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یہ صفحہ صرف صنفِ مثنوی کے تحت آنے والی نظمیں دکھاتا ہے۔
How the enraged Amír set out to punish the ascetic.
Story of Dalqak's checkmating the Sayyid, the Sháh of Tirmid.
How Mustafá (Mohammed), on whom be peace, (was about to) cast himself down from Mount Hirá because of his distress at the long delay of Gabriel, on whom be peace, in appearing; and how Gabriel, on whom be peace, showed himself to him, saying, “Do not cast (thyself down), for (great) fortunes are in front of thee.”
How the Amír answered those neighbours of the ascetic who interceded for him: “Why,” said he, “did he behave (so) impudently and why did he break my jug (of wine)? I will not listen to intercession in this matter, for I have sworn to punish him as he deserves.”
How the neighbours of the ascetic, who were interceding for him, kissed the hands and feet of the Amír and humbly entreated him a second time.
How the Amír answered them again.
Commentary on the Verse “And lo, the After-home is the (real) life, if they but knew.” The gates and walls and area of that World and its water and pitchers and fruits and trees, all are living and speaking and hearing; and on that account Mustafá (Mohammed), on whom be peace, has said that the present world is a carcase and those who seek it are curs. If the next world had no life, the next world too would be a carcase: a carcase is so called because of its being dead, not because of its evil smell and its foulness.
How the King (Mahmud) requested Ayáz for the second time, saying, “Explain thy case and solve the difficulty felt by the incredulous and censorious; for it is not (like thy) generosity to leave them in perplexity.”
Comparison of the human body to a guest-house and of the diverse thoughts to the diverse guests. The gnostic, acquiescing in those thoughts of sorrow or joy, resembles a hospitable person who treats strangers with kindness., like Khalil (Abraham); for Khalil’s door was always open to receive his guest with honour- infidel and true believer and trusty and treacherous alike; and he would show a cheerful face to all his guests.
Story of the guest concerning whom the wife of the master of the house said, “The rain has set in, and our guest is left on our hands.”
Comparing the daily thoughts that come into the heart with the new guests who from the beginning of the day alight in the house and behave with arrogance and ill-temper towards the master of the house; and concerning the merit of treating the guest with kindness and of suffering his haughty airs patiently.
How the Sultan (Mahmud) showed favour to Ayáz.
How a father enjoined his daughter to take care lest she should become with child by her husband.
Description of the pusillanimity and weakness of the Súfí who has been brought up in ease and has never struggled with himself or experienced the pain and searing anguish of (Divine) love, and has been deluded by the homage and hand-kissing of the vulgar and their gazing on him with veneration and pointing at him with their fingers and saying, “He is the (most famous) Súfí in the world to-day”; and has been made sick by vain imagination, like the teacher who was told by the children that he was ill. In the conceit of being a (spiritual) warrior and regarded as a hero in this (spiritual) Way, he goes on campaign with the soldiers engaged in the war against the infidels. “I will show my valour outwardly too,” says he; “I am unparalleled in the Greater Warfare: what difficulty, forsooth, should the Lesser Warfare present to me?” He has beheld the phantasm of a lion and performed (imaginary) feats of bravery and become intoxicated with this bravery and has set out for the jungle to seek the lion. (But) the lion says with mute eloquence, “Nay, ye will see! and again, nay, ye will see!”
How the champions (of Islam) counselled him, saying, “Since thou hast so little heart (courage) and stomach (pluck) that thou art made senseless by the rolling of a captive and pinioned infidel's eyes, so that the dagger drops from thy hand, take heed, take heed! Keep to the kitchen of the Súfí convent and do not go to battle lest thou incur public disgrace!”
Story of ‘Iyádí, may God have mercy on him, who had taken part in seventy campaigns against the infidels and had always fought with his breast bare (unprotected by armour), in the hope that he might become a martyr; and how, despairing of that, he turned from the Lesser Warfare to the Greater Warfare and adopted the practice of (religious) seclusion; and how he suddenly heard the drums of the holy warriors, and the fleshly soul within him urged him violently to take the field; and how he suspected (the motives of) his fleshly soul in desiring this.
Story of the (spiritual) warrior who every day used to take one dirhem separately from a purse containing (pieces of) silver and throw it into a ditch (full of water) for the purpose of thwarting the greed and cupidity of his fleshly soul; and how his soul tempted him, saying, “Since you are going to throw (this money) into the ditch, at least throw it away all at once, so that I may gain deliverance, for despair is one of the two (possible) reliefs”; and how he replied, “I will not give thee this relief either.”
How an informer described a girl and exhibited the picture of her on paper, and how the Caliph of Egypt fell in love with it and sent an Amír with a mighty army to the gates of Mawsil (Mosul) and made great slaughter and devastation for the purpose (of obtaining the girl).
How the lord of Mawsil surrendered the girl to the Caliph in order that there might be no more shedding of Moslem blood.
How that military chief repented of the sin which he had committed and adjured the girl not to tell the Caliph anything of what had happened.
The argument of those who disbelieve in the after-life, and a demonstration of the weakness of that argument, since their argument amounts to “We do not see any other (world) than this.”
Venit Khalífa ad puellam formosam concubitus causa.
Puellam risus occupat propter libidinem Khalífae debilem et libidinem illius ducis validissimam. Khalífa puellae risum animadvertit.
How the girl disclosed the secret to the Caliph in fear of (having her head cut off by) a blow of the sword, and how she was forced (to speak) by the Caliph (who said), “Give a true account of the cause of thy laughter or else I will kill thee.”
How the monarch, on being acquainted with that act of treachery, resolved to conceal and pardon it and give her (the slave-girl) to him (the captain), and recognised that the tribulation was a punishment inflicted on him and was (the result of) his attempt (to obtain the slave-girl) and the wrong which he had done to the lord of Mawsil; for “and whoso doeth evil, it is against himself” and “lo, thy Lord is on the watch”; and how he feared that, if he should avenge himself, the vengeance would recoil on his own head, as this injustice and greed (of his) had (already) recoiled upon him.
Explaining that the words “We have apportioned” mean that He (God) bestows on one the lust and (physical) strength of asses and on another the intelligence and (spiritual) strength of the prophets and the angels. “To turn the head away from sensual desire is (a mark of) nobility; to abandon sensual desire is (a mark of) the (spiritual) strength that belongs to prophethood.” “The seeds that are not sown in lust—their fruit only appears at the Resurrection.”
How the King (Mahmud), in the midst of (the company present in) the Diwán and assembly-place, put a pearl in the hand of the Vizier and asked him what it was worth; and how the Vizier gave an extremely high estimate of its value; and when the King commanded hi to break it, answered, “How should I break it?” and so forth.
How the pearl, (passing) from hand to hand, came round at last to Ayáz; and (concerning) the sagacity of Ayáz, and how he did not act in conformity with them and was not beguiled by the King’s giving them goods and riches and increasing their robes of honour and salaries and praising the intelligence of those erring men; for one ought not to regard the imitator as a Moslem: he may be a Moslem, but it rarely happens that he holds fast to his faith and comes off safely from the trials (to which he is exposed) —for he lacks the steadfastness of the clairvoyant——except (in the case of) those whom God preserves; because the Truth is one, and its contrary is very deceptive and like unto it (in appearance). Since the imitator does not know the contrary (so as to distinguish it from the Truth), on that account he cannot have known the Truth; but when, notwithstanding his ignorance, God preserves him by favour, that ignorance does him no harm.
How the Amirs reviled Ayáz, saying, “Why did he break it?” and how Ayáz answered them.
How the King was about to kill the Amirs, and how Ayáz made intercession before the royal throne, saying, “‘Tis better to forgive.”
Commentary on the Saying of Pharaoh's magicians in the hour of their punishment, “’Tis no harm, for lo, we shall return unto our Lord.”
[How Ayáz deemed himself culpable for thus acting as intercessor and begged pardon for this offence and deemed himself culpable for begging pardon; and this self-abasement arises from knowledge of the majesty of the King; for (the Prophet hath said), ‘I know God better than you and fear Him more than you,’ and the High God hath said, ‘None fears God but those of His servants that are possessed of knowledge.’]
IN THE NAME OF GOD THE MERCIFUL, THE COMPASSIONATE
How an inquirer asked (a preacher) about a bird that was supposed to have settled on the wall of a city— “Is its head more excellent and estimable and noble and honourable or its tail?”—and how the preacher gave him a reply suited to the measure of his understanding.
In blame of the rotten (worthless) reputations which prevent spiritual experience of the Faith and point to insincerity and stand in the way of hundreds of thousands of fools; as (for example) the (flock of) sheep stood in the way of a certain effeminate person, and he durst not pass, so he asked the shepherd, “Will these sheep of yours bite me, I wonder?” “If you are a man,” he replied, “and the root of manhood is in you, they all are devoted to you; but if you are effeminate, each one of them is a dragon to (destroy) you.” There is another (kind of) effeminate person who, when he sees the sheep, immediately turns back and does not dare to ask (the shepherd); for he is afraid that, if he asks, the sheep will fall upon him and bite him.
A prayer and a seeking refuge with God from the temptation of free-will and from the temptation of those things that minister to free-will; for the heavens and the earths dreaded and feared free-will and the things that minister to it, while the nature of Man is addicted to seeking free-will and all that ministers to his free-will; as (for example) if he is sick he feels himself to have little free-will and desires health, which ministers to free-will, in order that his free-will may be increased; and he desires high office in order that his free-will may be increased. And it was excess of free-will and of whatever ministers to it that caused the wrath of God to fall upon the peoples of the past. No one ever saw Pharaoh destitute.
Story of the Hindú slave who had secretly fallen in love with his master's daughter. On learning that the girl was betrothed to the son of a nobleman, the slave sickened and began to waste away. No physician could diagnose his malady, and he (the slave) durst not tell.
How the Khwája bade the girl's mother be patient, saying, “Don't scold the slave: without scolding him I will make him abandon this desire in such a way that neither will the spit be burnt nor the meat be left uncooked.
Explaining that this self-delusion was not (peculiar) to that Hindú alone; on the contrary, every human being is afflicted with a similar self-delusion at every stage (of the journey), except those whom God has preserved.
Concerning the interpretation, in a general sense, of the Verse: “as often as they kindle a fire for war.”
A Story in further exposition of this.
How the King (Mahmúd) revealed to the Amírs and those who were intriguing against Ayáz the reason of his superiority to them in rank and favour and salary, (explaining it) in such a manner that no argument or objection was left for them (to bring forward).
How the Amírs endeavoured to rebut that argument by the Necessitarian error and how the King answered them.
Story of the fowler who had wrapped himself in grass and drawn over his head a handful of roses and red anemones, like a cap, in order that the birds might think he was grass. The clever bird had some little notion that he was (really) a man, and said (to itself), “I have never seen grass of this shape”; but it did not wholly apprehend (the truth) and was deceived by his guile, because at the first view it had no decisive argument, (whereas) on its second view of the trick it had a decisive argument, namely, cupidity and greed, (which are) especially (potent) at the time of excessive want and poverty. The Prophet—God bless and save him!—has said that poverty is almost infidelity.
Story of the person whose ram was stolen by some thieves. Not content with that, they stole his clothes too by means of a trick.
The bird's debate with the fowler concerning monasticism and about the meaning of the monasticism which Mustafá (Mohammed), on whom be peace, forbade his community to practise, saying, “There is no monkery in Islam.”
Story of the watchman who kept silence till the robbers had carried off the entire stock of the merchants, but afterwards made an outcry and did the duty of a watchman.
How the bird attributed its being caught in the trap to the artifice and cunning and hypocrisy of the ascetic; and how the ascetic answered the bird.
Story of the lover who, in hope of the tryst promised (to him) by his beloved, came at night to the house that he had indicated. He waited (there) part of the night; (then) he was overcome by sleep. (When) his beloved came to fulfil his promise and found him asleep, he filled his lap with walnuts and left him sleeping and returned (home).
How a drunken Turkish Amír summoned a minstrel at the hour of the morning-drink; and a commentary on the Tradition, “Verily, God most High hath a wine that He prepared for His friends: when they drink it they become intoxicated, and when they become intoxicated they are purified,” to the end of the Tradition. “The wine is bubbling in the jars of the mysteries in order that any one who is denuded (of self-existence) may drink of that wine.” God most High hath said, “Lo, the righteous shall drink.” “This wine that thou drinkest is forbidden; we drink none but a lawful wine.” “Endeavour through non-existence (of self) to become (really) existent and to be intoxicated with God's wine.”
