when a person settles out of the "me"

[Guest guest]

holy heart rumi (jalal ed-din ibn rumi) wrote

in his book "fihi ma fihi"

("there is in it what there is in it" [and nothing more])

chap.xxi (my clumsy translation)

[first quoting majnun leila]

 

'your image is in my eyes, your name on my lips,

your memory in my heart.

to whom shall i write? where do you hide?

i am the one who loves and the one loved by me

we are two souls incarnate in one body'

 

(then rumi comments)

 

"so the love of a being has such a power that inspires states where

the lover does not see himself seperate from his beloved; all the

senses lose their autonomy: eye, ear, nose, no organ demands its own

pleasure; perceiving all gathered and present. if one organ is

satiated the others don't demand pleasure. so the senses seeking more

pleasure prove that the organ receiving pleasure did not receive

enough. it has received a relative pleasure not allowing the other

senses to be immersed; and those keep on demanding their own

pleasure. the senses are one. they differ in appearence. when an

organ obtains immersion, the others are merged in it. in the same

way, the bee flies high, its wings, its head and all its organs move.

when it drowns in honey, all its organs merge in one. they don't

move. immersion is achieved when a person settles out of the 'me',

out of the effort, out of the action, out of the movement. she is

drowned in water; any action coming from her is not hers but that of

the water. could one say that she drowned when she moves hands and

feet and shouts:'ah! i drowned!'? people heard in the

utterance: "ana'l-haqq"['i am god' (el-hallaj)] a great conceit;

but "ana l-haqq" reveals a great modesty, because those who say "i am

god's servant", ascertain two beings; one for oneself, the other for

god. but he who says "ana l-haqq!" self-fades. he says "ana'l haqq",

that is 'i am not, all is him, apart from god no one exists, i am

pure nothingness, i am nil'. the modesty of the latter is great;

people do not grasp that if one behaves as a servant of god, then his

service exists for god: although it is destined to god, his action

allows him to see himself seperate from god. that person has not

drowned. only she who has no movement or action left, but whose

movements are those of the water, has drowned."

 

i wonder if rumi is published in all modern islamic countries (?)

eric