M6:440 — گفت مرد زاهدم من منقطع / با گیاهی گشتم اینجا مقتنع

Translation: He said, "I am an ascetic man, detached / Content here with naught but a plant." Meaning: The disguised hunter claims to be an ascetic, detached from worldly desires and content with mere plants, intending to deceive his prey.

This verse presents the words of a hunter, who, in order to deceive birds, has disguised himself as an ascetic renouncing the world. He claims to be "detached" (munqaṭiʿ) from worldly affairs and "content" (muqtanīʿ) with mere "plants" (giyāh) in the wilderness. However, the truth is that these words are nothing but a golden snare of deception; the hunter intends for the birds to approach him, believing him to be a harmless recluse, only to fall into his grasp.

I believe Mowlana here delivers a profound critique of superficial asceticism (zuhd) and institutional Sufism (Khanqahi Sufism). This "ascetic" is a masquerader, a zāhid-namā, whose outward piety conceals an inner captivity to "greed and avarice" (ḥirṣ va ṭamaʿ). Mowlana emphatically stresses that absolute poverty, if not born of "poverty before God" (faqr-i ḥaq), becomes a spiritual detriment. The "poverty of sustenance" (faqr-i luqma)—an excessive need for daily bread—is the root of many vices, as the Prophet (PBUH) stated: "Poverty almost leads to disbelief" (kād al-faqr an yakūn kufra). It is this material poverty that blinds one to truth and drives them to avarice and hypocrisy, a major pitfall of false asceticism.

Mowlana expands on this idea throughout the Masnavi. Recall the story in Book Three of the Sufis in the khanqah who, out of extreme hunger and greed, killed and ate their guest's donkey, then began a false samaʿ, chanting, "The donkey is gone, the donkey is gone!" This is an example of faqr-i luqma leading to gluttony and insatiability. Such Sufis, in Mowlana's view, have not been sated by "God's sustenance" (qūt-i ḥaq) and resort to "knocking on doors" (ṭaʿn va daqq) for alms. Mowlana, in this analysis, is undeniably a keen critic of the ailments that plagued the Sufism of his era, clearly distinguishing between a "true Sufi" (sūfī-yi ḥaq) and a "pseudo-Sufi" (sūfī-namā).

We find a similar perspective in Sa'di's Golestān, where a seemingly pious dervish criticizes the wealthy, and Sa'di retorts that acts of charity and good deeds come from the affluent, not from a dervish who, at night, when he "binds the knot of prayer, worries: 'What will my child eat tomorrow?'"—meaning the preoccupation with livelihood steals even his devotion. This perspective is a crucial reminder that for spiritual health and the attainment of faqr-i ḥaq, one must first be free from faqr-i luqma, with at least minimal sustenance to achieve peace of mind. The hunter's asceticism, with its superficial contentment, is a veneer for insatiable greed—a false abstinence born not of detachment, but of cunning and the desire to trap. Mowlana intends to convey that sometimes asceticism, far from being a liberation from the world, becomes an instrument for deceiving it. He was, undoubtedly, an insightful critic of the institutional Sufism of his time.

Key takeaways

• False asceticism and feigned contentment often mask underlying greed and avarice.
• Material poverty, if not accompanied by true spiritual poverty before God, can lead to hypocrisy and disbelief.
• Mowlana is a sharp critic of pseudo-Sufis and institutional Sufism afflicted by inner vices.
• A minimum level of sustenance is essential for spiritual well-being and to avoid the pitfalls of covetousness.
• The hunter's deception symbolizes self-deception and the exploitation of others in the name of religion and spirituality.