God’s Bounty Needs No Receptivity
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 5, section 61 of 175: Explaining that the bounty of God and of the (Divine) Omnipotence is not dependent on receptivity, as human bounty is (بیان آنک عطای حق و قدرت موقوف قابلیت نیست هم‌چون داد خلقان کی آن را قابلیت باید زیرا عطا). Below, each of its 19 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
Explaining that the bounty of God and of the (Divine) Omnipotence is not dependent on receptivity, as human bounty is; for in the latter case receptivity is necessary. (In the former case it is not) because (the Divine) bounty is eternal, whereas receptivity is temporal. Bounty is an attribute of the Creator, while receptivity is an attribute of the creature; and the eternal cannot depend on the temporal, otherwise temporality (origination in time) would be absurd. بیان آنک عطای حق و قدرت موقوف قابلیت نیست هم‌چون داد خلقان کی آن را قابلیت باید زیرا عطا قدیم است و قابلیت حادث عطا صفت حق است و قابلیت صفت مخلوق و قدیم موقوف حادث نباشد و اگر نه حدوث محال باشد
چاره‌ی آن دل عطای مبدلیست داد او را قابلیت شرط نیست
The remedy for such a heart is the gift bestowed by a Transmuter: receptivity is not a necessary condition for His bounty.
بلک شرط قابلیت داد اوست داد لب و قابلیت هست پوست
Nay, His bounty is the necessary condition for receptivity: Bounty is the kernel, and receptivity the husk.
اینک موسی را عصا ثعبان شود هم‌چو خورشیدی کفش رخشان شود
The change of Moses’ rod into a serpent and the shining of his hand like a (resplendent) sun,
صد هزاران معجزات انبیا که آن نگنجد در ضمیر و عقل ما
And a hundred thousand miracles of the prophets which are not comprehended by our mind and understanding.
نیست از اسباب تصریف خداست نیستها را قابلیت از کجاست
(These) are not derived from secondary causes but are (under) the (direct) control of God: how can receptivity belong to non-existent things?
قابلی گر شرط فعل حق بدی هیچ معدومی به هستی نامدی
If receptivity were a necessary condition for God’s action, no non-existent thing would come into existence.
سنتی بنهاد و اسباب و طرق طالبان را زیر این ازرق تتق
He (God) hath established a (customary) law and causes and means for the sake of those who seek (Him) under this blue veil (of heaven).
بیشتر احوال بر سنت رود گاه قدرت خارق سنت شود
Most happenings come to pass according to the (customary) law, (but) sometimes the (Divine) Power breaks the law.
سنت و عادت نهاده با مزه باز کرده خرق عادت معجزه
He hath established a goodly law and custom; then He hath made the (evidentiary) miracle a breach of the custom.
بی‌سبب گر عز به ما موصول نیست قدرت از عزل سبب معزول نیست
If honour does not reach us without a (mediating) cause, (yet) the (Divine) Power is not remote from the removal of the cause.
ای گرفتار سبب بیرون مپر لیک عزل آن مسبب ظن مبر
O thou who art caught by the cause, do not fly outside (of causation); but (at the same time) do not suppose the removal of the Causer.
هر چه خواهد آن مسبب آورد قدرت مطلق سببها بر درد
The Causer brings (into existence) whatsoever He will: the Absolute Power tears up (destroys) the causes;
لیک اغلب بر سبب راند نفاذ تا بداند طالبی جستن مراد
But, for the most part, He lets the execution (of His will) follow the course of causation, in order that a seeker may be able to pursue the object of his desire.
چون سبب نبود چه ره جوید مرید پس سبب در راه می‌باید بدید
When there is no cause, what way should the seeker pursue? Therefore he must have a visible cause in the way (that he is pursuing).
این سببها بر نظرها پرده‌هاست که نه هر دیدار صنعش را سزاست
These causes are veils on the eyes, for not every eye is worthy of (contemplating) His work.
دیده‌ای باید سبب سوراخ کن تا حجب را بر کند از بیخ و بن
An eye that can penetrate the cause is needed to extirpate (these) veils from root and bottom,
تا مسبب بیند اندر لامکان هرزه داند جهد و اکساب و دکان
So that it may behold the Causer in (the world of) non-spatiality and regard exertion and earnings and shops as (mere) nonsense.
از مسبب می‌رسد هر خیر و شر نیست اسباب و وسایط ای پدر
Everything good or evil comes from the Causer: causes and means, O father, are naught
جز خیالی منعقد بر شاه‌راه تا بماند دور غفلت چند گاه
But a phantom that has materialised on the King’s highway in order that the period of heedlessness (the reign of ignorance) may endure for some (little) time.
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by: Reza about (category: Masnavi, Persian Poetry)
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