The Masnavi, Book Three
Page 28
The seeker becomes content with being taught the language of domestic birds and dogs, and Moses complies with his request
The seeker then asked, ‘Maybe just dogs’ words
And what is spoken by domestic birds?’
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Moses said, ‘You know best. You’ll have those two.
Both of those languages now come to you.’
In order then to test them out, at dawn
He waited by his own gate and looked on.
One of his servants shook his mealcloth clean;
A piece of bread from this fell from between.
A cock snatched it like catching in a game.
A dog said, ‘That’s not fair! We’re not the same:
You can eat wheat grains, but I cannot eat
Such food, and this bread is my only treat;
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You can eat wheat and other kinds of seed,
Jubilant one! This bread’s what I now need.
From dogs would you now snatch without a care
This little crust of bread that is their share?’
The cock’s reply to the dog
‘Be quiet and don’t grieve!’ the cock replied,
‘Something else soon will come—God will provide:
The master’s horse is now about to die—
Tomorrow eat your fill and don’t you cry.
The horse’s death means feasts for every dog—
A day of plenty with no long, hard slog.’
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On overhearing this he sold his horse;
The cock was left embarrassed in due course.
The cock snatched bread again on the next day;
The dog complained it acted the same way:
‘O scheming cock, how many lies must we
Endure—you’re cruel and you lack honesty.
Where is the horse you claimed would die for sure?
You lack truth like a blind astrologer.’
That knowing cock then turned to it and said:
‘The horse did die, but somewhere else instead.
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He sold it to avoid loss with great stealth;
The buyers then lost much of their own wealth.
Tomorrow his old mule will die at least
And that means for the dogs a massive feast.’
The greedy man sold it that very day,
Avoiding loss’s misery this way.
On the third day, the dog barked at the cock:
‘With drums the liars’ prince just loves to mock!’
It said, ‘He sold his mule all of a sudden.
His slave tomorrow will be fatally stricken,
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And when he dies his family will scatter
Bread to each dog and every single beggar.’
He sold that slave too to unwitting men;
His face lit up, for dodging loss again.
He gave thanks and he marvelled jubilantly:
‘Three times already this has rescued me!
Since learning how the dog and cock speak, I
Have stitched up fully evil destiny’s eye!’
The disappointed dog said the next day:
‘Where’s all the food, cock? Drivel’s all you say . . .
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The cock is ashamed before the dog because of the falseness of those three promises
‘. . . How long will you continue with your lies?
From your nest there is nothing else that flies.’
‘Far be it from me and my kind that we
Cocks should be lying pathologically.
As truthful as muezzins are all cocks;
We watch the sun and keep the time like clocks.
Inwardly, we stay watchmen of the sun,
Though on our heads a basin you upturn.’
(God’s Friends are its real watchmen in mankind,
Sensing the secrets to which most are blind.)
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It said, ‘God gave us to humanity
For the azan* and prayer originally.
About the prayer’s time if we’re once mistaken,
This will be cause for our lives to be taken:
Saying at the wrong time, “Come to the good!”*
Will make it lawful then to shed our blood.’
(The one who’s sinless and infallible
Is the inspired cock, who is spiritual.)
In the home of his buyer that slave died,
Which meant his buyer’s losses multiplied,
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This man saved his own wealth, but this would lead
To loss of his whole life—what use is greed?
One loss could have prevented what’s more costly—
Ransom your soul with wealth and with your body.
When kings sit to make judgments you would give
Your wealth to flee death and be left to live—
Why now with fate are you so miserly,
Withholding wealth from the True Judge? Tell me!
The cock foretells the death of the master of the house
The cock said, ‘He will die for sure tomorrow.
His heir will slaughter then a cow in sorrow.
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The owner will die finally on this day;
Tomorrow much rich food will come your way.
Both high and low will taste some bread and meat
And other leftovers out in the street.
They’ll share the sacrificed cow and fine breads,
Scattering it over dogs’ and beggars’ heads.’
The horse, the mule, and slave died, and they led
To the doom of this man who was misled.
He had dodged loss of wealth and all its pain,
But his own death was all that he could gain.
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Why then the Sufis’ bodily austerities?
The soul’s made permanent by trials like these.
Unless he has gained permanence this way,
How could he make his body waste away?
How can he toil for altruism’s sake
Unless he sees there’s a reward at stake?
The one who gives without thought of reward
Is God alone, the Needless, Holy Lord,
Or God’s Friend, who has taken on His ways,
Becoming luminous through eternal rays,
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For he’s rich while all others feel a lack—
Paupers can’t give and not want something back.
Unless a child sees that an apple’s here,
He won’t swap his vile onion out of fear;
And all the market traders, for that matter,
Sit at their stalls just for the chance to barter:
They offer numerous fine wares, while within
They simply long for trading to begin.
You won’t hear one ‘Salaam!’, O pious fellow,
Which won’t require from you some words to follow:
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I’ve never heard ‘Salaam!’ come from another
Without desire to hear ‘Salaam, my brother!’
Apart from God’s ‘Salaam!’—seek that rare treat
House to house, place to place, and street to street.
From men with special scent too I’ve perceived
The Lord’s ‘Salaam!’ which gratefully I’ve received—
Aiming for that, I savour in my heart
Others’ salaams like they’re life’s sweetest part.
That saint’s is God’s ‘Salaam!’ the ultimate aim,
For he has set the vile self’s house aflame:
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Dead to his self, he now lives through the Lord;
God’s secrets now are in his every word.
New life is gained from bodily death and suffering,
Because it makes the spirit everlasting.
The wretch pricked up his ears each time they’d talk
To harken to the words said b
y the cock.
How that person ran to Moses for refuge when he heard news from the cock about his own death
Once he heard these things, he began to run
To Moses’ door—God spoke to that one.*
He rubbed his face with dust, so filled with dread:
‘Moses, Kalim,* save me from this!’ he said.
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Moses said, ‘Sell yourself to dodge this pit,
Since you are so proficient now at it.
You made these buyers suffer losses and
At their expense watched your purse then expand.
I saw already in a brick this fate
That you saw in a looking-glass too late.’
(The wise foresee the outcome from the start;
It’s seen too late by those who lack their heart.)
He kept on weeping. ‘Good, kind man,’ he said,
‘Don’t rub it in and beat me on the head!
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I got involved in what was far beyond me—
Give me a good reward, though I’m unworthy.’
Moses said, ‘Son, an arrow in the air
Fired from a bow will not return back there.
But I’ll ask God for mercy, so you can
Leave with your faith intact, you desperate man.’
(When you take your faith with you, you’re still living:
When you die with your faith, you’re everlasting.)
The man’s health suffered then most suddenly;
They brought a basin close immediately.
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That is death’s burning, not mere indigestion.
What use is vomiting, you raw unblest one?
Four people carried him home to recover
And he would rub his legs against each other.
If you leave Moses’ advice ignored,
You’ll dash yourself against a sharp steel sword
Which will not hesitate to take your life—
It’s your own doing; you’ve caused your own strife.
Moses prays for that person that he might leave the world with his faith intact
The following dawn, Moses started to pray:
‘O God, don’t take this sick man faith’s away.
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Forgive him blunders like the King you are;
He has been stupid and has gone too far.
I’d said, “You do not have the readiness—
He did not heed my words with seriousness.”
The one who can lay hands on snakes is he
Whose hand transforms rods to them magically;*
To learn the Unseen’s secrets one is fit
Only if one can seal one’s lips with it.
Just waterfowl are fit to join the sea.
Heed this! God knows best what’s right! Doesn’t he?
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A different kind of bird dived unafraid
And drowned—Loving One, take his hand. Give aid!’
God answers Moses’ prayer
God said, ‘I grant faith to him, and, if you
Should like, this moment I’ll revive him too.
I would bring back to life like a rebirth
All of the corpses buried in the earth.’
‘This is the world of dying,’ Moses said,
‘Revive them in that radiant world instead.
Unlike that world of Being, this one decays;
Return of transients is not work that pays.
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Scatter blessings now on them in the realm
Of “Present in Our Presence”.* That suits them.’
This was to teach that worldly loss gives you
Gain for your soul, and frees it from blight too.
Austerities are what you need to purchase;
You’ll save your soul through this hard bodily service.
And if, without you choosing, it arrives,
Bow down, and give thanks—be a man who thrives!
Give thanks He’s given you austerity;
You didn’t do it—He did with His ‘Be!’*
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Story about that woman whose children never survived. She lamented and God replied, ‘That is in place of your ascetic discipline and is for you in place of the jihad of the strugglers in God’s way’
A woman would each year bear a new son,
But none survived up to six months, not one.
After just three or four, each one would die
And then in grief ‘O God, alas!’ she’d cry.
‘I bore him for nine months; he lived for three—
My blessings pass like rainbows, rapidly.’
Before the men of God she would complain
In this way through a knowledge-bearing pain.
Twenty children went to their graves this way—
Each struck by flames that quickly burn away.
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A paradise appeared to her one night,
Verdant, eternal, lovely to her sight.
I call grace that’s beyond words ‘garden’, though
It’s more the essence of such things below.
For what no one’s seen‘garden’ isn’t right,
But God used ‘lamp’ once for the Unseen’s light.*
Analogy and not comparison,
It gave a clue to that bewildered one.
In brief, she saw, then felt intoxication,
Too weak before that great manifestation.
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She saw her own name on a palace wall
And reckoned that it was hers after all.
Then she was told, ‘To that one God sent bounty
Who pledges her own soul to Him sincerely.
One must complete much service for the sake
Of this rare meal, if wishing to partake.
In taking refuge you were lazy, so
Instead God gave you grief and brought you woe.’
‘O Lord, for a whole century or more
Give me these—shed my blood!’ she’d then implore.
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On entering the garden, she could see
All of her children there alive and free.
‘I lost them, but, Lord, they weren’t lost to You.
None’s perfect with the Unseen lost from view.’
If you don’t bleed yourself, then from your nose
Blood flows out, lest the fever’s danger grows.
A fruit’s core’s better than the skin; what’s more
Body’s skin while the Loved One is the core.
In fact, Man has a core that is exquisite—
If you’re inclined to for one moment, seek it!
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How Hamza entered the battle without armour
Towards the end, when Hamza joined the fray,
He’d fight without his armour, come what may.
His chest and torso bare, he’d head towards
The foe’s ranks, hurl himself then at their swords.
People asked, ‘Uncle of the Prophet, lion
Who breaks ranks and is known as “Monarch stallion”,
Have you not heard your God’s revealed instruction:
“Don’t throw yourselves towards you own destruction”?*
Why are you doing this, though that’s revealed,
In such a manner on the battlefield?
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When you were young, solidly built, and muscular,
You wouldn’t line up while not wearing armour—
Now you are hunchbacked, old, and frail, why now
Behave as if you’re reckless anyhow?
Recklessly you are grappling fierce foes here,
Struggling against the sabre and the spear.
The sword has no respect for age—how can
Arrows and swords discern an ageing man?’
Unaware sympathizers in this guise
Protectively gave counsel which seemed wise.
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Hamza’s reply to the people
‘When I was still young,’ Hamza then replied,
‘I thought that leaving this world was to die.
How should one happily go to death, walk bare
To a snake’s pit or to a dragon’s lair?
But I now, through Mohammad’s light and grace,
Am not a captive of this transient place.
The King’s own army camp is in my sight
Beyond the senses—it’s filled with God’s light,
Tent after tent, and with each rope and stake—
Thanks be to that man who shook me awake!’
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For those whose eyes see death as mere destruction
‘Don’t throw yourself in harm’s way!’* is instruction,
But he who sees death as an open door
Receives the call ‘Race here!’* and longs to soar.