M1:2720 — بی‌نهایت گردد آبش بعد از آن / پر شود از کوزهٔ من صد جهان

This couplet marks the climax of Rumi's allegorical prayer. The story is about a Bedouin Arab who, ignorant of Baghdad's mighty Tigris river, brings a humble jar of desert rainwater as a precious gift to the Caliph. Rumi uses this to build a powerful metaphor for the soul's offering to God.

The 'jar' (kūzeh) is the limited human self, our physical body with its five senses. The 'water' inside is our sensory experience and perception—often brackish and finite. The prayer is for God, the 'Sultan', to accept this humble offering. The preceding verses ask God to purify this water and connect the jar to the Divine Ocean (baḥr).

This specific couplet describes the miraculous transformation that occurs after divine acceptance. The moment the finite connects to the Infinite, it takes on the qualities of the Infinite. The small, contained water of the individual self becomes limitless, an ocean. The single jar, once just a container for one person's experience, becomes a fountainhead from which 'a hundred worlds'—a Persian expression for all of creation—can be filled. It is a classic Sufi articulation of the paradox of annihilation (fanāʾ): by emptying the self into God, the self becomes a channel for God's infinite grace and knowledge, capable of sustaining countless others.