A Treasury of Rumi's Wisdom. Muhammad Isa Waley

lines R‰mÏ presents a series of arresting visual images to evoke the distance and disparity between the bodily and spiritual aspects of the human being. The body is ‘the shadow of the shadow of the shadow’ of the heart, like a shadow cast on the Earth by the bird or the spirit as it flies in the realm of the Unseen. Asleep in his bed, a man tosses and turns, while far away his spirit shines in the heavenly realms. Citing Qur’an 17: 85, the poet reminds us that the spirit (r‰^) is something beyond the reach of sense-perception. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was instructed to tell those who asked him about the spirit, that it is min amr RabbÏ. This is generally translated, literally, as ‘from my Lord’s Command’ and is understood as signifying that the spirit is an entity whose nature is mysterious and fully known only to its Creator. According to the Qur’an, God ‘blew’ something of His spirit into our forefather, the Prophet Adam (peace be upon him); the attribution of the spirit to Him signifies not that it is divine but that it is among the most noble and wondrous of His creations.

      The poet is not suggesting that the sleeping man is already living in Paradise while in this world. The message is that God causes the soul to pass away in its sleeping state, as Qur’an 39: 42 expresses it, then returns it to the body upon its awakening, unless He has decreed that it is to die. While mind and body are asleep the soul may roam the realm of the Unseen, whether confined to the domain of psychic phenomena and experiencing mundane or bizarre dreams or rising to the domain of spiritual ‘unveilings’. R‰mÏ describes this in one of his poems (DÏw¥n, vol. 2, p. 229; ghazal 943):

      At the hour of the night prayer, when the sun has fully set,

       The senses’ pathway closes; that of the Unseen opens.

      The angel in charge of sleep then starts driving spirits forward,

       The way that a shepherd does while watching over his flock,

      Beyond time and space, towards the pastures of the spirit;

       What cities and what gardens he shows to them over there!

      The spirit beholds a thousand amazing forms and people,

       When the imprint of this world is excised from it in dreams.

      You would say that the spirit had always dwelt in that world;

       It does not recall this world, or grow weary of that one.

      It feels so free from the burden and load that made its heart quake

       While here, that no such worries gnaw at him any longer.

      R‰mÏ often speaks of sleep and dreams and their significance and connection with death. They are unmistakably signs and portents – aspects of the Unseen – that everyone experiences. And our real identities do not reside in our bodies:

      ‘The body is the heart’s shadow’s shadow’s shadow;

       How could the body merit the heart’s exalted rank?’

6

      The Real ‘You’

      You don’t grasp that it is vital, although it is;

       You too, in the end, will say: ‘It was vital’.

      He is you – not this ‘you’, but the [true] you That is waiting and that will emerge in the end.

      Your [true] you is buried inside something else.

       I’m a slave to the man who can see his true self.

      That which a young man can see in a mirror,

       The spiritual guide can discern in a brick.

      (M VI, 3774–3777)

      Making the journey to God while following a spiritual guide, who possesses profound insight (alluded to in the last couplet), is the means to discover one’s true identity. The apparent ‘you’, the familiar one, is restricted to this three-dimensional world. You mistakenly suppose that to be the real ‘you’, but the reality of who you are is beyond those dimensions: in the realm of the spirit. The familiar self we are accustomed to talking to and hearing from a thousand times daily is the one we must learn to manage, in keeping with the responsibility our Creator gave us in making us human. A ‘brick’ (khisht) here probably means a piece of metal of the kind from which mirrors were made.

      What an extraordinary creation is the human soul, in which completely opposite attributes can co-exist! Its lower and worse side craves to have the satisfaction of having everything its own way, and fears change. On the other hand, its higher and better side longs for change and is ready to embrace it; it longs to transcend its apparent limits (precisely because it is a human, not an animal, soul). ‘In its heart of hearts’ the soul yearns for true and everlasting happiness and is always aware that there is a price to be paid and there are changes that have to be made. After all, that is a paltry price to pay for an immeasurable and everlasting blessing.

      Several times in the Holy Qur’an God swears an oath, invariably by some object of exceptional significance. In S‰rat al-Shams, ‘The Sun’ (91: 8–9), He swears ‘By the soul and that [Power] which formed it, then inspired it with its corruption (fuj‰r) or its God-consciousness (taqw¥). He who grows it (or purifies it, zakk¥h¥) prospers; he who buries it (or indulges it, dass¥h¥) fails.’ So here lies the supreme challenge on the Path: one must go forwards, out of the ‘comfort zone’, or else risk losing everything. ‘You don’t grasp that it is vital, although it is; you too, in the end, will say: “It was vital.”’

7

      Don’t Sell Yourself Short: The Value of the Human Being

      حــقّ تعـالی تـرا قیمـت عظیـم کـرده اسـت. می فرماید که: [آیة]:

      [شعر]: تو به قیمت ورای دو جهانی

      چه کنم قدر خود نمى دانی

      مـفـروش خـویـش ارزان

      کـه تـو بـس گـران بـهایی

      حقّ تعالی می فرماید که: «من شمارا و اوقات و انفاس شمارا و اموال و روزگار شمارا خریدم، که اگر به من

      صـرف رود و بـه مـن دهیـد، بهای آن بهشت جاویدانی

      است. قیمت تو پیش من این است.» اگر تو خودرا به دوزخ فروشی، ظلم بر خود

      کرده باشی، همچنان که آن مرد کارد صد دیناری را بر دیوار زد و بر او.

      کوزه ای یا کدویی آویخت.

      God Most High has attached