Yanis Eshots, "In quest for the abdal: tale of Daquqi in Rumi’s Mathnawi"
Without doubt, Rumi’s “Mathnawi” as a whole, despite its outward plainness and simplicity, is one of the most mysterious works ever written (let us keep in mind that Rumi himself, long before Jami, compared his work with the Qur’an and spoke of its seven levels (butun) of understanding). However, among its numerous tales, there are ones that allow them to be interpreted as simple (sometimes primitive and obscene) anecdotes or, at best, samples of common wisdom - and there are others which bear too distinct traces of visionary experience to regard them as more illustrations of truisms.
One of such enigmatic tales is that of Daquqi (vol.3, verses 1878 - 2305), which describes the latter’s encounter with the seven (hidden) friends of God. Recent commentators of the “Mathnawi” - such as R.A.Nicholson and Badi’ al-Zaman Furuzanfar - have explored almost all possible avenues in their quest for the “real” historical Daquqi - but was there ever one?
On the other hand, Sufi teachers whom we have consulted have told us that they don’t care about the existence of any historical & real Daquqi, since the spiritual message of the tale is fairly simple: God has a group of His chosen friends, whose lips are sealed, i.e., who do not make any supplications - or, to quote Rumi himself:
I know another tribe among God’s friends,
/those,/ whose mouths have been shut for supplications.
-- (Mathnawi, 3:1880)
In my paper, I shall try to show that Daquqi who spends most of his life looking for the hidden friends of God, eventually meets them and then looses them again through making on inappropriate supplication in his thoughts during the prayer, is none other than Rumi himself.
Apart from the striking similarity between the image of Daquqi in the “Mathnawi” and that of Rumi himself in his son’s “Walad-name”, literally everything that we know about Rumi’s (spiritual) life shows him as a tireless searcher for the abdal.
Now, the word “abdal” (literally “substitutes”) itself is used in Rumi’s writings in a rather peculiar way: instead of naming a specific class of God’s friends (as this is the case with Ibn al-‘Arabi, Ala’ al-Dawla Simnani etc.), here it simply describes all God’s friends as people whose substance has been changed (“substituted”) by God:
Who are the abdal? Those who become substituted,
Through God’s substitution their wine become vinegar.
-- (“Mathnawi”, 3:4000)
As we know from Aflaki’s “Managib al-arifin”, Rumi refers to himself as one of the “abdalan” in several cases (in on case he does so in order to distinguish himself from Sadr al-Din Qunawi & his followers, who represent the “regular” Sufism).
More importantly, apparently there is a difference in ranks between the abdal themselves. The visionary tale of Daquqi, as well as the real story of Mawlawi and Shams Tabrizi, tells us that encounter between the abdal of different ranks (or “capacities”) entails unavoidable separation, which, in turn, results for the participants either in a bodily death (in case of Shams) or in a life-long grief (Rumi / Daquqi).
_____________________________________________________
(Янис Эшотс)
Fifth European Conference of Iranian Studies, Ravenna 6-11 october 2003
http://www.societasiranologicaeu.org/Sito%20Conferenza/pdf/abstract/friday/cl_eshots.pdf
One of such enigmatic tales is that of Daquqi (vol.3, verses 1878 - 2305), which describes the latter’s encounter with the seven (hidden) friends of God. Recent commentators of the “Mathnawi” - such as R.A.Nicholson and Badi’ al-Zaman Furuzanfar - have explored almost all possible avenues in their quest for the “real” historical Daquqi - but was there ever one?
On the other hand, Sufi teachers whom we have consulted have told us that they don’t care about the existence of any historical & real Daquqi, since the spiritual message of the tale is fairly simple: God has a group of His chosen friends, whose lips are sealed, i.e., who do not make any supplications - or, to quote Rumi himself:
I know another tribe among God’s friends,
/those,/ whose mouths have been shut for supplications.
-- (Mathnawi, 3:1880)
In my paper, I shall try to show that Daquqi who spends most of his life looking for the hidden friends of God, eventually meets them and then looses them again through making on inappropriate supplication in his thoughts during the prayer, is none other than Rumi himself.
Apart from the striking similarity between the image of Daquqi in the “Mathnawi” and that of Rumi himself in his son’s “Walad-name”, literally everything that we know about Rumi’s (spiritual) life shows him as a tireless searcher for the abdal.
Now, the word “abdal” (literally “substitutes”) itself is used in Rumi’s writings in a rather peculiar way: instead of naming a specific class of God’s friends (as this is the case with Ibn al-‘Arabi, Ala’ al-Dawla Simnani etc.), here it simply describes all God’s friends as people whose substance has been changed (“substituted”) by God:
Who are the abdal? Those who become substituted,
Through God’s substitution their wine become vinegar.
-- (“Mathnawi”, 3:4000)
As we know from Aflaki’s “Managib al-arifin”, Rumi refers to himself as one of the “abdalan” in several cases (in on case he does so in order to distinguish himself from Sadr al-Din Qunawi & his followers, who represent the “regular” Sufism).
More importantly, apparently there is a difference in ranks between the abdal themselves. The visionary tale of Daquqi, as well as the real story of Mawlawi and Shams Tabrizi, tells us that encounter between the abdal of different ranks (or “capacities”) entails unavoidable separation, which, in turn, results for the participants either in a bodily death (in case of Shams) or in a life-long grief (Rumi / Daquqi).
_____________________________________________________
(Янис Эшотс)
Fifth European Conference of Iranian Studies, Ravenna 6-11 october 2003
http://www.societasiranologicaeu.org/Sito%20Conferenza/pdf/abstract/friday/cl_eshots.pdf