Pakistan in the Parables of Rumi (A soul not cloaked with inner love is cold from shame)
By Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry
Pittsburg, CA
Rumi is the poet of the soul. Huston Smith in his foreword to “Rumi - A Treasury of Wisdom” from which these pearls of wisdom are picked, says a wonderful thing, “Thrice in Fourteen Centuries of deeply troubled political relationships, the West has opened its heart to Islam and been touched by its soul”.
First, according to him was through “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” that became available to the West through the translation done by Edward FitzGerald. In a troubled and tense world, Khayyam’s verses worked like a soothing balm on the spiritually starved West.
“A Book of Verse underneath the Bough
A jug of Wine, a Loaf of bread - and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness -
O, Wilderness were Paradise enow!”
The Second time the West came out of its closet of self-imposed exclusionism was through T. E. Lawrence’s classic motion picture, “Lawrence of Arabia”, based on his autobiography, “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom”.
And the Third time, and like never before and even eight centuries after his death, it has been through Maulana Rumi. Rumi has remained almost for a decade the best-selling poet in America. He mixed mysticism with reason and spirituality, and caught the eye of the West. We as students in the fifties and sixties studied Persian language as an optional subject and got our exposure to such literary luminaries as Hafiz Shirazi; Saadi; and Maulana Rumi. Now, all these great poets stand banished from the syllabi taught in our schools and colleges. The reason given is, “They are irrelevant in an age of Science and Technology”.
What place Rumi, Saadi, Iqbal, Hafiz, Keats or Shakespeare can have in an age in which the hands remain occupied with I-phones and ears plugged with blue-tooth. People like us stand accused of being slow and biased against modern gadgets. But we have no regrets for we cherish our slowness. “Sick hurry and divided aims”, which Matthew Arnold characterized as the hallmark of Modern lifestyle, did not affect us as deeply as it did the present-day generation. What these great Masters taught us was an entirely different lesson.
We learned from them even without knowing that in life, it is not always the glass that matters for a thirsty man; it is the hand that holds and offers that glass of water; it is not the stone that makes you stumble that is remembered; it is the man who averted your fall that is worth remembering. They always lived with us without our ever knowing it. Now people live with gadgets and not with ideas.
I was surprised when the Supreme Court of Pakistan in its full-length judgment quoted Rumi. The West, however, on reading these grand Masters, especially Rumi, has discovered amazing streaks of relevance in their insightful works, which are laden with wisdom and mysticism.
In this article an attempt will be made to narrate some of the parables of Rumi. No attempt shall be made to explain their relevance or their hidden meanings. Readers’ own ability to relate is what Rumi shall be challenging and testing through these parables.
1. THE RAM AND THE THIEVES: A certain man had a ram that he was leading along behind him, and while he took rest, a thief came and cut the halter and stole away the ram. The owner ran about the area trying to find out where the ram had gone. Soon he came to a well where the thief sat wailing, “Oh dear, Oh dear, what shall I do”. The man approached the thief and asked him what was the matter.
The thief replied, “My purse has fallen into the well. If you’ll go in and fetch it I’ll happily give you one-fifth of its contents. There are a hundred dinars in the purse, so you’ll receive twenty dinars for your efforts”. The owner knew that the ram valued only 10 dinars. So he danced in delight, crying, ‘If one door shuts, ten more are opened. If a ram is gone, God gives a camel instead”. So he took off his clothes and jumped into the well, at which time the thief ran off with his clothes too.
Who in Pakistan ran off with their clothes even? “If prudence is absent, cupidity brings disaster”, says Rumi
2. THE PLEA OF NECESSITY: A thief said to a magistrate in court, ‘My Lord, what I have done was decreed by God”. The magistrate replied, “And what I am doing has also been decreed by God, my dear friend”.
He who steals goods from a shop, my friend,
This is decreed by God.
He who punches the thief, my friend,
This is also decreed by God
Put the goods back my friend,
Or I’ll punch you again, my friend”.
The magistrate told the thief a story to illustrate the plea of necessity.
A certain man climbed a tree and vigorously scattered the fruit like a thief from the branches. The owner of the orchard shouted up from the ground, “What are you doing, you rascal?”
The man in the tree shouted back, “I am merely a servant of God in God’s orchard, and I have the right to take and eat God’s fruits, which were given to me by Him. How can you blame me and be so stingy at the table of the all-rich Lord?”
The owner grabbed the leg of the thief and dragged him down to the ground, then bound him with a rope to the tree and beat his legs with a club. The thief cried horribly, ‘Stop, stop, have some reverence for God. You’re killing an innocent”.
The owner replied, “With God’s club I beat you. It’s God’s club, and the wood and shape of it belongs to God. I am only the instrument of His Command”.
Maulana Rumi says, “Remember my friend, O thief in my court, the oil that devotes itself to the rose, smell the oil or the rose as you please”.
Who in Pakistan then represents the “Thief” and who the “Magistrate?”
3. THE PEAR TREE OF ILLUSION: There was a woman who enjoyed embracing her lover in the presence of her foolish husband. To do this without getting into trouble she would say to the husband that she was going to climb a tree nearby and gather some fruit. Once up the tree, she would burst into tears looking down upon her husband on the ground.
“What on earth is the matter with you wife, have you gone crazy?” the husband would shout, “Why are you crying? There is no one here on the ground but me. Come down from the tree, for your mind is gone…”
When the woman came down, her husband went up the tree to see what she had been fretting about. While he was up there she would take her lover in her arms and kiss him passionately while the husband watched them. He would scream and shout as she had done because he saw the other man and felt great anger and jealousy. But the wife told him, “No husband. There’s no one here on the ground but me, you’re going crazy, don’t talk utter nonsense.”
The husband continued to shout his threats, but she told him, “You fool. This is exactly the same as I did when I was up that tree, watching you make love to another woman. It is the fault of the pear-tree because it makes illusions by some bad magic, believe me. Come down and see that there is nothing here but me, all is illusion for sure”.
So, why the people in Pakistan are shouting, “Foul, foul”. I swear, our politicians are innocent as the woman in the story.
4. THE SPIRITUAL PHYSICIAN: A sick man went to a physician and asked him to feel his pulse, and diagnose his disease. The physician felt the sick man’s pulse, and in so doing realized that there was no hope for the man’s recovery. So he told the man: ‘Do whatsoever your heart desires, so that you have the best chance of getting rid of the sickness. Don’t hold back on anything that you desire, because if you do, your self-restraint may exacerbate your sickness. This disease flourishes on self-restraint, so don’t allow it.” The doctor advised the sick man.
The sick man went for a walk by the side of the river where he found a Sufi seated, washing his hands and face. The sick man gazed upon the Sufi’s neck and felt tempted to strike it. So he raised his hand, and remembering what the physician had instructed him to never repress his desires, hit the Sufi. The Sufi in reaction got hold of the sick man and took him to the judge. The judge looked at the sick man and said, “This man is not living... I do not judge the dead, and this man is already passed beyond”.
The Sufi did not feel satisfied. While the Sufi was making his case against the sick man, the sick man gazed incessantly at the neck of the judge, longingly wishing to strike at it too.
The judge feeling that the aggrieved Sufi was not satisfied, asked the sick man how much money he had. The sick man answered that he had six dirhams. So the judge told the sick man to pay three of them as punishment to the Sufi for the slap, considering the sick man needed three dirhams to keep himself alive. The sick man, however, read it differently. “If it costs only three dirhams to pay for a slap, why not slap the judge too? After all, the doctor had told me that I should be healthier by not resisting my desires. How cheap is three dirhams for a longer life?”
So as the Sufi and the judge talked together, the sick man struck the nape of the judge’s neck also - a resounding blow, and spoke aloud to them both: ‘Hey, my two enemies, take three dirhams each, then I shall be free from guilt and without trouble and anxiety, worthy every penny.”.
“When the cloud weeps, the orchard laughs…seek the treasure beneath the ruins, Oh simple man”, says Rumi.
5. THE DEAF MAN AND THE INVALID: A deaf man was instructed by a local wealthy individual to visit an invalid friend of his on his behalf. The deaf man said this to himself, “Being deaf, how will I understand what this sick man is going to say to me?” But, out of pride, he did not want the sick man to become suspicious that he was deaf. So, he decided to read the invalid’s lips - though it was not one of his skills. He rehearsed what the invalid was likely to say to him.
He would say to the sick man, “How are you, my suffering friend?” And he conjectured what the invalid would say, “I’m fine, or I’m quite well, thank you”. Then he would say, “Thank God, what medicine have you been taking?” And the invalid would say, “Some sherbet, or a special collection of good food”. Then the deaf man planned to answer, “May you enjoy better health, and who is your doctor?” And the invalid would reply with the name. Then the deaf man planned to congratulate the invalid on his choice of doctor and say that for sure such a man would bring him good health.
He rehearsed the whole scenario very well. On arriving at the sick man’s house, he started as planned, “How are you?” he asked. “I’m at the point of death,” replied the invalid. “Thank God”, cried the deaf man, at which the patient growled angrily, saying to himself, ‘Why does this idiot sound so happy at my discomfort? He must hate me”. “And what medicine have you taken?” asked the deaf man. “Poison”, he said. “May it do yougood and improve your health!” exclaimed the deaf man, at which the invalid began to rage inside himself, “And which doctor is attending to you?” asked the deaf man. “TheAngel of Death is coming, get out of my house you Idiot”. “Oh, this doctor is the best, his presence will be a great blessing,” said the deaf man, and left the house happily, believing himself to have achieved his purpose completely.
Does it amount to reading too much in the parable if we equate the people of Pakistan to the sick man and the deaf lip-reader to our leadership? May be.
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