The Masnavi, Book Three

  With the Beloved there, that place’s worth

  Transcends the sky and can’t be under earth.

  Exegesis of the saying of Mohammad: ‘Don’t say I am superior to Noah!’

  Mohammad once said, ‘Don’t claim my ascension

  Transcends how Jonah once rose up to heaven:

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  My route was up, while his was down below,

  Nearness to God is not geographical though—

  It doesn’t mean going up or down from here,

  But fleeing from existence. Is that clear?’

  Non-being has no link to trivial factors

  Like near or far, early or late—none matters.

  God’s workshop’s in Non-being, but when you

  Are dazzled still by being, you have no clue.

  In short, defeat for them does not resemble

  Our own defeat, not even just a little.

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  They are as glad with losses and demotions

  As we are with good fortune and promotions.

  He’s happy with what Non-being should provide;

  Poverty and abasement give him pride.

  One of the captives said, ‘If he’s that way,

  Why did he laugh when we were bound today?

  If he has changed and does not feel delight

  At his own freedom and our sorry plight,

  Why does he feel joy when his enemy

  Becomes subdued, and bask in victory?

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  His soul felt joy because he gained with ease

  God’s aid in bringing us all to our knees,

  And that’s how we know he’s not liberated

  And that mere worldly gains leave him elated.

  If not, why did he laugh? Holy men should

  Be kind towards bad men as well as good.’

  Under their breath these captives muttered this

  Among themselves as their analysis,

  Adding, ‘Make sure the guard won’t overhear

  And take what we say to his ruler’s ear!’

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  The Prophet becomes aware of their criticizing him for Schadenfreude

  Although the guard did not hear what they said,

  Through God directly it reached him instead:

  To Joseph’s keeper his shirt gave no clue,

  But Jacob smelt it from afar and knew;*

  Even if they reach heaven sneakily,

  Those devils wouldn’t hear Truth’s mystery.

  Mohammad was reclining on the ground

  And sleeping when the secret circled round.

  The one whose share it is will eat the halva,

  Not the one who can boast the longest finger.

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  A shooting star became a guard and said

  To those men, ‘Learn from Ahmad truth instead

  Of stealing.’ You who stare at shops from dawn,

  Go to the mosque for sustenance you’re set on!

  The Prophet learned of their talk, then he said:

  ‘My smiles were not from enmity. They’re dead

  And have begun already to decay—

  Killing a corpse is not the brave man’s way.

  In truth, who are they when compared with me—

  I who can make the moon split suddenly.*

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  When you were free and had a rank so high,

  You were then chained just as now to my eye:

  You who love wealth and what belongs to you,

  You’re vain and worthless in a wise man’s view.

  Your bodies fell down from the roof like plates;

  My eyes see all things and their future fates.

  In the unripe grape I see wine already;

  In nothingness I see a thing so clearly—

  I see a hidden world that lies within;

  Adam and Eve’s time there’s yet to begin.

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  I’d seen you at Alast too, you should know—

  Then you were all felled, tied up, and brought low.

  That knowledge did not need to be updated

  After the pillarless heavens were created.

  I saw you falling upside down before

  I grew from clay and water, and what’s more

  I’ve seen naught new to bring me happiness.

  I saw this when you once were prosperous

  And bound by hidden wrath which was so great—

  Candy containing poison you then ate.

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  If one sees poison eaten by those men

  One counts as foes, who would feel jealous then?

  You used to eat that poison with such glee

  When death had blocked your ears up secretly.

  I didn’t wage war just for conquest, and

  I don’t seek the whole world within my hand,

  For this world is a corpse that is so worthless—

  How should I covet such a rotten carcass?

  I’m not a dog that pulls a corpse’s hair—

  I’m Jesus who revives it. Now compare!

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  I broke through battle ranks with the intention

  Of rescuing you from complete destruction,

  But I do not slit men’s throats needlessly,

  Hoping that power and glory come to me—

  I will slit some throats, if that is the way

  To save a whole world as the price to pay,

  For you, in ignorance, like moths, will make

  Throwing yourselves at flames the path to take—

  With my own hands I stop you falling in

  The fire like drunkards with your mind in spin.

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  What you took for your victories were the seed

  Of your misfortune, but you paid no heed.

  You called each other earnestly, then rode

  Straight to the dragon’s mouth—that’s what you sowed.

  You vanquished men, but at the same time you

  Were conquered by time’s fearless lion too.’

  Explanation of how the tyrant is overwhelmed while overpowering and is made a captive when he gains victory

  A thief held down a merchant and stole gold;

  A magistrate saw all of this unfold.

  If he instead had fled the merchant, then

  The magistrate could not have sent his men.

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  His overpowering caused him loss instead

  Because this act robbed him of his own head;

  It turned into his snare—the magistrate

  Had time to come and then retaliate.

  You who have conquered many people and

  Are steeped in conquest all across the land,

  God made your victims lose to you, so He

  Could draw you into His net gradually.

  Beware, draw rein! Don’t chase that victim or

  You will be stabbed soon in a greater war.

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  Once he has drawn you like this to the snare,

  You’ll see men surge at you from everywhere.

  Intellects can’t rejoice in victory

  When that should lead to sheer depravity.

  Wisdom’s sharp-sighted and clairvoyant too,

  For God’s applied His kohl for wisdom’s view.

  The Prophet said, ‘People of paradise

  Are poor debaters, for this is the price

  For their self-criticism and sheer firmness;

  It’s not deficiency or inner weakness.’

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  While giving deference they would listen to

  ‘If there were no believers’* though none knew.

  From striking infidels they were held back

  So all believers stayed free from attack:

  Read Hodaybiyya’s pact, and understand

  From that what’s meant by ‘He restrained your hands.’*

  He saw himself, though he’d gained victory,

  As overpowered by God’s majesty:
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  ‘I am not laughing at your chains,’ he said,

  ‘Or due to seizing you last night. Instead

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  I laugh because I now must force you to

  Come to the garden with chains tied on you.’

  How strange that we must drag you now with chains

  From hell-fire to such lovely, verdant plains.

  I’m dragging you with heavy chains from hell

  To lasting paradise, but you rebel.’

  God drags each man who follows what He says

  Up to His presence bound in similar ways.

  All travel this path bound in chains of fear

  And trial apart from God’s Friends who live near;

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  By force the rest are dragged in that direction,

  With those who’ve gained the secrets the exception.

  Strive hard so that your light will shine bright too

  And service will seem easy then to do.

  You drag a child to school against his will,

  For he can’t tell the benefits there still;

  The child will run there once he is aware,

  His soul smile at the thought of going there.

  The child who still resents attending it

  Has failed to see tuition’s benefit,

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  But when he gains a coin that he can keep,

  Just like a thief he’ll even give up sleep.

  Wait till you see obedience’s good wages—

  You’ll envy those who’ve been that way for ages.

  ‘Against your will come!’ rallies imitators,

  ‘Come willingly!’* invites God’s instigators.

  The former love God for another factor,

  But God’s the only motive for the latter:

  The former love the nurse for milk she gives,

  The latter’s love for her makes their hearts live.

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  The former only love her milk, for they

  Can’t see her beauty—milk gets in the way.

  The latter love the nurse herself, without

  Ulterior motives—their love’s pure throughout.

  Those who love God with hope and fear just read

  The notebook of religious men’s taqlid,*

  While those who love for God’s sake stand apart—

  Self-interest can’t fit into such a heart;

  Such men seek God no matter the condition

  They’re in—they’re drawn to God by His attraction.

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  Whether one loves God for some other ends,

  Partaking in the goodness that He sends,

  Or for His own sake in pure isolation,

  Fearing only the trial of separation,

  You’ll find that both of these two searches starts

  From up beyond, since He traps all men’s hearts.

  The beloved’s attraction of the lover works in such a way that the lover neither knows it nor hopes for it, nor has the occurrence in his mind of it, nor has a trace of that attraction appear inside, except the fear that is mixed with despair and combined with the continuation of seeking

  We’ve realized now that if the attraction

  By his beloved sadr had not been hidden,

  The lover wouldn’t have been dying to

  Run back to the sole home he really knew.

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  While the beloved’s loves are under cover,

  Trumpets and drums announce those of the lover.

  There is a story that can illustrate

  This point, but the Bukharan cannot wait—

  He’s longing now to see with his own eyes

  His own beloved’s face before he dies,

  To flee death and in this way be delivered:

  Water of Life is seeing one’s beloved.

  If seeing someone won’t cause death to flee,

  That’s not your real beloved obviously.

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  O ardent drunkard, this is a rare matter—

  If death comes during it, then it tastes better;

  It is the proof of true faith that death should

  Be made by it to taste and feel so good—

  If your faith isn’t like this, soul, then it

  Still needs work to become immaculate.

  Whoever loves his own death just for you

  Is your beloved, since his heart is true.

  It isn’t death when he feels no aversion;

  It looks like death, but really is migration.

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  When there is no aversion, death must be

  Bringing gain—it is blocked then fittingly.

  God is the true beloved and those few

  To whom God said, ‘You’re mine and I’m for you.’

  Listen, the lover’s reaching near: love tied

  Him up in a palm-fibre cord* inside.

  On seeing that sadr’s form which won his love,

  His soul flew from his body high above;

  His body fell down like dry wood below,

  Felt cold to touch from his head to his toe;

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  No matter how much incense and rose water

  They used, he didn’t stir or even mutter.

  Once the king saw his saffron-coloured face,

  He stopped, dismounted, and approached his place,

  Then said, ‘Lovers seek their beloved keenly,

  And when he comes they disappear completely.’

  You are God’s lover; He is the One Who

  By His arrival here effaces you.

  His gaze does this to hundreds of your kind;

  Maybe it’s such effacement you’ve in mind?

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  You are the shade that loves the sun, despite

  The fact that you’re effaced by that sun’s light.

  The flea appeals for justice against the wind in the presence of Solomon

  A flea came from the garden’s grassy field

  To seek out Solomon and then appealed:

  ‘Solomon, justice is dealt out by you

  To demons, humans, and the fairies too;

  Birds and fish feel protected by your justice—

  Has anyone escaped your grace’s notice?

  Grant justice to us, for we are downtrodden

  Without shares in the orchard or rose garden.

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  You solve the problems of all who are feeble

  And “flea” is used for them by many people.

  We’re known for weakness and being frail of wing;

  You’re known for kindness and for nurturing.

  The top degree of power is your high station;

  We’ve reached the peak of lack and destitution.

  Grant justice and relieve us of this grief—

  Your hand is as God’s hand in our belief.’

  Solomon said, ‘Seeker of justice, say

  Some more about the justice sought today.

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  Who is the tyrant? Who is so conceited

  That he’s made you feel trapped and badly treated?

  I’m curious where the tyrant of our age

  Can be if he’s not chained or in a cage?

  When we were born, oppressors died, so who

  In our great age is being cruel to you?

  When light dawned, it removed all trace of darkness;

  Darkness is cruelty’s origin and buttress.

  Some demons take on much activity

  While other ones are chained restrictively.

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  The Devil is the source of cruelty here,

  So while he’s chained how can that still appear?

  “Be! And it was”* bestowed on us dominion,

  So people wouldn’t need to cry to heaven,

  So smoke would not rise there from people’s sighs,

  So none would bother stars in heaven’s skies,

  So that the orphan’s wails would not alarm

  The Throne an
d shake it, nor souls suffer harm.

  Inside our kingdoms we’ve established laws

  So to cry out “O Lord!” there’d be no cause.

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  Victim, don’t look up to the heavens when

  A heavenly king is here among the men.’

  The flea said, ‘I complain of the wind’s hand,

  Which it used to mistreat us. In this land

  We all are suffering inside from its cruelty

  With closed lips, though we feel such pain acutely.’

  Solomon commands the plaintiff flea to bring its adversary to court

  Solomon said, ‘Sweet-voiced flea, understand

  You must hear with your soul the Lord’s command:

  God has told me, “Judge, you must take great care

  Not to hear one side when their foe’s not there—