The Gift:  A Mirror
Divine Face of Jalalud-Din Rumi
Translation & Commentary by Seema Arif
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How could I bring something so trivial?
For a person as auspicious as you, so special!
I thought that I must gift you a mirror
Like the light of heart it possesses a glitter
You may reflect at your beautiful face before it
You are like the sun, the lamp of the horizon lit
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Rumi tells us about the quality of the righteous:
   They keep reflecting at their relationships in life, with people, with God and with the universe. How can one maintain the dynamics of such relationship? 
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(9)  What is the mirror ?
How does this tool works?
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When Hazrat Yusuf (as) had asked for his gift, his friend was deeply embarrassed at this demand. He said,  I had searched every where and there to find a beautiful gift for you, but I could not find a gift worthy enough to present you. So I had brought you a mirror; a person as beautiful as you must have a mirror to look at one's own beauty and adorn it.
O illuminated, I have brought a mirror for thee
Whenever, ye look at it; ye may remember me

Out of his bag was the wonderful tool
The mirror, a business for the beautiful
The mirror of existence is non existence, cool!
Hence, be non-existent if you are not a fool
The life takes shape in non-life forever
The rich shower their charity always on poor
The hungry may look for food in the mirror
The burnt is in search of matches thither
The flaw, the disorder and the destruction
In itself mirrors beauty and all perfection

Annihilation is an art with sweeping effect
Our selves are impure; tainted with ideas imperfect
A cloth which is already crafted in dress
Brilliance of a tailor cannot rightly address
We must provide the whole log of trees
Carpenter may choose to cut it to sizes free
Whom will the orthopedic surgeon attend?
Patients with broken joints, bones fragment
Unless somebody is sick with some ailment
No doctor can practice his wonderful medicine
If copper is not so impure, rusty and rugged
What art the science of Alchemy had to exhibit
Every flaw is a mirror unto precision
As Slander is mirror of glory and admiration
Opposites strike at each other clearing the vision
Vinegar for honey can never be mistaken
One who has identified his limitation
Is quickening towards its mitigation
He can never rise to ultimate ascension
He, who is obsessed of self perfection.
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