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Don't Say There Are None Like Jesus

Quatrain 745

Beware: don't say, "There aren't any [real] travellers on the Way,"¹
(Or), "There aren't any who are Jesus-like and traceless."²
Since you aren't an intimate of secrets,³
You have been thinking that others are not as well.⁴

--From "The Rubâ`iyât" of Jalâluddîn Rûmî (in the Dîwân-é Kabîr,
also known as "Kulliyat-é Shams" and "Dîwân-é Shams-é Tabrîz")
Adapted from "The Quatrains of Rumi," by Ibrahim Gamard and Ravan
Farhadi, an unpublished manuscript of over 800 pages.
© Ibrahim Gamard and Ravan Farhadi (translation, footnotes, &
transliteration)

Notes on the text:

A version of this quatrain was made by Jonathan Star (based on a
literal translation by Shahram Shiva ("A Garden Beyond Paradise,
1992, " p. 29). This quatrain occurs in the collection of Rumi's
talks and lectures, known as his "Discourses" [Fî-hi Mâ Fî-hi], in
Discourse 25. It was translated by A. J. Arberry ("Discourses of
Rûmî, 1961, p. 109) as well as by W. M. Thackston, Jr. ("Signs of
the Unseen: The Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi," 1994, p. 114).
Arberry was not able to trace it as one of Rumi's quatrains (and
Thackston repeated the same, evidently accepting Arberry's
conclusion). There are minor differences between the text in the
"Discourses" and Foruzanfar's text (followed here): in line one ("tâ
Zan na-bar-î ke," instead of "zenhâr ma-gô ke"); and there are
major differences in line two ("ones with attributes of perfection"
[kâmil-Sifat-ân] instead of "ones with attributes of Jesus" [`îsà-
Sifat-ân]).

1. travellers on the Way [rah-rawân]: lit., "way-goers." Means saints
and mystics.

2. traceless [bê-neshân]: lit., "without a sign (or mark)." An Islamic
sufi term meaning "free of egotism." Here it refers both to the
purity of the Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) and to his bodily
ascension into Heaven (Qur'an 3:55; 4: 158).

3. intimate of secrets: means a close confidant who has been worthy
of hearing and understanding mystical secrets about Divine
Realities.

4. line four: This quatrain also occurs in Rumi's "Discourses," after
he tells about a tiny animal who lives in darkness under the earth
which has no need of eyes and ears. He compares this animal with
people who are content and satisfied to live in the darkness of this
world and who have no need for that (other) world or yearning for
the vision (to see it). "What use would perceiving eyes and
understanding ears be to them?" he asks, "since they have no
determination for (apprehending) that (other) side." This quatrain
then follows. Rumi goes on to say that God Most High wishes that
there be two inhabited worlds, one of heedlessness [ghaflat] and
one of wakefulness [bêdârî]; for if yearning for God, recollection
of the Hereafter, (Heavenly) drunkenness and ecstasy were to be
revealed, then we would all go to that World (beyond) and would
not remain here.

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zenhâr, ma-gô ke rah-rawân nêz na-y-and

`îsà-Sifat-ân-o bê-neshân nêz na-y-and

z-în gôna ke tô mahram-é asrâr na-yî

pendâshta-yé ke dêgar-ân nêz na-y-and


(rubâ`î meter: XXo oXoX oXXo oX)