fool and hurried off – he went repeating to himself ‘God help us!’ He said, ‘His fancies increase in his heart, despite my pains, advice and disputation. 2070 The road of counsel and advice is closed now, the order “Turn aside from them” appeared.’ So, when your treatment makes the sickness worse, to seekers tell your tale. Recite ‘ʿAbasa’: ‘As when the blind man came in search of truth, you should not wound his breast because he’s wretched. You’re keen to set the great ones on the right path, so common folk are well-taught by their leaders. Mohammad, you have seen a group of princes attend to you, and you are pleased that maybe 2075 These chiefs will be good friends of the religion – these lords of Arabs and of Abyssinians. This fame will spread from Basra and Tabuk, for people follow in their kings’ religion. And for this reason, you would turn your face, vexed by the blind man who’d been guided to you, Saying, “Such a conference as this is rare, whereas you’re local and your time is plenty. You’re crowding in on me when time is tight, I warn you, not in anger or aggression.” – 2080 In God’s eyes, O Mohammad, this one blind-man is better than a hundred kings and grandees. Remember, see, the human is a mine: one single mine may be worth more than myriads. A mine of hidden rubies and cornelians is better than a myriad mines of copper. For wealth is of no use here, O Mohammad, we need a breast of love and pain and sighs.

132

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

A blind man of good heart has come, don’t spurn him! give counsel to him: counsel is his right. 2085 If two or three incompetents have spurned you, why grimace when you are a mine of sweetness? If two or three incompetents accuse you, the Truth divine is bearing witness to you.’ He said ‘I do not seek the world’s approval: with God my witness, why should I be worried? If something from a sun should please a bat, it is the proof that that is not the sun. The abhorrence of the bats is proof enough it’s I who am the radiant glorious sun. 2090 A dung beetle attracted to rosewater is proof enough that it is not rosewater. If false coin is attracted to the touchstone, it throws in doubt the trueness of the touchstone. The thief requires the night, not day, be certain, I am not night but day: I light the world. I am discerning and astute: a filter, the chaff can find no way to get past me. I can discover flour amid the bran, and show that these are forms and those are souls. 2095 And in the world I’m like the scales of God: I demonstrate what’s light and what is heavy. A calf will recognise the cow as God, the ass its keeper and the one who feeds it. I am no cow, that calves show fondness for me, I am no thistle for the camel’s munching. He might suppose he caused me some oppression when all he’s done is dust my mirror off.’

How a madman sought to ingratiate himself with Galen and how Galen was afraid Once Galen said to some of his companions: ‘Would one of you give me a certain drug?’

The crow and stork

2100 One answered him, ‘O Master of the sciences, they use this medicine for curing madness. Dispel this from your mind and say no more!’ He said, ‘A madman turned his face on me, And for some time looked sweetly at my face, while winking at me, tugging at my sleeves. If there’d not been in us some correspondence, why would that wretch have turned his stare on me? Why me, if he’d not seen a fellow madman, why would he not have stared at someone else?’ 2105 When two men meet like this, there is no doubt, between them there’s a certain correspondence. A bird will only fly with its own species: the grave alone makes bedfellows of strangers.

The cause of a bird’s flying and feeding with a bird that is not of its own kind There was a wise man who once said: ‘I saw a crow and stork were travelling in the desert. I was astonished and enquired further to find some clue of what they had in common. And baffled and confused, when I got near them, I saw indeed that both of them were lame.’ 2110 Particularly, how’s a heavenly falcon beside an owl, which is an earthly creature? The one bird is the Sun of highest heaven, the other is a bat that’s out of hell. The one’s a light that’s free of every fault, and one’s a blind man begging door to door. The one’s a moon that lights the Pleiades, and one’s a worm that lives its life in dung. The one has Joseph’s face and Jesus’ breath, and one’s a wolf or donkey with a bell. 2115 The one has flown into the Placeless place, and one is in the straw among the dogs.

133

134

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

The rose keeps saying in an inner language to that dung beetle, ‘You of stinking armpits, If you’re escaping from the rose-bed, doubtless your horror proves the rose-garden is perfect. And keep yourself away, you ghastly one! My sense of honour strikes you on the head. If you associate with me, you wretch, you’ll give the impression that you’re made of my stuff. 2120 For nightingales the garden is their place, for beetles there is no place quite like dung.’ Since God has kept me free from filthiness, how is it right to appoint me someone filthy? I had one vein of theirs – He cut it out: how could someone of evil vein reach me?’ This was one sign of Adam from the outset, the angels bowed their heads before his place. Another sign was this, of Iblis saying, ‘I lay my head not. I am king and ruler!’ 2125 If Iblis too had acted in obeisance, there would not be an Adam but another. And every angel’s bowing is his judgment, and Satan’s disavowal is his proof. The agreement of the angels is his witness, and that pup’s godlessness is proof of him. These words have no conclusion, let’s return to see what happened to that bear and hero.

Conclusion of the trust of that deluded man in the fawningness of the bear The man slept and the bear drove off the flies, the flies came back and swarmed on him again. 2130 As often as it drove them from his face those flies were soon back crawling over him. The bear got angry with the flies and went and seized a hefty boulder from the mountain.

Mohammed’s visit to the sick Companion

He brought the boulder, saw the flies had settled, once more relaxing on the sleeper’s face. He took the millstone boulder and he struck it against the flies, so they would just buzz off. The boulder smashed our sleeper’s face to bits, and gave this saying to the world at large: 2135 ‘A fool’s love is exactly like a bear’s love: One’s hate is “love”, the other’s “love” is hate.’ His promise weak and ruinous and feeble, his talk is big, but he does not deliver. And even if he swears, do not believe him: the man of crooked words will break his oaths. His words were lies with or without the oath, don’t fall for his contrivances and oaths. His lower nature rules, his mind is captive, though sworn on the Quran a thousand times, 2140 As he will break his word without an oath, he’ll break it if he takes an oath as well. Because the self is all the more disturbed that you are binding it with heavy oaths. If any prisoner puts in chains a governor, the governor breaks out and he leaps away. He bangs that chain in anger on his head, and rubs his face into the sacred oath. So wash your hands of his ‘Fulfil your vows’ and do not tell him ‘Keep to what you swore.’ 2145 But he who knows the One to Whom he vows will wind his body like a thread around Him.

Mohammad’s visiting the sick companion, and explanation of the benefit of visiting the sick One of the great Companions fell to sickness, and in that sickness withered to a thread. The Holy Prophet came to visit him, – his nature was all grace and courtesy.

135

136

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

There is advantage in your visiting: the advantage is he’ll visit you again. The advantage above all is that the sick man might be a spiritual pole and glorious king. 2150 Since you don’t have the heart’s two eyes, O rebel, and can’t distinguish aloes wood from firewood, Don’t fret, since there’s a treasure in the world – don’t think that all those ruins have no treasure. Seek out each dervish anywhere you find him, and when you get a sign, frequent him often. Although the inward eye was not for you, remember it may be in every being. Though not a Qotb, he may be a companion: though not a sovereign king, a royal knight. 2155 Accompany the friends upon the way, a footman or a knight – it does not matter. If he’s a foe, still kindness is a virtue, for many a foe became a friend by kindness. Though not a friend, his enmity may lessen, for kindness is a balm to enmity. There are advantages beside these, but, I’m frightened that I bore you, my good friend. In short, befriend the whole community, and like a sculptor carve from stone your friendship. 2160 Because the travellers’ very strength in numbers will overwhelm the brigands on the road.

God most high’s revealing to Moses, on whom be peace, ‘Why did you not visit me?’ These words of censure came from God to Moses: ‘O you who’ve seen the moon rise from your breast, I made you rise, a sun of light divine. I am divine. I sickened. You came not.’

The gardener, the Sufi, the jurist and the Alavid

He said ‘O glorious One, beyond all failing, What is this mystery, Lord, explain to me?’ Again he spoke to him, ‘During my sickness, why did you not ask kindly after me?’ 2165 He answered, ‘Lord, You have no blemish in You. My mind has failed me, please reveal the meaning.’ He said, ‘Indeed, a favourite of my servants fell sick, and I am he. Consider that! For his indisposition is My own, and his infirmity is also Mine.’ Whoever wishes he might sit with God, let him sit in the presence of the saintly. If ever you are parted from the saintly, then you are lost, a part without the whole. 2170 Whoever Satan severs from the gracious, he finds him friendless and he eats his head. To stray a little from all these companions just once, that’s Satan’s trick, hear this and learn.

How the gardener separated the Sufi, the jurist and the Alavid from one another Once when a gardener looked into his orchard he saw in there three types he took for thieves. A jurist and a Sharif and a Sufi, each one was cheeky, wicked and deceitful. He said ‘I have a hundred ruses for them, but they’re a gang, and gangs are powerful. 2175 I can’t take on these three guys single-handed, so first I’ll split them up from one another. I’ll separate each one from both the others: when one’s alone I’ll rip of his moustachios!’ He played a trick and led astray the Sufi, so that he might corrupt the friends against him.

137

138

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

He told the Sufi, ‘Go into the house and get a carpet for these friends to sit on.’ The Sufi gone, he told the friends in private, ‘You, you’re a jurist and a well-known Sharif, 2180 We eat our bread by your judicial judgements; we fly on wings belonging to your knowledge! This other man’s our prince and sovereign king: he’s a descendant of Mohammad’s family. Who is that glutton of a sordid Sufi, that he should be the chum of kings like you? When he returns, get him to go away: and have my field and orchard for a week! To kindred souls like ours, what is an orchard? O you who’ve been like my right eye to me!’ 2185 He offered them temptation and seduced them, ah, how one must have patience with one’s friends! They saw the Sufi off as he departed, his hunter chased him with a hefty stick. ‘You dog, is it from your “Sufistication” you have the nerve to trespass in my garden? Was it Junayd or Bāyazid who guided you? Which Sheikh or Pir of yours did this come from?’ He beat the Sufi when he cornered him, half murdered him and broke his skull in two. 2190 The Sufi said, ‘My life is over now, but, O my friends, take good care of your lives! You thought I was the alien? but careful! I’m no more alien than this cuckold pimp. What I have drunk you’ll have to drink as well, and such a drink is every thug’s reward. This world is but a mountain – in the echo your conversation will come back to you.’ Now when the gardener finished with the Sufi, he made a similar ploy as previously,

The gardener, the Sufi, the jurist and the Alavid

2195 With ‘O my dear Sharif, go to the house, I’ve cooked some dainty pastries for your breakfast. When you get to the kitchen door tell Qeymāz to bring the dainty pastries and the goose.’ When he had seen him off he said, ‘O smart one, it’s obvious and clear that you’re a jurist. Is he Sharif? The claim he’s made is feeble – who knows who was the one who did his mother? Would you believe a woman and her doings, a feeble mind, and then you have to trust her? 2200 He’s fixed himself on Ali and the Prophet, the world has many a fool that swallows that.’ Whoever’s from adultery and whores, will think such things concerning men of God. Whoever’s head is turned by his revolving, will see the house in motion like himself. All that the idle-talking gardener said was just his state, far from the Prophet’s children. If he’d not been the offspring of apostates, how could he speak so of the holy line? 2205 He uttered curses and the jurist heard them, the stupid bully went in chase of him, And said, ‘You ass – who asked you to this orchard? Was pilfering a birthright from the Prophet? The lion cub is always like its father – in what way are you like the Prophet, tell me?’ That desperate man did to the Prophet’s heir what Kharejites did to the Prophet’s family. Do divs and ghouls like Shemr and Yazid always feel hatred for the Prophet’s family? 2210 He was defeated by that bully’s blows: he told the jurist, ‘I am out of here! So watch your back, now you’re alone and helpless. Be like the drum, take blows upon your belly!

139

140

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

If I’m no worthy Sharif nor companion, to you I’m no less of a thug than he is. For this you have fulfilled all my intention you have been stupid, it’s your punishment.’ He put an end to him, then said, ‘O jurist, What kind of jurist are you, shame to fools!? 2215 Is this your judgment, my dear armless thief, that you can come in here without permission? Have you seen such a case in the Vasit or was this question solved in the Mohit?’ He said, ‘You’re right, beat me, you have your way. It’s fit for one who gives up on his friends.’

Returning to the story of the sick man and the visit by the Prophet, on whom be peace, This visiting is for relationship, it’s laden with a hundred kindnesses. The peerless Prophet went to visit one of his companions, and he found him dying. 2220 When you stray from the presence of the saintly, in truth you’ve strayed away from God. Just as the effect of leaving friends is sad, how much more sad to leave the royal presence! Strive all the time to find the royal shadow and in it you’ll be higher than the sun. And whether you are travelling or at home, go with this goal in mind, and don’t forget.

How a sheikh said to Abu Yazid ‘I am the Kaʿba – circumambulate me!’ The Sheikh of all the Ummah, Bāyazid, was going to Mecca for both pilgrimages.

A novice who built a new house

2225 As soon as he arrived in any town, he’d first enquire after the Esteemed Ones. He’d go around and ask, ‘Who in the town relies upon the esoteric vision?’ God said, ‘Wherever you go on your travels, first you must search for genuine humankind.’ Seek after treasure, for these gains and losses are secondary, look on them as derived. The man who sows has his designs on wheat: the chaff inevitably follows it. 2230 If you sow chaff, no wheat will ever come, A human! Seek a human! Seek a human! When it is time for Hajj, seek for the Kaʾba: when you are gone there, you’ll see Mecca too. The purpose is to see God in the Ascension: the throne and angels came as secondary.

Story One day a new disciple built a house. His Pir came and he showed the house to him. The sheikh, who’d wished to test this new disciple, who had such excellent intentions, said, 2235 ‘My friend, why have you put a window in?’ He said, ‘So that the light comes in through it.’ He said, ‘That’s secondary. The need is this: that through it you may hear the call to prayer!’ Once travelling, Bāyazid was keen to find the man who was the Khezr of his age. He saw an old man curved like the new moon, in him he saw the great men’s speech and glory. His eyes were blind, his heart was like the sunshine, or like the elephant who dreamed of India. 2240 Eyes closed, asleep, he sees a hundred raptures, awakening they disappear, how marvellous!

141

142

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

There’s many a wonder will appear in dreams, the heart becomes a window in its dreams. The one who is awake and dreams fair dreams, he is the gnostic: heal your eyes with him! He sat down with him and he asked about him, he found he was a dervish, with a family, He said, ‘Where are you bound for, Bāyazid? Where are you going with long-distance luggage?’ 2245 He said, ‘At dawn I’m setting off for Mecca.’ He said, ‘What travelling provisions have you?’ He said, ‘I have two hundred silver dirhams, They’re tucked into the corner of my cloak, see.’ He said, ‘Go round me seven times, and count this as better than Hajj circumambulations. And lay those dirhams out for me, kind sir, You know you’ve done the Hajj and got your wish. You’ve got eternal life and been to Mecca, were purified and ran up to Safā. 2250 By God’s own truth, the truth your soul has seen, I swear he has preferred me to his House. Although the Ka’ba is His House of service, my natural form’s a house made for His mysteries. And since He made that house no one has entered: to this house no one came, except for God. When you beheld me, you beheld God too, you circled round the Ka’ba of the truth. To serve me is to serve and praise the Lord so you should not think God and I are separate. 2255 Now open your eyes wide and look upon me, to see the light of God in humankind.’ Bāyazid understood the points he made, he kept them in his ears like golden earrings. Through him did Bāyazid increase in stature, the old adept at last attained his wishes.

Mohammad’s visit to the sick Companion

The Prophet’s, on whom be peace, knowing that the cause of that man’s sickness was irreverence in prayer Now when the Prophet saw that ailing man. he soothed his faithful friend most tenderly. He came alive when he beheld the Prophet, as if he was created in that breath. 2260 He said, ‘Infirmity gave me good fortune, that this Sultan has come to me at dawn. So health and blessedness have come to me from this king’s coming without retinue. O happy pain and sickness and high fever, O blessed pain and wakefulness at night! Behold how in my old age Gracious God has given me such suffering and complaints. He gave me such back pain that every night I’m jumping out of sleep at lightning speed. 2265 So I don’t sleep the sleep of buffaloes all night, God gave me pain, in His protection. By this deficiency the mercy of the kings came to the boil and Hell stopped threatening me.’ Pain is a treasure, mercies lie within it, the kernel’s fresh when you remove the shell. O brother, it’s a dark and chilly place enduring sorrow, sadness and discomfort. It is life’s source and chalice of enchantment, for those heights are all found in lowliness. 2270 That springtime is concealed within the autumn and autumn in the spring, do not ignore this! Be grief ’s companion, come to terms with sadness, seek out long life in your self-sacrifice. Don’t heed the things your ego wants to tell you: ‘this place is bad’ – its work is all contrary! You must oppose it! Such commands as this have come from all the prophets in the world.

143

144

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

You must be well advised on what to do, so at the end there’s not so much remorse. 2275 The many prophets have used strategies so that this millstone turns upon this stone. The self desires to lay waste all creation, to send it to perdition and confound it. The people said, ‘Who should we ask for counsel?’ The prophets said, ‘With reason, who’s the leader.’ They said, ‘What if a child or woman interjects who has no intellect or lucid thinking?’ He said, ‘Deliberate with them and do the opposite of what they say, and go!’ 2280 See how your self is female – worse than female! Your self is wholly wrong, the female partly. If you are taking counsel with your self, whatever that fool says, do the reverse. If it’s commanding you to prayer and fasting, the self ’s a-scheming, hatching you some scheme. If you consult your self on what to do, the opposite of all it says is perfect. If you can’t deal with it and its resistance, go to a friend – associate with him. 2285 The mind is strengthened by another mind, is sugarcane improved by canes around it? I’ve seen what happens from the self ’s own scheming, for it will steal your judgment with its magic. It will be making you new promises, it has betrayed a thousand times before. If life gave you a hundred years of respite, each day the self gives you a new excuse. It utters stone-cold promises so warmly, –a magic binds the manliness of man. 2290 Come Radiance of God, Hosāmoddin, no green herbs grow from barren soil without you!

Mohammad’s visit to the sick Companion

A curtain has been lowered down from heaven by curses of someone whose heart is injured. For this fate only fate can know the cure, by fate the human mind’s deranged, deranged. That serpent black once was a worm that fell upon the road – it turned into a dragon. The dragon and the serpent in your hand, belov’d of Moses’ soul, became the rod. 2295 ‘Take it, fear not,’ as God told you, ‘so that the dragon in your hand becomes the rod.’ Display the white hand, O my sovereign king! Reveal the new dawn from the nights of darkness! A hell ignites! Breathe on it incantations, O you whose breath is greater than the ocean’s! The self ’s the scheming sea that shows some foam, it is the scheming hell that shows some heat. It strikes your eyes as something trivial until it angers you as something irksome. 2300 Just as the armies ranked in multitudes, seemed insubstantial to the Prophet’s eye. So that the Prophet smote them fearlessly – had he seen more, he would have been more cautious. That was God’s grace and you were worthy of it, Mohammad, or else you would have been frightened. God made the outer and the inner struggle seem nothing to him and to his companions, To make success attainable for him, and turn his face away from difficulty. 2305 To minimise it was the victory for him: God was his friend and taught the path to him: He whom God does not back for victory, woe! If the lion seems to be a cat, and If from afar he sees five score as one, then goes into the battle self-deceived.

145

146

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

He makes the Prophet’s sword look like a dart, and makes the rampant lion look like a cat, So that the fool falls boldly into battle, and so he captures them by such a trick. 2310 So that these foolish men will have arrived by their own efforts at the fire-temple. He makes it seem a blade of straw so that you’ll puff and blow it out of all existence. Beware! That ‘straw’ has rooted out the mountains — the world’s distraught, and yet the ‘straw’ is laughing. He makes the river seem just ankle deep, it drowned a hundred like Āj, son of Anaq. He makes the wave of blood seem like a musk pile, he makes the ocean bottom like dry land. 2315 Blind Pharaoh was he, seeing that sea as dry land, and he drove into it with all his might. When he gets there he’s at the ocean bottom, how can the eyes of Pharaoh see at all? The eye is seeing by encountering God – how should God be a confidant to fools? He sees some ‘candy’ which is deadly poison, he sees the road that’s really ghoulish screaming. O heaven! In the troubles of these last days you’re turning quickly – give us yet some time! 2320 You are a dagger sharpened to attack us, you are a spear with poisoned tip to kill us. O heaven! Learn true mercy from God’s mercy! Do not attack the hearts of ants as snakes do! So by the truth of Him who turned the wheel of your celestial sphere above these mansions, Revolve the other way, be merciful before you pull us by our very roots. And by the truth of Him who nursed us first so that we sprouted up from earth and water,

Mohammad’s visit to the sick Companion

2325 And by the King who fashioned you so pure, who made so many beacons shine in you, Who kept you so abundant and abiding that atheists assumed you were eternal, We’re thankful now that we know your beginning, the prophets have disclosed your mysteries. A man knows that his house has got a history, but not the spider playing around in it. How can a gnat, that’s born in spring and dead before December, know this garden’s age? 2330 How can the worm that’s born in rotten wood know of the wood when it was just a shoot? And if the worm knew it would be its knowing in essence only, ‘worm’ would be its form. The mind displays itself in many colours – it’s miles away, as far away as fairies. It’s higher than the angels – why say ‘fairies’? you have a fly’s wings and you’re flying downwards. Although your intellect is flying upwards, the bird of your pretence is feeding down there. 2335 Pretended knowledge is our souls’ undoing – it’s borrowed while yet we assume it’s ours. You must become oblivious of such ‘wisdom’, you must extend your hand to strive for ‘madness’. Always avoid what benefits your base self: drink poison, spill the water of your life. Hold in contempt all those who flatter you, and lend the poor your capital and interest. Give up on safety, live in dangerous places, renounce good name, be flagrantly notorious! 2340 I’m finished with the prudent intellect! from now on I shall make myself a madman.

147

148

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Dalqak’s excuse to the Seyyed-e Ajal as why he had married a whore One night the Seyyed of Ajal told Dalqak ‘In all your haste you’ve gone and wed a whore? You should have come and told me all about this, – we could have found an honest woman for you!’ He said, ‘I’ve wed nine decent, honest women: they turned out whores and I was lost in grief. I wed this whore without any acquaintance, to see how this would turn out in the end. 2345 I’ve often previously tried using reason: in future I’ll try cultivating madness.’

How a questioner lured an intelligent man into discussing why he pretended to be mad Once someone said, ‘I need man of sense so that I may consult him on a problem.’ Another fellow said to him, ‘Here in our town, except that lunatic, there’s no one wise. Look there he is, he’s mounted on a reed-cane – he’s riding hobby-horse among the children. He is a man of sense and fiery mind, sky high, a man of stellar standing. 2350 His light became the darling of the angels, and it has been concealed within this madness.’ But don’t count every madman as a soul, don’t bow before a calf like Sāmeri. For when a genuine saint’s declared to you a myriad unseen things and hidden mysteries, And you’ve no understanding and no knowledge of this, and can’t tell aloes wood from dung, When such a saint has veiled himself in madness, how will you recognise him, O blind man?

How a dog attacked a blind beggar

2355 But if your eye of certainty is open, behold a champion under every stone. To eyes that are wide open and are guides there is a Moses under every cloak. A saints identifies himself to saints, he favours whomsoever he should wish. No one can recognise him using wisdom when he has made himself out to be mad. As when a thief with sight should rob a blind man, how could he catch the thief in the encounter? 2360 – he cannot recognise who was the thief, although that wicked thief may knock against him. When some dog bites a mendicant who’s blind, how can he recognise that savage dog?

How the dog attacked the blind beggar There was a dog who, like a raging lion, attacked a blind man begging in the street, The dog makes fierce attacks on dervishes – the moon smears on her eyes the dervish dust. The blind man’s frightened helpless by the barking, the blind man then gave honour to the dog, 2365 ‘O Prince of hunting, lion of the chase, you have the upper hand, get your paws off me!’ A certain sage once praised a donkey’s tail out of necessity, he dubbed it ‘noble’. What’s more, necessity made him say ‘Lion! what good is there in scrawny prey like me? Your friends will catch wild asses in the desert, while you catch blind men in the street – that’s bad! Your friends go for wild asses in the hunt, you go for blind men in the street for kicks?’ 2370 The knowing dog has made the wild ass victim, this worthless dog has made the blind his target.

149

150

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

When it has learnt, the dog escapes from error, it hunts for proper victims in the forest. When it knows this, it smartens up its pace, when it knows God, it joins Those of the Cave. The dog found out who was the hunt-master, O God, what is that light of realisation? The blind do not know, not from being eyeless, but from dim-sightedness and ignorance. 2375 The blind are not more eyeless than the earth, which by the grace of God became His watchman, It saw the light of Moses and caressed him, it recognised Qārun and it engulfed him. It quaked to finish off all false pretenders, it understood the words from God ‘Earth, Swallow!’ Earth, water, wind and fire ablaze with sparks, oblivious of us, aware of God. We’re opposite, aware of things ungodly, oblivious of God and all his prophets. 2380 And so they all shrank from accepting it their impulse to mix in with life was dulled. They said, ‘We all abhor this way of living, alive to creatures and extinct to God.’ When you’re detached from creatures you are orphaned, for love of God the heart must be sound-hearted. As when a thief steals items from a blind man, the blind man is lamenting in his blindness, Until the thief informs him, ‘That was me what robbed you, ’cause I am an artful robber!’ 2385 How could the blind man recognise his robber since he had no eyesight or clarity? When he says something, grab him very tightly, so he’ll describe in full the stolen goods. The greater struggle is to squeeze the thief to ’fess up what he stole and got away with.

How a constable summoned a fallen drunkard to prison

First off, he has deprived you of your eye-salve: when you regain it, you’ll get back your insight. The stuff of wisdom, which your heart has lost, is found for certain in the man of heart. 2390 The heart-blind soul, even with sight and hearing, knows not the tracks that devil thief will leave. Seek from the man of heart, not from the heartless, for people are so heartless next to him. The one who sought for counsel came to him: ‘O childlike father, tell me just one secret!’ He said, ‘Begone from my front door – it’s shut! Go home, today is not the day for secrets! If ‘space’ had access to the spaceless spaces I’d be there on the bench like Sufi sheikhs!’

How a constable summoned a fallen drunkard to prison 2395 It was at midnight when a constable arrived and saw a drunk asleep beside a wall. He said, ‘Hey, drunkard, tell me what you’ve drunk.’ He answered, ‘. . .hmmm I’ve drunk what’s in the flask.’ He said, ‘So tell me then, what’s in the flask.’ he said, ‘What I have drunk’. He said, ‘It’s hidden.’ He said, ‘So what is it that you’ve been drinking?’ He answered, ‘What is hidden in the flask.’ The questions and the answers went in circles, – the constable stuck like an ass in mud. 2400 The constable said, ‘Open up, say “Ah!” ’ The drunkard, when he uttered, said ‘Hū, hū!’ He said, ‘I said, “Say Ah!”, you’re saying “hū?”.’ He said, ‘I’m happy. You’re bent down by gloom. “Ah” is for pain and sorrow and injustice, hū, hū of wine imbibers is for joy.’ The constable said, ‘I don’t know. Get up! Don’t make up mystic stuff! Stop arguing!’

151

152

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

He said, ‘What are you doing bothering me?’ He answered, ‘You are drunk. Up! Off to prison!’ 2405 The drunk said, ‘Constable! Let go, desist! How can you strip my clothes off when I’m naked? If I had had the chance to get away, I’d have gone home – and how could this have happened? If I’d the intellect and had the breaks, I’d be there on the bench like Sufi sheikhs!’

For the second time the questioner drawing the intelligent man into conversation to make his state better known That seeker said, ‘One moment you, again, perched on your reed-cane, ride your gee-gee here!’ He rode there shouting, ‘Look, be quick and tell me, my horse is very frisky and short-tempered! 2410 Be quick so he won’t land a kick on you, what you are asking? Tell me crystal clearly!’ He saw no chance of telling his heart’s secret, he played a trick and drew him into chatting. ‘I want to find a woman in this street,’ he said, ‘Who’s suitable for someone like me?’ ‘There are three kinds of women in this world’ he said, ‘and two are painful, one’s a treasure. The first, when you get married, is all yours, the second is half yours and half another’s. 2415 But realise the third will not be yours at all. You’ve heard this. Go away! I’m going, So my horse will not land a kick on you, and you’ll fall down and never walk again!’ They sheikh rode off to mingle with the children, but once again the young man shouted to him, ‘Come, please give me an explanation of this. You said three kinds of women. Please, more detail!’

How a constable summoned a fallen drunkard to prison

He rode up and he said, ‘The virgin chosen will be all yours, and you’ll be free from sorrow. 2420 And she that is half yours, she is a widow. She who’s not yours is married with a child. Since she has got a child from her first husband: her love and all her heart will go that way. Will you keep back in case my horse should kick out and land on you my frisky horse’s hoof!’ And with a ‘Tally-ho!’ the sheikh rode back, and called the children to him once again. His questioner cried out to him, ‘Come back!’ There’s just one question left, O sovereign king.’ 2425 And back he rode there, ‘Quickly tell me! What? That child has robbed my ball out of the park!’ ‘O King, with such an intellect and breeding, What’s this pretence? This acting? It’s outrageous! You’re more than universal mind in speaking. You are a sun – why hide yourself in madness?’ He said, ‘These common people are campaigning to make me Qadi of their city here. I made objections but they answered ‟No, there’s none so smart and talented as you! 2430 While you’re alive it’s wicked and unlawful – a lesser judge than you should cite tradition. We have not the authority in law to make one less than you our prince and leader.” By this necessity I turned distraught and mad, but inwardly I am just as I was. My mind’s the treasure and I am the ruin, if I display the treasure, then I’m mad. The one who’s mad is he who’s not gone crazy, who’s seen the night patrol and not gone home. 2435 My knowledge is essential not contingent, this precious thing is not for every purpose.

153

154

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

I am a sugar-mine, a cane plantation, it’s growing from me and I also eat it. That knowledge is for show and merely learned, when one complains because the hearer shuns it. Since it’s for bribing not enlightenment he’s like the seeker of this-worldly knowledge. He seeks for knowledge in the general sense, not so that he gets freedom from this world. 2440 A field mouse dug its holes in all directions when light drove it away and said “Be off!”, There was no way out to the fields and daylight, so it kept persevering in the darkness. If God had given it wings, the wings of wisdom, it could take off like birds and leave its mousehold. Not seeking wings, remaining underground, it has no hope of going to Semāk. Knowledge of eloquence, which has no soul, adores the faces of its customers. 2445 Although it’s full when it is mid-debate, it’s dead and gone when there’s no buyer for it. God is my purchaser, He’s drawing me aloft, for God has purchased from the faithful. My blood price is the beauty of the Glorious, my blood price I enjoy as lawful earnings. Abandon these insolvent customers – what can be purchased with a pile of dirt? Don’t eat, don’t buy and don’t consume the dirt – the one consuming dirt is always shamefaced. 2450 Consume the heart so that you’re always youthful, your face transfigured like the Judas tree.’ O Lord this gift is not our work’s objective, Your Grace accords with Your mysterious Grace. Help us, redeem us from our own hands’ grasp. lift up the veil, but do not tear the veil.

Mohammad’s visit to the sick Companion

Redeem us from this self that is polluted, its knife has cut us to our very bones. Who will release such helpless ones as us from cruel chains, O King uncrowned, unthroned? 2455 Who can break open such a heavy lock except Your Graciousness, Beloved? We turn our heads away from us to You, for You are closer to us than our selves. This prayer is also of Your gift and teaching – how else on ashes did the rosebed grow? Reason and understanding, by Your Favour, alone can be conveyed through blood and entrails. This flowing light is from two bits of fat, their waves of light soar up above the sky. 2460 The flood of wisdom’s flowing like a stream. out of the piece of flesh that is the tongue. Into the holes called ears, up to the gardens of soul where are intelligence’s fruits. Its channel is the highway of the souls’ grove, its branches are the gardens of the world. That is the source and fountainhead of joy, quick, read the text ‘beneath which rivers flow’.

Conclusion of the advice of the Prophet, on whom be peace, to the sick man The Holy Prophet said to that sick man when he was paying a call on his poor friend, 2465 ‘Perhaps it was you prayed some kind of prayer, or ate some deadly poison without knowing? Recall to mind what prayer you might have said when you were bothered by the self ’s connivings.’ He said, ‘I don’t recall, but send to me: an impulse and I will remember promptly.’

155

156

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

The presence of the light-bestowing Prophet brought to his mind the prayer that he had prayed. A light that can distinguish truth from falsehood shone from that window between heart and heart. 2470 He said, ‘Yes, I’ve remembered now, O Prophet, the prayer I uttered, idiot that I am! When I became embroiled in sinfulness and drowning I would clutch at any straws. From you there came the threat and dire prediction to sinners of most dreadful punishment. I was confounded, there was no escape, the chains were fastened and the lock unopened. Patience was out of place, no way of fleeing, no hope of penitence, no place to struggle. 2475 Like Hārut and Mārut in their affliction, for I was crying out, “O my Creator.” ’ Afraid of danger, Hārut and Mārut had openly preferred the pit of Babel, To suffer here the next world’s punishments: they’re cunning, clever, and like sorcerers. They acted well, behaving properly: the pain of smoke is lighter than the fire’s. Description of the next world’s pain is endless, the pain of this world is benign beside it. 2480 O happy is he who fights the inner fight, restrains the body and delivers justice. So that he may escape the next world’s pain, he takes upon himself this pain of service. ‘I was beseeching ‟Lord, O Lord be quick, inflict that punishment on me in this world. That I may be invulnerable in the next world”. It was with such a plea I knocked the door. This awful sickness then appeared in me: my soul became disquieted with pain.

Mohammad’s visit to the sick Companion

2485 I left off doing zekr and recitations, unconscious of myself and good and bad. If now I was not looking at your face, O you of fortunate and blessed fragrance, I would have left this mortal coil forever, you’ve given me this royal sympathy.’ He said, ‘Beware, don’t pray this prayer again, do not uproot yourself from your foundations. What strength do you have, miserable ant, that He should lay on you so high a mountain?’ 2490 He said, ‘I have repented, Sultan, vowing that I shall not rashly boast by any means.’ This world’s the desert and you are our Moses: from sin we are in trouble in the desert. Though Moses’ people travelled on the way, they ended up where they began their steps. For years we travel, and then in the end we are still captives at the first encampment. If Moses’ heart had been content with us, the desert road would have been shown as finite. 2495 And if he’d been averse to us completely, why did the manna come to us from heaven? How would the springs be gushing from a rock, why would our souls be kept safe in the desert? Instead of manna, fire would fall upon us, and flames would strike us in this situation. Moses became ambivalent towards us, at times our enemy, at times our friend. His anger sets our worldly goods on fire, his clemency protects us from disaster. 2500 How does his anger turn to clemency? it’s not a rare thing in your kindness, dear one. To flatter someone present is uncivil: instead I mean to use the name of Moses.

157

158

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Or else, would Moses think it right that I would mention someone different before you? We broke our vow a hundred times, nay thousands: your vow is firm and solid as the mountain. Our vow is straw that yields to any breeze: Your vow’s a mountain, or a hundred even! 2505 And by that power, O Prince of all complexions, have mercy on all our complexities! We’ve seen ourselves and our humiliation – don’t try us any more, Your Majesty! So that You hide our other scandalous humiliations, Generous Implored One. You ’re infinite in beauty and perfection: we’re infinite in crookedness and vice. Impose your infiniteness, Generous One, upon our crookedness, vile bunch we are! 2510 See how one thread remains of all our patchwork: we were a city – now one wall’s left standing. Salvage what’s left, O Sovereign, what is left, so that the demon’s soul is not too joyful. Not for our sakes but for that first protection when You went after those who’d lost their way. As once You showed Your power, show Your mercy, You who put mercy into flesh and blood. If such a prayer should make Your anger worse, please teach me how to pray, O Sovereign Lord. 2515 Just as when Adam fell from Paradise, You gave him leave to escape the hideous demon. Who is the demon to succeed with Adam, to win the game from him at such a table? In truth, it all turned out to Adam’s profit: that fraud became a curse for his opponent. The Devil saw one game, but not two hundred, and he cut down the pillars of his house.

Mohammad’s visit to the sick Companion

By night he set on fire the fields of others: the wind was bringing fire to his plantation. 2520 The curse was like a blindfold for the Devil, who thought that his deceit would harm his foes. His own deceit was harmful to his soul, you might say, Adam was his demon’s demon. The curse is anything that makes him squint-eyed: it makes him envious, selfish and malicious, So he won’t know, whatever bad he does, will in the end come back and it will smite him. He sees all of the Queen’s checks upside down, for him they turn to checkmate, loss, defeat. 2525 Because, if he regards himself as nothing he’ll see the wound as festering and fatal. Pain will arise from all such introspection, pain will expose him from behind the veil. Until the birth-pains overcome the mother, the child will find no way to be delivered. This faith is in the heart, the heart is pregnant: these reprimands are similar to the midwife. The midwife says the woman has no pain, but pain is needed for the child’s delivery. 2530 He who is pain-free is a highway robber, for painlessness is saying ‘I’m divine’. To say that ‘I’ untimely is a curse: to say that ‘I’ in good time is a mercy. Hallāj’s ‘I’ for certain was a mercy, the Pharaoh’s ‘I’ became a curse, observe. And so it is our duty, as a warning, to cut the head off the untimely rooster. What is it to behead? To kill the ego and in the holy war tell ego ‘Go!’. 2535 Just as you might take out the scorpion’s sting, so that it might escape from being killed,

159

160

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Or take the poisonous fang out of the snake so that the snake escapes from being stoned. None slays the self except the Pir’s protection, so hold on tight to that self-slayer’s skirt. When you embrace it tight, it’s with His help – the strength that comes to you is His attraction. It’s true ‘You did not throw when you were throwing’: from Soul of souls comes all our soul is sowing. 2540 He is the Comforter, long-suffering, be hopeful every moment of His breath. It’s not remiss if you’ve been long without Him, He’s holding long and tight, as you have read. His mercy holds you long and tight, His Presence does not keep you away from Him one instant. And if you need this union and this friendship explained, read ‘By the Morning Brightness’ closely. And if you say that evil too is from Him, – how is that yet a failing of His Grace? 2545 That gift of evil’s also His perfection – I’ll give you an analogy, good sir. A painter made two different kinds of paintings, some fine ones and some lacking in refinement. He painted Joseph and fair-figured maidens, he painted demons and some ugly devils. Both kinds of painting are his mastery, they’re not his ugliness, they are his talent. He makes the ugly ugly to a fault, all ugliness that’s possible is there: 2550 His technical perfection is apparent and critics of his work are put to shame. If he cannot paint ugly, it’s a failing: so, He creates the heathen and the faithful. So, from this viewpoint faith and unbelief are witness: both bow down before His Godhead.

Mohammad’s visit to the sick Companion

The faithful willingly bows down before You, because he seeks God’s pleasure – it’s his goal. Unwillingly the infidel is pious, but his goal is a different desire. 2555 He keeps the Sultan’s fortress well-defended, though he claims that he is the one in charge, Becomes a rebel so he gets the kingdom, but in the end, the fortress is the Sultan’s. The faithful keeps the fortress in good shape for his own Sultan, not for his position. The ugly says, ‘O king, who makes the ugly, you can create the good, the bad and mean.’ The good says, ‘King of beauty and true goodness! You’ve made me into someone free from defects.’

The instructions of the Prophet, on whom be peace, to the sick man and his teaching him to pray 2560 The holy Prophet said to that sick man, ‘Say this, ‟O You Who make our problems easy, Be good to us in this world’s dwelling place, and in the world to come, be good to us. Give us the way that’s lovely as a garden, O noble one, You are our destination.” ’ Believers at the Judgment say ‘O Angel, is not the road we share the one to hell? The infidel and faithful go along it – yet on this road we saw no smoke and fire. 2565 Look, here is Paradise, the place of safety! What happened to that pestilential passage?’ The Angel says, ‘That garden full of greenness that you have seen somewhere, passing through it, That’s Hell, the place of punishment extreme: to you it was an orchard, garden, trees,

161

162

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

As you have struggled with this hellish self, a heathen fire that stirs up insurrection, You fought it and it filled with purity, for God’s sake you extinguished hellish fire, 2570 The fire of lust whose flames leapt up became the bloom of piety and light of guidance, The fire of anger in you turned to mildness, the darkness of your ignorance to knowledge, Your fire of greed turned into selflessness, and thorny malice turned into a rosebed. And so, as all these fires of former times were put out by you for the sake of God, And made the fiery soul just like a garden in which you sowed seeds of sincerity, 2575 Where nightingales remembering God and praising were singing sweetly on the river bank, You have responded to God’s summoner, brought water to the hell-fire of your soul. Our hell, as far as you’re concerned, became the greenery and roses, wealth and riches.’ My son, what is the recompense for virtue? Humanity and virtue, real reward. Did you not say: ‘We are the sacrificed’? ‘Before the infinite we pass away’? and 2580 ‘Though we be crafty or completely mad, we’re drunk on that cupbearer and that cup. We lay our heads on His command and scripture: on Him we stake all of our sweet existence, Since thoughts about the Friend are in our hearts, our work is service and self-sacrifice.’ Where they may light the candle of affliction a hundred thousand lovers’ souls are burned. The lovers who are present in His house are moths before the candle of the Friend.

Mohammad’s visit to the sick Companion

2585 O heart, go there where they are bright to you, they’re like a suit of armour for your trials. They’re reconciled with your iniquities, they make a place for you within their souls. They make a place for you within their souls, so that they fill you like a cup of wine. Go on, make your abode within their souls, and make the universe your home, bright full moon! Like Mercury they open up the heart’s book, so they reveal to you the mysteries. 2590 Be with your own, why be a destitute? Embrace the full moon if you are a moonbeam. Why should the part be distant from its whole? Why all this mixing with diversity? See how one kind of being is made specific, how hidden things escape into existence. While you’re flirtatious like a woman, numbskull, how can your fibs and flirting be of help? You take the flattery, sweet words and flirting and tuck them in your bosom like a woman. 2595 For you the insults and the blows of kings are better than the praises of the lost ones. Take slaps from kings – don’t swallow peasant honey! Become someone by being with Some One! From them comes dignity and great good fortune. In spirit’s shelter, body will be soul. Wherever you see one who’s poor and naked, you should know he’s abandoned his ostād, So that he could achieve what his heart craved, – that blind and wicked, worthless heart of his! 2600 If he’d turned out as his ostād had wished, he would have done himself and kin an honour! Whoever flees his master in this world is fleeing from good fortune – you must know this!

163

164

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

You’ve learned a trade that caters to the body. now turn your hand to spiritual business. In this world you’ve been dressed up and a rich man – how will you do when you come out of here? Acquire a skill so at the very last the income of His pardon will be yours. 2605 That world’s a city full of gain and profit – don’t think that profit here is worth a bean. Almighty God has said that this world’s profit is childsplay in comparison with that one! Like some child who will touch another child pretending to have adult intercourse. If children play at being shopkeepers, there is no profit, it is just their playtime. The evening comes and they will go home hungry, the children gone, they are left all alone. 2610 This world is but a playground, death the evening: you come back with an empty wallet, tired. Religion’s wage is love and inner rapture, be open to God’s light, O stubborn one! This low self wants death’s wage for you! Enough! How long will you be earning such a pittance? If that low self wants noble recompense, there’ll be some plot and trick in consequence.

Iblis awakens Moʿāviye saying, ‘Get up it’s time for prayer!’ Tradition says that once Moʿāviye was sleeping in a corner of the palace, 2615 The palace door was bolted from the inside, since he was tired of people visiting, And all at once a man came in and woke him, but when he looked at him the man was gone! He said, ‘No one could break into the palace! Who has displayed such arrogance and nerve?’

Iblis and Moʿāviye

He got up quick and set about a search, to find some clue of who was hiding there. He spotted someone crouching by the door who tried to hide his face behind the curtain. 2620 He said, ‘Hey! Who are you? What is your name?’ He said, ‘Indeed, I am the wretched Iblis.’ He said, ‘Why wake me up deliberately? Speak truly, do not talk to me in riddles!’

Iblis unsettles Moʿāviye and deceives him, and Moʿāviye’s answering him He said, ‘The time for prayer is nearly past, you must run over to the mosque, and quickly. The Prophet said, as he bored meaning’s pearl, “Go, hurry off to prayer before it ends.” ’ The other said, ‘No, that is not your motive, to be my guide to goodness on the path, 2625 As if a thief who sneaks into my dwelling would say to me “I’m here to be your watchman.” Why would I put my faith in such a thief? What do thieves know of justice and rewards?’

Iblis answers Moʿāviye again Iblis replied, ‘At first I was an angel. With all my soul I went the way of service. I was the intimate of pilgrims on the way, and one with those who sit beside the Throne. How can the first vocation leave the heart? How can the first love vanish from your heart? 2630 You may see Rum or Khotan on your travels, but how can love for homeland leave your heart? I’ve been one of those drunken on this wine, I’ve been one of the lovers at His Court.

165

166

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

They cut my navel cord for love of Him, the love for Him they sowed into my heart. In time I have experienced good days, in spring I drank the water of His Mercy. And was it not it His Favour’s Hand that sowed me? – He who has brought me up from non-existence. 2635 From Him how often have I felt His comfort, and walked among the gardens of His pleasure! He’d lay the hand of Mercy on my head, let flow the springs of kindness for my sake. Who went to look for milk for me in childhood? Who gently rocked my cradle? – it was He. Whose milk did I drink other than His milk? Who nourished me, except His nourishment? That nature that was suckled on His milk, how can it be extinguished in a person? 2640 The ocean of His grace may have rebuked me, but could that ocean close its doors on me? For favour, grace and giving are His coinage, and anger is a speck of alloy on it. All for the sake of grace He made the world, His sunbeams have caressed the molecules. If separation’s pregnant with His anger, it’s so you’ll know the power of His union. So distance from Him will chastise the soul to know the power of the days of union. 2645 The Holy Prophet said, ‟God has commanded: ‘My purpose in creation has been goodness, I made creation so they profit from me, so with My honey they anoint their hands, Not so that I Myself would benefit and rip the coat off one who’s standing naked.’ ” And since the time He drove me from His presence, my eye’s been fixed upon His Lovely Face

Iblis and Moʿāviye

I thought, ‟How wonderful! From such a face, such anger!” All are put off by the cause! 2650 I don’t regard the cause, which is ephemeral: the ephemeral will occasion the ephemeral. I contemplate His pre-eternal grace. I tear apart what is ephemeral. I grant, I gave up worship out of envy, but envy born of love not of rejection. From love, it’s certain, enviousness arises, in case another’s the Beloved’s partner. Deep jealousy will follow on from love just like the “Bless you!” following a sneeze. 2655 No other move was on the board save this, when He said “Play”, what more could I have done? I played the one move that there was to play, I cast myself into catastrophe. I taste His pleasures in catastrophe, I’m mated by Him, mated by Him, mated. In this world of the six directions, friend, how can one save oneself from mortal danger? How can the partial sixth defeat the whole six, especially when the Matchless made it crooked. 2660 Whoever’s in the six is in the fire, the six’s own creator rescues them. And be there faith or unbelief in Him, he is God’s instrument, to God belonging.’

Moʿāviye again exposes Iblis’s deceitfulness The prince informed him, ‘These things are correct, your part in them is nothing but a lie. You mugged and robbed a hundred thousand like me, you dug a hole and broke into the treasury. You’re fire, I cannot but be burned by you. Whose clothing is not shredded by your hand?

167

168

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

2665 Since it’s your nature, fire, to set on fire, there’s no preventing you from burning something. This is the curse that makes you set alight and makes you paragon of every thief. You spoke with God and heard Him, face to face. Against your tricks what can I do, opponent? Your sciences are like the fowler’s whistle, the bird-call that is also their entrapment. The call ambushed a hundred thousand birds: the bird’s deceived to think a friend has come, 2670 For when it hears the whistle in the air, it comes in fondness, captivated here. By your deception Noah’s folk lament, their hearts are seared, their breasts are torn to shreds. You cast Ād’s people to the wind in this world, you threw them into torment and affliction. The stoning of Lot’s people was through you, by you they were deluged in black rainwater. And Nimrod’s brain was liquefied by you, hell-raiser of a thousand insurrections! 2675 The mind of Pharaoh, sage philosopher, you blinded, he could not find understanding. And Bu Lahab was made unworthy by you, and Bu’l Hakam you turned into Bu Jahl. And you, to be remembered, you checkmated a hundred thousand masters on this chessboard. O you whose devastating checkmate moves have seared our hearts and turned your own to blackness. Nature’s a drop, you ocean of deception, you’re like a mountain, we’re mere molecules. 2680 Who can escape your artifice, aggressor?! we’re drowned by flood “except whom He protect.” How many a star of fortune burned by you! How great a host of armies turned by you!’

Iblis and Moʿāviye

Again Iblis replies to Moʿāviye And Iblis said to him, ‘Untie this knot. I am the touchstone for the false and true coin. God made me as the proof of lion and cur, God made my proof of true and fake occur. How could I make the counterfeit black-faced? I am the banker who has valued it. 2685 I am providing guidance for the good, I’m tearing off dry vegetation for them. And to what purpose do I serve this fodder? so it is known what kind the creature is. A wolf that bears a cub from a gazelle: a wolf or a gazelle?– that is the question. Lay out some grass and bones in front of it, soon you will see which side it’s going for. It is a dog if it’s the bones it goes for, and if it goes for grass, it is a deer! 2690 An anger and a mercy joined together: from both was born the world of good and evil. You may present the grass and bones, and offer the sustenance of self and of the spirit. If it’s the food of self he seeks, he’s lost, if it’s the food of spirit, he’s the winner. If he’s the body’s slave, he is an ass: he gets the pearl who dives into the soul-sea. Though these two – good and evil – are in conflict, yet both of them are in one operation. 2695 The holy prophets offer their devotions, the adversaries offer up their lusts. Should I make good men bad? – how? I’m not God! I am provocative, but not their Maker. Should I make beauty vile? – I’m not the Lord, I’m mirror to the beautiful and ugly.

169

170

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

The Indian burned the mirror in frustration complaining that “It makes a man look black-faced!” The mirror said “the fault was not from me. Accuse him of the crime! My face is shining. 2700 He made me the informer and the witness to say what’s ugly and what’s beautiful.” I am the witness. Prison for the witness? I am not prison fodder, God’s my witness. Wherever I see trees that will be fruitful I seek to rear them – I am like a nurse. Wherever I see sour and withered trees, I fell them so the musk escapes the dung. The dry tree asks the gardener, “Hey, young fellow! Why cut my head off ?– I’ve done nothing wrong!” 2705 The gardener answers “Silence, evil nature! Is not your dryness crime enough for you?” The dry tree says “I’m straight, I am not crooked, Why fell my trunk when I am innocent?” The gardener says, “If you’d been fortunate, you’d have been better crooked and been moist. You’d have been drawing in the living water, been moistened in the water of the life-force. Your seed was rotten and your root was rotten, you weren’t connected to a healthy tree. 2710 A sick branch that is joined to one that’s healthy, that health impinges on the sick one’s nature.” ’

Moʿāviye deals severely with Iblis The Amir said, ‘O robber, do not argue! There is no way to get to me – don’t push it! You are a thief, and I a foreign trader, how could I purchase any stuff you offer? Don’t prowl around my place so brazenly, you’re not the sort of customer I deal with.

Iblis and Moʿāviye

A robber can’t be someone’s customer – if he pretends to be one, it’s a fraud! 2715 What does this villain have within his pouch? O God, protect me from this enemy! If he breathes one more paragraph on me, this thug will rip off all of my protection.

Moʿāviye complains about Iblis to God most high and seeks His assistance O God, these words of his resemble smoke, please hold my hand in case my cloak is blackened. In argument I cannot conquer Iblis, he tempts all noble men and all base men. As Adam, lord of “He taught him the names” is lame before this lightning dog’s attack, 2720 He threw him out of Eden to the earth, cast fish-like from on high into his net, Lamenting, “We have wronged ourselves indeed,” there’s no end to his fraud and his deceit. There’s wickedness in everything he says, a myriad kinds of witchcraft lurk in him, He stifles man’s virility at once, and kindles vain desire in men and women, Iblis! Creature-consuming terrorist! Why did you waken me? Come clean! Desist!’

Again Iblis exhibits his deceitfulness 2725 He said, ‘No man who suffers from suspicion will hear the truth despite a hundred signs. For every mind beset by fantasies, when you bring proof, the fantasies increase. When words come into it disease is spread: the hero’s sword becomes the tool of thieves.

171

172

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Silence and stillness are the answer to him, as conversation with a fool is madness. O simple soul, why moan to God about me? Bemoan the evil of your sordid selfhood! 2730 You’re eating sweets and breaking out in boils, a fever seizes you, your health is ruined, You curse against the innocent Iblis, – why don’t you recognise it’s self-deception!? It is not Iblis’ fault – it’s yours, you dupe, for, like the fox, you’re always chasing tail. When you see some fat sheep-tail in a meadow, it is a trap – why don’t you realise? Desire for tails has distanced you from knowledge and made your eye and intellect go blind. 2735 Your love of things has made you blind and deaf, your black self is to blame – do not dispute this! Do not blame me, don’t see things upside down! I’ve had enough of evil, greed and hatred! I did a bad thing and I am still sorry, I’m waiting for my night to turn to day. I’m held in deep suspicion by the creatures, all men and women blame me for their actions. The wretched wolf, though he is starving hungry, allegedly he lives in luxury! 2740 When he’s so weak he cannot venture out, the people say he’s sick from all his gorging.’

Moʿāviye entreats Iblis again He said, ‘The truth alone will rescue you, and justice summons you to truthfulness. Speak truth! Be free of me! Your tricks won’t lay the dust of my campaign against you!’ He said, ‘How do you know the lie from truth, O fantasizing thinker fraught with thought?’

A judge who complained of the disaster of being a judge

He said, ‘The Prophet gave an indication, He set the touchstone for the base and true coin. 2745 It’s said, “The lie is a suspicion in the heart.” It’s said “The truth is joyful peace of mind.” The heart is not refreshed by lying speech, as oil and water will not kindle light. There is repose for hearts in truthful talk, truths are a bait that captivate the heart. But sick indeed and bitter is the heart that cannot sense the taste of whole and part. And when the heart is free from pain and sickness, it will detect the taste of lies and falsehood. 2750 When craving for forbidden fruit increased it robbed the heart of Adam of its health. Then he was listening to your lies and flirting, he was deceived and drank the deadly poison, He could not tell an apple from a serpent: good judgment flies from those pumped up on craving. The people are all drunk on vain desires, and thus susceptible to your deception. Whoever’s rid his nature of desire has made his eye familiar with the secret.’

How a judge complained of the disaster of being a judge, and the answer his deputy gave him 2755 They made someone a judge and he was weeping. His deputy enquired, ‘My Lord, why weep? It’s not the time for you to weep and cry, it’s time for cheering and congratulations.’ ‘Ah, how can someone heartless make a judgment in ignorance between two learned lawyers? Those two opponents, expert in their cases, what can the poor judge know of those two parties?

173

174

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

He’s ignorant and blind to their condition, how can he penetrate their lives and livings?’ 2760 He said, ‘The parties know, and are in conflict, You’re ignorant, but you’re the people’s light! Because you have no prejudice about them, and that dispassion is illuminating. The interests of both experts made them blind, their prejudice has buried all their knowledge. Neutrality makes ignorance enlightened, while prejudice makes knowledge cruel and crooked. So long as you don’t take a bribe you’ll see, when you get greedy you’re enslaved and blinded. 2765 I’ve turned my nature back from vain desire, I have not gorged on lust-inducing mouthfuls. My heart’s discrimination is so brightened in telling true from false, truly enlightened.’

Moʿāviye’s bringing Iblis to an admission ‘Imposter, why did you awaken me? You are the enemy of wakefulness! Like poppy seed you always bring on sleep, like wine you rob our intellect and knowledge. I’ve nailed you squarely, now tell me the truth! I know the truth. Don’t look for some way out! 2770 In everyone I only hold out hope for what their character and nature hold. In vinegar I do not look for sugar: I don’t mistake a rent-boy for a soldier. I don’t expect, like infidels, that idols can be divine or even signs of God. I don’t sniff out the smell of musk in dung, I don’t look for dry bricks in running water. I don’t expect of Satan – he’s an alien – that he would wake me up for any good.’

The remorse of one being absent at prayers

2775 Iblis said much of trickery and fraud and him the prince, perverse and staunch, ignored.

How Iblis spoke his mind truly to Moʿāviye He stole himself and said, ‘The reason, mister, you know, that I awakened you, was so that You would go in to join the congregation to pray after the Prophet of high fortune. For if the time for prayer had passed, this world would have turned dark for you, without a glimmer, With tears cascading from your eyes like fountains in disappointment and in lamentation. 2780 For everybody relishes devotion, and hence they hate to miss a moment of it. Such grief and tears were worth a hundred prayers What’s prayer when there’s the glow of supplication?’

The excellence of the remorse of the sincere one for being absent at congregational prayers A certain man was entering the mosque as everyone was exiting the mosque. He started asking why the congregation was exiting the precincts prematurely. They told him that the Prophet had completed his prayers with the assembly and devotions. 2785 ‘Why are you going in, you silly man? The Holy Prophet gave the closing blessing.’ He sighed and from that sigh there issued smoke, his sighing was the fragrance of his heart’s blood. One of them said to him, ‘Give me that sigh: this prayer of mine will be my gift to you.’ ‘I give the sigh and I accept your prayer’, he said, and took it with a hundred yearnings.

175

176

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

That night, in sleep, a voice from heaven told him, ‘You’ve bought the living water of salvation. 2790 In honour of this choice and this exchange, the prayers of all the people are accepted.’

The conclusion of the admission of Iblis to Moʿāviye about his deceitfulness Then Azāzil addressed him, ‘Noble Prince, I must expose my cunning plot to you. If you had missed the prayer-time in that moment, you would have sighed and cried aloud, heartbroken. That pining, outcry and that supplication were worth more than two hundred prayers and zekrs. I woke you up because of my anxiety that such a sigh as this would burn the veil, 2795 So such a sigh as this would not be yours, and that you would not find the way to it. I’m envious and acted out of envy, I am the foe, my work deceit and hatred.’ He said, ‘Now you have told the truth, you’re truthful. It comes from you, you are conformed to it. You are the spider and your prey is flies. Dog that you are, I am no fly, don’t worry. The King hunts me. I fly like the white falcon, how could a spider weave its web around me? 2800 Be off with you! Catch flies while you are able. Come on, invite the flies to buttermilk. And if you should invite them into honey, that and the buttermilk’s a lie as well. You woke me up but it was really sleep: you brought a rescue ship that was a whirlpool. You called me to a good thing just because you drove me from the good that better was.’

The escape of the thief

177

The escape of the thief when someone shouted to the house owner who was just about to grab and catch the thief It’s like the tale of him who saw a thief intruding in his house and chased him. 2805 Through several fields he hurtled after him, until exhaustion left him in a sweat. When he got close to him in his attack, so he could make a lunge at him and catch him, A second thief cried out to him, ‘Come on, come see what’s left of all the havoc caused! Be quick and come back home, O man of action, so you can see how bad things are back here.’ He said, ‘Perhaps there is a thief back there, if I don’t go back quick, that’s what will happen. 2810 He’ll get his hands on both my wife and child – what good is it for me to tie this thief up? This Muslim’s calling me out of sheer kindness, unless I go back quick I shall regret it.’ Cheered by the kindness of that gentleman, he left the thief and came back to the road. He said, ‘Good friend, whatever is the matter? Whose hand has caused these moans and groans of yours?’ He said, ‘Look, see the footprints of the thief, The thief, who is a pimp, has gone this way. 2815 Look at the footprints of the thief intruder! Go after him by following his footprints!’ He answered, ‘Fool! What are you telling me? I’d almost apprehended him already. Fool, why do you tell me about the thief? I thought you were a man but you’re an ass. What is this nonsense and this rubbish, man? I’d got the real truth, what use are clues?’ ‘I’m giving you a clue about the truth,’ he said, ‘This is the clue, I know the truth!’

178

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

2820 ‘You are a villain or indeed a fool’, he said, ‘You are a thief and know the score! I nearly got my hands on my opponent – you let him get away with “Here’s a clue!” ’. You seek directions – I’m beyond directions. In union, what are signs and explanations? The veiled man sees the work in attributes, the essence disappears in attributes. My son, the ones in union drowned in essence, why should they gaze upon His attributes? 2825 Like when your head is at the river bottom, how could your view take in the water’s colour? If you come up to see the water’s colour, you’ve sold your silken robe and bought sackcloth. For mystics common worship is a sin: and common union is the veil for mystics. A king who made his minister a policeman would be an enemy and not his friend. That minister perhaps did something wrong – such changes do not happen just for nothing. 2830 The one who was a policeman from the start, that was his lot and fortune from the outset. But he who’s always been Prime Minister did something bad to end up as a policeman. For when the King has called you from the threshold, then driven you to go back to the threshold, Know that you have done something really wrong, in ignorance you claimed it’s something destined. That ‘This was just my luck and my bad fortune’ – so why did you have good luck yesterday? 2835 In ignorance you cut off your own luck, the worthy man increases his own luck.

The atheists and their building a mosque of opposition

The story of the hypocrites and their building a mosque of opposition It’s useful if you hear another instance about perversity, it comes from Scripture. The hypocrites were playing against the Prophet some crooked types of games of odds and evens: ‘All for the glory of Mohammad’s faith we’ll build a mosque!’ But it was a rebellion. This game was such a crooked game they played, they built a mosque but it was not his mosque. 2840 They engineered its floor and roof and dome, they wanted to break up the congregation. They came before the Prophet with their plea, they bowed before him on their knees like camels: ‘O messenger of God, for kindness’ sake, please be so kind to step towards that mosque. It will be blessed by your approaching it – may your name live until the Resurrection! It is a mosque for days of mud and cloud, a mosque for days of need in desperate times, 2845 That strangers may get charity and lodging, and that this place of service may be useful, Religious rites may be fulfilled and flourish, for bitter times are sweetened by companions. May this place have the honour for a moment – commend us by your purifying us. Commend the mosque and those who built the mosque: you are the moon, we are the night, indulge us! So night becomes like daytime in your beauty, whose beauty is a soul enlightening sun.’ 2850 Alas, that those words issued from the heart, and that their wishes could have been fulfilled!

179

180

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

The heartless, soulless pleasantries that reach the tongue, my friends, are like the grass on ash-heaps. Observe them from a distance and pass on, My son, they’re not for eating or for smelling. Don’t wander near the ‘niceness’ of the faithless, for it’s a ruined bridge – hear what I’m saying! If someone ignorant should step on it, the bridge will break and break his foot as well. 2855 Wherever a battalion is defeated, it all comes down to certain gutless sorts. He comes into the ranks oh-all-so-manly! – they trust him, ‘Look, here is a true companion!’ He turns around when he sees injuries: and his retreat will break your army’s spine. Now, this is dragging on and getting longer – the purpose of it is becoming hidden.

The hypocrites’ deception of the Prophet, on whom be peace, to take him to the mosque of Opposition They chanted incantations to God’s Prophet, astride the high horse of their tricks and schemes. 2860 The messenger of God, kind and forgiving, just smiled and did not speak except ‘Ah, yes!’ He thanked that congregation, and he pleased the ones who had been sent with his agreement. Their strategies were visible to him, each one as clearly as a hair in milk. Pretending subtly that he’d seen no hair, that witty one said to the milk ‘That’s fine!’ A hundred thousand hairs of strategies he saw, and closed his eyes to all of them. 2865 That sea of graciousness spoke truly, ‘I’m kinder to you than you are yourselves.

The atheists and their building a mosque of opposition

I’m seated at the edges of a fire that blazes with a most unpleasant flame. Like moths you are careering into it, my hands are both like fans to swish you off.’ Just as the Prophet had begun to go there, God’s jealousy said, ‘Do not heed the ghoul’s voice! These villains have been plotting and contriving, what they present to you is all distortion. 2870 Their goal is just disgrace – when did the Christians and Jews intend that good would come to Islam? They built a mosque upon the bridge of Hell, they played the game of treachery with God. They aimed to disunite the Prophet’s people. – can any fool discern the grace of God? – They wished to bring a Jew from Syria, whose preaching was inspiring to the Jews.’ The Prophet said, ‘Indeed. We are, however, about to set out on an expedition. 2875 As soon as I return from this campaign, I shall at once be making for that mosque.’ He cautioned them and sped off to do battle, he played a game of cheating with the cheats. When he returned from warfare, they came back: they held on tight to what he’d promised them. God told him, ‘Make it clear to them, O Prophet, “Excuses! And if there be war, so be it!” ’ He said, ‘O people of deception! Silence! Keep quiet, so I do not spill your secrets.’ 2880 When he gave indications that he knew their secrets, things looked very bad for them. The envoys turned away from him that moment, they gasped, ‘Oh, help us God, O God help us!’ Each hypocrite then falsely tucked the Book under his arm and brought it to the Prophet,

181

182

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

To swear on it, for oaths are like a shield – at least, oaths are a habit of the wicked. Since wicked man do not respect religion, they’ll break the oath at any time at all. 2885 The righteous have no need of swearing oaths, because they have two eyes that are enlightened. To break a pact and oath is foolishness: good faith’s the practice of godfearing men. The Prophet said, ‘Shall I believe your oath, or shall I take as true the oath of God?’ Again the people swore another oath, Quran in hand, the fast upon their lip: ‘By all that’s holy in these words we swear this building of the mosque is for God’s sake. 2890 There’s no deception and no trick in this, there’s piety, remembrance, and “My Lord!” ’ The Prophet answered them, ‘The voice of God reverberates like echoes in my ears. But God has put a seal upon your ears, so that the voice of God is not perceived. Yes, I am hearing God’s voice loud and clearly, it’s filtered pure of any interference.’ Like Moses hearing God’s voice from the bush, that said to him, ‘O man of blessed fortune!’ 2895 As he was hearing from the bush, ‘Lo, I am God,’ along with these words lights were manifested. Since revelation’s light was not for them, once more those people took to chanting oaths. Since God calls swearing oaths ‘a shield,’ why would the warrior let go of the shield? Again the Prophet called them downright liars, ‘Indeed you lied’, he said to them directly.

The atheists and their building a mosque of opposition

183

How one of the Companions thought disbelievingly, ‘Why does the Prophet, on whom be peace, not draw a veil?’ So one of the companions of the Prophet felt certain qualms regarding that dismissal. 2900 He said, ‘The Prophet is insulting them, such mild old white-haired gentlemen as these. Where’s kindness gone? Forgiveness? Modesty? The prophets overlook ten thousand sins.’ He quickly asked for pardon in his heart, so he would not be blamed for his objection. His ill-judged friendship with the hypocrites made him like them, obnoxious and disloyal. He groaned out loud, ‘O you who know the mysteries, do not leave me entrenched in unbelief. 2905 My heart’s not in my power like my eyesight, or else I’d fry my heart in fury now.’ Lost in such thinking, sleep stole him away, their mosque appeared to him, but full of dung. Its stones were smeared with filth, a place defiled, black smoke was belching from the building’s stones. The smoke got in his throat and choked his lungs – in terror of the noxious smoke, he woke, And then he fell upon his face and wept: ‘O God, these things are signs of godlessness. 2910 O God, Your anger’s better than such pity, which keeps me separate from the light of faith.’ Look closely at the efforts of the worldly – you’ll see the layers of stinking, like an onion, Each one more empty than the one before, whereas each one is better in the righteous. They would not flinch from taking any measure to devastate the mosque of Qoba’s Muslims.

184

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Like those in Abyssinia with the Elephant who made a Kaʾba, and God burned it down. 2915 And they attacked the Kaʾba in revenge: recite from scripture how their campaign fared. Religion’s shame-faced ones have no equipment, except for tricks, belligerence and schemes. Each one had some clear vision of that mosque, its secret purpose known to them for certain. If I recount the visions one by one, their truth would then be certain to the doubters. I’m wary of exposing their interiors, they’re tender and deserve my tenderness. 2920 They have received the Law inimitably, they have the currency without a touchstone. The Book is like the true believer’s camel – you’re sure of who’s the owner of your camel!

Story of someone who was seeking after his stray camel and asking after it You lost your camel and you’re busy searching, when you find it, don’t you just know it’s yours? What could this camel be that you have lost, that fled from you and went into the veil? They have begun to load the caravan, and yet your camel’s nowhere to be seen. 2925 You’re running to and fro, dry-mouthed and anxious, the caravan is far, and night approaches. Your baggage dumped upon the dangerous road, while you must run around to find your camel. You cry, ‘O Muslims, who has seen a camel? – one which escaped its stable just this morning! If you tell me my camel’s whereabouts, I will reward you with this many dirhams.’

Someone who was seeking after his stray camel

You’re asking clues from everyone around you, and every idiot’s teasing you about it. 2930 ‘We saw your camel going thataway! A tawny camel heading for that pasture!’ Another says, ‘Perhaps its ears were cropped?’ Another says, ‘Its saddle-cloth’s embroidered?’ One says, ‘I think it was a one-eyed camel.’ Another comments, ‘It was bald with mange.’ They’d volunteer a hundred clues, these idiots – no end of them – and all for a reward.

Being perplexed in the midst of contrary doctrines and finding a means of escape and deliverance So in the case of knowledge, every one describes the unseen object differently: 2935 Philosophers explain things in one manner, scholastic theologians contradict them. And others ridicule both types of thinker, and others eat their hearts out just pretending. Each one will indicate the way in order that people think that they are in the know. But be assured all these are not the truth – nor is the herd completely gone astray. For nothing false is shown without some truth, the fool buys fake gold on the scent of real. 2940 And if there were no true coin in the world, how could the counterfeit be circulated? Were there no truth, how could there be the lie? The lie derives its lustre from the truth. They buy the crooked, hoping for the real: the poison’s in the sweet, and then they’ll eat. If pleasant tasting wheat did not exist, could crooked cereal-sellers make a living?

185

186

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

So do not say that all their words are false, the false are just a heart-snare for truth-seeking. 2945 And don’t say all is fantasy and error: without the truth there is no fantasy. Truth is the Night of Power among the nights, concealed so that the soul tries every night. Not all the nights are Power-full, young man, nor are the other nights devoid of it. Among the dervishes there is a true one: aspire to find the true one and accept him. Where is the prudent, and sagacious Muslim, that he can tell the real men from the pansies! 2950 If blemished goods were not in circulation, and every imbecile would be a trader, Then connoisseurship would be very easy, when there’s no blemish, what is skilled from stupid? If all were blemished, knowledge would be useless: all would be wood – there’d be no aloes-wood. He who declares that all are true is foolish, and he who states that all are vain is wretched. Those who do business with the prophets profit, but trading scents and hues is miserable. 2955 The snake appears as riches in the eyes: you must rub both your eyes and rub them well! Don’t contemplate this commerce and this profit, reflect on Pharaoh’s downfall and Thamud’s, And contemplate this sky repeatedly, for God said, ‘Then return your gaze again!’

The testing of everything so as to reveal what is good and bad in it To see this vault of light once won’t suffice you, look many times! ‘Are there no cracks in it?’

Someone who was seeking after his stray camel

As He instructed you, look many times at this fair vault, like someone finding fault. 2960 So you must know how much the dark earth needs of scrutiny to be acceptable. And how much anguish must our minds endure to strain the purer sorts from all that’s dross. The perils of the winter and the autumn, the heat of summer, spring like life itself, The winds and clouds and lightning flashes – all events that make distinctions visible, So that the earth of peat-brown colour offers all that it holds within, its stones and rubies, 2965 Whatever this dark earth has stolen from the treasury of God and Sea of Bounty, The Lord of Providence says, ‘Tell the truth, declare what you have taken, one by one. The thief, the Earth, that is, says, ‘Nothing, nothing.’ The Lord then puts it on the torture rack. Sometimes the Lord says things as sweet as sugar, sometimes He hangs it and whatever’s worse! Between the violence and the grace, things hidden appear out of the fire of fear and caution – 2970 Spring is the kindness of the mighty Lord: the Autumn is God’s threat and terrifying. The winter is symbolic crucifixion, so you, the hidden thief, may be exposed. At times the ascetic has the heart’s expansion and sometimes its contraction, pain, oppression. This water and this clay, which are our bodies, subvert and steal the radiance of our souls. And God most high imposes on our bodies heat, cold, pain and distress, O lion man, 2975 Fear, hunger, loss of wealth and strength of body, all for to show the coinage of the soul

187

188

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

– These threats and promises He has induced from his commingling good and bad together. Since truth and falsehood have been so commingled, good coin and fake are poured into one vessel. So what is needed is a perfect touchstone, which has been fully tested on the truth, To be the test of these dissimulations and be the judge of these deliberations. 2980 O Moses’ mother, Give your milk to him, and cast him in the water, fear no evil. Whoever drank that milk on Judgment Day, he can identify that milk like Moses. If you are passionate for your child’s preferment, then suckle him at once O Moses’ Mother. He’ll know the sweetness of his mother’s milk, not bow his head to some inferior nurse.

Explaining the moral of the story of the person seeking his camel You’ve lost a camel, O my trusty friend, and everyone’s providing you with clues! 2985 You have no clue just where that camel is, but you know that their clues are all mistaken, And he who has not lost one, just competing, will look for camels like the man who’s lost one. ‘For sure, I also have mislaid my camel, I’ve got a prize for anyone who finds it!’ He wants a camel, and he plays this game so he can be partners with you in the camel! He does not know a wrong clue from a right one, but your words give that fraudster his direction. 2990 If you tell anyone ‘That clue is false’, he’ll say the same as you in imitation.

Someone who was seeking after his stray camel

And when they give you true and likely clues, then you are certain that there is no doubt. For your sick soul it is a remedy, Your colour and your health and strength improve. Your eyes begin to shine, your feet are frisky, your soul inspired, your body animated. Then you will say, ‘O faithful friend, well spoken! These clues have come as clear communications. 2995 Therein are clear signs that can be trusted, a guarantee and pass to liberation.’ When he has told this clue, you’ll say, ‘Go on, it’s time to act, so go ahead and act! I’ll follow you, O speaker of the truth, you have my camel’s scent, please show the way!’ But for the one who does not own a camel who’s only after camels for a game, He’s none the wiser having heard a real clue, except reflecting him who truly seeks it. 3000 He senses from that energy and heat that all this hoo-hah’s not just empty words. He has no right to such a camel, yet he too has lost a camel, it is true. His wish for someone else’s is a veil, in that he has forgotten what he lost. He’s running everywhere the other runs, in greed he shares the suffering of the owner. As when a liar sets off with a true man his lies will all at once turn into truth. 3005 So in that desert where the camel fled, that other person also found his camel. When he saw that one, he recalled his own, no longer coveting the beasts of others. The mimic turned into a true inquirer, just as he saw his camel grazing there,

189

190

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Became a camel seeker at that moment – until he saw it there he’d not been searching. Then after that he turned into a loner, his eyes were on the camel he possessed. 3010 The truthful one said, ‘You have let me go – until this moment you’ve been following me. Till now I’ve been a liability!’ he said, ‘Desire made me a sycophant! But now I have become a fellow sufferer, so in my search I separated from you. From you I stole the camel’s attributes: my soul beheld my own, my eyes filled up. I was not looking for it till I found it: now copper’s beaten, gold is conqueror. 3015 Thank God, my crimes all turned to pious acts! The joke is over! Earnestness is called for. My sins were like the means of going to God, so please do not reproach me for my sins. For you, sincerity made you a seeker, for me it opened up from work and seeking. While your sincerity brought you to seeking, my seeking brought me to sincerity. I sowed the seeds of fortune in the ground, I thought my labour was unpaid, for nothing. 3020 It was not unpaid work, the prize was rich, for every seed I sowed a hundred grew. A thief broke into someone’s house by stealth, when he got in he saw it was his own.’ Be warm, O cold one, so that warmth will come, – endure the harshness so that softness comes. There weren’t two camels there was only one, but words are narrow, meaning’s very full. For words are always falling short of meaning: that’s why the Prophet said ‘The tongue grows weary.’

The Indian who quarrelled

191

3025 Speech is an astrolabe in calculation: How much can it discern of sun and sky? I mean that Sun and Sky compared to which this sun and sky are straw and particles.

Explaining that in every soul there is the mischief of the mosque of position When it was clear that this was not a mosque, but was a house of wiles, a Jewish trap, So then the Prophet told them to destroy it, make it a rubbish heap for muck and ash. Just like the mosque, the owner was a fraud (to sprinkle berries on a trap’s not kindness). 3030 The bait is on the hook to catch a fish, the titbit’s not a charity donation! The Qobā ‘mosque’, which was a lifeless thing, he did not rank with what was not its equal. In lifeless things such wrongs do not occur, so he set fire to that unseemly thing. In essences, the root of all the roots, know there are differences and separations. Your life does not resemble someone else’s, nor does your death resemble someone else’s. 3035 Your grave is never like another’s grave – how can the difference of that world be spoken? O striver, put your actions to the touchstone, so you do not construct a rival mosque. You’ve railed against the builders of such mosques, but when you look, you’ll see you’re one of them.

Story of the Indian who quarrelled with his own friend over an action and was unaware that he too was affected Four Indian fellows went into a mosque, and bowing and prostrating in their worship,

192

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Each said Allāhu akbar with intention, began to pray, in earnest supplication, 3040 The muezzin came and one of them let slip, ‘O Muezzin, have you called? Is it not time?’ The second Indian fellow, off the cuff, said, ‘Hey, you’ve spoken so your prayer’s not valid!’ The third said to the second one, ‘O uncle, why are you taunting him? Watch what you’re saying!’ The fourth one said ‘O God be praised that I have not been plunged into the pit like those three!’ And so the prayers of all four were not valid, the ones who lost the most were the complainers! 3045 O happy is the soul who sees his faults: for he who owns his faults, redeems himself. One half of him is from the world of sin, his other half is from the unseen world. Since on your head there are ten injuries, you must apply the dressing to your head. To find fault with the self, that is the cure: when you’re in pieces, time to say ‘Have pity!’ Though you don’t have the same fault – don’t be cocky! that fault will later be notorious in you. 3050 If you’ve not heard from God the words ‘Fear not!’ then why do you think you are safe and happy? For years Iblis lived on with his good name. He was disgraced: consider what his name is. His excellence was famous in the world, his fame turned upside down, O woe was he! While you are not secure, do not seek fame: go wash your face of fear, then show your face. Until your beard has sprouted, my good fellow, don’t laugh at someone else whose chin is smooth. 3055 Reflect that Satan’s soul was sorely tested: he fell into a pit – a warning to you!

The Ghuzz Turcomans’ attack

193

You did not fall to be a warning to him. He drank the poison: you must eat his sugar!

How the Ghuzz Turcomans attacked to kill one man so that another would be intimidated Those murderous Turcomans of Ghuzz arrived and hit upon a village to ransack it. They grabbed two headmen of the village and were about to put one straight to death, They bound him hand and foot to sacrifice him: he said, ‘O kings, great pillars of your land, 3060 Why do you cast me in the pit of death? Why ever are you thirsting for my blood? What is the point of killing me – the logic? since I am such a poor man, standing naked.’ They said, ‘To make your friend here very frightened, so he’ll be scared and tell us where his gold is.’ He said, ‘Well, he is poor compared to me’, the other said, ‘He just pretends. He’s rich.’ He said, ‘We’re both the same, since it’s conjecture, we’re both under suspicion and in doubt. 3065 Be sure to kill him first, Your Majesties, so I’ll be scared and show you to the gold.’ Behold the kindnesses that are divine, that we’ve come at the very end of time. The end times are superior to the others: tradition says ‘The last ones shall be first.’ Destruction of the folk of Hud and Noah shows to our souls the signs of His Compassion. He slew them that we would be fearful of Him, – had he done differently, then woe betide you.

194

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Explaining the state of these who are self-worshippers and ungrateful for the blessing of the prophets and saints, on whom be peace 3070 All those who spoke of error and of sin, of hearts of stone and of benighted souls, And holding in contempt what He commanded, and carefree of the woe that is to come, And captive of the carnal soul, like women, by love and passion for this feeble world, That running from wise words of sage advisors, avoidance of the faces of the good, Their alienation from the spiritual, deceit and wiliness towards the masters, 3075 To see the blessed ones as good-for-nothings, and secretly be hostile out of envy – If he accepts something, you say, ‘He’s begging’, or else you say, ‘It’s fake, a sham, a swindle.’ If he is sociable, you say he’s greedy: if not, you say that he is hooked on pride, Or you pretend and make excuses, such as, ‘I’m stuck with bringing up a family. I don’t have time to even scratch my head, so far from having time to be religious! 3080 Hey what’s-your-name, mind you say one for me, and in the end I’ll be there with the saints!’ He did not even say this with conviction, but mumbled sleepily, then off he dropped. ‘I have no choice except to feed my children, I break my neck to earn a legal living.’ What’s legal in it, you who’ve gone astray, except your bloodshed, I see nothing lawful. He thinks he won’t need God, but will need food, and will need idols but will not need faith.

An old man complained of his ailments

3085 O you, who can’t resist the wretched world, can you resist ‘Him Who spread out the earth’? O you, who can’t resist life’s luxuries, can you resist God Who is Bountiful? O you, who can’t keep off the pure and filthy, how can you keep off Him Who made them both? Where’s Abraham who came forth from the Cave saying, ‘Lo! This is the Lord.’ Where is the Maker? Who says, ‘I do not wish to see the two worlds until I see whose are these two assemblies. 3090 Without the sight of God’s manifestations, if I eat bread it chokes me as I swallow.’ Without the vision of His rose and garden, or sight of Him, could anything be swallowed? Except in hope of God, who but an ass would for one moment eat this food and drink? Who went astray and more astray than cattle, though that repulsive tramp is full of tricks. His tricks ran out and he ran out as well, he had his time and then his day was done. 3095 His intellect went dull, his mind was weak, dead, like the letter ‘O’ he had plain zero. When he says ‘I am contemplating this,’ that’s also part of his own self-delusion. And says, ‘He is Forgiving, Full of Mercy,’ that’s just a trick of his accursed selfhood. You’re worried sick that you have got no bread, why fear, if He forgives and shows you mercy?

How an old man complained of his ailments and how the doctor answered him One day an old man went to see his doctor, ‘I am in agony because my brain hurts.’

195

196

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

3100 ‘That’s weakness of the brain because of age!’ He said, ‘I’ve got dark spots before my eyes.’ He said, ‘It is old age, O ancient Sheikh’. He said, ‘My back is aching something dreadful!’ He said, ‘It is old age, O shrivelled Sheikh!’ ‘I cannot keep down anything I eat!’ ‘Yes, old age also causes upset stomachs!’ He said, ‘And when I breathe I’m suffocating.’ ‘Indeed,’ he answered, ‘That would be the asthma! When old age comes it brings two hundred ailments!’ 3105 He said, ‘You stupid man, your needle’s stuck! Is this all you have learnt of medicine? You idiot! Has your brain not yet informed you that God has made a cure for every ailment?! You stupid ass! You are inadequate. You’re on the floor and cannot get a grip!’ And then the doctor answered him, ‘Old-timer! This raging temper also comes with age: As all your bits and organs are decrepit, your patience and your self-control are weak.’ 3110 He cannot stand two words without a roar! He cannot sip something and not throw up. Except perhaps the Pir who’s drunk on God, who has within his soul ‘the goodly life’. From outside he is old, inside a youth. In fact what is he? – saintly man and prophet. If they’re invisible to good and bad folk, what’s this contempt the lowlife have for them? If they don’t know them with most certain knowledge, what’s this contempt, conspiracy and hatred? 3115 If they knew how the resurrected profit, why would they go to greet a sharpened sword. He’s smiling at you – don’t be taken in – a hundred resurrections hide within him.

Juhi and the child

Both Hell and Paradise are parts of him, He is beyond all that you can conceive of. All you conceive is bound to pass away: what cannot be conceived of, that is God. Why such familiarity at this front door? as if they know who is within the house. 3120 The fools will treat the mosque with reverence, yet strive to crush the people of the heart. That is a thing, this is the real, you asses: the mosque is just the interior of the princes. A mosque that is the interior of the saints, that is the shrine for all, there God is present. Until the Man of God’s heart came to suffer, God never made an age feel so ashamed. They plotted to make war upon the prophets: they saw their flesh and thought them merely human. 3125 You have the natures of your ancestors – aren’t you afraid that you are just like them? Since all the signs of evidence are in you, and you are like them – how will you be saved?

The story of Juhi and the child grieving before the bier of the father There was a child beside his father’s coffin, in floods of tears he banged his head against it, ‘Why are they taking you away, O father, to stuff you somewhere deep beneath the earth? They’re putting you in some house squat and stuffy, there is no carpet in it, nor a mat. 3130 No lamp for night-time, and no bread for daytime, there is no trace nor whiff of any food. No proper door, no access to the roof, there’s not one neighbour there to help you out.

197

198

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Why should a dark and dreary house constrict your eyes which were the place for people’s kisses? A house unguarded and a narrow place, your face and colour will not bear it there.’ And in this manner he described the house, and from his eyes he spurted tears of blood. 3135 Said Juhi to his father, ‘Noble sir, by God they’re taking this up to our house!’ The father said to Juhi, ‘Don’t be foolish!’ He said, ‘O father, listen to the clues!’ These clues, he mentioned all of them in turn, ‘Our house has all of them, and that’s for certain! No mat, no lamp and nothing there to eat, no proper door, no courtyard, and no roof.’ The disobedient have a hundred clues about themselves, but how can they perceive them? 3140 The house, I mean the heart, that is unlit by sunbeams of His Own magnificence, Is dark and narrow as the Jewish soul that lacks the savour of the Loving King. The sunlight has not shone into that heart, nor is there space nor opening of the door. The grave’s a finer place for you than such a heart; so rise up from your own heart’s grave! You’re living, born of life, O sprightly fellow, are you not choked by this constricting tomb? 3145 O Joseph of our age and sun of heaven, escape this pit and prison! Show your face! Your Jonah broiled inside the fish’s belly: and nought but praise of God won his deliverance. If he’d not praised the Lord, the fish’s belly would be his prison till the Resurrection. By praise he sprang out of the fish’s body: so what is praise? The sign of pre-existence.

Juhi and the child

If you’ve forgotten what that spirit’s praise is, then listen to the praises of those Fishes. 3150 Whoever has seen God belongs to God, whoever’s seen that ocean is that Fish. This world’s a sea, the body fish, and spirit is Jonah, hidden from the light of dawn. If it is praising it escapes the fish, if not, then it is fishfood and will vanish. The spirit’s fishes teeming in this sea, you cannot see them, sinner, you are blind. These fishes launch themselves in your direction, – uplift your eyes that you may see them clearly! 3155 If you don’t see these fishes with your eyes, no matter, you have heard their praise of God. Being patient is the soul of all your praising, have patience, for that is true praise of God. Indeed, no praise is more sublime than that: have patience, patience is the key to joy. It’s like the Serāt bridge, across from heaven: with every fair one there’s an ugly teacher. While you escape the teacher, there’s no union: – the beauty and the teacher can’t be parted. 3160 How would you know how patience tastes, O glass-heart, especially patience for that Chigil beauty? A man gets thrills swashbuckling and campaigning: the effeminate’s thrills are all about his penis. His faith and prayer are just about his penis, his thoughts propel him to the very bottom. Though he should reach to heaven, do not fear him: he teaches lessons in the love of bottoms. He speeds his horse on to the lowest depths, although he is proclaiming he goes up. 3165 What’s there to fear in flags that beggars fly? – their flags are just a way to get a bite.

199

200

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

How a child was frightened of a fat man and that person’s saying ‘My child, don’t worry I am impotent A big fat fellow grabbed a child alone, the child went pale, afraid that that he would rape him. He said, ‘Be at your ease, my little beauty, for you are going to be on top of me! Though I am frightening, I’m a big old softy, so mount me like a camel! Go on, have me!’ Men’s form and their reality are like this, a man outside, inside a cursed demon. 3170 O you who are as big as those of Ād are like that drum the wind beat with a branch. A fox gave up his quarry to the wind, all for a drum that was a wind-filled bladder. He found no fatness in the drum and said, ‘A pig is better than this empty bladder.’ While foxes are afraid of what the drum says, the wise man beats it hard and says, ‘Be silent!’

The story of an archer and his fear of a horseman who was riding in a forest There was a horseman, armed and most ferocious, who rode his thoroughbred into the forest, 3175 And there a well-trained master bowman saw him and fearing for his life he drew his bow To shoot him, and the horseman shouted at him, ‘I am a weak man, though my body’s massive. Hold on, don’t reach conclusions from my size – when all the chips are down, I’m just a crone!’ He said, ‘Go on. Well said! If you’d not spoken, I’d have been panicked into shooting you.’ So many people weaponry has slain without humanity, with sword in hand!

The Arab and the philosopher

3180 If you put on the armour of a Rostam, your soul is forfeit if you’re not the man! Make soul your shield and drop your sword, my son: this King will spare whoever’s lost his head. These weapons are your tricks and your deception born of you and which harm your soul as well. Since you have made no profit from these tricks, abandon them so that you gain good fortune. Since you’ve not had one moment’s benefit from guile, say ‘Farewell’, seek the Lord of Favour! 3185 And since this learning’s not auspicious for you, become unlearned, move on from misfortune! And like the angels, say, ‘We have no knowledge, O God, except what You have taught us.’

The story of the Arab and his putting sand in the sack and the philosopher’s blaming him There was an Arab loading up his camel with two great sacks, one which was full of grain. He had sat down upon both sacks, and then a sage philosopher asked him some questions. He asked him of his homeland and engaged him, in conversation – he was most forthcoming. 3190 Then later he inquired of him, ‘Those two sacks – what are they filled with? What is in them really?’ He said, ‘In one of my sacks there is wheat, the other’s full of sand, not human food.’ The other said, ‘Why did you load this sand?’ He said, ‘So that the other one’s not lonely.’ He said, ‘Put half the wheat that’s in one sack into the other – does it not make sense? So that the sack and camel would be lighter? he said, ‘Well done, you are the noble sage!

201

202

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

3195 Such subtle thought and very good perception, and you so naked, and on foot, and flaked out.’ The kindly man had pity on the sage, and undertook to seat him on the camel. Again he said, ‘O sage of silvery speech, give me another taste of what you’re like. Such mental capability you have! Are you a minister or king? – be truthful!’ He said, ‘I’m neither. Just a common sort. Look at my state, and look at what I’m wearing!’ 3200 ‘How many camels, and how many oxen?’ ‘Its neither here nor there. Don’t bully me!’ He said, ‘What stock do you keep in your shop?’ ‘What shop d’y’ think I’ve got? What kind of place?’ He said, ‘I’m talkin’ money. Whaddya got? You are a loner, and you’re charismatic! You have the worldly alchemy about you, a pearl-encrusted intellect and knowledge.’ He answered him, ‘By God, O Prince of Arabs, I haven’t got the price of dinner on me. 3205 I run around barefoot and bare of body, I go where anyone will give me bread. With all my wisdom and accomplishments, I’ve nothing but my fantasies and headaches.’ So then the Arab told him, ‘Keep your distance, so your bad luck does not contaminate me. Keep your unlucky wisdom far from me, your talk is ominous for modern people! So either go down there, I’ll head up here, or if you’re heading on, I shall go back. 3210 One sack of wheat, another one of sand that’s better than these good-for-nothing tricks. My foolishness is of a blessed kind, my heart is strengthened and my soul is sober.’

The miracles of Ebrāhim son of Adham on the sea-shore

If you wish for your poverty to lessen, make efforts that your wisdom will decrease, A wisdom born of fantasy and nature, without the grace of the Almighty’s radiance. If worldly wisdom multiplies your worries, religious wisdom lifts you to the skies. 3215 The clever devils of these modern times inflate themselves above their ancestors. They are conspirators who ate their hearts out, proficient in deceptions and pretences, All patience, giving, self-restraint abandoned, the things that are the elixir of success, Reflection is what opens up a highway, the highway is the way a king proceeds. True king is he who’s king of his own self, he’s not made king by treasuries and troops, 3220 His kingship live forever like the glory that is the kingdom of Mohammad’s faith!

The miracles of Ebrāhim son of Adham on the sea-shore It’s said of Ebrāhim Adham that once he sat beside the sea after a journey. That king of souls was stitching up his robe, when suddenly a prince came on the scene. That prince had been a servant of the sheikh’s and recognised the sheikh and promptly bowed. Knocked back to see the sheikh in Sufi robes – his manner and his bearing were transformed – 3225 He’d quit the throne of such a glorious kingdom and chosen this obscure ascetic life. He’d quit the kingdom of the seven climes to mend his robe with stitching like a beggar. The sheikh perceived his thoughts clairvoyantly – the sheikh’s a lion, hearts are his savannah.

203

204

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

He comes into our hearts like hope and fear, no secrets of the world are hidden from him. When in the presence of the Men of Heart, keep watch upon your hearts, you useless wasters! 3230 To worldly men, good manners are exterior, for God conceals interior things from them. To Men of Heart good manners are interior, because their hearts perceive the mysteries. You’re upside-down: to get ahead you come to visit blind men, sitting on the threshold. With men of insight you forget your manners, you’re now the fuel for the fire of lust. Since you’ve no wit nor any light to guide you, you make your face attractive to the blind! 3235 You smear filth on your face before the seers, and put on airs, though you’re the one that stinks. The sheikh then hurled the needle suddenly into the sea, and called out loud for it, And hundreds upon thousands of God’s fishes, each with a golden needle in their lips, Reared up their heads out of the sea of truth, and said, ‘Take these, O Sheikh, God’s needles.’ He turned and asked him, ‘Prince, which is the better, the kingdom of the heart or of the world?’ 3240 This miracle’s an outward thing, it’s nothing, just wait until you see what is within. They bring to town a flower from their gardens, how could they bring the rosebeds and the orchards? A garden where these heavens are one leaf! This world is merely skin, that is the substance! Are you not making progress to that garden? Seek out more fragrance, clear your nose of mucus, So that the fragrance will attract your soul, that fragrance will illuminate your eyes.

The miracles of Ebrāhim son of Adham on the sea-shore

3245 As Joseph, son of prophet Jacob, told them, ‘Hold up my shirt towards his face to smell me.’ Mohammad in his preaching said of perfume forever ‘. . . what delights my eye is prayer.’ The five sense faculties are all connected, since all these five have grown out of one root. The power of one becomes the other’s power, each one becomes cupbearer to the rest. The seeing of the eye increases love, and love increases insight in the eye. 3250 As insight is enlivening every sense, the taste becomes familiar to the senses.

The beginning of the illumination of the knower by the light that sees the invisible world When one sense is set free in its progression, the other senses all become transformed. When one sense has perceived beyond the senses, the hidden world appears to all the senses. When one sheep of the flock has jumped the stream, then all are jumping over in succession. So, drive the sheep of senses to the pasture, to ruminate on Him ‘who brought the pasture’, 3255 To ruminate on hyacinth and basil to reach the garden of realities. Your every sense will be the other’s courier, so one by one each goes towards that Garden. The senses tell their secrets to your senses, without a ‘truth’ or tongue, or metaphor. Such ‘truths’ are open to interpretations, conjectures are the source of fantasies. That truth which comes directly from the source is not compounded with interpretation.

205

206

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

3260 When all your sense is harnessed to your Sense, the heavens cannot keep away from you. When there’s a question of who owns the husk, the one who has the kernel owns the husk. Or when a load of straw is in dispute, observe who is the owner of the grain. So, heaven is husk, the spirit’s light is kernel, One’s visible, one’s not, don’t get confused! The body is outside, the spirit hidden, the body’s like a sleeve, the soul an arm. 3265 Again, the mind’s more hidden in flight than spirit, and sense will find its way to spirit sooner. You see a movement, and you know it’s living, you do not know that it is full of mind, Until the movements start to be coherent: by knowledge he makes gold from copper’s movements. From manual dexterity of actions you understand that intellect is present. The revelatory spirit is more hidden than mind: it’s from the unseen, over there! 3270 Mohammad’s mind was not concealed from people, but not all souls could see his revelation. The revelation has its implications, but mind can’t grasp them, for it is sublime. Sometimes he sees it’s madness, or bewildering, since it’s required that this he must become. The mind of Moses was bewildered by the implications of Lord Khezr’s actions. His actions seemed quite unacceptable to Moses, as he did not share his state. 3275 Since Moses’ mind was trapped in the unseen, how is it for a mouse’s mind, dear reader? This secondary knowledge is for sale, and when it finds a customer, it shines.

The miracles of Ebrāhim son of Adham on the sea-shore

The buyer of true knowledge is the Truth: the market for its sale is always splendid. His lips are sealed, intent on buying and selling, His customers are endless ‘God has purchased . . .’ Angels are customers for Adam’s teaching – the demons and the devils are excluded. 3280 Adam, inform them of the names, teach them, and hair by hair explain God’s mysteries! Just such a one as might be called short-sighted, steeped in capriciousness and weaknesses, I called a ‘mouse’ – his place is in the earth – earth is the mouse’s natural abode. He knows the ways, but they are subterranean, he’s burrowed in the ground in all directions. The mouse’s soul is nothing but a nibbler, the mouse has all the mind that he has need of, 3285 Because without the need the Lord Almighty does not give anything to anyone. For if the world had not required the ground, the Lord of All would not have fashioned one. And if this quaking world did not need mountains, He’d not have made them so magnificent, And if the heavenly bodies were not needed, He’d not have made the Seven Skies from nothing. How did the sun and moon and stars appear so clear except out of necessity? 3290 Necessity’s the noose for all existents, and man has faculties to match his needs. Increase your needs, O needy one, so that the Sea of Giving overflows with kindness. These beggars on the road, and every victim, are showing off their neediness to people, Of blindness, sickness, pain, paralysis, so that their need arouses man’s compassion.

207

208

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Do any say, ‘Give me some bread to eat, man, For I am rich with grain stores and full tables’? 3295 God did not give the mole a pair of eyes, because it does not need them for its food. It can survive without the eyes and sight, down in the humid earth it’s free of eyes. It does not surface much except to steal, it’s how God aims to purge it of its stealing. And later it gets wings, becomes a bird and like the angels, it ascends to heaven. In rose-gardens of thanks to God, each moment it sends a hundred songs like nightingales, 3300 ‘O You who save me from my evil habits, O You who turn Hell into Paradise, O Self-Sufficent One, You put the light into the fat, and hearing in a bone!’ What have these qualities to do with bodies? What’s understanding things to do with names? Words are a nest and meaning is a bird – the body is a duct, the spirit’s flooding. It’s flowing and you say it’s standing still, it’s running and you say it is restrained. 3305 If you don’t see the water through the channels, what is this ceaseless flotsam floating on it? Your flotsam is the figures of your thought as ceaselessly the virgin forms arrive. The surface of the stream of thought in motion is not without its flotsam, fair and foul. The husks upon the surface of the flow are from the fruits that grow in Paradise. Seek for the fruits of Paradise’s husks: the flow is from that Garden to this river. 3310 If you can’t see the living water flowing, look at the river – see the plants in motion.

Stranger reviling a sheikh and the sheikh’s disciple’s answer

And when the water flows in fuller flood, the husks that are the forms are flowing faster, And when this river flows extremely fast, all care is banished from the knowers’ minds, It’s so completely full and flows so fast, there is no room for anything but water.

A stranger reviling a sheikh and the sheikh’s disciple’s answer to him A man launched an attack upon a sheikh, ‘He’s evil, he’s not on the righteous path, 3315 A wine-drinker, a wicked hypocrite, how could he be a help to his disciples?’ One of them said to him, ‘Show some respect! it’s no small thing to think such things of great men! It is unthinkable for him and what he is that such a flood should stain his purity. Do not insult the Men of God like this, it is your fantasy! Take it all back! This is not true, and if it were, you dodo, what harm can a dead duck do to the Red Sea? 3320 He’s not less than two barrels or a small tank that some impurity could vitiate him. The fire could not consume an Abraham, but anyone like Nimrod should be fearful!’ The self is Nimrod, mind and soul Khalil: self is the proof, the spirit is the essence! This map is for the traveller on the way, who in the wild gets lost at every moment. With only eye and lamp as guide, they have no need of maps and highways, those in union. 3325 If one in union speaks discursively he speaks for intellectuals’ understanding.

209

210

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

The father talks in babble to his baby, although his mind may span the universe. The master’s excellence is not decreased if he says that the alef has no point! To teach someone with speech impediments, you must range out of normal forms of language. You have to enter into their own language, so they can learn the skills and knowledge from you. 3330 And so the sheikh must know when he is teaching that everyone is like his little children. So to the pupil who bad-mouthed the sheikh, so stuffed with unbelief and waywardness, He said, ‘Don’t fall upon a sharpened sword of doing violence to your lord and king,’ As if the tank should think the sea its equal, it digs itself up from its own foundation. It’s not an ocean, for it has its limits, and it will be polluted by your corpse. 3335 Look, unbelief has limits and restrictions, but not the sheikh and his illumination! All bounded things are nothing to the boundless: All things must pass except the face of God. Where he is, unbelief and faith are not. these two are skin and hue, he is the kernel. These passing things are veils before his face, they’re like a lantern hidden by a bowl. The body’s head obscures that other head: before that head, this head’s an infidel: 3340 Who’s faithless? One who does not know the sheikhs’ faith. Who’s dead? One heedless of the sheikh’s true life. The soul is just awareness in the trial – the more awareness grows, the more the soul. Our souls are greater than the animal soul. In what respect? Superior in awareness.

The rest of the story of Ebrāhim son of Adham

Angelic souls are greater than our soul, for they transcend the ordinary senses. And as for Masters of the Heart, their souls exceed even the angels’. Get this straight! 3345 For this, Adam is venerated by them: his soul is quite superior to their being. It would be wrong to order that superiors should venerate something inferior. How could God’s grace and justice tolerate the rose to bow itself before the thorn? So since the soul is great, above all limit, the soul of all became obedient to it, The birds, the fishes, spirits and mankind, because it’s greater, they’re inferior. 3350 The needle-makers for his robe are fishes, as cotton threads will follow needles’ wishes.

The rest of the story of Ebrāhim son of Adham on that seashore Now when he saw the sheikh’s command in action, that fishes came, the prince fell in a swoon. He said, ‘Ah, fishes recognise the Pirs! O woe to him who’s outcast from the court! The fishes know the Pir, but we are far! We’re losers of this fortune and they’re blessed.’ He bowed and left in tears, a broken man, gone crazed with love for the opening of the door. 3355 And you, with unwashed face, what are you up to? Who are you targetting, who do you envy? While you are playing with a lion’s tail, you launch your ambushes upon the angels. Why are you speaking evil of pure goodness? Don’t count your lowness as pre-eminence.

211

212

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

What is such evil? – miserable poor copper! What is the sheikh? – an infinite elixir! Though copper is not proper for elixir, elixir’s not degraded by the copper. 3360 What’s evil? – arrogance of fiery action! The sheikh? – the sea of all eternity! The fire is always terrified of water: was water ever fearful of inflaming? You’re seeing a blemish on the lunar cheek, and gone apicking thorns in Paradise? If you should go to Paradise, thorn-picker, you’ll find no thorn to pick except yourself. You stuff a sun inside a lump of clay, you look for fault lines in a perfect full-moon? 3365 A sun that streams its rays across the world, why should it be concealed to please a bat? Sins are judged sinful by the Pirs’ rejection, they jealously keep mysteries mysterious. If you are far away, at least respect them, be quick and strenuous in penitence. A breeze may come to you from that direction: Why shut off mercy’s water by your envy? Although you’re far away, just wag your tail: ‘Wherever you may be, direct your faces’ 3370 An ass that falls in mud from going too fast will struggle every moment to stand up. It does not smooth the place out for a stay, it knows it’s not the place to make a home. Your sense has been inferior to the ass’s, your heart did not spring up out of this mud-fall, You find a verse to validate the mud-fall, since you don’t wish to tear your heart away. It is alright for me; I am afflicted, God won’t rebuke a weakling, out of kindness.

The rest of the story of Ebrāhim son of Adham

3375 You’ve been rebuked but, like the blind hyena, you don’t see this rebuke, in self-deception. They say, ‘There’s no hyena in this place, go look outside, it is not in the cave.’ They keep on saying this and tie it up, and it keeps saying, ‘They don’t know I’m here. For if this enemy had known I’m here, why would he shout out, “Where is this hyena?” ’

The statement of a certain person that God most high would not punish him for sin and the answer of Shoʿayb, on whom be peace, In Shoʿayb’s time there was a man who said, ‘God has been witness to my many sins. 3380 He’s seen so many sins and crimes of mine, and in his kindness God does not rebuke me.’ In clear response to this the Most High God responded subtly in the ear of Shoʿayb. ‘You said, “So many sins I have committed, in kindness God did not rebuke my sins.” You’re talking upside-down and inside-out, O fool, who’ve left the path and gone astray. So often I rebuke you, you’re oblivious, and you are left in chains from head to foot. 3385 The rust upon your surface, blackened caldron, has caused corruption of your inner face. Rust has accumulated on the rust upon your heart, until it’s blind to mysteries.’ If smoke should fall upon a brand new pot it leaves a mark, although it’s just a spot. For everything’s appearing by its contrast, the black becomes exposed upon the white. Then once the pot is blackened, after that who can at once detect the effects of smoke?

213

214

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

3390 The ironsmith who is an Ethiopian, the smoke is the same colour as his face; The ironsmith who is an Anatolian, his face is black and white from smokiness, So he would quickly know the marks of sin, then he would soon cry out and say, ‘O God’. When he persists with evil as his business, he throws dust in the eyes of contemplation. He does not think of penitence, and crime is a sweet thing to his heart till he is faithless. 3395 That penitence, which called out ‘Lord’, went from him, five coats of rust have spread across his mirror. Corrosion then began to eat the iron, corrosion has begun to dull its sheen. As when you write on paper that is pristine, what’s written is apparent at first sight, But when you write on paper that is used, it is illegible and leads to errors. One blackness fallen on another blackness, both scripts are indecipherable and nonsense. 3400 And if you overwrite on it a third time, you’ll make it blacker than the Devil’s soul. What help is there but refuge in the Helper? Despair is copper, and the cure His Favour. Lay out your hopelessness before Him, escape the pain that has no remedy! Shoʿayb informed him of these principles, with that soul-breath his heart came into flower. And when His soul heard heaven’s revelation he said, ‘If he rebuked me, where’s the sign?’ 3405 To God Shoʿayb said, ‘He’s resisting me, he’s looking for a proof that you rebuked him.’ God said, ‘I am the Veiler. I do not tell his secrets, save one hint to bring the truth out.

The rest of the story of the stranger reviling a sheikh

215

One thing that indicates I do rebuke him is, though he keeps to worship, prayer and fasting, And prayer times and almsgiving and the rest, he has no particle of spiritual savour, Performing worship, doing pious actions, yet has no particle of such a savour. 3410 His worship is sincere, but not the spirit, the walnuts many, but there are no kernels.’ Taste is required that worship should bear fruit, for seeds to make the tree, the kernel’s needed. Can seeds without a kernel make a sapling? A form without a soul is just not happening!

The rest of the story of the stranger who reviled the sheikh That fool was spouting nonsense on the sheikh – the boss-eyed always have a boss-eyed mind! ‘I saw him in a crowd of party-goers, he’s stripped of all god-fearing, he is worthless. 3415 And if you doubt me just get up tonight and you can clearly see your sheikh’s cavorting.’ At night he took him to a window, saying, ‘Look, witness his cavorting and enjoyment! Hypocrisy by day, all night cavorting, by day Mohammad, Bu Lahab by night! By day the name he’s known by is “God’s servant” by night it is “God help us”, with a bottle! He saw a full glass in the sheikh’s own hand, ‘O sheikh, is that a swelling you have too? 3420 Did you not say that in a glass of wine the Devil’s pissing at full-cock and half-cock?’ He said ‘They’ve filled my glass so very full that there is no room for even one wild rue-seed. Look, is there room here for a molecule? – someone has got the wrong end of the stick.’

216

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

It’s not the cup or wine that are apparent, far be it from the sheikh who sees the unseen. The wine cup is the being of the sheikh, in which the Devil’s piss is not contained. 3425 It’s full and brimful of the light of Truth, light absolute, he broke the body’s cup. If sunlight were to fall on excrement, it is the same light, and is not polluted. ‘It’s not a cup, nor is it wine,’ the sheikh said. ‘Hey, cynic, come down here – see for yourself!’ He came and saw it was the finest honey, That wretched enemy was mortified! The Pir told his disciple at that instant, ‘Go down on my behalf and find some wine, sir. 3430 For I’ve a pain, and I’m in dire straits, I’ve gone beyond starvation with the pain. In such emergency all carrion’s clean! May earth engulf the man who contradicts me!’ His good disciple went around the wine vault, and tasted every wine-jar for the sheikh. In not one jar did he find any wine, instead, the wine jars were now filled with honey. He said, ‘O drunkards, what is going on? I can’t find any wine in any jar!’ 3435 And all the drunkards gathered round that sheikh, in floods of tears and beating at their heads, ‘You came into our tavern, glorious sheikh, and since you came, the wine all turned to honey! You changed the wine from being filthy stuff and in the process purified our souls.’ If all the world were filled with blood, how could God’s servant sip on other than he should?

The mouse and the camel

217

Aisha, may God be pleased with her, said to Mohammad, on whom be peace, You perform the prayer anywhere without a prayer mat There was a day Aisha asked the Prophet, ‘Apostle of God, in private and in public 3440 You’re saying the prayer wherever you may be, where unclean and unworthy folk are roaming, Although you know that every dirty child makes every place it goes become defiled.’ The Prophet answered, ‘For the sake of great ones, God makes the impure pure, you should take note! And so God’s grace has made my place of worship be pure up to the seventh rank of heaven.’ Beware, let go of envy of the kings, or you’ll become an Iblis in the world. 3445 If he drinks poison, it will turn to honey, if you drink honey, it will turn to poison. For he’s transformed, his action is transformed: now he is grace, and all his fire is light. The power of God was in the swifts’ possession or else how could a bird slay elephants? A few small birds could decimate an army, all so you know such strength derived from God. If this type of temptation reaches you, go read ‘The Owners of the Elephant’. 3450 If you dispute with him and face him off, call me an infidel if you retain your head!

How a mouse pulled the nose ring of a camel and the mouse’s becoming pleased with itself A tiny mouse tripped on a camel’s tether, she took it and went off with it pretending,

218

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

The camel went along so jauntily, the mouse imagined that she was a hero. The ray of an idea then struck the camel, he said, ‘I’ll show you – you enjoy yourself.’ Till they got to a mighty river’s banks, from which wild elephants would shy away. 3455 The mouse was frozen in her tracks and stood there, The camel said, ‘O hill and desert friend! What is this hesitation? Why the worry? Step manfully into the river! Enter! You are my road guide and my trail-blazer, Don’t stop mid-way and go all silent on me!’ She said, ‘This vast and deep expanse of water is filling me with fear of drowning, comrade.’ The camel said, ‘Let’s see how far it reaches.’ The camel put his foot in straightaway. 3460 ‘Blind mouse, the water comes up to my knees, why were you worried and beside yourself?’ ‘What’s just an ant to you, to me’s a dragon, “up to the knee” can mean a lot of things! What’s just below your knee, most virtuous one, comes over me a mile above my head.’ He said, ‘Another time don’t be so bold, so that these sparks don’t singe your soul and body. Take on a mouse such as you are yourself, mice have no business dealing with a camel!’ 3465 She said, ‘I do repent. And now for God’s sake, get me across these deadly dangerous waters!’ The camel had compassion and said, ‘Listen, jump right up here and sit upon my hump. It’s well within my power to make the crossing, I could transport a hundred thousand like you!’ Since you are not a prophet, go by dry land, one day rise from the depths to be an adept.

The mouse and the camel

Since you are not a sultan, be a tenant, don’t steer yourself, since you are not the helmsman. 3470 Don’t set up shop alone, since you’re not perfect, be flexible, so that you may be kneaded. Be quiet! listen to the words ‘keep silence!’ since you are not the voice of God, just listen! And if you speak, speak in the form of asking, address the King of kings like you’re a beggar. Lust is the origin of pride and hatred, and habit’s the foundation of your lust. When habit strengthens your bad character, you’re cross with anyone who holds you back. 3475 When you start eating dirt, then anyone who holds you back from dirt is your opponent. Idolaters, when wrapped up in their idols, are enemies of those who block their way. Since Iblis had got used to leadership, he looked at Adam with contempt, in folly, ‘Is there another leader who is better, that someone like me should bow down to him?’ For leadership is poisonous, except for spirits full of antidotes already. 3480 And though the mountain’s full of snakes, fear not! for inside it is stuffed with antidotes. When leadership gets right inside your brain, whoever breaks it is an ancient foe. When someone says something against your nature, resentment of him rises up in you. ‘He’s tearing me to go against my nature, he makes himself a leader over me.’ If evil nature’s not headstrong in him, why does the fire of conflict flare in him? 3485 He’ll show some courtesy to his opponent, insinuate himself into his heart.

219

220

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

For his bad nature does not dominate: the ant of lust became a snake through habit. So kill the snake of lust at the beginning! If not, watch out! – your snake’s become a dragon! And yet, all see their snake as just an ant – just ask the Master of the Heart to explain it! Till copper’s gold it does not know ‘I’m copper’, till heart is king it doesn’t know ‘I’m bankrupt’. 3490 Submit to the elixir, like the copper, O heart, endure the hurt from the Beloved. Who’s the Beloved? – Masters of the Heart, who like the day and night spring from the world. Do not speak critically of God’s own servants: do not suspect the King of being a thief.

The miracle of the dervish whom they suspected of being a thief on board ship Now once there was a dervish in a ship, who’d made a pillow from his few possessions. A purse of gold was lost while he was sleeping and everyone was searched, including him. 3495 They said, ‘Let’s search this holy man as well.’ The owner of the gold, distraught, awakened him, ‘A portmanteau’s gone missing in this ship, We have searched high and low, you can’t escape. Take off your dervish robe, strip off the robe, so you’re ruled out of general suspicion.’ He said, ‘O Lord, your servant is accused by these despicables. Thy Will be done!’ Just as that dervish heart was being smitten, a hundred thousand fishes all at once 3500 Bobbed up their heads out of the ocean deep all round, in each one’s mouth a wondrous pearl.

The dervish suspected of being a thief

A hundred thousand fishes from the ocean, in each one’s mouth a pearl, and what a pearl! Each single pearl a kingdom’s revenue! ‘They are divine: there are no shares in them.’ He threw some pearls upon the ship and sprang to make the air his throne and there he sat, Cross-legged, like kings upon their throne, in comfort, he high up in the sky, the ship before him, 3505 ‘Be gone! The ship’s all yours, and God’s all mine, so you shan’t have a beggar-thief beside you. Let’s see who loses out by this division – I’m happy joined to God, apart from creatures. He does not lay the charge of theft on me, He does not give the lead to an informer!’ The people on the ship cried out, ‘O hero, Why are you given a status so sublime?’ He said, ‘For making holy men suspected, reviling God for things beneath contempt. 3510 No, God forbid, for praising of the kings, that I did not insult the holy men. Those holy men of subtle and sweet breath, the text He frowned was sent in praise of them.’ That holiness is not for complication – the contrary – except for God there’s nothing. How can I hold as suspects those whom God entrusted with the Seventh Heaven’s treasure? The self is suspect, not the noble mind, our sense is suspect, not the subtle light. 3515 The self inclines to sophistry, just beat it! for beating’s good for it, not reasoning with it. It sees a miracle and glows at once, but afterwards it says, ‘That’s an illusion. For if that marvellous vision were the truth, why could it not abide by day and night?’

221

222

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

It is abiding in the eyes of pure ones, it’s no companion to the eyes of creatures. That marvel has but scorn for such a sense: how can a narrow pit contain a peacock? 3520 Please do not say that I am too loquacious, I say a hundredth part – a hair’s more spacious.

Some Sufis reproach a Sufi of talking too much before the sheikh Some Sufis turned against a certain Sufi, and came to see the head man of a lodge, And they addressed the Sheikh, ‘O leader, ask this Sufi to give justice to our souls.’ He answered, ‘So, what is your beef, you Sufis?’ One said, ‘This Sufi’s got three awful habits! In speech, he goes on droning like a bell, with food, he gobbles more than twenty men, 3525 And when it comes to sleep, he’s like the Cavemen!’ Such was the Sufis’ plea before the Sheikh. The Sheikh then looked that Sufi in the eye, ‘In everything, adopt the middle way. Tradition says “the best lies in between”: in balancing four humours lies good health. If one is in excess, by accident, disease arises in the human body. Do not outdo your friend in qualities, that brings division in the end, for certain. 3530 The speech of Moses was proportionate, but too much for what his good friend would say. And that excess caused dissonance with Khezr, He said, “Go, gossiper, this is division.” You, Moses, have a lot to say, be off! or if not, then be dumb and blind with me.

Some Sufis reproach a Sufi

If you don’t go, and still insist on sitting, in truth you will have gone and been cut off.’ If suddenly you break wind while you’re praying, you are told, ‘Hurry, purify yourself!’ 3535 If you don’t go, your actions will be fruitless, your prayer ’s already disappeared, you failure! Go be with those who are your devotees, who love you and are hungry for your words. The watchmen are superior to the sleepers, but for the fishes there’s no need for watchmen. Those who are clothed depend on those who wash them: for naked souls His splendour is adornment. And either pull back from the naked ones, or be like them, be free of body garments. 3540 And if you cannot be completely bare, reduce your clothes to take the mid-way there.

The dervish’s excusing himself to the sheikh That Sufi told the sheikh his side of things, made his excuses with his obligations, Responding to the questions of the sheikh, like Khezr’s they were good and proper answers, Those answers to the questioning of Moses which Khezr put to him from God Most Wise. His problems were resolved beyond description: to all his problems he gave him the key. 3545 The dervish also was endowed by Khezr, and in his answer he employed this power. He said, ‘Although the middle way is wisdom, the middle is too relative as well.’ The stream is to a camel nothing much, but to the mouse that stream is like an ocean. A man who likes to eat four loaves for breakfast and eats just two or three is moderate.

223

224

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

If he eats four, it is not moderation – he’s like a duck, a captive of its greed. 3550 And one who has a craving for ten loaves and eats just six, know that is moderation. When I am craving fifty loaves of bread and you six buns, are we equivalent? No. You may get tired by praying ten rakʿats, and I’m still going strong after five hundred. One man is walking barefoot to the Kaʿaba, one hardly makes it to the local mosque! In purity of mind one gives his life up, while one could hardly bear to give his loaf up. 3555 This moderation goes with finitude, for it has both beginning and an ending. The start and finish are both necessary so that the moderate can be imagined. Infinity does not have two extremes, so how can ‘middle’ be a part of it? No one was shown the start and end of things: God said ‘If all the sea were ink to write with . . .’ If all the seven seas were turned to ink, there’s not a hope of getting to the end. 3560 If groves and forests all turned into pens, these words would not decrease by one iota. And all those pens and ink will disappear and this uncountable account goes on. Sometimes the way I am resembles sleep – and some deluded souls think it is sleep. My eyes are sleeping – but my heart’s awake! see, my form that seems inactive is in action! The Prophet said, ‘My eyes sleep but my heart sleeps not before the Lord of all the creatures.’ 3565 Your eyes awake, your heart is deep in sleep, my eyes are sleeping, but my heart keeps vigil.

Some Sufis reproach a Sufi

My heart’s possessed of five quite different senses: the senses of the heart view both the worlds. Don’t look upon me from your state of weakness, what’s night to you, that night to me is daybreak. What’s jail to you, to me is like a garden: complete preoccupation gave me freedom. Your feet in clay, for me this clay is roses: for you it’s mourning, for me celebration. 3570 I live in places on the earth among you, and run like Saturn over highest heaven. I am not next to you, that is my shadow, my own position is above your thoughts. It is because I have transcended thought, becoming one who races outside thought. Conceiver of the thought, I’m not conceived: the builder is the landlord, not the building. All mortals are the victims of their thought, so they are sore in heart, so used to sadness. 3575 I may direct attention to my thoughts, but when I wish I spring away from them. I’m like the heavenly homa, thought’s a fly – how could a fly be influencing me? I come from highest heaven purposely that those of lowly stature may attain me. When weariness of wretchedness afflicts me, I soar up like the birds that stretch their wings. My wings developed from my very essence, I don’t stick on these wings of mine with glue. 3580 Jaʿfar-the-Flyer’s wings are permanent, Jaʿfar the Phoney’s wings are just on loan. For those who have not tasted it’s pretentious, for those at the horizons, it is real. It’s boasting and pretentious to the crow: the fly is pleased with full or empty piss-pots.

225

226

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

When what you swallow turns to gems in you, don’t hold back, have as much as you can eat. The Sheikh, one day, to disprove all such fancies, made himself vomit – everything was pearls, 3585 The wise sage made the gems of understanding perceptible for him of little insight. Since pure things all turn putrid in your stomach, lock up your throat and hide away the key. But he whose food turns into glorious light, let him eat what he wants, for him it’s right.

Explanation of some assertions the truth of which is attested by their own nature If you are the companion of my soul, my wisdom words are not pretentious claims. At midnight if I tell you, ‘I am with you, don’t fear the dark, I’m from your family’. 3590 Both these remarks are meaningful to you, because you recognise your family’s voice. The closeness and the kinship were two statements, but both had meaning for good understanding. The nearness of the voice is ample proof this utterance issued from a friendly source. More so, the pleasantness of homely voices is proof of that dear relative’s true nature. The dullard fool who, out of ignorance, can’t recognise a kinsman from a stranger, 3595 To him the invocation’s just a statement his ignorance gives rise to his denial. But, for a smart one who is more enlightened the voice itself is what it means exactly. Or if an Arab says in Arabic, ‘I know the language of the Arab nations,’

Some Sufis reproach a Sufi

His speaking Arabic is ample proof, though ‘I know Arabic’ is just a statement. A writer writes upon a piece of paper, ‘I am a writer, reader and distinguished’, 3600 This piece of writing’s only an assertion, but still a testament to what it means. Or yet some Sufi says, ‘Last night when dreaming you saw a prayer rug on somebody’s shoulder. Well that was me! What I said in the dream to explain the vision in your dreamlike state, Give ear to that, attach it like an earring, make those words your intelligence’s guide!’ When you recall that dream, these words of his are new-born miracles and antique gold. 3605 Although this seems to be a mere assertion, the one who has experienced it says, ‘Yes!’ So wisdom’s like the stray beast of the faithful, he recognises it – whoever tells him! And when he finds himself just staring at it, can there be any doubt? Is he mistaken? Or when you tell a thirsty man, ‘Be quick, there’s water in the cup, take it at once!’ Would he, the thirsty man, say, ‘That’s your claim! Away from me, you troublemaker! Leave! 3610 Or yet produce some proof and evidence that it is watery and flows from springs.’? Or if a mother calls her suckling baby, ‘Come here, my baby, see, I am your mother!’ Then does the baby say, ‘O mother, prove it, so I can be assured about your milk.’? When people have God’s savour in their hearts, the prophet’s face and voice are miracles. When outwardly there is a prophet calling, the people’s souls fall inwardly to prayer.

227

228

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

3615 The soul has never heard that kind of cry from any other creature in the world. Directly, in the strange voice, that estranged one heard from the tongue of God ‘Lo, I am near’.

How John the Baptist, on whom be peace, bowed in his mother’s womb to the Messiah, on whom be peace The Baptist’s mother secretly told Mary, before She was delivered of Her burden, ‘For certain I can see a king within you, a lord of resolution, wise apostle, Because whenever I encounter you my baby bows to him, illustrious Lady! 3620 My foetus bowed in worship to your foetus, from bowing thus my body was in pain.’ Mary replied, ‘I also felt within me this baby’s act of worship in my womb.’

Raising a difficulty with this story Now fools claim that this tale should be curtailed, and that it is a falsehood and mistaken, That Mary, in the course of her confinement, was far away from family and strangers, Till she gave birth, that maid of sweet enchantment remained outside the town and did not enter, 3625 That in her pregnancy she met nobody, she did not come back in from out of town, That she gave birth, then held him to her bosom, and took him to present him to her kin. So where had John the Baptist’s mother seen her to render this account of what had happened?

The mother of John the Baptist and the mother of Jesus

Answer to the difficulty They don’t know that for people of good heart what’s hidden to this world is here for them. The mother of the Baptist came to Mary as present to her view, though far from sight. 3630 Closed eyes are capable of seeing the friend when one has made a filigree of eyelids. Though she may not have seen her, in or outside – just grasp the story’s meaning, simpleton! Not like the man who’d heard some mythic tales and had got stuck in some myth understanding. He’d say how could that tongue-tied beast Kalila take in the words that came from speechless Dimna? And if they understood each other’s babbling, how could a human understand such nonsense? 3635 How could that ‘Dimna’ act as ‘messenger’ of lion and ox, and charm them both with stories? How was the noble ox the lion’s ‘vizier’? How come the elephant feared the moon’s reflexion? This tale Kalila and Dimna’s all invention or why’s a stork debating with a crow? O brother, story’s like a pair of scales: the meaning’s like the grain that’s in the balance. A clever man will take the grain of meaning, he will not see the scales, like they’re not there. 3640 Hear what the rose and nightingale are saying, though there’s no actual speech between the two.

Speaking in the inner language, and understanding it Hear also what goes on between the moth and candle, pick the meaning from the story. Although there is no speech, it is its essence: rise up, don’t swoop low like the owl in flight.

229

230

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

At chess one player said, ‘This is the rook’s house.’ the other said. ‘How did it get a house? It bought it outright or inherited it?’ You’re lucky if you go straight to the meaning. 3645 A grammatist pronounced that ‘Zayd struck Amr’. A fool said ‘Why chastise him innocently? What was the crime of Amr that uncouth Zayd struck him all blamelessly as if a slave?’ He said, ‘This is the measure of the meaning, so help yourself to grain, there is no measure. The “Zayd” and “Amr” are there to show the syntax: if that is false, you can explain the syntax.’ He answered, ‘No I don’t know that, so why did Zayd strike Amr without a crime or fault?’ 3650 Despairing now, he tried to make a joke, saying ‘Amr had added on an extra vav! Zayd found this out and struck the one who’d stolen. He’d gone too far, so he got his come-uppance.’

How worthless sayings suit the hearts of worthless people He said, ‘Look, it’s the truth, my soul accepts it.’ Corrupt is right to those who are corrupted. Just tell a squinter that the moon is one, he’ll tell you there are two and one is doubtful. If someone mocks him saying, ‘Alright, two!’ he will agree – it’s what that type deserves. 3655 Lies lie upon each other in a pile, ‘bad women for bad men’ illuminates it. The open-hearted are the open-handed: the stone-blind stumble on the stony ground.

The search for the tree of which none who eats its fruit shall die There was a wise man, and to tell a story he said ‘There is a tree in Hindustan,

Search for Tree of Life and Rumi’s single verse of comment

Whoever takes the fruit of it and eats it shall not grow old nor ever shall he die.’ A king who heard that from a truthful man fell deep in love with this tree and its fruit. 3660 He sent a clever courier from his court to Hindustan to go in search of it. For many a year that courier was searching for it the length and breadth of Hindustan. He went in search of it from town to town, left unexplored no island, desert, mountain, And everyone he asked just burst out laughing, ‘Who’d look for this except a madman chained?!’ A lot of people slapped him as a joke, a lot would say, ‘O gentleman of fortune, 3665 The quest of one astute and smart as you, how come it’s fruitless? Why is it so pointless?’ And such remarks were just another blow, and it was harder than an actual blow. They praised him with their mockery, ‘Great man, there is a tall and mighty tree somewhere. There is a green tree in a certain forest, so tall and broad and all its massive branches.’ The king’s envoy, who’d girt his loins to find it, was hearing different things from everyone. 3670 He’d travelled very far for many years, and all the while the king would send him money. When he was much worn out in that strange land, at last he was too tired to search at all. No sign of what he searched for had appeared, what he desired was absent except rumours. The thread of all his hope was twisted off, and in the end his goal was undiscovered. Resolved to make his way back to the king, his tears were raining as he went along.

231

232

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

The sheikh explaining the secret of that tree to that imitative disciple 3675 There was learned sheikh, a noble Qotb, stood where this courier fell into despair. ‘I am beyond all hope – I’ll go to him, and set out on the path that leads from him. And then his prayers will be my road companion – I’m desperate I’ll not reach my heart’s desire.’ In floods of tears he went to see the sheikh, the tears were raining down as if from rain-clouds. He said, ‘O sheikh, it’s time for tender mercy, I’ve lost all hope, the hour has come for kindness.’ 3680 He said, ‘Explain what your despairing is, what is your goal? What are you striving for?’ He said, ‘The King of kings selected me that I must seek a tree of many branches. There is a tree unique in all the world: its fruit contains the elixir of life, And all the years I searched I saw no sign – just jokes and ridicule from these buffoons.’ The sheikh laughed, saying, ‘O you simple soul, this is the tree of knowledge in the wise man. 3685 It’s very tall and broad and most tremendous, a stream of life out of the encircling ocean. But you sought after form, you ill-informed one, so you got nothing from the branch of meaning. Sometimes it’s called “the tree” sometimes “the sun”, sometimes its name’s “the cloud”, sometimes “the ocean”, From which a myriad consequences come, the least effect of which is life eternal. Though one, it has a thousand-fold effects: the names of that one tree are past all counting. 3690 One person may be deemed a father to you, and yet to someone else he is a son.

How four persons quarrelled about grapes

To one he is an enemy and hostile, to someone else a good and gracious friend – a hundred thousand “names”, yet he’s one man: all qualities he owns obliviously. If someone’s sent to look for “names”, as you were, he will be disappointed and distracted. Why are you stuck upon the name of “tree” so you are left embittered and resentful? 3695 Let go of names and look at qualities, your qualities will guide you to the essence.’ Division in mankind is born of names: when names reach meaning, there is harmony.

The argument of four people about angur which each one knew by a different name A man gave money to four individuals, and one of them said, ‘I’ll buy some angur’. Another one, an Arab, said, ‘Oh no, I want ʿenab not angur, you imposter!’ Another was a Turk, who said, ‘My money! And I don’t want ʿenāb, I want ozom!’ 3700 The other one was Greek, who said, ‘Stop all this talk, what we require is estāfil.’ Those fellows fell into an argument: they did not know the mystery of names. They threw their fists about in foolishness, so full of ignorance and empty-headed. If there had been a multilingual sage who knew such secrets, he’d have reassured them, Then he’d have said to them, ‘With this one coin I shall fulfil the wish of all of you. 3705 When you can give your hearts without deception, this coin will get you all that you desire.

233

234

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

One coin will be four times your heart’s desire, four rivals will be one in unity. The words of each of you create division: my words bring harmony into your presence. So you must all be quiet and keep silence! and I shall be your tongues in conversation.’ Although your words may seem to be consistent, in their effect they are the cause of strife. 3710 The heat that is just borrowed does not work, the heat that is intrinsic is authentic. If you have heated vinegar with fire, when you consume it, it will surely cool you. Because its ‘heat’ is just an importation, its basic nature’s coldness and astringent. Son, even if date syrup has been frozen, consume it and it’s warming to your liver. The sheikh’s pretence is better than our candour, his comes from insight, ours comes out of blindness. 3715 The teaching of the sheikh results in union, the words of the materialists divide. When Solomon hastened from the holy presence and knew the languages of all the birds, Under his jurisdiction deer and leopard became good friends and put an end to warring. The dove was fearless of the falcon’s talons, the lamb did not take refuge from the wolf. He’d mediate between sworn enemies, a force of unity among winged creatures. 3720 And you are running round like ants for seeds! Seek Solomon! Why are you led astray? Seeds are a snare for every seed-seeker: the Solomon-seeker has him and his seeds. In these days, at the end of time, these soul-birds have not a moment’s peace from one another.

How Mohammed established unity amongst Muslims

235

There is a Solomon even in our time who would bring peace, not leave us to injustice. Recall the holy text, ‘There is no nation . . . but in the past a warner dwelt among them’. 3725 It’s said, ‘Indeed there never was a nation without God’s vice-regent and lord of power.’ He makes the soul birds so much of one heart, by purifying them he makes them guileless. And they become as tender as a mother: the Prophet said ‘The Muslims are one self.’ They all became one self through God’s apostle, or each would have remained sworn enemies.

How dissension and enmity among the Helpers were removed by the blessings of the Prophet, on whom be peace Two tribes known as the Aws and the Khazraj were blood-thirsty in spirit to each other. 3730 Their ancient feuds were banished by the Prophet under the light and purity of Islam. At first those enemies became like brothers, like grapes in bunches growing in a garden, They were advised ‘believers are as brothers’, they were compounded and became one form. Grapes are like brothers in appearance, for when you squeeze them they become one juice. Young grapes and full-grown grapes are opposites, but when they are mature they are good friends. 3735 But unripe grapes remaining hard and sour, God calls them the primeval unbelievers. No integrated self, he is no brother, – a miserable heretic in torment. Were I to tell what he is keeping hidden, a crisis of the mind would hit the world.

236

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Best not to tell the secrets of the heathens – Hell’s smoke is better banished from Eram. The healthy unripe grapes that are receptive are heartened by the breath of Men of Heart. 3740 They fast approach the ‘state of grapes’, so that their rawness, bitterness and harshness go. Then in the ‘state of grapes’ they burst their skins to be as one: their state is unity. The friend becomes the foe because there’s two: no one can wage a war against himself. O bless the Master’s universal love! He unified a myriad particles. Like all the dust that’s scattered at the crossroads, the potter’s hand has made of it a pitcher. 3745 Oneness of bodies formed of earth and water is flawed: things of the soul are not like this. If I use metaphors for illustration, I fear it will confuse your understanding. Now Solomon is here too, but we’re blinded by our rejoicing in far-sightedness. Far-sightedness will keep a man in blindness: the sleeper in a house can’t see the house. We’re dedicated to our learned words, we are so much in love with solving problems. 3750 So we can tie the knots and then undo them, we complicate the problems and the answers. As if a bird were to release the bird-trap, then snap it shut again to hone her skills. She is deprived of countryside and pastures, she’s spending all her life in knottiness. The trap does not become at all forgiving, continually her wings are getting broken. Don’t fight with knots – in case your wings and feathers are broken one by one by your display.

How Mohammed established unity amongst Muslims

3755 A hundred thousand birds destroyed their wings and have not blocked those random ambushes. Read of their state in Scripture, greedy one! ‘they searched there’ –see ‘was there a refuge?’ The quarrel of the Turk and Greek and Arab did not sort out how ‘grapes’ should be referred to. There’ll be no end to this duality till Solomon’s spirit’s speaking intervenes. So, all you fractious fowls, be like the falcon, and listen to the royal falcon drum! 3760 Set out from all directions joyfully from your diversity to unity. Wherever you may be, direct your faces this is what He has not forbidden you. We are blind birds and we are very useless, we never once acknowledged Solomon. Like owls we turned out hostile to the falcons, so we are left behind in wilderness. Because of utter ignorance and blindness, we seek to hurt the ones so dear to God. 3765 How should those flocks that Solomon enlightened tear off the wings and feathers of the guiltless? No, they bring morsels for the weaker sort, those birds are peaceable and kind and gentle. Their hoopoe, in his sanctifying God, reveals the way to hundreds just like Bilqis. Their raven seemed a raven but was really a falcon of the will, his gaze swerved not. Their stork is sending out the cry ‘lak-lak’ and puts the fire of unity in doubt. 3770 That dove of theirs is not afraid of falcons, the falcon lays his head before the dove. Their nightingale, which makes you so ecstatic, it holds within itself the rose garden.

237

238

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

Their parrot never needed sugar lumps, eternal sugar showed its face within her. Their peacocks’ feet are more attractive than the peacock plumage of the other birds. The speeches of the emperor’s birds are echoes – where are the speeches of King Solomon’s birds? 3775 How will you recognise the sounds of birds when you have not seen Solomon one instant? That bird whose call enthralls the world, its wings exceed the span of sunrise and the sunset. Its range is from God’s footstool down to earth, from earth up to God’s throne in majesty. The bird that goes without this Solomon, she is in love with darkness like a bat. Be known to Solomon, O worthless bat, or stay in darkness for eternity. 3780 If you move on one yard in that direction, you’ll be the yard that measures everything. And by your lamely limping over there your limping disappears into thin air.

The story of the ducklings which were nurtured by a domestic fowl You’re born of duck stock, though a common hen took you beneath her wing and fostered you. Your mother was the duck of yonder sea, your nurse was of the earth, a land-bird. The longing for the sea that’s in your heart, that nature in your soul is from your mother. 3785 Your longing for the earth is from this nurse, – let go the nurse for she leads you astray. Let go the nurse on dry land and move on! Come down like ducks into the sea of meaning.

The Story of the Ducklings

And if your mother makes you fear the water, don’t be afraid, and hurry to the sea. You are a duck, you live on dry and wet, you’re not like common fowls whose houses reek. By virtue of ‘We’ve honoured Adam’s sons’ you are a king: you go by land and sea. 3790 You are ‘We brought them on the sea’ in spirit: move on from ‘and We brought them on the land’. The angels have no access to the land, land animals know nothing of the sea. You’re animal in form, angel in spirit, you move both on the earth and in the heavens. So outwardly a man may be ‘like you’ seeing with a heart to which it is revealed. His earthly body fallen on the ground, his spirit circling in this highest heaven. 3795 We are all waterfowl, lad, waterbirds, the sea can speak our language perfectly. And so the sea is Solomon, we are like birds, in Solomon we’re sailing on forever. With Solomon, put your foot into the sea: the water makes a hundred rings like David. Though Solomon is present for us all, his zeal will seal our eyes, enchanting us. So, stupidly and sleepily and vainly, we weary of him though we’re in his presence. 3800 The thunder gives the thirsty man a headache, – he does not know it brings auspicious rain. His eye is fixed upon the flowing stream, oblivious of the taste of heaven’s water. He spurs his steed of will to worldly causes, so he remains excluded from the Causer. But he who sees the Causer face to face, how could he set his heart on worldly causes?

239

240

The Masnavi of Rumi, Book Two

How the pilgrims were amazed at the miracles of the ascetic they found alone in the desert There was a true ascetic in the desert absorbed in worship like the Abbādānis. 3805 Some pilgrims came there from their different countries, their eyes fell on the shrivelled-up ascetic. His place was parched but he appeared as moist: he had a remedy against the desert wind. The pilgrims were appalled at his aloneness, and at his health in those extreme conditions. He stood in ritual prayer upon the sand, sand that could heat a pot to boiling point. You might have thought he basked in herbs and roses, or he was riding on Borāq or Doldol, 3810 Or that his feet were placed on silks and shawls, or desert winds were better than the zephyr. That group stood waiting there expectantly, until the dervish finished his prostrations, The holy man emerged from his absorption: one of the group, a bright and lively mind, Observed that water trickled from his hands and face, his clothes were wet from his ablutions. And so he asked him, ‘Where’s the water from?’ He raised his hand and said, ‘It is from heaven.’ 3815 He asked, ‘Does it arrive when you request it, without a well, with no palm-fibre rope? Resolve our problem, Sultan of religion, that your ecstatic state may grant us faith. Reveal to us one secret of your secrets, that we may cut the girdles on our waists.’ He turned his eyes wide open to the heavens, ‘Grant me an answer to the pilgrims’ prayer! I always ask for daily bread from heaven, You’ve opened up the door on high for me.

Pilgrims amazed at the miracles of an ascetic

3820 O You who manifested place from placeless, who proved “in heaven is your daily bread”.’ During this prayer a fair cloud came as if a water-bearing elephant appeared. It started pouring rain as if from skins collecting in the crevices and caves, Like water skins the cloud was raining tears, the pilgrims all untied their water skins, From marvels such as those they saw, one group was cutting off the girdles from their waists. 3825 A second group increased in certainty, from such a marvel – God knows guidance best! A third was unreceptive, sour and raw, imperfect for all time. There is no more.

241

242

Notes The Notes are numbered to refer to specific couplets, following the numbering in the margins of the translation, and ‘a’ and ‘b’ refer to the first and second hemistichs or half-lines (Per. mes.raʿ) of the couplet. In Quranic references, the first number is the sura, or chapter, number; the second is the verse number. The Quran is quoted in various translations, principally Seyyed Hossein Nasr (Editor in Chief) The Study Quran A New Translation and Commentary, New York: Harper Collins, 2015, and Alan Jones The Qurʾān, Exeter: E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Trust, 2007 and /or the present author. NB in quotations of authors such as Nicholson I have modernised their transcriptions of Arabic and Persian words. The following abbreviations are used in the Notes (for fuller citations, see Further Reading) E. E

EC Gk. Kashf Lat. Mas. NC N. N Pahl. Per. Qur. SIM SQ

Mohammad Esteʿlami . Mohammad Esteʿlami’s edition: Mas navi-ye Rumi Jalāloddin Moh.ammad Balkhi, Tehran: Entesharat-e Sokhan, 10th edition 1393, 7 volumes (references to volume 2 unless specified). Esteʿlami’s Commentary in E (references to this volume unless specified). Greek R.A. Nicholson, Kashf Al-Mah.jūb The Oldest Persian Treatise on Sufism, by Al-Hujwīrī (Hojviri), London 1911, new ed. 1936, Gibb Memorial Trust Latin Masnavi Nicholson’s Commentary to Bk 1-2 (Vol. VII) Bks 3-6 (Vol. VIII) of The Mathnawí . . . in the “E.J.W. Gibb Memorial” Series Reynold Alleyne Nicholson R.A. Nicholson’s edition, translation and Commentary. The Mathnawí of Jaláluʾddín Rúmí, “E.J.W. Gibb Memorial” Series (London, 1925-1940), 8 Volumes Pahlavi Persian Quran R.A. Nicholson, Studies in Islamic Mysticism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1921 Seyyed Hossein Nasr (Editor in Chief) The Study Quran A New Translation and Commentary, New York. Harper Collins, 2015 243

244

Notes

Nota Bene I have referred to N.’s Commentaries where necessary, and often quoted his interesting and illuminating ideas, giving page number references, as in his work his notes are in Arabic numerals to the verse numbers of his edition. Where I have quoted N.’s notes and translations, N.’s verse numbers differ from those of the edition of Prof. Esteʿlami (E.), as the latter’s is based primarily on the G Manuscript of 677 AH/1278 CE, with the restoration of some verses that were deleted (probably by Rumi himself) from the manuscript of 668 AH/1270. E.’s edition of all six books contains a total of 53 verses more than N.’s edition (Lewis, Rumi Past and Present, 309): E.’s text of Book Two, for example, has 3,826 verses, N.’s only 3,810 . In my Notes I refer to the verse numbers of the Persian and English text: as in E.’s edition; in these verse references ‘a’ refers to the first hemistich, ‘b’ the second. Rather than just give numerical references to suras and verses of the Quran, I have tended to quote English translations more fully than N. does. Rumi cites these, and hadith ‘traditions’, both in Arabic and in his own Persian translation, sometimes slightly reworded or abbreviated to fit the Persian metrical pattern. When referring to proper names in my Notes, after the first usage I have not used academic style diacritics to distinguish Ar./Per. letters, with the exception of the letter ‘ā’ to denote the long vowel ‘a’ – otherwise names are given in their familiar English form (where available, e.g. Quran, not Qurʾān, Joseph, not Yusuf, Abraham not Ibrāhim) or simplified Persian (e.g. Mohammad, Hosāmoddin) or familiar Arabic spellings (e.g. Iblis, Ali, Omar).

Rumi’s Preface The Preface to Book Two is written in written in Persian, as are those to 5 and 6. The Prefaces to Books One, Three and Four are in Arabic. postponing this second book: Here and in v. 1 Rumi refers to the delay between Books One and Two, but does not go into specific reasons, which were, according to Aflaki, the bereavement suffered by Hos.āmoddin, Rumi’s companion and amanuensis, by the loss of his wife. In the preface, fittingly Rumi gives mystical, theological reasons and justifications. N. comments, in his inimitable fashion, In this passage the “postponement” is explained as an act of Divine Wisdom. God provides all the advantages for the sake of which men are impelled to act, and He bestows upon them just so much knowledge of these advantages as will produce the actions which He has decreed; otherwise they would be unable to act at all, for His knowledge is infinite, and none but Perfect Men possess the capacity for receiving it in full measure. Apparently the poet means to imply that his powers as a medium were intermittent and subject to conditions over which he had no control. At times God veils His glory even from prophets and saints. (NC , p. 229) And there is nothing We do not have storehouses of . . .: Qur. 15:21. And He raised up heaven, and set the Balance . . .: Qur. 55:7.

Notes

245

‘and God provides whomsoever He will without reckoning . . .: Qur. 2:212. they love Him: Qur. 5:54.

The Poem 1b-2a blood would turn to milk . . . a new born child: Whereas Rumi acknowledges that there has been a delay between the first and second books, he also provides a subtle connection. Without referring to the idea that Hosāmoddin, his beloved friend and amanuensis, had suffered the bereavement of his wife, he gives several reasons, in the preface and here in vv. 1–9, for the delay between the end of Books One and Two. He closed the first book of the Masnavi with the words: ‘Words are becoming very earth-polluted, the water has gone murky, seal the well-head! That God may make it clean and sweet again for He who made it murky makes it pure’. (1.4016-7) The first metaphor of the new book is drawn from childbirth and the transition from the human embryo in the womb feeding on blood transformed into the mother’s sweet milk after birth. Blood is considered polluted: Qur. 16:67 ‘in the cattle there is a lesson for you. We give you to drink from that which is in their bellies, between refuse and blood, as pure milk’. Milk is associated with spiritual inspiration. In the new book there is a new birth of spiritual being, and an evolution beyond the state of dependence. 3b

As when Hosāmoddin: Hosāmoddin is called the ‘Light of Truth/God’s Radiance in Mas. 1.431. In the interval between the books he had remained aloof from the world and, as if reining back the chariot of the sun, he had stopped at the sun’s zenith and deprived the world of light (v:4b).

4a

gone up to the Realities: This reference to ‘ascension’ (Ar. miʿrāj) to the Realities alludes to the story of the Prophet Mohammed’s ascent to heaven, of Qur. 53:6 and 17:1; ‘the Realities’ (Ar. h.aqāʾīq) refers to the realm of the unmanifest spiritual essence, where it is said Hosāmoddin disappeared into an inner spiritual seclusion.

5a

from the ocean to the shore: In Sufi poetry, ocean and shore are symbols of, respectively, the worlds of divine reality and temporal phenomena.

6

The burnisher of spirits: That is, the necessity for polishing the mirror of the heart, referred to at the beginning of Mas. 1, 33b-34 ‘. . . how can a mirror be without reflection? Do you know why your mirror tells of nothing? The rust has not been taken from its surface.’ See also v. 31 below. The reflective surface of the metal mirror is defaced by human breath, but when it is polished it reflects reality, as the heart of the sage reflects the light of the divine.

7

happened in the year six-sixty two: the Islamic year 662 AH is equivalent to November 1263-October 1264 CE.

246

Notes

8

A nightingale: The ‘nightingale’, that is, Rumi, was silenced in the spring-less absence of Hosāmoddin, and is transformed on his return into the sharp-eyed royal bird, ennobled by being the intimate of the King (God, the Truth). The falcon is a frequent visitor to this book of the Masnavi, for example vv. 325ff: and 1135ff. In any case, the ‘falcon’ of this and the next verse, is a symbol of the one who is intimate with the source of Truth, God, and who seeks ‘these meanings’ (maʿāni, which N. translates as ‘spiritual truths’). N. interprets the nightingale, who went and returned, as Hosāmoddin himself. Rumi’s self-effacement in the persona of Hosāmoddin (as previously in Shamsi Tabriz) makes this interpretation just as likely.

9

Remain upon the Royal arm, O falcon!: Lit. ‘May the resting-place of this falcon be the King’s forearm! May this gate be open to the people forever!’ The play on words or pun, (paronomasia in Classical rhetoric) can be a powerful instrument in Rumi’s hands (tajnis in Arabic and Persian): two or more identical or similar sounds mean different things in each hemistich, to make a point (nokte in Persian, puntiglio in Italian – which may be the source of Eng. ‘pun’). In this verse, each hemistich ends bāz bād where bāz means respectively ‘falcon’ and ‘open’, and bād ‘be!’. Only rarely can similar puns be found to suit the meaning. It is a perhaps noteworthy that Rumi uses a similar play on words in Mas. 1.9 (ātesh ast in bang-e nāy o nist bād – harke in ātesh nadārad nist bād) and see note.

10

It’s blocked . . .: As E. notes, Rumi teaches that preoccupations with the pleasures of this world, which are symbolised by eating and drinking, prevent access to the unseen world (see vv. 1631, 1651, 1972, 3707, 4005). The second hemistich refers to the sublime tastes of the spiritual world: sharbat has the sense of a medicinal potion, drunk in one draught. Here a moral point serves as the trigger for the first passage of contemplation of this book, in the next 10 verses.

11

Shut tight your mouth: Engaging in a moral reflection, the Masnavi addresses the audience in a series of tones or moods: first from the imperative mood, addressed to a putative ‘you’ (v:11), he moves successively to a declarative, admonishing and precautionary tone (vv. 11b-14), to a religious-mythological example (vv. 15-17) to a moral maxim (vv:18-19), to a pair of contrasting conclusions (vv. 20-21). This, in turn, leads to the subject of the next reflection – which once again begins in the imperative mood (vv. 22b-23a). Such chains of shifting moods are a feature of the persuasive poetic rhetoric that may go unnoticed but which is quietly effective in stimulating the audience’s imagination.

12a

hole of hell: In a similar vein Mas. 6:3495 (N:3485). ‘And when the sound of evil speech gets loud, reflect, what door of Hell is being opened?’

12b-13 No Man’s Land . . . the purest milk . . . your milk shall turn to blood: The closeness of the world of the flesh and the world of the spirit is the reason for the precariousness of human nature, poised between the two realms: we may so easily revert to our animal nature, reversing the evolution alluded to in v. 1. 15

his fall from Paradise . . .: Lit. ‘his separation from his high place in Paradise became the chain on his carnal self ’. Adam is regarded as the first prophet of Islam, the first

Notes

247

man, created from clay by God (Qur. 7:12) and is mentioned nearly 200 times in the Masnavi, and more frequently than any other prophet after Moses and Mohammad (in that order). The reason for this is probably that he is a symbol of man’s superiority to the angels, since God taught Adam the names of everything (Qur. 2:30-32), and also of man’s susceptibility to evil, since Adam disobeyed God and ate of the Tree of Immortality and was expelled frm Paradise to live on Earth (Qur. 7:11-18; 2:34). 16

just for bread: In the Quran Adam and his wife are tempted to eat not an apple but an unspecified fruit of the Tree of Immortality, which later Muslim tradition speculates was a fig tree, a vine or wheat – to which latter ‘bread’ is a reference in this verse. Cf. Mas. 1.4006a. As E. notes, these cries are a reference to the tradition that the oceans of the world are filled by Adam’s weeping tears for his misdemeanour.

17

that hair had grown across his eyes: A single hair can obscure the heart and heaven itself. Cf. Mas.1.1404b-1405a: ‘when hair has overgrown your inner eye/ 1405 Your heart’s eye must be cleansed of hair and error’, and also vv. 18, and 120–1 below. The eye, like the heart, is a window to the light of God. See Mas. 1.1134-5 and Introduction, above p. xx.

20–21 When mind . . . when ego . . .: These two verses are in parallel to vv. 26-27: ‘mind’ (ʿaql) and ‘ego’ (nafs) are here opposed as concepts. 21

individual: That is to say, ‘partial’ (jozvi) used of the mind (‘aql), soul (jān) and heart (del) is contrasted with those of the enlightened ones that are full or complete (koll, kāmel).

23–4

friend: The several references to ‘the friend’ are to the spiritual companion and advisor, that is, pir or sheikh, and at the same time to God himself.

25

Seclusion is from strangers . . .: In this verse, as often, the first hemistich makes a point of moral/spiritual import, and is amplified in the second by a maxim which may seem incongruous in English. Nicholson explains: ‘The object of khalwat [seclusion] is to be alone with God; but the saint is not other than God. To think of him is to think of God. The murīd [disciple) who would guard himself against thinking of his Shaykh resembles a man who in warm spring weather puts on the fur-coat that he wore as a protection against the winter cold’ (NC p. 231). In the springtime of the mystical vision of the divine Friend, such comforts against a ‘December’ chill are not necessary.

28

O huntsman: This returns to the subject of v. 18, of Adam as the prototype of man, who was both the eye of eternal light and fatally blinded by his own disobedience. The Sufi is ‘. . . like a hunter who is after game: he sees the deer tracks and he’s on the trail’ (v. 162 below).

30

mirror to the faithful: This refers to a tradition of the Prophet, quoted previously in Mas.1.1337. Mirrors become tarnished and darkened by the rust of selfhood, but the believer’s face is free from tarnishing. See below vv. 97–101. There are well over a hundred references to mirrors in the Masnavi, and it is a central mystical symbol in Sufism – see for example the first occurrence, in Mas. 1.34-5.

248

Notes

30–9

free from all defilement: Note the progress of these ten verses through associated themes: defilement – dust – mirror – breath – earth – spring rain – flowers – tree – autumn – covers – sleep: such a sequence is a characteristic of Rumi’s lyrical passages.

32

your breath must be suppressed at every moment: Cf. Mas. 1.3137-9, Noah says: ‘As I am not myself, this breath is His / Whoever breathes before this breath blasphemes.’

34

the tree: Moving into his one of his favourite metaphorical landscapes, the garden, Rumi gives the tree the allegorical significance of the spiritual aspirant: by a further shift, he personifies the tree as cowering from the hostile, bad friend (of winter) by its/his hiding under the cover of a quilt, that is not producing leaves and fruit. As N. and Wilson noted, the allegorical sense is that ‘no spiritual development can be derived from a bad friend, and what one has in one’s soul is best concealed from him.’ (NC , p. 232).

37

Sleeper of the Cave: A reference to the as.h.āb-e kahf, ‘Companions of the Cave’, or ‘Seven Sleepers of Ephesus’, whose story is told in Qur: 18:9-26: See Mas. 1.394409. Trajan Decius (Gaius Messius Quintus Decius Augustus, r. 249-251 CE) was the Roman emperor who persecuted them. The idea that the tree in autumn, in Rumi’s example, refers to the Sleepers of the Cave, and Decius is a bold figurative hyperbole, of a type to which the audience of the Masnavi grows accustomed.

38

their sleep: Though ostensibly the victims of Decius’ persecution, the Companions of the Cave became renowned for all time because of their sleep.

39

. . . with wisdom: This verse triggers the lyrical passage that introduces a spiritual discourse, which continues down to v. 111, on the theme of leaving the fantasy of self through waking up: yet being asleep to the world can make one more awake to the spiritual world, as Mas. 1.394-5 has it: This is the gnostic’s state while wide awake /God said ‘they were asleep’ – don’t flee this! Asleep to worldly matters night and day, / led like the pen held in God’s guiding hand.

40

Crows . . . nightingales: Opposites in symbolic terms, like owls and falcons, the former as seasonal creatures and the latter as inauspicious and auspicious birds associated with ruins and princes respectively; see vv. 8f., 325ff: and 1135ff. (and notes), 2110 and 3763. The nightingale is the symbol of the lover in Persian poetry, particularly the Sufi remembering God, as in v. 2575 below.

41–7

sun: There are references to the sun in each of these verses. In Mas. 1.116ff. there is a similar ascending into rapture about the Sun that is beyond the physical sun, which initiates one of the most ecstatic of discourses in the whole work.

45

See Qur. 18:83-90 Dhu’l Qarnayn, who is sometimes interpreted as being Alexander, is said to have reached the place of the sunset and the sunrise. N. suggests sunrise ‘may signify the Perfect Man who, as a murshid, sheds spiritual radiance on his disciples’ (NC , p. 233). At any rate, this passage of the Masnavi is full of images of ecstatic experience, in which differentiation is negated and oneness is perceived in everything.

Notes

249

46b

sunrises shall be lovers to your sunsets: N. comments: ‘your maghrib ([‘sunset’] state of occultation, spiritual darkness) will become a focus for the sunbeams of Divine tajalli [Self-revelation of God] (NC , p. 233).

47

O rider!: Man is the rider on the spirit, but, according to Mas. 1.1123ff. he has lost it: A man thinks he has lost his horse and yet perversely speeds his horse upon the road. That fine one thinks that he has lost his horse, and off his horse has swept him like the wind. That silly man in panic and in seeking, goes searching on all sides from door to door: ‘Who is the one who stole my horse, where is he?’ ‘Sir, what’s this one you have between your legs?’ ‘Indeed it is this horse, but where’s this horse?’ Come to yourself, O horseless cavalier!

49

five senses other than these five: See below vv. 3247ff.

51

The fleshly sense . . . the spiritual sense . . .: For similar such contrasts see Mas. 1.304, 1.2595, 1.3460, and vv. 64, 3214 and 3230–31 in this book.

52

O you, who have brought sensory goods to Heaven: N. explains vv. 52–55 thus: ‘These verses are addressed to the Perfect Man, probably with special reference to H.usāmu’ddīn’ (NC p. 233). However, recourse to Ibn ʿArabi’s theosophy is once again not necessary. There is no specific reference in the text that supports such an interpretation. The wish expressed in the second hemistich is that he should reveal a miracle such as when Moses put his hand into his bosom and when he drew it out ‘it was white to the beholders’ (Qur. 7:105; 26:32; 27:12, and Exodus 4:6). One aspect of Rumi’s interpretation of this miracle is expressed in Mas. 1.3500; see below note 72.

54

Anqā: The mystical bird which, like the Simurgh, is supposed to dwell on Mt. Qāf, which is the mountain range that surrounds the world in Islamic (Quranic) cosmology, like the Simurgh on Harā Bərəzaitī (Mount Alborz) in the Zoroastrian cosmology of the Avestan scriptures.

55b

O You, much more than all imaginings! The upper case ‘You’ is intentional, to indicate the merging of boundary of the perfected sage (ʿāref) and the divine being in these verses.

57

Comparer: Pers. moshabbeh is the term for one who is an ‘assimilator’, or ‘comparer’ who asserts the immanence (tashbih) of God, and movah.h.ad refers to one who asserts the transcendence (tanzih) of God’s uniqueness.

59a

Abu’l H.asan: N. suggests that Abu’l H.asan is ‘a “name of honour” given here to no person in particular but to any God-intoxicated man . . .’ (NC p. 234 f.) E. also thinks the name refers to a generic name for ‘someone’ unspecified. (p. 181). N. further notes, it may possibly allude to the Khorasani Sufi Abu’l H.asan ʿAli ibn Ah.mad al-Kharraqāni, who is referred to several times as Abu’l H.asan in Mas. 4, 1802ff. (= E.4.1803ff.), about whom N. has a learned note (NC III-VI 171f.).

250

Notes Mojaddedi, by contrast, postulates it may be a reference to (the anti-Moʿtazelite) theologian Abu’l H.asan al-Ashʿari (p. 226).

59b

‘O tiny teeth, O tender bodied one!’: This is quoted from an Arabic ghazal by Rumi.

61

Moʿtazelism . . . Sunni . . .: Here Rumi contrasts the doctrine of the Moʿtazilites, who believe that mind and sense are one, and that it is impossible to witness the beauty of God in this world, with Sunni Muslims who have faith that such is indeed possible, that is, through faith. He likens the Moʿtazilites to sensualists who see only the external sensual world, but the mind of truth-seekers achieve their insight through following the path of traditional faith, by which they can see the possibility of union with God (see E., p. 181). ‘insight’ translates Ar./Per. ʿaql, normally understood as the rational intellect of scholastic learning, but here it is other-worldly, spiritual wisdom to which Rumi is referring. Moʿtazilism is a rationalist expression of Muslim theology, ‘founded at Bas.ra, in the first half of the 2nd/8th century by Wās.il b. ʿAt.āʾ . . . subsequently becoming one of the most important theological schools of Islam.’ See further Gimaret, D., “Muʿtazila”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Ed. P. Bearman, et al.

67

Adam’s sons: Q 17:70 ‘We have indeed honoured the children of Adam’.

68

vain without your leaving form: N’s comment is helpful: ‘So long as you are under the dominion of your senses and discursive reason, it makes no difference whether you regard God as transcendent or immanent, since you cannot possibly attain to true knowledge of either aspect of His nature.’ (NC p. 236).

70a

it is no fault in blind men: Qur. 48:17 See note to v. 1545 below. 70b patience: a version of an Ar. proverb Rumi is fond of quoting. see. Mas.1.96, 1.2921, 1.4018, and in this book, 601ff., 3156 f., 3215.

71b

opens up the breast: Qur. 94:1 ‘Did We not expand for thee thy breast?’.

72

heart’s mirror: This echoes the passage in Mas. 1. 3499–3500, on the purification of the heart: The mirror’s purity is like the heart’s, receiving images beyond all number. The endless formless form of the unseen shone onto Moses’ breast from his heart’s mirror. See also vv. 95–100 in this book.

73

the paintings and the Painter: This is reminiscent of Mas.1.3481ff. ‘Painter’ is a metaphor for God the Creator, as is ‘Chamberlain’, the one who spreads the imperial carpet.

74a

my friend: N. assumes that this friend is Hosāmoddin, Rumi’s bosom friend and amanuensis. 75–6. 74a Khalil: ‘sincere, intimate friend [of God]’ is a respectful name by which the prophet Abraham is known, especially in Sufi literature. Famously, Abraham is the smasher of idols in Qur. 6: 76-83; 19:42-8; 21:51-70; 26:69-87; 37:84-96; 43:26-28. The other name by which he is known is the Quranic concept h.anīf (Qur. 2:135) ‘one who renounces idolatry’ and which identifies

Notes

251

him as being in the state of pure tawh.id ‘monotheistic belief unencumbered by constraints, distortions, and idolatry, and combined with a life of virtue’ (SQ p. 60), and therefore the first true Muslim. In this verse Rumi shows that he aware that seeing the form of his friend as an image of the truth appears idolatrous, that is, that it is, after all, a form like that of other men, but in fact, like Abraham, that friend is truly an idol-smasher. 75

Thank God: There is some deliberate ambiguity and shifting of pronouns and references in this and the preceding and following verses (between the third and second person). This may well refer to Hosāmoddin, as N. and E. believe, as the soul’s reflection in the divine image manifested by the friend.

76

heap dust on it: In Per., casting dust upon the head (here upon the heart that has been content with separation from the divine) signifies mourning or woeful regret: Rumi’s twist is that this very dust on the (divine) threshold, conceals the threshold from him, and makes him content with mere dust (material form). A further nuance in Per. is that the worshipper, on entering a holy place, will kiss the dust on the threshold, and out of devotion put it upon his eyelids.

77

this: That is to say, ‘this precious dust of the divine mystery’.

79–89 He’s beautiful . . .: N. thinks that these 11 verses are addressed to the reader and are an interruption to Rumi’s contemplation of Hosāmoddin that runs down to v. 108. 79a

is in love with beauty: ‘God the beautiful loves the beautiful’ is a hadith.

80

Good women for good men: Qur. 24:26.

91

He is calling me: Qur. 10:25.

93

I sought the image of my soul for so long: This verse may be compared with Mas. 1.5-6: I was in grief in all society, I joined with those of sad and happy state. Each one assumed he was my bosom friend, but none sought out my secrets from within me.

98

N. comments on this verse, ‘The Perfect Man, reflecting all aspects of the Divine nature, is an “ocean” to which other men are but tributaries’. This is one instance of many in N.’s Commentary in which he sees the influence of the teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabi, which are possibly over-interpretations, since Rumi does not mention the phrase ‘Perfect Man’ in the Masnavi, having his own poetical and metaphorical terms for the idea of a supreme human reflection of the divine.

99b

Mary: This hemistich translates Qur. 19:23.

107

kohl: English ‘kohl’ is a loan word from an Ar. koh.l (= Per. sorme here) meaning an eyeliner, mascara or eye-salve made from ground, powdered stibnite (Sb2S3): koh.l was a loan word into Medieval Latin, Fr. and Eng. as ‘alcohol’, originally meaning ‘a fine powder’ (now obs.), and since the 18th cent. ‘essence or distillate’, that is common alcohol (ethyl). Here Rumi’s ingenious metaphor refers to kohl in v. 107 as a cosmetic that creates an illusion, as Satanic wine (as opposed to the wine of

252

Notes divine intoxication) foments fantasy; by contrast, in v. 109 kohl is meant as the eye-salve of reality that refreshes the sight of sore, deluded eyes.

110a

one hair of you before your eye: This alludes to an idea from the first page of this book, vv. 17–18, that the hair of selfhood obscures the light of God, and gives rise to the first story of the book in 113ff. 110b a pearl is in your fantasy a jasper: That is to say, you will only see the worth of a true jewel and not mistake it for the less valuable substance, jasper, when you are free of illusion and selfishness.

113

Heading the moon appeared to someone’s imagination: Rumi uses the story, which runs to v. 119, to develop his teaching in a reflection (120–135) that one must avoid those who, like Iblis, lead one astray. Iblis led Adam astray (hence the connection to vv. 15–19 above and Mas. 1.1404-5 referred to in the note to v. 17 above). N. (NC 238) Quotes Lane, The Modern Egyptians, to explain the story, The night on which Ramadān (the month of abstinence, the ninth month of the year) is expected to commence is called ‘Leylet-er-Rooyeh’ or the Night of the Observation [of the new moon]. In the afternoon, or earlier, during the preceding day, several persons are sent a few miles into the desert, where the air is particularly clear, in order to obtain a sight of the new moon: for the fast commences on the next day after the new moon has been seen. . . . The evidence of one Muslim, that he has seen the new moon, is sufficient for the proclaiming of the fast. (ch. 25)

113

people: That is to say, the group of those with Omar Ibn al-Khattāb, the companion of the Prophet who became one of the four ‘rightly-guided’ caliphs. N. sees the figure of Omar as a symbol of ‘the Perfect Man’ who sees deeply into the mysteries of the heavenly world of spirit. (NC p. 238).

125a

ʽbe hard upon the unbelievers: Qur. 48:29. According to N., in this verse Rumi demonstrates that by ‘unbelievers’ he means those who are alien to spiritual or mystical understanding. (NC p. 239).

128

wolves . . . the enemies of Joseph: See Qur. 12:13-17, in which Joseph’s own brothers betrayed him, and lied to their father that the wolf had got him. Wild rue (Per. sepand / esfand) is burnt to prevent the ill effects of the evil eye.

129

the demon tricks you: Cf. Mas. 1.317 ‘for many a devil has a human face’.

130b

this blackfaced one checkmated Adam once: ‘Checkmated’ māt kard is a witty pun as it also means ‘stunned’ or ‘stupefied’. Rumi returns to this image of the chessplaying devil in vv. 2677–8 below, where he uses the same word-play.

131

you should not watch the game . . .: The word order of the Persian suggests this translation is correct; alternatively, as E. notes (EC p. 186), Rumi is saying that you should not think that the rook, with his apparently ‘tired, half-asleep eyes’, is not paying attention to the chess game (i.e. when in fact he is quick-witted).

135b

a robber would have ripped a robber off: That is to say, Iblis would have robbed ‘us’ (we humans who have falsely taken the things of this world as belonging to us), of the water of life (the living water of v. 134). It is interesting to note that this phrase stimulates Rumi to tell the next anecdote in vv. 136–140. See also Mas. 1.318.

Notes

253

140

Thanks be to God that prayer was not approved: This alludes in Persian to Qur. 2:216 ‘. . . But it may be that you hate a thing though it be good for you, and it may be that you love a thing though it be evil for you: God knows and you know not.’

142

Heading The request of the companion of Jesus that Jesus should bring back to life the bones: N. reports that according to Dr H. Ritter, this story previously occurs in Attār’s Elāhiname, but E. explains in his note (EC p. 186f.) that though it appears to have comes to Rumi from Attār, in fact Rumi only took the conceptual structure of the story from Attār and built something new on top of it. According to Attār’s story a fool learnt ‘the greatest name’ from Jesus and later one day saw a pile of bones in the desert and invoked the name over those bones. The bones came to life and turned into a ravaging lion and tore the man apart. The ‘name sublime’ of Mas. 2. 143 is the same as ‘the greatest name’ (in Attār) . . .’ In fact, when Rumi resumes the story, over 300 verses later in this book of the Masnavi, the narrative and meaning are quite different from Attār’s in the Elāhināme. It is Jesus who pronounced the names over the bones, and the lion that comes to life kills the fool to protect Jesus from the fool: but the lion does not drink the fool’s blood, explaining, when asked by Jesus, ‘the drink was not allowed to me’. With a further rational explanation by the lion, the story turns into a long reflective discourse. See further notes to vv. 460ff.

146

how more piercing: Cf. Hamlet’s monologue on the human condition in Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2.

157

Heading ‘God help us!’: This is Nicholson’s rendering of Ar. phrase lā h.awl, which is a shorthand for a prayer formula ‘there is no power and no strength except in God Most High, the Almighty’. The servant in the story uses the Ar. phrase seven times in the story by the servant in its most trivial and blasphemous equivalent to an indignant Eng. ‘God help us!’ as he pretends to be outraged at being told by the Sufi how to do his job. Rumi tells only two and a half verses of this story before he is apparently thrown into a state of mystical contemplation beginning at v. 159b. What follows in the next 42 verses of 160–201 is the explanation of the sublime meaning of a story even before the story has been told.

165a

To go one stage: The ‘stage’ (Ar./Per. . manzel) is equivalent to the term ‘standing’ or ‘resting place’ (Ar./Per. maqām) on the ‘way (Ar./Per. .tariqe) of inner knowledge, commonly called the ‘Sufi path’ in English. It is described as standing in a state of obligations which must be fulfilled. The first station is repentance, then ‘conversion’, ‘renunciation’ trust’ etc. These ‘stages’ or ‘stations’ are distinguished from the term mystical ‘state’ (Ar./Per. h.āl) which is a favour and grace that descends from God into the heart (Hojviri Kashf., tr. Nicholson p. 181). the scent of musk-gland: This refers to the inner, mystical path, as contrasted with 165b trips and traipsing: which refers to the stages of the outer journey of the formalities and duties of the external law of Islam, including the pilgrimage (see NC 241, EC . p. 188).

166

gates are opened: This refers to a phrase in Qur. 39:73, which is in full: ‘ And those who reverence their Lord will be driven to the Garden in throngs, till when they reach it, its gates will be opened and its keepers will say unto them, “Peace be upon you; you have done well; so enter it, to abide [therein]’. Rumi’s characteristic

254

Notes interpretation of this text is to refer to ‘those who reverence their Lord’ as the ʿāref, that is ‘enlightened [by mystical knowledge]’.

168

the Pir will see before you in a brick: N. has a helpful note that explains this image: ‘Khisht is the iron brick or plate which the polisher . . . converts into a mirror. The Pír sees things as they exist potentially in God’s eternal knowledge before they are actualised’ He adds: ‘Where ordinary men perceive only the phenomenal form, he discerns the essential nature and character’ NC , p. 242.

172–3 See note to Mas. 1.2671. In his commentary, Nicholson identifies the pre-eternal Adam with the spirits of the pirs in both these passage, in respect of their superiority to the angels (NC pp. 167, 241). This is confirmed by the explicit statement of v. 174. 173

they clapped their hands: A phrase from Qur. 2:30. ‘they’ refers to the pirs of vv. 169–172.

174

He: This reverts to the singular pir of v. 168, though in the following verses the plural is resumed.

178

E. notes that after v. 178 N. has another verse which is not in the two oldest manuscripts 668 and 677. My translation is ‘The spirit’s seen the wine within the grape, the spirit has seen being in non-existence’. The Per. verse is given in E.’s Persian apparatus criticus.

182

fanā: Per. fanā, ‘self-extinction’ derived from an Ar. verbal root meaning ‘to pass away, become extinct’, is a term often used in a particular mystical sense by the Sufis to denote the death of selfhood and passing away from individual existence that is a requirement for attainment of union with God. Rumi frequently uses this word to refer ambiguously to both physical death and mystical transcending of individual existence (see for example Mas. 1.812, and also note to Mas. 1.9).

189

‘has sprinkled over them His light’: This alludes to a hadith, of which one version is ‘Indeed God most High created the creation in darkness then sprinkled over them His light’; this is also alluded to in Mas.1.764.

194

Heading: This is a misplaced interruption eight verses before the mystical discourse ends with a reminder to the reader to look beneath the surface of his story to find the meaning.

224

Fātiha: The ‘Opening’ surah, Qur. 1 and Qāreʿa, the surah ‘The Calamity’ al-qāriʿa Qur. 101 are both recited as auspicious prayers to ward off evil.

250

by night it’s praising and by day prostrating’: That is to say, following the sequence of ritual prayer, the ass is falling to its knees. Here, at the end of the Sufi’s brief reflection, the story appears to end and the text segues into a discourse that lasts for than 70 more verses down to 324, warning humankind of the devilish perils lurking in the human state.

255

bridge: This is the bridge known as the path of the way (Ar. s.irā.t ; See Qur. 1:6-7, 2:137), by which souls are said to cross over Hell at the time of the last judgment. This notion is associated with the old Iranian motif of the ‘Bridge of the

Notes

255

Accumulator’ (Avestan Av.  činuuatō pərətu-, Pahlavi činwad puhl) of Zoroastrian eschatological myth) the bridge that leads from this world to the next and must be crossed by the souls of the departed see Enc. Ir. ‘Činwad Puhl’. 270

zekr: The Sufi practice of remembrance of God by mental and verbal repetition of the divine names; see Qur. 33:41 ‘O you who believe! Remember God with frequent remembrance.’ See also note to v. 3385.

272

Qur. 24:26, also cited at Mas. 1.1505 and 2.80 above.

275

you’ve a part of hell in you: This is a re-emergence of an old Zoroastrian idea, which is well expressed in the 9th Century Dēnkard: ‘. . . the dwelling of Ahreman in the world is in the body of men. When he will have no dwelling in the bodies of men, he will be annihilated from the whole world; for as long as there is in this world dwelling even in a single person to a small demon, Ahreman is in the world.’ Dēnkard VI.264, tr. Shaked, Wisdom, p. 103.

281–4 the trays . . .: The metaphor of the elements and tinctures in orderly array at the pharmacy alludes to the divine perfection of the pre-existential state of reality; 284a . . . got broken and the souls were spilled alludes to the disarray that ensues in the descent into existence, where, as 284b states, there is a mixture of good and evil. Zoroastrianism has a term for such a ‘mixed state’ of the world, Pahlavi gumēzišn, a word related to the one Rumi has here (āmikhtand) . Considering what follows, the passage shows how the Islamic mode of Rumi’s thought is permeated by more ancient, Iranian elements. 286

Before the prophets came we all were one: This alludes to Qur. 2:213 ‘Mankind was one community; then God sent the prophets as bearers of glad tidings and warnings . . .’

287

we were in the dark: Literally ‘night-travellers’.

292

the mirror of its explanation: Arabic taʿrif ‘explanation’ is the origin of Eng. ‘tarrif ’ via Italian tariffa. Day is revealing, disclosing the genuinely precious from the fake, and differences (for example, colours in v. 293) and is therefore an apt image for the time of the final judgment referred to the verses that follow.

295

blindfold night: Lit. ‘eye-closing’; occultation: This is N.’s suggestion. In his Commentary he says that sattāri’ (that is, ‘veiling’) ‘here is virtually synonymous with istitār the “occultation” of the saint by his bodily nature.’ (NC , p. 247) In a much earlier note to his translation, N. explains simply that by this is meant ‘the state in which the saint’s consciousness is not illumined by God.’

296

By the morning brightness: Qur. 93:1; vv. 296–301 are a mystical reflection on the first three verses of this sura, concluding that literal interpretations are unacceptable, for example, that God would swear by something ephemeral – which leads Rumi to reflect on the symbolic meaning of scriptural statements in v. 304, with examples in the following verses.

297

the Friend: That is, God.

299a

I love not them that set: Qur. 6:76 and see notes in SQ on Qur. 6:73–84, pp.367ff. ; 299b Almighty God: Lit. the ‘Lord of the Worlds’.

256

Notes

300

This verse is lacking in N.

301a

And by the night: Qur. 93:2.

302b

You’re not forsaken: Qur. 93:3.

307

On Mansur’s lips ‘I am the Truth’: This refers to the famous ‘heresy’ uttered by the early Sufi mystic, Mans.ur-e H.allāj, for which he was martyred in 922 CE/309 AH. N. quotes a passage from Discourse 11 of Rumi’s Fihi mā fih in which he teaches that ‘I am God’ is really an expression of an extreme of humility and selfabasement (see NC , p. 248, and W.M. Thackston, Signs of the Unseen, 45f:). See also v. 2532 and note.

308

In Moses’ hand: Qur. 20:62-76. This verse alludes back to the story of Jesus and the ineffective pretender who desires to know the name of power.

309

Jesus did not teach . . .: See the story above, v. 142ff.

310

tool: That is, the Master’s powerful name.

317

four-eyes: Lit. ‘squint-eyed’ (Per. ah.val); here an affectionate nickname for those who do not see reality as one – a favourite metaphor of Rumi’s – see Mas. 1.328-337.

324

it may not stay with every ignoramus: This verse returns to the idea of v. 318, and is based on a hadith attributed to Ali, which may be translated ‘Wisdom is in the heart of the hypocrite and turns this way and that way until it comes out of it and reaches its friends in the heart of the believer’. It also prompts Rumi to tell the next story.

325

Heading: The King finds his falcon in the house of a poor old woman: In this story, ‘the King’ is an alias of God and an allegory of the descent of the human soul from the paradise of the presence of God to the sensual world. The story is traced to a similar tale in Attār’s Asrārnāme (‘Book of Secrets’), in the 11th discourse, and is also mentioned briefly in the Introduction to Hojviri’s 11th-century treatise on Sufism, the Kashf al-Mah jub, where he cites it as a metaphor of how the wisdom of the Sufis is lost on the modern age: ‘In the past the works of eminent Sufis, falling into the hands of those who could not appreciate them, have been used to make lining for caps . . . The royal falcon is sure to get its wings clipped when it perches on the wall of an old woman’s cottage.’ (tr. Nicholson, p. 8). See also Alan Williams, ‘Rumi’s Spiritual Ornithology’, in Mawlana Rumi Review, 5, 2014, 171–9.

328

nincompoops: Lit. ‘unworthy incompetents’.

334b

those of the Fire . . . aren’t equal: Qur. 59:20 ‘Not equal are the inhabitants of the Fire and the inhabitants of the Garden. The inhabitants of the garden – they are triumphant.’

338b

because the King makes good all hideous things: Referring to the torture of Hell, Qur. 25:69-70 says: ‘The torment will be multiplied for him on the Day of Resurrection, and he will remain humiliated in it for ever, save those who repent and believe and act righteously – God will change their evil deeds into good deeds.’

341

presumptuous from praying: Cf. Qur. 23:1-2, which recommends humility in prayer. zekr; See note to v. 270 etc.

Notes

257

345

The one you make so drunk . . .: Cf. Mas. 1.579-80; here the falcon pleads that his intoxication in the worldly state is a result of his intoxication with the divine.

348

belt . . . pen: Symbols of power and dignity, and human skill, as N. comments, ‘a pen given by God is mightier than the sword’ (NC , p. 250).

349

Nimrod: (Per. Namrud) is mentioned occasionally in the Bible as a powerful ruler, associated with, among other things, the building of the Tower of Babel. In Islamic tradition he is an evil figure, never mentioned by name in the Quran, but most renowned as a persecutor of Abraham who, as punishment by God, was tormented by a gnat for 400 years. See Mas. 1.1197 and note. N. comments that Nimrod’s kingdom is thus the empire of worldliness and impiety (NC , p. 250). About his association with Zarathustra, see the article by Yishai Kiel, “Abraham and Nimrod in the Shadow of Zarathustra,” The Journal of Religion 95, no. 1 (January 2015): 35–50.

350–2 all my enemies like elephants . . .: See Qur. 105, and notes to Mas. 1.1323; see also vv. 2914–5 and note below. In the episode referred to in the Quran, the Abyssynian general Abrahe and his army including elephants were destroyed when God sent a swarm of birds, each of which dropped a stone carried in its beak (see further SQ , p. 1561). 355

Noah: See Qur. 54:10.

356

Behold the moon and split apart her forehead: This alludes to the miracle of Qur. 54:1 – see notes on Mas. 1.118b and 1.1085, and cf. v. 1610 below.

358

Moses . . . yearned constantly for this: Rumi refers to the tradition of Quran commentators that God said to Moses, ‘Strive for friendship with Mohammad, and so Moses yearned to be one of the men of his time.’

359

dawn of revelation: Moses did not have a revelation of God, as he was told, according to Qur. 7:143: ‘And when Moses came to Our appointed time and his Lord had spoken to him, he said, “My Lord, show me and I shall look at you.” HE said, “You will not see me . . .”.’ Mohammad, on the other hand, had a revelation of God in his ‘ascension’ (Ar. miʿrāj) to heaven. N. remarks that Sufi writers often contrast Moses as the intoxicated novice to whom vision of God is denied, with the sober Prophet Mohammed, referring to Hojviri, Kashf al-Mahjub p. 167f., 186 (NC , p. 251).

360

He said: That is to say, ‘God said’. The speech appears to end at v. 367, after which Rumi takes up the speaking voice down to v. 376, when God speaks again for three verses. The shifting of voices between personas is a feature of the Rumi’s Masnavi, after the Quranic style of iltifāt (see Introduction).

361

Submerge Your prophet Moses in the seas . . .: That is to say, transport him through the ages.

362

Nota Bene to the Persian reader: the last word of this verse should be printed as ‫ ﺑﮕﺸﻮﺩﻣﺖ‬not ‫ ﺑﮕﺸﻮﺩﺕ‬: this error occurs in the 6th-10th editions of Sokhan.

363a

Moses: Here he is addressed by his alias, Kalim, ‘the interlocutor’ who spoke with God: 363b carpet: here Rumi puns with the Per. homophone gelim ‘carpet’.

258

Notes

367

I was a treasure . . .: This is reminiscent of two hadiths: one a ‘sacred hadith’ attributed to the speech of God, ‘I was a hidden treasure and I desired to be known and for that purpose I created the creation (or man)’; the other is a hadith of the Prophet in which the Prophet said: ‘I was a hidden mercy and I was sent to a rightly guided community’. Thus Rumi is able to allude to both by combining the hadiths in his own words in a single Arabic verse. See also Mas.1.2875.

372

inner idol: According to scripture, both Moses and Mohammad were smashers of idols. Here Rumi recommends thanking Mohammad for having rescued us from the inner idol.

375

A Rostam tore his soul: In the Shāhnāme, Rostam is the most renowned of heroes, but endured great challenges and tragedies in his life as a warrior, in the course of which he mistakenly killed his own son Sohrab, until he was eventually slain by his own half-brother. Rostam’s father, King Zāl, by contrast, merely inherited his fortune and fame from a long line of legendary warriors and though he too was a great warrior, he outlived his sons and died a natural death.

379

Heading Sheykh Ahmad son of Khezruya: An eminent Sufi Sheikh of the 3rd/9th cent. (d. AH 240/ 854/5 CE.) A similar tale is told by Attār and Qushayri. N. reports (NC , p. 252) that the episode on which Rumi’s particular story appears to be is related in an anecdote of Abu Saʿid ibn Abi ʾl-Khayr, which N. translates in SIM p. 39.

382

as God made flour from sand . . .: This alludes to a traditional story that one day the prophet Abraham had no flour to feed his family and God commanded him to fill a sack with sand, which God miraculously transformed into flour.

383–4 The Prophet said . . .: This is based on a prophetic hadith, which Rumi also translates in Mas. 1.2234-6: ‘Every morning when your servants rise, two angels come down: one of those two says: O God, give the generous a good reward, and the other says, O God, afflict the miserly with ruin.’ 385

spent their lives: Per. jān means both ‘life’ and ‘soul’. N. translates ‘the spirit of everlastingness – a spirit safe from grief . . .’

386

He [offered up his throat]: That is, the sheikh. Whereas, in the Bible, it is Abraham’s son by Sarah, namely Isaac, who is offered in sacrifice in obedience to God (Genesis22:2-8), in Islamic tradition it is thought to have been Ishmael (Ar. Ismāʿīl, Per. Esmāʿil), Abraham’s first son, born of Hājar (that is, the biblical Hagar, the Egyptian slave), who was offered. However, in the relevant section of the Qur. (Qur. 37:101ff.) no name is specified – see SQ , p.1093 and notes.

387

martyrs live in joy: See Qur. 2:154, and also 3:169 ‘And deem not those slain in the way of God to be dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, provided for, exulting in what God has given them from His Bounty’ SQ , p. 177, and see notes. N. comments that Rumi is not thinking of Moslems who have fallen in battle, but of mystics who have died to self for God’s sake. They are the real martyrs’ (NC , p. 220).

394

He said: That is, the Sheikh said.

407

bath-house furnace: That is to say, a filthy place of ill-repute – the comparison with a Sufi lodge is not intended to be complimentary.

Notes

259

423

Abu Lahab: See note to v. 1224.

429

Hātem: That is, H.ātem al-T.āʾi, the epitome of generosity and munificence in Arabic and Persian anecdotal traditions. (see art. in EI ‘H.ātem T.āʾi’, and Mas 1.2255).

438

Like deaf men, we’ve not heard . . .: See Mas. 1.3374ff., ‘A deaf man visits his poorly neighbour’.

439

Moses’ . . . contradicting Khezr; See Qur. 18:60-82, and Mas:1.225, 237 and notes.

440

his vision: Lit. ‘the light of his eye’.

453

our pleasant help: Cf. Psalm 46:1: ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.’

460

Heading: This takes up the story that was left over 300 verses before at v. 152.

470b

reveal to us . . .: translating a prayer of the Prophet in Arabic, ‘O God, let us see things as they (really) are’ (NC , p. 234).

493

The same metaphor in Mas. 1.14.

496

these are like David: See Qur. 34:10 ‘And indeed We gave David bounty from Us: O mountains! Echo God’s praises with him, likewise you birds!’

511

. . . did not Sinai fall in pieces? Qur. 7:143; Rumi refers to this verse frequently, first in the Neynāme, Mas. 1.26.

512

Had We sent down a book: This is a part paraphrase of Qur. 59:21.

518

not like that S.ufi we described before: That is to say, in the story in vv. 157–250 ‘A Sufi tells a servant to look after his mount’.

519b

but when fate strikes . . .: Here is a subtle shift from narrative into discourse and reflection.

520b

poverty is almost unbelief: This paraphrases a prophetic hadith. As N. notes, the word for unbelief (kofr) also means ‘ingratitude for the gifts of God . . .’

521

O well-fed rich man . . .: This remark is as if directed to the audience/reader.

523a

Carrion food is lawful in dire need: Cf. Qur. 5:3: ‘. . . But whosoever is compelled by hunger, without inclining towards sin, then surely God is Forgiving, merciful. 523b . . . need will make a virtue: Cf. the Eng. proverb ‘Need (necessity) hath no law’.

532–540 Samāʿ: Originally this term means ‘listening’, and describes the practice of active contemplative hearing (‘audition’) of music and speech. These verses show that in Rumi’s time, samāʿ included hand-waving, feet-stamping, prostration, repetitive chanting, ecstatic shouting, and hand-clapping. Note that ‘whirling’ (P. charkhīdan) is not mentioned here as in the later ritualised samāʿ of, for example the Turkish Mevlevi sufi order. 567

The wrath of Abraham: This refers to Qur. 6:76 – see above v. 299 and note.

578

God is the one who buys you: Qur. 9:111 ‘Truly God has purchased from the believers their souls and their wealth in exchange for the Garden being theirs . . .’; cf. Mas.1.2721, on which N. comments ‘S.ūfīs apply this verse to the jihādu’l-akbar [the spiritual struggle] . . .: the price to be paid for union with God is worldabandonment and self-sacrifice’ (NC , p. 169); see also vv. 2446 and 3278 below.

260

Notes

579

Abu Bakr: It is said that Abu Bakr, the companion of the Prophet Mohammad, spent 40,000 dinars for love of the Prophet. Hojviri says He is the Imam of the Moslems in general and of the Sufis in particular’ (Kashf, 72).

580

glass beads: That is to say, material payment is worthless in comparison with priceless pearls of wisdom.

587

subtle meaning: Per. nokte is the ‘point’ in a verse or a story. The verse is similar in expression to Mas.1. ‘the raw can’t grasp the state of one who’s cooked’.

594–5 There is no corner . . .: Cf. the hadith ‘The world is a prison for the believer and paradise for the unbeliever,’ and see Mas. 1.644, and 1.986: This world’s a prison and we are prisoners, so burrow out of prison and escape! 597

nourishment: Lit. ‘fatness’.

602

lack of faith: Lit. ‘weakness of faith’.

609

Some of you are true believers: Qur. 64:2 (the Quran adds ‘And God sees whatsoever you do’).

610

paler than: Lit. ‘as white as’.

623

“You must eat!”: That is to say, in contrast to the actual words of God in Qur. 5: 88: ‘Eat what God has provided you as allowable and good, and fear God, in whom you are believers’, and also Qur. 7:31 ‘Children of Adam! Take your adornment at every place of worship, and eat and drink and do not be extravagant. Truly, He does not love the extravagant.’ (tr. Jones)

633

O Lord: Lit. ‘O Lord of Peace’ (salām, one of the names of God, according to Qur. 59:23), here, according to Qur. 7:14, Iblis asks ‘Grant me respite till the Day they are resurrected’. . See v. 2627.

637

I threaten them with poverty: Qur. 2:268 ‘Satan threatens you with poverty and commands you to indecency . . .’

641

one dog, and goes into a thousand: Both N. and E. refer to the hadith that Satan gets into the blood of the son of Adam and suffuses his whole being, and also the tradition that Adam killed the son of Iblis and cooked him, and when Adam and Eve ate them, Iblis gained access to their blood. (NC , p. 261, EC , p. 214.

674

thief . . . take your hand: The witticism is that the thief, however much he covers up, is revealed when he takes your hand, because the convicted thief will have had his hand amputated by Islamic law. It is thus an extension of the simile in the previous verse.

682

God’s seal is on the sight and on the hearing: Cf. Qur. 6:46 ‘were God to take away your hearing and your sight and seal your hearts, what god other than God would restore them unto you? . . .’

689–90 No-Place . . . placelessness: This is a symbol or image of the place of the unmanifest divine essence. See Mas. 1.1591-3, about the soul of the parrot ascended in ecstasy: Her form’s on earth, her soul is in the No Place – a No Place is beyond the mind of travellers.

Notes

261

A ‘no place’ neither of your understanding nor what can be imagined any moment, But Place and No Place under His control, just like the four streams in divine control. and note the Ar. term lā makān also occurs at v. 2115 and 2397. ‘as one about to die reviews his life’: N. cites the hadith ‘Truly, the eye follows (the flight of) the soul when it is taken away’ (NC 262). 691

Non-being/non-existence: Rumi uses the Per. nisti and Ar ʿadam, which both refer to the unmanifest state that is within the divine essence, and which, according to Rumi, and other gnostic teachers, and Sufis, is our true home, not the world of ‘being’ (Per. hast) which we experience as this world of contingent existence (‘this world of more and less’). It is a major vein of Rumi’s teaching; See for example Mas.1.522, 606–610, 1207, 1252–4, 1937 et cetera throughout the Masnavi.

695

The prayer and the response are both from You: A verse that addresses God in praise, and is simultaneously a teaching to the audience. Cf. Mas. 1.521 ‘For me to praise is to abandon praise, / – it’s proof of “being”. “Being” is an error.’

697

though it’s a stream of blood: God made the River Nile turn to blood for the Egyptians – see the story in Mas. 4.3432ff. (= N. 4.3431ff.)

700

family: Lit. ‘maternal and paternal uncles’.

718

Whom we prolong we bring down low: Qur. 36:68 ‘And whomsoever we give long life, We cause him to regress in creation. Do they not understand?’, and also Qur. 30:54.

719

happiness: Ar./Per. dowlat is also ‘fortune, felicity’: N. emends his original translation from ‘lips’ to ‘fortune’ in his correction in the Appendix to Bks 3 and 4.

720

sāqi: ‘cup-bearer’. N. quotes a saying of Abu Yazid, ‘I am the wine-drinker and the wine and the cup-bearer’ and sums up ‘Mystical experience transcends the logical distinctions of subject, object and attribute’ (NC , p. 264).

734

No one who’s burdened . . .: This hemistich is a translation of a phrase from Qur. 39:7.

741

from saying ‘if ’ regret alone transpired: Cf. Qur. 63:8 ‘They say, “If we return to Madinah, the mightier will surely expel the weaker therefrom:” Yet unto God belongs the might and unto His Messenger and the believers, but the hypocrites know not.’

746

in hot water: Lit. ‘in the fire’.

753

them that set: Another allusion to Qur. 6:76; See note to 299a.

770

innocents: Lit. ‘innocent children’.

777

He is like Pharaoh . . .: Originally N. translated the verse thus, but in his correction in the Appendix Bks 3 and 4, p. 492, he says ‘The original reading seems to have been He is like Moses, and his body is his Pharaoh’.

779

Heading How people blamed someone who killed his mother out of suspicion: E. can find no source for this story, but notes that Rumi uses a similar anecdote in the Fihi mā fih (ed. Foruzanfar, p. 151, Eng. ch.40).

262

Notes

779ff. A man once killed his mother out of rage . . .: The outrageousness of matricide for the sake of purging the sin of the male adulterer/fornicator serves here not to justify the matricide but to horrify the reader whose sensitivity, stemming from natural empathy with the mother victim, is stirred in order to emphasise the instinctive connection and identification we have with the nafs. The nafs is the mother of ill-repute (v. 785): to kill it will be as difficult as killing your mother, but killing the nafs, unlike killing your mother, is necessary. 811

Abu Jahl: ‘Father of Ignorance’ is a nickname given to Abu’l Hakam, an enemy of the Prophet Mohammad. See Mas.1.1513 and note.

812

‘My lord’: This translates approximately Abu’l Hakam (‘Father of the wise judge), who was traditionally known by the name Abu Jahl (see previous note).

820

eternal living Imam: Rumi flouts conventional orthodoxy by affirming that the true eternal Imam is such irrespective of whether he is of the line of Ali (as Shiʿites believe he must be) or of Ali’s rival, Omar, the caliph and successor to the Prophet for Sunnis. Rumi affirms that the true saint (vali), of the age (v. 817) has a spiritual, not a genetic, connection to the Prophet, through inheritance of the light mentioned in the following verses.

821

Mahdi: ‘Guided one’ and Guide are again used as terms of spiritual rank, not as sectarian labels of solely eschatological significance.

823

lamp niche: See Qur. 24:35, the ‘Light verse’. see also Mas. 1.2949 and note.

834a

most intimate: Lit. ‘without intermediary’.

834b

exposed: Lit. ‘without any connection’.

842

with the heart: The meaning is that we, who have lesser (spiritual) hearts, are like the parts (the limbs and organs) of a body of which the true mystic, the master of the heart, is the true heart. See Mas. 1.726 and note.

846

Heading How a King Tested Two Slaves: No particular source for this story is known.

855

Proof: Ar. al-furqān (Lit. ‘discerning, proof, evidence’) is a name for the Quran. N. and others translate it ‘Criterion’, and here he interprets it as ‘Universal Intellect’. minutely: Lit. ‘atom from atom’.

856

eye’s light: The eye is one of Rumi’s most favourite symbols, and is one of the most frequent motifs in the Masnavi. The connection with the sight of the word of the Quran is part of this: the next ten verses, 856–865, reflect on the primacy of the eye over the ear, as the major mystical faculty that has intimate acquaintance with the heart (v. 860).

864

eye of certainty: This phrase occurs in Qur. 102: ‘Nay if you knew with the knowledge of certainty you would surely see Hellfire. Then you would surely see it with the eye of certainty’. There is also mention of the truth of certainty in Qur. 56:95, which is also juxtaposed with the awareness of the reality of Hellfire. Nicholson mentions these three forms of certainty (NC p. 269). The SQ commentator writes:

Notes

263

Most Sufis see the knowledge of certainty, the eye of certainty . . . and the truth of certainty as three levels of spiritual development. In this respect the knowledge of certainty can be likened to knowledge obtained through hearing about something, the eye of certainty can refer to knowledge obtained by seeing or touching something, and the truth of certainty can refer to sapiential knowledge obtained by tasting, or experiencing something directly. The Study Quran, p. 1556. As N. says (NC p. 269), Rumi uses the term ‘eye of certainty’ to denote, or at least to include, the final experience of certainty truth of certainty, that is, ‘going into the heart of the fire’ mentioned in Mas. 2, 834 ‘he goes into the fire’s heart exposed’, and see also Mas. 1.887ff., esp. v. 798 ‘Within this fire I’ve seen a universe / where every atom has the breath of Jesus’. 865

The Word: As in Christianity, the Word (Gk. logos) came to sum up and stands for its scripture and doctrine of Jesus’ incarnation, so the Ar. imperative verb qol ‘say!’, which is repeated so often to bid the Prophet to deliver the revelation, becomes a cipher to refer to the divine inspiration as a whole.

873

skilful doctor: Cf. Mas. 1.64.

874

To burn a whole new blanket: Cf. Mas:1.2905: Don’t burn a whole kelim to kill a flea! And do not spend your day on fly-sized headaches.

890 (and 906) He said: That is, the King said. 894

generosity: This translates Per. javānmardi, which is Ar. futuwwah, nowadays often translated as ‘youngmanliness’. N.’s summarises of this deeply nuanced term thus: ‘Self-sacrifice . . . is the result of seeing with the eye of faith and love the infinite life which God bestows on the spirit freely given up to Him.’(NC , p. 270), and ‘ “the true fatā is the man who resists his self-will . . .” and “futuwwah consists in turning one’s back on the two worlds”. The fatā would fain abandon even Divine gifts by regarding which he is “veiled” from the Giver.’ NC , p. 63.

899

ten-fold compensation: This notion is from the Quran, where there are several indications of God’s leniency in judging human action. See, for example, Qur. 6:161 ‘whosoever brings a good deed shall have ten times the like thereof . . .’

908

The oath of the slave . . .: Heading In the following passage 21 prophets, companions, caliphs and Sufis are mentioned in 19 verses (914–932).

908

Sovereign Lord: one of the divine names, mālik al-mulk in Qur. 3:26, and see note in SQ 137f. 908–40 In the course of these 33 verses, the servant proceeds to swear the what must be the longest oath in the Masnavi, that amounts to a catalogue of literally ‘all that is sacred’, by including the name of God, ten prophets, nine companions, saints and heroes, and princes temporal and spiritual. The point of it all is the King’s wry reply in v. 941 ‘Now, say something of your own! / How much more talk of this, that and what-not!’. 913

lightning: Qur. 24:43 ‘. . . The flash of His lightning well-nigh takes away sight’.

264

Notes

916

The soul of Abraham: Qur. 21:68 etc. See also Mas. 1.551 and note. Abraham was cast by order of Nimrod into a fire, which was changed by God into a pleasant rose-garden, a scene to which Rumi is fond of referring (Mas. 1.794, 3.1016, 6.4305).

917

his tempered knife: That is, his father Abraham’s. See v. 386 and note.

918

David’s soul: David was taught by God the art of making the garments of protection; See Qur. 21:80, and also 34:10f., ‘We made iron supple for him.’

919

the demon was his servant: Qur. 38:36-7 ‘So We made the wind subject to him, running at his command, gently, wherever he decided, Likewise the satans . . .’ (tr. Jones).

920

his own son’s scent: Jacob’s knew his son Joseph’s scent in the shirt brought to him by his brothers in Qur.12:93-6 . See note to Mas. 1.125.

921

to understanding dreams: Qur. 12:43-49.

923

hastened to the fourth estate of heaven: Jesus’ place is at the fourth estate of heaven, according to Mas. 1.653 (and see note).

927

lord of two lights: Osman is called by this title as he had married two daughters of the family of the Prophet. E. comments that this title is interpreted as meaning that he possessed both inner and outer knowledge (p. 229).

941–60 The King said . . .: In this speech, the point of view put forward by the King is the argument is that good works are merely accidents and are only of value in their spiritual results, having no merit in themselves. As N. comments, ‘the sole purpose they serve is to purify and perfect the immortal spirit.’ (NC , p. 272). For, as the King says in in vv. 949–50, even prayer and fasting are worthless, except in so far as ‘they remove diseases from the substance’. The idea is that these conventionally virtuous acts do not carry over into the spiritual world (as in Zoroastrian doctrine, for example), but are solely for ‘purifying the heart, and illuminating the spirit’ (NC p. 273). His speech ends in telling the slave to be silent. But see note to v. 961ff. 947

he that comes with good: Qur. 6:160.

949

“what does not last two seconds is destroyed”: This is the traditional definition of what is contingent or an ‘occurrence, accident’, (ʿaraż) in Ar./Pers.

960

a shadow: Lit. ‘the shadow of a goat’.

961–84 He said ‘Your Majesty . . .: The slave’s response is a soliloquy of 25 verses in which he (or rather Rumi) corrects the view expressed by the King, arguing that actions etc., both good and evil, do in fact carry over into the spiritual world (in v. 964). He even, boldly, turns his argument to the King’s own existence in v. 967: ‘Look at yourself – weren’t you an accident? / an act of sex, and sex that had a purpose?’ N.’s comment is worth quoting: In order to test the slave’s knowledge, the King had professed to believe that “accidents” (good works) are modes of existence having no essential and permanent correlation with the “substance” (spiritual nature) which they modify. Correcting him, the slave demonstrates that these “accidents” are really

Notes

265

immanent in the “substance” in the same way as an effect is immanent in its cause and vice versā. This is an important idea in the Masnavi, and coincides with an idea N. finds in the philosophy of Ibn ʿArabi, articulated in a passage quoted (but at that time ‘not yet published’ by N’s ‘friend and former pupil, Dr A.E. Affifi’ (whose work has subsequently been published as The Mystical Philosophy of Muhyid Din Ibnul Arabi) on how every cause and effect, because they are an essence and a form, are both simultaneously causes and effects. (See N.’s note in NC , p. 274f.). See further note to v. 986ff. and vv. 1004–5. 972

phenomena: Lit. ‘all the constituent parts of the world’ (jomle ejzāye jahān).

975

reap the first fruit: Lit. ‘read the first word’.

977

kernel of the heavens . . . Lord of the Exception: The phrase ‘the heavens’ ān aflāk, and ‘Lord of the Exception’ khwāje-ye lawlāk refers to the hadith quds.i which praises the Prophet Muhammad, ‘except for you I would not have created the heavens’. N. takes this as an instance of Rumi’s seeing Rumi as the Perfect Man (NC , p. 275–6).

979

Has there not come . . .?: Qur. 76:1 ‘Has there come upon man a span of time in which he was a thing unremembered?’

986ff. The King said: Here the King concedes he has a point, but asks for evidence from experience. The slave replies that God has kept this wisdom concealed as a secret. The King replies that he knows what he is talking about and asks for the slave to give him a sign that he, too, knows (in v. 995). When questioned why he has to show such a sign, the King replies in v. 997 “The wisdom of the world’s unfolding / is that the known is manifestly shown’: This is similar to what Rumi says in Mas. 1.136ff. ‘the declaration’s better than the secret’, and also in 1.2636ff. (both of which passages are quickly followed by a hiatus that brings the mystical discourse to an end). 993

Vizier: That is, the Prime Minister.

1003

‘mother’ . . . ‘child’: That is, the metaphor of birth to describe the relation between cause and effect.

1004–5 Once born, the effect becomes a cause as well . . .: This statement confirms that the King assents to what the slave has been arguing, but Rumi does not draw out the significance of the dialogue, preferring to move to his habitual voice of hiatus, leaving the meaning implicit, not explicit, in v. 1007: And if that curious King had seen a sign, it’s possible, but I may not discuss it. 1013

a balm: Lit. ‘a remedy’ (Per. davā).

1020

Tradition: Neither N. nor E. know of a hadith with the content of this verse. E. attributes it only to some words of Ali.

1040

Solomon . . . ants; See Qur. 27:18, which contrasts the greatness and strength of Solomon with the smallness and weakness of the ant.

1047

soft as wool: Qur. 101:5 ‘and the mountains shall be like carded wool’.

266

Notes

1052

Ayāz . . . Mahmud : An allusion to Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna and his favourite slave, the brilliant Turcoman Ayāz ibn Ūymāq, whom Mahmud appointed to governorships of several of his domains. Rumi tells stories about the two in Books Five and Six of the Masnavi.

1058

plots God has in store: Qur. 3:54 ‘And they plotted, and God plotted. And God is the best of plotters.’

1071

What’s the point of our existence?: See NC p. 279, where N. refers to the Quran and Mas. 1.1515 (=E:1.1525) and thence to several passages in the Masnavi in which ‘this question is answered more definitely’(NC , p. 110), that is, N 3:4159ff., 4:521ff., 2540ff., 3015ff., 6:2102ff.

1076

‘he was worse than useless’: Lit. ‘he was futile in excess.’

1078

Nile . . . blood to pagans and the godless: See v. 697 and note.

1088

heaven with all its tracks: Qur. 51:7.

1091

the martyrs ‘are provided for’: See Qur. 3:169 ‘And deem not those slain in the way of God to be dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, provided for . . .’ See also Mas. 1.3885ff. and note.

1101

the blood is from the lovely rose-red sun: This thought catalyses a series of flashes of the sun that appear in a few moments in v. 1102b, then vv. 1109–117.

1102a red: There is both a hadith and an Ar. proverb extolling the superiority of the colour red. 1106

for Him who has ordained it: Lit. for the (world of) Command, i.e. the Creator, as distinct from the created world, which has ‘borrowed’ its existence from the one who commanded it.

1113

How wondrous: This would indeed be wondrous in the Ptolemaic, geocentric understanding of a universe of the time, in which, it was believed, everything revolved around the earth.

1118a Can deeds themselves: For metrical reasons, changing the question from ‘How can . . .?’ to ‘Can . . .?’. 1119

Borāq: The mythical steed on which Mohammad is said he to have been borne aloft to heaven on the night of his journey from Mecca to Jerusalem. See Mas. 1.1081 and note.

1126

talon-less . . . Shamsoddin : The fact that Rumi has just been meditating on the sun (vv. 1109–117), and then mentions Shamsoddin, suggests that he who has ‘the blindness of his envious eye’ (v. 1127) is indeed ‘. . . the one who’s envious of the sun / and he who even envies its existence’ (v. 1132), namely those who, out of envy of Shamsoddin and his relationship with Rumi, were responsible for the disappearance of Shamsoddin. This interpretation is strengthened by the fact that the next story is about the blind falcon who ends up trapped in the land of the owls. The word ‘talonless’ may refer back to the falcon who in the earlier story had its talons clipped (v. 327) by the ignorant old woman. N. and others interpret this word as ‘powerless’, meaning that, overcome by love of the beloved, he finds himself unable to make the (spiritually) blind see again. E. suggests it refers to having nails

Notes

267

to extract a thorn from the eye of the blind and so he turns to his new object of devotion Hosāmoddin in the next verse to do so for him. 1135

Heading The capturing of the falcon: See previous note. This title is written MS 668, but is missing in MS 677, in later manuscripts and in N. This section of 61 couplets soars to a great heights of mystical meaning: the falcon is one of Rumi’s favourite symbols for the gnostic, or ‘man of God’, who reflects the divine in his nature. The falcon is the also favourite of the king in the story – that is, he is beloved of God. On the other hand, in Persian culture, owls are not the wise birds that go back to the Ancient Greek association with the goddess Athena and wisdom: rather, they are sinister creatures of ill-omen who live in desolate places. Rumi’s owls are symbols of those who live their lonely lives in the solitariness of this material world, removed from the knowledge and company of their true king. In this passage, however, Rumi says that even lowly lonely owls can be transformed into falcons, and be heavenly birds (1169) as we respond to the call ‘Return!’ (1173).

1137

light of His Approval: Qur. 89:28 ‘Return unto thy Lord, content, contenting.’

1149

give the sheep’s tail to the bear: Like the Per. proverb, ‘giving the tail to the wolf ’, or ‘giving meat to the cat’, it means ‘do not tempt fate by giving too much temptation to an untrustworthy recipient.’

1155

bird-brained: Lit. ‘a fool’ eblahi.

1156

where is his rescue party from the king?: Cf. the Gospel of St Matthew 27:43 ‘They cried, “He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God’ ” ’.

1157

Owlestan: I have done little more than Rumi when he called the land of the Owls joghdestān (Per. joghd ‘owl’).

1161

My vision . . .: In this verse the ‘vision’ of the falcon is in both active and passive modes. The translation reflects the chiasmus of the Persian. Here in the first instance the ‘vision’ of the king (God) remembering the falcon (the man of God) is passive, and in the second the ‘vision’ of the falcon is active as he remembers the king. See below verse 1164, where both hemistichs display the active role of the falcon/man of God.

1165

Homa is amazed at me: Homa is the mystical bird of paradise, comparable perhaps to the Phoenix, who flies constantly and never touches the ground: it is here perhaps a symbol of the saints who marvel at the falcon.

1166

he freed a hundred thousand captives: This tells of God’s compassion towards sinners, for the sake of the man of God.

1173

“Return”: Alluding to Qur. 89:28 ‘O soul at peace, return unto thy Lord, wellpleased, well-pleasing!’

1179

His footprints marked upon the dust: N. comments: ‘This means that when the “self ” has “passed away” (fanā) it persists (baqā), not as an individual, but as the Universal Spirit, the Perfect Man, bearing “the mark of God’s feet on his dust”, that is, the imprint of the Divine Attributes which were stamped upon him before he emerged from potentiality into actual existence; for “he is to the universe what the

268

Notes bezel is to the seal – the bezel whereon is graven the signature that the King seals on His treasuries” (Fus.us., 13 . . .).’ N.B. Nicholson’s interpretations of Rumi’s metaphysics are often seen through the prism of Ibn ʿArabi. However, such a ‘metaphysicalisation’ of Rumi’s poetic language often adds little to what can already be understood in his Persian verse.

1181

Don’t let my form be a distraction to you: In an aside to the reader, Rumi continues with the conceit of the passage that this is still the falcon addressing the benighted owls, while it also encourages ‘the owls’ to see through his form as a falcon, and to learn something delicious from him.

1184

The eye’s light’s sparkle in the fleshly eye: N. offers a learned note that ‘According to Aristotle (Parva Naturalia, 438 a), the white of the eye in sanguineous animals is fat and oily in order that the moisture of the eye may be proof against freezing.’ Rumi may have thought so too, but the point is that something so sublime as the light of the eye is actually joined to something as fleshy as an eyeball, and that, similarly, the light of the heart is connected to the core of the heart, in its blood.

1187

The great and partial soul: Again, N. explains, ‘The individual soul, when impregnated (like the oyster-shell by the rain-drop) by the overflowing radiance (tajalli, fayd) of the Universal Spirit, produces the Perfect Man, who is the pearl and final cause of existence.’

1194

Here am I’: God’s answer to every call ‘O Lord’. See note to Mas.1.1588 (= N. 1578). N. explains ‘according to the H.adīth: “when the slave (ʿabd) says ‘yā Rabb’, God says ‘Labbayka . . . (‘Here am I’)”.’ N. adds that ‘. . . selfless prayer is accompanied by an immediate inward response . . .’, (referring to this passage in Mas.2): ‘. . . nay, such prayer springs from the presence of God in the heart and is answered before it is uttered’ and he gives further instances in the rest of the Masnavi (NC , p. 113).

1195

from there to here: Lit. ‘head to foot’. As N. comments in a note to his tr., this refers to ‘a mystical experience absorbing every sense and faculty’. The passage that follows illustrates such a state of ecstasy.

1196

Heading A thirsty man throws a brick: This odd anecdote gives way to a reflection of 29 verses of unexpected lyrical and mystical depth, from the dialogue between the man and the flowing water from v. 1201. The man’s ‘speech’ ranges through seven verses of similes (1203b-1209), to the subject of the removal of the barriers to union (1210b-1212). It segues into Rumi’s reflection of 18 vv. which pivots on a crucial verse ‘He’ll be ecstatic at the sound of water / – the stranger only hears the sound of plashing’, into the subject of youth vis à vis advancing age. This theme is continued in the following story and reflection.

1203

‘the lute’: Lit. robāb, a short-necked plucked stringed instrument that originates from Afghanistan.

1204

Esrāfil: one of the four archangels along with Jibril (Gabriel), Mikhāʾil (Michael) and Ezrāʾil. Esrāfil is the archangel who is the ‘kindler of the dawn’ of the Resurrection (mentioned in Mas. 1.401), when he will blow the last trumpet, and Mas.1.1926.

Notes 1207

269

‘the breathless breath the Merciful once caused . . .’ This verse refers to the legend of Ovays-e Qarani, a Yemeni who became a Sufi saint because of his association with the Prophet, although it is said that they never met. There is a hadith behind this verse, ‘Lo, I feel the breath of the Merciful God from the direction of Yemen’. For a fragment of the legend recounted about him by Hojviri, see Kashf, p. 83.

1209

the scent of . . . Joseph See note to v. 920 and Mas. 1.125.

1210

the flowing water: Qur. 67:30 ‘Say, “Have you considered? Were your water to vanish into the ground, then who would bring you flowing water?’

1213

‘. . . prostrate yourself, come near’: Qur. 96:19.

1224

‘in a halter of palm fibres’: This alludes to the mention of rope of palm fibre in Qur. 111:5, which was put upon on the back of the wife of Abū Lahab in Hell and set aflame. Abū Lahab was the wealthiest of the Prophet’s uncles and one of the Qurayshi leaders who most opposed the Prophet and persecuted his followers (SQ, p. 1576). As N. comments, ‘here the phrase describes the pains and penalties of decrepitude’. (NC , p. 284)

1248

Khaybar: The battle of Khaybar (AH 7 / 628 CE), in which Ali is said to have torn down one of the gates of the Jewish settlement, situated 150 km from Medina.

1266

Resentful one: literally h.asud, envious. As N. notes, this epithet is commonly used for those who regard the saints with hostility and disbelief.

1271

precious: That is to say, ‘precious few’, lit. ‘two’.

1273

tomorrow’s gone: This expression is similar in meaning but opposite in form to Eng. ‘tomorrow never comes’.

1277

branch of paradisiacal cypress: This alludes to a hadith of the Prophet which says that generosity is one of the trees in Paradise whose branches dangle down into the world and whoever hangs on to one of its branches is led by that branch to Paradise; and greed is a tree in hellfire, whose branches dangle into the world and whoever hangs on to one of its branches is led by that branch to hellfire.

1278

the firmest handhold: Qur. 2:256, which follows the Throne Verse (the famous declaration of God’s uniqueness and power), declares ‘There is no coercion in religion. Sound judgment has become clear from error. So whosoever disavows false deities and believes in God has grasped the most unfailing handhold which never breaks. And God is Hearing, Knowing.’

1280

this rope is patience: Muslim readers will be so familiar with the story of Joseph being imprisoned in a well by his brothers in Qur. 12:8-19, that the connection from the ‘branch’ of the two previous verses is easily made in the image of Joseph being rescued by holding on to the ‘rope of patience’.

1297

‘a light on light’: A reference to one of the most iconic of Quranic verses, the Light verse of Qur. 24:35, to which Rumi never tires of alluding.

1298

The light of sense draws downwards . . .: This verse is a good example of the parallelism that Rumi uses in his masnavi (couplet) form. A statement in the first hemistich is answered in the second so that the sense, as well as the verbal form, so to speak, ‘rhymes’ in its witty re-statement. This is best illustrated with an example from Mas. 1.304.

270

Notes ‘The worldly sense will let you climb this world the spirit’s sense will let you climb to heaven.’ It is a technique and style Rumi is particularly proficient in using, as we may see in the seven verses of parallelism that follow this example (Mas 1.305-11).

1304

Because of the contracted language of the Persian, this verse is translated into a metre that replaces some of the iambic feet (ᴗ –) with anapaests (ᴗ ᴗ –).

1310

‘You did not throw when you were throwing’: Qur. 8:17, and see also Mas. 1.619 and note.

1323

Borhān-e Mohaqqeq: ‘proof ’, (Per. borhān) picks up on the mention of ‘proof ’ in the previous verse. Sayyed Borhānoddin Moh.aqqeq of Termez, was an ascetic and learned disciple of Bahāʾoddin Valad, Rumi’s father: he came to Konya from Balkh to be Rumi’s teacher of Sufism one year after the death of Bahāʾoddin in 1231. See Lewis, Rumi Past and Present, ch. 2.

1325

Salāhoddin: S.alāh.oddin Faridun Zarkub ‘the Goldbeater’, was a mystic and a beloved assistant of Rumi’s after the disappearance of Shamsoddin.

1325–7 In the 677 MS (G) the copyist has mistakenly overlooked vv. 1325–7 and subsequently written them in the margin under the heading ‘Valadi’ in a cramped style that is difficult to read. E. follows the clear text of the 13th-century MS 668, which appears to be the same as that of 677. E. does not mention, and thus seems not to agree with, the conjecture of N., who commented (NC p.287 (1937): ‘It is a probable conjecture that (these verses) . . . were composed by the poet’s son, Sultan Walad, who was married to S.alāh.u’ddīn’s daughter and may have wished his father-in-law to share with Burhānu’ddīn, Shamsu’ddīn of Tabrīz and H.usāmu’ddīn the honour of being commemorated in the Mathnawī.’ In his Appendix of corrections to Book II (1930) N. noted that he now omits these three verses. 1336

Moses, Mount Sinai: Again this is a reference to Qur. 7:143.

1342b then when shall resurrection bring this grace: So E., following MS 668 and as in the margin in G.: in the main text G has 1342b as in N., ‘how shall it cast the shadow of protection over us?’. 1343

this Resurrection: As in other contrasts of ‘this world’ and ‘that world’ etc., Rumi distinguishes the spiritual, interior, as distinct from the exterior, physical ‘resurrection’.

1348

the salt-mine: Rumi refers to the revivifying and purifying power of salt in Mas. 1.2014-6.

1349

the dying vat of Hū: See Mas.1.504-7 (= N. 500–3), and 6 (=N. 6.1855-1865), and notes. See Qur. 2:138.

1351

‘I am God’: This is the ecstatic Ar. utterance ana’l-h.aq for which the Sufi martyr Al-H.allāj was reputedly condemned to death. The sense of the verse is that of the metaphor of v. 1346, that like Hallāj, who was the matter and form of a mortal man, form can be transformed by the heat of ecstasy into formless essence. As we see in the following verses (v. 1352ff.), form is the silent witness to the truth, as we should be (vv. 1359–60).

Notes 1360

271

Be silent at the sea shore!: Here the metaphor of transformation shifts to the act of bathing, drowning and purification, down to v. 1375.

1372

bashfulness prohibits faith: An Ar. saying.

1375

‘a barrier they’ll not cross’: Qur. 55 speaks of a ‘balance’ that has been set by God for his creation, and urges man not to transgress and to appreciate the many blessings, or boons, God established. Qur. 55:13–77 repeats a refrain (thirty-one times) which asks men and the jinn (spirits): ‘So which of your Lord’s boons do you deny?’ The verse referred to in this hemistich is Qur. 55:19-20 ‘He mixed the two seas, such that they meet one another. Between them lies a barrier that they transgress not.’ (see also Qur. 25:53). Clearly Rumi understands the ‘barrier’ as a blessing God has given man to protect the heart from being pounded by the force of the body. In other contexts the two seas are variously interpreted as alluding to the sky and the earth, or this world and the next, or outer, scholastic and inner, spiritual knowledge etc.

1380

a furnace: Here Rumi returns to the metaphor of fire and burning, and our natural reluctance to be absorbed into it.

1384

What terrorizes others . . .: The mystic, like the waterfowl, is at home in the river, whereas land-birds drown.

1385–6 I’ve become so crazy!: The state of being crazy (Per. divāne) is a metaphor of the anguish that is the state of absorption in the mystical beloved. There are different forms of this madness, according to the Ar. saying, al-junūn al-funūn, and each one is a ring in the chain of the mystic’s captivity. In this moment of self-reflection and recollection, Rumi remarks on the confusing cadences of his verses in the preceding passage (‘the rings upon your chain’). The resulting madness, of the successive rings of ecstatic utterances leads, ultimately, as in v. 1389, to the madness breaking the chain of the rational connectivity of the poetry and thus to a longed for liberation through the poetry. 1389

madmen: Contrary to N., who thinks this refers to ‘the vulgar, who are devoid of reason . . . and ignorant of the truth’, I interpret this as referring to the ‘mad’ (ecstatic) Sufis of the past who suffered anguish in their love of the divine.

1390

Zu’l-Nun: The Nubian Sufi Thawbān ibn Ibrāhim, known as Dhū’l-Nūn the Egyptian (d.859) As N. comments, ‘Dhu’l-Nun took a very important step in the development of Sufism by distinguishing the mystic’s knowledge of God (Ar. maʿrifa) from traditional or intellectual knowledge (Ar. ʿilm) and by connecting the former with love of God. (mah.abba)’ NC , p. 289.

1391

Such exaltation . . .: This verse, and the following, is based on a slightly difficult pun in Persian: shur and shure mean both ‘salty’ and ‘disturbed’ or ‘agitated’, (like shuride ‘maddened, disturbed’) and is a synonym of namak used at the end of verse 1391. In 1392 shure khāk is a pun with shur-e khāk meaning both ‘brackish, infertile earth’ and ‘earthy madness’ and ‘salt of the earth’. Rumi contrasts this with the sublime disturbance of the spiritual virtuosi, the holy men of Sufism. English lacks such a pun, but in the translation of this and the next verse I have punned ‘exaltation’ and ‘salt’, drawing attention to a pun in English in ‘salt of the earth’, a

272

Notes phrase from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of St Matthew, 5:13, ‘Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.’ Today it refers to someone who is humble and lacking pretension, but the Biblical sense may refer to those who are truly holy and good.

1393

was tearing at their beards: As N. notes, this means that in his ecstasy he had no regard for their formal religion.

1402

power: Lit. ‘the pen’ – presumably that of those who signed the death warrant of Al-Hallāj in 922 CE.

1403

‘they slew the prophets’. Qur. 3:112 – this verse refers to the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) who were iniquitous towards the prophets ‘. . . That is, because they used to disbelieve in God’s signs and kill the prophets without right. That is, for having disobeyed and transgressed.’

1404

‘We augur ill of you!’: Qur: 36:18. The Quran reports this as said by the unbelievers to the ‘message bearers’, who are believed to have been those apostles sent to Antioch by Jesus. Alternatively it is understood to refer generally to prophets sent by God: ‘They said, “Truly we augur ill of you. If you cease not, we shall certainly stone you, and a painful punishment will certainly befall you from us.”’

1407

‘while you were among them’: A phrase taken from Qur. 8:33: ‘But God will not punish them while thou art among them. And God will not punish them while they seek forgiveness’. This verse referred to Mohammad, but here Rumi intends the phrase as part of his chiding of those who killed Jesus.

1414

‘We went to race with one another’: Qur. 12:17. This alludes to the brothers’ alibi to their father Jacob excusing them from responsibility for Joseph’s ‘death’.

1429

Sleepers’ dog: Lit. ‘the Companions’ [of the Cave] also known as the ‘Seven Sleepers’ of Qur. 18:17; 1429b aspirants, literally those ‘coming to’ and ‘turning their faces’ towards (God).

1440–5 Tie me up tight and whip me with a cow-tail . . .: These six verses refer to a story in which Moses told the Israelites ‘God commands you to slaughter a cow’ in Qur. 2:67ff., and that they must whip the corpse of a murdered man with ‘part of ’ that cow (that is, the tail) to revive it for long enough to reveal the name of the murderer. Some elements of this problematic story correspond to two passages in the Jewish Bible, Numbers 19:1-10, and Deuteronomy 21:1-9. 1454

‘crow’: Per. ghorāb also means ‘axe, sword’.

1469–72 A king said to a sheikh: This anecdote is followed by a brief reflection in 1473–4. A similar anecdote occurs in Hojviri, Kashf, p. 20. Rumi’s point is explained in v. 1475, that, like the sheikh’s king, Loqmān was superior to his king in that he was slave to no vices. 1473

his light will dawn without the moon or sun: See Qur. 6:75ff. when God shows Abraham a star, the Moon and the Sun. Abraham at first greets each in turn as ‘My Lord’, but when each sets, he realises the ephemerality of all created things and becomes a true h.anīf, which is defined as one who is in ‘a state of pure tawh.īd, or

Notes

273

monotheistic belief unencumbered by constraints, distortions, and idolatry, and combined with a life of virtue’ (SQ on Qur. 2:135, p. 60). 1474a The treasury: The true treasury is not material wealth, like the king’s but the spiritual essence: 1474b being . . . Being: here ‘being’ is equivalent to the false self of the individual ego as compared to ‘Being’ that is the true Self of divine reality. 1487

David’s hand; See note to v. 918.

1517

half-heartedly: Lit. ‘without heart and without appetite’.

1545

it is no fault in blind men: Qur. 48:17 ‘There is no blame upon the blind; nor is there blame upon the lame; nor is there blame upon the sick. Whosoever obeys God and His Messenger, He will cause him to enter Gardens with rivers running below. And whosoever turns away, He will punish him with a painful punishment.’ In its context the Quranic passage is part of an argument urging the Bedouin to fight in battle for the faith and not to use excuses to run away. Here, and in other contexts where he uses the quotation, e.g. Mas. 2.70, N. has analysed Rumi’s use of Qur. 48:17 and concludes that while Rumi is admitting physical blindness is a misfortune and the blind are excused, his implication is that spiritual impairment must be healed by patient exertion. See NC p. 236f.

1548

not of the East nor West: A reference to a phrase in the Light Verse, Qur. 24:35.

1549

takes away the sight: A reference to Qur. 2:19-20 ‘Or a cloud-burst from the sky, in which there is darkness, thunder, and lightning. They put their fingers in their ears against the thunderclaps, fearing death. And God encompasses the disbelievers. The lightning all but snatches away their sight . . . Had God willed, He would have taken away their hearing and their sight. Truly God is Powerful over all things.’

1530

temptations: Lit. ‘bait’, the morsels that lure birds into the trap.

1557

of the left . . . the right: These directions signify the sides from which salvation and perdition come to the blessed and the damned, alluding to Qur. 56:27-44: ‘And the companions of the right; what of the companions of the right? Among thornless lote trees, clustered plantains, and extended shade, gushing water, and abundant fruit, neither out of reach, nor forbidden, and upon raised beds. Truly we brought them into being as a [new] creation, then made for them virgins, amorous peers, for the companions of the right – many from those of old, and many from those of later times. And the companions of the left, what of the companions of the left? Amidst scorching wind and boiling liquid, and the shadow of black smoke, neither cool nor refreshing.’

1563b ‘I love not them that set’: Again a reference to a phrase from Qur. 6:76. 1566

the discourse was alluring: E. and N. refer to an Ar. saying ‘Discourse leads to discourse’ – certainly true in Rumi’s case, as the story he continues in v. 1565 is one he first began in 1050 and abandoned for other discussions for more than 500 verses.

1571

‘was seeing by God’s light’: This alludes to a well-known hadith, also quoted in v. 1584a; see Mas. 1.1340 and note.

1572

foresee the end: Lit. ‘see the end [already] in pre-existence’.

274

Notes

1577

Bu Bakr-e Robābi: A legendary Muslim saint who is famed for his having kept silent for seven years, mentioned again in v. 1920.

1588

iron breaker, that is, illusionist or professional magician. a novice: lit. ‘blind of heart’.

1597

the sun is going into Aries: This coincides with the Persian New Year (No Ruz) on 20/21 March, the beginning of the month of Farvardin, which signifies the arrival of springtime.

1602

for Mercury to write on: Mercury is traditionally associated with the profession of scribes. N. explains a Sufi theosophical interpretation thus: ‘The Perfect Man is called “Mercury” (the Celestial Scribe) because he writes in white or black on our hearts, i.e. produces in us spiritual expansion (bas.t) or contraction (qabd.), according as he is pleased or displeased with us. These impressions enable us to judge the quality of our thoughts and actions.’ (NC , p. 297). Considering the astrological symbolism, it would seem likely to be a much older tradition that dates back to the old Iranian Zoroastrian eschatological idea of the deeds of men being written onto the human soul during life prior to judgment at the Bridge of the Separator.

1605

Queen of Sheba: In Persian mythology and literature, and generally in Islamic tradition, she is known as Belqis, a ruler of the South Arabian kingdom of Sabā, and is identified with a biblical figure known as ‘Queen of Sheba’. She is referred to in Qur. 27:22-44 as a woman who ruled over Sabā, and who at the invitation of Solomon visited him and relinquished her pagan idolatrous faith for the worship of God ‘My Lord! Surely I have wronged myself and I submit with Solomon to God, Lord of the worlds.’ (Qur. 27:44)

1608

Anqā: See n. to v. 54.

1610

‘the moon was cloven’: That is, the miracle to which the text of Qur. 54:1 is supposed to refer.

1619

‘The heavens were rent asunder’: Qur. 84:1, which, it is generally assumed, refers to the destruction of the world at the end of time, when all will meet their maker and be judged. On the second hemistich ‘from one eye that a mortal man has opened’ N. comments ‘The poet applies these words to the spiritual resurrection of the mystic whose inward eye (oculus cordis [“eye of the heart”]) is opened’ (NC p. 298) and he refers to his own note on Mas.1.3440 (= E 3454) that ‘the poet is describing the mystical resurrection and ascension of the spirit borne aloft by the Burāq of Divine Love to union with God.’ (NC p. 201) However, unlike other commentators, N. doubts that the current verse refers to the ascension of the Prophet and prefers to associate this and the next verse with the earth of Adam mentioned in v. 1618 and the idea of Perfect Humanity.

1621

the Generous Creator’s gift: Qur. 21:30: ‘Have those who disbelieve not considered that the heavens and the earth were sewn together and We rent them asunder? And we made every living thing from water. Will they not, then, believe?’ One can also see that the connection in the Masnavi from v. 1619 to 1621 arises from Rumi’s knowledge of this Quranic verse.

Notes

275

1623

God does what he wills: Qur. 14:27: ‘God makes firm those who believe with firm speech in the life of this world and in the Hereafter. And God leads the wrongdoers astray; God does whatsoever He wills.’ Considering the full extent of the Quranic quotation, Rumi’s second hemistich focuses on the compassionate and life-affirming aspect of divine nature.

1626

You raise up whom You will: This is a phrase from Qur. 3:25: ‘Say, “O God, Master of the Kingdom, You give the Kingdom to whom You will, and seize the Kingdom from whom You will, Thou exalt whom You will, and You abase whom you will; in Your hand is the good; You are powerful over everything” ’.

1628

Sohā: the name of a minor star, which here, as in Mas.1.1133, stands for all stars.

1629

four natures: These are the four natures of medieval Islamic cosmology: heat, cold, dryness and moisture, whereof each element (fire air, earth, water) is composed of two: fire is dry and hot, air hot and moist, water moist and cold, earth cold and dry (NC p. 298). God is comprised of none of these, and in his action is even beyond causation, as v. 1629a and 1630a.

1632

I tell the ocean . . .: Cf. Qur. 81:6. This verse of the Masnavi, and those down to v. 1636, appear to be a poetic amelioration of the eschatological threats of Sura al-Takwir, Qur. 81:1-18.

1633a I tell the mountain range: Qur. 101:5; v.1633b I tell the heavens: Qur. 81:11. 1634

‘O sun, be partner with the moon!’: Qur. 75:7-9: ‘Then when the eyes are dazzled and the moon is eclipsed, and the sun and the moon are brought together – that day man will say, “Where is the escape?” ’

1637

Heading ‘if in the morning your water should have sunk into the ground’ Qur. 67:30. Cf. v. 1210 above.

1647

its taste is not dessert for every drunkard: Lit. ‘the taste of repentance is not dessert for every drunkard’, that is, pardon is something in the gift of God, not a human right. See Qur. 2:37.

1650

one like Shoʿayb: Shoʿayb is identified in Muslim sources with the Biblical Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses. Shoʿayb was sent to call the people of Midian to God. See Qur. 11:84-95, 7:85ff., and note in SQ , p. 437. N. remarks ‘It is related that the hills and rocks were turned into arable land at the prayer of the Midianite prophet Shuʿayb’ (NC , p. 300).

1652

Moqawqes: The source of the story behind this verse is unknown. Possibly this refers to the Egyptian ruler called Al-Muqawqis who, according to the historians Ibn Ishaq and Tabari, received a letter from the Prophet Mohammad.

1657–68ff. Repentance needs the heat and tears of anguish . . .: Here Rumi is about to shift from the foregoing reflection on repentance, in the past seven verses, to a fastmoving poetic cadence of 16 questions in the ten verses 1659–1668a. The subject of repentance had come up in 1649b, in response to the story of the man who was blinded in a dream that came true, but who did not repent. The moral reflection continues to the present verse, when Rumi moves into a more poetic mode. The conditions necessary for the realisation of repentance are described in natural

276

Notes terms as ‘thunder clouds and lightning’ (in 1657b); this realisation is termed as ‘fruit’ (in 1658a) and again as ‘clouds and lightning’ (in 1657b). The first question is ‘how shall the threatening fire of wrath be quenched’. Natural imagery takes over completely as Rumi asks a series of unanswered questions in metaphors from the natural world: green shoots, springs of limpid water, rose-beds, violet and jasmine, plane-tree, trees, blossoms, tulip, rose, bulbul, ring dove, stork, earth, garden, summed up in the question of where do all these ‘decorations’, or ‘garments’ of natural phenomena that clothe the natural world (h.ollehā), come from. The answer to this is that they are all from the Generous, the Merciful.

1669

Those subtleties are signs: These ‘signs’ are mentioned more than 25 times in the rest of the passage, down to where Rumi brings it to a gradual close in 1709. The ‘subtleties’ of the ‘signs’ are all the created phenomena that clothe this world and which are witnessed by the ‘man of service’ (v. 1669b) who is the true sage who has seen the ‘King’ (v. 1670a) that is God. His witnessing of the signs leads to the declaration of v. 1684: ‘This is the sign that you will gain from God / the kingdom and the power that you are seeking’. The ‘sign’ pertains only to him who has already seen (v. 1705a).

1671a ‘Am I not your Lord?’: A phrase from Qur. 7:172 ‘And when thy Lord took from the Children of Adam, from their loins, their progeny and made them bear witness concerning themselves, “Am I not your Lord?” they said, “Yea, we bear witness” – lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection, “Truly of this we were heedless.”’ As the commentary of SQ puts it, ‘This verse is in many ways the cornerstone of Islamic sacred history and anthropology and establishes that the fundamental relationship between God and all human beings is premised upon the simple unmediated recognition of His Lordship at the moment of their pre-temporal creation.’ (SQ p. 466 f.) 1671b lost all his senses: Lit. ‘became self-abandoned and drunk’: This corresponds to the metaphor of ‘the floundering fish’ in v. 1706a. 1673

wisdom’s like the wandering wild she-camel: Wisdom (Ar. h.ikmat) is here coterminous with the Quranic revelation. This verse refers to a hadith ‘Wisdom is a stray camel, and he (the believer has the best right to it wherever he may find it.’ See also v. 2921ff.

1679

That sign that once was told to Zechariah . . . See Qur. 19:1-11, Gospel of Luke, I. 5–23.

1703

all smoke and mirrors: Lit. ‘fraud and hypocrisy’.

1704

not recognise . . .: Lit. ‘Does he not know with whom it is the sign of union.’

1705

This sign pertains to him who’s seen already: That is, he who saw the sign on the Day referred to in v. 1671, known as the Day of Alast.

1707a the floundering fish: Cf. Mas. 1.16. 1707b ‘these are signs of holy scripture’: A phrase that occurs in various forms at the beginning of some suras of the Quran, for example Qur. 10:1, 12:1, 13:1 etc. 1712

1718

guide for the perplexed: Lit. ‘for those who have been tested’; my tr. is a play on the English title of Maimonedes late 12th C treatise, the Judaeo-Arabic Dalālat al-H.ā’irīn, on philosophy, theology and the physical structure of the universe. If I don’t speak: This verse is not in G; N. notes that ‘the four oldest MSS omit this couplet.’ E. reads gar naguyam, ‘If I do not speak . . .’, following Ms 668.

Notes

277

1719

‘Remember God’: Qur. 33:41 ‘O you who believe! Remember God with frequent remembrance.’

1724

Heading Moses . . . Shepherd: The source of this story is unknown to N., though E. finds connections to several literary-religious sources referring to similar stories of individuals in prayerful dialogue with God (EC 272).

1724

O Lord, my God . . .: I translate the reading in MS 668, ey khodā vo ey elāh, favoured by E. which is also written in G above the words ey gozinande elāh which N. found in the later MSS, and translated ‘O God who choosest’.

1742

In truth I ailed, you did not visit: A hadith of the Prophet – see below, vv. 2161–7.

1743

my hearing and my sight: A quotation from a hadith – see Mas. 1.1948 and note for the full translation of the hadith.

1745, 1747 Fatima: The daughter of the Prophet Mohammad and wife of Ali, is regarded as the ideal of womanhood in Islamic tradition. 1749

begets not nor was born: Qur. 112:3, said of God: ‘He begets not; nor was He begotten.

1756

‘. . . divorce’: This alludes to a well-known hadith that contrasts the liberation of a slave as the act that is most pleasing to God, with divorce, which is the most displeasing act. Here Rumi is using ‘divorce’ in an absolute, that is mystical, sense of distance and separation from God.

1759

free from pure and impure: N. considers that ‘pure’ and ‘impure’ refer to tanzih (‘transcendence’) and tashbih (‘immanence’). See above, note to v. 57.

1760

I did not give the order for My profit: Cf. . Qur. 51:56 ‘I did not create jinn and mankind, save to worship Me. I desire no provision from them; nor do I desire that they should feed Me.’ See also vv. 2645–7 below.

1761

For Hindis: Gamard thinks that this refers to those who lived in the countries along the Indus and not to members of the Hindu religion. In acknowledgment of this I prefer to translate P. hendowān ‘Hindis’ not ‘Hindus’, in parallel to ‘Sindis’ for sendiyān. Gamard is following the Afghan scholar Rawan Farhadi in interpreting this word as ‘referring to the Muslims of India who spoke different languages’. Gamard explains:‘After all, Islam had been established in the countries along the Indus River in India for over five hundred years before Mawlānā’s time. The word “Hendu” meant, in Persian, an Indian Muslim or sometimes, and Indian slave owned by a Muslim . . . only later did it come to mean a member of the religion of Hinduism.’ (Gamard, http://dar-al-masnavi.org/n.a-II-1750.html#11.) Gamard refers to other contexts in the Masnavi (= E. 1.2907 and 3 1259) where hendu refers to an ethnicity rather than a religious affiliation. Sind (now Sindh in Pakistan) is in the lower Indus valley.

1765

trivial: Lit. ‘an occurrence’, accident or effect; the thing: That is, the point and purpose.

1767

allusion: Also meaning ‘explanation, interpretation, definition, metaphor, trope’.

1769

For lovers . . .: This is an example of a verse in which the second half line is a metaphorical explanation of the meaning of the first. Rumi takes the following six

278

Notes verses to amplify the core idea of the mysterious quality of love, summed up in v. 1774 ‘the faith of love is separate from all others’, and each analogy is plucked from a different context. The cumulative effect of reading these verses is to render the reader into a state of bewilderment These are ‘such mysteries that cannot come to speech’, as he says in v. 1776. every breath: alternatively ‘every moment’, that is, the duration of a breath.

1772

no qibla: In the Kaʾba one is at the centre, and no other direction is needed; in the second hemistich the analogy is deliberately oblique, even slightly bizarre, as it sums up the need to know the context of everything.

1790

God does what He will: Qur. 14:27. See note to v. 1623.

1792

the utmost lotus tree: Qur. 53:13-18, referring to the Ascension of the Prophet Mohammad, and the ‘lote tree of the boundary’ of Qur. 53:14. See note to Mas. 1.1074.

1801

zekr: The Sufi practice of remembrance of God by mental and verbal repetition of the divine names.

1811

“O would that I were earth”: Qur. 78:40: ‘Truly We have warned you of a punishment nigh, on a day when a man beholds what his hands have sent forth, and the disbeliever says, Oh, would that I were dust.’ ” As N. observes, in the next verse we see that Rumi ‘is referring to the spiritual development of Man from inanimate matter . . . to perfect humanity’ (NC p. 306).

1812

like earth, that I had produced some grain: Cf. Mas. 1.3178-80

1819

‘God loves not them that set’: Alluding to Qur. 6:76 as quoted in vv. 299–300 and 1563 above.

1821

raised an objection like the angels; See Qur. 2:30ff. and note to Mas. 1.2671.

1825

sight and seeing: That is, having the certainty of actual experience. See note on v. 864 above.

1829

Resurrection: Cf. v. 293.

1835

flowing water: Qur. 67:30 – see v. 1210 above and note.

1841

paradise is ringed by our aversions: This verse is based on a hadith.

1842a verdant branch: Referring to the green wood of your lust that will not easily burn: you must burn your lust, so that you are not to be burnt in hell. 1842b Kawsar’s neighbour: That is to say, to be a dweller on the banks of the River Kawsar in Paradise, you must be burnt free from your lust. 1843

mouthfuls: That is, of illegal or stolen food.

1846

eyes: That is, physical eyes.

1848a elements: Lit. from water and grass. 1854–64 Jesus . . . ass: As E and N. comment, Jesus represents the spirit (Ar. rūh) seeking God, and the ass the self and its connection to bodily life, veiled from the secrets of the divine truth. N. compares the verse to the Gospel of St Matthew, ch. 21. 1856

the ass makes you an ass: Lit. ‘the ass commands you to be an ass’. This alludes to Qur. 12:53, referring to the self (nafs): ‘But I absolve not my self. Surely the self

Notes

279

commands to evil, except the one to whom my Lord may show mercy. Truly my Lord is Forgiving, Merciful.’ 1860

‘put them behind’: This quotes from an apparently misogynistic tradition attributed to the Prophet, which orders that men should put women behind them in public prayer, for the reason that God has mostly done just that. Here however, as often, Rumi interprets the prophetic tradition in a non-sexist manner, that the Prophet meant one should put the self (nafs) behind one, not women.

1867

Joseph: That is, the Joseph of Genesis and Qur.12.

1869

virtue: That is, as N. notes, optimistically, ‘. . . the only virtue of bile (sensual passion) is the headache (sickness of soul) arising from it, which may induce the sufferer to consult a (spiritual) physician in the hope of being cured.’

1870

like the dawning sun: That is to say, as the sun illuminates everything in the world, so ‘You’ illuminate our weaknesses.

1875

‘Guide my people’: N. comments: ‘The story goes that in the battle of Uh.ud a stone hurled by one of the Quraysh broke the Prophet’s teeth; but instead of cursing his enemies he cried, “O God, guide my people, for verily they know not’ (NC , p. 309).

1879

Cf. Mas. 1.1576 ‘Your cruelty is better than a victory, Your scolding’s more desired than life itself.’

1881

The Prophet said: The verse translates a Prophetic hadith into Persian.

1885

Heading An Amir’s harassment of a sleeping man: This story is an illustration of the meaning of v. 1880f. According to N., the Amir in this story is a spiritual master (murshid), whereas the man who swallowed the snake is a sensualist (NC , p. 309).

1892

satisfaction: Lit. recompense, compensation.

1920

Bu Bakr-e Robābi: Here the Prophet is comparing himself to a someone who lived several centuries after him; see note to v. 1577. As N. mentions, for Rumi such anachronisms are quite insignificant details. (NC p. 309).

1922

The hand of God . . .: As N. notes (NC , p. 182), this refers to the oath of allegiance received by the Prophet from his followers at Hudaybiya; see Qur. 48:10. See also Mas. 1.2985.

1924

the moon was split asunder: Qur. 54:1; see note to v. 356.

1930

Direct my people: See note to v. 1875.

1936

Heading . . . the trustworthiness of a bear: From a traditional folk-tale, popular in Rumi’s youth and still current today (NC , p. 310).

1948

hair of defect: The text has ‘hair and defect’. Cf. the Gospel of St Matthew 7:5 ‘Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.’

1951

Take manliness . . .: Lit. ‘apply the remedy of manliness, do not pander after impotence!’ N. paraphrases this verse: ‘restore your spiritual health by selfdiscipline and self-control’, which in the context seems an appropriate interpretation. E. similarly comments on the images and metaphors of vv. 1946ff. that they are explanations of how one must deal with the material attachments of this world in order to understand real being and knowledge of God/the truth

280

Notes (h.aqq). Both thus follow the traditional interpretation, such as that of Anqaravi, that physical, sexual and worldly imagery is intended to have a spiritual meaning. Cf. 5:4027 (N. 5:4025). On this passage of Mas. 2., and specifically v. 1951, Anqaravi (vol. 5, p. 680) spiritualises the meaning and writes in his commentary: “Find the right medicine or remedy for manliness (mardī) so that within yourself the power of manliness is procured and no impotence remains. That is to say, make an effort that you achieve manly strength (rajūliyat) so that you become sexually mature (bāligh), and realize the spiritual level of being a man of God (rajāl Allāh), and thereby a hundred different sorts of virginal spiritual realities (maʿānī-yi bekr) and brides of the Spirit (ʿarāyis-i rūh.ānī) become manifest and their beauty displayed to you.” In contrast, in his translation, Mojaddedi has sexualised the meaning of the verse: ‘Don’t keep it limp—insert man’s remedy / and make the women climax rapturously’.

1952

assembly: This refers to anjoman as the spiritual assembly of mystical consciousness.

1958

ʽCall out to God’: From Qur. 17:110.

1960

‘In heaven is your provision’: Qur. 51:22 ‘In heaven is your provision and that which you were promised’.

1975

he slew the dragon: Rumi briefly refers to this story of the bear, which he had tried to begin at 1936, and reverts to it in vv. 2014–39, again briefly at 2068–70, he concludes it in vv. 2129–34.

1984

Sāmeri; See Mas. 1.2269 and note.

1988

master of discernment: Lit. ‘the pole of the master of discernment’. ‘Pole’ (qo.tb) is a term for the supreme sheikh of the age.

2000

A double whammy!: See a similar idea in. v. 805f.

2010

‘Be silent’: Qur. 23:106-9 (The disbelievers will ask to be removed from the fires of Hell and to be given a second chance) ‘They will say, Our Lord! Our wretchedness overwhelmed us, and we were a people astray Our Lord! Remove us from it! Then if we revert, we shall be wrongdoers.” He will say, “Be gone therein, and speak not to Me.”

2012

like the wolf with Joseph: Qur. 12:14 and 17.

2015

Men of the Cave: See note to v. 37.

2045

manna: Lit. ‘goblets and trays’ (of drink and food) Qur. 2:57; the stream ran from the rock. Qur. 2:60 ‘And when Moses sought water for his people, We said, “Strike the rock with thy staff.” The twelve springs gushed forth from it . . .’; see also v. 2495f. below.

2061

Why would the wolf have any love for Joseph: See Qur. 12:13-17.

2062

the cave dog: A reference to the Companions’ dog in the story of the Companions of the Cave in Qur. 18:18, who will be admitted to Paradise in the form of a man; see Mas. 1.1026.

2065

bowl fell from the roof: N. notes in his translation (of v. 2061) that this metaphor means that the sorrowful (the lover of God)’ ‘has fallen into ecstasy’. However, as

Notes

281

E. comments, dardmand ‘the sufferer’ is someone who has esoteric knowledge and knows what reality is: ‘bowl falling from the roof ’ is revealing the secret of the lover to all. The truth cannot be hidden from such a lover.’ N. anticipates this understanding in his note (to v. 2061), explaining that it is ‘a metaphor conveying the idea of divulgation, exposure and notoriety: often applied to a lover whose secret passion has become evident to all’ (NC p. 312). The ‘bowl’ is the large metal dish in which clothes and other items were soaked and stored prior to, and for the purpose of, washing – its falling ‘from the roof ’ would create such a noise as to broadcast everywhere what had happened. 2070

“Turn aside from them”: Qur. 32:29-30 The Prophet Mohammad is instructed, when challenged by the disbelievers: ‘Say, “On the Day of Victory, faith will not benefit those who disbelieved; nor shall they be granted respite. Then turn away from them and wait; they, too, are waiting.’

2071b Recite ʽʿAbasa’: That is to say, surah 80 of the Quran, which takes its name from the first word of the surah, ʽʿabasa’ meaning ‘he frowned’. 2072–86 As when the blind man came in search of truth . . .: Here Rumi begins a short story in Persian based on Qur. 80:1-10, As SQ sums it up, ‘These first ten verses refer to a famous incident in the early history of Islam. Āʾishah, the wife of the Prophet, reported that this surah was revealed about ʿAbd Allāh ibn Umm Maktūm, a blind man, who went to the Prophet and kept saying, “O Messenger of God, guide me,” while the Prophet was speaking to the leaders of the idolaters. The Prophet frowned and kept avoiding him, turning to the others. The verses are then said to have been revealed as a rebuke to the Prophet for preaching to those who had no interest in God’s message, while turning away from one who sought guidance.’ (SQ , p. 1474) 2076a This fame will spread from Basra and Tabuk; Tabuk was occupied by the Prophet on one of his campaigns, but Basra was not founded until several years after his death, so either one accepts this as an anachronism of Rumi’s or a miswriting of another place, Bosrā (see NC , p. 313). 2076b people follow in their kings’ religion: A saying attributed to the Prophet. 2081

the human is a mine: A hadith that exists in several versions that generally signify that human nature conceals what it contains.

2099

How a madman sought to ingratiate himself with Galen: In other versions of this story Hippocrates and Rhazes take the place of Galen – see N.’s note in NC , p. 313f.

2115

Placeless place: That is to say, the heavenly place of union with the Beloved, as contrasted with ‘the place’ of this world. See note to vv. 689–90.

2124

Iblis: See note to v. 633.

2136b his talk is big . . .: Lit. ‘His words are stout, but his keeping faith is slender.’ 2144a ʽFulfil your contracts: Qur. 5:1. 2144b ‘Keep to what you swore’: Qur. 5:91. 2146

Heading Mohammad’s visiting the sick companion: This long, much interrupted story, which ends at v. 2562 is based on the sense of a hadith quoted by N. (NC 315, modernised):

282

Notes The Prophet went to visit one of his Companions who was ill . . . and on seeing his condition the Prophet asked whether he had been praying God to grant him some boon. ‘Yes, O Prophet of God,’ he replied: ‘I was beseeching God to let me suffer beforehand in this world the punishment He would inflict on me hereafter.’ ‘Glory be to God!’ exclaimed the Prophet, ‘you cannot endure God’s torment. Why did you not say, “O God, bestow on us a boon in the present world and a boon in the world to come, and save us from the torment of the Fire?”’ See also note to v. 2561.

2150

Since you don’t have . . .: vv. 2150–2153 follow v. 2160 in N.’s edition.

2154

Qo.tb; See note to v. 1988. Heading ʽWhy did you not visit me?’: A sacred (hadith qodsi), which Rumi is citing as a revelation to Moses. The Gospel of St Matthew 25:43-5 corresponds closely to the hadith and would appear to be a source.

2161

2166–7 . . . fell sick, and I am he . . .: Cf. v. 1742. 2171

these companions: That is to say, the company of saintly ones on the spiritual path.

2172

Heading How the gardener separated the Sufi, the jurist and the Alavid from one another: N. notes that this story bears a close resemblance to one in an early 13th-century collection of stories by Moh.ammad ʿAwfi (1171–1242), featuring a learned man, a descendent of Ali, a soldier and a bazaar dealer, all caught eating stolen fruit in a private orchard. N. gives Browne’s translation in NC 316. In Awfi’s version, the gardener ties up each one of them and extracts from them the price of the fruit they had consumed. Rumi substitutes a Sufi in place of the soldier and the bāzāri, and has the gardener finish off each one of them. His story of 46 verses, unusually, runs in continuous narrative and dialogue uninterrupted by deviations and reflections (except for v. 2185b).

2188

Junayd or Bāyazid: The early Persian Sufis Abu’l-Qāsem al-Junayd (early 10th cent.) and Abu Yazid al-Best.āmi (mid 9th cent.) who are, respectively, regarded as the bastions of the sober and ecstatic Sufi traditions.

2199

Would you believe a woman and her doings . . .: N.B. The Masnavi is speaking in the character of the murderous gardener.

2208

what Kharejites did: That is to say, murder, as in the assassination of the Prophet’s son-in-law and cousin Ali by a Kharijite.

2209

Shemr and Yazid: Namely Shimr ibn Dhi’l-Jawshan and Yazid ibn Moʾāwiya killed the Prophet’s grandson H.usayn.

2210

I am out of here!: Lit. ‘we jumped out of the water!’.

2214

He put an end to him: That is to say, the Sharif.

2215

armless thief: My English pun stands in for the literal meaning ‘O you (about to have your) hand cut off (for thieving)!’

2216

Vasit . . . Moh.it: N. suggests that these are the titles of works on jurisprudence, or a single work on the same subject by Al-Ghazāli entitled kitābu ’l-wasī.t al muh.ī.t.

Notes

283

2224

Abu Yazid . . . Bāyazid: Two versions of the same name. See note to v. 2188.

2227

God said: this phrase would indicate that what follows is a translation of either a sacred hadith or a verse of the Quran, but in fact it is neither.

2230

a human . . .: (mardomi ju) that is a saintly human being. On the rhythmic repetition of two words: see note to v. 2657.

2232

to see God in the Ascension: That is to say, in the me’raj or ascension of Mohammad, in which he ascended to the throne of God, which for Sufis became the prototype of the mystical attainment of intimacy with God.

2249

ran up to Safā: One of the rites of the Muslim pilgrimage (h.ajj) was that pilgrims ran between the hill of Marwa and Safā seven times. Ar. s.afā also means ‘purity’ and Rumi plays on the double meaning.

2251

my natural form’s a house: N. compares this to Mas. 1.1021, and quotes the sacred tradition ‘Neither My earth nor My heaven contains Me, but I am contained in the heart of My faithful servant.’ (NC p. 83).

2258

Now when the Prophet saw that ailing man: Rumi returns to the story begun at v. 2146 about the Prophet visiting a sick companion. ‘Cave companion’ is equivalent to ‘bosom friend’ and refers to the story in Qur. 18:9-26. See Note to v. 37.

2259

in that breath: N. (and Wilson) first translated ān dam as ‘that moment’, but later in his Commentary N. prefers ‘that (holy) breath’, referring to his revised interpretation of Mas. 1.522 be dam ‘by the breath (of the Creative Word, Kun, i.e. “Be!”), and recalling the use of nafasu ʾr-rah.mān to denote the universe (Fus.ūs., 182 = SIM , 153) NC , p. 51.

2267

when you remove the shell: The shell of the walnut is likened to the body, and the kernel to the soul; cf. Mas.1.711.

2271

seek out long life in your self-sacrifice: Lit. seek out long life in your own death, that is, the death of the lower self.

2277

With reason, who’s the leader: that is to say, a leader, as in Mas. 1.673, where the wicked vizier poses as a ‘leader’ (Ar. imām).

2279

A hadith of the Prophet which Rumi refers to without the anti-feminist interpretation it is normally given. See note to Mas. 1.2969 and also above v. 1860.

2295

Take it, fear not: Qur. 20:21 God reassures Moses that He will transform the serpent back into a rod: ‘Take hold of it, and fear it not! We shall restore it to its former way.’ See note in SQ, p. 792.

2296

Display the white hand: Qur. 20:72. See note to v. 52b.

2300ff. Just as the armies ranked: This refers to Mohammad’s victory against the Quraysh at the battle of Badr, where, according to Qur. 8:43 f. God revealed to the Prophet in a dream that his enemies were few ‘. . . And had you seen them as being many, you would have surely faltered and quarrelled over the matter. But God delivered you. Truly He knows what lies within their breasts. And when He showed them to you, when you met them, as being few in your eyes, and made you appear to be few in their eyes, so that God may conclude a matter that was to be done. And unto God are all matters returned.’ N. suggests that Rumi means that ‘this

284

Notes is a means which God employs for encouraging the true believer in his struggle against the flesh: essentially it is no illusion, but a prefigurement of the ultimate truth.’ (NC , p. 320)

2303

the outer and the inner struggle: The ‘struggle’ or ‘combat’, Ar.-Per. jehād commonly wrongly translated as ‘holy war’, is ‘outward’ (zāher) and ‘inward’ bāten, outwardly for the world and the flesh, and inwardly is for the salvation of the soul and liberation from its worldly confinement in selfhood. See Mas. 1.1382-98 and notes.

2308

the Prophet’s sword: Rumi gives this famous sword its Ar.-Per. name ‘Zu’l faqār’, which belonged to an unbeliever slain at the battle of Badr, and became Mohammad’s, and then Ali’s. This carries on the idea of v. 2300, that God can make things look great or small, as here even the greatest sword can look like a feeble weapon, or a mighty beast a pussycat.

2310

by their own efforts at the fire-temple: That is to say, in Hell, the centre of punishment.

2313–16 it drowned a hundred like Āj son of Anaq: ʿĀj or ʿŌj was one of the sons of ʿAnaq, a fierce king of lofty stature, mentioned in the Bible, Numbers 13:33 and Deuteronomy 9:2, and as having been slain by Moses. The references to drowning are both to the Biblical story of the drowning of Moses’ enemies, and also the mystical drowning of fools by the spiritual power of holy men. 2341

Dalqak: Dalqak is the hero of two stories in Mas. 5 (= N. 5.3507ff.) and Mas. 6 (= N. 6.2510ff.) and was the court jester of Sāyyed Shāh of Tirmiz.

2346

Heading How a questioner lured an intelligent man: N. quotes a similar story on the feigning of madness dating back at least two centuries before Rumi, and refers to versions in e.g. ʿOwfi’s Jawāmu’l-H.ikāyāt. Moses: The text has kelimi, referring to one of the titles by which Moses is known, the ‘one who speaks with God’ (kelim allāh).

2356 2363

the moon smears: That is to say, the dust of the feet of dervishes is raised to the height of the moon from the frenzy of the dog attack, and the moon wears it on her eyes as a balm.

2372

Qur. 18: 9–26; see Note to v. 37.

2376

Qārun: He was, according to Qur. 28:76, one of Moses’ people, but he behaved unjustly and exulted in his riches until he was punished by God as in the verse alluded to by Rumi, Qur. 28:8, and was swallowed up by the earth. See also Mas. 1.868.

2377

Earth! Swallow!: Qur. 11:44 ‘And it was said, “O earth! Swallow your water!” ’, one of God’s commands to the earth and sky to denote the end of the flood.

2380

they all shrank from accepting it: Qur. 33:72. This is about the pact of trust between God and humankind, which was refused by the Earth and Sky. Cf. Mas.1.1969 and note, and also SQ , p. 1040f.

2382

sound-hearted: That is to say, healthy (Ar. salim), used with reference to Abraham in Qur. 26:89 and 37:84.

2392

The remaining three verses of this section seem to be a conclusion to the story begun at v. 2346.

Notes

285

2394a space . . . spaceless spaces: That is to say, the realm of mystical ecstasy with the Beloved. The ‘place’ of this world has no access to that world beyond place – see Note to 689–90. 2394b on the bench: That is, ‘I would be teaching, not swooning in ecstasy’: a similar notion is repeated in v. 2407. 2395

Heading How a constable summoned a fallen drunkard to prison: N. mentions (NC p. 325) that this is reminiscent of a passage in the Munqidh of Al-Ghazāli; it is of Rumi’s time, but there are no known literary sources for this particular anecdote.

2400–2 hū: Commonly meaning ‘he’ in Ar., for Sufis, hū is the sacred syllable that refers to the divine essence of Truth, ‘He’ that is, God, especially in the ritual remembrance (z-ekr) of God: chanting hū, hū, as in v. 2402, they become intoxicated – as if drunk on the mystical wine of absorption in Him. 2405

You cannot strip my clothes off . . .: Translating the Latin proverb nemo potest nudo vestimenta detrahere: The Persian is literally ‘How can you get a pledge from a naked man?’ As N. says, there are many proverbial sayings in Persian to this effect, and explains ‘After losing himself in God, the mystic has nothing to lose’. Cf. also English ‘Sue a beggar, get a louse’, etc.

2407b I’d be there . . .: This repeats verse 2394b. 2413

one’s a treasure: Lit. ‘treasure of the spirit’ ganj-e ravān.

2428

He said, ʽThese common people . . .: It is characteristic of Rumi’s Masnavi that speeches segue into discourses, as here, where it is deliberately uncertain where the soliloquy that begins here ends and where Rumi’s own discourse, which ends at v. 2463, begins.

2434

who’s seen the night patrol and not gone home: That is to say, ‘who’s seen the warning and not taken refuge’.

2446

God is my purchaser: Qur. 9:111, and see note to v. 578 above.

2450

the Judas tree: Pers. arghavan, also the redbud, Cercis siliquastrum.

2456

You are closer to us than our selves: In Persian, this alludes to the Ar. of Qur. 50:16 ‘We did indeed create man, and We know what his soul whispers to him; and We are nearer to him than his jugular vein.’

2463

ʽbeneath which rivers flow’: Qur. 85:11 ‘Truly those who believe and perform righteous deeds, theirs shall be Gardens with rivers running below: That is, the supreme triumph.’

2475

Hārut and Mārut: Two fallen angels who suffer eternal punishment for their transgression. See note to Mas. 1.539a.

2490

He said, ʽI have repented, Sultan: With this verse the speech of the sick man comes to an end and the remainder of the passage down to v. 2559 is a discourse of Rumi’s.

2495–6 manna . . . gushing from a rock: Qur. 2:57, 60, and see v. 2045 above. 2513

flesh and blood: Lit. ‘flesh and fat’ lah.m o shah.m. This is reminiscent of, but not the same as, the Christian doctrine of grace bestowing mercy in human flesh.

286 2523

Notes whatever bad he does; See Qur. 41:46: ‘Whosoever works righteousness, it is for his own soul. And whosoever commits evil, it is to the detriment thereof.’

2531–2 To say that I untimely . . . Hallāj’s ʽI’ . . . the Pharaoh’s ʽI’: Hallāj’s famous pronouncement, ‘I am the Truth’ was his ultimate act of humility, for which he was martyred, conceding all personal reality in his extinction in God: Pharaoh’s boast ‘I am your lord most high’ (Qur. 79:24) was the ultimate act of blasphemy and a curse upon himself. See note to Mas. 1.1819. See also v. 307 and note. 2533

the untimely rooster: According to an old custom, and as the Per. proverb says, the untimely crowing bird must be beheaded, in a Muslim practice of punishing the bird that misleads believers about the correct time of the morning prayer: see Mas. 1.947, 1167.

2539

‘You did not throw when you were throwing’: Qur. 8:17; see v. 1310 above, and Mas. 1.619.

2541–2 ‘as you have read’: This refers to Qur. 85:12-14 ʿTruly thy Lord’s assault is severe. Truly it is He Who originates and brings back. And He is the Forgiving, the Loving.’ N. Comments on Rumi’s verses, ʿThe poet implies that God’s mercy, being prior to his wrath . . . ultimately prevails over it. Essentially chastisement inflicted by God is an act of mercy.’ (NC p. 329). 2543

By the Morning Brightness: See note to v. 296.

2560–2 The holy Prophet said to that sick man: With these three verses Rumi ends the story he began more than 400 verses earlier at v. 2146 (see note to v.2146). 2561

Be good to us in this world’s dwelling place . . .: Rumi quotes the sense of Qur. 2:201, putting it into the ramal rhythm of the Masnavi. The fuller context is: ‘From among mankind are those who say, “Our Lord, give to us in this world,” but have no share in the hereafter. But amongst them are those who say, “Our Lord, give us good in this world and good in the Hereafter, and shield us from the punishment of the Fire”. It is they who have a portion from what they have earned, and God is swift in reckoning.’ (Qur. 2:200-2).

2566–77 The Angel says, ʽThat garden full of greenness: A lyrical passage of 12 vv. on the meaning of heaven and hell for those who fought with and transformed the self. 2578

what is the recompense for virtue?: Qur. 55:60 ‘Is the reward for goodness aught but goodness?’.

2579

sacrificed: That is to say, we have given up the self (in fanā) and ‘passed away’ (in baqā).

2581

on His command and scripture: Lit. ‘upon his writ and mandate’.

2584

. . . moths before the candle: The moth or butterfly (Per. parvāne) is, since the time of Hallāj (d. 922), a favourite symbol in Persian poetry of the lover’s being absorbed in the flame of the beloved (in for example Nezāmi, Attār, Rumi and Hāfez). It has also long been absorbed into European literature, especially since Goethe’s encounter with the poetry of Hāfez – see for example Goethe Selige Sehnsucht (‘Holy Longing’).

Notes

287

2589

Like Mercury: See v. 1602 and note.

2590

moonbeam: Lit. ‘a part of the moon’; Per. mah pāre – also a word for ‘mistress’. N. and E. both note that here Rumi is talking about the inclination of the soul towards the perfectibility of the Perfect Man or sage pir. (NC p. 330, EC p. 312).

2592

See how one kind of being is made specific: This verse alludes to the idea of a spiritual evolution of humankind towards perfection (as opposed to the manifestation of the Absolute being in devolution and individualisation). N. (NC p. 330) refers to Mas. 1.2813 (= N. 2801) ‘The lovers of the whole and part are different: he who desires the part neglects the whole,’ and 1.2917-8 (= N. 2904–5). E. says that it does not appear that Rumi is thinking of these terms in the technical, traditional philosophical, sense, but that he means that the general group of seekers (Per. morid) is the ‘species’ (Per. jens), and the perfect men and sages are the ‘genus’ (Ar.-Per. nawʿ ), that is a more universal category (EC , p. 312).

2598

ostād: ‘Spiritual teacher’, like ‘Pir’ and ‘Sheikh’.

2606

this world’s profit / is childsplay: Cf. Qur. 29:64 ‘The life of this world is naught but diversion and play. And surely the Abode of the Hereafter is life indeed, if they but knew.’

2614

Heading Moʿāviye: Ar. Muʿāwīya was the Prophet’s Companion and brother-inlaw before becoming the first Umayyad ruler after the four ‘rightly guided’ caliphs. There are no known literary sources for this story.

2621

do not talk to me in riddles: Lit. ‘upside down and contrariwise’.

2622

Heading Iblis unsettles Moʿāviye: Lit. throws him off his ass.

2623

Go, hurry off to prayer before it ends: Ar. paraphrase of a hadith. which is in full ‘hurry to prayer before the end and hurry to repentance before death’.

2627

At first I was an angel: According to a tradition, Iblis was an angel once and worshipped God for 600,000 years. See Mas. 1.1018 and note.

2652

I gave up worship: See previous note and also v. 633. and note.

2657

I’m mated by Him, mated by Him, mated: For rhetorical effect, Rumi occasionally makes a whole hemistich out of two words, in ecstasy, or imprecation, see v. 2230, or indeed lamentation – as in Mas 1.1733 ‘Alas! and O alas! and O alas!’.

2671

By your deception Noah’s folk lament: For the contemporary Muslim reader of the Masnavi, here was a familiar pun on nuh ‘Noah’ and the root nuh. ‘lament’, referring to scepticism of Noah’s people towards his warning from God in Qur. 7:64: ‘Yet they denied him. So We saved him and those who were with him in the Ark, and We drowned those who denied Our signs. Truly they were a blind people.’

2672

Ād’s people: Reference to the Quranic story of the prophet Hud who was sent to the idolatrous people of Ād (Qur. 7:65-72; 11.50ff.). See Mas. 1.857-8 and note.

2673

they were deluged in black rainwater: Qur. 11:77-82; for the story of Lot see Qur. 7:80-84.

288

Notes

2674

Nimrod: See note to v. 349 and Mas.1.1197 and note.

2680

Qur. 11:43 ‘He (Noah’s son) said, “I shall take refuge in a mountain that shall defend me from the water:” Said he, “Today there is not defender from God’s command but for Him on whom He has mercy.” And the waves came between them and he was among the drowned.’

2683

cur . . . occur: Rumi’s wordplay is better, when he puns on kalb (‘dog’) and qalb (‘fake’ or ‘counterfeit’).

2698–701 The Indian burned the mirror: E. notes that the gist of these verses is previously in a story of Sanāʾi’s, and in a closer connection resembles something in the Discourses of Shamsoddin. 2700

informer: Rumi uses this word ghammāz in Mas. 1.34 ‘Do you know why your mirror tells of nothing?’ (Lit. ‘is not an informer’); witness: Lit. ‘truth teller’ (rāst-gu), and so ‘witness’.

2717

Heading: The heading interrupts a speech without the speaker changing, which suggests that it was added by a later copyist.

2719

As Adam, lord of “He taught him the names”: This quotes from Qur. 2:31—see a similar form of words in Mas. 1.1243.

2720

from on high: Lit. ‘from Semāk’, the name of two stars, Arcturus and Spica Virginis: Adam fell from heaven above like a feeble fish into Satan’s net.

2721

‘We have wronged ourselves indeed’: Qur. 7:23 ‘They said, “Our Lord! We have wronged ourselves. If Thou dost not forgive us and have Mercy upon us, we shall surely be among the losers.” ’

2735

Your love of things has made you blind: This Ar. verse alludes to a hadith of the Prophet.

2741

He said: That is, Moʿāviye said.

2743

He said: That is, Iblis said.

2744

He said: That is, Moʿāviye said (speaking down to v. 2754); what follows is a Persian translation of a hadith.

2750

forbidden fruit: That is to say, bread – see note to v. 16.

2752

an apple from a serpent: Lit. ‘at that moment he could not know a scorpion from an ear of wheat’ – a pun as scorpion (kazhdom) and wheat (gandom) look and sound a little similar in Persian.

2755

Heading: This is linked to a story that began at v. 2346.

2761

is illuminating: Lit. ‘is light for the eyes’.

2762

their prejudice has buried all their knowledge: Cf. Mas. 1.336.

2791

Azāzil: one of the names of Iblis.

2807

A second thief: As N. comments (NC , p. 335f.), like the second thief, who suggests a false trail and causes the pursuer to lose the first thief, similarly Iblis employs the lesser good as a temptation for those who seek the greater. Developing the analogy, Rumi contrasts intellectual with mystical

Notes

289

knowledge and pours scorn on the pretensions of logicians and legalists to show Sufis the way to the truth. Rumi makes these contrasts in his discourse from v. 2824 onwards. 2815

intruder: Per. qaltabān is a pimp or someone who panders to others’ wives.

2822

You seek directions – I’m beyond directions: This verse is the beginning of a discourse that runs down to v. 2835, confirmed by Rumi’s addressing the reader as ‘my son’ in v. 2824.

2827

common worship: Higher standards are expected of those on the mystical path, such that ‘ordinary’ faith and union are not enough. See Mas. 1.1589 and note: cf. the story of Sheikh Sanʿan in Attār’s Conference of the Birds takes the inadequacy of religious fidelity to its logical conclusion.

2836

Heading . . . a mosque of opposition: This is an expanded traditional version of a story that is first mentioned in Qur. 9:107-10 ‘And as for those who established a mosque for harm and disbelief and to divide the believers, and to be an outpost for those who made war on God and His Messenger before, they will surely swear, “We desire only what is best.” But God bears witness that truly they are liars. Never stand therein! Truly a mosque founded upon reverence from the first day is worthier of thy standing therein. Therein are men who love to purify themselves, and God loves those who purify themselves. So is one who founded his building upon reverence for God and [His] Contentment better, or one who founded his building on the brink of a crumbling bank, which then crumbles with him into the fire of Hell? And God guides not wrongdoing people. The building they have built will not cease to be a disquiet in their hearts, till their hearts are rent asunder. And God is knowing, Wise.’ As is implied in the last verse, the builders of the ‘mosque of opposition’ would meet a bitter end. According to the 14th C commentator Ibn Kathir, the Prophet was about to visit the mosque at the invitation of the Christianled group who had built it near the mosque of Qubāʾ outside Madinah, when these verses were revealed to the Prophet (alluded to in v. 2878) and the Prophet commanded that the bogus mosque be burned down – referred to in vv. 3028, 3032. See further SQ , p. 534 f., and N.’s comments in NC , p. 337. In this story of the Masnavi, Rumi follows the tradition later followed by Ibn Kathir, considerably elaborating it into a story of nearly 100 verses (2836–2921, 3027–3037).

2851

like the grass on ash-heaps: but cf. v. 270.

2856

a true companion: Lit. ‘a Companion of the Cave’, referring to the Companion of the Prophet, Abu Bakr. See note to v. 37 (and 2258).

2867

Like moths . . . swish you off: These verses allude to a hadith ‘the likeness of me and my people is as though a man should light a fire and the insects and moths fall into it. When ye are rushing into the fire I lay hold of you.’

2870–3 Their goal: N. notes that this implies that the hypocrites were no better than unbelievers (NC p.338.) 2871a They built a mosque upon the bridge of Hell: Cf. Qur. 9:109 ‘who founded his building on the brink of a crumbling bank, which then crumbles with him into the fire of Hell’.

290

Notes

2883 (and 2897) oaths are like a shield: Qur. 58:16, 63:2 ‘They took their oaths as a shield and thus turned from the way of God . . .’ 2885

The righteous have no need of swearing oaths: Cf. the Gospel of St Matthew 5:34 ‘But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne.’ And also James 5:12 ‘But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath; but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.’

2886

good faith: Lit. ‘the keeping of oaths and good faith’.

2894

Moses hearing God’s voice from the bush: Qur. 28:30 ‘And when he came upon it, he was called from the right bank of the valley, at the blessed site, from the tree, “O Moses! Truly I am God, Lord of all the worlds”.’ Cf. Exodus 3:4.

2898

ʽIndeed you lied’: Cf. Qur. 9:107 ‘. . . But God bears witness that truly they are liars.’

2906

Something similar happened to the king in the first story in Mas. 1, v. 62: And then amidst his tears sleep snatched him off, he dreamed he saw a sage appear to him. Similarly, of the Caliph Omar, in Mas.1.2117: He bowed his head, sleep took him and he dreamed there came a voice from God—his soul was listening.

2913

They would not flinch from taking any measure . . .: Lit. ‘Those people tied on themselves a hundred bands over their cloaks, for the destruction of the mosque of the people of Qobā.’

2914–5 the Elephant: Qur. 105 (‘The Elephant’), ‘The Elephants’: ‘Have you not seen how your Lord dealt with the men with the elephants. Did He not cause their mischief to go astray? He sent on them birds in swarms, which pelted them with stones of baked clay, and made them like devoured ears of corn.’ (Tr. Jones, The Qurʾān Translated into English). On this surah SQ explains: ‘It is said that Abrahah, an Abyssinian general who ruled Yemen, had built a church in Sanʿāʾ in order to divert pilgrims from the Kaʿbah in Makkah. But when the pilgrims did not abandon their worship at the Kaʿbah, Abrahah sent an army against Makkah in the year 570, the same year in which the Prophet Muhammad is believed to have been born. According to some, a few members of the Quraysh had ether defiled or burned down Abrahah’s church. Along with the largest army that had ever been assembled in Arabia, Abrahah sent an elephant, which he intended to use to pull down the Kaʿbah. God, however, protected the Quraysh and the Kaʿbah by sending against them a swarm of birds that pelted them with stones.’ (SQ 1561) 2917

vision: The word vāqeʿe ‘occurrence, experience’ is here used in its technical, Sufi sense, namely a contemplation or ‘vision seen by the mystic between sleep and waking, or when he is fully awake’ (NC p. 245). Rumi uses it in the ordinary non-Sufi sense, sense of a negative experience, in v. 224.

2921

The Book: Lit. ‘the wisdom of the Quran.’ See v. 1673, and Mas. 1.3243.

Notes 2945

291

no fantasy: Lit. ʽ . . . no fantasy in the world.’

2946b Truth is the Night of Power: Qur. 97: ‘Truly we sent it down in the Night of Power. And what shall apprise thee of the Night of Power. The Night of Power is better than a thousand months. The angels and the Spirit descend therein, by the leave of their Lord, with every command; peace it is until the break of dawn.’ This is the night on which it is believed the Quran was first revealed, on one of the last ten nights of the month of Ramadan (Qur. 2:185). As N. comments, ‘Hence the Night of Power is an apt emblem for the Truth that lies hidden amidst errors and illusions in order to test the soul’s capacity for discovering it by patient search.’ (NC p. 340). 2949

prudent, and sagacious Muslim: This refers to a hadith of the Prophet, which urges that the true believer is discriminating and can distinguish effeminacy from manliness.

2954

miserable: Lit. ‘blind and blue: see note to Mas. 1.522b.

2956

Pharaoh’s downfall and Thamud’s: See Mas. 1.2521 and note, and v. 2044 above.

2957

ʽThen return your gaze again!’: Qur. 67:4.

2958

ʽAre there no cracks in it?’: Qur. 67:3 cf. Mas.1.3643.

2969

the fire of fear and caution: See Mas. 1.3629-30.

2970

the Autumn is God’s threat: Cf. Mas. 1.1906.

2974

God most high imposes on our bodies: Qur. 2:155 ‘And We will indeed test you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth, souls, and fruits; and give glad tidings to the patient.’

2982–3 then suckle him at once O Moses’ Mother: These verses allude to Qur. 28:7: ‘So We revealed to the mother of Moses, “Nurse him. But if you fear for him, then cast him into the river, and fear not, nor grieve. Surely We shall bring him back to you and make him one of the messengers”.’ 2991

there is no doubt: Qur. 2:1: ‘This is The Book in which there is no doubt, a guidance for the reverent.’

2995

Therein are clear signs: Qur. 3:97: ‘Therein are clear signs: the station of Abraham, and whosever enters it shall be secure . . .’ (referring to the Kaʿba): like the Kaʿba, those who enter on the path of truth are guaranteed salvation.

3014

now copper’s beaten, gold is conqueror: The alchemical symbolism signifies the triumph of turning the base metal of imitative, counterfeit knowledge (Ar. taqlīd) into the gold of the certain knowledge of truth (Ar. tah.qīq).

3021

When he got in he saw it was his own: Understanding that the allegorical meaning may be missed by his readers, N. explains: ‘The muqallid [the ‘imitator’, ‘disciple’] who finds in himself the Truth he would have stolen, i.e. learned by description, from another, is compared to a housebreaker who discovers that he has entered his own house.’ N. cites Qur. 53:39–41: ‘. . . that none shall bear the burden of another; that man shall have naught but that for which he endeavoured, and that his endeavouring shall be seen whereupon he will be rewarded for it with the fullest reward’ (NC p. 343).

292

Notes

3027

When it was clear that this was not a mosque: Rumi thus returns to the story begun some 190 verses ago; see note on v. 2836 above.

3032

he set fire: That is to say, the Prophet, Prince of Justice.

3038

Story of the Indian who quarrelled: As E. says, this tale clearly seems to have been heard directly from Shamsi Tabriz, as it is told in the Discourses (Maqālāt) of Shams, as well as in a number of other earlier sources (EC p. 332).

3039

Each said Allāhu akbar with intention: N. notes, citing Lane (The Modern Egyptians, 1, 94f.) ‘The worshipper begins his prayer with the niyyat, “intention”, i.e. he says inaudibly, that he intends to recite the prayers of so many rakʿas; then raising his open hands on each side of his face, and touching the lobes of his ears with the ends of his thumbs, he says “Allāhu Akbar”. See also note on v. 3552.

3040–4 The muezzin came: According to Islamic law, once the prayer has been started, it must be completed without interruption: in this story each of the Indian Muslims in turn invalidates his prayer by interjecting. 3050

Fear not!: Qur. 41:30 ‘Truly those who say, “Our Lord is God,” then stand firm, the angels will descend upon them, [saying], “Fear not, nor grieve, and rejoice in the Garden that you have been promised. We are your protectors in the life of this world and in the Hereafter; therein you shall have whatsoever your souls desire, and therein you shall have whatsoever you call for: a welcome from One Forgiving, Merciful.” ’

3051

Iblis lived . . . consider what his name is: The name Iblis is thought to derive ultimately from Greek diabolos ‘slanderer, enemy’, and hence ‘the Devil’ in Christian texts. Some Muslim philologists, however, have imaginatively derived it from an Arabic verb ublisa (he was rendered hopeless’: for a recent consideration of the subject see Hamid Algar’s essay ‘Eblīs’ in the Encyclopedia Iranica.

3057

murderous Turcomans of Guzz: The Ghuzz, or Oghuz, Turks from Central Asia, named after the Turkic word oghuz ‘tribe’ ravaged Khorasan in the mid-12th century, and hence their reputation for being bloody-thirsty. They became Muslim in the course of the 12th cent. and their descendants were the founders of the Ottoman Empire.

3067

The last ones shall be first: A hadith meaning ‘We are the last (in time), the foremost (in excellence)’ – which asserts the superiority of Islam over Judaism and Christianity and the religions of all other prophets; cf. The Gospel of St Matthew 20:16, 19:30, Mark 10:31, Luke 13:30.

3085

‘Him Who spread out the earth’: Qur. 51:48 ‘And the earth We laid out – what excellent spreaders!’.

3088

‘This is the Lord’: Qur. 76:77, 78. and see note to v. 1473.

3093

‘went astray and more astray than cattle’ Qur. 7:179f. ‘We have indeed created for Hell many among jinn and men: they have hearts with which they understand not; they have eyes with which they see not; and they have ears with which they hear not. Such as these are like cattle. Nay they are even further astray. It is they who are heedless.’

Notes

293

3111

ʽthe goodly life’: Qur. 16:97: ‘Whosever works righteousness, whether male or female, and is a believer, We shall give them new life, a good life.’

3123

Until the Man of God’s heart came to suffer: That is to say, since the times of Noah and Lut.

3127

Juhi: N. comments at the start of a long learned note: ‘The old fool and jester known to the Arabs as Juhā and to the Persians generally as Juhi is the hero of many drolleries like those attributed to Khoja Nas.ru’ddin, Eulenspiegel, and Joe Miller.’ (NC , p. 347f.).

3132

eyes: Later manuscripts have ‘body’.

3141

‘Loving’: God is described as ‘Loving’ (wadūd) in Qur. 11:90 and 85:14.

3142

opening of the door; See note to v. 166.

3145

Joseph; See note to v. 1280.

3146

Jonah: See Qur. 37:139–147.

3147

Resurrection: Lit. ‘they shall be raised’, Qur. 37:144 ‘he (Jonah) would have tarried in its belly till the Day they are resurrected.’

3157

patience is the key to joy; See note to v. 70b.

3158

Serāt bridge; See note to v. 255.

3160

Chigil beauty: Chigil (or Jigil), a town in Turkestan beyond the river Jaxartes, was famous for its beautiful women. In literature Chigil becomes a byword for the beauty of the divine beloved.

3170

Ād: See note to v. 2672.

3171–2 N. points out that he, alone among oriental and European commentators, identifies that here . . . Rumi is alluding to the Story of the fox and the drum in Kalīlah wa-Dimnah . . . . . . “A fox went into a thicket and saw a drum lying beside a tree. Every time a gust of wind came, the branches of the tree hit the drum and produced an alarming sound. Seeing a big body and hearing an awful voice, the fox hoped the flesh would be in proportion to the voice, but having with great labour torn off the skin, he found there was nothing inside. ‘I did not know’, he said regretfully, ’ ‘that the bigger the body and the more fearsome the voice, the less advantage is to be gained from it.’ ” (NC p. 349–50) 3186

We have no knowledge . . .: Qur. 2:31 ‘And He taught Adam the names, all of them. Then He laid them before the angels and said, “Tell me the names of these if you are truthful.” They said, “Glory be to Thee! We have no knowledge save what Thou has taught us. Truly Thou art the Knower, the Wise.” ’

3221

Heading The miracles of Ebrāhim son of Adham: Ebrāhim Adham is a well-known mystic of the second century of Islam, who according to the Sufi legends was the King of Balkh. After a mystical experience he gave up his kingdom and took refuge in a cave and lived the ascetic life of poverty. The story told by Rumi here is rendered in prose in Attār’s Memorials of the Saints and is paraphrased in NC , p. 351 (also given in Persian in EC , p. 340):

294

Notes One day, whilst he was seated on the bank of the Tigris, stitching his tattered Khirqah, the needle fell into the river. Some one said to him, ‘You gave up such a splendid kingdom: what have you gained?’ Ibrāhim signified to the river that his needle should be given back. Immediately a thousand fishes rose from the water, each carrying in its mouth a needle of gold. He said to them, ‘I want my needle’, whereupon a poor little fish came to the surface with the needle in its mouth. ‘This’, said Ibrāhim, ‘is the least thing I have gained by giving up the kingdom of Balkh: the other things you cannot know.’

3245b ‘Hold up my shirt towards his face’: Qur. 12:92-3. Jacob, father of Joseph, regains his sight upon smelling his shirt of his long-lost son. Joseph had told his brothers, when he revealed his identity to them: ‘There is no reproach against you this day. God will forgive you. And He is the most Merciful of the merciful. Take this shirt of mine and cast it upon my father’s face; he will come to see . . .’ 3246

. . . what delights my eye is prayer: Referring to a well-known hadith, Rumi quotes the latter part: ‘In this world of yours women and sweet perfume have been made dear to me; and my delight is in the ritual prayer’.

3251–2 When one sense is set free . . .: In an intriguing note, N. alludes to an observation of Edward Carpenter, the English Socialist poet and philosopher and contemporary of N. at Cambridge, ‘this (mystical) perception seems to be one in which all the senses unite into one sense.’ (NC, p. 353). Cf. Mas. 4.2401ff., where Rumi seems to refer to Abu Yazid Bestāmi (Bāyazid): Then when you’ve been delivered from the body you’ll know that ear and nose can be the eye. That sweet tongued king spoke truly when he said mystics become all eye from head to toe . . . 3254

who brought the pasture’: Qur. 87:1-5 ‘Glorify the Name of thy Lord, the Most High. Who created, then fashioned. Who measured out, then guided, and who brought forth pasture, then made it blackened stubble.’

3275

Moses’ mind: Fortunately ‘Moses mind’ plays happily with ‘mouse’s mind’, to match a similar pun for the ‘dear reader’ in Persian.

3278

ʽGod has purchased . . .’: Qur. 9:111; see note to v. 578.

3280

Adam, inform them of the names: Qur. 2:31; see note to v. 3186.

3287

And if this quaking world . . .: Qur. 16:15 ‘And He cast firm mountains in the earth, lest it shake beneath you . . .’: See also Qur. 78:7.

3308

in Paradise: Lit. ‘in the unseen garden’.

3320

He’s not less than two barrels or a small tank: N. comments, ‘According to Shafiʿite law, stagnant water used for ritual purification is regarded as undefilable when it amounts to what would fill two large jars . . . Here the metaphor implies that spirituality so pure as that of the Shaykh cannot be injured by any outward act of sin on his part. (NC p. 355).

3322

Khalil: Another name for the prophet Abraham.

Notes

295

3327

the alef has no point: the simple, vertical stroke of the Ar. letter alef has no diacritical pointing – the pun is present in the letter of the Eng. tr., though only in the spirit of the Per. text.

3336

All things must pass except the face of God: This is an Ar. paraphrase of Qur. 28:88, which says in full: ‘And call not upon another god along with God. There is no god but He! All things perish, save His face. Judgment belongs to Him, and unto Him will you be returned.’

3345

Adam is venerated by them: Qur. 2:30-34.

3354

the opening of the door: N. interprets this as the opening of the door to union with God; E. explains it as a specific reference to the opening of the gates of heaven referred to in Qur. 39:73 – see note to v. 166.

3356

While you are playing with a lion’s tail: This recalls the short story in vv. 506–10.

3369

Wherever you may be, direct your faces: Qur. 2:144 ‘We have seen the turning of thy face unto Heaven, and indeed We will turn thee toward a qiblah well pleasing to thee. So turn thy face toward the Sacred Mosque, and wheresoever you are, turn your faces towards it. . . .’ God instructs the Prophet Mohammad to direct his prayers towards the Kaʿba in Mecca, not towards Jerusalem as he had done after migrating to Medina.

3379

Heading Shoʿayb; See note to v. 1650.

3385ff. The rust upon your surface . . .: See Qur. 83:14 ‘Nay! But that which they used to earn has covered their hearts with rust.’ Cf. the hadith of the Prophet, who said: ‘For everything there is a polish, and the polish for the heart is the remembrance of God. There is nothing more potent in saving a person from the Punishment of God than the remembrance of God.’ See SQ , commentary on Qur. 83:14, p. 1489. Rumi first uses the metaphor of corrosion on the surface of metal in Mas. 1.34: Do you know why your mirror tells of nothing? The rust has not been taken from its surface, and is thereafter usually with mirrors, as in Mas.1.3473-4 Be rust-free, like the sheen of polished iron: be rust-free in your practice, like a mirror. And cleanse yourself of qualities of self so that you see your pure and holy essence. In the present passage Rumi mixes his metaphors of darkness, moving between the corruption of smoke, corrosion (v. 3395–6) and writing on paper (3397–3400). Smoke is a pain in this world, but more benign than the fiery punishment of the next world (v. 2478–9 of this book). Smoke blackens dark and light skinned faces but is more visible on the light-skinned (vv. 3390–91), as overwriting obscures the writing on a new page. 3401

Despair is copper, and the cure His Favour: This alchemical image is the next in the series of metaphors and is the most tersely expressed, in a brief allusion to the base metal (copper) and the cure, or ‘elixir’ (Per. eksir), that transforms copper into gold. Rumi says this elixir is the divine ‘gaze’ (Per. naz.ar), and N. comments that this is

296

Notes ‘the Divine favour which transforms despair into hope’ (NC , p. 317). The following verse moves on to the metaphor of the relief of pain that can be found in recourse to the divine (see Mas. 1.104ff.).

3425

Truth: This is Ar. h.aqq, which refers directly to ‘God’. 3431a In such emergency all carrion’s clean!: Qur. 16:115 ‘He has only forbidden you carrion, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and that which has been offered to other than God. But whosoever is compelled by necessity, without wilfully disobeying or transgressing, truly God is Forgiving, Merciful.’ 3447

how could a bird slay elephants?: See note to vv. 350–2.

3449

‘The Owners of the Elephant’: Qur. 105.

3470

‘knead’ . . . ‘need’: A wordplay justified by Rumi having just stressed the importance of increasing one’s need of the divine.

3471

‘keep silence’: That is, as in Qur. 7:203 ‘And when the Quran is recited listen to it and keep silence, that you may receive mercy.’

3507

lead: Lit. ‘camel tether’.

3511

He frowned: Quoting Qur. 80; see v. 2071 above and note.

3527–8 humours: That is to say, blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile, according to the medical philosophy of Galenism that considers illness as an imbalance in the body’s four elemental humours. This Greek Geleno-Hippocratic system was developed by the Persian physician Avicenna, whose theories of the humours dominated the practice of orthodox medicine in Iran until the late 19th century. See further Amir Arsalan Afkhami’s article ‘Humoralism’ in EI . 3531

caused dissonance with Khezr: See Qur. 18:60-82, and Mas:1.225, 237, 2. 439 and notes.

3532

You, Moses: The Sheikh addresses the Sufi as if he were a Moses.

3534

break wind: Or some other polluting bodily act that vitiates the prayer; it is ambiguous whether it is the pollution or the prayer that reprimands the one praying.

3543

which Khezr put to him from God Most Wise: Qur. 18:65 ‘There they found a servant from among Our servants whom We had granted a mercy from Us and whom We had taught knowledge from Our Presence.’ See note on this verse in SQ , p. 751. Cf. also Mas. 1.225ff. and 237ff.

3546

He said: N. supposes that the Sheikh’s speech goes on down to v. 3583, but the fact that v. 3547 refers to another story Rumi has just told indicates that the passage beginning here is a discourse in the authorial voice.

3558

ʽIf all the sea were ink to write with . . .’: Qur. 18:109, where the Prophet is instructed ‘Say, “If the sea were ink for the Words of my Lord, the sea would be exhausted before the Words of my Lord were exhausted, even if We brought you the like thereof to replenish it.”

Notes

297

3560

If groves and forests all turned into pens: Qur. 31:27 ‘And if all the trees on earth were pens, and if the sea and seven more added to it [were ink] the Words of God would not be exhausted . . .’

3564

ʽMy eyes sleep but my heart . . .: This is a hadith of the Prophet.

3568

complete preoccupation . . .: Cf. Qur. 24:36f. ‘He is therein glorified, morning and evening, by men whom neither trade nor buying and selling distract from the remembrance of God, the performance of prayer, and the giving of alms, fearing a day when eyes and hearts will be turned about.’

3578

the birds that stretch their wings: Qur. 67:19 ‘Have you not considered the birds above them, spreading and folding up [their wings]. None holds them save the Compassionate. Truly He sees all things.’

3580

Jaʿfar-the-Flyer . . .: N. notes: Jaʿfar ibn Abi T.ālib, the Prophet’s cousin, fought heroically against the Byzantines at [the battle of] Muʾtah (A.H. 8/A.D. 629), and God rewarded his martyrdom by giving him wings to fly about in Paradise; whence he is known as T.ayyār, the Flyer” (NC 362).

3580b phoney renders an Ar. word for ‘pickpocket, confidence trickster’. 3581

have not tasted: This quotes an Arabic saying ‘Those who have not tasted do not comprehend’; the horizons: is an allusion to Qur. 53:7 ‘When he was upon the highest horizon,’ that is, when the Prophet had a mystical vision of the archangel Gabriel or of God, according to different interpreters.’

3584

made himself vomit: See Mas.1.3611: When Loqmān started retching from his stomach the purest water came up from inside him.

3587

for him it’s right: Lit. ‘lawful’ (Ar. h.alāl).

3610

flows from springs: Qur. 67:30.

3616

‘Lo, I am near’. Qur. 2:186 ‘When My servants ask thee about Me, truly I am near. I answer the call of the caller when he calls Me. So let them respond to Me and believe in Me, that they may be led aright.’

3617

Heading How John the Baptist . . .: The gist of the story, which is to be compared with the Gospel of St Luke 1:39-44, is taken from the famous compendium known as ‘The Stories of the Prophets’ (Qis.ās. al-Anbiyā) of Thaʿlabi (d.1035) and from Quran commentaries (see NC , p. 363f and EC , p. 358f.) On this story see also Alan Williams, ‘The Visitation of Mary and Rumi’s Comments on the Nature of Story: Mathnawī Book II’, Mawlana Rumi Review, VI, Autumn 2015, 117–122.

3618

a lord of resolution: An allusion to Qur. 46:35 ‘So be patient, as the resolute among the messengers were patient. And seek not to hasten for them. It shall be for them, on the day when they see that which they are promised, as though they had tarried naught but an hour of a day . . .’

3633

Kalila: A reference to the eponymous hero of Kalila wa Dimna, the Ar. translation of the famed Sanskrit Pañcatantra (500–100 BCE), a compendium of animal fables. See note to Mas.1.503.

298

Notes

3637b or why’s a stork debating with a crow? In many of Rumi’s stories, as in Attār’s and other authors of this literary tradition, animals and birds discourse with one another: the literary conventions of such fables, and about nightingales, roses and moths etc. must be intelligently understood, not taken literally. 3645

A grammatist pronounced . . .: That is, a phrase as a grammatical example, such as ‘the cat sat on the mat’, ‘la plume de ma tante’, etc.

3650

an extra vav: N. notes in his translation ‘In Arabic the name ‘Amr is written ‘Amrw, in order to distinguish it from the name ‘Umar, with which it would otherwise be identical as far as the consonants are concerned.’

3655

bad women for bad men: Qur. 24:26 ‘Wicked women are for wicked men, and wicked men are for wicked women, and good women are for good men, and good men are for good women.’

3692

obliviously: Lit. ‘he is blind to a description (of the qualities)’.

3696

Division in mankind is born of names . . .: On differences and unity see, for example Fihi mā fih, ch. 23 ‘Although the paths are different, the goal is one. Don’t you see that the roads to the Kaʾba are many?’

3697

angur: Per. for ‘grape’.

3698

ʿenab: Ar. for ‘grape’.

3699

ozom: T. for ‘grape’.

3700

estafil: Gk. for ‘grape’.

3708

keep silence: See v. 3471.

3712

its basic nature: In Persian traditional medicine, things are classed according to their humours and natures: each of the humours is believed to possess two natures: hot (garm) or cold (sard) and dry (khošk) or moist (tar) – see Afkhami’s article ‘Humoralism’ in EI .

3724

ʽThere is no nation . . .: As N. notes, Rumi quotes only the second half of Qur. 35:24, but the sentence is complete. The whole verse is ‘Truly We have sent thee with the truth as a bearer of glad tidings and as a warner. And there has been no community but that that a warner has passed among them.’

3727

The Muslims are one self: This quotes a hadith.

3729

Heading Helpers: A term that refers to the feuding inhabitants of Medina, the Bānu Aws and the Banu al-Khazraj, who were reconciled when they helped the Prophet Mohammad and his migrant Muslims from Mecca against the pagan Meccans.

3732

believers are as brothers: Qur. 49:10 ‘The believers are but brothers; so make peace between your brethren, and reverence God, that haply you may receive mercy.’

3738

better banished from Eram: In Qur. 89:7f. ‘Iram the pillared, the like of which was never created in all the land’ is the city of the Ād, or the people of that city, in legend believed to be an earthly paradise.’

3740

state of grapes: Rumi’s metaphor is difficult to realise in English. Literally he says ‘They [the unripe grapes] are fast approaching the [ideal] state of “grape-ness” so

Notes

299

that duality and hatred and conflict are lifted.’ My translation uses synonyms for the three nouns in the second hemistich that are also applicable to grapes. 3756

‘they searched there . . .’: Qur. 50:36 ‘How many a generation before them have We destroyed who were of greater prowess than them? Then they searched about in the lands: “Is there any refuge?” ’ This verse refers to the same people as referred to in Qur. 50:12-14, the people of Noah, the inhabitants of al-Rass, Thamud, and others, who were destroyed for their iniquity and their refusal to accept the messengers sent to them by God. (See SQ , p. 1270).

3761

Wherever you may be, direct your faces: Qur. 2:139; See above v. 3369 and note.

3767

See Qur. 27:20.

3768

his gaze swerved not: This is a quotation of Qur. 53:17 [said of the Prophet] ‘The gaze swerved not; nor did it transgress.’

3774

the emperor’s birds: That is to say, the twittering of the birds of the world, as contrasted with the articulate, spiritual voices of the sublime birds that were understood by Solomon. Here Rumi also alludes to the poet Khāqāni Shervāni (d. Tabriz. c. 1190) who referred to his own words as the speech of birds, which no human could understand: a Solomon was needed to understand what he was saying (see NC p. 368, and EC 367). As N. comments, ‘All the artificial eloquence of this world is mere empty sound in comparison with the mystic utterances of those whom God has inspired.’ The general allusion is to Qur. 27:16: ‘And Solomon was David’s heir, and he said, “Men, we have been taught the speech of the birds, and we have been given of everything; surely this is indeed the manifest bounty” ’ (tr. Arberry).

3789–90 We’ve honoured Adam’s sons . . . We brought them on the land: Qur. 17:70 ‘We have indeed honored the Children of Adam, and We carry them over land and sea, and provide them with good things, and We have favored them above many We have created.’ 3793

ʽlike you . . . revealed’: Qur. 18:110 [to the Prophet Mohammad] ‘Say, “I am only a human being like you. It is revealed unto me that your God is one God. So whosoever hopes for the meeting with his Lord, let him perform righteous deeds and make no one a partner unto his Lord in worship.” ’

3797

a hundred rings like David: See note to v. 918.

3804

Abbādānis: that is, theʿAbbādi pre-Islamic spiritual ascetics who had settled in ‘Abbādān (modern Abadan) in Khuzestan. See N., Literary History of the Arabs, p. 39.

3809

Borāq or Doldol: A horse and mule associated with the Prophet Mohammad.

3815

palm-fibre rope: Qur. 111:5 see v. 1224 and note.

3817 and 3824 cut the girdles on our waists: That is to say, to acquire faith and distance one’s self from pagan religious symbols (such as the girdle of the Zoroastrians and Christians symbolised). 3820

in heaven is your daily bread: Qur. 51:22.

300

Appendix Analytical Index of Stories and Discourses of Masnavi Book Two

The composition of this book comprises 65 different stories and anecdotes, occupying 1,680 of the total 3,826 verses (less than 44 per cent of the book): by contrast, the remaining 2,146 verses (56 per cent) are taken up with nearly 100 different discourses, reflections and commentaries. This Index is not a list of the headings in the text of the manuscripts, which were added later by a copyist perhaps as a guide to future reciters: it is rather an index to the sequence of stories and other elements of the text, that is, substories, interruptions, discourses and mystical reflections. These elements, which develop out of the stories, are not necessarily signalled as such – often they segue from the story, like improvisations.

Preface (in Persian prose) 1–112

Proem on the fantasies of self-love and illusion

113–19 STORY 1 How, in the time of Omar, May God be pleased with him, the moon appeared to someone’s imagination 120–35 Reflection 136–40 Anecdote A snake-catcher’s stealing a snake from another 141 Comment

142–52 STORY 2 The request of the companion of Jesus that Jesus should bring bones back to life 153–6 Comment; (Story 2 resumed at 460–466)

157–9a STORY 3 A Sufi tells a servant to look after his mount and the ‘God help us!’ of the servant 159b-93 Discourse on pirs 194–202 Rumi remonstrates with the audience for wanting to go back to the story; 203–50 Story continues 251–324 Speech of the sheikh turns into a discourse on how the Devil deceives 301

302

Appendix

325–36 STORY 4 The King finds his falcon in the house of a poor old woman 337–43 Moral reflection 344–52 Story turning into 353–78 Discourse on liberating the heart

379–82 STORY 5 Sheikh Ahmad son of Khezruya, buys halva for his creditors, by the grace of God Almighty 383–8 Moral reflection 389–416 Story continues 417–26 Reflection on the power of pirs 427–45 Story continues 446–7 Comment 448–51 Anecdote about an ascetic who was warned not to weep 452–9 Reflection on foolishness 460–6 Resuming Story 2 Jesus and the resurrection of bones resumed 467–70 Reflection 471–2 Conclusion of the story 473–505 Discourse on the bane of foolishness and imitation 506–10 Anecdote The peasant who stroked a lion in the dark 511–16 Reflection on the danger of pretence

517–68 STORY 6 Some Sufis sell a traveller’s beast to pay for a Sufi Samāʿ 569–87 Reflection

588–90 STORY 7 The publicising of a bankrupt by the public criers of the Qādi 591–616 Discourse ‘there is no peace except in God’s seclusion’ 617–37 Story continues 638–45 Reflection 646–72 Story continues 673–4 Rumi’s aside 675–81 Story continues 682–741 Discourse: ‘Existence is so full of remedies, but you have none till God unlocks the window’ 741–5 Parable for those who say “if ” 746–78 Reflection on fake happiness.

779–84 STORY 8 How people blamed someone who killed his mother out of suspicion 785–845 Discourse on the self as its own enemy.

Appendix

303

846–7 STORY 9 How a King Tested Two Slaves he had Just Bought 848–51 Reflection 852–4 Story continues 855–66 Discourse on correcting the vision 867–83 Story continues 884–9 Discourse continues 890–4 Story continues 895–903 Reflection 904–1019 Story with soliloquy and dialogue segues into discourse on causation, 1020–49 Discourse on misperception and misunderstanding 1050–3 Anecdote The domestic servants’ envying the special servant 1054–134 Discourse on the blindness of the envious eye continued

1135–81 STORY 10 The capturing of the falcon among the owls in the wilderness 1182–95 Reflection on the connection between the body and soul 1196–212 Anecdote A thirsty man throws a brick a river 1213–30 Ecstatic discourse 1231–8 Anecdote ‘Uproot this thorn bush you have planted in the road!’ 1239–389 Long discourse on the effort needed for the spiritual path to the deathless 1390–1 Introduces Zu’l-Nun 1392–1433 Discourse continues

1434–45 STORY 11 The coming of friends to the asylum to question Zu’l-Nun the Egyptian 1446–50 Reflection; 1451–61 Story continues 1462–5 Reflection

1466–8 STORY 12 How Loqmān’s master tested his intelligence 1469–74 Anecdote A king and a sheikh 1475–99 Comment on Story 1500–3 Story continues 1504–13 Comment on Story 1514–32 Story continues 1533–64 Discourse on love, tending toward ecstasy 1565–81 Anecdote begun at v. 1050 continues 1582–1604 Reflection on the pupil contending with his master 1605–8 Anecdote Solomon, Bilqis and the hoopoe 1608–36 Reflection / discourse 1637–49a Anecdote A philosopher’s denial of scripture; 1649b–1723 Discourse on repentance and the lover’s search

304

Appendix

1724–68 STORY 13 Moses takes offence at the prayers of a shepherd segueing into 1769–75 Discourse on the faith of love 1776–95 Story continues 1796–1819 Discourse on the inadequacy of all our actions 1820–9 Story continues segueing into discourse 1830–81 Discourse

1882–1935 STORY 14 An Amir’s harassment of a sleeping man into whose mouth a snake had gone 1936 STORY 15 On putting one’s faith in the fawning and trustworthiness of a bear 1937–73 Reflection 1974–5 Story continues 1976–96 Reflection 1997–2008 Anecdote The blindman’s saying ʽI have two blindnesses’ 2009–13 Reflection 2014–39 Story resumed

2040–67 STORY 16 How Moses said to the calf-worshipper ʽWhere’s your vain scepticism and precaution’ 2068–70 Story 15 resumed 2071–98 Reflection and conversation of Mohammad with God.

2099–104 STORY 17 How a madman sought to ingratiate himself with Galen and how Galen was afraid 2105–6 Short discourse and aphorism 2107–9 Anecdote The crow and stork 2110–28 Discourse 2129–34 Story 15 concluded 2135 Aphorism 2136–45 Discourse on a fool’s love

2146–47 STORY 18 Mohammed’s visit to the sick Companion 2148–60 Discourse on kindness and friendship 2161–71 Anecdote of God and Moses that is a discourse

2172–217 STORY 19 How the gardener separated the Sufi, the jurist and the Alavid from one another 2218–23 Story 18 – a comment 2224–32 Anecdote A sheikh and Bāyazid 2233–6 Anecdote A novice who built a new house

Appendix 2237–57 2258–66 2267–340 2341–5 2346–50 2351–61 2362–70 2371–91 2392–4

Another Anecdote about Bāyazid Story continues Discourse ‘So pain’s a treasure’ Anecdote Dalqak and the Sayyid-i Ajall Anecdote The holy man who rode a hobby-horse Discourse on the eye of certainty Anecdote How a dog attacked a blind beggar Discourse on the wisdom of the man of heart The holy man who rode a hobby-horse continued

2395–407 STORY 20 How a constable summoned a fallen drunkard to prison 2408–450 The holy man who rode a hobby-horse, with a long speech from 2428 2451–63 Segues into discourse 2464–75 Story 18 continues 2476–81 Reflection 2482–90 Story 18 continues 2491–559 Discourse This world’s the desert and you are our Moses 2560–2 Story 18 comes to an end 2563–77 Dialogue of the Believers and the Angel 2578–2613 Discourse what is the recompense for virtue?

2614–26 STORY 21 Iblis and Moʿāviye 2627–661 Iblis’s soliloquy 2662–81 Moʿāviye’s soliloquy reply 2682–710 Iblis’s second soliloquy 2711–24 Moʿāviye’s second soliloquy reply 2725–40 Iblis’s third soliloquy 2741–54 Dialogue, then Moʿāviye’s third soliloquy reply 2755–65 Anecdote of a judge who complained of the disaster of being a judge 2766–75 Continuation of Moʿāviye’s third soliloquy reply 2776–81 Iblis’s fourth soliloquy reply 2782–90 Interposed Anecdote The remorse of one being absent at prayers 2791–803 Final dialogue of Iblis and Moʿāviye.

2804–21 STORY 22 The escape of the thief 2822–35 Reflection ‘the ones in union drowned in essence’

2836–50 STORY 23 The atheists and their building a mosque of opposition 2851–8 Reflection 2859–910 Story continues 2911–21 Reflection

305

306

Appendix

2922–33 STORY 24 Someone who was seeking after his stray camel 2934–57 Reflection on the true and counterfeit 2958–83 Reflection on the testing of everything 2984–3026 Story and reflection on Story 24 3027–37 Reflection on Story 23

3038–44 STORY 25 The Indian who quarrelled 3045–56 Reflection

3057–65 STORY 26 The Ghuzz Turcomans’ attack 3066–9 Reflection 3070–98 Discourse on self-worshippers and the ungrateful 3099–109 Anecdote An old man complained of his ailments 3110–26 Reflection

3127–38 STORY 27 Juhi and the child 3139–65 Reflection 3166–8 Anecdote A boy who was afraid of an effeminate man 3169–73 Reflection 3174–8 Anecdote The archer and the horseman 3179–86 Reflection 3187–209 Anecdote The Arab and the philosopher 3210–20 Reflection

3221–7 STORY 28 The miracles of Ebrāhim son of Adham on the sea-shore 3228–3235 Comment 3236–3239 Story continues 3240–3250 Reflection 3251–3313 Discourse on the beginning of the illumination of the knower

3314–21 STORY 29 A stranger reviling a sheikh and the sheikh’s disciple’s answer 3322–49 Reflection and discourse on the self 3350–4 Story 28 resumed 3355–78 Discourse addressed to ‘you’

Appendix

3379–412 STORY 30 Shoʿeyb 3413–38 3439–44 3445–50

Story 29 resumed Anecdote The Prophet to ‘A’isha, on ritual prayer Reflection

3451–67 STORY 31 The mouse and the camel 3468–92 Discourse addressed to ‘you’

3493–511 STORY 32 The dervish suspected of being a thief 3512–20 Reflection

3521–33 STORY 33 Some Sufis reproach a Sufi 3534–40 Reflection on moderation 3541–46 Story continues. 3547–83 discourse on moderation 3584–87 Story closes. 3588–616 Discourse on the nature of intuitive knowledge

3617–40 STORY 34 The mother of John the Baptist and the mother of Jesus 3641–56 Discourse on the inner language

3657–95 STORY 35 The search for the Tree of Life and Rumi’s single verse of comment. 3696–708 Anecdote How four persons quarrelled about grapes 3709–28 Discourse 3729–32 Anecdote How Mohammed established unity amongst Muslims 3733–81 Discourse 3782–803 Story of the Ducklings

3804–26 STORY 36 Pilgrims amazed at the miracles of an ascetic

307

308

Index of Proper Names, Terms and Selected Themes

[references are to verse numbers: n after number refers to note to a verse, h to a heading, RP to Rumi’s Preface] Abbādānis 3804n Abraham (prophet and patriarch Ar. Ibrāhīm /Per. Ebrāhim) 299, 300, 382, 567, 916, 1561, 1563, 1651, 3088, 3321; see nn. 74a, 382, 916, 1473, 2382; also known as Khalil (qv) Abu Bakr (the first caliph ʿAbdallāh Ibn Abi Quh.āfah) 579n, 925, 2063; see also 2856n Abu Jahl 812n; see 1224n Abu Lahab 423 Abu Yazid 729n, 2224h; see Bāyazid Ād 2672n, 3170 Adam (prophet) 15n, 18, 67n, 19, 67, 130n, 229, 254, 257, 699, 913f., 1618, 1828, 1830, 2123, 2515ff., 2719n, 2720n, 2750, 3186n, 3279–80n, 3345n, 3477; see also 16n, 28n, 113n, 2720n; Adam’s sons 623n, 641n, 1671n, 3789n; Fall of Adam 15n Adham see Ebrāhim son of Adham (early mystic) 932, 3221hn, 3351hn Ahmad (Ar. ‘most praised’, another name for the Prophet Mohammad) 1208 Ahreman (personification of evil, ‘hostile spirit’ of the Zoroastrian religion) 275n

Aisha (ʿĀʾishah bint Abi Bakr, wife of the Prophet Mohammad) 3439 Āj (son of Anaq) see 2313–6n Alast (Ar. abbreviation of the Ar. phrase of Qur.7:172 ‘Am I not your Lord?’) 1671n, 1705n alchemy (Ar. al-kimiyā/ Per. kimiyā) elixir 600, 697f., 957, 3203; see also 3014n, 3401 Ali (ʿAli ibn Abi t.ālib, cousin and son-inlaw of the Prophet Mohammad) 820n, 1248n, 2200; see also 324n, 2172n, 2208n Amr (common name, like ‘Tom’, ‘Dick’ etc. used proverbially), 3645–50 Anaq (Ar. ʿAnaq) see 2313–6n Anqā (mystical bird) 54n, 160n Ascension (Ar. miʿrāj /Per. meʿrāj) 2232n, and see 4an, 359n, 1619n, 1792n atheist 1079, 2226, 2836ff. attar (essential oil of the damask rose) 1876 Attār (Faridoddin ʿAt.t.ār, poet c. 1145 – c. 1221) Intro. xv; see also 142n, 379n, 2584n autumn, 35, 1345, 2270, 2962, 2970n; see also 37n Aws, Banu (a tribe of Medina) 3729n Azāzil (name of Iblis, the Devil, before he was expelled from heaven) 2791n 309

310

Index of Proper Names, Terms and Selected Themes

Baptist see John Baptist Bāyazid (Abu Yazid t.ayfur Ibn ʿIsa al-Best.āmi, early Sufi d. 874 ce) 930, 2188n, 2224ff., 2237ff.; see also 3251–2n beauty of God 191f., 683, 2508; of Joseph 1076 (B)eloved (God) 418, 704, 706, 708, 926, 1385, 2455, 2653, 3490f. Bilqis (Queen of Sheba) 1605nff., 3766, 3767 Borāq (Ar. al-burāq ‘lightning’, legendary celestial steed of the Prophet) 1119n, 3809n Borhān-e Mohaqqeq (Sayyed Borhanoddin Moh.aqqeq of Termez) 1323n Bu Bakr-e Robābi (early Sufi) 1577n, 1920n Bu’l Hakam (an enemy of the Prophet) 812n, 2676n (C)aliph (Ar. lit. ‘successor, vicegerent’) 914, 931; see also 113n, 820n, 908n, 2614n Cave see Sleepers of the Cave Christian 1405, 2870; see also 1403n, 2836n Companion (of the Prophet) 2146ff., 2212, 2856n; see also 113n, 579n copper (esp. as an alchemical element) 49f., 600, 714, 1422, 1443, 1533, 1653, 2082, 3014n, 3267, 3358f., 3401n, 3489f. Dalqak 2341n Decius 37n, 38n demon 16, 129n, 505, 919n, 1090, 1104, 1961, 2511, 2515f., 2521, 2547, 3169, 3279; see also 275n dervish (Per. ‘poor’, hence ‘ascetic, mendicant’) 1141, 2152, 2243, 2363, 3493ff., 3545, 3811 devil(s) 257, 1430, 2547, 3215, 3279; the Devil 252, 257, 319, 633, 642, 657, 2515, 2520, 3400, 3420, 3424 Doldol (she-mule ridden by the Prophet Mohammad) 3809n dream (prophetic, predictive) 220f., 167ff., 1643ff., 2942, 3601ff.; Joseph’s

dream 921n; see also 1657n, 2300ff.n, 2906n; fanciful 968ff., 1674ff., 1691ff., 2239ff. Ebrāhim son of Adham (early Sufi) 933, 3221n, 3351h Eden 2720 Esrāfil (archangel, Biblical Raphael) 1204n Euphrates (river) 2737 fanā 182n Fātima (daughter of the Prophet, whose husband was Ali) 1745n, 1747 fire 128, 863f., 830, 834f., 912, 916, 1249, 1347, 1351–9, 1380, 1410, 1465 1523, 1561, 1622ff. etc; of love 1767; of wrath 1659; of God 1842; of Hell and chastisement 334, 1251, 1255, 1260ff., 1447, 1841 fire-temple 2310n form (opposite of reality, spirit, meaning) 68n, 74, 171, 199, 643, 705–8, 713, 1023ff., 1175, 1181n, 1182, 1990, 3170, 412, 3563, 3686, 3792; see also 1351n friend (term used for God, for fellow aspirants, and for the reader) 23n, 25n, 28, 31, 34f., 56, 74n, 97, 127, 155, 158f., 297n, 448, 569, 571, 694, 704, 1063, 1065, 2155, 2305, 2582, 2584 Gabriel (Ar. Jibrīl, Jibrāʾil archangel and angel of revelation) 822, 1900; see also 1204n, 3581n Galen (Claudius Galenus 2nd Century ce Greek physician and philosopher) 2099n; see also 3527–8n Ghuzz Turcomans 3057n gold (as alchemical element) 714, 1422, 1433, 1533, 1653, 3014n, 3267, 3489; see also 3401n grace of God 201, 379, 909, 1255, 1282, 1335, 1342, 1804, 1954, 2302, 2375, 2451 2544, 2641f., 2651, 2872, 2969, 3213, 3349, 3443, 3446

Index of Proper Names, Terms and Selected Themes hadith ‘tradition’ 79an, 189n, 324n, 367n, 594–5n, 641n, 689–90n, 1020n, 1102an, 1194n, 1207n, 1571n, 1673n, 1743n, 1756n, 1841n, 2081n, 2146n, 2623n, 2744n, 2767n, 3067n, 3246n, 3727n; hadith of the Prophet 30n, 367n, 383f.n, 520bn, 1277n, 1742n, 1881n, 2279n, 2735n, 2949n, 3385ff.n, 3564n; hadith qudsi ‘sacred tradition’ 977n, 2161n Hallāj (Mans.ur h.allāj early Sufi martyr 858–922) 310, 1351n, 1402n, 2532; see also 2584n Hārut and Mārut (two fallen angels) 2475n heathen, pagan 1731, 1891, 2551, 2568 hell 12, 274f., 334, 592, 623, 1251f., 1262, 2056, 2266, 2297f., 2563, 2567f., 2577; hell-fire 1447, 1841, 2569, 2576; see also 864n, 1277n, 2010n, 2871an Hindi 1761n Hindustan (India) 3657, 3660f. Hoopoe 1606, 1608, 3767 Hosāmoddin 1b-2an, 3n, 4an, 1127, 2290 hū (Ar. for ‘He’, a Sufi name for the divine essence of Truth) 1326, 1349n, 2400ff.n Hud (prophet to the idolatrous people of Ād ) 2672n Iblis 129, 229, 809, 1627f., 2124n, 2125, 2620, 2622hn, 2627n, 2682, 2718, 2724, 2731f., 2775, 3051, 3444, 3477; see also 3051n, and also 113n, 135bn, 633n, 641n, 2807n idol, idolater, idol-worship 74n, 369ff., 886, 990, 1612, 2051, 2772, 3084, 3476; see also 372n, 1473n, 1605n, 2072–86n, 2672n India(n) 799, 1761n, 2239, 2698, 3038nff., 3040 infidel, infidelity unbeliever, unbelief 125n, 520n, 500, 608f., 631, 797, 983, 1077, 1316, 1544, 1610, 1733, 1809, 2254, 2552ff., 2904, 2772, 3331–9, 3450, 3735; see also 594–5n, 1404n Ishmael (prophet and patriarch Ar./Per. Ismā‘il) 386n, 917 Islam 2870, 3730

311

Jacob (prophet and patriarch, Ar./Per. Ya‘qub) 612, 920n, 1209n, 1412, 3245n; see also 1414n Jaʿfar-the-Flyer 3580n Jesus (prophet) 142n, 150, 309n, 452f., 455ff., 460h, 923, 1188, 1854ff.n, 2114; see also 865n, 1404n, 1407n Jew, Jewish, Judaism 424, 1406, 1867, 2870, 2873, 3027, 3141; see also nn. to 1248, 1403, 1440–5, 3067 John Baptist (prophet, Ar. Yah.yā Ibn Zakarīyā) 3617n, 3629 Joseph (prophet) 128n, 612, 921, 1076, 1209n, 1280nff., 1409ff., 1414n, 1424, 1867n, 2012n, 2061n, 2114, 2547, 3145n, 3245n Jonah (minor prophet) 3146n, 3151n Junayd (Per. Jonayd, early Mesopotamian Sufi, Abu-l-Qāsim al-Junayd of Baghdad 835–910 ce) 929, 2188n Judgement Day 898, 1067f., 1255, 2981; see Resurrection Juhi 3127hn, 3135f. Ka‘ba 1772, 2251, 2253 Kalila 3633n, Kalila wa Dimna 3637, and also 3171–2n Karkhi (early Mesopotamian Sufi Ma‘ruf Ibn Firuz Karkhi, convert from Christianity, c.750–815 ce) 931 Kawsar (Ar. Kawthar ‘abundance’, the pool of divine grace in Paradise) 1842bn Khalil (Ar, ‘friend’) 76n; also a name by which the prophet Abraham is known ‘friend of God’ 3322 Khazraj (Banu al-Khazraj, a tribe of Medina) 3729n Khezr (unnamed sage and servant of God who is identified in Islamic tradition in Ar. as Khid. r or al-Khad. ir Per. Khezr ‘the Green One’) 439n, 2237, 3273, 3531n, 3542ff.n Loqmān (pre-islamic sage sometimes identified with Aesop)1466ff.n, 1488, 1497ff., 1514ff.

312

Index of Proper Names, Terms and Selected Themes

Mansur see Hallāj Mary mother of Jesus 99bn, 923, 1188, 3617n, 3621, 3623, 3629 Masnavi 1n, 5, 6 Mecca 2224, 2231, 2245, 2249; see also notes to 1119n, 3369n, 3729n Medina 3729n Messiah 424, 456, 471, 1189, 3616h miʿrāj see Ascension Mohammad the Prophet passim Mohit (Ar. muh.īt.) see 2216n Moʿāviye (Companion of the Prophet and Umayyad ruler) 2614n, 2622hn, 2627h, 2662h, 2682h, 2711h, 2717h, 2741hn, 2767h, 2776h, 2791h Moqawqes 1652n Moses (prophet and patriarch) passim music 525, 1946 Muslim 1731, 2016, 2068, 2949, 3727n; see also 1761n Nile 697n, 1078 Nimrod (famed as the persecutor of Abraham) 349n Noah (prophet and patriarch) 355n, 458, 915, 2671n, 3065n , 3123n; see also 32n, 3756n Omar (Companion of the Prophet Omar Ibn al-Khattāb) 113ff.n, 926; see also 820n, 2906n Osmān (Ar. ʿUthmān Ibn ʿAffān the third Caliph) 927n Paradise 15n, 277, 334, 1145, 1147, 1277, 1841n, 2515, 2565, 3117, 3300, 3308n, 3362f.; see also 3581n Pharaoh (the Biblical and Quranic Pharaoh) 307, 353, 456, 767, 774, 777n, 922, 2315f., 2531–2n, 2675, 2956n philosopher 1640, 2675, 2935, 3188 Pleiades 2113 pole (Ar. qut.b Per. qot.b) 930, 2149 2154, 3675; see note 1988n

prayer ritual prayer (namāz) 414, 429, 639, 949, 1801f., 1917, 2282, 2614h, 2622f., 2777ff., 3039ff., 3408, 3439h, 3440, 3534f., 3552, 3808, 3811; act of ritual prayer (s.alāt) 3246; bowing (rākeʿ, rakʿat) 3038, 3552; worship (t.āʿat) 3038; the prayer formula Allāhu akbar (the takbir) ‘God is the greater’ 3039; petitionary prayer (doʿā) 139ff., 140n, 341, 383, 695, 1650, 1662, 2045, 2258h, 2457, 2465ff., 2488, 2514, 2559h, 3407, 3677, 3818; prayer of supplication (niyāz) 1662; intimate prayer to God monājāt 1724, 3821; prayer of prostration (sojud, sājed) 250n, 535n, 1805f. 3038; prostration sajde 1213n, 1215, 1655, 1823; 3614; prayer rug sajjāde 3601; call to prayer (bāng-e namāz) 2236; muezzin 3040n; see also lā h.awl ‘God help us!’157hn, 205ff., 249ff., 645, 2068, 2881 (and cynically in 3418); Fātiha and Qareʿa 224n; also 250n judge (Ar./Per.qād. ī/qāz. i) 560, 588h, 617ff., 2428, 2430, 2755; Divine Judge (Ar./ Per.h.ākim/h.ākem, Per. dāvar) 1623, 1737; dastur 2979 Qāf (Mount) 55n Qārun 2376n Queen of Sheba see Bilqis Quran, (Holy) Book, Scripture 503, 657, 726, 1545, 1637, 1707, 1833, 2139, 2581, 2836, 2882, 2888, 2915, 2921n, 3756 reed 1171, 2358, 2408 Resurrection (Day of) 293, 633n, 818, 966, 1192, 1342–3n, 1416f., 1423, 1671n, 1705n, 1829n, 2843, 3116, 3147n; see also 338n, 1204n, 1619n Rostam 375n, 3180 Salāhoddin 1325; Intro. xxiii samā‘ 517h, 532n, 538 sāqi 720n, 1339

Index of Proper Names, Terms and Selected Themes Satan 107n, 640, 2126, 2170f., 2774, 3055; see also 637n, 641n, 919n Saturn 175, 1104, 1553, 1713, 1717f., 3570 Seth (third son of Adam and Eve) 914 Sayyed of Ajal, 2341n Shaqiq (early Khorasani Sufi Abu ‘Ali Shaqiq Balkhi d.810 ce) 933 Sheba, Queen of See Bilqis Sheikh Ahmad son of Khezruya (early Sufi) 379hn Shoʿayb 1650n, 3379ff., 3403ff. Sinai (Mount) 511n, 1336n, 1337 Sleepers of the Cave 37n, 38n, 2015, 2258n, 2372, 3088, dog 1429n, 2062n Solomon (prophet) 919, 1040n, 1605h, 1606n, 3716ff., 3747, 3762ff. 3778f., 3796ff.; see also 3774n stage (Ar./Per. manzel, ‘resting-place’ on the journey along the spiritual path t.ariqat/t.ariqe) 165an; cf. 9n, above and maqām in Mas.1.1444–48n state (Ar./Per. h.āl) 243, 245, 304, 1289, 2203, 3070h, 3199, 3567; often used of a temporary condition of divine grace or favour 191, 1483, 1500, 1556, 1690, 1763, 1795, 3274, 3755, 3816; see 39n, 46bn, 74an, 157n, 165an, 345n,

313

587n, 1195n; 1473n; see also 1385–6, and Intro. xx. Sufi 157n, 160f., 197ff., 218ff., 235ff., 244, 381ff., 517ff., 2172ff., 2394, 2407, 3224, 3521ff., 3601 Sunni 61nff. union 34, 61n, 104, 188, 303, 362, 861, 919, 1099, 1212, 1249f., 1660, 1704n, 1755, 2543, 2643f., 3159, 3324f., 3715; see also 182n, 578n, 2115n, 3354n universal mirror 98, 101, soul 174; mind 981, 2426, love 3743, intellect 855n, spirit 1179n, 1187n Vasit (Ar. wasīt.) see 2216n whole (and part) 275, 2169, 2591, 2659, 2748; see also 2592n Zāl (Rostam’s father) 375n Zayd (common name like Amr q.v.) 3645 zekr (Ar. dhikr) ‘remembrance’ (of God) 270n, 341n, 988, 1801nf., 1803, 1820, 2485 Zu’l-Nun (early Nubian Muslim ascetic), 1390n, 1434 1451h; see also Mas. 1.116n

314

315

316

317

º± ®X«

SwA

¤ k§ Ô j Ô

SwBLæ pBª¯

jBM ß

pA

°

AoMÔ

pA

³M

ïnB

o¼ ª

{°n

±°

nBYC ß

oM

An °A

y½°nj

»½²k¯p pA

²nA±w

B½

SwA ¥£ ° ²qLw nj Sv«ow »¼T£

¨±ªw Ô

B½

SwBµ³ ئe ° Ô

j±{

BU

pB¼¯

SîBª]

j±M

oU

¬Cp

xA³«B]

BM

o½oe

SîBª]

oM

¬C

pBM

y½BQ

³ B½

k¯k¯BªM

AoTw Aß

uQ

o¼ 

k«C

p

±a

°n °

Swj pA k¼ña »« yMD k½j

SwBª w º±w q S{AjoM An Swj Ò