In Book 3 of the Masnavi, Rumi employs the metaphor of a dropsical patient (mustasqi) to describe the lover's unquenchable spiritual thirst. A person suffering from dropsy has an intense craving for water, even though drinking it worsens their condition and may lead to death. The lover compares himself to this patient, telling his reprovers that his desire for the Beloved is so overpowering that he welcomes destruction. This metaphor illustrates how true spiritual love overrides the instinct for self-preservation, driving the seeker to willingly face annihilation for the sake of union.

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گفت من مستسقیم آبم کشد 
گرچه می‌دانم که هم آبم کشد
هیچ مستقسقی بنگریزد ز آب 
گر دو صد بارش کند مات و خراب
گر بیاماسد مرا دست و شکم 
عشق آب از من نخواهد گشت کم
گویم آنگه که بپرسند از بطون 
کاشکی بحرم روان بودی درون
خیک اشکم گو بدر از موج آب 
گر بمیرم هست مرگم مستطاب
من بهر جایی که بینم آب جو 
رشکم آید بودمی من جای او
دست چون دف و شکم همچون دهل 
طبل عشق آب می‌کوبم چو گل
گر بریزد خونم آن روح الامین 
جرعه جرعه خون خورم همچون زمین
چون زمین وچون جنین خون‌خواره‌ام 
تا که عاشق گشته‌ام این کاره‌ام
شب همی‌جوشم در آتش همچو دیگ 
روز تا شب خون خورم مانند ریگ
من پشیمانم که مکر انگیختم 
از مراد خشم او بگریختم
گو بران بر جان مستم خشم خویش 
عید قربان اوست و عاشق گاومیش
گاو اگر خسپد وگر چیزی خورد 
بهر عید و ذبح او می‌پرورد
گاو موسی دان مرا جان داده‌ای 
جزو جزوم حشر هر آزاده‌ای
گاو موسی بود قربان گشته‌ای 
کمترین جزوش حیات کشته‌ای
برجهید آن کشته ز آسیبش ز جا 
در خطاب اضربوه بعضها
یا کرامی اذبحوا هذا البقر 
ان اردتم حشر ارواح النظر
از جمادی مردم و نامی شدم 
وز نما مردم به حیوان برزدم
مردم از حیوانی و آدم شدم 
پس چه ترسم کی ز مردن کم شدم
حملهٔ دیگر بمیرم از بشر 
تا بر آرم از ملایک پر و سر
وز ملک هم بایدم جستن ز جو 
کل شیء هالک الا وجهه
بار دیگر از ملک قربان شوم 
آنچ اندر وهم ناید آن شوم
پس عدم گردم عدم چون ارغنون 
گویدم که انا الیه راجعون
مرگ دان آنک اتفاق امتست 
کاب حیوانی نهان در ظلمتست
همچو نیلوفر برو زین طرف جو 
همچو مستسقی حریص و مرگ‌جو
مرگ او آبست و او جویای آب 
می‌خورد والله اعلم بالصواب
ای فسرده عاشق ننگین نمد 
کو ز بیم جان ز جانان می‌رمد
سوی تیغ عشقش ای ننگ زنان 
صد هزاران جان نگر دستک‌زنان
جوی دیدی کوزه اندر جوی ریز 
آب را از جوی کی باشد گریز
آب کوزه چون در آب جو شود 
محو گردد در وی و جو او شود
وصف او فانی شد و ذاتش بقا 
زین سپس نه کم شود نه بدلقا
خویش را بر نخل او آویختم 
عذر آن را که ازو بگریختم

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## English translation
He said: I am dropsical — water draws me,
Though I know that water will destroy me too.
No dropsical man ever flees from water,
Though it defeat and ruin him two hundred times.
If my hand and belly swell,
My love of water will not diminish.
I would say, when they ask about my swelling:
Would that an ocean were flowing within me!
Let my skin split from the waves of water —
If I die, my death is blessed.
Wherever I see the water of a stream,
Envy comes over me — would that I were in its place.
My hand is like a tambourine, my belly like a drum —
I beat the drum of love for water like a madman.
If that Trustworthy Spirit spills my blood,
I will drink my blood sip by sip, like the earth.
Like the earth and like the fetus, I am a blood-drinker —
Since I have become a lover, this is my nature.
At night I boil in fire like a cauldron,
From day to night I drink blood like sand.
I repent that I stirred up cunning —
That I fled from what His wrath desired.
Let Him pour His wrath upon my intoxicated soul —
The Feast of Sacrifice is His, and the lover is the buffalo.
If the ox sleeps or eats anything,
It is being fattened for the feast and the slaughter.
Know me as the cow of Moses, O you who have given your soul —
Each part of me is the resurrection of every free one.
The cow of Moses was one that had been sacrificed —
The least of its parts gave life to the slain.
That slain one leaped from his place at its touch,
At the command: "Strike him with part of it."
O noble ones, slaughter this cow,
If you desire the resurrection of the spirits of insight.
I died from the mineral and became a plant,
And I died from the plant and struck toward the animal.
I died from the animal and became human —
Then why should I fear? When have I diminished by dying?
With another charge I shall die from humanness,
So that I may raise wings and head among the angels.
And from angelic nature too I must leap beyond —
"Everything perishes except His Face."
Once more I shall be sacrificed from angelic nature —
I shall become that which enters not into imagination.
Then I shall become non-existence; non-existence, like an organ,
Says to me: "Verily, to Him we return."
Know that the death agreed upon by the community
Is the Water of Life hidden in darkness.
Like the water-lily, go toward this side of the stream —
Greedy and death-seeking like the dropsical man.
His death is water and he seeks water —
He drinks; and God knows best what is right.
O frozen lover, shameful felt-cloth,
Who flees from the Beloved out of fear for his life.
Toward the sword of His love, O bearer of shame,
Behold a hundred thousand souls clapping their hands.
When you see a stream, pour the pitcher into the stream —
When can water flee from the stream?
When the water of the pitcher becomes one with the stream's water,
It is obliterated in it, and the stream becomes it.
Its attribute has perished and its essence remains —
Henceforth it neither diminishes nor turns ugly.
I have hung myself upon His palm tree,
As excuse for having fled from Him.

دفتر سوم - بخش ۱۸۷ - جواب گفتن عاشق عاذلان را وتهدید کنندگان را / Book Three - Section 187 - The Lover Answering the Reprovers and Threateners

In Jalaluddin Rumi's *Masnavi*, the metaphor of thirst (*tashnagi*) represents the active spiritual longing and preparation required to receive divine grace, which is symbolized by water. Rumi famously advises seekers to 'seek less water and acquire thirst, so that water may gush from above and below.' Within this spiritual framework, cultivating an intense, conscious state of thirst—representing profound inner desire and awareness of one's own emptiness—is the prerequisite for the manifestation of divine sustenance, as divine abundance flows naturally toward genuine spiritual longing.

The Metaphor of Spiritual Thirst (Tashnagi) in the Masnavi

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Ganjoor

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همچو گویی سجده کن بر رو و سر 
جانب آن صدر شد با چشم تر
جمله خلقان منتظر سر در هوا 
کش بسوزد یا برآویزد ورا
این زمان این احمق یک لخت را 
آن نماید که زمان بدبخت را
همچو پروانه شرر را نور دید 
احمقانه در فتاد از جان برید
لیک شمع عشق چون آن شمع نیست 
روشن اندر روشن اندر روشنیست
او به عکس شمعهای آتشیست 
می‌نماید آتش و جمله خوشیست

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## English translation
As if told, "Prostrate on face and head,"
He went toward that chief with tear-filled eyes.
All the people waited, heads craned upward,
Whether he would be burned or hanged.
At this moment, this utter fool
Shows what the hour of the wretched shows.
Like a moth that saw the spark as light,
Foolishly he fell in, cut off from life.
But the candle of Love is not like that candle—
It is light within light within light.
It is the inverse of fire-candles:
It appears as fire, yet is all bliss.

دفتر سوم - بخش ۱۸۸ - رسیدن آن عاشق به معشوق خویش چون دست از جان خود بشست / Book Three - Section 188 - The Arrival of That Lover to His Beloved When He Washed His Hands of His Own Life

The Metaphor of the Dropsical Lover in the Masnavi

In Book 2 of the *Masnavi*, Rumi uses the allegory of a thirsty man atop a high dirt wall next to a stream. The wall symbolizes the ego, the physical body, and worldly attachments that separate the spiritual seeker from divine grace, represented by the water. The man tears clods of earth from the wall and throws them into the stream, yielding two spiritual benefits. First, the resulting splash creates a sound that brings him spiritual ecstasy (*samā��*), akin to the life-giving trumpet of Israfil. Second, every clod removed physically lowers the barrier. This illustrates that actively and gradually dismantling the ego is necessary to ultimately reach and merge with the divine.

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