Masnawi

Masnawi
In the prologue to the Masnavi Rumi hailed Love and its sweet madness that heals all
infirmities, and he exhorted the reader to burst the bonds to silver and gold to be free.
The Beloved is all in all and is only veiled by the lover. Rumi identified the first cause of
all things as God and considered all second causes subordinate to that. Human minds
recognize the second causes, but only prophets perceive the action of the first cause.
One story tells of a clever rabbit who warned the lion about another lion and showed
the lion his own image in a well, causing him to attack it and drown. After delivering
his companions from the tyrannical lion, the rabbit urges them to engage in the more
difficult warfare against their own inward lusts. In a debate between trusting God and
human exertion, Rumi quoted the prophet Muhammad as saying, "Trust in God, yet tie
the camel's leg." He also mentioned the adage that the worker is the friend of God; so
in trusting in providence one need not neglect to use means. Exerting oneself can be
giving thanks for God's blessings; but he asked if fatalism shows gratitude.
God is hidden and has no opposite, not seen by us yet seeing us. Form is born of the
formless but ultimately returns to the formless. An arrow shot by God cannot remain in
the air but must return to God. Rumi reconciled God's agency with human free will and
found the divine voice in the inward voice. Those in close communion with God are
free, but the one who does not love is fettered by compulsion. God is the agency and
first cause of our actions, but human will as the second cause finds recompense in hell
or with the Friend. God is like the soul, and the world is like the body. The good and
evil of bodies comes from souls. When the sanctuary of true prayer is revealed to one,
it is shameful to turn back to mere formal religion. Rumi confirmed Muhammad's view
that women hold dominion over the wise and men of heart; but violent fools, lacking
tenderness, gentleness, and friendship, try to hold the upper hand over women,
because they are swayed by their animal nature. The human qualities of love and
tenderness can control the animal passions. Rumi concluded that woman is a ray of
God and the Creator's self.
When the Light of God illumines the inner person, one is freed from effects and has no
need of signs for the assurance of love. Beauty busies itself with a mirror. Since not
being is the mirror of being, the wise choose the self-abnegation of not being so that
being may be displayed in that not being. The wealthy show their liberality on the poor,
and the hungry are the mirror of bread. Those recognizing and confessing their defects
are hastening toward perfection; but whoever considers oneself perfect already is not
advancing. The poet suggested driving out this sickness of arrogance with tears from
the heart. The fault of the devil (Iblis) was in thinking himself better than others, and
the same weakness lurks in the soul of all creatures. Heart knowledge bears people up
in friendship, but body knowledge weighs them down with burdens.
Rumi wrote how through love all things become better. Doing kindness is the game of
the good, who seek to alleviate suffering in the world. Wherever there is a pain, a
remedy is sent. Call on God so that the love of God may manifest. Rumi recommended
the proverb that the moral way is not to find fault with others but to be admonished by
their bad example. The mosque built in the hearts of the saints is the place for all
worship, for God dwells there. Rumi began the third book of his Masnavi as follows:
In the Name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful.
The sciences of (Divine) Wisdom are God's armies,
wherewith He strengthens the spirits of the initiates,
and purifies their knowledge from the defilement of ignorance,
their justice from the defilement of iniquity,


their generosity from the defilement of ostentation,
and their forbearance from the defilement of foolishness;
and brings near to them whatever was far from them
in respect of the understanding of the state hereafter;
and makes easy to them whatever was hard to them
in respect of obedience (to Him) and zealous endeavor (to serve Him).
A sage warns travelers that if they kill a baby elephant to eat, its parents will probably
track them down and kill them; yet they do so, although one refrains from the killing
and eating. As they sleep, a huge elephant smells their breath and kills all those who
had eaten the young elephant but spares the one who had abstained. From foul breath
the stench of pride, lust, and greed rises to heaven. Pain may be better than dominion
in the world so that one may call on God in secret; the cries of the sorrowful come
from burning hearts. Rumi also told the story of the Hindus feeling the different parts
of an elephant in a dark room. He emphasized that in substance all religions are one
and the same, because all praises are directed to God's light. They err only because
they have mistaken opinions. Sinners and criminals betray themselves especially in
times of passion and angry talk. Prophets warn you of hidden dangers the worldly
cannot see. Humans have the ability to engage in any action, but for Rumi worship of
God is the main object of human existence.
Rumi wrote that Sufism is to find joy in the heart whenever distress and care assail it.
He believed the power of choice is like capital yielding profit, but he advised us to
remember well the day of final accounting. Many of his stories are designed to show
the difference between what is self-evident by experience and what is inferred through
the authority of others. His philosophy of evolution of consciousness is encapsulated in
the following verses:
I died as inanimate matter and arose a plant,
I died as a plant and rose again an animal.
I died as an animal and arose a man.
Why then should I fear to become less by dying?
I shall die once again as a man
To rise an angel perfect from head to foot!
Again when I suffer dissolution as an angel,
I shall become what passes the conception of man!
Let me then become non-existent, for non-existence
Sings to me in organ tones, "To him shall we return."
When the love of God arises in your heart, without doubt God also feels love for you.
The soul loves wisdom, knowledge, and exalted things; but the body desires houses,
gardens, vineyards, food, and material goods. Rumi also believed that there is no
absolute bad; the evils in the world are only relative. A serpent's poison protects its
own life; but in relation to a person it can mean death. When what is hateful leads you
to your beloved, it immediately becomes agreeable to you. Solomon built the temple
by hiring workers, for humans can be controlled by money.
Men are as demons, and lust of wealth their chain,
Which drags them forth to toil in shop and field.
This chain is made of their fears and anxieties.
Deem not that these men have no chain upon them.
It causes them to engage in labor and the chase,


It forces them to toil in mines and on the sea,
It urges them towards good and towards evil.
Rumi warned against bad friends who can be like weeds in the temple of the heart; for
if a liking for bad friends grows in you, they can subvert you and your temple. He also
warned against the judges who confine their view to externals and base their decisions
on outward appearances; these heretics have secretly shed the blood of many
believers. Partial reason cannot see beyond the grave; but true reason looks beyond to
the day of judgment and thus is able to steer a better course in this world. Therefore it
is better for those with partial reason to follow the guidance of the saints.
In the fifth book of the Masnavi Rumi included several stories to illustrate why one
should cut down the duck of gluttony, the cock of concupiscence, the peacock of
ambition and ostentation, and the crow of bad desires. The story of how Muhammad
converted a glutton who drank the milk of seven goats and then made a mess after
being locked in a room shows the humility of the prophet in cleaning up the mess
himself. He concluded that the infidels eat with seven bellies but the faithful with one.
The peacock catches people by displaying itself. Pursuing the vulgar is like hunting a
pig; the fatigue is extensive, and it is unlawful to eat it. Love alone is worth pursuing,
but how can God be contained in anyone's trap? The most deadly evil eye is the eye of
self-approval. The greed of the gluttonous duck is limited as is the greed of the lusty
snake; but the peacock's ambition to rule can be many times as great. Worldly wealth
and even accomplishments can be enemies to the spiritual life. These are the human
trials that create virtue. If there were no temptations, there could be no virtue.
Abraham killed the crow of desire in response to the command of God so that he would
not crave anything else, and he killed the cock to subjugate pernicious desires.
Rumi suggested that God uses prophets and saints as mirrors to instruct people while
the divine remains hidden behind the mirrors. People hear the words from the mirrors
but are ignorant that they are spoken by universal reason or the word of God.
Ultimately God will place in people's hands their books of greed and generosity, of sin
and piety, whatever they have practiced. When they awake on that morning, all the
good and evil they have done will recur to them. After enumerating their faults, God in
the end will grant them pardon as a free gift. To tell an angry person of faults, one
must have a face as hard as a mirror to reflect the ugliness without fear or favor. Like
'Attar, Rumi wrote of the mystic's attaining annihilation, but he explained that the end
and object of negation is to attain the subsequent affirmation just as the cardinal
principle of Islam "There is no God" concludes with the affirmation "but God," and to
the mystic this really means "There is nothing but God." Negation of the individual self
clears the way for apprehending the existence of the One. The intoxication of life in
pleasures and occupations which veil the truth should pass into the spiritual
intoxication that lifts people to the beatific vision of eternal truth.
In the Discourses Rumi presented his teachings more directly. In the first chapter he
suggested that the true scholar should serve God above the prince so that in their
encounters the scholar will give more than take, thus making princes visitors of
scholars rather than the reverse. Rumi advised stripping prejudices from one's
discriminative faculty by seeing a friend in Faith, which is knowing who is one's true
friend. Those who spend time with the undiscriminating have that faculty deteriorate
and are unable to recognize a true friend in the Faith. Rumi taught the universal
principle that if you have done evil, you have done it to yourself, for how could
wickedness reach out to affect God? Yet when you become straight, all your


crookedness will disappear; so beware but have hope! Those who assist an oppressor
will find that God gives the oppressor power over them. God loves us by reproving us.
One reproves friends, not a stranger. So long as you perceive longing and regret within
yourself, that is proof that God loves and cares for you. If you perceive a fault in your
brother, that fault is also within yourself. The learned are like mirrors. Get rid of that
fault in yourself, for what distresses you about the other person distresses you inside
yourself.
Rumi taught that all things in relation to God are good and perfect, but in relation to
humans some things are considered bad. To a king prisons and gallows are part of the
ornament of his kingdom; but Rumi asked if to his people they are the same as robes
of honor. He argued that faith is better than prayer, because faith without prayer is
beneficial, but prayer without faith is not. Rumi explained to his disciples that the
desire to see the Master may prevent them from perceiving the Master without a veil.
He went on,
So it is with all desires and affections, all loves and fondnesses
which people have for every variety of thingfather,
mother, heaven, earth, gardens, palaces,
branches of knowledge, acts, things to eat and drink.
The man of God realizes that all these desires are the desire for God,
and all those things are veils.
When men pass out of this world and behold that King without those veils,
then they will realize that all these things were veils and coverings,
their quest being in reality that One Thing.
All difficulties will then be resolved,
and they will hear in their hearts
the answer to all questions and all problems,
and every thing will be seen face to face.
Rumi suggested God created these veils because if God's beauty were displayed
without veils, we would not be able to endure and enjoy it just as the Sun lights up the
world and warms us. The Sun enables trees and orchards to become fruitful, and its
energy makes fruit that is unripe, bitter, and sour become mature and sweet. Yet if the
Sun came too near, it would not bestow benefits but destroy the whole world.
Rumi compared this world to the dream of a sleeper. It seems real while it is
happening; but when one awakes, one does not benefit from the material things one
had while asleep. The present then depends on what one requested while asleep. God
teaches in every way. A thief hanged on the gallows is an object lesson as is the
person whom the king gives a robe of honor; but you should consider the difference
between those two preachers. Even suffering is a divine grace, and hell becomes a
place of worship as souls turn back to God just as being in prison or suffering pain
often urges one to pray for relief. Yet after people are released or healed, they often
forget to seek God. Believers, however, do not need to suffer, because even in ease
they are mindful that suffering is constantly present. An intelligent child that has been
punished does not forget the punishment; but the stupid child forgets it and is
punished again. The wickedness and vice of humans can be great, because they are
what veil the better element, which is also great. These veils cannot be removed
without great striving, and Rumi recommended that the best method is to mingle with
friends who have turned their backs to the world and their faces to God.