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

Why God is named "Hearing," "Seeing" and "Knowing".
God calls himself "Seeing," to the end that
His eye may every moment scare you from sinning.
God calls himself "Hearing," to the end that
You may close your lips against foul discourse.
God calls himself "Knowing," to the end that
You may be afraid to plot evil.
These names are not mere accidental names of God,
As a negro may be called Kafu'r (white);
They are names derived from God's essential attributes,
Not mere vain titles of the First Cause.
For if so, they would be only empty pleasantries,
Like calling the deaf a hearer and the blind a seer,
Or a name like "impudent" for a modest man,
Or "beautiful" for an ugly negro,
Or such a title as "Haji" for a new-born boy,
Or that of "Ghazi" applied to a noble idler.
If such titles as these are used in praising persons
Who do not possess the qualities implied, 'tis wrong;
'Twould be jesting or mockery or madness.
"God is exalted above" what is said by evil men. 4
I knew you before I met you face to face;
That you had a fair face but an evil heart;
Yea, I knew you before I saw you,
That you were rooted in iniquity through guile.
When my eye is red owing to inflammation,
I know 'tis so from the pain, though I see it not.
You regarded me as a lamb without a shepherd;
You fancied that I had no guardian.
Lovers have suffered chastisement for this cause,
That they have cast ill-timed looks at fair ones.
They have supposed the fawn to have no shepherd,
They have supposed the captive to be going a begging;
Till in the twinkling of an eye an arrow pierces them,
Saying, "I am her guardian; look not at her rashly!"
What! am I less than a lamb or a fallow deer,
That I should have none to shepherd me?
Nay, I have a Guardian worthy of dominion,
Who knows every wind that blows upon me.

He is aware whether that wind is chill or mild, He is not ignorant nor absent, O mean one. The carnal soul is made by God blind and deaf; I saw with the heart's eye your blindness afar off. For this cause I never inquired about you for eight years Because I saw you filled with ignorance and duplicity. Why indeed should I inquire about one in the furnace, Who is bowed down with reproach, like yourself? Comparison of the world to a bath stove, and of piety to the hot bath. The lust of the world is like a bath stove, Whereby the bath of piety is heated; But the lot of the pious is purity from the stove's filth, Because they dwell in the bath and in cleanliness. The rich are as those that carry dung To heat the furnace of the bath withal. God has instilled into them cupidity, That the bath may be warmed and pleasant. Quit this stove and push on into the bath; Know quitting the stove to be the bath itself. Whoso is in the stove-room is as a servant To him who is temperate and prudent. Your lust is as fire in the world, With a hundred greedy mouths wide open. In the judgment of reason this gold is foul dung, Although, like dung, it serves to kindle the fire. Whoso was born in the stove-room and never saw purity, The smell of sweet musk is disagreeable to him. In illustration of this, a story follows of a tanner who was accustomed to bad smells in the course of his trade, and who was half killed by the smell of musk in the bazaar of the perfumers, but was cured by the accustomed smell of dung.

NOTES:

• 1. Koran xcix. 7.
• 2. Koran ii. 213.
• 3. "My servant draws nigh to me by pious deeds till I love him, and, when I love him, I am his eye, his ear, his tongue, his foot, his hand, and by me he sees, hears, talks, walks, and feels." Hadis.
• 4. Cp. Koran xvi 3.

STORY II. The Building of the "Most Remote Temple" at Jerusalem.