The Masnavi: Book One

Description

'The pen would smoothly write the things it knew But when it came to love it split in two, A donkey stuck in mud is logic's fate - Love's nature only love can demonstrate.' Rumi's Masnavi is widely recognized as the greatest Sufi poem ever written, and has been called 'the Koran in Persian'. The thirteenth-century Muslim mystic Rumi composed his work for the benefit of his disciples in the Sufi order named after him, better known as the whirling dervishes. In order to convey his message of divine love and unity he threaded together entertaining stories and penetrating homilies. Drawing from folk tales as well as sacred history, Rumi's poem is often funny as well as spiritually profound. Jawid Mojaddedi's sparkling new verse translation of Book One is consistent with the aims of the original work in presenting Rumi's most mature mystical teachings in simple and attractive rhyming couplets. Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Acknowledgements CONTENTS Introduction by Jawid Mojaddedi Note on the Translation Select Bibliography A Chronology of Rumi THE MASNAVI: BOOK ONE Prose Introduction The Song of the Reed The Healing of the Sick Slave-Girl The Bald Parrot and the Monk The Jewish Vizier who Deceived the Christians into Following him and Destroyed them The Description of Mohammad in the Gospels The Jewish King who Tried to Destroy Christians with his fire The Man who Mentioned Mohammad’s Name with a Smirk How a Hare Killed the Lion that had been Tormenting all the other Animals The Man who saw the Angel of Death The Interpretation of the Fly in a Drop of Donkey’s Urine Solomon and the Hoopoe Adam’s Fall The Greater Jihad Omar and the Emissary from Byzantium Adam’s Superiority to Satan ‘He is with You Wherever You may be’ ‘Let Whoever Wants to Sit with God Sit with the Sufis’ The Escape of the Merchant’s Parrot ‘If Mystics Drink Poison it will Become an Antidote’ Moses and the Magicians God’s Jealousy The Harm in Being Venerated by People ‘What God Wills Happens’ The Old Harpist ‘The Special Breaths Sent by God’ Aisha and the Unseen Rain ‘Other Skies beyond These’ ‘Take Advantage of the Coolness of the Spring’ The Moaning Pillar The Gravel that Affirmed Mohammad’s Prophethood The Prayer of the Angels in Favour of Big Spenders The Caliph Who Was More Generous than Hatem Ta'i The Poor Bedouin and his Wife False Sufi Masters Viewing from Limited Perspectives ‘Women Prevail over Intelligent Men, while Ignorant Men Prevail over them’ Pharaoh’s Fate ‘He Has Lost this World and the Hereafter’ Saleh and his She-Camel ‘He lets the Seas meet Each Other with a Gap which They Don’t Encroach upon’ The Station of ‘That God may forgive you your past and future sins’ The Mutual Need of Beggars and Donors False Dervishes Lovers of the Superficial ‘If You Fornicate, Do it with a Free Woman; If You Steal, Steal a Pearl!’ The Boatman and the Grammarian The Sufi Guide The Softie from Qazvin who Wanted a Tattoo The Lion, the Wolf, and the Fox The Man who Learned to Knock on his Beloved’s Door and Say ‘It is You!’ Sufis Serve as Mirrors of the Soul The Gift Brought by Joseph’s Visitor The Prophet’s Scribe who Became an Apostate Bal'am and the Damned The Temptation of Harut and Marut The Deaf Man who Visited his Sick Neighbour Satan was the First to Rely on Reasoning The Importance of Hiding your Mystical Station The Painting Competition between the Greeks and the Chinese The Prophet Mohammad and Zayd Loqman’s Test to Discover who had Eaten the Fruit Extinguishing Fire in Medina under Omar Why Ali Dropped his Sword in Battle The Man who was Told that he would One Day Kill Ali Adam’s Conceit Why the Prophet Conquered Mecca Yet Said, ‘The World is a Carcass’ Explanatory Notes Glossary of Proper Names A B E G H J K L M N O R S T Y Z