Who Is the Potter? A Commentary on the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

The Rubaiyat, as translated by Edward Fitzgerald, is elucidated by Abdullah in the light of his own and Sufi teaching. Omar Khayyam is shown to be a man modern readers can relate to sympathetically as he struggles with the questions of life and death during his long search for the Truth. Excerpt from the book: 'And David's Lips are lock't, but in divine High piping Pehlevi, with Wine! Wine! Wine! Red Wine! - the Nightingale cries to the Rose That Yellow Cheek of hers t'incarnadine.' The nightingale sings to the rose for more wine. The ordinary meaning of the yellow rose changing to red is that in our temporal life, people live and die - even the great King David has come and gone. God, Allah, Earth or Nature, stands higher than man and carries on. The esoteric meaning of the yellow rose becoming red is that a lower state of consciousness can change to a higher state and this is made possible by the 'wine'. The meaning of wine in the Rubaiyat has been understood in many ways over the past century. Initially, people took the reference literally. Later, some understood the meaning as the soul or spirit. In this quatrain wine refers to your own spirit which can raise up and develop further. (p. 8)