Abdul Muttalib Answered from the Kaaba
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 4, section 40 of 137: How ‘Abdu ’l-Muttalib asked for a clue to the place where Mohammed was peace be upon him! saying (نشان خواستن عبدالمطلب از موضع محمد علیه‌السلام کی کجاش یابم و جواب آمدن از اندرون کعبه و). Below, each of its 16 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
How ‘Abdu ’l-Muttalib asked for a clue to the place where Mohammed was peace be upon him! saying, “Where shall I find him?” and how he was answered from within the Ka‘ba and obtained the clue. نشان خواستن عبدالمطلب از موضع محمد علیه‌السلام کی کجاش یابم و جواب آمدن از اندرون کعبه و نشان یافتن
از درون کعبه آوازش رسید
گفت ای جوینده آن طفل رشید
A voice reached him from within the Ka‘ba. It said, “O seeker, that righteous child
در فلان وادیست زیر آن درخت
پس روان شد زود پیر نیکبخت
Is in such and such a wadi beneath yonder tree.” Then the good-fortuned old man at once set out.
در رکاب او امیران قریش
زانک جدش بود ز اعیان قریش
At his stirrup (were) the princes of Quraysh, for his (Mohammed’s) grandfather was one of the notables of Quraysh.
تا به پشت آدم اسلافش همه
مهتران بزم و رزم و ملحمه
All his (Mohammed’s) ancestors (reaching back) to the loins of Adam (were) lords in feast and fray and the carnage of battle.
این نسب خود پوست او را بوده است
کز شهنشاهان مه پالوده است
This lineage is (applicable) only to his husk (body), which is strained pure (in descent) from mighty emperors.
مغز او خود از نسب دورست و پاک
نیست جنسش از سمک کس تا سماک
His kernel, in sooth, is remote from lineage, and unsoiled (by contamination with mankind): none is its congener from the Fish to Arcturus.
نور حق را کس نجوید زاد و بود
خلعت حق را چه حاجت تار و پود
None seeks (to know) the birth and (coming into) existence of the Light of God: what need of warp and woof hath God’s robe of honour?
کمترین خلعت که بدهد در ثواب
بر فزاید بر طراز آفتاب
The meanest robe of honour that He bestows in recompense (for good works) excels the embroidered raiment of the sun.
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by: Reza about (category: Masnavi, Persian Poetry)
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