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The Sufism of the Rubáiyát, or, the Secret of the Great Paradox

Chapter 7: 4
By Omar Khayyam
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A mystical commentary offers a Sufi reading of Omar Khayyam's quatrains, interpreting verses as teachings about the unity of existence, the soul's relation to a single divine source, and spiritual transformation symbolized by wine and the elements. It annotates quatrains with allegorical explanations, linking imagery—planets, cups, gardens—to inner states, fate and freedom, and experiential knowledge as the path to liberation. The author cautions against doctrinal debate, emphasizes ethical action over theoretical speculation, outlines metaphysical correspondences (earth, fire, air, water) and encourages inward discernment as the means to understand life's paradoxes.

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Title: The Sufism of the Rubáiyát, or, the Secret of the Great Paradox

Author: Omar Khayyam

Translator: Norton F. W. Hazeldine

Release date: December 5, 2015 [eBook #50619]
Most recently updated: October 22, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Emmanuel Ackerman and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SUFISM OF THE RUBÁIYÁT, OR, THE SECRET OF THE GREAT PARADOX ***

THE SUFISM OF THE RUBÁIYÁT

OR THE SECRET OF THE GREAT PARADOX

ITS

SEAL

BY
NORTON F. W. HAZELDINE
SECOND EDITION
Copyrighted 1908

NOTES

RUBÁIYÁT. A reading between the lines, a meaning, within a meaning, a paradox.

OMÁR KHAYYÁM. The Tent Maker, an ancient Persian manner of expression signifying the Supreme Creator, for a tent to their minds represented the universe, the earth formed its level or floor, and the heavens its canopy. Again, the expression Astronomer Poet was another title for the Creator. He who laid out the heavens as a garden and placed the stars in design or order. He was also the Controller of the seasons, the Lord of the Vernal Equinox and the Prince of Horsemen.

IRAM. The nameless center of the universe, the womb from whence all things are born; the heavenly garden where J̈amshyd the King of Splendor (or wisdom) sits enthroned, and reads from out the seven orbited cup (the inverted heaven) wherein the orbits of the seven planets circle around within its sphere, and there divines the astronomical mysteries of the seasons, years and all hidden things.

RUSTUM and ZÁL. The personification of the universal positive and negative creative energies, the elements of causation, the great opposites, summer and winter, youth and age, etc.

HÁTIM TAI. The personification of charity, benevolence and generosity.

TAKHT-I-J̈AMSHYD. The throne of wisdom, the mid-heaven, whereon J̈amshyd the King of Splendor (or wisdom) symbolized by the sun when he reaches his zenith at high noon. The ancient Persians like the more modern Parsee do not worship the Sun as God, but to them it is the symbol of God, the All Seeing Eye, the Surveyor of the worlds, etc.

BAHRÁM GÙR. This character symbolizes the sun in the astronomical sign of Sagittarius wherein he represents the ass or old year, which will soon be lost in the swamps of winter or the sign of Capricorn, the extreme point of the southern ecliptic.

SATURN. Lord of the Seventh Heaven, the symbol of old age or ripeness.

MÁH to MÁHI. From fish to moon, an expression denoting the period from conception to birth, the state of transition between matter and spirit and between life and death, or as we use the same expression in the words "it is neither fish nor fowl."

PARWÌN. The Pleiades, the symbol of spirituality, gentleness, kindness, etc.

MUSHTARÌ. The Planet Jupiter, the symbol of benevolence, religion, toleration and big heartedness.

RAMAZÁN. The lunar month, beginning about the middle of March and ending about the middle of April; it is the Easter of the Mohammedans, the birth of regeneration or the spring.

The Sufism of the Rubáiyát

1

Awake! awake! Oh, slumbering souls,
Arise like him who rules the morn and leads forth the stars with song.
Oh, Master hail to Thee! strike Thou with Wisdom's shafts the enemies of man's progression,
Thou who art known as the Dispeller of Mortal Darkness and the Light of the Life to Come.
Lead us by that Sure Path to where the spiritual sun doth rise and where mortal darkness sets beyond the clouds of fear, anger, sorrow, indolence and crime,
Where the great peace reigns and thou oh lord abidest.

2

And before the [1]false morn of Earthly Life doth fade, that Voice Supreme within this tavern cries,
The Sacrifice is ready, loiter not outside, all is prepared, enter in, those wishing here to pray.
This is the way by which the soul doth learn, of god, of worlds, of things known and unknown.
Whilst those who worship through man's carved creeds, pomps, rituals and dumb forms,
Worship like tongueless bells seeking to sound their tidings to the world.
All cries within think! think! think! It was not worse before, nor better than 'tis now.

[1] The False Dawn is the reflection of the coming day upon the horizon before the sun is high enough to reflect himself or the true dawn.

4

Thus the new year of life has now commenced and the awakened soul is revived with a love of knowledge deep and true,
Which was written of by [2]mosa, he of the whitened hand and tongue that was slow of speech.
Under the tree of life whose roots in the lives of all are planted deep.
This is the saviour of well-being in which all existence rests and breathes.

[2] The White Hand of Moses does not here signify leprosy, but the white hand of truth, honesty and friendship. It did not signify the color of his skin then, any more than it does now, but simply a moral qualification. Thus the white hand of Moses (or wisdom) was described by the ancient Hebrews as "One who was slow of speech;" and though apparently it may take longer to express itself than untruth or dishonesty in the realm of mental evolution, yet in the end its victory is complete.

5

The night indeed hath passed away, and with it gone that cause of all decay.
[3]The King of Splendor holding the Seven Orbed Cup of Wisdom to the earth,
Through which the Powers of Divination came to their birth in man; commanded, all life's powers to control, though living here in clay:
None but the Wise may divine this power! Nor none may of its commencement know, nor of its end,
Till they the answer for themselves have wrung.
[4]Where gushes the ruby of the vine, that many a past recollection has stored in the Garden of Immortal Memory.
Which when watered by past experience brings forth well ripened fruit.

[3] The King of Splendor here represents the transcending of the supreme intelligence into the realm of intellect or the objective world.

[4] Or the fountain head from whence flows the life forces.

6

[5]The soul of man, the lips of the beloved, in that high inspiring voice with which that inner man doth speak,
Cries, live! live! Live an active useful life; the Nightingale, that Bird of night,
Calls to the Beauteous Rose that blooms by day, to bring life's color to her sallow cheek.
So doth this Voice Divine bid us, to turn to wine the waters of doubt and cold despair.
Thus the deep from out the deep doth call, in voice of thunder, hear ye all! man is born to live.

[5] The soul of man is here called the Lips of God, through which the Spiritual Voice speaks in a different tone, or a high, inspiring sound.

7

[6]Then take this cup and with the fire of resolution fill, lay now aside forevermore those garments of fear and indolence.
The time on earth is far too short to waste on self upbraidings;
Nor stand ye shivering on the banks of repentance, but seek deliverance within.
For the bird of life has taken wing.

[6] The cup here denotes the earthly life, which must be filled with resolution to succeed.

8

[7]Whether one in order or confusion lives, or whether one of the sweets of this life eats, which in the next the bitter must become,
[8]Or those who on the bitter live which in the next the sweet becomes; the law of compensation surely straightens out.
The wine of life is knowledge gained, on which no claims can Justice lay.
The leaves of life are useless works for which Justice decrees that righteous ones must be performed to balance life's account.

[7] The sweets of this life refers to the worldly pleasure, the sensuous enjoyments, which retard our spiritual progress here and for which we suffer in the next if we become a slave to them in this life.

[8] The bitter here refers to the virtuous, strenuous life, the life of denying, renouncing the so-called pleasures, the seeking to conquer our animal qualities.

9

Each month a thousand new thoughts bring but of the thoughts of yesterday which brought the [9]Summer Bearing Rose to view,
On which the King of Splendor sits and rules, all reverence be.
Oh, thou of pristine purity, master and dread judge of all that breathes, who art the light within the light, and who of no distinctions knows.

[9] The Rose is here used as an interrogation point, meaning to ask the question, where springs forth the spirit of regeneration wherewith a man from evil is reclaimed?

10

Rest well content; what matters it to you, whether the dead do live? The quick do surely die.
Let argument and praise thunder as they may, and though the loud voice of orthodoxy bid you to the feast of dread, fear and arrogance, take thou no heed.
All life and death are but transcending states, all is life and all is death to those who know where death is dead.
[10]Thus learn of sleep its opposite awake, from sorrow learn of joy, for between these parallels doth that stream most surely flow,
Which is bereft of name, of form, of life, of death!
It is that which we know as the infinite, from whence come all, and whither all again do go.

[10] Death is not found in the state of Infinitude, thus death ceases to be when the Infinite is reached.

12

The book of life beneath the [11]tree, a [12]jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou, oh Memory, well stored with sacred lore,
What wilderness of life doth not then a paradise become?

[11] The Tree of Knowledge.

[12] The jug of wine here denotes the life of opportunities, the loaf of bread experience, with which we wisdom learn and thus memory perfect.

14

Look around and note what in all nature sighs of self:
Willingly she yields the bounty of her love, Spring unto Summer, Summer to Autumn pledged;
Winter that Chariot of Sorrow to the Steeds of Spring is yoked fast.
Live as it were in this sorrow, from its conquest comes the reward; what ended last night in tempest will with the dawn become calm.
That for which self in sorrow sighs, would surely if gratified sting, for real prayer cannot be offered, till the [13]heart from desire has been freed.
Hold thyself as the rose its petals, which when bloomed, casts its treasures of beauty and perfume, into the garden called earth.

[13] Selfishness stands in the way of spiritual supplication; the prayers for the things which in themselves are forever changing cannot be profitable to any one, but the prayers which spring from the heart for its emancipation are the prayers which count.

18

[14]The Courts wherein the king of splendor holds full sway, betwixt the eagle and the bull and where the lion and the man do play;
He there glories and drinks deep each day at noon, then falling from his throne is speeded to his doom.
This is the sparkling wine of which all on earth may drink, that brings the harvest to the barn,
And is that great cause of life which none can turn, nor yet its harmony destroy.

[14] The Courts here represent the heavens, the King of Splendor the Sun in the month of june when at twelve high noon the Sun is then in 15 degrees of Cancer, when the signs of taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius which form the signs of the Equinox are at the feet as it were of the Celestial King.

20

Ah, this [15]reviving herb that's called the future state, upon its lovely lips, hangs the dew of holier things.
Thine is the [16]ruby which is set in virgin gold, and those who know the fountain head from whence streams forth that light divine,
Have stood face to face with god, and from the bonds of death are free.

[15] The Reviving Herb stands here for immortality.

[16] The Ruby here represents the sum total of life's experience, which is set in Virgin Gold or the ring of eternity.

21

Thus break thou from this wheel of strife and stress, with all its sorrows, fleeting, joys and chilling fears;
Thine [17]arrow having plucked from out thy flesh, no more are pain and grief, thy sorrows ended are,
Tomorrow, what? [18]Thou with thy past totalities shall be joined again.

[17] Pride, Anger, Fear, and Greed, which are the parents of all ills.

[18] The unity with your past existences for life belongs to all times and to all planes.

22

That which is [19]finite is revealed, that which is infinite is concealed, this pair the part of Father and Mother play, till time their purpose doth make plain.
What to our senses seemed so fair, that which our minds so oft aside have cast;
That which in void and emptiness lay hidden, has the fairest of the fair become, when freed from prison.

[19] The Finite is the objective or revealed, the Infinite is the subjective or concealed.