Tag: Masnavi

Rumi(1207-1273) When the tables….

Maulana Jajaj uddin Rumi was born in 1207 in Balkh Afghanistan and died in 1273 Konia in Turkey where there is a Mausoleum.  The following selection is from Masnavi.and translation is by Professor R A Nicholson of Cambridge University. Professor Nicholson commenced the monumental task of translation  in 1922 and completed in1940. It has 6 volumes and is called “Masnavi of Rumi”. Khaliq M Khan, September 27, 2019.

When the lamps are lit and the tables are laid, after the evening prayer,

I am engrossed with the thought of my Beloved, with grief, sorrow and lamentation.

My prayer is fiery for I perform the ablution with my tears.

When the call for prayer comes, the gate of my mosque is set on fire.

Strange is the prayer of mad; tell me, is it correct to say prayers

like this in complete disregard of time and space?

Strange are the two rak’ats and stranger still the fourth one.

How strange, I recited a Sura without a tongue!

How can I knock at the door of God, since I have neither heart nor hand.

Since you have taken away my heart and hand, give me protection, O Lord.

By God, I know not as I pray weather somebody has stood up to lead the prayer or a Ruku has ended.

Masnavi of Rumi. Let us besech (ask)…

Maulana Jalal-Uddin Rumi was born in 1207 in Balkh now in Afghanistan and died in 1273 and is buried in Konia, Turkey.  Here is aselection from his Masnavi.
Let us beseech(ask) God to help us to self-control (adab); he who lacks self control

Is deprived (deprived) of the grace of the God;

The undisciplined man does not corrupt himself alone; he sets the whole world afire.

Whatever befalls thee of gloom and sorrow is the result of thy irreverence and indolence.

Anyone behaving with irreverence in the path of the Friend is a brigand who robs men:

He is no man. Through discipline Heaven was filled with light,

Through discipline the angels become immaculate and holy. By reasons of irreverence the

Sun is eclipsed, and insolence caused “Azazil to be turned back from the door.

Masnavi of Rumi. When the lamps …

When the lamps are lit and the tables are laid, after the evening prayer,

I am engrossed with the thought of my Beloved(God), with grief, sorrow and lamentation.

My prayer is fiery for I perform the ablution with my tears.

When the call for prayer comes, the gate of my mosque is set on fire.

Strange is the prayer of mad; tell me, is it correct to say prayers

like this in complete disregard of time and space?

Strange are the two rak’ats and stranger still the fourth one.

How strange, I recited a Sura without a tongue!

How can I knock at the door of God, since I have neither heart nor hand.

Since you have taken away my heart and hand, give me protection, O Lord.

By God, I know not as I pray weather somebody has stood up to lead the prayer or a Ruku has ended.

Rumi- BBC Radio 4- “In Our Times”

Rumi‘s poetry, a link to a BBC radio 4 program Called In Our Times. Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi was born in Balkh, Afghanistan in 1207 and died in 1273 and is buried in Konya, Turkey.  he is From 1245 to1261 he wrote fifty thousand verses known as Diwan-Shams e Tabrazi. After 1261 in twelve years he wrote Masnavi.

Rumi (1207-1273) from Masnavi. O reader….

O Reader, how many an evil that you see in others is but your own nature reflected in them! In them appears all that you are your hypocrisy, iniquity, and insolence,

You do not see clearly the evil in yourself,  else you would hate yourself with all your soul.

Like the lion who sprang at his image in the water, you are only hurting yourself, O foolish man.

When you reach the bottom of the well of your own nature,

Then you will know that the wickedness is in you.

Rumi (1207-1273) a hamd (a poem in praise of God)

O Thou Who art my souls comfort in the season of sorrow,

O Thou Who art my spirit’s treasurer in the bitterness of death!

That which the imagination hath not conceived,

that which the understanding hath not seen

Visiteth my soul from Thee; hence in worship I turn toward thee.

By Thy Grace I keep fixed on eternity my amorous gaze,

Except, O King, the pomp that parish leads me astray.

The favor of him who brings glad tidings of Thee.

Even without Thy summons, is sweeter in mine ear than songs.

If the never-ceasing Bounty should offer kingdoms,

If the Hidden Treasurer should set before me all that is,

I would bow down with my soul, I would lay my face in the dust,

I would cry, “Of all these the of such an One for me.”