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

Prose Introduction
This is the Masnavi, the roots of the main tenets of theology regarding
the unveiling of the secrets of certain knowledge and union. It is the
greatest creed and the most luminous of holy laws, as well as the most
manifest of proofs of God –– His light is like a niche in which there is a
lamp
* that shines more brightly than the dawn. This book’s the paradise of
hearts with boughs and springs, one known as Salsabil
* by travellers on
this path; to those with mystic stations who know miracles it is the very
best of stations and of resting places.
* The godly here both eat and drink;
the free feel joy and mirth through it. It is, like Egypt’s Nile, a wine for
patient worshippers, but an a
ffliction for all Pharaoh’s people and those
who don’t believe –– as He has said: Many He leads astray by it, while
many others God will guide with it.
* It is the cure for breasts, the purge of
sorrows, the Koran’s unveiler, and a vast profusion of Man’s sustenance
and purest qualities. And it was written by the hands of noble, pious
scribes,
* who in this way ordain that none shall touch it but the purified, a
revelation from the Lord of both the worlds!
* Falsehood does not approach
it from the front or from behind;
* God watches it and oversees it too: He is
the best of guards and the most merciful of all.
* And it has other titles
given to it by the Lord. We’ve just provided this brief summary –– a token
which points to much more: a mouthful tells of a whole pool, a handful
indicates a threshing-
floor of wheat.
This slave in need of mercy from the Lord, Mohammad Ebn
Mohammad Ebn Hosayn from Balkh, may God accept him, says: I’ve
striven in composing this long work of rhyming couplets which comprises
wonders, rarities, enlightened sayings, pearls of guidance, the path of
the ascetics, and the garden of the pietists –– concise in form but rich in
terms of meaning –– to answer the request of my chief and support, the
location of the spirit in my body and my provision for today and for
tomorrow, chief and exemplar for the mystics, leader to certainty and
guidance, helper of mankind, trustee of hearts and intellects, who was
established by the Lord among His creatures, His choice among created
beings, the aim of the injunctions given to the Prophet and the secrets
shared with just His chosen one, the key to all the treasures of the
empyrean, trustee of treasures in this world too: that’s Abu

 l-Faza
 el

---

Hosamo

 l-Haqq-wa
 ddin, named Hasan Ebn Mohammad Ebn Hasan
Akhi Tork, the Abu Yazid of his time, Jonayd of this age, veracious
like his father and his grandfather, may God be pleased with him and
them.
* Originating from Orumiya, from the lineage of that noble shaikh
who said, ‘Last night I was a Kurd, but now I’ve woken up an Arab!’
*
God bless his soul and those of his successors too. How blest the ancestor
as well as the successor!
His is a lineage on which the sun has cast its mantle and before which
stars have shone down their bright beams. Their courtyard has not ceased
to be the qebla
* of good fortune, towards which sons of saints all face––
hope’s Kaaba which is circumambulated by those whose aim is the obliter-
ated ones. May it not cease to serve this way, so long as one star rises and
the sun appears on the horizon, as a refuge for those with insight, the
divine, the holy and the spiritual, enlightened and celestial ones –– the
silent observers, absent and present ones;
* the kings in rags, the notables of
all the races, those with many virtues, the guiding lights.
Amen, Lord of the worlds! This is a prayer that will not be turned
down, for it’s a prayer for every kind of creature. Praise be to God, who is
One, and blessings on our chief Mohammad and his family. God su
ffices
for us; He is a generous protector.