The Metaphor of Dropsy (Istisqa) and Insatiable Thirst in the Masnavi
In the Masnavi, Rumi frequently employs the metaphor of dropsy (istisqa)—a medical condition characterized by an insatiable, pathological thirst where drinking water only exacerbates the swelling and craving—to illustrate the spiritual seeker's endless, consuming desire for divine union. In Book Six, Section 87, the mouse describes its love and yearning for the frog through this lens, claiming its liver is afflicted by 'five hundred dropsies' coupled with 'bovine hunger' (jouc al-baqar). This metaphor conveys that true spiritual love is not a temporary state but a perpetual, infinite thirst that cannot be satisfied by occasional connection, requiring continuous and total immersion in the Beloved.
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The Metaphor of Dropsy (Istisqa) and Insatiable Thirst in the Masnavi
دفتر ششم - بخش ۸۸ - لابه کردن موش مر چغز را کی بهانه میندیش و در نسیه مینداز انجاح این حاجت مرا کی فی التاخیر آفات و الصوفی ابن الوقت و ابن دست از دامن پدر باز ندارد و اب مشفق صوفی کی وقتست او را بنگرش به فردا محتاج نگرداند چندانش مستغرق دارد در گلزار سریع الحسابی خویش نه چون عوام منتظر مستقبل نباشد نهری باشد نه دهری کی لا صباح عند الله و لا مساء ماضی و مستقبل و ازل و ابد آنجا نباشد آدم سابق و دجال مسبوق نباشد کی این رسوم در خطهٔ عقل جز وی است و روح حیوانی در عالم لا مکان و لا زمان این رسوم نباشد پس او ابن وقتیست کی لا یفهم منه الا نفی تفرقة الا زمنة چنانک از الله واحد فهم شود نفی دوی نی حقیقت واحدی / Book Six - Section 88 - The mouse entreating the frog, saying, 'Do not invent excuses and do not postpone the fulfillment of my need, for in delay there are perils. The Sufi is the son of the moment, and the son does not withdraw his hand from the father's skirt; and the Sufi's compassionate father, which is the Moment, does not leave him in need of looking towards tomorrow, but keeps him so absorbed in the rose-garden of His swift reckoning that he, unlike the vulgar, does not await the future. He is of the River, not of Time, for with God there is neither morning nor evening. Past and future, pre-eternity and post-eternity, do not exist there. There is no preceding Adam and succeeding Antichrist, because these relations exist only in the domain of the particular intellect and the animal spirit; in the world of non-spatiality and non-temporality these relations do not exist. Therefore he is the son of the moment, a phrase by which nothing is meant except the negation of divided times, just as by God the One is meant the negation of duality, not the reality of the number one.'
The Allegory of the Thirsty Man and the Wall of Ego in the Masnavi
The Metaphor of the Dropsical Lover in the Masnavi
The Metaphor of Dropsy (Istisqa) and Insatiable Thirst in the Masnavi