In Book 3 of Jalaluddin Rumi's Masnavi, the narrative of the deceitful villager and the hospitable townsman reaches a painful climax when the townsman finally visits the village. Despite having exploited the townsman's generosity for years, the villager feigns complete ignorance, aggressively denying their friendship and shutting his door. Rumi describes the villager's hypocritical face as guarded by demons, serving as a warning against associating with such vile nature. The townsman and his family are forced to endure five agonizing days of exposure to harsh cold and burning sun outside the villager's home. Rumi emphasizes that their persistence stems from sheer necessity and lack of resources, rather than stupidity or heedlessness, comparing their desperate situation to a starving lion forced to eat carrion. This episode starkly illustrates the profound betrayal inherent in worldly attachments and the harsh reality of relying on false, superficial promises.

The Villager's Betrayal and the Townsman's Ordeal in the Masnavi

In Book 3 of Jalaluddin Rumi's Masnavi, as the hospitable townsman eagerly departs for the village, his inner reason issues a profound warning against worldly exultation. Rumi uses the intellect's voice to advise the townsman that true joy should only stem from the Divine, comparing God to the eternal spring and worldly things to the dead of winter. Reason cautions that rejoicing in anything other than God is a deceptive, gradual luring-on, and that true spiritual ascent is often found through grief rather than comfort. Furthermore, Rumi invokes a prophetic tradition stating that 'residence in the countryside is the grave of the intellect.' In this context, the village serves as a metaphor for the foolishness, spiritual dullness, and loss of intellectual light that results from abandoning the secure, spiritual city of the heart for worldly materialism and distraction.

The Metaphor of the Village and the Warning of Reason in the Masnavi

In Book 3 of Jalaluddin Rumi's *Masnavi*, during the tale of the hospitable townsman being lured to the village, Rumi introduces a historical parallel to warn against worldly distractions. He recounts an incident where the companions of the Prophet Muhammad abandoned him during Friday prayers, drawn away by the sound of a drum signaling the arrival of a merchant caravan selling wheat during a time of hardship. Rumi uses this event as a profound allegory for humanity's tendency to forsake the Divine—the ultimate Provider—for the sake of fleeting material profit or amusement. He warns that any pursuit that separates a seeker from God, no matter how seemingly lucrative, is fundamentally harmful and deceptive. By reminding his audience that God is the true source who "sends wheat down from heaven," Rumi emphasizes the spiritual foolishness of abandoning the Creator to desperately chase after the very sustenance He has already guaranteed.

The Allegory of the Friday Prayer and Worldly Commerce in the Masnavi

In Book 3 of Jalaluddin Rumi's Masnavi, during the tale of the hospitable townsman's ill-fated journey to the village, the narrative transitions into a profound spiritual discourse on the nature of love and attachment. Rumi observes that people gladly endure severe hardships—such as carrying heavy loads or burning in the sun—for the sake of worldly beloveds or transient goals. However, he reveals that human affection for any physical or worldly object exists only because it is temporarily 'gilded' with a ray of God's divine attributes. When this divine light inevitably returns to its source, leaving behind only the base 'copper' of the material form, human nature becomes satiated and discards the object. Through this metaphor, Rumi urges the spiritual seeker to abandon reliance on transient, borrowed companionships and instead strive for intimacy with the eternal, living God, whose divine light never fades.

The Metaphor of Gilded Love and the Eternal Beloved in the Masnavi

In Book 3 of the Masnavi, during the story of the townsman and the countryman, Rumi introduces the critical spiritual hazard of flattery (tamalluq) destroying caution or prudence (hazm). Rumi describes how the villager's persistent invitations and sweet talk gradually dazed the master, clouding his clear judgment (zalal-e hazm). In Sufi psychology, hazm represents the spiritual foresight and vigilance required to detect worldly traps. When a seeker succumbs to flattery, this inner vigilance is compromised, leading them to abandon their safe spiritual state and walk into deception.

The Destruction of Hazm (Prudence) by Flattery in the Masnavi

In Book 3 of the Masnavi, Rumi narrates the story of a townsman who, lured by the promises of a countryman, visits his village only to face great hardship and regret. This tale serves as a major allegory warning spiritual seekers against blind trust in worldly illusions and outward hospitality. Rumi nested several digressive allegories within this frame story, including the tale of Majnun and Layla's dog, to contrast worldly delusion with true spiritual vision.

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## Original content
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خواجه و بچگان جهازی ساختند 
بر ستوران جانب ده تاختند
شادمانه سوی صحرا راندند 
سافروا کی تغنموا بر خواندند
کز سفرها ماه کیخسرو شود 
بی سفرها ماه کی خسرو شود
از سفر بیدق شود فرزین راد 
وز سفر یابید یوسف صد مراد
روز روی از آفتابی سوختند 
شب ز اختر راه می‌آموختند
خوب گشته پیش ایشان راه زشت 
از نشاط ده شده ره چون بهشت
تلخ از شیرین‌لبان خوش می‌شود 
خار از گلزار دلکش می‌شود
حنظل از معشوق خرما می‌شود 
خانه از همخانه صحرا می‌شود
ای بسا از نازنینان خارکش 
بر امید گل‌عذار ماه‌وش
ای بسا حمال گشته پشت‌ریش 
از برای دلبر مه‌روی خویش
کرده آهنگر جمال خود سیاه 
تا که شب آید ببوسد روی ماه
خواجه تا شب بر دکانی چار میخ 
زانک سروی در دلش کردست بیخ
تاجری دریا و خشکی می‌رود 
آن بمهر خانه‌شینی می‌دود
هر که را با مرده سودایی بود 
بر امید زنده‌سیمایی بود
آن دروگر روی آورده به چوب 
بر امید خدمت مه‌روی خوب
بر امید زنده‌ای کن اجتهاد 
کو نگردد بعد روزی دو جماد
مونسی مگزین خسی را از خسی 
عاریت باشد درو آن مونسی
انس تو با مادر و بابا کجاست 
گر به جز حق مونسانت را وفاست
انس تو با دایه و لالا چه شد 
گر کسی شاید بغیر حق عضد
انس تو با شیر و با پستان نماند 
نفرت تو از دبیرستان نماند
آن شعاعی بود بر دیوارشان 
جانب خورشید وا رفت آن نشان
بر هر آن چیزی که افتد آن شعاع 
تو بر آن هم عاشق آیی ای شجاع
عشق تو بر هر چه آن موجود بود 
آن ز وصف حق زر اندود بود
چون زری با اصل رفت و مس بماند 
طبع سیر آمد طلاق او براند
از زر اندود صفاتش پا بکش 
از جهالت قلب را کم گوی خوش
کان خوشی در قلبها عاریتست 
زیر زینت مایهٔ بی زینتست
زر ز روی قلب در کان می‌رود 
سوی آن کان رو تو هم کان می‌رود
نور از دیوار تا خور می‌رود 
تو بدان خور رو که در خور می‌رود
زین سپس بستان تو آب از آسمان 
چون ندیدی تو وفا در ناودان
معدن دنبه نباشد دام گرگ 
کی شناسد معدن آن گرگ سترگ
زر گمان بردند بسته در گره 
می‌شتابیدند مغروران به ده
همچنین خندان و رقصان می‌شدند 
سوی آن دولاب چرخی می‌زدند
چون همی‌دیدند مرغی می‌پرید 
جانب ده صبر جامه می‌درید
هر که می‌آمد ز ده از سوی او 
بوسه می‌دادند خوش بر روی او
گر تو روی یار ما را دیده‌ای 
پس تو جان را جان و ما را دیده‌ای

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## English translation
The master and the children prepared their gear; they urged the beasts toward the village. Joyfully they rode toward the open country, reciting, "Travel, that you may gain." For by journeys a moon becomes Kay Khusraw; without journeys, how could a moon become a Khusraw? Through travel a pawn becomes a wise vizier, and through travel Joseph found a hundred desires fulfilled. By day their faces were burned by the sun; by night they learned the road from the stars. The ugly road became beautiful to them; from delight in the village, the road became like paradise. Bitter things become pleasant through sweet-lipped ones; a thorn becomes charming through a rose garden. Colocynth becomes dates through the beloved; a house becomes open country through a housemate. How many delicate ones have become thorn-carriers in hope of a rose-cheeked, moonlike beloved. How many have become porters, their backs wounded, for the sake of their moon-faced beloved. A blacksmith blackens his beauty so that, when night comes, he may kiss the moon's face. The master is nailed to a shop until night because a cypress has taken root in his heart. A merchant goes over sea and land; he runs out of love for one who sits at home. Whoever has traffic with the dead has it in hope of a living-faced one. That reaper has turned toward wood in hope of serving a beautiful moon-faced one. Strive in hope of a living one who will not become inanimate after a day or two. Do not choose a base thing as companion out of baseness; the companionship in it is borrowed. Where is your intimacy with mother and father, if companions other than God are faithful to you? What became of your intimacy with nurse and tutor, if anyone besides God can serve as support? Your intimacy with milk and breast did not remain; your aversion to school did not remain. That was a ray upon their wall; that sign went back toward the sun. Whatever that ray falls upon, you too fall in love with it, brave one. Your love for anything that existed was because it was gilded with God's attribute. When the gold went back to its source and copper remained, nature became sated and drove it away in divorce. Draw your foot back from the gold-gilding of its qualities; out of ignorance, do not keep calling the counterfeit pleasant. For that pleasantness in counterfeits is borrowed; beneath the ornament is an unadorned substance. The gold on the face of the counterfeit goes to the mine; go toward that mine, for it too goes to the mine. Light goes from the wall to the sun; go toward that sun, for it goes to what is worthy. From now on, take your water from the sky, since you have seen no faithfulness in the drainpipe. The wolf's trap is not the source of fat-tail; how would that huge wolf know the source? They thought gold was tied up in the bundle; the deluded ones were hurrying to the village. Laughing and dancing like this, they went on, circling toward that waterwheel. Whenever they saw a bird flying toward the village, patience tore its garment. Whoever came from the village, from that direction, they happily kissed his face. If you have seen our friend's face, then you have seen the soul of the soul and have seen us.

دفتر سوم - بخش ۱۶ - رفتن خواجه و قومش به سوی ده / Book Three - Section 16 - The Master and His People Going Toward the Village

دفتر سوم - بخش ۱۸ - رسیدن خواجه و قومش به ده و نادیده و ناشناخته آوردن روستایی ایشان را / Book Three - Section 18 - The Arrival of the Master and His People at the Village and the Villager's Pretending Not to Have Seen or Known Them

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

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Ganjoor

The Tale of the Townsman and the Countryman in the Masnavi

## Original content

همچو مجنون کاو سگی را مینواخت
بوسهاش میداد و پیشش میگداخت

گرد او میگشت خاضع در طواف
هم جلاب شکرش میداد صاف

بوالفضولی گفت ای مجنون خام
این سگ کل را چه میبوسی مدام

## English translation

Like Majnun, who was petting a dog,
Giving it kisses and melting before it,

Walking around it humbly in circumambulation,
And giving it pure, sweet rosewater.

A meddler said, 'O foolish Majnun!
Why do you continually kiss this scabby dog?'

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