Tuesday, February 24, 2009

[Sunlight] "Don’t look only at the exterior"

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When you read the Qur'ân
don't look only at the exterior, my son:
the Devil considers Adam as nothing more than clay.
The external sense of the Qur'ân is like a person's form:
while his features are visible, his spirit is hidden.
Someone's uncles look at him for a hundred years,
and yet of his inward state
don't see so much as the tip of a hair.

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To ze Qor'ân ay pesar zâher ma-bin
Div Âdam-râ na-binad joz keh tin
Zâher-e Qor'ân cho shakhs-e âdamist
keh noqushesh zâher va jânesh khafist
Mard-râ sad sâl `amm o khâl-e u
yek sar-e muyi na-binand hâl-e u

-- Mathnawi III: 4247-4249
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra

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