The difficulty of fighting the greater jihād128, as

compared to the lesser jihād, which is easier. [1.2.6]

1-1373 O kings, we have killed the outer enemy, but within us there remains a worse
enemy than he.

1-1374 To slay this enemy is not the work of reason and intelligence: the inner lion is
not subdued by the hare.

1-1375 This carnal self (nafs) is Hell, and Hell is a dragon, the fire of which is not
diminished by oceans of water.

1-1376 It would drink up the Seven Seas, and still the blazing of that consumer of all
creatures would not become less.

1-1377 Stones and stony-hearted infidels enter it, miserable and shamefaced,

1-1378 But still it is not appeased by all this food, until from God this call comes to it –

1-1379 “Are you filled, are you filled?” It says, “Not yet; look: here is the fire, here is
the glow, here is the burning!”

1-1380 It made a mouthful and swallowed a whole world, its belly crying aloud, “Is
there any more129?”

1-1381 From the Placeless Realm130 God sets His foot on it: then it subsides at the
command “Be, and it was”131.

1-1382 Considering that this self of ours is a part of Hell, and all parts have the nature
of the whole,

1-1383 To God alone belongs this foot (power) to kill it: who, indeed, but God should
draw its bow (vanquish it)?

1-1387 We have returned from the lesser jihād, we are engaged along with the Prophet
in the greater jihād132.

1-1388 I pray God to grant me strength, help and the right of boasting133, that I may
uproot this mountain of Qāf134 with a needle135.

128
Ḥadīth: “Your greatest enemy is your nafs, enclosed between your two sides.” Aḥādīth-e Mathnawī p. 41. The
meaning of “between your two sides” is between man’s two different aspects: his material or earthly aspect and
his spiritual or heavenly aspect.
129
Qur’ān 50:30.
130
Lā Makān, literally meaning “no place”, or “spaceless space”, i.e. “the Placeless Realm”, the place of the
deity, where there is no space and time, a state beyond our conception.
131
Qur’ān 2:117, 16:40 and 36:82.
132
After returning from a war, the Prophet once said: “We now return from the lesser warfare (al-jihādu’l-
aṣghar) to the greater warfare (al-jihādu’l-akbar)”. His Companions asked, “O Prophet of God, what is the
greater warfare?”. He replied: “The struggle against the nafs”. Aḥādīth-e Mathnawī p. 63; Al-Jāmi‘ aṣ-Ṣaghīr,
Vol. 2, p. 85.
133
I.e. the success which would entitle me to boast of having conquered my “self” (Nich.).

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