The Masnavi, Book Three

by Jalal al-Din Rumi

  3575

  He is the Maker of effects, that’s true,

  But look beyond, don’t take the simple view!

  The kernels cannot choose while trapped in shells,

  Still under doctors’ and diseases’ spells.

  When someone’s born a second time, he’ll tread

  Upon all causes, stepping on their head;

  This Man’s faith isn’t for the first cause, friend,

  Nor do particulars hate him or offend.

  In the horizon, like the sun, he’ll sail;

  Sincerity’s his bride, while form’s the veil.

  3580

  Beyond horizons and beyond the heavens

  Like intellects and souls, beyond locations.

  Our intellects are shadows of That One:

  They trail His feet like shadows in the sun.

  When jurists know of a revealed law, then

  They won’t apply analogy for men,

  But if there’s no revealed law, then you’ll see

  Them have to count on an analogy.

  Comparison of a revealed text with analogy

  The Holy Spirit’s words of revelation

  Surpass analogy by means of reason.

  3585

  Spirit enables intellect to see—

  It can’t be under its authority!

  Rather it shapes the lower intellect

  And that controls things due to its effect.

  If, as with Noah, spirit aided you,

  Where is the sea and ark? Where’s the flood too?

  Intellect reckons an effect’s the spirit,

  The sun’s light and its orb, though, are quite separate.

  A wayfarer’s content with bread—one bite

  Might send him near the sun’s orb through its light.

  3590

  This light which we can see here as a ray

  Does not endure when night succeeds the day—

  The ones who’re at the sun’s orb permanently

  Are deluged in the light perpetually;

  Sunsets and clouds do not disturb their station,

  As they’ve been freed from painful separation.

  And from the heavens they originated,

  Or, if from earth, they must have transmutated,

  Because terrestrials can’t bear that light’s rays

  To shine directly down on them always:

  3595

  For if the sun shines on your soil non-stop,

  It burns it, and you cannot grow your crop.

  Fish must remain in water, not a snake—

  How can it join the fish inside a lake?

  But there are skilful snakes up in the mountain

  Who act the way that fish act in an ocean;

  Their trickery makes men crazy and brings awe,

  Their fear of water though remains a flaw.

  And there are skilful fish in this sea, who

  Transform snakes into fish through magic too.

  3600

  The fish deep in the Sea of Majesty*

  Have been taught lawful magic by that sea.

  And, through their radiance, the impossible

  Is managed, bad luck turns to good as well.

  If till the end of time I talk this way,

  Many times over there’d be more to say.

  The proper etiquette of listeners and disciples at the emanation of wisdom from the tongue of the master

  To weary people this is repetition;

  To me it is the cause of Resurrection.

  The candle flares up if we should repeat

  Lighting it; earth forms gold through constant heat.

  3605

  Among seekers, if there’s one weary soul,

  The messenger won’t pass on news at all;

  Clairvoyant messengers would like an audience

  With Esrafil’s zealous manner and obedience.

  They have a monarch’s pride and attitude;

  From this world’s men they seek some servitude.

  Unless you should observe their stated rules,

  Do not expect to gain from them, you fools.

  How should they now pass on to you the trust,

  If you won’t bow down in submission first?

  3610

  How should they deem nice any old behaviour

  When they’ve come from high castles as your saviour?

  They are not beggars to feel now obliged

  For service from you who have schemed and lied.

  Though you lack spirit and are not yet bold,

  Spend gold for such a king. Do not withhold.

  Messenger, please ignore each weary one,

  And let your marvellous horse still gallop on.

  Happy the Turcoman who shuns debating,

  Whose horse leaps into flames, not hesitating;

  3615

  This makes the horse so hot that it will try

  To race up to the summit of the sky.

  The one who keeps this world far from his eye

  Can burn, like fire, wet things as well as dry.

  And if repentance finds fault and gives blame,

  Fire first will set repentance all aflame.

  Repentance can’t spring up from nothingness

  To face the mystic’s ardent powerfulness.

  How every animal knows the smell of its enemy and takes precaution, and the folly and baseness of that person who is the enemy of that person against whom one cannot take precaution, nor flee from, nor resist

  Although they’re beasts, most horses know the smell

  Of a fierce lion, and its roar as well.

  3620

  Indeed, each animal can tell its foe

  By a clear sign or mark that they all know.

  By day the little bat won’t flap about—

  Like thieves, at night it flies to seek food out.

  The bat is the most base and wretched one,

  Because it is the foe of the bright sun;

  It cannot bear the wounds earned in their fray,

  Nor, through its curses, ever drive away

  The sun, which looks away from all of that

  Rage and anxiety of a mere bat.

  3625

  That sun’s the height of kindness and perfection;

  That bat’s defenceless, lacking real protection.

  If you should pick a foe, pick one your size

  So you can capture it, if you are wise.

  If a drop picks a fight now with the sea,

  It will just show itself up stupidly.

  Its cleverness can’t pass beyond its nose—

  How then can that one reach where no one goes?

  Here’s the rebuke for the sun’s enemy:

  You’re foes with its source too, though you can’t see.

  3630

  Foe of That Other Sun whose glories make

  Each single star in our sky start to shake,

  You’re not His foe, but your own foe! Why should

  The fire care that you’ve turned to burning wood?

  Should it feel loss because it’s burning you?

  And sorrow for the pain it’s causing too?

  His mercy’s not like human mercy, where

  Sorrow is mixed in—it’s beyond compare.

  The mercy shown by men comes from their stress;

  God’s mercy’s free of sorrow and distress.

  3635

  Know that God’s mercy, which you have received,

  Differs—just its effect can be conceived.

  The difference between knowing something by comparison and blind acceptance and knowing the essential nature of that thing

  The fruit and influence of His mercy’s clear,

  But who knows its essential nature here?

  None knows the actual nature of perfection

  Except through its effects and by comparison:

  A child can’t know what sex is like you do,

  Even if he says, ‘It’s like sweets to
you.’

  How can delight in sex be really similar

  To what you feel while eating sweets and sugar?

  3640

  A clever man compared them once through pleasure

  They both give, since you’re childlike by his measure.

  Thus, through comparison a child might know—

  It can’t sense it’s essential nature though.

  You say, ‘I know’—that’s not inaccurate,

  But ‘I don’t know’ is just as accurate:

  When someone asks, ‘Do you know Noah, who

  Is God’s own Messenger and pure light too?’

  If you say, ‘How should I not know that one

  When he’s more famous than the moon and sun,

  3645

  When children say his name in recitations

  Like leaders of the prayer for congregations,

  All using the Qur’an as source, to tell

  His legends from past glorious days so well.’

  That would be right as far as his description,

  Even though his essential nature’s hidden.

  ‘How can I know him?’ if instead you ask,

  ‘Only one like him can fulfil that task:

  I’m a lame ant, how can I know for real

  Elephants’ natures or pure Esrafil?’

  3650

  This is right too, since you can’t comprehend

  Him in his own essential nature, friend.

  We can’t know the essential nature then—

  That’s the condition of all common men,

  But eyes of perfect mystics still can view

  Essential natures and deep secrets too.

  What then is harder to see in existence

  And then to understand well than God’s essence?

  When that’s not hidden from those who are near

  To Him, what essence can stay hidden here?

  3655

  The scholar’s brain says, ‘That’s deep and obscure;

  Ignore such nonsense, as it’s not secure.’

  ‘Weak one!’ the Sufimaster will then state.

  ‘It seems like that since it’s beyond your state:

  Didn’t the knowledge now revealed to you

  At first seem like the craziest nonsense too?

  From ten gaols through God’s kindness you’ve been freed;

  Don’t turn expanses to a cage—take heed!

  The agreement and concord of the negation and affirmation of the same thing owing to the relativity of different perspectives

  One can affirm things, then deny them too:

  Both can apply from different points of view.

  3660

  ‘You did not throw when you threw’* gives direction—

  It proves both affirmation and negation:

  You threw it—it flew from your hand that hour;

  You didn’t throw it, for God used His power.

  A human’s strength is limited—how then

  Can sand defeat vast armies full of men?*

  ‘That handful’s yours, but it was I Who threw’—

  Here’s affirmation and negation too.

  Prophets are recognized by foes among men,

  Just as those foes know theirs from others’ children:*

  3665

  All their own children they can always tell

  With numerous proofs and many signs as well,

  But, out of envy, they instead will hide,

  Claiming, ‘I can’t tell!’, but these foes have lied.

  God says, ‘He knows’, so why elsewhere does He

  Say, ‘None knows them at all apart from Me’?*

  ‘They’re hidden under my domed tents’* and no one

  But God can recognize those ones for certain,

  So see this as a relative thing too,

  For Noah’s known and isn’t known by you.

  3670

  The annihilation and subsistence of the dervish

  ‘There is no dervish in the world,’ one said

  ‘And he’d be non-existent, if instead

  There were one here: subsisting in God’s essence,

  His attributes would be effaced in God’s ones.’

  Candlelight in the sun is non-existent,

  Yet it is still considered an existent—

  Its essence still exists, for if you poke

  Cotton into it, that will burn with smoke;

  It’s non-existent—naught’s illuminated

  By it; in sunlight it’s annihilated:

  3675

  To jars of honey if you add one cup

  Of vinegar, the honey soaks it up,

  And yet the vinegar will leave no taste,

  Although on weighing scales the cupful’s traced.

  Before a lion deer will fall unconscious;

  That lion’s being swamps their own. It’s obvious.

  Analogies that show our work’s deficient

  Next to God’s come from love—they’re not impertinent.

  3680

  The lover’s pulse without restraint will race

  Towards the king and claim an equal place;

  In this world no one seems so impolite,

  Yet none is so well-mannered far from sight.

  These are two poles—polite and impolite—

  Which relativity can still unite:

  He is ill-mannered from what you can see,

  Since his love-claim suggests some parity,

  But look in him then tell me what’s to blame—

  The Sultan has effaced him and his claim.

  3685

  If Zayd’s the subject of these words: ‘Zayd died’,*

  When he’s no more, how is that justified?

  Zayd is the subject from the view of grammar,

  Though he’s the object, death is here the killer.

  What kind of subject can he be like this—

  Effaced, he’s lost all of his ‘subjectness’.

  Story about the deputy of the Sadr-e Jahan who left Bukhara in fear of his life, only for his love to draw him back there, because a matter of life and death is not major for lovers

  Bukhara’s sadr once had a slave who hid

  When he was blamed for what another did.

  Confused, for ten long years he roamed and ran

  In deserts, mountains, and through Khorasan.

  After ten years his yearning meant that he

  Could not bear separation endlessly.

  3690

  He thought, ‘I cannot take more banishment.

  Nothing heals feelings of abandonment.’

  These lands are barren now from separation;

  Dirt gives the water its discoloration.

  The life-increasing wind gets filled with sickness

  And fire turns ground beneath us into ashes.

  Even heavenly gardens face disease:

  Leaves yellow, rot, then drop offfrom the trees.

  Separate from friends the intellect feels low,

  Just like an archer with a broken bow.

  3695

  This separation made hell-fire so scorching,

  And it makes old men’s limbs continue shaking.

  If I talk of this spark-like separation

  Until the end I’ll have said just a fraction.

  Don’t breathe a word about its burning then—

  Just say, ‘Lord, save me!’ and say it again.

  Imagine what it’s like to be apart

  From things here that bring joy inside your heart:

  Others enjoyed what you enjoy here, friend,

  But it still fled them wind-like in the end—

  3700

  Don’t love that thing. It will soon leave you too.

  Escape from it before it flees from you!

  The appearance of the Holy Spirit in human form to Mary when she was naked and bathing, and her taking refuge in God

  Before the passing of your prized possession

  Like Mary say:
‘I pray the Merciful One

  Saves me from you!’* She’d seen a form she found

  Exhilarating, which made her heart pound:

  Like sun and moon, the spirit all can trust

  Rose up before her eyes from the ground’s dust;

  3705

  Beauty unveiled and rose up in this way

  Just as the sun appears each single day.

  Mary’s limbs shook at this strange interruption,

  For she was naked and feared some corruption.

  If Joseph had seen what then Mary saw,

  Like women he’d have cut his hands in awe.*

  Just like a rose in soil it magically

  Came up as if the heart’s own fantasy.

  She lost her wits as though she had just dreamed;