The Masnavi, Book One (Oxford World's Classics)

Mathnawi’, in
G. R. Hawting, J. A. Mojaddedi, and A. Samely, 
Studies in Islamic and Middle Eastern
Texts and Traditions in Memory of Norman Calder (Oxford, 
2000), 93–6.
19
See e.g. E. Turkmen, 
The Essence of the Masnevi (Konya, 
1992).
Introduction
xxiv

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as an all-consuming force, with reference to the crushing of Mount
Sinai before Moses’s eyes, making him fall in a swoon (v. 
26).
Through divine love, the lover is e
ffaced and only God, the beloved,
lives on (v. 
30). Rumi often describes Man’s relationship with God
by using the scholastic language of Islamic theology and philosophy.
God is described as Absolute Being, while humans are non-beings
who merely imagine that they have their own independent existence.
They are urged to recognize their non-existence and to strive to
become e
ffaced in God, in order to truly exist through Him.
Another well-known story in the 
Masnavi is the brief and simple
tale in Book One about the lover who knocks on the door of his
beloved’s house (vv. 
3069–76). When she asks ‘Who’s there?’ he
answers, ‘It is I!’ and is consequently turned away. Only after being
‘cooked by separation’s
flame’ (v. 3071) does he learn from his mis-
take and perceive the reality of the situation. He returns to knock on
her door, and this time, on being asked, ‘Who’s there?’ he answers,
‘It is you’, and is admitted to where two I’s cannot be accom-
modated. This story is found among a cluster of passages which
illustrate e
ffacement in God. In the preceding story, a fox learns not
to think about himself but only for his king, the lion, when dividing
up what they had caught while hunting, while in the subsequent
story Joseph’s visitor can think of nothing better to present to him as
a gift than a mirror in which he can admire his own beauty. The
mirror is in fact one of Rumi’s favourite images for the soul; it is
tarnished by the rust of attachment to phenomenal existence, which
must be scraped away by the breaking of those attachments, through
discipline under the guidance of a Su
fi master. Only once it has
become completely clear can it become receptive to the light of God
and contain nothing but His re
flection.
The very 
first story of the Masnavi appropriately expands on the
message of the prologue that immediately precedes it, by its dif-
ferentiation of contrasting kinds of love. In order to cure his sick
slave-girl, the prayers of a devout king are answered with the arrival
of a divine healer. On discovering that she is lovesick, the healer
reunites her with her sweetheart, but after they are married he poi-
sons her husband so that she can slowly observe him rotting away in
front of her and losing his former good looks. In this way, all the love
she once had for him leaves her heart. The powerful force of divine
Introduction
xxv

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love thus takes e
ffect through the holy healer who cures the slave-girl
by murdering her lover with poison. Rumi makes it clear through
this harsh lesson that the love discussed in the prologue as an annihi-
lating force is divine love, by contrasting it with the 
fickle love of a
pair of super
ficial lovers.
Just as Rumi recognized that his frequent high praise of love could
be misinterpreted, he saw the same risk in his expression of the
experience of witnessing God in all of creation. While this is possible
for an experienced mystic like himself, the novice is more in danger
of loving creation for its own sake and thereby becoming increasingly
veiled from reality through such attachments (see e.g. vv. 
2813–16).
God is made manifest most clearly to them through mediating 
fig-
ures such as prophets and Su
fi masters, or saints, who fulfil the same
speci
fic role of leading human beings back to Him.
The overriding importance of the Su
fi master for Rumi’s under-
standing of Su
fism is evident in the fact that he is represented by a
character in at least nine of the dozen or so major narratives in Book
One, while his role and characteristics are frequently discussed in
homilies and commentaries on citations. This 
figure is perhaps rep-
resented most clearly by the divine healer in the 
first story. In other
stories, he is represented by religious and political leaders, such as
prophets, saints, and caliphs, as well as by animals. Among the many
homilies about this 
figure there is a lengthy one urging the reader to
choose a Su
fi master as guide and follow him wholeheartedly and
unconditionally (vv. 
2947–93), as well as many further passages
explaining speci
fic characteristics of such a master. The fact that
Rumi also includes a section on impostors who claim to be Su
fi
masters (vv. 
2275–98) only underlines further the importance for
him of the genuine mediator 
figure, a fact which comes as no sur-
prise in view of his own transformation to a Su
fi mystic through his
devotion to Shams-e Tabriz.
Rumi made painstaking e
fforts to convey his teachings as clearly
and e
ffectively as possible, using simple language, the masnavi verse
form, entertaining stories, and the most vivid and accessible imagery
possible. The aim of the present translation is to render Rumi’s
Masnavi into a relatively simple and attractive form which, with the
bene
fit of metre and rhyme, may enable as many readers as possible
to read the whole book with pleasure and to 
find it rewarding.