10-16-2014, 07:59 AM
Rashid's response was pretty much what Leanne just summed up so well, but I'll post it anyway:
Here's my take on this:
Its about after-life. The Sufi thinking is that while God Almighty may forgive a person for his or her sins committed in the life of this world, if they wrong some other person here, they'll need their forgiveness directly. So if someone is cruel to another person in this life, they need the victim's forgiveness in the after-life (when they are raised from the dead on the day of resurrection). Those cruel deeds will stay with the person in the other world unless they are forgiven. Also, punishment in the other world is more severe and Rumi uses a bawdy example to illustrate that and I think he often does that more to titillate than to sprinkle humor...(IMHO)
Here's my take on this:
Its about after-life. The Sufi thinking is that while God Almighty may forgive a person for his or her sins committed in the life of this world, if they wrong some other person here, they'll need their forgiveness directly. So if someone is cruel to another person in this life, they need the victim's forgiveness in the after-life (when they are raised from the dead on the day of resurrection). Those cruel deeds will stay with the person in the other world unless they are forgiven. Also, punishment in the other world is more severe and Rumi uses a bawdy example to illustrate that and I think he often does that more to titillate than to sprinkle humor...(IMHO)