The Mathnawi of Rumi Volume 1

From that perspective, the unprecedented level of interest in Rumi’s poetry over the last couple of decades inNorth America and Europe does not come as a total surprise. Once his poetry finally began to be rendered into English in an attractive form, which coincided with an increased interest in mysticism among readers, this Sufi saint who expressed his mystical teachings in a more memorable and universally accessible form than any other started to become a household name. Rumi lived some 300 years after the first writings of Muslim mystics were produced. A distinct mystical path called ‘Sufism’ became clearly identifiable in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries with the compilation of the manuals and collections of biographies of past Sufi saints. The authors of these works, who were mostly from north-eastern Persia, traced the origins of the Sufi tradition back to the Prophet Mohammad, while at the same time
acknowledging the existence of comparable forms of mysticism before his mission. They mapped out a mystical path by which the Sufi ascends towards the ultimate goal of union with God and knowledge of reality. More than two centuries before the time of the eminent Sufi theosopher Ebn Arabi (d. 1240), Sufis began to describe their experience of annihilation in God and the realization that only God truly exists. The illusion of one’s own independent
existence began to be regarded as the main obstacle to achieving this realization, so that early Sufis like Abu Yazid Bestami (d. 874) are frequently quoted as belittling the value of the asceticism of some of his contemporaries when it merely increased attention to themselves. An increasing number of Sufis began to regard love of God as the means of overcoming the root problem of one’s own sense of being, rather than piety and asceticism.

Prose Introduction

For years you’ve been a stony-hearted man,

Try being like the soil now if you can!

- Rumi

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 affliction 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.

Source: Section from 'The Mathnawi of Rumi Volume 1' - Available for download once logged in