Then said the taper: “My breath is departed, the smoke is over my head;—such my son, is the ending of love!”
If thou wouldst learn the moral of the story, it is this: Only will the pangs of burning affection cease, when life’s taper is extinct.
Weep not over this monument of thy perished friend—rather praise Allah, that he is accepted by Him.
If thou art indeed a lover, wash not the pains of love from thy head; wash rather, like Saadi, thy hand from all malevolence.
The man who volunteereth a service of peril will not withdraw his grasp from his purpose, though stones and arrows rain down upon his head.
I have said to thee: “Take heed how thou goest to the sea; but if thou wilt go, resign thyself to its billows.”
Jelaluddin Rumi (Mevlana—Our Lord—Jelalu-’d-din, Muhammed, Er Rumi of Qonya) usually called Jelal or Mulla.[79] Born A. D. 1195, he died 1273.
Jelal is the greatest poet among the Sufis and is their Grand Master of spiritual knowledge. His name means “Majesty of Faith.” He instituted the order of the Mevlevi, the “dancing or whirling dervishes,” of which we shall speak more later on. This order is a realization of Jelal’s father’s prophecy about his son: “The day shall come, when this child will kindle the fire of divine enthusiasm throughout the world.”
Jelal is truly the greatest Sufi saint, for marvelous were his powers. In the Menaqibu’l Afifin (the Acts of the Adepts) by Shemsu-’d-din Ahmed, el Eflaki the following acts are recorded against his name. “When five years old, he used at times to become extremely uneasy and restless, so much so that his attendants used to take him into the midst of themselves. The cause of these perturbations was that spiritual forms and shapes of the absent (invisible world) would arise before his sight, that is, angelic messengers, righteous Genii, and saintly men—the concealed ones of the bowers of the True One (spiritual spouses of God), used to appear to him in bodily shapes: * * * His father used on these occasions to coax and soothe him by saying: “These are the Occult Existences. They come to present themselves before you, to offer unto you gifts and presents from the invisible world.” These ecstasies and transports of his began to be publicly known and talked about The honorific title of Khudavendgar[80] was conferred upon him at this time by his father, who used to address him as “My Lord.”—“It is related that when Jelal was six years old, he one Friday afternoon was taking the air on the terraced roof of the house, and reciting the Quran, when some other children of good families came in and joined him there. After a time, one of these children proposed that they should try and jump from thence on to a neighbouring terrace, and should lay wagers on the result. Jelal smiled at this childish proposal, and remarked: “My brethren, to jump from terrace to terrace is an act well adapted for cats, dogs, and the like, to perform; but is it not degrading to man, whose station is so superior. Come now, if you feel disposed, let us spring up to the firmament, and visit the regions of God’s realm.” As he yet spake, he vanished from their sight. Frightened at Jelal’s sudden disappearance, the other children raised a shout of dismay, that some one should come to their assistance, when lo, in an instant, there he was again in their midst; but with an altered expression of countenance and blanched cheeks. They all uncovered before him, fell to the earth in humility, and all declared themselves his disciples. He now told them that, as he was yet speaking to them, a company of visible forms, clad in green raiment, had led him away from them, and had conducted him about the various concentric orbs of the spheres, and through the signs of the Zodiac, showing him the wonders of the world of spirits, and bringing him back to them so soon as their cries had reached his ears.
At that age, he was used not to break his fast more often than once in three or four, and sometimes even seven, days.