Become secure from death within the sea.
Who should be now so lucky—from the top
The ocean is requesting a mere drop!
For God’s sake, make this purchase rapidly—
For one drop you can gain a pearl-filled sea.
By God, you shouldn’t wait, but you should race!
This speech comes from God’s Bounteous Ocean’s Grace.
All other graces disappear in this one,2625
The least of which soars to the seventh heaven.
A falcon has reached you that is so stunning,
One that will not be found by busily hunting.
‘I’ll speak with Haman,’ Pharaoh said, ‘It’s clear
A king should ask advice from his vizier.’
She said, ‘Don’t share this secret with that Haman—
What would a blind crone know about a falcon?’
Story about the king’s falcon and the decrepit crone. *
If you should give a crone a fine, white falcon,
From kindness she will try to trim each talon.
It needs its talons so that it can hunt;2630
The blind crone trims them, for she’s ignorant,
And says, ‘Where was your mother? It is wrong
For talons to be left to grow so long.’
She trims its talons, wings and beak as well—
This is what wretches do in their love’s spell.
The falcon won’t eat when she gives it stew,
So she gets angry, stops her kindness too,
Saying, ‘I cooked you stew that tasted lovely,
But you have shown disdain and acted smugly,
So you deserve your suffering and affliction;2635
You don’t deserve God’s bounty and good fortune.’
She gives it the stew’s broth and tells it, ‘Eat!
Maybe you just don’t like the balls of wheat?’
The broth does not fit with the falcon’s nature,
So she then frowns and her rage just grows greater.
She pours on it broth hot enough to scald
And that poor falcon’s crown then ends up bald.
The scalding sends tears from its eyes that sting
And it recalls the kindness of its king;
From those sweet, flirting eyes tears flow at pace,2640
Eyes with perfections through the ruler’s face,
Eyes that don’t turn round wounded by a crow’s,*
The good eye suffers from the evil’s blows.
That eye has the sea’s breadth of vision where
The two worlds look no more than one thin hair.
Thousands of spheres may enter in its vision,
But disappear like fountains in the ocean.
This eye’s transcended the whole realm of senses;
Through sight of the Unseen it has won kisses.
I cannot find a single ear that I 2645
Can tell the finer points about this eye.
If from it glorious water were to trickle,
Gabriel would try to catch hold of a little,
To rub it on his own wings if that person
Of truest creed were to give his permission.
The falcon says, ‘Though that crone’s rage blazed bright,
It hasn’t burned my dignity and light.
My spirit’s falcon weaves a hundred forms still.’
Saleh was not hurt—they just hurt his camel;*
One marvellous breath from Saleh sends the grace2650
For mountains to send hundreds in its place.
‘Be silent! Pay attention!’ says my heart,
‘Or jealousy will tear your frame apart.’
Huge clemencies hide in His jealousy—
If not He’d burn our world up instantly.
Pharaoh’s pride made him choose to turn away
From her advice; his heart moved from her sway.
‘I’ll talk with Haman first,’ then Pharaoh said,
‘For he’s my power’s axis and my aide.’
(Bu Bakr was Mohammad’s counsellor,2655
Bu Lahab was Bu Jahl’s—they’re similar.)*
Since a deep-rooted likeness drew them near
And her advice seemed ugly to his ear.
Like goes towards like with a hundred wings
And breaks chains through its own imaginings.
Story about that woman whose child crawled onto a waterspout and was in danger of falling, and how she sought help from Ali.
A woman saw Ali and came to shout:
‘My child has gone up to that waterspout!
He won’t come near my grasp although I call,
And if I leave him I’m afraid he’ll fall.
He can’t yet understand it when I say:2660
“Come back to mother, out then of harm’s way!”
He doesn’t understand hand signals too;
He acts as if he doesn’t have a clue.
For feeding I would show my breast, but he
Just turned the other way so cluelessly.
You noble ones are those who give support
In this world and the next to my poor sort—
My heart is trembling. For God’s sake, I pray
You rescue him before he’s swept away.’
‘Take to the roof another child,’ he said,2665
‘So yours sees one just like himself ahead,
Then he will start to rush to his own kind
Back from that spout—like’s drawn to like, you’ll find.’
The woman did this. Once her son had seen
His own kind, he approached from where he’d been
And reached the safety of the roof. Consider
Similar things attractors of each other.
He crawled towards the other child, and so
He managed to avoid a fall below.
Prophets are humans due to this, no doubt—2670
So other humans likewise flee the spout.
Mohammad said he’s human just like you ,*
So you’d approach him and not fall off too.
Homogeneity’s a strong attractor;
There’s an attractor drawing every searcher.
Jesus and Edris soared to heaven. They
Became the same as angels in some way.
Harut and Marut both leaned to what’s bodily,
So they fell from a station that was lofty.
Infidels all belong to Satan’s kind;2675
Their souls are demons’ students and unkind;
They’ve learnt a million wicked ways and try
To sew shut their own heart and mind’s good eye,
And their least ugly single quality
Is envy, which struck Satan fatally.
That’s where they picked up envy and their spite—
He wants to block men from God’s kingdom’s light.
When he sees someone perfect is around
He suffers pain because of what he’s found.
Every wretch whose light’s snuffed out hates to see2680
Others with candles burning gloriously.
Acquire perfection so you won’t turn evil,
Upset at the success of other people.
Beg God to now repel from you this envy,
So He can liberate you from the body,
Then keep you inwardly preoccupied,
For you won’t be distracted then outside.
God gives to draughts of wine the potency
To make drunks flee from both worlds totally,
And He has given to hashish the power2685
To help flee self-awareness for an hour.
God gives to sleep the power to pull away
All your attention from the two worlds’ sway.
He changed Majnun through love of Layli so
Love stopped him knowing who was friend from foe.
He has more wines just like this by the millions
Which He lets dominate your sense percep
tions.
And from the self there are wines of damnation
Which drive the ill-starred from the right location.
The pure mind has wines of felicity2690
Which find the place one can stay permanently:
Drunk, it will rip the tent of this world’s sky,
Then the illumined mind soars up on high.
Don’t be deceived by every drunkard, heart!
Tell drunken Jesus and the ass apart.
Seek wine from these vats that give drunkenness
That can’t be matched by those worth so much less.
Each loved thing’s like a full vat—they contain
Pearl-pure wine drops or just dregs that remain.
Wine connoisseur, you have to taste with care2695
To find wine not adulterated there.
Both kinds make men drunk, but this drunkenness
Will take you up to Judgement’s Lord, no less,
So you can flee all thoughts, false schemes, and whispering,
Freed from the mind’s chains, like a camel skipping.
Prophets are all from the angelic realm—
That’s how from down here they attracted them.
Wind is like fire and joins it as a friend—
For both of them their nature’s to ascend.
If you seal up a pot though it is empty2700
And place it in a river, you will then see
That pot will never sink, but just floats there
Because inside that pot there’s only air,
And since air’s nature is to move up, it
Pulls its container up along with it.
The souls which are like Prophets’ similarly
Are pulled like shadows to them powerfully;
Since their intelligence prevails, no doubt
That’s what the angels share with the devout.
The carnal soul prevails in every foe;2705
That soul is base and so they head below.
Egyptians were like Pharaoh, who drew blame;
The Jews and Moses were one and the same.
Haman was more like Pharaoh with his malice;
Pharaoh chose him and brought him to his palace—
He dragged him to the bottom of the well,
Since both were of the denizens of hell.
They both oppose light and are set ablaze
Like hellfire; they oppose the heart’s light rays.
‘Believer, pass through quickly!’ hell will shout,2710
For your light makes its flames all soon go out.
‘Move on, believer: when it trails its hem
Your light extinguishes each one of them.’
That hell-bound one flees light as well, for he
Has hellfire’s nature also tragically.
Hell flees from the believers and their light
Just as they flee from it with all their might,
For their light lacks compatibility;
Seekers of light oppose fire actually.
The Prophet said, ‘When the believers pray2715
For God to keep them far from hell, that way
Hell seeks protection from those persons too,
Praying, “O God, keep him far, I beg you!” ’
Attractions found with congeneity—
Are you with faith or infidelity?
You’re Haman’s kind if to him you incline,
But if you lean to Moses, that’s divine.
And if you lean to both of them, my brother,
You have both self and wisdom mixed together.
They are at war. You must strive through its storms2720
So spiritual things dominate mere forms.
To feel joy in the world of war, what’s needed
Is witnessing your enemy defeated.
That one who always argued finally
Consulted Haman on this mystery.
He told what Moses promised on that day
And took as confidant one far astray.
Pharaoh consults his vizier Haman about believing in Moses.
Pharaoh told Haman when he saw him there;
Haman ripped his own shirt, jumped in the air—
That cursed one’s screams were heard from all around2725
As he threw his own headgear on the ground:
‘How dare he speak like that to Pharaoh’s face,
Brazenly with vain words? He’s a disgrace!
You have subdued the whole world, truth be told.
Through fortune all your work has turned to gold.
Rulers bring tribute to you from each nation
Without resistance, with no contestation.
Kings kiss your threshold’s dust so happily,
O Kayqobad-like king with majesty!*
And when our horse is seen by those of foes,2730
They gallop off without the need for blows.
You have been worshipped in this world till now—
Will you turn to the least of slaves somehow?
To walk in flames is a much better thing
Than to turn to a slave when you’re a king.
O king of China even, first kill me
So my eyes won’t see such a tragedy.
Chop off my head first, Khosrow of our nation,*
So my eyes don’t see that humiliation.
Nothing like this has happened. I don’t lie.2735
It is like sky becoming land, land sky,
Or slaves becoming equals suddenly,
Or cowards starting to fight fearlessly,
Or foes seeing well while friends don’t see a bit,
Or for our garden to become a pit.’
Showing the falseness of Haman’s speech.
He couldn’t tell his friend from enemy;
He played this backgammon pathetically.
You were your own foe, cursed one, so don’t name
The innocent as foes. They’re not to blame.
Wickedness to you is ‘good fortune’, ‘luck’—2740
It starts with gallops, ends with being struck.
If you don’t leave this fortune straight away,
Autumn will soon move spring out of the way.
The East and West have witnessed far too many
Just like you with head severed from their body.
How could the East and West, which are both transient,
Cause anybody to become more permanent.
You take pride in the fact that out of fear
And bondage people flatter you now here.
When people should prostrate in front of someone,2745
They stuff inside that person’s soul some poison.
And when that one prostrating turns away,
The poison’s seen while he is on his way.
Happy the one whose self has been brought low ;
The one pride made feel huge must suffer woe;
This arrogance is poison that is deadly—
The fool gets drunk on poisonous wine too readily.
When he drinks it for just a little while
He’ll swing his head with joy and start to smile,
But then the poison enters in his soul2750
And it begins to take complete control.
If you don’t think it’s poisonous, or debate
What poison is, heed the Aad people’s fate.
When two kings fight, the one that should prevail
Will kill the other or throw him in gaol,
But if he finds a fallen enemy,
He bandages him and gives liberally.
If this pride isn’t a most poisonous thing,
Why kill the innocent, you murderous king,
And why treat one well who’s no one to you—2755
You can detect the poison through these two.
The highwayman will never rob a beggar;
The wolf won’t bite into a dead wolf either.
Khezr damaged that boat, so it could be saved
From hands of peo
ple who were so depraved.
The broken flee—get broken straight away!
Safety’s in poverty, so head that way!
The mountain that held precious mines in it
Shattered to bits when axes finally hit.
The sword’s for necks; it is so useless though2760
For shadows they cast which can’t feel a blow.
O lost one, grandeur’s fire and oil, so why
Do you walk into flames with nose raised high?
Arrows won’t target someone lying flat
Upon the ground, so please reflect on that.
But if he lifts his head up, he’ll be slain
Like targets—his wounds won’t be healed again.
The vulgar’s ladder’s egotism, friend,
But that is where they fall from in the end.
Those who climb higher have less understanding—2765
Their bones will break much more on their hard landing.
And this derived flaw’s rooted in the fact
You’re trying to partner God by your proud act.
You haven’t died then been revived again
Through Him—you’re seeking equal lordship then.
But if revived through Him, since that is Him,
It’s purest union, not polytheism.
Seek explanations in good action’s mirror
For you won’t understand it through mere chatter.
If I share what I’ve written, then each heart2770
Immediately will bleed and split apart.
I’ll stop, for wise men this much will suffice;
To check if someone’s home I’ve shouted twice.
To sum up, through the wicked things he’d say
Haman waylaid his Pharaoh in this way.
Good fortune’s morsel reached his lips, but he
Opted to slit his own throat suddenly.
Haman gave Pharaoh’s harvest-stack away—
May no kings have such friends who act this way!
Moses despaired of Pharaoh’s accepting the faith because of the effect of Haman’s words on Pharaoh’s heart.
Moses said, ‘We’ve shown kindness and much grace.2775
It wasn’t something fate let you embrace.
Consider lordship that is not upright
As having no real power and no real might.
Lordship that has been stolen is a lie,
Because it doesn’t have heart, soul, or eye.
Lordship given by ordinary men,
Like loans, will be one day called in again.
Give God the lordship that you got on loan,
So He gives a full contract of His own.’
The Masnavi, Book Four Page 21