Does Weeping Void the Ritual Prayer?
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 5, section 56 of 175: A certain man asked a mystic theologian (یکی پرسید از عالمی عارفی کی اگر در نماز کسی بگرید به آواز و آه کند و نوحه کند نمازش باطل). Below, each of its 12 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
A certain man asked a mystic theologian, “If any one weep loudly during the ritual prayer and moan and lament, is his prayer rendered void?” He replied, “The name of those (tears) is ‘water of the eye’: consider what that weeper has seen: if he has seen (felt) longing for God or repentance for a sin and weeps, his prayer is not spoilt; nay, it attains perfection, for ‘there is no prayer without presence of the heart’; but if he has (inwardly) seen bodily sickness or the loss of a son, his prayer is spoilt, for the foundation of prayer is the abandonment of the body and the abandonment of sons, like Abraham, who was offering his son as a sacrifice in order to perfect his prayer and giving up his body to Nimrod’s fire; and Mustafá (Mohammed), on whom be peace, was commanded (by God) to act after these manners: “follow the religion of Abraham.” “Verily ye have had a good example in Abraham.” یکی پرسید از عالمی عارفی کی اگر در نماز کسی بگرید به آواز و آه کند و نوحه کند نمازش باطل شود جواب گفت کی نام آن آب دیده است تا آن گرینده چه دیده است اگر شوق خدا دیده است و می‌گرید یا پشیمانی گناهی نمازش تباه نشود بلک کمال گیرد کی لا صلوة الا بحضور القلب و اگر او رنجوری تن یا فراق فرزند دیده است نمازش تباه شود کی اصل نماز ترک تن است و ترک فرزند ابراهیم‌وار کی فرزند را قربان می‌کرد از بهر تکمیل نماز و تن را به آتش نمرود می‌سپرد و امر آمد مصطفی را علیه‌السلام بدین خصال کی فاتبع ملة ابراهیم لقد کانت لکم اسوة حسنة فی‌ابراهیم
آن یکی پرسید از مفتی به راز
گر کسی گرید به نوحه در نماز
A certain man asked a mufti in private, “If any one weep lamentably during the ritual prayer,
آن نماز او عجب باطل شود
یا نمازش جایز و کامل بود
I wonder, will his prayer be rendered void, or will his prayer be licit and perfect?”
گفت آب دیده نامش بهر چیست
بنگری تا که چه دید او و گریست
He replied, “Wherefore is it named ‘the water of the eye’? You should consider what it (the eye) saw and (then) wept.
آب دیده تا چه دید او از نهان
تا بدان شد او ز چشمه‌ی خود روان
Consider what the water of the eye saw in secret, so that on that account it began to flow from its spring.
آن جهان گر دیده است آن پر نیاز
رونقی یابد ز نوحه آن نماز
If the supplicant has seen yonder world, that prayer (of his) gains a lustre from (his) lamentation;
ور ز رنج تن بد آن گریه و ز سوک
ریسمان بسکست و هم بشکست دوک
But if that weeping was caused by bodily pain or by mourning (for the dead), the thread is snapped and the spindle too is broken.”
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by: Reza about (category: Masnavi, Persian Poetry)
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