'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.
Author(s): Rumi; Jawid Mojaddedi
Series: Masnavi Manavi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 304
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
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