1Cademy - بخش ۱ - باب الرّقص / Section 1 - The Chapter on Dance (Bab al-Raqs)

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کشف المحجوب / Kashf al-Mahjub

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بخش ۱ - باب الرّقص / Section 1 - The Chapter on Dance (Bab al-Raqs)

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بدان که اندر شریعت و طریقت مر رقص را هیچ اصلی نیست؛ از آن چه آن لهو بود به اتفاق همه عقلا چون به جد باشد و چون به هزل بود لغوی و هیچ کس از مشایخ آن را نستوده است و اندر آن غلو نکرده. و هر اثر که اهل حشو اندر آن بیارند، آن همه باطل بود و چون حرکات وجدی و معاملات اهل تواجد بدان مانند بوده است، گروهی از اهل هزل بدان تقلید کرده اند و اندر آن غالی شده و از آن مذهبی ساخته و من دیدم از عوام گروهی می پنداشتند که مذهب تصوف جز این نیست، آن بر دست گرفتند؛ و گروهی اصل آن را منکر شدند. و در جمله پای بازی شرعا و عقلا زشت باشد از اجهل مردمان و محال بود که افضل مردمان آن کنند. اما چون خفتی مر دل را پدیدار آید و خفقانی بر سر سلطان شود وقت قوت گیرد حال اضطراب خود پیدا کند ترتیب و رسوم برخیزد. آن اضطراب که پدیدار آید نه رقص باشد و نه پای بازی و نه طبع پروردن؛ که جان گداختن بود و سخت دور افتد آن کس از طریق صواب که آن را رقص خواند و دورتر آن کس که حالتی را که از حق بی اختیار وی نیاید وی به حرکت آن را به خود کشد و حالت حق نام کند آن حالت که وارد حق است چیزی است که به نطق بیان نتوان کرد. من لم یذق لایدری.

English translation

Know that in the Sacred Law (Shari'a) and the Spiritual Path (Tariqa) dance (raqs) has no foundation whatsoever; for by the agreement of all rational people it is mere diversion (lahw) when done in earnest, and idle frivolity when done in jest. None of the shaykhs has praised it or exaggerated its worth. Every report that the people of vain addition (ahl-e hashv) bring in its support is entirely false. And because the ecstatic movements (harakat-e wajdi) and the practices of the people of ecstasy (ahl-e tawajud) have resembled it, a group of frivolous people have imitated it, gone to excess in it, and made a creed out of it. I have seen among the common folk a group who imagined that the way of Sufism is nothing but this, and they took to it; while another group denied its very foundation. In sum, foot-play (dancing with the feet) is, by the Law and by reason, ugly, coming from the most ignorant of people, and it is inconceivable that the most excellent of people should do it. But when a faintness appears in the heart, and a palpitation overtakes the sovereign, and the moment gains strength, the state reveals its own agitation, and order and formalities fall away. That agitation which appears is neither dance, nor foot-play, nor the indulging of one's nature; rather it is the melting of the soul. Far indeed from the path of right does that person fall who calls it dance; and farther still is the one who, by his own movement, draws to himself a state that does not come upon him from God without his own choosing, and then names it a state from the Truth. That state which comes from the Truth is something that cannot be expressed by speech. He who has not tasted does not know (man lam yadhuq la yadri).

Updated 2026-07-20

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