Part One: Why Does Rumi Begin the Masnavi with “Complaint”?

In this video, Dr. Amirmehrdad Khosravi, on the Tandis YouTube channel, explores one of the deepest and most famous openings in the history of mystical literature—the first couplet of Book One of the Masnavi (Masnavi-ye Ma‘navi):

Listen to this reed how it complains;
It tells the tale of separations.

In this video, Dr. Khosravi explains why Rumi begins the Masnavi not with instruction, not with command, but with pain. In Rumi’s vision, the “reed” is not merely a musical instrument; it is a symbol of the human being cut off from their original source—someone separated from their spiritual root, whose every lament is the story of this separation.

In a language that is simple yet precise, this interpretation explains:

Why “listening” is Rumi’s first invitation—not seeing, and not knowing

Why the reed’s complaint is not about external suffering, but about the ontological separation of the human being

And how this single couplet outlines the roadmap of the entire Masnavi from the very beginning

With an analytical and deeply human perspective, Dr. Khosravi shows that before being a book of mysticism, the Masnavi is a book about understanding human suffering—a suffering that is healed not by escaping the world, but through awareness, a return to meaning, and listening to the inner voice.

This video is for those who:

Want to understand the Masnavi more deeply and in a contemporary way

Are searching for meaning within the pains and separations of life

And want to know why the sound of the reed still makes the human heart tremble after centuries

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