### Overview
In Book Three of the *Masnavi* (Section 136), during the theological debate between the Prophets and the determinist deniers, Rumi presents a profound discourse on the rejection of spiritual despair (*ya's*) and the assertion of hope (*raja'*) grounded in the boundless mercy of God.

### Key Principles

1. **Despair as a Spiritual Bond (*Band*):**
   Rumi characterizes despair as a self-imposed limitation or shackle (*band*) that blindfolds the human spirit from seeing divine possibilities. To remain in despair is to deny the infinite capacity of God's grace (*fazl*).

2. **The Cyclic Nature of Trials and Ease:**
   Rumi emphasizes that difficulty is often a prerequisite for ease, famously writing:
   > *بعد نومیدی بسی اومیدهاست / از پس ظلمت بسی خورشیدهاست*
   > 'After despair, there are many hopes; behind the darkness, there are many suns.'
   This suggests that spiritual darkness is merely a prelude to divine illumination.

3. **Duty of Submission (*Taslim*) Over Outc...

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## Original content
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انبیا گفتند نومیدی بدست 
فضل و رحمتهای باری بی‌حدست
از چنین محسن نشاید ناامید 
دست در فتراک این رحمت زنید
ای بسا کارا که اول صعب گشت 
بعد از آن بگشاده شد سختی گذشت
بعد نومیدی بسی اومیدهاست 
از پس ظلمت بسی خورشیدهاست
خود گرفتم که شما سنگین شدیت 
قفلها بر گوش و بر دل بر زدیت
هیچ ما را با قبولی کار نیست 
کار ما تسلیم و فرمان کردنیست
او بفرمودستمان این بندگی 
نیست ما را از خود این گویندگی
جان برای امر او داریم ما 
گر به ریگی گوید او کاریم ما
غیر حق جان نبی را یار نیست 
با قبول و رد خلقش کار نیست
مزد تبلیغ رسالاتش ازوست 
زشت و دشمن‌رو شدیم از بهر دوست
ما برین درگه ملولان نیستیم 
تا ز بعد راه هر جا بیستیم
دل فرو بسته و ملول آنکس بود 
کز فراق یار در محبس بود
دلبر و مطلوب با ما حاضرست 
در نثار رحمتش جان شاکرست
در دل ما لاله‌زار و گلشنیست 
پیری و پژمردگی را راه نیست
دایما تر و جوانیم و لطیف 
تازه و شیرین و خندان و ظریف
پیش ما صد سال و یکساعت یکیست 
که دراز و کوته از ما منفکیست
آن دراز و کوتهی در جسمهاست 
آن دراز و کوته اندر جان کجاست
سیصد و نه سال آن اصحاب کهف 
پیششان یک روز بی اندوه و لهف
وانگهی بنمودشان یک روز هم 
که به تن باز آمد ارواح از عدم
چون نباشد روز و شب یا ماه و سال 
کی بود سیری و پیری و ملال
در گلستان عدم چون بی‌خودیست 
مستی از سغراق لطف ایزدیست
لم یذق لم یدر هر کس کو نخورد 
کی بوهم آرد جعل انفاس ورد
نیست موهوم ار بدی موهوم آن 
همچو موهومان شدی معدوم آن
دوزخ اندر وهم چون آرد بهشت 
هیچ تابد روی خوب از خوک زشت
هین گلوی خود مبر هان ای مهان 
این‌چنین لقمه رسیده تا دهان
راههای صعب پایان برده‌ایم 
ره بر اهل خویش آسان کرده‌ایم

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## English translation
Again the Answer of the Prophets (Peace Be Upon Them) to Them

The Prophets said: Despair is bad —
The grace and mercies of the Lord are without limit.

From such a Benefactor, despair is unworthy;
Clutch the saddle-strap of this mercy.

How many a matter that was hard at first
Afterward opened up, and hardship passed away.

After despair there are many hopes;
After darkness there are many suns.

Suppose I grant that you have grown hardened,
That you have set locks upon your ears and hearts.

We have no concern with your acceptance;
Our business is submission and obedience to command.

He has commanded us this servitude;
This speaking is not from ourselves.

We hold our souls for His command;
If He bids us sow in sand, we sow.

None but God is the companion of the prophet's soul;
He has no concern with the acceptance or rejection of creatures.

The reward for conveying His messages comes from Him;
We became ugly and enemy-faced for the sake of the Friend.

We are not wearied ones at this threshold,
That we should halt anywhere along the road thereafter.

The one whose heart is constricted and weary
Is he who is imprisoned in separation from the Beloved.

The Beloved and the Object of desire is present with us;
The soul is grateful amid the gift-scattering of His mercy.

In our hearts is a field of tulips and a rose garden;
There is no way in for old age and withering.

We are ever fresh and young and tender,
New and sweet and laughing and refined.

To us, a hundred years and one hour are one,
For length and brevity are severed from us.

That length and shortness belongs to bodies;
Where is length and shortness in the soul?

Three hundred and nine years — for the People of the Cave (Aṣḥāb-i Kahf)
It was one day, free of grief and distress.

And then it showed them one day more,
When souls returned to the body from non-existence.

When there is neither day and night nor month and year,
How can there be satiety, old age, or tedium?

In the garden of non-existence, since there is self-abandonment,
The intoxication comes from the cup of divine grace.

"He who has not tasted does not know" (lam yadhūq lam yadri) — whoever has not drunk,
How can a dung-beetle conceive of the fragrance of roses?

It is not imaginary; were it imaginary,
It would have become non-existent, like imagined things.

How can Hell bring Paradise to mind?
Does a fair face ever shine from an ugly pig?

Take heed — do not cut your own throat, O nobles;
Such a morsel has reached all the way to your mouth.

We have carried difficult roads to their end;
We have made the way easy for our own people.

دفتر سوم - بخش ۱۳۶ - باز جواب انبیا علیهم السلام ایشان را / Book Three - Section 136 - Again the Answer of the Prophets (Peace Be Upon Them) to Them

In Book Three, Section 135 of the *Masnavi*, the infidels respond to the Prophets' medical metaphor (which distinguished between curable and incurable diseases) by asserting that their own spiritual blindness is incurable. They argue that years of prophetic admonition have only worsened their condition, proving their disbelief is a predetermined disease that does not accept a remedy. By categorizing their state as an incurable affliction, the infidels attempt to turn the Prophets' analogy against them, using fatalism to justify their rejection of spiritual effort.

The Infidels' Fatalistic Rebuttal: Claiming Incurable Spiritual Affliction

Root URL: https://ganjoor.net/
Source URL: https://ganjoor.net/

This Reference node represents the source used by the Literature-to-1Cademy migration agent.

Ganjoor

## Original content
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انبیا گفتند با خاطر که چند 
می‌دهیم این را و آن را وعظ و پند
چند کوبیم آهن سردی ز غی 
در دمیدن در قفض هین تا بکی
جنبش خلق از قضا و وعده است 
تیزی دندان ز سوز معده است
نفس اول راند بر نفس دوم 
ماهی از سر گنده باشد نه ز دم
لیک هم می‌دان و خر می‌ران چو تیر 
چونک بلغ گفت حق شد ناگزیر
تو نمی‌دانی کزین دو کیستی 
جهد کن چندانک بینی چیستی
چون نهی بر پشت کشتی بار را 
بر توکل می‌کنی آن کار را
تو نمی‌دانی که از هر دو کیی 
غرقه‌ای اندر سفر یا ناجیی
گر بگویی تا ندانم من کیم 
بر نخواهم تاخت در کشتی و یم
من درین ره ناجیم یا غرقه‌ام 
کشف گردان کز کدامین فرقه‌ام
من نخواهم رفت این ره با گمان 
بر امید خشک همچون دیگران
هیچ بازرگانیی ناید ز تو 
زانک در غیبست سر این دو رو
تاجر ترسنده‌طبع شیشه‌جان 
در طلب نه سود دارد نه زیان
بل زیان دارد که محرومست و خوار 
نور او یابد که باشد شعله‌خوار
چونک بر بوکست جمله کارها 
کار دین اولی کزین یابی رها
نیست دستوری بدینجا قرع باب 
جز امید الله اعلم بالصواب

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## English translation
The prophets said within their hearts: "How long
shall we give sermon and counsel to this one and that?
How long shall we beat cold iron of waywardness,
blowing into a cage — hark, until when?
The movement of the people is from qaḍā and the promise;
the sharpness of the teeth comes from the burning of the stomach.
The first breath drives on the second;
fish rots from the head, not from the tail.
But still, know this and drive the donkey straight as an arrow;
since the Ḥaqq said 'Convey,' it has become unavoidable.
You do not know which of these two you are;
strive until you see what you are.
When you place cargo upon the back of a ship,
you perform that work through tawakkul.
You do not know which of the two you are —
drowned in the voyage, or one who is saved.
If you say: 'Until I know who I am,
I will not rush into ship and sea —
Am I in this path one who is saved or one who drowns?
Reveal to me from which group I am;
I will not travel this path on mere conjecture,
on dry hope like the others' —
No commerce will come from you,
for the secret of these two faces lies in the Ghayb.
The merchant fearful by nature, glass-souled,
in seeking has neither profit nor loss —
nay, he suffers loss, for he is deprived and degraded;
light is gained by one who feeds on flame.
Since all affairs rest on 'perhaps,'
the work of religion is most worthy — from it you find release.
Here there is no leave to knock at the door
except through hope — Allāhu aʿlam bi'l-ṣawāb.

دفتر سوم - بخش ۱۴۴ - نومید شدن انبیا از قبول و پذیرای منکران قوله حتی اذا استیاس الرسل / Book Three - Section 144 - The Despair of the Prophets Regarding the Acceptance and Reception of the Deniers, His Word 'Until When the Messengers Despaired'

## Original content
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قوم گفتند از شما سعد خودیت 
نحس مایید و ضدیت و مرتدیت
جان ما فارغ بد از اندیشه‌ها 
در غم افکندید ما را و عنا
ذوق جمعیت که بود و اتفاق 
شد ز فال زشتتان صد افتراق
طوطی نقل شکر بودیم ما 
مرغ مرگ‌اندیش گشتیم از شما
هر کجا افسانهٔ غم‌گستریست 
هر کجا آوازهٔ مستنکریست
هر کجا اندر جهان فال بذست 
هر کجا مسخی نکالی ماخذست
در مثال قصه و فال شماست 
در غم‌انگیزی شما را مشتهاست

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## English translation
The people said: The good fortune (sa'd) is your own—
You are our ill-omen (naḥs), our opposition, and our apostasy.
Our souls were free from worries and cares,
You have cast us into grief and hardship.
The pleasure of togetherness and accord that existed
Through your evil augury became a hundred separations.
We were parrots conveying sweet confections,
We became death-pondering birds because of you.
Wherever there is a tale of spreading grief,
Wherever there is a rumor of the abominable,
Wherever in the world there is an evil omen,
Wherever there is a mockery or exemplary punishment as a source—
As a parable it is your story and your omen;
In grief-causing you have an eager appetite.

دفتر سوم - بخش ۱۳۷ - مکرر کردن قوم اعتراض ترجیه بر انبیا علیهم‌السلام / Book Three - Section 137 - The People Repeating the Objection of Taking the Prophets (Peace Be Upon Them) as an Ill Omen

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Overview

Key Principles

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