Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana, 1207-1273; Mevleviyeh; Sufi literature
[169] Qur’ān ii. 29.
[170] Omar.
[171] A very doubtful clause; it may be rendered: ”_Thou art with me._“
[172] Adam, in most languages, has come to signify _man_.
[173] Qur’ān ii. 33, mentions merely a ”_caulescent plant_;““wheat” is
one of several glosses by commentators, like our “apple.”
[174] Qur’ān vii. 22, makes Adam confess sin with contrition, together
with Eve, thereby meriting God’s eventual pardon.
[175] Qur’ān cx. 1.
[176] Evidently the name of a rival.
[177] These are sainted spiritualists, true and pious dervishes.
[178] Qur’ān ii. 22, and lxvi. 6, say “mankind and rocks.“
[179] Another word coined to meet the requirements of the original.
”_Ubiquity_“ is the converse of ”_nubiquity_.” _Nulliquity_ might be
used.
[180] Qur’ān ii. 111, and seven other places.
[181] “Cæsar” is the Roman Emperor, the Qaysari-Rūm. Other Qaysar there
is not.
[182] To write this name _Omar_ is incorrect.
[183] Medina is the usual incorrect spelling of this name.
[184] The Arabian title is Khalīfa; of which Caliph is a corruption.
[185] “_Commander of the Believers_” is his usual title. “Rome” is the
Lower Empire.
[186] Muhammed’s heart is believed to have been cleansed by an angel.
[187] “God’s countenance” means also, in Arabic, _God’s cause_.
[188] God is this “sun;” the “motes” are all created objects.
[189] The “Friend” is God, the Gnostic’s “_darling_.”
[190] “Rome” in Asia means the Lower Empire and Asia Minor; or, for the
last few centuries, the Ottoman Empire.
[191] “Shadow of God on earth” is an Eastern title of royalty.
[192] These two propositions give the pith of the doctrine held
and inculcated by the mystics and spiritualists of Islām: “_He’s
bridegroom; God is bride._“
[193] This First Book of the Mesnevī was written before the Būstān of
Sa’dī. The myth of the dewdrop and pearl is much more ancient.
[194] The date of the poem will be recollected; who disbelieved alchemy
then?
[195] Here is a beautiful and true application of the idea of
”_transubstantiation_.“
[196] The original mentions Ferhād, a kind of Persian Dædalus, by his
title of ”_Mountain-Excavator_.“(See Tale vii. dist. 365.)
[197] Qur’ān liv. 1.
[198] Qur’ān vii. 15, and xv. 39. At the fall, Satan accused God of
tempting him; whereas Adam confessed his sin, and did not accuse Satan.
[199] Qur’ān vii. 22.
[200] Qur’ān xxiv. 26.
[201] ’Bū is often used as a contraction for Abū. Abū-Jahl (_Father
of Ignorance_) was a nickname (see Tale iv. dist. 48, note) given by
Muhammed to ‘Amr, son of Hishām, a chief of the Quraysh, his bitter
enemy, formerly entitled Abū-’l-Hakem (_Father of the Arbitrator_). He
was killed, a pagan, in the battle of Badr, in the second year of the
Hijra, A.D. 624.
[202] The word rendered by “explanation” here, means also
_information_, and _use_, _advantage_, _profit_, _benefit_, &c.
[203] Literally, “your morning cup,” drunk at dawn ere leaving a house.
[204] Asiatics drink “to the love” of a friend; not “to his health.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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