The Whole Catastrophe Summary

In Barks' commentary, he calls Rumi a True Human Being, an enlightened one, who then slipped back into the "catastrophe" of human life. Still, Rumi's poetry has spiritual power. Barks retells the story of Joseph and Jacob, which often figures in Rumi's poetry. Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers. His brothers bring back Joseph's cloak with blood on it, as proof Joseph has been killed by wolves. However, Joseph eventually comes into power in his new land of Egypt. Shirt imagery fills the story, as Zuleikha, an Egyptian woman in love with Joseph, clings to his shirt and tears it off him. In Islamic versions, Joseph later gives his brothers his shirt to put over his father's blinded eyes, restoring his father's vision.

Rumi's poem begins with a verse that calls the human form a distraction and...