| Divine Face of Jalal ud Din Rumi |
| This Website has been created & maintained by Seema Arif |
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| Mathanavi:Book 1 |
| Translation & Commentary by Seema Arif |
| The men of heart burden of knowledge truly bear
Worldly skills and perception weighing down slowly tear. (1) When the knowledge shapes heart, it is a friend; When knowledge nourishes body, it only saddens Allah says, "Be not an ass bearing a load of books" (2) The knowledge which is not from Him, burden looks Knowledge not indirectly revealed from Heaven Endures no more than the rouge of the beautician If thou shalt bear this responsibility in a high spirit Relieving thee of heaviness, bless it shall infinite Beware! Bear that burden for Allah�s consent Till the true knowledge mounts to right assent Beware! Do not lift it for desire or passion Ride it to mastery thy steed carry it to heaven When thou shalt be riding on it firm and fast Relieved of remorse and guilt thou be at last! (3) How will you escape lust if not in Divine Love drenched? Thou seek not Him just naming His names get secured! (4) Reciting His names, qualifying attributes begets vision The vision guides you to union with Him, the true reason Do you know a leader without a goal to claim about? �Were there no roads there would be no ghoul.� (5) A name may ever escape its definition? Never! Would you pluck a rose from Gaf and Lam? O clever! (6) |
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| Knowledge of Heart |
| NOTES |
| (1) We acquire skills and adopt profession to reach excellence in life. But we get our selves busy in getting ourselves recognition and strive hard for public fame and wealth. We forget our duty towards the �Life and the living� a burden that men of heart bear. Their only strife is to �better� the Life process or condition of the living.
(2) Rumi has quoted Qu�ran: 62:5: The similitude of those who were charged with the (obligations of the) Mosaic Law, but who subsequently failed in those (obligations), is that of a donkey which carries huge tomes (but understands them not). Evil is the similitude of people who falsify the Signs of Allah. And Allah guides not people who do wrong. (3) When knowledge commands you to fulfill your petty selfish desires, it is you master and you are slave running after status in this world. When heart is the ruler, one commands knowledge to fulfill Divine obligation. It is only way to seek salvation here and approval in world hereafter. (4) For gnosis Physical Ibaddah is not enough; you have to call Him from you heart to reach Him. (5) Original translation of Whinfield. (6) The Persian letters �gaf� and �lam� make �Gul� meaning �Rose�. Rumi says that true meaning is not qualified by letters, the parts, which constitute a word, but we identify it with its definition. Now the world acclaims the idea of �schema� by Max Wertheimer and the theory of part-whole relationship. It is of particular importance in explaining theory of leadership. It says that the parts cannot substitute the whole. It is the whole which has parts and a whole is always larger than sum of its parts. Much earlier it had been adopted and refined by Illuminationist School of thought propounded by Suhrawardi. |