Table of Contents
Preface (About the Masnawi Book of Mawlana)
About the Author (Mawlana Rumi)
Prologue
Story I: The Hindu Slave who loved his Master's Daughter
Story II: The Fowler and the Bird
Story III: The Drunken Turkish Amir and the Minstrel
Story IV: The Purchase of Bilal
Story V: The Sufi and the Qazi
Story VI: The Faqir and the Hidden Treasure
Story VII: The Three Travelers
Story VIII: The Man who received a Pension from the Prefect of Tabriz
Story IX: The King and his Three Sons
Note on Apocryphal Supplements to the Masnavi
Prologue
O LIFE of the heart, Husamu-'d-Din,
My zeal burnt within me to write this sixth part!
The Masnavi became a standard through thy influence,
Thy sword (Husam) has made it an exemplar to the world
O spiritual one, I now offer it to thee,
This sixth part of the entire Masnavi.
Enlighten the world's six sides with its six parts,
That it may illuminate him who is not illuminated!
Love has naught to do with five senses or six sides,
Its only aim is to be attracted to the Beloved!
But haply leave may be given me hereafter
To tell those mysteries so far as they can be told,
In a discourse more closely approximating to the facts
Than these faint indications of those abstruse matters.
Mysteries are not communicable, save to those who know;
Mystery in the ear of infidels is no mystery.
Nevertheless, this is a call to you from God;
It matters not to Him whether ye accept or reject it.
Noah repeated His call for nine hundred years,
But his people only increased in rebellion.
Never did he draw back from admonishing them,
Never did he retire into the cave of silence.
He said, "At the barking and howling of the dogs
No caravan ever turned back in its road.
Nor does the full moon on a bright night cease shining
Because of the howling of dogs on earth.
