M6:2209 — هر دمت طوفان و کشتی ای مقل / با غم و شادیت کرد او متصل

Translation: In every breath of yours, O discerning one, there is a storm and a ship; / He has bound you with your sorrow and your joy. Meaning: This verse conveys that within the human soul, sorrow and joy perpetually alternate, much like a storm and a ship. This cyclical state of agitation and calm is imposed upon us from an external source, highlighting our inherent lack of ultimate control over our emotional states.

In this verse, Rumi points to a profound truth about the human condition. He states that in every moment of our lives, there is both a storm and a ship – metaphors for sorrow and joy, anxiety and tranquility. These two contrasting states do not arrive or depart at our command. It is the Lord who has bound us with these sorrows and joys, like a storm and a ship. This constant dynamism of states indicates that there is no absolute security in this world; even the ship of salvation can turn into a storm. This theme reflects the state of khoff and rajā (fear and hope) that keeps the believer in an intermediary state: one must neither despair (for despair itself is a major sin) nor remain heedless of the ever-changing nature of one’s circumstances.

I have often said that Rumi is an unparalleled psychoanalyst, even though his primary intention is to convey spiritual truths. He bids us to observe our own states. It is as if your joy is a ship and your sorrow is a storm. This storm of grief comes and shakes the ship of joy, causing turbulence, and then joy returns, and the cycle continues. Rumi's central point is that you have no control over this sorrow and joy. They do not come and go by your command; rather, they descend upon the house of your being unannounced. This lack of agency over our own emotional states is proof that the reins of our affairs are not entirely in our hands. We do not govern ourselves; rather, we are governed from without. Ultimately, Rumi wishes to lead us to the Illat al-Ilal (the Cause of all Causes) and assert that in this journey of existence, we are all captives and servants, and our free will is severely limited. We did not create this world, and even to change it, we must enlist the aid of its very order.

To further elaborate on this point, Rumi states in the next verse (M6:2210): "If you do not see the ship and the sea before you, / Behold the tremors in all your own parts." This means that if you cannot perceive the cosmic ship and storm from outside, then look at the internal tremors within your own being. These anxieties and fluctuations are themselves evidence of that lack of agency and the inherent instability of our states. However, sometimes even these tremors lead us astray, because we do not grasp their true cause and are frightened by various imaginings. Here, Rumi offers an extraordinary analogy: a blind man in a desert who is kicked by a drunkard, but simultaneously hears the braying of a camel. Relying solely on his sense of hearing, he mistakenly believes the camel kicked him. This analogy demonstrates how often humans err in discerning the true causes of events. Many times, we attribute causality based solely on the concurrence of events. We fail to perceive the hidden agent (the drunkard) and mistake the obvious, concurrent factor (the camel's bray) as the cause.

This insight is of vital importance in natural sciences, as well as in social and psychological matters. As Aristotle states: "He who lacks a sense, lacks a science." Examples abound: from mistaking thunder as the cause of lightning, to the difficulty in analyzing the causes of revolutions, or distinguishing between the thyroid and parathyroid glands before their full discovery. Rumi, through this example, wants to convey that the same applies to our psychological and internal states. Sorrow and joy assail us, and we attribute them to superficial and immediate causes, whereas their roots are far deeper and beyond our apparent vision. This demonstrates the ultimate sharpness and wisdom of a mystic who, outwardly, did not focus on nature, yet articulated its deepest insights. This verse is a call to awakening, urging us to comprehend the depth of our lack of agency and the majesty of the Illat al-Ilal.

Key takeaways

• Human emotional states, such as sorrow and joy, are in constant flux like a storm and a ship, operating beyond our control.
• This lack of mastery over internal states signifies the limitation of human will and the sovereignty of the 'Cause of all Causes'.
• Insecurity and dynamism prevail in the world, even in the most salvific situations (the ship).
• Humans must always exist between fear (khoff) and hope (rajā): neither despairing nor being heedless of changing circumstances.
• Internal fluctuations ('tremors') serve as evidence of existence's inherent dynamism and instability.
• Our perceptual limitations often lead us to confuse mere concurrence with true causality, obscuring our understanding of actual origins.