Hakim Jami Quotes and Philosophy
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| Hakim Jami |
Jami (1414-92) was a genius and knew it, which made ecclesiastics and literary men of his time acutely uncomfortable, since the convention was that no man was great unless he appeared intensely humble. In his Alexandrian Book of Wisdom, Jami shows that the Sufi esoteric transmission link of the Asian Khajagan ('Masters') was the same as that used by Western mystical writers. He cites as teachers in the Sufi transmission such names as Plato, Hippocrates, Pythagoras and Hermes Trismegistos.
Jami was a disciple of Sadedin Kashgari, the chief of the Naqshbandis, whom he succeeded in the direction of the Herat area of Afghanistan. His higher allegiance was to Khaja Obaidullah Ahrar, General of the Order.
One of Jami's succinct sayings illustrates the problem of all Sufi teachers who refuse to accept students on their own valuation of themselves:
'Seekers there are in plenty: but they are almost all seekers of personal advantage. I can find so very few Seekers after Truth."
Nor was this his only concern. Certain religious enthusiasts in Baghdad, trying to discredit him, misquoted a passage from his Chain of Gold, and created a rumpus which was only stilled after a ridiculous and trivial debate in public. Most of all Jami lamented that such things could happen at all in the community called human.
Jami's writings and teachings in the end made him so celebrated that contemporary monarchs, from the Sultan of Turkey downwards, were constantly irritating him with offers of enormous amounts of gold and other presents, and appeals to adorn their courts. His acclaim by the public annoyed him, too, to the mystification of the populace, who could not understand that he wanted them no to adopt him as a hero but to do something about themselves.
He never tired of pointing out that many people who tried to overcome pride were doing so because in this way they would be able to inflate themselves with such a victory.
Luxuriant Growth
If the scissors are not used daily on the beard it will not be long before the beard, by its luxuriant growth, pretending to be the head.
Unity
Love becomes perfect only when it transcends itself-
Becoming One with its object;
Producing Unity of Being.
The Prayer and the Nose
I saw a man prostrating himself in prayer, and exclaimed:
'You lay the burden of your nose upon the ground on the excuse that it is a requirement of prayer.'
The Teacher
The ruler is a shepherd and his flock is the people.
He has to help them and save them, not to exploit and destroy them.
Is the shepherd there for the flock, or the flock for the shepherd ?
See Also: Hakim Sanai Quotes and Philosophy
Love
Ordinary human Love is capable of raising man to the experience of real love.
The Dry Cloud
The dry cloud, waterless, can have no rain-giving quality.
The Poet and the Physician
A poet went to see a doctor. He said to him: ' I have all kinds of terrible symptoms. I am unhappy and uncomfortable, my hair and my arms and legs are as if tortured.'
The doctor answered: 'Is it not true that you have not yet given out your latest poetic composition?'
'That is true,' said the poet.
'Very well,' said the physician, 'be good enough to recite.'
He did so, and, at the doctor's orders, said his lines again and again.
Then the doctor said: 'Stand up, for you are now cured. What you had inside had affected your outside. Now that it is released, you are well again.'
The Beggar
A beggar went to a door, asking for something to be given to him. The owner answered, and said: 'I am sorry, but there is nobody in.'
'I don't want anybody,' said the beggar,'I want food.'
Hypocrisy
It is recorded in the Tradition of the Masters that Jami once said, when asked about hypocrisy and honesty:
'What a wonderful thing is honesty and what a strange thing is hypocrisy !'
'I wandered to Mecca and to Baghdad, and I made trial of the behavior of men.'
'When I asked them to be honest, they always treated me with respect, because they had been taught that good men always speak thus, and they had learned that they must have their eyes downcast when people speak of honesty.'
"When I told them to shun hypocrisy, they all agreed with me.'
'But they did not know that when I said "truth", I knew that they did not know what truth was, and that therefore both they and I were being hypocrites.'
'They did not know that when I told them not to be hypocrites they were being hypocrites in not asking me the method. They did not know that I was being a hypocrite in merely saying "Do not be hypocrites", because words do not convey the message by themselves.
'They respected me, therefore, when I was acting hypocritically. They had been taught to do this. They respected themselves while they were thinking hypocritically; for it is hypocrisy to think that one is being improved simply by thinking that it is bad to be a hypocrite.'
'The Path leads beyond: to the practice and the understanding where there can be no hypocrisy, where honesty is there and not something which is man's aim.'
Pride
Do not boast that you have no pride, because it is less visible than an ant's foot on a black stone in a dark night.
And do not think that bringing it out from within is easy, for it is easier to extract a mountain from the earth with a needle.
Intellect
Stop boasting of intellect and learning; for here intellect is hampering, and learning is stupidity.
What Shall We Do
The rose gone from the garden; what we do with the thorns?
The Shah is no in the city; What shall we do with his court?
The fair are cages, beauty and goodness the bird;
When the bird has flown, what shall we do with the cage?
The State
Justice and Fairness, not religion or atheism,
Are needful for the protection of the State.
The Heaviest Wave
Before Nushirvan the Just wise sages discussed the heaviest wave in this deep of sorrow.
One of them said that, it was illness and suffering;
Another, that it was old age and poverty;
A third, that it was approaching death with lack of work.
And in the end this was was accepted.