Rumi · Dreams & the Unconscious
Poem · Sufism · 1278
The Dream of the Treasure in Cairo
The Detour Was the Delivery
— Masnavi VI · tr. E. H. Whinfield, 1887Ah! many earnest suppliants wail forth prayers,Till the smoke of their wailing rises to heaven;Yea, the perfume of the incense of sinners’ groansMounts up above the lofty roof of heaven.
Masnavi VI: a ruined Baghdadi dreams of treasure in Cairo, and is beaten there into hearing it lies at home.
What it meansThe treasure was at home the whole time, and he could not learn that at home. The reading is precise about the journey's function: it is not wasted and it is not the point — the road to Cairo exists so that someone in Cairo can tell him to go back.
Poem · Sufism · 1278
‘Allah’ and ‘Here Am I’
The Call Was the Answer
— Masnavi III.189–197 · tr. R. A. Nicholson, 1930One night a certain man was crying “Allah!” till his lips were growing sweet with praise of Him.The Devil said, “Prithee, O garrulous one, where is the (response) ‘Here am I’ to all this ‘Allah’?
The Devil mocks a man's unanswered cry of “Allah”; in a dream Khaḍir tells him the cry was God's answer.
What it meansRūmī's heading states the doctrine: the supplicant's invocation of God is essentially the same thing as God's response to him. Khaḍir gives it as God's own speech — the seeker's shifts were God's drawing, his fear and love the noose that catches God's favour — so the ache of a prayer that seems unanswered is itself the reply.
Poem · Sufism · 1278
The Faqir and the Hidden Treasure
He Drew the Bow Too Hard
— Masnavi VI · tr. E. H. Whinfield, 1887God is “what is nearer to you than your neck-vein,”You have cast the arrow of speculation afar off.O you, who have made ready your bow and arrows,The game is close to you, and you shoot too far off.
A scroll tells a poor man to shoot an arrow and dig where it lands; the harder he draws, the more he misses.
What it meansRūmī's own voice from heaven gives the reading: the scroll said only to set the arrow to the bow. God is “nearer to you than your neck-vein”, so the treasure is found by letting the arrow fall close and seeking with humility, while the far-shooting of speculation turns the seeker's back on what he seeks.