Rebab

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يارب يارب به حقِ تسبيحِ ربابْ
کَشْ در تسبيحْ صد سالست و جواب
يارب به دلِ کباب و چشمِ پرآب
 جوشان‌تر از آنيم که در خُمْ، شراب

O Lord! O Lord! All credit to the Rebab's pulling-beads (Pegs)
Tasbih (Divine Sanctification) is hundred questions and answers

O Lord! Since the heart is grilled and eye gushing
Boiling/Bubbling more than the wine in the wine-pot
or
More effervescent than the wine in the wine-pot

Rebab was played when the Sufis chanted Dhikr e.g. Tasbih (Sanctifying Allah), and during this performance they would sob and moan. The Rebab was an instrument to cause emotional steer.

But in Farsi Tasbih is also the name for the beads used in the Masbaha or the rosaries that Muslims use in their prayers. So Rumi uses the term Tasbih instead of the peg of the Rebab, as if the instrument is a rosary, to make an eloquent poem:

The pulling-beads (Tasbih) of the Rebab deserve all the credit
For hundreds of questions and answers of the Dhikr namely Tasbih

(Because of the tunes of the Rebab the heart is excited and eye tearful)
Since the heart and the eye are grilled and gushing
Over-boiling more than the bubbly wine in a pot

Q: Where does the term ‘hundreds of questions and answers’ figure in?
A: When the Muslim is regretful and wants to return to Allah (repent) s/he says Subhan/Tasbih i.e. Allah You are sanctified from this wrong doing I have done. And when something good comes to a Muslim e.g. a prayer answered, then the Muslim says Subhan which in Arabic indicates amazement about the greatness or beauty of something.




© 2008-2002,  Dara O Shayda