There is a wind in Cape Town that periodically visits and blows the town clean of dross and miasmas; such a breeze is blowing through the paths of Rumi freeing his words of sufi-woofyism.
It blew away Steingass who hides his naughty words in latin, took off for him his shawl of prudery.
It visited Nicholson and cleared his breast of ‘on certain topics Rumi is too outspoken for our taste and many pages are disfigured by anecdotes worthy of an Apuleius or Petronius but scarcely fit to be translated …’
Only through the efforts of these and several other victorian-minded gentlemen do the vast majority of the global public know of Mawlana; if the Persian of the pre-Safawids is too much for them, then may they pause before visiting a colourful spectacle of dancing-dees financed by unesco and reflect on the words of the following commentator: only then shall the reader realize that not a moment passes but that Rumi moves along the path of the outward shariat in order to make manifest the profound meanings of his stories.
Let us study then how Dr Sulaiman Hikmatyar reveals the inner landscape of the opening story of the Mathnawi. But first a literal translation:
There was once a king who was a King in the dunya and a King possessed of the deen….
In the commentary of Dr Sulaiman Hikmatyari we find:
Important here is to retain the word dunya, which while indicating this earthly world, has its semantic, Quranic, root in ‘base’, ‘low’: i.e. this world of darkness as opposed to the akhira, the world of the Garden and light.
That he was a King with regard to the deen, demonstrates that he was a skilled in the science of the fuqaha, concerned with the knowledge of and application of the outward laws of the shariat governing every aspect of human life; this story, as all of Rumi’s stories, is not mystic, but rather the opposite, utterly evident, its figurative aspect merely a means of pointing to clarity and truth.
By fortunate occurrence, while the King was out riding on a hunt with his closest courtiers he caught sight of a slave girl on the King’s avenue…
Dr Sulaiman Hikmatyar:
By fortunate occurrence is to stress that Allah’s blessing accompanied the King: the word in Persian indicates that the activity of the King was in harmony with His will, cf. tawfeeq, from the same root, often translated as ‘success’
Hunting is the preserve of Kings who by their love of this sport are concerned for the welfare of the deer and ensure that the health of the woods and meadows they inhabit is maintained.
his closest courtiers i.e. the elite of the court, those in tune with the King – who as King and Muslim, would speak with the royal ‘We’, the ‘we’ of society, by which current social norms are established, who is never alone, except when with one of his wives.
a slave girl – but not to be confused with christian slavery or the slavery of refugee camps, the point here being that she may be sold – and as is well-known, slaves girls were purchased as much for sexual enjoyment as service and enjoyed the same standard of living as their masters; it may be of help in overcoming any linguistic hurdles to reflect that prostitution is accepted globally, indeed legally in many countries – and that the state ensures that tax is paid on the proceeds.
the King’s avenue points to a hunting reserve particular to the King, a reserve containing perhaps houses and villages where the slave girl lives; or: in a figurative sense – that all roads were his when he travelled them.
The King himself became enslaved by his love for the slave-girl, his heart palpitating wildly like a bird trapped in a cage…
Dr Sulaiman Hikmatyar:
Rumi uses the word ghulam, i.e. a young male slave, to denote the King’s state – which puts him on a level with the object of his desire; his heart is overcome with longing and feels entrapped: the King does not however misuse his power but rather seeks a legal means to free himself; i.e. his overpowering love is tempered by the dictates of the shariat by which he knows himself to be bound: this is in fact the love for which Rumi is so falsely trumpeted: just as a real lover of ‘Isa knows that the tinsel of the fir-tree or the chocolate eggs of easter has little to do with the man who was a Prophet, so we know that Rumi’s love issued from heart enslaved to the dictates of its Lord; Rumi was after all a faqih, the head of and professor at his father’s madrassa, a loyal subject of the Seljuk Sultan Kai Qubad I, who had installed his father in the madrassa, a man with whose social rank came noblesse oblige – his responsibility for the execution of the deen being the noblesse; in short an extreme islamist as he would be termed nowadays – in the sense that he combined both iman and ‘amal, and was by no means caught in his head within mere concepts.
And here the legal means:
So he bought the slave girl, but when he had tasted of her fruit, that slave girl fell ill as a result of [Allah’s] judgement [from before endless time]...
Dr Sulaiman Hikmatyar:
Nikah, marriage, is connected to buyu’, the laws governing sales, and just as mahr, the money paid to the bride, renders intercourse licit with her, so payment for a slave-girl renders her licit.
Rumi then reminds as that life and death, health and sickness are in the hands of Allah and that anything that afflicts or is bestowed on a person has been written for him; this the King understands, being a man of Allah: the King would have had the last word with regard to any difference of opinion among his judges but would also be aware that Allah is the final Qadi.
There was once a man who owned a donkey but not a saddle, then when he found a saddle, a wolf made off with his donkey; a pitcher was there but no water could be got and when water became available the pitcher broke.
Dr Sulaiman Hikmatyar:
The King had attained his heart’s desire but then, by Allah, she fell ill: the mumin is in constant alternation between hope for Allah’s blessings, and fear for His curtailment of these blessing, lest they become blighted; however he recognizes that both are from Allah, are tests, as does the King, being aware of His ayat, ‘If I become ill then it is He who cures me’.
The King gathered toubibs around him from everywhere, saying the life of both of us is in your hands.
Here the french word toubib has been used which retains to some degree the original meaning of the Arabic, i.e. a physician who in keeping with the root meaning of the word, takes care of his patient skilfully, gently, kindly and by personal, physical contact, someone aware of the Prophet’s saying to the man who claimed to be a toubib and offered to ‘cure’ him of the mark of prophecy between his shoulder blades, ‘He who has knowledge in its respect is He who created it’ – corresponding closely to the past physicians, bound by the hippocratic oath, not the state drerg-pushers beholden to shareholders who in turn are beholden to their bank accounts.
My own life is slight of importance but hers is the life of my life, pain and exhaustion are mine and she is the cure.
Dr Sulaiman Hikmatyar:
All of the dunya is defined by opposites, life in death, sickness in health, as the son of Umar said, ‘…take from your health for your sickness, and from your life for your death’.
Whoever finds a cure for the life of my life shall receive treasure, pearls and coral from me. Together they declared, ‘We shall venture our utmost, come to together and share the task. Everyone of us is an ‘Isa, an expert. Every sickness is curable at our hand.’
Dr Sulaiman Hikmatyar:
Their intent is sound but their claim is overweening – that they, like ‘Isa, on whom be peace and blessings, who could heal the blind, raise people from the dead, can cure everything.
As they did not say in their arrogance, ‘Unless Allah wills otherwise’, Allah showed them the weakness of man – I mean, this is the case if omitted deliberately, from the hardness of one’s heart, not if it happens from a state of forgetfulness. How many a person has not mentioned the exception i.e. ‘Unless He wills otherwise’ but whose heart is nevertheless in tune with the meaning of the exception.
Dr Sulaiman Hikmatyar:
This is based on the Quranic ayat, ‘Never say about anything, “I am doing that tomorrow,” without adding “If Allah wills.”’ However what we have nowadays is the liberal addition of inshallah to any intention or wish but without any resolve to do anything connected with it; a clear understanding of this ayat results in a person being careful to state unequivocally what he intends to do before saying inshallah – in order to avoid the popular meaning of these words in many persons’ minds, namely, ‘perhaps’ or worse still, a mantra to avoid stating explicity what one is resolved to do.
Thus the more we read Rumi without the soufi-woufism of the christian orientalists the more we realize that the mystic love the latter prattle about so much is actually the author’s passionate love of Allah and His Messenger – which manifests on the tongue and in the actions of all the characters who figure in his stories. The real tasawwuf of the work can only be understood if it is treated as a tafsir of the Quran, a sharh of the life of the Rasoul, on whom be peace and blessings and a confirmation of the sunna of the jamaa’a. Then the reader has no escape, nowhere else to go – but ever closer to the Messenger and Allah. This can only be unsettling for the kafir and sweet for the mumin.
The slave girl’s sickness rendered her as thin as a rake, the eyes of the King ran with tears of blood; with the application of honeyed vinegar, bile increased, with almond oil, dryness resulted, cherry plum caused constipation and all ease vanished; water only fed the fever like flammable oil.
Dr Sulaiman Hikmatyar:
Here we are reminded of a method of treatment which had served for thousands of years, at least since the time of Homer – prior to the imposition of pharma-medicine and the harsh outlawing of traditional medicine based on the four humours during the reign of the last Pahlavi Shah. The consequences of the chemical side-effects – listed in great detail with every item of pharma – of the current methodology in place since a couple of generations are already apparent, especial in ‘undeveloped’ countries like Iran which are often used as testing ground for new drugs. The reason why their efforts were to no avail has already been mentioned: arrogance. Real medicine, as Rumi knows, is based on trust in Allah, handing over the matter to Allah before proceeding with treatment: he is alluding to the words of Ibrahim in the Quran, ‘when I am ill, it is He who heals me’, and further to the words of the Messenger, on whom be peace and blessings, ‘There is a lump of flesh in the body which if sound, then the whole body is sound, and if rotten, then the whole body is rotten – it is the heart’. In other words true medicine is not merely removing the outward symtoms of disease but restoring harmony to a root imbalance whose origin is traceable to the heart – which is the locus of this trust, namely iman.
The incapacity of the physicians to treat the slave-girl becomes clear; the King turns his face to the Presence of Allah and he sees a wali in a dream.
When the King saw that the incapacity of the physicians he ran bare foot to the mosque; on entering he made for the mihrab – the place of prostration became wet with the tears of the King. On coming to himself after being overwhelmed by fana, his tongue poured out sweet praise and du’as.
Dr Sulaiman Hikmatyar:
Again clear proof that the King was a slave of Allah: his first response to realizing that the physicians would be of no use and that the matter was in the hands of Allah is to make haste to the nearest mosque – to perform the salat, aware that a man is closest to Allah when prostrating; his going barefoot is to emphasize his state of humility. As a result of need – being deprived of the slave girl – he is reduced to an intense state of grief, but then quickly finds proximity to Allah and is accorded the gift of fana: his self and its desires disappear and in gratitude he gives thanks to Him. That all this occurs in a mosque and in public, further demonstrates the nature of the King’s experience of tasawwuf: he is no majnoun, no mad dervish immersed in a permanent state of divine attraction, but rather a sober wayfarer in the outward, momentarily overcome by divine passion. Moreover his choice of the pre-eminent part of the mosque, the place where the imam stands to lead the salat, namely the mihrab – literally the ‘locus of war [on the nafs]’ – attests not only to his passive submission but also to his active resolve to deal with the state he is confronted with.
His dua took the following form:
[When one asks oneself] ‘Who has bestowed the gift of the kingdom of the world – this most paltry of things?’ then what could I possibly have to say? given You are aware of all that is concealed.
Dr Sulaiman Hikmatyar:
The King is again affirming his submission to the Lord of the worlds who has created everything – by way of this declaration of His overwhelming power and the incapacity of himself.