1Cademy - دفتر دوم - بخش ۳۱ - ظاهر شدن فضل و زیرکی لقمان پیش امتحان کنندگان / Book Two - Section 31 - The Manifestation of Luqmans Excellence and Cleverness Before Those Who Test Him

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مثنوی معنوی: دفتر دوم / Masnavi: Book Two
دفتر دوم - بخش ۳۰ - امتحان کردن خواجهٔ لقمان زیرکی لقمان را / Book Two - Section 30 - Luqman's Master Testing Luqman's Cleverness

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دفتر دوم - بخش ۳۱ - ظاهر شدن فضل و زیرکی لقمان پیش امتحان کنندگان / Book Two - Section 31 - The Manifestation of Luqman's Excellence and Cleverness Before Those Who Test Him

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هر طعامی کآوریدندی بوی
کس سوی لقمان فرستادی ز پی

تا که لقمان دست سوی آن برد
قاصدا تا خواجه پس‌خوردش خورد

سؤر او خوردی و شور انگیختی
هر طعامی کو نخوردی ریختی

ور بخوردی بی دل و بی اشتها
این بود پیوندی بی انتها

خربزه آورده بودند ارمغان
گفت رو فرزند لقمان را بخوان

چون برید و داد او را یک برین
همچو شکر خوردش و چون انگبین

از خوشی که خورد داد او را دوم
تا رسید آن گرچها تا هفدهم

ماند گرچی گفت این را من خورم
تا چه شیرین خربزه‌ست این بنگرم

او چنین خوش می‌خورد کز ذوق او
طبعها شد مشتهی و لقمه‌جو

چون بخورد از تلخیش آتش فروخت
هم زبان کرد آبله هم حلق سوخت

ساعتی بی‌خود شد از تلخی آن
بعد از آن گفتش که ای جان و جهان

نوش چون کردی تو چندین زهر را
لطف چون انگاشتی این قهر را

این چه صبرست این صبوری ازچه روست
یا مگر پیش تو این جانت عدوست

چون نیاوردی به حیلت حجتی
که مرا عذریست بس کن ساعتی

گفت من از دست نعمت‌بخش تو
خورده‌ام چندان که از شرمم دوتو

شرمم آمد که یکی تلخ از کفت
من ننوشم ای تو صاحب‌معرفت

چون همه اجزام از انعام تو
رسته‌اند و غرق دانه و دام تو

گر ز یک تلخی کنم فریاد و داد
خاک صد ره بر سر اجزام باد

لذت دست شکربخشت بداشت
اندرین بطیخ تلخی کی گذاشت

از محبت تلخها شیرین شود
از محبت مسها زرین شود

از محبت دردها صافی شود
از محبت دردها شافی شود

از محبت مرده زنده می‌کنند
از محبت شاه بنده می‌کنند

این محبت هم نتیجهٔ دانشست
کی گزافه بر چنین تختی نشست

دانش ناقص کجا این عشق زاد
عشق زاید ناقص اما بر جماد

بر جمادی رنگ مطلوبی چو دید
از صفیری بانگ محبوبی شنید

دانش ناقص نداند فرق را
لاجرم خورشید داند برق را

چونک ملعون خواند ناقص را رسول
بود در تاویل نقصان عقول

زانک ناقص‌تن بود مرحوم رحم
نیست بر مرحوم لایق لعن و زخم

نقص عقلست آن که بد رنجوریست
موجب لعنت سزای دوریست

زانک تکمیل خردها دور نیست
لیک تکمیل بدن مقدور نیست

کفر و فرعونی هر گبر بعید
جمله از نقصان عقل آمد پدید

بهر نقصان بدن آمد فرج
در نبی که ما علی الاعمی حرج

برق آفل باشد و بس بی وفا
آفل از باقی ندانی بی صفا

برق خندد بر کی می‌خندد بگو
بر کسی که دل نهد بر نور او

نورهای چرخ ببریده‌پیست
آن چو لا شرقی و لا غربی کیست

برق را خو یخطف الابصار دان
نور باقی را همه انصار دان

بر کف دریا فرس را راندن
نامه‌ای در نور برقی خواندن

از حریصی عاقبت نادیدنست
بر دل و بر عقل خود خندیدنست

عاقبت بینست عقل از خاصیت
نفس باشد کو نبیند عاقبت

عقل کو مغلوب نفس او نفس شد
مشتری مات زحل شد نحس شد

هم درین نحسی بگردان این نظر
در کسی که کرد نحست در نگر

آن نظر که بنگرد این جر و مد
او ز نحسی سوی سعدی نقب زد

زان همی‌گرداندت حالی به حال
ضد به ضد پیداکنان در انتقال

تا که خوفت زاید از ذات الشمال
لذت ذات الیمین یرجی الرجال

تا دو پر باشی که مرغ یک پره
عاجز آید از پریدن ای سره

یا رها کن تا نیایم در کلام
یا بده دستور تا گویم تمام

ورنه این خواهی نه آن فرمان تراست
کس چه داند مر ترا مقصد کجاست

جان ابراهیم باید تا به نور
بیند اندر نار فردوس و قصور

پایه پایه بر رود بر ماه و خور
تا نماند همچو حلقه بند در

چون خلیل از آسمان هفتمین
بگذرد که لا احب الافلین

این جهان تن غلط‌انداز شد
جز مر آن را کو ز شهوت باز شد

English translation

Whatever food they brought to him, someone would send for Luqman, so that Luqman would deliberately put his hand toward it and then the master would eat what remained from him. He would eat Luqman's leavings and be stirred with ardor; whatever food Luqman did not eat, he would throw away. Even if Luqman ate without heart and appetite, this was an endless bond. They had brought a melon as a gift. He said, “Go, son, call Luqman.” When he cut it and gave him one slice, Luqman ate it like sugar and like honey. Because of the delight with which he ate, he gave him a second, until those slices reached the seventeenth. One slice remained. He said, “I will eat this one, to see how sweet this melon is.” Luqman was eating it so pleasantly that, from his relish, people's natures became desirous and morsel-seeking. When he ate it, its bitterness kindled fire; it blistered his tongue and burned his throat. For a moment he was beside himself from its bitterness. After that he said to him, “O soul and world, how did you drink so much poison as a pleasant draught? How did you regard this severity as kindness? What patience is this, and why this endurance? Or is your own life perhaps your enemy in your eyes? Why did you not contrive some excuse, saying, ‘I have an excuse; stop for a moment’?” He said, “I have eaten so much from your bounty-giving hand that I am bent double with shame. I was ashamed not to drink one bitter thing from your palm, O possessor of knowledge. Since all my parts have grown from your gifts and are drowned in your grain and snare, if I cry out and complain over one bitterness, may dust be on my parts a hundred times. The delight of your sugar-giving hand kept hold of me; how could it leave any bitterness in this melon? Through love bitter things become sweet; through love coppers become gold. Through love dregs become clear; through love pains become healing. Through love they make the dead alive; through love they make the king a servant. This love too is the result of knowledge; when did it ever sit at such a throne at random? How could deficient knowledge give birth to this love? It does give birth to a deficient love, but toward lifeless matter. When it sees on lifeless matter the color of the desired one, it hears from a whistle the voice of the beloved. Deficient knowledge does not know the difference; inevitably it takes lightning for the sun. Since the Messenger called the deficient accursed, the interpretation was deficiency of intellects. For one deficient in body is an object of mercy; curse and wound are not fitting for one shown mercy. Deficiency of intellect is that bad sickness; it causes curse and deserves remoteness. For perfecting intellects is not far off, but perfecting the body is not possible. The unbelief and Pharaonic arrogance of every far-off infidel all appeared from deficiency of intellect. Relief came for bodily deficiency in the Prophet's saying: no blame is upon the blind. Lightning is setting and very faithless; impure one, you do not know the setting from the lasting. Lightning laughs; tell me, at whom does it laugh? At the one who sets his heart on its light. The lights of the sphere are foot-severed; where is that which is neither eastern nor western? Know lightning's habit as ‘it snatches away the sights’; know all helpers as belonging to the enduring light. Driving a horse on sea-foam, reading a letter by lightning's light: this is, through greed, not seeing the end; it is laughing at one's own heart and intellect. Intellect by nature sees the end; it is the nafs that does not see the end. The intellect overcome by the nafs has become nafs; Jupiter, checkmated by Saturn, has become ill-fortuned. Even in this ill fortune, turn this gaze; look at the one who made you ill-fortuned. The gaze that sees this ebb and flow has tunneled from ill fortune toward felicity. Therefore He turns you from state to state, revealing opposite through opposite in transition, so that fear may be born in you from the people of the left, and the pleasure of the people of the right may give men hope, so that you may have two wings; for a one-winged bird is helpless to fly, O noble one. Either let me go, so that I do not enter into speech, or give permission, so that I may speak completely. Otherwise, if you want neither this nor that, command is yours; who knows where your aim is? The soul of Abraham is needed so that, by light, it may see paradise and palaces within fire. Step by step it ascends beyond moon and sun, so that it does not remain like a ring fastened to a door. Like Khalil, it passes beyond the seventh heaven, saying, ‘I do not love the setting ones.’ This world of the body has become deceptive, except for the one who has turned back from desire.”

Updated 2026-05-16

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