Hi Sue,
I was totally but quite heartfully busy with the first story in Masnavi trying desperately to gather some thoughts that could reveal some of my deeper views regarding Rumi, his Masnavi and the Persian mysticism to you, my very dear friend. I seemed to be silent, but in every moment of all these past days I have been thinking and talking to you in my heart. I am very grateful to you to be reading this important mystical book with us. I am sure you will make countless discoveries in the Persian culture and mysticism through Masnavi for it has a huge, profound influence on my people and culture. Let me copy and paste my short essay here:
On our journey in Masnavi we have reached line 50 with Sabber and Maryam.
In the beginning of this huge reading, it is necessary to have at least a general outline of the book we have before us. Masnavi, which some scholars call the greatest book in the world of mysticism, is a mystical Odyssey in the Persian literature – the story of the restless soul seeking to return to his origin. But unlike Homer’s Odyssey, here the Penelope is God and the unruly suitors are the jealous angels and the Satan who did not agree to man’s creation in the first place and will definitely do anything to prevent him from his return.
In the context of Persian mysticism love is at the core of the creation. Persian mystics rely for their philosophy on a sentence God told Solomon in answer to his question about why He brought the creation into being. God’s answer was that “I was a hidden treasure. I loved to be revealed.” Therefore, God created everything out of love and in the eyes of our mystics, every being is a revelation of God’s enthusiasm and his love for revealing his hidden beauty. A beautiful poem says, “You revealed yourself in a hundred thousand beautiful displays so that I watch you with a hundred thousand eyes. (Ba sad hezar jelve boroon amadi ke man / Ba sad hezar dide tamasha konam tora.)” The problem with all the other beings before the creation of man was that they were only dutiful and glorified The King in awe and not in love. They were not aware of God’s beauty and only appreciated his innocence and power. Like earthly kings, God was obeyed dutifully by every part of his creation, but this same God had a daughter ( = his beauty ) whom He wanted to have her marry someone who knew love. That was why a fistful of dust was chosen for the creation of man and then raised to a rank that demanded the angels to bow before him. Satan openly refused, but even those who did, hid their hostility and jealousy inside them.
Like Homer’s Odysseus, man / Adam had their own Troy war to be defeated in. Satan finally managed to tempt Adam to eat the forbidden fruit and be banished from paradise to earth. Mowlana’s Masnavi is the story of this return journey.
In this new reading of Masnavi, I have noticed something very beautiful which in my view is a unique interpretation of Masnavi’s first story. We all know that Eve and hence women in general are blamed for man’s banishment to earth. But here, right in Masnavi’s first story, we immediately notice two things: first, we must fall in love in order to take the first step in our long Odyssey, and second, it is the love for a woman that helps us take our first step on the return journey. Has Rumi forgiven Eve? Possibly. And perhaps in his own way, Rumi is telling us that women were worth being banished from the Paradise. Once someone asked a mystic, “Where was man’s situation better? In Paradise or on earth?” And the mystic answered, “On earth because in Paradise he was in the prison of his own desires and on earth he was in the prison of love.”
See how interesting Masnavi is because unlike all the stories of kings and their glories in other stories, the kingdom of our king in Masnavi lasts only two lines before he immediately falls in love with a slave woman. And then all that exists is a king who is a slave and a handmaiden who holds the king’s life in her hand.
Let’s love to continue this extremely lovable book then!
Ali, at almost 2 am
