Masnavi i Ma'navi — trans. E. H. Whinfield (abridged) (1898)

Yea, lost and dead and buried in his Creator! When you regard this lord as separate from God, You annihilate at once text and paraphrase. With eyes and heart look beyond mere water and clay, God alone is the Qibla; regard not two Qiblas! If you regard two you lose the benefit of both; A spark falls on the tinder and the tinder vanishes! Joseph kept in prison a long time for having placed his hopes of release in man and not in God. In like manner Joseph, in the prison, With humble and earnest supplications Begged aid, saying, "When you are released, And are occupied with your ministrations to the king, Remember me, and entreat the king To release rue too from this prison." How can one prisoner fettered in the snare Procure release for a fellow prisoner? The people of the world are all prisoners, Awaiting death on the stake of annihilation; Except one or two rare exceptions, Whose bodies are in prison but their souls in heaven. Afterwards, because Joseph had looked to man for aid, He remained in prison for many years. The Devil caused the man to forget Joseph, And blotted Joseph's words from his remembrance; And on account of this fault of that holy man God left him in the prison for many years.

NOTES:

• 1. Koran vi. 1.
• 2. Koran xii. 42.
• 3. Koran xii. 42.

STORY IX. The King and his Three Sons.

A certain king had three sons, who were the light of his eyes, and, as it were, a fountain whence the palm tree of his heart drank the water of bliss. One day he called his sons before him and commanded them to travel through his realm, and to inspect the behavior of the governors and the state of the administration; and he strictly charged them not to go near a particular fort which he named. But, according to the saying, "Man hankers after what is forbidden," the three princes disobeyed their father, and, before going anywhere else, proceeded to visit this fort. The result was, that they fell into calamities, and had occasion to repeat the text, "Had we but hearkened or understood, we had not been among the dwellers in the flame." 1 The fort was full of pictures, images and forms, and amongst them was a portrait of a beautiful damsel, the daughter of the King of China, which made such a deep impression on the three princes that they all became distracted with love and determined to journey to the court of the King of China and sue for the hand of his daughter. The significance of forms. 2 Be not intoxicated with these goblets of forms, Lest you become a maker and worshipper of idols. Pass by these cups full of forms, linger not; There is wine in the cups, but it proceeds not from them. Look to the Giver of the wine with open mouth; When His wine comes, is not cup too small to hold it? O Adam, seek the reality of my love, Quit the mere husk and form of the wheat. When sand was made meal for "The Friend of God," 3 Know, O master, the form of wheat was dispensed with. Form proceeds from the world that is without form, Even as smoke arises from fire. The Divine art without form designs forms (ideals), 4 Those forms fashion bodies with senses and instruments.

Whatever the form, it fashions in its own likeness Those bodies either to good or to evil. If the form be blessing, the man is thankful; If it be suffering, he is patient; If it be cherishing, he is cheerful; If it be bruising, he is full of lamentation! Since all these forms are slaves of Him without form, Why do they deny their Lord and Master? They exist only through Him that is without form; What, then, means their disavowal of their Sustainer? This very denial of Him proceeds from Him, This act is naught but a reflection from Himself! The forms of the walls and roofs of houses Know to be shadows of the architect's thought; Although stones and planks and bricks Find no entrance into the sanctuary of thought, Verily the Absolute Agent is without form, Form is only a tool in His hands. Sometimes that Formless One of His mercy Shows His face to His forms from behind the veil of Not-being, That every form may derive aid therefrom, From its perfect beauty and power. Again, when that Formless One hides His face, Those forms set forth their needs. If one form sought perfection from another form, That would be the height of error. Why then, O simpleton, do you set forth your needs To one who is as needy as yourself? Since forms are slaves, apply them not to God, Seek not to use a form as a similitude of God. 5 Seek Him with humbleness and self-abasement, For thought yields naught but forms of thought. Still, if you are unable to dispense with forms, Those occurring independently of your thought are best. 6 The "Truth," which is our real self, lies hidden within our phenomenal and visible self, and the Prophets reveal it to us. "Now have we seen what the king saw at the first, When that Incomparable One adjured us." The prophets have many claims to our gratitude,