PROLOGUE

THE Composition of this Masnavi has been delayed for a (season;1)
Time is needed for blood to become milk.
Till thy fortune comes forth as a new-born babe,
Blood becomes not milk, sweet and pleasant to the mind.
When that light of God, Husamu-’d-Din
Turned his course down from the summit of heaven,
While he had ascended to sublimest verities,
In the absence of his spring the buds blossomed not,
But when out of that sea he came to shore,
The lute of the poesy of the Masnavi sounded again.
This Masnavi, which is the polisher of spirits,
Its recommencement occurred on the day of “Opening.”
The commencement date of this precious work
Was the year six hundred and sixty-two of the Flight.
The Bulbul started on this date and became a hawk;
Yea, a hawk to hunt out these mysteries.
May the wrist of the King be the resting-place of this
hawk,
And may this door be open to the people for ever!
Notes:
1. The delay was caused by the grief of Husam for the death of
his wife.

STORY I.

The Sufi’s Beast

After anecdotes of the man, in the time of ‘Omar, who
mistook his eyelash for the new moon, of one who stole a
snake and got bitten by it, and of ‘Isa’s foolish disciple who
besought the Lord to teach him the spell whereby he raised
the dead, comes the following story.
A certain Sufi, after a long day’s journey, arrived at a
monastery, where he put up for the night, and strictly
enjoined his servant to groom his ass carefully and give him
plenty of litter and fodder. The servant assured him that his
minute directions were superfluous, and promised to attend
to the ass most carefully; but when his master’s back was
turned he neglected the ass, and the poor animal remained
all night without water or food. Consequently he was weak
and unfit to travel next morning, and in spite of the blows
and kicks that were showered on him, could not carry his
master, but had to be led. The other Sufis who were travel-
ing with his owner thought that the ass was useless, and
when they arrived at the place where they halted for the
night, they sold the ass to a traveler, and with the proceeds
of the sale bought delicate viands and torches, and made a
feast. The owner of the ass, who was ignorant of this trans-
action, shared the feast, and joined in the chorus sung by
the others, “The ass is gone, the ass is gone,” without
attaching any sense to the words, and blindly following
their example. Next morning he asked his servant what had
become of the ass, and the servant told him it had been
sold, adding that he thought he had known it overnight,
because he had heard him singing “The ass is gone” along
with the other Sufis. In the course of this story there occur
anecdotes of God consulting with the angels as to the cre-
ation of man, of a king who lost his hawk and found it
again in the house of a poor old man, and of Shaikh Ahmad
Khizrawiya buying sweetmeats for his creditors.
Why the poet veils his doctrines in fables.
What is it hinders me from expounding my doctrines
But this, that my hearers’ hearts incline elsewhere.
Their thoughts are intent on that Sufi guest;
Their thoughts are intent on that Sufi guest;
So I am compelled to turn from my discourse
To that story, and to set forth his condition.
But, O friend, think not this Sufi a mere outward form,
As children see in a vine nothing but raisins.
O son, our bodies are as dried grapes and raisins;
If you are a man, cast away these things.
If you pass on to the pure mysteries of God,
You will be exalted above the nine heavenly spheres.
Now hear the outward form of my story,
But yet separate the grain from the chaff.
Why the prophets were sent.
God sent the prophets for this purpose,
Namely, to sever infidelity from faith.
God sent the prophets to mankind
That they might gather the pure grain on their tray.
Infidel and faithful, Mosalman and Jew,
Before the prophets came, seemed all as one.
Before they came we were all alike,
No one knew whether he was right or wrong.
Genuine coin and base coin were current alike;
The world was a night, and we travelers in the dark,
Till the sun of the prophets arose, and cried,
“Begone. O slumber; welcome, O pure light!”
Now the eye sees how to distinguish colors,
It sees the difference between rubies and pebbles.
The eye distinguishes jewels from dust,
Hence it is dust makes the eyes smart.
Makers of base coin hate the daylight,
Coins of pure gold love the daylight,
Because daylight is the mirror that reflects them,
So that they see their own perfect beauty.
Mystical Meaning of “Daylight”
God has named the resurrection “that day;”
Day shows off the beauty of red and yellow.
Wherefore “Day” in ‘truth is the mystery of the saints;
One day of their moons is as whole years.
Know, “Day “ is the reflection of the mystery of the saints,
Eye-closing night that of their hidden secrets.
Therefore hath God revealed the chapter “Daylight,”1
Which daylight is the light of the heart of Mustafa.
On the other view, that daylight means “The Friend,”
It is also a reflection of the same prophet.
For, as it is wrong to swear by a transitory being,
How can we suppose a transitory being spoken of by God?
The Friend of God said, “I love not them that set?”2
How, then, could Allah have meant a transitory being?
Again, the words “by the night” mean Muhammad’s veiling,
Namely, the fair earthly body that he bore;
When his sun proceeded from heaven on high
Into that body’s night, it said, “He hath not forsaken
thee;”
Union with God arose out of the depth of that disgrace;
That boon was the word, “He hath not been displeased.”
Expressions of religious or other feeling derive their only value
from the state of mind from which they proceed.
Every expression is the sign of a state of mind;
That state is a hand, the expression an instrument.
A goldsmith’s instruments in the hand of a cobbler
Are as grains of wheat sown on sand.
The tools of a cobbler in the hand of a cultivator
Are as grass before a dog or bones before an ass.
The words, “I am the Truth” were light in Mansur’s3
mouth,
In the mouth of Pharaoh “I am Lord Supreme” was blas-
phemy.
The staff in the hand of Moses was a witness,
In the hands of the magicians it was naught.
For this cause ‘Isa taught not to that foolish man
The words of power whereby he raised the dead.
For he who is ignorant misuses the instrument ;
If you strike flint on mud you will get no fire.
Hand and instrument resemble flint and steel;
You must have a pair; a pair is needed to generate.
He who has no peer or member is the “One,”
An uneven number, One without dispute!
Whoso says “one” and “two,” and so on,
Confesses thereby the existence of the “One.”
When the illusion of seeing double is swept away,
They who say “one” and “two” are even as they who say
“One.”
If you take “One” as your ball in his tennis-field,
It is made to revolve by the strokes of his bat.4
Yea, the ball that is even and without fault
Is made to revolve by the strokes of the King’s hand.
O man of double vision, 5 hearken with attention,
Seek a cure for your defective sight by listening.
Many are the holy words that find no entrance
Into blind hearts, but they enter hearts full of light.
But the deceits of Satan enter crooked hearts,
Even as crooked shoes fit crooked feet.
Though you repeat pious expressions again and again,
If you are a fool, they affect you not at all;
Nay, not though you set them down in writing,
And though you proclaim them vauntingly;
Wisdom averts its face from you, O man of sin,
Wisdom breaks away from you and takes to flight!
0n Taqlid, blind imitation or cant.
“O wretch, why did you not come and say to me,
‘Such and such a disastrous affair has occurred?’”
The servant replied, “By Allah, I came again and again,
That I might acquaint you with the matter.
You were always saying, ‘The ass is gone, my lad!’
Along with the others in high excitement;
So I went away, thinking you knew all about it,
And were pleased at the transaction, being a wise man.”
The Sufi said, “They were all singing the same words,
So I felt impelled to sing them as well.
Blind imitation of them has undone me.
Cursed be that blind imitation!”
The effect of blindly imitating unprofitable conduct
Is that men cast away honor for a morsel of bread.
The ecstasy of that company cast a reflection,
Whereby that Sufi’s heart became ecstatic like them.
You need many reflections from your associates
In order to draw water from the peerless Ocean.
The first reflection cast is mere blind imitation;
After it has been often repeated you may test its truth.
Till it is thus verified, take it not from your friends;
The drop, not yet become pearl, sever not from its shell.
Evil influence of covetousness.
Would you have eyes and ears of reason clear,
Tear off the obstructing veil of greed!
The blind imitation of that Sufi proceeded from greed;
Greed closed his mind to the pure light.
Yea, ‘twas greed that led astray that Sufi,
And brought him to loss of property and ruin.
Greed of victuals, greed of that ecstatic singing
Hindered his wits from grasping the truth.
If greed stained the face of a mirror,
That mirror would be as deceitful as we men are.6
If a pair of scales were greedy of riches,
Would they tell truly the weight of anything?
The Prophet saith, “O people, through singleness of mind,
I ask of you no recompense for my prophesying;7
I am a guide; God buyeth my guidance for you,
God giveth you my guidance in both worlds.
True, a guide deserves his wages;
Wages are due to him for directing you aright.
But what are my wages? The vision of The Friend.
Abu Bakr indeed offered me forty thousand pieces of gold,
But his forty thousand pieces were no wages for me.8
How could I take brass beads for pearls of Aden?”
I will tell you a tale; hearken attentively,
That you may know how greed closes up the ears.
Every man subject to greed is a miser.
Can eyes of hearts clouded with greed see clearly?
The illusion of rank and riches blinds his sight,
Like hair dropping down before his eyes.

Notes:
1. Koran xciii: “By the daylight and by the night thy, Lord
hath not forsaken thee nor been displeased.”
2. Koran vi. 76: “And when the night overshadowed Abraham,
he beheld a star, and he said, ‘This is my Lord;’ but when it
set he said, ‘I love not Gods which set.’”
3. Mansur Hallaj, a celebrated Sufi who was put to death at
Bagdad in 309 A.H. for using these words.
4. i.e., unity is made to appear as plurality (see Gulshan i Raz,
I. 710).
5. See Gulshan i Raz, I. 104.
6. The Turkish commentator translates thus. The Lucknow
copy reads Ba sati for Ma sti.
7. Koran xi 53.
8. Abu Bakr made over all his goods to the Prophet in aid of
the expedition to Syria.