The Masnavi, Book Three

by Jalal al-Din Rumi

  Those who see only death had better fear!

  Those seeing Resurrection—race up here!*

  Welcome, you who see grace. Rejoice, you’re blest!

  Woe to those who see wrath. Become distressed!

  For Joseph all would sacrifice their head,

  The wolf makes all leave guidance, though, instead.*

  3440

  Everyone’s death will match him in the end—

  To foes it is a foe, to friends a friend.

  To Turcomans the mirror is so fair,

  To Africans it’s dark—they don’t compare.

  As you flee death, the thing you really fear

  Is in your self. Heed well what you now hear!

  It’s your vile face, not death’s face, which you flee;

  Death is a leaf, but your soul is its tree

  Whether it’s good or bad, from you it grew;

  Pleasant or ugly, each thought is from you.

  3445

  If you’re pricked by a thorn, who grew that one?

  If wearing silk, by whom was that silk spun?

  Actions and their rewards aren’t of a kind;

  Service is not like the bestowal assigned:

  Rewards and deeds do not bear a resemblance,

  The latter accident, the former essence.

  The latter’s struggle, sweat, and servitude,

  The former silver, gold, and trays of food.

  If you’re accused or come under suspicion,

  It’s due to your own victim’s prayer’s petition.

  3450

  You claim, ‘I am immune from that concern,

  For I am not accusing anyone.’

  Your sin is of a different kind—take heed!

  How should the fruit resemble your sown seed?

  One fornicated and the rod was used:

  Now he protests, ‘With rods who’ve I abused?

  Wasn’t this for the fornication then?

  How does a stick match it? Tell me again.’

  Moses, how can a rod seem like a snake?*

  Physician, how is that cure like the ache?

  3455

  Instead of swinging rods, if you spurt semen

  It could grow into a most decent human:

  Your semen turns into a friend or snake,

  So why is that rod’s change so hard to take?

  Do semen and the child look similar?

  Do sugar cubes look like the canes of sugar?

  When one sows here a bow or a prostration,

  It forms in yonder world a heavenly garden;

  When praise of God comes from one’s mouth, each word

  The Lord of Dawn* turns to a heavenly bird.

  3460

  Your praises with the Lord you can’t compare

  Although bird semen is a kind of air.*

  When your hands give out to the others alms,

  They raise up in the next world fine date palms.

  Your patience forms the water stream in heaven;

  The milk stream comes from your love and affection;

  The honey stream comes through your worship’s savour;

  The wine stream through your drunkenness’s stupor.*

  Such causes don’t match their effects, do they?

  Nobody knows why God fixed it this way.

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  Once all these causes follow your command,

  The four streams too will do what you demand.

  You make them flow wherever you should please;

  They all depend on your prior qualities,

  Just like your semen, all controlled by you—

  Your offspring follow your direction too:

  Your son, while running where you have dictated,

  Will say, ‘I’m from what you ejaculated.’

  As things in this world follow your direction,

  Those streams beyond too follow your instruction.

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  Your orders are obeyed too by the trees

  Because they bear fruit through your qualities.

  Such qualities here are controlled by you,

  So your reward’s in your command there too.

  And when your hand deals out to victims blows,

  In hell a Zaqqum tree then quickly grows.*

  In anger when you set men’s hearts aflame,

  You are the source of hell’s fires—you’re to blame.

  Since here your fire burns people, there again

  What’s born from it will kindle fires for men.

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  Other men are the targets of your flame;

  The fire produced like this sets them aflame.

  Scorpion- and snake-like speeches that you make

  Bite you in hell as scorpion and as snake.

  You kept the Friends of God here waiting once,

  So you must wait there for deliverance—

  ‘Tomorrow or the next day,’ you once said:

  You’ll wait for God to summon you with dread:

  You’ll stay there waiting underneath the sun,

  Which melts souls, to face up to what you’ve done,

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  Since you’d kept heaven waiting and you’d sowed

  Seeds of ‘Tomorrow I’ll take that good road.’

  Your anger is hell-fire’s original seed—

  Extinguish it! It is a trap! Take heed!

  Only the Light puts out this fire, no doubt:

  ‘We’re grateful that your light put our fire out.’*

  If you lack light, show clemency to men;

  Your flame’s alive still and might grow again.

  Beware too of pretence and rote! Just light

  Of faith extinguishes flames of that height.

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  Don’t feel safe till true faith’s light seems quite clear,

  For later hidden fires might yet appear.

  Deem the light water; hold with all your might.

  When you have water, fire can’t give a fright.

  It puts fire out, since fire habitually

  Burns up all of the water’s progeny.

  Spend time with waterfowl who’ll lead you to

  Water of Life, so you can drink there to.

  Land birds and waterfowl look very similar;

  Like oil and water, they will fight each other;

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  They’re opposites, each faithful to its source—

  Since they look similar, take care on this course!

  Satanic whispering and God’s inspiration

  Are different though they’re both communication;

  Both brokers in the market of the conscience,

  They advertise their merchandise, esteemed prince.

  If you weigh up thoughts like a money-dealer

  Who serves the heart, discern like a slave-dealer

  Between the two types; if you can’t, then say 3495

  ‘No to being swindled!’ and don’t rush that way.

  213

  How to avoid being swindled in trade

  A man said to the Prophet after meeting:

  ‘In trade I’m always victim of men’s cheating.

  All traders try dishonest trickery—

  Like sorcerers, they all bamboozle me.’

  ‘When you are scared’, the Prophet then replied,

  ‘Of being duped, take three days to decide.

  Diligence is God’s gift for feeling certain,

  While haste comes from the scheming and cursed Satan.’

  If to a dog you throw a piece of bread,

  It sniffs it first then eats, if it’s well bred.

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  It uses its nose—you, wise man, should too:

  You can smell with the intellect in you.

  The earth and heavens were made in creation

  By God in six days, with deliberation;

  He could have simply used his order ‘Be!’*

  To raise a hundred of them instantly.

  Little by little ti
ll a man is forty

  Our King makes him complete his lifetime gradually.

  Although he’s able in a single instant

  To send forth fifty who were non-existent.

  3505

  Jesus was able with one prayer he said

  Without a long delay to raise the dead.

  Can Jesus’ creator not raise then

  Without delay successive groups of men?

  Taking His time is simply for the sake

  Of guiding you to act thus, with no break:

  A little stream that flows continually

  Will not turn murky with impurity.

  Deliberation’s similar to eggs too

  From which birds of good fortune hatch for you.

  3510

  Why should the bird and egg look just the same,

  Even if from that egg this bird first came?

  Wait till your limbs hatch birds on the Last Day

  Just as eggs do, exactly the same way.

  Although the sparrow’s egg looks like the snake’s,

  They’re worlds apart—avoid such big mistakes!

  The quince’s doesn’t match the apple’s seed

  Though they look so alike—discern, take heed!

  We see as similar leaves on different trees,

  But their fruit are diverse varieties.

  3515

  Our bodies are like leaves, as in appearance

  They are alike, but each soul has a difference.

  People at the bazaar appear so similar

  But one feels joy while grief consumes another.

  Even in death we leave here the same way:

  Half of us lose, half of us rule the day.

  The death of Belal while he was rejoicing

  Like the new moon, Belal grew thin and frail;

  His African face even looked death-pale.

  His wife saw him and cried, ‘Oh what distress!’

  Belal said, ‘No, no, it is happiness!

  3520

  I’ve been in grief from living until now.

  What do you know of death’s joys anyhow?’

  While he was saying this, his face then grew

  Narcissi, roses, and red tulips too:

  The glow of his face and his shining eyes

  Were evidence that his words weren’t lies.

  He was black in black-hearted people’s view;

  The pupil of men’s eyes is pitch black too.

  Blind people are in fact those black in colour,

  While seeing people are the moon’s own mirror.

  3525

  Who sees the pupil of your inner sight

  Other than men with extraordinary light?

  Since none see it except the visionary few,

  Who else has such perceptive vision? Who?

  All but such men must stick to imitation—

  They can’t compete with men of direct vision.

  ‘The parting, husband of good constitution!’

  His wife said. ‘No, dear wife, this is the union.’

  ‘Tonight you are a stranger,’ she then sighed,

  ‘You’ll leave your home and family once you’ve died.’

  3530

  ‘No, no, tonight my soul departs’, he said,

  ‘From exile back to its true home instead.’

  She asked, ‘Where shall we see your face again?’

  ‘Among God’s circle of most special men.’

  His special circle is now joined with you—

  From downwards to above adjust your view!

  Light in that circle is now shimmering

  From God just like a bezel in a ring.

  She cried, ‘This home has been destroyed, my love!’

  ‘No, watch the moon, and not the clouds above.

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  It’s wrecked to rebuild bigger than before

  Since now my people number many more.’

  The wisdom in the destruction of the body at death

  Like Adam, I was trapped in misery.

  Now East and West contain my progeny.

  I was a beggar in a wretched pit—

  I’m now a king for whom a castle’s fit.

  Castles are where the kings relax; the tomb

  Gives only to a corpse sufficient room.

  For Prophets, this world is too narrow, so

  They’ve soared beyond all space like kings we know,

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  While to the dead this world seems wonderful;

  Though it looks big, it really is too small.

  If it’s not narrow, why the groan and frown?

  Why are those who’ve lived long the most bent down?

  At sleeping time, when it is liberated

  From this place, feel your soul become elated;

  The wicked one can leave bad ways behind

  And prisoners will no longer feel confined.

  This earth and sky, which look so vast and deep,

  Become extremely narrow when you sleep.

  3545

  This world’s a blindfold that steals sense of space;

  Its smile is weeping and its pride disgrace.

  A comparison involving this world, which is wide in appearance and narrow in reality, and a comparison involving sleep, which is release from this narrowness

  Like steam-baths, where, due to the heat, you felt

  Uncomfortable, as if about to melt.

  Although the steam-baths might be broad and long,

  You don’t feel well there, as the heat’s too strong.

  Your heart won’t feel good till you exit it,

  So that room’s space gives you no benefit;

  Like wearing tight shoes in the desert when

  You wander there, misguided wretch, for then

  3550

  The desert’s vastness will feel so restrictive

  Just like a prison when you are a captive—

  Whoever sees you from afar might say:

  ‘He’s in the desert like a flower today,’

  Not knowing you seem flower-like outwardly

  But groan like wicked people inwardly.

  Sleep is like kicking off your shoes—your soul

  Breaks free in sleep from body’s tight control.

  Sleep is a kingdom to God’s Friends, and so

  They’re like the Seven Sleepers long ago.

  3555

  Without sleep they can dream, and they can soar

  To Non-existence and not need a door.

  ‘A narrow house that cramps the soul He’s wrecked,’

  Belal said. ‘Now huge castles He’ll erect.

  Stuck in a womb just like an embryo,

  I’ve reached nine months and now it’s time to go.

  Unless my mother now feels childbirth’s pain,

  Amid the flames in this gaol I’ll remain.

  Death’s pain compels my nature’s mother to

  Give way, so that the lamb can leave the ewe,

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  Then graze on lush, green pastures, so take heed!

  Open the womb wide—this lamb’s huge indeed.’

  In childbirth every mother suffers aches;

  The baby pushes till the gaol’s lock breaks.

  The mother weeps, ‘Where is the refuge? Near?’

  The baby laughs, ‘Deliverance is here!’

  Under the sky all mothers possible,

  Mineral, animal, or vegetable,

  None of them know the other ones’ affliction

  Except those mystics who have reached perfection.

  3565

  A modest man sees more of men’s affairs

  Than they themselves do with long beards and airs—

  The things the man of heart knows of your state,

  My brother, you yourself can’t estimate.

  Explanation of how heedlessness, grief, laziness, and darkness all originate from the body, which is of the earth and lower world

  Heedlessness comes from bodies; spirits see
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  All of the mysteries with full certainty.

  When earth leaves the celestial atmosphere,

  Then night and day completely disappear:

  The earth brings darkness and blocks out the light;

  The heavens and the moon don’t bring the night.

  3570

  Smoke rises from the firewood through the air,

  Not from the flaming stars up over there.

  Mere fancies lead to error; intellect

  That’s true leads always to what is correct.

  All heaviness and laziness’s source

  Is body; souls can even fly of course.

  A rush of blood makes your face blush red, while

  A face turns yellow due to too much bile;

  Phlegm is the reason why a face turns white;

  Black bile will make it turn as dark as night.