On marker day a woman went shopping and came back with a big bag of chickpeas, which she intended to use to make several kinds of salad, dip, and soup. She cleaned the chickpeas, rinsing them well and then soaking them for several hours before boiling them slowly in a big cauldron.
As soon as the pot began to boil, the chickpeas started bouncing up and down, screaming: “You’ve bought us, we’re yours, why set us on fire now?”
“I’s time for you to boil, so stay quiet and be patient. I must cook you properly, until you’re ready to be added to my best dishes,” she asserted know-ingly. “When you were growing in the fields you were amply nourished, but now it’s time to put up with some hardship. You know that your ultimate purpose is to become nourishment for the spirit not just the body! That’s how in the end you’ll reap your greatest rewards.”
The chickpeas slowly stopped bouncing around and quieted down, resigned to the fact that if they wanted to be part of the grand scheme of life, they would have to forfeit their material existence and trust in the guidance of their mistress.
Sources
Rumi, Jalal al-Din. The Book of Rumi: 105 Stories and Fables that Illumine, Delight, and Inform. Translated by Maryam Mafi, foreword by Narguess Farzad, Hampton Roads Publishing, 2018, p. 110.
Rumi, Jalal al-Din. The Mathnawí of Jalálu’ddín Rúmí. Translated by R. A. Nicholson, Book III, E. J. W. Gibb Memorial/Luzac, 1930. Verses 4159–4211 (“The Chickpea / Chickpea to Cook”).
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