Masnavi 6.7

Story VII. The Three Travellers (p. 545).

A Musulman was travelling with two unbelievers, a Jew and a Christian, like wisdom linked with the flesh and the devil. God was “nigh unto His faithful servant,” and when the first stage was completed He caused a present of sweetmeats to be laid before the travellers. As the Jew and the Christian had already eaten their evening meal when the sweetmeats arrived, they proposed to lay them aside till the morrow; but the Musulman, who was keeping fast, and therefore could not eat before nightfall, proposed to eat them that night. To this the other two refused to consent, alleging that the Musulman wanted to eat the whole of the sweetmeats himself. Then the Musulman proposed to divide them into three portions, so that each might eat his own portion when he pleased; but this also was objected to by the others, who quoted the proverb, “The divider is in hell.” The Musulman explained to them that this proverb meant the man who divides his allegiance between God and lust; but they still refused to give way, and the Musulman therefore submitted, and lay down to sleep in the endurance of the pangs of hunger. Next morning, when they awoke, it was agreed between them that each should relate his dreams, and that the sweetmeats should be awarded to him whose dream was the best. The Jew said that he had dreamed that Moses had carried him to the top of Mount Sinai, and shown him marvellous visions of the glory of heaven and the angels. The Christian said he had dreamed that ’Isa had carried him up to the fourth heaven and shown him all the glories of the heavens. Finally the Musulman said that the Prophet Muhammad had appeared to him in person, and after commending him for his piety in saying his prayers and keeping fast so strictly on the previous night, had commanded him to eat up those divinely provided sweetmeats as a reward, and he had accordingly done so. The Jew and the Christian were at first annoyed with him for thus stealing a march upon them; but on his pointing out that he had no option but to obey the Prophet’s commands, they admitted that he had done right, and that his dream was the best, as he had been awake, while they were asleep. The moral is, that the divine treasure is revealed as an immediate intuition to those who seek it with prayer and humble obedience, and not to those who seek to infer and deduce its nature and quality from the lofty abstractions of philosophy.

Lofty ‘philosophical speculation does not lead to the knowledge of God (p. 547).

The Musulman said, “O my friends, My lord, the Prophet Muhammad, appeared to me, And said, ‘The Jew has hurried to the top of Sinai, And plays a game of love with God’s interlocutor; The Christian has been carried by ’Isa, Lord of bliss, Up to the summit of the fourth heaven; Thou who art left behind and hast endured anguish, Arise quickly and eat the sweetmeats and confections! Those two clever and learned men have ascended, And read their titles of dignity and exaltation; Those two exalted ones have found exalted science, And rivalled the very angels in intellect; O humble and simple and despised one, Arise and eat of the banquet of the divine sweets!” They said to him, “Then you have been gluttonous; Well indeed! you have eaten all the sweets!” He answered, “When my sovereign lord commanded me, Who am I that I should abstain from obeying? Would you, O Jew, resist the commands of Moses If he bade you do something, either pleasant or not? Would you, O Christian, rebel against ’Isa’s commands, Whether those commands were agreeable or the reverse? How could I rebel against the ‘Glory of the prophets’?

Nay, I ate the sweets, and am now happy.” They replied, “By Allah, you have seen a true vision; Your vision is better than a hundred like ours. Your dream was seen by you when awake, O happy one, For it was seen to be real by your being awake.”

Quit excessive speculation and inordinate science, ’Tis service of God and good conduct that gains its end. ’Tis for this that God created us, “We created not mankind save to worship us.” What profit did his science bring to Samiri? His science excluded him from God’s portals. Consider what Qarun gained by his alchemy; He was swallowed up in the depths of the earth. Abu-1 Jahl, again, what gained he from his wit Save to be hurled head-foremost into hell for infidelity? Know real science is seeing the fire directly, Not mere talk, inferring the fire from the smoke. Your scientific proofs are more offensive to the wise Than the urine and breath whence a physician infers. If these be your only proofs, O son, Smell foul breath and inspect urine like physicians. Such proofs are as the staff of a blind man, Which prove only the blindness of the holder. All your outcry and pompous claims and bustle Only say, “I cannot see, hold me excused!”

This is illustrated by an anecdote of a peasant who, hearing a proclamation issued by the Prince of Tirmid, to the effect that a large reward would be given to him who should take a message to Samarcand in the space of four days, hurried to Tirmid by relays of post-horses in the utmost haste, and threw the whole city into alarm, as the people thought that his extreme haste and bustle must portend the approach of an enemy or some other calamity. But when he was admitted to the presence of the prince, all he had to say was, that he had hurried to inform him that he could not go to Samarcand so quickly. The prince was very angry with him for making all this disturbance about nothing, and threatened to punish him.

The uses of chastisements (p. 550).

He said, “Alms of mercy repel calamity, Alms cure thy sickness, O son! ’Tis not charitable to burn up the poor, Or to put out the eyes of the meek.” The prince replied, “Kindness is good in its place, Provided you do kindness in its proper place. If at chess you put the king in the rook’s place That is wrong; and so if you put the knight in the king’s, The law prescribes both rewards and chastisements. The king’s place is the throne, the horse’s the gate. What is justice but putting each in his place? What injustice but putting each in what is not his place? Nothing is vain of all that God has created, Whether vengeance or mercy, or plain dealing or snares. Not one of all these is good absolutely, Nor is any one of them absolutely bad. Each is harmful or beneficial according to its place, Wherefore knowledge of these points is proper and useful. Ah! many are the chastisements sent to the poor Which are more beneficial to him than bread and sweets; Because sweets out of season excite biliousness, While blows make him pure from impurity. Strike the poor man timely blows, Which may save him from being beheaded later.”

The peasant, in reply, urged the prince not to be over hasty in punishing him, but to take counsel with suitable advisers, as enjoined in various texts, and in the Hadis prohibiting monkery, and warned him that if he shunned the advice and society of his equals he would assuredly be led astray by wretched companions. In illustration of this a story is told of a mouse who conceived a great affection for a frog living in a neighbouring pond. That he might be able to communicate with his friend at all times, he fastened a string to the frog’s leg, and the other end of it to his own. The proverb says, “Occasional intermission of visits augments love,” but ardent lovers desire to be in communication with the object of their love without intermission. The frog was at first unwilling to enter into such close relations with an animal of another species, but at last allowed himself to be persuaded to do so, against his better judgment. Shortly afterwards a raven swooped down on the mouse and carried him off, and the frog, being fastened to the mouse, was dragged off and destroyed along with it. The raven’s friends said to him, “How is it you managed to catch an animal that lives in the water?” and he replied, “Because it was so silly as to consort with one of another species that lived on dry land.”

Comparison of the body to the mouse, and the sold to the

frog (p. 553)-

The two friends discussed the matter long, And after discussion this plan was settled, That they should fetch a long string, By means of which to communicate with one another. The mouse said, “One end must be tied to your leg. And the other end to the leg of me, your double, That by this contrivance we two may be united, And be mingled together like soul and body.”

Body is like a string tied to soul’s foot, That string drags soul down to earth. The soul is the frog in the water of ecstatic bliss; Escaping from the mouse of the body, it is in bliss. The mouse of the body drags it back with that string; Ah! what sorrow it tastes through being dragged back! If it were not dragged down by that insolent mouse, The frog would remain at peace in its water. On the last day, when you shall awake from sleep, You will learn the rest of this from the Sun of truth!

In illustration of the thesis that the sense which perceives the unseen and spiritual world is superior to the other senses, and is exempt from death and decay, the poet tells an anecdote of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni and some robbers. One night, when walking about the city alone, he fell in with a band of robbers. He told them he was one of them, and proposed that each should tell his own special talent. Accordingly, one said he could hear what the dogs said when they barked; another that his sight was so good that when he saw a man at night he could recognise him without fail next day; another said his talent lay in the strength of his arms, whereby he dug holes through the walls of houses; another said he could divine by his sense of smell where

[book VI. gold was hidden; another said his wrist was so strong that he could throw a rope farther than any one. At last it came to the turn of the king, and he told them that his talent lay in his beard, for when he wagged it he could deliver criminals from the executioner. The robbers then went to the king’s palace, and, each of them co-operating by the exercise of his peculiar talent, they broke into it, and plundered a large sum of money. The king, after witnessing the burglary, withdrew from them secretly, and, having summoned his Vazir, gave orders for their apprehension. No sooner were the robbers brought before the king than the one whose talent lay in recognising by day those whom he had seen in the darkness of night at once knew him, and said to the others, “This is the man who said his talent lay in his beard!” Thus the only one whose talent profited him at the time of need was he who could recognise by day what he had previously seen by night; for he appealed to the king to exercise his talent of deliverance, and the king listened to his entreaty, and delivered him from the executioner.

He whose eyes discern God in the world is safe from destruction (p. 555).

He who, when he had once seen a person at night, Recognised him without fail when he saw him by day, Saw the king upon the throne, and straightway cried, “This was he who accompanied us on our nightly walk; This is he whose beard possessed such rare talent; Our arrest is due to his sagacity.” He added, “‘Yea, he was with you,’ this great king; He beheld our actions and heard our secrets. My eyes guided me to recognise that king at night, And dwelt lovingly on his face, like the moon at night. Now, therefore, I will implore his grace for myself, For he will never avert his face from him that knew him.” Know the eye of the ‘knower’ is a safeguard in both

worlds, For therein ye will find a very Bahram to aid you. For this cause Muhammad was the intercessor for faults, Because his eye ‘did not wander’ from the King of

kings. In the night of this world, when the sun is hidden, He beheld God, and placed his hopes on Him. His eyes were anointed with the words, ‘We opened thy

heart,’ He beheld what Gabriel himself had not power to see.”

The story of the frog is concluded by the lamentations of the frog over his folly in consorting with an animal of a different genus to his own, on which Reason warns him that homogeneity lies in spirit, not in outward form; and this is illustrated by an anecdote of a man named ’Abdu’l Ghaus, who was the son of a fairy mother, and consequently homogeneous with the fairies, though only an ordinary man to outward appearance.