Читать книгу A Treasury of Rumi's Wisdom - Muhammad Isa Waley - Страница 13

4

The Believer’s Heart

Compared to the vastness of [Adam’s] pure soul,

the expanse of the seven heavens is narrow.

The Prophet related that God has said,

‘I am not contained in the jar of “high” and “low”;

I am not contained in earth or heaven, or even Heaven’s highest heights. Know this for sure, noble one.

Yet I am contained in the true believer’s heart.

How wondrous! If you look for Me, search in those hearts.’

(M I, 2652–2655)

These lines from the MathnawÏ indicate the immensity of the human soul with reference to a saying sometimes cited as a ¤adÏth QudsÏ, a Divinely inspired Prophetic Tradition: ‘Neither My heavens nor My earth can contain Me, but the heart of My believing servant contains Me.’ This is an allusive statement, not a literal one. God Almighty and Majestic has no location or dimensions and cannot be contained in anyone or anything. The mind may understand something of God’s Attributes (|if¥t) but not His Ipseity or Essence (dh¥t); and a hadith (>abar¥nÏ, al-Mu¢jam al-awsa~) forbids meditating on the latter, which could unbalance the mind. Yet the human heart, by virtue of its primordial nature, has the potential to become like a mirror reflecting the Divine Magnificence, ‘embracing’ It, so to speak, by a mode of direct, supra-rational, cognition (ma¢rifa). As Mawl¥n¥ says (MathnawÏ III, 2269):

‘The heart is nothing other than that ocean of Light.

It’s the place where God is seen; how, then, could it be blind?’

The above explanation leaves some questions unanswered. Why, for instance, does the poet attribute these words to God: ‘If you look for Me, search in those hearts’? Should not every seeker be searching within their own hearts? They should. But for those in need of guidance, the way to begin the search is to seek somebody qualified to help them; somebody whose heart already contains Divinely bestowed wisdom, knowledge, and baraka (blessing).