Page 18 - The Book of Rumi

The Masnavi of Mowlana Rumi offers numerous edifying epistles; it is
an unmatched compilation of stories in verse that doubles as an elucidation
of the philosophical and theological doctrine of Islamic worship. In page
after page of parables and tales, Rumi not only entertains but also guides the
reader, or more accurately the listener, in making sense of the complexities of

life, in obeying the authority of love, and in resolving conflicts. Throughout
the book, Rumi raises unanswered as well as unanswerable questions.
The cast of most of his tales are recognizable characters whose clones
inhabit stories around the globe: wise or deceptive judges, cunning or distrust-
ful women, wily or lachrymose beggars, charlatans, gullible souls, and many
talkative animals. Rumi tells of kingly deeds and the miracles of prophets;
he elaborates on the mischief of rouges and catches out mercenaries. Bodily
functions, disguises, deeds of heroism, mistaken identities, sexual entangle-
ments, consequence of gluttony and hubris, and all imaginative and extrav-
agant accounts of vices and virtues, as well as common superstitions, are
thrown into the mix.
The language of the poetic narrator of the tales soars to the heights of
high verse with flawless use of metaphors and intricately structured internal

dialogues, then plunges into the use of puns, vernacular idioms of the time,
expressions of ribaldry, and pure bawdy humor. He quotes from the best of
Persian and Arabic poetry of his era and relies on his scholarly knowledge of
the Koran and the sayings of the Prophet Mohammed to support his argu-
ments. Rumi is just as comfortable with the parlance of the lowlife and the
rascals of the souk as he is with the rhetorical discourse of theologians at the
mosque and grammarians at the madrassa.
Rumi deploys many dramatic devices to communicate with people from
all walks of life. The roles that he assigns to animals, the fl ora and fauna, are
in keeping with millennia-old traditions of storytelling in the East, where
the sagacity of animals or their mischief-making are on par with human
character.
No story is complete without a convincing and competent narrator, and
the narrator par excellence of Rumi’s stories whom we meet in the opening

of Book One of the Masnavi is none other than the end-blown reed flute,

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