Masnavi
Vol.1, v. 15-24
Discussion Join
In our sorrows all the days are wasted
The days and the burns companying each other
در غمِ ما روزها بیگاه شد
روزها با سوزها همراه شد
ٌRecite
If the days have passed say: "Then Go! There are no fears
You stay O The One! that as pure as You there is nothing "
روزها گر رفت گو رَوْ باک نیست
تو بمان ای آنکِ چون تو پاک نیست
Recite
Bigāh: The time of the sunset,
metaphorically the past time, like the dusk which is the end of the
day.
The basic bottom line of life is to gain provision and have pleasure;
but from the point of view of the lover reaching the beloved is all
that matters and life (without the lover’s beloved) has no value
whatsoever; the passing away of life is of no consequence as long as
the goal is to reach the beloved.
What has value is the outer-limit of life i.e.That Beloved; once
reaching the beloved is assured, then there are no regrets about the
time that has passed.
Dara
Every pain of the body or the mind, your every sorrow and those of
others, every foul behavior, every bit of greed and misfortune, all
these are the immediate consequences of someone, someplace, within the
cosmos, who has neglected, for one meager moment, to seek That Divine
Beloved !
Whoever unlike the fish is quenched with his water
Like unto a pauper that with little provision is satiate
هر كه جز ماهی ز آبش سیر شد
هر که بی روزیست روزش دیر شد
Recite
Birūzi: To be deprived and poor
without anything.
Dir Shudan-eh Rūz: Satiation.
We all know that fish can only live in water and dies if placed in any
other substance. Similarly, the truthful lover cannot live without
'Ishq (Unrestrained
Love); for the only life-sustaining substance of
his habitat is 'Ishq (Unrestrained Love). He seeks the aid of love to
feed his soul in order to gain strength to go on.
Therefore, the lover, like the fish, is never satiated. Even at the end
of his path of seeking That Beloved, the lover is still thirsting and
begging for more. Since the beauty and perfection of That Absolute
Beloved have no boundaries, thus the burning and thirsting of the lover
upon the path of Haqiqat (Absolute Truth and Reality) has no end.
There is never satiation for the lover, as the sea-water brings no
quenching and instead produces more thirst. The stages of Suluk
(Voyage)
to the Haqiqat (Absolute Reality) make the seekers
increasingly heated and thirsty, since the attainment of the higher
stages of the Suluk (Voyage)
only increases the seeker’s capacity i.e.
the capacity for loving and enduring the loss of That Divine Beloved.
Indeed, the individuals who seek the clear waters of Ma’refa (Divine
Gnosis) find no satisfaction with any amount of knowledge and consider
satisfaction with one’s own knowledge—on this path—a lack of capacity
and absence of focus. Like the residents of Hell, the men of knowledge
could gulp down ocean after ocean while their lips remain parched:
Yahya Bin Mu’az wrote a letter to Ba Yazid Bastami stating: "What would
you say of a person who drank a goblet of wine and became an eternal
(Abad) sempiternal (Azal) drunkard ?" Ba Yazid replied: "I do not know
about that but I know that there is a person here who in one day drinks
down the oceans of eternity and sempiternity and at the end screams:
"Hal Min Mazid (Is there anymore?)" (Surat Qaf, 50:30)- (Source:
Tadhkirat Al-Aulia).
The second verse emphasizes the same concept as above: "Spiritual
satiation is an indication of spiritual poverty just like a pauper is
satisfied with a little coin. Why? Because that precious most desired
One much like a rare jewel cannot be easy to acquired; without having
taken many risks and faced many dangers, men have no chance of
acquiring bewildering objects of all desires!"
'Ishq (Unrestrained
Love) does not coexist with tranquility and
calm. The Path of Seeking is riddled with horrors and plagues; only
those who step upon this path firmly and do not sway with the passing
breezes have the potential to reach the end of this path. On the other
hand, the soft impatient people, who carry a bit of provision for the
road, take the first step, then stall and never reach their desired
destination.
The states of the mature, the immature understands not
Thus let’s shorten this speech and wass-salaam (Godspeed)
در نیابد حال پخته هیچ خام
پس سخن کوتاه باید والسلام
Recite
This verse points to the fact that the prerequisite for accessing the
Ma’refa (Divine Gnosis) is the appropriate Hala (Momentary state
of the
Heart). Since the true Ma’refa (Divine Gnosis) can only be observed
(Shuhud) and has no prehensions (is out of the grasp of the mind).
Dara
We cannot reach the sun, nor can we touch it or bring it closer to us,
but we can—from an astounding distance—observe its rays and based
upon its light we can understand some information/ gain some knowledge
about it. We cannot understand Allah, nor can
we control anything
regarding Allah,
but we can find states of the heart in which the heart
can become a receptacle for the Nur (Divine Light).
Only after
absorbing a few such rays, do we know anything about Allah, and can
we
say a few things about Allah.
Tear up the chains, be free O boy!
For how long enslaved by silver and gold
بند بُگسلْ ,باشْ آزادْ ای پسر
چندْ باشی بندِ سیمُ و بندِ زر
Recite
Freedom
is immensely cherished amongst the Sufis: The slave (of Allah),
within his heart, can never be chained by anything in this world or in
the Afterworld. Within his heart there is no desire, lust, want, need,
or pleasure from anything of this world. (Risalat al-Qushairi)
As Ibn Arabi wrote in the Futuhat:
"Know—may Allah
give you success—that indeed Hurriyat (Freedom)
is a
Maqam (Stationary
state of the heart) of the Dhat (Divine Unreachable
Essence) and not Ilahy (Divinity accessible for Servitude); it is never
applicable to the slave in an absolute sense, for he remains (always)
the slave of Allah
.
الباب
الأربعون ومائة
في معرفة مقام الحرية وأسراره
أعلم وفقك الله ان الحرية مقام ذاتي لا
ألهي ولا يتخلص للعبد مطلقاً فانه عبد لله
There is no linkage between the creation and Allah and no
Idhafa
(Annexation) of Allah;
indeed Allah is need-less of the multiverse.
Since there is no essence in existence except for the Dhat (Divine
Essence), no relationship exists between the Dhat and creation; the
Dhat cannot be grasped by the eye; it is without boundaries, and no
application of (human) logic, reasoning, or evidence leads to it.
لم يكن بين الحق
والخلق مناسبة ولا أضافة بل هو الغني عن العالمين وذلك لا يكون لذات
موجودة ألا لذات الحق فلا يربطها كون ولا تدركها عين ولا يحيط بها حد ولا
يفيدها برهان
And when Allah
wills a slave the latter Maqam (Stationary State
of the
heart), he causes him Fana' (Evanescence)
which is the steady-state of
Tahaqquq (Absolute Realization)— and not a state of Takhalluq (state of
continuous being and becoming). This cannot happen to the slave except
by the cessation of Iftiqar (Needlessness) which ceaselessly
accompanies him due to the potentialities that constructed him (i.e.
perfection of Ma’refa (Divine Gnosis)).
فإذا
أراد العبد التحقق بهذا المقام فانه مقام تحقق لا مقام تخلق ونظر انه لا
يصح له ذلك ألا بزوال الأفتقار الذي يصحبه لأمكانه
That is why, when the slave looks at his essence, he finds that he is
Ma’dum (Never was) and without Wujud (Being)
من ذلك
فنظر إلى عينه فإذا هو معدوم لا وجود له
Frouzanfar adds to Ibn Arabi:
Fana' (Evanescence)
and Hurriyat (Freedom from
want) are not obtained
through human deeds, they are obtained solely through the Kamal
(Perfection)
of Ma’ref (Divine Gnosis) in absence of any reliance on
human actions. This is so, because for as long as the Salik (Traveler)
is the doer, registering/proving his own existence, he sees his own
Nafs (Self)
partitioned from Allah,
and consequently cannot be
emancipated from genus of Takhalluq (state of continuous being and
becoming).
Intimate entanglements with the pleasures causes lack of spiritual
energy and dimming of perception that lead to a halt in the Suluk
(Voyage),
which Rumi considers a form of death! Rumi is calling us to
eternal life; as long as all the chains of habits, superstitions,
cultural ties are not completely severed, the human being will not
reach the stage of Hurriyat (Freedom)
and Kamal (Perfection)
of
human-ness and manifestation of spiritual individuality (Shakhsiyat).
If you pour the sea within a drinking container
Only fits the portion of water for one day
گر بریزی بحر را در کوزهئ
چند گنجد قسمتِ یک روزهئ
Recite
The drinking container of the eyes of the greedy fills not
For as long as the sea-shell is not satiate, with pearls it fills not
کوزۀ چشمِ حریصان پر نشد
تا صدف قانع نشد پر دُر نشد
Recite
When the sea-shell satiates, its mouth shuts tightly in order for the
sprouting of the pearl to take place within it; if the mouth remains
open to eat or grab external things of low value, the internal precious
pearl will not form.
The verses point to the the fact that, there is no measure of gain that
can satiate human greed! Greed is directly proportional to gain and
monotonically increases without an end in sight. Rumi uses the metaphor
of a drinking container which can contain only enough for one day of
usage from the vast waters of the sea and leaves the rest of the sea
unused, as opposed to the container of the human eye that cannot be
filled except by the dust of the grave.
Whomever garment Ishq
tore up
From greed and faults is thus cleaned up
هر که را جامه ز عشقی چاک شد
او ز حِرصُ و عیب کلّی پاک شد
Recite
Be happy O wonderful crazy Ishq
of us
O healer of all ghastly ailments of us
شاد باش ای عشقِ خوشْ سودایِ ما
ای طبیبِ جمله علتهای ما
Recite
O healing from arrogance and hypocrisy of us
O you the Plato and the Galen
of all of us
ای دوایِ نَخْوَتُ و ناموس ما
ای تو افلاطونُ و جالینوس ما
Recite
Sudā: According to ancient
medicine, Suda is one of the four internal bodily humors which, if
produced in excess may cause mental and nervous disorders.
Nāmūs: In this context, it
means the love of status and fame, while pretending to be ascetic i.e.
hypocrisy.
Ishq (Unrestrained
Love), spiritual or worldly, is the cause of
alteration of behavior! An individual who used to love to accumulate
wealth or one who was a coward, as soon as he is overcome by Ishq
(Unrestrained Love), he is able to reach the outer-limits of generosity
or bravery, splurging, giving away his wealth or exposing himself to
all types of danger and placing himself in harm's way. Of course, in
your own personal life, you have observed yourself sacrificing due to
the excess of love (Ishq).
The above applied to worldly Ishq (Unrestrained
Love)—Ishq
Majazi—the same can be said of spiritual Ishq or Ishq Haqiqi. The
power of faith (Iman) is a form of Ishq that cuts the strings
between the lover and the rest of the universe until such time when the
person sees nothing but the beloved. The believer sees nothing but That
Divine Beloved, the object of every desire; he is willing to sacrifice
himself, his mate and his children for the sake of that Divine Being
e.g. the incredible tales of the early Christians and Muslims.
As an example, Imam Ali, the defender of the pious and the poor
(Maula-yeh Muttaqian), sacrificed himself for the religion of Islam
thus laying
on the bed of the Prophet to fool the assassins, what else other
than the Ishq-Muhammadi (Muhammdian Unrestrained Love) could have
caused him to do so?
If the water and mud 'Ishq, worldly love, can cause such change in
behavior, what then of the spiritual Ishq (Unrestrained
Love), the Ishq of unseen meanings ? And for that matter what would
the Ishq
of a Deity that Lam-Yazal-Wa-Lā-Yazāl (IT
never ceased and shall never
cease) do that has not been done to the pure hearts? Rumi believes that
Ishq (Unrestrained
Love), even when of worldly nature, is the healer
of all ailments of the heart, and is the alchemy that makes the rusted
copper of our behavior turn into the pure gold of Kamal (Perfection)!
We know that the path of Riyadhat (Taming of the Nafs (Self))
and the
Suluk (Voyage)
is a long meandering path; its travel feels like
chiseling a mountain with a needle, a most perilous path. On the other
hand, the way of Ishq (Unrestrained
Love) is a short one, its
hardship and harshness level the road so that it becomes smooth and
wonderful to walk upon; that is why, the lovers, fueled by the energy
of drunkenness and carried by the legs of Shauq (Yearning)
prefer to
traverse this path towards Kamal (Perfection)
instead of that of
asceticism and dry religious practices…
©
2007-2002, Dara O. Shayda, Dr. Hind Rifai