In the *Masnavi*, Rumi explains that love is intentionally 'bloody' and hostile at the very beginning to test the sincerity of seekers. This severity acts as a spiritual filter: it frightens away the 'outsiders' (those who seek love for selfish or superficial reasons) while retaining only those who are willing to endure any trial or annihilation for the sake of the Beloved. This theme highlights that the path of divine love requires absolute commitment and purification through suffering before union can be attained.

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یک جوانی بر زنی مجنون بدست 
می‌ندادش روزگار وصل دست
بس شکنجه کرد عشقش بر زمین 
خود چرا دارد ز اول عشق کین
عشق از اول چرا خونی بود 
تا گریزد آنک بیرونی بود
چون فرستادی رسولی پیش زن 
آن رسول از رشک گشتی راه‌زن
ور بسوی زن نبشتی کاتبش 
نامه را تصحیف خواندی نایبش
ور صبا را پیک کردی در وفا 
از غباری تیره گشتی آن صبا
رقعه گر بر پر مرغی دوختی 
پر مرغ از تف رقعه سوختی
راههای چاره را غیرت ببست 
لشکر اندیشه را رایت شکست
بود اول مونس غم انتظار 
آخرش بشکست کی هم انتظار
گاه گفتی کین بلای بی‌دواست 
گاه گفتی نه حیات جان ماست
گاه هستی زو بر آوردی سری 
گاه او از نیستی خوردی بری
چونک بر وی سرد گشتی این نهاد 
جوش کردی گرم چشمهٔ اتحاد
چونک با بی‌برگی غربت بساخت 
برگ بی‌برگی به سوی او بتاخت
خوشه‌های فکرتش بی‌کاه شد 
شب‌روان را رهنما چون ماه شد
ای بسا طوطی گویای خمش 
ای بسا شیرین‌روان رو ترش
رو به گورستان دمی خامش نشین 
آن خموشان سخن‌گو را ببین
لیک اگر یکرنگ بینی خاکشان 
نیست یکسان حالت چالاکشان
شحم و لحم زندگان یکسان بود 
آن یکی غمگین دگر شادان بود
تو چه دانی تا ننوشی قالشان 
زانک پنهانست بر تو حالشان
بشنوی از قال های و هوی را 
کی ببینی حالت صدتوی را
نقش ما یکسان بضدها متصف 
خاک هم یکسان روانشان مختلف
همچنین یکسان بود آوازها 
آن یکی پر درد و آن پر نازها
بانگ اسپان بشنوی اندر مصاف 
بانگ مرغان بشنوی اندر طواف
آن یکی از حقد و دیگر ز ارتباط 
آن یکی از رنج و دیگر از نشاط
هر که دور از حالت ایشان بود 
پیشش آن آوازها یکسان بود
آن درختی جنبد از زخم تبر 
و آن درخت دیگر از باد سحر
بس غلط گشتم ز دیگ مردریگ 
زانک سرپوشیده می‌جوشید دیگ
جوش و نوش هرکست گوید بیا 
جوش صدق و جوش تزویر و ریا
گر نداری بو ز جان روشناس 
رو دماغی دست آور بوشناس
آن دماغی که بر آن گلشن تند 
چشم یعقوبان هم او روشن کند
هین بگو احوال آن خسته‌جگر 
کز بخاری دور ماندیم ای پسر

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## English translation
A young man had fallen madly in love with a woman;
Fortune would not grant him the hand of union.

Love tormented him greatly upon the earth—
Yet why does love hold enmity from the very start?

Why was love bloodthirsty from the beginning?
So that those who are outsiders would flee.

When he sent a messenger to the woman,
That messenger, out of jealousy, became a highway robber.

If his scribe wrote a letter toward her,
The deputy would misread it through taṣḥīf.

If he made the morning breeze (ṣabā) his faithful courier,
That breeze would be darkened by a cloud of dust.

If he sewed a note onto a bird's feather,
The feather would burn from the heat of the note.

Ghayrat sealed all paths of remedy;
The banner of the army of thought was broken.

At first, the grief of waiting was his companion;
In the end, that very waiting broke him too.

Sometimes he said, "This is an ailment without cure";
Sometimes he said, "No—it is the life of our soul."

Sometimes existence would raise its head through him;
Sometimes he took fruit from non-existence.

When this condition grew cold upon him,
The warm spring of union would surge again.

When he made peace with leaflessness and exile,
The provision of leaflessness came rushing toward him.

The clusters of his thought became free of chaff;
He became a guide like the moon for night-travelers.

O how many a speaking parrot is silent!
O how many a sweet-souled one wears a sour face!

Go to the graveyard and sit silent for a moment;
Behold those silent ones who speak.

Yet if you see their dust as one color,
The condition of their agility is not the same.

The fat and flesh of the living may look alike,
Yet one is sorrowful and another joyful.

What would you know until you have heard their speech (qāl)?
For their inner state (ḥāl) is hidden from you.

You may hear the clamor of outward speech (qāl)—
When will you see the ḥāl of a hundredfold depths?

Our outward forms are alike, yet described by opposites;
The dust too is the same, yet their souls differ.

So too voices may sound the same:
One full of pain, another full of grace.

You hear the neighing of horses in battle;
You hear the song of birds in ṭawāf.

One from hatred, another from bond;
One from suffering, another from joy.

Whoever is distant from their inner state—
To him all those voices sound the same.

One tree shakes from the blow of an axe;
Another tree shakes from the morning breeze.

I was greatly misled by the pot of refuse,
For the pot was boiling with its lid on.

Every boiling says "Come!" with its sweetness—
The boiling of sincerity and the boiling of fraud and hypocrisy.

If you have no scent-sense from a clear soul,
Go and acquire a nose that can truly smell.

That nose which rushes eagerly to that garden—
It is the same that illuminates the eyes of the Jacobs.

Now tell of the state of that wounded-hearted one,
For we have remained far from the Bukharan, O son.

دفتر سوم - بخش ۲۲۷ - حکایت عاشقی دراز هجرانی بسیار امتحانی / Book Three - Section 227 - The Tale of a Lover of Long Separation and Much Trial

In Book 2 of Jalaluddin Rumi's Masnavi, the narrative of Dhu al-Nun continues as his supposed friends visit him in the asylum, declaring their unwavering love and loyalty. To test their sincerity, Dhu al-Nun begins shouting, throws stones, and acts violently. Terrified, the friends immediately flee, exposing the superficiality of their devotion. Rumi uses this dramatic encounter to deliver a profound lesson on the true nature of friendship and spiritual love. He asserts that genuine friendship is not defined by shared comfort or cheerfulness, but by the capacity to endure pain, affliction, and hardship for the beloved. Rumi concludes with a striking metaphor: a true friend is like pure gold, and calamity is like fire. Just as pure gold is tested and rejoices in the heart of the fire, true spiritual devotion remains steadfast amidst severe suffering.

Dhu al-Nun's Test of True Friendship in the Masnavi

Root URL: https://ganjoor.net/
Source URL: https://ganjoor.net/

This Reference node represents the source used by the Literature-to-1Cademy migration agent.

Ganjoor

## Original content
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کان جوان در جست و جو بد هفت سال 
از خیال وصل گشته چون خیال
سایهٔ حق بر سر بنده بود 
عاقبت جوینده یابنده بود
گفت پیغامبر که چون کوبی دری 
عاقبت زان در برون آید سری
چون نشینی بر سر کوی کسی 
عاقبت بینی تو هم روی کسی
چون ز چاهی می‌کنی هر روز خاک 
عاقبت اندر رسی در آب پاک
جمله دانند این اگر تو نگروی 
هر چه می‌کاریش روزی بدروی
سنگ بر آهن زدی آتش نجست 
این نباشد ور بباشد نادرست
آنک روزی نیستش بخت و نجات 
ننگرد عقلش مگر در نادرات
کان فلان کس کشت کرد و بر نداشت 
و آن صدف برد و صدف گوهر نداشت
بلعم باعور و ابلیس لعین 
سود نامدشان عبادتها و دین
صد هزاران انبیا و ره‌روان 
ناید اندر خاطر آن بدگمان
این دو را گیرد که تاریکی دهد 
در دلش ادبار جز این کی نهد
بس کسا که نان خورد دلشاد او 
مرگ او گردد بگیرد در گلو
پس تو ای ادبار رو هم نان مخور 
تا نیفتی همچو او در شور و شر
صد هزاران خلق نانها می‌خورند 
زور می‌یابند و جان می‌پرورند
تو بدان نادر کجا افتاده‌ای 
گر نه محرومی و ابله زاده‌ای
این جهان پر آفتاب و نور ماه 
او بهشته سر فرو برده به چاه
که اگر حقست پس کو روشنی 
سر ز چه بردار و بنگر ای دنی
جمله عالم شرق و غرب آن نور یافت 
تا تو در چاهی نخواهد بر تو تافت
چه رها کن رو به ایوان و کروم 
کم ستیز اینجا بدان کاللج شوم
هین مگو کاینک فلانی کشت کرد 
در فلان سالی ملخ کشتش بخورد
پس چرا کارم که اینجا خوف هست 
من چرا افشانم این گندم ز دست
و آنک او نگذاشت کشت و کار را 
پر کند کوری تو انبار را
چون دری می‌کوفت او از سلوتی 
عاقبت در یافت روزی خلوتی
جست از بیم عسس شب او به باغ 
یار خود را یافت چون شمع و چراغ
گفت سازندهٔ سبب را آن نفس 
ای خدا تو رحمتی کن بر عسس
ناشناسا تو سببها کرده‌ای 
از در دوزخ بهشتم برده‌ای
بهر آن کردی سبب این کار را 
تا ندارم خوار من یک خار را
در شکست پای بخشد حق پری 
هم ز قعر چاه بگشاید دری
تو مبین که بر درختی یا به چاه 
تو مرا بین که منم مفتاح راه
گر تو خواهی باقی این گفت و گو 
ای اخی در دفتر چارم بجو

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## English translation
Book Three — Section 228 — The Lover Finding the Beloved, and Exposition That the Seeker Was the Finder, as in "Whoever does an atom's weight of good shall see it"

That youth had been in quest and seeking for seven years,
Having become like a phantom from the phantom of union.
The shadow of the Truth was over the servant's head;
In the end, the seeker was the finder.
The Prophet said: when you knock upon a door,
In the end a head will emerge from that door.
When you sit at the head of someone's lane,
In the end you too will see that someone's face.
When you dig earth from a well every day,
In the end you will reach pure water.
Everyone knows this, even if you do not believe:
Whatever you sow, one day you shall reap.
You struck stone against iron and no fire sprang —
This does not happen; or if it does, it is a rarity.
He whose fortune and salvation have deserted him —
His mind looks nowhere but at rare exceptions:
"That such-and-such a person sowed but reaped nothing,
And that one carried off the shell, but the shell held no pearl.
Bal'am Ba'ur and the accursed Iblis —
Their acts of worship and religion availed them nothing."
A hundred thousand prophets and wayfarers —
These do not enter the mind of that ill-supposing one.
He seizes upon these two, for they give darkness;
What else but this would plant misfortune in his heart?
Many a man has eaten bread with a glad heart,
Yet it became his death, lodging in his throat.
So you, O face of misfortune, do not eat bread either,
Lest you fall like him into tumult and harm.
A hundred thousand people are eating bread,
Finding strength and nourishing their souls.
Why have you fixed upon that rarity,
Unless you are deprived and born a fool?
This world is full of sunlight and moonlight —
He has thrust his head down into a well,
Saying, "If the Truth is, then where is the light?"
Lift your head from the well and look, O base one!
The entire world, east and west, has found that light —
As long as you are in a well, it will not shine upon you.
Why dally? Go toward the hall and the vineyards;
Contend less here, knowing that contentiousness is ill-omened.
Beware, do not say: "Look, so-and-so sowed,
And in such-and-such a year locusts devoured his harvest.
So why should I labor, when there is fear here?
Why should I scatter this wheat from my hand?"
And that one who did not abandon sowing and labor —
He fills his granary, to your blindness.
As he kept knocking at a door out of consolation,
In the end he one day found a moment of solitude.
Fleeing by night from fear of the night watchman, he leapt into the garden,
And found his beloved like candle and lamp.
In that moment he said to the Maker of causes:
"O God, show mercy to the night watchman!
O Unrecognized One, You have arranged the causes;
From the gate of hell You have carried me to paradise.
For this You arranged the cause of this affair:
That I might not hold even a single thorn in contempt."
In the breaking of the foot, the Truth bestows a wing;
Even from the depths of a well He opens a door.
Do not regard whether you are on a tree or in a well;
Regard Me, for I am the key of the way.
If you desire the remainder of this discourse,
O brother, seek it in the Fourth Book.

دفتر سوم - بخش ۲۲۸ - یافتن عاشق معشوق را و بیان آنک جوینده یابنده بود کی و من یعمل مثقال ذرة خیرا یره / Book Three — Section 228 — The Lover Finding the Beloved, and Exposition That the Seeker Was the Finder, as in 'Whoever does an atom's weight of good shall see it'

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