M1:408 — کاش چون اصحاب کهف این روح را / حفظ کردی یا چو کشتی نوح را

Translation: I wish you would protect this soul, like the Companions of the Cave, Or like Noah's Ark.

Meaning: Mowlana expresses a profound wish that God would keep his soul, once it separates from the body in sleep, permanently in that state of repose, much like the Companions of the Cave were preserved, or as Noah's Ark was protected from the worldly deluge.

This couplet reveals a profound and characteristic Sufi yearning within Mowlana. He implores the Divine, expressing a wish that this soul, once it is released from the body in sleep, might be held permanently in that state of repose. He invokes two powerful archetypes: the Companions of the Cave (Aṣḥāb al-Kahf), who slept for three hundred and nine years, preserved from the world's turmoil; and Noah's Ark, which was saved from the deluge, shielding its occupants from the drowning tide of time.

This aspiration articulates Mowlana’s (and indeed, many mystics') intrinsic desire to avoid returning to the realm of forms and the clamor of wakefulness. I have previously cited Abdul-Quddus Gangohi, as quoted by Iqbal Lahori, who famously declared: “The Prophet ascended to the mi'raj (ascension) and returned. If it were I, by God, I would not have returned.” This statement perfectly encapsulates the disposition of Sufis who, in essence, did not wish to enter this world, and now, having arrived, long to return swiftly to their original source and abode, to remain there.

Prophets return from their ascensions to guide and lead humanity; however, pure mystics, upon finding a path to those higher realms, feel no inclination to return. This is the very Sufi root that Mowlana articulates with uncommon frankness in this beyt. He effectively says: “I wish that last night, when you divested my soul of its body” (as described in previous verses where 'He dismounts the steeds of souls from their saddles,' alluding to the maxim 'sleep is the brother of death'), “you would have kept it there, never to return it to this 'storm of wakefulness and consciousness'” (as mentioned in the subsequent beyt). This yearning speaks of a weariness with the world's tumult and an intense thirst for tranquility in the Divine presence.

Key takeaways

• Mowlana's mystic yearning to escape the material world and never return.
• The contrast between prophets' mission (returning to guide) and mystics' desire (abiding in divine proximity).
• Portrayal of sleep as a gateway to death and the wish for this state to be eternal.
• Demonstration of the Sufi inclination to remain in the original homeland after the soul's separation from the body.
• A plea for liberation from the 'storm of wakefulness and consciousness' and the turmoil of worldly life.