The Shop of the Mathnawi (Mathnawi selection)
Ibrahim Gamard
information at bottom)]
With Sunlight's pleasure and gratitude come this week's verses
from Rumi's Mathnawi, selected by Abraham Sarmad Brody and
translated by Ibrahim Gamard:
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The Shop of the Mathnawi
Mathnawi VI: 1522-1528
So sever the head of (your) selfness,(1) O sword of Ali.(2) Become
self-less-- a dervish-like annihilated one.(3)
(And) when you become self-less, everything you do (will be an
example of the verse) You did not throw when you threw(4) (and)
you will be secure [from self-will].
The responsibility is (then) with God, not with the appointed
trustee.(5) The details of it are in plain view in (the books of)
religious law.(6)
Certainly, every shop (has) a different merchandise. O son, the
Mathnawi is the shop for (spiritual) poverty.(7)
There is good leather in the shoemakers shop. If you see wood
(there), its (just) the mold for (making) shoes.
Raw silk and dark-colored (fabric) are (to be found) in the
presence of cloth sellers. If iron is (there), its for the sake of
measuring (cloth).
Our Mathnawi is the shop of Unity. Anything you see (therein)
other than the Oneness (of God), (know that) it is an idol.(8)
-- From "The Mathnawî-yé Ma`nawî" [Rhymed Couplets of
Deep Spiritual Meaning] of Jalaluddin Rumi.
Translated from the Persian by Ibrahim Gamard (with
gratitude for R.A. Nicholson's 1934 British
translation)
(c) Ibrahim Gamard (translation, footnotes, &
transliteration)
(1) sever the head of (your) selfness: see Rumi's verse in his Divan
(as translated by Arberry, "Mystical Poems of Rumi," No. 168, p.
140): "You are drunk, drunk and happy, I am drunk and happy,
without a head [bę-sar]; you are a lover with laughing lips, I am
laughing without any mouth." (Ghazal 1372)
(2) O sword of Ali: literally, O Zű l-faqâr-- the name of the sword
of Ali, the cousin, son-in-law, and fourth successor (Caliph) of the
Prophet Muhammad. Nicholson explained that this sword means
qáti`-i sar-i nafs [= the cutter of the head of self-ness, or ego].
(Commentary) Nicholson also referred to Mathnawi I: 132-133,
which he translated: ... Time is a cutting sword. The Súfí is the son
of the (present) time, O comrade: it is not the rule of the Way to say
To-morrow. And he explained: Waqt [= Time] is used here in
one of its technical senses, viz. the moment of immediate experience
of being under Divine control (tasríf), and this moment is compared
to a sharp sword because it cuts the root of the future and the past
and obliterates care of yesterday and to-morrow from the heart
(Kashf, Eng. 362). [= Hujwiris Kashf al-Mahjűb, translated by
Nicholson, p. 362] (Commentary)
(3) a dervish-like annihilated one: Nicholson translated, become a
selfless naughted one like the dervish. It means: In the same way
that the dervish is without self and without (personal) existence, you
should also become without existence, annihilated [fânî], and
without self. And you should deny and remove the demanding
(quality) of your ego [nafs] from yourself. (Anqirawi,
Commentary-- translated here from the Persian trans. of the 17th
century Turkish commentary)
(4) You did not throw when you threw: quoted from the Quran
(8:17), slightly modified for versification. Nicholson explained:
At the battle of Badr the Prophet threw a handful of gravel in the
faces of the Quraysh [polytheists], who immediately fled before the
Moslem onset. The Qurán declares that the gravel was really thrown
by God, that He might give the true believers a good proof of His
favour. He added that in the Mathnawi this image is sometimes
applied generally as an illustration of the doctrine that God is the
source of all action in the universe, while in other passages it refers
to the mystical union of the prophet or saint whose hand is the Hand
of God. (Commentary) If you become without self and you
annihilate the demanding (quality) of the ego and you make every
action in agreement with the command of God, you will be secure in
bringing about (the condition of) you did not throw when you
threw.... It means, if you become annihilated and without (self-)
existence, every action which you do, the doer of that action will be,
in reality, the Lord God. And your existence will become the
instrument of the Lord God. You will become the manifestation of
the understanding of the verse, And you did not throw when you
threw, but it was God who threw. (Anqirawi, Commentary)
(5) not with the appointed trustee: The selfless mystic is amínu lláh
[= safe in God]: all claims against him are paid from the Divine
Treasury. (Nicholson, Commentary) Because the appointed trustee
is Gods instrument and the deputy of the Divine. In reality,
whatever (action) occurs on the part of the appointed trustee has been
manifested by the Lord God." (Anqirawi, Commentaryu)
(6) religious law [fiqh]: means that the details are explained in
Islamic jurisprudence about why the believer who faithfully carries
out the commands of God (as set forth in the Quran and sayings and
doings of the Prophet) is secure from blame for his actions.
(7) (spiritual) poverty [faqr]: an important term in sufism, related
to
the word for a sufi poor one [faqîr-- translated into Persian as
darvîsh]. It refers to an absence of ostentation, pride,
self-worship, and self-centered preoccupation. What is with you
will vanish and what is with God will endure [bâq] (Quran 16:97).
O man, you are poor [fuqarâ] in relation to God, and God is the
Rich, the Praiseworthy (Quran 35:15).
Since the preceding verses have touched on questions of law
(fiqh), it is natural for the poet to remind his hearers that the
essence
of the Mathnawí is pure mysticism (asrár-i tawhíd [= the secrets of
(Divine) Oneness], although, like many other books devoted to a
particular subject, it includes matter that is merely accessory and
incidental to its main purpose. (Nicholson, Commentary)
The shop of legal questions is (in) the books of secondary
matters. And the seekers of the questions about (spiritual) poverty
and annihilation [fanâ] are the dervishes [fuqarâ]. This noble book
[= the Mathnawi] is the essential explanation of (spiritual) poverty
and annihilation (of self) and yearning [khwâhân]. The knowledge
of (spiritual) poverty and annihilation may be found in this shop of
the Mathnawi. (Anqirawi, Commentary)
(8) it is an idol: I.e. a means of attraction. (Nicholson, footnote).
The meaning is that it leads the reader astray from worshiping the
One True God. It means, In its essence, our Mathnawi [= our
(book of) rhymed couplets] is the shop of the secrets of Absolute
Unity; it is also the shop of (Divinely) inspired areas of knowledge
[`ulűm-é ladunî] and the sciences of (spiritual) certainty. Whatever
you see in this noble book besides the secrets of the Oneness of
Reality and descriptions of Divine Unity.... resembles an idol.....
And otherwise, talk about (anything) other than the knowledge
Oneness (such as) stories, parables, and metaphors in this noble
book would not have been mentioned. But every (kind) of
knowledge and topic, other than the knowledge of Absolute Unity,
has come (into this book) for the sake of this: that a group of people
who are inclined to those (spiritual) sciences may submit to them
day and night. (Anqirawi, Commentary)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
pas khwadî-râ sar bo-borr, ay Zű l-faqâr
bę-khwadî shaw, fâniyę darwęsh-wâr
chűn shod-î bę-khwad har ân-che tô kon-î
mâ ramayta iZ ramaytî âmin-î
ân Zimân bar Haq bow-ad na bar amîn
hast tafSîl-ash ba-fiqh andar mubîn
har dukânę râst sawdâyę degar
maSnawî dukkân-é faqr-ast ay pesar
dar dukân-é kafsh-gar charm-ast khűb
qâlib-é kafsh-ast agar bîn-î to, chűb
pęsh-é bazzâz-ân qaz-o adkan bow-ad
bahr-é gaz bâsh-ad agar âhan bow-ad
maSnawîy-é mâ dukân-é waHdat-ast
ghayr-é wâhid har-che bîn-î ân bot-ast
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