M1:1754 — گر مرادت را مذاق شکرست / بی‌مرادی نه مراد دلبرست‌؟

This couplet comes at a pivotal moment in the story of the merchant and the parrot. The merchant's parrot, having heard from the wild parrots that the way to freedom is to feign death, has just done so and is now free. The preceding verses have explored the idea that true lovers of God desire to be 'drowned' in the divine, finding joy in self-effacement and even suffering, rather than in worldly pleasures or the fulfillment of personal desires.

Rumi here challenges the conventional understanding of pleasure and desire. The first hemistich, 'If the taste of your desire is sweet like sugar,' acknowledges the natural human inclination to seek what is pleasant and fulfilling to the ego. However, the second hemistich, 'Is not desirelessness the Beloved's desire?' immediately flips this perspective. It suggests that from the perspective of the Divine Beloved, what is truly desired for the lover might not be the satisfaction of their individual wishes, but rather a state of be-muradi (desirelessness or the absence of one's own desires).

This is a core Sufi concept: true union with God often involves transcending the ego's demands and embracing whatever the Beloved ordains, even if it appears as hardship or the denial of personal wishes. The parrot's 'death' is a metaphor for this very process – letting go of the 'self' (and its desires for freedom in the cage) to achieve true liberation. The apparent 'bitterness' of desirelessness, or the 'death' of the ego, is paradoxically the 'sweetest' outcome in the eyes of the Beloved, leading to a deeper, more profound connection.