Imam 'Ali's Forbearance

From The Mathnawi - Maulana Shaykh Jalaluddin Rumi (Story XVI)

'Ali, the "Lion of God," was once engaged in conflict with a Magian chief, and in the midst of the struggle the Magian spat in his face. 'Ali, instead of taking vengeance on him, at once dropped his sword, to the Magian's great astonishment. On his inquiring the reason of such forbearance, 'Ali informed him that the "Lion of God" did not destroy life for the satisfaction of his own vengeance, but simply to carry out God's will, and that whenever he saw just cause, he held his hand even in the midst of the strife, and spared the foe. The Prophet, 'Ali continued, had long since informed him that he would die by the hand of his own stirrup bearer (Ibn Maljun), and the stirrup bearer had frequently implored 'Ali to kill him, and thus save him from the commission of that great crime; but 'Ali said he always refused to do so, as to him death was as sweet as life, and he felt no anger against his destined assassin, who was only the instrument of God's eternal purpose. The Magian chief, on hearing 'Ali's discourse, was so much affected that he embraced Islam, together with all his family, to the number of fifty souls.

***

How the Prophet whispered to 'Ali's stirrup bearer that he would one day assassinate his master.
"The Prophet whispered in the ear of my servant that one day he would sever my head from my neck. The Prophet also warned by inspiration me, his friend, that the hand of my servant would destroy me. My servant cried, "O kill me first, that I may not become guilty of so grievous a sin!"

I replied, "Since my death is to come from thee, how can I balk the fateful decree?" He fell at my feet and cried, "O gracious lord, for God's sake cleave now my body in twain, that such an evil deed may not be wrought by me, and my soul burn with anguish for its beloved."

I replied, "What God's pen has written, it has written; in presence of its writings knowledge is confounded. There is no anger in my soul against thee, because I attribute not this deed to thee. Thou art God's instrument. God's hand is the agent. How can I chide or fret at God's instrument?"

He said, "If this be so, why is there retaliation?" I answered, " 'Tis from God, and 'tis God's secret. If He shows displeasure at His own acts, from His displeasure He evolves a Paradise. He feels displeasure at His own acts, because He is a God of vengeance as of mercy. In this city of events He is the Lord, in this realm, He is the king who plans all events. If He crushes His own instruments, He makes those crushed ones fair in His sight. Know the great mystery of 'whatever verses We cancel, or cause you to forget, We substitute better for them.' "Whatever law God cancels, He makes as a weed, and in its stead He brings forth a rose. So night cancels the business of the daytime, when the reason that lights our minds becomes inanimate. Again, night is cancelled by the light of day, and inanimate reason is rekindled to life by its rays.

Though darkness produces this sleep and quiet, is not the 'water of life' in the darkness? Are not spirits refreshed in that very darkness? Is not that silence the season of heavenly voices? For from contraries contraries are brought forth, out of darkness was created light. The Prophet's wars brought about the present peace, the peace of these latter days resulted from those wars. That conqueror of hearts cut off a thousand heads, that the heads of his people might rest in peace."

God's rebuke to Adam for scorning Iblis [Satan]

To whomsoever God's order comes, he must smite with his sword even his own child. Fear then, and revile not the wicked, for the wicked are impotent under God's commands. In presence of God's commands bow down the neck of pride. Scoff not nor chide even them that go astray! One day Adam cast a look of contempt and scorn upon Iblis, thinking what a wretch he was. He felt self-important and proud of himself, and he smiled at the actions of cursed Iblis.

God Almighty cried out to him, "O pure one, thou art wholly ignorant of hidden mysteries. If I were to blab the faults of the unfortunate, I should root up the mountains from their bases, and lay bare the secrets of a hundred Adams, and convert a hundred fresh Iblises into Mussalmans." Adam answered, "I repent me of my scornful looks. Such arrogant thoughts shall not be mine again. O Lord, pardon this rashness in Thy slave. I repent; chastise me not for these words!"

O Aider of aid-seekers, guide us, for there is no security in knowledge or wealth. "Lead not our hearts astray after Thou hast guided us," and avert the evil that the "Pen" has written. Turn aside from our souls the evil written in our fates, repel us not from the tables of purity! O God, Thy grace is the proper object of our desire. To couple others with Thee is not proper. Nothing is bitterer than severance from Thee, without Thy shelter there is naught but perplexity. Our worldly goods rob us of our heavenly goods, our body rends the garment of our soul. Our hands, as it were, prey on our feet. Without reliance on Thee how can we live? And if the soul escapes these great perils, it is made captive as a victim of misfortunes and fears, Inasmuch as when the soul lacks union with the beloved, it abides forever blind and darkened by itself. If Thou showest not the way, our life is lost. A life living without Thee esteem as dead! If Thou findest fault with Thy slaves, verily it is right in Thee, O blessed one! If Thou shouldst call sun and moon obscure, if Thou shouldst call the straight cypress crooked, If Thou shouldst declare the highest heaven base, or rich mines and oceans paupers, all this is the truth in relation to Thy perfection! Thine is the dominion and the glory and the wealth! For Thou art exempt from defect and not-being. Thou givest existence to things non-existent, and again Thou makest them non-existent.

Fihi ma Fihi - Difference Between Fiqh Scholar With Sufi Scholar

Rumi stated: Mohammed, the great Prophet, once said, “The worst of scholars are those who visit princes, and the best of princes are those who visit scholars. Wise is the prince who stands at the door of the poor, and wretched are the poor who stand at the door of the prince.”

Now, taking the outward sense of these words, people think that scholars should never visit princes or they will become the worst of scholars. That is not the true meaning. Rather, the worst of scholars are those who depend upon princes, and who revolve their life and purpose around the attention and favor of princes. Such scholars take up learning in hopes that princes will give them presents, hold them in esteem, and promote them to office.

Therefore, such scholars improve themselves and pursue knowledge on account of princes. They become scholars from their fear of princes. They subject themselves to the princes’ control. They conform themselves to the plans that princes map out for them. So, whether they visit a prince, or a prince visits them, still in every case they’re the visitors, and it is the prince who is visited.

However, when scholars do not study to please princes, but instead pursue learning from first to
last for the sake of truth—when their actions and words spring from the truth they have learned
and put to use because this is their nature and they cannot live otherwise—just as fish can only thrive in water—such scholars subject themselves to the control and direction of God. They become blessed with the guidance of the prophets. Everyone living in their time is touched by them and derives inspiration from their example, whether they are aware of the fact or not.

Should such scholars visit a prince, they are still the ones visited and the prince is the visitor, because in every case it is the prince who takes from these scholars and receives help from them. Such scholars are independent of the prince. They are like the light-giving sun, whose whole function is giving to all, universally, converting stones into rubies and carnelians, changing mountains into mines of copper, gold, silver and iron, making the earth fresh and green, bringing fruit to the trees, and warmth to the breeze. Their trade is giving, they do not receive. The Arabs have expressed this in a proverb: “We have learned in order to give, we have not learned in order to take.” And so in all ways they are the visited, and the prince is the visitor.

The thought comes to me at this point to comment on a verse of the Koran, although it is not related to the present discourse. However, this idea comes to me now, and I want to express it so that it can go on record. O Prophet, say to the prisoners in your hands. ‘If God knows of any good in your hearts, He will give you more than He has taken, And He will forgive you. Surely God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.’

This verse was revealed when Mohammed had defeated the unbelievers, slaying, plundering and taking prisoners, whom he tied hand and foot. Amongst the prisoners was his uncle, ‘Abbas. The chained people wept and wailed all night in their helpless humiliation. They had given up all hope of their lives, expecting the sword and slaughter. Mohammed, seeing this, laughed.

“Look!” the prisoners exclaimed. “He shows the traits of a person after all. This claim that he is superhuman is not true. There he stands looking at us prisoners in these chains, enjoying it. Just like everyone ruled by their passions—when they gain victory over their enemies and see their opponents vanquished to their will, they rejoice and feel happiness.”

“Not so,” answered Mohammed, seeing what was in their hearts. “Never would I laugh at the sight of enemies conquered by my hand, or the sight of your suffering. But I do rejoice, in fact I laugh, because with inner vision I see myself dragging and drawing people by collars and chains, out of the black smoke of Hell into Paradise, while they complain and cry, ‘Why are you pulling us from this pit of self-destruction into that garden of security?’ So, laughter overcomes me. “But since you have not yet been granted the vision to see what I am saying, listen. God commands me to say this to you: First you gathered your forces and mustered your might, trusting completely in your own virtue and valor. You said to yourselves, ‘We will conquer the Muslims and vanquish them.’ But you did not see that One Power more powerful than yourselves. You did not know the One Force above your force. And so all that you planned turned out the opposite. Even now in your fear, you still hold onto your beliefs and do not see the One Reality over you. Rather than facing that Power, you see my power, because it is easier for you to see yourselves conquered by me. “But even in your present state, still I say to you: If you recognize my power, and accept yourselves vanquished to my will in all circumstances, I can still deliver you from this grief.

He, who is able to bring forth a black bull from a white bull, can also produce a white bull from a black bull. Turn away from your former ways, and likewise I will return to you all the property that has been taken from you, in fact many times as much. Even more, I will absolve you of all blame, and grant you prosperity in this world and the world to come.”
“I have repented,” said ‘Abbas. “I have turned from my former ways.”
Mohammed said, “God demands a token of this claim you make, for easy it is to boast of love, but other is the proof thereof.”
“In God’s name, what token do you demand?” asked ‘Abbas.
“Give all the properties that remain to you for the army of Islam, so the army of Islam may be strengthened,” said Mohammed. “That is, of course, if you have truly become a Muslim and desire the good of Islam and Muslimdom.”
“Prophet of God, what remains to me?” said ‘Abbas. “They have taken everything, leaving me not so much as an old reed-mat.”
“You see,” said Mohammed, “you have not yet given up your old ways. You have not yet seen the light of truth. Should I tell you how much property you still have? Where you have hidden it? To whom you have entrusted it? Where you concealed and buried it?”
“God forbid!” exclaimed ‘Abbas.
“Did you not entrust so much property specifically to your mother?” asked Mohammed. “Did you not bury your gold under such and such a wall? Did you not tell your mother in detail, ‘If I return, give this back to me. But if I do not return safely, then spend so much upon such and such an object, and give so much to So-and-So, and so much is to be for yourself’?”
When ‘Abbas heard these words he raised his hand in complete acceptance. “Prophet of God,” he said, “truly, I have always thought you carried the fortune of the old kings, such as Haman, Shaddad, Nimrod and the rest. But now that you have spoken I know this favor is divine, from the world beyond, from the throne of God.”
“Now you have spoken truly,” said Mohammed. “This time I have heard the snapping of the girdle of doubt, that you had within you. I have an ear hidden within my inmost Soul, and with that hidden ear I can hear the snapping of doubt within anyone. Now it is true for a fact that you believe.”
I have told this story to the Amir for this reason: In the beginning you came forward as a champion of Muslimdom. “I ransom myself,” you said. “I sacrifice my own desires, considerations and judgement so that Islam will remain secure and strong.” But because you put your trust in your own plans, loosing sight of God, and forgetting that all things proceed from God, all your intentions have turned out the opposite.

Having struck a bargain with the Tartars, you are unintentionally giving them assistance to destroy the Syrians and the Egyptians, which in the end may bring ruin to the realm of Islam. So God has turned this plan you made for the survival of Islam, into its own destruction.

Turn your face to God, for things are in a dangerous condition. Yet, even in your present state, my friend, do not give up hope, but look to God and give yourself up to Its will. You thought your
own strength of spirit proceeded from yourself, just as ‘Abbas and the prisoners did, thus you have fallen into weakness. But do not give up hope, because He, who can produce weakness from strength, can bring forth an even greater strength from this weakness. Just as Mohammed rejoiced during the prisoners’ grief, so too I find joy in your present embarrassment, because from this weakness and suffering can come something greater than has been lost. Therefore, do not give up hope, for “Of God’s comfort no one despairs, Except the unbelievers.”

My purpose in speaking this way to the Amir was so that he could see the matter correctly, and accept the will of God humbly. He has fallen out of an exceedingly high state into a low state, yet in this way he may grow. Life can show the most wonderful things, but behind all of them lies a trap should we forget the source of this wonder.

God has devised this plan so that we will learn not to claim, out of arrogance and vanity, these ideas and plans as our own. If everything were in truth as it appears to be, Mohammed, endowed as he was with a vision so penetrating, so illuminated, would never have cried,

“Lord, show me things as they are.
You show a thing as fair, and in reality it is ugly.
You show a thing as ugly, and in truth it is beautiful.
Show us everything just as it is,
So that we will not fall into the snare.”

Now, your judgement, however good and luminous it may be, is certainly not better than the Prophet’s judgement. So do not put your trust in every idea and every notion, but only i in God
and Its wisdom.

Prologue From Rumi

Exctract From Mathnawi i Ma'nawi

Hadhrat Shaykh Jalaluddin Rumi

HEARKEN to the reed-flute, how it complains, Lamenting its banishment from its home:
“Ever since they tore me from my osier bed,
My plaintive notes have moved men and women to tears.

I burst my breast, striving to give vent to sighs,
And to express the pangs of my yearning for my home.

He who abides far away from his home
Is ever longing for the day he shall return.

My wailing is heard in every throng,
In concert with them that rejoice and them that weep.

Each interprets my notes in harmony with his own feelings,
But not one fathoms the secrets of my heart.

My secrets are not alien from my plaintive notes,
Yet they are not manifest to the sensual eye and ear.

Body is not veiled from soul, neither soul from body,
Yet no man hath ever seen a soul.”

This plaint of the flute is fire, not mere air.
Let him who lacks this fire be accounted dead!

‘This the fire of love that inspires the flute,l
‘This the ferment of love that possesses the wine.

The flute is the confidant of all unhappy lovers;
Yea, its strains lay bare my inmost secrets.
Who hath seen a poison and an antidote like the flute?
Who hath seen a sympathetic consoler like the flute?

The flute tells the tale of love’s bloodstained path,
It recounts the story of Majnun’s love toils.

None is privy to these feelings save one distracted,
As ear inclines to the whispers of the tongue.

Through grief my days are as labor and sorrow,
My days move on, hand in hand with anguish.

Yet,, though my days vanish thus, ‘tis no matter,
Do thou abide, O Incomparable Pure One!

But all who are not fishes are soon tired of water; And they who lack daily bread find the day very long; So the “Raw” comprehend not the state of the “Ripe;”

Therefore it behoves me to shorten my discourse.
Arise, O son! burst thy bonds and be free!
How long wilt thou be captive to silver and gold?

Though thou pour the ocean into thy pitcher,
It can hold no more than one day’s store.
The pitcher of the desire of the covetous never fills,
The oyster-shell fills not with pearls till it is content;

Only he whose garment is rent by the violence of love
Is wholly pure from covetousness and sin.

Hail to thee, then, O LOVE, sweet madness!
Thou who healest all our infirmities!
Who art the physician of our pride and self-conceit!
Who art our Plato and our Galen!

Love exalts our earthly bodies to heaven,
And makes the very hills to dance with joy!

O Iover, ‘twas love that gave life to Mount Sinai, When “it quaked, and Moses fell down in a swoon.” Did my Beloved only touch me with his lips, I too, like the flute, would burst out in melody.

But he who is parted from them that speak his tongue,
Though he possess a hundred voices, is perforce dumb.

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?
LOVE desires that this secret should be revealed,
For if a mirror reflects not, of what use is it?


Knowest thou why thy mirror reflects not?
Because the rust has not been scoured from its face.

If it were purified from all rust and defilement,
It would reflect the shining of the SUN Of GOD.

O friends, ye have now heard this tale,
Which sets forth the very essence of my case.

Notes:
1. Love signifies the strong attraction that draws all creatures back to reunion with

their Creator.
2. Self-annihilation leads to eternal life in God the universal
Noumenon, by whom all phenomena subsist. See Gulshan i Raz, I. 400.
3. “Raw” and “Ripe” are terms for “Men of externals” and “Men of heart” or Mystics.
4. Alluding to the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. Koran vii. 139.
5. All phenomenal existences (man included) are but “veils” obscuring the face of the Divine

Noumenon, the only real existence, and the moment His sustaining presence is withdrawn
they at once relapse into their original nothingness. See Gulshan i Raz, I. 165.
6. So Bernard of Clairvaux. See Gulshan i Raz, I. 435.