FROM THE MYSTICAL VERSES OF THE CELEBRATED PERSIAN SUFI MASTER, JALALUDDIN RUMI (1207-1273)

THE FINDING OF THE BELOVED

I was on that day when the Names [i.e. the 99 Names of Allah or God] were not,

Nor any sign of existence endowed with name.

By me Names and Named were brought to view

On the day when there were neither ‘I’ nor ‘We.’

For a sign, the tip of the Beloved’s curl [i.e. “The Beloved” is a very frequently used term for God in Sufism, and the Sufi thinks of himself as “the lover”] became a centre of revelation;

And yet the tip of that fair curl was not.

Cross and Christians, from end to end,

I surveyed; He was not on the Cross.

I went to the idol-temple, to the ancient pagoda;

No trace was visible there.

I went to the mountains of Herat and Candahar [i.e. major cities in Afghanistan];

I looked; He was not in hill or dale.

With unswerving purpose I reached the summit of Mount Qaf [i.e. the Arabic and Sufi equivalent of the mystical Mount Meru];

There was only the ‘Anqua’s abode [i.e. Mount Qaf is said to have only one inhabitant: the Anqa or Anka, a mythological female bird with a human face, who is depicted as a wise sage and counsellor].

I bent the reins of search to the Ka’ba [i.e. the holiest site in Islam, at Mecca in Saudi Arabia; it is toward the direction of the Kaaba that Muslims pray]

He was not in that refuge of old and young.

I gazed into my own heart;

There I saw Him; He was nowhere else.

~

“WHEN THE ROSE HAS FADED”

When the rose has faded and the garden is withered,

The song of the nightingale is no longer to be heard.

The BELOVED is all in all, the lover only veils Him;

The BELOVED is all that lives, the lover a dead thing.

When the lover feels no longer LOVE’S quickening,

He becomes like a bird who has lost its wings. Alas!

How can I retain my senses about me,

When the BELOVED shows not the Light of His countenance?

~

THE BELOVED ALL IN ALL

My Soul sends up to Heaven each night the cry of Love!

God’s starry Beauty draws with might the cry of Love!

Bright sun and moon each morn dance in my Heart at Dawn:

And waking me at daylight, excite the cry of Love!

On every meadow glancing, I see God’s sun-beams play;

And all Creation’s wonders excite the cry of Love!

I, All in All becoming, now clear see God in All;

And up from Union yearning, takes flight the cry of Love!

~

WHITE NIGHTS

Every night Thou freest our spirits from the body

And its snare, making them pure as blank tablets.

Every night spirits are released from this cage called “body,”

And set free, neither lording it nor lorded over.

At night prisoners are unaware of their prison,

At night kings are unaware of their majesty.

~

“THE KINGLY SOUL”

The kingly soul lays waste the body,

And after its destruction he builds it anew.

Happy the soul who for love of God

Has lavished family, wealth, and goods!—

Has destroyed its house to find the Hidden Treasure,

And with that Treasure has rebuilt it in fairer sort;

Has dammed up the stream and cleansed the channel,

And then turned a fresh stream into the channel.

~

REBIRTH

I died as a mineral and became a plant;

I died as a plant and rose to animal;

I died as animal and I was a man.

Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?

Yet once more I shall die as man to soar

With angels blest. But even from an angel

I must pass on: all except God must perish.

When I have sacrificed my angel soul,

I shall become what no mind ever conceived.

~

THE WATER OF ETERNAL LIFE

Every form you see has its archetype in the formless and placeless world;

If the form perished, it would not matter, since its Original is everlasting.

Every fair shape you have seen, every deep saying you have heard,

Be not cast down that it perished; for that is not so.

Whereas the Spring-head is undying, its branch gives water continually;

Since neither can cease, why are you lamenting?

Conceive the Soul as a fountain, and these created things as rivers:

While the Fountain flows, the rivers run from it.

Put grief out of your head and keep drinking this River-water;

Do not think of the Water failing, for this Water is without end.

~

“PAIN IS A TREASURE!”

Pain is a treasure, for it contains mercies;

The kernel is soft when the rind is scraped off.

O brother, the place of darkness and cold

Is the fountain of Life and the cup of ecstasy.

So also is endurance of pain and sickness and disease.

For from abasement proceeds exaltation.

The spring seasons are hidden in the autumns,

And the autumns are charged with springs.

~

THE OPTIMISTIC ROSE

In this tale there is a warning for thee, O Soul,

That thou mayest acquiesce in God’s ordinances,

And be wary and not doubt God’s benevolence,

When sudden misfortune befalls thee.

Let others grow pale from fear of ill fortune,

Do thou smile like the rose at loss and gain;

For the rose, though its petals be torn asunder,

Still smiles on, and it is never cast down.

~

WOMAN

Woman is a ray of God, not a mere mistress,

The Creator’s Self, as it were, not a mere creature!

~

THE TRUE MOSQUE

Fools praise and magnify the mosque,

While they strive to oppress holy men of heart.

But the former is mere form, the latter spirit and truth.

The only true mosque is that in the hearts of saints.

The mosque that is built in the hearts of the saints

Is the place of worship of all, for God dwells there.

So long as the hearts of the saints are not afflicted,

God never destroys the nation.

~

ALL RELIGIONS ARE ONE

In the adorations and benedictions of righteous men

The praises of all the prophets are kneaded together.

All their praises are mingled into one stream,

All the vessels are emptied into one pitcher.

Because He that is praised is, in fact, only One.

In this respect, all religions are only one religion.

Because all praises are directed towards God’s Light,

These various forms and figures in different religions are merely borrowed from that Light.

~

THE ABANDONMENT OF ALL DUALITY

Muslims, what is to be done with me? for I do not recognise myself.

I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Zoroastrian, nor Muslim.

I am not of the East, nor of the West, nor of the land, nor of the sea;

I am not of Nature’s mint, nor of the circling heavens.

I am not of earth, nor of water, nor of air, nor of fire;

I am not of the empyrean, nor of the dust, nor of existence, nor of entity.

I am not of India, nor of China, nor of Bulghar, nor of Saqsin;

I am not of the kingdom of ‘Iraqain, nor of the country of Khurasan.

I am not of this world, nor of the next, nor of Paradise, nor of Hell;

I am not of Adam, nor of Eve, nor of Eden and Rizwan.

My place is the Placeless, my trace is the Traceless;

It is neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved.

I have put duality away, I have seen that the two worlds are one;

I seek only One, I know only One, I see only One, I call only One.

~ * ~

(The above passages are adapted from “The Persian Mystics: Jalaluddin Rumi” by Frederick Hadland Davis, with the exception of the passage titled “REBIRTH” which is from p. 244 of “The Jewel in The Lotus,” compiled and edited by Raghavan Iyer, and the final passage, which is adapted from “Selected Poems from the Divani Shamsi Tabriz” by R. A. Nicholson. By “adapted,” we mean that the English has in a few instances been made clearer and less archaic, so as to be more readily comprehensible to modern readers. None of the actual ideas of the verses have been modified in any way.)

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