The Masnavi, Book Three

by Jalal al-Din Rumi

  1675

  Wind caused the branch to bend down suddenly,

  Stoking desire to eat what he could see;

  Hunger, weakness, attraction, and fate now

  Made the ascetic finally break his vow.

  Once he had plucked fruit from that tree, he’d shown

  He’d grown too weak to keep the pledge he’d sworn,

  And then God’s punishment came from the skies

  To stretch his ears and open up his eyes.

  The shaikh is accused of being linked with the thieves and his hand is cut off

  Twenty thieves were in the vicinity,

  Dividing what they’d stolen wickedly,

  1680

  And the police chief was informed about

  Their place, so his men hunted them soon out.

  He chopped off their right hands and their left feet,

  Causing a scene and clamour in the street.

  They chopped off the fakir’s hand too in error;

  His feet were sought next by the law enforcer,

  But suddenly a horseman gave a shout

  To the enforcer, saying: ‘Dog, look out!

  That’s one whom God loves—don’t you understand?

  Why did you cut off God’s elite friend’s hand?’

  1685

  The man to blame then ripped his shirt in grief

  And rushed off to confess to his own chief.

  Then the police chief came regretfully

  And begged: ‘I didn’t know—God vouch for me!

  Absolve me of this sin and its huge price,

  O noble chief of those in paradise!’

  Then the fakir said, ‘I have earned this blade;

  I know my sin and errors I have made.

  I broke my promise to Him in the past,

  So His decree took my right hand at last.

  1690

  I broke my promise, knowing it was wrong,

  And that caught up with me before too long.

  May my hand, foot, and skin and brain too be

  Sacrificed to Beloved God’s decree!

  That was my lot—I say it’s lawful to

  You who did not know; there’s no blame on you.

  The one who knew is He Whose every whim

  Is executed—who’d try fooling Him?’

  Many a bird has flown in search of seed

  And cut its own throat open due to greed.

  1695

  Many a bird through hunger’s awful pains

  Was trapped inside a small cage that restrains.

  Many a fish, in distant seas, mistook,

  Due to their greed, a fisherman’s rod’s hook.

  Many a girl with a veiled, pious face

  By throat and by vagina earned disgrace.

  Many a learned judge who had men’s trust

  Was brought to shame by bribery and by lust.

  And Harut and Marut by wine got barred

  From heaven, for which they had striven hard.

  1700

  This is why Bayazid took special care

  When seeing laxness during ritual prayer.

  Then that man with great knowledge sought what was

  The reason—too much water was the cause;

  He vowed, ‘I’ll not drink water for a year!’

  Then God gave him the strength to persevere.

  This effort was for his faith; he became

  ‘Sultan and Pole of Gnostics’ and earned fame.

  Since the ascetic’s hand due to his greed

  Had been cut off, he didn’t grieve or plead.

  1705

  ‘Shaikh Amputee’ was used for him alone;

  His gullet’s error thus made him well known.

  The miracles of ‘Shaikh Amputee’ and how he would weave baskets with two hands

  A visitor once saw Shaikh Amputee

  Weave baskets with two hands miraculously.

  The shaikh told him, ‘Your own life’s enemy,

  Why peer into my hut so suddenly?

  Why did you do this with such haste?’ ‘From burning

  With my excessive love and passionate yearning.’

  The shaikh said, smiling, ‘Now, come in my friend,

  But keep what you’ve seen secret till the end;

  1710

  Till I die don’t divulge what you now know

  Neither to friends nor to a worthless foe.’

  Later, more men arrived and they could view

  This amputee’s two-handed weaving too—

  He said, ‘Creator, You know what is best

  And why what I hide You make manifest.’

  Then revelation came: ‘There were some who

  Due to your handicap rejected you,

  Saying, “He could be an impostor, one

  Whom God’s disgraced in front of everyone.”

  1715

  I don’t want them to lose their faith and way,

  Through false suspicions to fall far astray—

  This miracle will make them understand;

  In work hours I give you a second hand,

  So that those wretched men with their suspicion

  Won’t be rejected from the gates of heaven.

  Before these miracles I would console

  You through My essence and make you feel whole—

  I gave these miracles for them, not you;

  And I made you a beacon for them too.

  1720

  You’re past being scared about the body’s death;

  Severance of limbs can’t make you gasp for breath—

  Thoughts about severance of your feet and head

  Have left, and a strong shield has come instead.’

  The reason for the courage of Pharaoh’s magicians in the face of the amputation of their hands and feet

  Didn’t vile Pharaoh threaten the magicians

  With punishment on earth in the traditions,

  Saying: ‘I’ll chop your hands and feet off, then

  Hang you and show no mercy to you men’?

  He thought they were in the same state throughout

  Of fear, distractions, vain thoughts, and much doubt,

  1725

  Such that they’d shake with fear and with regrets

  Due to the self’s imaginings and threats.

  He didn’t know that they’d escaped from fright

  And sat now at the gate of the heart’s light;

  Their shadows from themselves they now could tell

  And all were joyful, fast, and sharp as well.

  If the sky’s mortar were to start to grind

  Them down to bits in this low world, you’d find

  That, since they’d seen the source of forms, distress

  About imaginings would hurt them less.

  1730

  This world’s a dream—do not count on one thought:

  If in a dream a hand’s lost, that means naught.

  If in a dream shears chop off your sweet head,

  It will remain and you will not be dead.

  If in a dream you’re split in two parts, still

  When you awake you will be sound, not ill.

  In dreams, for bodies it won’t really matter

  If they are maimed or even caused to shatter.

  The Prophet called this world of forms we see

  ‘The dream of someone sleeping heedlessly’.

  1735

  Out of blind faith, with this you now agree;

  Mystics see with no intermediary.

  You sleep all day, heedless without remorse.

  Shadows are secondary, moonlight the source.

  Your sleep and wakefulness are both sleep, friend:

  A sleeper dreams he’s sleeping. In the end

  He thinks: ‘I’m sleeping’, but can tell no more,

  Because to have that dream he’d slept before.

  When potters break their pots, they can restore

  Their pots and make them perfect as before.<
br />
  1740

  With every step men fear pits if they’re blind,

  So they walk out with fears of every kind.

  A man with vision of the road ahead

  Detects the ditches and does not feel dread;

  His legs and knees don’t tremble constantly,

  So hardships won’t fill him with misery.

  ‘Arise, Pharaoh! We’re not like those before

  Who’d freeze with fear when they heard monsters roar.

  Rip up our cloaks! He will sew them again

  Or fewer clothes are better for good men.

  1745

  Without clothes, worthless foe, we would embrace

  This beauty tightly and feel special grace;

  There’s nothing better than to be stripped bare

  Of body too—Pharaoh, you’re unaware!’

  How the mule complained to the camel: ‘I fall on my face a lot, and you only seldom do so!’

  The mule said to the camel, ‘My good friend,

  Going uphill, downhill, and round the bend

  You don’t fall on your head along the way

  While I keep falling like one led astray;

  Repeatedly I fall flat on my face

  Whether I’m in a dry or soaking place.

  1750

  Tell me the reason for this difference, so

  The way to live my life I then might know.’

  It said, ‘I see more clearly with each eye

  Than you can see, and mine are very high;

  When I reach a high mountain-top, from there

  I see the furthest peaks and feel aware.

  The Lord reveals to my eyes clear as day

  All of the depths and heights too of the way;

  I take each step with vision through His grace

  And so I’m saved from falling on my face.

  1755

  You see two steps before you, unaware,

  Though you can see the bait of the next snare:

  Are blind and seeing men the same to you* In their abiding and their travelling too?

  When God inserts in embryos men’s souls

  He gives attraction too to particles:

  It can draw particles through food, to weave

  The body’s warp and woof that we perceive;

  Until its fortieth year the Lord will sow

  Desire to draw such particles to grow—

  1760

  Drawing such particles was taught, my friends,

  To spirits by the Lord who comprehends;

  The joiner of these motes is the Great Sun—

  Without food He draws particles for fun:

  When you wake from your sleep, he calls back then

  Departed consciousness to you again.

  That they’ve not left Him you will quickly learn,

  When they come back at His command ‘Return!’

  How the particles of the ass of Ozayr were assembled after it had rotted away, through God’s permission, and were reconstituted before Ozayr’s eyes

  ‘Ozayr, look at your ass,’ a voice would say,

  ‘You saw it previously in slow decay:

  1765

  He will collect all parts in front of you,

  Its skull and tail, both ears and both legs too.’

  He can unite such parts without a hand:

  Scattered things can be joined by His command.

  Consider now a tailor who’s so clever

  Without a needle he sews rags together:

  No thread or needle sounds impossible—

  He sews and yet no seams are visible.

  Open your eyes now—Judgment Day’s in view!

  No doubts about it will remain with you.

  1770

  You’ll see My own uniting power entirely

  And not shake when you die from deep anxiety,

  Just as, while sleeping, you’re secure from fear

  Even though bodily senses disappear—

  You do not tremble then with consternation

  Despite your senses’ clear annihilation.

  The shaikh who did not grieve the death of his own children

  In former times there was a Sufi guide,

  A heavenly candle blazing far and wide,

  Just like a prophet with his people, who

  Can open paradise’s garden too—

  1775

  The Prophet said, ‘Compare the shaikh to me:

  A prophet in his own community.’

  One morning by his family he was told:

  ‘Good natured one, why is your heart so cold?

  Due to your children’s death our hearts are torn—

  We are bent double as we grieve and mourn.

  You don’t weep. Why won’t you lament? Please start,

  Or do you have no pity in your heart?

  When you lack pity and seem not to care,

  How can we have faith something’s still felt there?

  1780

  Leader, we live in hope you won’t depart

  And leave us all to perish while apart.

  When on the Final Day they bring a throne,

  Our intercessor will be you alone;

  On such a day when we will be defenceless,

  We will depend on you then feeling generous.

  Our hands will grip your coat-tails desperately,

  That time when sinners lack security.’

  ‘On Resurrection Day’, the Prophet said,

  ‘I can’t leave sinners with the tears they’ve shed;

  1785

  For those who have transgressed I’ll intercede,

  So that from heavy torment they’ll be freed.

  I’ll spare grave sinners that strong punishment

  They fear for breaking their own covenant.

  The godly will have no need on that day

  For me to intercede there anyway,

  But they can intercede—their words will be

  Then just like an effective, firm decree;

  Burdened men can’t bear others’ burdens, friend,

  But I’m not burdened—God made me transcend.’

  1790

  The one not burdened is the shaikh; commands

  Reach him from God like bowstrings in men’s hands.

  What does ‘shaikh’ mean? Old man, one with white hair—

  What does white hair mean though? Become aware:

  Black hairs denote his self-existence, so

  A single black hair can’t be left to grow.

  He is a master when his being’s not there,

  Whether he has black hair or grizzled hair—

  Black hair means human attributes instead

  Of hair that grows upon your chin or head.

  1795

  Jesus cried in the cradle words of truth:

  ‘I am a master, though not yet a youth!’*

  If human attributes leave partially,

  That’s black and white hair, not true mastery;

  When not a single black hair can be traced,

  He is a shaikh then whom God has embraced.

  If he’s with self once all his hair turns white,

  He’s not of God’s elite who has gained light—

  If one hair-tip of his own qualities

  Remains, he’s not from where no plain man sees.

  1800

  The Shaikh excuses himself for not weeping for his sons

  The shaikh then told his wife, ‘Do not imagine

  That my heart has no pity or compassion.

  I feel for infidels too, though their soul

  Remains ungrateful for the Lord’s bestowal;

  I pity dogs too, wondering on my own:

  “Why are they yelled at and hit with a stone?”

  For dogs that bite I pray with this petition:

  “Save him please from his evil disposition!

  Watch over these dogs which I have made known,

  So they’re not targets that the people stone.”’


  1805

  God brought His Friends to earth, so He might then

  Make them a mercy to the world of men.*

  God’s Friend invites men to the special door—

  ‘Give them complete release, God!’ he’ll implore.

  He counsels them so they will mend their ways—

  And, if this fails, ‘God, don’t close it!’ he prays.

  Ordinary men have just particular grace;

  Great men have also Universal Grace—

  To Universal Grace their own is tied;

  They have the Ocean’s grace as their own guide.

  1810

  That lesser grace joined with the Universal,

  Take this as your guide—this is no rehearsal.

  An individual cannot find the ocean;