Borrowed from sasha_khan

[gurdymonkey]

Because he f-locks his journal and I can't just send folks to it, and because it's good.


When you say, "I'm ignorant: teach me,"
such honesty is better than a false reputation.
Learn from your father Adam, O clear-browed man:
he said, "O our Lord" and "We have done wrong."*
He made no excuses, nor did he invent lies,
nor did he lift up the banner of evasion.

-- Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, Mathnawi IV: 1388-1390
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski

Comments

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

I loves me some Rumi, and I agree with the sentence of the quotation, but...

He made no excuses, nor did he invent lies,
nor did he lift up the banner of evasion.

...according to Genesis 3:11-12

And [G-d] said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

That looks like an excuse to me :-)

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

The Koran's version of the Adam and Eve story is slightly different and does not include the part where Adam tried to put the blame on Eve. So in Rumi's view, Adam truly did not make excuses.

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

OK--I wondered whether that might be the case. (Now that I've read it, I think I prefer the Quran's version of the story :-D)