The Masnavi, Book Four
Page 13
You claimed free will for pleasing things you craved,
But blame fate for your reasoning that’s depraved.
Those fortunate and in the know can fathom
Reasoning is Satan’s while love comes from Adam.
Swimming in seas is clever reasoning, friend—
That swimmer ends up drowning in the end.
Quit swimming, pride, and your hate-fuelled emotion.1405
This isn’t a small sea; it is the ocean.
The huge, deep ocean with no sanctuary
Can swallow up those small seas easily.
Love is a ship for the elect ones’ voyage;
It usually saves and rarely causes damage.
Sell cleverness and buy perplexities:
The former guesses while the latter sees.
Before Mohammad, sacrificially
Slay your reasoning, say: ‘God suffices me! ’
Don’t draw your head back from the ark like Canaan1410
Whose clever self led him into delusion,
Saying, ‘I’ll reach the mountain that soars over;
Why should I feel indebted now to Noah?’
How can you not? There is no doubt you should
Since even God expresses gratitude.
When God thanks him, how can it not be due
From our souls to feel very grateful too?
What do you know when envy makes you hateful?
Even God praises him and feels so grateful.
If only Canaan had not learned to swim,1415
He might have then pinned all his hopes on him.
If he were innocent of scheming too,
He would have sought his mother as boys do.
From God’s Friend’s hearts he’d have gained revelations
If he’d had less book knowledge through relations.
Compare a book with such light and discover
Your soul from its depths blame you for it, brother.
Transmitted knowledge when the Qotb’s breath’s present
Is dry ablution while streams are abundant.*
Make yourself simple. Follow the direction.1420
Through ‘foolishness’ like this, you’ll gain salvation:
Mohammad said, ‘In heaven most are fools ’—
Among Mankind he is the king who rules.
With cleverness, your pride and airs abound—
Make yourself foolish, so your heart stays sound.
Not the fool acting wilfully in that fashion,
But that one who’s bewildered due to passion,
Like women cutting their own hands—disgrace
Comes from their having been shown Joseph’s face.*
Sacrifice reasoning out of love today.1425
Real intellects are with God anyway:
The wise have sent their intellects up there;
Just idiots stayed away from Him. Beware!
If through bewilderment your brain selects
To leave your head, each hair grows intellects.
Up there the brain’s set free from thinking’s burdens
And stress; brains there just grow lush fields and gardens.
Hear from the field a subtle point—come near
The garden, for your palm will flourish here.
Abandon on this path all pomp and pride.1430
Don’t move unless there’s movement from your guide.
Only a tail moves when its head is still.
That movement’s like a scorpion’s. It is ill,
Venomous, walking crookedly, blind, ugly,
And he makes ill the ones with a pure body.
If someone’s like this in his inner heart
And disposition, beat his head apart!
Pounding his head will benefit him truly,
Since his soul then can flee his body’s cruelty.
Take from the madman’s hand his weapon too,1435
So justice will be then content with you,
For he has weapons, but no brain to use—
Bind his hands to stop damage and abuse.
Explanation that acquisition of knowledge, wealth, and rank by an ill-natured one becomes the means to disgrace him and is like a sword that has fallen into the hands of a highwayman.
Teaching bad-natured men a single word
Is handing to the highwayman a sword.
Better to hand it to a savage than
To teach a thing to such an awful man.
Give the bad-natured knowledge, rank, and fortune,
And it will lead to trouble and misfortune.
Believers must fight wars so they can seize1440
The spears from hands of wretches such as these.
The madman is his soul, the sword his body—
Seize the sword from that man who’s vile and ugly!
A hundred lions cannot cause more damage
Than giving a high office to a savage—
His flaws are hidden, but in such a role,
His strengthened snake will soon rush from its hole.
Scorpions and snakes will fill the vast plains when
The ignorant one is made king again.
If he gains wealth and an esteemed high place,1445
He then begins to seek his own disgrace:
Either he stops bestowing gifts through meanness
Or in the wrong place he becomes too generous.
He places his king in the pawn’s next square—
The gifts from fools are like this, so beware!
When one astray gains power he savours it,
Thinking it is high rank, though it’s a pit.
He acts as guide, but doesn’t know the way.
His ugly soul burns the whole world away.
When children on this path act like a master,1450
Their followers will suffer much thereafter.
‘Come and I’ll show the moon to you!’ he’ll say,
Though he has never seen it anyway.
How can you when you’ve never spied upon
Even its image on a lake, raw one!
Wretches act now as leaders and from fright
Wise men have hidden their heads out of sight.
Commentary on ‘O you who wrap yourself in your garment’. *
God called Mohammad ‘One who wraps about
Himself his cloak ’ for this, and said, ‘Come out!
Don’t cover your face, don’t draw in your head—1455
The rest are giddy, but you’re wise instead.
Don’t hide from the false claimant’s opposition;
You have the candle of bright revelation.
Stay up at night ,* your candle burning bright,
Great prince, the candle’s active most at night.
Daytime’s night-dark without your radiance there;
Without your backing, lion falls to hare.
Captain the ship in purity’s great ocean,
For you’re a second Noah; you’ve been chosen.
Every path needs a man with expertise1460
Who knows the path, especially on seas.
Look at the waylaid caravan. Arise!
Ghouls captain ships each side you turn your eyes.
Ship-rescuer, you are today’s Khezr, so
Don’t choose retreat like Jesus long ago.
You’re heaven’s candle to this group—don’t run
Towards retreat, cut off from everyone.
Come to the crowd—it’s not time for seclusion.
You are Homa with guidance to Qaf Mountain.
The moon keeps moving steadily in the dark;1465
Its orbit won’t stop just because dogs bark:
Critics are like dogs next to your full moon—
They howl against your rank. You stay immune.
They’re deaf towards “Keep silent! ”* and through folly
They bark at the full moon that is so lofty.
Healer of sick men, don’t drop on the floor
The blind’s staf
f, due to deaf men’s angry roar.
Didn’t you say: “The one who leads the blind
God will reward a hundred times in kind.”
If you should lead a blind man forty paces,1470
You will gain guidance and God’s pardon’s graces.
Lead from this world that’s transient all the blind,
Group after group—don’t leave them all behind,
For this is guidance; you’re the true guide who
Can turn the final hour’s dirge to joy too.
Leader of the God-fearing, cause those men
With fancies to seek certainty again.
If someone schemes against you, I will strike
His neck—proceed with joy the way you like.
Over his blindness I’ll place as a cover1475
More blindness—he’ll think poison then is sugar.
Intellects are lit up by My light, while
Plots are informed by My plots and My guile.
How can the felt tent of the Turcoman
Resist the elephant’s huge feet, good man?
What is the wind, O Prophet who’s most glorious,
To now withstand My wind that’s so ferocious?
Arise and blow the trumpet that scares men
So thousands of the dead will rise again.
Angel of Death of your age is your function—1480
Bring Resurrection prior to Resurrection!
If asked, “What’s Resurrection?” you be bold,
O beauty, show yourself and say, “Behold,
I’m it, enquirer, victim of affliction.
A hundred worlds rose from this Resurrection.” ’
If he’s not fit for prayer and zekr remembrance,
The answer for that stupid wretch is silence.
And when a prayer does not get a reply,
Silence is the response from God on high.
It’s harvesting time and we are unlucky1485
Because the day has almost gone completely.
Time is short and this discourse’s sheer strength
Can make a lifetime seem too short in length.
Throwing spears in a narrow lane lets down
Spear-throwers who have earned worldwide renown.
Time is short and the people’s understanding
Is shorter still—too short for what I’m offering.
When silence is the answer wretches earn,
Why do you talk so much? When will you learn?
Due to His kindness and most perfect grace1490
Moisture and rain head to each barren place.
A demonstration showing that ‘Choosing not to answer is an answer itself’ in confirmation of the saying ‘Silence is the reply to the wretch’. An explanation of these two sayings is in the story which will be related. *
There was a king once with a slave whose brain
Was dead, while he had lust he’d not restrain.
He didn’t carry out his job with care;
Deceptive, he hoped none would notice there.
The king decreed, ‘Reduce his salary,
And, if he fights, sack him immediately!’
His intellect was weak, his lust intense—
So he reacted badly, lacking sense.
With intellect he would have been more prudent:1495
Perceive his error and then be repentant.
A tethered ass should never lose its temper,
For this makes its condition worse than ever.
It thinks, ‘It can’t get worse than one leg tied,’
But soon its other leg is also tied.
Explanation of the saying of Mohammad: ‘God created the angels and put intellect in them, and He created the animals and put lust into them. He created humans and put both intellect and lust in them, so the human whose intellect prevails over his lust is higher than the angels, while the one whose lust prevails over his intellect is lower than animals.’
Mohammad said that God created three
Types of created beings originally:
The first have wisdom and munificence—
They’re angels bowing in obedience.
Their nature’s free from lust and craving’s blight.1500
Through love of God they are eternal light.
Another group do not have wisdom: they
Are animals which get fat eating hay.
They see just hay and stables, unaware
Of wretchedness and honour to compare.
The third group are the humans, and our masses
Are all of them half-angels and half-asses.
The latter half leans to what’s low and base,
The former to what’s wise and filled with grace.
The first two don’t have inner conflict’s torments,1505
But humans suffer from those two opponents.
Humans are also tried by destiny;
In form one, they’re divided into three:
The first group’s totally submerged inside—
Like Jesus, they have joined the angels’ side:
Adam’s form, Gabriel’s reality—
They’ve quit rage, lust, and talking pointlessly,
Through their trials, struggles, and renunciations
As if they weren’t really born of humans.
The second group have joined the ass instead,1510
Possessed by lust and with a rage-filled head.
Gabriel’s traits had once been shared by these,
But they proved too small for grand qualities.
If you should lose your soul, you will be dead;
Lose Gabriel’s traits and you’re the ass you dread.
Souls lacking Gabriel’s qualities are low—
This talk is true and Sufi greats say so!
They suffer more than animals can ever;
In this world they do things that are so clever:
In scheming and pretence they are accomplished1515
Unlike the animals—they’re thus distinguished,
Weaving clothes with fine gold embroidery,
Fetching pearls from the bottom of the sea,
Astronomy and science on top of these,
Knowledge of medicine, philosophies,
All of which link to this world that they live in
And have no power to reach the seventh heaven,
All knowledge useful to construct a stable,
The life support of every cow and camel.
These giddy ones call them their ‘mysteries’,1520
Since they prolong the life of beasts like these.
Knowledge of God’s path and His place is known
By owners of a mystic heart alone.
In composite form He made in this fashion
Animals who have knowledge too as ration.
He called this group of people cattle-like *
For how can sleep and waking be alike?
Animal spirits know just sleep for they
Inverted their own senses, but that day
When waking comes and sleep will finally end1525
They’ll learn all from the Tablet, my dear friend.
Just like the senses of a sleeping person—
When he awakes he’ll notice their inversion.
He is the lowest of the lows * —forget
And leave him: do not love the ones that set , *
Exegesis of the verse: ‘As for those in whose hearts is a disease, this book added to their disgrace’ * and ‘He leads many astray by it while also guiding many by it’. *
Since he had the potential to transcend
From baseness, but he lost it in the end.*
An animal lacks that kind of potential,
So it’s excused of course from being bestial.
Once he’s lost his potential, there’s no gain1530
For this man—food turns to a donkey’s brain.
If he eats healing herbs, they make him sicker
Like bad drugs causing stiffness and dementia.<
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There is another sort left in the battle—
They are half rightly guided and half bestial.
In war all night and day they are immersed,
The bestial half still battling with the first.
The battle between intellect and the carnal soul is like the dispute between Majnun and his she-camel: Majnun wants to go towards Layli, but the camel wants to go back to her foal, so Majnun says:
My she-camel’s desire’s behind, mine here:
That I and her are now at odds is clear.
Majnun and his she-camel were this way,
Pulling to different sides all night and day:
Layli was for Majnun the journey’s goal;1535
The camel wished to go back to her foal.
If he grew absent-minded for a moment,
The she-camel would turn round in that instant.
Being so filled with love and passion, he
Often lost self-awareness helplessly.
Reason is what is watchful all the way;
Passion for Layli carried that away.
The she-camel was watchful and so cunning
The moment she felt her own bridle slackening:
She’d know his thoughts then floated far away1540
And turned back to her foal without delay.
When he returned to his wits he’d then find,
From where they were, that she’d gone miles behind.
Majnun remained for years stuck in such ways,
Still on a journey that should take three days.
He said, ‘She-camel, since we are both lovers,
We’re opposites who’re not good fellow travellers.
Your love and toggle don’t conform with me;
I have to choose some different company.’
This pair will try to take each other out.1545
Souls that will not leave bodies will lose out.
For God’s Throne every soul still has great thirst;
The body, like the camel, loves thorns first.
Souls open up their wings and soar so high;
The body sticks its claws in soil nearby.
‘You’ll long for home’, Majnun said, ‘While still with me
And this will keep my soul so far from Layli.
My life’s been wasted by such problems falling,
Like Moses’s men in the desert, wandering.
The path to union was two steps away,1550
But it’s been sixty years due to your sway.
The path is not that long, but I’ve been tarrying,
And I have grown so sick of all this travelling.’