In Search of the Lost Heart by William C. Chittick

Author:William C. Chittick
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

III

Islamic Philosophy

17

Rūmī and the Wooden Leg of Reason

I was prompted to reflect on the role of “reason” in Rūmī’s thought by the enormous popularity of his poetry in North America and the widespread habit of misinterpreting his teachings. Rūmī’s popularity has its roots in the scholarly translations of Nicholson and A. J. Arberry. But the “Rūmī boom” itself is indebted to a number of talented American poets who recognized a mine of gold when they saw it. They took the ore provided by the scholars and reworked it into contemporary English poetry, often without any knowledge of the Persian language or the intellectual and spiritual tradition that Rūmī represents.

In my profession as a scholar of Islamic studies, I am often asked about the quality of these translations. I reply that most of them—although not all—are inaccurate and inept. The reason for this is simply that, generally speaking, the translators fail to bring out both the literal meaning and the deeper implications of what Rūmī is saying. It is true that they often display sparks of Rūmī’s fire, and this helps explain why they have become so popular. But, for those who understand the Persian language—and even more so for those who are familiar with the worldview that animates Rūmī’s poetry—the translations are lame. They remind me of a famous verse from the Mathnawī:

The leg of the reasoners is wooden—

a wooden leg is awfully unsteady.1

Well, the leg of the translators is much more unsteady than that of the reasoners. This is largely because the translators are unfamiliar with the universe of discourse that was articulated by the very same reasoners whose wooden leg Rūmī criticizes. When Rūmī tells us that the leg of the reasoners is wooden, notice that he is talking about their “leg.” He is not saying that rational thought is useless. He is not objecting to the organized and even organismic vision of reality that was expressed in Islamic philosophy, the home of logic and systematic rational discourse. Rather, he is criticizing those who think that analysis, investigation, rational argumentation, and scientific proofs provide a leg strong enough to reach the goal of human life.

The key issue for Rūmī is “reaching the goal of human life.” Here we need to remember that he was speaking within the context of the Islamic tradition, for which that goal was clear, even though the language in which it was expressed in different schools of thought could be quite diverse. The Hellenizing philosophers, who are precisely the great logicians and reasoners, had no basic disagreement with Rūmī on the issue of the goal of life.

So, what is this goal of human life? All the Muslim philosophers held that it is to reach the perfection of what is humanly possible, a perfection that stands beyond ordinary experience and awareness just as the sun stands beyond the moon. If Rūmī objects to the philosophical expression of this goal, it is simply because, in his view, rational thought and careful logic cannot provide the energizing power to achieve it.

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