At once he’d ruin and completely raze
What Moses’s words had built up for days.
Lust can control your brain, and then it later
Becomes, while you are travelling, your waylayer:
If holy men give you advice that’s sound,
It will, through cunning, fling that on the ground,
Saying: ‘Beware, this isn’t right at all.
Do not be moved or lose your self-control.’
Pity the king with such viziers, for hell1250
With all its spite will be his home as well.
Happy the king whose own vizier is one
Like Asaf, the vizier of Solomon.
With such a good vizier sat by his side,
He gets called ‘Light upon light ’* far and wide.
A Solomon-like king and a vizier
Like Asaf would bring light and perfume near.
Those Pharaoh-like and Haman-like instead
Find that misfortune fills them up with dread.
Then darkness upon darkness is the way—1255
No wisdom and no fortune for that day.
In wretches I’ve seen naught but misery;
If you’ve seen more, send greetings please from me.
The king’s the soul and the vizier’s the brain:
Corrupt brains drag them like they have a chain.
The angel of the intellect has turned
Like Harut, from whom many demons learned.
Don’t make that intellect vizier—select
Instead the Universal Intellect.
If you should make lust your vizier, that day1260
Your pure soul will no longer want to pray,
For lust is greedy and thinks of the present,
While intellect thinks of the Day of Judgement.
True intellect can see the end—it knows
To bear the pain of thorn pricks for the rose
That does not age nor drop off in the fall—
May it stay from those who can’t smell at all!
How the demon sat on Solomon’s throne and copied his actions. Explanation of the difference between the two and how the demon called himself Solomon, son of David.
Though you have intellect, you must select
Others you can consult with intellect
As well, because paired intellects spare sorrow 1265
And help you step on heaven’s peak tomorrow.
The demon might claim his name’s ‘Solomon’,
Gain wealth and rule a nation, and so on,
But it just saw King Solomon perform—
His demonhood was traced still from his form.
Men said, ‘This Solomon lacks excellence—
Between the two there is much difference.
Distinct like sleep and waking, every man
Can see they’re different like those called “Hasan”.’
‘God gave to Ahriman’,* the demon said,1270
‘A lovely form resembling mine instead:
God gave the demon my form—don’t you let
That one now capture you inside his net.
If he appears and play-acts, please take caution—
Don’t give his outward form alone attention.’
The demon told them this as trickery,
But good hearts witnessed the reality:
They are discerning; there’s no fooling them;
Their intellect sees every hidden realm.
No falsehood, sorcery, no fraud nor lies1275
Can place a veil to cover these ones’ eyes.
In answer they then all thought inwardly:
‘You’re upside-down. You speak misleadingly.
You’ll travel upside-down like this as well;
O lowest of the low, you’ll go to hell.
Though Solomon became deposed too soon,
His forehead still shines brighter than the moon.
Even if you have seized the signet ring,
You are a hell—a gloomy, awful thing.’
We won’t bow our heads to his pomp and show;1280
We wouldn’t give a foot too since we know.
And if we do bow down in ignorance,
A hand will rise up from the ground at once,
Saying, ‘Don’t bow down to this wayward one!
Do not prostrate to this ill-fated one!’
I would give you a thrilling explanation
But for God’s jealousy and indignation.
Be satisfied with this amount, and then
I will explain more when we meet again.
The demon said he’s Solomon—the truth1285
Is that he masked himself from every youth.
Transcend form, pass beyond names, and then flee
From name and title to reality.
Enquire about his action and abstention
Then seek him through these two things by convention.
Solomon would enter the Furthest Place of Worship in Jerusalem every day after its completion to worship and guide worshippers and those in retreat. Medicinal herbs started to grow in the place of worship.
When Solomon came early every day
Inside the Furthest Worship-House to pray,
He saw a new plant there and questioned it:
‘Tell me your name and how you benefit.
What are you called? Which medicine are you?1290
Who do you help? Who do you harm? What’s true?’
Then every plant would answer Solomon:
‘I give life to this one, death to that one:
Poison to this, sugar to that one though—
This is my name fate wrote down long ago.’
Knowledge about plants came from Solomon
Down to physicians we depend upon
Who wrote great books on medicine and then
Removed pain from the bodies of sick men.
God taught this medicine through revelation;1295
Reason and sense can’t reach this last dimension.
This lower intellect can’t make things new;
It must receive them. It’s reliant, too.
Able to learn new science through education,
It must be taught by one with revelation,
Which is the source of skills originally
That intellect acquired eventually.
Have skills been learnt by this lower intellect
Without a teacher’s help? Please now reflect.
Though it can split hairs, it can never master 1300
A skill or craft without a guiding tutor.
If our own intellect were capable,
You’d know crafts with no teacher’s help at all.
How Cain learnt grave-digging from a crow before there was knowledge about grave-digging and graves in the world.
When first did people’s minds begin to know
Grave-digging, which as trade is ranked so low?
If Cain knew it, then why did he instead
At first place Abel’s body on its head,
Saying: ‘Where can I put this out of sight?
Grimy and blood-smeared, it will here cause fright.’
He saw a crow which in its beak was holding1305
Another crow and looked like it was bolting—
It swooped down from the air for this intention:
To teach grave-digging skills by demonstration.
It scooped up soil first with its talons, so
It could lay in its grave the other crow.
It buried it, then placed soil over it.
The crow had knowledge God inspired in it.
‘How small my intellect is!’ Cain exclaimed,
‘A crow’s more skilled than I am. I’m ashamed.’
On Universal Intellect, God said:1310
‘The sight did not swerve. ’* Ours looks round instead.
The light of the elect ones is the former;
The grave-master for corpses is the latter.
The soul that flies tow
ards the crows will be
The one the crows drag to the cemetery:
Don’t run behind the crow-like self—that’s backward;
It leads not to the garden, but the graveyard.
Chase the heart’s phoenix, if you must depart
To Qaf and Furthest Prayer-House of the heart.
Due to your passions, saplings at fast pace1315
Blossom in the heart’s Furthest Worship-Place.
Give them their due like Solomon before:
Don’t stamp on and reject them. Find out more
Because the various plants make clear to you
The state of this firm ground that you can’t view.
Whether plain reeds or canes that give you sugar,
Plants serve as every soil’s true state’s translator.
The heart’s soil is where thoughts are planted, so
All of the secrets of the heart they’ll show.
If I find one who draws true speech, I’ll yield1320
A hundred thousand roses like a field,
But if I find one who’s that speech’s killer,
Wise words will flee my heart like a chased burglar.
Things move to their attractor’s own direction,
And true attraction’s not like false attraction:
Sometimes your path’s correct, sometimes it’s wayward;
The lead’s not seen, nor who is pulling forward.
You’re a blind steed; your reins are surety—
Observe the pulling, not your reins. Heed me!
If the reins and attractor come to vision,1325
This world won’t stay the area of delusion.
If infidels could only see that they
Are chasing dogs in that vile devil’s sway,
How could they follow him pathetically?
They would hold back as well assuredly.
If cows knew of the butcher’s ways at all,
How could they follow him back to his stall,
Or eat the fodder given and then share
Their milk due to his flattery and hot air?
How could they then digest the fodder after1330
They find out the whole purpose of the fodder?
Heedlessness is this world’s support. Where’s fortune
When you run here, but get hit hard for certain:
At first told ‘Run!’ you get struck in the end.
Donkeys die only in this ruin, friend.
The tasks that you with zeal have taken up
Have all their flaws that moment covered up.
The reason why you toil hard as you do
Is that God has concealed its flaws from you.
It is the same with every pleasing thought:1335
Its flaws are hidden from you, for if not,
If their appalling flaws were manifest,
Your soul would run from east to furthest west .*
If the regret you feel once it is done
Were with you at the start, would you have run?
He hid it from our souls initially,
So we would do what is our destiny.
Only when destiny made clear its plan,
Eyes opened and contrition then began.
Contrition is a worldly matter, son—1340
Abandon it and worship God, the One.
You will be a repenter, if from habit
You do this, and with more zeal you’ll regret it.
Half of your life will pass in being distracted;
The other half regretting that you’d acted.
Take leave of contemplation and distraction
And seek God, mystic states, and lovelier action.
If you don’t have the lovelier action, say
Why you repent an act from yesterday.
Worship, if you do know the path that’s good.1345
Only then are the bad things understood.
You have to know what’s good to know what’s bad—
Through contrast opposites are seen, young lad.
If you became unable to stop thinking,
You also couldn’t stop yourself from sinning—
If so, then why repent it nonetheless?
Explain whose pulling brings this heedlessness.
Nobody had distinguished over here
Impotence without power to make it clear.
And similarly you’re veiled from ever seeing1350
A flaw in each desire that you are feeling.
If the desire’s flaw had been shown to you,
Your soul would have fled from what you pursue.
If He had shown its flaw to you that day
No one could have then dragged you to its way.
You find another action so abhorrent—
The reason is its flaw is so apparent.
O Knower of the secret with fine speech,
Don’t hide our bad deeds’ flaws from our sight’s reach.
And don’t show flaws in a good act, lest we1355
Lose all our zeal for this itinerary.
It was due to this habit Solomon
Went to the worship-house on one bright dawn.
On these grounds every day he’d walk about
And see if new plants had begun to sprout.
The secret of the plants is manifest
To the pure heart, though hidden from the rest.
The story about the Sufi who was meditating in the rose garden with his head resting lowered on his raised knee, and whose friend told him: ‘Lift up your head and take pleasure in the rose garden, the aromatic herbs, the birds, and the signs of God’s grace.’
A Sufi seeking God’s proximity
Sat with his head supported by his knee.
He grew immersed in matters very deep;1360
A meddler fumed that he appeared asleep:
‘Why sleep? Look at the vines and trees, the traces
Of God that can be seen in all such spaces.
Heed God’s command: “Look! ”* and lift up your face
Towards the origin of all this grace!’
He answered, ‘Lustful one, the heart’s God’s place;
Outward things are just traces of a trace.
Inside the soul are the real fields and gardens;
Those outside are like water’s mere reflections.
Images on the water that you see1365
Are choppy—water has fragility.
Real gardens are inside the heart—it’s their
Loveliness’s reflection seen out there.
God wouldn’t have called it “realm of delusions”
If they weren’t actually derived reflections;
They are delusory since they all start
As mere reflections from the mystic’s heart.
Deluded ones think this reflection’s nice
In the belief that it is paradise—
Far from the gardens’ source I see them run:1370
With a mere phantom they are having fun!
They will all finally see correctly when
Their heedless sleep ends—what use is it then?
Inside the graveyard they’ll begin to cry
And till the Resurrection they will sigh.
It’s best to die before your own life ends,
Meaning one’s found the vineyard’s scent’s source, friend.’
Story about the growing of the carob in a corner of the Furthest Place of Worship in Jerusalem and how Solomon grew upset at this once it started to talk to him and told its name and special property.
A new plant rising like an ear of corn
Was noticed in a nook by Solomon.
It was a very rare plant, fresh and green,1375
And this plant had a brightly dazzling sheen.
It greeted Solomon who then replied,
While by its beauty he was stupefied:
‘What’s your name? Speak without a tongue!’ he said.
‘ “Carob,” this world’s best king and greatest head.’
/> He asked, ‘What is your special quality?’
‘I ruin places that have nurtured me.
I’m carob, wrecker of your buildings and
Destroyer of foundations in the land.’
Solomon quickly understood that now1380
The journey would reveal itself somehow:
‘While I’m alive this worship-house won’t be
Damaged at all. I know with certainty.
How could men try to damage or deface,
While I’m alive, this Furthest Worship-Place?
Our worship-place’s ruin won’t occur
Till after our deaths. Ponder and concur.
It is the heart; the body’s in prostration
To it. The carob is its bad companion.’
When love for bad companions grows in you,1385
Don’t talk with them, but flee without ado.
Tear it up from its roots, for if it rises
It tears you up and all your worship-houses.
Lover, your carob is your own corruption—
Why, like a child, do you lean to perversion?
Admit you are a sinner. Don’t be scared,
So that the Master’s teaching will be shared
When you say, ‘I don’t know and want to learn.’
Honesty’s better than a strong concern
For reputation. Learn from Adam’s woe:1390
‘Lord, we’ve done wrong! ’* he uttered long ago.
He neither made excuses nor spoke falsely,
Nor did he try to raise the flag of trickery,
But Satan quarrelled, ‘I once had much fame
And was revered, but You’ve put me to shame.
The dye is Yours and You’re the dyer too—
The source of all our sins and flaws is You.’
Recite from ‘Since, Lord, You led me astray, ’*
So you won’t be a fatalist today.
Why choose the tree of fatalism still,1395
Jumping up there, discarding your free will,
Like Satan and all of his progeny,
Talking back to the Lord combatively.
How can it be against your will to sin
When all see you with joy go rushing in?
Under duress does anybody prance?
While being forced astray would someone dance?
You fought like twenty men just for its sake
Though counsellors warned you it was a mistake.
You said, ‘This is the way exclusively.1400
Who’d fault me other than a nobody?’
How can one speak like this and claim duress?
How can one forced fight for it nonetheless?
The Masnavi, Book Four Page 12