Mystical Wonders Discussion Group

nur · Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 28

Jokes from the Mathnawi
Reading time: 2 minutes. Word count: 300 words.

Rumi had a great sense of humor, as you can tell from the story of the grapes and some of the other stories that you have read. He was able to take all kinds of jokes and turn them into teaching tales. These two jokes come from a collection of translations by Arberry - and Arberry does not include Rumi's "sermon" with the jokes. By now you have probably gotten a sense of how Rumi expands his stories into spiritual sermons: can you image what he might have preached about these stories? What is the deeper spiritual meaning that Rumi would recognize in these two little jokes?
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The Grammarian & The Boatman
A GRAMMARIAN once embarked in a boat. Turning to the boatman with a self-satisfied air he asked him: ‘Have you ever studied grammar?’

‘No,’ replied the boatman.

‘Then half your life has gone to waste,’ the grammarian said.

The boatman thereupon felt very depressed, but he answered him nothing for the moment. Presently the wind tossed the boat into a whirlpool. The boatman shouted to the grammarian: ‘Do you know how to swim?’

‘No’ the grammarian replied, ‘my well-spoken, handsome fellow’.

‘In that case, grammarian,’ the boatman remarked, ‘the whole of your life has gone to waste, for the boat is sinking in these whirlpools.’

You may be the greatest scholar in the world in your time, but consider, my friend, how the world passes away - and time!

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The Prince and the Jester
THE prince of Tirmidh said one night to his court-jester Dalqak, 'You have taken to wife a harlot in your haste. You should have mentioned the matter to me, then we might have married you to a respectable woman'.

'I have already married nine respectable and virtuous women,' said the jester. 'They all became harlots, and I wasted away with grief. Now I have taken this harlot not knowing her previously so as to see how this one would turn out in the end. I have tried good sense often enough already; hence forward I intend to cultivate madness!'

Lest safety go, and live dangerously; forsake good repute, be notorious and a scandal.

I have made trial of provident good sense; hereafter I am going to make myself mad.

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Questions. Make sure you can answer these questions about what you just read:

why does the scholar tell the boatman that his life has been a failure?
how does the scholar's failure turn out to be the worst failure of all?
why did the prince's jester decide to get married to a prostitute?

nur · Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 28

Noah and Canaan (trans. E.H. Whinfield)
Reading time: 3 minutes. Word count: 500 words.

Yet at the same time that Rumi has an abundant sense of humor, he also tells some absolutely serious stories, like this account of Noah's son Canaan. The story of Noah - Nuh, in Arabic - is found in the Koran, and it is both similar to the Hebrew version of the story, and different from it. In the Koran, Canaan is Noah's son, and he is swimming outside of the ark, too proud to do what his father Noah urges him to do: get in the ark!
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Keep silence, that the Spirit may speak to you;
Give up swimming and enter the ark of Noah;
Not like Canaan, when he was swimming,
Who said, "I desire not to enter the ark of Noah passing by."

Noah cried, "Ho! child, come into the ark and rest,
That you be not drowned in the flood, O weak one."

Canaan said, "Nay! I have learned to swim,
I have lit a torch of my own apart from thy torch."

Noah replied, "Make not light of it, for 'tis the flood of destruction,
Swimming with hands and feet avails naught to-day.
The wind of wrath and the storm blow out torches;
Except the torch of God, all are extinguished."

He answered, "Nay! I am going to that high mountain,
For that will save me from all harm."

Noah cried, "Beware, do not so, mountains are now as grass;
Except the Friend none can save thee."

He answered, "Why should I listen to thy advice?
For thou desirest to make me one of thy flock.
Thy speech is by no means pleasing to me,
I am free from thee in this world and the next."

Thus the more good advice Noah gave him,
The more stubborn refusals he returned.
Neither was his father tired of advising Canaan,
Nor did his advice make any impression on Canaan;
While they were yet talking a violent wave
Smote Canaan's head, and he was overwhelmed.

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FROM THE KORAN: The Story of Nuh (Noah).

[11.38] And he began to make the ark; and whenever the chiefs from among his people passed by him they laughed at him. He said: If you laugh at us, surely we too laugh at you as you laugh (at us).

[11.39] So shall you know who it is on whom will come a chastisement which will disgrace him, and on whom will lasting chastisement come down.

[11.40] Until when Our command came and water came forth from the valley, We said: Carry in it two of all things, a pair, and your own family-- except those against whom the word has already gone forth, and those who believe. And there believed not with him but a few.

[11.41] And he said: Embark in it, in the name of Allah be its sailing and its anchoring; most surely my Lord is Forgiving, Merciful.

[11.42] And it moved on with them amid waves like mountains; and Nuh called out to his son, and he was aloof: O my son! embark with us and be not with the unbelievers.

[11.43] He said: I will betake myself for refuge to a mountain that shall protect me from the water. Nuh said: There is no protector today from Allah's punishment but He Who has mercy; and a wave intervened between them, so he was of the drowned.

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Questions. Make sure you can answer these questions about what you just read:

why did Canaan not get into the ark?
what did Noah say to Canaan as he was swimming beside the ark?
what happened to Canaan in the end?

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