May 22 | Knocking over bottles (Fire in the Wineglass #6)

Today’s lesson from the Masnavi started with the most delightful story about a parrot and a greengrocer. It actually put me in mind of JoJo, a cockatiel that belongs to one of the women who lives at Hineni House (he lives with her parents).

Like many birds, JoJo is fascinated with his own reflection, and has mirrors in his cage. The resident always laughs when she tells me that one of the few phrases he can say is “Pretty boy!” She’s also told me that he likes to dance, which he does by bobbing up and down.

On Easter her parents came for a socially distanced visit, and they brought JoJo, leaving his cage on the front stoop. She brought him inside, and later sent me a video of JoJo on her dresser, dancing in front of the mirror while she sang his favourite song, which, of course, is “Lullaby of Birdland.” I howled watching it, particularly as the crest at the top of his head rose and fell as he admired himself.

JoJo. Photo by Moriah Anderson

The story of the parrot is quite familiar in this light! A greengrocer procures a parrot as a pet, which can speak with human words, and is a delight to all who enter the shop. One day, however, while the greengrocer is out, he flutters about and makes a mess by knocking over a bottle of rose oil. It shatters and covers the whole shop with oil and its fragrance. Upon returning, the greengrocer, angry, swats the bird, causing the feathers on the top of its head to fall off! The poor thing goes bald, and remains that way forever.

For a long time, it refuses to speak again, embarrassed and ashamed. The people are sad to see it this way, and the greengrocer tries to placate it to no avail.

Finally one day a dervish walks by the shop and the parrot notices him – because he has a shaved head! Shocked, the parrot finally breaks his silence: “HEY! Did you knock over a bottle of rose oil too?”

I cackled when reading it, but what a lovely lesson comes out of the story: Never assume that someone who appears similar to you is in the same situation. The parrot saw a kindred spirit, but this dervish had voluntarily shaved his head as an act of faith. It was not a punishment for anything.

Omid-jaan explains that analogy is a tool used among Muslim legal scholars like Rumi to make judgements about appropriate behaviour when there are not explicit prohibitions in the Qur’an. When a question arose about whether or not something was allowed under Islamic law and it concerned something not mentioned in Scripture, they would attempt comparisons with similar situations. It could be said here that the parrot does something like that, but to his own shame.

You can’t compare the external with the external, Omid-jaan explained. Rumi says that while one reed may be sweet and useful for sugar, another may be more useful for crafting a ney. Likewise, some bees make honey, while others just sting.

More importantly for our purposes, Rumi adds, although it’s fair to say that the Prophet (PBUH) was a man (he said that’s all he was himself), one must not then imagine that one is on the same level as he was.

This isn’t to make him an object of worship, but merely to say that, in other words, you’re not off the hook for your spiritual work just because you’re both human! And even if you understand that, don’t think you’ll arise to his status if all you do is “ape” him without understanding the reasoning behind his actions. The inner self must be cultivated as well as the outer.

To go back to JoJo, whom I and all of the residents of Hineni House love, it’s not that he’s a uniquely beautiful bird, or that he does things that we’ve never seen before (I have definitely seen countless videos of birds dancing to music on YouTube). What matters can be seen in the other photos the resident shared with me: she was absolutely radiant in each one as she held him, and as he sat on her shoulder. What makes him beautiful and beloved among all of us is the love she has for him. What we’re called to do is see through the eyes of love – and appropriately enough, that’s what next week’s entry is about!

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