The Masnavi, Book Three

  Daquqi, this talk has no end—run fast

  Before the prayer’s allotted time has passed:

  Unique man, do the dawn prayer that is due,

  So that the day can be adorned by you.

  Leader with clear sight, to have this position

  The prayer leader must have perfect vision:

  It’s disapproved by law to pray behind

  A congregation leader who is blind.*

  Though he be well trained at the highest school,

  Clear sight is better even in a fool,

  2090

  Because the blind man can’t avoid pollution—

  Sight is the best means to avoid confusion.

  The blind man cannot see dirt in his way—

  May no believing man turn blind, I pray!

  The outwardly blind is impure outside,

  The inwardly blind is impure inside;

  Outward impurity is washed away,

  The inward kind increases day by day—

  It only can be washed by tears the moment

  Inner impurity becomes apparent.

  2095

  God has called infidels ‘unclean’—it’s clear

  Outward uncleanliness is not meant here:

  Infidels’ outward faces aren’t impure;

  Their faith and ethics are what’s meant for sure.

  The outward kind’s smell wafts from yards away,

  The inward kind’s from Syria to Rayy.*

  Its smell will reach the sky and then still rise

  Up to the houris and to paradise.

  I speak to suit your own capacity,

  Seeking one who perceives things perfectly.

  2100

  Perception’s water, body the jar it fills,

  And when the jar breaks all the water spills.

  The jar has five big holes that you can’t fill

  With water or with snow, try as you will.

  The order ‘Shut your eyes!’ has come, but you

  Have still not done what you’ve been told to do.

  Your mouth, through speech, steals what you understand;

  Your ear soaks it away like driest sand.

  Your other holes act in a similar way,

  Drawing your hidden wisdom all the way.

  2105

  If you take water from the sea without

  Replacements, then a desert soon spreads out.

  It’s late now, otherwise I’d give tuition

  About replacements and such substitution,

  Such as where they’ve arrived from to the sea

  After some being used up previously.

  A million animals drink from this source;

  Clouds carry water on a different course.

  The sea then draws replacements, but from where?

  The ones with proper guidance are aware.

  2110

  We’ve started this book’s stories hastily,

  So they’re unfinished in this Masnavi.

  Hosam, the heavens haven’t brought the birth

  Of such a king who could have equal worth.

  You’ve seldom entered in our souls, and they

  Feel so unworthy when you come their way.

  How often I had praised those of past days.

  You were the only one I meant always:

  A prayer knows its own home: whoever’s name

  You use in prayer it reaches its true aim.

  2115

  God gave us parables to hide this praise

  From those who don’t deserve to know these ways.

  Though this praise seems unworthy, still be sure

  That God accepts exertions of the poor.

  He will excuse it, though it seems deficient,

  For, from blind eyes, two drops are deemed sufficient.

  The moon and birds know this obscurest route

  By which I’ve praised this man of good repute.

  Thus, sighs of envy of him will decrease

  And envy’s teeth’s attempts to bite will cease.

  2120

  A jealous man won’t find his dreamt-up goal,

  A parrot can’t fit in a mouse’s hole.

  His image is made up—don’t judge too soon:

  It is your eyebrow’s hair, not a new moon.

  Beyond both realms I send praise gratefully.

  Write ‘Daquqi steps forward’ now for me.

  Daquqi steps forward to lead the congregation in prayer

  Praise to the Prophets blends in combination

  With praise to righteous men and salutation;

  The praises are commingled as one whole

  Just like jugs emptied into one large bowl.

  2125

  The focus of all worship is the One,

  So all of the religions must be one;

  All praises reach God’s light eventually;

  With men and forms their stay is temporary.

  Who can you praise but He Who is deserving?

  Still those astray will follow their own reckoning.

  When light reflects across a wall, just think,

  For all those rays the wall serves as a link;

  The moon appeared inside a well one day;

  A lost man poked his head inside to pray.

  2130

  When the reflection went back to its source,

  He lost the moon and stopped prayer in remorse—

  The moon was the real object of his praise

  Although he faced the moon’s reflected rays.

  To the moon, not reflections, praise belongs,

  But it is unbelief when it’s done wrong.

  Through unbelief that bold man was misled:

  He thought the moon was down below instead.

  By idols people too became distracted,

  Then felt ashamed that on their lusts they’d acted.

  2135

  Fancies feed lust and lead you far away

  From Truth, where you should face each time you pray.

  What pulls you to a wish you should now see

  As wings which take you to reality.

  Your wings drop off when you try to appease

  Your lust—you lose control and that wish flees.

  Preserve your wings, don’t let lust start a fire,

  And then ascend on wings of true desire.

  People think they are doing pleasing things

  When, for a fancy, they tear off their wings.

  2140

  I need more time to properly explain,

  But I am poor and must stay quiet again.

  The group follow behind Daquqi

  Daquqi stepped ahead to lead the prayer—

  In front of satin, silk stood that’s more rare.

  Those kings then followed him just like a herd

  Of camels, waiting on his every word:

  Once they’d said the takbir,* they all then fled

  This world like sacrifices, with no head.

  ‘Prayer leader, hear the meaning that is true:

  “God, we now sacrifice ourselves to you.”’

  2145

  While making sacrifices they exclaim

  ‘God’s great!’* While slaying self you do the same!

  Ishmael’s the body, Abraham the soul

  Which utters the takbir in the slayer’s role.*

  Desire destroys the body in the end;

  ‘Bismillah’* sacrifices it, my friend.

  They stood in rows before God then to pray

  And have their deeds weighed as on Judgment Day.

  They shed tears as they stood before God then,

  Just as on Judgment Day do fearful men.

  2150

  God asks then, ‘What have you brought Me, in view

  Of all the respite that I’ve granted you?

  In your life what have you at last achieved?

  For what have you used food that you’ve received?

  With what have you worn out your radiant eyes

&nb
sp; And all your other senses? Don’t tell lies.

  You’ve used up all your senses and your mind,

  So what’s your gift from that realm left behind?

  I gave you hands and feet as good as tools—

  They didn’t come down by themselves, you fools!’

  2155

  Millions of harsh and painful messages

  Come from the Lord that day to you like this.

  While standing up in prayer, their bodily parts

  Bend down, as out of shame their bowing starts.

  Due to the shame, which all the while gets stronger,

  They lose the strength to stand up any longer.

  Then the command arrives: ‘Lift up your head

  From bowing down and answer what God’s said!’

  Each lifts his head up; he who’s earned disgrace

  Falls back down like a snake flat on his face.

  2160

  Then orders come: ‘Lift your head from prostration!

  Relate your deeds for our communication!’

  He lifts his head up one more time, and then

  That shamefaced one falls on his face again.

  God says, ‘Lift up your head now and relate

  Your deeds to me, as I interrogate.’

  No longer with the strength to stand at all

  Because these awesome words have struck his soul,

  He kneels down under such a heavy load

  And God says, ‘Speak up clearly! Give what’s owed.

  2165

  Where is your thanks for what I gave to you?

  Show me that wealth and all your profit too.’

  He turns his head right for the salutation*

  To souls of Prophets and men of high station

  As if to say: ‘Please intercede for me,

  For I’m stuck in this mud and wish to flee!’

  Explaining how the salutation towards the right at the Resurrection indicates dread of being examined by God and the appeal to Prophets for help and intercession

  The Prophets say, ‘No cure’s left any more.

  Solutions and the means were here before.

  You’re an untimely bird, unlucky one,

  Leave us alone, stop bothering everyone!’

  2170

  Then the man turns his head the other way,

  Left, to his kin: ‘Be silent!’ they all say.

  ‘Give the Creator, God, your own reply.

  Who are we to? On us do not rely.’

  With no cure either side, that helpless heart

  From its own depths is quickly torn apart.

  This poor wretch now despairs of everyone

  And joins his hands to pray to God, the One:

  ‘I’ve now lost hope in everyone but you,

  The First, the Last, the Ultimate One too.’

  2175

  When you next pray, observe these signs we’ve shown,

  That make what’s coming to you clearly known.

  Bring the chick out now from the egg of prayer,

  Don’t peck at it without respect or care!

  During the prayer Daquqi hears wails from a boat that is about to sink

  Daquqi led the prayer as said before,

  Performing it at long last by the shore.

  The congregation all looked very fine

  Behind the chosen leader, all in line.

  His gaze changed its direction suddenly

  On hearing, ‘Help! Help!’ coming from the sea.

  2180

  He saw a ship there in a perilous state,

  Suffering, while tossed by waves, an ugly fate.

  Huge clouds, enormous waves, and a black night—

  Three darknesses, shipwreck fears too in sight.

  Like Azrael, a fierce wind suddenly

  Tossed the waves left and then right violently.

  The men on board almost lost consciousness

  And they raised desperate cries in sheer distress.

  In mourning then they beat their heads as well,

  Turned faithful now, even each infidel;

  2185

  They promised and made heartfelt vows right there

  To God on that hour while engaged in prayer.

  Bareheaded in prostration lay these men

  Who never had faced Mecca until then.

  ‘That worship’s pointless,’ these men used to say,

  But saw the power of life in it today;

  They’d now lost hope in every man that lives,

  Including parents, friends, and relatives—

  Renunciants and hedonists equally

  Turned pious as cruel men in agony.

  2190

  There wasn’t a solution anywhere;

  When all else fails one knows it’s time for prayer.

  On every prayer of theirs and desperate sigh,

  Black smoke rose up from them towards the sky.

  Just then, the Devil yelled as a fierce foe:

  ‘Dog-worshippers, you’ve two banes: death and woe!’

  Hypocrites and deniers, that will be

  The final outcome of your destiny.

  And then your eyes will weep, as your mistake

  Made you become a devil for lust’s sake.

  2195

  You won’t recall how God helped you that day

  Of peril, when you all had lost your way.

  These words came from the Devil to deceive—

  A good ear is required still to perceive.

  Mohammad, Pole and Sea of Purity,

  Told us before about this accurately:

  That stupid men see at the very last

  What wise men saw at the first stage they passed.

  Though at the start it may have been concealed,

  To wise men at the start it is revealed;

  2200

  Its start’s concealed, but ignorant and wise

  Both later see its end with their own eyes—

  Stubborn wretch, if you can’t see it today

  When did your prudent mind get snatched away?

  What’s prudence? Viewing this world with suspicion,

  Expecting grief to come all of a sudden . . .

  The conceptions of the prudent man

  . . . As when a lion grabs a man, and then

  Drags him back through the jungle to his den—

  What will he think while being dragged away?

  Religious expert, think that way today!

  2205

  Fate’s lion drags to jungles souls inside

  All people trade has left preoccupied;

  Those who fear poverty in this same way

  Are totally submerged in brine today.

  If they’d instead fear poverty’s creator

  They would see everywhere the wealth and treasure.

  All of them, fearing pain, fall in its essence,

  They seek existence but find non-existence.

  Daquqi’s supplication and intercession for the deliverance of the ship

  And when Daquqi saw that scene of woe,

  His pity stirred and tears began to flow.

  2210

  ‘O Lord, don’t look at just their deeds,’ he prayed,

  ‘Beloved, please give them a hand in aid.

  O You Whose hand controls both land and sea,

  Bring them ashore, back to security.

  O Generous, Merciful, Eternal One,

  Overlook wicked things they might have done!

  O You Who’ve given eyes and ears for free

  And intellect and wisdom needlessly,

  Giving before it had been earned, though You

  Have faced ingratitude and error too,

  2215

  You can forgive the major sins we bring,

  Great Lord, beneath the shelter of Your wing.

  We’ve burned ourselves because of lust and greed;

  We’ve learned from You this prayer we make in need—

  We deeply honour You for teaching it<
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  And for the lamp that in the dark You’ve lit.’

  He prayed these words as he was standing there,

  Like mothers do for children in their care.

  Tears then began to flow out of each eye;

  While unaware, his prayer rose to the sky:

  2220

  The prayer of him who isn’t self-aware

  Differs: not him but God recites that prayer.

  God says the prayer, for this man is effaced:

  Its answer comes from God too, if it’s traced.

  Without an intermediary in creation

  How can one fathom such a supplication?

  God’s slaves are merciful and are long-suffering;

  They show God’s nature while they are reforming,

  Generous without a bribe, and helpful too,