The Babe Who Spoke of the Prophet
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 3, section 144 of 185: How the unbelieving woman came to Mustafá (Mohammed) (آمدن آن زن کافر با طفل شیرخواره به نزدیک مصطفی علیه السلام و ناطق شدن عیسی‌وار به معجزات). Below, each of its 18 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
How the unbelieving woman came to Mustafá (Mohammed), on whom be peace, with a sucking babe, and how it spoke, like Jesus, of the miracles of the Prophet, God bless and save him! آمدن آن زن کافر با طفل شیرخواره به نزدیک مصطفی علیه السلام و ناطق شدن عیسی‌وار به معجزات رسول صلی الله علیه و سلم
هم از آن ده یک زنی از کافران سوی پیغامبر دوان شد ز امتحان
A woman of the same village, one of the unbelievers, ran to the Prophet for the sake of testing (him).
پیش پیغامبر در آمد با خمار کودکی دو ماه زن را بر کنار
She came in to the Prophet, (her face covered) with the veil: the woman had a two months old infant in her lap.
گفت کودک سلم الله علیک یا رسول الله قد جنا الیک
The child said, “God give peace unto thee, O Messenger of Allah! We have come to thee.”
مادرش از خشم گفتش هی خموش کیت افکند این شهادت را بگوش
Its mother said to it angrily, “Hey, be silent! Who put this testimony into thine ear?
این کیت آموخت ای طفل صغیر که زبانت گشت در طفلی جریر
Who taught thee this, O little child, so that thy tongue became fluent in infancy?”
گفت حق آموخت آنگه جبرئیل در بیان با جبرئیلم من رسیل
It replied, “God taught (me), then Gabriel: I am Gabriel’s accompanist in (this) declaration.”
گفت کو گفتا که بالای سرت می‌نبینی کن به بالا منظرت
She said, “Where (is Gabriel)?” It replied, “Above thy head: dost not thou see? Turn thine eye aloft.
ایستاده بر سر تو جبرئیل مر مرا گشته به صد گونه دلیل
Gabriel is standing above thee: to me he has become a guide in a hundred diverse ways.”
گفت می‌بینی تو گفتا که بلی بر سرت تابان چو بدری کاملی
She said, “Dost thou see (him)?” “Yes,” it replied; “(I see him) shining above thee like a perfect full-moon.
می‌بیاموزد مرا وصف رسول زان علوم می‌رهاند زین سفول
He is teaching me the qualities of the Prophet and delivering me by means of that sublimity from this degradation.”
پس رسولش گفت ای طفل رضیع چیست نامت باز گو و شو مطیع
Then said the Prophet to it (the infant), “O sucking child, what is thy name? Say (it) forth and comply (with my request).”
گفت نامم پیش حق عبدالعزیز عبد عزی پیش این یک مشت حیز
“Abdu ’l-‘Azíz,” said the child, “is my name with God; (but) ‘Abd-i ‘Uzzá with this handful of reprobates.
من ز عزی پاک و بیزار و بری حق آنک دادت این پیغامبری
I am clear and free and quit of ‘Uzzá, (I swear it) by the truth of Him who gave thee this prophethood.”
کودک دو ماهه همچون ماه بدر درس بالغ گفته چون اصحاب صدر
The two months old child, (illumined) like the full-moon, pronounced the discourse of an adult, as those who occupy the seat of honour.
پس حنوط آن دم ز جنت در رسید تا دماغ طفل و مادر بو کشید
Then at that instant arrived balm from Paradise, so that the brain of child and mother drew in the scent.
هر دو می‌گفتند کز خوف سقوط جان سپردن به برین بوی حنوط
Both (of them) were saying, “For fear of falling (from that high estate), ’tis best to surrender one’s soul to the scent of this balm.”
آن کسی را کش معرف حق بود جامد و نامیش صد صدق زند
As for that one whom God endows with knowledge, things inanimate and growing (living) utter a hundred expressions of belief in him.
آنکسی را کش خدا حافظ بود مرغ و ماهی مر ورا حارس شود
As for that one whom God protects, birds and fish become his guardians.
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by: Reza about (category: Masnavi, Persian Poetry)
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