He who doesn't taste doesn't know
Only Love Can Understand the Secrets of God
About a king who fell in love with a maiden. However,she was unhappy with him and began to look and act sickly. A wise physician came and discovered that she was actually physically healthy, but heart-sick from being in love with someone else, whom she grievously missed: "Her suffering was not from (an excess of) yellow or black bile. The scent of every (kind of) firewood is made evident from the (type of) smoke (it produces).
He saw from her (type of) misery that it was the misery of the heart; (her) body was well, but she was the prisoner of the heart"i.e. the hidden nature and quality of a thing is indicated by the effects which it produces." The present line then follows ("Love sickness is clearly shown by the heart's misery").
Love is the astrolabe: means that only love can "measure" and understand the depths of Divine mysteries-- not the intellect. The astrolabe is an ancient astronomical device, "an instrument for measuring the altitude of the stars and solving the problems of spherical astronomy." Hence you and your intellect are like the astrolabe: by this means you may know the nearness of the Sun of existence" (IV: 3685).
To that (Divine) Origin: means that being a lover eventually guides us to the Source of Love which is God, the Only Beloved. "Whether love be from this (earthly) side or from that (heavenly) side, in the end it leads us yonder." The poet explains that what was said of love in the preceding verse bears a general application. Love, whether its immediate object be Divine or human, real or phenomenal, leads ultimately to knowledge of God and union with Him. All earthly beauty is but the reflexion of Heavenly Beauty, and as the reflexion fades away we turn our eyes towards the Light whence it came."
Literally, "polisher." The meaning is that the nature of Love is revealed much more brightly and clearly when expressed in a non-verbal way. This term means "polisher" and "elucidator": "In it is used of the angels, who keep their hearts pure and unsoiled with sin." God said to them, 'If ye are enlightened'..." And he explained that "enlightened" literally means "polishers." The meaning of "Love (expressed) without the tongue is (much)clearer": "i.e. the signs of love, such as agitation, pallor, and tears, speak for themselves. the saying, 'the tongue of inward feeling is more eloquent than the
tongue of discourse'."
The intellect lay down: "The discursive reason , which maintains a distinction between the subject and object of thought, cannot possibly comprehend or describe the nature of mystical union. This is a mystery that Love reveals to the lover by immediate experienced [= He who doesn't taste doesn't know]
The sun itself is the demonstration of the sun: "A famous and oft-quoted verse" (of Rumi's), and related it to a saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad: 'I know my Lord through my Lord' `araftu Rabbí bi-Rabbí). To mystics their 'inner light' is its own evidence."
From: Rumi's first story in the Mathnawi
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