M6:2152 — پس خلیفه ساخت صاحب‌سینه‌ای / تا بود شاهیش را آیینه‌ای

Translation: So He created one with an awakened heart as His Caliph; So that he would be a mirror for His sovereignty. Meaning: In this couplet, Rumi explains that God, seeking to be known, created the perfect human, His vicegerent or Caliph, to serve as a mirror reflecting His divine sovereignty and attributes.

This couplet unveils a crucial epistemological node in Rumi's thought. The fundamental question is: how can God be known? A God who has no 'nad' (like) and no 'zidd' (opposite). Philosophers traditionally argue that things are known through their likes or opposites. But if God possesses neither, how is He knowable? Rumi, at this juncture, adopts a distinctly Quranic approach, rather than a Torati one.

The Torah speaks of God creating humanity 'in His own image' (Imago Dei). While Rumi does not deny this outright, his emphasis—in line with the Quran—is on the concept of 'khilafat' (vicegerency); as stated in the Quran: 'Indeed, I will make upon the earth a vicegerent.' Thus, to be known, what did God do? 'He created one with an awakened heart as His Caliph'; meaning, He established the perfect human, the self-aware possessor of a heart, the mystic, as His vicegerent. This 'sahib-sineh' (possessor of a heart) then becomes 'a mirror' for God's sovereignty.

Here, Rumi constructs another epistemic step: 'Then He bestowed upon him boundless purity / And then positioned its opposite from darkness.' God Himself has no opposite, but His 'khalifa' (the mirror) can have an opposite! This mirror can be radiant, but it can also become tarnished or enveloped in darkness. The recognition of the opposite of this Caliph leads to the recognition of the Caliph itself, and through that, to the knowledge of God. This epistemological ladder is structured thus: God → God's Caliph → The Caliph's Opposite → Knowledge.

Rumi extends this philosophy of contrasts and opposites to the entire cosmos. He states: 'He created two banners, white and black / One for Adam, the other for Iblis.' God raised two flags, one white in Adam's hand, the other black in Iblis'. Our world, in Rumi's words, 'is sustained by this strife'; it is an arena of warring opposites: good and evil, justice and injustice, life and death, sorrow and joy. However, 'That world is nothing but enduring and thriving / One whose composition is not of opposites.' The afterlife is a realm of deathless life and joy without sorrow.

A deeper insight is that Rumi views this world as centered on human existence. Without humanity, concepts like pain, joy, sorrow, or even knowledge would not exist. It is we humans who give form to existence, who declare this painful, that joyful. 'The world, our world, revolves around our existence.' We are the ones who 'have fashioned the world in our own image,' for within us resides both Adam's essence and Iblis's, both Moses's spirit and Pharaoh's. Thus, this human history, these conflicts and opposites, which began with Iblis's refusal to prostrate before Adam and continued with humanity's fall into a world of pain and death, are ultimately God's endeavor to be known through this mirror of the Caliph and its opposites.

Key takeaways

• Knowledge of the incomparable and opposition-less God is only possible through a mediator like the 'Caliph' (perfect human).
• The perfect human (Caliph) serves as a mirror reflecting divine sovereignty and attributes.
• Unlike God Himself, the Caliph can possess opposites, which become a stepping stone for divine knowledge.
• The existence of good and evil, joy and sorrow, and all dualities in the world holds a divine wisdom for the manifestation of gnosis.
• The world is woven around humanity; it is we humans who imbue events with meaning and fashion the world in our own image.
• The fall of Adam and the onset of suffering and death in this world are part of this divine plan for knowing and experiencing opposites.