Masnavi 5.8

Story VIII. (continued). Mahmud and Ayaz (p. 476).

Mahmud again presses Ayaz to reveal his secrets, remarking that even if they suggest sad thoughts, they will benefit the hearers. The wise man is as a guest-house, and he admits all the thoughts that occur to him, whether of joy or of sorrow, with the same welcome, knowing that, like Abraham, he may entertain angels unawares. This is illustrated by the story of a woman who drove away a valued guest by a petulant remark, which he was not intended to hear, and afterwards repented her discourtesy so deeply that she put on mourning and turned her house into an inn. Let grief as well as joy lodge in the heart, for grief is sent for our benefit as well as joy. Endure woe patiently, like Joseph and Job, and regard it as a blessing, saying with Solomon, “Stir me up, O Lord, to be thankful for Thy favour which Thou hast showed upon me!” Mahmud then praises Ayaz for being a true man who can control both lust and anger. Those who are carried away by anger or lust, like the girl of whom an anecdote is told, do not deserve the name of men. When anger or lust takes hold of a man reason departs from him. Then comes an anecdote of a cowardly Sufi who boasted of his bravery, but had not courage enough even to slay a captive infidel. Verily, the “greater warfare,” viz., that against one’s own lusts and passions, demands as much courage as the “lesser warfare” against the infidels. This is illustrated by a story of a saint named Tyazi, who, after having been a great warrior against the’infidels, renounced the world and applied himself to wage the “greater warfare” against his own lusts. One day, while sitting in his cell, he heard the noise of the army going out to fight, and his carnal passion urged him to go and join in the fight, but he thus rebuked it: —

’Iydzi’s rebuke to his passion, which lusted to join in the

“lesser warfare” (p. 480).

I said, “O foul and faithless passion, Whence have you derived this inclination to war? Tell me truly, O passion, is this your trickery? Or else is it stubbornness shunning obedience to God? If you say not truly I will attack you, And will afflict you more severely with discipline.” Passion then heaved a cry from its breast, And without mouth vented the following complaint: — “In this cell you slay me every day; You slay my life like the life of a Gueber. Not a soul is aware of my condition; You drag me along without food or sleep. In the fight with one wound I shall quit the body, And the people will admire my valour and self-devotion.’’ I said, “O bad passion, you live as an infidel, And as an infidel you will die; shame be upon you! In both worlds you are naught but a hypocrite; In the two worlds only an unprofitable servant. I have vowed to God never to quit this cell While life remains in this body; Because whatever the body does in this privacy Is not done to make a fair show before men. Its movements and its rest in the privacy of this cell Are not intended for the sight of any besides God. This is the ‘greater warfare,’ that the ‘lesser;’ Both these warfares have their Kustams and Haidars. They are not to be fought by one whose reason and sense Flee away as soon as a mouse wags its tail. Such persons must shun the array of battle, And keep aloof from it even as women do.”

This is followed by an anecdote of another brave warrior who “was among the faithful, and made good what he had promised to God.” Then comes a long story of a prince of Egypt who saw the portrait of a damsel belonging to the Chief of Mausil, and conceived an ardent passion for her, and sent an army to take her by force. The army succeeded in capturing her, and set out on the return march; but on the way the captain of the army fell in love with the damsel, and she returned his affection. When they reached Egypt she was made over to the prince, but at once took a dislike to him, as he was not nearly so manly as her beloved captain. The prince discovered her secret, and though he might justly have resented the treachery of the captain, he refrained, and showed true manliness in the “greater warfare” by pardoning his fault and uniting him with the damsel to whom he was so much attached.

Ideas gained from hearing a thing lead to seeing it

A person put this question to a philosopher, “O sage, what is true and what is false? The sage touched his ear and said, “This is false, But the eye is true and its report is certain.”

The ear is false in relation to the eve, And most assertions are related to the ear. If a bat turn away its eyes from the sun, Still it is not veiled from some idea of the sun: Its very dread of the sun frames an idea of the sun, And that idea scares it away to the darkness. That idea of light terrifies it, And makes it cling to the murky night. Just so ’tis your idea of your terrible foe Which makes you cling to your friends and allies. O Moses, thy revelations shed glory on the mount, But that frightened one endured not thy realities. Be not too proud, but know that you must first endure The idea of the Truth, and thence come to the reality.

No one is frightened by the mere idea of fighting. For “no courage is needed before fighting begins.” In the mere idea of fighting a coward can imagine Himself as attacking and retreating like a Rustam. The pictures of Rustam on the wall of a bath Are similar to a coward’s ideas of fighting. But when these ideas are tested by actual sight, What of the coward then? His bravery is gone!

Strive, then, from mere hearing to press on to seeing; What ear has told you falsely eye will tell truly.

Then ear too will acquire the properties of an eye; Your ears, now worthless as wool, will become gems; Yea, your whole body will become a mirror, It will be as an eye or a bright gem in your bosom. First the hearing of the ear enables you to form ideas, Then these ideas guide you to the Beloved. Strive, then, to increase the number of these ideas, That they may guide you, like Majnun, to the Beloved. Concerning the unbelievers who say, “There is only this our

])resent life; we live and we die, and naught but time dcstroyeth us”2 (p. 483).

To return; that prince played the fool, And took delight in the society of the damsel. O prince, suppose your dominion extend from east to

west, Yet. as it endures not, esteem it transitory as lightning; Yea, O sleeping heart, know the kingdom that endures

not For ever and ever is only a mere dream. I marvel how long you will indulge in vain illusion, Which has seized you by the throat like a headsman. Know that even in this world there is a place of refuge: Hearken not to the unbeliever who denies it. His argument is this: he says again and again, “If there were aught beyond this life we should see it.” But if the child sees not the state of reason, Does the man of reason therefore forsake reason? And if the man of reason sees not the state of love, Is the blessed moon of love thereby eclipsed? The beauty of Joseph was not visible to his brethren; Was it therefore hidden from the eyes of Jacob? The eyes of Moses regarded his staff as a stick, But the divine eye saw it to be a deadly serpent. The eye of the head was at issue with the divine eye, But the latter prevailed and gave convincing proof. To the eyes of Moses his hand looked a mere hand, But to the divine eye it appeared a flashing light. This subject in its entirety is endless, But to the unbeliever it is a mere fanciful idea. The only realities to him are lust and gluttony; Speak not then to him of the mysteries of the Beloved. To us believers lust and gluttony are only ideas, Therefore we behold always the beauty of the Beloved. To all men whose creed is lust and gluttony Applies the text, “To you be your creed, to me mine.” In the face of negations like these cut short speech, “O Ahmad, say little to an old Fire-worshipper!”

“We distribute among them,”’ to some carnal lusts, and

to others angelic qualities (p. 486).

If the prince lacked the animal manliness of asses, Yet he possessed the true manliness of the prophets. He renounced lust and anger and concupiscence, And showed himself a man of the lineage of the prophets. Grant that he lacked the virility of asses, Yet God esteemed him a lord of lords. Let me be dead, so long as God regards me with favour! I am better off than the living who are rejected of God; The former is the kernel of manliness, the latter only the

rind; The former is borne to Paradise, the latter to hell. The Prophet says, “Paradise is annexed to tribulation, But hell-fire follows indulgence in lust.” O Ayaz, who slayest demons like a male lion, Manliness of asses is naught, manliness of mind much. What sort of man dost thou think him who sports as a

boy, But who has no comprehension of these chief matters?

O thou who hast seen the light of my commandments, And risked thy life to perform them faithfully, Hear a tale of the sweetness of my commandments, That the meaning of this sweetness may be made plain.

The story which follows is one in which Ayaz is himself the chief actor, and hence it may perhaps be inferred that this part of the poem had not received its final revision when the poet died. The king showed to all his courtiers in turn a valuable jewel, and asked them its value. Each declared it to be priceless. He thereupon ordered each of them to break it to pieces, but they refused, one after the other; on which he praised them highly and gave them presents. Finally the jewel came into the hands of Ayaz, and he, not being a mere imitator like the rest, nor being tempted by the rewards given to the rest, decided that the king’s command ought to be obeyed at all costs, and therefore broke the jewel to pieces. Blind imitation of current fashions and ruling “public opinion” is the way of the world, but its worthlessness is at once manifested when it is put to the test. True faith is a reasonable faith, not one adopted and held in mechanical and parrot-like fashion. The king then commanded that those courtiers whose faith had been shown to be mere “taqlid” or imitation, and not vital and intelligent, should be put to death; but Ayaz interceded for them, saying, “O Lord, punish them not if they forget or fall into sin;” although their plea that they sinned through forgetfulness is of no more weight than the plea of having sinned through drunkenness, seeing that both forgetfulness and drunkenness are wilfully incurred. Those who die in amity with God have no cause to fear death, — “It cannot harm them, for to their Lord will they return;” but those who die at enmity with God are in a very different position, and have therefore a very strong claim for mercy. The Egyptian magicians, when threatened by Pharaoh with death for believing in Moses, recognised the truth that death in such a cause would unite them with God, and that extinction of the phenomenal self, on which Pliaraoh prided himself, would bring them to the real Self from whom they had been estranged by life on earth. Like Habib, the carpenter of Antioch, who was martyred for taking the part of ’Isa’s two apostles in that city, they said, “O that my people knew how gracious God hath been to me, and that He hath made me one of His honoured ones!” A man can only say “I” with truth when he has mortified self, and unlearnt to say “I” in the sense in which Pharaoh said it. Fakhru-’d-Din Razi discoursed learnedly on this point, saying much of “incarnation” and “union” as the modes in which the real “I” of the Deity indwells in the human soul; but as he lacked the true mystic unction, his words only serve to darken counsel. But here Ayaz breaks off, saying, “Who am I that I should say to the Almighty, ‘Grant pardon to these offenders’?” The Omniscient God needs not to be informed of their case, for He knows all; nor to be reminded of it, for He forgets nothing; nor to be urged to act mercifully, for He created men “for their own benefit, and not to derive benefit from them.” Such intercession, therefore, implies ignorance of God, and “such only of His servants as are possessed of knowledge of God truly fear God.” God is at once centre and circumference of the universe, and the only true wisdom consists in absolute self-surrender to His will, and this surrender of self will bring with it its own exceeding great reward.