M6:2828 — هم‌چو مجنون بو کنم من خاک را / خاک لیلی را بیابم بی‌خطا

Translation: Like Majnun, I would smell the earth And find Layla's earth unerringly.

Meaning: This verse, spoken by a thief in a story, illustrates his extraordinary ability to discern hidden realities through the sense of smell. He claims that, just as Majnun recognized Layla's grave by its scent, he can unerringly perceive the essence of things beneath their outward appearance.

This verse, uttered by one of the 'night thieves' in the tale of Sultan Mahmud, speaks to a peculiar sense and an extraordinary gift: the ability to discern truth by scent from within appearances. As I have consistently emphasized, Rumi never perceives the world as crooked or distorted; he believes that if we see crookedness, it stems from our own distorted vision. Therefore, any extraordinary faculty that can tear away veils and lead us from conjecture to direct perception is lauded in the Masnavi.

This thief, who describes himself with the term 'boobini' (scent-seeing), claims a form of 'olfactory gnosis' (ʿirfān-e shammi). In Persian, we often associate scent with hearing, saying 'I heard the scent of news,' but 'boobini' is a Rumi-coined term that suggests a synergy and openness of the senses. He defines his 'farhang' (in the older sense of art and skill) as smelling the earth; understanding what lies beneath the soil, what treasure is hidden, and what character a person possesses. This is the very secret embedded in the hadith 'People are like mines of gold and silver' (al-Nās maʿādin ka maʿādin al-dhahab wa al-fiḍḍah); this 'olfactory mystic' can perceive their inner essence, beyond their earthly form.

To elucidate this wondrous sense, Rumi draws upon two fundamental narratives in our culture: First, the story of Majnun and Layla. Majnun, deprived of the location of Layla's grave after her death, recognized the scent of his beloved's resting place by smelling the earth of the graves, and there he gave up his soul. This is the pinnacle of a lover's fidelity, where his sense of smell takes the place of his eyes, seeing the unseen and finding the unfindable. Majnun's sense is essentialist; it is the sense of one who knows where the 'origin' (aṣl) lies and what is the 'branch' (farʿ), and can reach the origin through the branch. This is precisely what we have lost in the modern world, where we see nothing but appearances.

Second, Rumi alludes to the story of Joseph and Jacob. It was Joseph's shirt that carried his scent to the blind Jacob, restoring his sight: 'Indeed, I find the scent of Joseph, though you may think me senile' (Innī la-ajidu rīḥa Yūsufa lawlā an tufannidūn). The mystic-like Jacob, through the scent of a shirt, perceives the presence of the absent. Rumi himself, early in the Masnavi, uses this same metaphor, stating: 'This soul's breath has pulled my skirt / It has found the scent of Joseph's shirt'—meaning he too senses the scent of Shams, the scent of the Beloved, from afar. This scent is the scent of presence, the scent of 'union' (waṣl), not of complete 'separation' (firāq). Even in absence, presence reveals itself through scent, a sign of a 'hidden union.'

Finally, Rumi refers to the tradition attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, who said: 'I smell the fragrance of God from Yemen.' This alludes to Uways al-Qaranī, that restless Yemeni lover who never saw the Prophet, but whose love for him conveyed a scent of divine truth to the Prophet's senses. This 'Yamani Wisdom' (Ḥikmat-e Yamani), which Mīrdāmād and others contrasted with 'Greek Wisdom' (Ḥikmat-e Yūnāni), signifies a wisdom originating from revelation, inspiration, and devotion to Truth, not merely from pure intellect. In essence, this 'smelling' and 'scent-seeing' is a manifestation of 'secret-knowing' (rāz-shenāsi) and 'gnosis' (ʿirfān). A gnostic is one who 'smells' the truth, not merely one who thinks. These subtle and open senses form a bridge between this world of forms and that world of the formless. Such a one can perceive the spirit from the earth of the body; the inner from the outer; and from a small part, a great whole.

Key takeaways

• The sense of smell in this verse symbolizes intuition and gnosis, perceiving hidden truths from outward appearances.
• The ability of 'scent-seeing' (boobini) signifies an openness and synergy of the mystical senses.
• The story of Majnun and Layla is a prime example of a lover's fidelity, where the sense of smell supplants sight to perceive the unseen.
• References to Joseph and Jacob, and the Prophet and Yemen, underscore that 'scent' can bridge the gap to absent presences and divine realities.
• This insight stands in contrast to pure philosophy, emphasizing a wisdom rooted in inspiration and love.
• The gnostic is one who 'smells' the truth, recognizing the essence and reality beyond form and appearance.